Belle on Heels

Friday Favorites

2013-05-24T01:31:00.000-04:00

I need a new work tote bag in the worst way {damn you, budget} and this one is just so classic and chic and simple. And surprisingly affordable. AND 25% between now and Monday. Anyone feeling generous?

Summertime means Campari to me. On our honeymoon, I had a pre-dinner Negroni every night. This herb-infused version looks like it could become a summer staple.

Seriously dying over this perfect, perfect baby girl nursery inspiration board via Snippet & Ink.

Rolling out this Memorial Day classic recipe: Ina Garten's Flag Cake. Festive AND delicious!

I'm sure most of you have seen this video, but I just had to post it {If you're reading from Google Reader, you'll have to click on the post to see it. Any idea how to fix that?}. Our dogs are our family members and I can't even begin to imagine how this discovery provided a bright spot in an otherwise devastating situation. Get your tissues handy.

Have a safe and wonderful Memorial Day weekend!

Nothing Could Be Finer Than To Be In Carolina...

2013-05-22T09:46:00.000-04:00

...with my faaaaaaamily.

Last weekend we packed up the whip and headed south to one of my favorite cities, Asheville, NC, to see my little sister graduate from college!

My sister and I are about as polar opposite in personal style as one can imagine. Whereas I prefer to keep my inner granola-crunchy hippie carefully hidden up my preppy-yuppy sleeve, she has it tatooed for the world to see.

Literally.

So while she may have started her college career at our mama's uber-preptastic alma mater, University of Richmond, she graduated from a much more her-appropriate school: Warren Wilson College.

Warren Wilson claims to fame: James Franco {although after this fiasco they prefer not to claim him} and Bill Pullman's kids. True story: Bill {we're on a first name basis} stays at the same B&B as my 'rents when they're all visiting their kids. My dad and Bill talked local history for ages over breakfast one morning, and my dad had absolutely no clue who he was talking to. I would've wanted to know what it was like to work with Devon Sawa {my ultimate 90's-girl crush}.

Anyhoo.

We took a little tour of campus and my favorite part was the field where the sheep are. I love sheep. They are a big part of my bucolic dream life. Some day...

I only took two pictures during the weekend {I discovered Candy Crush and spent most of time trying to get the hell out of Lemonade Lake}. M and I took my sister and her friend {below} to dinner at Curate to celebrate while my parents stayed at the house with the grandparents.

If you're going to be in the Asheville area anytime soon, you MUST make reservations at Curate. If I had stopped to take pictures of each course, I wouldn't have been able to eat anything. We scarfed down everything the second it landed on the table. Our favorites:

patatas bravas {basically home fries with a spicy sauce. These were M's favorite.}

the berejenas la taberna {fried eggplant drizzled with honey and rosemary. My favorite.}

chistorra and chips jose's way {chorizo wrapped in potato chips and deep fried}

espuma de chocolate {it tasted like warm brownie batter + hazelnut praline and raspberry sorbet}

We were in Asheville for less than 48 hours but that was long enough for me to drink a 12-pack of my beloved Diet Cheerwine...

one for the drive home!

photo credits: 1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5

Menu Monday

2013-05-20T01:55:00.000-04:00

Only two new recipes this week. We had a repeat on Monday night, leftovers on Thursday, and were traveling for the weekend. One recipe was a dud, one was a definite keeper. Both were budget-friendly.

Simple Portobello Pasta {Budget Bytes}

Meh. Not bad, not great. Honestly, just not a lot of flavor or texture. We ate all of it between the two of us at dinner and leftovers the next day, but I don't think we'll be having this again.

Ranch Pork Chops with Creamed Spinach and Thyme-Roasted Potatoes {Budget Bytes and Ina Garten}

MAJOR winner here. I used thin, center cut pork chops and baked them at 425 for 30 minutes. I ran them under the broiler for 2ish minutes on each side. They probably could've baked for only 20 minutes since they were so thin, but they were great anyways!

The creamed spinach was leftover from Monday night's dinner {a repeat of Budget Bytes' Egg Florentine Quesadillas} and I just used dried thyme in place of rosemary in the roasted potato recipe. The potatoes cooked in the oven with the chops, so they only took about 45 minutes, instead of the one hour in the recipe.

Bon appétit!

Friday Favorites

2013-05-17T01:37:00.000-04:00

It's been awhile since I've done a Friday Favorites and after all that money talk, I'm ready to indulge in a more frivolous post!

This peplum sheath dress may be my first purchase with my freshly budgeted fun money {and a discount code!}? Perfect for work AND for spring and summer weddings.

Pretty sure I need to order this kit and have this little guy sitting on our bar.

Mmmmmm.....I love cannoli! Cannoli ice cream? Can't even handle it.

I die. So great for Memorial Day weekend and the 4th of July.

I want to get my hands on Martha's new book . There was a sneak peek in the latest Martha Stewart Living and it looks wonderful, just like everything she does.

What are you up to this weekend? We're celebrating my little sister's college graduation!

Summer Slimdown Part III

2013-05-16T01:11:00.000-04:00

So we've talked about goals. We've talked about the plan of attack. And now we need all the help we can get. Short of posting our address so that y'all can send all your extra cash our way, here are some things that have been helpful/motivational/educational thus far:

Budget Bytes/meal planning: As you know, I cook most every night and do so from a weekly menu. I don't need to rehash the details for you {you can find them here}. Meal planning in and of itself helps save quite a bit of money and it certainly did so for us when I first started on our meal planning journey 2.5 years ago. But now we need to me more aggressive. Budget reduction has forced me to do two things: have up to the minute knowledge of what's in our pantry/fridge/freezer and hunt for more inexpensive recipes that are still healthy and fall in line with our food values.

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Enter the Budget Bytes website. You may have noticed that a LOT of my Menu Monday recipes as of late have come from her website. There are so many delicious ideas and they're all realistic and wallet-friendly. I still use my other usual recipe sources, but I have to analyze them more closely to make sure they fit within our grocery budget. The good news is that the budget reduction has helped me in my goal to reduce our meat consumption. Meat ain't cheap!

Any other websites or resources for real food {i.e. no packaged, processed junk} recipes on a budget?

Dave Ramsey's website: While we have no plans to enroll in any FPU classes or purchase any of the materials, there is a wealth of information on Dave Ramsey's website that is available for free. Information on the cash envelope system, the seven baby steps, home buying, and more is there for the taking. Honestly, I haven't even scratched the surface with the available information.

Nancy Ray's website: I found Nancy's website through Em for Marvelous and it's been very inspirational. This post in particular has links to resources they found to be helpful.

Excel: OMG this would NOT be possible without my handy dandy Excel spreadsheet. I have one document for our budget. There is a different worksheet for each month. Each worksheet is broken down into the following categories: Fixed Expenses, Minimum Credit Card Payment, Envelopes, Debt Pay-Off, and Income. Depending on any special circumstances that month, there may also be columns for Gifts {even though the money is coming out of the Gifts envelope, I use these columns to budget exactly how much to spend on each gift} or Travel or, like this month, M's Parking Tickets. At the bottom of each spreadsheet I have what our total amount of debt is at the beginning of the month. That helps me keep an eye on the big picture. I get a really sick pleasure out of updating my little Excel workbook. I love it.

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One thing that hasn't worked: envelopes. Not to be confused with the Envelope System. Since this is our first month and it seemed a little contradictory to purchase a special wallet for a system that's supposed to help us STOP spending money, I just used plain ole paper envelopes. FAIL. This worked for M's envelopes {he has one for his gas money, one for his fun money, and he has the one for pet supplies} because he just keeps them locked in his car. For me, it just meant that I had loose change falling out into the bottom of my purse. Disaster. It caused some serious stress in the check-out line at the grocery store last week. I'm going to have to get me one of these pretty little things to help with the organization.

So that wraps up our money talk for the week! I'd love to know what resources have been helpful to those of you workin' your family budgets. I get distracted easily, so I need mucho assistance in staying on task during our journey to being 100% debt-free. I'll be checking in periodically on our progress, mainly when we've crossed something off the checklist or hit a major milestone. We're hoping to reduce our total debt by 10% by the end of this year. Fingers crossed!

Summer Slimdown Part II

2013-05-15T02:34:00.000-04:00

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Growing up I was told that it wasn't polite to talk about politics, sex, or money. We're not talking politics or sex today {you're welcome, Mom}, but we are continuing our chat about money. I realize there are some of you who find this mind-numbingly boring, but I love, love, LOVE reading about the way other people, especially people my age, manage money. It's the financial equivalent of peeking into someone's medicine cabinet.

It's a little {maybe a lot} scary to be talking about our finances in such detail on here. Money is such a private thing and it's not something I sit around discussing with anyone other than M. But I'm hoping through sharing our experience and our goals that this will provide some accountability and support. I'm such a typical fire sign. I'll make a plan and have goals and get all pumped up for them and then a month later I'm totally off the bandwagon. Maybe the fear of public shaming will help me get back on board when we inevitable fall off.

So. When we left off yesterday, I was talking about how the hard part of all this is turning all of our exciting goals and dreams into plans and actions. The first thing I did was pretty basic: add up how much comes in each month and add up how much goes out. I added up all of the obligatory recurring expenses {rent, utilities, gas, car payments, student loan payments, car insurance, cell phone bill, etc.} and put them into one category. Minimum monthly credit card payments were added up and put into another category. Then comes the new part: the envelope system.

I vaguely remember my parents using the envelope system at one point in my childhood and I know I've seen other bloggers {the Duchess of Fork comes to mind} who use it. But it wasn't until I read Emily's guest post from Nancy that I thought, "Hey, we can do that!". And do that we did.

We are half way through our first month of the envelope system. I can already see that I'm going to need to make some adjustments {I under budgeted for a number of items}, but that's OK. We'll make the necessary changes and try again next month. Most everything I've read says that it takes a few months to really get the hang of it, so perseverance is the name of the game. I have to say, it is REALLY strange to be carrying around so much cash and see the resulting teeny tiny balance in our checking account. It's unsettling, especially because I rarely ever carry cash.

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Here are the envelopes we have:

Groceries: pretty self-explanatory. Prior to our budget adjustment, we were spending about $400/month on groceries. I cook pretty much every single night, plus we pack our lunches and eat breakfast at home. We rarely eat out, not because we don't like it, but because the only restaurant options in our town are Arby's, McDonald's, and Denny's. I'm challenging myself to go down to $300/month. I'd love to go even lower, but we're taking baby steps.

Pet Supplies: We have two dogs, one of which is on a special diet and medication due to allergies and anxiety. Right now I've got $100/month budgeted, but that may be able to scale down to $80 or $90. We'll see.

Pet Boarding/Vet: Again, pretty self-explanatory. I've got $100/month budgeted for this. Depending on how much we scale back on our traveling, I may be able to trim this to $70/month, but it adds up quickly. Two nights in the kennel for our two boys is $84. This is a rollover envelope, meaning anything that doesn't get spent in a month just stays in the envelope. The idea being that it builds up a back-up to our emergency savings should anything major happen to one of our boys.

Household: This envelope is for things like toilet paper, dish detergent, hand soap, etc. This is outside of our grocery budget, which is new for me. I budgeted $15/month this month, which was not nearly enough, but that was because we ran out of everything at once. This will be a rollover envelope.

Personal Care: This envelope is for haircuts, highlights, body wash, shampoo, toothpaste, make-up, etc. Right now I've only got $25/month budgeted. Some months that will be more than enough, but some months it won't even come close. This one may need to be adjusted, but we'll see. This will definitely be a rollover envelope.

Fun Money: I'm sticking to the diet philosophy that if you deny yourself any and all treats, you're much more likely to crash and burn. I've budgeted a total of $80/month, or $40/each. This may be a bit too generous, so depending on what adjustments need to be made to the other envelopes, this may go down to as little as $50/month.

Date Night: Not negotiable. I see our de-debting plan not only as an investment in our financial future, but in our marriage. Money is a top cause of divorce and we want to be mindful of that, but I don't want to neglect taking care of our relationship as a means to an end. I'm allotting $40/month, so not much more than a pizza night at home and seeing a movie. But this is an important one that I want to try not to cut back on.

Auto Care: This envelope is outside of the money budgeted for gas for our cars. The idea is for this to build up to pay for routine maintenance like oil changes and inspections, as well as a back-up to our emergency savings should anything more major happen with one of our cars.

Gifts: Pretty self-explanatory. I've budgeted $40/month. Some months we'll spend it all {it's already forcing me to be extra creative with our gift-giving occasions this summer!}, some months it will rollover to save up for things like our anniversary and Christmas.

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OK, so some people refer to their fun money as blow money. But if I had an envelope for blow, I would assume someone was funding a yet-to-be-discovered cocaine habit. Maybe for some people it's one and the same?

So I add up the recurring expenses, the minimum credit card payments, and the envelopes and subtract the total from our income. Everything else goes to paying down debt.

We have a ways to go to really get the hang of this. I can already tell there are going to be times when it really sucks {i.e. not a lot of built-in $$ for my drive-thru McDonald's Diet Coke habit}, but I can also already tell that it is going to be hugely helpful for us in reaching our goals.

Do any of you use the envelope system or some version of it? As a newbie, I would LOVE any tips/tricks/advice you might have. And if anyone would like to help prettify our envelope system, you are more than welcome to buy this lovely wallet for me :)

Tomorrow is the last financial post of the week {I promise}. I'll be posting the different resources that have been helpful so far...

Summer Slimdown Part I

2013-05-14T02:00:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, I mentioned in a recent post that we were cutting back on both calories and spending in our house. Katie commented that they were doing the same and Mr. Perk was referring to it as the Summer Slimdown. I love giving things a title {makes it feel more official and, dare I say, fun?} so I'm stealing theirs! The cutting back on calories is pretty self-explanatory {not-so-subtle plug to come follow me on My Fitness Pal at username GessHoo07!}, but I thought I would share a little more on our budget reduction.

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Debt is something we've really struggled with from early on in our relationship. M came into our marriage with no car payment and next-to-nothing credit card debt, but a ton of student loans. I was the opposite; I came in with a car that was half paid for, student loans that were half paid for, and quite a bit of credit card debt. It's something that's constantly hanging over our heads.

Up until recently, I've kind of kidded ourselves into thinking we were relatively financially sound. We make more than enough to pay our bills, we have some emergency savings, and we have quite a bit squirreled away in our retirement accounts. But it always came back to the debt. Inspired by the Em is for Marvelous posts on money, I sat down and took a brutal look at our finances and came up with a strategy and timeline for paying off our debt. Paying off all of our credit card debt was one of my 101 in 1,001 goals, but honestly? Kind of a wimpy goal. Now the goal is ALL debt. The cars {we ended up buying one for M in October so now it's 2 car payments}, the credit cards, the student loans. Every last bit GONE by the time I turn 30, or hopefully sooner.

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On our timeline, we should have 3 of the 5 credit cards paid off by September and my car paid off by October. The next hurdle are the remaining 2 credit cards, which carry most of our credit card debt. The plan is to have one paid off by the end of the calendar year and the other one paid off by March 2014. Then we'll tackle my student loans, M's car, and finally his student loans. Once all those are paid off, we plan to build up 3 months of equivalent of our salaries in savings and save for a down payment on a house. Within 5 years, we want to be able to purchase a house on a 15-year fixed rate mortgage and have no other debt.

For those of you paying attention, this kind of loosely follows Dave Ramsey's plan. We're not actually enrolling in any of the classes because A) I feel like I can get enough of the information online to figure out a plan for us and B) I don't need any preaching alongside of our debt diet.

Still with me? I know many people's eyes roll to the back of their heads when anyone starts number crunching, but I absolutely LOVE this stuff. Comes with the territory when both of your parents are accountants.

Talking about our goals is really fun and exciting. You may daydream of tropical vacations and handbags, but I daydream of being totally debt-free with bank accounts busting at the seams from lots of savings. {OK, I dream about the handbags and vacations too.} The hard part is actually changing our spending patterns and habits and putting plan into action. To be continued tomorrow...

Menu Monday

2013-05-13T08:22:00.000-04:00

Another two-recipe week here. M was out of town two nights last week, one night we had a repeat {Hawaiian quesadillas}, and one night we had leftovers. Here are the two new meals I fixed last week:

Slow-cooker Pinto Beans {Tammy's Recipes}

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I had a few cavities filled last Monday and knew I needed a dinner that would be easy to gum down. M put these in the slow cooker at 9:30am on high heat and by 5:30pm they were ready to go. No overnight soaking required. I mashed mine up and topped with hot sauce and a little shredded cheddar, so it was basically like eating a big bowl of refried beans. In a good way. Delicious and filling and comforting. M made quesadillas with his beans.

As we try to drastically cut down our budget {more on that later this week}, I have a feeling I'll be making these many times. They're so cheap and it makes a ton. That said, I don't want to get stuck in a bean rut. Any suggestions on different ways to prepare or serve pinto beans?

Salsa Chicken Casserole {Budget Bytes}

Definitely a new favorite meal around these parts. This was unbelievably delicious, unbelievably easy, and had very little clean up. An all-around winner! A few notes:

*I pretty much exclusively use brown rice, but it requires more liquid and a longer cooking time. I used 2 cups of chicken stock and gave the rice and salsa mixture 40 minutes in the oven before I added the chicken. It took another hour after I added the chicken.

*I used boneless skinless chicken thighs. They're cheaper and taste better.

*It's tempting to skip the green onions at the end since it seems like a garnish. Resist the temptation. They are a big part of the tasty factor.

Bon appétit!

Two Recipes and A Horse

2013-05-06T12:43:00.000-04:00

Most of last week's meals were either repeats or already posted in last week's Menu Wednesday post, but there were two recipes I wanted to share with you today.

Pasta with Slow-Roasted Tomatoes {Dinner: A Love Story}

DALS is one of my all-time favorite websites and gives me the warm fuzzies about the day when I will have an expanded family to cook for. Regardless of our DINK status, I am always finding great meal ideas for just the two of us from Jenny and Andy. This may be one of my favorites from them. And it is STUPID easy. I used farfalle instead of penne {it's what we had in the pantry}, dried thyme instead of fresh, and I added the dollop of ricotta at the end. I only used about half the amount of Parmesan called for. Definitely a new go-to pasta meal.

Stuffed and Grilled Bananas

We didn't use a recipe for this, but I think there are several floating around the interwebs. We grilled chicken for dinner Friday night and had way too much charcoal going. M wanted to make the best of it and we had two bananas sitting in our fruit basket. We had some graham crackers, shredded coconut, and a Hershey's bar in the pantry. I crushed up one sheet of graham crackers and mixed with a handful of shredded coconut. I slit the bananas down their sides, lined each slit with half of a Hershey's bar, and then stuffed in as much of the cracker/coconut mixture as possible. Then I wrapped each banana individually in foil and we put them on the grill for 15-ish minutes and dug in with spoons. WOW. Great way to make use of the grill after dinner. Would be even better stuffed with Nutella...

On Saturday we attended the Virginia Gold Cup with some friends who were visiting. This was the spread we came up with for 4 people, plus more food in another cooler in the car. We barely managed to eat half of it, but you better believe we ate every bit of that fried chicken.

While wondering around Member's Hill, we saw a group of people playing something called Bear Pong. They invited our guys to play.

Which ended in a picture of what appears to be my husband kicking a small child dressed as a pirate. As one does.

I snapped this pic moments before another jockey was thrown from his horse right in front of us. They had to bring the medics out onto the course and it was awhile before he moved, but he was able to walk into the ambulance himself. So scary!

We NEVER seem to get any photos of the two of us, so I was thrilled to have one to remember such a wonderful day {and to show our grandkids what a stud their granddad was}!

Menu Wednesday

2013-05-01T16:39:00.000-04:00

BBQ Beef Stuffed Baked Potatoes {Budget Bytes}

I can't imagine these being a bigger hit with us, and really, why wouldn't they be? Fluffy baked potatoes, shredded beef, our favorite bottled BBQ sauce, and our favorite cheddar on top. And incredibly filling. I could only finish about half of mine. OK...maybe 3/4.

Taco Pizza {Budget Bytes}

Yet another Budget Bytes home run. The only thing I would change is my choice of salsa. We pretty much only eat hot salsa because we love spicy food. But the heat made it hard to taste all the different flavors going on in this pizza. Next time I would use a medium or mild salsa. Otherwise I wouldn't change a thing. It's like Taco Bell, minus the questionable quality.

Avocado Feta Pizza {Christian's Pizza}

I was back in my college town for a conference last week and of course had to eat my favorite pizza EVER. A friend of ours requested I come up with an at-home version of this and I'm not sure why I never thought of that before. Stay tuned...

Buffalo Chicken Cobb Salad {inspired by Duchess of Fork}

Yum. I kind of made up my own chicken tender recipe. I used 5 tenders, dipped them in seasoned flour {flour, salt, and pepper}, then an egg beaten with water, then a mixture of Italian breadcrumbs and this Williams-Sonoma Buffalo seasoning that apparently is no longer available. Sad face. I baked them at 425 for about 15 minutes, cut into chunks, and then tossed with a bunch of Frank's hot sauce. Our salad was a mix of spinach, lettuce mix, grape tomatoes, cucumber, carrot, and some cheddar cheese crumbles and tossed with Ranch. Would be extra tasty with some corn and/or avocado.

Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls {Southern Living 1995 Annual Recipes}

I had a mean craving for cinnamon rolls last week, so I made some from my sourdough starter. Don't get me wrong; these were incredible. But sometimes I can't help myself and need to fiddle around with a recipe. Next time there will be more cinnamon {like twice as much}, I may add the raisins for some texture, and I will use PW's cinnamon roll glaze recipe. M and his assistant polished these off pretty quickly, but the recipe made two pans, so we've got a stash in the freezer for this weekend.

Spinach Lasagna {Serious Eats}

I'm always nervous about making lasagna because M's mom's is so good. She makes a spinach lasagna, so I normally just stick to Ina or PW's meat-based recipes, but we're trying to cut back on our meat consumption {well...I am, so M is by proxy} so I thought I'd give this a go. I used Rachel's suggestion of sautéed fresh spinach instead of frozen. I just added it in before the garlic and red peppers. It was easy to make {mainly just chopping and layering} and a winner! I think I maybe got 2 pieces from the entire pan. M inhaled the rest.

Not Pictured: Hoisin Beef Tacos with Sweet & Sour Slaw from Budget Bytes. We were too hungry to bother with taking pictures. Good, solid dinner, but I'd rather just use the beef to make more stuffed potatoes.

Cutting Back

2013-04-25T01:00:00.000-04:00

We're cutting back around here...on spending and on calories. So naturally that means all I can think about is buying stuff and eating junk. Indulge me in a little make-believe splurging?

In my virtual closet:

1 // 2 // 3 // 4

In my virtual tummy:

1 // 2 // 3 // 4

Anything you're indulging in these days, virtual or otherwise?

Menu Planning Part Deux

2013-04-23T04:10:00.000-04:00

I always get questions/comments from people about our meal planning, and the last post on that topic was pretty popular, so I thought I'd share how I use Pinterest as a meal planning tool.

I'm always surprised to learn that people "pin" recipes and food ideas on Pinterest but never make them. Based on what I hear from friends and family, that's what most people do. Nothing wrong with that, but I've found Pinterest to be a great meal-planning tool. I use recipes I've pinned all the time!

Originally I just had the one board for all of my food inspiration pins. Lately I've found that I had so many recipe pins on one board that I was only ever making the ones that were most recently pinned. So in the past few weeks, I've broken down the boards into categories based on how I plan our meals.

nom noms

{side note: someone please suggest a better name for this board. i don't love it.}

This was my original food board and is still the one with the most pins. These are where my "normal" {i.e. with meat/seafood} recipes go.

meatless mondays

This is one of the newer boards. We've been doing meatless mondays for awhile now and this just makes those recipes that much easier to find. For reference, we don't eat seafood on meatless mondays, but we do have eggs.

soup sundays

I started this board back in the fall when I started our soup sundays routine. One of my favorite things about fall is making soups, but before I designated one day a week for soups, I would either make soup every day of the week or forget about soups entirely and would end up only making one or two soups the whole season.

on the side

This is my newest board. I am terrible at picking/planning sides to go with our main dishes. I normally just make frozen veggies. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but there are so many healthy, creative, and tasty side dishes out there that I feel like I need to up my game a few times a week. I've had many of these recipes pinned for ages, but they got lost in the mix. Not anymore!

ladies who brunch

Breakfast/brunch is my favorite meal of the day. I don't really make breakfast; that's M's job. But I love to make big brunch feasts, so now I have a place to collect all of those ideas. This is the most droolworthy board, in my humble opinion.

sweet treats

Like the side dishes, these were originally pinned on my regular food board, but I kept forgetting about them. Now whenever I feel like splurging or baking something fun for my coworkers, I've got a quick reference board of new things to try.

party time

This was one of my early Pinterest boards, but it used to be just for party decor/invitations images. I started adding dips and other party food to this board because it's just more intuitive, at least the way I think. I think this is my favorite board!

I'm curious: how many of you make the recipes you pin and how many of you pin it and forget it {or stare at it hungrily}? No judgement either way! I just think it's interesting to see the different ways people use social media. If you've made anything, what's your favorite recipe that you've pinned? I'm always looking for new inspiration!

image sources

1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 // 6 // 7

Menu Monday

2013-04-22T10:14:00.002-04:00

Playing a bit of catch-up on Menu Monday today since it's been 2 weeks since the last one. In order from most recent to oldest:

Grilled Pesto Shrimp Skewers {Skinnytaste}

Rachel inspired this meal after I saw it on her Menu Monday last week. I served the skewers with peppers and onions we grilled and Near East Roasted Garlic and Olive Oil couscous. We LOVED this meal and I can see us making this a lot this summer. It would be easy to change out the meat, and M thought the grilled onions tasted like a Bloomin' Onion. Can't argue with that!

Oven Fajitas {Budget Bytes}

M actually made these since I was feeling under the weather. Love, love, love them! Really easy {seriously...just slice the chicken, onions, and peppers the same size, thrown them in a pan with some fajita seasoning, and put in the oven}. It made a lot and M has been enjoying the leftovers as sandwiches and with scrambled eggs.

Feta-Stuffed Turkey Burgers with Sautéed Zucchini {Cooking Light June 2009}

I've made these before and they're just as wonderful as I remembered. The trick is to watch the video on the website to learn how to completely seal the feta in the burger. Otherwise you end up with a serious mess of falling-apart burgers.

Emeril's Kicked-Up Tuna Melts {Everyday Food May 2010}

Although I think the term "kicked-up" is being a little too generous, we really enjoyed these. We go through a lot of canned tuna in our house, so this was a nice change of pace. The red onion added a lot and I liked the burst of sour/bitter flavor from the capers. Plus, anything with a slice of cheese on top is OK in my book.

Whole-wheat Rotini with Arugula-Walnut Pesto

This was a clean out the fridge/pantry/freezer recipe. I just put arugula, walnuts, Parmesan cheese, lemon zest, garlic and olive oil in the food processor and out came pesto. Toss with whole-wheat rotini and a little pasta water and voila! Dinner.

Whole-Wheat Linguine with Green Beans, Ricotta, and Lemon {Giada De Laurentiis}

Meh. This wasn't bad, but I don't see us making it again. It was just really, really bland. I even added a little leftover Boursin to the mix and blah. It makes a lot and it's very filling. I didn't hate this; I actually really enjoyed the leftovers cold. But I wouldn't fix this if you're looking for a big flavor hit.

Bon appétit!

Brain Dump

2013-04-18T12:40:00.002-04:00

*A few weeks ago, HBO started playing episodes of The Sopranos from the very beginning every weeknight at 8pm. This makes me a happy camper. The Sopranos is still my favorite TV show of all-time and it sparked my love/fascination with all thing Mafia-related. Sometimes I'm still not sure why I love the show so much, given the fact that I cannot stand any type of violence on any other TV show or movie. I just get so sucked in to every episode. Love it.

*I suffer from chronic sinus infections and they always rear their ugly heads this time of year. Yesterday I felt one coming on and woke up this morning feeling like a train wreck. I picked up some advice from a few colleagues. These two products are the only reason I'm semi-functioning at work.

*I had a really intense craving for angel food cake earlier this week. Not sure where it came from, but now I feel like I need to go buy a tube pan and whip up this Barefoot Contessa treat...

*J.Crew Factory Final Sale is another 30% off with the code GETMORE. I ordered some of the Winnie pants. Better hop to it; things are selling out like crazy!

*Ignoring the above angel food craving, I signed up for MyFitnessPal this week. I need to do some spring/summer tuning up, if you will. Are any of you on it? Leave your username in the comments so I can add you as an accountability buddy!

Friday Favorites

2013-04-12T03:53:00.000-04:00

Spring {sprummer?} has finally sprung and the beautiful D.C. cherry blossoms are calling my name. Happy Friday!

Anyone else feeling the need to reduce, in the words of Betty Draper? Or at the very least, do a little freshening-up on the inside? I've posted the link to this article before, but it's worth reposting. The genius that is Mark Bittman lists 101 drool-worthy salad recipes that take minimal effort and ingredients.

I mean...are these the cutest cookies you've ever seen? I'm a sucker for anything with a lamb on it.

Soooo...is it OK to wear skorts now? I kind of thought that was something that ended in early middle school, but this little number from LOFT is kind of adorable. Right? Or am I nuts? Would you totally judge a grown-ass woman wearing a skort?

I'm feeling crunchier than usual as of late, so I bought all the ingredients to make my own laundry detergent {minus the Purex Crystals, which are decidedly un-crunchy}. It claims that this makes enough detergent to last a family of 4 for an entire year for only $30. So will we get 2 years out of this? To be continued...

I am SO excited to be celebrating the wedding of one of my dearest friends this weekend. Those are our bridesmaids dresses in the above picture. We're all going to be pretty in pink for a sure-to-be stunning cherry blossom wedding with an even more stunning bride! Can't wait!

What are your plans for this spring weekend? Do tell!

Denim, Denim Everywhere

2013-04-11T02:37:00.000-04:00

I have a complicated relationship with jeans. I want to love them. They just seem so timeless. Jeans never go out of style, you always read in terrible magazines that men find women sexiest in a pair of jeans, the right pair can go from day to night, yada yada yada. I've just never been able to find that magical pair. I feel like my girlfriends have these religious experiences where they put on a pair of jeans and they look 5 lbs skinnier and their legs look 3 miles long and their butt looks like circa-2001 Britney Spears. No pair of jeans has ever done any of those things for me.

It may be because I've never bought a pair of designer jeans. I know, I know. Everyone says that they're the way to go. But when designer jeans first came around again, they simply did not offer them in lengths/inseams for us shorties. And you cannot hem jeans more than 1/2-1 inch without ruining the look. The only jeans I've owned for the past 6 years have all been from Old Navy and meh. They weren't AWFUL, but they certainly weren't flattering and they most DEFINITELY did not make me look sexy. At all. And then a fellow blogger {I think it was Kate at Nautical by Nature?} posted this article about Gap and Old Navy mom jeans. Suddenly it all made sense! I was buying the wrong jeans!

I got rid of all my jeans {I hardly ever wore them anyways} and swore I would buy new ones....yeah, that part never happened. But armed with research, I'm ready for a denim bonanza. The hunt for the perfect pair. Here are the top recommendations:

1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 // 6 // 7

In all fairness, there is still a pair of Gap jeans in this mix {#7}. But multiple people recommended checking them out, so I'll give them a shot. There is also a pair of Banana Republic jeans in there {#5}, as 3 different people recommended them. The picture from the website is hideous, so let's hope they're a bit more impressive in person. I have high hopes for the Levis {#3 and 4}. They are super inexpensive, have great reviews, and look quite stylish in the pictures. Then there are the 3 extra $$$ fancy designer pairs {#1, 2, and 6}. I'm not trying them until I've tried all of the others. That way, if I end up spending that much on a pair of jeans, I can say I tried everything.

Several people recommended the J.Crew toothpick and matchstick jeans. People either love them or hate them, which I find to be true of all J.Crew pants. In the past, their jeans have been majorly frump-tastic on me. If none of the above pan out, I would be willing to revisit the Crew to see if any improvements have been made.

Plan of attack: order the Gap, BR, and Levis. Cross fingers that one or several of those pairs is a winner. If not, move on to the upper echelon of denim. Cross fingers that I don't become hopelessly addicted to overpriced jeans.

Wish me luck!

Closet Overhaul Update

2013-04-10T01:50:00.000-04:00

So it happened. Well, it's still happening. The start of the overhaul was shockingly easy and quick. The above stack of clothes were in the toss/donate/sell pile within about 5 minutes because none of them passed the "Do you absolutely love it?" test. That pile was about double in size by the end of the morning and all of those items marched off to a local consignment store yesterday.

Last night I went through my chest-of-drawers and weeded out ancient t-shirts, PJ/lounge pants, and other items that are in decent condition to be donated to the Goodwill. A few things just went straight into the trashcan. My project for tonight is to start the Herculean task of trying on all of my spring clothes that I got out of storage last weekend and giving them some tough lovin'. And then my shoes...that's the part I'm dreading the most.

Still, it felt GREAT to drop off those big bags of stuff at the consignment store and I feel like I still have more brutal honesty in me to narrow down the ranks even more.

Then comes the fun part! Filling my closet with the clothes that I actually need/will wear/will be flattering on me {I'm using the term 'need' loosely here}. The downside to all of that brutal honesty is that my closet looks like I've been robbed. I am pared down to the basics and the items that I love and wear over and over again. At least that's made it easy to identify what I need to purchase. Right now, here's what that list looks like:

pencil skirts {especially in basic colors like khaki, black, and navy}

ankle-length/cropped pants {in all colors and a few fun prints}

long cardigans {in all colors}

button-front shirts {in all colors and patterns}

sleeveless shift dresses {in all colors and patterns}
work-appropriate jackets/blazers

several pairs pantyhose in a color very close to my skin tone

jeans {2-3 pairs}

fun blouses {work-to-weekend}

skinny belts

black pumps

black flats

nude pumps
play clothes {a.k.a. weekend wear}

Any one out there have favorite brands/styles of these items? Petite readers: have you found any jeans that work for you? Jeans are my enemy. You can't have them hemmed more than a 1/2 inch because they don't taper or flare properly. It seems like every pair of designer jeans I try on is made for tall ladiezz. Suggestions? I used to love shopping, but now I kind of get exhausted thinking about it. Any help in narrowing down the selection would be tres helpful!

Hiking and Picnicking

2013-04-09T08:54:00.000-04:00

Last Sunday was the first real spring day we've had, so we packed up the dogs and headed for the nearest state park. It turns out that hiking with two extremely curious dogs makes for very full hands, so the above pictures were the only ones I managed to get.

1 // 2

But fortunately some people on the interwebs were kind enough to share their photos, so you can see how beautiful it was! We want to go back without the pups so we can tour that gorgeous historic home on the property. That view made the burning I felt in my legs all day yesterday totally worth it.

We also packed a picnic, but we were too busy scarfing down our lunch to be bothered with pictures. I made these sandwiches

{they were just OK}

and brought these chips {the best chips EVER and made not too far from where we live!}

{BBQ for him, Chesapeake Crab for her}

and packed it all up in this nifty picnic cooler set. My mother-in-law gave us one of these Picnic Time Malibu coolers at one of my showers with our monogram on it. We used it for the first time on Sunday and I'm kind of obsessed with it. It has everything you could ever need, including a handy compartment for wine bottles, plates, napkins, utensils, wine glasses, a cutting board, a cheese knife, and a bottle opener. GENIUS. At the time, I wasn't sure we would ever use this, but now I'm dreaming up all the different picnic opportunities this baby will afford. Love it.

It felt so great to be outdoors again and to do something active {read: something other than watch DVR'd reruns of 'The Americans'} on a Sunday afternoon. I can't wait to go back again, especially since all this hiking will come in handy for quickly approaching bikini season!

Menu Monday

2013-04-08T09:35:00.000-04:00

A lot of good, not great, recipes graced our table last week. Solid weeknight recipes that may or may not earn a repeat on our menu rotation.

Spinach Manicotti in Creamy Tomato Sauce {Everyday Food December 2010}

This one will probably earn a second look. It was relatively simple to make, although stuffing the shells is a huge pain. The lemon was a wonderful addition to the filling, but I felt like it needed a little more flavor. Maybe some garlic? It was a little bland. But a great, filling Meatless Monday meal that was pretty inexpensive. With some adjustments, I think this could become a standard.

Tex-Mex Pork {Cooking Light December 2010}

Meh. I had such high hopes for this meal and it did not live up to them at all. All delicious ingredients but combined it was underwhelming. Although M did enjoy the leftovers with some scrambled eggs the next morning. All told, I didn't like this enough to make it again.

Fresh Salmon-Cilantro Burgers {Cooking Light May 2009}

Winner! We LOVED these burgers. I would add a little more flavor to the burgers with some garlic and I would add jalapeño to the flavored mayo as well. They would be good with some sliced avocado on top too. Very easy to make, very minimal clean up, SO delicious!

Almond-Stuffed Chicken {Cooking Light March 2009}

Another meh. I thought this was going to be amazing and it just wasn't. It wasn't bad; it just wasn't worth the work and the cost of Boursin. We won't be having this again. I'd much rather have the rollatini I posted from last week.

Bon appétit!

The Great Closet Overhaul of 2013

2013-04-04T15:25:00.000-04:00

source

One of the items on my 101 in 1,001 is to be able to better define my aesthetic in fashion. In order to do that, I need to tackle another item on the list, which is to scrutinize the contents of my closet and donate, store, or toss the items I never wear. To take it a step further, I also need to identify which looks work for me and which looks don't and I need to make a list of what clothing items I need to purchase.

As I mentioned yesterday, my wardrobe is in major need of an overhaul. I'm a classic example of the first world problem of too many clothes and nothing to wear. Here's my MO: I see something cute/trendy/on sale, I'm too lazy to try it on in the store so I buy it, try it on at home, it's not really that flattering but I never get around to returning it. Or I try it on in the store and ignore the fact that it's not all that flattering because it was cute/trendy/on sale and buy it anyways. Then it hangs in my closet after one or two wears {in which I confirm that it is definitely not flattering} and taunts me. Or {my worst habit} I buy work pants that need to be hemmed because I'm such a shorty and they never get to the tailors. Seriously, I currently have 5 {!!} pairs of pants that fit this definition, some of which were purchased 3 years ago. {Here's where I hang my head in shame.}

I also have a hard time parting with my poor-decision purchases because I think, "Well, I spent the money on them, so I should keep them." Of course, this logic is ridiculous. The money is spent whether or not I keep the items in question. So that brings us to today. My goal for this weekend is to truly clean out my closets. That means try on EVERYTHING. Be brutally honest with myself about what looks good and what doesn't. About what I love and what I don't. About what I will ACTUALLY wear and what I won't. There will be four piles: Keep. Donate. Toss. Repair/Alter/Clean.

Then comes {for me anyways} the really hard part: following through. I have to actually take the Donate pile to the Goodwill. I have to bring myself to toss the clothes that are not fit to be donated. And most important, I have to take those clothes in need of some TLC to their appropriate places by Memorial Day weekend.

I have to say I'm invigorated and excited just thinking about this. I don't know what it feels like to open my closet door and not feel a lot of guilt because 90% of the items in there aren't being worn. But I'm also majorly nervous because I'm a little afraid I won't be willing to be as harsh as I need to be. Do you have any advice for me? I know that for everyone of you who's a closet hoarder like me, there have got to me some expert closet editors out there!

I'll be back next week with the results...

Recent Purchases

2013-04-03T02:41:00.000-04:00

1 // 2 // 3 // 4

A couple of recent spring clothing purchases that I'm loving. The bonus is that they're ALL on sale right now. {The J.Crew skirt doesn't appear to be available online in my pretty green color anymore, but maybe you can find it at your local store?}

Any additions to your spring wardrobe that I should add to my list? My wardrobe needs an overhaul in the worst way!

Popcorn Monkey

2013-04-02T01:15:00.000-04:00

We spent our Easter Sunday in Middleburg with my parents. We had some time to kill before our brunch reservations at The French Hound, and we spotted a sign for a shop called Popcorn Monkey across the street from the restaurant. M and I have been to Middleburg many times and this was our first time spotting the new Popcorn Monkey store. What a discovery!

It's in the basement of an old house and the owner, who is so sweet and helpful, whips up fresh batches of popcorn in every flavor combination he can dream of. We went home with salt and vinegar, wasabi, banana chocolate drizzle, Texas tornado, and a combination of ranch and buffalo wing. I was partial to my wasabi, but the Texas tornado was the favorite of our group. It tasted like a taco!

The good news is that Popcorn Monkey ships. We've already got out online cart filled with new flavors to try {Loaded Potato and Dill} and another helping of Texas tornado. I'm keeping my eyes peeled for the elusive Black Truffle flavor.

For those of you with a sweet tooth, they have a chocolate peanut butter M&M mix that looks amazing, as well as kettle corn, chocolate-covered cherry, and cinnamon toast flavors.

I have a feeling we'll be making many more trips to Middleburg to hit up Popcorn Monkey. If you're in the area {especially you Northern VA and DC people}, you have to go by and try some!

Menu Monday

2013-04-01T11:00:00.002-04:00

FINALLY getting a Menu Monday post up on an actual Monday! Victory!

Thai Chicken Pizza {Culinary Couple}

Why are you reading this? You should be whipping this up for yourself RIGHT NOW. I know M was a little skeptical when he saw Thai chicken pizza on the menu and honestly, I was a little worried too. That was ridiculous because this has now won a space on my favorite weeknight meals list. It's that good. Go make it. FYI, I used my favorite crust recipe from Budget Bytes. Her recipe says it makes 3 crusts, but it only makes 2 in my experience.

Orecchiette with Turkey Sausage and Broccoli Rabe {Everyday Italian}

I used the recipe that is in the Everyday Italian cookbook, so I'm not sure what's going on with the tomato sauce recipe here. It's definitely not in the book. I loved this with 2 caveats: you do NOT need 3 tablespoons of olive oil. More like 1 tablespoon MAX. And 2 bunches of broccoli rabe would be fine, but it would make this recipe more of a broccoli rabe and sausage dish with a little pasta thrown in. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but what you see about was only with one bunch of broccoli rabe and it was plenty. Made enough for excellent leftovers!

Chicken Rollatini with Zucchini and Mozzarella {Skinnytaste}

Major yum. We will definitely be having this again. It came together much faster and easier than I thought it would and it was WAY more flavorful than I was expecting. Also a major hit with M. Two of these little guys apiece + a side salad was more than enough for dinner.

Potato Sourdough Bread {Southern Living 1995 Annual Recipes}

see last Friday's post for recipe

EHRMAHGAWSH. SO GOOD. These two loaves came out of the oven around 5:30pm yesterday and half a loaf is already gone. There is just nothing better than the smell of freshly baked bread. My mom's tips: Only add 1/6 cup {eyeball half of a 1/3 cup} of sugar, otherwise it's far too sweet. Start out only adding 5 cups of flour; you can always add more, but you can't take it out. I used about 5 1/3 cups + what I used to knead the bread {approx. another 1/3 cup}. You don't HAVE to knead the bread, but you get more of a cake-texture without kneading. I would actually knead it a little more than the recipe calls for to get a true bread texture. Honestly, I was surprised how simple this was to make. I'm planning to make another two loaves this weekend and once I feel like I've mastered it, I'm going to attempt cinnamon bread! Yummmmmmmmm.

Friday Favorites

2013-03-29T09:24:00.001-04:00

It's been so long since I did a Friday Favorites post! I hope to be back to regular posting soon. Here's what's on my radar this week:

So I have an addiction. It's strange, because I really hate the regular Peeps. I get grossed out just thinking about them. But these...these are amazing. True story: I drove to three stores earlier this week looking for them so I could have one on my lunch break. NO SHAME.

I spend a fortune each week on grocery store basil and cilantro. I'm determined to overcome my black thumb this summer and grow them at home. I bought seeds and little starter indoor growing cups at Target this week and I'm going to plant them this weekend. This article has some good tips on successfully growing basil and this one is all about cilantro; do you have any other tips for me? I'm going to need all the help I can get. I am a plant murderer.

So you can get the top dress from the normal J.Crew website for $88, or you can get the bottom dress from the J.Crew Factory website for $54.50 plus another 30% off with the code MOREPLEASE. No brainer.

Recipe is from the 1995 Southern Living Annual Recipes cookbook

My parents are coming to visit this weekend and I'm so excited to tackle another item on my 101 in 1,001 list with my mom: making homemade bread! My mother had a sourdough starter that lasted for years and we always had homemade sourdough bread growing up. She recently gave my sister and I the ingredients to make our own starters and this weekend is the moment of truth! My starter's been going for a couple of weeks. I'll report back next week, along with my mom's tips and tricks for theeeee best homemade bread.

For my DC/Baltimore/Northern VA friends and readers, Livingsocial has a fabulous deal going on a 4-pack of tickets to the Virginia Gold Cup races. M and I got our package and would love to see lots of fun people there on the North Rail! Hop to it and let me know if you'll be there!

Happy Easter weekend!

Menu Tuesday

2013-03-26T09:56:00.001-04:00

Yesterday was {yet another} snow day here in Virginia, so Menu Tuesday it is. Lots of good eats last week, although I'm getting tired of cold-weather comfort food!

Tuna Noodle Casserole {PBS Food}

This could not have been a bigger hit at our house. M inhaled it. Only change I will make the next time I make it {and there will definitely be a next time}: add Old Bay. I'm thinking a teaspoon sautéed with the vegetables and then a good, healthy dose sprinkled on top with the cheese and potato chips. Heavenly and retro in the best way possible.

Split-Pea and Ham Soup {Cook's Illustrated January 2011}

New favorite soup recipe. Very easy and so delicious and comforting and hearty. I didn't add the fresh peas or mint for garnish, but we did add the balsamic vinegar. Don't skip that step. I also didn't make croutons, but rather sliced a loaf of bread, drizzled on salt, pepper, and olive oil, and put it under the broiler for a few minutes. Leftover for lunch today and I can't wait!

Soy Dijon Pork Tenderloin {Budget Bytes}

Winner, winner, pork dinner! This is going to be in heavy rotation in our house. So, so, SO yummy. Easy and not very time consuming either. Wondering when is too soon to make this again...

Broccoli Cheese Stuffed Sweet Potatoes {A Couple Cooks}

Meh. Not bad, not great. I could've done without the water in the bean puree as it made it too, wait for it...watery. I think it would've been better with black beans. And I wouldn't puree anything next time. I would've enjoyed the different texture whole beans would've added. Even with the garlic and red pepper flakes, I just found this to be bland. I can think of more exciting things to do with sweet potatoes. That said, this was easy, cheap, and a filling Meatless Monday meal. Just needs a little adjusting.

Asian Chicken Noodle Soup {Eat, Live, Run}

I'm still not 100% sure how I feel about this one. I loved the flavors, it was incredibly delicious, and it was the perfect thing for a night when I was feeling a bit under the weather. But it made SO MUCH SOUP. Normally, this wouldn't be a bad thing, as I am all about leftovers. But the acids in the broth broke down the noodles so that they were mushy and gross. I need to figure out a way to halve the recipe and then we'll be good to go.

Bon appétit!