Meal Plan Monday & snacks I'm loving

Anyone else have a sunshine hangover? Can we all just skip work today and celebrate SPRING and no more snow?! Kidding...{kind of} Hope you all had a great weekend and are ready to get after this week!

Today I'm sharing a unique recipe... Pork is not something I have in my usual meal rotation but this meal is actually super tasty, healthy, and even kids like it because its more sweet than spicy. The Hoisin sauce I use to flavor this meal is pretty low in sugar and carbs which makes me love this recipe even more.

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Pork Stir fry with Snow Peas

Pork Tenderloin, cut into cubes
4 cloves garlic
1 1-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled & minced (2 tablespoons)
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon dark sesame oil
2/3 pound Snow Peas
1/2 Red & Green Pepper, chopped
Mushrooms
3 tablespoons Hoisin sauce
1/4 cup water
Rice

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1. Toss the pork with half the garlic, half the ginger, soy sauce, and sesame oil. Marinate at room temperature for 15 minutes. 
2. While pork is marinating, start cooking the rice. Heat a skillet over high heat and add olive oil.  Add the remaining garlic and ginger until fragrant. Add mushrooms and peppers. When mushrooms begin to sautee/peppers soften (3-4 mins), add sugar snap peas. Cook for 2-3 mins. Remove into a separate bowl to cool. 
3. Heat the same skillet used for the vegetables and cook the Pork mixture. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Return the vegetable mixture to the skillet when Pork is nearly cooked through. Add the hoison sauce and soy sauce to taste, cook until juices thicken. I like to add 1/4 cup of water as the juice thickens- I think it makes it perfect to spread over the rice! Totally up to you though. 
4. Serve over rice and enjoy!! 

Snacks I'm loving

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Also, I wanted to share a few snacks that I've been loving for me...and a few for the kids. My boys love the Nature's Bakery fig bars. I just saw today that they have an Organic Oat and Honey option so I snagged it and they LOVE them. I like how there is no high fructose corn syrup, that they're organic, and not too messy!

Strangely enough,  Neither of my boys like cow's milk. I don't really force it because I'm not super sold on cow's milk anyway...so we try to get their dairy through almond milk in their oatmeal, yogurt (Seb really isn't feeling it at the moment..hopefully that changes!) and various cheeses. These Horizon cheese stars are Max's favorites. I think he likes the taste as much as the different shapes :) These I have only been able to find at Target. Just what I need, another reason to "force" me to go into target..ha. 

I've completely overhauled my diet the last 3 weeks and cut out all sweets so finding alternatives for my sweet tooth has been a challenge to say the least. I've been loving the thinkthin Cake pops lately though. My favorite flavor definitely has to be the chocolate. Low sugar and it hits the spot after dinner when I crave something sweet!

Last but not least... is this Buff Bake Peanut Butter spread. GUYS. This is so freakin good. Not nearly as good as Nutella, or Peanut Butter Company  {{these are clearly off limits at the moment}},  but it certainly satisfies and packs some extra protein. Beggars can't be choosers at the moment so I'll take what I can get,  I love how these two treats are somewhat guilt free and help me satisfy that sweet tooth that never seems to disappear! 

Have a great week everyone! 

xo

Alex

 

Doing Disney with Toddlers

Hey guys! Happy November! Hope you guys all had a great halloween!  The dust has finally settled after our trip and I thought I'd write a little post on hitting up Disney with two little ones. 

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Staying at Disney hotels vs off site: 

Whenever we travel now with the boys it is a must to find a hotel with a kitchen and ideally separate bedroom from ours. Seb still wakes up most nights so we don't want him disturbing his older brother so we usually put Max in with us and Seb in a room on his own. I think by next year the boys can be in their own room on their own. We like to have some space to ourselves and not feel forced to go to bed at 8 pm :) 

Last year we stayed at Disney's Old Key West which had two bedroom and a kitchen when my mother in law came with us. I loved it. We ended up getting it around $350 per night which is actually a great deal for the hotel. I've stayed on disney properties before so I wasn't surprised by how nice it was and this time was no different. There are several positives to staying at Disney: Transportation to/from the parks, luggage transportation from the airport, ability to buy tickets and book park events at concierge, and the all around "ambience" of Mickey mouse :)

So naturally, when we first booked the trip to Florida, Disney hotels was my first stop to look for hotel prices.. but it was OUTRAGEOUS. It was over $600 a night. So, I started looking around and found a really nice Marriott 2 bedroom/full kitchen about 15 mins from Disney for $175/night. Yes, $175 a night. 1/3 of the price of the Disney Old Key West or any other of their villa hotels. so, needless to say we booked! 

All in all, we had a great experience at Marriott Harbour Lake. They had numerous pools (with tons of slides, kiddie pool, and numerous spas), a craft room for the kids,  a playground, a soccer field, basketball courts, and a very good gym. Rooms were really spacious and service was awesome. We were a short 12-15 mins from Disney parks. It was also 1 mile from Sea World. 

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Would I stay at Disney again? After this experience I'm not sure I would until the boys are older. Yes, the atmosphere is second to none and service is fantastic. I think if you have older kids and don't mind sleeping all in one room and eat out (we prefer to cook a majority of the time for the kids with how old they are-eating out is a mission at the moment.) it could work. Also, with older kids 8 or 9 years and up, the buses make more sense (and you don't have a bunch of stuff (stroller, etc.) that you're lugging on the bus with 439820 other people). Keep in mind IMO the transportation from the Disney park took about the SAME amount of time as it did from our off site hotel just due to waiting for the buses and all of the stops the shuttle/bus had to make. So jury is out how beneficial the transport from disney hotels to parks really is...

Disney has decent priced 1 room hotel rooms to stay in but if you're going the route where you want a kitchen, etc. and you have babies/pre schoolers finding off site is the way to go! 

Stay all day or go back to your hotel for a siesta? 

We've done both. We've powered through the day and skipped naps, and we've also gone home for a nap and come back. I would 100% recommend getting up early, hitting the park for a few hours and then coming back for a nap. Disney allows you to leave and come back so that is a non issue, and your parking rate is for the day.

 I think the kids are always super fresh in the morning making it easy for everyone to enjoy themselves. Also, the heat of the day is between 1-4 pm which you miss if you head back for a nap. The nap allows everyone time to recharge, regroup (including mom and dad) and gives you another 3-4 hours (or more) at the park at night. It is completely worth the 45 min treck (by the time you leave the park, take the ferry, etc. get to the parking lot and get home) to get back both ways. 

Disclaimer: If you have angel children that sleep in their strollers with no issues...I say power through!!

                    Awesome aquarium when you get off of the "Nemo" ride at Epcot

                    Awesome aquarium when you get off of the "Nemo" ride at Epcot

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Park Hopper vs Single Park? 

I feel like I come from the days where there wasn't as much of a difference between the single park and the park hopper pass in terms of price so I actually love this feature and remember hopping on the monorail from MK to Epcot when I was a kid..

While its super nice to be able to hop from park to park, I woulden't recommend spending the extra $50 pp unless you are going with adults or older kids who can really utilize both parks. 

 

Other Tips on surviving Disney with Toddlers: 

1. Lower Your standards. Did you lower them? Now lower them again. lol. Have one thing on your list, and accomplish it. Anything above and beyond that is #winning. Examples: meeting mickey/any other character, or another big ride that they enjoy. The smaller your kids are, the less ground you're going to be able to cover. Thats just the reality of it! 

2.. Download the App: The My Disney Experience App allows you to view information about the parks, see wait times for rides, make reservations for meals, or order food ahead of time. You can also update and select your fast passes on the app (see #3 for fast pass.).
 

3. Fast pass that shit: Log on and fast pass the important things you want to do. Fast pass means you basically don't have to wait in line, and now that Disney seems to be busy all year long (read: 45 min waits *everywhere* ) it is the way to go.

Some popular ones for Pre-K would be Meeting Mickey, Its small world, the old fashioned cars, Dumbo, Nemo (at epcot), to name a few. I'm sure girls love the princess meet and greet so if you have girls I would fast pass that also. You can only do three for each person so choose wisely. Once you use them up you can select different ones (this is another reason why coming back at night is better, a lot of times the fast pass windows will be between 5-8 pm which I am not sure you would make unless you have a nap).

If you know what day you're hitting each park, try and fast pass it in advance. Also: sometimes it will say one of the rides is "no longer available for fast pass". KEEP REFRESHING!!!! This happened to me twice now with Meet Mickey and I refreshed about 8 times and then it popped up. 

4. Snacks, Snacks, and more snacks: Snacks are like the holy grail of surviving Disney. Pack enough snacks for a 3 day trip. Trust me. Bars, crackers, fruit, raisins, PB & J, and tons of water. Disney lets you bring in everything so use that to your advantage! 

5. Get there early: Beat the heat and the crowds by getting there when the park opens or shortly after, It'll be worth it. Everyone is fresh in the morning and do your "prep" work the night before (packing snacks, laying clothes out, etc.) to make your morning less chaotic. 

Enjoy! 

 xo
Alex