|
Some people ask me how I “do it all”. And at that I laugh internally and think about
And then I remember, that if nothing else is done, dinner will be, because I have a plan and you can too. If you need help with yours then click here to pick a time to chat and get a little help. Then I also remind them that I try to be intentional about the spaces I show up in and spend my time. Two of those spaces are ones that I’m very excited to share with you. They include other boss ladies like myself who don’t “have it all together” either, but sure do try. Tomorrow, I’ll be one of the moms on a panel small business owners for the Boss Chat where we’ll discuss The Importance of Building a Community Around Your Brand. Many of you are members of the amazing Food Fam with Chef Ashley Shep, so I’ll be talking about how we’ve built such a tight knit community of almost 600 strong!  If you’re a mom in business, then this is definitely one you should check out. You can register here. On Saturday, I’ll also be featured on another panel, but this time, it’s exclusively for members of The South Atlantic Region of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. My beloved sorority is hosting their inaugural Author Showcase where I’ll share creative marketing tips with the future authors in attendance to help them reach success with their books. New Mom Thoughts will be the featured publication for this chat.  Remember, having it all together isn’t really the goal. Being intentional about our time, and having a plan for things that suck up our time is. If you need more of your time back, then hop on a call with me to reclaim your time.
0 Comments
The top of the year is a great time to set intentions and refocus on our health as well as who we are in Christ. That's the reason why I thought it was the perfect time to release The Daniel Fast 21 Day Food and Faith Journal. Now like everything unknown in life, it did come with some moments where I wasn't sure if it was going to be published in time, BUT God knew.
Not only has the anointing laid upon the book publishing process, but it's also extended to the shipping. During the time of writing this, the mail in all forms is experiencing extreme delays. I mean like...weeks and months behind schedule. Thankfully that hasn't been the case with the Daniel Fast journals which are arriving on average 2-3 days after ordering. Either way, if you're someone who is waiting on your book to arrive or having gotten your copy yet, I wanted to share with you the Daniel Fast Extras book bonus website! As an extra thank you to those who purchased, I created a resource center for you to have everything you need to be able to focus on getting spiritually fed as well as physically fed. On the bonus site, you'll find:
 Fall is finally here and that means that it’s soup season! For me it’s soup season all year round, but for some folks they like to wait until the temps drop just a bit before enjoying some of their favorite comfort foods. I say if you can drink hot coffee everyday, then you can eat soup everyday, but that’s just me. And honestly, when’s the last time you had a cup of hot coffee.
Back to the soup! There’s lots of reasons to love soups and chilis. I love them as a quick and easy lunch that I don’t have to think about. Working from home gives a false sense that you have all this extra time to do stuff. The only thing extra I have time to do is to toss some food in the Crockpot/Instant Pot and then it’s on to the next thing. Am I right? So to help you out, I’ve included one of my favorite soup recipes that you’ll be sure to love. It doesn’t have a ton of ingredients in it, and it’s easy to make. Plus it’s healthy for you with tons of fiber and other nutrients that you need to feel your best. It’s my Salsa Verde Soup. Normally I say that you can make whatever changes to the recipe that you like, but in this case, there’s one thing you MUST keep the same: only use ROASTED salsa verde. The regular stuff just isn’t the same! Everything else is optional and you can make changes to your liking. Salsa Verde Soup by Chef Ashley Shep Ingredients 1 jar ROASTED salsa verde 3 Boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs 4 cups Chicken Broth 1 Yellow Onion, sliced 1 green bell pepper, sliced 2 TB Cumin 3 cans Cannellini Beans, or Navy Beans-drained 1 TSP Chipotle Chili Powder (or regular chili powder) 2 TSP Ancho Chili Powder (or regular chili powder) 1 Poblano Pepper, roasted 1 TSP salt 4 cloves garlic 1 bunch cilantro avocado tortilla chips Directions: 1. (Optional) Using a gas stove, place the Poblano pepper on top of the aisle on LOW heat. Watch it closely, and turn as necessary. The skin will blacken. Rotate until all sides are a little charred . Set aside and let cool. 2. Using a slow cooker or pressure cooker, combine chicken, broth, beans, seasonings, salsa, bell peppers, onions, and garlic in slow cooker. Gently peel the charred skin off the poblano pepper, chop, and add to pot. Leave the seeds in for an extra kick. 3. Add cilantro and shred the chicken during the last 30 minutes. 4. Enjoy with avocado, more cilantro, tortilla chips. Make It Vegan: Swap the broth for the veggie kind and add an extra can of beans in place of the chicken Want some crunch: Add bell pepper and onions in the last 30 minutes instead of the beginning. What’s your favorite soup to enjoy in the fall? Let us know below! Thanks to those of you who have purchased a preorder book bundle for the New Mom Thoughts Book! Thanks to the genius of one of my sorority sisters, the book will be available in two cover versions that I like to call Colorful Coral and then Purple and Gold. During this process of writing the book, I wanted to give you more of a behind the scenes looks at the books and how everything gets from idea to print. So check out this unboxing video and learn more about that and the inspiration behind New Mom Thoughts.
If you aren't familiar with the book, here's a bit of a background: I wrote this journal to help new moms explore their thoughts and feelings during their baby's first year. I wish I had something like this during my first few weeks and months with my newborn. This is a safe space to store all the thoughts that cross your mind when worry, lack of sleep, and unmet expectations are all swirling in your head. Whether you feel like you're doing this whole mom thing wrong or you're the perfect example of motherhood, this journal is for you. Processing those thoughts or at least getting them out of your head helps you enjoy the mommy experience and celebrate this new adventure. This journal helps capture all of your new mom feelings during this messy, crazy, and exciting time. Some days are perfectly blissful, while others are filled with constant chaos. Either way, embrace your new normal. Find out how my entire feta container ended up in the bottom of the cheese drawer in my fridge and not on my Greek Pizza in this video! 🤷🏾♀️😂😂 #CaseOfTheMondays #newlyvegan
Not only is this recipe available as part of the Daniel Fast 21 Day Food And Faith Challenge, but they’re also part of the Vegan, What?’s Dope Meal Planner for #newlyvegan friends or those who are experts - - - - - -
Start your $1 trial here to have access to my delicious recipes and all the other yummy creations to feel like a boss in the kitchen 👉🏾 www.dopemealplanner.com/chefashleyshep plus get a special discount when you add ChefAshleyShep in at checkout Join the Daniel Fast 21 Day Food and Faith Challenge to her recipes, faith based devotionals, and encouragement 👉🏾 Bit.Ly/danielfast2019  Recently while looking for folks to partner with for my new mom journal, I met a really dope lady named Donna who’s the owner of Rise and Shine Mommy, a blog that focuses on family, love, motherhood, and dream chasing for the women that she supports. Each month, I’ll be a guest blogger on Rise and Shine Mommy, and today, I wanted to share the first blog feature with you! 
I want to announce that (you want to announce with me ,you want to share to) that I will actually be releasing a book in a few weeks and this is something I've been working on probably for about almost a year and I know that you all have been asking for a cookbook. It’s not cookbook just yet but it is for the Daniel Fast!
If you are in my other group the Daniel Fast with Chef Ashley Shep it's a challenge that I do every year in January for folks who are doing the Daniel Fast and if you're not familiar with the Daniel Fast it's basically like a vegan diet but um it's like a vegan diet but with no processed foods and with that you were also spending time prayer and prayer and believing in something in faith and God and so I had done it as a challenge virtually and it just was laid upon my heart to do it in printed form because I know some people are not digital people some people would like to have something tangible in their hands and it also will have spaces for you to journal your thoughts to record your things that are just downloaded into your spirit during prayer time as well and so I'm excited about that I was going to show you a little bit of a sneak preview of it but I'm on my phone on my computer so I'll have to come back and do that later. But, I thought this was also relevant even if you're not Christian or you don't you don't believe in faith just to say that for me this is kind of getting a little trans, little moment of transparency (um flip you around Again, sleepy um) for me it was it was something that it kind of took a lot of time in terms of getting myself to believe that it would be something I could do and I know some people might think, oh I mean they kind of think that I just am confident about a lot of things which I am but not everything a lot of times I have a lot of self-doubt. I have a lot of questioning, I'm an over-thinker some of y'all probably also over-thinker as I see it when you're talking about recipe and you're like I don't should I put this in there does that go in there and and it really is something that can be debilitating and so if there's something that during this time in your life that either gods placed on your heart or you have an inner voice that's telling you hey like maybe this is something you should pursue or maybe this is something you should stop doing. This is an excellent time to follow that and listen to that voice because because it's kind of like ah, it's kind of like a moment where we're paused in time and for those of us that are blessed enough to be able to work from home. Even though sometimes it seems not like a blessing when the baby screaming or kids are running around crazy or you're on another zoom meeting and you're like I'm done with this. It really is an opportunity to just give us a time to pause and to think about what's really important and so for me with writing the book I felt like it was something that was laid on my heart that I had been ignoring and a lot of times we do that we brush things off to the side because we don't feel like it's that were worthy of it or we don't feel like it's something that we're really supposed to do when it reality it is what we're supposed to be doing so that's my challenge to you. If there's something that you want to share that you are either going to take the plunge into or stop doing because that's another equally powerful notion is that there are certain things that I just am NOT gonna do anymore because they're not as important to me because the the current state of the world is can be kind of scary and it can be something that makes you reflective and think okay what should I really be focusing on during this time so um for me my focuses are gonna be on family of course (he's gonna take a nap in a little bit um) and also helping people like you guys so helping you to be able to navigate this time without added stress because dinner was already a stressor for a lot of people and now we're adding on lunch and breakfast and so those are things that I'm gonna focus on providing content to you so you have options so it's not just piling up and piling up because it can be overwhelming so that's the announcement um the book should be out between this month and next month. I'm in the final editing process once it does it once it is released I definitely will share it here with you all and if you have any questions about the topic if you heard of the Daniel Fast before you might want to check out my other group the Daniel Fast with Chef Ashley Shep because there's a lot of information in there or if you just want to ask me in general I'm totally fine answering those questions with you and like I said it's something that a lot of people do in January but at the same time generally fasting can be like a reset for you and it's it's different from other fast because when you hear the word fast you think oh I can't eat it's like intermittent fasting you're not supposed to eat during certain hour with the Daniel Fast you can eat whatever hours of the day it's just restricting on what you're eating so you would be eating whole grains, fruits,vegetables and that's anything that's not processed from any angle so you wouldn't be able to do things like honey or meat or seafood but anything that's not an animal product is fair game so that's just kind of a snippet about it and I wanted to share with you all first. Hey, hey, hey Everybody! Going to make sure that I'm good on Facebook and Instagram and we're gonna hop right in! Okay, so welcome welcome, welcome! Tonight we're gonna be talking about how to(hold on let me just a little bit hey lady Tanisha over on Instagram thanks for tuning in um) tonight we're gonna be talking about how to make sure that your kids are not eating up all your food over spring break let me know if your kids are on spring break.
I'm in the Atlanta area so most of the counties that are here kids are on spring break and if they're not yet then it's coming up in the next week. And, I actually saw this meme that was hilarious and it was talking about to tell your kids, so they can know to not think that they are eating four or five meals a day. Because, I know that when your kids are in the house they think oh I'm home and I'm gonna eat all the stuff in the pantry because they have no sense of time or things like that and so we'll be talking about how to kind of manage your kids so they're not eating up all your food, while they're in the house so, let me know if your kids are on spring break or spring break is coming up over on Instagram Tanisha said that it's over now and they'll go back tomorrow okay so you are free and clear um but she said they did eat all day all her food so hopefully these tips can help you for summer break or I know some counties have like a fall break or like I spring not spring break it's like a weird thing in between spring break in the end of the year so hopefully these tips can help you with that. And, I haven't introduced myself yet thanks for tuning in my name is Chef Ashley Shep I am a meal time strategist and a personal chef in the Atlanta area and I hope busy moms get dinner done faster without having to order takeout and so if you are just tuning in tonight we're gonna be talking about how to have some healthy snack ideas for your kids and also how to make sure they're not eating all of your food all day while they're in the house on break if your kids are not currently on a break this could also work for the weekends like if you're at home a lot on Saturdays then that's another time where for kids time just seems like it just does not really have any any boundaries or things like that and so that's another time where they'd like to eat all the food in your house. So, my first tip for you is one that some of you might already do but it's worth repeating is to make sure you set boundaries. And what I mean by that is just like you would with anything else for your kids. So let's say, you are having them with their room like maybe their room needs to be clean a certain way. Like, I know growing up if I wanted to go anywhere to go over to somebody's house or just certain times within the week I had to make sure that my room was clean or I wasn't gonna be allowed to go. And so with that same thing with food, you want to set boundaries for your kids. So maybe that looks like having a timer, so that okay they can have their snack at like 11 o'clock for the morning snack and then maybe they can have their snack at like 3 o'clock. And that's gonna be helpful to actually use the timer because for kids, if you think about it during the school day all of those things are kind of set up for them they don't really have to think about when are we doing this is or this it's just ok so I come in I unpack my book bag there's structure and there's boundaries that are already in place. So, it's not something that kids are really having to think about it's just something that kind of moves them through the day and for those of you that don't know I'm actually a teacher by trade and so I'm speaking from that area of expertise. But one of the things that was in the jiff or not the jiff but the meme that I saw was to remind your kids that they only eat at school once or twice. Your kids if they have breakfast at school they're eating twice a day if they only have lunch at school they're usually only eating just that one meal a day in the time that they're not at home with you. Some schools do a lot of snack time depending upon when your lunchtime is, so max your kids are probably eating three times a day at school and it's not gonna be a full meal and so a lot of times if they're saying oh I'm hungry or I like when are we gonna eat whatever a lot of times is that because they're not actually hungry it's because they are bored or because they're close to the foo, it could be because they see you eating. I know for a lot of parents they have to hide the food they're eating so they don't have to share with their kids and so those are things you just want to kind of keep in mind so when you set up those boundaries in that structure think about your kid is your kid one that is easily easily wanting to have a snack when they're like playing video games or watching a movie and nothing you can't do those things but we kind of want to help our kids to be able to self-regulate so they're not having to just think oh I'm bored let me go get a snack or oh I'm sitting in front of the TV let me just go get a snack because that's a natural reflex that they maybe have been doing so if this is making sense you let me know in the comments okay so Tanisha said great topic she needs this well hopefully this has been helpful and then on Facebook all right so we're good there okay um so setting those boundaries so like I said you could use a timer but this could also include picking the snacks for them so if you have a kid that they don't always make the best decisions when it comes to snack time when they're given that option what you can do is kind of limit their options for them and that could start from not buying things that are things you want your kid to eat like I know growing up and even now we didn't really have potato chips in the house and if we had them it was like for a party or we went to someone else's house and got them so it wasn't that we weren't allowed to have them my mom just didn't keep them in the house so if they're not in the house then it's just not our option for it wasn't an option for us and it's not really an option here in my house and so with that it's gonna make it so obviously your kids don't have that as a choice and then you're getting to choose the things that you want them to have so maybe you're picking options that they like but then also kind of eliminating some of that for them so this is a little easier if your kids don't go with you to the grocery store to pick out these options but if they do just like any other boundary you set as a parent any other thing like when you give them a bedtime when you tell them like it's time for bath like any other thing like that food is the same way in it and it could be something where you explain to them that I'm doing this because I care about your health I'm doing this because I want to make sure that you're able to get your thoughts together and make sure heads not filled with junk and not saying you have to completely eliminate those things and we'll talk about what types of snack options are good later but you do want to kind of narrow those options for kids. So another thing you can do is to color code your options. So for example, if you are making snacks for them, you can use like little decorative tape like washi tape it sticks to things but it comes off smoothly, it doesn't leave a mark. And I was telling one mom the other day that she could put like bins inside of her fridge or inside the pantry so maybe you have like your sweet snacks or maybe have your salty snacks and maybe the salty or like green and then the sweet ones are like yellow or something and so if your kids if you're allowing them to have like a morning and an afternoon snack. Then, you would tell them okay so you can get the green snack and the more or you can pick which one you have one but you can only have one from this container and one from that container and so that way they get to decide hmm do I want to have my sweet snack in the morning or driving away until later so they're getting some type of choice. It's not completely restricting them but you have already made the choice of what those snacks are for them. So hopefully this is making sense to you all in it that it's helpful if you have not already please share this out to parents who are going to be on the struggle bus for Spring Break or who are who just need a little bit of help and it doesn't necessarily have to be for Spring Break, it could be after school because that's another time that window between getting off the bus to dinnertime is another time we're snacking happens and that's fine but we want to make sure we have some structure around that so all right. My next tip is to help them to be able to pick smart snacks and so once again we talked about this a little bit but picking snacks that are gonna keep them fuller longer and picking ones that are of course gonna be things they like. So if you have a bit of a picky eater this will be a little bit harder but you can actually let them have some say in it. (Um) I know, like with my mom, she same thing we talked about a little earlier um with us she would give us options and so like if you know your kid likes fruit and they like crackers and they like like granola or something um let them kind of put their snacks together or let them decide. Okay, I want to have this one on Monday, I'll have this one on Tuesday and this one on Wednesday. So once again you're limiting it but you're giving them the option to pick when they're gonna have each of them um things like nut and fruits together are gonna be a good combination because the fruit will give you a little bit of that sweetness but then the nuts will give you the protein. That you need to make sure they're not coming back in the kitchen first snack again in 20 minutes or if your kids allergic to nuts and you could use chickpeas or another good option they're very versatile. They are gonna be something you could bake them, you can eat them raw. They're really easy to kind of just throw together popcorns another good option but with the popcorn it's not gonna fill you up as much as something that has a little bit of protein in it but it is a whole grain so it's it can be a healthy option and when I say that I don't mean like the the popcorn doused in butter and sugar and sugar if it's like a cinnamon sugar popcorn if you're doing like smart pop or skinny pop those are good options and they have some good flavors as well they're not gonna weigh your kids down Another option of smoothies or fruit, so you could get the little pre-packaged fruit cups and that's that's one thing that I think is also important to bring out because a lot of times of parents they feel like they have to or not that they have to but they feel like they're being judged if they don't do everything from scratch. And so that's now I'm here and that's not something I want to help perpetuate but even if you get those little fruit cups like that's better than your kid eating something that's loaded with a bunch of fat and if you're worried about their sugar intake then you can get the ones that are lower sugar or lower like in lower cert lower like they're in water instead of like fruit juice you could have them do whole fruit like the Halos or the cuties those are made so that they can easily peel them you don't have to peel it start it for them granola is another good option you do want to kind of be careful about the amounts that they have of that just because it could be depending upon what kind of granola it is. It could be high in sugar and it is it is high and healthy fat depending upon the nuts that are in there but with all of these you can use those little snack- sized Ziploc bags and if your kids old enough you can put them in charge of filling those with their snacks or you can do it for them so that way there's easy to grab if you're gonna make them for them. If you're not there's definitely options that are already in like single size servings so for example like Ritz crackers I got the whole-wheat ones and they have like a little mini sleeve so I'm saying cuz normally to come in like the longer sleeve but they have ones that are like 1/2 or like a quarter of that and so that's easy just to put in like a bag or something or just to put it in the same way that it is and they can take that so those are some options all right. So my last one is to keep them busy when they're on break and so like we talked about earlier for a lot of kids and a lot of adults actually the reason why we end up snacking mindlessly is because we're bored or it could be because we're stressed or it's just a habit. Like, I've shared before that I used to have a habit of going to get ice cream on Fridays after work and at some point I'm sure that habit was because I really wanted it but I realized that it was just because it was just my brain was programmed to do that. And so our kids are the same way if your kid is programmed to get a snack as soon as I get off the bus they're gonna expect that snack when they're on spring break they don't kind of have that pattern anymore so it becomes a new opportunity for a pattern so you want to have your kids be on somewhat of a schedule not to where it's like down to the minute but maybe they have blocks of time, like okay once you wake up you get your breakfast things like that and then you're not allowed to have a snack until like 11:00 or you're not allowed to have a snack until whatever time you decide and that's where that timer will come in and be helpful if you if you don't have a timer if your kids smaller than that you could say or younger to where they can't really understand the whole timer thing you could do like a TV show amount so you might want to say okay so after you watch two episodes of this then maybe you can have snack. And so it's kind of creating a time structure for them without telling them like an actual time if that helps a little bit um and when you create the schedule for them stick to it like if you're gonna ask you before that time is up if you don't think that they're hungry there's really no reason why they need to have another snack and I know for some parents like ah but I think my kid might be starving and you know your kid like you're gonna know whether or not they're really hungry if they're just bored and they want something to eat and I'm not saying starve your kid at all obviously but if you think about the time that they're not eating in a school day for example they get to school if you're an elementary school about 7:30 8 o'clock and then you're planning eating lunch until 12 11 or 12 depending upon what lunch you have during the day and they're not getting off the bus until like 3:00 so there's a good so there's a good amount of time in between when they're eating so it doesn't have to be any different when they're at home with you. (Um) So some ways to keep them busy during that time are also things like free activities so going to the library or to the park that a probably going to the park will probably work up an appetite for them so they probably won't want a snack after that but it's something that can help them get some fresh air and not always just rely on electronics or a snack to kind of keep them busy and keep them occupied so um those are my quick tips to help make sure your kid is not eating you out of house and home while they're on spring break or summer break and if you are looking for more tips like this when it comes to dinnertime snack time things of that sort then definitely sign up at my link that I want to put in here um Facebook is there and then on Instagram. I'm gonna see if I can pop it into the comments for you and this basically will give you insider access to my email list and what I do there is I send out tips strategies if you ever were not able to catch the replay of some or you if you were ever not able to catch a live version of something that I do I do send out the replay so that way you're not searching through social media to try to find it and I also give my email list advance notice for different things and different tips that I don't share with everybody else so let me see okay I post it on Instagram we're good there and post it on Facebook. So, um thank you all for tuning in and hope you have a good night and a spring break that does not include you being food less s have a good one. |
Categories
All
AuthorAs a self taught culinary creator, Chef Ashley decided to take her love of food to the masses by launching her brand that focuses on ways to be "healthyish", simplifying meal time, and dispelling the rumor that delicious food has to have tons of salt and fat. She believes that meal prep isn't just for the super health conscious and that it can help us all to take back the hours stolen by our kitchens. She began her meal prep journey as a way to save time and energy, but ended up finding a calling. |
RSS Feed