What's cooking this week?

Please note the new look of the blog....it's a complete work in progress. I don't know why I picked such a busy weekend to take this on. Boy, when I get something in my mind there's absolutely no waiting it out! I just spent way too long making my new WCTW button and something tells me I'll regret adding "every Sunday" to it. For now though, I think it was a nice touch!

Tonight: Beef Barley Soup and Salad
Tuesday: Tacos
Wednesday: Italian Antipasto Salad topped with grilled chicken
Thursday: Turkey Meatloaf and Mal's Crock Pot Sweet Potatoes

When I haven't been fiddling with my blog layout, I've been decorating the house for Christmas. Decorating our home is 1,000 x's more fun than the apartment ever was. Finally, more space for things...which I sure seem to have a lot of! Every time Ella goes in to sleep, she wakes up and there's a whole new set of drastic changes. Our tree will be a little disproportioned once we finish it since the bulk of the ornaments will be just out of reach for little fingers. 

 Last night I watched "Christmas Vacation" and cranked out two amazing burlap wreaths (if I do say so myself). I'll be sharing more about them later this week. Have a good one! 

Check out my lovely 'Savory' Sponsor:

Good Thing I Wore My Thanksgiving Pants

This is a random assortment of photos to recap our Thanksgiving trip. Maybe it's because my main mission was to capture a non-blurry picture of Ella in her pretty dress? No joke, I sat down for a good ten minutes last night and just deleted tons of photos which were complete duds. As I was putting this collage together I couldn't help but notice how much I didn't capture! Note to self...next time be the girl who is constantly making people stop to say "cheese"! Good thing my cousin got this fun group shot of all the "kids" (quotes because Stephen and I are old). I love this picture because half of us were serious, and the rest of us still thought we were supposed to be making funny faces. 

We just got home last night. It was a quick but fun trip full of new memories. All kinds of "Thanksgiving-y" yuminess was consumed. Ella had a blast eating up all the extra attention (the video won't embed in this post...so you can watch it here). Can't you tell she was in her element? Hopefully you all had a great holiday as well! Now on to the next one...it's beginning to look a lot like you know what around here!

Check out my lovely 'Savory' Sponsor:

Thankful in So-Flo

{Instant Download}

I hope you're all having a cozy morning, watching the parade and getting ready to spend this day with all your loved ones. We are doing just that right now...down in South Florida visiting family, prepping lots of yummy food while chasing after our sweet little toddler. 

Is it possible for my heart get extra full each year? Somehow that's what it feels like. Last year Thanksgiving took on a whole new meaning with the newest addition to our family. Here I am a year later and it seems as though my gratitude has doubled if that was even possible. A lot has happened in just one year. There have been many changes, lots of growth and much to be grateful for. 

This is my favorite time of year! From Thanksgiving to Christmas and everything in between. Enjoy every moment!  Happiest Thanksgiving!

Check out my lovely 'Savory' Sponsor:

Ashley & My Cucumber Avocado Subs

Did you know that Ashley from Wannabe Green is back and has a brand new blog!?! Yup, she's starting fresh over at Run Read Scout! This fit Mamma is one of my biggest motivators, it's fabulous that she's back at it! Definitely head over and check out this sweet lady!

My Cucumber Avocado Subs (inspired by Jimmy John's) were featured in a guest post that I did over at Ashley's old blog for a Meatless Monday post. Luckily I still had the HTML for the post in my sent box for this healthy deliciousness! I have enough difficulty writing down recipes, I'm glad I didn't have to do a total re-do on these!

Ingredients:

Sub rolls - lightly toasted (I prefer wheat, but only had white last time)

Light or fat-free mayo

Sliced cheddar cheese

Sliced cucumber

Sliced avocado

Sliced tomato

Sliced red bell pepper

Sliced red onion

Shredded lettuce

Red wine vinegar & extra-virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Spread mayo on toasted sub roll, top with as much or as little of the following 7 ingredients.

2.  Drizzle with red wine vinegar and olive oil.

3.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

4. Try your best to close the sub, eat with lots of napkins nearby!

Embrace the mess & ENJOY!

Not an excuse, but...

For a while now, I've been seriously slacking in the blogging department. I'm not about to make any excuses because the whole truth is simply that life gets in the way. I've been consistent with my "What's cooking this week" posts because honestly, I refer to my blog when I can't remember what I'm supposed to cook. It's become second nature for me and for Hubs too:

Hubs: "Do we need to take any meat out of the freezer tonight....hold on, I'll check your blog."

See.  

My 7 year old dinosaur of a Macbook made these simple Sunday posts take at least twice as long to do, but I still did it. In order to do any other posts throughout the week this meant firing that old thing up again and frankly, I do not have the patience to deal. It's been sitting in the corner of my bedroom collecting dust until Sunday rolled around again. The point of this random late Monday night post is that there are a ton of unwritten blog posts in my head still, and now that my wonderful Hubby came home with this beauty, I hope to get back into it! I'm eternally grateful!!!! Love you babes! 

This is going to be fun, I'm not even sure where to begin. It's as though I need to redefine my blogger identity...let's see where this thing takes me next! RIP old Macbook, you served me well! On to the next one! Heehee! Goodnight Friends!

What's cooking this week?

On Wednesday we're heading down south to be with family, so this week is a short one. I guess it's going to be a week full of poultry. 

Tonight: Easy Ranch Chicken and Rice
Tuesday: Chicken Tortilla Soup

The meal plan list may be short but our shopping list will not be. My Thanksgiving meal contribution will be my absolute favorite...."Antipast"! 

YUM! Click HERE for the recipe! It's not too late to plan on attempting the easy crowd pleaser for Turkey Day! 

I have the entire week off of work to be home with my little lady. "Psyched" doesn't even begin to describe how excited I am about this. Working motherhood was starting to catch up to me and this Mamma needed a break. I'll be busy enjoying every moment of course. We don't have anything major planned besides spending a few days down south with family. Maybe we will work in a pitstop at Disney, we'll see how it goes! Otherwise Hubs and I are just putting some more finishing touches on the house that I'll have to share with you all! Here is a peek at our new media console and our mounted TV - wire hiding will be a project for another day. 

Next weekend will be fun getting the house transformed into Christmas mode! For today though, I'm thinking a Friends Thanksgiving episdode marathon is needed. Click HERE for a very accurate list of all Thanksgiving Friends episodes ranked from worst to best. I'll also be getting as many snuggles in with my girl! Speaking of Ella, Timehop just blew my mind!

That face!!!! HaHa, Happy Sunday!!!!

What's cooking this week?

This weekend was non-stop family fun! It was fantastic but I'm SHOT! I hope I could make it through this post. Sigh. I just looked at the time, I'm old! Before I get into the details....food first!

Tuesday: Pulled Pork and green beans
Wednesday: Easy Crock Pot Chicken and Black Bean Taco Salad
Thursday: Broccoli Pasta with Sun-dried Tomatoes and Parmesan

The quick version is that we spent the weekend at Gaylord Palms with my Aunt Laura and Uncle John, cousin Jennifer and her boyfriend Mickhael. We froze our tushies off at the Ice exhibit (amazing) feasted at the buffet, and then feasted some more. After we said our goodbye's we popped into Epcot for a walk around the world showcase and checked out the fishies...Nemo ride, turtle talk with Crush...Ella loved all of it. I posted a TON of pics from the weekend on Instagram - check them out! 

This old lady is going to sleep....one more week of work and then an entire week OFF, can't wait! 

You have no idea how excited I am to have found this at Epcot today! I have the perfect spot for it too!

What's cooking this week?

Happy Monday Night! This is sort of a strange time for me to be planning meals. I never quite got to this over the weekend and I figured I would switch it up this week and save grocery shopping for Tuesday since I'm off. Hubs will be re-painting our walls and I need to get out of the house for a while with the babes so we aren't breathing in fumes all day. 

Tuesday: Italian Wedding Soup
Wednesday: Cucumber Avocado Subs
Thursday: Thai Chicken and Pineapple Stir Fry

Perhaps you're wondering why on Earth my walls need to be re-painted in my new home. The short version is that there was some drama upon closing on our house where a contractor who works with our builder came and "touched up" some spots on our walls. By some I mean MANY, all over the place, in every room. He used exterior paint instead of the interior which clearly dried with a different sheen. The jerk builder is dodging us and basically refusing to fix it and so here we are. Poor Hubs has to paint almost the entire house, it's a whole thing. 

I'm seriously hoping that by buying brand new paint with a primer built in we'll be able to get rid of all the splotches. Wish us luck! Afterwards we will finally be able to get our furniture into place and finish unpacking. We've been here for a few months now but this is literally the first opportunity we're finally getting to do this! Things have been just a tad bit busy over here. Anyway, have a great week...and of course a HUGE thanks to all the veterans!!!

Ella sitting in a bin on Saturday morning...makes me laugh!

Halloween 2014

Here are some photos from our little "honey's" second Halloween. She was a "bee-autiful" little "buzz buzz"!

What's cooking this week?

We've been having an almost perfect weekend over here! I say "almost" because Baby Girl is giving us a real hard time eating and drinking. That's a whole other frustrating story but we're managing. Surely it's all related to teething. What a nightmare! Speaking of eating though, Hubs and I have no problem whatsoever in that department...

Sunday: "Mom's Bowl Tipping" Chicken Soup
Tuesday: Grilled chicken with roasted asparagus and potatoes
Wednesday: Past Aglio E Olio
Thursday: Chili

Back to our almost perfect and extremely eventful weekend. Of course we had a busy night on Friday with all of the Halloween festivities (recap coming this week) and yesterday we took Ella on her first of many trips to Disney World! If you've been following my blog for a while you might remember Hubs and I frequenting the parks quite often. We were passholders for three years in a row when we first moved down here. After a little hiatus, we're back in business! It felt a little surreal to be back with a third little person! Obviously it's an entirely different experience this time around. Game-changer! I'll have a recap of that as well too. It was a magical experience for all of us!

I'll be getting that soup going in just a few. Back to enjoying our Sunday and our picky eater. Thank goodness for bananas!