10,000 in 2012!

If you look on the sidebar to the right, you will see that I added some new widgets. These are my yardage calculators I use and I got them from Knitmeter.com. You should go check them out- its a great way to keep track of your projects and total yardage used.

If you look my Knitting Knit Meter is at 9983 yards for this year. That's a lot! I was bummed that I missed the 10,000 mark by so little though. Then I realized that a few of my projects had been crochet! I made a new widget for the crochet items, and I'm happy to announce that I knit and crochet 10,806 yards this year! I'm really proud of that.

My last FO for 2012 was this little clutter control basket I crocheted. I wanted a quick small project and this used up some dish cloth cotton leftovers, so win-win!

It looks a little crazy with the four different colors, but it works to hold all my little notes that usually clutter the coffee table. Its a free pattern, so if you need a basket to hold your goods, check it out!

Tonight we are off to a friends house for a small, casual New Years celebration. I knew I wanted to make some dips to munch at all night, and I think I have settled on Chicken Wing dip (a fav of the hubs) and crab dip. For ease of transport, I am using a crock pot recipe for the Chicken Wing dip. The crab dip, however, is going to be of my own invention. The hubs said that I should start making my own recipes, and I decided that he is right. I cook and bake enough that I am always modifying recipes anyway, I might as well make my own and share them with you! Stay tuned for the recipe- hopefully its good!

Lastly, I finished a book today! My reading had slowed a lot as I was finishing school, but I did manage to meet my Goodreads goal of 32 books since April. The book was Iced by Carol Higgins Clark. I started her Regan Reilly series a few years ago, and when I am at a lull with other books or series I grab the next one :) The Goodreads widget was the other new addition to the sidebar. If you're a reader, check Goodreads out! And if you are already a member, friend me. I love getting new ideas of books to read!

I just wanna eat sweets...

Darn all those treats I've been snacking on for the past two weeks. They've ruined me for real food! I have no desire to put the energy into finding real food to combine into real meals- I just want to find a big tin of cookies, or a platter of brownies, or a big piece of whatever-you've-got-there, and just fall in.

But hey, this is a real world, and we cannot survive on sugar alone. Since the weather is actually deciding to be winter out there and I don't feel like venturing to the store, I'm trying to find recipes that use what we already have in the pantry, freezer, and fridge. Every once in a while I think it is important to deny yourself a shopping trip for a week and search out those forgotten about items that lurk in your freezer or pantry. You might end up with some odd combinations, but sometimes you discover a great new favorite!

Here are a couple things I have come across that I am considering:

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

If you have stuff on hand for regular pancakes, chances are you can whip up this fancier version! These would make a great lazy weekend breakfast or a fun dinner.

Crispy Southwest Chicken Wraps

I feel like these would be great to use up extra meat and veggies from other meals. You could even use leftover fried rice for an asian flair!

Slow Cooker Parmesan Honey Pork

We have some pork in the freezer and this just looks yummy. Serves with some rice and a vegetable, you've got a good looking meal there!

Crock Pot Beef Pot Roast

I've had a beef pot roast in my freezer for a few months now, and I think this might just be the recipe for it!

What do you make when you can't make it to the grocery store?

Wrapping Up

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas (or whatever you celebrate this time of year). Our was nice and low key, but it seemed to be kind of uneventful. The hubs and I were just saying it was hard to believe Christmas was over, because we really didn't have anything big or exciting happen. Oh well. 2012 has been kind of a blah year over all, and I for one am ready to move into 2013!

Here are a couple photos to show some of the things we have been up to:

It just so happened that my last day of school was December 21st, which is also my mom's birthday. We planned to drive to school, drop off my finals, do a bit of grocery and Christmas shopping, and have lunch. This picture is of the Upper Crust, a cute little bakery/coffee house in downtown Fredonia, NY. This was mom's choice for lunch, and they serve up some monstrous sandwiches! Little did she know that this wasn't her real birthday celebration- we got 10 of her closest friends together and surprised her with a little party. It was so much fun!

Working away on finals until the 21st didn't leave a whole lot of time for Christmas decorating, but we did manage to get a tree, put it up with minimal decorations, and put up a few other small things. The one thing we could NOT forget was Diesel's sweater.

Our dog is odd- he LOVES wearing sweaters. We have a hard time finding sweaters that will fit him though. He has a really broad chest for his size, so they are always really tight there and big everywhere else. One of my goals for 2013 is to knit him a sweater that fits :)

Speaking of our tree, I haven't gotten a picture of it all decorated (which this year was lights only) but here is a shot of it after we got it into the house.

It was a really nicely shaped tree, and we have such a large living room that we usually get pretty big trees :) If I think of it I will try to post a picture of it with the lights on :)

I finished off a few projects in between everything else going on. I was asked by a friend and her mom if I would knit a shawl for them to give to their grandma/mom for Christmas. I was a little nervous, as this was a big lace shawl, but it ended up going pretty well. The only issue I ran into was that the pattern and the key weren;t very clearly written, but then again I'm not an experienced lace knitting, so it may have just been me.

This used about 700 yards of yarn and blocked to over 5 feet wide! I hope they like the result and the recipient gets lost of use out of it.

The last thing I finished was a hat for the hubs. I planned on finishing this shawl a day earlier than I did, so the last minute hat I had planned to give to hubs for Christmas didn't get finished until later Christmas day. He didn't mind though, and it turned out great.

This is not a great photo, but the hat is really cool. I did a provisional cast on with a seamless turned hem to make the bottom of the hat two layers. This should make it really warm around his ears. Then it was some stripes and my usual decrease for the top. I thought about writing up the pattern, but its really nothing special. Maybe I'll write it up as a free pattern. We'll see ;)

I hope to be back to a more regular blogging schedule and might try to do regular days like Friday Pinterest finds or something like that. Until then- enjoy the rest of 2012!

Weekly Pinterest Finds

Since all I seem to be able to talk about this week is Pinterest, I thought I would round out the week with my Pinterest finds :)

Don't these just look (and sound) amazing? I have all the ingredients on hand, so they might make an appearance soon :)

I informed my husband that I want a pantry like this one when we live in our dream house :)

If every other pin on this post is dessert, would you guys mind? These Peanut Butter Cup Brownies look delectable. 

I'm switching up my weekly menu and having soup tonight instead of tomorrow (I forgot to thaw pork for what was supposed to be tonight's dinner!) I'm really excited about this, its going in the crock pot as soon as I'm done writing this post.

I love how elegant this style looks and how easy it is to do!

Peppermint Bark Brownies. YUM. So festive!

The hubs and I are a big fan of ceilings like this. I especially love it in the kitchen!

We also both like the wall at the far end of this room with the fireplace and TV between the bookcases.

I thought these would make a cute DIY Christmas gift!

You can always find me on Pinterest to get a closer look at anything I mentioned, or leave a comment.

How I Plan What to Eat

I thought it would be fun to talk about how I make up my menus for the week. I'm not pretending to be super organized or to have the best taste in recipes in the world. My husband is a little bit of a picky eater, and I have a few things I don't like, so there are definite gaps in our recipe repertoire. I also don't use coupons regularly, so if you have the time and inclination to do that your menu planning will look different from mine.

All that said, my menu planning takes less than twenty minutes a week, and it takes me 5 minutes to make out a grocery list for whenever I find myself running an errand near a store. Right now this is what works for our crazy schedule, and we haven't starved yet :)

First and foremost, Pinterest is a big part of my planning. I get emails from a bunch of places and follow a lot of blogs, but I used to forget a lot of what I wanted to try because I didn't have a good way to organize everything. With Pinterest I can pin anything and categorize it how it makes sense for me. I have two food related boards; Food to Try and Recipe Wins! (For anyone not familiar with Pinterest, you use "boards" to separate all your pins, and you can name them whatever makes sense for you) When I go to decide what to make for the week, I browse through my Food to Try board. 90% of the time I find my meals there.

I have certain criteria for my meals. Monday - Thursday, they have to be quick or have parts that can be made ahead. Often we aren't home until 8pm, and I don't want to wait on a recipe that takes an hour from start to finish. The weekend, however, is when I made the more involved recipes and often do some baking. Also, I try to check store ads to see if they have things on sale. I scored a good deal on chicken a week or two ago, and now I have several chicken breasts in the freezer waiting on some godo chicken recipes (Lightened Up Chicken Enchiladas anyone?) Since I don't have time to devote to cutting and using coupons, this is one way I try to keep our grocery bills down.

Next I blog about it. This is the part you guys see! Blogging about my weekly menu keeps me organized and gives me an easy place to refer to. Plus I love when other people share their recipes, so I hope you guys are able to find a few things you want to try via my posts.

Lastly, I make a grocery list. Usually I shop on Wednesdays because I am already out near a grocery store, but sometimes I make quick trips Mondays and Fridays also. Lists are easy because I can refer to my blog, follow the links, and write down anything I don't already have at home. Add that to the list on the fridge we use for staples (coffee, dog food, paper towels, etc) and my list is complete.

An optional step (which I have been bad about lately!) is blogging about the recipe after its been made and tried. I need to get back in the habit of this! Pinterest also helps out here, because any recipe we try that we like goes from the Food to Try board to the Recipe Wins! board. This way I know we like it and if I can't find anything interesting new to try (like that will happen) or we are just feeling an old favorite, they are all in one place.

Hope this doesn't bore you to death!

This Week's Chow

This week actually started off well food wise. Since I didn't get around to making my Lightened Up Chicken Enchiladas that I planned for last week, I made them last night. Friday ended up being a little crazy, and it would have been a really late dinner if we had waited for the chicken enchiladas (we ended up having salad with chicken breast strips instead!) It turns out the enchiladas were worth the wait though- my husband LOVED them!

Monday: Lightened Up Chicken Enchiladas
Tuesday: Leftovers
Wednesday: Mini BBQ Cheddar Meatloves
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Cajun Pork with rice?
Saturday: Super Easy Crock Pot Broccoli and Cheese Soup with Bread
Sunday: leftovers

I never did get around to the Breakfast Casserole from last Friday either, though that was by choice. I woke up and was all ready to start it in the crock pot when I realized that this recipe was made for way more than 2 people, and I wasn't sure how great eggs and all the other ingredients would be reheated for four days while we tried to finish the leftovers. I think this recipe is best left until we have company :)

Wanna follow me on Pinterest? :)

Help a Friend Out :)

This is my brother-in-law's Kickstarter campaign. Its a really cool concept, and if you like sci-fy or fantasy, this will be right up your alley. Go check it out, and if you are willing please donate a little to help him meet his goal. If he doesn't hit his goal amount he doesn't get any of the funding, which would be a shame for all the hard work he has put into it. If you like what you see, share the link with your friends!

Meals for the (rest of the) Week

Well, normally it would make sense to do these posts on a Sunday or Monday, but time got away from me and we ended up having leftovers to eat up yesterday anyway. (This may or may not have been due to the fact that I still have a cold and we ordered out on Sunday. Shhhhh). Anyway, here's the plan for the week:

Tuesday: Fried rice (a staple in our house- aka use up veggies!)
Wednesday: Meatball pizza and salads (no recipe, just winging it)
Thursday: leftovers
Friday: special breakfast: Crock Pot Breakfast Casserole (this was the one recipe we didn't get to during my birthday week, and I want to try it!)

Dinner: Lightened Up Chicken Enchiladas (which might become pork enchiladas, since that's what is already in the freezer)

What are you eating this week?

My Cure for the Common Cold... aka Pinterest Finds

I managed to catch a cold at the beginning of the weekend, and since yesterday was busy and I didn't really have time not to be busy, today is all about getting rid of this thing :) On the agenda: water, tissues, tea, Podcasts, Harry Potter, and whatever food that sounds appealing and doesn't take long to make. Also? Pinterest :)

Egg Benedict Bake- I think this would be great for a brunch with friends!

I love the idea of a grown-up version of a bean bag chair!

I really want to do some sort of cute printable gift tags this year.

I've never heard of pudding cookies, but these look good!

Mmmmm. Still on the look out for good pumpkin recipes :)

Love this idea!

Mmmm these appeal to my cold-stuffed self right now. I have some of the stuff, perhaps the hubs will go shopping for me???

And two funny ones to finish off the post:

We don't have any stuffed heads on our walls, but I feel like if we did, the cat would be ALL over this!

This sorta sums up my attitude toward school right now :)