I make all the foods

It's been a while, hasn't it? Truthfully? Life has been v. stressful lately and I so so so wish I could elaborate more but I can't until things are no longer stressful. But I've basically been a Negative Nancy and Debbie Downer about things and so I feel it's best I don't inundate your blog roll with a bunch of "poor me" "why me" "complaining" type of posts. You're welcome. ;)

Instead, I'd like to tell you about the fact that I cooked both Saturday and Sunday of this past weekend! On Saturday I made Grilled Chicken Cajun Ranch Pasta and it was delish! I also added some grilled zucchini to the dish for some veggies. Definitely a good Pinterest find!

Source: plainchicken.com via Kaysie on Pinterest

On Sunday I made Buttermilk Pork Chops, Roasted Dijon Potatoes and Roasted Green Beans with Mushrooms, Balsamic and Parmesan. And after typing that I just realized I forgot to include the Parmesan on the 'beans and 'shrooms. Fail.

Here's the recipe for the Pork Chops and Potatoes. I'm not sure where I got these recipes from so I'm sorry I don't have a source to give. The Green Bean recipe I found on Pinterest and that's near the bottom. It was all very good. I think The Husband is impressed with my cooking skills; or maybe he's just happy he doesn't have to cook for once.

Buttermilk Pork Chops

Ingredients:

4 to 6 thin cut pork chops
1 C flour
1 1/2 Tbsp onion powder
1 1/2 Tbsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp black pepper
1 1/4 C beef broth
1/2 C buttermilk

• Mix together dry ingredients.
• Dredge pork chops in the mixture.
• Fry pork chops in a pan that has a coating of vegetable oil over medium-high heat, until both sides are a light, golden brown.
• Remove pork chops from pan and add a few tablespoons of the flour mixture to what is left of the oil, and whisk together.
• Add beef broth and whisk together. Turn pan down to low and let simmer and thicken, about 3-5 minutes.
• Add buttermilk whisking continuously.
• Put the pork chops back in the pan and let simmer for another 3-5 minutes.

Roasted Dijon Potatoes

Ingredients:
Cooking spray
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp olive oil
3/4 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp table salt
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 1/2 pounds uncooked potatoes (new, red or russet), quartered

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
• Coat a 9x13-inch baking dish with cooking spray.
• In a large bowl, whisk together mustard, oil, paprika, salt, thyme and pepper.
• Add potatoes and stir to coat.
• Transfer potatoes to the prepared baking dish and roast 20 minutes; stir and roast until tender on inside, about 20-25 minutes more.

Source: kalynskitchen.com via Kaysie on Pinterest



Enjoy!

PS: You should've seen how many words I spelled incorrectly in this post. It was pretty special.

Things on Thursday

I would have a lot more to blog about if I could blog about what's going on in our lives right now. Oh well, hopefully by next month I'll have more to share.

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In the meantime I came across this new singer named Lana del Rey. Pretty sure that's her stage name -- and I'm pretty sure she's had a lot of work done. Either way, she has two songs ("Video Game" and "Blue Jeans") that I have grown to like. But I have no clue what "Video Game" has to do with the actual song. I think her album comes out this month. I found out about her by reading a Yahoo! article about how she had a horrible performance on Saturday Night Live. So I looked her up (and indeed, her performance was not good) a little more and decided I like these two songs and she has a 60's-esque look about her that I like and her voice is different. Thought I'd share. ;)



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In other news, I've started counting points again. I know I announce this like every other month, but this time it's for reals. After seeing how great Maygan looks over the weekend in her cute little clothes, I decided it's time for me to get back on track. I totally kind of let myself go after our wedding and I refuse to buy bigger clothes at this point. So get down to my normal weight it is!

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I'm struggling with finding the next book to read. Right now I've started Nicholas Sparks' "The Best of Me" (and I definitely just wrote that title as "Home With You" - goes to show how much I'm into this book, ha!) and I'm just not feeling it. I'm thinking I'm not in the mood for something romantic and that's going to make me cry. Suggestions?

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On to other more important things like: in the morning when I let Stella out in the backyard before I leave she goes into her doghouse. I'll usually take one of the blankets out of her doghouse and throw it in the dryer for about five minutes. Then I take it back out and bundle her up in it and she snorts and rummages in her doghouse to make herself comfy. Hey! It's only fair seeing as how Kahlua gets to lay on a heating pad all day. We don't love our dogs at all... ;)

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This is pretty much the sweetest thing I've seen all year. Megan's babies are just so cute!

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I went to Forever21 last weekend and I hardly found anything I liked! I did end up getting two tops but I'm not thrilled with them. They were kind of my last resort. Everything was just so short - like crop tops - and I just am not feeling the bohemian-look-thing.

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I would like to be on What Not to Wear so Stacy and Clinton can tell me what my style is and do my shopping for me and so I can have "timeless pieces" to pair with things.

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The end.

The Way We Are

Kevin and I kind of have our own chores around the house and unspoken way of doing things.

*Kevin empties all the trash in the house and takes the garbage cans to the curb Sunday evenings. If he happens to not be home for this I literally loathe having to do this.

*If I make dinner one night, Kevin will do the dishes and clean the kitchen. Or vice versa. That seems to work out pretty well.

*Kevin usually tends to the outside of the house and I usually tend to the inside of the house. However, I hate, hate, hate cleaning bathrooms. Those seem to not get cleaned quite as often as the rest of the house. So much so that Kevin has resorted to cleaning them every now and then. Oops!

*I also hate doing laundry. So I'll ask Kevin to bring all the dirty clothes out to the laundry room, then I'll sort them and that's pretty much the extent of me "doing" laundry. I usually find a way to get Kevin to fold all of the clothes too, and I'll be honest and admit that I also complain about switching the clothes from the washer to the dryer. I'm bad!

*I'm in charge of our budget and bills. So far it's been working out pretty well. At first Kevin was a little hesitant about handing all that over to me, but I think he's getting more comfortable with not having a handle on it all. Probably a little grateful too.

*More often than not Kevin cooks dinner on the week nights since I get home an hour later than he does. He'll also feed the dogs. I'll try to cook dinner at least once a week on a week night (usually it's a crock pot recipe) and then I'll cook on the weekends. If I got home earlier I would love to cook dinner more often!

*If Kevin's out of town and there are clean dishes in the dishwasher, I may or may not leave those dishes in there until he returns so he has to empty them. I can't believe I just admitted that!

*Every night before bed I always have to make sure the living room is cleaned up and our bedroom is cleaned up and the bed made before we get in it. I can't stand to get into bed when it's un-made.

*Right now we have hardwood floors in our house, but when we lived in an apartment that had all carpet, I would vacuum at least every other day. It just made the rooms feel clean and I love me some vacuum lines!

*I usually give Stella a bath in the bathtub and Kevin usually gives Kahlua a bath in the sink. Right now Stella gets a bath indoors because it's cold outside, but during the summer months Kevin will usually wash her outside with the hose because it's so hot. Kahlua always gets a bath in the sink (she's teeny tiny).

 *As far as organization goes, that's all me. I feel so discombobulated when things are out of sorts at home. With our wedding last year and all that planning I never felt like I could get caught up. This year I'm trying to stay on top of things and not let stuff get out of hand before it becomes too big of a project.

*By the looks of things, Kevin does an awful lot around the house - and I'm so thankful and grateful for that! I'm pretty sure that once kids enter the picture some of these roles will change so we can survive, but for now this works for us!

What are your unspoken ways (and maybe even some admissions) when it comes to cohabiting with your significant other?

A Week of Project 365

You may have to click on the photos to make them bigger.





















I hope everyone had a great weekend! I thought I'd share my past week in pictures. I'm not sure if I'll remember to do this each week but we'll see.

Carry on.

Friday Finds

I decided to do the Project 365 thing this year. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to post the pictures to my blog because they're pretty much just of our dogs and that's not too exciting. I always think babies are more cute to look at. Ha! Maybe I'll post at the end of each month. Anyways, today Sarah from Life {Sweet} Life posted about doing Project 365 and helpful apps that you can use on the iPhone. You should check out her post! I already started using the Project 365 app at the beginning of the year, but she just introduced me to the Red Stamp app and I am officially obsessed with it! It's pretty much brilliant.

I can't get enough of Jason Mraz's new song "I Won't Give Up." It's amazing. And beautiful. Check it out. You'll be glad you did.

And just to verify my obsessiveness with Hunger Games, I saw these on Pinterest last night and definitely Pinned them and I wanted to share them with you too. Because I'm excited and weird.

Source: hungergamestrilogy.net via Kaysie on Pinterest

Source: etsy.com via Kaysie on Pinterest

I hope everyone has a great weekend and if you get Monday off for the MLK Holiday (like me) more power to ya!

Thursday Ramblings

1. I'd like to put this week up there with the most stressful and bizarre week I've experienced thus far. I hope to elaborate more once things settle down.

2. I am 200% obsessed with Little Debbie's Oatmeal Creme Pies. I may or may not have eaten four of them yesterday. I believe they are the best-tasting thing on this planet. Hands down. No question. Please and thank you. The end.

3. I get to meet up with Maygan in SLO this weekend for a much-needed girls weekend! On the agenda: food, drinks, seeing a brand new baby, more food, gossip, laughter, bean dip and more drinks.

4. You know what kind of irks me (and I know it shouldn't)? Bloggers who use ideas or recipes or whathaveyou from Pinterest, then post about it on their blog and not reference that they got the idea from Pinterest and pass it off as their own. It just doesn't seem fair or right to me. Not that it affects me negatively in any way, just thought I'd share.

5. I finished the Hunger Games series a few weeks ago and I'm sad. I'm going through withdrawals, people! I am not normal when it comes to getting involved with good books. I really want to just read them all over again right this second. To say I can't wait until the Hunger Games movie comes out in March, would be a complete understatement.

6. Did I mention that I can't get enough of Oatmeal Creme Pies? I did? Okay...just making sure.

7. I'm in a lunchtime slump. I usually have WW frozen meals for lunch because I don't have enough time (read: I'm lazy) to make my lunch, so I just grab a WW meal on my way out the door in the morning. I need to switch things up a bit. What do you all eat for lunch at work? Oh, and I prefer not to eat out because that's not good on the budget. Please share.

8. Kevo is back today after being in Chicago this week. I kind of miss him. I know the dogs do too. ;)

9. I really need a manicure and pedicure, but I'm too lazy to do it myself or go to the salon and pay to have it done for me. There needs to be a mobile mani/pedi thing where someone comes to your home and does it for you. (Go ahead and list this up there with "First World Problems.")

10. Well, I'm off to eat my boring WW meal, while contemplating starting the Hunger Games series over again and wishing I brought an Oatmeal Creme Pie as dessert after lunch.

Carry on,

Three Meals, One Night

Tonight I made Steak Chili, Poppyseed Chicken and Chicken Roll Ups. I am tired!

A good friend of mine had her baby last week so I made a couple freezer meals for her and her new little family. Then I made dinner for us tonight. It's a good thing I decided to take today off.

I've been off work since Thursday and this five-day weekend has been wonderful (imagine that in my singing voice). I go back tomorrow and I'm not really looking forward to it; but that's another story for another day.

Do any of y'all watch birth stories on TV? I do (call me weird). Right now I'm watching "One Born Every Minute." There are some cray cray people and birth stories on this show! Some other favorites are "A Baby Story" and "Baby's First Day" on TLC. Can you say Baby Fever?! Ha!

Dad's birthday is on Friday and I haven't a clue what to get him. The man has everything! Any suggestions? 

Pinteresting Success

The other day I Pinned this little gem. Does it not look just delicious!?

Chocolate Covered Bananas with Peanut Butter

Source: nomnomnomblog.com via Kaysie on Pinterest

So I gave it a try last night for our dessert after dinner.

Presentation: F+

It didn't quite look like how I imagined it would.

 Taste: A+

I think I may have heated up the chocolate too much because it came out clumpy - and I was disappointed. But the taste of these little morsels GEE DOUBLE OH DEE - GOOD!

Here are some other things I've made thanks to Pinterest that have turned out really well. I think there has only been one thing that I've tried that I saw on Pinterest that ended up being horrible, but I don't remember what that was because I deleted that Pin, never to be seen, used or heard from again (it was that bad).

Avalanche Bars

Source: cookiesandcups.com via Kaysie on Pinterest

Saltine Crackers Toffee Bars

Source: beautyandbedlam.com via Kaysie on Pinterest

White Chocolate Covered Oreos

Source: cupcakesandcrablegs.com via Kaysie on Pinterest

Halloween Dot Cupcakes

Source: midwestliving.com via Kaysie on Pinterest

BLT Salad

Source: abirdandabean.blogspot.com via Kaysie on Pinterest

Spicy Chicken Tortilla Rolls

Source: homeiswheretheholmansare.blogspot.com via Kaysie on Pinterest

Skinnytaste Crockpot Enchilada Soup

Source: skinnytaste.com via Kaysie on Pinterest

Crockpot Chicken and Dumplings

Source: bubblecrumb.blogspot.com via Kaysie on Pinterest

Honey Fruit Salad

Source: allrecipes.com via Kaysie on Pinterest

Cinnamon Baked French Toast

Source: twopeasandtheirpod.com via Kaysie on Pinterest

Chipotle Hollandaise Sauce

Source: jasonandshawnda.com via Kaysie on Pinterest

Avocado Eggs Benedict

Source: jasonandshawnda.com via Kaysie on Pinterest

Skinnytaste Baked Broccoli Mac and Cheese

Source: skinnytaste.com via Kaysie on Pinterest

Spaghetti with Garlicy Bread Crumbs

Source: flickr.com via Kaysie on Pinterest

Tortellini Spinach Bake

Source: ourbestbites.com via Kaysie on Pinterest

Facelift

Along with a new year comes a new blog design! If you're reading through Google Reader, click the link to check it out on the Web. I love what Jessica at Diamond Doll Design came up with! She's super easy to work with and when I feel like I need a change, she'll be the one I call!

I hope you all enjoy your weekend. Brother is visiting and we've enjoyed a nice day together. 

I’ve Seen Better Days

*sigh*
Today has been a doozy. Family problems, personal problems and life problems all in one day.
Needless to say I have one BIG, gigantic glass of wine sitting next to me right now.
And because Kevin knew I had a bad day, he made me some roasted brussel sprouts to go along with dinner. Man after my own heart! (I’m obsessed with brussel sprouts.)
It’s a good thing I took tomorrow and Friday off because I need some alone time to gather my thoughts, get my bearings and get some sh… done.
One thing is for sure: He is still the same God that He was when things were going right. He has a plan for us and He won’t forsake us.
Amen.

It’s a New Year!

To ring in 2012, Kevin and I headed up to Sacramento and went to a club called Harlow’s for NYE. I’m not big on NYE. I would much prefer to stay at home, in my pajamas, cuddle on the couch and be in bed b 12:05am. But that’s just me. Plus, we figured this would probably be the last time we really go out and celebrate NYE before we had kids, so we made the most of it.

It was nice to get dressed up and have a great time with a big group of friends!
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I’m going to forgo a 2011 recap because I don’t really have the time or energy to look for all the links and what not. Plus, I’m sure you’ve all read enough recaps so I’ll spare you mine. However, I do want to list a few goals for 2012!
1. Learn how to sew. Like really sew, with a machine and everything! Maybe even learn how to use an embroidery machine if I’m feeling ambitious!
2. Become a mommy.
3. Not be so hard on myself.
4. Mail birthday cards to friends and family. I find it’s much more personal than the standard Facebook and text message birthday wishes. Which are nice as well; but it’s always nice to get an unexpected card in the mail!
I hope you all enjoyed the holidays and here’s to a great 2012 for everyone!!!