Meal Plan Monday (on a Thursday)

so my bestest oldest friend has recently embarked on journey towards vegetarianism and has inspired me to take my own taking meat out of my diet to the next level

you should check it out http://newveginnings.blogspot.com/ (how do i make links pretty, so you don't see the whole link,anyone?)

so in light of this new dietary inspiration I went to the grocery store today as I am more or less out of thanksgiving leftovers

so here is my meals for the next few days in no particular order

crock pot pulled pork and peppers ala tempeh served with bake sweet potato fries ( this is an experiment on substitution for a previous meat filled recipe I love)

Nutty Lentil loaf with pecans

eggplant parmesan (I will conquer my fear of eggplant)

roasted peppers and pesto sandwiches oven baked with parmesan

I'm quite excited

procrastination

I'm a procrastinator, nothing new. Having to move in 18 days doesn't change anything.

Ive gone through most of my books to see what I'm willing to get rid of and what I want to keep. I have a couple of huge stacks to take to the used book store. I'm proud of myself for actually getting rid of stuff. I'm a pack rat by nature so this is kinda huge. I still have alot of books though. a good chunk of old textbooks that I haven't been able to bring myself to get rid of, I should though.

In the process I found a cookbook: Saving Dinner the Vegetarian Way, healthy menus, recipes and shooing lists to keep everyone happy at the table.

I had forgotten that I like it, it has lists (i heart lists) and its arranged by season, so you cook things with season vegetables. Ive only done one recipe out of it, it turned out pretty good. It has re-inspired me to try more vegetarian cooking, and now that I am almost out of thanksgiving leftovers I can go back to normal cooking, now is a perfect time to do so.

I'm savoring the last few weeks in my own place. I know this wont be the last place that we will have of own, but its been home for 3 1/2 years, and it was the place where I really embraced my love of being a wife and all things domestic.

ok I should go back to sorting. I have too many books and too many clothes.And stuff. so much random stuff I don't know what to do with.

Quincy

its 12:57 and Im still up. why you ask? because im crazy. instead of buying the donuts my husband wanted for breakfast tomorrow, I offered to bake muffins. well since Quincy the turkey (yes we named the turkey, yes we're demented) has to go in at 6:30 in the morning. I have to bake the muffins that I opened my big fat mouth and said I would make tonight. if it wernt 1 in the morning, I would just go buy donuts. but oh well. I like baking, I love sharing my baking with others, it will be worth it.

my in-laws are here for Thanksgiving. since we've moved to the bay area the tradition of celebrating my birthday when we're together for thanksgiving has come to be. I dont complain, I get early presents. well this year is like no other, I got my birthday present early.

wanna know what I got? we regardless if you do or dont, I will tell because it makes me very happy and very excited. I hugged it

a Pfaff expression 2.0 sewing maching. as always Im technology defuncked and have yet to take a picture with my own camera so no visual. but i assure, its beautiful.

it has an extra long throat so I can quilt and a walking foor (something my current machine has lacked for the last 3 years ive had it) and it has all kinds of fun stitches and its just beautiful.

I cant wait to try it out, weeeeeee.

ok im delirious and my timer for the first batch of muffins is almost done and i have to find the camera battery and I really dont know how im still functioning much alone typing this.

needless to say, ignore all spelling errors and typos. too tired to bother editing.

Happy Thanksgiving!

T minus 2 days to Turkey day

3 days or so ago-ish my apartment was nearly ready for Thanksgiving company. My kitchen was a disaster but that is always the last thing to get cleaned.


Today? Today it is a disaster. I couldn't find 1 (1!) of my matching napkins that I'm using for Thanksgiving. I have another matched set, but I was gunghoe (sp? gun hoe? whatever) on using that set (its brown with orange and tan stripes, the tan stripes match my tablecloth perfectly, and they just look like thanksgiving) so I had to go in search of it. well I found it, but in the process started sorting clothes to get rid of since we're moving. which turned into sorting clothes for laundry, and then laundry.which actually got folded for a change, but not put away. I have stacks of towels and dish towels in my living room. so I was productive yesterday, you just cant tell

then at like 8:00 last night I decided it was a good time to organize my fabric, because I need to start Christmas presents, and I couldn't get to anything in the hall closet that I actually needed.

well needless to say, I now have fabric and sewing notions all over my hallway.

I'm supposed to have people over in 2 days for dinner, tomorrow Lulu is coming over to help prep. I have class tonight. so I need to get my act together, instead of writing about it I need to get up and do.

regardless of all of this I have almost all of my separate piles for my various Christmas gifts and I'm really excited about what I'm making people. it just needs to go on the back burner for now.

ok, off to fix my disaster of an apartment

the best time of the year

So we're entering my absolute favorite time of year.

Not only do we have the holiday, but my birthday is right around the corner. With the the month of December and part of November comes all the pretty decorations and lights and Christmas wreaths and just general holiday cheer.

Going into it this year I'm really trying to hold onto my holiday cheer. We've been ridiculously poor for the holidays before, so I'm not worried about that. But despite the lack of fundage we've always been able to decorate, even if it just means putting up my nativity scene and angel Jackson bought me the first Christmas we were married.

this year, that cant happen. 6 days before Christmas we have to be out of our apartment. It looks like we will be moving into a room in our church.

And I know that Christmas isn't about the twinkle lights and the tree and the ornaments, but oh how do I love those, they bring great joy to my heart. the memories that come with every ornament, the great smell the tree brings to my whole house. the Christmas music playing as I make my apartment pretty.

This is only a season and if we do move into the church, I wont have one tree Ill have at least 3 and the whole place will be decorated and Ill have a roof over my head and Ill be with my husband. these are the things that matter. I know this. I just really, really like making my apartment pretty.