Monday Meal Planning: Week 1

I am finally a married woman! All of the wedding stress is gone, and now I can really, truly get my life together a little bit more, even if its ever so slightly. One of the main things I've been aiming to do for months is to try out/start meal planning. We moved in to a new house right before Christmas, and between trips to my parents house and his, we always had plenty of food coming home with us. But now that all of the holidays and wedding festivities have come to an end, we are home more often and have finally run out of leftovers.

I wasn't really sure where to start on the meal planning because a "simple" google or pinterest of the subject is actually quite overwhelming. Meal planning on a budget. Meal planning for clean eating. Meal planning for a family of five. Meal planning for 14 days. You get the picture. So after an hour or so of browsing all of these "plans," I decided maybe I was perhaps capable myself of making a meal plan for me and my new husband.

We both are on a plan to lose weight - I know, the wedding is over - but we are doing our best to maintain a healthy lifestyle. That's when I turned to skinnytaste. We have used recipes from this website dozens of times and have rarely been disappointed with the results. If you've never checked it out, I would strongly encourage you to do so. They recipes are divided up into many, many categories so you can choose what you think you'll enjoy, or look for a "skinny" version of a recipe you already know and love. Plus, each recipe includes all of the nutritional information, as well as Weight Watchers points - which my husband and I have both used off and on for a few years - he is currently still using it.

For this week, my meal selection was relatively basic. I knew (assumed) that the best way to go about it would be to look for similar recipes, so that grocery shopping for the same ingredients would be more efficient and cost effective. Plus, my husband is Catholic, which meant I'd need a meatless meal for Friday. [Or fish, but I don't like fish - so we'll be eating vegetables! Haha!] With those specifications in mind, I chose the following meals for us to test out this week:

Monday:
Grilled Chicken with Spinach and Melted Mozzarella

Tuesday:
Crock Pot Italian Sloppy Joe

Wednesday:
Crock Pot Sesame Honey Chicken

Thursday:
Skinny Chicken Enchiladas 

Friday:
Cheesy Zucchini Enchiladas 

Most of the recipes say they will make between 6 and 8 servings. I am planning to cut almost all of them in half. Since we are planning to cook every night - a lofty goal, I know - we don't want to be left with too many leftovers that won't get eaten.

When I initially searched for meal plans before deciding on creating our own, one of the other problems I ran into is that I can be a picky eater. I honestly don't think I'm that picky, I think I just tend to dislike some very common food items - most notably mushrooms and fish, which pop up in dishes far more often than you might realize. I know of course that it is possible in some cases to leave certain ingredients out, or to substitute a fish or seafood meal with something else, but then the grocery list wouldn't match up quite right, so why not start from scratch and know that the meals will be tailored for me and my husband from the beginning. Well. That's the plan at least, we'll see how well it all turns out.

We did a big shopping trip yesterday to get everything we needed, which I think helps dramatically to know that we already have all of the ingredients at the house for the whole week. And not wanting to let the fresh items to go waste will also help keep me motivated and on track with the plan.

Do any of y'all meal plan regularly? Do you have any tips or tricks?

Happy Monday, y'all! Have a great day!

xoxo

linking up with:
Monday Mingle | Merry Monday | The Wednesday Showcase

Bachelor Recap [01.25.2016] - Top 5 Moments

Alright, full disclosure y'all - I was double tasking while watching the Bachelor because I have one million thank you notes to write - but, overall I didn't think this episode was all that exciting. That being said, if y'all think I missed something super juicy, puhleaseeee let me know!

One-on-One with Becca

I've already said it, but I really like Becca and I was so happy to see that their one-on-one went well. I did feel a little bad for the other girls that she had a wedding dress delivered to their suite because jealously is clearly running wild with them, but it was also a good reality check for the others girls. I am still waiting for the story line about her being on a prior season and how that has changed her approach this season, but I'm sure that's coming. I think.

Olivia's Meltdown

I can't tell if this girl is still the stage five clinger I tagged her as last week, or if she is just really insecure and it comes out in an obsessive way. I think I'm still leaning towards the crazier of those two options because the way she talks about Ben in the interviews is a litttttle too over the top. In my opinion. Obviously her popping out the cake and weirdly walking around the stage was uber-awkward, but that part was over with, so I don't know why it was so hard for her to come back out. At the cocktail party when she told Ben that she snagged him first all the time so he know she cared, I was just waiting for him to bring up the cankle debacle of last week. Luckily he is gentleman. Although I though it was telling that he saved her for last at the rose ceremony. How long do you think she has left?

the Twins!

I was waiting for this day, well actually I was really wondering what it was going to be like if there was one of them still around for the home-towns. Like, would the other one be there? I think keeping in mind that that could be a definitely possibility, it was wise of Ben to make his decision between the two of them earlier rather than later. I thought it was so sweet that he asked their mom about their different personalities - but hopefully Haley won't hold it against her!
I also thought it was probably good to have one of them sent home, well I guess left at home, because I can only imagine how close the sisters are, and the kind of distraction that was creating when they needed to focus on their relationship with Ben, rather than each other. What do y'all think? Any twins out there with a better perspective than my speculations?

Vegas Talent Show

I was a little underwhelmed with this date. I mean it was hilarious to see them all perform their "talents" - some of which were actually very impressive. But compared to prior seasons/group dates it just seemed like something was missing. Maybe it was because they weren't all doing the same thing, and the fact that some talents were legit, while other were . . . well, less so, which made for an odd assortment. I don't know, I can't quite put my finger on it, but there was just something off. Am I the only one who thought this?

Next Week's Trailer

Okay, honestly, this might have been the most intriguing part of the show for me. I mean I know, duh, that is the point of it. [Clearly ABC's advertising is working on this girl.] But seriously, Jubilee was kind of quiet/off the scene this week, but it looks like she's ready to stir things back up next week, so I'm interested to see how that goes. AND it looks like some of the girls are starting to tell Ben what they really think of Olivia, although with past seasons those conversions didn't always have the end result that the other girls were hoping for.

What were your most memorable moments?

Have a great day, y'all!

xoxo

linking up with: 
Wednesday Showcase

Bachelor Recap [01.18.2016] - Top 5 Moments

top 5 memorable moments from last night's bachelor:

the Lack of Becca - 

Okay, this was really more of a "lack of" moment. Am I the only one that noticed Becca was hardly around in the interviews, and didn't seem worried about making time to talk to Ben even though she hadn't had a date that week? After last week, maybe there was just an understanding between them and she felt confident. And maybe she knows that the more you talk in those interviews, the more likely the producers are to edit them to say something else. I do like Becca though, so I hope it was just a slow week and I was definitely glad when he gave her a rose.

Lauren B's one-on-one - 

I'm sure it was terrifying at first, but those planes looked like so. much. fun! I think if I ever had the chance to see a city via one of those or a helicopter, I'd choose a plane like that hands down. A lot of their conversations seemed super-sappy and I didn't think there was anything particularly spectacular about the date in general, but it did seem like they had a blast - how could you not??

Lace's exit - 

I mean more power to her. Recognizing that maybe she needs to work on herself before she can fully commit to a relationship is a big step, and to make that realization on national television, holy cow. My fiance said he thinks that now when girls know they're not getting a rose they just decide to leave on their own. While that might be true sometimes, and most of the time we'll probably never really know, I'm not sure it was the case here. I think there was something about Lace that Ben found interesting, and there wasn't much this week that made me think he wasn't going to keep her around.

Jubilee's massage - 

Yikes. I was starting to warm up to her during the one-on-one date when she seemed to be loosening up around Ben. It was obvious the other girls were upset when she just offered her date up, when they all would have taken it in a heartbeat, but I truly think she was just being totally awkward because she seemed to take a while to open up. And I did feel bad that the whole night when she had the rose already that the other girls were making her feel bad for it, but taking Ben away for what was maybe a 10-20 minute massage was a little over the top. Maybe she was coming from a good place, and her intentions were certainly better than Olivia's (we'll get there soon), but to take so much time away when she was safe, and to take him in a way that made him almost unapproachable was just unnecessary, at least in my opinion.

Olivia - all of it. 

Where to start? She is a stage-five clinger for. sure. I think she has referred to herself as "Olivia Higgins" no less than half a dozen times each week. And that's just what the camera catches. Not to mention how completely insensitive she was when she pulled Ben aside right after he'd made the announcement about the passing of his close family friends and she started talking about her cankles! Are you serious? Also - who is she that people are writing blogs about that? [This is a real question you all, am I missing something?] I was starting to like her just a bit towards the beginning when she kind of owned up to hating her toes - which is crazy in itself that that's what they decided to pick on - I just thought it exuded such confidence for her to just be like "yeah, I do have ugly toes, I hate them too." But overall I think she needs to take it down a notch. Or ten.

What did you think of last night's episode?

Have a great day, y'all! 

xoxo 

TGIF, winter is here! (or is it?)

Well, I have already officially failed on some of these resolutions, most notably the one aiming for 3+ posts a week. I honestly don't know how most people keep up. I suppose if it was a full time job for me, I would have the time. Maybe? But the past few weeks I've worked probably 65 to 70 hours a week for the past few weeks and I barely have time to eat, let alone whip up a few posts. But, enough with that, because I made it happen today! How has your week/life been lately? Let's catch up!

Friends 

Y'all. I'm not sure I've made my love and affection for Friends clear before, so let me take this moment to reveal to you how obsessed I am. As in, I own every season on DVD, and in some cases more than one copy. I cried at the finale. I regularly watched "Joey," the not-so-successful spin off. I can recall almost every episode. I have seen every episode at least half a dozen (or maybe a dozen) times. I watched it so often on DVD that I can tell which scenes have been left out of the Netflix versions - yes, it's true. Obsessed. And now, thanks to NBC, I can relive it all over again!
Have you heard the news? There will be a reunion of sorts and it is the day after my wedding, so basically I'm treating it as a wedding present from NBC to me. Logical, right?

The Bachelor 

Ah, another season of the Bachelor is here. I used to tell my self that I wasn't going to watch it this season - every season - and yet I would inevitably end up watching it. And if I started mid-season, I would binge watch to catch up. Those days are over. I am officially a Bachelor/Bachelorette-watching girl (I am not prepared to call myself a fan, yet). So far this season, all two episodes, has been about on par with the prior seasons. Although I will say I'm glad they didn't try to bring back the idea of starting out with two Bachelors/Bachelorettes, because that was just painful to watch. But is definitely an interesting twist to have twins, and two prior contestants. I'm very interested to see how far Becca goes. She already seems much better than last (last) season in terms of showing some personality, though I'm sure a lot of that comes with the familiarity of the process. And of course there's Lace. There's always one of them. I'm honestly a little surprised he didn't send her home pre-rose ceremony on the first night. But actually, I'm not sure that a Bachelor has ever done that, though I know a few Bachelorettes have. Feel free to prove me wrong if I'm not remembering correctly. Who are your front runners so far?

Winter, is that You?

This weather has been insane. We woke up to at least two inches of snow on Sunday, and then had blizzard like conditions on Tuesday, but only for about 15 minutes, and then just frequent snow, and yesterday the high was 60! Our wedding is a little over a month away and I used to think I wanted snow - just enough to be pretty, not so much it ruins plans - but with as cold as it's been I'm starting to rethink that. Maybe 60 degrees in February wouldn't be so bad!

Making our House a Home

We closed on our house right before Christmas, and as of Wednesday have officially moved everything out of our old Condo. despite the fact that we are more than doubling our space, it still feels like we have so. much. stuff. and trying to find a place for all of it has been more difficult than I would have imagined, and of course knowing that we will (most likely) be adding lots of wedding presents to the mix as well, for which I am oh so thankful. My mom keeps telling me I need to "live with it for a while" and then decide what I can keep, what we still need to buy, etc. But y'all, I am so impatient! I want to have every room perfectly decorated right now! I am doing my best though to re-purpose a lot of the things we have, and use them in decorative ways that I might not have considered before, so that is helping things find a place and making our house look like a home.

Ready for the Weekend

I don't know about you, but after having two short weeks thanks to Christmas and New Years, these last two full weeks have seemed like they were never going to end! I am so excited to be going into a three day weekend, even if I do have to come into the office for a little bit on Monday. At least there will be another short week following. Plus, I have the chance to go home and get a lot of wedding plans sort of finalized (!!!) and run some errands, and I am really looking forward to that. Turns out planning a wedding in a town you don't live in anymore is a bit challenging! Do y'all have any plans for this 3-day weekend?

Have a great weekend, y'all!

xoxo 

linking up with:

Oh Hey Friday | Five on Friday |  Casual I Friday | xoxo Rebecca | High Five for Friday | Friday Favorites 
Wednesday Showcase

See You Later 2015!

I think I have finally recovered from the holiday craze and am one-hundred percent ready to jump in to 2016!

Y'all, it has been a crazzzzy couple of weeks! First of all - WE CLOSED ON OUR HOUSE! Which really itself is what has contributed to most of the chaos around here lately.

Of course in addition to that is still the wedding planning, which starting to all come together, while still feeling like there are a million things to do - more on that tomorrow. But all in all, it is has been a great few weeks and I wouldn't trade it for anything, well, except maybe for a little extra sleep.

I don't know what it is about this year, maybe the wedding, maybe the new house, or maybe the fact that for the first time I'm not heading back to school after the holidays, but there is just something in me that wants to make this year the year. You know, making resolutions and keeping them, getting rid of old bad habits and welcoming new positive ones. This year is going to bring about a lot of change, and I don't want to get lost in the shuffle and forget what is really important to me and what really matters. So, for possibly the first time ever, I am setting goals for myself and for my family. Real, written, goals. And for the sake of accountability, I want to share them with all of you as well, in hopes that we create a network of support, and I want to know your goals and resolutions as well!

These Short Term goals are really things that I am hoping to accomplish in the next month or so. I keep a to-do list every day, although there are certain things that obviously cannot be done in a day, but still require some kind of timeline/deadline. The wedding is less than two months away, so clearly that will part of the resolution has to be done soon! I also don't love living in a complete state of chaos, so I would like to get things as settled as possible in the new house. What are some of your short term goals? 

If I'm being honest, a lot of these Long Term Goals should really be life-time goals, but y'all that is hard to think about sometimes. Like, I know I should eat healthy, but I also know I love ice cream. You know? 

But seriously, I am really hoping that by sharing these goals I can stay accountable and be diligent in my every day decisions. I don't think any of these goals are unreasonable. I have generally been an active person, so working out often isn't intimidating, it's just difficult keeping that schedule when my day to day feels so unpredictable. Similarly, I've always done well keeping a budget for myself, but now there are two of us, so I feel a little more guilty if I want to go a bit above the budget, while expecting my fiance and soon to be husband to abide by it. But this is a new chapter and I am so looking forward to it! 

Are you a big goal-setter? Like I mentioned, I'm not the type to make big resolutions, or any kind of resolution that is actually tangible, so I am really looking forward to see how this turns out - any advice welcome! 

I hope you've had a wonderful start to 2016! Cheers!

Have a great day, y'all!

xoxo 

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Wednesday Showcase