Meal Planning

We've been horrible at eating out.  And by that I mean we eat out waaay too much.  We both work full time and don't have kids, so we have a little wiggle room with finances.  HOWEVER, we need to save money!  And eating out all the time is not the way to save money!

If you search for "Crockpot meals" on Pinterest you will quickly become overwhelmed.  The reason I've never done the crockpot meals before is because there are way too many options, most of the recipes are super unhealthy, and there aren't readily available shopping lists.

But search no more, I've found the site for you!

The link below will take you to 8 freeze-ahead crockpot meals.  Each meal is intended to serve a whole family, so for us one meal will last awhile (dinner and lunch the next day, at least).  What I like about these meals is that they are pretty customizable to your preferences and can easily be made gluten-free and organic.  I used all organic, free range chicken, organic and grass fed beef, and organic vegetables.

On the site they provide a printable shopping list and printable recipe instructions.  No copying and pasting needed!  Have a look and let me know if you do it.

http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2012/09/slow-cooker-freezer-meals-make-8-meals.html


I assembled the meals today, and while it took longer than 1 hour, I think it was worth it.  Peter said, "I can't wait to eat all this food!"

XOXO,
Julie

Mid-Month Check-in and Links

Today was a crappy day.

This morning while washing dishes I stabbed my finger with a pair of scissors.  So I gave up on washing dishes and decided to rearrange the living room furniture.  And the bookshelf fell over on top of me, scraping my arm and leg in the process.  Peter and I got into a fight, and I was pretty grumpy for a few hours.  Later on we went to the store to get some plants and I smashed my hand in the shopping cart.

Fun day.

So instead of sitting at home feeling sorry for myself (which I already did a little bit of this morning), I decided to take my laptop to Barnes and Noble and write a little blog post.



Life Updates:

I'm extremely grumpy.  I was grumpy all last week.  And I expect I'll be grumpy this week, too.  Such is life, right?



Monthly Goals Check-in:

Haven't saved very much money.  We had to pay first and last month's rent, plus a quarter of a month's rent at our old place (the leases overlapped), plus all the fees for transferring all our electric, internet, etc.  So money has been a little tight this month.

Haven't made our house feel like home, yet.  Haven't even unpacked all our stuff, yet...

Um... yeah I've eaten some sugar.  But heck it was Valentine's month!  A little bit of chocolate was to be expected, right?

Haven't even touched blogilates yet...

So far, no bueno.  Maybe the second half of the month will be better?  (I'm going to guess not. haha!)



Links:

I want to make this garland for my office.

This is really clever.

5 ways to naturally purify your home.

I'm going to try this recipe tonight.

Post like this make me wish I were an artist.

By the numbers

1 husband

18 months of marriage 

3 homes 

1 huge mess to unpack

Sugar Loaf in Rio de Janeiro

We lived in Rio de Janeiro for a year, but it wasn't until our last week there that we decided to visit Pão de Açúcar, or Sugar Loaf.  And now, half a year later, I'm finally posting pictures!

When we left the house it was sunny, but I commented to Peter and my in-laws how smoggy it looked.  Turns out it wasn't smog, but fog.  And it got a lot foggier!

To get to the top of Sugar Loaf you have to ride two cable cars.  The first cable car takes you to the top of the smaller mountain, and the views were pretty.  Too bad we had already sold our nice camera...  Also too bad that the fog was starting to get heavy.  We decided to get a bite to eat at the restaurant and hoped that the fog on top of the taller mountain would go away by the time we were done eating.  Well, it didn't.  It got worse.  And let me just say - riding a cable car into pure white fog is terrifying.

We took pictures of... fog... and then headed back down.  The views coming down were not what we hoped (on a sunny day you can see the entire city of Rio), but they were still unique.

So that was our adventure up Sugar Loaf.  I'm really bummed that we didn't make it on a sunny day, but I'm still glad we went.  If you go to Rio de Janeiro, make sure to add Sugar Loaf to your list.  It's a bit overpriced, but in the end I think it's worth it.  If you go on a sunny day you get an amazing view of the city.

Linking up for Travel Tuesday.  I've been so busy lately but I really hope to hop around and read some other Travel Tuesday blog posts!  There are so many fun things to discover in blogland!

XO,

Julie

February Goals

1.  Save another $500.  This is going to be difficult because we moved to a new house and had to pay a huge security deposit, plus first month's rent, plus our rent for our current place doesn't expire until Feb. 9th so we have to pay a prorated amount for that... so we have lots of housing payments this month.  We are going to try to save as much as possible.

2.  Make our new house feel like home.  Hang pictures, decorate, cozy-it-up!  We need to buy a couch, a couple of dressers, night stands, and more... but I'm not sure if that's going to happen this month.

3.  No sugar.  Period.  I have been eating waaaay too much sugar these days.  I seriously need to stop eating sweets!

4.  Go through the Blogilates Beginner's Calendar.  No more excuses.  I need to get in shape!  It's either buy bigger clothes or get in shape so my clothes fit again!  And since I can't afford to buy clothes, I guess I have to work out...

I think that's all for this month!  What are your February goals?

XOXO,

Julie