Sunday Meal Planning #1

Every Sunday I sit down and make a meal plan for the upcoming week. Recently our weeks have been pretty predictable. Dave Ramsey course on Sunday, bible study on Monday, free nights Tuesday- Thursday, and then out of town on Friday through the weekend. I've found that it's easiest to have somewhat of a template to go by each week for meal planning. Since it's started to get cooler, this is what we've done: soup or crockpot recipe on Sunday/Monday, Fish on Tuesday, and then a chicken or pork dish on Wednesday/Thursday. I always love looking at other bloggers' meal plans for the week, because it gives me inspiration for my own. I've decided that I'll be sharing our weekly meal plans every Sunday. Here's what we've got on the list for this week.

Baked Brown Sugar Chicken Wings with Roasted Red Pepper Cream Sauce (photo from damndelicious.net)

Sunday:  

Lemon Orzo Soup with Easy Parmesan Garlic Knots

Monday:

Left Overs

Tuesday:  

Parmesan Fish with Broccoli Cheese Bites

Wednesday:  

Baked Brown Sugar Chicken Wings with Roasted Red Pepper Cream Sauce and Roasted Zucchini and Carrots

Thursday: 

Left Overs

Friday: 

Out of Town 

Hope y'all have a great week!

Halloween Through My College Years

T and I are going to a Halloween party tonight and I still don't have my outfit planned.  I was trying to brainstorm this morning, and thought it may be a good idea to start looking at the costumes I've worn in the past for a little inspiration.  These pictures were just too good not to share.  Here's a look at my Halloween costumes through my college years.

For my Freshman year, I was a sailor.  I'm proud of myself for not going with the "sluttier is better" theme that some college freshman succumb to.  I can't guarantee that I got much attention from the guys that night, especially standing next to ol' Dolly.

Too many trips to the tanning bed and ten pounds later came my Sophomore year, and I was Audrey Hepburn.   Everything about this photo just screams college.  My apologies if I offend anyone by this borderline inappropriate picture.  It was just too good not to include.

Junior year was the year I thought I was too cool to dress up for Halloween, so I was the girl dressed in regular clothes at a Halloween party.  The only picture I could find was this one, getting a shot of ketchup from mustard.  Oh the things you think are hilarious when you're three cups of PJ down.

For my senior year my sorority had an 80's mixer at Halloween.  The dress I got was awesome.  It actually had three extra shoulder pads sewn into each side, because the original ones clearly weren't big enough for the original owner. I must admit, it was one of the most comfortable Halloween costume I've ever worn, and man do those shoulder pads make your waist look small.

Happy Halloween!

Spicy Carrot Hummus

T and I are on a serious budget now for restaurants and groceries every month.  We've been taking a Dave Ramsey course which has forced us to look at our budget, and see where we can cut out spending.  For the month of October we attempted to cut our food budget in half.  Yes, you read that right, half.  It was extremely challenging, but we only have one more day of this month and I still have $1.03 in my wallet.  I think we're gonna make it.

Being on such a tight budget has made me see the things that we have in our refrigerator a little differently.  Rather than going out and buying something new, I find myself making use of every single thing we've got in there.  Last week we had a full bag of pita chips, and I found myself craving hummus.  I looked in the fridge, no hummus.  Looked in the pantry, no chick peas. So it was time to get creative. 

I remembered back to the previous week when I tried a carrot hummus, and I did my best to replicate the recipe. I really liked how it turned out, and T even enjoyed it, too!  I use the word "hummus" very loosely with this recipe, because it is missing the two key ingredients in a traditional hummus: chick peas and tahini.  It does include garlic, lemon juice and olive oil like a typical hummus would, but that's when the similarities stop.  Regardless, its great with pita chips.

 Spicy Carrot Hummus

6 large carrots, peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces

1 small clove garlic

1 Tbsp lemon Juice

2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

1/8 tsp nutmeg

1/8 tsp cayenne 

1 tbsp capers

Boil or roast carrots until tender. In a food processor, combine carrots through cayenne and pulse until smooth.  Top with capers.  Serve with pita chips. 

Angela's Wedding Weekend

This weekend we packed up our bags and headed to Charleston for T's sister Angela's wedding.  Angela and her fiance Trey were sweet enough to reserve a house in Isle of Palms for the family to stay.   Friday afternoon Angela's aunts threw a bridesmaids luncheon at the house.  We had so much fun sipping on our mimosas, eating girly food, and talking about the wedding.  Oh, and we stepped out to the porch for a mini photo shoot, too.

The ceremony and reception were held at Harborside East, a wedding venue close to Patriots Point.  The view for the ceremony was gorgeous; a Charleston sunset over the Holy City's iconic Ravenel Bridge.  The reception was beautiful.  The couple are both wine enthusiasts and love to visit different vineyards.  Over the years that they dated, they collected bottles from each vineyard.  For the centerpieces, they converted each wine bottle into a flower vase and included a message about the memories that they had from that particular vineyard.  I just loved the personal touches that they put on everything. 

For wedding favors, the newly married couple gave out Krispy Kreme Doughnuts as we left.  A perfect sweet treat to end the night.

Hope y'all had a great weekend, too!

Roasted Ranch Pumpkin Seeds

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, after pumpkin carving on Friday night I was left with the seeds of five pumpkins.  As a kid we always had roasted pumpkin seeds so I was really excited about giving them a shot myself. I looked up several recipes and combined a few to get the flavors that I was wanting. I brought them to our tailgate the next day and they were a big hit. I'm always looking for tailgate foods that can stay out all day without spoiling, and this one fit the bill! 

Roasted Ranch Pumpkin Seeds:

4 cups pumpkin seeds (washed)
1 packet Hidden Valley Ranch Seasoning
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. dill
1 tsp. lemon pepper seasoning
1 tsp. seasoned salt  (optional)
2 Tbsp. olive oil

Preheat oven to 375. Stir pumpkin seeds, oil, and seasonings until seeds are evenly coated.  Roast seeds for 30 minutes on a greased baking sheet, stirring every 10 minutes until golden.

Pumpkin Carving With Friends

Friday night T and I got together with some friends.  We spent the night sipping on drinks, eating soup, and carving pumpkins.  What a perfect fall evening.

You can see our pumpkin just above my head.  T did a great job carving the ghost, while I stayed in the kitchen picking all of the pumpkin seeds out of the pulpy goop.  I couldn't stand seeing all of those yummy seeds go to waste, so I seasoned and roasted them for the next day.

We had a little bit of a competition with our pumpkin carving, and the winning pumpkin was this one.  It was completely appropriate because we are all Clemson fans and our team was playing FSU the next day.  Little did we know we were going to get stomped in that football game!

Five On Friday

This Friday I'm joining up with April, Natasha, Darci, and Christina in their Five on Friday Link Up.  Here are the five things I'm loving this Friday.


{one.}
Last night my good friend Megan and I went to Fashion On The TOWN put on by Greenville's TOWN Magazine.  Fashion On The TOWN is a shopping crawl held once a year in Greenville for two nights.  To partake, you pick up a passport from one of the participating stores.  Your passport contains information an all of the stores, coupons and discounts for those retailers, and a map of where each place is located.  The last page of your passport has an area where each store can stamp, proving that you've been to that place.  The goal of the night is to get as many stamps as you can.  At the end of the event your name is entered into a drawing to win a trip to NYC.  The number of stamps you get determines the amount of times your name is entered into the drawing. 

All of the participating retailers pull out all the stops for the shoppers, too.  Each place had complimentary drinks and food, and some offered an additional discount off of all of their clothes.  They even offered a car service that would take you from store to store.  It was truly an amazing night.

{two.} 
One of the boutiques that we visited last night, Augusta Twenty, had a Día de los muertos theme.  They brought in two psychics to do readings.  I've never had a reading done before, and thought that this may be the only opportunity I ever have to get a free one done.  I've never been a big believer in clairvoyance, but it was quite interesting to hear what she did have to say.  The reader said that I would have a long happy life, so I hope that part is true!

{three.}  
It's been quite a busy week, and every night I've found myself scrambling in the kitchen at after 7 pm trying to whip up a quick dinner. Earlier this week I threw together a fish dish that I found on Pinterest. I was not expecting it to be an amazing dish, but T could not stop talking about how much he loved this fish.  He's even requested that we have it again next week.  The recipe is a Chili, Lime and Cumin Cod (I used Orange Roughy) and I also served a Tartar-Like Sauce with it.  The tartar sauce is not too bad for you either, you cut some of the mayonnaise out and substitute it with plain Greek yogurt.

Food.com's Chili Lime and Cumin Cod

Budget Bytes Tartar-Like Sauce

{four.}
Sauvignon Blanc has always been my white wine of choice.  I'm not a huge fan of the Charles Shaw Sauv Blanc, but Trader Joe's has recently started carrying another one that I love for just a dollar more.  This Chilean Sauvignon Blanc is so clean and crisp and not too grassy; just how I like it.  And at $3.99 a bottle I'm tempted to buy a whole case.

{five.}
Once again we're headed to Clemson this weekend to cheer on our Tigers.  We've maintained the #3 spot for several weeks now and this game on Saturday is HUGE.  For the second time this season ESPN Gameday will be in Tigertown as we play the #5 Florida State Seminoles.  Wish us luck!