Menu Monday on Thursday

I plan on starting Menu Monday next week but we had some of my favorite recipes this week and I wanted to share. I'm not always the greatest at planning a menu and sticking to it but I've gotten a lot better recently. It really does help you stick to your budget if you plan your meals ahead of time.

Growing up my family always went out to eat on Friday nights. A lot of times it was just to Pizza Hut or Long John Silvers. Sometimes we would go somewhere fancier. When we ate at home, we would make our plates and gather around the TV to watch our regular shows. We rarely ate at the dining room table unless we were eating at my grandparents house. After Daniel and I got married not much changed about how I did dinner. We would usually eat in the living room. Honestly, most of the time the dining table was covered in mail and what ever else we dropped on it as we came into the house. Now that we have Lily, we have started eating together at the dining room table every night for dinner. I enjoy spending this time together as a family.

We ate out probably more than we really needed to as well. Truth be told, we probably still do. We have really started cutting back on how often we eat out and when we do we usually choose the less expensive options. Honestly, if you asked either of us where we would want to go out to eat on any given day, you would probably hear Firehouse Subs or Bariola's ( a local pizza place). Occasionally, we will splurge and go out for sushi. I can't remember the last time I ate sushi though.

Now that we are a one income family, we are really trying to stick to our budget. So, I'm really trying to plan out our meals for the week and stick to it. I've been doing a lot of searching on Pinterest for new recipes to try. Like I mentioned in my last post, we are attempting to eat healthier and add more veggies and fish to our diets. I recently created a board on my pinterest account called "Winning Recipes." I decided that I needed a place to repin the recipes that we've tried and really liked. I've found that sometimes the recipes we like get lost all the pins on my normal recipe board. This week, I went back to that board when I was making out our menu. Here's what I came up with:

Monday:Chipotle Butternut Squash and cilantro lime rice bowl (new recipe)


Tuesday: Tropical Chicken Burgers with pineapple and watermelon

  

Wednesday: Salmon Cakes with roasted asparagus

 

Thursday: Bacon Avocado Pasta

  

Friday: Sweet Potato Burritos 

  

Saturday: Skillet Cajun Spiced Tilapia  (the recipe uses flounder)

  

Sunday: Turkey Taco Lettuce Wraps (new recipe)



I made the tropical chicken burgers for my bible study group on Tuesday and they were a big hit.  When I made these the first time I posted a picture on Facebook. I've gotten so many people ask me about them.This time I added some Dijon mustard. It was a nice addition.

I can't take credit for any of the recipes. However, I rarely follow them exactly and I never measure anything unless I'm baking. So I guess you could say that I use the recipe for inspiration and then do my own tweaking. There's only been a few times when the not measuring thing didn't work out for me. The first time I made the Skillet Cajun Spiced Flounder I didn't measure the cajun seasoning. I just sprinkled it in until I thought it looked like enough and then I sprinkled a little more. (I like spicy foods.) It was good but it was definitely cajun spiced. I promised Daniel that the next time I made it I would just use what was called for in the recipe. I'm slowly getting more comfortable with just making recipes up and trying out new things. I'm just lucky because Daniel seems to like most of the things I've come up with. If he hasn't liked it, he's smart enough to not say anything and just eat it. :)

Wow!! It's been almosts 2 years!

So I've decided to start blogging again. It's been almost 2 years since I've posted anything. I realized that I never finished my posts on our Ireland trip so I guess I should close that out eventually. There's a lot of catching up to do.

Twenty-twelve was a big, big year in the Worthy House.

We were blessed with a baby in 2012. Lillian was born on April 12th.

I can't believe that she's already a year old. Time just goes too fast.

After having Lily, I left my job to become a stay at home mom. It's one of the best decisions I've ever made. I have absolutely love being home with Lily and I'm so lucky to have the opportunity. I really struggled with leaving my job. I had worked since I was 16 years old. So, it was odd to think that I would not have a job and be contributing to the family income. After a year of being home, I have to say, I think I work harder at home than I ever did in any job. But, this is absolutely the greatest "job" ever.

More about all that later.

 

In addition to writing about my life with my family, I hope to post about all the new recipes I've been trying lately. We have started trying to really limit the amount of red meats we are eating and incorporating more fish and veggies in our diets. I love looking on Pinterest for meal ideas and I have tried several new recipes that have been big hits. I have to eat dairy free for my sweet girl and that has sometimes been a challenge. She has a cow's milk allergy and I'm still nursing. Daniel as gotten pretty used to never having cheese in the house these days. It hasn't been as difficult as I had initially thought it would be. I've been eating dairy free since Lillian was 4 months old. Daniel asked me the other day what I missed most and I couldn't really think of something I missed. I guess I miss the convenience more than anything. However, it has gotten pretty easy to find dairy-free alternatives these days, even at Walmart or Target. I really only go to the natural food store in town for yogurt for Lily. I can get everything else I need at my local grocery store. I'm hoping they will respond to my request to start carrying either a soy yogurt or coconut milk yogurt. I guess I could just make my own. I haven't tried that yet.

I'm looking forward to reconnecting with the blog world and hopefully if I have any readers out there, you all will enjoy a little look into life at the Worthy House.

Ireland Trip Part 1---Skelligs and Dingle

So to say I've been slacking on the blog thing is probably the understatement of the year. Its been almost a year since I posted. I can't believe it. Time just flies.

Anyway, so what have we been up to this year you may be wondering... Not too much really. Guess we are just kinda boring. We did get back recently from an amazing vacation to Ireland.

My husband posted his favorites and his disappointments on his site and I thought maybe I would share a few of mine.

I would have to say that one of the highlights of the trip for me was seeing the puffins in their natural habitat. I've always thought these were the cutest birds and I have always wanted to see one in real life. I spent a summer in Maine one year and they have puffins there but I never got to see one.



We went on a day trip out to the Skellig Islands off the southern coast of Ireland on our third day there and I finally got to see the puffins. They didn't disappoint. The Skelligs are home to thousands of birds. The country has established these islands as a nature reserve and they only allow so many people to visit per day. It was a 45 minute boat ride out to Skellig Michael. This is the larger of the two and they only one that they allow people to visit. There is a monastery at the top of the island that was founded in the 7th century by Christian monks. The huts are very well preserved and it was definitely worth the trip out and the climb up the 600 stone steps.



These are some of the huts at the top of Skellig Michael.

And yes, we climbed up 600 of these steps to make it to the top. Definitely know now just how out of shape I am.



Here I am with some puffins. We were able to get pretty close to them before they would fly off. There were hundreds out that day. The weather was amazing. I guess we were lucky because prior to our trip, Ireland had had horrible weather for like a month or so.




We left out of Portmagee for the Skelligs and on our drive into town we saw this amazing rainbow. I didn't get a picture of the whole thing but we could be exactly where the rainbow started and stopped. It was beautiful. We saw about 8 or 9 rainbows during out stay.



Another favorite part was simply the driving through the countryside. The views are beautiful. The next couple of pictures are from our drive down the Dingle Peninsula. If you ever make it over to Ireland, definitely do the drive to Dingle. Definitely one of the best parts of our trip. I know most people will drive the Ring of Kerry and we did this drive too. It had some wonderful towns and beautiful scenery but in my opinion, it didn't live up to the drive to Dingle. Stunning.








For the sake of not making this post forever long, I'll split up our trip and leave it at this for today.

Happy 4th!!!!

Bedroom Makeover

We've been busy around here the past week or so making over our master bedroom. I'm so excited with how it's turned out. We had painted it green not long after moving in. I liked the green but it was a little too much. I'm definitely the type of person who likes to change things up every now and then. When I was younger I would rearrange my bedroom furniture every few months or so. Luckily for my husband I don't do that too often any more. I'm surprised he actually helped repaint this time.

Anyway, I decided that I wanted to repaint and after going through about a hundred paint chips, I found a blue and tan that I liked. We decided to paint blue in the bedroom and the tan in the bathroom. We haven't started on that yet but maybe soon. I need to give my poor husband a break from painting for a while I think or he really won't help me. He LOVES the color blue so I knew he would like the paint choices.

Here's a picture of the green before.


We didn't really have any other furniture or accessories other than a dresser that the TV sat on.

Here's the finished room. I'm really excited with how it turned out. Here are a few pics of how it turned out:


I found the quilt and tan blanket at TJ Maxx for a total of $45. It has the perfect shade of blue and brown to match the paint we chose. I'm considering covering the headboard and footboard with some white fabric that ties on the sides. I like the brown in the wood but it doesn't match our other furniture. I would love suggestions.

The picture above the bed came from Kirklands. I get a lot of my home decor items from here because there is usually always a sale. The quote says," Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass... it's about learning to dance in the rain."




We found the armoir on Craigslist and had to do just a little bit of touch up. The dresser is something I picked up a while back at a flea market for $90.


The accessories came from both TJ Maxx and Kirklands. Everything was on sale. I love not paying full price. I picked up the curtains from Target. I have such a hard time with curtains. I can rarely find any I actually love. I considered making my own but I like how the brown and white look together. I have a couple of picture frames I'm planning on hanging together as soon as I get the photos developed. Other than that I think I'm pretty much done with the room. Let me know what you think. Is there anything that would look better changed up. I'm sure there is. I would love input.

I linking to Tatertots and Jello and Keeping it Simple

Look what I found...

These beauties are in my flower bed in the front of our house. I planted these early this year and was in the hospital when they first bloomed. By the time I got home, they were a little past their prime. However, I got to see the new blooms this past weekend. I love yellow roses. I also planted a pink rose bush and the blooms on it are just as beautiful.

Backyard Landscaping Project

Well after several bumps in the road, we are finally close to be done with our little landscaping project in the backyard. I'm really happy with the way its turned out so far. I've got a few little things to add to it but it's pretty much done. Here's what it looked like before...

This is a picture taken during the process of clearing out the grass around the patio. My poor husband worked so hard to make this perfect for me. I really couldn't do a lot to help. We did most of the work after I got home from the hospital so I pretty much supervised.


Here's what it looks like after. We built four 3X3 boxes to use as planter boxes. I've got tomatoes planted in two of them and flowers planted in the other two. Right now they don't look like much but I'm hoping in a little while there will be a little more color. I still have some bird feeders to put up in the other corner and we are planning on planting a small flowering tree at some point in time.





This is the beautiful hanging basket I got at Walmart. I love the colors.




Here's the side view. The sunflower looking thing on the ground is actually a bird feeder I got a year or so ago at a craft fair. I'm getting ready to hang it on another hook along with a hummingbird feeder.


I'm really happy with the results and I know it will only get better after things start growing. I would love any input about how to make it even better. Hope you enjoy. Thanks for stopping by.

Landscaping Project

We're almost finished with our backyard landscaping project. It's only taken 2 months. There were some setbacks in those 2 months. We had about a months worth of rainy weekends so there was no we were going to be able to till up the ground with all the rain. When we finally get a week where we didn't have any rain, I end up in the hospital and have to have surgery. Finally, after all of that, my amazing husband worked so hard to get the flower beds ready to plant in. I'll post pictures tomorrow! Can't wait to show it off.