Meal Planning

A few months ago I stumbled upon this gem of a site and I have been obsessed ever since.  Meal planning. So simple yet so helpful.  Not to mention it combines 2 things that I really love: cooking and planning. 

I quickly fell in love with Jane over at This Week for Dinner.  Every Sunday she posts her weekly menu plan (often plus recipes) and her readers leave comments with their meal plans also.  This is really a treasure trove of inspiration and ideas.  With upwards of 50+ meal plans every week, the common 'what's for dinner?' question is quickly put to rest. There are so many meals that I want to make that I had to start a list on my desktop of meals to try just so I could remember them all. 

I do my best to post our meal plan every Sunday on Jane's site.  Planning out our meals really relieves a lot of stress, minimizes excess grocery shopping/spending, and makes the after work dinner routine go much smoother.  And for some reason, posting my plan on there really makes me feel accountable for going through with my plan. Because it's just the 2 of us, our meals generally last us 2 dinners worth: very efficient!

Here's our plan for this week:
Monday: Sweet and Tangy Pork Roast (crock pot)
Tuesday: Leftovers
Wednesday: Stuffed baked potatoes and chicken breasts
Thursday: Chicken breasts in the oven and rice
Friday: Lime chicken tacos and rice

What are you having?? Let me know if anyone wants these recipes! Ill have reviews of them up soon!

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Over Here

Im over here at Elise's blog today doing my very first guest post!! Come check it out! I am so honored to be filling in for Elise!

Here's a sneak peek of what is going on....

Enjoy!

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Weekend Plans

We have absolutely 0 plans on our schedule this weekend and the Mister and I couldnt be more excited.  Well, I guess 0 is an exaggeration, let's say, 0 commitments.  We do have some plans.

There will be lots of this going on:

Some of this (i.e. treasure hunting):

 

And lots of hanging out with these two:

 

What are your plans??

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Awkward and Awesomes!

Thursday again! Kinda awkward but I don't have too many awkwards this week. Guess that's probably a good thing! Ha!  However, I've gotta a whole slew of awesomes! Enjoy!!

Awkward:

• Realizing that during commercial breaks of the Rachael Ray show I was reading my Rachael Ray magazine on the treadmill.  Obsessed much?
• Floyd's nervous belly and the fact that we have to give him a Pepcid every night with his dinner or he pukes. 
• The noise that came out of my mouth when I met PW.  Great first impression. 

Awesome:

• Meeting PW!!!
• Bethany.  She was a super trooper while we waited for 5 hours to meet PW.
• Sayj was here for the WHOLE weekend
• Scoring some major deals this past weekend to fancy up Sayj's house
• Having absolutely 0 plans this weekend. Such a wonderful feeling.  There are so many craft and house projects on the to-do list! Including, but not limited to, Project Office Organization and getting my new Craigslist desk all set up! Pictures to come!!
• Having the honor of doing my first guest post this week over at Elise's blog, Romantic Hippie.  Link to come! 
• Possible flea market/antique store adventures planned for the weekend

Let's hear yours!

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The Day that Dreams Came True

My love for Pioneer Woman is no secret.  I've been reading and loving her blog for about 3 years now. Her blog is one that continuously makes me laugh, inspires me and often fills our bellies (with her many delicious recipes).
Ree recently came out with the love story of her and her man, Marlboro Man, 'Black Heels to Tractor Wheels'. With the release came the need for a book signing tour and one of the greatest day of my life.  PW did a tour last year when her (amazing) cookbook came out but she didn't make it to our neck of the woods.  This year she did and it was fabulous!!  I may or may not have been counting down the days and hours...

Friday night finally came and Bethany and I ventured down to Rookwood to Joseph Beth Bookstore to see PW in all her glory.  We started the evening out with a special glass of cowboy inspired wine and PW's tomato, basil and mozzarella pizza.  Both were very delicious and got us in the PW mood!

Next was the q and a session.  PW came out and answered questions from the audience.  She was friendly, funny and very entertaining.  I had a chance to ask a question of my own and asked her if she had any advice for raising a basset hound.  She replied that I would need to be able to withstand a certain level of stench (the classic 'hound' smell)! Ha! Very true!

After the questions we settled in to wait for our chance to meet and speak with Ree.  Needless to say, we were there for a quite a bit but in the end it was totally worth it!  I was incredibly impressed and honored with the manner in which Ree handled her fans.  She took the time to speak with every single person for as long as they wanted to speak, take pictures and just say hello to her.

Although I was afraid I would clam up and not be able to express my love, obsession, er, admiration for her, I didn't. I did have a minor freak and geek out moment.  It went a little like this:
Sarah: (Overly high pitched voice and some giggling) 'Oh, hi, I'm, um, really, really excited to meet you. Eeee!'
Ree: 'Oh, well thank you, it's very nice to meet you too!' Your outfit is really cute!
Sarah: (Freaking out) 'Well I'm the one that asked the question about the advice for raising basset hounds.'
Ree: 'Oh, right.  Those bassets, they are a handful!'

The conversation continues about basset hounds, we took the following pictures, and I restrained myself from gushing all of my love for her.  I made one of my pom pom necklaces for Ree, along with a little note and gave them to her at the end.  I sure hope she liked it!

Ree and I!! One of the greatest moments of my life.

All in all it was a long, but great night! Thanks to Bethany for sticking it out with me the wholllle night!

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Awkward and Awesomes!

Here it is! We have some good ones this week and after what is planned for this weekend, next week should be FULL of awesomes!! Head over and say hello to Sydney!

Awkward:

• Letting the pasta I made on Monday suffice as dinner for the whole week.  Argh, terrible wife move. Sorry Mister :(
• Realizing that our 5 year old nephew knows WAY more about dinosaurs (and just about every other animal for that matter) than I EVER learned. And how to spell them to boot!
• When our spinning instructor tried to pump us up and motivate us with a story.  Her story was about how she had to put her cat to sleep. News flash: not a motivating story.

Awesome:

• Sayj is coming TOMORROW!!!

• Wait for it. This may be the most awesome thing...EVER. Are you ready?.......Bethany and I are meeting PW TOMORROW. Like, shes going to be in Cincinnati and we are going to see her in person and Im going to try to not make a fool of myself
•  Ryan Gosling and George Clooney are in town. Let the stalking begin.  
• Skyping friends from Australia! LOVE that accent!  
• Book club and IKEA this weekend!!

Let's hear yours! 

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Birthday!

 

We love you and hope you have a great birthday! 

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Weekend at Grandmas

We spent the past weekend at home visiting our families and celebrating the Mister's birthday.  (Shh, don't tell but he turns 29 tomorrow!)
We had a very nice time being home! Its always so nice to spend quality and relaxing time with our families.
Floyd really, really, really loves going to Grandma's house. Floyd and my mama have a very special friendship and love for one another. Floyd also really enjoys playing with Sophie (Mom's dog), they are very cute together :)  Here are a few photos from Floyd's weekend at Grandma's.

 

 

And my personal favorite photo from the whole weekend....

How was your weekend?

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Happy Love Day!

I've always been a sucker for a love story, surprise proposals or love ones returning to one another. Naturally, I really love Valentine's day.  This year I am especially looking forward to celebrating our first Valentine's day as husband and wife. We are planning on making dinner  together (recipe TBD but will be documented) and watching The Social Network.  Nothing too fancy but spending time with my Mister is always lovely.

There are some amazing recipes, crafts, and date ideas floating around blogland.  Take a look at some of my favorites! Tatertots and Jello always has a great collection of inspiration and Ten June has a great 'Not so Valentiney' series going on with some really cute ideas!

Who is your Valentine this year? What are your plans??

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An Awesome Shoutout!

A big thank you is in order for one of my besties, Elise, for featuring TBC at her blog, A Romantic Hippie!
Check us out here and and PLEASE browse around her blog for many awesome recipes and craft projects! Elise is one great girl and her blog exudes this greatness!

Thanks girl!!!

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Awkward and Awesomes!

Its Thursday and we know what means! Sonic Vanilla Diet Coke day! And my last day or work this week! Oh, and of course, Awkward and Awesome Thursday!!! Go say hello to Sydney and check out the other Awkward and Awesomes!

Awkward:

• Sneezing while driving...so annoying and actually quite dangerous
• This seductive pose that Floyd has been doing lately

 

• My poor car getting super duper stuck in the snow
• This gray hair situation. It's getting really ooc (out of control)
• Floyd's recent lack of coordination

Awesome:

• 3 total strangers getting my car unstuck
• This past weekend with the girls. (See previous post)
• Spontaneity. We could all use a little more of it :)
• Realizing that from now on I get to buy 'Happy Valentines Day, Husband' cards
• Finding new blogs that inspire and motivate me
• The new spring collection at Target...have you seen this? So many cute pieces, my wallet really can't handle it. 
• Making plans for our first Valentines Day as husband and wife 

Let's hear yours! 

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Girls Weekend Wrap Up

Some beautiful and amazing ladies (aka the besties-minus a few key players :) ) came to visit us this weekend.  We had a blast and it was really great spending quality girl time with everyone. 

We started the Friday night off with some snacks and a toast to our girl Maggie who recently got engaged to her wonderful fiance, Jon.  The two also have a new, four-legged addition to their family- more on her later!
We then  headed downtown to eat at my favorite place, Nada.  Once again, they didnt disappoint. Their Mexican mac n' cheese is a dish that dreams are made of.

Margaret, Maggie and me

Maria, Laura, Elise

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday we ventured up to the outlets where we scored some major deals and steals! After the outlets, we headed over to Jungle Jims so the girls could experience it in all its glory.  It is quite the spectacle.  I think we could have spent about 3 more hours in there.  Plans were definitely made to go back sometime soon!

The girls went back to Indy on Saturday and I ended following them back to maximize on the girl time :) It was totally worth it! We shared an amazing dinner of sushi and wine and a whole lot more chatting.  There was also lots and lots of gushing over wedding magazines and Maggies upcoming plans.
 

And to wrap up the weekend I got to meet Maggie and Jon's newest addition, Miss Eloise. and she was just lovely in person as I had hoped she would be :) She is also very good at posing for pictures! 

 Hope you had a great weekend!

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Awkward and Awesomes!

Its that time of the week again! Head on over to The Daybook and show Sydney some love!

Awkwards this week:

• Simply being friendly to the check out lady at JoAnn's and asking how she was doing.  She proceeded to tell me that yesterday she had gone to the the doctor at 8:30pm instead of 8:30am....all while she had snot coming out of her nose. Maybe you should have stayed home ma'am.
• Being sick. I am no good at it.
• Daytime television. There is nothing on. 
• Not being able to get all my crafts done this week :( 
• Floyd stealing ANOTHER one of my toothbrushes.  They are his favorite chew toy and he is super sneaky about stealing them. 

Awesomes:

• TOMORROW. Can't come soon enough!!! 
• Spent the weekend with this adorable little man. Head over to Kady's blog to see the full wrap up of our weekend.

 

• Our new header! What are your thoughts?? 
• Maggie is getting married!!!!
• PW's new book came out this week and I've got it on pre-order. C'mon Amazon delivery man! 

It's your turn- share 'em!

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