Ideal Balance Dog Food Review

Wow, I have been away for a while now! But I have a number of post coming up in the next few weeks as well as some giveaways so please keep reading:)

First, I would like to tell you about a new product for my fur-baby. Recently we have had the chance to try Hill's Ideal Balance Dog Food.

According to the site:

Hill's® Ideal Balance™ Grain Free Natural Chicken & Potato Recipe Adult dog food provides grain free natural ingredients perfectly balanced.

• Fresh chicken #1 provides lean protein to help keep slim and trim
• Contains potatoes, which are naturally gluten free for healthy digestion
• Omega 3 & 6 fatty acids improve skin and coat, guaranteed or your money back
• No grain, no artificial colors, flavors or preservatives

Our little girl loves this food. I always try to find food that is all natural with no colors or preservatives, but this seems to be taking the cake with my little furry one. I also love that you can get this in many flavors. We like to try to give our girl a little bit of variety now and then. If you are looking for a new food for you dog or cat, I would highly recommend checking out Hill's Ideal Balance Dog Food (they have cat food too). 

** No compensation was received for this post, I was sent a bad of food and treats from Crowdtap to try and review. 

Gift for my first baby

With everything we have been buying for Baby Girl, I did not want to forget my first little baby, Ellie! I wanted to get something for our little one to make her feel special, and this shirt just seemed perfect to me.

 

 

I feel like in this picture she is saying Mom we still have a few months to go for this….

I can’t wait to get a picture of her in it with Baby Girl!

Puppy cookies

Sometimes I think the puppy eats better then us! I know her food is all organic and natural and so are her treats….hmm, maybe that is why every one always thinks she is underweight. (And yes people, including Hubby for awhile always thought the puppy was underweight, but last year when I made him go to the vet with us, he was able to hear her tell me that our little one is perfect weight wise and to stop comparing her to overweight dogs that you see all the time).

So back to the puppy, around the holidays I like to make homemade treats for Ellie and all her little friends and  the family dogs. So I decided it was time to get to work on those before I start making the people cookies! Here is my work station.

These cookies are so easy, 1 cup flour, 1 cup whole wheat flour, 1 tbsp baking powder, 1 cup milk, 1 cup peanut butter. Mix it all together, roll it out, cut into fun shapes, then bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Easy as that. The finished project can be decorated with while chocolate (the really fake kind with no cocca butter) and packaged for gift giving like mine are (no pictures as they looked cute this year and I want them to be surprises!)

Ending the weekend on a dark note!

I typed this post from my phones because although I got my new laptop set up, I have no internet without power and our power has been out since an afternoon thunderstorm.

So let's do a food recap from the weekend, Saturday morning I made french toast bites with leftover beer bread. Just dip in soy milk and cinnamon and brown up. Topped with blue berries it was perfect.

While the puppy was getting a haircut, I got some sun/caught up on some magazines and got in a great Exercise TV workout.

Lunch was simple with some veggies and Food Should Taste Good chips.The bean came from my aunts garden and she had just steamed then with a little salt before sending them to me.

The afternoon was spent getting this baby all set up.

I love my new laptop and although totally not needed I will so enjoy it!

For dinner we actually went to my parents because they need help with a few projects, and got homemade pasta sauce gravy and meatballs!

Love my mom's sauce, with a little salad and wine so perfect!

After a walk with the puppy this bowl might have made it into my belly.

Sunday morning I was craving eggs. So hubby and I had pouched eggs on toast with a little cheese and hot sauce. Also a Morningstar Farm patty made it on my plate.

The morning held more time in the sun and some Slimdown yoga before we headed out for some errands. We ended up at Costco and I was not really hungry but did call this my lunch:

Yeah I know...

Once the power went out I spent some time with my Borders e-reader on the laptop and was enjoying this book















Full review later.

Since we did not want to open the fridge dinner was a Subway Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki sandwich and Popchips.

I have not had one of these in so long, it was awesome. We spent the night just hanging out with no power...
-Jacqui

July 4th Recap

Sorry it has taken me so long to get back to posting (a lot has been going on-more in a later post). I am not going to do a play by play of the weekend because that would be boring to me as as well (we did not do anything really exciting). However I will be some updates of some fun things we did and ate over the weekend.

Friday I was off work and did my normal of cleaning, laundry, errands, working out, and getting the house organized for a relaxing weekend.

During my errands I picked up this cherry pitter at Bed Bath and Beyond.

Here it is in action.

Then of course my lunch needed to have some cherries. Cucumber, celery, carrots and cheese to dip in, with cherries.

After lunch I worked out with the Bikini Revolution. I finished the 21 Day program this weekend and so I don't forget here are my workouts from the weekend:

Friday - Sculpt and Yoga
Saturday and Sunday - Cardio 1 and 2 (these together gave me a great sweat)
Monday - off day

Then it was time to catch up on some TV, I enjoy some reality tv and DVR Kourtney and Khloe as well as Real Housewives of NJ. I love the craziness on both shows.

Hubby and I decided we wanted to use the grill a lot over the weekend since it was 4th of July. This started with Friday nights naan pizzas!

Mine was simple with pizza sauce (store bought), olives, mushrooms, onion, and cheese. Hubby and I really love using the naan for pizza and on the grill it tasted AMAZING. Have you tried naan do you love it too?

Saturday was fairly uneventful, but we did go to my parents to install Dad's Father's Day gift. We got him a park assist thing for the garage. Mom and dad have a smaller garage now so we thought it was a good gift. Dad loves it (and it was so easy to install).

After the install and before dinner with them, we went to the Farm Market up the street for ice cream. I got a small vanilla and strawberry frozen yogurt which Hubby was nice enough to share with the puppy.

She loves vanilla ice cream (this is the only human food she actually gets and yes it is save as long as it is vanilla).

For dinner Hubby and I wanted to try something new. Since we had beer in cans left over from the wedding (can beer is strange in our house) we decided to make Beer Can Chicken!

Here is hubby getting it ready

And here he is all done

This chicken was so moist we all ate it up so fast. And it was easy as anything to do. Here is what we did:


Beer Can Chicken
Take 1 chicken (ours was 4.5 lbs) and rinse and dry. Season the inside and out with your favorite rub or spices (we used a rosemary rub from Target). Open a beer and pour 1/4 out, add some spices or rub to the beer. Place beer in rack and put chicken on rack. Place in pan with beer that was poured out. Place on grill and let cook.

We put our grill thermometer in the chicken so we knew when he reached 160 degrees. Along with the chicken we did some grilled corn on the cob, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, yellow squash and zucchini. It was a great summertime dinner.

Sunday again was a relaxing day for us. I spent some time outside reading before it got too hot then same in and had an afternoon milk shake.

This was 1 cup milk, 1 cup crushed ice, some sugar free Vanilla syrup, and a100 calorie pack of Oreos. Blended together until smooth and topped with Reddi Whip. I love this super low calorie milk shake!

Dinner was our last night of using the grill before the heat got to bad and we went with a "Surf and Turf." When Hubby and I do surf and turf I have the surf and he has the turf, so here is my plate

Scallops, sweet potato on the grill, and grilled veggie mix. It was a really nice dinner with a little Raspberry Mocktail in the background (club soda and raspberry juice). After being the DD at the wedding last weekend, I realized I enjoyed the club soda and juice just as much as normal drink and with a done less calories!

Monday was the final day of our long weekend and it started with some oats!

1/3 cup oats with 1/3 cup milk and 1/3 cup water, 1/2 frozen banana cooked in. Then topped with a scoop of PB and blueberries. This was an awesome breakfast and really filled me up for a long time.

We laid low since it was near 100 degrees on Monday and cleared off the DVR! I love the feeling of having that cleared off. Then for dinner we had an egg white quiche we picked up at Sam's Club on Saturday. Hubby gets a free membership through work so after 4 years we finally got our cards and walked around Sam's on Saturday morning. I still like Costco (mainly because it is closer) but can see myself going to Sam's now and then.

Here is out broccoli and cheese quiche with a spinach salad.

It was the perfect easy meal on a hot day.

Hope you had a great 4th!

Another weekend recap

I swear I am the worst blogger come the weekends. I feel like the weekends just get away from me. Ok so back to Friday. I got home and did a great relaxing Yoga Slimdown. I love how great my body feels after yoga and how relaxed my mind has become. I know I should do it more often, but I just still like a good sweaty workout too!

Dinner was some Veggie Chili that I made last week with extra veggies. With a side of chips this was the perfect dinner.

This recipe is great to use up extra vegetables and always is so tasty.

Hubby and I did not much else the rest of the night...maybe had some Harry and David's Mouse Munch:) (Just a little bag that was finished on Saturday....)

Saturday Hubby and I planned to help my mom make meals for the freezer. This is something Hubby and I love doing and Mom always says she does not have enough time to cook during the week. We had some breakfast, yummy Banana Pancakes (just pancake mix and bananas with coffee:) Love adding fruit in the morning.

And off we went to the store to buy some supplies and get a cooking.

Here is Mom and Hubby in the Kitchen:

 
We made:
Mom's Shepard's Pie filling
Chicken pot pie Filling
Veggie Chili
Chicken Continental

Mom was quite excited and it felt good to help her out. On the way home from the grocery store mom and I grabbed some lunch (ok cheese fries are not a great lunch but I LOVE THEM!)

We also picked up some puppy cream for Ellie. She loves it as you can tell she would not stay still to take a good picture!

After a nice 2 mile walk with the puppy we all decided that it was time for a treat for us. Time for Rits's!

Yummy Gelati with fat-free custard and Sugar Free Cherry Water ice. Tasty and not too bad for the waist line and dairy is always a good thing;)

Since it was so warm on Saturday, Hubby and I went with salad and cocktails for dinner (and some red beans and rice-Hubby is a little random like that).

My salad was simple, lettuce, carrot, beet root, egg, a pickle, and just sea salt and pepper. My cocktail was a nice refreshing homemade mint vodka with Diet 7 UP. Light and perfect on a hot night and veggies are always good!

Sunday was pretty boring as well. I woke up did and intense Lower and Upper Body Slimdown and made a great bowl of oats.

1/3 oats (love the grains)
1 cup water
1 spoonful of PB (and protein)
Strawberries and coconut flakes

This was so perfect with an iced coffee (coffee, ice, a splash of milk and a sweetener packet). Good thing this was such a filling breakfast since I did not have time for lunch.

I was doing a Solixir demo at Whole Foods in the afternoon and got home to relax before a fun dinner.

I grilled up the last of the eggplant from the cooking at Mom's the previous day, added some mozzarella cheese (add the calcium) then did some oven sweet potato fries with spicy mayo. Nice veggie packed dinner!

We ended the night with some Birthday cake for my cousin and time with the family. I had a little icing and some good laughs.

What did you do this weekend?

Busy Little Sunday

Sunday I got up early and did a Slimdown Lower Body Workout first thing. (After the chocolate party I needed it!)

I had a big and late breakfast because I had a Demo for Solixir on Sunday. Breakfast was a smoothie and oatmeal.

The smoothie was:
4 frozen peach slices
5 melon balls
1/2 a banana
2 handfuls of spinach
1/2 cup almond milk
1/2 cup water

The oatmeal was:
1/3 cup oats
2/3 cup water
1/2 banana cooked in
Blueberries and blackberries on top

Lots of fruits and veggies (per the pre-pregnancy diet)

This was an awesome and very filling breakfast. It kept me full right though my Demo for Solixir which went so well. By far my best yet! Before I came home and ran in Dunkin Donuts to grab a Latte Light (the Whole Foods was freezing) an found Hubby's favorite donuts, Maple Frosted! I got some for him to have this morning!

I relaxed and started a new book before we had dinner.

This book is pretty cool and lets you see which are the best options when you are in different settings. Let me know if you want to know more:)

Dinner was stuffed peppers that I got on Friday. This is a great dinner and will be mine again tonight (I made extra).

It is actually really simple to make. First cut the top of the pepper clean it out, and then boil a pot of water and drop in for 5 mins. While the pepper cools, make 3/4 a cup of rice (this will make 4 peppers).

In a separate pan melt 1 TBSP butter and add about 8 ounces of ground beef or ground turkey (I used turkey). Add in 1 small onion, 4 mushrooms, and 2 pieces of bacon chopped. Let that cook until the onion is soft. Add parsley, salt and pepper to taste. Add the cooked rice to the mixture. Scramble a egg and add it to the mixture.

Spray a baking dish with cooking spray and put the pepper in. Fill each with the mixture evenly. Add 1 inch of water to the pan and bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 mins.

After dinner I needed a little sweet so I had a few more English chocolates.

This morning after a lady yelled at me for letting the puppy walk on someone grass on her walk, I wanted some chocolate for breakfast. (Ok that really had nothing to do with it, but seriously this lady was all upset that I let my 14 lb dog walk on the grass in our neighborhood when there is no sidewalk)

Breakfast was Tassimo Earl Gray Tea, Friendship Bread, and some mango and blueberries.

I got to work and was busy for awhile mainly because my Blackberry Calendar stopped working AGAIN. I finally got it back and actually got some work done too. Lunch was spinach salad with almonds and balsamic dressing, carrots, M&M Pretzels, and an apple for a snack.

These new M&M's are awesome, I would say to go try a bag! And can you see I am trying to eat more fruits and veggies?

Finally and totally random, but I got a Facebook message from one of my sister-in-laws friends who read this and it totally made my weekend. And for all the people that I know read please do not think that means I do not love you, I do and have been so happy to "meet" some many of you, but Emily's comment just really made me remember why I decided to do this! So thanks Em and I hope you keep reading!

Happy Almost Memorial Day weekend!