Menu-Planning Monday

It's time to plan the menu for October! I'm linking up with The Orgjunkie to share my plans!

Now you might have visited my last month and if so, welcome back! Pinterest is my best friend and tool for menu planning. I save all of the meals I plan to cook on a board for that month and then make a calendar as well. Sometime I get off easy and my Honey travels. On those nights, I don't "cook". We eat easy and quick dinners!

My October board can be found here. I still have a few more items to add but I'm almost there. I've even added lots of sweet treats!

My calendar for the month is below. You can match most all of these up with recipes I have pinned.

As far as shopping goes, I am headed out today to shop for the first 2 weeks. My goal is under $200. We have set a goal of $400 per month. I didn't meet it last month. Boo. I spent more like $500. This month I am saving my receipts so I know exactly what I am spending.

So, how is your meal planning coming along?

Road Trip

Headed to Vegas and Roll Tide Roll!! 

Thursday Thoughts

Hi everyone! So happy to be able to chat with y'all from my office again. Let's face it, once I get home there is too much other stuff to do! I gotta blog from the office or it just doesn't seem to happen.

This week....

Well, I'm not happy with school so far for Sofia. Homework is not really the problem - there doesn't seem to be any of it! There are no books that come home and I'm not sure I love the teaching methods they use for math these days. In social studies, she has only had one grade and the made a 79 on it and I am not happy about that at all. Other than that, she has all A's. I can only  hope they have more assignments soon!!

Sofia has a neighborhood friend which makes me very happy! Those 2 are joined at the hip! They play horses and with the dogs and ride bikes a ton! This I like especially cause well, Sofia needed to lose a few pounds and she has! 4 to be exact. Ok I know that must sound bad. I'm thinking my nearly 10 year old needs to lose weight, but based on her height, she does. She has been eating better, snacking less and is getting more active!

Speaking of getting more active, this girl has hit the gym again for 60 minute (at least) cardio sessions. I'll add the weights back soon. Y'all might remember or know that I lost 50 lbs from 10/2011-6/2012. Well....I've since but on about 20 lbs. It just isn't fair!! Unless I cut out ALL and I mean ALL carbs, I gain instantly, regardless of my exercise routines.  It is really tough to stay motivated with a body that reacts so quickly to food.

So anyway, starting over with right now a balanced 1200 calorie day, 60 minutes of cardio and will soon switch back to no carb. But I need to learn once and for all, that exercise (hard exercise) must be a part of my every day life - FOREVER! 

 

In more fun news, I received my lovely monogrammed, chevron infinity scarf in the mail yesterday. I ordered it from here. 

And in even MORE exciting news, my Honey is taking me away for the weekend for a belated birthday weekend! It's a surprise (but I think I know where we are going :) )

This week in Pinterest, I put several recipes to work. You can check them out on my September or October Meal plan boards here. 

I also worked on this project for Sofia's room.

I'm back

Yes! Internet Explorer at work kept me from being able to post from the office. However, a legitimate IE problem for work stuff required me to get FireFox! Woo Hoo!! Now I can blog at work again!

Random snaps from the phone

Gymnastics fun

My statement necklace from Charming Charlies!

 Sofia LOVES these movies

Movie day to see the One Direction movie

Me in desperate need of a root job!

The closet - before and after!

 Tumbling Class

Happy Birthday to me!

On the 16th I turned 37! Getting a little too close to the big one!!

We went to dinner at North in Arcadia and my Honey gave me an LV purse! Yay me and my Speedy 30!

My Honey sent me not 1, but 2 flower arrangements to work! How lucky am I??

4th Grade

My almost 10 year old, 4th Grade

Hiking in Cave Creek

A couple of weeks ago, we headed out to hike in Cave Creek. It was a wonderful day - overcast and even a few sprinkles!

This was the site of the race I ran a few months back when a cactus ball got stuck in the back of my leg! Ugh.

I LOVE this picture! xoxo

Friday Furry

This is Duke, aka Buster, aka $hithead. Yes, I just typed that. He answers to all three names. Honey came up with the last name. He's our wire-haired fox terrier we adopted a few years ago.

Sometimes he's a pony and sometimes he's a princess.

Sometimes he's a football fan

and lastly he's a friend!

Random this and that

I really wish I could blog at work because that keeps me current, but for some reason it doesn't work. Boo.

So let's see...what have I been up to.

We've recently done a few hikes around our house. On Labor Day,we hiked Daisy Mt. and it was SO hot and miserable.We also ran out of water. It was a nice view from the peak though.

It's the simple things...

So I don't eat carbs. Well if I want to feel my best and lose weight, I don't. 

What does that really mean? It means I eat as close to zero net carbs per day as I can. So a lot of meat, a little cheese, eggs and that's about it. I sometimes have a few select veggies and nuts. But not much. I pick the lowest carb veggies. Fruit, treats and sweets are all out. No pasta. No bread. No rice, etc. 

I know it seems horrible, right? Lol 

It can be hard but I feel so much better, it's worth it. It does get hard to find sweet treat that I can have. So my standard go to is coffee! Usually iced. I use heavy whipping cream, a little sugar-free flavored creamer and a sweet n low. It really hits the spot!! 

What's your go-to sweet when you are dieting?

Meal Plan Monday - the Highs and Lows so far for September

It's Monday and I'm linking back up with The Org Junkie to share my meal planning for the month of September.

If you'e visited before, you remember this post, where I shared our meal plan for the whole month of September.

I must say, my life is SO much easier with a plan! I grocery shop once per week for the next week (typically on Thursday or Friday afternoon) and I am doing pretty good staying on budget. This was our first month to have a "budget" of $400. I'm going to go over it, but this is a work in progress! lol

This is my actual menu calendar:
Now, most of these recipes are all brand new to me! You can find them on my board here!

I thought since we were into the month a little, I would highlight some of our hits (and the misses) so far.

Last week we had:

Monday - BBQ Ribs with this rub. Bib Bob's is from my hometown and they are amazing! I also made the loaded baked potato salad (below) and we had grilled corn on the cob.

Tuesday - I made the blackened salmon w/ mango salsa (below) and green beans. I did not like this. Not sure if it was the salmon or the seasoning. No need to repeat this recipe.

Wednesday - I made this Potato Chip Chicken - it was a HUGE hit! I couldn't make this Field Pea salad because apparently no one in AZ knows what a field pea is so I made the Outback mac and cheese from below. THE MOST AMAZING mac EVER!

Thursday - I threw in the towel and we had leftovers!

Friday - Honey and I dined out with a friend of his at Olive and Ivy. Tasty but no need to visit again.

Saturday - We had chili dogs, this cole slaw and these AMAZING jalepeno poppers! Oh and Saturday morning, a near catastrophe--we didn't have enough stuff for pancakes or sticky buns!  So luckily, I found this recipe for easy cinnamon rolls. They were ok in a pinch!












The good news: almost everything was great! We did not love the Wagon Wheel Pasta salad or the Salmon with Mango Salad. Those two will not make it into the repeat list. I've almost got my October Meal plan complete. You can check it out here.

So, how is your meal planning coming along? In case you haven't noticed, my life would be a wreck without Pinterest!