I Love to Cook

An old high school acquaintance of mine has a blog that she uses to keep her extended family up-to-date on the life of her beautiful family. One thing she includes on her blog from time to time is a meal plan for the week. I've decided to do the same for a couple of reasons.

My Amazing Reasons:

1. Organization. Having a plan keeps me organized. It also keeps the fridge organized and the food from going bad.
2. The Big Ol' B Word: Budget. Planning out meals (and shopping lists) has really helped me to stay on budget, which is a really good thing. Especially since we've got baby #1 on his way!
3. Cheap Produce - Delivered. My mom is an amazing woman. And she picks up my produce for me on Thursdays. I drop my list and cash off with her on Wednesdays, then pick up fresh fruits and veggies on Thursdays. And the real kicker? I spend WAY less money this way. It's a life saver (and a budget saver!).

So. Here's my meal plan for the week:

Monday: Chicken Enchilada Stew (turned tacos)
Tuesday: Girls' Night @ a friend's house (leftover tacos for the hubby)
Wednesday: Salmon & Zucchini
Thursday: Homemade Mushroom & Broccoli Pizza
Friday - Saturday - Sunday: ARIZONA (so so so thankful for a family vacation!)

The enchilada stew turned tacos turned out amazingly. I stuck everything in the crockpot on Sunday night and started it up on Monday. The chicken was perfectly shred-able and delicious by 5:30. Oh, it was a beautiful dinner!

Before cooking - we were too hungry to take a picture when all was done!

Project: Organization #3 The Kitchen

Well, my friends, I've completed the kitchen as part of A bowl full of lemon.'s Home Organization 101. Honestly, it wasn't difficult as I have kept my kitchen rather organized since I moved in with the husband.

I did make a few changes, though. Over the course of the year that I have lived here, I have come to realize that I do not like counter top clutter (especially since my counter space is so limited). When I found the perfect white pot for a buck at Bethesda (the thrift shop!), I knew it needed a home on the counter that was easily accessible. Away with the knife block, hello magnetic strip from IKEA.

I also moved the coffee maker to the other side of the sink. Because of where the bottom of our upper cabinets sit, the coffee maker cannot be directly underneath any of the cabinets. Which means it needs to be right. next. to. the. sink. It's kind of annoying, but that's where it has to be. It now sits next to the canister of coffee beans and the grinder. Makes sense, right?

I also found this dish at Bethesda and couldn't find it's home for the longest time. It has now become the harvest bin. Any veggies that we pull from the garden will sit there until used (except tomatoes...too many for the harvest bin!).

Although there weren't huge changes to the kitchen (husband will be happy!), I feel refreshed and energized to organize other parts of my home. The contents of the fridge and pantry have been cleaned out. Expired items discarded, Shelf stable items I know I won't use have been unloaded at the food shelf. The drawer of utensils has been cleaned out (I just wish I had enough room to get the more frequently used utensils off the counter).

I've linked up at A bowl full of lemons.

{recetas} Lime Tilapia

This. recipe. was. delicious.

I found it using my wonderful AllRecipes app on my iPhone. It has what is called the "Dinner Spinner" and it is great! You can now add custom ingredients to the spinner, so I added tilapia, since that's what I had in the freezer.

Here is a link to the original recipe, but I modified it a little bit (that's becoming pretty typical for me!).

Here's what I did:

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon refrigerated minced garlic (making it easy on myself!)
• 1 tablespoon oregano (the dried kind, from those mini jars)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• 1 teaspoon salt
• minced onion
• a couple twists on the garlic pepper grinder
• 2 tilapia fillets
• 1 lime

*I did not add sugar or tequila.
*Instead of measuring, I used a small prep bowl and made sure the bottom of it was covered with the minced onion.

What to do:

• Put all of the ingredients into a small prep bowl (except the tilapia and the lime!).

• Place the tilapia fillets, one at a time, into the bowl. Be sure to cover each side with the marinade.

• Oh yeah, preheat the oven to 450 (this is always something I forget to do, and end up waiting for the oven after everything is prepared). Probably a good idea to prepare a baking dish: cover it in foil, spray the foil with a non-stick cooking spray.
• Place each fillet in the baking dish and "plop" the rest of the marinade on top of the fillets. Place a slice of lime on top of each fillet, and the extras around the baking dish.

• Cover with foil. Place in oven and bake until the fish is flaky (I think it took my oven about 15 to 20 minutes, with the foil off for the last 5).
• Serve with a salad (I had Caesar salad on hand, and it wasn't as weird as I thought it would be).

{recetas} Cucumber Hummus Cups

We had a fabulous father's day today, even though the tornado sirens have gone off and we have decided to spend the night in the basement. We were lucky enough to go over to my husband's aunt and uncle's house for a lakeside BBQ this afternoon (for the 4 hours it didn't rain today).

I was in charge of bringing an appetizer for the gathering and I decided upon Hummus Cucumber Cups. I wasn't sure on the name since I didn't have a recipe. There was only a little inspiration from my first year as a teacher. A parent brought these yummy snacks for one of the class parties during the year. The five- and six-year-olds didn't really care for them, but I adored them little snacks (and don't know why it has taken me three years to make them for myself!).

And. They're super easy!

Ingredients:

• cucumbers (no bigger than medium sized, otherwise they're hard to eat!)
• hummus (super easy to make from scratch, but I only had 10 minutes before we were to leave)
• any type of seasoning you'd like to put on top (I used Tajin!)

The Steps:

First, cut off the ends and slice the cucumbers to about the thickness of 1 inch.

Next, use an appropriately sized measuring spoon to scoop out the middles of each slice, making a cup.

 Use a spoon or two to scoop some hummus into each cucumber cup. Sprinkle the top with your seasoning of choice (or leave them plain!).

Sorry for the blur! Oh, the phone camera...

My Other Least Favorite Chore

Vacuuming isn't my only hated house related chore. If you know me, that probably isn't surprising. I promise, though, that I do enjoy some chores. Like cleaning the mirrors. Or steam mopping the kitchen. I also enjoy .. Hmm. I'll get back to you on that one.

So, my other least favorite chore? Laundry. It's time consuming. It's tedious. I'm just not a fan. In fact, my husband and I haven't done a load of laundry in three weeks. I am out of socks (and underwear). My favorite skirts are all dirty. Our hamper is full. In fact, it spilled onto the floor a week ago.

Maybe I would like doing the laundry if my laundry room looked like this. Pretty, right? Mine doesn't have drywall. It has pretty pink insulation covered by plastic. It is bea-u-tiful. Can you sense my sarcasm?

Honestly, I don't think that will make my love of laundry grow (or my hate of laundry disappear).

So, tomorrow, I will be enjoying my first day of summer by doing the laundry. All of it.

I'll let you know how many loads I end up doing...

Dream Big

I love my house. Absolutely adore it. Hubs found the house online the day it was listed. The following day, we had a showing, our second of the day. We liked the house we saw first, and were contemplating an offer on that house. Those plans flew out the window the moment I walked through the front door of the house. I stood in the entryway and knew I would live in that house. It already felt like home. It now is home, and I love it.

But, oh, I have dreams for my little house. Big dreams.

Dream #1: Paint. The color of cheap grated Parmesan cheese for a house? No thank you. But, that is what we are dealing with. New paint would be absolutely beautiful. Oh, yes, a big project, but a lovely change. I have yet to even dream of colors, but it will not look like cheese. And that, my friends, I assure you.

Dream #2: This one will be attained much more quickly. Mostly because I'm already halfway there. Woo-hoo! My husband and I have a lot of stuff and it is all hanging out in our office. Daaang. Here's the problem. It's all of our stuff. Oh wait. I haven't even stated the dream. ADD moment. The dream: a beautifully organized office. The plan: bookshelves out. Good and gone...to our bedroom. One bookshelf is already there and it has helped so much! Now, we need to get the other bookshelf over there and go through the rest of our "stuff."

Dream #3: A beautiful bedroom. Another one that we have started. But, we have not gotten far. Paint will work wonders--it always does. What color would you choose for a bedroom, though? Oh, I just don't know. There are also things that we need to move out of our bedroom. Like the box of tax documents? The (empty) ceiling fan box? The remote control car? Yeah, not necessary...

But the biggest dream of them all? Well, there are two. The first? A new kitchen. The second? An addition. We would love to add an office and a 3 season porch. Or we could buy a bigger house with more acreage. These dreams, of course, are years and years away. But a girl can dream, right?

That's what's so great about dreams. I'll dream about the kitchen and the addition for quite some time and that is just fine.

Oh, and my other dream? Chickens. I would love to have chickens!

My Least Favorite Chore

I really, really, really do not like vacuuming. I've been vacuuming the ceiling. That's right, the ceiling. I'm a bit embarrassed to admit it, but today marks the first time the ceiling has been dusted or vacuumed since we moved in.

Gross, I know.

There was a healthy spider web in each corner of the living room and the bathroom, too. It's amazing how quickly these things can pop up out of nowhere!

I know that we have to be more diligent about keeping the house clean, but vacuuming is not enjoyable. One bit.

We have a nice vacuum, and I probably wouldn't mind vacuuming the floors (but my husband likes it, so he can continue with that chore!), but it is so time consuming. It doesn't help that we live in a smaller home. To do a good job in the living room, for example, the coffee table needs to be moved, otherwise, the vacuum cleaner can't maneuver around.

But, man. I was on an amazing cleaning kick this afternoon. Vacuumed the ceilings, around the cupboards and cleaned the entire kitchen. Ugh.

I feel like such a grown up.

Lull

I've been on a blogging lull as of late. I'm finishing up some coursework for my master's degree and it has taken its toll on me. Who knew a master's was so much work!? Just kidding...I knew going into it that it would be a TON of work. I am set to be completely done, though, at the end of the next school year. I have just under a year and a half left. Pretty exciting!

Like I said, though, it has taken its toll on me. I'm tired. It's hard to go to school when you're working full time--be that working full time as a mom or in the business world. It's just tough.

As summer nears, though, I am looking forward to having more time at home. I'm a teacher, you see, and school will be wrapped up by June. Of course, I nanny during the summer, so I don't get to be a stay at home wife (no kids, yet!). I will still be working three days a week, but will absolutely adore the Mondays and Fridays that I do not work.

I've already started a list of projects that I would like to finish by the end of summer. I don't want to say they are summer projects, because I hope to get to them during the school year too.

My list of projects:

• paint the ugly fish stand we have
• paint the house (outside)
• paint the kitchen and hallway
• re-do our deck (specifically, the stairs...they're wobbly and lopsided)
• garden! (seeds are going to be started tonight or tomorrow!)
• learn how to make pickles
• make a piece of art for the blank wall we have above the stairs/in the entry way

I could continue, because now I'm getting into the brainstorming mood and the ideas are starting to flow...but, I have to run to the grocery store for our dinner feast.

Don't forget to change your clocks!

The Wall...

If you have read the post about wall demolition, you will know that husband and I have been tearing down the wall that separates the kitchen/dining room from the living room.


Everything is moving along fabulously, and the husband and I are just letting the mud dry. I've been told (who knew?) that the joint compound will contract when it dries, which means that we may need to go over it once or twice more. And that is okay by me. Here's how everything looks now (please excuse the mess, we started this whole project without cleaning up/putting things away):

Last night:

 This morning:

This moment:

I have to admit that it is rather exciting to have the wall completely gone. I love it. It definitely means that we will have to keep our kitchen nice and tidy at all times (that's a tough one). Our living room is so much brighter now (there are no ceiling lights, only a lamp or two). With the wall gone, the natural light from our sliding glass door and the kitchen window do wonders for the lighting situation.

Like I said before, we still have some joint compound to add. And then, I know that the husband and I will want to paint straight away. I already have a color in mind. It's called Olivewood, and I adore it. At this point, it is the color of our entry way. But, with the dreams I have for the kitchen cabinets, Olivewood would work wonderfully in the kitchen and dining room. Plus, we have two walls that are painted with Glidden's Soothing Green Tea. I think the Olivewood would really tie everything together.

I love big projects (and I am most thankful that my husband does, too!).

Project: Organize #2 ~ The Kitchen Sink

When I read about this project idea on The Complete Guide to Imperfect Homemaking my plan was to do one organization project each week. That didn't go exactly as planned, as I started a week or so late. I finished Project #1 last weekend, and finished the kitchen sink an hour or so later. I just haven't had time to post until now!

Ahh, the kitchen sink. You can read about organizing underneath the sink at a lot of blogs and on a lot of other websites, which is great. Most of them portray similar ideas: that cabinet can become a catch-all of stuff that doesn't otherwise have a home. It can also be a place where items get lost: think "Land of the Misfit Toys." Only we aren't dealing with toys here.

Like all kitchen sink cabinets, most of mine is hard to access because of the plumbing and the garbage disposal. Not many things can get beyond the sink's drainage system. I attempted to organize away anyway. This time, I gave myself a rule:

Do not spend any money.

I found that the change in the kitchen sink cabinet wasn't that crazy (unlike the pantry organization!). It just became a bit more "tidy" if you will. It is definitely more appealing to the eye, and only a couple of items were removed from the cabinet all together. Those items were removed to the laundry room, which I thought was a better fit (I don't need the CLR in my kitchen!).

Here's the before:

And here's the after:

You see, it isn't a huge change by any means. But, having it this way makes me feel a little better (even if the only real change was putting the sponges, never-been-opened rubber gloves, and microfiber towels in a bucket). Eventually, I will let myself spend a few dollars on this cabinet, because I really like the way this looks at The Complete Guide to Imperfect Homemaking.

Project: Organize #1 ~ The Pantry

Because our kitchen is so tiny, our pantry isn't actually in the kitchen. It's in the hallway. I know it sounds weird, but our kitchen is weird (and I kind of really don't like it). But, I love everything else about this house so I can put up with the kitchen (remodel plans are in the works!).

Anyway. The pantry is in the hallway, and it's a pretty good space. And today was the day to make it organized. I had a few places I needed to stop before I could actually start organizing (any excuse to go to The Container Store, right?). My first stop was at Crate & Barrel in search of freezer safe opaque storage, but that's an entirely different project.

Crate & Barrel wasn't that impressive today, so I headed down the road to The Container Store. My oh my, that store is beautiful. I could lose myself there for hours, and I could spend thousands. I found what I was looking for cabinet shelves and under-shelf baskets.

Pretty, oh so pretty. I'm extremely happy with these two products, and cannot wait to go back to The Container Store to show my husband the amazing elfa storage system. And the elfa stuff isn't just for the kitchen! It can be anywhere. Ahh, I'm in love with the entire store.


Back to the pantry project. Husband and I shop at Costco and stock up on our canned goods there. Which means we have a lot of the same item at times. Being that my pantry is in the hallway, taking one picture of the entire thing was..well, not good. The picture doesn't look that great, see:

Here's what I'll do: give you the before picture (on the left) AND the after picture (on the right) at the same time.  Ooh, special.

This first pictures are of the top, left side of the pantry. You can see that it originally was the cereal storage. Not ideal, because there are chips and stuff behind the cereal and if you know me at all, you know I'm short. And unable to reach things at the back of that shelf. So now, it is the lesser needed items: napkins, paper towels and the "back-up" toilet paper rolls.

Below that shelf now the Kitchenaid attachments, extra Ziploc baggies and some cough drops are found. It used to be ALL of the canned items--the only other shelf that used to hold food items in the pantry.

The bottom two shelves on the left side used to hold appliances that didn't otherwise have a home in the kitchen (and the rice). These ones stayed the same because everything fit so nicely:

The liquor cabinet also stayed the same. Again, everything fit so nicely and it is up high. Mr. Husband and I don't have any kids, but we will someday. It's important to keep naughty things out of reach.

Next, the napkins, paper towels, Pledge, and paper bags were kicked out and some food (cereal, chips, pancake mix) found their new home.

Then, we had the paper plates, table clothes and other random stuff that didn't really have a home otherwise. It was one of those shelves that was the catch-all. Now, it has most of the canned goods (which are mostly tomatoes and a few other random things). Hopefully next year, the canned tomato items will be homegrown, but that's another post for the future.

Then came the shelf with the pointless dividers. I took those right out with Mr. Husband's drill, hung the under-shelf basket and packed in the cream soups, oils, noodles and popcorn kernels. Popcorn on the stove is the only way to go. We always have popcorn kernels on hand for a quick snack (and, it's just plain fun to make). I'm glad I ended up taking the shelves out, though. It was difficult to store anything there in the first place.

And finally, the bottom shelf, that used to house some cleaning supplies. It now has boxed items (instant potatoes, stuffing mix), some sauces, seasoning packets and a few packages of noodles. The cleaning supplies that started there are now hanging out in the front hall closet, near the Swiffer mop, steam mop and broom. It seemed like a much better place.

Now, after that crazy-long post, I've already started organizing some other aspects of my house. The front hall closet, cabinets in the kitchen (under the sink!) and under the bathroom sink.

I love long, productive weekends!