Sloppy Lentil Joes

Evening!

Today was my last official meeting with a volunteer opportunity I’ve had since April. I have one more event on Saturday and then I’m done! It will definitely be nice to have a lot more free time to spend on…wedding planning, blogging, Murph-playin and fiance spendin’. Okay that doesn’t sound like free time, but that’s all stuff that I will enjoy doing for sure.

Tonight’s dinner was a first. I bought a package of green lentils awhile ago at one of our local grocery stores, Woodman’s. (P.S. Woodman’s is pretty much the best grocery store ever. Well that and Trader Joe’s 🙂 ). Anywho, I’ve never eaten lentils let alone cook them so they’ve been sitting in the cabinets for awhile.

I’ve seen them made on several blogs so I decided tonight was the night to try them. I made ‘Sloppy Lentil Joes,’ obviously a play on Sloppy Joes.

To make them, I used green lentils, onion, carrots, green pepper, mustard, ketchup & barbeque sauce. I made way too much. Like, enough to feed an entire fraternity. For 7 days. For every meal. Lesson learned.

Moving on…I also made asparagus & sweet potato fries.

Little blurry…

Muuuch better.

Best. Sweet. Potato. Fries. EVER. (Alexia Frozen Sweet Potato fries if you’re curious)

I enjoyed the meal, Ryan however…did not. I don’t think at least. He thought it was just okay. Next time I would maybe mix 1/2 ground beef 1/2 lentils to make it more manly, hehe.

Now that I have um, a crap ton of lentils left…what else do I do with these?!

I Can Finally Breathe!

Morning amigos! I can honestly say that I can finally breathe again! My allergies have been out of whack since this weekend, making me feel exhausted, stuffy and just downright not good. My allergies are hardly ever a problem so I don’t really know why it’s bugging me now. The allergies meds I have are not helping me sleep though, which I’m not a fan of.

Anywho, now that I have my beloved camera back, we can move onto breakfast! I just tried Overnight Oats for the first time ever last week and I am hooked!

This mix has Chobani peach yogurt, almond milk, half a banana, 1/3 cup oat old fashioned oats. Topped w/ cheerios, ground flax, blackberries, raspberries and sunflower butter (omg this stuff is so good. nom nom).

It was a full one!

Tonight we’re going to the grocery store to pick up a few things and I’m attempting to make Sloppy Lentil Joes a la Meghann. We’ll see how it goes…(rhyme alert!)

Allergies Are Kicking In

Hi friends!

This weekend has been a busy one that’s for sure. Friday evening Ryan & I needed a night in to just relax. Pretty much since June we have been go, go, go and my body requires a relaxing weekend every once in a while. For dinner, we have burgers & tots (sorry still no pictures, but my charger is on its way!). It was so nice to just stay in and watch some Dexter.

Laundry was accomplished on Saturday which needed to be done baaadly. After laundry and meal planning for the week we headed off to the West Allis Farmer’s Market. There were so many people! And so many veggies, flowers, herbs, EVERYTHING! I definitely had to restrict myself from buying literally everything.

We also stopped by the local Gold’s Gym to see what kind of memberships they have. I currently have a Snap Fitness membership, which I got through an amazing deal by Groupon. But, it will run out in September and while it’s decent and all, Snap doesn’t offer any classes and it pretty small.

A new Gold’s Gym is moving in close where we live and offers tons of different classes (here I come Body Pump & Yoga!), a decent pool, tons of machines (with personalized tvs for me to keep up with Food Network, obviously) and a room with a huge theater sized movie screen! All of this for $20 a month!!! The renovation won’t be complete until August 16, but that’s less than a month a way!

After those errands we came home and I crashed. My allergies have been getting the best of me this weekend (apparently humidity causes allergies to act up). After a nap we headed to the grocery store and spent way too much money. We’re going to start seriously looking at our finances (specifically grocery shopping) and see where we can save some money.

Today has been super lazy, besides vacuuming and a little cleaning here and there. My allergies are getting worse by the minute so I’m sneezing every 5 seconds. It’s super attractive, by the way.

Anyways, sorry for the lack of photos, I realize how boring these posts are getting. They will reappear again though, no fear!

Boring, Boring

Wanna know why I haven’t posted a lot lately?

It’s because I’m boring.

Honestly, these last few weeks have been crazy. A little too crazy if you know what I mean (i.e. went to Chicago last weekend to reunite with college friends and uh, didn’t get much sleep.) And yes, I was going to update you allll about that (we also did touristy things too that you would maybe slightly enjoy) BUT I used my camera so much that it died. Completely dead. And that would be fine and all…

if I could find my charger. Sometime in the last month I’ve lost it and have no clue where it’s at. So I ordered another one on Amazon last night.

And then I bought Woman’s Day magazine for a $5 subscription.

And then I bought Stevia packets. I’ve never had stevia but it’s a hit in the blog world, so somethings gotta be good about it, right?

Don’t tell me it sucks. I will be sad.

Also, I haven’t forgotten about my giving up being super woman. After next weekend I will have A LOT more time on my hands (well besides the whole working Mon-Fri, 8-5 thang) and I will begin doing activities that I actually enjoy doing or would like to start doing.

Like cooking, baking, photography, WEDDING PLANNING (omg), biking and actually getting into a decent work out routine. I’m definitely not a “I’m gonna go on a diet because I’m getting married” type of person. Diets are stupid. Diets restrict things. And when I’m told I can’t have something…well then I want it even more. So why restrict? I’d rather slowly making lifestyle changes that will be with me forever compared to living in hell for a year and then gaining all of the weight back.

And please don’t start thinking I think I’m way overweight or anything like that. I know I’m not so spare me the comments. I know I could stand to work out more and eat healthier and that’s all I’m changing.

I feel like I’ll truly get the ball rollin’ on August 1 (because I like starting things in a fresh month, year, day, etc.).

My charger should be here in 5-6 days so I’ll have pictures back then! Or maybe you’ll get surprise pictures of our venue this weekend 🙂

And The Venue Is….

Country Springs Hotel in Pewaukee, Wisconsin!

Now I’m not gonna lie, I did first judge this place by their website. I took one look at it and immediately dismissed it because the website…needs some work.

But then someone at work recommended the place and another also said they went to a wedding there this past New Year’s Eve and said it was really nice, so I gave it a shot.

The one part of the website that I did enjoy was the Cost Calculator. A lot of reception venues have little or nothing about the cost of having a reception there, let alone a system that you can pick out the specifics you want for your wedding. Obviously, it was just a rough estimate but it was nice going in there having a cost in mind.

We took few pictures (I was really excited and had a lot of questions so I kinda forgot…) BUT we are going back this weekend to drop off the deposit &  signed contract (!!!).

A few of our non-negotiables for the reception were dinner, open bar (for at least part of it) and at a hotel or near a hotel for guests to stay in. We get all of this at Country Springs Hotel and it is within our price range!

We are still spending a pretty hefty amount of money, but once we calculated all of the potential costs we will have we realized we would be able to pay for all of the reception ourselves (with a combination of our money & both of our parents money).

We will still be taking out a loan, which will indeed stink, but it’s a better option than putting it on a credit card.

It’s our one day that is completely ours and we’re both comfortable with taking out a small (ish) loan to help pay for our day!

Sorry this lacks photos, but I’ll add more after we visit again!

Now for that dress…anyone willing to help me?! Events I can plan, finding dresses I can not.

Back in the Groove

I got it back! I was up at 5:30 this morning gettin’ my workout on at the gym. My neck feels SO much better today. I think I narrowed it down to the bike ride. Which sounds weird because, I didn’t feel like my neck hurt during the bike ride, but that’s the only thing different I did yesterday.

Nothing a little sleep couldn’t fix.

I forgot to take a picture of my breakfast this morning since I was starving from my lack of dinner last night. But it was an English muffin w/ strawberry jam & cheese (a la PB Fingers) and a banana.

So as I was reading through my Google Reader this morning two posts reflected on being super busy and feeling overwhelmed with life, which I recently wrote  a post on here. Check out their blogs and see their tips on keeping it together!

 

Food Fitness Fashion

 

The Lunchbox Diaries

Not So Healthy Dinner

My dinner consisted of peanut butter filled pretzels, a pickle, 5 cherry tomatoes and some cheese & Triscuits.

Not so healthy living, but I feel like crap so it worked.

Besides, it had a fruit, veggie, protein and fat….right?

Worst Sleep Ever.

Yes, I realize I’ve had “ever” in two posts in a row, but I’m actually not exaggerating this time.

I slept so bad. I had at least 10 different nightmares/dreams and kept waking up. It was horrible. So that means this morning I’m dragging a bit. I couldn’t even get up to work out. Usually I debate in my head if I should get up or not if I’m not feeling it. This time…I immediately shut off my alarm and set it for an hour later.

It’s strange because Saturday night I slept like a rock. Didn’t wake up once! Maybe it’s something I ate? Not sure…

See you tonight!

First Bike Ride Ever

Okay so technically this wasn’t my first bike ride ever. It’s actually just my first bike ride in a very long time. And it was the first time here in Wisconsin…so that counts for something!

I honestly can’t even remember the last time I road a bike. No wait, that’s a lie. I do remember. It was last summer for Tour de Franzia with my co-workers when I lived in Vail, Colorado.

Yep that’s me and my roomie Maria from last summer.

And yep I have grillz & and a band-aid on my face Nelly-style.

What of it?

Anyways, yes that was my last bike ride. And before then I have no idea. Maybe when I was like, 12?

Obviously I’m not ridin’ the same bike that I was truckin’ with when I was 12…so I had to borrow one of Ryan’s bikes. It was actually pretty comfortable for being a men’s bike.

Reaaaally excited to get ridin’!

We only rode for around 4 miles, but I was still super sweaty. Like, super sweaty. Way more than I usually do when I workout. Strange.

Once we got back I took Murphy for a walk and then we started dinner.

Not me and Murphy, me and Ryan 🙂

Now we’re just relaxing watching last week’s Weeds. Have a great evening!

Do Dogs Resemble Their Owners?

For your viewing pleasure…

Question: Do dogs resemble their owners? 🙂