dinner tonight

This week we definitely tried to keep dinners easy and simple.  I had planned to cook more recipes than I actually made, but life happens and I've been dog tired.

This recipe was a fan of ours, and it (of course) came from the marvelous Mama Pea!!!  Every recipe I have tried of hers always comes out amazing.  If you have not yet jumped over here yet, stop reading and click...Now!!!  I love her wittiness, the way she lays it out real for you, and her fantastic recipes.  Now, they all are vegetarian-which we are not.  So I put my meat version to taste her:

Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Seitan Chicken Lettuce Wraps

1 pkg. (1 lb. 2 oz.) seitan, drained, 1 lb. ground chicken

• 1 can water chestnuts, drained and chopped
• 4 oz. mushrooms, chopped
• 1 T. organic brown sugar
• 2 T. soy sauce
• 2 t. lime juice
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• romaine lettuce leaves

Dipping Sauce:

• 2 T. soy sauce
• 2 T. lime juice
• 2 T. organic ketchup
• few drops of sesame oil
• 2 t. garlic and red chile paste
• stevia to taste
• 1 T. water

This meal came together very quickly.  We weren't that fond of the dipping sauce, and so I'm going to try and tweak with the recipe just a touch.  

Moving onto my favorite "single night" meal:

With the husband working nights, it is hard to get busy in the kitchen when I'm just cooking for myself.  For the most part I enjoy still cooking (even if I'm the only one eating) because then the husband has a meal to come home too, and we both have lunch for the next day.  

Then there are nights when I'm dog tired and unmotivated.  All I want is something quick and easy.  Cue my favorite meal: Eggs!  I love breakfast for dinner!  Tonight I sautéed up some chicken sausage we had in the freezer.  We LOVE this stuff!  We buy it at Costco, and it is minimally processed and is very natural.  

Into my eggs went sausage, bell peppers, tomatoes, spinach, and a sprinkle of parmesan.  

This meal is always so filling (especially with a side of cantaloupe).  Plus, who doesn't like breakfast for dinner??? I'm pretty sure breakfast should be served 24/7.

SSF: feeling of victory

I can't believe that the month is almost over and the spending freeze is coming to an end!  I've been doing a lot of thinking and reflecting these past two weeks over this freeze.  First, I got to thinking about when I decided that spending money on my wants surpassed weighing out wants vs. needs.  Now, I don't go over board.  I'm not a closet shopaholic.  But, when I have an itch for a new DIY project I run to JoAnn's...when I want to try a new recipe I add all of the ingredients to my shopping list...when I think my class would look so cute with these adorable posters I head to Lakeshore.

Somewhere over the past years my ability to truly think about whether I needed something has diminished.  I'm still not sure when my wants surpassed my needs, but I do know that this spending freeze was such a release.  I felt free!  I had thought I would've felt trapped, burdened, and restricted.  But in reality it was very freeing.

One of the things that was hard to give up was eating out.  I love trying out new restaurants and types of food, and keeping up with upbeat places.  However, there is always the check and seeing it add up in our "Eating Out" budget column isn't pleasant.  The one thing we love about eating out is the entertainment and enjoying each other's company.  In place of eating out, we have found ways to create fun recipes and enjoy them in the company of our home.  With fall settling in, I'm looking forward to hosting dinner parties and entertaining.

Another area that was hard to give up was coffee.  I never realized how much I actually go out to get coffee until I stopped completely.  When it's the end of the work day and I'm packing to go to class, my body screams "Caffeinate me!"  Not going out to get coffee this month or breaking down and drinking soda to get my through showed me that I don't always need it.  I got through class, I was productive, and coffee wasn't needed!  Even when I caved in and bought one this month it was still so stinkin' expensive.  I loved trying out at-home pumpkin spice latte recipes and partaking in my favorite fall drink.

It is crazy to sit back and look at everything we have and realize that it is enough.  This desire for more is exactly that: a desire.  This freeze has taught me ways to enjoy regular costly comforts in a free fashion at home.  It has also showed me that buying material items doesn't bring joy to my life.  I find joy in spending quality time with the husband and friends, teaching the cutest kids, and making memories each and every day.  Even though the freeze is lifted on Saturday, I actually don't want to go out and spend money.  Although I'm dying for new boots, a new rug, fall decorations...I resist the urge and learn to get by with what I have.

crazy love

Lately my quiet time is in the car.  As I'm driving to work you may catch me passionately singing along to the radio, praying aloud, or looking dazed and half asleep.

I love this time.  I'm all alone.  My thoughts flow freely.  And the only thing that seems to matter is that moment.  I don't think about what I'm going to do when I get to work or what I'll make for dinner next week.

This morning a song came on the radio station I was listening to, and while it may not show me in my best dress, it definitely speaks to the heart.  "Crazy Girl", yes, hello, that's me sometimes.  Daniel calls me crazy for various reasons.  These include a) getting the last minute itch to clean the kitchen before going to sleep, b) making homemade granola instead of just going to the store and buying a new one, c) setting my alarm for 4:45am in the morning so that I can workout before work (and he knows that I'll just hit the snooze button anyways), and d) creating crazy stories in my sleep while he tries to put me in bed as I lay passed out on the couch.

No matter how crazy I seem to become, he is always there to love me.  He loves me for who I am.  The crazy.  The good.  The bad.  The ugly.

This song also makes me laugh at myself for all the crazy things I do sometimes.  

I'm pretty sure that everyone has a bit of craziness inside.  

oh, hello fall!

Did you feel it???

Did you feel the crispness in the air?  Did you get that warm fuzzy feeling when you imagined sipping on a pumpkin spice latte?  Did you see a leaf fall off a tree?

As I was walking to my car tonight I could smell the crispness in the air and feel the coolness upon my skin.  Although we live in sunny San Diego where the only seasons we experience are summer and a mild-fall/winter, I could still imagine the leaves turning colors.  The unexpected rain that occurred today made me jump inside as I imagined curling up inside with tea to get warm.  

I smiled this morning when one of my little students came up and exclaimed, "Today's the first day of fall!"  She was so excited, and I rejoiced realizing I'm not alone!  Yes, me and a five year old may have been the only ones excited at the time...but I know you're excited too.

Fall is here!!!

My Pinterest board is speckled with my love of fall so I wanted to show you what I'm fancying over currently:  

{all images via my Pinterest boards)

When the September Spending Freeze is over, I'm determined to make my trip to Joann's and make one of these.  Now the hard question, which one to make???

I can't wait for scarves!  And jeans!

And boots!  I have the itch to go shopping for boots.  I feel as though October 1st is going to come and I'm going to have to hide my wallet so I don't go out and binge shop.  

Pumpkin pancakes!!!  The husband fell in love with my love of pumpkin when I started making these for "Pancake Sundays".  

Dusted Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread!  My mouth is watering!!!

Gluten free pumpkin muffins will find a perfect home in my tummy :)

And...my homemade pumpkin spice latter.  So, I tried this recipe and this one.  I like the first recipe first so far, but want to play around with the recipe until I get it just right.  

Fall always remind me to be thankful and rejoice in all that we have been blessed with.  

I hope you're as excited about fall as I am!!!

words of wisdom

Do you ever wish you had the magic words to say to cheer someone up?  Just the right touch of wisdom to heal a friend?  Words that will answer all of the unknown in someone's life?

I always wish that I had just the right words to say. This past week I've realized that there are some very powerful women in my life that always seem to say these words.  We will begin talking about one thing and by the time our conversation ends I feel encouraged, rejuvenated, inspired, and uplifted. 

My mother-in-law is a spiritual blessing.  She continually encourages me to strive for more and never give up.   Her wisdom stuns and awes me.  She has this magic gift of knowing exactly what I'm going through and saying the right words to get me through it all.  

This little lady is definitely another power woman who always knows just what to say.  She always knows me far too well.  I'll call her crying over one thing, and she boils it all down to what the heart of the matter is.  Sometimes the truth hurts.  She definitely knows this, and always helps me see the truth, accept it, push through it, and move on.  Kylee's anthem for my life is "Stress Less!!!".  Today is today.  There is no use worrying about tomorrow, next week, or next year.  I control today.  

And then there's the mom.  Do I really need to say anything more?  

She's my rock, the one phone call I can't miss in a day.  It amazes me how much she does.  If she's not working she's volunteering at a pregnancy care clinic, a woman's group, going to bible study, etc.  (Now do you know where I get it from?!?!)  She also has this magical touch with her words.  When I'm feeling down she always has a way to make me smile.  When I'm overwhelmed she breaks apart life so I see clearly.  When I just need a good vent session, we pull out the wine and let it out.  

I'm so thankful these women were blessed with words of wisdom, and they continually are a gift to me each and every day!

stir crazy

On the weekends I can get a little stir crazy.  The husband works all day, and if I don't have plans I end up inside cleaning, lesson planning, or spending too much time on the computer.  Needless to say, by the time he gets home I'm just too excited to finally have some social interaction!  He thinks I'm a tad bit crazy.  Sometimes I jump up and say "Let's go play on the swings"!  (Referring to the playground in our neighborhood).

Since we're not eating out this month, we took our dinner out.  After making some chicken stir fry, I packaged it up into tupperware, grabbed our jackets, and headed to the beach.  Sadly, it was already dark but that meant we got to star gaze while eating dinner.  

This man is the funniest!  We most definitely balance each other out, I'd be a stressed-out crazy mess without him!

I'm definitely very grateful for this handsome man!

To end the night on a sweet note we had to partake in some delicious fro yo!!!

I have a huge weakness for fro yo!!!  

My fro yo included:

latte & cake batter fro yo with yogurt chunks, chocolate covered sunflowers, chocolate sprinkles, and just a tad bit of Reeses.  

What do you like on your fro yo????

a little bit of random

Things are about to be very random.  I feel as though there has been an extra spring in my step and I'm noticing all of the random things I am loving these past couple days.  

Brace yourselves, it's pretty random.

1. I bought a couple peaches at the farmer's market last Saturday and was a mix of feelings about them.  I have been dying for a juicy, sweet peach all summer long.  Each batch I bought at the store never satisfied that.  I'm also not the best at picking out fruit.  I was starving the other night while making dinner so I decided to cut it up and give it a shot.  

Delicious.  Sweet.  Amazing.  Indescribable.  It just goes to show how amazing fresh food tastes.  I'm so sad now that I only bought 2!

2. Thursday night I was able to finally get a run in.  When I put my shoes on, it was like my feet were saying "Thank You! We're tried of wearing heals and uncomfortable flats!!!"  As soon as I put them on, I got moving!  It reminded me why I love wearing work out clothes while running errands.  I move so much faster.

My body was so excited to get moving, too!  The air was crisp, the sky was filled with clouds, the sun was setting.  Conditions were perfect were running.  Plus, I had a lot to "unpack" on my run.  Boy, did I run!  It felt amazing!

It was a little shorter than I wanted, but the sun said "goodbye" sooner than I thought it would.  And, do you see that pace????  7:45?!?!  Well, the first mile was 9:01, the second was 8:51, and the last 1.25 miles was 7:45!  When I got home I just kept going....made dinner, cleaned the kitchen, started laundry, and then crashed!

3. The one thing that I can't keep craving during my spending freeze is a pumpkin spiced latte.  Come on, is it almost October so that I can finally go buy one????  Well, I found a recipe for an at-home version that I'm dying to get my hands on:

gotta love Pinterest!

Look for my attempts later this weekend!

And some other super random things about me currently:

-favorite Pandora station = Priscilla Ahn

-most beautiful thing I saw this week = the MOON!  It was spectacular!

-favorite Netflix obsession = Brothers & Sisters

-what I ate for breakfast this morning = a TJ wheat free waffle with almond butter and banana

-have my hopes about = "Up All Night", I fell in love with the pilot

-what I'm dreading = writing papers all weekend long :( and laundry...

SSF: the rule breakers

Another week of the September Spending Freeze is down!  I wish that I could say that I had another super successful week, but I can't.  

Let me start with this: the week started off amazing!  I kept my head in the game, listened to my wants vs. needs, and definitely resisted the urge to run to Starbucks to get a pumpkin spice latte.  

Then, Wednesday happened.  I had been getting over a cold, Daniel was starting to feel sick, class went late, I hit traffic, was running on 4 hours of sleep (long story), and neither one of us was in the mood to cook.  Plus, my stomach was screaming "FEED ME"!  So, we ran to Panera Bread and got some scrumptious soup.  Therefore, we broke the "no eating out" rule.  

Then, I caved again this morning.  I was picking up a coffee for my boss for her birthday, had left my coffee mug at home, and temptation for a latte won over.  

There you go!  I definitely fudged on two rules.  Knowing that we broke the rules is slightly frustrating, but I don't plan on breaking another one for the rest of the month.  AND, I'm half-way there!  

This week I wanted to focus on one way that we have enjoyed the Spending Freeze: cooking!  I love to cook, it definitely is a stress relief for me, but sometimes I get bored with the meal planning and cooking the same things.  I decided to try new recipes so that I had something to look forward to.  Since we're not eating out, I decided we needed to spice things up a bit!

Monday Dinner: Fish Tacos with Lime-Cilantro Crema.  This is actually a big favorite in the LaFuze household from Cooking Light.  

Tuesday: Beef Stroganoff...in the Crock Pot!!!!  I was so excited to pull it my best friend:

Comfort meals to me include beef stroganoff.  My mom would make it using cream of mushroom soup, and I loved every bite of it.  Then, I found out she made it so much because it was such a cheap meal!  I haven't had it in years, so when I saw this crock pot recipe I could not wait to get my hands onto it.  

The best part was that the husband put everything together in the crock pot for me before he left for work.  All I had to do was boil the pasta when I got home and stir in some greek yogurt into the mix.  

I was slightly apprehensive...and I decided to play around with the computer this night for your enjoyment...

It was amazing!  When the husband got home later he tried it out and was surprised at how well it turned out!  It is definitely going into the recipe box.

Tip: After a meal I always package them up into separate containers so that the husband and I have easy access to leftovers for lunch at work.  I always love opening the fridge in the morning without a care of what to make for lunch.  I especially love taking scrumptious food to work!

Thursday: Mexican Quinoa with Grilled Chicken

We have made this recipe in the past, and the reason why I love it so much is that it not only tastes good but it also requires a lot of ingredients that I have already.  I just grilled up some chicken while it cooked, and voila!  Dinner was done!  

Leftovers were packaged up for tomorrow's lunch!  

Even though we didn't stick through all of our rules this week, I would say that it still was a success!  $15 on dinner and $3 on coffee only sets me back $18 this week.  

This week it seemed as though a bunch of added expenses popped up and it felt as though all of the money that we were saving went towards these.  My car needed new brakes and the computer needed a new cord :(

15 more days to go!!!

{encouraged} in the rut

This past week was... It just was.  

Have you ever had a day, or a week, where you just weren't happy?

Last week was that week for me.  I don't know if it was the change in schedule from work and school being in full force, or having a brand new set of students, or missing my free time to discover me, or....

I just don't know.  The hardest part of all was that looming feeling of guilt.  What do I have to be sad or unhappy about???  I have a job.  An amazing husband.  A beautiful little home.

Then, I got sick.  It's part of the job.  

And then I got a beautiful e-mail from a friend who was passing along a Proverbs 31 ministries devotional to me.  I had already gotten it in my inbox but hadn't read it yet.  Maybe God wanted me to read it twice?

“…He said to them, ‘Come with me by yourselves to a quiet 

and get some rest.’” Mark 6:31b (NIV 1984)

Then, I started looking through my Pinterest boards: 

  

{source}

I constantly struggle with getting down on myself.  Continuing to fill my mind and body with such negative thoughts is so unhealthy and only holds me back to what I think I am capable of.  I am capable of so much more!

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My beautiful mother always said this to me.  It's definitely a "Becky-ism"!  Although there are no major things going on to create this "funk" I was in, I have to know that it is just a phase.  It is not what I'm destined for.  

{source}

Amen!

Being sick, reading a perfect devotional, and reading through all of these encouraging pins made me realize that I need to rest.  I'm definitely a busy body.  My body needs to rest, and I find that when I rest I see who I am more clearly.  I become happy with who I am, what I do, where I have been.  

A good majority of my weekend was spent on the couch watching too many episodes of "Brothers and Sisters" on Netflix.  Typical Jamie would start getting down on herself for not being productive.  But, rest is just what I needed.  It was through resting that I prayed, sought after God's joy in my life, and realized that waking up each day with joy realizing I have one more day on this Earth makes so much more of an impact.  

Today was a beautiful day.  Although I'm still sick, I feel rested and alive.  I feel joyful and exuberant.  My students were amazing today.  I laughed...they laughed.  I came home after a 13 hour work/school day and laughed with the husband.  Laughter is what feeds my soul.  

I just had to add that this always brightens me up when I see it:

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Sweet Sunday

This week was a beautiful and crazy week.  D and I enjoyed a beautiful hike as we said good-bye to summer, and then I was off to work.  My work week was cut short due to the blackout, woo hoo!  Even though I only worked 3 days this week, I was left exhausted and ended up with a cold this weekend.  It's harder to think back on this week and decide what were successes for me because there was so much to this week.  Instead here are the things that brought me happiness:

Happiness is....

1. Scrumptious homemade brownies from one of my new students!

2. Brightening up our little home with some fresh daisies from the farmer's market.

3. Taking blurry pictures with my love!

4. The husband having Saturday off!!!  (Woot woot!)  Spent the entire day together, including him making me lie down and rest :)

5. Buying fresh, organic vegetables at the farmers market and cooking with them that night.

Seriously, these tomatoes tasted like candy!

6. Having an amazing dad and step-dad that have both served our country.  It is sad to look back on what happened to our nation 10 years ago, but encouraging to see how far we have come together as Americans.  I will forever be grateful for all military members and everything they do to protect us.  

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7. Realizing that somedays are hard and tough, but what matters most is remembering that you make an impact on a child.  This week was a tad bit difficult as I realized everything that you have to teach kindergarteners at the beginning of the year.  You work so hard to get them right where you want them, and then they move on to the next grade.  I saw this on Pinterest and it encouraged me to remember that there are struggles in teaching, but I have a direct impact on all of my students' and love them dearly.  

What has made you happy this week???