I am such a slacker. I have abandoned my blog!!! AHHHHH!!! LOL.... 2011 was a busy year. I got a bit ill earlier this year. I have had to learn to eat healthier. I developed high blood pressure very suddenly and am having some problems keeping it under control. My father just recently was diagnosed with high cholesterol so I am incorporating that into our diet too. For those that don't know, my father lives with me. Boyfriend and I decided to set an actual date to get married. We have always known that we would, just not when. So the big day is set for June 6, 2012. Exactly 6 years after we started dating. That date works for me since I can never remember dates. LOL. Sister is getting married next month. It is going to be a very busy year this year. I can't wait!!!

Here's to hoping that everyones 2012 is just a bit better than 2011!!!! Happy New Year everyone!

Menu

We shop biweekly so my menu is for two weeks at a time. I have to feed two grown men, a teen boy, myself, and one year girl that doesn't stop eating. We will also have company this coming week so I have two extra mouths to feed. We eat homemade pizza every Friday. The only staple is that there is always a pepperoni pizza.

Pizza- 2 pepperoni, 2 buffalo chicken
Pizza- balsamic chicken with red onion, undecided, pepperoni
Stuffed Shells
Spaghetti w/ homemade Italian sausage
Chicken Rollatini
Tacos
Asian foil packet chicken
mini meat loaves
Alfredo pasta w/ homemade Italian sausage
Roasted chicken and veggies
Chicken Fajitas
Chicken Parmesan
Roast w/ veggies in crockpot
Beef Enchiladas

We do eat a lot of chicken. My father lives with us and he has a cholesterol issue. Combined with my high blood pressure and need for low sodium, we are left with chicken. A lot. I do try to mix it up so we are not always eating the same sort of flavors. This cycle is bad. The guys must be craving Italian since we are eating so much of it.

Oh....as for my diet, well, I was doing great. I was down two pounds, got a little cocky with the calories, and gained one back. For the week last week, I am down 1.2 pounds. Much better than the nothing I was doing!

I have had a few health issues in the last few months. I was diagnosed with high blood pressure (really high!) and I am only 35 years old! I am on some meds that are controlling it. I am working on bringing it down by diet and weight loss. So far I have lose 5 pounds. Not great but better than nothing. A friend recently introduced me to calorie cycling and I am trying that. I am on my first week. Started Monday and I have already lost a pound!!! Another advantage to losing weight will be fitting in my clothes for vacation! Starting Monday, I will try to post my menus with the recipes for the week. Not all will be healthy but all will be yummy!

Some days are more interesting than others. Today, trying to make dinner, I put the oven on the wrong temp. It wouldn't be so bad but it is actually the second time that I have done this! Same recipe too! Thankfully, tomorrow is easy dinner. Spaghetti with meatballs! leftovers from meatball subs last Saturday.
One of my side hobbies is our family tree. It started with Boyfriend being bored at work. If they don't have a class, there is a lot of down time. So he started researching his family tree which prompted me to do the same. An uncle on my father's side did a lot of the leg work for that side of the family so I was only really left with my mother's side. Ironically, I have a book that someone else did on my grandma's birth family! It turned out it was pretty easy to do our family tree for me since someone else had done all of the work! LOL Any way, I think that preserving the family history is important. It allows people to know where they came from. So, I am here to suggest to you guys to start your family tree. You don't have to go back generations. It can be as big or as small as you want it. I found a free site called Geni.com. It is very simple and very basic. Easy to use. Those are things that I was looking for. I think, though I am not sure, that Ancestry.com has a free edition also. Anyway, those are my thoughts for today. It just seems that our family just keeps growing.