Cooking for an omnivore

Cooking for my husband has been difficult/an experience. Right now we have very different palates: he eats meat but not many fruits/veggies and I detest meat but love fruits and veggies. So how do I plan meals for the two of us? I'm still learning to say the least. I mean for so many years I lived on my own and I could just graze throughout the day. I wasn't much for big meals 3x's a day. He's used to that. Which kinda boggles my mind because he did live on his own for many years too, LOL. I'm not complaining though because this is part of the fun of being a newlywed. You learn each others likes and dislikes about everything, especially food. As of late, I've become a real foodie again so learning to make yummy and healthy meals is top on my list.

We've crossed, no I shouldn't say crossed, we've reached a pretty hefty dilemma recently. Our food expenses are through the roof! The $$ is mind numbing, to us at least. We've been trying to find ways to cut it down, but here's another thing, I'm really big on eating foods with low pesticide/hormones. Buying organic is not cheap. I'm using the dirty dozen/clean 15 as a general rule, but somehow it's not enough. I cut coupons, I type up each grocery store's weekly sale prices, we don't buy sodas or junk food, now and then we buy beer or wine. So what gives? Coupons aren't exactly working though because the majority of the time they're for crap food that we don't buy. Now I'm keeping all my grocery receipts to see what exactly our money is being spent on. I couldn't imagine if I bought other meat besides chicken.
I'll have to come back with an update after we hopefully, figure things out.

Back to my topic...here is a dish I used to cook a lot when I ate chicken.

Red peppers and chicken sausage

A mix of shells and penne (have to use leftovers)

Add some Parmesan cheese and we're ready to roll!

So yummy and at least he gets some veggies in. I should also say he had a salad of romaine, spinach, carrots, green peppers, and cucumbers prior to dinner :-)

The Hub's new toy

The happiest man on Earth!

Check out how happy he is!! LOL Isn't so small? Probably not the right word to describe it but I think it's cute. Justin's been wanting to race since birth so his time has come! There will be lots of racing in our future and I'll be his personal photographer :)

My baby got spayed

Poor Luna :( She was finally spayed this past Thursday and it hurt so much to drop her off. I left her at 8:30 and cried afterward. I didn't get to pick her up until 5 and it broke my heart to see how sad and out of it she was. It's been 3 days now and she's still resting on our couch. Today she has been more herself in that she was so happy this morning to be out of her crate. She rolled around on the floor and her tail kept wagging. I never bought her a cone because for one it was expensive and two I doubt she would've liked it. Instead I bought her an outfit that covered up her belly. I feel like she blames me for being uncomfortable. She gives me these sad eyes and it kills me! Ugh I can't wait till the stitches are gone and she's back to her hyper self.

The first night

Better than an ugly cone

Just not a fan of the hoodie

Double stir-fry night!

On a whim I decided to try two new recipes one for myself and one for the meat-eating hubs. Stir-fry= fast, easy, and delicioso.

Here's my grocery raid


For him I got the recipe from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook.



I forgot to take the after picture but I heard it was yummy :-)

And for me I did a variation from a couple recipes I found on allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

1 pound firm tofu, cubed
1/2 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
1/2 cup hot water
2 tablespoons vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
ground cayenne pepper to taste
1 (16 ounce) package frozen stir-fry
vegetables
Some baby bok choy
1/4 c onion

Directions:
1. Heat oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat. Fry ginger, garlic and tofu for a few minutes.
2. Remove from heat. Add veggies to pan and cook until tender.
3. In a small bowl combine peanut butter, hot water, vinegar, soy sauce, and cayenne pepper. Pour over vegetables and add the tofu back to the pan. Simmer for 3 to 5 minutes, or until vegetables are tender crisp.




I give this recipe a thumbs up :)

My 1st Green Monster

Ingredients:

* 2 cups organic spinach
* 1-1.25 cups milk (your choice of cow’s milk, soy, hemp, almond, rice, etc)
* 1 tablespoon flax (optional)
* 1 banana
* ice

Directions:

Hi there, Are you a Green Monster first-timer? Have no fear! This recipe is fool proof. Even the biggest skeptic will love this one. Place the ingredients into the blender in the following order: 1) Flax, 2) spinach, 3) banana, 4) milk. The reason for this order is so the heavier ingredients weigh down the flax and spinach and keep it from flying up around the blender and sticking to the side. Blend everything on the highest setting for 1 minute or so. Finally, add ice and blend on the ice setting. Pour into a large, fancy glass. Sit back, gulp it down, and be prepared to have endless energy!

Recipe taken from:
The Green Monster Movement
It was definitely drinkable and even tasted good. I may have added too much ice/rice milk because I like my smoothies slightly thicker. I can't wait to taste the other recipes!

Eating meat will make you FAT

Hey, this isn't coming from me :-)

Meat is gross

21+6

I'M 27!!! OH MY HEAVENS! It was a rowdy birthday this year! The day before my husband had an accident at work and let's just say God and His angels were there to protect him from a worse fate. I wasn't sure if we were still going to DC for the weekend, but my husband being such a trooper and so very selfless was up for the trip. Here are some pics of our weekend spend with friends and a fun day of celebrating my birthday.