The Challenge...(numero UNO!)

Sometimes a challenge feels good correction - sometimes completing a challenge feels great! not so good if the challenge doesn't turn out well. Regardless, this Kosama program we do has taught me that even though it's a little painful and exhausting, at the end of the day a good challenge feels rewarding and well worth it! 


With that, my husband and I more so I than both of us decided at lunch today it was a good time for another challenge! In fact - I kind of decided in my head that we should do a new challenge every month, but I'll ease Derek into that part of the plan. Anyway, without further adieu - our challenge...


The Challenge: Eating In To Win!
yes i feel a little "Minute to Win It"...


Length of Contest: 4 weeks 1/25/11 - 2/23/11


Rule #1 We will only eat out for lunches if it can be expensed (a.k.a. work lunches with clients). 


Rule #2 We will only eat dinner out one night per week 
(yikes! this one will by FAR be the hardest for us!!)


Rule #3 Starbucks/coffee/soda runs DO count - so they can't happen! (they add up fast too!)


We came up with this challenge because we realized we were eating out a lot this past fall and we promised each other that "after the wedding" as we said about many things this past fall we would not eat out as much and try to eat more at home to save money and to eat healthier. Plus my husband can't stop talking about "filling up the coffers" have you ever even heard of a coffer? I had not...but now I feel like they are supposed to be my bff. (ugh). He hasn't gone so far as to actually literally get us a coffer to fill up - but if he did...here's what I would have to figure out how to incorporate into my home decor. That would be an entirely different challenge.

coffersplural of cof·fer (Noun)

1. A strongbox or small chest for holding valuables.

2. The funds or financial reserves of a group or institution

We began tonight by adding up the past four weeks purchases at ANY restaurant, coffee house, fast food place or grocery store. (note: we did the past four weeks we were here - we excluded the honeymoon week since we were not here). I wasn't really sure what to expect the total to be - but it was (drum roll please!) $975.24. Do you think this is a lot? I couldn't decide...in my head I thought it would be more when i was estimating, but then realizing this is approximately $250/ week in food, that seems like quite a bit! Our Goal: is to spend $125/ week on food for the next 4 weeks, for a total of $500 and a total savings of $475.24! (helloooo... JAMAICA a little sooner if we can start pulling that off monthly!)


We've been so excited about cooking with all of our new fun tools  that I can't think of a better time to meet this challenge head on.


So here goes nothing! (oh lordy - why am i ALREADY craving Jimmy Johns?! damn...) 


I'd love to hear feedback on what you think of this!!

Sunday Funday!

In my days at college which i fondly refer to as the glory days "Sunday Funday" meant for yet another wonderful day of fun with your friends - as if going out Thursday, Friday and Saturday wasn't enough "quality" time with your pals. Generally playing yard olympics, finishing the keg from the night before, ordering pizza and not so much studying for that chem. test you are taking at 8am Monday morning were on the itinerary. 


These days - my idea of the perfect "Sunday Funday" was waking up with my husband, making breakfast, cleaning the house together, working on wedding thank-yous and verbally planning our next trip to Jamaica as we seem to do daily now. Derek and I talked today about how we used to go crazy when we didn't have something to do on a Sunday, and now today getting off the couch seemed like too many scheduled events!


I was able to motivate myself to make my husband somewhat of a proper dinner this evening. In light of my fond memories of college "Sunday Funday" I was craving my favorite dining center soup - Pizza Soup! 


I didn't have the recipe - but I let my fingers do some research through the google and combined all the pizza soup recipes with my memories of this glorious concoction to come up with the following:


Pizza Soup!


Ingredients:
3/4 Box of Cooked Rigatoni
1 family size + 1 regular can of tomato soup
1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese
1/4 - 1/2 bag of Pepperoni's cut in half
1/4 tsp. Basil
1/4 tsp. Oregano
1/4 tsp. Garlic Powder
Shredded Mozzarella 

ingredients = check!
(think I went to Target today?!)

Fresh shredded motz is best!

Make the tomato soup as directed on the can, use milk.
(and even a little extra milk for a little creamier texture)
Add all seasonings and the parmesan cheese. Stir well. 

Add the pepperoni's and cooked noodles.
Stir again and let warm/simmer on medium for about 20 minutes 

Top with the Mozzarella - and voila FINISHED PRODUCT!
My husband was sweet enough to say
"it looks like something from the Food Network" - i love him!

It was delicious - i must say! I think in the future I will add mushrooms and maybe some Parmesan Cheese as a garnish as well. 

Derek said he LOVED it - and that it makes for a great comfort food in these days of the below the 0 temperature mark. yuk!

Check the "cool" box below if you plan to try this! 

(just curious!)

You're gonna catch a cold...

You will find that I tend to be the girl who listens to songs and makes it a hobby to try and figure out the true meaning and message the songwriter was trying to convey.

I LOVE this song: Jar of Hearts by Christina Perri. I think the song is actually a man hatin' song, but it has a line in it that I've taken upon myself to interperet in a way that related to my week better. If you listen she says "you're gonna catch a cold, from the ice inside your soul".

This is the premise to my rant on mean people. I am very over mean people. I seem to keep getting slapped in the face not literally thankfully! this week by mean people. The worst of it is - I'm realizing that actual "mean people" are not just people who get upset about one thing, or do one specific mean action. The people I am tired of are the day in and day out mean people - the people who - after time - it becomes painfully evident after you've spent months making excuses in your head for them they are mean ON PURPOSE! That is the worst kind of mean...

i.e. - "you're gonna catch a cold - from the ice inside your soul" A word to the permanantly mean people - you better start carrying around an unlimited refill prescription for z-packs.

I know it sounds a little Miss America - but do wish people were more accepting of the day to day behavior of others. Imagine a world thank you John Lenon where everybody treated everybody else with respect at the minimum but also genuine friendliness.
I am going to make an effort to be nicer to people, I am not going to make dirty faces to people who cut me off on the road ok-make that I'm not going to give people the bird, If somebody around me seems to be struggling with something - I'm going to try not to think in my head I'm too busy to help them, I hope they don't ask me. I'm going to offer help and a friendly face, I'm going to say Good Morning! to people at my office yes - even on Mondays to brighten the mood.

My point is, I believe being mean is probably more exhausting and I am glad to know already I am not somebody who evidently enjoys being mean, but I believe there are still plenty of ways I can improve myself.

I'm going to even apply this to my marriage or try to. If Derek gets home late I'm going to try to think positively not completely annoyed about how it's ruining my day. I'm going to keep focus on the small things and be nice in small ways. It's easy for a lot of people to not cheat on their spouses which obviously would be considered in the "mean" category" But I bet it's a lot less easy to remember to say sweet nice things - and act on those. Actions speak louder than words and I'm going to act nice!

Is that too much to ask out of everybody else?? So go out of your way to be a little nicer today. I bet you will feel better and maybe it will be contagious!

Who's with me??

a moment to breathe...

Sometimes there is nothing better in life than when I have nothing to do. I used to go CRAZY when I had one free minute of unscheduled time. After all things wedding planning the last few months I was excited for a break.


I realized in all of my uncomplicated, unscheduled bliss of a honeymoon - how much I was looking forward to being home and being married to and spending some quality time with my wonderful new husband. This past weekend gave me that exact time I'd been looking for - and I turned out to be right. The less things scheduled - the BETTER right now!


Luckily we did have one VERY fun event scheduled though. Our friend Andy turned 40 and our other friends Jenny and Keith were sweet enough to throw him a party! In my efforts to be a wonderful wife I wanted to be a fabulous party guest and show up with some delicious contributions.


Derek and I LOVE to cook together - we registered at Williams Sonoma and received lots of amazing new kitchen gadgets from the wedding. I picked out a couple of new tools to try and decided on Chocolate Covered Strawberries and Boursin Stuffed Mushrooms.


I of course did not want to make just regular chocolate covered strawberries - so I did some googling seriously what did people do before google?! and found a wonderful idea to infuse the dipped strawberries with riesling. Ah HA! This would be an excellent opportunity to try out my new "injector". Also, I came up with the idea to do some strawberries with sprinkles, and some with almonds too. (not my idea - it was stolen from one of the 5200 wedding brochures I've looked through the past nine months.)  but hey - some of the best idea's are stolen right?!


So here are my finished strawberries...our new "injector" works wonders - and I tried a double broiler for the first time word to the wise - melting chocolate in a double broiler in comparison to in the microwave for dipping is NIGHT AND DAY difference. I will never go back to the microwave! 

Next up - with the strawberries set it was onto the mushrooms. 

My FAVORITE type of recipe are the kind that make you look fancy but in reality is was super easy. I'm pretty into looking fancy and proper, but I don't always feel like I have a lot of time. So the recipe I found for Boursin Stuffed Mushrooms was just the ticket! 

Here's the recipe: 

Ingredients:

40 medium sized mushrooms

1 cup Boursin cheese

melted butter

Directions:

Wash mushrooms and remove stems. 

Fill mushrooms with Boursin cheese. 

Brush the mushroom caps with melted butter. 


Bake on a cookie sheet at 350 for 30 minutes. I put parsley on them as well when they were baked about half way through. They made the house smell AMAZING! I think they were a total hit with our friends! Hey - anything that makes you feel and look fancy but didn't take all the time that fancy usually requires - is AWESOME in my book! 

Anybody else have any secret "looks fancy but wasn't" tricks?? 

Church School and Snowblowers?

Hmm...it's been an interesting day. Due to Murphy's Law (if it can happen - it will)  our welcome home from paradise was a snowstorm and a (un)matching broken snowblower. *dislike* in facebook speak So today my husband asked me on our first official date as a married couple which turned out to be a trip to the local John Deere dealership to "look" at snowblowers. yes we're apparently going to go ALL OUT for dates in this marriage During our trip I figured out a couple of things I will need to remember in the future trips where I am invited by him to go "look" at something.

1) We need to do a little research on products we're looking at and the reviews they have before we go - because now when when the 65 year old sales guy wearing Spalding tennis shoes, Levis, and a crew cut John Deere sweatshirt tells you the product will last for twenty five years - you step back and realize you might actually be in the same house with the same man lets hope this one is for sure needing the same product. It was so surreal to picture Derek clearly not me snow-blowing our driveway with that very snow blower in twenty five years. It made me start to picture where else our lives would be then. I'm not sure on that but i DO know we will have a clean driveway!


2) Before you go on the "looking" journey you should probably check your bank account - because you probably aren't just "looking" - you are setting up a delivery time. Derek rarely want's to buy things so I just have to accept that when he does it's probably a good purchase even though it SUCKS to spend $800 right now on something that will simply get the freakin' snow out of the driveway...BUT if you live in a snowy area - you know snow removal is KEY when it's needed. So, I'm proud to announce I was happy to make this sacrifice of our bank account to make things much easier on my husband in the winter months. We are officially the proud owners of a brand spankin' new snow blower.
(please don't get TOO jealous ladies!) Besides - when he goes out to snow blow, I get to be in the house making hot chocolate with marshmallows, baking cookies and starting a fire to warm him up to work on my goal of - best wife ever!

Along the lines of sacrifices, my amazing husband so nicely agreed to become Catholic for me and for us. but let's be honest mostly for me ; ) Before we were officially engaged we had the "religion" discussion - I grew up in a Catholic school and was pretty involved in my church here so he agreed to make the commitment to Catholicism. So now every Thursday night (since August and through Easter) we have church school. Tonight during class - I looked over at Derek and realized the sacrifice he is making for me and for our family. He did not have to go through this process to marry me etc... he just decided it was in our best interest and went for it. Not only is he going to class - he actually is involved during class and is always asking me questions. He definitely is putting effort into it and I really appreciate it. I want to be that kind of wife for him. I hope he knows if there is something important to him I will fully support him and do everything I can to be involved in that part of his world. Isn't that what this marriage stuff is all about? It amazes me how good it feels to do these things together.

Has anybody else made any compromises or sacrifices for their marriage?? or like us - in the process of these changes?

the relief diet...

Being a girl I am no stranger to the word "diet" - I think if I look back I've probably been on some form of a diet since the 5th grade after Sister Annette explained the food pyramid to us. This first week "back to the grind" as everybody keeps so nicely reminding me I have put myself on what I've decided is "The Relief Diet". This diet consists of feeling so much relief that all things wedding: planning, organizing, family time oh boy the family time and major carb avoidance's have ceased - that you eat whatever the heck you feel like eating! or in my case basically whatever is in front of your face

I think I've also fondly referred to this as the "fat and happy's" - I can completely see now how this happens to people. You get fat because you are so gosh darn happy, you just don't care about anything else! This feeling is definitely lightyears from your single days - where your hot body was the best accessory you could rock on a Saturday night. I've been married twelve days and have already caught myself saying "who cares - I'm married" to myself before eating that second piece of pizza. ok busted - third piece of pizza...This week I have officially put myself on the relief diet.


In my commitment to be a great wife I plan to do my best to avoid the fat portion of the "fat and happy's". Luckily, the 10 weeks prior to the wedding we committed to a "10 week body transformation" program called Kosama. Even luckier we tricked ourselves into signing up to do the body maintenance there through June. we'll use luckier - loosely. So it will officially be "back to the grind" Monday when I remove myself from the relief diet and walk back through Kosama's doors.


So basically, my tip to keep your body wedding day fabulous is to lock yourself financially into some sort of work-out program BEFORE the wedding is over! ha. because at this point it feels like approximately 98% of the reason I'm headed back. least I'm honest...

New Year...New Wife

The new year tends to bring firsts in some way for everybody. For me this year, i started off January 1st - not with a hangover - for the first time in my life since college - but rather as my first full day of being a wife. Derek and I were married on New Years Eve this past year and so far things are going swimmingly. (never mind the fact the majority of our marriage has been spent at an all-inclusive amazing resort in Jamaica - i'm certain it would have been just as delightful here) 

While on our honeymoon, we remembered we had yet to make our new years resolutions (we were slightly busy that week!) I decided my resolution is going to be the best wife I can be this first year of our life. after the first year who cares?! just kidding... So thus: "New Year...New Wife". Also I would never admit I'm the kind of girl that had a "Wedding Slogan" (my friends are laughing here - yes i know) but hey - since you obviously have to have SOMETHING to print on the little cocktail napkins we went with "New Year...New Life" so I'm ceremonially (literally) switching it to wife and here we go. 

This blog is intended to document my trials and tribulations of being a wife and the best tips I come up with through my first year. For Better or Worse... ;)