Thursday's Ten: the late but yummy edition

i sent out a tweet yesterday asking for suggestions for today

and got some good ones

unfortunately, most of them i have planned to do DURING the holidays

and in my estimation

those start NEXT thursday

:-)

so,

as i was bookmarking yet another recipe to try

i thought i'd share some that are in my "to try" box

from other bloggers

(maybe you!)

1.  molasses cookies from a former teacher (and current friend!) of mine

(i've wanted a recipe since starbucks stopped carrying them...so this is high on my priority list to try)

2.  mexican chicken casserole from leah

(i'm going to see if i can make this with all organic ingredients...yummy!)

3.  meatball soup from the sporadic cook

(i love a nice hot comfort soup!)

4.  white chocolate pumpkin bread from jill (who i've known since birth pretty much :)

(she's so creative...and this sounds sooo good)

5.  southwest chicken wontons from marin's creations

(this has been in my files forever!  must.try.soon)

6. pumpkin pie spice cake from casondra

(she just posted this today -- what luck!)

7. mashed potatoes with horseradish and chives from my first kitchen

(i'm a mashed potatoes purist -- just salt, pepper, butter and milk.  but this may change my ways once in awhile!)

8.  maple cream cheese frosting from la jolla mom

(yes please!)

9.  cilantro lime dressing from the double dipped life

(two of my most favorite things)

10.  strawberry lime shortcakes with coconut from our best bites

(mmm.  i may leave off the coconut, but they sound awesome)

wishing and hoping and planning and dreaming

such a fun song :)

i'm joining in on this one again

a simple wish for me today

that this bookstore

would somehow be saved.

it's nashville's only "local" bookstore

been around for 30 years

and because the company that owns it went bankrupt 

they're closing it

here's wishing and hoping that a wonderful, rich person

(or group of people)

will be able to keep it's doors open!

(i mean, there's a facebook page and everything.  it could happen)

hey it's ok tuesday

(visit amber, who originated this idea!)

hey, it's ok ...

... to only turn on children's programming that you can sort of stand unless it's an extreme emergency.  a nanny has to keep her sanity.  if that sanity includes strategically leaving out the options "word world" "barney" "cailou" and "yo gabba whatever" when reading off a list, so be it.

... to be thankful for so many things.  and to currently have VERY high on that list: pumpkin spice creamer.

... to be the crazy coupon lady.

... to consider it the success of your day to have turned the tears of a 3 year old who has just wiped out on the hardwood floors to giggles within 2 minutes.

... to be irritated by the dvr'd shows who say "stay tuned for scenes from next week's episode" because you know full well the dvr cut off those previews...

... to be completely weirded out by the idea of the new xray machines at airport.  i get and appreciate that they are amazing new safety things, but i can't say i'm going to enjoy walking through them!

Monday's Memory: the one with two special women

fall retreat, 2005 

martell, lajuana and i

two of my extra "mothers"

:0)

how blessed this time was with both of them

it's a great day to go to the christmas village

simplicity in black and white this week:

christmas village: last year at fairgrounds!

anthony and i have gone to the christmas village (a great collection of artisans and crafters, and foodies, and etc that sell gifts and christmas themed stuff) every year since we started dating.  this is our 3rd time to go to the village, and we're honestly not sure if it will even exist next year, since the TN state fairgrounds are being closed :(  

this year i scored us cheap tickets that we bought from a friend who wasn't able to use them.  we are headed there in about an hour...here's hoping for good shopping!  it's always fun :)

it does seem a bit funny to go to the christmas village when the temperature is in the mid 70s.  but lovely :)

after the village we're meeting up with our friend laura and her baby toddler izzy for dinner.  she's recently vegan, so i'm kind of excited to try a new place with vegan options!

i hope you all have a wonderful saturday!
f

Fitness Friday: site highlight

today's version of fitness friday is a bit abbreviated.

i'd like to introduce you to a new discovery of mine.

eat drink better

they have recipes

food safety articles

a whole section on vegan living (which i passed on to my friend who is currently eating vegan -- great resource!)

general nutrition and health articles 

brainy laws about food and stuff

what i REALLY like about this particular site, is that it's not preachy at all.  so many sites that fall into this vein of healthy lifestyle and living are honestly kind of judgmental about those of us who aren't quite as crunchy as others.  granted, i haven't read EVERY.SINGLE article on the website, but what i have seen is balanced and informative.

and that's kind of my thing.  as long as i'm well-informed about it, there's nothing wrong with once in awhile making the choice to eat a pop-tart or cheeseburger.

so visit the website or their facebook page and enjoy!

disclaimer: this is simply a site i stumbled upon this week.  i doubt the creators of the site know that i or this blog exist, and they certainly didn't ask me for a plug.  consider it a freebie, eat drink better gurus :)

you can't make this stuff up: volume 14 (yet another tennessee edition)

do you have a local character (or 20)?

ours is a chicken.

or rather, a person in a chicken suit who protests...stuff. 

short blurb about the chicken. 

AND possibly best of all...

he has a twitter feed


so seriously -- who are the characters in YOUR town or city?

Thursday's Ten: random things you may not know about ...

me!

(ok that sounds self-centered.  there really IS a reason though...read below :)

please join me for this one!  i think i'm going to make it a once in awhile thing (random things about...potatoes.  or penguins.  or random things that start with the letter "p" since i already have 2 on the list ;)

today i'm combining my thursday's ten with accepting a blog award from the lovely casondra

here's the specifics for this particular award:

Rules for accepting this award are:
1.  Thank and link back to the person who gave you the award

thank you Casondra!

2.  Share 7 things about yourself.
done below.  with 3 bonus things :)

3.  Pass this on to 15 other great bloggers you recently discovered.
15 RECENT?  hmmm...

4.  Contact the selected bloggers and tell them about their awards.

So 7 things about myself...

1. pretty much if you offer me chips i'll take you up on that.  huge weakness of mine is crunchy or savory snacks.

2. i can give myself a mean french manicure if all the elements are right.  but i can't for the life of me paint my toenails without getting polish everywhere.  i'm not sure if it's thinking i don't have to pay attention, or a subconscious way to convince myself i should get a pedicure.

3.  i love, love, love my friends.  they're pretty amazing.  

(casondra, my things are looking an awful lot like yours but i SWEAR i didn't mean them too!)

4.  i own like 2 lamps.  i don't know why -- i MUCH prefer lamplight to overhead.  i should probably fix that and ask for a lamp or two for christmas.

5. i love telling people i teach at a studio on music row.  if you lived in nashville you would know that's not really a HUGE deal, although the studio being there is quite convenient for industry contacts and the like...but it sounds pretty cool to out of towners.  except you, if you are reading this and didn't know that.  now you won't think i'm cool. oops

(please, if you're a regular reader of my blog you know i'm a big dork anyway ;)

6. my girl crush is olivia benson (mariska hargitay's character on law and order: svu)

7. i can take a good shower in 3 minutes flat (which came in handy during our month of water rationing after the floods in may) and can get ready in less than half an hour.  you would think this would make me early to places.  instead, it means that i literally wait until the last.possible.moment to step into the shower, and i'm ALWAYS running out the door.  i'm getting better about being it, but that fast shower and getting ready bit most definitely works against me.

8. *  i'm kind of jazzed about my new tab at the top -- a link to every.single.recipe i've ever posted on the blog.  it's broken into categories in alpha order, naturally.  there will be many more added, and i'm going to definitely keep it up to date.  honestly, this is going to make it a lot easier for me to direct people to recipes they ask for, or for me to find it and copy/paste :)

9. *  i have discovered strawberry milkshake poptarts, and pretty much i love them.

10. *  i can't WAIT to have a few hours in the kitchen this weekend.  how i've missed cooking!

*bonus tracks ;)

mmmkay, 15 new(ish) blogs.  well, in no particular order (except alpha) here they are!

a heart of alabaster (jackie) 

(oh how i love this blog :)  the song that starts when you visit is an old favorite of mine!)

absolute narcissism (sandra)

(funny, funny, funny!  and satire.  and sarcasm.  and funny.)

always on my mind (jamie)

(a fellow nashvillian, and coupon lover.  plus she has a separate blog just for recipes.  do love!)

bare feet on the front porch (stephanie)

(an online friend of mine for ages...military wife and mom doesn't even begin to sum it up!)

beyer beware (leah)

(reading her profile, i can SO see mine reading similarly in a few years.  awesome new blog friend!)

blessed chick (ashlee)

(i'm a sucker for anyone who puts "blessed" in their title and means it, and she is wonderful!)

bossy betty (betty)

(cheeky, fun and smart, this is a woman i could sit around and talk to for hours!)

dilly dally (vanessa)

(i met her through our friend casondra, and she's such a sweet, amazing new friend!)

laundry hurts my feelings (joann)

(don't you love the name?!  and the blog is just as good)

lucky in love (jenny)

(one of those like-minded in so many ways bloggers...and she's expecting her first sweet bebe!)

mrs southern bride (heather)

(i love love stories, especially ones like theirs, which is so marked by the Father)

my alabaster heart (erin)

(ahhh, another crazy liberal christian.  see?  we DO exist!)

teach*tea*travel (nicole) 

(this is one of my oldest and dearest friends...and she has a brand new blog!) 

the human race 600 (lisa)

(fresh perspective, got her stuff together kinda girl :)

the kenningtons (nicki)

(what a fun life they lead!  so full of adventure and inspiration -- she's an awesome runner!)

i'll be notifying my winners as the day goes on...but if you see your name here, consider yourself served.  in a good way, of course!

well, duh

one of my goals for the year was to become a true coupon lady

and i think i'm off to a good start

besides success at cvs last weekend

i also had mad success at harris teeter yesterday

113.82 worth of groceries for 53.98 

i saved 59.85!

highlights include:

2 packages of Martha White muffin mix: $.05 (reg price 2.36)

10 boxes of Barilla pasta: $6 (reg price $15)

7th Generation dish soap: free (reg price $2.99)

3 boxes of Hamburger Helper: $1.50 (reg price $5.55)

Bic Multi-Purpose Lighter: 1.29 (reg price $4.29)

that was with very little effort, so i'm excited to see what will happen as i begin getting into it a little more!  some coupon gurus save as much as 90% on an average trip.  over the last month or so i've been averaging 50% or so...i'm going to try to up it to at least 75% over the next month or two.

now onto my duh! moment, which does strangely correspond to the above :)

it occurred to me the other day

that my jobs (which i'm loving)

while by nature are "set my own hours" type gigs

are sometimes scheduled a little too tightly

for me to eat healthy meals

and definitely no time to cook them

and yes,

my clients are *wonderful* about saying

"please help yourself to anything in the fridge"

and i do

gratefully

but there are days that there's nothing in the fridge that i like

or there's not much of whatever meal is left

or i don't want to open a whole new package of whatever freezer meal looks good

or there's a ton of junk food in the house and i wind up eating IT because nothing else appeals

this sometimes causes me to hit the drive-thru harder than i want

either between jobs because i'm starving

or after a job because what i had wasn't filling

so here's my future solution

i'm spending one afternoon a week in the kitchen

(besides cooking on other occasions)

where i'll make one from-scratch awesome recipe

that i can divide into a meal for that day, a meal for later that week, and a portion to be frozen

and at the same time

i'll make one "convenience food"

also to freeze into individual portions

so that i can stick it in the car on my way to a job

and if i get there and they have awesome options: fantastic

i have a meal for another day that week

and if they don't?

well, thawed out hamburger helper made with organic beef

is still much better than a 10 pm trip through mcdonalds.
(and cheaper too!)