Messy

Recently I've been having a little trouble keeping the clutter under control. Now a lot of this is because I've been out of town and otherwise running around like a crazy person but that is no excuse for the disaster that my house is quickly becoming.

As an example, here is my dining room table (which tends to be a catch all due to its location next to the front door).

In addition to the somewhat normal things (purse, mail, etc) you can see that a lot of not so normal stuff has been making an appearance (bug spray, garlic, box, etc).


Now, there isn't a cocker spaniel on the table but the general clutter is basically getting out of control. Needless to say, decluttering is high on my priority list.

My day...

It has come to my attention that my faithful blog reading population has been disappointed by my recent lack of posts.

Well faithful blog reading population, there is a reason for this! I have absolutely nothing vaguely interesting to report on. I know, I know, it is difficult to believe. But it is true. And I can prove it.

Welcome to my day.

It started by doing laundry. I did not take a picture of this because I am pretty sure everyone knows what laundry looks like.

Then I decided to run some errands. It all started with the post office. I needed to go to the post office because I ran out of stamps. I had two envelopes to mail. One was my electric bill so as you might imagine, it was crucial that I secure the necessary postage. Luckily, the post office had a very good supply of stamps and I mailed both envelopes. Whew, crisis averted. I think the post office looks like the building in Back to the Future.

Then I went to the library because I had to return a library book. I enjoyed the book immensely (will update on the book on a later post) and so while I was at the library I checked out the second book in the series. Very exciting. Bad news is that I forgot my library card. Whoops! So I had to wait in line for them to manually look me up in the system.

Then I went to GCF to drop off a small bag of household goods. I am trying to clear out some unused items but I haven't been overly committed to it yet. It felt good to get those few items out of the house though so hopefully that will give me some motivation.



Finally, when I got home I went to get the mail. Sadly, I only had 1 piece of junk mail. Bummer. This is what my mailbox looks like.









So hopefully you have not yet fallen asleep. I realize that my life is pretty uncontrollably exciting. It is ok to be jealous. :)

Freezer Cooking: Finished!

So, I haven't quite gotten to everything on my list but I'm calling it quits for this weekend. I'm pooped and I think my kitchen deserves a little break!

I ended up making the BBQ chicken which I am pretty excited about. I love this stuff! I store it in 1 cup portions just like the rest of the shredded chicken. Between all this shredded chicken I have enough for about 16 meals - not counting the Italian marinated chicken strips I made! So I should be all set for the month.
I also made chocolate chip pumpkin muffins which I haven't had in a few months so I am definitely looking forward to these.

I didn't make the pretzels but I might end up making them next weekend. I think these would be a fun snack for work so I'd like to give them a shot.

So in total I have in the freezer as a result of this weekend:
30 pumpkin chocolate chip muffins
1 loaf banana bread split into thirds
6 chocolate chip pancakes
10 regular pancakes
8 meals worth of plain shredded chicken
8 meals worth of BBQ chicken
a bunch of italian marinated chicken - definitely a few meals worth depending on what I am eating.
a ton of peanut sauce - this should last 2-3 months
7 servings of cheese pizza - probably 2 months worth
Brownies
Granola Bars

The cool thing is - I did a lot of work this weekend but I split it up enough that I didn't feel overwhelmed!

Freezer Cooking Day 2: Morning Update

Well the morning is off to a great start! After enjoying some much needed "lounging" this morning, I got right back into the freezer cooking and made a decent dent in my remaining list.

This morning I made a pan of brownies (and yes there is a piece missing - gotta sample it!) and 4 personal sized pizzas. The 4 pizzas should be 8 meals for me (well 7, since I ate half of one for lunch) and fear not - these should last me more than 1 month. No need to eat pizza more than once per week!Here are 2 of my pizzas on my messy counter. I really should take a picture of the before/after kitchen disaster that arises during freezer cooking. It is a whole separate job to clean up! My dishwasher is definitely getting a workout this weekend.

I am taking a cooking break to spend time with some friends but I hope to finish off the list this evening. I think this is totally doable since I really don't have too much left to do!

BBQ Chicken (?)
Muffins (flavor TBD)
Pizza (4 personal size)
Some sort of dessert...maybe brownies?
Homemade Soft Pretzels
Chop peppers for freezer

Freezer Cooking Update 2

I think I am done for the day. I am very pleased with what I've accomplished and I don't think it is unreasonable to get everything else done tomorrow.

While waiting for the banana bread to finish cooking I started with some cleaning - laundry, vacuuming, etc and got a bit of cleaning done too. Now I am pooped and ready to have some fun for the rest of the day!

Here is my beautiful loaf of banana bread. The hardest thing with banana bread is not eating it all before it makes it to the freezer!

I also chopped some onions in the food processor. I love onions but I am EXTREMELY sensitive to them. I can't even be in the kitchen if someone else is chopping them. Anyway, so I like to have a bag full of chopped onions on hand so that I don't have to torture myself too often. Even with the food processor I had tears running down my face!


And here is the lovely bag of chopped onions. This should lase me for a while.

So I am pretty pleased with what I was able to cross off the list. I think tomorrow is going to be another productive day!

Goals for Freezer Cooking Day 2:
BBQ Chicken (?)
Muffins (flavor TBD)
Pizza (4 personal size)
Some sort of dessert...maybe brownies?
Homemade Soft Pretzels
Chop peppers for freezer

Freezer Cooking Update 1

So far freezer cooking has been going very well. I am pretty pleased with what I've managed to accomplish this morning!

You can see My Plan and links to online recipes here. Oh and for reference purposes - here is what my freezer looked like before - not totally empty but there is plenty of space for some goodies!Ok s0 what have I accomplished so far?!?!

Well I cheated a little bit and got a head start last night since I was just hanging around the house. I baked some chicken breasts to shred for salads, summer, rolls, and other misc. meals and shredded them up. I also made granola bars which I am very pleased with. I've tried other granola bar recipes in the past and was never really satisfied with the end result - this recipe is definitely a keeper.

Here is the chicken all shredded up. I really find it useful to have already cooked chicken on hand. I seasoned it with some salt, pepper, and italian seasoning so it is pretty simple and goes with pretty much anything.
I freeze my chicken in 1 cup portion in these snack sized bags. These bags probably aren't great for long-term storage, but I find that they work well for me. I usually manage to use it up pretty quickly. One bag works out to about 2 meals worth for me depending on what I am eating.


On to the granola bars. As I said, I am really impressed with this recipe. I made chocolate chip bars this time since I had plenty of chocolate chips around. I probably won't use so much cinnamon next time - I found it had a little too much for my taste. Also, I thought 1 cup of butter was a little much so I only used half. I didn't change anything else and I don't think it mattered.

I individually wrapped the bars in aluminum foil and stuck them all in a large freezer bag. The recipe made 18 god sized bars.

This morning I started with pancakes (plain and a few chocolate chip), italian marinated chicken, peanut sauce, and banana bread.

Here are some chocolate chip pancakes cooking on the stove. I have been in such a pancake mood recently! These should make for a few good breakfasts and possibly even a 'breakfast for dinner!"
Here is the batch of pancakes that I made. I froze them in 2 freezer bags - one for chocolate chip and one for plain.

The Thai peanut sauce has got to be one of my favorite recent recipe discoveries. This sauce goes great with Summer Rolls and I like it on chicken and salad too. It is super easy to make too which always helps. I freeze the sauce in ice cube trays and then pop all the ice cubes into a freezer bag once they are solid. I find that 1 cube is just enough for me.

I didn't take a picture of the Italian Marinated Chicken because - well it looked like a plate full of chicken. The banana bread is in the oven as I type this so I might include a picture of the finished product on my next update. I'll probably try to get a little bit more done today and then save the rest for tomorrow.

So - lets cross some things off that list!!

Plain shredded chicken
Italian marinated chicken strips
BBQ Chicken (?)
Pancakes
Muffins (flavor TBD)
Banana Bread
Peanut Sauce - frozen in ice cube tray
Pizza (4 personal size)
Some sort of dessert...maybe brownies?
Chewy Granola Bars
Homemade Soft Pretzels
Chop onions for freezer
Chop peppers for freezer

Freezer Cooking! The Plan!

Wow, I am super excited to actually be able to participate in freezer cooking at the same time as everyone else! I have a very open weekend so I am hoping to accomplish a lot. I've been doing a good job of eating what I've had stored in the freezer from earlier freezer cooking adventures so I think it is about time to replenish the supply!

Here is what I hope to make:
Plain shredded chicken
Italian marinated chicken strips
BBQ Chicken (?)
Pancakes
Muffins (flavor TBD)
Banana Bread
Peanut Sauce - frozen in ice cube tray
Pizza (4 personal size)
Some sort of dessert...maybe brownies?
Chewy Granola Bars
Homemade Soft Pretzels
Chop onions for freezer
Chop peppers for freezer

I'm still trying to put my thoughts together but this is the plan. This with my weekly CSA delivery of fresh fruits and veggies should take care of most of my food needs for the month!!

July Financial Update

July ended up being a pretty good month. I made some progress on my retirement goals but that is basically thanks to the market changes. I'll take it though! :) I didn't do great on my gas budget because of all the traveling and houseguests this month, but I consider that well worth going over a bit. Other than that, pretty standard month. I'm hoping to make some good progress in August.

Dave Ramsey style goals
1. Pay off all debt other than my mortgage. Done!
2. Fully fund an emergency fund by the end of December 2010 - Done!

Retirement
3. Achieve 100% of goal for retirement savings by the time I turn 30. Basically I think it would be cool to achieve a certain number by the time I am 30. Right now I am at 80% of this goal. -
Right now I am looking at about 90% of goal (started month at 84%).

However, given market fluctuation can be unpredictable, I have secondary goals.
a. Open Roth IRA account - Haven't opened one yet
b. Max out this account for 2010. This may be ambitious but we'll see how far I get.
c. Contribute 2% more per month to 401K. Right now I am contributing the maximum employer match but I can be doing better. - Haven't started this yet.

Some other misc. goals I'd like to make progress on, but may end up being a little ambitious for this year - definitely possible in 2011 though!
4. Start making an extra principal payment per month before the end of 2010 - Not yet
5. Start contributing the equivalent of a car payment per month into a savings account by the end of 2010. My vehicle is 7 years old and shows no sign of stopping but eventually it will need to be replaced and I would like to pay for it with cash. - Started!