the dinner challenge. week 2

Last week was week number 2 of the dinner challenge. After the previous week when I made new dinners Monday-Thursday, we came to the realization that 4 days of new dinners is way too much, especially when leftovers are available. As a result, we cut the dinners down to 3. I get to pick the leftover night, though Tim doesn't know that.

So last week I cooked for three days. Boring, I know, but they were all pretty good!

Monday:
Monday I made a Chicken Cordon Bleu. I was a little skeptical, but excited to try it out. We picked up some thin sliced chicken, ham, and mozzarella cheese. I think the recipe called for Swiss, but I'm not typically a fan of Swiss cheese, so I went with mozzarella. The mozzarella didn't really melt as I had hoped, so if I ever made this again I'd probably go with American or something, but I'm not too sure this will gain a reoccurring spot on the household menu. the taste wasn't bad, but I don't feel as though I cooked it long enough, and that made me paranoid and I threw half the chicken out. Woops. The creamed spinach I paired this chicken with though was delightful! I certainly plan to buy it again, even if I'm the only one to eat it.
Tuesday:
Tuesday was a dish that I've cooked before, but was very delicious. I cooked up some Spinach Lasagna rolls. It's simple to make, ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese, spinach and that's basically it. You just spread it out on the lasagna, roll it up, and bake! I really like this meal a lot. For a small side, I cut up some fresh Mozzarella, topped it with a tasty juicy tomato and some fresh basil and drizzled some olive oil and balsamic vinegar on it. the balsamic vinegar definitely made it fantastically delicious!
Tuesday was also dessert day! I found this recipe for an apple cinnamon type crisp thing. It was simple to bake and smelled beyond delicious while cooking. It was okay, I didn't find anything too great about it. I might make it again, but I'd have to really be in the mood for it, I think.


Wednesday:
Wednesday I was sick. I felt absolutely disgusting; nauseous, the whole bit. But I powered through it. Luckily the plan was to have soup this day. I've cooked soup before, but this one required a lot of preparation. I had to cut up the leeks and the onion and the potatoes! For someone feeling ready to pass out, this was a lot of work! The plan was to make some grilled cheese or something to pair with the soup, but I was feeling so crappy I didn't want anything, and Tim didn't feel the need for anything extra either. It was tasty, though, I think I might stick with my potato/cheese/bacon soup when I feel the need to make potato soup in the future. Why fix it if it isn't broken, eh?



And thus ends a second week of new dinners! It's exciting! This upcoming wee I've already got Monday over with! I have to find some recipes for the next two days and find myself a dessert. Any suggestions?

a trip back to the 90's

Snorks


Duck Tales
>

Animaniacs


and just for fun:


Tiny Toon Adventures


Zoobilee Zoo


Eurkeeka's Castle


Hey Dude


and obviously, Salute Your Shorts


Doug (I seriously couldn't find a better version and I got tired of searching)


Sharon, Lois and Bram - I'm aware this isn't the intro, but come on...


Chilly Willy


WoodyWoodpecker


This wasn't a TV show - but I loved this movie!


Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers


Tailspin!


Darkwing Duck


Clarissa Explains It All


Muppet Babies


Dinosaurs


alright, lets take a break for now...

the dinner challenge. week 1.

Recently, Tim and I have been feeling really bored with our dinner selections. We've basically been eating the same thing since we moved in together last November, and it's been getting old. Work has been disgustingly slow for me lately and so I decided last Monday to find different things to make for dinner. I settled for cooking something new/different Monday-Thursday and then Tim and I agreed that Friday would be my/our day off. I think I did a really good job for my first week! I found a website that has helped me with this challenge immensely: http://www.skinnytaste.com/. Since I'm always struggling with my weight, it's really nice to have a website that provides me with information on how to cook delicious things but in a healthier way. Here was what I came up with for my first week:

Monday:
Monday I was going to make pasta with asparagus, but I had a change of heart come time to cook. I ended up cooking three cheese tortellini with a roasted red pepper alfredo sauce. I bought fresh three cheese tortellini from ShopRite earlier that day, for the sauce I sliced up a few pieces of roasted red pepper and mixed it in with a light alfredo sauce. I was really impressed with the flavor the roasted red peppers produced! Sometimes Tim and I will buy the roasted red pepper flavored alfredo sauce, but this was way tastier. Next time I want to make it a point to add something as a side for this dish, possibly some garlic bread.

Tuesday:
Tuesday the forecast was rainy and chilly, so I had planned on trying out the recipe I found for a broccoli chowder. I was really excited to try this recipe and was disappointed when Tuesday turned out to actually be a very nice, sunny, warm day. I ended up trying it out anyway and was impressed with my ability to not screw it up. This was my first time cooking a real soup; I've made a potato/cheese soup before, but never a soup with a bunch of different veggies. After it took me about an hour to chop up everything I needed (I sure can't wait for my wedding shower...I'm really pulling for a SlapChop!) I was able to get started. I cooked a grilled cheese to go with the chowder. I personally really enjoyed dipping the grilled cheese in the chowder. Delicious!
Wednesday:
Wednesday was just simply something different. It wasn't a recipe I found or anything, I just realized I have never made this for us to eat, so I went for it. I cooked up some chicken parm with a side of plain ol' pasta. I was very surprised at how well the chicken turned out. It was well cooked and nice and cheesy! I was really glad I enjoyed the chicken, because I've really had a hard time cooking it lately. I've really lost my desire to have it, mostly because I really don't enjoy cooking it. I do think I'll be making this a more regular meal, though, it was very yummy!
Since the chicken parm was so quick and easy to make, I was able to save some of my after work energy to bake my favorite fall time treat: pumpkin cookies! I found these cookies last year (during my baking phase, shortly before I moved out of my mom's house) from http://www.joyofbaking.com. This website is wonderful, but certainly not healthy! But what's life without a few tasty, calorie filled treats?! I'd like to bake the pumpkin cranberry bars they also have on their page (last year they turned out awesomely), when I have time.
Thursday:
Thursday I was looking forward to most! I had saved pumpkin spice pancakes until now! I found this recipe on http://www.skinnytaste.com/ and I was really excited about it. They turned out to taste not far off from regular pancakes, but with a little cinnamon-y kick to them. I enjoyed them, and I liked knowing they were on the healthier side of breakfast foods. However, we just used regular butter and regular syrup with them, against the recipe's orders.

Today I laid out the plans for this weeks dinners. I've cooked some of them before, but choices are getting slim! I'm trying really hard to stay healthy about it and I'm trying to mix up the week's food. I'm trying not to over-do it with one thing - meaning, chicken only once a week, pasta once or twice, I'm also trying to mix a breakfast dinner in too. As the weeks go on, I think it's going to get more difficult to find tasty things to cook for dinner that fall within the range of what I'll allow myself to eat (meaning, I'm a really picky eater). But I'm up for the challenge. Bring it on.

busybee

Almost a month since my last post: solid proof that I am indeed a terrible blogger, as if you needed any proof at all.

This year is honestly just flying by. It's really scary, I feel like I just celebrated Christmas or at least like I was just counting the days until it was warm enough for me to throw on a skirt, but here I am, October. It's unreal. I've been both looking forward to and dreading the fall this year. I love the fall. Knowing that it's October makes me smile, no matter how crappy my day has been. I love the leaves changing and the smell of fire, the pumpkins, the soup, the haunted houses, the Halloween costumes, I love all of it. This particular October, however, is way too busy for my liking. I feel like I have to squeeze in all the things I want to do with all the things I have to do. Don't get me wrong, I want to do the things I have to do...I just wish they were more spread out.

So far I have gotten through two of the toughest weekends. Last weekend consisted of my aunt's wedding, followed by a day at the spa for Julie's birthday, followed be a drive down to Maryland for Erin's wedding shower. All of these things were a lot of fun, and I took a step back and enjoyed them all, however, it was quite exhausting. This past weekend was Katie's wedding up in NY. Another exhausting weekend. Lots of driving, but all in all a great time. I was able to spend time with a lot of the people that I love, enjoy wonderful food, drinks, and for the most part, relax. It's funny though, how even relaxing things can tire you out.

Both of the weddings were gorgeous and happy weddings. First was my aunt's. It was nice to see my whole family enjoy themselves and let loose. Katie's wedding was a bit more stressful, but, it too, was a blast. I was able to spend a very nice weekend with my fiance, see a new place, wear a new dress, see old friends.

Coming up I have two bachlorette parties, a communion party/date weekend/church meeting, a wedding shower, and a halloween party, and that's only October! In November I have two charity walks, one to photograph and one to take part in! I've got my sister's birthday, a wedding, Thanksgiving...

I've talked my family into doing the Heart Walk on November 13th in memory of my dad! I am really excited about this and so far we've reached the goal of 10 walkers! To help contribute, click on the link on the right side of my blog!

One thing that all these events have done for me is make me incredibly excited for my own wedding! While it's fun to enjoy the happiness of all of my friends, the excitement of knowing that this will all be for me soon is a lot to contain! Sitting with Tim watching people I love vow to love eachother forever just makes me giddy with excitement. I am the luckiest girl on the planet and I wouldn't trade any of it for the world.

Okay, mushy part over.

Being so busy has really put a damper on my creative juices. I don't really mind, because I honestly don't think I'd even have the energy to think about art right now. I haven't painted since my last fiasco and while I took pictures for my aunt's wedding, I wasn't really feeling all artsy about it. Even when I was toying with the pictures in Photoshop, I was only able to get through about 20 of them before my brain was just fried.

Not only am I busy with other peoples events, I'm going crazy still trying to get things together for our own wedding. Saving money is virtually impossible right now, so there's the stress of that, I'm also starting to browse invitations. Wow, are invitations expensive! Sheesh! After about a week of completely stressing over the possible cost of invitations, I think I was able to figure out a few things that will substantially cut my costs. Now it's just about picking the right ones.

We also went to get out wedding bands not too long ago. I cried afterwards. Not because I'm sappy, but because I was certainly not expecting to spend that much money on my wedding band. I'm at the point where I'm just saying, "well, whatcha gonna do?" because there is just no way around spending money.

Next is honeymoon. Good God I can't handle thinking about it! Tim has been good about it and kind of calming me down when I'm on the verge of a panic attack. We looked up Italy tour information and I couldn't even continue to look, even though, what we were looking at was completely reasonable. But it's our honeymoon, there's no reason we should settle. Be reasonable, yes; settle, no.

And so, right now I'm just trying really hard to relax, not worry about money, and enjoy these events. Money will come, sleep will come, but for now, I have to embrace the friends, family, love and laughter that's going to get me through until Christmas time, and that's what I plan to do.