Vegetable Soup

Ingredients:
1/2 head of cabbage, shredded
1 medium onion, cut up
2 zucchini, cut up
1 potato, cut up (catching on to the “cut up” trend yet?)
1 cup celery, diced (threw you for a loop there, huh?)
2 cups cauliflower, cut up (and we’re back on track)
2 carrots, cut up
1 can of green beans, drained
1/2 cup frozen corn
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/2 parsley, cut up
Any other veggie that strikes your fancy (kale perhaps?)
16 oz. tomato juice
4 cups of vegetable broth
4 cups of chicken broth
3/4 cup red wine

Add all to a pot, except corn and peas, and simmer for two hours.
Add corn and peas to the pot 15 minutes before serving to warm through
I also added a TON of garlic, about 4 TBS of lemon juice (it brightened all of the flavors), salt, pepper, and a bay leaf.

For those doing Weight Watchers, 2 cups of this crazy healthy soup is 3 points. Pretty sweet, huh?

But I decided, after three years of living with it, that the red wall had to go. I wanted something more cooling, peaceful, calm. So now my bedroom looks like this:

Not much changed in the room other than the wall color and yet I feel like there’s been a big change. That’s the beauty of paint. It’s a relatively affordable, sometimes quick (ha) way to make a big change.

What do you guys think of the color change?

But, BUT! I have recently come to understand that I love thrifting for household stuff – furniture, decor, etc. I chalk this up to my Pintrest and interior design blog addictions. Through those two sources I’ve come to appreciate the wonders that flea markets and furniture thrift stores hold. And the best part? If an item has appeal in it’s lines and over-all look, a can of stray paint can make it new again!

Here are a couple of the lovely things I’ve picked up in the past couple of weekends:

Milk glass candle holders.

Black floral chair.

Mirrored tray (um, and please ignore the pile of laundry on the bed. Whoops!)

Amber glass vase.

1. Conversing and connecting in the quiet that exists when the boob-tube is off.
2. Playing games like Put and Take Jacks. My apologies that I can’t give you info on how to get your paws on this great game. The couple that used to make these suckers to order has retired. So sad.
3. Snuggles and naps.
4. Reading amazingness like The Count of Monte Cristo. It’s a hard book to get into, but once Dantes lands in the Chateau D’if and meets Faria, well it just gets mind-bogglingly great. The dialogue! The dialogue! I tried to read this last year when we took a TV break as well and couldn’t get into it. I’m glad I didn’t give up this time around.
5. A lovely night out with my sister, her friend Michaele, and her sister. Thanks ladies! That was fun. Let’s do it again soon…

• If I were a month, I’d be September
• If I were a day of the week, I’d be Sunday
• If I were a time of day, I’d be dusk
• If I were a planet, I’d be Earth
• If I were a sea animal, I’d be a starfish
• If I were a direction, I’d be west
• If I were a piece of furniture, I’d be a loveseat
• If I were a historical figure, I’d be Molly Brown
• If I were a liquid, I’d be water
• If I were a gemstone, I’d be an opal
• If I were a tree, I’d be an aspen
• If I were a tool, I’d be a hammer
• If I were a flower, I’d be a peony
  
• If I were a kind of weather, I’d be a light rain
• If I were a musical instrument, I’d be an violin
• If I were a color, I’d be navy blue
• If I were an emotion, I’d be relaxed
• If I were a fruit, I’d be a nectarine
• If I were a sound, I’d be a rushing river
• If I were an element, I’d be water
• If I were a car, I’d be a vintage Mustang convertible
• If I were a food, I’d be nachos
• If I were a place, I’d be a hot spring
• If I were a material, I’d be silk
• If I were a taste, I’d be honey
• If I were a scent, I’d be lilac
• If I were an object, I’d be a ring
• If I were a body part, I’d be a clavicle
• If I were a facial expression, I’d be a wink
• If I were a song, I’d be Ceclia by Simon and Garfunkle
• If I were a pair of shoes, I’d be cowboy boots

My sister-in-law and brother gave us this candle for Christmas. (Love you, guys, BTW.) I love the scent it gives off, but the manfriend wants it in the trash.

See, it’s one of those newfangled (I sound like my grandfather) candles with the funky wick that’s supposed to mimic the sound of a fire. Problem is that it sounds nothing like a fire. It’s too rhythmic to be natural. Instead it sounds like someone standing there flicking water at a lit candle over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. (Love you, guys, BTW.)

Last night I was at a friend’s house and they have a similar candle. At some point her husband says, “That candle makes the most annoying sound ever!” I said, “You should have blown it out!” “I didn’t know what it was,” he replies. “I thought maybe you were rhythmically clucking or something.” Huh?

So I relay this story to the manfriend so he knows he has a fellow-candle-hater-in-arms. This started an in-depth conversation about the feeling the candle is supposed to evoke. I explain the whole fire sound theory, to which he replies, incredulously, “Candles are supposed to be quiet. If I want the sound of a fucking fire, I’ll light something on fire! Jesus Christ.” (Love you, guys, BTW.)

Moral of the story: if you think a candle that sounds like a fire is a good idea, it’s not. Apparently it drives men insane. (Love you, guys, BTW.)

When we moved in together and created a combined food budget, we decided to try meal planning and shopping just once a week. That was three and half years ago and we love doing it this way! It makes weeknights go more smoothly and really helps us stay on budget.

Here’s how we do it:

1. We sit down on a Saturday morning and come up with a list of four to five dinners to make during the week. The goal is to have each prepared meal cover two nights.
2. Our weeks run from Saturday night through Friday night since I usually shop on Saturdays.
3. We then take that list of meals and write down all the ingredients we need to pick up at the store.
4. We also add in other essentials like bread, coffee, eggs, fruit, toilet paper, etc. to round the list out.
5. Included on the list are other items needed for lunches and snacks, but those are usually less planned out and regimented than dinners. Except for this week (see below).

Here’s a sample of a weeks worth of dinners from this past weekend’s meal planning:

• Saturday night: BBQ chicken thighs, sweet potato and broccoli for the manfriend. (I went to my folks to watch the Broncos game and had homemade Posole. Yum!)
• Sunday/Monday nights: Roast chicken with roasted sweet potatoes and salad.
• Tuesday/Wednesday nights: Chili with cornbread and roasted broccoli (made two batches of chili and froze one batch for later).
• Thursday/Friday nights: Pesto crusted salmon with salad (already had the pesto from the garden in the freezer).
• And then I made this recipe for myself for several lunches during the week.

And here’s the shopping list created to make all that happen:

Vitamin Cottage:

• Bread
• Soy creamer
• Kombucha
• Lemon zinger tea
• Ground buffalo x2
• Canned tomatoes x2 (I get the Pomi brand in tetra paks since that’s supposed to be better for you)
• Peanut butter
• Apple juice
• Apples
• Chocolate

Target:

• Olive oil
• Brown sugar
• Trash can (ours was gnarly and needed to go)
• Kidney beans x4
• Jelly
• Canned tuna
• BBQ sauce
• Floss

King Soopers:

• Onions
• Herbs for the roast chicken
• Bananas
• Sweet potatoes x2
• Grapefruit x3
• Lettuce
• Snap peas
• Grape tomatoes
• Goat cheese
• Feta
• Frozen shrimp
• Salmon
• 1 whole chicken
• Chicken thighs
• Fage 0% (big carton)
• Eggs x2 cartons
• Frozen spinach x2
• Pop chips
• Babybel light minis

Yes, I shop at THREE different stores. Yes, it’s kind of a pain in the ass. But I’ve come to know who’s got the best prices on what and shopping this way really helps us make the most of our food budget. I’ve got all of this down to a science at this point and can get everything done in under two hours. Well, unless I take my sweet time perusing the stores, which doesn’t happen often. I hate grocery shopping and generally want it over as quick as possible. And yes, I do ALL the shopping. The manfriend does most of the cooking, so it’s the least I can do. Plus, we have a better chance of getting everything on the list and staying on budget when I do it. It’s a fact.

1. The time to get in three workouts.
2. The flea market just down the road from my house. It’s so much fun to go in there and peruse around. There’s a chair in there that keeps calling my name, but I have absolutely no where to put it.
3. Finally getting in the swing of The Count of Monte Cristo. The first 100 pages were rough, but I now have another 982 pages of greatness to look forward to. I do love me a good revenge story!
4. Watching the Broncos with my family. It was a terrible, terrible game, but I did enjoy the company quite a bit. And now, for the first time in years, I’m excited to watch them next season.
5. Grapefruit. I’ve been eating a half a grapefruit every morning for several weeks and they remind me of summer.