Meal Plan Monday

Hello, hello! Hope 2013 is treating you well. The beginning of the year was a whirlwind for me with work - many 9-10 hour days, and some even longer. It's finally letting up and I'm settling back into our regular pace. One thing that is new for the beginning of this year is that I'm doing the Biggest Blogging Loser, run by Jennie of SheLikesPurple. One of the items on my 101 in 1001 is to lose 25 pounds. Ideally, it would be a bit more than that (I have a goal number in mind, but I'm not sharing because it's my goal and I'll not allow myself to feel guilty about a number on a scale so long as I make healthy changes and feel better about me). It runs from January 7th through the end of March, with the final weigh-in on April 1st (I think - thankfully, Jennie send weekly reminders). The motivation and support among the 50 other ladies in the contest has been great. We have a FB group where we talk about challenges, share recipes, and cheer each other on.

Anyway, it seems like the perfect time to discuss what I'm doing (and what's been working for the 1st two weeks) and share my meal plans. I'm not setting out to do anything like Paleo or Whole30 (as some of our more brave and possibly crazy ladies are), but we're eating more veggies than ever before and it's pretty much a South Beach Diet plan, which I've been successful with in the past.

I made a HUGE pot of vegetable soup on Sunday (green beans, white beans, broccoli, cabbage, zucchini, celery, onion, carrots, etc.) and we had that Sunday and I'll have it the rest of the week for lunches. Breakfast is always (even at home on weekends or telecommuting) a 3 fresh egg white omelet with veggies and Morning Star sausage. For snacks, I have celery and cucumber pre-cut and packaged to grab when I make my lunch each morning. Afternoon snack is yogurt. I love Kroger's CarbMaster brand because it's got a lot of protein, is low in carbs, and it comes in "fake" flavors that I love. While I like Greek yogurt, many have fruit on the bottom and I can't handle the texture. They also tend to be high in carbs. So CarbMaster gives me flavor I love while keeping the sugar count low. My rule is that I only eat what I bring (unless I get really hungry, and then I steal a coworker's almonds), and that's worked well on both the diet and my budget.

Dinners this week:

- Cheeseburger wraps. I'm past the 1st phase of South Beach, so I made these with whole wheat tortillas. I skipped the ketchup because of extra sugar and just used my favorite burger seasoning instead. Funny story, we don't have a George Forman grill as recommended, so I used our waffle maker. Ours didn't look nearly as good, but they were tasty.

- Cilantro lime chicken and black bean salad. I love crock pot meals, and plan to freeze half the chicken for a later time. Hopefully this Pinterest find works out better than cheeseburger wraps in execution.

- Turkey meatloaf and spaghetti squash. I know, I've said that a hunk of turkey meat doesn't sound appetizing. But I'm determined to find a good recipe. If all else fails, I will season the heck out of it. We substitute spaghetti squash for pasta in our favorite creations a lot, but I also love it as a side. Dan makes it extra tasty with just a bit of butter (I don't use butter on hardly anything, so I don't feel quilty for a little bit in one side dish every now and then) and Spinach and Herb dip mix that I get from Tastefully Simple.

- Grilled chicken with mashed sweet potatoes. FINALLY I can have sweet potatoes!

- Steak with spinach salad. We had this same meal this past Saturday night and it was just so tasty. I love steak, and as long as I buy a lean cut and pair it with vegetables, it makes for a satisfying end to the week. Plus it always feels special to have a steak dinner :)


What are you having this week?

FYI, I'm getting spammed a LOT, so I'm turning off anonymous comments a while to see if it helps. I've set it so that anyone with a Google account can still post - if you're still unable to comment, feel free to shoot me an email and I'll see if another setting works better.

Meal Plan Monday: After Turkey Palooza

I'm a day late. Sorry. One great thing I discovered whilst doing the big Turkeypalooza meal plan last week is that my husband looooooves pot pie. I wouldn't call it my favorite thing ever, but I love finding something he really likes. And you know he likes it a whole heck of a lot when he asks me to make it again aoon. And so, my meal plan this week:

Monday: We made faux spaghetti with turkey sausage and peppers, substituting spaghetti squash for actual pasta. Delish!

Tuesday: Pot pie. Ask and you shall receive, hubs. I actually have chicken in the crock pot today for two meals. I'm cooking it in cream of mushroom soup so that it will be moist and flavorful for both the pot pie and tomorrow's meal, which is....

Wednesday: Enchiladas. I never made them last week. I forgot that our roommate (yes, roommate. A friend of Dan's, a recently divorced chef) was cooking us dinner and we had a ton of leftovers from that.

Thursday: I'm hosting a jewelry party and will be doing some heavy apps for dinner

Friday: We should easily have leftovers of something, and Dan and I may actually end up going to CA for the day (favor for a friend), so I'm not planning on cooking.


Pretty simple and easy stuff. This week is crazy busy, so the easier the better. All I have to do these next two evenings is do about 20 minutes of prep and pop something in the oven. Perfect!

Meal Plan Monday: 6/6

Here's what we're having this week. So new stuff, some oldies-but-goodies. Hopefully, they'll all be crowd Dan pleasers.

Monday: Brats and sweet potatoes. Yummmmy! I could have sweet potatoes every day if I let me.

Tuesday: Meatloaf and broccoli

Wednesday: Chicken piccata and asparagus

Thursday: Turkey stuffed peppers

Friday: Shredded BBQ chicken sandwiches

We didn't eat out once this weekend, and I'm actually challenging myself to do it again. By loading some bigger meals toward the end of the week, we should have a variety of leftovers through the weekend.

Meal Plan Monday: 5/30

Ah, Memorial Day weekend is over. Holy moly was I ever lazy. We saw friends Saturday night, and my mother-in-law on Sunday evening for dinner, but that's about it. Dan did have to work yesterday, but he was home at 3, just in time to find me freshly showered after a long day of watching TLC and snuggling puggles. Rough life. I almost feel like I wasted it. But no fear, I have a 4 day weekend coming up in just under 4 weeks as my 30th birthday gift to myself. I've got big (or not) plans for wasting those 2 vacation days I'm tacking on to Birthday Weekend (yes, capitals).

So anyway, let's figure out what my lazy butt if cooking this week.

Tuesday: Breakfast for dinner! I think we'll go with french toast, bacon, and eggs. Dan's going to be shocked about this one because I never want breakfast for dinner, but it sounds delicious

Wednesday: Burgers and sweet potato fries

Thursday: Turkey taco salad

Friday: Grilled chicken and broccoli

We tend to go out Friday night, but I'm really making an effort to save our night out for Saturday when we're not tired from the work week and can enjoy it. Even though not cooking Friday night after the week is over is a nice break, I feel like sometimes we're just zombies having a staring contest (or maybe it's just me), and I want us to enjoy our date nights. I'm going to make sure to pick up salad and sandwich fixin's for the rest of the weekend, so I'll make us some extra chicken Friday night to get us through. Then our one meal out will really feel like something special. New perspectives, I've got 'em.

The First Official Unexpected Expense

Since moving into our house over two months and a half months ago (how has it been that long?!) we've dropped our fair share of change on the house improving things. There was the bathroom and kitchen repainting, the new appliances, sink and countertops, the dog door, the new lighting fixtures. Dan poured concrete to extend the patio to under the dog door so the dogs would be on a cleaner surface than dirt before stepping inside. He also stained the shabby looking wooden gate to the backyard. I think that's all the major stuff. However, that was all expected. Last night we came upon our first unexpected expense: the garage door opener.

The darn thing has been kind of a pain since we moved. For some reason, at certain times of day, the safety sensors mistake sunlight for a small child (or something, I don't know how these things work) and won't close by itself. We have to sit there and hold down the button the whole time. Pain in the behind. Dan was researching how to move the sensors to eliminate the problem and had gone to Lowe's to get a tool and something else, and when he came back - irony of ironies - the motor on the opener burned out. By the time he figured out what was going on with it, Lowe's had closed and we were SOL for getting a new one. So that's on Dan's agenda for tonight: replace garage door opener.

The rest of our weekend was great. We spent Friday night with Dan's coworker Jake, watching Jackass 3, which - as a lover of all things Johnny Knoxville - was hilarious. I'm officially obsessed with the Roller Buffalo skit. I've played it on my phone probably 10 times since Friday night and downloaded the song as a ring tone. Yeah, obsessed. On Saturday we headed to our friends' house for a BBQ. We'd intended to watch the rapture, but that clearly didn't happen, so it was just a normal BBQ.

Oh, and yesterday I sold out. Call it what you will - sheer curiosity or too many DVR'd episodes of Extreme Couponing, but I went and did some coupon shopping. Seriously, people, deodorant and body wash for $0.67? Sugar-free Snack Packs for $0.77? Not to mention, better prices on quite a few things we use often. I didn't go crazy or anything, but it was definitely worth the time it took to cut coupons out of three papers. I had stocked up on meat in the last couple weeks and didn't have to buy any, so I was able to spend less than half my weekly budget and I won't have to buy deodorant for either of us for about 3 months, or Snack Packs ever again, and our fridge is stocked full of fresh veggies for this week's meals, which brings me to....

:: flashing lights::

Meal Plan Monday!!

This one was actually fun to do. Dan and I went out for dinner last night and planned the week's menu together, which was a nice change from flying solo.

Dan's requests: a lot of veggies

Monday: Spaghetti squash topped with veggies. This one was Dan's idea, and he's cooking it. I'm curious to see how it turns out. Honestly, I'm just thankful I'm married to a man who loves his veggies.

Tuesday: Enchilada casserole with beef. Again, Dan's apparently cooking this one

Wednesday: BBQ chicken and corn. Dan had a marathon of Best in Smoke on TV as he was doing stuff around the house yesterday and it got us both craving BBQ

Thursday: Bangers and mash. Only we're using turkey kielbasa and we're going to try a cauliflower "fauxtato" recipe I found. Hopefully it works out.


Hope you have a great week!

Meal Plan Monday: April 16

First, I'm so excited to announce that my wonderful friend, penpal, and bridesmaid, Kari and her husband are expecting a baby GIRL!! Kari called me after the sonogram to tell me and I'm just so happy for them. They were both hoping for a girl (with healthy being the number one thing of importance, of course), and I'm glad they got their wish. So that was the fabulous news of the day. On to meal planning.

Monday: Dan's childhood favorite, hot dogs and mac and cheese. Only we're going to add some veggies on the side so we can fill up on some good stuff. Mondays are a great day for a little bit of comfort food.

Tuesday: pasta with meat sauce, or maybe meat balls, because last week's turned out so tasty

Wednesday: chicken enchiladas with a side of black beans

Thursday: steak salad. I'm trying to recreate our favorite from Native New Yorker: sirloin, fresh romaine, onion, a little bleu cheese, yummy yum yum!

Friday: Date night

Saturday and Sunday: We should have enough left overs from the pasta and enchiladas to at least have lunches at home. I'm trying to make stuff stretch into the weekend to be both mindful of our budget and have homecooked food over restaurant mystery ingredients.

What are y'all having this week?

It's the return (once again)...

of Meal Plan Monday. So we've been in the house a good 8 weeks now, and we've more or less settled in to our routine. We're both generally home (even after running errands) by 5 or 5:30 at the latest, then we work together to make dinner. Lately, Dan grills, while I prep something like veggies inside. But Dan's getting tired of Italian burgers (as freaking delicious as they are), so it's time to get the creative juices flowing again. As the weather heats up, the goal is to use the oven as little as possible, and I'm also in favor of working the Crock Pot into action at least once a week. So here's the plan this week.

Meal Plan: Week of May 9th

Dan's requests: pasta and chicken. You got it, Buddy.

Monday: Pasta - Italian sausage, whole wheat penne, and veggies

Tuesday: Shish-ke-bobs - chicken, mushrooms, peppers, pineapple. Yum!

Wednesday: Meatball subs. We don't do sandwiches much, but for some reason this one sounds good. I think I'll attempt roasted sweet potato fries to go along with the subs. They're our latest addiction.

Thursday: Mushroom Crock Pot chicken and broccoli. I'll do some extra to give us some easy left overs for the weekend.

Friday is still our date night, which means we generally head out for dinner to wash the work week away


What are you serving up this week? Care to share your favorite summer dinner ideas?

A potpourri, if you will, of randomness

I apparently suck at this whole blogging thing. Or maybe life really is just that mundane that I don't have much to write about. It's probably a mixture of both, if we're honest with ourselves.

So here's what's going on this week:

- After like 3 weeks of not being serious about the South Beach diet (during which I gained 2.5lbs) during the holidays and the wedding and all that jazz, I'm back to Phase 1 and serious again. My blood pressure medicine dosage was increased (bummer), so I gotta support its efforts.

- I'm super excited about how my sister's bridal shower planning is coming along. Salt designed the cutest invitation based on napkins I found and my sister loved it! The candy for the candy bar (which I'm so stoked about, it's ridiculous) will be here today. I have a few small other projects (like homemade tissue poms! Suggestions welcome, people...) to work on, but I think it's going to be awesome.

- Tawny Kitaen is following me on Twitter. I win at life. However, Dan doesn't know who Tawny Kitaen is, so now I feel old, and therefore FAIL. It's a draw.

- Dan and I got our preapproval for a house done this week and we get to see our first round of potential houses.... tomorrow!! So excited! I was looking at a website and saw a really cute, great-sized house with an amazing remodeled kitchen and showed it to Dan. He wanted to put an offer in then and there. Unfortunately, we discovered in talking to a realtor that the listing was out-dated and it's actually under contract, so no dice. But we have a list of 7 or 8 we want to see and we're headed out to start the search tomorrow. Dan told me to notify the apartment complex that we won't be renewing our lease at the end of March. Yay and Eek!


And now, because I haven't done it in a few weeks, I present to you....

Meal Plan Monday!

Monday: Dan and I discovered the sirloin salad at Native New Yorker and now he craves it al the time, so we went and split one. Soooo good!

Tuesday: Pot roast. Yummy yum yum. Potatoes for Dan, brocolli for me. Plus I'm going to bake some chicken to put in our salads the rest of the week.

Wednesday: Some kind of chicken. Haven't decided yet, but probably baked with a really delicious rub and served with zucchini and squash

Thursday: Pot roast taco salads with black beans and cilantro rice for Dan

Friday: Turkey chili - it's easy and will get us through the weekend as leftovers.


Hope everyone is having a wonderful week!

Meal Plan Monday: 12/6

Welcome to December's first Meal Plan Monday! Woohoo! Today is also my fabulous friend, Rachel's 30th birthday and the first day of Shana's 12 Days of Christmas giveaways on her blog, Fumbling Towards Normalcy. Go check it out for rules and entries and you might get a very special present.

On to Meal Plan Monday:


Monday: South Beach Chicken Capri (chicken, ricotta cheese, mozzarella) and broccoli

Tuesday: Chili - never made it last week.

Wednesday: South Beach Steak au Poivre and veggies Dan has requested burgers and veggie fries. I guess they're a hit! We'll do Steak au Poivre another week.

Thursday: Mushroom Crockpot Chicken

Friday: Leftovers or improvise

I'm trying out a couple of recipes from the South Beach Diet Cookbook, which a friend let me borrow, and throwing in a few standbys. I'm still doing Phase 1. I've done really well with South Beach with only a few cheats sprinkled in. Pants are starting to loosen up, but I'm not to where I want to be to go on to Phase 2 just yet.

I need to take my weekends into account as well. For the most part, I've been fine with leftovers. This past weekend, we went to Cheesecake Factory on Saturday and I had a steak and shrimp dish with veggies instead of their amazing mashed potatoes. Last night, my dad and Dan and I went to Native New Yorker after my dad and I went to the Rams/Cardinals game, and I had a steak salad, but snuck a couple of Dan's fries. Over all, I've done better on this diet than I ever have before, and I hope that the results are coming soon. My blood pressure was down a bit on Thursday, so hopefully it continues that direction.

Here's your linky for MPM:

Meal Plan Monday: 11/29

I can't believe December is almost here! It's crazy how quickly this whole year has gone by. I'll come back later to do a weekend post covering Thanksgiving, a doggie photo shoot, and a little Christmas shopping, but for now, here's Meal Plan Monday:

Monday: Lemon pepper chicken and asparagus

Tuesday: Italian burgers (Dan looooved them!) with brocolli and cucumber "fries" (Dan's idea - he's so awesome and supportive)

Wednesday: Turkey chili

Thursday: Beef fajitas with black beans

Friday: Leftovers - probably chili

So here's the linky - spread the word! (And no spammers, please. That's just not cool. If you link, spammers, I'll shoot you with flame throwers.)

A big ol' whopping hybrid of a post

This weekend was long. And short. It was a little of everything, kind of like this post is going to be. We went to Tucson on Saturday to help my parents. Their gas line was leaking, so we went down so Dan could replace it. We got up bright and early and got there by 8:30am. Dan and my dad had to dig the trench for the piping, so that took a good 5 or so hours. Then they had to measure and buy the pipe (2.5 hours) and then lay it all in the ground. Dan is obviously a certified pipe fitter, so he knows exactly what he's doing. It was kinda fun to watch him work. There's a lot involved in making sure that gas line piping is safe, and I have a lot more respect for how hard he works. We weren't done until just after 10 and then drove back home. Long day.

Yesterday was a pretty perfect day. The dogs, who were tired from 14 hours of constant playing at my parents' house, slept until 8:30. Eight. THIRTY. Glorious. I got up and hung out with them while Dan slept in. Then we went to Applebee's where I got fabulous South Beach diet happy fajitas. We went shopping at the mall, and I got my sister crossed off the to-buy-for list. I absolutely hate shopping after Thanksgiving, so I'm trying to get what I can done now. I actually took a day off in December to finish, if need be. You won't find me shopping on Black Friday. Anyway, we also did our grocery shopping - tons of veggies, lean proteins, and low fat dairy stuff for me. Life on the South Beach diet so far is good. All the proteins keep me feeling pretty full. I'm sure I'll miss my brown rice, and Dan's fries yesterday looked soooo good, but I'll get through it.

Last night was my first official South Beach dinner. When we got home I made delicious Italian burgers with zucchini and squash "fries." I used extra lean beef that I seasoned with garlic powder, black pepper, Italian seasoning, and minced onion. Just before they were done, I topped them with non-fat mozzarella cheese. I steamed the zucchini and squash about half way, then sprinkled them with a touch of salt and broiled them the rest of the way. I have to say, they were pretty darn good, and I'm kinda stoked to have the leftovers for lunch today. I also used up my over-ripe bananas by baking my coworkers a couple loaves of banana bread. I did taste a tiny bit just to make sure I didn't serve them anything disgusting, and it was pretty good for my first try, if I do say so myself.

By the way, I'm not turning this into a nutrition blog by any means. I'm the last person qualified to do that. But healthy cooking and recipe ideas are always great to share, which is the whole idea of...


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Meal Plan Monday!!

Monday: Crock pot chicken with asparagus. I thought I'd have to get rid of my cream of mushroom soup recipe, but I read the can and the soup is lot in fat as well as carbs, so I can eat it. Hurray!

Tuesday: Beef fajitas and black beans

Wednesday: 15 bean soup. My mom gave me all the fixings (I just have to add Canadian bacon). I'll probably freeze most of it in bowl size portions that we can use for lunches or quick dinners.

Thursday: Thanksgiving!! Yay!

I've got extra veggies to take to my parents' house for the weekend, so that I'll be able to keep up the good habits. I will indulge in a little bit of mashed potatoes and stuffing, but my goal is to limit myself to only one small portion of each. Starting a new way of life around the holidays will definitely be a challenge, but it'll be worth it, and if I surround myself with good choices, hopefully I won't feel like I'm missing out on much.

What are you cooking in your castle this week? Linky below...


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As you know, I have a massive Cookie Girl crush on Bridget at Bake at 350. I pretty much taught myself to do cookies with the help of her blog's tutorials, recipes, and instructions. Her blog turned 3 and she's celebrating with an amazing giveaway: a bright red Kitchenaid mixer! So go enter. Do it now! Happy Birthday, Bake at 350!!

Also, Mom-Nom.com is having a whole hot mess of giveaways. She's got great stuff for gifts for you or someone on your list. This lady is hilarious - both on her blog and on the Twitter. Definitely go enter any and all of her giveaways and get some Christmas shopping taken care of.

Meal Plan Monday: 11/15

Here's what's being served up this week:

Monday: Frozen lasagna and salad. Dan picked it up last night but it didn't sound good.

Tuesday: French's fried onion chicken. I never made it on Friday since I went to go "meet" Kat von D

Wednesday: Turkey Shepard's pie. Haven't made this one in a while and the cool weather lately is just perfect for something like this

Thursday: Crock pot chicken, though I'm not sure if I'll use cream of mushroom or try something else. I've got a cake to make, so the less cooking I have to do, the better.

Friday: We'll most likely have leftovers. If not, we may go out, which we haven't done on a Friday in a few weeks.

And Kallay at Kallaydoscope suggested I do a linky for Meal Plan Monday so we can all share ideas and expand our meal repertoire, so let's give it a whirl!

Belated Meal Plan Monday: 11/8/10

Between vacation and poor meal planning, I haven't done one of these in a few weeks. Here's our meal plan for this wonderful second week of November.

Monday: Mmmmm, pizza. Mrs. ESPN suggested using Pillsbury crusts and it was awesome!

Tuesday: Turkey stuffed peppers. Dan has been iffy on this one lately, so I'm only making dinner portions instead of the lunch & dinner sized batch I usually make. He may have to eat if for dinner, but at least he won't have to endure leftovers. You're welcome, honey

Wednesday: Pot roast. I got an awesome deal at Safeway - only $1.99 a pound!

Thursday: Shredded beef tacos with leftover pot roast. I love reworked meals! And this will be great since I have a pretty involved cupcake order to start on Thursday night.

Friday: French's fried onion chicken and green beans. Dan suggested this one a while back and it was super tasty but I haven't made it in a while.

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I also have some fun news. My wedding dress has been sitting in my closet since our wedding last year. Just sitting. I had wanted to do a trash the dress session, but 1. I grew out of my dress (sad face) and 2. I have my hesitations, and refuse to ruin it if I'm not 100% sure. So I've decided to donate it to Brides Against Breast Cancer, which is affiliated with Making Memories and the Pink Envelope Project. The dress will be sold at a reduced cost, and the proceeds will go to breast cancer research. When I told my mom about it yesterday, she asked if I was ready to part with it, as she sensed hesitation in my voice. It's not so much that I'm not ready to part with it, but I wonder if someday my daughter (hopefully and hypothetically) will ask to see my dress and I won't have it to show her. On the other hand, I can tell her that I gave my dress so that another bride could feel fabulous on her wedding day, and I gave it up for a good cause. I hope she could be proud.

My dress just isn't living up to its full potential and I hope it can make someone else happy. I am considering cutting a 2 inch sliver off the end of the train so I'd have a piece of it, but haven't made up my mind on that yet. Either way, I'm really happy with my decision, and I hope to ship my dress out by the end of next week.

Meal Plan Monday: 10/4

So last week, Dan had a couple of changes in my meal plan. So not everything I planned on last week got made. This week is kind of playing catch-up:

Monday: Mushroom Crock Pot Chicken

Tuesday: Chili

Wednesday: Chicken and cheese enchiladas

Thursday: Leftover Chili, enchiladas, whatever. Fend for yourselves, The Office is on :)

Friday: Probably Dos Gringos

Chiiiiiiliiiiiiiii's...

... baby back rrrribs! With BBQ Sauce! Anyone hungry for Chili's now? Good, because today is the day that Chili's is donating all their profits to the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. So if you're going to eat out this evening anyway - and even if you weren't planning too - why not enjoy some Baby Back Ribs, a Big Mouth Burger, or Southwestern Egg Rolls while helping out some kiddos in need of a miracle or two? And if you can't get out this evening, you can go here and Create a Pepper and/or make a donation. What a fabulous thing to do on a boring Monday, hmmm?

Speaking of which, Meal Plan Monday is here! It's like the only good thing about Monday, don't you agree?

Monday: Chili's, obvs.

Tuesday: Mushroom Crock Pot chicken with rice and broccoli

Wednesday: Pasta with turkey meat sauce and veggies.

Thursday: Lemon pepper chicken with roasted potatoes and green beans

Friday: Probably Dos Gringos. Maybe. If not, there'll be left-overs to get through.

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Our weekend was excellent. Our friend Army Daniel came into town on Saturday and we went to watch the UFC fights at Native New Yorker and then we went on to Dos Gringos for drinks on the patio. On Sunday, we took it easy, and my parents came to visit us in the late afternoon and brought us dinner. We mostly hung out and watched football. After they left Dan and I curled up on the couch and watched Undercover Boss. Have you see it? It's pretty awesome. I highly recommend it. And now we're back to the grind, of course. I swear I can't decide which kind of weekend seems shorter: those that are stuffed with plans, or those that are lazy with very little effort on my part. It probably doesn't matter - I'm sure I'll always feel like I need just one more day.

Don't forget, eat at Chili's :)

Meal Plan Monday: Beef Week

This week, thanks to checking the ads at Pinching Your Pennies, I've found that beef is my best deal for the week. So we'll be having lot of good hearty protein-filled meals.

Monday: Meat loaf and asparagus I just love my friend's recipe - it's so tasty

Tuesday: Turkey taco salads. Okay, so it's not beef, but turkey's on sale too :) And we have chips to use up

Wednesday: Pot roast. Yummmmm

Thursday: We have plans to go to Native New Yorker for delicious wings

Friday: Leftover pot roast remixed as beef enchiladas

Meal Plan Monday: 9/13

I'm really not feeling super inspired today to think of great things to eat all week. I also have to bake and decorate an office baby shower cake tonight, so I'm really more concerned about that than dinner. Feel free to feel bad for my poor husband.

Monday: We really may end up eating Chinese take-out if I don't think of something better than Mac'n'Cheese with hot dogs. I'm trying to avoid a dinner that has to be baked, since I'm doing cakes. Feel free to offer up suggestions

Tuesday: Stuffed peppers

Wednesday: Chili

Thursday: Chicken - probably my stand-by crock-pot chicken, or maybe baked. Either way, served with rice and veggies

Friday: Dos Gringos, yay!

Meal Plan Monday: 8/30

This week is chock full of chicken, thanks to a great deal at Fresh and Easy.

Monday: Stir Fry with chicken.

Tuesday: Entree salads with baked chicken and fresh veggies (we'll also use this all week for lunches)

Wednesday: Baked potato bar. Cheese, green onions, veggies, bacon, left-over chicken (I bought a lot, y'all), chili, etc. Whatever sounds good that day, we'll have.

Thursday: Cream of mushroom Crock-pot chicken. It's easy, Dan likes it, and by the time Thursday rolls around, I'm tired of cooking. Perfect.

Friday: Dos Gringos, as usual :)

Meal Plan Monday: The One Where Dan Eats Shrimp

So, I'm a day late, again. But better late than never, right.

Monday: Cocount Shrimp with green beans and brown rice. Dan doesn't like shrimp, but he will sometimes eat coconut shrimp, as long as it's not chewy. I decided to give it a try, as I'm getting tired of chicken, beef and turkey. I found a no-fry recipe and it turned out pretty well. He ate like 10 of them!

Tuesday: Pot roast with potatoes

Wednesday: Taco salads with reworked/reseasoned pot roast left-overs

Thursday: Crock-pot Cream of Mushroom Chicken. Super easy, super delicious, and Dan complimented me last time on how the chicken was moist and tender. Win! We'll have this with broccoli and maybe rice or another veggie

Friday: Probably Dos Gringos. Of course.

Bring on the pain!

Almost a year since my first trip to boot camp, I'm headed back today! While I feel sad and a little ashamed that even have to go back, I'm excited for a change. I've told myself it's just one month. One month as a jump start to better eating, more exercise, and feeling better about myself. I'm going balls to the wall with this one. I did my grocery shopping yesterday and I'm stocked up on lean proteins, salads, fruit and veggies, and the makings of my new daily breakfast sandwich (whole wheat bagel thins, 2 egg whites and turkey sausage). So while this won't be turning into a fitness blog, I will be holding myself accountable and my healthy yummy meals. If anyone is interested in keeping track of their healthy eating, I use SparkPeople. Also, if you're interested in a blog that shares recipes amd great healthy food ideas with pictures along with the every day life of a newlywed, check out Brie Fit. Anywho, we're moving on to...

Meal Plan Monday!!

Monday: I never made that roast beef last week, but I picked up one last night for a great price and popped it in the slow cooker this morning. We'll have it with steamed brocollo

Tuesday: Chicken with brown rice and veggies

Wednesday: Left-over pot roast with black beans and fajita veggies a la Chipotle

Thursday: Crock pot chicken with cream of mushroom soup and asparagus

Friday: Thursday used to be the splurge at Dos Gringos day, but it's probably being moved to Friday.

I also need to start factoring in Saturday and Sunday. We eat breakfast and lunch at home usually - cereal and sandwiches or left overs - but we need to be better about dinner.

And speaking of Saturday and Sunday, we had a great weekend! We'd considered going to Tucson for the weekend but instead decided to stay home. After 4 straight weekends of celebrating Father's Day, my birthday, 4th of July and then family in town, we needed a break. It was so nice to spend time with my husband and almost no one else after the last few busy weekends. We went to see Despicable Me on Saturday in the early afternoon. it was very cute - Dan had been wanting to see it since he first saw the little girl ask "does this count as annoying?" and smack her cheeks. There were some great jokes and the movie was sweet. After the movie, we went for sushi and a couple of drinks. After running a couple of errands, we were hot hot hot so we loaded up the pups and went to my in-laws' house to swim.

Sunday we had lunch out and then Dan treated me to ice cream, my "last hurrah" treat before boot camp. We took it easy and I took Clover to meet the puppy we'll be watching next week. While I was gone, Dan did some house cleaning and then I went grocery shopping and run a couple more errands. It feels to nice to start Monday with all that done. I'll only need to pick up some veggies later in the week, but other than that, we're all set!

Keep me in your thoughts later, please. Tonight is going to be rough. I feel that I have the advantage of knowing the pain I'm in for, but it's still going to be hot and miserable. I haven't been active in far too long and the hour of my life between 5:15 and 6:15 will be a tough one. It's all going to be very worth it, though.