No Big Dinner...

Best laid plans, as you can see I did not blog last night, so here I am this morning.  Our dinner was very unexciting, but homemade and with what was in our cabinets.  When we started our "lifestyle change," our goal was to eat at home 6 days a week.  This may not sound like a big deal to people, but we are fast food junkies.  We love to eat out, as a whole.  We like nice restaurants, burrito stands, cafeterias, drive-thrus, drive-ins, pizza joints, street vendors, and vending machines. It is a true problem, my best friend and I once drove 6 hours to go to White Castle. Our's closed in 2000, a sad day I will never forget. So, hopefully this blog will keep me in line and my urges at bay.

Here's what I did last night:

Last week I purchased baby potatoes:

The first time I used them, I just sliced and fried them, so I thought I would try something different. I had seen a snip of a show on Food Network where a woman rolled them in olive oil and salt, then stuck them in the oven to roast, so that was the plan.

I pulled out EVOO, garlic powder, onion powder, parsley, and salt.
I stuck them in a baggie and shook.

I then placed them on an airbake pan and turned the oven to 350.
This all began a little over an hour before dinner.

Our vegetable was the next task to conquer.  My goal is not to waste any fruits or vegetables that are in my refrigerator, so I rummaged my drawers. I had purchased a sale bag of coleslaw with a date that was near, so I looked in my cabinets to see what I could make with it.  I decided my version of Carolina Coleslaw, it is sweet and sour and not so fatty.

I used half of a bag since it was just my husband and I, my kids at mom's.

I pulled out ingredients that are always in my cupboard.
Sugar (always cane), raisins, red wine vinegar, and EVOO.
I added a dash of salt and pepper and stuck it in the fridge.

My husband called and he was coming home early, so I stuck on three bacon wrapped sirloins and finished dinner. When he arrived everything was hot and ready to go.

Bad picture, I promise, I will get the hang of this.

So, dinner was a little disappointing, but I do have some other things to share.  I did do some organizing yesterday. 

I have curly hair, so I have a ton of styling tools.  When I went from a 2 1/2 bath to a 1 bath house, I had to figure out where to put all my junk I had in my master bath.  So, in a hurry, I stuck it under the sink and in a bag sitting on the floor until I had time to organize.  Next thing I know, I am having one bad hair day after another because I can't find anything.  Yesterday, I had enough, I decided to tackle the problem.

Here is the before shot:

See that bundle of  black?
Those are my curling irons.
That's right, shoved between my hand towels and
organized boxes of bathroom necessities.

I can see clearly now that the
clutter is gone.

So, I had some cup hooks.
I went to my linen closet, which is
located inside my bathroom, and
began screwing them in.

Do not do this on a hollow-core door, the cup hooks will not stay.  I used them on solid wood cabinetry, our house is old and can handle it.  I will let you know if my hair improves, since I can easily grab my long lost buddies.

I obviously was bored yesterday, this was not my only project, I also made a drawstring bag. 

I talked to my father-in-law and he informed me he was going to visit this weekend and see the progress we had made on our house.  Just so you know, we are messy, and not totally unpacked.  So, I looked at my kitchen island and realized it was the first thing you see when you walk in my house.  It is a hub of activity and the place I put items I unpack before they are properly put away.  

I looked down and had tunnel vision. Our sunglasses where laying there, what was I going to do with them. They were the smallest of the mess, but I was focused on them.  

My mom had brought my sewing machine over, so I put it on the table and began looking for fabric to make a  bag. The problem was, the fabric was at her house.  I always store the sunglasses so the kids can get to them, but we have no coat closet, someone ripped it out in a remuddle of our house.  I bought instead an antique wardrobe, so hanging a shoe bag with a million pockets wasn't an answer.  

I began looking for an old piece of clothing I could convert, I settle on an outgrown "Star Wars" shirt both of my kids had worn.  I didn't want to get rid of the shirt, it was a win-win in my eyes.

I cut off the sleeves and the neck, it was a 2T.

I sewed along the bottom seam,
up the sides in a straight line, leaving an inch at the top to make a loop.
I made the place for the drawstring, grabbed my ribbon for bows, and used a large safety pin to get the string through.
Tied the end and ta-da a bag in less than 10 minutes.

The sunglasses had a home and I had piece of mind.

This whole blog thing is way harder than I thought. I will try my best to post daily and let you in on my insanity. 

'Til next time...Enjoy your crazy life....