Date Night

I mentioned the other day that my parents took Emma back to Illinois with them for two weeks. We miss her terribly but yesterday Nathan and I got to go to the mall and actually look at stuff. It was awesome! We also have no food in our fridge and cabinets, we're staying up late and waking up late. Is this how all couples act without kids or are we just enjoying our child-free time immaturely? I don't care, it's nice to spend quality time with Nathan.

Like I just said we have no food, so I had to create something for dinner. I came up with leftover steak for Nathan with a side of spaghetti and broccoli. I had spaghetti (no sauce) topped with broccoli that I seasoned with lemon juice and garlic. I think I threw in a handful of walnuts too. It was actually pretty good.

It went nicely with a glass of apple juice and a shot of peach schnapps. Don't worry, I made it classy by serving it in a wine glass.

Since there are no kids in the house, I thought I would spice things up a little and cook dinner in a sexy little number (don't worry there are no pictures of that). We lit candles on our fireplace and turn off all the lights. It was a romantic dinner, we actually talked while we ate instead of watching Netflix or constantly trying to get Emma to eat what's on her plate. I see an in-home date night happening at least once a month.

What sort of things do you do with your significant other that is free or doesn't cost a lot?

Finances Part 1

Only 2 more days left of 2010!


Are you prepping for anything special come January?

I am!

A few blogs ago, I mentioned about starting the Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. For the past 2 months I have been keeping track of where our money is going, what we spend it on, etc. I've researched Dave's plan several months ago and after taking lots of notes...never did anything to change our money habits. This time will be different! What was my wake up call? After tracking our money in November, I found out we actually spent a few hundred more than what we made. Yikes!!! Would I have noticed this if I didn't track my money??? NO, because we had enough money in our account to cover the extra money we spent. I didn't want this to become a habit or we would eventually have negative money in our accounts.

This is what my dinning room table looks like. It has my tools to help me get ahead in life...or ahead in my finances. I keep all my finance papers in a folder in the kitchen (easy access). I keep a small calculator and pencils in the kitchen too. I have 2 notebooks, one is designated for balancing my checkbook (seriously those registers they give you when you order checks are filled up in a matter of days) the other is my budgets, tracking my spending, making grocery lists, etc. I also have my debts (truck and jeep) written down and how much I have left on those along with all the Dave Ramsey sheets I copied from his book and printed off his website.

I want to explain how I track my expenses. To most this is common sense, but to some people who rely on what the ATM tells them how much money they have in their account...this will blow you away!

Everytime Nathan or I purchase something, I immediately write it down in our notebook (the one that balances the checkbook). After I do this, I write how much I spent on what in our tracking notebook. Example I spent $50 at Aldi's for groceries...I then wrote $50 under my Food/Hygiene/Meds column. After I write these down, I stick the receipt into a folder labeled receipts (I usually keep my receipts no matter what they're for, for a month...longer if they're for something important or if I have a warranty on an item).

The columns I use are labeled Utilities, Loans, Rent/Insurance, Food/hygiene/Meds, ATM/Cash/Fees, Eating Out/Snacks/Tobacco, Clothes/Alterations, Gas/Repairs, Credit Cards, Miscellaneous. Yours will probably be different.

After tracking for 2 months, I know about how much we spend in a certain area. Come January we're going to really crack down and try to spend less in the Eating out/snack/tobacco category (Nathan's biggest area) and the miscellaneous category. This will be challenging, especially since I'm making a 13 hour road trip to throw one of my best friend's a bachelorette party.

I would like to make an announcement. Yesterday I took money out of our savings and paid a huge chunk off of the truck. The truck will now be paid off in October 2011 instead of August 2012. We plan to take any extra money we get (tax returns) and put that towards the truck as well!

If you're reading this, you probably already know the 7 baby steps but I would like to list them just in case:

1. $1,ooo to start an Emergency Fund (done)

2. Pay off all debt using the Debt Snowball (started)

3. 3-6 months of expenses in savings

4. Invest 15% of household income into Roth IRAs & Pretax Retirement

5. College Funding for Children

6. Pay off your house early

7. Build wealth and give

I would love to hear your progress, tips you may have, or questions about anything. Maybe if we all encourage each other and hold each person accountable...we'll become millionaires and live like no one else :)

Getting Back To Normal

Maybe I gained a couple of extra pounds while my family was visiting...

It's okay because I got to eat yummy desserts almost nightly like homemade brownies with vanilla/cherry ice cream topped with chocolate syrup!

Or very cheesy breakfast casseroles (hey it had some veggies in it) like this one...

I do enjoy eating! Yesterday my eating habits went back to normal and I already lost 1 pound. I am sad that I won't be able to eat dessert and have a coke before bed though. I also haven't worked out at all since my family took over my house so today I get to start that back up. Mom bought me a new workout DVD so I'm actually excited to try it out.

It feels good to get back to normal. Did this Holiday throw you out of whack? How do you plan on getting back to "normal"?

Missin' My Baby

Today my family left to go back to Illinois. It was nice to see everyone and to celebrate Christmas at our house instead of us driving 15 hours to celebrate! It was also very nice when they left :) I love my family, but it's nice to not have my brother fart on the couch, or mom complain about how our water is soft and tastes like soap, or how my dad has to have bacon and eggs every morning for breakfast. I can finally relax and walk around my house half naked.





Sad news...they took Emma with them! A piece of my heart is gone...a huge chunk actually! I miss her sooo much, but I know my family misses her too (trust me, I get a ear full everytime I call home about how we should move closer to home). I'll be heading up to Illinois very soon to throw an awesome bachelorette party for one of my very best friends so I won't be without Emma for very long. No she isn't coming to the party!





To take my mind off of missing Emma so much, I de-Christmasfied the house.

Somehow I manged to get everything in 3 boxes. Go me, but now the house looks bare.

So then I moved on to the garage to rearrange and reorganize.

Back in the house to clean fake pine needles and broken Christmas lights (I'm a bit of a clutz).

By this time I'm not sulking and crying over Emma.

And then Nathan and I went to the Dollar Tree and Party City. Dollar Tree is awesome! Everything in there is $1. Now not everything in there is worth $1, some of it is crap...so don't go crazy and start throwing it in your cart because it's only one buck! I'm making party favors for my friend's bachelorette party so I found awesome deals for beads, wine glasses, and other little odds and ends. It was a great success!

Tomorrow I plan on painting the wine glasses...we'll see how that turns out.

Winter Wonderland

There's something about the first snowfall that seems magical...

I'm not new to snow, thanks to living in Northern New York for almost 2 years, but there is just something so special about seeing the first snowfall of the winter season. Maybe it's my inner child, maybe it's the beauty in tree branches covered in snow, or maybe it's just one of those magical happenings that only truly awesome people (like myself) can appreciate.

What to do on a cold, winter's day...go to Wal-Mart of course. Well, that's how I spent a few hours out of my day. I had to return one of Emma's Christmas presents that Santa got her. Apparently his elves didn't think that a Princess Boombox didn't need to play cds. I disagree! Luckily people in Fayetteville aren't used to snow, so they all stayed inside and made the return line really short.

For dinner tonight we're having frozen pizza and homemade brownies topped with delicious ice cream and chocolate syrup. I sooo cannot wait for dessert!

In the meantime we'll be playing board games. Why is it that board games are so expensive? I guess my family will stick to scrabble.

Or take a break and read the dictionary...

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and enjoying some quality family time!

Taco Chili

Okay, so I was trying out a new recipe tonight called Taco Soup...




It was more like chili so I called it Taco Chili, vegetarian style of course.




Nathan went back for seconds so it must be good!

Here's the recipe for Taco Chili:

1/2 onion, chopped

1 can of corn (drained)

2 cans of kidney beans (drained)

2 small cans of tomato sauce

1 packet of taco seasoning

Throw it all in the crockpot and cook on low for 2 hours. Top with cheddar cheese, sour cream, corn chips, and green onion.

Super easy! I did buy a can of chili without beans so Nathan could have some meat in his. I just put a couple of spoon fulls in his bowl and mix it with the taco chili.

To my bowl, I added some refried beans that I needed to use up and a couple of dashes of hot sauce. If I were to make this again, I would add a can of refried beans to the crockpot mixture.

My parents are making the trip from Illinois to North Carolina today, in fact they should be here in the next hour! I'm so excited, it's been 4.5 months since I saw them all!!!

I hope you all have a fantastic Christmas!

Fast Food

It's probably shocking to you to know that I don't eat at fast food places. I know, I know...so unAmerican right? I usually just pack a lunch and take it with me if I know we'll be out and about around lunch time. Saves me money and I can eat something more filling and healthier than some fries.

I'll be honest, I miss the the quickness and easiness of driving through a restaurant and eating a meal in a matter of minutes so I make a vegetarian fast food meal at home.

I used a delicious Morningstar burger, topped it with cheese and ketchup and placed on a lightly toasted bun. I used my George Foreman grill to cook the burger and they come out awesome with a little crunch to it.

This night I made mac & cheese from a box but I usually make homemade oven fries.

And there it is, my version of fast food.

We had some leftover (real) hamburgers in the freezer from a cookout, so I made Nathan a couple double cheeseburgers. I wouldn't want him to miss out on all that fat and cholesterol!

This isn't a meal you would want to eat every night! My healthier meal that makes the body feel good when you eat it is Quinoa and Roasted Vegetables!

I think I've mentioned Quinoa before, it's actually a seed but its texture and taste is more like rice or couscous. You prepare it the same way you make rice. Quinoa is a complete protein so it's like a super hero grain...eat it, your body will thank you. I pair it up with roasted vegetables (usually whatever I have leftover in the fridge). I just like the way veggies taste when they're cooked, that's why I roasted mine, but if you prefer raw veggies eat them. Cooking them depletes veggies of their nutrition so eating raw is the way to go.

Climbing

I think I found my new love...









Last night my family and some friends checked out a place in Fayetteville called "The Climbing Place". Let's just say it WAS AWESOME and the best part was how inexpensive it is. Tuesday nights they run a special $8 bucks and you're climbing with harness and belay rental and they teach you how to belay (Oh, and kids 4 and under are free). This is cheaper than taking my family to see a movie!

Everyone had a blast, even the kids. It was nice to get out and have fun and actually exert yourself. This was my first time climbing and I was nervous that I wouldn't be able to do it, but I did and everyone did a great job (we're all really sore this morning).

We felt like we were on a double date :)

I can't wait to go back! On Friday nights they have another special were you pay $10 and that includes everything and free pizza! Sounds like another date night to me...now to work on my upper body strength!


I challenge you to do something that you've never done before...you might fall in love with it!

Christmas Scrooge

A few days ago my husband woke up early to go to Wal-Mart to buy cereal and milk. Apparently we were out. I awoke to the sound of what sounded like a cat attacking a piece of paper. We don't own a cat so I leaned over the banister to see what was making that sound. It was Nathan, wrapping Christmas presents.

Cute, right? Well we had our Christmas shopping done weeks ago and there wasn't a need to wrap any presents because they're all under the tree. Nathan, attempting to be sneaky, bought me a Christmas present while out buying breakfast.

It was pretty obvious what they were. A couple of plates and bowls and a big box that I was assuming was a new set of dishes. Did I ask for these, no. But when Nathan came with me shopping one day, we came across them and he went on and on about how we needed bigger bowls for cereal and how this set was really cool and different looking. Yep, he bought this for me???

It really was a sweet gesture, but on Black Friday he bought me a Nikon camera. We decided that this camera would be my Christmas present and that's all I needed. He bought himself a new Xbox game and a bigger memory thingy for the Xbox and that was his Christmas present and he didn't need anything else. So you can see why I was freaking out a little about this Christmas present.

Needless to say, I convinced him to return it. We "fought" about it for a few days. He says I deserve presents and I say we can't afford it. He should feel lucky to have a wife who doesn't want to spend every cent he makes! We did compromise and left the 2 plates/2 bowls under the Xmas tree. That way we both can have a "special" place setting, but seriously we didn't need a whole new set AND I just saved him $43!

Sooo, maybe the day before this Christmas present disaster I let my inner shopaholic let loose and bought some underwear and a pair of sweatpants that say ARMY on them at Victoria Secret's. $75 worth of crap that fits into a tiny pink bag. I instantly felt the guilt once I got home and told Nathan that I would be returning them but he insisted that I keep them...that I deserve them and they could be a Christmas present from him. We argued for a few days about returning them or not. I finally won and we returned them at the crazy mad house called the mall today...I'll be getting my $75 back in 5-7 business days.

Maybe I am a scrooge...

I'd rather be a scrooge than a hypocrite! January 1st starts our Dave Ramsey Makeover and I don't want to buy a bunch of stuff that we don't need in the last few days of December because we can't in January.

I can't wait until Christmas is over! Bah humbug!

Pumpkin Cookies & Pizza

After church today, the family and I went grocery shopping (to buy all the ingredients for our Christmas brunch). It's pretty crazy out there, our grocery store even has security! Of course this could be a normal thing since we live in the "dirty south" now.

I decided to use up the rest of my canned pumpkin puree today and bake some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.

Although they're suppose to be cookies, they're sooo soft it's more like eating cake or a piece of Heaven.

Here's the recipe:

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 1 cup canned pumpkin


• 1 cup white sugar


• 1/2 cup vegetable oil


• 1 egg


• 2 cups flour


• 2 tsp. baking powder


• 2 tsp ground cinnamon


• 1/2 tsp salt


• 1tsp baking soda


• 1 tsp milk


• 1 TBL vanilla


• 2 cups chocolate chips


• ***Things I added extra cloves, ginger, nutmeg, raisins, 3 drops of red food coloring***

Combine pumpkin, sugar, oil, and egg. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon, and salt. Dissolve the baking soda with the milk and stir in. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and mix well.

Add vanilla and chocolate chips

Drop by spoonful on cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

You must try these, you will not be disappointed.

Before I knew it, it was dinner time and I decided to make some homemade pizza

Amazing what you can make with leftovers in your fridge!

Christmas Menu

Today the family and I decided to take a quick trip to the mall to return some merchandise. Haha, quick trip my ass! The traffic was horrible and the parking lot was completely full so we decided to wait until after Christmas to return it. What a bunch of morons to wait until the last week to do their Christmas shopping!

This year will be the first year that my family hasn't driven 15+ hours to visit everyone for the holidays. My mom, dad, and youngest brother will be making the trip down to NC to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas with us. We're all excited and I just spent the better part of 2 hours trying to decide what will be on the menu this week.

I think I have it figured out. Now remember I'm the only vegetarian in the family and already everyone is asking me if we're eating tofu (I would never put you through that torture). No tofu this time but we're not having the traditional turkey and all the fixings. This year we're having brunch (that way I can enjoy a meal instead of eating side dishes)!

Christmas Brunch Menu:

Sausage Breakfast Casserole (my grandma's recipe) for the meat eaters

Vegetable Cheddar Strata

Bacon

Morning Star Bacon

Fried Potatoes that I'm putting mom in charge of

Pumpkin Pie Bread

Clone of a Cinnabon

Juice, Coffee, and Chocolate Milk :)

Dinner that night:

Turkey (that I save and froze from Thanksgiving) & Noodles

Rolls

Veggie Lasagna (that I made last night and froze)

What's on your Chrismas menu????

Today feels like Saturday

When Nathan has a day off, it always feels like the weekend. It totally screws up my schedule, but I'm so glad he's home and not at work!

This morning, Emma got a package from papaw and mamaw (an early Christmas present, can we say spoiled).

They sent two books. They're actually pretty cool, they recorded themselves reading the books so all she has to do is flip the page and follow along. Nathan and I will have to search the internet for these so when he deploys he can give her a book with his voice in it.

For dinner I made a vegetarian lasagna. I thought it was awesome and so did Emma, Nathan picked at it saying he didn't like spinach (although he eats it everyday in his salad) or the mushrooms. Oh well, can't win them all.

I was craving some chocolate so I made my vegan chocolate cake. It definitely hit the spot!

I had to add some chocolate syrup too...and maybe I had two pieces.

What kind of food cravings do you get?

Fondue Night

Yesterday was a super busy day! One of my new friends asked me to accompany her for mani/pedis...how could I say no! She had to get her nails done for her sister's wedding, I had to get my feet done because they were disgustingly gross with massive amounts of dry skin. Emma came with us and got her first ever manicure (both my friend and I are secretly jealous of her nails, they're so cool).

We ended up going to the mall to get our nails done, and naturally had to walk around, so that took all afternoon. Before I knew it, it was time to go to taekwondo. After taekwondo I was too tired to make a real meal of food...so we ended up having a fondue night!

Here's our dinner. I made cheese fondue to go with our leftover veggies from the other night. I also boiled some beef ravioli for Emma and Nathan, sliced up some multi grain bread, and made homemade hummus. It was really good! We even ate in the living room while watching TV. Sooo, naughty!

Dessert was a glass of chocolate raspberry red wine. Imagine you have a box of chocolates in front of you, and you grab a raspberry filled chocolate and you take a bite...this wine tastes just like that. Freaking delicious, but it's a sipping wine. You wouldn't want to chug this or you would get a belly ache. In fact, I poured waaayyy too much in my glass!

Christmas Parties

Tis the season for Christmas parties and today was full of them too! We even had to skip out of one. Our first party today was at the library and was called "Reindeer Romp"....we celebrated all things reindeer.

The kids got to make headband antlers, watch a puppet show, sing and dance, and listen to a few stories dedicated to Rudolph. It was a fun time for all!

After our first party of the day, we quickly came home to eat lunch. I jazzed up my leftovers from last night's stuffed green peppers and made a quesadilla. It was really good!

After lunch I made an awesome veggie platter with broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, cheese cubes, green olives, and my favorite Hidden Valley Ranch dip (which I forgot to take a pic of before being devoured) for our Taekwondo Christmas Party.

Our Taekwondo party was a blast. The tiny tigers and the older kids had a class with Master Brown for the first half, then we got to eat yummy food for the second half.

A surprise guest came to say hi to all the kids too...

Unfortunately we had to skip out on Nathan's work party. There's always next year.

How many Christmas parties will you be attending this holiday season?

Lazy Day

I have to admit, yesterday was a pretty lazy day for me. I wore my sweats all day and I loved it! The only exciting thing Emma and I did was run to Toys R Us to pick out a present for Emma's friend, that she paid for with her hard earned money! It was also crazy packed, even on a Tuesday afternoon.


I still have a few more Christmas presents to buy (people who I won't see until January) and I'm thinking I should wait til after Christmas is over with to avoid all the people.


I did do a lot of eating yesterday, here's what I had:



Breakfast

Do I even need to mention I ate oatmeal...I eat it every breakfast and it never gets old!


Lunch





For lunch I had a bowl of tomato soup with a piece of bread and a slice of provolone cheese. I love tomato soup...but I mixed my soup with some almond milk and it turned out very sweet. I still ate it, but I learned my lesson to not use almond milk with tomato soup!










Snack

It never fails, around 3pm I start getting hungry again so I always have to have a snack. If not, then I get really shaky, light-headed, and then feel nauseous...so it's best if I just eat something! Today I made some coffee with an added bonus: HOT CHOCOLATE! I made the mistake of adding the little marshmallows into my filter. Apparently they clogged the hole for the water to run through because the chamber that holds the coffee beans was filled with water. Oh well, I still got a great tasting mug out of it. I had a large banana as well. Super yummy!








Dinner

I attempted my first ever stuffed green peppers. They were really good! Nathan even refilled his twice! If I make them again, I think I'll steam my green peppers first. They weren't soft enough for me to actually eat the whole thing. BTW, these are vegetarian stuffed peppers with brown rice with black beans and corn seasoned with chili pepper and cumin, layered with provolone cheese and tomato sauce!

Resolutions

I'll be honest, I don't think I've ever made any New Year resolutions. I think it's just something companies come up with to make a profit. What's America's number 1 resolution...weight loss! When January rolls around exercise equipment, juicers, and Nutrisystem is going to be forced fed upon the public through commercials, home shopping networks, and stores. Maybe if you didn't eat yourself stupid November-December, you wouldn't have to make a silly resolution to "lose the weight".

Why are resolutions made at the beginning of the year? To set the year off right? Who actually sticks to a resolution throughout the whole year? (Seriously, look on craigslist and you can see all the exercise equipment being sold because it's only been used once).

I sound really negative and that's not my intention. If you want to change something in your life...go for it! I'm going to be making a change this year, and it's not called a New Year's Resolution (in fear of quitting after 2 weeks)...it's called a life change. It is a diet...but it's not for my body, it's for my wallet. See, I have this extra fat called loans that I need to lose!

In a previous blog, I talked about how expensive it is to move. Moving right before the holidays is not a smart idea. We had no choice thanks to some orders. Well, all these expenses have finally caught up to us. A few weeks ago, I grabbed all my family's receipts from November and wrote down how much money we spent and what we spent that money on. Turns out we ended up spending more than what we made. We didn't notice because we have money in our checking account, but if we keep this up...our checking account is going to go in the red!

Off to the library I go to find Dave Ramsey's, The Total Money Makeover. I've been trying to find this book in thrift stores but have had no such luck so I was thrilled to find it at our local library! It's an easy read and takes about 2 days to finish it. I totally recommend this book if you 1)are broke, 2)want to pay off debts, 3)want to learn a little bit more about investing for your future and your children's future, 4)want to learn a little bit about retirement planning, 5)want to never worry about money again!

The month of December, I've been keeping track of how much we spend and where our money is going to. This way I can begin a budget for January. We don't have credit card debt but we do have 2 vehicle loans that we would love to pay off early! We would also love to increase our savings and start investing! I'm super excited, Nathan could care less but is open to paying things off early so that we can actually own them and we're both excited to have more money in the future to do the things we want!

If anyone wants to hop on board with us, go for it. You have nothing to lose but a crap load of debt! Yeah, you might not get to go out to eat, or buy that pair of $70 Silver Jeans, or even have your house feel like Florida in the winter...but it'll be worth it in the end.

Typical Sunday

One of my favorite things to do on Sunday is plan out what my family is going to eat for dinner for the week. I've mentioned before that I love allrecipes.com and that's usually were I go to find some new recipes. I probably try a new recipe at least twice a week. That's how I spent a good 2 hours of my afternoon (maybe I was playing around on facebook as well).

I ended up having to go to the grocery store because we seriously only had eggs and cheese in our fridge. I'm all about saving money so my first stop was at Aldi's. I was all happy in Aldi's...the sun came out, it stopped raining, minimal people, and no waiting in line to checkout. Then after I checked out, I swear, the clouds came rolling in and it just poured and poured. Needless to say, I was drenched and so were all my groceries! My happy mood vanished.

I had to go to Wal-Mart because Aldi's didn't have a few items and I was going to pick up on of Emma's friends a Christmas present. I hate going into Wal-Mart in the months of November and December. There is no such thing as a quick trip. I had 6 items in my cart and waited in line for 20 minutes and to top it all off, I couldn't find a good Christmas present!

After coming home and blowing off some steam (thank you Nathan for listening to me rant and rave)I started cooking dinner. A new recipe...and it came out delicious!

Saturday

I'm a person who doesn't mind change. I kinda have to be okay with it because being an Army wife, life changes day to day. We have to cancel plans, change plans, do things without notice, and move constantly. I love it! One thing that I cannot change is breakfast! I have to eat it or it wrecks my whole day. Sadly, I eat the same thing for breakfast. Oatmeal!!! Oatmeal is delicious and healthy. I sweeten my quick oats with a packet of sugar in the raw, agave nectar, raisins, and I even started adding some chopped walnuts to it.

I seriously snapped this photo then devoured the whole bowl. I don't know why oatmeal gets a bad rep for being boring.

So, today was Fayetteville's annual Christmas Parade and Scooby Doo was the Parade Marshall. Emma and I got to walk in the parade with our taekwondo school (Nathan was suppose to be there too, but he was jumping out of an airplane at the time). The kids were so cute with their Ssahng Jeol Bongs (Korean nunchucks). It was a lot of fun despite being in the rain for 2 hours. We even got filmed to be on the news (too bad we don't have cable). This is a pic of Emma before heading off to the parade.

Did I mention that in 5 more classes she'll have her orange belt (me too)! Pretty awesome, we were hoping someone would start a fight with us on the walk back to the Jeep but no one did :( We want to use our new skills and kick some butt :)

After the parade we came back to the house to find daddy home with his new Chilean jump wings. Way to go daddy! So now we're all chillin' out in the house in our thermals trying to stay warm. I'm enjoying some coffee in my pretty coffee mugs (is it just me or does food taste better when it's in a pretty dish/plate/mug/etc?).

I'm not a big coffee drinker (out of hot chocolate or I would be drinking that) but this is pretty good. I'm using my Jamaican coffee that Nathan and I won at a dance off sweetened with cinnamon, sugar in the raw, and the highly fattening heavy cream (trying to use it up before it goes bad).

What's everyone else doing today?

I love broccoli!

Tonight's dinner was really easy to make...it was "Asian" inspired, came in a bag in the frozen food section, and tasted okay. I'll be honest, I don't know why I even picked it up in the first place; my family and I do not like Asian/Chinese/etc types of food. Maybe it was the little corn cobs, I'm attracted to mini anything (shampoo bottles, deodorant, and apparently mini corn on the cobs). Anyways, the food wasn't worth the effort to take a picture of. So I'll talk about what I ate a few nights ago...

Did I mention that my favorite website is allrecipes.com??? I plan all my meals using this site! It's basically the world's largest cookbook and has recipes for EVERYTHING! My most favorite part of the site is reading the reviewer's comments. You get to read how other people screwed up the recipe...and then what they did to make it better. It just saves you time and money!

Anyways...I found this dish on the website and made it using reviewer's comments, and it was FREAKING AMAZING! I mean, how could it not? Broccoli and cheese, brown rice, and topped with yummy walnuts! This was my main dish and it was very filling. I added a piece of chicken for Nathan and Emma.

I finished off the leftovers for lunch today...I wish I had more. I keep looking at the picture and it's seriously making my mouth salivate.

IHOP has nothing on me

Isnt breakfast food the best? There is just sooo many different types of breakfast foods out there, sweet, savory, cheesy, etc. Every other week or so I plan to have breakfast for dinner and last night was our breakfast night! Homemade crepes topped with homemade whipped cream was on the menu (sounds fancy right...supper easy to make).

Yummy! It was almost like eating dessert. Don't worry I balanced out the meal with 2 pieces of my "Fake-on" or what is usually called Morning Star Bacon. I know, I know all my non-vegetarian friends are being grossed out by the concept of eating bacon that isn't made out of a dead pig, but trust me guys...this stuff is amazing! My family loves it and I even topped some potato skins at a get-together with this stuff and no one knew it was fake bacon.

Look at that close up! I had a leftover bag of frozen mixed berries in the freezer that I pulled out and put in the fridge a few hours before I started cooking dinner. I threw them in a bowl with some sugar and microwaved to knock the chill off. They were perfect inside my golden brown crepes. What goes good with fruit and whipped cream...chocolate! So I ended up drizzling some chocolate sauce over them! I was so excited to eat these that when I took my first bite, an evil laugh escaped my mouth. They were that good!

What's your favorite breakfast food?

Twice Baked Potato

Nothing tastes better than a big ol' potato that came out of the oven! The microwave has nothing on the oven. Twice baked potatoes take me back to high school when in Foods, we learned how to make them. My best friend Kristin and I would would make them when we would spend the night at each other's homes. Yeah, we though we were cool...and we are! I got this recipe for Alicia Silverstone's book, "The Kind Diet" and it's so delicious and filling even my meat loving husband enjoys it!

Twice Baked Potato Stuffed with Broccoli

• 2 baking potatoes


• 2 tsp olive oil


• 2 cloves minced garlic


• 1/8 tsp red pepper flakes (I don't have this spice so I don't use it)


• broccoli (I use 1 1/2 bunches)


• 1/2 cup water

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Wash the potato and wrap in aluminum foil. Prick the potato with a knife a few times. Bake for 60 minutes.

To a medium saucepan, add the oil, garlic, and red pepper flakes. Saute for 1 minute on medium heat. Add the broccoli and stir for 30 seconds. Add the water, cover, reduce the heat, and simmer for 10 minutes.

When the potato is cool enough to handle, cut it in half lengthwise. Scoop out the inner part, leaving 1/4 inch of the potato on the skin. Add the pulp to the broccoli, blending with a fork until combined. Okay this is where I turn this vegan recipe into a vegetarian one with the addition of sour cream and milk. I add a couple of scoops of sour cream and a splash of milk and blend it with my hand mixer. Refill the potato shells with the mixture. Place the stuffed potato halves back into the oven for 15 minutes. Sprinkle with cheese and serve.

I also made some homemade gnocchi. It's just potatoes, flour, and an egg. It's super easy to make and tastes a lot like a dumpling. I added some leftover spaghetti sauce and called it a meal!

Autumn Pasta

I'm trying to embrace my "not normal side" but people make it really hard to do that when they find out I'm a vegetarian. Or how my husband describes me as a "hippie, liberal, vegetarian". People just look at me like they're dumbfounded and then go on to tell me how unAmerican I am. They just can't get over the fact that I don't eat meat. After they question me about it...they go on to ask if I eat chicken (because somehow chicken isn't meat?), after I tell them no...they ask if I eat fish (again NO, fish is meat). It makes me laugh and sometimes I feel like I have to defend myself but the funny thing is these people think I eat nothing but raw vegetables or tofu. I've started taking pictures of my meals to let ya'll know my plate is indeed full and to inspire you to try some meatless dishes, of course you could always add meat if you like killing innocent animals ;)

Autumn Pasta

• 8oz penne rigate (or whatever pasta you have)




• 5 cups cauliflower florets




• 2TBS butter




• 1 cup breadcrumbs




• 1/2 cup heavy cream




• 3/4 cup parmesan cheese




• 2 tsp grated lemon peel (or a squirts of lemon juice)

1. Boil pasta in salted water 5 minutes. Add cauliflower. Cook until cauliflower and pasta are tender; 6 minutes. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup cooking liquid. Return pasta and cauliflower to pot. 2. Melt butter in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add breadcrumbs and cook, stirring until golden 7-8 minutes. 3. Add cream, parmesan, lemon, and cooking liquid to pasta. Toss over medium heat until sauce simmers, 2-3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. 4. Top with breadcrumbs!

Pita Chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Take 4 soft tortilla shells and cut in quarters. Lay on foil and lightly rub olive oil and season with season salt, garlic powder, onion powder, and basil. Bake about 5 minutes or until golden brown.

**You can use any seasoning, they always taste great no matter what you use***