Slowly But Surely...

We're decorating our master bedroom! So far we've painted the room, bought the bedroom set, acquired our beautiful TV that sadly now brings me as much joy as it does to Tony (see previous posts). Over spring break we're getting in the plantation shutters we ordered almost six weeks ago.

Today we stumbled on a pair of lamps that we both loved! This is no small feat considering Tony likes to have a big say in what accessories we get for the house. As much as it bugs me that I can't just get a pretty floral print (country boy's not so big on floral prints) I love that he really cares how our home looks.

Anyway, here's our nightstands before:

mine

Tony's

And here they are after:

mine

Tony's

Here's a night shot (sorry for the blurriness) of our bed and nightstands.

We still want to find some small mirrors and hang them behind the lamps to give the room some dimension as well as an art piece above our bed. Next on our list is to get the crown molding installed, find the perfect duvet and pillows for the bed, and get a couple of comfy chairs for the sitting area when you enter our room to the left. It's a slow process but it's just the way we wanted it to be to make sure we love each piece we get no matter how long it takes to find.

In other news it's the week before Spring Break!

Today I cooked enough meals and packed enough lunches to be set through Wednesday! Happy Sunday!

Our Nightly Ritual

With a Schnauzer in the house life is never boring. Einstein is a crazy dog that loves to wrestle, run, and play chase. Sometimes when Tony comes home from work, he'll wrestle with Einstein to get him all stirred up. Lately though, right before bed they play chase in our bedroom. It's become a nightly ritual. It's one that Einstein LOVES and one that I beg for because it makes me laugh to see Tony hide behind corners and in our bathroom to scare Einstein.

Here's a video of them playing chase before bed last night. Tony likes to run Einstein out into the hall and then hide either behind the wall into our bedroom or in the bathroom. You can see Einstein totally gets into this and plans out what his next move will be.

This is the ridiculous nightly ritual we have going on at our house right now. Clearly you can tell it doesn't take much to make us laugh!

Baked Penne with Roasted Veggies

I can't take credit for this recipe. I found it here. I have tweaked it though to our liking and of course you could tweak mine and do the same!

This is a delicious meat free meal that doesn't feel like you're going without meat. That's because it's loaded with meaty veggies that have tons of flavor and fiber! Here is what you'll need minus the grated Parmesan and olive oil because I forgot to put them in the picture. Oops!

Ingredients:

• 1 yellow squash
• 1 zucchini
• 1 red bellpepper
• 1 yellow bellpepper
• 1 yellow onion
• shredded Italian cheese
• about 3/4 of a jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce
• 1 box of penne pasta

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Rinse and then slice up all the veggies into bite sized pieces. Place on lined baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil, mixing to cover all sides. You can add some garlic powder or salt to season or leave plain. Place in oven and roast for 10-15 minutes until tender.

At the same time, boil water and cook pasta according to directions until al dente. Transfer pasta into lasagna dish and add in sauce and veggies.

Mix in desired amount of cheese (I did about a full handful). Top with grated Parmesan.

Place in oven at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until top is golden and cheese is melted. This makes for plenty of leftovers.

Enjoy!

Here's a shot with my cheap but delicious romaine!

Grocery Store Money Saver Idea!

So each time I run to the grocery store I always grab salad. The country boy in our house has fallen in love with vegetables and insists on a salad each night with his dinner. After a year or two of coaxing to give salad a try I won't be complaining for the side dish that always appears on our plates.

I tend to like to grab the bagged salad. I always go generic but I do grab one to two bags of romaine lettuce. At $2.89 a bag that's close to $12 a month that I spend on lettuce. Sometimes it's more because I'll throw in a bag of spinach. I don't know why it's taken so long for the saver in me to switch ways!

Last time at the store Tony was with me and I priced bunches of romaine, uncut, unwashed, just plain. To my surprise there was a HUGE difference! I should have known considering the mark up on all other washed and pre-cut fruits and veggies is HUGE! I guess I just figured lettuce was the cheaper of the options. WRONG!

Today at Sprouts I picked up a head of romaine lettuce for .88 cents! For that price I picked up two. Here are the beautiful and fresh heads of lettuce.

When Tony and I got married we registered for a salad spinner. After a couple of uses it took to the bottom of the pantry. Well not anymore!

First I chopped up one head of lettuce into the same small sized pieces that come in the bagged lettuce.

Then I threw it all in the salad spinner basket and gently rinsed the lettuce.

After that I spinned it dry. Time taken: 5 minutes. Money saved for two weeks worth of lettuce: $4.02 (yes I'm that exact!). Not to mention I got sooo much more lettuce buying a whole head. I only chopped up one but after I spinned it dry I put it in a container to keep it fresh.

Tony came home and his eyes lit up at the fresh, green lettuce as well as the amount of money we saved. If you already do this, great! If you don't give it a try!

Snow Day!

So after numerous predictions that it was going to snow today in Austin along with numerous eye rolls it happened. IT SNOWED!

I was one of the few that didn't want a snow day called. At this point, we're already nearing the end and I don't want to give up a holiday to make up for some slush!

As soon as my kids arrived and got settled we went outside and played in the snow. Here's a group shot.

For some reason this shot reminds me of Charlie Brown and the gang. They're trying to eat the snow!

Here is a shot before lunch.

Here is a shot after lunch.

All in all it was a fun and surprisingly super productive day in Kindergarten. Before we went home we got good news that school won't start until 9:45 tomorrow. This means two things: I get to sleep in tomorrow AND 2. No make up day. Tony is on his way home (second day in a row EARLY!) and we're going to fix up some tacos and relax in a warm blanket.

Happy Tuesday and stay warm!

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Today is a special day in our family. Today is my grandma's 79th birthday! Spending time with her you wouldn't think of that number when you're around her. She's sassy, spunky, and always on the move. Today my mom surprised her with a birthday lunch Thanksgiving style.

My uncle and his family came from San Antonio to help us celebrate my grandma's birthday. She was so surprised because she kept wondering why her only son hadn't called to wish her a happy birthday! Little did she know they were on their way to celebrate WITH her!

This is the pretty table setting my mom had ready for the lunch.

This is the delicious food my mom made for the occasion. I now know why we only eat Thanksgiving style once a year. The food coma is a serious one!

These are the beautiful cupcakes my mom made for dessert! I wish I could say that I ate one, but someone over ate and couldn't eat another thing. Tony ate two for me though, so I'm taken care of!

The grandson-in law waiting patiently for the feast to begin!

The birthday girl and her puppy Precious.

Me & Tony with the birthday girl. I love that my mom and my grandma moved so close to us. We are so blessed to have them right down the street to share days like this with. I hope for many more celebrations to come together!

Somehow I didn't get a picture of my mom! She was buzzing around being the gracious host so I must have taken her picture with her camera instead of mine!

We finished up the lunch with a trip to the children's park around the block to throw the football and walk the dog. Tony and I then headed home so that I could sleep off the turkey. Tony read out in the sun while Einstein basked in the beautiful day! We finished off the day with a walk around the neighborhood and some Olympic watching.

I hope your weekend was wonderful and relaxing!

My New Must Have...

OMG. I think I just found something that would make my two week meal planning so much faster/efficient.

I was random blog grazing this afternoon and came across this:

You can buy the magnetic weekly meal planner note pad (for 25 weeks) and a magnetic shopping list pad (50 sheets). I yelled out to Tony who was in the other room that I found something I HAD to have. His response:

"How much is this going to cost me?" <--He knows me too well.

Lucky for him the meal planner pad is only $16.99 and the shopping list is $10.99. I'm so pumped about this because my meal plan list is usually my shopping list but it will be SO great to see exactly what I need for weekend breakfasts, snacks, and desserts. This is taking my planning and budgeting to a whole new level because I can try to eliminate some of the last minute stops to the store for a Saturday afternoon lunch! As a teacher, I think I love this so much because it is a lot like a lesson plan book where you see your week at a glance. When you plug it all in you know exactly what you need to prepare and you know what your days will look like. If you want to purchase it go here.

Here is something I got from a meal planning site that explains why it's so great to meal plan. I can vouch for most of these reasons.

See, while weekly menu planning for non-families is a rare topic around the blogosphere, it’s just as monumentally helpful for post-collegiates, office workers, struggling singles, and young couples. It even offers extra benefits, mostly involving time management. Like:

• You’re saved from 8pm post-work dinner freakouts, because dinner is ALWAYS planned.
• Ingredients are guaranteed to be on hand.
• Cooking goes much faster, since you go in knowing how to prepare a meal (by instinct or through print-out recipes).
• You eat healthier, as home-cooked meals are generally much more nutritious than calorie-laden takeout or heat-and-eat dinners (Hot Pockets, Hungry Man, etc.).
• Grocery shopping goes waaaaay faster. You go in knowing exactly what you want, and don’t have to blow an extra half-hour wandering around. Case in point: last night, using my weekly menu plan, I did all my shopping in 59 minutes, door to door, WALKING. In that time, I hit two stores, the further of which is about a half-mile away. Woo!
• Extra trips to the grocery store are mostly eliminated.
• You can plan for leftovers for office lunches. This is huge, personally speaking, because turkey sandwiches get tired 40,000 times in a row.
• You always have food for those bag lunches (the night before, no less), saving you $30 per week, or around $1500 per year.
• For budgeting purposes, you can pretty much estimate the cost of your bill to the dollar.
• There’s less food waste, because you’re buying only what you need.
• It allows for variety during the week, since you’ve got all the ingredients on hand anyway.

Let me know if you decide to get one of these or give weekly meal planning a try! Happy Friday and Happy Planning!