Happy BIRTHday!

ATTENTION ROOMIES! THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT MESSAGE! 
YOU WILL WANT TO READ IT!

A while ago I was having a conversation with a roommate. I was so giddy with the whole conversation, I was about to burst. So you can all experience the giddy-ness of this conversation, I would like you to do the following:

1) Pretend your Birthday is June 18

2) Pretend like you are actually having a conversation with me.

3) Uh...read the blog post. duh! tee hee.

Me: "Is your Birthday June 19?"

Roommate: "Nope."

Me: "Bummer! I always seem to get it wrong...Is it on the 18th?"

Roommate: "Bingo!"

Me: "Well sweet! I have super cool news for you!!!"

Roommate: "Well then tell me!!"

Me: "Oh, ok. I have the BEST Birthday present for you EVER!"

Roommate: "Why don't you just give it to me for Christmas?"

Me: "Well...I thought about that, but it's just the perfect Birthday present. So I think I'll give it to you for you Birthday."

PAUSE! What I really wanted to say was this: "Well...I thought about that, but it's just the perfect BIRTHday present...cuz guess what!?!?......"

Baby is due June 19, 2012  (Which is the day after your June 18th Birthday. Your perfect Birthday present is you may be sharing the same Birthday as my baby!!! Well...at least super close Birthdays. Plus, you can come and visit me, the hubby and the baby! woop woop!!!-this goes to all you roommates!)

Yeah, that's right. Who's gonna be the cutest lady with a pregnant belly. Me!! :D

Brain Dead ...

So I use the program Publisher to make my Menu Calendar and for some reason I am having like the hardest time converting it over. IT WON'T WORK! Pregnancy pretty much makes you lose every brain cell in your body. ... SOOO on another note, I am just going to type it out and it will look kinda ghetto but yeah you will love it anyway right?
Decembers Menu Plan ( DUN DUN DUN DUN)
 Thursday December 1: Avocado Chicken Parm served over pasta
Friday December 2: Broccoli Cheddar Soup with carrots as well
Saturday December 3: * Bread Baking Day
Sunday December 4: Balsamic Brown Sugar PorkLoin ( I can find 1-3lb porkloins at a grocer near me and they are the perfect size for us however, if you can't you can buy a larger one and split it as I am using a porkloin later this month as well) Mashed Potato's , Squash
Monday December 5: BBQ chicken crescents ( I am using shredded chicken from a large batch I made in Oct.)
Tuesday December 6: Chicken Gyros, Ceasar Salad
Wednesday December 7: Roast and Veggies in crockpot ( I teach activity days on wednesdays so these almost always have to be crockpot meals as I don't get home until 830 and the husband will starve otherwise)
Thursday December 8: Cheesy Enchilada Casserole ( I am using leftover tortillas from Nov.  they stay fresh for a very long time in the fridg.)
December 9-11: Anniversary Trip NO COOKING WHOOP WHOOP
December 12: BBQ Pork Flatbread (Using previously prepared shredded pork and leftover flatbread from Gyros)
December 13: Sloppy Joes ( Using Deer meat) Sweet Potato Fries
December 14: Pressed Burritos ( Using leftover deer meat and same tortillas from Nov.) Mexi Rice
December 15: BBQ Pork Sandwhiches ( Using leftover BBQ pork from Monday and leftover buns from tuesday) Corn, Chips
December 16: Apple Bourban Porkloin ( This is the other half of the porkloin) Potato's greenbeans
December 17: Date night NO COOKING
December 18: Sunday Dinner with the parents ( Will bring a coordinating sidedish)
December 19: Turkey panini's , Sweet Potato chips
December 20-31: WILL BE IN UTAH WHOOP WHOOP NO COOKING .

** As you can see we have several events in December so I didn't have to plan nearly as many meals. Hope this is somewhat useful but let me know !
** My planned shopping trip for this month will be Saturday Dec. 3 as I have everything I need to make my first two meals. I try to plan the first few meals on food I already have available incase my shopping trip needs to be delayed until that first weekend.

Grocery Store Blues

So my husband and I ... we used to HATE grocery shopping and since I work until 7 dinner was a MAJOR problem for us! I would do a weekly meal plan and then never get around to shopping and so therefore half the stuff that week we couldn't eat and I would be so unprepared. I would get home at 7:30 and try and make the quickest easiest meal so we could maybe eat by 8:30 and we would eat and I would fall in to bed exhausted!!!!!!!!!! Not to mention we were eating tons of crappy food like Ramen, Canned Soup, and my love for cooking was completely killed because well, I wasn't actually being allowed to cook. The temptation of picking up pizza, or fast food on the way home was so incredibly high! And I must admit ! I did fall into that temptation often. We were spending TONS of money on food, CRAPPY food, and we were both so disgusted with dinner!
NOT ANYMORE!
I redesigned how I plan our meals! I plan an entire month in advance now and set a day for that months shopping. YES, that is right! I only have to go grocery shopping ONCE a month. Occasionally I have to run for a gallon of milk or some fresh produce but its a quick 5 minute stop and I only have to do that if the things I bought have gone bad!
I make an entire month of recipes. I make a list from those recipes and use recipes that I  can combine ingredants. For example I can make Bajio Chicken Salads early in the month and used leftover shredded chicken from that meal later on in the month for mexican pasta or tacos. I do a bunch of crockpot cooking so when I get home at 7 the food is already there or I look for recipes that take 30 minutes or less so when I get home I know exactly what we are having that day, I have all the stuff ready to go and BAM dinner is done by 8. PLUS  I make a bunch of freezable stuff on the weekends in my crock pot. Like shredded chicken , pork and beef so its set for that month and really its not a big deal because I put it in the crockpot and do whatever I want for the rest of the day!
For the month of November we spent a WHOPPING 100 dollars for the entire month! and that included several items that weren't even on the list like Caffeine Free Dr. Pepper !! YUM !
Best of all, all our meals are home cooked goodness, no more Ramen or canned CRAP! and super yummy. Seriously produce can be so cheap! And you can freeze it which makes it even better! Prep is essential for me! Like dicing onions ahead of time and freezing them in a bit of water so they are ready to go all you do is defrost!

Sorry I was just so excited about this that I couldn't even hide it! We are going on two months of success and I can't wait til month three. No more Grocery Blues for us

My September and October rolled into 7.

Sunset!

I went to a Cowboy convention and this was super cute therefore I captured it in photo!

Once upon a time I decided to be healthy and go running with my dog. Bad idea.

It's a pan. And leaves. Found art!!

Concept for my Halloween costume/sweater.

 Reality for my Halloween costume/sweater.

Front view!

Back view!!!

Twoderful.

Coming April 14, 2012!