August 28, 2011

Lily's Life

I've had Lily for about 6 weeks now, so I thought I'd update you a little on the Life of Lily. She is adjusting to our new apartment and her life here. She has a lot of puppy in her still and loves to run, play fetch and act a little crazy. But for the most part she is very chill. In fact she spends most of her day either under one of the side tables laying down or here:
The other day I was going through my camera and came across a picture with Allie in the corner and it make me pause for a minute. I still definitely miss her and her crazy ridiculous monster ways. She was an absolutely mess, but her little personality was hilarious. But I also know that Lily has been given to me at a perfect time in a perfect way. I am so grateful to the Lord for knowing exactly what I need, even in the seemingly small things like which dog will be a good fit for me.

Lily is so incredibly loving and just wants to be with me all the time. And she is extremely loyal--stays right by my side. In fact, there are times where she is able to go places with me and doesn't even need her leash because she is so attached and was trained so well in her foster home (not that we do that often, or ever really--but I do know it's a possibility).

And this morning I took Lily with me on my jog for the first time and she did SO WELL!! She stayed right by my side the entire time and either walked or jogged right alongside me. I am excited that she will be able to go with me and deal with my erratic pace and I get settled into my running routine.

So that's what Lily has been up to--lots of sleeping, lots of cuddling, some eating and some exercise. Oh the rough life of a dog.

August 23, 2011

Meal Planning

So I have done okay sticking with the meal plans for August. I still have a hard time eating leftovers for lunch every day and can be easily persuaded to run and grab something (especially on days when I am out in the field) but I have eaten out less this month than usual, so I feel like it's at least a step in the right direction!

I stumbled across this recipe for sour cream enchiladas that seemed pretty easy to make and I knew I wanted to add it to this month's rotation. Sunday night I was making sure I had everything I needed to make these yesterday and I realized my tortillas weren't good anymore.

I have come across several recipes and entries about homemade tortillas and thought that was a good time to try them out. After some research with my dear friend Google, I came across this blog with recipe and instructions. I really like this recipe because everything I needed I have on hand (and they are all things I always have in my pantry... this is the first recipe I can say that about!) and it seemed easy (and it really was). A lot of tortilla recipes include a lot of butter or lard, but this one doesn't--I know it has vegetable oil, but I feel like it's a fairly minimal amount--and they still tasted good! I made 10 tortillas out of this recipe, but probably should have done more like 8 so they could be a little bigger. Otherwise, they turned out pretty great--especially the one I had on sunday night with just a little bit of butter... hot off the skillet.


August 17, 2011

Welcome Home

So I got a text message today from one of my loyal readers (yes there are a few of you out there) asking for pictures of the new apartment. I waited around all day today for my internet to be set up and now that it is, I thought I would introduce you to my new place.

From the entryway... Welcome in...
A glance of the rest of the apartment from the entry hallway...
Into the bedroom. Since I don't have an office, I had to find somewhere to put my Baylor Diploma ;)
The bed, bookshelf, Lily's space and my new decorations (these were one of the projects I was working on instead of packing... made for about $2 from old ceramic tiles, spray paint and letters I cut out and modge podged on!)
A glimpse of the bathroom. It is really spacious. I love it
The living room, dining room (kitchen to the left) and proof that lily came with me!
The Living Room (lily loves her couch)...
My bookshelf and decorations
The built-in shelving is one of my favorite things about this apartment. I love this bar area by the dining room
And the kitchen is amazing. It has tons of cabinet space. And I have an island. It makes me really happy.
Another one of my DIY projects... my magnetic spice rack. I got this pizza pan from the Dollar Tree and then searched for jars to use. One night I was at Big Lots searching for the perfect jars when I saw baby food jars and realized they would be perfect. Luckily I have lots of friends with babies, so the jars were free. I just spray painted the lids and added labels and magnets.
And my magnetic board from a Dollar Tree Cookie sheet... where I will hang my monthly menu and grocery list...
And a glimpse of the laundry room. Until I get a washer and dryer it's really just storage and a place for lily to eat.. but I do love my aprons and I put a bookshelf in there for all of my cookbooks.
And that concludes this evening's tour. I am absolutely loving my new place and enjoying getting settled in! Finally feeling like it's home

August 6, 2011

Breakfast Tacos

Well friends, I have failed miserably at sticking to my meal plan this week. I made the crockpot sirloin steaks early in the week... but then it was so hot when I got home that I didn't want to touch the oven or crockpot. So I had PB&J for dinner most nights this week.

I did make a crockpot full of chicken spaghetti this afternoon, so hopefully that will help get me back on track for this week. I shared that recipe a while back (it was from my sister-in-law) and it really is one of my absolute favorites. I made it for a work pot luck a few months ago and everyone loved it. And when I make it at home it makes about 10 meals for me (it fills my entire 5 qt slow cooker!). So I have some ready for this week and some frozen for after the move.

One thing I did make this week was freezer friendly breakfast tacos. I got the idea from this website (which has a ton of freezer friendly meals!) but I varied it a lot.

I used 6 eggs, 1 lb turkey sausage, cheddar cheese and smaller flour tortillas.

I cooked the sausage and decided not to add any taco seasoning as was suggested... I scrambled the eggs and seasoned them with salt and pepper.

Then I added those together and wrapped them in tortillas with the cheese.

It ended up making 13 breakfast tacos. I ate one that morning for breakfast and I really liked it. And the rest are in my freezer ready for mornings when I need to grab a quick breakfast for the road.
So I may not have done a great job of sticking to the meal plan, but at least I did something. baby steps, right? ;)

August 2, 2011

August Organization

I decided that since I am moving this month, it was time to re-organize some things. Even though I am not in school or on the school schedule, I love that August feels as though it's the beginning of a new year. It's a chance to start fresh (thankful that really every day is a chance to start fresh!)

One thing that I am really terrible about is my eating habits. Not only health wise, but I also tend to eat out way more than I should. It's been a really busy couple of months at work and so I find that I am "rewarding" myself for getting through it by eating out more. It's ridiculous really and it has got to stop.
So I decided to do some meal planning. I have meal planned in the past and never really stuck with it. Recently I saw the idea of meal planning for an entire month and I really loved that idea. Because I am cooking for myself, 1 meal will last for several lunches and dinners so planning for a month helps me plan out more variety.

So here is a glimpse of my meal planning "supplies"
Most of my meals are from recipe cards I have, my crockpot cookbook or the internet. For the next 2 weeks I have planned meals that can be easily frozen--so I eat half now and am freezing the other half so the week after I move I will have those meals available instead of eating out.

This months menu include: Pasta Bake, Chicken Spaghetti, Slow Cooked Sirloin Steaks, Chicken Enchiladas, and Turkey Burgers.

After I planned out my menus, I figured out what all groceries I needed and I went last week and bought everything that would stay throughout the month. Here is everything I got minus the meat, cheeses and milk:

So hopefully by putting this out there it will make me feel a little more accountable to all 2 of my readers to stick with it ;) I changed it around a little already because I made stuffed shells when Erin came over Saturday, so I decided to wait until next week to make the pasta bake and moved the slow-cooked sirloins to today. That has been another benefit for me of planning out the month because I have everything on hand for all of these meals so if I'm in the mood for something different I can move them around.

I even have a few breakfasts planned out to get me through this month so I'm not as tempted to take a detour to my Morning Drink Stop. More to come on those.

I'm excited to see how this goes!