Wednesday, April 27, 2022

This post is for all of you who get mad everytime I do a Costco or a Trader Joe’s post! My regular grocery store is Kroger, but these items can be found at any supermarket, I would say!

Here are my cheese staples:

Babybel Light – I like it better than the original!

Light string cheese – Yes, I do “string it”!

Laughing Cow is great on celery with everything bagel seasoning, or a few crackers, and I use it to make a creamy sauce.

I will freak out if I don’t have these items in my cheese drawer.

I always have to have Greek non-fat yogurt. I use it for sauces and dips and I use it in my cake mix and for my skinny pizza dough.

Buffalo sauce is a staple. I love combining my Greek ranch above with this with some grilled chicken and celery.

Salsa! This is our favorite brand. I mainly use this in my burrito bowls.

Avocado toast! I have gotten Tom on the bandwagon, too.

This is my favorite brand of low carb tortilla. I found the street taco size recently, too.

I think it is nice to have a few salad or veggie mixes around. This was really good!

I am low-key obsessed with spaghetti squash right now.

I almost always have celery, grape tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers, broccoli, salad fixings, and a nice stash of frozen veg.

Eggs! I love eggs!

I will often cook up a mix of vegetables and have it on hand to add to different things like omelettes.

As far as drinks, I only drink water, coffee, sparkling water, and alcohol! Ha! I am using fat free half and half right now for my coffee along with a bit of cinnamon dolce skinny syrup. I need some new sweet options for after dinner. I usually have a Built bar for lunch dessert or a snack and for the evening I usually have a dum dum. Did you notice that I have multiple desserts a day?

Recent Meals:

The Teriyaki Stir fry kit from above:

Breakfast burritos and letting some cauli rice thaw:

Breakfast egg and veggie scramble:

Honey mustard salad:

Broccoli, homemade wedge fries, a roll and some homemade aioli:

Vegetable omelette:

I just made Allie.Carte.Dishes bbq spaghetti squash – yum! Follow her on Insta; I left this photo un-edited so you could see all the details!

Mine:

A recent lunch of Amylu sausage and veggies:

What are your grocery staples? I hope you have gotten at least one idea!

Amy

Tuesday, April 26, 2022

This project took a long, long time for various reasons, but it was worth the wait! You may remember that a few years ago, we started the project of adding on about 600 square feet behind our house to create a primary bedroom, a mudroom, and a deck. Well, the next phase was to turn our old bedroom into a bathroom.

Looking in from the hallway to the new hallway. This new floor is the same as the bedroom and we will be doing the same throughout the entire main level. The new bathroom is on the right in this photo.

Now, looking the other way into the hallway from the bedroom…

The bathroom…

We are also replacing all of the doors to look like these. We have already done most of them.

The vanity is grey, but comes off as a bit blue, I think, and we have ordered two separate mirrors that haven’t come in yet.

I shopped my house first, so it is not all put together yet as far as decor goes. I found a few things at Target and a few on Amazon. I need a rug and some wall art, but I plan to take my time and not settle.

Tom and I will have been married for 22 years this summer and we have never had to share a bathroom. When we moved in, we designated his bathroom as the tiny little one attached to our bedroom and I took the bigger hall bath. I shared with the kids and then when we added a basement bathroom (the former nicest bathroom in the house), that became Jack’s so Mason and I shared.

Should we do a vow renewal in our new bathroom this summer? “I promise not to hog the bathroom” or something romantic like that? This is all so new to me!

Today we are demolishing the tiny bathroom and the hall bathroom to start the project of making those into one bigger hall bath. I’m scared but those two bathrooms are literally falling apart and are so bad that I deleted the photos I was going to show you!

Tom is very opinionated about everything construction and interior design related. He did give me free reign on paint color (I chose to continue with the same bedroom color – Sherwin Williams Egret White 7570) and decor. Fortunately, I like what he likes, and I’m not just saying that. He has really good ideas and good taste – in my opinion. Heck, he picked me, right? I chose to stay with the same paint color because we have a ton of it and because I have lived with it in my bedroom for two years and still absolutely love the light and airy feel. We used SW Agreeable Gray for the mudroom and I love that, too, and have lived with that for two years. We also have a ton of that leftover. I am a little worried that the grey trend was so strong and it’s at the tail end, but I also think you should do what you like no matter what. So…we will see. Everyone says it’s easy to re-paint, but I strongly disagree. I think it’s a beast!

Anyway, things have been exciting around here!

Thanks for listening to me ramble,

Amy

Monday, April 25, 2022

It is the last week of April! How is that possible? How is that NOT possible? Lol! I am linking up with Holly and Sarah for Hello Monday – a link-up where we share our weekend recaps!

This weekend was busy and I could use another day!

Thursday night we had our first “normal” Senior Awards! It was wonderful and I had to present for the language department. This sweet girl won the Spanish award.

I came home from school Friday and my bathroom was completed a couple of hours later! Post coming this week with all of the details if you are interested…

Senior Prom was also this weekend! Junior Prom was in March. I had a date with these two to eat before stopping by for a bit.

I was so happy to see that my kids didn’t waste any time and went immediately to the dance floor! It was full not long after I took this photo.

Fun photo booth:

Boy was I tired!

Saturday morning I actually had to go in to Kroger! I hadn’t been organized enough to do an order, but I enjoyed checking out the store and I had it pretty much to myself.

Two weeks until The Kentucky Derby and there is lots of swag to purchase:

How funny, right? Hats with the beer?

I am a sucker for outdoor serving ware, but I resisted. Look how cute the watermelon stuff is!

I made another batch of spicy saltines! Tom wants me to use Tony Chacere’s cajun next!

We went to Tom’s sister’s boat business and this lady was customer service. Her name is River and she only gets to wait on customers on the counter on Saturdays, but she works 6 days a week.

I said yes to sitting on a boat for the Derby air show for a few hours and Tom said he had to do yard work. Can you see the Stealth Bomber in the air?

My SIL made a fabulous charcuterie:

I came home around dinner and we got mediterranean take out.

Sunday morning it was so nice and I could drink my coffee outside!

Meal prep time:

I took down Easter and put up minimal Derby decor:

I went shopping for new bathroom decor at TJ Maxx and Target and found several things at Target and none at TJ Maxx! You will see soon!

Then, we had plans to have a happy hour at our friends’ house. Look how pretty their backyard is. It was a lovely day again and we had a nice time.

My friend gave me two plants that are toxic to her cats:

Aloe:

Jade:

And, that was it for the weekend, sadly!

What was the highlight of yours? We had 80 degree temps, but today it is raining and getting cooler and I think we will have 60s now.

Hope you make it through your Monday!

Amy

Friday, April 22, 2022

My favorites this week are going to be short and sweet in more ways than one. I am linking up here with the Friday Favorites girls! Also, please click here for Andrea’s Southwest Bowls recipe. She posted it a long time ago and these have been served once a week at my house since! I use frozen corn and sometimes use pre-cooked or rotisserie chicken. There are lots of shortcuts you can take, but do not skip the sauce! It is worth it to buy and chop the cilantro. Do it!

When making my Rolo pretzel treats, I discovered dark chocolate salted caramel Rolos – OMG! The original work best for my treats, but these are amazing on their own!

The treats again:

I follow Kathleen Jennings Beauty on Insta and she talked about this and I am already a big fan of NYX – love it! Weird name, though!

I love these Party Cake Peeps! I wanted to make S’mores but we never had a fire due to the windy conditions!

These jellybeans were good!

A sweet parent gave all 7 of her daughter’s teachers a goody bag this week that even included…

treats for Ernie!

Spanish Club this week was really fun. We called it “Salsa and Salsa” and we learned to dance salsa and ate salsa – but not before we did a blind chip taste test from different local restaurants with a few store brands thrown in!

I only have 5 more weeks with my seniors! I am going to miss them so much!

What were your favorites this week? I hope you had many!

Amy

Thursday, April 21, 2022

It is Fashion Files Thursday! I am linking up with Kellyann and Jill; make sure you click on one of their names to see what the other bloggers are wearing.

My weather has been all over the place. You may be tired of hearing this, but it’s true! We had some beautiful, but windy days last week. In fact, Wednesday night was the night we had some tornadoes in our area with 80 mile an hour winds and then had school cancelled on Thursday. Yesterday it was 30 degrees in the morning!

First up, here is the jean skirt that I cut and frayed. For some reason this denim didn’t fray that well, but I really do like the result. Pardon the super windy look in the photo! I am eating my hair!

I think the above the knee length is more flattering for me (I’m 5’4) and the heel height of my gold clogs helps, too. I paired it with a plain white Chico’s tank and my new consignment kimono. Sadly, I discovered that the kimono has a rip that isn’t on the seam. I am going to take it to my tailor because I really do love it!

Friday night I wanted to try something new…

Tom’s company had their outdoor concert with food trucks. So, I did business on the top and party on the bottom. I am wearing my Walmart Scoop scuba blazer, my Anthropologie blouse, my Walmart Time and Tru black cut offs and my new clear low heeled bargain sandals.

How do you feel about the blazer with shorts look? Did you know it was a trend?

I was comfortable and felt good and I plan to try this with a few other things maybe!

And, for my last outfit this week, I wore my last purchase of Spring Break. I did a bit of shopping that week and then when school started up again April 11, I said I was not going to buy any clothes until summer. It’s now April 21 and I have lasted 10 days! Honestly, if I see a really good deal, I will probably cave, but I just want to make myself wear what I have and be content. I am also weeding out anything that didn’t get cut over Spring Break.

I picked up this cute little strawberry printed tee at Old Navy for like $10 when I was in the store looking at Easter basket things for my kids. I was happy to get to wear this green sweater that I bought at Target for St. Patrick’s Day. I paired it with Target dark jeans and my red clogs. I felt a bit like a garden gnome, but I liked it. I have wore this outfit once on the weekend and once at school so far. I think this little tee will be fun for summer.

Do you have a favorite outfit?

What have you been wearing lately?

Amy

Wednesday, April 20, 2022

Happy Hump Day! Do you want a super easy recipe that doesn’t require any source of cooking? Do you know who Damaris Phillips is? She is one of my favorite Food Network stars and lives here in Louisville! I love her! I was so excited when I realized she was at Jack’s Shakespeare in the Park this summer and had prepared a gourmet picnic with her friends in the lawn. She had oodles of quilts laid out and it was dreamy. Yes, I walked by a couple of times.

Give her a follow on Instagram. She is great!

Anyway, I saw her share this recipe on Instagram..her Aunt Julie’s recipe:

I decided to try it out but I halved the recipe because it was a lot. They are to die for. In fact, I ate most of them.

You need:

1 and a half cups of vegetable or olive oil

4 sleeves of saline crackers (an entire box)

1 and a half tablespoons of ranch seasoning powder

1 and a half tablespoons of chili lime seasoning

Like I said, I halved the recipe and next time I think I will add a bit more chili lime to make them a bit spicier.

Put the oil and the spices in a big bowl and whisk, add the crackers, gently stir to coat with a wooden spoon. Let them sit in the bowl for 2 hours but stir every 20-30 minutes or so.

So yummy!

The next day, I did the same recipe and method, but used pretzel sticks! OMG! So good, too!

I love an easy recipe like this, don’t you?

Amy

Tuesday, April 19, 2022

Hey, come along with me on a trip to Costco!

I have been a member since ours opened. In fact, I joined before it even opened. I was excited! I have used Costco for glasses, contact, Christmas cards, Christmas gifts, tires, winter coats, furniture, dog food, and so much more. I have a love/hate relationship. I love not having to think about trashbags, toilet paper, papertowels, Kleenex, and dog food very often because we buy in bulk. I always buy the Costco brand which is called Kirkland, by the way. I hate that I feel like I can hardly leave without spending $300!

On this trip, we really didn’t need those paper product staples. We were after food items. And, specifically, I was looking to add healthy food items that we needed or that I was planning my meals around.

I am low key obsessed with frozen cauliflower rice. Do not buy fresh. I repeat, do not buy fresh. It tasts like ground up packing peanuts.

I like this because it comes with four individual bags inside. I let one fully defrost on a towel or paper towels. Yes, I take it out of the package and let it sit naked. You have got to get that water out. Then, when it is fully defrosted, I put it in a skillet with some olive oil and add salt, pepper, garlic powder, and whatever else I want to add. I use this as a base for my burrito bowls, my buffalo chicken bowls – anywhere you would normally use rice.

I must have a stash of frozen veg. I like to roast these on a sheet pan. I also keep frozen corn, frozen peas and carrots (for fried cauliflower rice), frozen french fries, and tator tots sometimes.

This is amazing! They really taste roasted like they say. I like to have these with some turkey sausage or with some of my healthy noodles pasta. I have put them in an omelette, too.

I really like this turkey breast. I freeze half of it because I am really the only one eating it right now. Tom is a ham man. I like to make wraps with this in my low carb La Banderita flour tortillas. I usually just do pickles and mustard to save points, but you can also do Laughing Cow wedges or a light cream cheese or really whatever!

This is new to me. If I had to tell you one thing that really is wearing me down right now I would say cooking.so.much.chicken. I also cook chicken for Ernie. Don’t question it; it started during the pandemic when we all were doing questionable things.

This is good. It doesn’t taste weird or slimy like a lot of pre-cooked chicken I have tried.

Ah!!!! My beloved noodles. This comes in a box with 6 packages of noodles. All you do is rinse them with cold water in a colander and then they are ready to go. I have found that I don’t want to over cook them. I make a sauce on the stove and just toss right before I eat. Tom approves of these noodles, too! I know that the picture features a pad thai, but they work with italian style pasta, too. These are zero WW points for me.

There’s always gonna be an impulse purchase and this was mine:

You can often find this brand at TJ Maxx and I think the bottles are so pretty.

Are you a Costco person?

What are your favorite things to buy?

Amy

Monday, April 18, 2022

It is time to link up with Sarah and Holly for Hello Monday!

Friday night, Tom’s work generously hosted a fun night out for employees and their significant others. They had two food trucks and an up and coming country singer. You might remember that they did this last year, too? But, you probably don’t, because why would you remember what I did a year ago?

It was so nice! I really like the people Tom works with!

I made these to bring to share:

and the spicy saltines that I will share with you this week!

I also brought a portable charcuterie.

Tom being boujie:

I tried a new Starbuck’s drink this weekend and I plan to have it again. So good!

This is from emily_myfitnessgal on Instagram:

I did it with a grande because I didn’t want that much coffee!

I gave myself a pedi!

Still loving the blue shades of polish.

Tom and I set up the new trough situation:

His vision is to put some sort of lily pad water plants inside. Starting research now…

It was hair day!

I made a new drink! I used a shot of Pinnacle whipped vodka, about a teaspoon of Crystal Light lemonade powder, and then filled the rest with La Croix coconut! It’s really good!

I picked up the current issue of Southern Living to enjoy with my drink:

For dinner, we had grocery store sushi:

Don’t turn up your nose; it was from Fresh Market!

I did faux egg McMuffins for this week’s breakfasts:

I actually used a glass to make the egg and cheese the same size:

Then, you know how I am working on less food waste? I took the scraps and added some bacon bits and made a burrito!

And, we celebrated Easter!

I hope you had a wonderful weekend and holiday,

Amy

Friday, April 15, 2022

It’s Good Friday, Passover, and Tax Day! How was your week? Mine went by quickly and it was a bit crazy!

I am linking up today with Andrea and Erika for Friday Favorites; here are some things that made me happy when looking back at my camera roll…

I don’t have a photo of this but we made the last college payment of sophomore year for our twins! Halfway through!

My car has been having some issues this year. I guess that is what happens when you drive a 10 year old car. There is a local coffee shop across the street from the mechanic and I enjoyed sitting outside and having an afternoon coffee.

Tom told me we were out of something and I said to write me a note because I am the kind of person that has to write everything down. This is the “note” he wrote me:

I am so proud that I have improved my food waste situation. I have worked really hard to use up what we have and to do a better job planning. I was happy to see the empty-ish fridge as a result of this!

I also learned how valuable my freezer is during the pandemic and it is an important part of not wasting food. I cleaned it out and restocked it during my break.

We love our rain chain, as you may know if you are a regular reader, but the barrell beneath is in bad shape.

We have always admired these when we see them at local patios and different establishments and finally got one!

We don’t know exactly what plants to use yet.

Wednesday night, tornado sirens starting going off around 8:00 and lasted until after 9:00. Ugh! It’s tornado season in this area and it’s very scary.

And, surprise of all surprises…school got cancelled for our entire district yesterday because some schools had no power or bus routes were impassable.

So, I was already up and going my routine when I found out and decided to run to Kroger and Costco as those were things I was going to have to do on the weekend.

If you watch Summer House on Bravo…look what Kroger had!

And, Truly makes a flavored vodka now!

Costco is selling bags to make “walking tacos”!

I had a lot of fun just leisurely wandering the aisles.

When I got home I did some chores and then I made a lunch of cheese, little peppers, pickles, and chicken, buffalo dip, ranch, and celery. Yum! This would be too high maintenance to take to school!

I did put out a few Easter touches just in the nick of time:

I spent my afternoon enjoying the gorgeous sunshine!

This is really cute so far – if you like DIY shows and chick lit you might like it.

What were your favorites this week? I can’t wait to hear and to read about everyone elses’!

Amy

Thursday, April 14, 2022

It is time to link up with Kellyann and Jill for Fashion Files. I really wasn’t feeling the gym yesterday morning, but since I had my gym post scheduled I had to go!

Over my Spring Break, one of my goals was to really clean out my spring and summer wardrobe. I ended up with a nice stack for the consignment shop that doesn’t accept stuff from Old Navy, Target, or other “cheaper” places, a stack for the consignment store that does accept from those places and pays cash on the spot (but not much!), and then a donation stack.

I never really know how to arrange my hanging clothes. Do I do sleeve length? Color? What do you do?

These are my blouses and tops that are both long and short sleeve but appropriate for spring and summer:

These are my tees and things to wear over tees like kimonos and sweaters:

These are my sleeveless:

I don’t feel comfortable wearing sleeveless without anything over, by the way.

Are you surprised at my relatively small collection of things for the top part of the body?

I am trying to wear each thing until the end of the school year and wait for it…

I am also trying to hold off on any more spring and summer clothing purchases until I get out of school. I am doing this (or trying to) for a couple of reasons – I have plenty, I am trying to save some money for our home renovations and a vacation, and I just want to be super thoughtful about what comes in my closet.

My plan is to write things I “need” in my phone memo.

It finally turned warm after I had worn joggers, leggings, and jeans most of Spring Break.

I wore my new clear sandals, my pink Walmart Time and Tru cut offs, and an old Target floral bouse:

For school, I wore my new Loft pink top for the first time but paired it with jeans and my new New Balance because I had to walk to and from school that day. My students couldn’t believe I got the shoes for $13 from my consignment shop! Also, my sweater is super old from a consignment shop.

I really liked this simple but chic outfit on Joanna from Cup of Jo blog.

My feet were so happy the day before that I wanted to wear the shoes again and it worked for me to “copy” her outfit. Well, it flopped. I did do a little half tuck after this picture and I decided to cut off my skirt when I got home to make it frayed like hers! I won’t be able to wear it to school anymore, but that’s ok. I think a little shorter will be more flattering. How about I fall down a rabbit hole of cut off jean skirts now? Ha!

Do you screenshot outfits you see, too? I think it’s a great way to add new life to your wardrobe. It doesn’t have to be exact, either. Don’t get too bogged down with having the exact components or that will defeat the purpose.

So…what have you been wearing lately?

Have you switched out seasonal clothes? Have you really taken a hard look to see what still works for you? Maybe go back to this post or this post if you need some help?

Thanks for visiting me today!

Amy