The Lion's Tales: February 21-27

Inspired by Sadie's Saturday 7 and Jessica's Weekly Ramble, this weekly recap is where I blog about anything and everything from the past week. It could be about books, my kids, my garden... Random things in my life that don't fill enough space for their own post!
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1. I'm going to my first ever freezer-cooking workshop today. I LOVE the idea of cooking and prepping things in bulk, but the only freezer we currently have is the small one above our refrigerator. So I'm usually limited to things like bags of grilled, sliced chicken or packs of hamburger that I've separated into 1-lb packages. In the next couple years we will hopefully move, and once we settle into our more permanent home we'll get a deep freezer -- but we don't want to get one now and have to move it. 

So for this workshop today, my friend who's hosting it said I'm welcome to keep my meals in her deep freezer. Yay! It's put on by another friend who's a rep for Wildtree. I'm really curious how the meals will turn out and what spices/blends I'll receive, since I'm usually one to just get the cheapest garlic powder at the grocery store...

Prepping meat and veggies for freezer meals

2. Have you tried Stitch Fix? It's a clothing/fashion try-it-before-you-buy-it company that sends a box of a few items of clothing based on a style profile you fill out. I did it once right before Christmas, and kept a nice cardigan. Then a friend recently told me about Trunk Club. It's a similar service, but they send a BIG box. I got my first trunk this week, and it was SO fun to try things on from the comfort of my own home! I'll do a full review sometime next week, but for now I'll just say there are definitely pieces that are not my style and went right back in the box, and some pieces that I'm deciding whether or not they're worth the $50 price tag to keep!

(note the SF & TC links above are referral links - if you choose to try the service, I'll get a credit toward my own purchases!)

My Trunk Club box contained 15 items!

3. My weekly Sugar Fast update: I had a REALLY rough day on Tuesday (see my Instagram post), and thankfully many people told me the second week was the hardest for them in the fasts they've done. I think the novelty of it all has worn off, and I suddenly realized I'm still going to be doing this for weeks. MOPS every other Tuesday morning is full of sweetened coffee creamers and chocolate on the tables, and I found myself thinking "why in the WORLD am I doing this??"

But as I write this on Saturday morning, I'm actually drinking my coffee with only cream. And I can taste the coffee! And I will be content with only one cup. Maybe I'm making progress after all...

Check out my meals for the week below, I had some really really good dinners. :)  (I'm getting bored with breakfast though... any new breakfast ideas for me?)

Monkey Bread - a snow day tradition. I tweaked
the recipe for my pieces. :) 

Day 11 - Saturday Feb 20
Coffee with heavy cream and maple syrup
Breakfast: homemade bread (honey) with butter
Lunch: Roast beef, cheese, lettuce, bacon, mayo wrapped in tortilla
Dinner: Scrambled eggs, sausage, cheese, green pepper (Bible study night, we did a stackable-breakfast)
Dessert: I attempted to make a peach-mango dump cake using honey instead of sugar. I thought it was okay, though I probably won't make it again. The rest of the group had vanilla ice cream with theirs.

Day 12 - Sunday Feb 21
Coffee with heavy cream and maple syrup
Breakfast: Shredded wheat cereal with milk
Lunch: Buttermilk pancakes (our homemade recipe doesn't contain sugar) with raspberries and blueberries, butter, maple syrup, and sausage and eggs
Dinner: Grilled pork, white rice, salad with tomato, egg, cheese, homemade ranch dressing

Day 13 - Monday Feb 22
Almond-flavored coffee with heavy cream and honey
Breakfast: Homemade granola with milk
Lunch: Green smoothie (spinach, coconut water, oatmeal, raspberries, banana) and hard boiled egg
Snack: Cashews
Dinner: Lasagna (homemade red sauce)

Day 14 - Tuesday Feb 23
Coffee with heavy cream and maple syrup
Breakfast: at MOPS - egg/cheese/sausage dish, cheese and crackers, grapes, orange
Lunch: chicken nuggets (date with Ellie), no sauce

Snack: Lemon Larabar
Dinner: Hamburger with cheese, mayo (sugar was one of the last ingredients but the label said 0g), mustard, dill relish, tomato, lettuce on a bun (didn't check the bun, I'm sure it does have sugar though. I wasn't too concerned). Last time I did a burger I didn't have a tomato, and really missed the ketchup. This was MUCH better.

Day 15 - Wednesday Feb 24
Coffee with heavy cream and maple syrup

Breakfast: Shredded wheat cereal with milk
Lunch: Roast beef, cheese, lettuce, mayo wrapped in tortilla
Snack: Coffee with heavy cream
Dinner: Slow cooker potato soup with ham and cheese

Day 16 - Thursday Feb 25
Coffee with heavy cream and maple syrup
Breakfast: Monkey bread - This is a snow day tradition for us, and so I made it with the usual white and brown sugars for the rest of family but drizzled maple syrup on mine instead. Yes there was a little sugar in the canned biscuits. But it's tradition.
Lunch/Snack: (at work) Hard boiled egg, goldfish crackers, banana, blueberry Larabar, black coffee (!)
Dinner: Fish tacos - This was the second time I've ever made this, and changed the recipe a bit. Instead of the honey-cumin sauce being drizzled on at the end, I mixed it with the eggs for the dipping step. I also didn't make the slaw, but mixed up the chipotle mayo and added cilantro to it, and spread it on the tacos then just also had lettuce available. I'm not much of a fish eater, but these are SO GOOD.

Day 17 - Friday Feb 26
Coffee with heavy cream and honey
Breakfast: Fried egg and toast with butter
Lunch: leftover fish taco
Snack: Strawberry fruit strip, no-sugar pretzels
Dinner: Homemade pizza (I don't put sugar in my homemade crust or sauce)