Jumble pasta, salad, yummy cookies

Here are some photos of tonights dinner:
Jumble pasta:

I started out by caramelizing some onions in olive oil and a dribble of maple syrup. Then I added a couple cloves of garlic, and some leftover sundried tomatoes that needed to be used up. After all of that softened, I tossed in the remains of a bag of frozen broccoli and some frozen navy beans. I poured in some white wine, sprinkled some italian seasoning, salt and pepper and cooked until everything was hot. Then I tossed in some sprouted wheat noodles fro Trader Joes and let it cook a few minutes longer. Topped with fresh grated parmesan and red pepper flakes. Very yummy use of leftover ingredients.

Served with a salad of spinach, onion, parmesan, capers and garden tomatoes.

For dessert, Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookies from Vive Le Vegan by Dreena Burton.

This recipe is perfect. Supper quick to whip together and only made 9 cookies, perfect for Bill and I to share for a couple of days.

Two Week Meal Plan

I usually try to stick to a budget when I go food shopping. However, for the past few weeks, need for convenience took over my need for frugality. I also recently purchased a carpet steamcleaner and some cool weather clothing for work. To balance this off, I have decided to do 2 really frugal weeks of meals. Yesterday I spent $37 at Trader Joe's, and I anticipate needing to buy more salad fixin's within the next 2 weeks, but that should still put me under $50 for 2 weeks worth of meals. The entirety of this menu probably costs more than $50, when I through in pantry staples and frozen things I already have on hand. These are just my dinner ideas. For breakfast I will probably have cereal or a smoothie. I also still have some breakfast bars I bought a few weeks ago to share at a retreat. Bill doesn't eat breakfast, but might have a smoothie if I hand one to him while he's on his way out the door in the morning. Lunch for us usually consists of leftovers from last night (or a pbj or hummus and pita), accompanied by fruit, maybe a small snack like pretzels or fruit leathers, and yogurt for Bill. Ok, without further adieu, here is my frugal 2 week dinner plan.

Tonight!: caramelized onions, broccoli and white beans sauteed with pasta, topped with fresh Parmesan, salad of spinach and (God willing) garden tomatoes.

Wednesday: going out to eat. Opps! this will go outside of the frugal plan, but we already made plans to go out with friends. We probably will not spend very much money though.

Thursday: on Thursdays, the lovely woman who hosts our small group cooks a big (vegetarian!) dinner for the entire group. It has been a huge blessing to be served a home cooked, vegetarian meal once a week.

Friday: soft tacos with refried pinto beans, soy chorizo, and vegan cheezy sauce, green salad

Saturday: one of Bryanna Clark Grogan' turkey roasts, brown gravy, sauteed green beans, and corn

Sunday: Leftover roast on homemade bread, green salad

Monday: 3 bean chili, homemade bread, green salad

Tuesday: chickpeas romesco, garlic bread, green salad

Wednesday: either ginger tofu soup, or potato soup

Thursday: small group dinner again!

Friday: veggie stir fry with frozen chicken style pieces, over brown rice

Saturday: spaghetti and bean balls, green salad

Sunday: cajun style red beans and rice

Of course, this is all subject to change. I just wanted to reassure myself that I could make it 2 more weeks without a big grocery shopping trip, using up what we already have on hand. I'll probably throw some desserts in there and some fancy weekend breakfasts. I'll also try to post pics, as well as recipes or recipe sources.

Also view your reading pleasure, here is my list of cheap pantry staples that I always have on hand, helping me to make cheap, mostly balanced vegetarian (usually vegan) meals:
-bulk grains (rice, quinoa, and pasta are standbys, with other less common grains making the occasional appearance).
-herbs and spices
-beans, dried and canned. dried beans can be made in large quantities in the crockpot with minimal effort, and frozen for later use
-canned tomatoes, in many varieties. Can be used in soup, chilli, pasta sauces, etc.
-bulk grains
-frozen veggies, which are often cheaper than fresh, but still retain most of the nutrients. this is especially helpful to me in cutting down waste. with only 2 of us, sometimes frsh veggies go bad before we get a chance to use them all up (we do still, however incorporate fresh veggies often).
-bulk olive oil. its much cheaper to buy quality oil in large quantities, and i go through it enough for that to make sense.

Most Popular Books on LibraryThing

Here are the Top 100 Most Popular Books on LibraryThing. Bold what you've read, color what you own. Star what you liked. Star multiple times what you loved!

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling (32,484) **

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Book 6) by J.K. Rowling (29,939)**

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Book 5) by J.K. Rowling (28,728)**

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Book 2) by J.K. Rowling (27,926) **

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Book 3) by J.K. Rowling (27,643) **

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Book 4) by J.K. Rowling (27,641) **

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (23,266)

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (21,325)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7) by J.K. Rowling (20,485) *

1984 by George Orwell (19,735) *

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (19,583)

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (19,082)**

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (17,586)**

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (16,210)**

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (15,483)

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (14,566)

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (14,449)

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (13,946)

Life of Pi by Yann Martel (13,272) *

Animal Farm by George Orwell (13,091)

Angels & demons by Dan Brown (13,089)

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (13,005)**

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (12,777)

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (12,634)

The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, Part 1) by J.R.R. Tolkien (12,276)

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden (12,147)

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (11,976)**

The Two Towers (The Lord of the Rings, Part 2) by J.R.R. Tolkien (11,512)

The Odyssey by Homer (11,483)*

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (11,392)

Slaughterhouse-five by Kurt Vonnegut (11,360) *

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (11,257)

The Return of the King (The Lord of the Rings, Part 3) by J.R.R. Tolkien (11,082)

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (10,979) **

American Gods: A Novel by Neil Gaiman (10,823)

The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis (10,603)

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (10,537)

Lord of the Flies by William Golding (10,435)

The Lovely Bones : a novel by Alice Sebold (10,125)

Ender's Game (Ender, Book 1) by Orson Scott Card (10,092)

The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, Book 1) by Philip Pullman (9,827)

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Neil Gaiman (9,745)Dune by Frank Herbert (9,671)

Emma by Jane Austen (9,610)

Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (9,598)

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (9,593)

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (9,433)

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke (9,413)

Middlesex: A Novel by Jeffrey Eugenides (9,343)

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire (9,336)

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (9,274)

The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien (9,246)

The Iliad by Homer (9,153)*

The Stranger by Albert Camus (9,084)

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (9,080)

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (9,027)

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (8,960)

On the Road by Jack Kerouac (8,904)

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt (8,813)

The Little Prince by saintexupryantoinede - 75k - (8,764)

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis (8,421)*

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (8,417)

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman (8,368)

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (8,255)

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (8,214)*

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (8,191)

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (8,169)

Moby Dick by Herman Melville (8,129)

The Complete Works by William Shakespeare (8,096)

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond (7,843)

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris (7,834)

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (7,829)

Hamlet by William Shakespeare (7,808)*

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (7,807)

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (7,793)

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (7,710)

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (7,648)

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (7,598)

The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition by William Strunk (7,569)

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (7,557)

The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, Book 2) by Philip Pullman (7,534)

Atonement by Ian McEwan (7,530)

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (7,512)

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (7,436)

Dracula by Bram Stoker (7,238)

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (7,153)

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (7,055) *

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (7,052)

The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman (7,043)

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce (6,933)

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera (6,901)

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse (6,899)

Neuromancer by William Gibson (6,890)

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (6,868)

Persuasion by Jane Austen (6,862)

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman (6,841)

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (6,794)

Angela's Ashes: A Memoir by Frank McCourt (6,715)

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers (6,708)

The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli (6,697)

Weekend Eats

I dont have much today, so I am just going to post pictures of the food i cooked this weekend.







Chickpea cutlets (made with navy beans instead, adapted from Veganomicon) and sauteed cabbage with onions.



















Soft pretzels (from Joy of Vegan Baking) with mustard and Warm and Cheezy White Bean Dip (from Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan).















Blueberry pancakes

















Oatmeal Cookies (from Joy of Vegan Baking).


















Nachos. Healthier than they look.

















Veggie Stir Fry over soba noodles

Summer

This past several days have been extremely hot around here. The weekend was just unbearable! Our house, charming as it is, is not equipped with cental air. We have window air conditioners in the bedroom and in the dogs' room, but the rest of the house is without. I have no desire to turn on the even, or even heat anything on the stove top. I swear my crockpot even made it get hot in the kitchen! It seems to be cooler today, which is nice. Yesterday I think I broke a sweat just turning the pages in my book!

A few months ago, Bill and I decided to try our hands at gardening. We went to Lowe'snd purchased a few seed packets and a couple of cheap pots. We weren't sure if anything would happen, but sure enough green stuff started to sprout. Bill has really taken to gardening. He does pretty much all of the maintaining. We dont have much of a yard, so we just have some sunflowers and tomatoes planted in front of the porch, and several potted plants (most given to us by Bill's grandpa) lining the porch. The greenery is a little overwhelming.
The sunflowers have grown pretty tall, although not all of the flowers have blumed yet. One of them is taller than me, which I think is pretty cool. We planted 4 different varieties, but it seems only 2 have bloomed.
We don't really know anything about gardening, and we don't really have a ton of free time. I think our garden suffers a bit, but it's just neat to see that we were successful in having anything sprout at all. It wasnt too long ago that in place of the sunflowers there was just a bare patch of dirt where Bill has dug up all the grass.

We have a couple other flowers (none bloomed), as wells as some tomatoes and several thriving kinds of herbs. We did lose our cilantro though. I guess it was too delicate for our newly greened thumbs.
The tomatoes seem to be growing very slowly and a little behind schedule. I hope that they survive. I really cant wait to bite into the first one! It would be great some day to have a big yard and grow a lot of our own food. If we ever have the space, I would love to plant a ton of strawberries.

Life, it just keeps happening

I've decided to start including photos in my posts, since i found a working camera in my husband's miscellaneous electronics box. I know that photos make blogs much more interesting. The photo you see here (courtesy of my cell phone, not the camera) is of one of our dogs. His name is Elliot and he is full of personality. He's a 3 year old mini dachshund, weighing in at about 11 lbs. I love this cutie.

Well, life has been a journey lately, that's for sure. There are a lot of new things happening all around, and while it's all been very exciting, it does wear a woman down to keep up with it all! I've been a Mrs. for 4 months now, and I am beginning to feel settled in to this new role. I still have so much to learn, and so does my husband, but in just 4 months, it's amazing how normal it feels now. There are some big changes happening at my job, and I've only been back with this company since May. I have also decided to start attending a different church, which has been more of a process than one might expect. I was at my previous church for almost 7 years, and so leaving it hasn't been exactly cut and dry. But I definitely felt the Lord moving me in another direction. There have been other changes and possibilities in my life too, but none concrete enough yet for me to talk about.

The big thing on my mind lately is finances. My husband and I decided before we were married to use this first year (and maybe the next) of our marriage to concentrate on eliminating debt. This means not buying a house, and not making any huge purchases. This means being more conscious of what we spend on groceries, making less trips out of town to visit our extended family, and keeping eating out to a minimum. This means keeping small purchases, well, small. and infrequent.

I have tried a few different budgeting tactics over the past few months, and think I have finally arrived at one that will work for us in the long term. Before Bill and I were married, we spent our money however we wanted to, living in the present. Now that we are married and have a direction and goals for our future together, our money need purpose. I tried a very strict budget and found it too difficult for us to keep, and found myself discouraged when we "failed". But what I have arrived are a couple of ideas that will work for us. The first is that, aside from bills and fueling our cars (cost that we can't really negotiate or change), will will only pay for purchases with cash. If I take out our allotted amount for groceries every week and put it in an envelope, I know that when the envelope is empty, I am done buying groceries. That makes me consider my purchases at the store just a little more carefully. When I was paying with my debit card, I didn't really fret about the possibility of going over the budget a couple of dollars. This new tactic should keep me on track. I have also decided to give Bill and I each a small allowance every week to spend at our leisure. If he wants to go out to lunch with his colleagues, fine, he can use his allowance. If we want to go on a date, great, we can use our allowance. If I want to get a new dress, fine. Just use my allowance, and maybe even have to delay my gratification by saving up my allowance to purchase it. This all might sound very primitive or elementary, but I think it will really work for us. I think it will allow us to have some fun without feeling guilty (unlike my old budget plan), but it will also keep us in check and make us think a little harder about how we spend our money.

Whew. That's all I've got for now. I am going to try to keep my posts more regular from now on. I think this is a good outlet for me.

What’s in a name?

I have been a married woman for about 4 weeks now, and it has been quite the adventure. Even in a short time I can see that marriage is a huge blessing, but that there are also challenges that need to be worked through. Being very much newlyweds, the challenge at hand is quite simply getting used to being married. One component of that, for me at least, is getting used to being called a different name.
First of all, a gripe. I am not yet officially Mrs. Newlastname. I am legally still Mrs. Oldlastname. The legal process of changing your last name is not quick, nor easy. I have begun the process (delayed slightly due to the fact that government offices are only open during the hours that I have to be at work), but its not official yet.
Lagality aside, I have taken to calling myself Mrs. Newlastname. It is fun to hear friends refer to me as this new name. It is also fun to be referred to as Bill’s wife and ot refer to him in conversation as my husband. But I am still getting used to it.
Being called by a new name is so strange. The first obvious reason is that I have been Erica Oldlastname for 24 years. Another reason that is strange is that even though I am referring to myself with my new last name, I am still signing my old one on any official documents or anytime I am shopping and need to sign my receipts.
The other challenge is that my husbands last name is quite unique. My old last name is very common. While using my new last name, I am learning that I now have to spell it out every time I say it, and that people mispronounce it constantly. That is just completely different form my past experience.

So why go through all the trouble? Why even bother changing my name? I didn’t have to. And things would certainly be easier if I didn’t (I have a very long list of notifications I need to make once its official).
I chose to take my husbands last name because I feel that it unifies us. Logically, I know that we are husband and wife no matter what we are called. And I know that we are unified by more that words or names. But sharing the same names is very symbolic to sharing our lives. It symbolizes that we are a family now, and our family is called by one name. It also signifies that I have changed my life. I like the statement that it makes.