meal plan friday

tgif!

finally!

anyone else catch the office last night?

anyone else still scratching?









since finishing bill's scarf i've been trying to decide what to knit next.  i bought a beautiful ball of cherry red wool that i was eager to make myself a hat with

but then i couldn't for the life of me find my needle gauge.  i cast on to a pair of needles i thought was close.

it was a disaster.

i'm pretty sure the needles were too big and i was going to have a hat big enough for an elephant.  or the pattern was way way off.

so i frogged it

and i'll be headed out on lunch to pick up another gauge...maybe some new yarn too.

other than knitting, i've been busy coming up with my meal plan for the next 7 days.

and learning from last week i knew to leave a few days unplanned to leave room for eating leftovers.

so week 2 of january meal plan:

Saturday
B:  smoothie
L:  originally we had planned to be in cincinnati for the day - that plan is scrapped, so we'll still plan on a late lunch early dinner out
D: snack- popcorn, pretzels, cereal and almond milk

Sunday
B:  pancakes
L:  smoothie
D: Potato Soup - it just sounds good for a rainy weekend

Monday
B:  smoothie
L:  leftover soup
D:  skillet parmesean and zucchini with salad

Tuesday
B:  smoothie
L:  PB&J with carrots
D:  bean burritos (recipe from week 1 that never got made)

Wednesday
B:  smoothie
L: leftovers
D:  big ol' salad
 
Thursday
B: smoothie
L:  romaine salad
D:  tuna noodle casserole with veggies

Friday
B:  smoothie
L:  leftovers
D:  my night to cook with bill and i've come up with something new to try

i ordered a new to me cookbook full of italian recipes.

bill and i both love italian food.

so i thought it would be fun to learn how to cook authentic italian food together

and our first dish will be

giusi's ragu

not exactly veggie friendly - but since it's our one night to really cook together i'm all for it.

i think for our first attempt we'll serve it over spaghetti -  and since it takes 3 hours to simmer, i'm thinking i'll have some hummus and veggies to snack on - as well as a bottle of wine ready to help us cook :)

this recipe can be doubled/quadrupled so if all goes well we can make ahead and freeze since there are a couple other recipes that use this sauce in them.

my goal is to cook one recipe from this book once a week (tuesday or friday nights)

here's to happy forks!

week 2 of resolutions

has anyone crashed and burned on their resolutions yet?

luckily i made mine pretty flexible

to ensure i don't get overwhelmed with an all or nothing plan

to recap my goals for 2013 are:

1. no artificial sweeteners
2. more home cooking/less going out
3. cook more with Bill
4. clean closet
5. save money
6. run happy
7. knit more

and for week 2 of january this is how i did

1.  i've accomplished this probably 90% of the week.  last friday i had a diet coke with lunch - but only because i forgot my water bottle.  not really an excuse, but it's the one i'm using.  i was also feeling pretty cruddy sunday so i had some diet ginger ale.  and there may have been once during the week i had some sprite with dinner.  i have eliminated sweet n low from my coffee - or i add honey or sugar for a special treat.  at work i drink water.  and since i'm back to making smoothies for breakfast - i've nixed my morning coffee - a rough start to the week, but i'm already over "needing" it.  i will confess i have a cup or two at night while i knit.  as soon as i buy some tea k-cups i'm going to change that.  so i've eliminated much of my caffeine intake without even setting that as a goal.

2&3.     more home cooking definitely happened this week and since bill took some time off he was able to help!

this taco pasta salad was...eh...it was written to be served cold, but that was pretty gross.  bill said it was better warmed up.  i had to tweak the sauce too much to want to make it again.

chickpea salad on homemade bread - accompanied by a dog nose - doesn't get much better.  i urge you to try this one

i also made 15 bean soup - this really doesn't count as cooking WITH bill, but he had to cook the beans while i was at work, so i think we get partial credit.  there was some confusion on my part at what temp to cook the beans, so we had a slightly mushy creation but the flavor was soooo good.  i'm actually finishing up the beans for lunch today.

i've also learned to not plan one dinner or so during the week since we have a hodge podge of leftovers right now and the bean burritos that were scheduled for last night didn't happen so we could eat some of the leftovers.  i'll probably just save that recipe for next week since the ingredients are non perishable for the most part

lots of smoothies have been made - my personal favorite is:

1 -1.5 cup of almond milk
5-7 ice cubes
1 banana
1 T chocolate dreams peanut butter
1 handful of spinach

blended until smooth

looks like a swamp

tastes like chocolate banana milkshake

and tomorrow night is the big meal bill and i will cook together (will update more on that)  so i would say i am 100% accomplishing this goal right now.

4.  ha. no.  i did make slight headway into some laundry.  that is all.  this is a fail.  BUT i have the whole year.  flexible.

5.  i haven't actually "done" this yet.  i have the idea in my head right now.  i  may just need to transfer the money into my savings account instead of having a tangible jar of money - that's probably too tempting.  ok.  i'm going to just put money in my savings account electronically.

now.

done.

check.  completed for week 1 &2

6.  ugh.  so sad.  i ran friday night and it was great.  i haven't since.  i've been focused on goal #7.  i really want to run in the morning to have it over with - i just need bill to get up with me - it makes it easier.

hint hint.  pssst...

since bill doesn't work until 1 ish he runs after i leave for work.  and when i get home at night it's just so dark and cold...and...i just want bill to suffer with me early in the morning.  unfortunately bill works until 10 so waking up at 6 doesn't interest him much.

7.  oh man.  i'm so proud of myself on this one guys.  i only took pictures with my phone, so they don't do it justice

but i finished bill's herringbone scarf!

i guess it took me about 1.5 weeks start to finish. 

i probably would have had it done this past weekend but i wasn't feeling so well and i didn't feel like knitting.

i still need to weave in the ends and block it slightly.

it sounds like it will be pretty cold next week so maybe i can get a picture of bill wearing it!

i'm putting together my meal plan for tomorrow's post - so stay tuned :)