I recommend you try it out.

Diced mozzarella. To die for.

Chopped basil. Yes, please.

Before going into the oven.

The final result. So cheesy...in a good way.

1. Cutting subscriptions and payments on frivolous things. $10 here and there adds up quickly, and yet I’m always a sucker for stuff that’s cheap because I trick myself into believing that a fun new iPad app is like going out to lunch. I’m also going to examine some of my monthly payments. I can easily cut back on my Netflix subscription.

2. Breakfast and lunch from home. I was totally rocking this lifestyle for a good long while, but somewhere in February I went off course. Strangely, the timing correlates with my diet. You would think that it would actually go hand in hand with dieting, but I have a hard time. If I’m doing one thing right, another thing slips. Sometimes I think I only have the capacity to handle one thing at a time. I have to overcome that.

3. Much like number two, we’ve got to stop eating out for dinner. We’re in a super bad place right now with ordering in for every meal, or ordering take out that we pick up. Somehow I’ve managed to lose weight while doing this, but there are many nights when I’m paying to feed the two of us and two kids and that just isn’t working out so well. This is going to require that I cook, and so I’ve got to get over the lazy factor.

Tonight I’m making this delicious looking pasta dish I found on Pinterest. Adding in some Italian Sausage for Mike, the total cost of this meal will be $15. Not the cheapest, but far cheaper than Carrabbas, which runs me like $50 every time I pick it up.

Baked Shells with Tomato and Mazzarella from Big Girls Small Kitchen

4. Coupons and deals. As much as I hate the time it takes, I’m going to need to shop wiser in April. Random trips to the store to feed all four of us when we’re not ordering in is costing me an arm and a leg. Each day I’m faced with the same question from Mike, “what’s for dinner?” He’s an super-planner, but he also hates being the one to make the plan. He also requires perfection when it comes to his meals. If he has a bad food day, he gets very grumpy. Instead of meeting this daily challenge with rolling my eyes, I should embrace it and plan. On the cheap. In a healthy way. Wow this sounds hard. Maybe just maybe I can get him to help.

And that’s it. I really mean it when I say that I don’t live in major excess. The majority of my money goes to bills, then it’s food, then it’s little apps, new dollar books on my kindle, or songs. Somehow, someway I’ve got find some relief. Wish me luck!

Hi Friends. It’s been a hellish two weeks for me. I had a huge brief due at the beginning of last week and a mid-term on Friday. Anyway, here’s where I’m at with those pesky goals.

Money
I only bought lunch at the school once this week, which is pretty good! We did eat out a bit more than we wanted to for dinner. Jimmy Johns is just too good.

Exercise
I worked out four times this week, and three times the week before. I feel better getting back into the grove of the gym.

Eating health
Well, I don’t really know to be honest- which I guess isn’t good! I think I’ve been eating healthier, other than constantly craving sweets. Definitely some room for improvement in this are.

School
I had a hard couple weeks, but I am proud of the work I’ve done. I got everything done on the timeframe I wanted to, even though it meant some days of doing double the reading. I finished my brief with some extra time, which was certainly nice. I didn’t outline or anything, other than for my mid-term.

Domestic
This has been my biggest failing by far. My apartment is pretty clean, but solely thanks to Johnny I definitely need to be better at keeping stuff clean.

So that’s about all I have to report. My week goals are to eat in most of the days, so I don’t spend too much money before our trip to NYC. I also want to keep working out and get some outlining in since I’ll be gone for spring break. Wish me luck!.

Self health/personal

Below, I talk about about making time for domestic bliss. In general though, I need to find a better balance between being in law school and having a life outside of the law school. It’s important to keep hobbies, keep healthy, and be happy. These are my goals for that.

• Exercise- pretty much a given. I’ve only worked out 3 times this year. Frankly, it’s not just about weight or health, it’s really about mental health too. It’s such a great stress relief and I feel so much better after going to the gym. Once I get over this cold, I want to go on a major health kick and really focus on my fitness.
• Eating- As I say below, I eat out now all the time! This is bad on my wallet and my health. I need to eat healthier. More salads- less jimmy johns.
• Wallet- I had a BAD month of spending. I went over budget and I am definitely paying the price now. Because I get a lump sum of money and give it to my self in monthly installments, if I spend all of my allotment I refuse to give myself money out of the next month’s allotment (I’m glad I’ve stuck to this habit). This was my first month since starting school of spending my monthly installment fully. That said, I have got to cool it with spending. Mostly, stop buying clothes all the time. Find other things that make me feel happy (like exercise) other than buying shoes. It seems silly, but it’s probably my biggest problem right now. I’m actually a shopoholic. Since starting school, it’s unfortunately (but also kind of fortunately because now I have a great wardrobe!) been my main stress release. When I’m shopping, I feel so incredibly happy. Everything is right in the world. I forget about my problems. This may be good for Urban Outfitters- but it’s so bad for my wallet! I live on a fixed income! I cannot afford to be doing this! So yes, big goal- reign in the spending.

Home

• Cooking! I was so good about cooking last semester and last year! Now my cooking only consists on frozen pizza. Johnny and I made a goal of deciding on cooking one thing special per week and doing it.
• Cleaning- no, I am not the cleanest person. Johnny and I are trying to weekly clean up our house.
• Making time for domestic bliss- Being in law school is about an 80-hour per week job, but you have to find balance. I’d like to get more domesticated- like buster!

Law School

Me - the law school student

Being back in school as an adult is weird and very nerve wracking. I love it though! One of the things I’ve loved is that I am so much more committed to school than I used to be. I really do work as hard as I can, which is pretty much necessary in law school. I’m proud of what I’ve been able to achieve so far. I got pretty decent grades last semester, and I actually won a Scholastic Excellence Award. This only happened because of hours on end of studying and going the extra mile in all of my classes. This semester, however, I’ve began slacking off. Here are my specific goals for this semester:

• Outlining early- Every law student can tell you of the horror and necessity of outlining, and doing it early. Last semester I got most of my outlining done in the few weeks leading up to reading week and during reading week. It was such a relief to get it done before finals time. This semester, my goal is to start outlining in March.
• Doing Hypothetical Questions Early- Hypos are the key to law school. Last semester, I dedicated at least two days of my studying for each final to doing practice problems. This was extremely helpful, and made the exam taking experience a lot less stressful. This semester, I’d like to begin doing hypotheticals early so I don’t get rusty by final exam time.
• Procrastination- The big one. I procrastinate so much. In fact, I began writing this blog because I didn’t want to start my sunday homework.
• Organization- I’ve had a harder time staying organized this semester, which is not good. I need write everything in my calendar and make check lists.
• Skipping class- I’ve now missed Torts and Property each twice. That means I pretty much cannot miss them again. I didn’t have a good excuse to miss them. They were undergrad me absences for sure. I know I don’t miss as often as other students, but I really don’t want to miss any more classes.

So I will try to keep you up to date with these goals. As for my day today, it will/must be productive. I’ve got reading to do (what’s new?) and I need to polish up my scholarship applications. See you on the more productive side of life, and thanks for reading!

Homemade Egg McMuffin

Ingredients (no brainer really)

• 1 large egg
• 1 english muffin
• 1 piece of pre-cooked Canadian bacon (usually found in packs by the hot dogs)
• 1 slice of American cheese
• Salt and pepper to taste

1. Poach an egg.

• This is probably the most intimidating part, but it’s easy once you get the hang of it. There’s lots of ways to do this based on the equipment you have on hand. After a few attempts I’ve found that an egg cooker is the perfect device to mimic the true McDonalds taste of an Egg McMuffin. I bought have this one and I love it. If you have an egg cooker, use that to steam your egg following the instructions for that appliance.
• If you don’t, that’s okay. I’ve done it without one and it’s just as fine and delicious. Use this recipe by Simply Recipes. I personally don’t like the vinegar so I never use it.
• Finally, I like to use organic eggs. While it’s more expensive, I actually think it tastes a lot better. I always use eggs like that when I’m baking. Maybe I’m crazy, but it makes a difference.

2. While your egg is being poached, fry up the bacon!

• Super simple. Just heat up a skillet on medium heat, and toss in a slice. Cook each side for about two minutes.  Canadian bacon is so lean and low in calories. It doesn’t leave behind a lot of grease and the likelihood of getting splattered and burned is so low.

3. Prepare your english muffin.

• This is all up to you. If you want the true McDonalds experience, do nothing but open it up. If you want a little more crunch, which I like, toast it to your taste.
• I’m using whole wheat muffins in the picture above.

4. Place your cheese.

• At McDonalds they just throw on the whole slice. I like to take the slice and split it in half and put it on the top and bottom halves of the english muffin.
• Think outside the box on the kind of cheese you want to use. We usually have White American cheese from our local deli on hand for sandwiches. I plan on switching over to that when we get some more.

5. Assemble the delicious breakfast sandwich.

• Once your egg is poached to your liking, put it all together. Add some salt and pepper to the egg. And that’s it. If you’re going to travel with this, wrap them up in aluminum foil. We’ve been doing that each morning this past week and taking them to work. It travels well.

6. Instead of hashbrowns, go with fruit, and voila you have one great and pretty healthy breakfast.

Whenever I think or hear about grilled pizza, I’m always intrigued. I once had it a friend’s party and it was excellent, but I’ve never had a lot of luck after that. You can buy pizzas to grill at target, and those just ended up burned. It takes quite a magic touch. I had forgotten about my desire for grilled pizza until I stumbled upon this recipe on Mel’s Kitchen Cafe. In this recipe you make your own dough and sauce and this intrigued me. She also provides fantastic step-by-step instructions.

I am such a novice at making dough, dealing with yeast, and the like that it took me a bit to make my batch, but I did do it successfully. The sauce was super easy and perfect for pizza. Then I made browned and crumbled some sweet italian sausage and used pepperoni for toppings.

The actual art of rolling out the dough and getting in the grill went only okay, and after the fact we agreed that it would have been better to make smaller pizzas that were thinner. All-in-all they were tasty and not terribly hard to make.

Check out the recipe on Mel’s Kitchen Cafe.

In the midst of all this, I threw together a peach pie, and I’ve got to tell you that it turned out perfect. The peaches were mixed, with some that were more ripe than others so the filling is scrumptious. I highly recommend this easy and delicious pie that anyone can make.

I followed Ina Garten’s recipe for Lemon Chicken Breasts, and I didn’t make any adjustments, except I didn’t have skin on boneless breasts and I brushed on some of the marinade over the top of the breasts, where she only did olive oil.

The marinade/sauce was really quite easy to make and the smell made us salivate. Thankfully I had some wine I had been saving that was perfect for it. There aren’t a lot of ingredients and it’s relatively simple to put together. I think if you don’t have fresh thyme, you could easily use dried.

One thing I forgot, but thankfully remembered right after I put it in the oven was cutting a lemon in eights and tucking them between the breasts.

The chicken cooked flawlessly in about 40 minutes and was nice and juicy. Some lemon chicken dishes I’ve tried are kind of flavorless, this one was definitely not. You’ve got to love garlic to make this dish!

I served it with some chicken rice and steamed green beans, like Ina.

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The first thing I did when I regained my freedom is I read a book, and quickly it became about enjoying the pleasurable things in life and shoving off responsibility. So I took a nice vacation last week where I read more books and played outside in the summer (first time in years), grilled steaks and saw movies. It was definitely what I needed.

As we all know, vacations end. It’s time for me engage in my life again and my work. I need a reset. I need routine. I need inspiration.

Space

Cleaning my space at home — it helps me want to be here and eases my mind from the stress of looking around and feeling burdened by the mess.

Cleaning out my pantry and refrigerator – out with the old and stale, in with the new and fresh. Less is more in terms of keeping food, in my opinion. Right now our pantry is bursting with stuff. There’s no space. It sounds like we have a lot of food, but we sit around thinking we don’t have anything to munch on. That’s because finding things in the fridge and pantry isn’t easy and it doesn’t feel good.

Laundry and organizing my closet — will make getting dressed for work easier in the morning. Anything that helps me get to work in the morning would be very helpful right now.

Cleaning, organizing and rearranging my office – I need a change to my space there. There have been so many other changes there, circling around me, I need to make a change myself so that I can complete this transition and want to actually be there.

Connections, Communications, and Productivity

Inbox — I actually did this recently, but I still have so far to go. My work inbox has over 12,000 messages in it. For a while I had 2,000 unread messages (mostly from Facebook and Borders and messages that didn’t really apply to me). I cleaned those out and that feels like a burden has been lifted. Now to clean out the old ones that I don’t need anymore. I love to lighten my load. I did this also on my GMail for my personal e-mail.

Google — I am a fan of Google’s application suite. It happened during my big project when my assistant showed me how awesome Google Docs is. We were able to really collaborate on documents and I could access those documents from any web browser, easily and quickly. Since then I’ve been using it for everything in my personal life and continue to use it at work for various things.

One of the ways I use it is for tracking tasks. I started doing this during my big project. Instead of all of these complicated task management programs, I simply use a Google document to write down what I need to do each day, what I’ve done (after the fact) and indicate when stuff gets done. I mix up both work and personal things because it’s way easier to only have one document. There are a lot of benefits to do this than just knowing what I need to get done. So many times I can’t remember what I’ve done. This tracks it. It’s a running list that just keeps going. So call it a task list, journal of sorts that I can access from anywhere (browser on whichever computer I’m on and from my iPhone and iPad) at anytime and easily edit.

Tasklist in Google Docs

I also use Google for my personal e-mail, personal calendar, and Google+ for connecting with others professionally and personally.

Mind and Body Nourishment

Meal Planning — a little time and planning up front saves a lot of time, money, and calories during the week. It also eases stress. It avoids that pesky question (that I often get), what’s for dinner? For inspiration I turn to “This Week for Dinner,” a blog that promotes meal planning and sharing menus. I’ve also just started using my Google calendar to help me plan and help me remember.

Meal planning with Google Calendar

Breakfast and Lunch – I’m pretty good about packing breakfast, but I stink at packing or planning for lunch. Most days I skip lunch and scavenge for snacks instead. There are so many things wrong with that, but the worst thing about it is that I end up so hungry for dinner that I don’t want to cook and I pick up food on the way home. I need to correct this.  I’m currently reading:

• The No Excuses Take Your Lunch To Work Guide
• 25 Tips for Better Brown Bags

Reading — Summer is a great time to turn off the TV. It’s also a great escape, so I’ve been spending more time reading. It relaxes me at night and it helps me wake up in the morning. I know — waking up and reading in the morning is weird, but that’s my favorite time to do it. I love using Goodreads to connect with friends and get ideas of what to read. It’s also a fun way to keep track of what you’re reading and gab about it. Find me on Goodreads and add me as a friend!

Exercise and Play — My gym routine got totally out of whack during the big project. I have a fabulous gym membership that I haven’t used in weeks. I need to start going back, so I’m fitting that into my schedule. Also — besides boring exercise, I’m just looking for more opportunities to play. Whether it’s golf or tennis, or flying a kite. Anything that gets me off the couch is a good thing.

Conference — I’m planning on attending a work conference in the fall that will help inspire me and hopefully that spark will come back. Right now things are not so good there after they made some personnel and organizational changes. My feelings and attitude are not what they should be about a job that I used to love so much. I need to find that purpose again so that I can put my best into it. Being happy at work is obviously very important.

I’d love to hear your tips and advice on helping me get back on track. What do you do when you slide away from the norm?