Menu Plan Monday (On Tuesday)

Hey there! Happy Memorial Day! We had a little 4 day weekend, in which Mike went out of town for a bachelor party and I stayed home to garden, cook and paint furniture. Woooo. You know you're a blogger when your reaction to your hubs skipping town is "YEAH! Now I can paint that desk". Oh, and it was gorgeous so I hung out here for a bit:

Anyway, here's our menu for the week. I'm leaving off Monday because...all we ate for dinner were chips and fresh pico de gallo. Which is not a bad thing. Yum. 


Tuesday: Slow cooker pulled pork, garlic green beans, sweet potato fries 
Wednesday: Grilled chicken fajitas, black bean salad
Thursday: Balsamic-honey pork chops, roasted broccoli, whole wheat couscous salad

Friday: Grilled pizza, tomato and avocado salad


Breakfasts: 
Steel cut oatmeal with peanut butter and banana

• Trader Joe's vanilla nonfat yogurt, fruit, spinach and protein powder smoothie
• Whole wheat Bagel Thin with peanut butter and banana
• Scrambled eggs with tomato, avocado and jalapeño

Lunches: 

• Grilled burger and salad
• Low-carb wraps with turkey, veggies and hummus
• Green salad with grilled chicken breast and veggies (leftover from fajitas)
• Black bean salad with turkey breast and cheese on bagel thin (I love these things!!)

Did you cook out on Memorial Day? Picnic? What'd you make?? Spill the details in our comment section! Have a great week!


Linking up (as always!) with OrgJunkie.com Menu Plan Monday!!!

What I Love Wednesday

Happy Wednesday, all! I am thinking that I'll keep this whole WILW link up going- it's just so fun to spend some time thinking about what makes you happy! So here goes, and when you're done peeping at what I love, go check out Lollipops link up- so much eye candy!!!

1. This colorful and inspiring (and funny!) print from Candidate at Etsy. 

2. This adorable pom-pom wreath from Bleubird Vintage (whose blog I'm crazy about!)

3. This ridiculously gorgeous garden at the Chelsea Flower Show (if only my backyard would look like that!)

4. This hilarious letterpress card from Sapling Press. You should go there right now and buy a card- they are so funny and awesome. 


And lastly:

Obviously.

Crunch Yogurt

This whole "eating healthy and exercising" thing is making me HUNGRY! I'm told this means that my metabolism is kicking into gear, but man I'm starving all of the time. Even with a substantial breakfast, I still get hungry mid-morning. Since I eat breakfast around 7:30am and  I don't eat lunch until about 2pm, I have started incorporating a small but healthy snack into my routine. 


Today's snack: 

+

+

=

• tablespoon of peanut butter
• a half a banana
• a quarter cup of Kashi
• 1 container of yogurt

The total calorie count is 369, 51 grams of carbs (ouch!), but 16 grams of protein. I think I'll look for a lower carb yogurt- the TJ's one has 26 grams. Any suggestions?? This was very good and totally satisfied my sweet tooth. 

How Are Things Growing?

We have sprouts! We have sprouts! Woohoo. All that rain was a great drink for our little garden, because all of our seeds have sprouted. I had kind of given up on planting from seed, because I didn't see anything growing for over two weeks, but my patience was rewarded. Check it out: 

Pea shoots

I have no idea what the spindly things are- the green shoot in the front are beans!

Romaine lettuce! 

Parsley that somehow came back from last year.

These flowering plants came back from last year! Woohoo. 

Today, we're planting some tomato seedlings from our sweet neighbors, some basil and some cucumber and pumpkin seedlings. 

Menu Plan Monday!

Happy MPM, everyone! We had a super great weekend- lots of enjoying the gorgeous weather. Alas, we're back to overcast and drizzle this morning. I'm definitely getting my money's worth out of these guys:

Here is what we have on the menu for this coming week: 

Monday- Turkey meatloaf, mashed potatoes + cauliflower, garlic spinach
Tuesday-Roasted pork tenderloin, barley risotto with squash
Wednesday-Grilled chicken, baked sweet potato, roasted broccoli
Thursday-Slow cooker pork tacos, pico de gallo, black beans
Friday-Turkey shepherd's pie (already in the freezer!)
Saturday- Leftovers
Sunday- Roasted chicken, carrots and brussels sprouts


A tip for the week is to look for sales on family packs of whatever meat you like to eat. We found a great price (about $5 for 3 lbs!) on boneless pork chops and were able to freeze three portions. 


As always, we're linking up with OrgJunkie.com- check out Menu Plan Monday for tons and tons of fabulous menu ideas. You won't be sorry!!!

What are you cooking this week? We love hearing about your menus- leave us a comment and let us know!!!

My Gym

As you may have inferred from my previous posts (or if you live here), the weather has not been great in Boston. A solid week of rainy, gray, overcast weather. My body was craving sunshine, so this morning I decided to make the most of the warm weather and get outside for a workout. My favorite place to run is the East Boston Harborwalk, which is conveniently located about 1 minute from my front door. Lucky me! I snapped some photos so you could check it out! 

 The tall building (A Hyatt hotel) marks the end of the Harborwalk. 

 What a view! We have a yacht club, too. Fancy!

 Logan Airport is located directly behind these buildings. You can't tell at all! 

 The landscaping is so gorgeous. 

There are two tennis courts and a basketball court at the beginning of the Harborwalk. Super convenient, with a great view to boot! 

What do you love most about your neighborhood? 

On The Move.

Hey friends! It's finally stopped raining here in Boston, so I'm scheming some serious weekend DIY. Hint: this little lady is going to get a face lift. 

Oh, by the way, we're in the process of planning a move (!!!), which is super exciting and I've been pinning like crazy trying to design our new pad on a (verrrrry) small budget. 


Here are some inspiration images that are getting my DIY-loving heart pumping. Ooooh boy my to-DIY list is growing by the minute. 

Teal, yellow and gray- 

possible living room colors

1) Gorgeous chandy- I could probably DIY this, right? 

2) We have a plain wooden bookshelf that would look great in white and yellow! 

3) This gray and yellow Amy Butler fabric is awesome

4) Oh and this one, too. Not AB, but still love the pattern.

Fresh, clean white with pops of color:

Kitchen/Dining Room/Guest Room/Office Nook

1) Uber-organized, sigh. 

2) Love the idea of a daybed in the kitchen..so cozy

3) This shadowbox filled with vintage kitchen things would be awesome. 

4) I adore the idea of lots of thrifted plates filling up a wall with color + pattern.

Balsamic- Honey Pork Chops

I've obviously declared my love for the slow cooker many times here before. The thing I might love the most is how it takes an otherwise unremarkable cut of meat (in our case, some boneless pork chops) and makes them into something delicious. With 0% effort. Seriously, so awesome.

Here's a simple dinner to whip up if you're expecting dinner guests and have no prep time- if you're like us, you invite people for dinner on a weeknight. Then you realize that you have about 30 minutes from when you get home to get dinner going. Oops.

Balsamic-Honey Pork Chops


2 boneless pork chops (you can use how many you need to serve- just adjust the broth amount slightly)
1/2-1 c. chicken broth, wine or water (enough to just cover the chops)
1 onion, thinly sliced
3-4 cloves garlic, smashed
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp. honey (or agave nectar, which work fine)
1 tbsp. dijon mustard
1-2 tsp. salt and pepper

In the bottom of a slow cooker, place chops, onion and garlic.

Combine the oil, vinegar, honey, dijon, salt, pepper and broth.  Pour over chops. Add more broth if you have additional chops- it should nearly cover the chops, since it reduces as it cooks.

Cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Serve over mashed potatoes, polenta or rice. Yum!

Leftover Salad

One of my favorite lunches is a big salad made with a bunch of odds and ends from the fridge. It generally ends up tasting pretty excellent, despite the odd couple ingredients. Here's what I've got going on today: 

The end of a salad mix, some leftover chicken breast (with yummy cajun seasoning), some feta cheese, a half of a Granny Smith apple that I had in my breakfast oatmeal and the end of a cucumber. Oh and some leftover salad dressing that I made a few nights ago. 


Nommy nom. This was a good salad because it hit all of my tastebuds and tasted very springy. Some dried cranberries tackled my sweet tooth without breaking open the chocolate stash. 


What are your favorite salad toppings? Leave us a comment to share! 

What I Love Wednesday

 Hi all! I had a lovely time linking up to the fabulous <3Lollipops' What I Love Wednesday, so I'm doing it again!

1) These super cheerful Gabrielle Rocha rainboots. They're so necessary this week- we're expected to get rain every day this week here in Boston! Oh, and they're on sale!!!

2) These super springy pillows from Annalea Hart! Super love. Now I need ric-rac. And ribbon. Lots of ribbon. 

3) This color combo (and EVERYTHING else about it!) from the ridiculously stylish Gussy Sews. Ob-sess-ed.
4) Mrs. Meyer's Lemon Verbena dish soap. It makes doing the dishes feel like a little vacation. Mmmm.


What are you loving this week? Is the gray and rainy weather drawing you to lots of bright and sassy colors, too? Xo!

Menu Plan Monday!

Happy Monday, everyone! We're facing a long and rainy week here in Boston- great if you're a duck. Not so much if you're a person. I am thinking we'll want to have a weeks worth of comforting and simple dinners, so here's what is on the menu (oh and always, we're linking up with the awesome and inspiring Orgjunkie.com) 

Monday: Marinated steak tacos, homemade pico de gallo, spicy slaw

Tuesday: Turkey meatloaf, mashed cauliflower, garlic green beans

Wednesday: Slow cooker pulled pork, cherry tomato couscous

Thursday: Spice rubbed pork tenderloin, goat cheese polenta, spicy spinach

Friday: Honey-dijon chicken, barley risotto with butternut squash

I think Grayfeet has the right idea this morning...

Burger Salad

So Mike's been working late a few days a week and his job provides dinner. I get home with about 0% motivation to make dinner for one, so I end up going back to my favorite single person dinner of all time (which is actually pretty good for you)- burger and salad. Oh and some pretty flowers for myself- a very good splurge after a long day.

This iteration is a 93% lean turkey burger- I just mix in some spices and salt, no breadcrumbs or crazy stuff. Then I throw the following in a jar:

2 cloves garlic, grated or minced
1 squirt dijon mustard (about a heaping teaspoon)
1/4 c. cider or white wine vinegar
1/2-3/4 c. olive oil (depending on how vinegary you like your dressing)
1 tsp. maple syrup, honey or agave nectar
a good pinch of salt
a few grinds of pepper

Now throw the cover on and shake the daylights out of it until its blended together. Mmmm. This makes me enough dressing for a few salads, which is why I make it in a jar. I can just pop it in the fridge when I'm done.

Cook up the burger, add some goodies to the salad (cukes, onion, tomatoes, whatever), sprinkle on dressing and enjoy. Super easy, healthy and yummy lunch or dinner for 1.

What I Love Wednesday

The weather today is so weird! It's humid, but a little chilly thanks to an ocean breeze. It's about to rain, and since we planted the first of our garden this past weekend I'm happy for the free water!

Anyway, I need a morale boost so I decided to share with y'all what I'm loving this week as part of <3 Lollipop's What I Love Wednesday! Go check all of the awesome stuff she's got going on!

1. Pinterest! It's like shopping, but free! I'm a pinning fool.
2. My garden. It's incredible to grow something from seed.
3. Re-doing furniture. Cheapy cheap way to breathe new life into your old stuff.
4. Modern Family! Mike and I are obsessed. (via)


What are you loving today? Are you Pinterest-obsessed, too?

Freschetta Simply Inspired-Tiny Wallet Dinner!

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of FRESCHETTA®. All opinions are 100% mine.
Hey Tiny Wallet Stylers! In the midst of preparing to host a big Mother's Day lunch at our casa, we were completely wiped out. You can imagine how excited we were to have the chance to try one of Freschetta's new Simply Inspired pizzas for dinner!

We picked up the Classic Bruschetta and immediately noticed the lack of bulky cardboard box! It comes in this cool packaging which the Freschetta people call Fresch--Taste Seal. They earn points for getting rid of the annoying box by thinking...outside of the box. It uses 30% less packaging while locking in flavor. A win-win!
The first thing we noticed is that the tomatoes actually look like tomatoes- a good sign. We're used to frozen pizza toppings looking like something that was whipped up in a chemistry lab, so we're all for fresh-tasting ingredients

. 

So...how did it taste? Really good, actually. I was a little put-off by the ultra-thin crust, but it added a really nice crunch to each bite. The tomatoes were juicy, but a bit watery and the cheeses were a great combination.

I do think that the thin-ness of the pizzas would make them awesome as appetizers. What an easy thing to set out when you have friends over for game night and a glass of wine! I love it.

Oh, and the best part? The lovely folks at Freschetta are going to give you a little help for your next Tiny Wallet party- a coupon for any one of the 8 varieties of Simply Inspired pizza and a cute bamboo cutting board. All you have to do is leave a comment!

• For an extra chance to win: Become a Tiny Wallet Style follower or follow us on Twitter @tinywalletstyle! Just leave another comment letting us know you're a new follower!!!
• You can enter up until midnight on Thursday- I'll pick a winner on Friday, May 13th!

Want to learn more about FRESCHETTA® Simply…Inspired™? Follow them on Twitter @freschettasi or you can "like" them on Facebook to enter giveaways and print out coupons!

Cold Turkey

Happy Tuesday! Oh my how I love how much spring is springing in our neck of the woods! I think that after a New England winter, the colors of spring are so astonishing- every single year. I always think "it wasn't this gorgeous last year!". 

Speaking of spring, here's a springy salad I had for lunch yesterday- it was so yummy! All I want to eat lately is salad + protein. Maybe this is a signal that my body is working out it's insulin issues? I'm not craving sugar as fiercely as I did a few months ago. Wooooooo!

Toasted whole wheat bread, cracked pepper turkey, baby spinach. Salad greens, herb goat cheese and 1/2 of a Fuji apple. Oil, lemon juice and cider vinegar. And some homemade pickles. Mmmm.


This lunch satisfies all of my cravings- tangy vinaigrette, crunchy apples and toast, creamy goat cheese, sweet apple. Oh, and it's pretty healthy too!