Mission Complete

Ok kids, I did it! 7 days, no eating anything that wasn't homemade. That's a big deal for me. HUGE.

Last night was super lazy so I just boiled some spaghetti noodles and added pesto sauce with a little Parmesan cheese with a side of garlic bread. It was fabulous. But I love me some pasta so that's no shocker.

Today Clint took a sick day. It was the weekend so we were both home anyway, but he literally is still in bed, and it's 8pm. He's gotten up to pee and that's it. I've been waiting on him all day.

Anyway, so I made chicken noodle soup from scratch for dinner. For some reason it didn't sound good at all to me so I didn't eat any but the Mr. says its good. I did however make too much chicken so I whipped up another batch of the BBQ chicken burritos for lunch for work tomorrow- yum city!

The recap, dinner challenge:

Day 1: Tuscan Turkey Meatball Soup
Day 2: Mustard Glazed Salmon
Day 3: Oven Barbecued Pork Chops
Day 4: (invited to a friends but we had) BBQ tri tip, mashed potatoes and broccoli.
Day 5: The best burritos ever- Seriously, make these.
Day 6: Pesto Pasta with garlic bread
Day 7: Chicken Noodle Soup with dill

Now, I know none of those are outrageous recipes, but it was something different for me, and I actually did it. You know what? It wasn't so bad. I wanna cook more. I still have a couple recipes to make and since the Mr is sick, I'll give him a couple more days until its his turn.

Thanks for playing.

Can I go back to crafting now?

I'm back in the game

I just gone done making and devouring THESE chicken burritos. They were insanely good. I really want to eat 10 more.

Feeling good about the dinner challenge. Clint is even already picking out recipes. Yum.

It's not so challenging

I cooked again.

Then we got invited to dinner at a friends.

About to cook again.

This turned out to be a highly boring blog topic, especially since I have not gotten 1 comment despite linking to it on my facebook page. So, I'm kinda over writing about it.

Does anyone care?

The dinner challenge, day 2.

Day 2- success!

I had the leftover soup for lunch at work.

Tonight I made mustard-glazed salmon with rice and salad. Delish again.I still didn't take pictures. But I promise, it looked like salmon. And rice. And a salad.
I took the leftover salmon and mixed it into the leftover salad and will take that for lunch tomorrow.
I also added to the challenge. I told Clint he had to come up with a week of recipes to make next week. That way we go 2 weeks without eating out, but we each get a week off from cooking. I'm stoked. He doesn't agree, but Clint is a great cook.

Damn. I was going go add a picture of Roxie but I'm blogging from my iPhone and it won't let me. Not cool. It was a cute one.

The dinner challenge

So, as inspired {aka: copying her exactly} by my friend Carrie, I have given myself a challenge this week. I am going to cook something I've never made before for dinner each night this week.

Now, I'm not getting crazy and pulling out some weird recipes here. I H.A.T.E cooking and really only have about 10 things I cook that recirculate. We are chronic eat-outers and it has to stop.

Here's a little known secret: eating out costs alot and its really bad for you. I know, shocker!

So, to go along with my new 10 week challenge ( I should really write a post about that....) I am going to make dinner at home every night this week. I just added in the 'something new' part to try and keep myself interested.

Night 1 was a success. I made Tuscan Turkey Meatball Soup. I was super delish, I even have leftovers for lunch at work.

(That's not really mine, I got it off Google images)

I forgot to take a picture. But c'mon, it's soup. It looked like that soup up there. I would link to a recipe, but I got it off the back of the bag of turkey meatballs and can't find it on the Foster Farms website.

Here's my memory:

Chicken Broth
Garlic
Onion
Fresh Spinach
White Beans
Carrots
Turkey Meatballs
Lots of pepper ( I effing love pepper. I use a TON on everything)
Garnish with Parmesan cheese


It was gooooooood stuff. Clint even liked it and he hates beans, spinach and soup in general that doesn't have bacon or potatoes or cheese.

On a side note: I can't slice raw onions. I try, over and over but I am so unbelievably sensitive to them that I end up screaming bloody murder with tears pouring down my face running from the kitchen to soak my face in hot water. Maybe someday I'll have followers that want to send me stuff and someone will get me these:

The Onion Goggles

or maybe I'll just add them to my stupid wedding registry (ohh, there's another post idea!)

I'm gonna try and post every day about this little journey. I'm even gonna link to it on my facebook and pretend people care.

Pardon my sour mood today, but my effing dog took an effing dump DOWN 6 CARPETED STAIRS AND ALL OVER THE TILE LANDING this morning and I had to clean it up which made me late to work.

Wow a food post that ended with poo talk. I'm just flying up the popularity charts.

Guests?

So, you know how I said I did that little art project in my guest room?

Well I finally got some pictures, though they don't translate well since you don't really get the feel of the whole room.

Clint's sister gave us a set of frames as a housewarming gift (thanks Shannon!). Last time I was at Ikea I got some sweet ass wrapping paper for 30 CENTS A ROLL. DUDE!

So here comes the magic. I put the paper in the frames- then put them on the wall.

Whoa. I know. I just blew your mind right there with my creative genius.

So here's a couple shots of the rest of the room. I looooooooove my guest room, but it doesn't photograph well. It took me months to decide on a color scheme. I know green, black and white aren't the most radical choices, but as you already know- I like blue and most of my house has blue. So it's different and I love love love it.

So, it's incomplete and all the walls are blank. I don't care. I made the curtains out of a $7 Ikea duvet cover. At least once a week I go in there and just sigh. I just want a freakin guest! Someone come stay over!

Look people, this is how pathetic I am. I'm begging for guests. Want me to sweeten the deal? Check out my amazing guest bathroom.



It's bright!

It's sunny!



Roxie approves!



 So. There it is. I'm pathetic, but I am awesome at cheap ass decor. I did both those rooms for less than $100 total. Go me.

 

Wedding progress

I made invites!

Ya.......that's it.

I actually did it!

Now I know to most it's not a big victory to take a dog for a walk. But here's the thing- I'm lazy. So the fact that I took Roxie out again today was a big deal to me. I even woke up today with a nasty cold but still went.

Off we go!

Well we walked and had fun, but I really just want to show off how beautiful my neighborhood is.

I had more to say today, but I turned on the TV and started Modern Family so I've lost it. What a boring post.

Home



View from our front door

Just got back from a nice walk with Roxie. We live in a neighborhood that goes in somewhat of a square, and it is butted up against a bunch of empty land against the river. Well while making the rounds around the neighborhood I decided to take a dirt road that lead up into the empty land. Low and behold it went a full circle along the river just past the neighborhood. So open and beautiful and made for a great walk. My new goal is to take her on that walk every day that's its nice out after work. It felt great to just go out and walk with her and my Ipod.

I would have taken pictures, but that would have turned off my music so I didn't, lol. Next time (hopefully tomorrow), I promise.

Seeing all that beautiful land right next to my house just made me appreciate where I live even more. People say the worst things about Oroville (that are mostly true), but no one mentions the good. We have a huge lake, a river running through the entire town, lots of parks, bike trails, trees and beauty. I happen to love it.

Sunset from our front door.

From inside the living room window

At the river, like 1/4 mile from our house

When I first moved here I thought it was a death sentence. All I wanted to do was get out and go back to the city. Now, I'm still a city girl but I can greatly appreciate the other side. My grass is greener.

All of those are less than 10 minutes from my front door. How amazing is that?

Eavesdropping

Roxie had her first vet visit yesterday. Not to worry, all is well. But one concern we had was the site on her legs where her dew claws had been removed. She chewed at them badly and they haven't healed yet.

Doc says they look good but to help get them healed to put Preparation H on them twice a day and make sure she doesn't lick it off for 10 minutes. No biggie.

Well we get to Wal-Mart and are looking at the selection. Neither of us have ever needed hemorrhoid cream before, so this was a whole new world. They have ointment or cream. Cooling or soothing. Who cares.

It took me a minute after walking away from the display before I realized how hilarious it must have been for anyone eavesdropping on us (not knowing were talking about a dog) to hear us discussing which one she would be least likely to lick off. Eeeeewww....

Wedding Dress Shopping.

As previously mentioned. I'm getting married. In 9 months now.

I'm still not excited. I'm dreading it actually. Not because I don't want to get married, I really really do. But the thought of spending a big chunk of money and going deeper into debt for a wedding just makes me want to barf.

But a few weeks ago, at the indulgence of my maid of honor and mom, I went dress shopping. Twice.

Can't you see my excitement?

Well, turns out I don't really like wedding dresses. I despise strapless dresses and 85% of them are just that. But more than straplessness, I hate spending money. Boy, are they stupid expensive.

I'm hoping to stumble across something in an after prom sale or a thrift store that will be perfect and cost like $20. here's to hoping.

I did find one dress I liked, but it was -of course- stupid expensive. But here it is anyway.




I'm overjoyed, can't you tell?



 



The only good thing about them? They all make you look crazy skinny. Really. Not the best pictures, but in person I was like super tiny waist.

Happy New Year!

I spent mine reading a book on my new kindle while Clint and Andres played the Xbox.

Every 2 or so hours I took Roxie out in the freezing cold to "do her stuff" (as the training website suggested I tell her as she goes)

I had a bowl of guacamole for dinner all to myself.

I ate a pint of Haggen Daas.

I was in bed, almost asleep when a text from a friend (who has a life) woke me enough to roll over and say Happy New Year to Clint.

Fell asleep, and was woken up twice to take the dog back out.


Hmm, I realize this sounds kinda whiny, but its not meant to be. It was a nice night.

Here's to 2011!