Friday, Where Have You Been?!?

It's Friday, and while I should probably be bummed that half the staff at work decided to call in sick, I'm strangely in high spirits (this is probably helped by the fact that I'm leaving work early, but hey!).

The weekend is shaping up nicely. I always seem to have big plans--some usually happen, but a lot get missed. Here's what I ideally want to do this weekend:

--Formally measure garden space and (maybe) buy the wood for the raised beds.

--Yoga Sat morning, get groceries Sat/Sun.

--Clean up front flower bed, clear out remaining leaves from winter.

--Clean house. (Yay for Spring Cleaning!!) Gotta get this done while I'm still excited about it, haha!

--Start painting the new Nick-Unicorn painting. You guys, this one's gonna totes rock.

--Work on my thesis.

--Finish a disc of "Upstairs, Downstairs" and return it.

--Buy bikes for The Hubs and I, woohoo!

and, last but certainly not least--

--Start a 10-day juice feast. I've been wanting to try one for several months now, and right now seems like a good time. Not too much going on socially (our weekends really start picking up here in a couple of weeks), and I'm actually craving juice, so it's time. Maybe I'll quit after 3 days; maybe I'll keep going with it. We shall see! I'm pretty interested to see how it affects my wellness exam results on Wednesday.

Have a lovely weekend, everyone :)

Jes

Vegan MoFo, Day 14: Meal Planning

Almost half way! Is it a glass half full or half empty? I tend to lean towards a glass half empty...because I'm all depressing and shit. No really, I will miss Vegan MoFo when it is gone again. Last year I made a kitschy tribute. Thinking about another one...still rolling it around in my mind. Maybe I'll make a tribute painting.

ANYWAY, welcome to the weekend! Hello, friend. I've missed you. Weekends are such fair weather friends...the bastards.

Today, I thought I would let you into my meal-planning world. How do I think up my vegan meals each week? What is my strategy?

First off, I carry around a small notebook that I got from Barnes & Noble. It's always in my work bag, along with my planner and some other junk. Notebooks, to me, are awesomeness. Without them, I'm just a loser in life.

Right now, during Vegan MoFo, I try to plan around 3 or maybe 4 "foodie" posts, but during normal weeks, I try to keep in mind what I already have on hand. That's one thing I have been working on this past year--stocking my pantry (because pantries are equally as awesome as notebooks!) and making sure to use up some of the stuff in there weekly. I've been making a big pot of beans each Sunday that I store in the cooking liquid and use all week. I have some black beans right now that are destined for some super-fun burgers on Sunday...you'll have to check back to see!

Also, I get a lot of magazines in the mail. "A lot," in this case, equals 10. Except for VegNews and Vegetarian Times, I go through the magazines and cut out recipes that are vegan/vegetarian OR that I know I can veganize. Did you see those white binders on the bottom of my cookbook shelf? That's full of magazine clippings and web print-outs. It's pretty fun, actually.

I take these ideas and form a menu out of things I want to try that are within (mostly) my budget and use some of the items I already have on hand.

{as you can see, I make a lot of changes...}

And since I'm usually just cooking for myself, the leftovers instantly become my lunch the next day. I love the Sundays that I make a big dish, though. Sometimes the extras last all week.

I also try to use coupons. We don't usually save any more than about 15% of our grocery bill, but that's 15% that we didn't have to spend. Sometimes we use coupons for items that we don't regularly buy, but it's more often for products we use weekly. Since I changed my mailing address for my Dillons PlusCard account, I got an awesome packet in the mail yesterday. It has tons of awesome coupons, like $5 off any $50 transaction (pretty much a given) and $1 off $5 in produce (also a given). RAD!

What do you do to plan meals? Do you have kids, and if so, do you think it is easier or more difficult to meal plan?

Jes

PS--Holy shiz, check out this new post from Laura at Vegansaurus! Leslie Hall is frakking awesome, and I kind of want to be her for Halloween. And she's vegan!!!! Hells to the yes.

PSS--Sleepy Doggie Cutenesssss.

Back with Another One of Those Block Rockin' Beets

Oh yeah, you know I just paraphrased The Chemical Brothers.

In reference to these, which I pulled from the garden yesterday (before the oppressively-hot sun made them spoil in the ground):

They're going to form a nice salad for lunch later!

Today's been overly productive:

-Woke up at 7:00am with back pains (yay!).

-Made coffee (to try out the soy creamer I got on sale and with a coupon yesterday--VERY tasty)

-Offered The Hubs coffee at 8:00am and was DENIED :)

-Laundry done and put away!

-Veg stock on the boil

-Leftover coffee freezing into ice cubes for later goodness

-Grocery list updated

-Watched some DVR'd shows and set some new ones

-Read more of Game of Thrones (book #1) by George R.R. Martin. The Hubs got me book #2 this weekend, so I'm speeding my way through the rest of book #1. If you didn't watch the show on HBO this past spring, you are mental (or just missing a really good thing).

Coming up:

-A shower (YES!!)

-Lunch!

-Groceries and a visit to The Hubs' Mutti

-Making this lovely recipe

-Dinner: Chipotle Black Bean Soup (from Ripe from Around Here by jae steele. Can't get enough of it.)

-More reading

-True Blood (double yes!!)

Enjoy your Sunday!

Jes

Weekend Lovelies

What a lovely weekend. Really :)

Did you have a nice couple of days?

It was the first weekend after the official end of classes (for me), and it could have been better at times. But it was still fairly pleasant. We pretty much went from 100 deg. F record temps earlier in the week to the low 60's. That's Kansas weather for you!

I went to the opening of the Old Town Farmer's Market, which is held in a beautiful brick square in front of a museum in the heart of Wichita. There were belly dancers braving the 50 deg. F temperature when I got there. I scored some gorgeous produce from Home Grown KS, a booth I love to frequent. Also got some lovely crinkled spinach from another booth (forgot the name!).

Here's one of my go-to desserts (i.e. weight-gainers!) recently. I had leftover cocoa-coconut mix from the Coconut-Cocoa Haystacks I made for a friend's BBQ last weekend, so I turned it into another dessert...by adding more cocoa and coconut :)

SUPER-yum-tastic.

Yesterday, we went to the Derby Public Library for some books and some fun. Our nephew, Isaac, read the book Flat Stanley in his class and sent us his version of Mr. Stanley. We took some pics of Flat Stanley at the library, which we'll be sending back to his class probably at the end of this week. It's a great way for the kids to learn something about a new place.

I'm just so excited to be reading something other than books for class or my thesis. I'm still working away on the ole thesis, but I'm finally able to mix in recreational reading, YAY! It's been so overwhelming already; I feel like a junkie and don't know where to start. I picked up the graphic novel version of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which I lurv. And I got a book about the invention of the George Washington myths (think I'm most excited about this one...figures that even in my recreational reading, I still roam back to history-related books...).

Be sure to check back tomorrow! It's a special day for me :)

Jes

Happy Saturday.

Well, what is left of it, right?

What are you all up to this weekend? Today I:

1. Woke up at 10:28am. Time for the dog to relieve herself outside and bark for her doggie friends next door.

2. Ate some brunch and did the dishes.

3. Hung out with The Hubs, being "Saturday bums."

4. Watched about 3 episodes of "Veronica Mars" (season 2, and it's getting really good!). I can't believe I missed this show when it was on television originally. I'm hooked.

5. Got ready and went to get my hair did (maybe a picture tomorrow. it's similar to last May but more edgy).

6. Went on a trip to the store for juice--and came out with juice, salt&vinegar chips and a Marvel action figure for The Hubs--for his growing collection.

7. Had Subway for early dinner (I'm not doing very well at this no eating out business...).

8. Just sitting here now with Enu next to me, exploring blogs I like and waiting to get ready to head out for The Shan's bday fun at Pei Wei.

Tomorrow will be filled with grocery shopping, house cleaning, and the Sunday visit with The Hub's Mutti (and my Mutti-in-law, whatever that is in German). Maybe we'll take down the xmas tree and decorations...just maybe.

Jes