House love

This weekend was super full and busy - followed by a night full of making Lasagne's Monday and then lifegroup last night. Work has been equally  hectic in between. Posts about the fun adventures of the weekend will have to wait, as photos take time to get edited! But for now, highlights from yesterday. 

Yesterday and today we are having big meetings at work - so that means early mornings for me and busy days. I arrange the catering ahead of time and then make sure everything goes smoothly on the day of. I replenish coffee and drinks - today alone I have made 7 large thermos' full of coffee and used 1 litre of cream. Phew. 

I drove into work yesterday because it was an early start - 7:15am isn't a super fun time. I was double glad to drive since it was pouring outside. This meant that when I left work at my normal time I was home much sooner - Paul asked me to stop by the Dollar store to buy some chocolate bars as a prize at school. I did that...and then I saw baskets. So many fun baskets in so many fun colors. These are the ones I walked away with.

I have been collecting turquoise/teal and pink baskets for my craft room and command center as well as looking out for other fun bright pops like the orange. I can't wait until I have the time to organize both spaces! I found a bunch of great stuff at Target on my last trip and I think I might now have all I need!

Then it was home to prepare for LG. Thankfully I'd made 3 Lasagne's the night before so all I had to do was throw them in the oven for an hour and whip up some garlic bread. I toasted buns and then buttered them with becel and johnny's garlic seasoning. Sooo good. 

Since I was so ahead of the game I also read for a bit and watched some TV. So rare! The time before LG is normally a race to get done on time. 

Then it was LG...there were 18 of us for dinner and the Lasagna was a huge hit. I used the Small Thing Blog's recipe and people loved it. Then it was time for coffee and discussion. As we were getting ready to start I looked up and noticed Paul sitting like this...

Because lifegroup isn't complete without a sword?

After lifegroup was over I immediately changed into flannel PJ's and rejoined the group - usually people sit around and chat for a while. I sat down with Jodi and Sunny - Jodi was trying to make something on excel and wanted my help. Oh I love to make spreadsheets that make life easier for people. 

Then by 9:30 everyone was gone - I needed to be in bed by 9:45 so I grabbed a glass of Sangria and a book and sat down on the couch to read. It was a moment of peace in the busyness. On my way to my room I walked through the kitchen to put my glass into the sink. And I realized...I love this house. I love this kitchen. It's not perfect. It's not going to be in a magazine but it's mine and it's cozy and welcoming. 

There are these little snapshots of spaces in the kitchen that make it seem so warm and inviting. I can't believe I get to call this my space.

Here is the eating area 

- I love the warm wood tones and all the vegetables - 

I especially love the coffee station. 

Flowers and Fruit - In yellow and red!

Coffee Stand and Vegetables. 

Obviously the cucumbers don't fit.

My command center (still needs to be organized) and basic veggies - potatoes and onions.

Tray, s&p and flowers on my dining room table. 

I love seeing them as I walk by.

Our house is the haven that it should be and I am so thankful to God for this home. 

Speaking of our home and God's provision, we're looking for another female to live with us - either a student or young professional. It's for the downstairs bedroom - the cozy brown room. The rent would include internet/cable/utilities/laundry facilities as well as 3 meals a day. Let us know if you know of anyone!

Menu Plan Monday

Part One: The Meal Plan / Ana's Wedding Week

Monday: Mexican Pie

Source: taste.com.au via Tara on Pinterest

Tuesday: Lasagne w. ceasar salad

Source: thesmallthingsblog.com via Tara on Pinterest

The only difference is that I use one layer of Zucchini in mine.

Wednesday: Leftovers for the boys & Rachel / Ana's Stagette at the French Table for Tara

Thursday: Chicken Salad Sandwiches from Pinterest

Source: sixsistersstuff.com via Tara on Pinterest

Friday: Rehearsal Dinner @ Moxies

Saturday: Wedding (Catering by Memphis Blues!)

Sunday: Like Gramma's Chicken & Dumplings

Source: family.go.com via Tara on Pinterest

Part two: The results

Last week I planned to make

1. Spaghetti Ham Bake

Source: tasteofhome.com via Tara on Pinterest

I would say this was a success. It was easy and made a double meal batch. My only complaint was that the onions need to be sauteed before being added. It was a bit too oniony. But that is an easy fix and I will definitely make this again. We ate it twice this week and I was so thankful.

2. Tex Mex Pork Stew

This was mildly successful. The guys liked it, though I was indifferent. In the future I'd add potatoes to bulk it up. 

3. Broccoli Fettuccine Alfredo

Source: budgetbytes.blogspot.com via Amber on Pinterest

I loved this and so did life group. I doubled the recipe and it fed the whole gang perfectly. I also added most of a shredded roasted chicken and real bacon chunks. It was perfect.

4. Big fancy family meal

I planned to make: 
Cold Garlic & Soy Marinated Green Beans

Source: tablefortwoblog.com via Tara on Pinterest

These were TO DIE FOR. Great at dinner, great the next day. I'd wager a guess that they'd also be great baked briefly. I WILL make these again.

Broccoli Parmesan Fritters

Source: smittenkitchen.com via Tara on Pinterest

These were easier than I thought - when I first pinned them I was very  nervous, it took me over a year to make them! but they were in fact pretty easy and tasted great. 

Pommes Ana

Source: bunsinmyoven.com via Tara on Pinterest

I made half of them in a regular muffin tin and half in a silicon muffin tin - they turned out very differently. The regular muffin tin tended to be hotter and drier and the silicon took way longer to cook and remained very moist. Both ways were good though.
Also I added garlic and onion salt to the recipe and it was great. 

Zucchini Boats

Source: mitchelltomorgan.blogspot.ca via Tara on Pinterest

I used mini Zucchini from Costco this time and enjoyed the smaller size a lot. Other than that its a good as when I made it the first time.

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol 2)

--- 1 ---
Last night I rode my bike home in the sun. I can not describe to you how wonderful it feels to commute in the sun with no rain, rather than in the dark in the pouring rain. It goes from being a forced chore to being an adventure. I am so thankful we're coming out of winter.

--- 2 ---
Speaking of things that are wonderful, my mother in law and her husband are here. Last night I arrived home to the sights, sounds and smells of Nancy cooking in my kitchen, with Katie and Joel, Paul and Cris all milling about and man was it ever nice! Nancy made her homemade stacked Enchiladas, which were lovely. For the first time I tried the higher spice version and actually handled it well! I wouldn't say I like things with spice better but it definitely didn't hurt and it did have some more flavor than the no spice version. 

--- 3 ---
I like my job and it isn't stressful, that being said I am still so glad it's the weekend. Yay for sunny days, sleeping in and time spent with people I love. Also yay for not getting up at 6am....I am seriously so stoked for that. And with weekend comes church and hang outs. All good good things. I can barely express how happy I am with our life. Our home, our friends...the food, the fun...the conversation...our church, our family...my job, Paul's schooling...the truth and power of God in our lives. Life is good. We are blessed.

--- 4 ---
We are back to the drawing board, somewhat. Of our four bedrooms for rent, two of them will be vacant in the next weeks. The upstairs room will be vacant from April 1st to May 1st and the downstairs room is vacant as of Sunday and we don't have a plan for who will live there, we just know it needs to be a girl. We have a guy moving in to the upstairs room in May and so the top half of our house will be very male-centric! Duncan, the new guy and Paul! Therefore since Rachel is downstairs we want to even out the numbers with a girl down there.

All this to say, we have a room for rent! We are looking to rent out the furnished basement room - cozy, not dark -as of anytime past this weekend. It will be $650 room and board and must be for a female - as we already have another girl in the room next to it. This price is inclusive of everything - laundry, meals, cable, internet, etc. 

--- 5 ---
There was a lunch at work today - usually all the sandwiches aren't finished so I get to have one at the end. Usually though all the tasty ones are swooped up first and all that remains are like Salami or Ham. Sometimes a roast beef and if I'm very lucky Salmon or Chicken Salad....today there was a batch of roasted chicken sandwiches on the tray and I was praying one would remain. And it did! Mmm. 

--- 6 ---
Tonight Katie and Joel are cooking for us at home, which will be nice. I'm looking forward to it. They're making a parisian meal. 

Then tomorrow night I'm making a meal I can't wait to make!

Broccoli Fritters

Zucchini Boats

Garlic and Sesame Green Beans

Pommes Anna

Yoshida Baked Salmon

It's all food that presents fancy, tastes awesome and is either a new recipe to try (Fritters and Pommes Anna) or an easy recipe. I have been wanting to try this meal plan out for some time now. 

--- 7 ---
I have to say this is awesome. Disclaimer, this is not the clean edit of the song.



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Organization Time - The Pantry

Life has been busy - as I've mentioned before. I keep waiting for the magical moment where I have more time. Somehow though, I fear that moment is never coming. 

Here's a glimpse into my day:

6am - alarm goes off
6am-6:15am - Paul and I lay in bed trying desperately to get up and out of bed and mostly failing.
6:15am - Paul hops out of bed to shower and I read blogs on my phone for 5 more minutes
6:20am - Up and into biking clothes. Packing clothing for work into bag.
6:30am - Prep something for dinner - Either a crockpot meal or taking something out to thaw.
6:45am - Morning Devotionals.
7:15am - Out the door for my bike ride to work.

And I'll admit often, I don't successfully get up until almost 7, which means no devotional time and a race through all the tasks.

8am to 4:30pm - Work
4:30pm - 4:45pm - Get dressed for the bike ride home
4:45pm - 5:30pm - Bike ride home
5:30 - 7pm - Dinner time - prep and eat.
7pm - The rest of our house does the dinner dishes. 
7pm to 9pm - I usually have some sort of meeting at this point and am out or busy.
9pm - Come home wanting to rest but needing to finish cleaning up after dinner (since my helpful housemates usually still leave a few dishes around) and organizing the house. 
9:30pm - Realize I have to make lunches STAT - 6 of them. 

I make 6 lunches each day.

Usually that's 6 salads.

Sometimes the two green bowls (for Paul and Duncan) get leftovers.

9:50pm - Realize that I have 10 minutes to relax in front of the TV with a glass of Sangria before bed. Only 10 minutes! this is the best and saddest part of my day.
10pm - In bed. If he doesn't have too much homework Paul goes to bed too. We chat and then go to sleep by 10:30 or 11. 

As you can see there isn't a lot of wiggle room during the week. I realized that if I was ever going to get the little tasks around the house finished then I just had to make some time. 

Enter plan "Stay up until midnight for a week and do lots of work". It's not a very catchy name. But it's been effective. It's made me struggle to get out of bed before 7am BUT it's also the reason that I have tons of cooked and processed meat in the freezer waiting to be thrown into crockpots and casseroles. It's the reason my closet in my bedroom is finally organized again and all my laundry is hung up. And it's the reason my pantry and cupboards look great. 

I was too busy working to get before pictures but honestly it wasn't that bad. It just wasn't working for me. It looked fine though. But function matters more than looks, and this new system is functional and looks good. 

I invested in risers from walmart. And man....was that ever smart. 

This is my can storage - 

the basket is home to all the canned stews and spaghettis and chili's. 

It's the "easy meal for students or Paul" basket.

And below that is a container with Hunt's Pasta Sauce Cans - that container will be covered in paper at some point - I find the brown tomato bin particularly not pretty. 

The easy meal basket is easily moved out of the way for access to the goods behind. 

Next up is my pantry. 

At Walmart I purchased more of the risers and then stackable bins. 

Behind the stackable bins are things like my breadmachine or extra flour.

I can easily move the stackable bins to get at them, but they easily fill up the space in the back, since my cupboards are so deep.

I'm feeling very very happy about all this. 

Speaking of things that make me happy. I finally got to use my house warming gift from my parents - a serving buffet. Usually for LG I don't ahve the food ready early enough to need to transfer it and keep it warm. But this week I was ahead of schedule - I was making Broccoli Fettucini Alfredo w. shredded chicken and bacon. Mmm. I was ready in time to pop it into the serving buffet, leaving the oven free to heat up the garlic bread and bake Chocolate Almond Cupcakes and Mocha Brownies. 

Also as I mentioned last week, I've been in love with my black boots again. Apparently, also my grey sweater because...tada...

Different days but basically the same outfit. 

How does that keep happening to me?

I can't stay away from my favorites. 

Boots, skinny jean or legging, undershirt, blouse, long necklace and cardigan. it's my signature winter look. And it's easy. And I own it in many many different combinations. 

Anyways, Paul's mom Nancy and her husband Cris are coming to town today. Woo! So I am excited to hang out with them and with Katie and Joel. We plan to eat good food, have tasty drinks, and explore the beauty that is Vancouver. It's been bright and crisp lately with awesome views. I can't wait for our bike ride around Stanley Park - it'll be my first time doing that!

And if you're noticing that my mother-in-law is coming and I've just executed a big cleaning and organizing of my house and you're wondering if those are related...well...lets just say it's very helpful motivation!

Mostly though I wanted my house to be in order so that I could get Nancy's help on design stuff since she's a genius with that. 

Alright, lunch break is over. Back to work!

Ana's Bridal Shower

This weekend I had the pleasure of hosting a party to shower my friend Ana with love. Ana is awesome. She has been my friend for at least 6 years now, and I love her. She is engaged to our stationary rep at work, a great guy named Josh. They are sweet together and it's been fun walking through this engagement and wedding planning time with them. I'm their event coordinator so I get to add to their to do list and boss people around - perfect.


Irene and I were hosting together - it was a sit down Tex-Mex dinner for 16 people. We were celebrating our lovely friend Ana. She is from Texas and is also Mexican, so the theme was very intentional. We also featured some graphic designs we made around the house, since she's a graphic designer. It was so much fun to do! Irene and I went all out. 

Tara, Ana and Irene

It's blurry but here's what you'd see when you came in...welcome wreath

Cowgirl Cookies as favors for the trail

The Chips and Salsa, and encouragement station. 

Drinks - this later had the margaritas and sweet tea.

Some of the graphics we had printed out and framed and hung around the house

Tablescape - guacamole and salsa martini's

Menu

A perfect snapshot of the evening.

Desserts! Red, white and blue!

The lovely bride-to-be!

We LOVED our menu and our decorations - we kept high fiving as we saw our planning come to life. It was a perfect party - planning wise. Also everyone mingled and chatted and Ana felt loved, which really made it a perfect party

Less than two weeks to the wedding!

Menu Plan Monday

Despite the busyness I still have had a lot of fun with food and cooking. It matters to me that meal times aren't a huge chore and that we eat healthy and tasty foods. At our house we have salads for lunch 4 out of 5 days. That means that with 6 mouths to feed, I make 6 lunches each day. It's a hearty salad with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, turkey breast, parmesan slivers, some crispy onions, avocado's and peppers. It's tasty and healthy - less than 5 Weight Watchers points for the whole thing, dressing included!

Because lunches are so healthy I tend to splurge a bit on the dinners - or at least I don't watch quite as carefully. I still like to incorporate a large portion of veggies but we will have pastas and rices and other carbs with dinner. 

Monday: Spaghetti Ham Bake
Tonight we have a Deacon's meeting so I needed an easy meal. It was supposed to be the meal that we'll be having Wednesday but I took too long to get out of bed therefore the crockpot wasn't an option. However last night I diced up the ham and I just need to boil some  noodles, mix up the sauce, combine all and bake when I get home. Easy! And because I'm quite wild I will cook up some asparagus to go in the casserole. Wild, I tell you!

Also this is a secret weapon recipe - it makes a double batch. I get to freeze one to use later. Love it!

Source: tasteofhome.com via Tara on Pinterest

Tuesday: Broccoli Fettucini Alfredo
It's lifegroup night, so as usual I need an easy but tasty meal to feed 20 people. I have shredded chicken in my freezer and lots of Broccoli, so this is an easy option. I'll serve it with garlic bread.

Source: budgetbytes.blogspot.com via Amber on Pinterest

Wednesday: Crockpot Tex-Mex Pork Stew
Wednesday night I'm hanging out with my friend Stephanie, so I needed something easy that would be ready when I got home and I could quickly wolf down before heading out, while leaving a lot of food for the rest of my hungry crew!

Thursday / Friday / Saturday / Sunday: Beefy Crockpot Tortellini and  Crockpot Italian Chicken (for the students). These are both one pot meals that are easy to prepare and take no finicking with at the end, this is important because...

This weekend Nancy and Cris (Paul's mom and her husband) are coming to visit from Texas for the weekend, so I'll be making a few crockpot meals over the weekend for our students at home. We will be eating with Nancy and Cris and Joel and Katie. Joel and Katie will cook one night, I will cook one night and Nancy will cook one night - we will also eat out someplace great one night. 

The plan for my night is: Cold Garlic & Sesame Soy Marinated Green Beans, Broccoli Fritters, Cauliflower Fritters (both served with garlic aioli), Mini Pommes Anna and baked Salmon

Source: tablefortwoblog.com via Tara on Pinterest

Source: smittenkitchen.com via Tara on Pinterest

Source: skinnytaste.com via Tara on Pinterest

Source: bunsinmyoven.com via Tara on Pinterest

Oh yes, it will be good

This weekend was awesome and I'll fill you in on it tomorrow - it involves a Pinterest worthy party and many pictures of said party!

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol 1)

--- 1 ---

This is my first quick takes - I've been reading them at Conversion Diary for a while and then a couple weeks ago my cousin LeAnna did one for the first time, and then I thought, hey I can do that too. 

Plus when it comes to blogging I always copy LeAnna - she got me started on this whole thing.

--- 2 ---

Yesterday I drove a Mercedes. Someone came for a business meeting in my office - a guy who was rarely down town. He didn't realize that the parking in front of our office was closed between 3 and 6 and that it was a tow away zone. He asked for my help in paying for parking, I helped him figure out that it was illegal for him to be parked there and then I moved his car for him to more legal parking. This all happened while he was in a meeting and we traded notes back and forth. Like teenagers. Except one of those teenagers makes more money than I can imagine :)

--- 3 ---

This weekend I am throwing a shower with my friend Irene - it's for our lovely friend Ana. It's a sit down party - we are having a Tex-Mex theme. Pictures and recipes to come. It's going to be awesome. 

Speaking of which - 3 weddings and 5 showers are planned in the next month (including last weekend). That's nuts. Exciting though, for sure.

--- 4 ---

This weekend I FINALLY get to see my friend Crystal. It's been AGES. I'm in her wedding party in October and things are getting closer and closer and I miss seeing her!

--- 5 ---

Lately God has been reminding me of what a gift I have in the women who are close to me. I mean, I am super super blessed. Not only do I have an amazing sister and a bunch of "moms" but I'm also surrounded by some phenomenal women at church and in life. I am so so blessed.

--- 6 ---

I am reading a really great book - "Home Front" by Kristin Hannah. Kristin is a phenomenal author - most of her books have the power to make me cry and this is no exception. She has an ability to write heartbreak and hope together, and inform the reader of different types of people, while drawing you into a story. It's beautiful.

--- 7 ---

Tonight I am having an "at home" date with Paul. I've bought some boursin and brie as an appie and I've thrown "Ranch House Crock Pot Pork Chops" into the crockpot

Source: realmomkitchen.com via Tara on Pinterest

We will bring my laptop into our room, find a video on netflix and curl up on the bed, eat popcorn and watch a movie. And it will be lovely. I'm quite looking forward to it.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!