Meal Planning = Fun?

Looky at what I made today! I happened to stumble upon some meal plan templates during my blog hopping today (I wasn't looking for one), and five minutes later I had my very own.

I love it. I want a little easel to hold this... and maybe a different frame, but hey, this is a frame we had stashed in the basement. Literally, I downloaded the template for free here, printed it, grabbed the frame, and put it together in five minutes or less. I love LOVE that with the template behind the glass I can write my meal plan on it with dry erase markers.

I had to run to the Target anyway so I stopped in the home office section and found these beauties. 

Is it weird that when I saw this package of 8 double sided dry erase markers in 16 colors that I clapped my hands with glee? Yes? Oh.

I'm OK with that.

We were pretty good about eating meals at home for a while, but slowly we've fallen back into old habits of eating out 3-4 meals a week. We realized that we're eating out with friends on Friday and Saturday nights, then usually going out or picking up take out once during the week, and then there is the occasional lunch. It doesn't sound so bad, but we all know eating at home is healthier, saves money, and the food is just better (we know where it comes from). My goal is to have a plan for dinners each night of the week, and fill out my meal plan each Sunday. Doing this should save me a ton of time because I will be more prepared with a solid list to go to the grocery store each week (I heart my Grocery iQ app). Also, it will save me the stress and time spent trying to decide each day what I'm going to cook for dinner with the ingredients we have, or having to run to the store again. Now the challenging part will be keeping it up... but I have high hopes. The best part about meal planning is that it will help me be more creative with meals and trying new recipes. Why haven't I done this before? Well, I have half heartedly... meal planning is not a new concept, I just feel like I finally have my act together!

So now that I'm all set up, here is this week's plan (I've linked recipes if I found them online):

Monday: Fillet Mignon wrapped in bacon with roasted asparagus and couscous (today is a special occasion, we don't have fillets often)
Tuesday: Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken with brown Jasmine Rice and salad
Wednesday: Slow Cooker Green Chili Pork Tacos
Thursday: Left over Baked Ravioli (defrosted) with salad
Friday: PIZZA, my go-to wheat pizza dough is here
Saturday: Eat out, or leftover tacos
Sunday: Chili with Pumpkin Cornbread. I'm going to re-attempt this chili...

I'm pretty excited! I should have plenty of leftovers for lunches and to freeze. I may start blogging my meal plans each week... hmm, we'll see. So, are you a planner? What's on your menu this week? Really, I want to know!

This post is linked up to these link parties:
Just a Girl's Show and Share Day

 

Before & After: Front Yard Centerpiece

We started off our Memorial Day weekend by improving our front yard landscaping... Below is the "before" picture. Notice the lovely empty pot in the middle of the rock garden. This picture is from when we looked at the house before buying it last September. To me, this empty pot looks out of place, too small for the area, and well... empty.

Before Picture

We decided to spruce this area up. We went to Home Depot and spent 3 hours getting items on our long shopping list but a good portion of that time was spent selecting a half whiskey barrel (LOVE it!) and choosing flowers to be planted inside. 

Once we brought home the barrel - still smelling of whiskey - we drilled a couple of drainage holes in the bottom, sanded down the cut edge (after a couple of splinters), treated the wood, and then got to the good part of filling it will soil, tall grass, and flowers!

After Picture!

I just love the details of the barrel, and I think it's more size appropriate for the space (hard to tell in these pictures but it is much larger than the original pot). We'd love to replace those rocks with mulch but we decided to wait on that for now. I choose to plant perennials... Feather Reed Grass Overdam, Delphinium Blue Mirror, and Linaria Enchantment but because they are above ground they will probably not survive winter. I chose these because a) they are drought resistant (hard for me to kill), and b) they should bloom through early fall! Now that it's been a couple of weeks, they've really filled out and have many more blooms. I really should post a recent picture... but that would probably delay this post. Ha!

Oh, and Koda supervised the entire process of course.

Linking up to:

VOTW: Curtains for the Office Doors

Over on one of my fav blogs to read Design-Aholic, Amy holds a weekly "Victory of the Week" link-up.  I missed out on last week's because I finished my VOTW the night before we left town for the weekend. So... I'm going to try and sneak it in this week. 

My little (or really, huge for me) victory of the week (VOTW) was making my own curtains for our office doors.  I was inspired to make my own after seeing other bloggers do it themselves. After looking at other's tutorials, I had it all figured out - buy fabric and no sew seam tape, and 20 min later I'd be done. 

Yeah RIGHT! 

I should know by now to multiply the estimated time for project completion by 6 (at least).  It could possibly have been easier if I had chosen different fabric, but no, I chose the shear silky fabric that can't be ironed (so I couldn't use the no sew seam stuff). Yeah, that would be me. I don't have a sewing machine (much less know how to use one), and I don't sew.  BTW, the fabric color is hard to see in this picture but it's a taupe or champagne color that goes well with our entry way rugs. 

That's where my friend M came to my rescue... she not only let me use her sewing machine, but taught me how to use it and helped me measure and pin the first panel. I am so thankful, because after a couple few hours over a couple of days, voila! We have curtains to hide the sometimes mess of my husband's office, YAY! This is huge, because his office is the first thing you see when you enter our house and it was driving. me. crazy.

Let's all just forget that I fell in love with the bamboo/grass/natural whatever shades that I saw used for this purpose at our friend's home in Santa Fe last weekend. OK? OK. 

Hurray for the little victories :). Happy Friday - have a great weekend!

~ Jen

Pretty in red - my not so hanging basket...

I'm a little late in posting this... but I had to share my recent pride and joy. Last weekend I went to a class on hanging baskets at our local nursery (the one I got all my herbies at a couple of weeks ago). The class cost $35 which I wasn't excited about... but since I'm trying to meet people and get involved in things... and love plants and flowers... I sucked up the price and went anyway. It turned out that $35 was a steal for what I took home! The price includes the instruction and all the materials (basket, soil, flowers/plants, and fertilizer). Considering that the ceramic hanging basket I selected would have cost me $30 alone, this was a deal. To be honest, I didn't really need instructions to do this.... I know how to plant things... err... well I think I do, never mind that my basil is still in a state of shock from being potted a few days ago. OK nevermind. I needed guidance on flower/plant selection, and ideas on design. For instance, I've always been skeptical about growing potted flowers indoors. I don't know why, it's kind of silly. Maybe because I've never seen it done before until recently? Anyway... I LOVE what I created, from the deep red toned ceramic hanging basket/pot to the plants I crammed together to fit inside. I haven't hung the basket yet. I have the metal hook/chain to hang it, and my plan was to hang it in the alcove between our dining room and foyer, but now I'm thinking I like it where it is... Plus, I think if I hang the basket it will be too high to easily water, which means it would probably end up dying a slow death.

Isn't it lovely here? (Yes I just typed lovely, I'm using that word a lot recently... hmm) It totally makes this space. The deep red of the basket/pot goes great with the entry rug and the red blooms really liven up the space. You can't tell from looking at it... but the blooming plant in the center is removable (for the life of me I can't remember the name of the flower, and I tried googling to figure it out with no luck - anyone know?!), which means I can swap it out for whatever plant is in bloom at the moment. So, at Christmas I could put in Poinsetas, in the fall Mums, you get the idea. Here is what I did what I was instructed to do... I placed a small plastic pot (like the ones that come with flowers/plants when you buy them) in the center and planted the ivy and diamond frost around the container. Then I placed the flowering plant (still in its original pot) inside the container. This makes it easy to remove and keep somewhere else in the house when it's not in bloom and temporarily replaced. Genius right?

I love my not so hanging basket! LOVE. It has been living in its new home for 5 days and it's doing great with new blossoms almost every day. I'm relieved to have something pretty in the foyer now... The space has a long way to go, as you can see in this post, but it's coming along slowly!

Sneak Peak

Here's a sneak peak of what I've been up to lately. I'm hoping to finish this project this week... but it's supposed to snow again... which means temperatures aren't conducive to staining/finishing wood. Boo.

I've set up shop in the garage and basement. The wood shop (not set up yet since the move) is in the garage, but it's too cold in there to glue anything (the glue will not set at temps under 55 degrees). We used a space heater and were able to eventually get up to 49 degrees, so I'm assembling in our unfinished basement. 

my stock pile

Unattractive picture of me bundled up and using my hubby's Miter Saw

Don't worry, John taught me how to use the Miter Saw so I didn't hurt it, or myself.

Other tools...

I can't wait to show off the final product! I've insisted on doing this "all by myself" with John as my adviser (he's only allowed to answer questions, and show me how to use his tools). Hopefully it will turn out well (meaning I won't screw it up).

A Valentine...

I pulled out all my art supplies - stamps, card stock, inks, watercolor pencils, markers, embellishments, what-have-you - and considering all the crap stuff that is strewn across the floor of my office, I ended up with a very simple Valentine's Day card.

It's kinda a little all over the place. I used stamps from 4 different sets... and now that I look at the picture, I'd change the words on the front... Oh well. It's not perfect, but it was made with love!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Note: I drafted this post Friday, but waited to post it until after I gave it to my hubby on Vday. Such a manly card don't you think? Muwahahaha.

THE Ornament Wreath

UPDATED! Pictures of my wreath added (scroll down)!

It's beginning to look like Christmas... it's snowing and more is coming over the next few days - YAY! I'm glad we were able to get our Christmas tree yesterday before the snow arrived. It's huge (to me) at 10 feet tall and about 4.5 ft in diameter at the base [Update: It's actually 6ft, my hubby measured and wanted me to set the record straight]. It didn't look huge when we picked it out, funny how that works. The guy at the farm stand in a parking lot was really nice and loaded it in the back of their pick up truck and followed us home. Then helped John lug it inside and put it in the tree stand. Which took a while because it's not very stable. I am so thankful because I don't think we could have managed it on our own... but who knows... we are the couple that moved an elliptical machine from a room upstairs, to the main level, to the basement by ourselves. While the entire time I kept telling John "this is not a good idea" and "this has Darwin Award potential". But we did it and survived... I still have bruise marks but John was unharmed. We haven't been able to decorate the tree yet but hopefully tonight or tomorrow. Anyway, getting back to the topic of this post...

So I've been seeing gorgeous ornament wreaths all over the blogasphere...like this one from Thrifty Decor Chick,

And this one on Just a Girl,

They are everywhere really, but those are my favorites. Until I made my own of course! Though I love the warm brown/cream colors, and pastels... I'm such a traditionalist with my Christmas decorations - red and green please! So, you want to see pictures? Like ones of the piles of ornaments, hanger wire half strung, and of the finished wreath?

Too bad. So sorry. I really really want to show you but...

When I tried to download them to my iMac, it told me the memory card files were corrupt and the card needed to be reformatted *cry*. Nevermind that the card had pictures from our old house on it, and ones from my work good-bye lunch and happy hour... My hubby is going to try and save the pictures, my fingers are crossed. I really hope to update this post soon with the pictures! If nothing else, I'll eventually get my hands on my husband's fancy camera and post pictures of it hanging above our mantle.

[Update] So... couldn't save the pictures... :( but here are ones of the mantle with the wreath hanging above. I still haven't figured out a nice way to hide the string. Actually, I kind of forgot about it after my initial attempts didn't work out right.

Anyhoo, the wreath is pretty simple to make though it can be tedious. Here's what you need:

1. Wire hanger
   
2. Hot glue gun with glue sticks that fit into your model of hot glue gun (for example if you get a mini hot glue gun, that means you need the mini size of the sticks - somehow this detail escaped me when I was at the store the first time)...
3. Pliers
   
4. Ornaments - I used about 70 I think... I got them at 50% off at Hobby Lobby when the Dollar Tree failed me.
5. String and Ribbon to hang the wreath

Instructions:

1. Shape wire hanger into a ring first, then untwist the hook to open the hanger.
2. Hot glue ornament toppers to ornaments (trust me, and all who have come before me)
3. String ornaments onto wire hanger
4. Re-twist the ends to close the wreath
5. If you're crafty and gifted, hang wreath with ribbon. If not tie string to hook (that's been closed with pliers) and hang, then try to cover with ribbon

That's it! I do have some useful tips that I got from others or found out the hard way:

1. If you're like me and hate wire hangers and don't have them in the house, go to a local dry cleaners and ask nicely. I got mine for free :).
2. Hot glue the ornament topper thingies to the ornaments first.
   
3. Use pliers to pull the toppers off the ornaments if they are difficult.
4. Use pliers to hold the topper while applying hot glue - this saves your fingers from burns that others talked about in their blogs. I thankfully had a burn free experience!
5. Don't pull too hard on the tops with the pliers - the cheapo ornament top/loop can break easily.
6. Hot glue the toppers to the ornaments.
7. Some of the fancier ornaments have toppers with wire hoop thingies that are inserted through them, that have a spring action to stay inside the ornament... figure out a way to hot glue those to the topper too. Because if you don't, when you string your ornaments and they all get clustered together and you're trying to "randomly" arrange them - the hoop can pull out of the topper. This causes the ornament to fall and break into a million little pieces.
8. Hot glue toppers and topper hoops together and to ornament.
   

I had a hard time figuring out how hang this sucker to the wall, and how to hide the hook of the hanger all pretty like. You can't use the hook, like I had so naively thought... I was going to hang it with the hanger hook and cover it with ribbon. Sounds simple, but no of course not. I ended up tying string to the hook and using a drywall S-hook. I tried covering the string with ribbon a few times but couldn't get it to look right. So for now, it's just plan string to a hook. Ideas?! This would be easier if I could show you pictures, right? Right.

This post is linked to:

Home Roasted Coffee Beans!

Two years ago I decided to buy an espresso machine (the Rancilio Silvia if you're interested). I researched models, did the math, and figured out that in the long run it would save money to make my own cappuccinos and lattes. The funny part about this is that my husband John was not a coffee drinker but would enjoy the occasional latte with milk and flavored syrups - yet within a couple of weeks he became quite the barista! We have espresso (usually lattes) every morning, and I'd say he makes the espresso for us both (split double shot) about 85% of the time. I love it! And yes, we officially became coffee snobs! Every once in a while I'll get in a mood for straight up coffee, so I'll just grind the beans coarse (espresso is ground fine) and make some up in my French Press.

After about a year of pondering, John decided to take things one step further... and ordered a coffee bean roaster from Sweet Maria's which came with 8 lbs of green coffee beans! Here are some pictures he took of his first roast. Aren't these pictures great? My husband is so talented!

Measuring out the green coffee beans...

The roaster.

Load 'em up!

Let the roasting begin!

Watch the temperature.

Roasting nicely.

The cooling process...

The finished product, at home in their vacuum pumped container!

John only roasts the amount of coffee beans we need for 1 week. So we always have fresh, great tasting coffee! So far he's only roasted an espresso blend he created himself. I've already put in my request for a roast for straight up coffee. Mmm... The only down side to roasting our own coffee beans, is that it stinks up the house! The first time he roasted them in the kitchen under the stove vent and p-ew. The second time he roasted them in the garage and though some of the smell lingered inside, it wasn't nearly as strong. Until he rigs up some contraption to incorporate with the stove vent, roasting is banished to the garage. I do wonder what our neighbors think - no comments so far!

Sustainable Kitchen

I stumbled across a blog post by Kelby Carr titled Sustainable Kitchen Project, and was inspired to start my own... or really continue the "project" I started back in May. Somehow life going-ons (mainly work and travel) have gotten me off track - and I need to re-focus! Below is a list of my own goals for a sustainable kitchen. I think these goals are realistic for me, and a good start...

1. Make my own yogurt
2. Start a compost - stop talking about it and DO it!
3. Buy MORE local produce and products
4. Make more kinds of breads

I'll let you know how it goes! What are you doing to have a more sustainable kitchen?

DIY EcoCandles

I had to share this video I came across for making your own candles. I haven't tried this yet, but after learning the health impacts and air quality concerns of burning petroleum based (paraffin) candles - I'm ready to ditch my old candles and try something new. If I get around to making some myself I will be sure to post a picture!

"How To" Produce Wash

It's no secret that the produce brought home from grocery stores are loaded with pesticides. Even organic produce have some pesticides. Veggies and fruit should be washed before eating, and sadly scrubbing them with water doesn't cut it. Here's a list of the most and least contaminated produce,
You can buy produce washes at grocery stores, but a much cheaper and likely safer option is to make your own. Plus, you can reuse the same plastic spray bottle for your homemade produce wash rather than buying a new one each time. Below is a recipe (also see video) from Sophie Uliano, the author of Gorgeously Green.

Produce Wash:

• 2 cups water
• 1 Tbsp baking soda
• 3-4 drops of grapefruit seed extract