Surviving Weekday Dinners

Dinner during the week is a struggle for me.  And, based on recent Facebook posts, I'm not alone.  My days are stressful and by the time the day is over and I go to the gym, I am done.  To be truthful, I am done before the gym, but that is a different story.

I'm a cook.  Even when I lived by myself and was in graduate school, I still cooked.  We're trying to be healthier and to spend less money eating out, so I've made it a priority to cook most of our meals during the week and then we eat out on the weekend.  I try to cook 2-3 meals a week and eat leftovers for lunch and two other nights.  

Here is how I survive dinner during the work week:

Meal Plan

I plan my meals out for the week over the weekend.  Not necessarily every meal, but I know what meals I plan on making, what ingredients I will need and how much time each meal will take.  Then I can look at my schedule and determine what night is best to make each meal. 

Sunday Preparation

I try to prep most of my meals on Sunday afternoons.  Last week I made a chicken casserole for one of our dinners.  I prepared it on Sunday then popped it in the oven when I got home from Zumba on Tuesday. Anytime I use the crock pot, I prepare it on Sunday.  Anything that you can pre-chop ahead of time makes your life easier.  Last week, I didn't actually cook anything during the week, just popped it in the oven or turned on the crock pot.

Chili in the crock pot and chicken casserole - ready for the week!

Have Back-ups

I always have ingredients for "back-up" meals.  Meals for weeks you don't have time to go to the grocery store.  Weeks that are just insane and you forget to lay anything out (if you freeze meat).  Back-up meals can be your savior.  Here are mine.

• Spaghetti - I always have spaghetti noodles and some sort of sauce. If I'm feeling creative, I throw whatever meat and veggies in that we have in the fridge or freezer.
• Chicken and veggies - I buy the individually wrapped chicken breasts.  They are easy to thaw (15 minutes in cold water) and are the right portion.  If you are cheap, you can also buy boneless chicken breasts, split them (if necessary), and then wrap them in freezer portion bags and freeze them.  I'm just too lazy to actually do it. In a pinch, I can make chicken breasts with some sort of vegetable (I keep either canned or frozen on hand). I've baked them and I've used the Foreman.  For baking, I cover in some butter and then put some oregano and basil on it, for the Foreman, I marinade for about 10-15 minutes in balsamic vinegar dressings.
• Homemade pizza - Pizza crusts or pizza dough, pizza sauce or marinara sauce, cheese and whatever you have in fridge works great. 

I don't really do salads, but those are good ideas too. 

Happy dinner making!

I Can Be Your Hero Baby....

Last Thursday, Raleigh's "Snow Day," I spent some time with friends that live in our complex.  We played the game "Loaded Questions" and one of the questions was "who do you want to model your life after and why."  None of us really had a specific name and, being the good Christian church kids we are, we all put down Jesus.  While we should all strive to be like Jesus, it was a total cop out answer.  It wasn't until Sunday, when I was at Target and saw her new book (and immediately bought it) that I figured it out:

Jen Lancaster is my professional/literary hero.

To say that my love for Jen is strong is probably a tad understated.  I have gone to her readings twice - once in Charlotte and once in Raleigh.

May 2010 - In Charlotte for My Fair Lazy reading

June 2013 - In Raleigh for the Tao of Martha reading.

I also own all but one of her books. You could say that I have a problem.

Jen started out as a blogger after she got laid off from her job.  Her first book, Bitter is the New Black, came about because of her blog, which she still keeps up and running.  She came out of corporate America, during the dot com era, as a pampered princess that you loved to hate and now is a New York Times Bestselling Author writing about her oh so suburban life.  I've watched her grow, literally watched real life character development.  She's dealt with her weight, her laziness and addiction to reality TV, and spent a year being more like Martha Stewart.  Now she's writing fiction, which I don't love nearly as much, but I still buy it because I love and support her.

She gives me hope.

Not that I will be her.  Not that someone will read this blog and say "Let's give Sarah a book deal!" Ha.  No. My life is nowhere near that entertaining.  But I have hope that I will keep writing, that I will keep doing this thing that I love and that people will keep reading what I write.

It's hard to blog once a week.  It's hard to think of something to write about on a weekly basis that someone else will want to read.  So far, though, I think I've done a pretty good job.  In my first three posts, I surpassed the amount of views of my old blog, which had about 19 posts.  I completely credit this to the use of Facebook, but I don't care how it happens.  About 50-60 people read something that I have written once a week.  They comment.  They even ask my mom if she's read my posts (and she hasn't, but I'll forgive her) and  then proceed to tell her how funny they think I am. Completely unsolicited.  It's awesome! So awesome that it causes happy dances on a weekly basis, awesome.

I also have hope that I will grow as a person and that I will look back at my blogs and get to see it in my writing.  I'm doing this for me. I enjoy blogging because it gives me reason to try new things. To write again. To not be afraid to fail.  And it's fun - because it's just for me. And for Aaron and whatever family we end up having.

So, thanks, Jen.  Thanks for getting fired, for being crazy and writing about it and making me fall in love with your memoirs.  Thanks for keeping it going for the past eight years and for being, in a weird, non-stalkerish way, my hero.

   

Entertaining with Sarah: Mexican Fiesta!

There is one instance in which I love a good party: when I'm throwing it and doing the cooking.

By itself, that statement sounds both rather obvious and self-absorbed, but I promise it's not.  There is the obvious reason that when you throw a party, only the people you like are there.  But the main reason that I love throwing a party, especially a good dinner party, is that it's not about me - it's about my food and the presentation of it!

Meet Ollie.

Ollie in her element.

My grandma Ollie was my mom's mom and is responsible for at least 75% of my personality quirks. She was a caterer and well-known for her "Ollie cakes."  I grew up with small wedding cakes for birthday cakes - one year, I had a three tier cake, each layer a different flavor.

Seven year old Sarah with her Troll birthday cake.  

I spent every afternoon after school with my Grandma Ollie and Poppa Robert.  I grew up snacking on roses that were left over from cake decorations, peanut butter balls, nutty fingers, mints and cake holes covered in icing straight from the piping bag.  I learned all about cooking and baking: simple tricks, presentation and trying new techniques and recipes.  Much like Ollie, my kitchen is my sanctuary, there is nothing more therapeutic than destroying a kitchen.  Ollie loved to experiment and so do I, which is probably why I'm a better cook than baker.  I learned a lot from her in the 12 years I had with her and still miss her greatly.  To this day, I still follow the "try it once" rule she lived by.  Ollie loved people and she showed her love best by cooking and baking.  I'm not always so good with social functions, but I do love to show my love for people by cooking.

Mexican Night - How it Came About

I decided a few weeks ago that it would be fun to have people over and to do a Mexican night.  We had Thanksgiving at our apartment, but hadn't done any other entertaining since then.  Since we have all of these awesome wedding gifts and I love to entertain/cook, I am on a one-woman mission to use every single cool wedding gift we have! We invited Aaron's sister Abbey and her boyfriend, Christian, to have dinner with us.  Then Aaron's mom asked if we wanted to do dinner with them that night to celebrate her birthday since the next Friday would be Valentine's Day.  We invited them over, as well, and the Mexican Fiesta night was on!

Why Mexican?

I love Mexican food. I especially love having taco night.  Tacos are easy to make and are a fun party food.  It's also a good meal to make as easy or as difficult as you would like.

The Menu

If I have learned anything in entertaining/moving/managing projects, it's that you always start with a game plan.  People make fun of me for this, but organization keeps me from losing my mind.  So I planned out my menu and then I planned what parts I was going to make when.

Mexican Night Menu  

Drinks

Sangria (cause I love it and Mexican night isn't complete without sangria)

Appetizers

Velveeta & Rotel

Fresh Salsa

Chips

Tacos

Breaded Lime Tilapia

Ground Beef with Homemade Taco Seasoning

Taco Fixings

Cheese

Lettuce

Sour Cream

Tomato

Guacamole (Aaron ended up eating it all, so it didn't happen)

Sides

Homemade Refried Beans

Mexican Rice

The Game Plan

So, I married an awesome man that helps me clean.  I could go on for days about how awesome it is, but I will just say that he makes cleaning so much easier because we cut the time in half.  First, we had to clean the apartment, which we really hadn't done a deep clean on since Christmas.  We did the living room/dining room areas on Monday, the kitchen on Tuesday, the bathrooms on Wednesday and the bedrooms on Thursday.  

We did Mexican Night on a Friday night.  This means I had to have everything ready by 7:00 Friday night.  That is next to impossible when you work full time.  So here was my plan of attack:

• Thursday Night
• Grated the cheese (I had a block of cheese we needed to use AND I got to use my handy cheese grater)
• Chopped the tomatoes
• Chopped the lettuce (I did iceberg lettuce, washed it then chopped it)
• Chopped the onion (I have to use a mini-chopper because I cry...a lot)
• Minced the garlic
• Rinsed the dry beans and covered them in water for their overnight soak

•  Friday Afternoon (Home at 4)
• Put the beans on to boil (had to boil for 2 hours)
• Made the sangria so it could sit for a few hours
• Mixed together taco seasoning since we had run out
• Pulled out the pans
• Cubed the velveeta, mixed in rotel and put it in the baby crockpot to let is simmer/start melting.
• Pulled out the ingredients, set up the dredging stations for the tilapia
• Marinated the tilapia in lime juice
• Friday Night (about 6)
• Made the rest of it!

Recipe Critiques

While I love to cook, there are some things that are better left to the manufacturers for economical purposes (read: Ain't nobody got time for dat).  I used Fresh Salsa from Harris Teeter, Spanish Style 90-second Uncle Ben's Rice, and Velveeta and Rotel for the queso.  I did make Homemade Refried Beans, my own Taco Seasoning, the tilapia and the Sangria. The recipes I used are linked to the menu above.  Here are my comments on them:

• Homemade Refried Beans: I would recommend using lard or really good fat.  I used oil and the beans dried out some.  I did use almost all of the cooking juice.  They had a good flavor, but the texture needed some work.
• Taco Seasoning: It has good flavor, but it still needs an extra...something? I hope to figure it out because I own all the ingredients from the recipe!

All the ingredients...minus the celery seed, it attacked me when I took down the chili powder.

Finished taco seasoning!

• Tilapia: I marinated the fish in lime juice for about 2 hours, then I used the recipe above for dredging purposes.  I used it simply because I have panko and it was easy to use.  This turned out really good! 
• Sangria: I have been using this recipe for about 2 years and it is always a win. 

Wedding Gifts Used

I think I'm going to start adding this category any time we have dinner parties/I blog a new recipe.  Aaron swears we won't use half of what we got and I'm on a mission to prove him wrong!

• Serving dishes (7)
• Cheese grater
• Lil dipper/baby crock pot
• 2 Calphalon pans

We are "Those People"

Contrary to popular belief, I generally don't like people.

Once upon a time, I thought I liked people, but now that I am 28 and past the "I need to please everyone!" stage of life, I can truly say that I am not a people person. Yes, I like to people watch - they intrigue me. And don't get me wrong, I will talk your ear off if I like you. But at the end of my work week, my ability and need to placate people and pretend to be nice when I don't actually like someone is just gone. 

This probably makes me sound terrible.  If so, lucky for you, I married Aaron.

Aaron loves everyone. Everyone loves Aaron.  Aaron makes friends with anything that will stand still long enough to listen to him.  What I lack in the ability to choke down people's BS, Aaron thrives on. He's the nice one, I'm the mean one and we like it that way.

Back in September, we got married. Before we got married, I said we wouldn't be "those people" and for my friends to tell me if we became "those people."  You know, the ones that get married and fall off the face of the earth? Guess what? 

We are totally those people! I get those people now!! They are MY people!

Weekend before last, we were super anti-social.  Friday night, I stayed home and scrap-booked.  Saturday, we spent the entire day inside, Aaron playing xBox while I had a Hart of Dixie marathon, and Sunday we managed to venture out to go to church and grocery shop.  Not once did we see friends.  And I was okay with that.

Aaron is not okay with that.

This is probably a good thing.  Probably why I married him. Otherwise, I would be a super independent social hermit for the rest of my life. Not an actual hermit.  I like to be on the go - I go shopping, I go to book stores and coffee shops, and I go on trips.  But I am A-okay with it just being me. Aaron calls this my only child syndrome, but also appreciates my only-child syndrome and my need for space.  This means he gets boy days and xBox time.   

So, in response to our weekend of social hermitness (yep, I totally just made up that word), we spent as much time as we could with people this past weekend.

Friday we had dinner with our friends Danny and Sarah.

Saturday morning I helped a friend move.

Saturday afternoon I went to a "Valentine Crafternoon' at another friend's house.

Sunday we had lunch with a friend and went to a Superbowl party.

Holy moly.

That is a LOT of people time. Probably maxed me out for a while, but surprisingly, I had fun.  I've decided I like this whole newly wed thing.  People don't care if you are social hermits.  In fact, they're so much happier to see you when you do come out to play.  Most importantly, they also don't get offended if you don't come out to play. It's awesome!

My name is Sarah, I married Aaron and we have happily become "those people."