Fresh Tomato, Green Pepper (and Cucumber) Salad

School is out and I am back in action around the house. Goal for this coming school year is to still do things I enjoy doing despite the long hours I put in..we'll see. For now, no worrying about it, just going to enjoy it and play as hard as I worked this school year...WATCH OUT!

So far I have been cleaning and reorganizing and rearranging and LOVE IT! I donated my hair to Locks of Love so I have a spiffy new haircut, which was free by the way because I let a Tricochi student use my head in order to take her test over cutting long hair into layers...her first time ever cutting a real person's hair and she did such a good job! I had a dentist appointment today and am CAVITY FREE!! SUCH GOOD NEWS BECAUSE I HAVE A HISTORY WITH LOTS OF DENTAL WORK, UGH! AND, tomorrow I am going with my mother-in-law for a manicure and pedicure through an awesome deal on Groupon.

Ok, enough of my gushing about how happy I am to be on vacation...Here's the recipe I made today for lunch. I am not sure where I got this recipe. I had the card in my recipe box and pulled it out while going through my recipes to menu plan this summer. Here it is!

2 large tomatoes, chopped into small pieces
3 large cloves of garlic, minced
2 cucumbers, chopped into small pieces
1 TB extra virgin olive oil
2 TB red wine vinegar
1 Chopped green pepper, chopped into small pieces
1 Red Onion (optional) **I didn't have it on hand or else I would have added it for sure!
Seasonings to taste: salt, pepper, Italian herbs


Next up....Bagels! So sad that my usual recipe's link died. I found another recipe that I am going to try today.

This is a short week for us so I am keeping things fairly simple. Also, Tom and I are still not working with our usual grocery budget, so just trying to make do with what we have. No Crockpot Wednesday this time, but I will be back in action for next week (I'm thinking a Coconut Chicken Curry??!)!

Monday: Leftover--Bowtie Pasta in Homemade Sauce (what we canned this summer)

Tuesday: Ground Beef Tacos with Homemade Tortillas (so amazing...definitely check out the link found at Finding Joy in My Kitchen) and rice.

Wednesday: Leftover--Butternut Squash Soup (SO TASTY! I add curry powder, garlic, red pepper flakes, ground black pepper, and a touch of sea salt to mine)

Thursday: Cheeseburgers and sweet potato fries

Friday: Packing sandwiches and hitting the road to visit family for the weekend!!

So, I LOVE to cook with the seasons. Today, my sister and I made Butternut Squash soup for friends while we all enjoyed the Bears football game.

Next week I am definitely going to find some recipes with acorn squash. I bought one on Saturday at the Farmer's Market before actually knowing what I want to do with it. I am thinking something where I can stuff them, as I have never cooked anything like this before...we'll see! I also want to make baked apples for a dessert next week!

Oh, Autumn, you are definitely my favorite!!

*You can find more tasty recipes HERE!!

back in action! sort of...

Wow! Things are still crazy. Tom and I haven't been able to grocery shop like we usually do, so menu planning has been tricky. Soon, things will settle down, I am sure, and we will be able to menu plan and more importantly for me, cook some new things (especially soups!). This is what we're planning for the coming week:

Monday: Tomato Basil Soup and Grilled Cheese sandwiches

Tuesday: Pasta with homemade spaghetti sauce (from our canning this summer)

Wednesday: Baked Salmon and Brown Jasmine Rice

Thursday: Potato Soup and Homemade Breadsticks

Friday: Most likely, Leftovers!

You can check out some awesome menu plans with recipes (sorry no recipes from me this week) HERE!! It is a great site, full of wonderful blogs.

-Sarah

Lovely Monday

Lena and I attempted a run this morning and after only 1 minute the clouds literally parted and poured bucketfuls of rain on us...thankfully we were not far from where we left and made it back before the lightening and thunder began. It was SO funny though. It happened AS SOON AS we started and I all I could do was laugh and run with my buddy :) We were sopping wet even in just that short amount of time.

The rain cleared and guess what?! I am no longer motivated to run today...I mean I already cleaned up, put on my makeup, did my hair, etc. Excuses, excuses. I did get in quite a workout though, weeding and tilling the garden and planting three new rows of green beans, two rows of lettuce, and I am about to plant some more cantaloupe...it can't hurt to give it one more try.

I also made Zucchini Soup for lunch for my father-in-law and husband. We are over at their houses. Tom is working and I am doing laundry! I just LOVE doing laundry when it isn't at Bubbleland (the name makes it sound fun, but laundry mats are laundry mats).

Ok, so here are the meals I've planned for the week:

Monday: Chicken Tacos, Homemade Wheat Tortillas (thanks to Joy in My Kitchen it is my favorite!), and Chips with Queso

Tuesday: Beef Straganoff with Tarragon Green Beans

Wednesday: Leftover Zucchini Soup with Cheese Quesadillas

Thursday: Zucchini Spaghetti with homemade garlic bread and garden salad

Friday: Tahitian Stir-Fry with Jasmine Rice

You can find more wonderful recipes at HERE!

Hey, Good Lookin'...

So, we have been/are eating a lot of zucchini lately, which is definitely NOT a complaint! As you can see from the previous post, our zucchini are ginormous! They are really tasty, which I thought they wouldn’t be that great because of their size. I’ve already grated and frozen quite a bit of them for baked goodies, but more are on their way! Here’s what we’ll be cooking this week:

Monday: Zucchini Fritters with Sour Cream

Tuesday: Pan Roasted Chicken with Lemon-Garlic Green Beans

Wednesday: Zucchini Spaghetti with Meat Sauce, garlic bread and garden salad

Thursday: Zucchini and Tuna Casserole with garden salad

Friday: It’s the Weekend and we are not traveling anywhere!! We’ll probably go out or eat leftovers.

**I am also going to be baking zucchini chocolate chip cookies for the first time. I am excited to try them out! I am using a recipe from Barbara Kingsolver’s book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (which is one of my very favorite books).

More amazing recipes and dinner ideas can by found at The Happy Housewife.

-Sarah

WELL, Well, well

Hmm.. doing ok here. Not menu planning this week and I feel a little lost. Maybe that is a touch dramatic, but Tom and I are avoiding the market completely this week because once again, we will be out of town for another wedding! We are just trying to use anything we have around here to save on money and also to use what we have. I am excited for this wedding this weekend and even more excited because my sister and her boyfriend will be traveling with us and there will also be lots of college friends to see.

I went to an interview today for a coffee shop job. It was pretty cool because the interview took place in this janky area of Bridgeport in a warehouse where they actually roast their own coffee beans! It was really cool to watch them do it while I waited to interview. It was fun riding the bus home smelling like fresh roasted coffee.

I would love to have the job, but hope that it doesn't complicate things too much once school starts. It would have been nice to be interviewing three weeks ago (which is when I put in my resume). Now that school is so close, I feel a little bad taking the job and then possibly having to quit if I get a teaching job (of course I will be SO PUMPED if I get a teaching job). If I do NOT get a teaching position, then it would ROCK to work for this company and maybe sub a couple of days as well (this would be ideal if I am not going to have my own classroom because subbing is a little rough for me at times..especially going into a third year of it!).

Well, I guess all in all, I am just trying to be patient! This has been a big struggle for me, but I think I am getting a teensy bit better at this trusting and waiting. Just trying to do my part in the mean time. I have about three-four more teaching positions I found yesterday and need to apply for before the weekend. We'll see!

That's all for now!

-Sarah

Monday: polish sausage with green peppers and onions and baked macaroni and cheese

Tuesday: Chicken Tortilla Bake

Wednesday: Meatloaf with Creamy Smashed Potatoes

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: OUT OF TOWN FOR SARAH AND BEN’S WEDDING!!!!

Well, Ben is in town until this evening and Tom has jury duty so Ben and I are off to El Meson for some coffee and reading and knitting for me!

-Sarah

God save strawberry jam and all of its varieties...

You gotta love The Kinks!

So! Had a great weekend attending my friend Janet's bridal shower in Indianapolis. My sister and I drove there and back and it was fun to just listen to music and laugh.

Janet is a beautiful, blushing bride and Andy seems like a great guy. It is evident that they are both so happy! I hope we get to see them exchange their vows but we might have to wait till November for their Indiana reception (seeing as the wedding is in California and Tom and I do not yet have teaching jobs). We'll see!

Tom and I saw the movie Up this weekend and I loved it! Such a great movie. I already want to see it again :)

Dinners we'll be eating this week are below. Some, you'll notice are repeats from last week. That is because our leftovers from the 4th lasted WAY longer than I had anticipated so I had to find creative ways to use what we had. You can find more recipe ideas here at I'm An Organizing Junkie.

Monday: Noodles Alfredo with Grilled Chicken and Sugar Snap Peas

Tuesday: Ginger Glazed Mahi Mahi served with Brown Jasmine Rice and Asparagus

Wednesday: Cajun Wild Rice

Thursday: Beef Tacos with Homemade Wheat Tortillas and Rice

Friday: Not sure if we'll cook or not! We have friends in town for the weekend!!

So excited to see Kristina, Marcus, Holly, Keith, and maybe Ben??? (i hope) and also to hang out with Michael (we haven't seen in two or three weeks). Don't know what we are going to do yet, but with good friends it really doesn't matter.

-Sarah

Menu Plan Monday!

Ok, so I have loved the results so far of planning our dinners for the coming week and then shopping with the plan in mind! So, I am planning again! Here's what we are having for dinner this week. If you need dinner ideas, check out I'm an Organizing Junkie. She has excellent ideas and links to others with excellent ideas :)

Monday: Leftovers! We had so much great food at our cookout on Saturday: Grilled Zucchini, Burgers, Baked Macaroni and Cheese, and Lemony Chickpea and Zucchini Salad

Tuesday: Grilled Chicken (from cookout) and Zucchini Pasta (thanks Joy in My Kitchen!)

Wednesday: Ginger Glazed Mahi Mahi and Asparagus

*This is my first time cooking Mahi Mahi. Usually we buy Tilapia, but Tom wanted to try these so I am all for it! This recipe seems to be pretty simple. The only thing I had to buy that I didn't already have was a piece of ginger root, which costs next to nothing. We'll see!

Thursday: Chicken and Veggie Quesadillas

Friday: Spicy Turkey Burgers and Sweet Potato Fries.

*If using the sweet potato fries recipe, I skip the microwave step and just cook longer in the oven to get them to crisp up. I have tried it in the microwave and found it to be a hassle (I also avoid microwaves whenever possible).

Saturday: We'll be traveling to Indy to meet up with friends and so that I can attend a friend's bridal shower...don't know when we'll be back! :)

-Sarah

Menu Plan for the Coming Week!

Monday: Leftovers: Pepperoni and Veggie Calzones

Tuesday: Brown Jasmine Rice with Tuna and Asparagus

Wednesday: Chicken Tacos with Guacamole and Chips

Thursday: Garden Salad, Baked Ziti and Garlic Bread

Friday: WE HAVE FRIENDS IN TOWN FOR THE WEEKEND!

Welcome, Heather, Marcia, Sukie, and possibly Waddell!! So, we'll probably grab something downtown as we watch the fireworks display.

*This is my first time planning out our meals and then grocery shopping around the plan. I'll let you know what I think! You can find more menu plans if you go to the blog, "I'm an Organizing Junkie."

-Sarah