Career Strong

My neighborhood publishes a cookbook from time to time and this recipe is from my amazing neighbor Olivia Ott. She is now my favorite neighbor because of this simple recipe. 4 boneless chicken breasts (I love the thin sliced chicken breasts because they cook faster) 1 Zuchinni, chopped 1 Summer Squash, chopped 1 Medium Onion, chopped 1 cup hummus, your choice 1 tablespoon olive oil 2 lemons 1 teaspoon paprika Salt and Pepper to taste Preheat oven to 450 degrees Prepare one large baking dish with cooking spray Pat chicken dry* and season with salt and pepper to taste Toss zuchinni, squash and onion in olive oil, salt and pepper and place in the bottom of the baking dish evenly. Lay the chicken breasts evenly on top then cover each chicken breast with the hummus so that the entire breast is coated. Squeeze the juice of one lemon over the chicken and vegetables. Then sprinkle the pan with smoked paprika. Thinly slice the remaining lemon and skatter the slices...

After finishing my MBA at 28, reaching my career and income goals and marrying my husband at 29 I decided to start a family.  What I soon learned was something that shocked me. Parenting has taught me 6 lessons that have made me a better leader, teacher, mentor and person. If you're childless you can stand to read this too. You may even see yourself in these stories. The Importance of Time Management Looking back on my life before kids I have no idea what I did all of the time. I'm assuming it involved binge watching TV and sleeping but it's a far off distant memory now that deserves no special place in history. Bottom line, I wasted a lot of time. After children, my time is time blocked, every last second. This may seem like overkill to the childless person who also works in a corporate job where projects are handed out like candy and downtime is for Game of Thrones. But to the career driven entrepreneur parent this is the only way things get accomplished. I c...

This recipe was made while I was running out the door to a meeting. I made it in 15 minutes and my husband took it out of the oven to feed the family. Yes, it's that easy! Ingredients 2 tsp. olive oil 2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar  2 Tbsp. fresh lime juice  2 cloves garlic, chopped Salt and Pepper to taste 1 lb. green beans, ends removed  2 medium zucchini, sliced 2 medium summer squash, sliced 1 cup halved cherry tomatoes 1 medium green bell pepper, sliced  1 medium red onion, sliced 4 cooked chicken sausages, sliced  Instructions 1. To make marinade, combine oil, vinegar, lime juice, and garlic in a medium bowl; whisk to blend. 2. Season with salt and pepper, if desired; whisk to blend. Set aside. 3. Place green beans, zucchini, summer squash, tomatoes, bell pepper, and onion in a re-sealable plastic bag.  Add marinade; shake to blend. 4. Preheat broiler to high. 5. Place veggie mixture on large sheet pan. Add sausages; mix ...

Growing up I was never a morning person. Working slightly changed this but my full transition to morning person truly occurred after my first child was born. I gained quite a bit of weight with my pregnancy (55lbs to be exact) and knew I needed to workout but when was that going to happen? When I got home from work I was mentally and physically exhausted and I have always been a sweater so lunchtime workouts weren't for me. This left early mornings. 5 years later I wake up even earlier to not only workout but to set the intention for my day,read, meditate and even whip up breakfast before my kids get up. I want to share how I started each habit and why I can't go a day without them. Workout This one seems obvious right? I wanted to lose the 55 lbs I gained, but it became so much more. It's important to note that I enlisted a friend to workout with me. We promised to email each other when our workouts for the day were complete. Knowing she was somewhere,...

There's nothing more that I love than beef on a stick. Kidding. What I really love is a one pan meal, or in this instance an entire meal on a stick. These kabobs are simple and fun if you have kids that like to make bead necklaces but are old enough to handle sharp sticks. Without further ado, Rosemary Beef Kabobs. This is right before they went on the grill Ingredients 1lb Sirloin steak cubed 1/4 cup olive oil 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, minced Salt and pepper to taste 1 red onion, cut into wedges 1 pint of cherry tomatoes 2 green peppers (any color) chopped into thick chunks Directions Combine the olive oil, rosemary, salt, and pepper in a bowl.  Marinate the cubed sirloin steak at least 30 minutes, up to overnight. Drain and reserve the marinade for basting.  Prepare the barbecue grill.  Skewer the meat and vegetables Cook about 6 minutes for medium, basting the skewer while it cooks.  Off the skewer with easy oven...

Working from home, the holy grail of work environments. We believe if we could simply take out our commute we would be 10 times more productive at home and at work. This can be true but for the vast majority I'm going to say it's not. Here are a list of work from home pitfalls and how to work through them to become the productivity ninja you were born to be! Pitfall #1: I'll throw in a load of laundry! Pitfall number 1 hits close to home for me. I thought if I threw in a load of laundry when I woke up at 5AM and tossed it into the dryer when I was getting the kids up a couple of hours later, it would feel like I was never doing laundry.  Too bad I forgot about the folding and putting away piece of the puzzle. Each day I was forced to stop what I was doing and fold laundry for at least 30 minutes. In a week that was a loss of 2.5 hours of productivity! But it's actually more than that. By stopping and starting again it would typically take me at least 30 minut...

While I love carbs I've recently started cutting back on them, especially at dinnertime. What I mean by Carbs When I talk carbs I mean grains, potatoes and beans. Substitutions I love pasta! Whole wheat or not I love it all! But my waistline doesn't care for it. So I began trying different ways of subbing this food and the best option I have found is spiralizing summer squash or zucchini. (if you do summer squash it even looks like pasta) Cooking it You can steam, bake or sauté your spiralized veggies but I prefer sautéing and adding a few other little ingredients to give it an extra kick. Below is my go to zucchini pasta recipe that I've paired with a crowd pleaser at my house, Bruschetta Chicken! Pasta Ingredients 1 tsp. olive oil 1⁄2 medium red onion, chopped 2 cloves garlic, nely chopped 4 fresh basil leaves, finely chopped 2 medium zucchini, spiralized (approx. 2 cups) 1 Tbsp. basil pesto sauce  Bruschetta Ingredients 2 cups cherry ...

I have felt like a fraud so many times in my life I can't even begin to share it all so I will focus on the most recent. 2 1/2 years ago I became a mother of two. I had been a mother of one for three years and felt that having another baby wouldn't really change anything. I was right, it changed EVERYTHING. The battlefield known as my life The dynamic in my house went from kind of crazy to chaotic. I was physically and emotionally drained on a daily basis. Laundry, bottles, children seeking attention, meal planning, diapers. I was completely overwhelmed. At this very same time work also threw me for a loop. When I came back from maternity leave, my work team was now a mutiny. No one wanted to work but they all wanted to get paid. The more I pushed the worse it got. Bottom line: I was failing at life. I wasn't a good mother and I wasn't a good leader. The Life Raft Until one day a coworker came to me with a personal development book. At this point I felt...

We all have lofty goals for ourselves: Make more money, get the promotion, move, marry, have children. The list goes on. The problem many of us face is that we tac a little phrase on the end of our goals. This phrase goes a little something like "then I'll be happy." There are a few things wrong with this thought process. Nothing happens at the end I've worked with countless individuals that talk about past career successes. These people rarely discuss the end, that's not where the story lives. The story is in the day to day that lead up to the success.  These work colleauges reminisce about staying up late, not knowing what they were doing and the silly things they thought would work.  The magic happens in the messy middle. It's ugly at times (why do you think I call it messy) but it's where the trying, learning and growing happens.  You're setting yourself up for heartache When I was 22 and newly married I had so m...

Anything new and unfamiliar scares the pants off of me. I always go through the same basic steps: 1. Panic - I'm going to fail, I don't want to do this, I want to quit. 2. Research - I must read, talk to people,  google and/or watch as many youtube videos as possible about this task. (It depends on the thing as to which I lean on first) 3. Do - I have to just do the thing. (this is the scariest part for me but it's the only way I'll learn) For me doing the thing has gotten me laughed at, dirty looks and a lot of questions which inevitably leads to the next step. 4. Fail - This is my strongest skill. I am quit possibly the best failure that's ever lived. I've never been naturally good at anything, step 4 is something I get to quickly. 5. Learn - Doing and failing get me to the learning stage. I figure things out and start to see the patterns, the rules, the flow. 6. Streamlining - I take what I've learned and make it better in some way. This is ...