If you and I are pals on Facebook (YOU GUYS, WE SHOULD TOTALLY BE PALS ON FACEBOOK), you know that I recently embarked on a new health challenge.
I know.
I. Know.
This is like my eleven billionth time saying that.
Which is actually why I didn’t mention it previously.
I’m tired of letting you all down, of letting myself down, by failing at this whole thing.
But, a couple of weeks ago I got inspired via a friend’s Facebook post (thank you Brittany V. for your Facebook post) about healthy food.
It got me to thinking about where we are with our food intake right now.
And, after admitting that I gave my kids Cheese Itzs with dinner last week, (okay maybe it was AS dinner, not WITH dinner, but whatever) I decided I wasn’t great with what was happening.
It’s just a time thing. Not a knowledge thing.
I know what I should feed them, I just struggle with figuring out the time to make that happen.
We get busy, I get tired, work gets in the way, people get sick, I have insomnia, my volunteer duties get out of hand, I discover Outlander and before you know it I’ve spent an entire afternoon reading an 800 page book and looking at photos of Sam Heughan online.
I find myself relying on convenience foods to feed my Dudes.
I hate it when I let that happen to us.
Every time I find ourselves spiraling out of control into frozen pizza and Cheese Its for dinner land, I try to take a beat and reorganize our lives to help us get back on track.
That’s why it comes up so much here –this blog is about real life, and in real life it keeps happening!
So here we are again, overhauling our meals and trying to make better choices.
Personally, I have to do this.
I’ve gained 25lbs since last summer due to a mixture of sitting on my butt and eating cookies for breakfast.
I’m sad, I’m unhealthy, I’m not myself and, most importantly, my clothes don’t fit.
Something needs to be done and hopefully it will be something that will stick.
In the past, I always started with a dramatic change to a new, more exclusionary diet.
I made different food for myself than I did for my kids. I worked out extra to eat what I wanted.
I need to be able to eat things I like and not have the added time suck of making different meals for myself than I am for my children. When that happens, I wind up eating cookies and nachos for dinner.
As tasty as that sounds, cookies and nachos is no way to live. At least not for those of living a sober, post-college existence.
And it helps my Dudes too.
As they have gotten bigger and more active, they are requiring more, good food to fill their bodies.
A Rice Krispie treat after school is just not going to cut it.
But this will…
This grilled cheese is our favorite after school go to right now.
It’s the perfect combination for a post school day/pre soccer/football/basketball/lacrosse/swim team practice meal.
They like it because it’s good, I like it because it’s good for them –not out of a box, made with ingredients I can name featuring nutrients they should have.
And it’s easy.
Let’s not downplay the need for easy in our lives.
Only second to bacon. I mean, deliciousness.
I feel a little silly and kinda like a 2nd grader telling you how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich –first you get the bread…
But, because I want to make sure you get the flavors all right here, I am gonna just go ahead and give it to you step by step…
Avocado Bacon Grilled Cheese Sandwich
- Rye bread
- Butter
- Provolone cheese
- Avocado (mashed or chopped)
- Bacon, cooked
- Butter one piece of rye bread on the outside.
- Lay in heated pan.
- Add one slice of cheese to the bread in the pan.
- Add avocado on top of cheese. You can make it very pasty (like here) or you can leave it chopped more coarsely in chunks based on your personal preference. We do both, depends on my time.
- Add bacon.
- Butter the top side of another piece of bread and place on top.
- Cook until brown on one side and carefully flip.
- Cook until brown on the other side and remove.
- Try not to burn your tongue when you eat it.
- Repeat for all members of the fam.
