food, food, food

Food. Gotta have it. And you all know I love it.
If you know me, you know I don't particularly enjoy cooking. It's not that I can't do it, it's just that I don't have the patience. It looks great on TV when chefs freshly chop all of their vegetables, get the fresh meat and chop it all dandy, etc. but in reality - who has time for that?!
Nope. 

Typical easy-to-make suppers - buy hey, gotta start somewhere! And disregard the 3 tacos on my plate. When it comes to tacos, portion control goes out the window. They're my weakness.

I'm learning more and more to make crockpot meals a normal supper. Hoping to have at least one a week as I get use to it all. The thought of tossing in frozen chicken and some other easy ingredients just makes me happy.
Jason and I have also started meal planning (we are on our second week). Got the idea from my bestie, Tonya, of course. She's my go-to for foodie advice (and the source for all of my crockpot deliciousness). It helps a lot more than I thought it would. Not only does it take out the guesswork of what's for dinner every night when I get home from work, but it makes buying groceries a BREEZE. We typically plan on Thursday nights for the following week and then we head to the store on Sundays.
I feel refreshed in the fact that we bought one whole week's worth of groceries for about $60. And it's all real food. No more nights of eating Oreos for a meal. In case your wondering, this week consists of:
Monday - BBQ Chicken Strips & Salad Tuesday - Cheeseburgers & Corn Wednesday - Crockpot Salsa Chicken & Salad Thursday - Fish & Macaroni and Cheese Friday - Pizza (Fun Fact: EVERY Friday is pizza) [Okay, so we may still need to work on the healthy part, but having actual food for supper is step one!]
The weekends we don't plan as much. It's most likely just going to be leftovers from the week and whatever else we scrounge up. So for this weekend, we are headed to the market on Saturday morning so we hope to find something there. 
Here's what I use to plan. It has space for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I'm most excited for pancakes, bacon and eggs this weekend!

If anybody has ideas for meals that we can add to our meal planning, let me know. I'd love to hear them and I'd love to have more ideas to spice up the kitchen! Weeee!

monday montage - week of 1/13

Hello!
This week's Monday Montage is taking a brief hiatus because of the holiday (MLK Day). With me not having to go to work today, it's only fitting that I enjoy the holiday with a little R&R.
It will be back next week! 

i'm in love!

I'm in love. I am SO in love.

I've seen Hunter boots around for a while but I've never really thought about getting them. Yes, they're very cute, but does it rain THAT much in Iowa? I mean if I lived in Oregon or Washington, I would have had these a  long, long time ago. So I put it on the back burner.

Well I tried anyway.

I tried forgetting about them since I didn't know how functional they'd be for me. But I feel like everywhere I went they haunted me. I saw them everywhere. And suddenly more and more people were wearing them.

Long story short, I caved and bought a pair. Since we don't have a Nordstrom anywhere close to here (sad), I bought them online and they came in the mail last week. Jason sent me a picture of the box when I was at work and I about died. Not to mention that was at 11am and I wouldn't be home until after 5.

Right when I walked in the door I hurried to open the box and try them on. It felt like Christmas.

Side note: This whole week kind of felt like Christmas in our living room because we kept getting packages upon packages and we just left the boxes and paper stuffing stuff in the living room (we took out the trash Friday).

They fit so perfectly. They look so perfect. 

And no, I'm not just going to wait until it rains to wear them. So if you see me around, good chance I'm wearing these bad boys.

PS - Buy some here! They have so many colors! I'd recommend that if you wear a half size to go down a size. I wear a 9.5 and ordered a 9 - it's perfection (in case I haven't already mentioned).

So much better.

fun facts 101

Not much is going on right now other than the daily wake up, go to work, eat dinner, relax kind of lifestyle. 

So I decided that today I'd share some things about me. I got the idea from my cousin's wife Kim who is also a blogger.

So, here it goes.

1. I wear colored socks. All the time. I own maybe one pair of white socks and a few pairs of black. But you'll usually find me in bright, bright, bright socks. And yes, they always match.
2. Expired food doesn't bother me. It's pretty typical that I'll eat a yogurt that expired a month ago or drink some milk that expired a few days ago. I'm convinced that expiration dates on most things is a marketing scheme so that people throw things away and go buy more. You can read more about this theory here. I mean I'm still alive and I've eaten my fair share of "expired" food.
3. I love The Bachelor/Bachelorette. I could watch it all day. I've been a follower since Season 1 (Oh, hello Alex Michel. Haha, anyone else remember him?!) and I still watch it religiously. In fact, I watched the first episode of Juan Pablo's season twice. And I could probably watch it again. 
4. I can't stand Taylor Swift. I know a lot of people feel this away and there are also a lot of people that practically give up their life to follow what she's doing. She's just too much for me. I don't know if it's the fakeness, her music, or the fact that she thinks she's so hot because she dates everyone for a month before making a new hit single. But she makes me want to pull out my hair. 

5. I love wearing sweats, leggings, yoga pants, athletic shorts, etc. Most days you can find me in sweats and a sweatshirt in the winter or shorts and a shirt in the summer. And although I love the coziness of "lazy clothes", I love getting dolled up. And I don't do it enough. So maybe this will be the year that I decide to wear jeans to Target instead of my leggings and sweatshirt. We shall see.
6. I have never liked working out. A few times a year I tell myself that I'm going to start running or start eating healthier or start going to the gym. I never go. Or I go once and then I never go again. With the whole ordeal about my back, I've been told to start doing yoga. HAHAH. For real, yoga makes me laugh. I'm not sure how people take it seriously. But I'm learning. Jason and I now do yoga in our living room with the video up on the TV... and I try to stay as serious as possible.
7. I am addicted to HGTV, and more specifically House Hunters. This channel is like meditation to me. I could watch it for hours and hours. In fact, I usually do - especially when Jason is gone. In fact, 9 times out of 10 I have it on for so long that the message pops up saying that "due to inactivity, the TV will automatically be turned off" - oops! In fact, I'm watching it as we speak.
Well that's all for today. I hope you learned some things about me that you may not have known. Until next time!

monday montage - week of 1/6

This past week was rather uneventful. So I apologize in advance for the "lame" Monday Montage. 
This past weekend Jason and I were at my parents house and of course we had a good time since my brother and his girlfriend were there, too! And tonight we get to go to Muscatine to see Kayleigh! For those who don't know, she's my bestie.
It's BACHELOR night! Hola Juan Pablo! Iyiyiyiy. I'm a huge fan of Andi. But more on that later.
Enjoy this week's MONDAY MONTAGE.