I have a problem...

...whose name is Diet Coke.


Yes, I am addicted to Diet Coke (or more specifically, the caffeine in the Diet Coke). I try to limit myself but I still manage to get addicted to the stuff. IT IS A PROBLEM!

This week I've tried to quit cold turkey. This was a horrible idea because it resulted in 2 days of crazy headaches. I finally broke down and bought a package of those small 7.5 oz cans as a way to wean myself off.

Diet Coke you will not win!

Menu Plan, week of 9/20

Here is what I am eating this week. I've been in a cooking funk recently so I am hoping to reignite it by doing some meal planning.

Monday
L: Peanut butter sandwich
D: Pesto butter stuffed chicken with mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli

Tuesday
L: BBQ sandwich with steamed broccoli
D: Out

Wednesday
L: Pesto butter stuffed chicken with mashed potatoes
D: With Candice, TBD

Thursday
L: Turkey sandwich
D: Summer rolls with peanut sauce

Friday
L: Summer rolls with peanut sauce
D: Homemade cheese pizza

August Reading

I've been really slacking in my reading recently so I though I'd start reporting on it so that I can keep motivated! Also, I finally got a library card in my new city so that is helping a lot with the motivation!

This is what I read this month:

Foreign Body by Robin Cook.
I was shocked to discover a Robin Cook book that I hadn't read before! Unfortunately, this was not one of my favorites. It was a good story but I felt like the mystery was revealed to the reader too early. I like solving the mystery with the main character but in this case I knew what the main character didn't.


One True Love by Lora Copeland
Ok so this was an instance of my grabbing something at the library because the author has written a number of books. I do this every once in a while as a way to discover new authors, etc. In this case, I will probably not be reading anything else by this author. Worth a shot though.


City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
Soooo - this was a recommendation from my cousin and I am a little bit obsessed with this series. It is a young adult series and is just a great read. It reminds me a little bit of the Harry Potter series in that it involves teens with special abilities who are battling some sort of evil. Anyway - definitely recommended.


City of Ashes by Cassandra
This is the second in the series and I am still loving it.


The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by MaryAnn Shaffer and Annie Barrows
I read this on a recommendation from a friend and it was a great read - cute story, well written, and a lot of fun. The only thing I wasn't a fan of is the lack of chapters :)

A book of Ray Bradbury short stories that I can't remember the name of... But the stories were really good!

I feel like there was one more book too...but I can't remember what it was. Overall a good month for reading though :)

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