Wow, my last post was a long time ago. I'm still here! This summer has been wayyy more busy than I ever anticipated it to be. Anyway, we had a WONDERFUL time at my brother's wedding last weekend...it was so special and the wedding, along with all the details involved, was beautiful.
While we had been harvesting a couple zucchini, green beans, green onions, and lettuce from our garden before we left, we came back to the LAND OF THE GIANT ZUCCHINI. I'm estimating that, in total, we've picked over a dozen zucchini that are all the size of a burly man's forearm. That's a lot of squash! I've been working really hard to use it all up or give it away, and have tried some wonderful recipes in the process. Here are some of them, for those of you who are in the same boat as us...and if you don't have a garden, zucchini are really cheap in the grocery stores right now, so try some of these out!
-Zucchini Quiche. I discovered this last summer when I was pregnant, and made a couple to put in the freezer for postpartum meals. It's definitely a keeper!
-Zucchini Bread. I've tried a lot of zucchini bread recipes, and this is by far the yummiest.
-Stuffed Zucchini Boats. I didn't follow this recipe exactly, but this is the general idea. The other day I made it Mexican-style with taco meat, beans, salsa, and cheddar....also good. A tasty low-carb meal!
-Zucchini Carpaccio Salad. (Side note: if you haven't discovered the Smitten Kitchen blog yet, you can thank me now.) I haven't made this yet, but plan to this week!
-Whole Wheat Zucchini Chocolate Cake. I actually made this for a birthday cake a couple years ago. It is (perhaps surprisingly) delicious!
-Vegetable Lasagna. Yum!
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Thursday, July 14, 2011
A List. And a dinner plan.
1.) Forgive my absence since my last post; due to the nature of my last post, you might have guessed that I was trying to regain peace and balance and sanity. If you guessed this, you were right!
2.) I did a non-frugal thing and bought some Vibram FiveFingers. They were more expensive than probably the past 3 pairs of shoes I've bought combined, but they are AWESOME!
3.) Our garden is really flourishing and I love it. We've already harvested lettuce, green beans, a few zucchini, basil, green onions, and spinach. There are lots of little green tomatoes out there too!
4.) In my last post I wrote about Liam now crawling and getting into EVERYTHING. We went out and bought one of those baby gate play yards, and it's possibly one of the greatest inventions ever.
5.) If you like to sew like me and have a little boy, check this out: 25 things to make for a baby boy. It's refreshing to see this after seeing countless dress/frilly/girly tutorials on the web!
6.) I've also written about doing the Supreme 90 Day workout before. Overall, I'm very pleased with this system, and for only 20 bucks, you really can't go wrong. I'm on day 21, and it really does produce results. However, I'm looking to really lose weight, and thought I've lost inches, the scale hasn't budged. at. all. Frustrating, given how hard I'm working, but I do feel stronger and more in shape. So I decided to do another fairly non-frugal thing, and I ordered Insanity. I actually did get a pretty good deal though...I bought it used on Amazon and had about $45 in Amazon gift cards from using Swagbucks, so I only paid about $40. (Compared to almost $150 brand-new). It's going to be hard, but I'm excited to put forth the effort to see results!
7.) Is anyone else a little angry with Netflix for raising their prices?!? We now pay $9.99 per month for unlimited streaming of TV shows/movies on the Wii and unlimited DVD rental (1 disc at a time). In order to keep it that way, we'd now have to pay $15.98. Still cheaper than cable, but irritating.
8.) Happy Bastille Day!
9.) Here's our dinner menu this week (week of 7/10):
Monday: Pasta with red sauce, steamed peas
Tuesday: Beef with Peppers, rice
Wednesday: BBQ chicken in the crock pot (easiest thing ever. Put chicken in the crock pot, cover with BBQ sauce. Cook on low for 5-6 hours.), corn on the cob, baked potatoes
Thursday: Swedish meatballs (from the freezer), mashed potatoes, sauteed zucchini and onions
Friday: Homemade pizza
Saturday: leftovers
Sunday: Shredded Chicken Sandwiches (a NW Ohio specialty!)
2.) I did a non-frugal thing and bought some Vibram FiveFingers. They were more expensive than probably the past 3 pairs of shoes I've bought combined, but they are AWESOME!
3.) Our garden is really flourishing and I love it. We've already harvested lettuce, green beans, a few zucchini, basil, green onions, and spinach. There are lots of little green tomatoes out there too!
4.) In my last post I wrote about Liam now crawling and getting into EVERYTHING. We went out and bought one of those baby gate play yards, and it's possibly one of the greatest inventions ever.
5.) If you like to sew like me and have a little boy, check this out: 25 things to make for a baby boy. It's refreshing to see this after seeing countless dress/frilly/girly tutorials on the web!
6.) I've also written about doing the Supreme 90 Day workout before. Overall, I'm very pleased with this system, and for only 20 bucks, you really can't go wrong. I'm on day 21, and it really does produce results. However, I'm looking to really lose weight, and thought I've lost inches, the scale hasn't budged. at. all. Frustrating, given how hard I'm working, but I do feel stronger and more in shape. So I decided to do another fairly non-frugal thing, and I ordered Insanity. I actually did get a pretty good deal though...I bought it used on Amazon and had about $45 in Amazon gift cards from using Swagbucks, so I only paid about $40. (Compared to almost $150 brand-new). It's going to be hard, but I'm excited to put forth the effort to see results!
7.) Is anyone else a little angry with Netflix for raising their prices?!? We now pay $9.99 per month for unlimited streaming of TV shows/movies on the Wii and unlimited DVD rental (1 disc at a time). In order to keep it that way, we'd now have to pay $15.98. Still cheaper than cable, but irritating.
8.) Happy Bastille Day!
9.) Here's our dinner menu this week (week of 7/10):
Monday: Pasta with red sauce, steamed peas
Tuesday: Beef with Peppers, rice
Wednesday: BBQ chicken in the crock pot (easiest thing ever. Put chicken in the crock pot, cover with BBQ sauce. Cook on low for 5-6 hours.), corn on the cob, baked potatoes
Thursday: Swedish meatballs (from the freezer), mashed potatoes, sauteed zucchini and onions
Friday: Homemade pizza
Saturday: leftovers
Sunday: Shredded Chicken Sandwiches (a NW Ohio specialty!)
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Overwhelmed.
So, today was just one of those days. Actually, this WEEK is just one of those days...er, weeks. I picked up a lot of extra hours at work this week, which is a mixed blessing-good because we have some additional expenses this month, and not so good because I've hardly seen my husband since Sunday, and I'm completely exhausted. Not to mention I haven't had any 'me' time (other than exercising), which I value not for selfish reasons, but because it refuels and recharges me.
Plus, Liam is now very much on the move! We are so excited for him and it's the greatest thing ever to see him get his motivated 'game face' on right before he charges across the room to get something. Or more accurately, get INTO something. So, in a nutshell the past week or so has consisted of me doing the following: working, chasing Liam, cleaning, doing laundry, cooking, chasing Liam, exercising, cleaning, picking up things Liam has scattered, doing laundry, chasing Liam, etc. You get the picture! You also notice that things like relaxing, writing blog posts, and watching a movie with Rob weren't in the list.
I think that, as a stay-at-home-mom (-ish, give or take a 15 hr/wk part time job) it's so very easy to get to the point of becoming overwhelmed. Maybe even more now than ever before. Overwhelmed at the thought of all the laundry that's not being done at any given time, overwhelmed at all the areas of the house that aren't orderly and organized, overwhelmed at all the things that still need to be cleaned, overwhelmed thinking about whether or not I am growing spiritually/becoming a better wife and mom, and overwhelmed at the thought of whether or not the baby/children are getting the right attention/discipline/stimulation/guidance/nutrition/nap time. Yeeesh.
Maybe the biggest thing I've learned so far in my 9 short months of being a mom is to just (cliche alert) take things one day at a time, and not let myself get wrapped up in yesterday or tomorrow. That's really, REALLY hard to do. But at least I can now recognize when I need to step back and assess the situation and realize that, in fact, the house is not a pig sty (even thought there may be clutter or a week's worth of dust lying about), and though my kid might be screaming he in fact is a happy baby who has all his needs met, and though there's perpetually at least one load of dirty laundry we still have clean clothes in the drawers and towels in the closet.
I've learned to be satisfied (most days) with accomplishing just one or two things, even though my list usually has at least a half dozen more to be done. And even if I don't get one or two things done, I'm still ALWAYS thankful to be spending my time with my precious little boy. And in the long run, that is far more important than fretting about the dust collecting on the mantle. :)
I'm tired...dinner menu tomorrow!
Plus, Liam is now very much on the move! We are so excited for him and it's the greatest thing ever to see him get his motivated 'game face' on right before he charges across the room to get something. Or more accurately, get INTO something. So, in a nutshell the past week or so has consisted of me doing the following: working, chasing Liam, cleaning, doing laundry, cooking, chasing Liam, exercising, cleaning, picking up things Liam has scattered, doing laundry, chasing Liam, etc. You get the picture! You also notice that things like relaxing, writing blog posts, and watching a movie with Rob weren't in the list.
I think that, as a stay-at-home-mom (-ish, give or take a 15 hr/wk part time job) it's so very easy to get to the point of becoming overwhelmed. Maybe even more now than ever before. Overwhelmed at the thought of all the laundry that's not being done at any given time, overwhelmed at all the areas of the house that aren't orderly and organized, overwhelmed at all the things that still need to be cleaned, overwhelmed thinking about whether or not I am growing spiritually/becoming a better wife and mom, and overwhelmed at the thought of whether or not the baby/children are getting the right attention/discipline/stimulation/guidance/nutrition/nap time. Yeeesh.
Maybe the biggest thing I've learned so far in my 9 short months of being a mom is to just (cliche alert) take things one day at a time, and not let myself get wrapped up in yesterday or tomorrow. That's really, REALLY hard to do. But at least I can now recognize when I need to step back and assess the situation and realize that, in fact, the house is not a pig sty (even thought there may be clutter or a week's worth of dust lying about), and though my kid might be screaming he in fact is a happy baby who has all his needs met, and though there's perpetually at least one load of dirty laundry we still have clean clothes in the drawers and towels in the closet.
I've learned to be satisfied (most days) with accomplishing just one or two things, even though my list usually has at least a half dozen more to be done. And even if I don't get one or two things done, I'm still ALWAYS thankful to be spending my time with my precious little boy. And in the long run, that is far more important than fretting about the dust collecting on the mantle. :)
I'm tired...dinner menu tomorrow!
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Neglected on the Needles
That title sounds more than a little weird. Ha!
I accomplished a lot on vacation last week, including making several hats to build up my Etsy store inventory again (to be revealed soon!), three skirts (using an awesome new technique I discovered, I'll post more later!), and another big project that I can't talk about until after my brother's wedding. :)
Now that all that is done, I want to work on a few treasures I found at the bottom of my yarn baskets when I organized my massive yarn stash a couple weeks ago. My poor husband....I bet he never knew he would not only be marrying me, but also boxes upon boxes of yarn. Hopefully I will finish at least ONE of these neglected projects before the end of the summer, given my tendency to start about 10 projects at once and then not finish 3 or 4 of them for a year or two. Here they are:
This was going to be a tank top. I started it over 2 years ago, and I really love the delicate yarn (it's knit with 2 strands at once) and how it creates a light, airy, organic texture. The sad thing is, I don't think it would fit me now, if I kept knitting it in the size I started. So, I either plan to start over in a bigger size (thank you, motherhood), or make something else out of the yarn.
This is the first of a pair of mittens. The pattern is a really cool fair isle design, and I made a pair just like this (but in burgundy and white) for my mom a couple years ago. That pair was my first experience with intarsia knitting, and it's really fun....it just takes me FOREVER. I'm determined to finish this pair before this winter!
This is a pretty scarf/wrap I started last summer while I was pregnant. I thought I'd make something for myself before my knitting time became forever scarce once the baby came. Then, a couple weeks later, I learned how to crochet and haven't touched it since. I'd also like to finish this before cooler weather comes again! (and as a side note, I'm pleasantly surprised how much time I still have to knit/crochet, even with how busy Liam keeps me!)
This is about 1.5 hours' worth of work on a really gorgeous felted oversize tote bag. It has a floral pattern on one side, and reminds me of those really pretty tapestry bags. The pattern is from a book I got for Christmas, so it's the newest of these neglected projects--so I may finish the others first, but I WILL get this one done, sometime!!!
I'll update this post when I finish these projects...which will happen between my never-ending list of things I want to make for my Etsy store, plus winter things I want to make before winter comes, plus Christmas gifts...sigh. I think somebody has a skewed sense of what she is able to accomplish in a reasonable amount of time!
I accomplished a lot on vacation last week, including making several hats to build up my Etsy store inventory again (to be revealed soon!), three skirts (using an awesome new technique I discovered, I'll post more later!), and another big project that I can't talk about until after my brother's wedding. :)
Now that all that is done, I want to work on a few treasures I found at the bottom of my yarn baskets when I organized my massive yarn stash a couple weeks ago. My poor husband....I bet he never knew he would not only be marrying me, but also boxes upon boxes of yarn. Hopefully I will finish at least ONE of these neglected projects before the end of the summer, given my tendency to start about 10 projects at once and then not finish 3 or 4 of them for a year or two. Here they are:
I'll update this post when I finish these projects...which will happen between my never-ending list of things I want to make for my Etsy store, plus winter things I want to make before winter comes, plus Christmas gifts...sigh. I think somebody has a skewed sense of what she is able to accomplish in a reasonable amount of time!
Dinner/Supper: Week of 6/27
Here's my grocery totals this week, followed by the meals planned.
T-Bones: (A local, high-end grocery- I only went there because I had a groupon for $30 of groceries)
Whole wheat penne
Salsa
Milk
Turkey Italian Sausage
Beef stew meat
Chicken thighs & drumsticks
Mushrooms
Whole Wheat flatbread
Sour cream
Onion soup mix
Total spent: $15.98 ($15 for the groupon a couple months ago, $0.98 out of pocket)
Aldi: (not pictured, mainly because it was for last Sunday, and also because I forgot to take a picture)
Fresh mozzarella
Tomatoes
Chips
Hamburger/Hot Dog buns
Bowtie pasta
Total Spent: I lost the receipt, but under $10, because I used a $10 bill. :)
Grand Total: $25.98 (ish)
It was a light week grocery-wise. Good for the wallet!
And here's the menu:
Monday: Leftovers
Tuesday: Slow Cooker Chicken Stroganoff (recipe on this blog, under the 'recipe' label)
Wednesday: Pinto Beans (recipe from the Pioneer Woman Cooks cookbook), rice, salad
Thursday: Pollo Asado (looks delicious!), green beans/wax beans from the garden, flatbread and hummus
Friday: Turkey Italian Sausages with peppers and onions
My garden is just starting to really produce lots and lots of stuff....it's exciting! Can't wait to plan next week around what I'm able to harvest.
 | ||
| Purchased with a Groupon at T-Bones |
T-Bones: (A local, high-end grocery- I only went there because I had a groupon for $30 of groceries)
Whole wheat penne
Salsa
Milk
Turkey Italian Sausage
Beef stew meat
Chicken thighs & drumsticks
Mushrooms
Whole Wheat flatbread
Sour cream
Onion soup mix
Total spent: $15.98 ($15 for the groupon a couple months ago, $0.98 out of pocket)
Aldi: (not pictured, mainly because it was for last Sunday, and also because I forgot to take a picture)
Fresh mozzarella
Tomatoes
Chips
Hamburger/Hot Dog buns
Bowtie pasta
Total Spent: I lost the receipt, but under $10, because I used a $10 bill. :)
Grand Total: $25.98 (ish)
It was a light week grocery-wise. Good for the wallet!
And here's the menu:
Monday: Leftovers
Tuesday: Slow Cooker Chicken Stroganoff (recipe on this blog, under the 'recipe' label)
Wednesday: Pinto Beans (recipe from the Pioneer Woman Cooks cookbook), rice, salad
Thursday: Pollo Asado (looks delicious!), green beans/wax beans from the garden, flatbread and hummus
Friday: Turkey Italian Sausages with peppers and onions
My garden is just starting to really produce lots and lots of stuff....it's exciting! Can't wait to plan next week around what I'm able to harvest.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Dinner/Supper: Week of 6/20
Sorry this is so late--the week is almost over! Yikes. We had a great vacation, and though Rob came back last Sunday, I actually ended up staying in Ohio till Wednesday. A couple of things came up, and it was nice to have an unexpected couple of days. So, we didn't have much of a shopping trip/dinner menu this week. Rob went to Aldi when he got back and proudly reported to me that he spent $26.36. Love him! I don't have the receipt to list all the items, but it was lots of basics like fruit, milk, cereal, etc. The stuff we didn't buy for awhile before we left. Then yesterday I spent $4.98 on a rotisserie chicken, and bought some baby food. So we still came in under budget. Anyway, here's this week's menu, Wednesday-Sunday.
Wednesday: Taco Salad/Haystacks (I don't really know what to call this...you crunch up a bunch of tortilla chips and pile all the taco fillings on top)
Thursday: Rotisserie chicken, wild rice, corn
Friday: Skillet chicken, broccoli and penne (this is one of our new favorite recipes! I'm using leftover chicken from Thursday)
Saturday: Leftovers or homemade waffles (Liam and I will be spending most of the day in the car attending a wedding while Rob's at work, so I doubt that we will even get to have a meal together)
Sunday: I don't have a plan yet. Hopefully some sort of a belated family dinner to celebrate my in-laws' anniversary. Which I knew was this week, and even talked to them on that day, but didn't have my days of the week straight enough to put the date with the day. Fail. I'm losing my mind. Happy anniversary anyway, Mom and Dad Barone, if you read this!!
I have lots of things to post this coming week--I went overboard in the sewing/crocheting/knitting categories while on vacation!
Wednesday: Taco Salad/Haystacks (I don't really know what to call this...you crunch up a bunch of tortilla chips and pile all the taco fillings on top)
Thursday: Rotisserie chicken, wild rice, corn
Friday: Skillet chicken, broccoli and penne (this is one of our new favorite recipes! I'm using leftover chicken from Thursday)
Saturday: Leftovers or homemade waffles (Liam and I will be spending most of the day in the car attending a wedding while Rob's at work, so I doubt that we will even get to have a meal together)
Sunday: I don't have a plan yet. Hopefully some sort of a belated family dinner to celebrate my in-laws' anniversary. Which I knew was this week, and even talked to them on that day, but didn't have my days of the week straight enough to put the date with the day. Fail. I'm losing my mind. Happy anniversary anyway, Mom and Dad Barone, if you read this!!
I have lots of things to post this coming week--I went overboard in the sewing/crocheting/knitting categories while on vacation!
Friday, June 17, 2011
Vacation Discoveries
So, I've decided that my dream job involves being on vacation full-time, forever. Sounds fair, right?
Ha. Seriously though, this week has been so nice. And it's not over yet, but I will be so sad when it is.
We've gotten to spend time with family we don't get to see as much as we'd like. And sleep in (till 8:00, that is). And do fun things like visit the zoo and Cedar Point. And attend bridal showers and help out with preparations for my brother's and soon-to-be-sister-in-law's upcoming wedding. And spend countless hours doing things like watching Star Wars (Rob) or the Food Network (me), or playing with an almost-crawling baby on the floor, or hitting little plastic wiffle golf balls around in the yard, or taking long bike rides, or making impromptu trips to get ice cream or coffee more times than we'd care to admit.
Also, I personally have gotten to stay up WAY too late surfing the web every night and not feel guilty about it, because I'm on vacation after all, and surfing the web usually brings me some sort of epic inspiration/motivation/creative ideas....usually. Sometimes it just means I have wasted an hour on Facebook.
But I'm going to focus instead on some of the wonderful things I've discovered this week--and since I've hardly done any cooking the past few days, and am generally doing non-domestic things instead, I decided to share with all of you some of the things I found andwant/want to do NOW love.
1) Cloth Diapering 101. Okay, so this one is kind of domestic. I just thought it was cool how my last post was about cloth diapering, and then this popped up on one of the blogs I usually read.
2) Knitted Minion.
How cute is this? I must make one IMMEDIATELY. Regardless of how useless/impractical it is. If you haven't seen 'Despicable Me,' go rent it. SO CUTE.
3) Fila Skeletoez
I know the whole barefoot-running thing might just be a fad (though I do understand the health benefits), but I have to confess that I have wanted to try out the Vibram Five Finger shoes for awhile. They're really expensive though, so I was glad to hear that Fila has made a cheaper version. I tried on a pair today...they're SO comfortable! Definitely hope to get a good deal on these sometime.
4) This area rug.
Ha. Seriously though, this week has been so nice. And it's not over yet, but I will be so sad when it is.
We've gotten to spend time with family we don't get to see as much as we'd like. And sleep in (till 8:00, that is). And do fun things like visit the zoo and Cedar Point. And attend bridal showers and help out with preparations for my brother's and soon-to-be-sister-in-law's upcoming wedding. And spend countless hours doing things like watching Star Wars (Rob) or the Food Network (me), or playing with an almost-crawling baby on the floor, or hitting little plastic wiffle golf balls around in the yard, or taking long bike rides, or making impromptu trips to get ice cream or coffee more times than we'd care to admit.
Also, I personally have gotten to stay up WAY too late surfing the web every night and not feel guilty about it, because I'm on vacation after all, and surfing the web usually brings me some sort of epic inspiration/motivation/creative ideas....usually. Sometimes it just means I have wasted an hour on Facebook.
But I'm going to focus instead on some of the wonderful things I've discovered this week--and since I've hardly done any cooking the past few days, and am generally doing non-domestic things instead, I decided to share with all of you some of the things I found and
1) Cloth Diapering 101. Okay, so this one is kind of domestic. I just thought it was cool how my last post was about cloth diapering, and then this popped up on one of the blogs I usually read.
2) Knitted Minion.
How cute is this? I must make one IMMEDIATELY. Regardless of how useless/impractical it is. If you haven't seen 'Despicable Me,' go rent it. SO CUTE.
3) Fila Skeletoez
I know the whole barefoot-running thing might just be a fad (though I do understand the health benefits), but I have to confess that I have wanted to try out the Vibram Five Finger shoes for awhile. They're really expensive though, so I was glad to hear that Fila has made a cheaper version. I tried on a pair today...they're SO comfortable! Definitely hope to get a good deal on these sometime.
4) This area rug.
Liam will, literally, be crawling in a matter of days. *sniff* It is so adorable to watch him try to figure it out, and though he's been scooting himself around the floor for a couple of weeks, in just the past 2 days he's really been trying to propel himself using his legs, and has also pushed himself up on his hands and toes. This also means that our beloved wool kilim rug, which last summer seemed like the perfect choice for our living room, is no longer practical as it is not soft at all and will produce rug burns like crazy. I guess we weren't thinking very far ahead with that one. We're going to be getting something like this one that is simple, soft, inexpensive, and newly-mobile-baby-friendly to use for awhile.
5) Supreme 90 Day. I will admit, the pictures on the website are so cheesy that I couldn't even bring myself to put one here. Anyway, I have been interested in doing the P90x and/or Insanity DVD workouts for awhile now, but they are SO EXPENSIVE. Even used, they're still pricey, and I have now lost a handful of eBay auctions trying to get my hands on a set. Then I heard about Supreme 90 Day, and have read countless reviews which say it is a great alternative. The best part? It costs $19.99. No joke! I ordered mine from Bed, Bath, and Beyond today (with free shipping!) and am excited to start. I'll share my (hopeful) recommendation and results after I give it a try!
I think I'll stop there for now. I have added approximately 2 dozen new bookmarks to my browser in the past week! Perhaps I have too much time on my hands....? Oh, and if any of you have feedback about P90x/Insanity/Supreme 90 Day, let me know!!
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