Whatcha Sayin'?

C, over at Wedded Whims, posted a Wordle on her blog today and encouraged everyone else to make their own wordle. If you go to wordle.net and type in the address of your blog, it will create a label cloud with the words you most commonly use on your blog. If you want to join in the wordle fun, head over to C's blog and leave her a comment telling her where to find your wordle and she will feature them at the end of the week. I must say, I'm quite impressed that the word 'Chocolate' is displayed most prominently on my wordle.

Here it is...

I don't know why it's so small? I can't make it bigger without it going all fuzzy but you can click on it to see a bigger version.

In other news, I got my very first blog award today!

(Actually, I think this is a lie. I think Homebody Holly gave me an award a while back when I was new to the blog world and at the time I had no idea what was going on and I never posted about it or thanked her. So, thanks, Holly and I'm sorry for not thanking you earlier).

And, thanks, Lisa for giving me my first "official" blog award!

Menu Plan Monday

Even though I've talked about how I menu plan, I've never actually posted my weekly plans on here. I decided to give it a try. Since I wrote my last post on menu planning, I have switched back to weekly planning as opposed to monthly planning. It's easier to keep up with sales and new recipes I want to try.

Here's the plan for this week.

Breakfasts
Blueberry Bran Muffins (Thanks, Mom)
Mocha Bagels
Shreddies (Yuck! Husband's choice)
Fruit Smoothies

Lunches
Me - Greek salad, turkey sandwiches, soup
FD - Leftovers, turkey sandwiches

Dinners
Monday - Turkey pot pie and spinach salad with corn and black beans

Tuesday - Chili and cornbread (check out an alternate version of this recipe made by Snow White here)

Wednesday - Beef and Noodle Bowl from Snow White

Thursday - Pesto Alfredo Pasta, Ciabatta bread (if I have time)

Friday - Chicken Stir Fry and Rice

I realize I don't have (m)any of these recipes posted, so let me know if anything sounds appealing and I will be sure to post the recipe. If there are no requests, I will just post whichever ones I feel like posting. Head on over here to see what others are cooking up this week.

Strange Things Make Me Sad

We were grocery shopping tonight (yes, I said we - I am so lucky that my hubby grocery shops with me!!) and I realized that strange things make me sad. I was very excited to go shopping because our grocery store was having an excellent $1, $2, $3 sale. When we arrived I realized that the rest of Canada had decided that this sale was great too because more than half of the produce items on my list were gone, completely gone. I nearly broke down in tears right there between the bananas and the oranges. The FD and I spent a few minutes brainstorming about our options ... we could drive to the next city to check their store (no), we could go to another store and pay double or more for the same items (no), we could wait and grocery shop another evening (no). Our only option was to change some of the meal ideas and do with what was available. This was sad for me. I mean, really sad.

But, thankfully, strange things make me happy too! We wandered over to the reduced to clear produce rack and scored! And you know how much I love the reduced to clear produce rack. Tonight I got 18 peppers (red, green and yellow) for a total of 3.20, five zucchinis for .59 and two cucumbers for .69! AND NONE OF THEM ARE ROTTEN. Also, although the lettuce that was on sale was all gone, I discovered they had bagged spinach for .99 so I can have spinach salad instead of plain boring salad and then I can put the rest of the spinach in a pasta dish we'll be having later in the week. Seriously, this is making my heart race, how sad is that?

All in all, after the great sadness of discovering that many items were gone, the only things we ended up without were mushrooms and celery. I admit, I'm still pretty sad about the mushrooms. I love mushrooms.

See, strange things make me sad.

Grad Student Shout Out

Okay ... this is a shout out to all my readers who are currently grad students, I know there are a few of you out there. For those of you who aren't grad students, this still might be funny if you've ever been a grad student, been married to a grad student, or known a grad student. I'm pretty sure I've included everyone now.

In honour of this weekend, whereby I am gluing myself to my seat and attempting to finish the assignment from (you know where) I thought I would share a little humour with you.

Yesterday the graduate officer in our program sent two "grad student" videos out to us. He must have known we are all on the brink of insanity. The first one didn't make me laugh out loud, so I decided not to share it. The second video, however, generated a chuckle. I'm not normally a fan of The Simpsons either, but, hey .... it works.

Oldlyweds?

Lately I've gotten myself into the habit of reading a lot of Newlywed blogs. These are blogs written by young girls, like myself, who are beginning their marriage journey. They write about lessons they're learning, funny things that have happened and sometimes struggles they are facing. I have a blast reading about them, learning from them and laughing with them. And all this reading has got me to thinking .... am I an Oldlywed?

We are quickly approaching our 3rd anniversary. I know for those of you who have been married, 10, 15, 20+ years, this doesn't seem like a long time. But, it does seem that it's been a long time since we were first married.

On the other hand though, some days I still feel like we're newly married. We are still learning about each other, how to live together, how to communicate effectively, how to argue sensibly. Every day there is a new lesson. I have a feeling this part never ends...

So, when exactly does a couple move from the "newlywed" category to the "oldlywed" category? Is it after you've spent a year married and have weathered all four seasons together? After you've celebrated your first Christmas together? After you've purchased your first home? Had kids? Had your first big "marriage" fight? Is it when signing your "new name" begins to come naturally? Is it when saying "This is my husband" no longer sounds funny coming from your lips? I'm not sure. Something tells me that there's no indication of when this transition happens. Maybe it's already happened for us, but it doesn't feel like it to me.

.....somebody please tell me I'm still a newlywed!

Thrifty Thursday - Pantry Week

This week I decided to boycott the grocery store and save some money by planning a pantry week and making meals only with ingredients we already have in our cupboards/fridge/freezer. Sometimes I think it would be interesting to see how long we could go without shopping before the words "There's nothing to eat" were actually true. Although, I'm never going to do that because I think I would have a panic attack if I completely eliminated my stock pile.

Anyway, I think I'm going to try to start incorporating a pantry week once every two months, if possible. It is a great way to save a little money or perhaps catch up if you went over budget earlier in the month. This was the case for me this month so I needed to slow down and get the bank account in order. I will say that I had one day this week that I was not responsible for feeding us, so it made it easy.

Here is what I came up with for my pantry week...

Monday
Breakfast and Lunch - we were still at my parents house after our mini-getaway (Did I tell you I feel completely and totally rejuvenated now?)
Supper - we were at my brothers where my sister and nephew surprised my mom

Tuesday
Breakfast - me, grapefruit; FD, I'm not sure I was still asleep :D
Lunch - me, grilled cheese on whole wheat bread with shaved turkey and an apple; FD, leftover chicken wraps/rice from the weekend
Supper - Chicken and Rice

Wednesday
Breakfast - me, grapefruit; FD, fried egg sandwich (I wasn't sleeping this morning)
Lunch - me, Couscous salad (leftover from Small group potluck on weekend) orange, yogurt; FD, leftover chicken and rice
Supper - French Toast with homemade French Bread (I had a craving, okay?)

Thursday
Breakfast - me, leftover French Toast; FD, whatever he wants, I'll be sleeping again
Lunch - me, Couscous Salad; FD, couscous salad, turkey sandwich
Supper - Mexican Enchilada Bake

Friday
Breakfast - me, Fruit smoothie; FD, toast or cereal
Lunch - me, couscous salad and fruit; FD, leftover enchilada bake
Supper - Pesto Alfredo Penne with turkey and peppers

Just to let you know, I don't normally menu plan our breakfasts and lunches. Breakfast is usually fruit, yogurt, cereal or toast and lunches are usually leftovers for the hubby and soup/salad for me. I only planned things out this week because I was doing the pantry week and wanted to make sure I could swing it.

Do any of you work pantry week's into your menu planning schedule? If so, how often? If you haven't tried it, I would encourage you to challenge yourself to spending $0 on food (or as close to $0 as possible) in a given week and make use of what you've got stashed in your cupboards and in the bottom of your freezer.

Not Me Monday

I am not sure where Not Me Monday originated or who to link to. So I'm just going on my own. In light of the exhausting week I had last week, which I shared a bit about here, I decided to let you in on a few things I did not do/say/think/feel:

I did not have a major epiphany when I came to the realization that this so-called "EVOO" that every blogger and her mother seems to use in recipes was not some kind of "speciality cooking spray or oil that they must only sell in the States" but is in reality, simply an acronym for Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Nope, not me.

I did not experience a serious case of PMS and as a result, I was not extremely mean and grouchy to my husband for no reason. And when he asked me, "Just because you're tired, how come that means you can be grouchy to me?" I did not swiftly respond with, "Because you are my husband and that's what you're here for". Not, not me.

I did not and I mean I really certainly absolutely did not try a new recipe in the bread maker and end up with a loaf that looked like this.....

Nope. Not me.

I did not attempt to claim that I "meant for that loaf to turn out that way because I wanted to try making a bread bowl". Nope. Not me.

And I certainly did not still use the "bread bowl". Nope. Not me.

I did not complain about being SO tired that I could barely move let alone do any cleaning around the house one day and then proceed to lay awake for hours once I went to bed thinking about school work. Of course not. Not me.

Speaking of school work, I certainly did not arrange a meeting with one of my professors to explicitly ask him not to question me about a particular issue in my proposal defense because if he did I would not have a clue what to say and I would not want to be embarrassed in front of my classmates. Nope. Not me.

Another speaking of school work, I did not nearly stop breathing one approximately 5 occasions each day when thinking about the amount of work to be done in the next 5 weeks. Nope. Not me.

In a specific social setting, I did not look and the fabulous dude and hiss, "Why don't we have a kid? We should have kid. Life would be so much easier if we had a kid because this would be less awkward". Nope. Not me.

I did not blame the fabulous dude for stealing my spare change and leaving me with nothing when I wanted to buy a snack at school when I knew perfectly well that I spent my own spare change on cream soda. Nope. Not me.

Taking a Break...

I am exhausted, both physically and emotionally from this past week and I need some down time!

I'm coming close to the end of term and there are SO many things on the go right now. One assignment in particular is draining the life right out of me. I feel guilty anytime I am doing anything that is not the assignment (like blogging, for example). I spent most of the week feeling very tired during the day and then having trouble sleeping at night. I was sore, tired, had a headache and was complaining most of the time - kind of like right now. I did get some work done on my assignments but I can't say it was my best performance.

I also had quite a bit of company this past week. Thursday evening we were able to have some good friends over for dinner and a visit as they were on March Break. Then on Friday, our friends from Ohio arrived for the weekend. It was so great spending time with both sets of company and I wouldn't change it at all. T -- if you read this, I am so glad you came over and I really enjoyed our time with you guys. While you were here I forgot how tired I was feeling and then you left and I remembered. :D

The week left me feeling disconnected from myself, from God and from my hubby. I am entering this week feeling quite exhausted so I am going home to my Mumma for some TLC. I realize that as a grown, married woman, my first reaction when I have a stressful, exhausting week probably shouldn't be to crawl home to my mom and dad but -- it is and there's nothing you can do about it.

We're just about to head to church then we're having lunch with our small group. After that, we'll be heading to the home town to spend the evening with my parents. We already had to take a trip there because they are handing down their old washer and dryer to use since they just replaced it with a new set. So, the fabulous dude took tomorrow off so that we can just chill out and get some R&R and probably some good food. I am not planning on taking any (well - maybe some) school work. I am planning on taking my running shoes to go on some nice long walks with my mom. I am sure a few feelings of guilt will cross my mind when I spend the day doing everything but working on my assignments but I am confident that I will be able to work much harder and more efficiently the rest of the week if I take this time out to rest up and rejuvenate. I might post while I am gone, depending on what we end up doing but if not, I'll "see" you all when I get home.

An Improvement .... Maybe?

Our bathroom is hideous. Not just "not that nice" but really, quite hideous. We have a not so nice colour of yellow (that might be nice a colour in a different room) on the top half of the walls, mismatched vinylish stuff on the bottom half of the walls, a delightful yellow counter top and back splash and to top it all off ... the pistachio green sink. It's a gem.

So, if I dislike my bathroom so much why haven't I changed it you ask? Well, we're renters for starters. And although being renters doesn't usually stop us from making improvements where necessary, this one wouldn't be a simple fix. If we're going to paint the walls, then we need to do something about the bottom half of the walls and if we're going to do that, we need to change the counter top and back splash and if we're going to do that we might as well paint the cupboards and if we're going to do that we need to change the sink ... and so on ....

We've tossed around the idea of renovating the washroom a few different times. But, the longer we put it off, the less likely I am to do it because the longer we live here, the closer we are to moving out. We're waiting for some news later this spring that may influence our thinking about whether we are planning to buy a house sooner, or later. If we decide on later, we might go ahead and redo it. But, in the meantime, I decided I should be on the lookout for a some things that might spruce it up a little bit.

So for a total of $20 and some house shopping, I found some things that I thought might help. Now that it's all done, I'm not so sure it did help.

The rest of the post is going to be very photo heavy.

Before

After

Ha! Now that I put all these pictures together I realize you probably can't even tell the difference. (P.S. Sorry, I know the pictures aren't great. The shape of the room made it difficult and if you haven't noticed yet, photography is not my forte).

So, the changes I made were this - I moved the basket with facecloths to the top of the toilet and replaced it with the cute little clock. We hung a picture over the toilet that had been floating around the house and put up new dollar store His and Hers towel hooks. I replaced the not so pretty toilet paper holder with a basket that is now holding the TP. I tried to arrange the monogrammed towel and hand towel in such a way that somewhat hides the fact that there are two ugly towel bars hung in weird spots. On the side of the counter that used to display hand cream, I put two white candle holders with brown pillar candles and a glass vase with leaf shaped candles that match the shower curtain in it. I'm not pumped with this arrangement .... I cut the wicks out of the candles to try to make them look like they weren't' candles, but it didn't work so well.

When I asked the fabulous dude what he thought of the "improvements" he said, "the walls are still yellow and don't match and the sink is still green". Yes, this is true. I'm not sure how much of a point there is in trying to make improvements here. But, what do you think? I NEED HELP! I don't have a lot of money to spend, so please give me some suggestions!

Thrifty Thursday - Got Milk?

Buying milk can get expensive. I don't even have kids yet, but between the two of us, we consume our fair share. Hubster drinks at least one glass a day with dinner (usually more) and I have a smoothie for breakfast most days along with the occasional glass of milk here and there. Add to the milk that is used while cooking/baking and we can zoom through a bag of milk in no time at all.

So, over the past few months I've tried to reduce the amount of money we spend on milk by replacing fresh milk with dry milk powder in cooking and baking and saving the fresh milk for drinking. I got my inspiration to do this from Gayle over at The Grocery Cart Challenge. It is pretty amazing what she can do with relatively little money, and this is one of the ways she cuts costs.

I have really noticed a difference with how much milk we have to buy. So far, I have purchased about $8.00 worth of dry milk powder once at the bulk store in January and have used about 3/4 of it. I would also say I've reduced our fresh milk purchases by at least half. Instead of buying two 4-litre bags/week I am now buying one 4-litre/week or every two weeks. This is something that perhaps many of you already do but I'll be completely honest and tell you that I was pretty excited when I realized how much milk (read: $$$) I could save by doing this. If you want to try using dry milk powder in place of milk just mix 1 part powder with 4 parts water. (Did I say that right? ... It's late and I'm tired.) For one cup of water add 1/4 cup of powder.

Happy Thrifty Thursday! I'd love to hear any quick and easy money saving tips that you have.

Cafe au Lait Giveaway

Denise, over at Koffords in Colorado has posted today about two giveaways. Click here to enter. Her blog is one of my very favourites. She is uplifting, encouraging and funny. I always look forward to reading about what's going on in her life. You outta check her out and be sure to enter her giveaway!

Thanks, Denise!

Love Dare

Last night, hubby and I had a little date night at home. We've I've been wanting to watch Fireproof for a while so we decided to rent it. I'm sure many, or most, of you have already seen the film. We tend to be a little behind with these things most of the time. If you haven't seen the movie, it is a must see. Okay, so the acting isn't fantastic, but the message is. If you are married or thinking of getting married, I recommend the movie. Even if you aren't planning on getting married in the near future, the movie speaks a lot to the extent of God's love and grace for us.

For those of you who know my dear husband, you will know that he is a bit of a jokster. Sure, he can be serious and he can be emotional and he can be sensitive, he just usually chooses not to be. That being said, when the final credits were rolling at the end of the movie I found myself sitting silently, with a few tears in my eyes, quietly reflecting on the message that was presented in the movie and how it can relate to both my marriage and my relationship with Christ. I looked to the fabulous dude to see if he was reacting to the movie in the same way. He looked back at me and with a sly smile said, "I love dare you to go make me some strawberry milk." (I realize that if you haven't seen the movie that won't make a lot of sense, so without giving the whole thing away, I'll just tell you that in the movie the husband receives a challenge to complete a series of "Love Dares" to improve his marriage. And the strawberry milk thing is another story in itself. Let's just say it might be an addiction.) Of course, after watching the movie, I was sort of obligated to get it for him.

That's not all. This morning when I woke up I realized that he had been tossing and turning and cuddling with me quite a bit throughout the night. This is not normal because when he falls asleep he is usually dead to the world until morning. Therefore, when he's cuddly it is usually because he is restless or having trouble sleeping. So, I asked him if he slept okay because I noticed him tossing around and cuddling with me a lot. His response? Same sly smile and "Fireproof, baby".

Seriously, I have spent the entire day today hearing him say, "I love dare you to do this", "I love dare you to do that". Something tells me he missed the point of the movie! :) It was a great movie though, and I am considering purchasing a copy of The Love Dare and embarking on the 40 day challenge myself. No, my marriage is not in shambles, but there is always room for improvement.

Speaking of marriages, we had the pleasure of attending the wedding of some dear friends of ours today. It was a great day! We were so excited for this wedding because they had the same caterers that we had at our wedding and we were pumped to eat that food again since we hardly got a chance to eat anything on our own big day. Oh yeah, and we were also excited to witness them commit their lives to each other and all that jazz.... It was a beautiful ceremony and the best part was that the entire day revolved around their love and commitment to God. There is no better way to start a marriage than by committing it to the Lord.

I also always love a reason to dress up. We clean up pretty well, doncha think?

Contest

One of my favourite cooking blogs, My First Kitchen, is having a contest. Go here and complete the quick survey about your shopping, eating and cooking habits and you'll be entered to win a set of spices! Blog or tweet about it and you'll get three more entries.

This blog is awesome for some simple and delicious meal ideas. It is run by Kendra, a woman who decided to love cooking and is now teaching cooking classes. It's great, check it out!

New Recipe FAIL

I know it's Thursday and so I should be posting for Thrifty Thursday. However, I have been SO far from thrifty this week that to write a post on how to be thrifty would be incredibly dishonest. So, instead, I'll share a funny story...

The only problem with being a crazy kitchen person wanna-be Chef and constantly trying new ideas and new recipes is that every once in a while our dinner is prefaced like this:

FD: "What's for dinner?"
Me: "Oh just something new I tried".
FD: Picks up his fork and is about to take a bite.
Me: "WAIT! Just wait. Before you try it, let me warn you, this might not taste good."

Last night was one of those nights. I've been really trying to use up some of the meat and other food in our freezer lately. I've been doing my best to work with what we've got. I also recently picked up a copy of Better Homes and Gardens 9x13 The Pan That Can cookbook. It has some great (and apparently NOT so great) recipes that I'm eager to try.

Last night, I had fish on the menu. We had a package of sole (I think) that had been in there since ... well, probably forever. I'd like to say that we gain the health benefits of eating fish once or twice a week, but .... well, I'd by lying. Let's just say that unless it is deep fried and served with a side of fresh cut fries, I'm not that pumped about fish. We both love love love seafood so maybe I just haven't found the right way to cook it or I'm buying crappy fish or something, but I just can't make a fish recipe that we like.

I thought I had overcome that challenge last night when I found a recipe for "Mushroom Dill Baked Fish". The recipe sounded so good and usually I can spot a good recipe.

I should have heeded the warning when hubby walked in the door as I was preparing the sauce and said "What is that nasty smell?" ... "Umm, that's our dinner sweetie".

Once it was all put together and cooked, it looked and smelled quite nicely, I thought.

I served it with leftover scalloped potatoes (thanks, Mumma) and steamed cauliflower. We loaded up our plates, sat down on the couch in front of the TV (oops - I swear we don't do this all the time) and dug in.

It.Tasted.Absolutely.Awful. Seriously, I couldn't even finish what was on my plate. And what's worse, Evan said he wouldn't take it to work for lunch the next day. And this dude will eat anything. I thought that I convinced him it wasn't that bad ...surely he could force it down? I mean I did work really hard to make it.

Could he actually be so rude as to refuse my cooking?

Apparently so.

Seriously, you know this is bad. We (and especially he) NEVER throw out food. This definitely qualifies as the worst thing I've ever made.

And the winner is....

I drew the winner of the giveaway the old-fashioned-draw-a-name-from-a-hat kind of way. I promise I didn't cheat. I'm just too incompetent to figure out how to use that website thingy that other people do. Drum roll please.....

(Notice the disgusting hang nail that looks like it's been chewed off by an animal? I told you I bite my nails!)

Congratulations to Taryn from The Colorado Desert who is the winner of my 100th post giveaway. Taryn is one of my new found "bloggy friends". Check out her blog for some great recipes, a lot of humour and life lessons!

Thank you so much to everyone who entered and helped me celebrate 100 posts.

Taryn ... please e-mail me when you get a chance so we can arrange my getting the prize to you!

My 25 Things...

** Don't forget my giveaway - today is the last day to enter!! **

For those of you who use facebook, I'm sure you've all seen the "Random 25 Lists" going around. Well, my dear Katie decided to carry the trend over to her blog. I thought I might as well join her since I was so bummed out about not getting to share 100 things about me on my 100th post! I figure I might as well make you read 25.

So, here are all my secrets...

1. I peed and pooped my pants a lot as a child for numerous reasons, including – but not limited to – being too shy to ask for help with suspenders, being victimized by my older brother who wouldn’t help me with my belt, being sick and pooping while throwing up and being scared poopless (literally) on an amusement park ride.

2. Before I ever met my fabulous dude my uncle Dave told me that he knew I was going to marry him. He introduced me to him when I was 8 years old (I guess our fate was sealed).

3. I have been horseback riding once – the night FD proposed to me. I forgot to say yes.

4. I pierced my own belly button, with an apple and ice cube and a sewing needle in November of grade 7 at a bowling alley. I never told my parents. I took the ring out in June when I had to start wearing a bathing suit so they wouldn’t know (sorry, Mom).

5. When I was in Grade 1, my mom forgot to come to a Parent Appreciation Ceremony where she would receive a rose. I was crushed for life (you still owe me, Mom).

6. I take it very seriously when people are rude to me. Even if I will never see the person again, I stew over it and wonder what I did to make them be so mean.

7. In grade 2, during story time, my classmates could see my underwear (white with red hearts on it) over my pants. They all teased me and I cried the whole way home. I never wore those undies again.

8. I always put the toilet seat down before I get in the shower. I’m afraid I’ll slip and fall in or drop my towel in when I get out.

9. I have a few (read: a whole lotta) obsessive compulsive tendencies.

10. I love lists. I love writing them, rewriting them, crossing things off of them. Everything about them, I love. (See above.)

11. When I was young, I killed our gerbils by feeding them bubble gum and ice cream. I think maybe one froze to death and the other one’s stomach blew up?

12. One of my life goals is to complete a PhD … someday, not now.

13. I can’t wait to be a mom – I have prayed for my babies since I was a little girl and I can’t wait to meet them, whenever that may be.

14. I love to cook and bake more than anything in the world and sometimes can’t stop. I have recently started baking all of our own bread products.

15. Caffeinated coffee makes me feel bad. Really, really bad. I drink it anyway. Fast food also makes me feel bad. Really, really bad. I eat it anyway.

16. I am a nerd – I might be the only person I know who applied to grad school simply because I think school is fun and I wasn’t ready to be done with post secondary education.

17. I love to be tickled (arms, feet, back, hair) and this gets on the nerves of everyone around me. I recently hired my sister-in-law at $10.00/hour to scratch my back.

18. I’m frugal but not cheap (I don’t cut my own hair – that’s cheap. Have you seen that commercial? Love it!).

19. I bite my nails.

20. I shocked everyone and got my nose pierced on my honeymoon.

21. I learned how to drive standard this past summer. I was terrified to try it when we bought my new car but now I love it and being able to drive standard makes me feel empowered!

22. I am always in my PJs when I am at home. Literally, always.

23. I smoked my first cigarette when I was 11 (sorry, again, Mom!) I smoked my last cigarette when I was 12.

24. I make my bed every single day.

25. I have nightmares about snakes fairly regularly.

There you have it - all my deepest darkest secrets. Now, I'd love to hear 25 things about you!!

I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane...

First of all, don't forget to check out this post and enter my 100th post giveaway if you haven't done so yet.

On to more important business ... Guess what? Last week, I booked a ticket to Scotland to see Katie and Amy in the spring! Being so far apart from my best friend has been really tough this year - so many days over the past 7 months I have just wished I could see her. Evan can attest to this ... every once in a while I just look at him and say "This feels like a Katie day".

They came home for two weeks in February and gave me the surprise of a lifetime. I had no idea they were coming ... I thought I was going to her parents house for dinner and we got SO much more. Her visit home made me realize, even more than ever, that what we've got going on is something awesome. It felt like we had never been apart.

I am going to be visiting them with my sister-in-law. It will be a great celebration at the end of the term. My sister-in-law will have just finished her MA and I will have just finished the first year of my MA. It will be a well deserved holiday. It's also the first time that either of us have been to Europe. I am so excited. If any of you have been to Scotland I'd love to hear any suggestions on things to see/places to go! I am counting down the sleeps....

100th Post Giveaway!!

Today is my 100th post. Yippeee!!!! I have been waiting for this day my whole life .. or at least this whole week. When I realized I was creeping up on 100 posts I started wondering what I would do to celebrate. I thought maybe I'd produce a '100 Things About Me' list, I thought maybe I'd do a giveaway. I asked the FD what I should do. Believe it or not, he said that people would probably like a giveaway more than a list about me. Really??? You'd all rather get free stuff than sit here and read 100 random facts about me? Is it true?

Anyway, I took his advice. So, welcome to my 100th post giveaway. The giveaway is not much, don't expect anything too special, but it's cute and it reflects what I like to do here on my blog a little bit. I figured since a lot of my posts are about being organized, saving money, and cooking I should incorporate that. So, the winner of this giveaway is going to get some really cute coordinating stationary. It also looks really Springy and so it makes me feel happy and forget that the cold winter is still here (for some of us).

So, here's what you'll get...

A magnetic list pad to write your grocery list on!

A spiral bound journal to keep track of your menu plans, budgets or meal ideas!

Super cute sticky notes so you can stick reminders to yourself all over the place!

A package of 'From the Kitchen Of' recipe cards so you can share your recipes with your friends. These don't exactly coordinate with the other stationary, but they were cute and I loved them.

If the winner is someone who is local to me, I will also include a freshly baked bread product of your choice (bread, bagels, buns etc.) Unfortunately I can't do this if the person who wins lives far from me, I am still thinking about what to replace it with in that case.

Here's how to enter:

1. For one entry, leave a comment on this post. You don't have to have a blog to enter - just leave an e-mail address so I can contact you if you win. (or, if I know you, then just assume I can get in touch with you if you win).
2. For two entries, post about this giveaway on your blog. (Let me know you do this so I can be sure to include the extra entry).
3. For three entries, add me to your blogroll or become a follower. (If you already are a follower or have me on your blogroll and you comment, just remind me and that will qualify you for the extra entry).

I will be drawing the winner on Wednesday March 11th at 9 pm. Good luck!

Thrifty Thursday - Meat Selections

Last week I got a crazy wicked awesome deal and I thought I'd share it with you as a way to be a bit frugal. Lots of people have posted on the cost benefits of buying and cutting up a whole chicken rather than purchasing already cut, boned and skinned pieces. It's true, doing it this way is cheaper but can be more work. Last week whole turkey's were on sale for 1.00/lb at my local grocery store. I went and bought a 12 pounder (can you guess how much it cost?). The Fabulous Dude isn't a huge fan of roast turkey (WHAT? Is he serious?) and we didn't really have enough room in the freezer to fit it in without doing some MAJOR reshuffling so I decided to thaw it in the fridge and cook it immediately.

So, that's what I did. I didn't get brave enough to cut the whole turkey up and skin it and all that jazz so I just roasted it as is. Then, when it was done, I carved it just as you would to serve it for a meal but instead of eating it, I then froze the cooked meat in "meal size portions". I deliberately left a bit of meat on the bones so I could boil the carcass for soup and have that meat fall off the bones in the process.

From that turkey, I have enough to make 7 meals (which will also include leftovers) and a big pot of soup.

This is my plan for the turkey this month:
Turkey Soup (which I already made - we've each had 3 or 4 bowls and I have 8 bowls worth in the freezer).
Turkey and Cornbread Casserole
Turkey Tettrazini
Baked Turkey Penne
Turkey and Cheese Calzones
Turkey Jambalaya
Turkey Enchiladas
Turkey Pot Pie

So, my purchase got me at least 7 suppers plus leftovers for lunch, plus soup. I'd say that is a lot of bang for my buck, wouldn't you? It is definitely worth it to watch for sales and buy larger portions of meat at once and either cook and freeze for later use, or (if it comes fresh) divide and freeze in portions that suit your family. I think we'll be Turkeyed out by the end of this month.