Wow!  It's been a whole year since I posted last.  o.O  Whoops!!  Life has been CRAZY BUSY!!  We are still on our clean eating journey.  It gets challenging at times since I went back to work and work weird hours sometimes, but we do the best we can!

We've also started on a new journey at our house.  I signed up to be a Beachbody coach a couple of months ago after watching one of my friends on Facebook completely transform her body, health, and attitude by using Shakeology and working out with Beachbody programs.  I've been at it for about 6 weeks now and have lost about 23" and over 10 lbs!  I LOVE Shakeology and the fact that it is clean.  It's so versatile, too!  You don't have to drink the same old boring shake every morning.  There are tons of clean ingredients you can add to it to make it into a new flavor.  My favorite is 1 cup of cold coffee, 1 cup of unsweetened Silk almond milk, 1 scoop of chocolate Shakeology and about 8 ice cubes.  It tastes even better than a mocha frap from Starbucks and it is healthy!  If you are interested in checking out Beachbody or Shakeology, they can be found here:

http://www.beachbodycoach.com/sheenaysen
http://www.shakeology.com/sheenaysen

I am going to start a segment dedicated to Shakeology recipes next!  Stay tuned.

YESSSS!!!

Anyone who knows me (or has been following my recipes) knows I LOVE Italian food made with marinara sauce. I'm not a big fan of Alfredo, but pizza, spaghetti, and lasagna are all right up there for me. Heck, I even like dipping my chicken in marinara. I've really been struggling with giving up Prego with this new lifestyle. I've tried making my own sauce, and while it's good, it's just not doing it for me.

Today I stopped at the grocery store in town that I don't go to often because I know they have a line of organic stuff. Well, I read the back of the Nash Brothers pasta sauce, and it's clean!  So I figured I might as well try it. Oh my goodness. I've died and gone to spaghetti sauce heaven!  It tastes even better than Prego!  Guess who's having spaghetti for supper tonight?!

Cheating...

Let's have a little chit-chat about cheating.  I do it.  I'll freely admit it.  Sometimes, we're out shopping and the kids are screaming their heads off because they're hungry little monsters.  So do I cave and feed them crap?  Kind of.  We do eat out.  Probably more than we should.  But I always try to make the best possible choices when we eat out.  Well, I shouldn't say always, but usually!

Anywho, I firmly believe that if you don't give in to those cravings once in a while, it's going to cause you to fall off the wagon completely.  My kids and I have a lunch date once a week.  This helps me to stay on track better the rest of the week.  It satisfies my cravings for someone else's cooking and it makes me work even harder at home to make healthy choices because I allowed myself that one indulgence.  Now this does not mean that we go out, and I eat a whole pizza by myself.  I try to stick to salads with no dressing, chicken tacos, or when we do have pizza, I just eat one or two pieces. It takes care of my cravings but doesn't send me back into my fat pants.

What happens if you never give in to cravings?  Well, I know from when I was on Weight Watchers, I got to the point that I felt like I was being deprived and I just gave up on the plan completely.  I slowly started gaining back all the weight I had lost, and then when I got pregnant with my last, I went completely nuts.  Then after I had the baby, I had all this weight to lose again and I could've kicked myself.  So, I decided that even if it takes me a little longer because I ate those 2 pieces of pizza a week or couple of pieces of chocolate or whatever, so be it. It's better to feed the beast in small doses than never and starve it until it goes nuts and eats everything in sight.  ;)  Moderation is the key!  If you gave in to that craving and ate a cheeseburger with all the fixings and that evil white bun yesterday, big deal!  Just get back on the wagon today and try not to fall off too often.  ;)

Soup!

You must try Miss Picky Pant's Favorite Chicken Noodle Soup!  Miss Picky Pants said so.  ;)  I can't get my 7-year-old to eat hardly anything,, but she ate THREE helpings of this soup tonight!  So go try it!  http://cleaneatingsmallerbutt.blogspot.com/p/to-die-for-chicken-noodle-soup.html

To my subscribers

Thank you for signing up to receive my updates!  The emails you get are sent out by a third party app called Feedburner.  I am able to see when people sign up for this, but I promise you I will NEVER share your email address.  Anywho, get to the point, Sheena.  When you sign up, you will receive an email from Feedburner confirming that yes, you did sign up for this and want to join my list.  If you don't click the link in the email, you won't get the updates.  I found this out the hard way when I tested it myself.  ;)  So if you aren't getting the updates and you've signed up for them, check your inbox and junk folder for an email from Feedburner!

Thank you!

I just have to take a moment to thank you all for reading my blog and putting up with my sporadic posts over the last couple of crazy weeks.  Making new recipes and getting them up for you all is helping me to stay on track with eating clean, and is also making me stretch out of my comfort zone of eating tacos and hamburgers every day.  :)  I look forward to creating many more yummy recipes for you and your families.

Mmmm...cake!

If this doesn't tell you how good my crumb cake is, then I don't know what to tell you.  ;)  It passed with Emy's approval.  That's enough!