Thursday, January 20, 2011

A Really Good Recipe...

So I never posted my meal plan on Monday, but I did make one!

Monday: homemade version of Chili's quesadilla explosion salad
Tuesday: Garlic Chicken and Spinach Orzo
Wednesday: pizza
Thursday: Tuna Cornbread Cakes
Friday: Date Night!

Recently during our snow days, I organized our pantry. In doing so, I refreshed my memory of what I have stockpiled and resolved to choose recipes that use things that I have. I had lots of tuna and also cornbread mix, so when I stumbled upon the Southern Living recipe for Tuna Cornbread Cakes I know I wanted to give it a try. We had them tonight with spinach and lemon aioli and both LOVED it!

These were pretty quick and easy to mix up. I just used regular canned tuna (not herb and garlic flavored). I also didn't have Old Bay Seasoning, but just seasoned them myself. If you like crab cakes, you should give these a try for a new twist!

Monday, January 10, 2011

Ice, Ice Baby!

This morning we woke up to this:

A nice thick layer of ice coating everything

Making the roads look like this:

It meant a snow day at home for us!

We bundled up and explored a little, and then holed up inside our warm apartment to model...

and craft!

The inspiration for the little birdies came from here. The pattern isn't available free online anymore, she is charging for it on etsy so I made my own pattern. I didn't have the wire to add the legs on yet.

The pattern for this fellow is here and there are great step by step pictures here.

I have a few ideas for these little fellas. More to come later!

Monday, January 3, 2011

Back in the Saddle Again...

Cheesy title...the song popped into my head when as I was thinking about getting back into a normal routine. The tree is down, the decorations are packed away, the house is cleaned and we both started back work today. I am not so sad to get back into a schedule. I love a good structure to the day and I love my dance classes. However, I also loved every bit of the break! Ronnie and I made two lists during the holidays. One was a list of things we needed to get done like getting an AL tag, having a budget meeting, getting vision checked, going to the washing machine repair store and then making a service call (sigh, still not fixed...come on dude call us back!).

Ronnie on Christmas morning surrounded by his loot :)

The other list was things we wanted to do together for fun like going to the dollar theater (we saw Secretariat and loved it!), treasure hunting at the thrift store, checking out our new library (it is wonderful!) , catching up on some reading, hiking, having friends over to eat, and tagging along on the Great Birmingham Hot Dog Tour with my dad. We had lots of fun and also were able to get some stuff done!

Showing off my new slippers and jammies- I wore these a lot during the break

Something that I really enjoyed over the break was cooking. I tried some new recipes and enjoyed being in the kitchen. I was struggling with menu planning and cooking before the break...so much going on and not much organization or motivation. It really is so helpful to have a meal plan. So without further ado, my meal plan for the week:


Monday: Homemade Mac and Cheese with Ham and Peas
Tuesday: Homemade Pizza
Wednesday: Something involving chicken, feta and phyllo dough (i will let you know if it turns out good, I am not planning to grocery shop til Thursday so I am getting creative with what I have.)
Thursday: Crock Pot Red Beans and Rice
Friday: Taco Salad Bowls

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Goodbye 2010, Hello 2011!

We enjoyed a wonderful day on New Year's Eve! We set off to Ruffner Mountain for a morning hike since it was a beautiful and warm day.

It was really fun and a new place for both of us.

It was neat to look down on an old quarry.


Looks like I am close to going over- YIKES! No wonder Ronnie kept telling me to be careful.

Afterward, Ronnie got his eyes checked and I wandered the mall.

Belk had some deep discounts so I got a blinging shirt for $4 to wear to ring in the New Year.

We met up with Memo and Craig for some Pita Stop and then dessert at their place. Memo provided the headgear :)


Happy New Year!