What's For Dinner?!

I am loving this planning ahead for the meals thing! My erasable menu planner has been a life (and time!) saver so many times!

Our days are very busy so we try hard to stick to our menu, and we have been doing a pretty good job, but weekends are hit or miss. We plan meals for the weekends, but often end up eating with friends, or out, or with my parents, etc.

The point of planning meals is to help you...so don't beat yourself up if you get to the end of the day and just cannot bring yourself to get into the kitchen and go out for mexican food instead (Flashback to Thursday night...)

Here is what is on the menu this week:

Monday:

Bachelor night! Homemade pizza with friends!

Tuesday:

Roasted tomato soup 

Open faced broiled grilled cheese sandwiches on top.

Recipe is from Smitten Kitchen and can be found HERE

ummmm....yummmm

Wednesday:

 Bleu cheese bacon burgers with caramelized onions

 Thick cut homemade steak fries

Thursday:

 Grilled chicken

garlic-buttered noodles

Bleu cheese wedge salad

Friday: 

TBD - by this point I am usually pooped, and we eat leftovers from the week.

Saturday: 

Fish tacos again! We cannot get enough...and my hubby just so happens to be an amazing fish-cooker. : ) 

Sunday:

 SUPERBOWL! We will most likely be at a party and will have eaten out weight in chips, dips, and jalapeno poppers...dinner will not be necessary!

What's for dinner this week at your house?

What a Pinteresting week

I always love Pinterest, but I have really been loving it lately.

I have gotten so much inspiration from it for my home and future projects!

Here are a few of my pins from this week:

1.

2.

3.

4.

1. Yummy wallpaper 

2. Vintage school chairs for dining room

3. DIY letterpress inspired table

4. Mid-Century modern baby.

On pinterest? Follow me...

SAVSMILES

What's for dinner?

Monday

Grilled fish tacos

roasted corn

avocado-sour cream sauce

Tuesday

Crockpot Chicken Balsamico (didn't get made last week...whoops!)

Quinoa

Broccoli

Wednesday

Chicken sausages

Mashed potatoes

Sauteed kale with red wine vinegar

Thursday

Yellow curry chicken

Basmati rice with peas

Zucchini

Friday

Green sauce enchiladas

Mexican rice

corn and avocado salsa

We try not to eat a lot of red meat, and when we buys things like sausage or ground meat we try to get chicken or turkey.

We are by no means health nuts, but we try to be good!

We me being in school again for the semester I make this list on Saturday or Sunday and then get all my grocery shopping done on Sunday afternoon. This make it simple to come home from school, know what is for dinner and have all the ingredients ready to go!

What does your week look like? Trying any new recipes?

The balsamico chicken is new for us, I'll let you know how it goes!

Erasable Menu DIY

So I have begun to share my weekly menus with you all...

1. to keep myself accountable to do it and

2. to inspire you all to do the same!

It really does save so much work and stress!!

And if you have kids, let them pick a meal one night and write it in..it will be fun for them to be involved and have them help cook too or take a load off and them cook it all (if they are old enough).

So here is my version of the erasable weekly menu, inspired by the lovely Pinterest.

Supplies

1. A large frame, with glass

2. Scissors

3. Tape

4. Markers or pens

5. A large white poster board (not pictured)

6. fun stencils!

I tried tons of different things like putting mismatched craft paper, or cut up Trader Joe bags behind my glass in the frame, and just didn't end up liking any of it. So I went to Target and bought one of those like science fair poster board and cut it to the right size. A nice clean, white slate.

I measure the white poster board to the same length and width as the back panel of the frame, cut it out and taped it to the back. I then added some food themed stencils to my white paper 

Then out of craft paper I made day of the week circles, and taped them onto the white poster board (now attached to the inside panel of the frame)

I wrote 'MENU' in large letters on the white poster board, and then assembled the frame and secured the glass on top.

Crappy close-up. : )

I bought a dry erase pen from Target and can now write the menu next to the day of the week circles, and can record on top the week I am cooking for...then erase it all at the end of the week and start over!

It's super easy, and it has made my hectic school filled life soo much better! : )

The Real Housewives Project

I am so very excited to share with you something that has been on my heart for the past couple months...and it is FINALLY coming together!!

Starting February 1st I will be featuring women from all over the Blog-O-Sphere. Wives and mommas who are keepin' it real, living life, and most importantly following Christ.

The blogging world can be an interesting thing. It is your blog...so you choose what to show the world. 

It is easy to come off as being perfect, with well-behaved children, doting husbands, and wonderful best friends. But this isn't always the case.

Not to say that our children, husband, and friends are wonderful...but there is often a side that isn't seen.

I am in no way promoting the airing of every piece of dirty laundry over the inter-webs...but there is something to say about women who can be real,  authentic, and transparent.

I have found some of these women, and I am delighted and beyond blessed to be about to share their stories and pictures with you!

If you are interested in being part of the Real Housewives Project, please email me!

sav{dot}horton{at}gmail{dot}com

What's for Dinner?

So I have decided to take Rubyellen, from Cakies, lead and start posting our weekly meal plan

Maybe it will create a chain of inspiration so in a couple weeks we will all be sitting down to home cooked meals weekly with our families...dream big! : )

I created a new "MENU" dry erase frame for our kitchen so it is easier for me to plan ahead and make grocery lists. I will be sharing a tutorial for it tomorrow...it is super easy!

Monday

Grilled fish (halibut or cod)

Cheesy quinoa cakes found HERE (I'm using cheddar, it's what I have)

Avocado salad (white corn, tomoato, avocado, red onions, and red wine vinegar)

Tuesday

Steak

Garlic mashed potatoes

Salad

Broccoli

Wednesday

"Grown-up grilled cheese" with turkey, sharp cheddar, and caramelized onions

Lentil soup

Salad 

Thursday

Crockpot Balsamico chicken found in "Slow Cooker: Best Cookbook Ever"

Quinoa

Zucchini

Friday

Stuffed spaghetti squash (vegetables, marinara, cheese)

Fruit salad (left over after school and work lunches)

Any left over vegetables 

Sat/Sun

 TBD - we may go out one night with friends or do mexican food. : )

So there you have it! I will try to post a follow up each week with recipes from our favorite meals of the week! : )

DIY Shelf from a pallet

I have 5 pallets sitting in my backyard. Five.

I keep telling Greg my grand plans about using them to make shelves, and outdoor seating, and beds.

And I think he is beginning to lose hope that I will ever do anything with them, and I am afraid he won't bring them home anymore when he finds them on the side of the road.

So this lack of faith and fear of no more stray pallets coming home to me prompted me to get my booty in gear and actually accomplish one of my pallet goals!

Library book return shelf! : ) Never pay a late fee again...

I sawed straight across the pallet until I had a sort of shelf, and then I cut it down to the size I wanted it. Use power tools if you have them. Mine were super ghetto and now my muscles are sore.

My crude looking shelf...not done yet!

I thought I had taken a picture of it, but I guess I didn't...I also sawed off a straight, thin piece of the pallet to nail to the bottom of my shelf to hold everything in!

Greg and I have been using the library more often so I thought I would make a little library book return shelf, so we don't lose anything and we remember to take them back!

I didn't put the paint on super thick, I wanted to more rustic, worn look.

Right under "don't forget!" I added a small chalkboard sticker so we can write when the books are due back! Now I just need to buy some chalk...

Now I am just waiting for my handyhusband to hang it up! It is a bit heavy so I think I need him to bust out the stud finder! 

It's a bit ghetto and wonky...but I love it! And I showed my darling husband that he can still bring home any and all pallets he finds...ok dear?!

Year in Review...a little late

So much happened this year. And that is an understatement!

The pictures are a little hard to see...but SO much happened that I had to try and fit them all in!!

2011 was a great year. A truly GREAT year. The best of my entire life so far!

Let's begin at the beginning shall we...

We love her to bits and pieces...can you tell?

Many friends got engaged, many friends got married, and many friends had babies.

My most favorite day of all! 

Had some fun vacations this year! SoCal, Philadelphia, Portland, Disneyland, Cabo, Puerto Vallarta, San Diego. We were very blessed in 2011! 

And to top it all off I started nursing school too.

Well it sure has been an amazing, incredible, whirlwind of a year...and I wouldn't have traded a single second!! Here is to a new year, that probably will not top this one...but I hope it come to a close second!

Embrace the Camera

This is my first time linking up to ETC...I guess I never thought I needed to, but I am realizing more and more that I am usually the photography and struggle to find ANY pictures of myself!

So here goes...

A (semi-) oldie but goodie.

Me & my man. Santa Cruz. sunshine. Roadtrip with a friend. Perfection.

Get out from behind the camera and get in front of it...

now head on over to The Anderson Crew and link on up!

Hello 2012

Whew! This last week and and half have been a whirlwind! We started our time down in Southern California visiting Greg's parents for a couple days and then the whole lot of us jumped on a cruise ship out of San Diego to have a little NYE fun in Puerto Vallarta and Cabo.

So fun!

I wanted to share tons of great pictures with you, but my iphone is experiencing some technical difficulties and my computer isn't reading it...off to the Apple store tomorrow and then hopefully some fun pictures this week. **cross fingers!**

I hate to leave again so soon, but we are off tomorrow morning (TOO early tomorrow morning) for a retreat for Greg's work until Tuesday evening. Oh well at least I get to sleep in my bed or 1 night!