I am addicted to Zucchini Bread!!!! I've already made it twice and have two loaves baking in the oven right now. 6 loaves in 2 weeks. I need to stop!!!!!!

I just got done clipping my coupons for the week. I didn't see anything special in the store ads so I don't think I will be getting any good deals this week :(

But, my wonderful husband actually made me dinner tonight. This was a first. He made a salad which was super yummy. I didn't know he knew how to cut up vegetables. He promised to make me lasagna sometime in the future so I will really get to see his cooking ability.

Oh, and I was a horrible "mom" this weekend to my kitties. I came home last night and they had no food or water. I forgot to fill up everything before I left town. This was the first time I did that but I remembered Sunday night so I made a dash to B-ham to check on them and I'm glad I did.

We spent the weekend at Dustin's parents house. It was a lot of fun. My nephew Walker actually likes me now which is nice. He used to cry or push me away when I would try to come near him but when I showed up Friday he ran up to me and gave me a hug and said "Hi Jacy". So cute. Whenever Dustin & I have kids (not anytime soon), I highly doubt they will be as cute as Emma, Will, & Walker. I'm not biased because they are in the family. They really are 3 of the cutest kids I have ever seen. And, they are super sweet too.

Spiced Zucchini Bread

3 c flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
½ tsp baking powder
1 ½ tsp cinnamon
¾ c nuts, chopped (I used pecans)
3 eggs
2 c sugar
1 c vegetable oil (I used canola which works fine as well)
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 c zucchini shredded
1 (8 oz) can crushed pineapple, well drained

Combine flour, soda, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and nuts. Set aside. Beat eggs lightly in a large bowl. Add sugar, oil and vanilla. Beat until creamy. Stir in zucchini and pineapple. Add dry ingredients, stirring only until dry ingredients are moistened. Spoon batter into 2 well greased and floured 9”x”5”x3” loaf pans. Bake at 350 for 1 hour. Cool 10 minutes before removing loafs from pans.

** I wasn’t sure how to shred zucchini but my friend Josie (who went to Culinary school to be a Pastry Chef) said to use a cheese grater. The zucchini still looked too chunky to me but don’t worry b/c it will shrivel up while baking to where you almost can’t see it in the bread.

Dustin loved this stuff. He thought it sounded gross at first and was reluctant to try it but once he tried it, he couldn’t stop eating it.

Celebrities Dying in 3's

I've always said celebrities die in 3's and this week has been an example of that with the passing of Ed McMahon, “Charlie’s Angels” star Farrah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson. It's not always true but it does seem like this does happen quite often.

Some other examples,

Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the “Big Bopper,” all died together in a plane crash in 1959.

Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison all died in close succession in late-1970& early-1971.

In Oct 1993, Vincent Price, Doris Duke, and River Phoenix all died within 1 week.

In Aug/Sept 1997, Princess Diana, Mother Teresa, and Red Skeleton all died with a 2 week period.

In 2003, Johnny Cash, John Ritter, and Warren Zevon all died within the same week.

In Jan 2008, Heath Ledger, Suzanne Pleshette and Brad Renfro all died within a week of each other.

How Low Can You Go?

I've become increasingly interested in saving money on groceries. A girl I work with feeds her family of five on $60-80 per week. She showed me a receipt this back where where she paid $16 and the bottom of the receipt said she saved $32. WOW!

I tried out what some of her strategies last night for myself. I have always only shopped at Walmart b/c I always thought they would have the lowest prices but I never bothered to compare their prices to other stores. So, I looked at the weekly grocery ads this week which I usually just throw away. And, I've been clipping coupons. So, last night I headed to a store I never go to which was having a lot of buy 1 get 1 free deals. I also had coupons I had clipped from the paper and some I had printed online. I ended up spending $24 but the bottom of my receipt said I saved $24. Yay! I could get used to this.

There are lots of blogs dedicated to showing you where you can get deals each week that I have been using. One of these blogs had mentioned the below contest. It's a four week challenge beginning July 13th where you have to feed your family for $25 a week per person.

http://www.allyou.com/general/grocerychallenge/

So, Dustin & I would get $50 a week. This does not include toiletries. It sounds hard to do but I'm going to try it. After the four weeks, a winner will be picked, and they will win $1,000 worth of groceries. I don't think I would win but I'm just curious to see if I can do it.

Do you think this is possible or just crazy?

Lakehouse Visit June 5-7th

A few weeks ago Dustin & I spent a fun and relaxing weekend at Sandra and Pat's Lakehouse. I never posted pictures of that trip so here they are along with the amazing recipe for Chocolate Gravy.








Chocolate Gravy

1 cup sugar
3 TBSP Flour
1/2 tsp salt
3 TBSP cocoa
3 cups milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 stick butter

Mix together and cook over medium heat until thickens. Serve over biscuits. * I would not recommend this for weight loss but it is a good "splurge" :)

Black Bean & Rice Salad

I made this salad this week. I've made it tons of times before so it's nothing new but it tastes great and is healthy so I thought I would pass this on. I cook my own rice but you can make this after getting Chinese food take-out and use the white rice they give you if you have any leftover. I usually throw that rice away but this is a good use for it.

2 (15 oz) cans of black beans, rinsed and drained,
1 cup rice, cold, cooked
1 cup tomato, chopped
1/4 cup celery, chopped
1/4 cup green onions, chopped
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
1/4 cup lime juice
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/8 tsp hot pepper sauce (I use Tabasco)

Combine beans and rice. Combine remaining ingredients, mix well. Fold tomato mixture into beans and rice (do this very delicately so you don't smoosh your beans).

Cover, chill for 1 hour. It makes 10 1/2 cup servings. Dustin has yet to try it but hopefully he will like it. My mom usually would serve this as a side dish to grilled pork chops. So yummy!

If any of you try it out, let me know what you think. I love this salad!

I made my Spiced Zuchinni bread last night and it tasted awesome. It's another one of my mom's recipes but I never had made it before. Dustin was hestitant to try it knowing there was zuchinni in it but he was surprised at how good it tasted.

I will post the recipe tonight along with pic's of my creation!

Kitchen Organziation

Dear Blog Readers: I'm sorry I haven't updated much lately. It's partly due to busyness , partly due to my boring life, and partly laziness. I will do better!

I did not make it to workout this weekend but Dustin & I did organize our kitchen. Now, you can actually see most of the counters, YAH! We had wedding gifts stacked and weren't sure where to put them. But, after a few hours of work it looks much better. It's amazing how just rearranging where things are located can make a tremendous difference. We also went to see "17 Again" at the dollar movie. It was a really cute movie. And, Zac Efron is a cutie, too bad he's about 10 years younger than me!

I do have several recipes I've made lately I want to share and I still need to post Chocolate Biscuits recipe. I will try to do it this week.

And, I did something I said I wasn't going to do and watched the Jon & Kate episode with the "Big Announcement". For those of you who didn't see it, they are getting divorced. I feel really sorry for their children. I think it's going to be harder than they think. It's funny that for people whose family is so important that it seems like they didn't even try to make things work. Oh well, money does weird things to people. I wouldn't know about that since we have no money, LOL!

Turtle Tunnel? Not on my dime!

Everybody knows I love turtles, but spending $3.4 million on a turtle tunnel in Florida is just plan crazy! I'm glad to see that Senator Tom Coburn from Oklahoma (who I voted for) is tackling this needless spending in Washington.

Now, I would be more than happy to volunteer my time to pickup these turtles and re-locate them before they cross the road. I have probably saved at least 20 turtles just doing this on my own. So, let's get some animal lovers in Florida out there to volunteer for this instead of wasting tax payer dollars!

* Click on the Title to this post to read the article

Counting down till the weekend

Well, my workout plans have not gotten off the ground yet. I need to do something soon b/c my bootcamp starts again in mid July and will kick my butt if I haven't done anything between now and then. We are staying at home all weekend which I'm looking forward to so I can get back on track then. I really promise this time :)

The last two weeks Dustin & I have spent in his hometown. We spent one entire weekend at the lakehouse to see his cousin Chris visiting from Vicksburg. It was a lot of fun. We enjoyed everyone's company, a boat ride on the pontoon, and the awesome king bed in Sandra's guestroom. We must get a King bed in the future. And, Sandra made Chocolate and Biscuits for breakfast which was so good! I know, it sounds gross but it really is good. I have the recipe and will be posting this weekend along with some pic's of our boatride.

Dustin spent the last 2 days in Georgia babysitting Emma, Will, and Walker. He enjoyed himself but they wore him out. I think he defintely wants to wait awhile before having one of his own which is great news for me!

Oh, and our little birdies on the porch hatched a few weeks ago. They weren't very cute at all. And, it was gross b/c of all the bird poop they left. They finally flew away a week ago and I was happy to see them go! We had a good rain storm that got rid of all the poop which saved me from having to clean it up.

Today at lunch, I walked over to the Farmer's Market and bought a ton of homegrown tomatoes, cucumbers, and zuchini. I'm going to try out my mom's Spiced Zuchini Bread recipe this weekend and will be posting the recipe. I loved it when she made it so hopefully I won't screw it up.

The Knowing....or........The "Not" Knowing

Dustin & I went to see "The Knowing" starring Nicolas Cage last night at the Dollar Movie. It started out great and I was totally into the movie. I love these kind of Sci-Fi disaster type movies so it was right up my alley. I was totally on the edge of my seat and couldn't wait to see what happened next. The movie was at a very intense part when suddenly the screen went blank. My heart just about jumped out of my chest. After a few seconds of confusion, I realized the electricity had gone out in our theater. I thought it may just be with our movie but it ended up being the entire theater. We waited around for about 10 minutes then left.

The creepiest part is the movie has to deal with natural disasters, fires, accidents with high death tolls. I guess I've seen Twister too many times b/c when the lights went out, I told Dustin "what if a tornado comes through here right now". Well, when we got outside, it was very, very windy but it was not raining. The Okie part of me thought "This is perfect tornado weather". Then, I start hearing sirens going off. I thought it was the tornado sirens and freaked out. I started running to the car. But, it ended up being an ambulance and fire trucks.

It was definitely a weird evening but I'm most bummed that I didn't get to see the end of the movie. We stopped by Blockbuster b/c sometimes movies at the Dollar Movie are already out on video but this one doesn't come out until July 7th. I'm going to have to get to the theater this week to see the ending!!!

And, no workouts to post yet. I'm starting back up on Monday (I PROMISE!!!!). ;)

Newlywed 15

Apparently, it's quite common to gain weight after getting married from stories I've read online and from stories of friends who are married. Well, Dustin & I don't want to be victims of this phenomenon. I haven't been motivated lately about going to the gym but remembering what the Freshman 15 did to me (which is still hanging around and then some, LOL) I need to get back on track.

I'm going to start posting my workouts on the blog in order to (Hopefully) keep me motivated and accountable. I was going to Weight Watchers which helped a lot but dropped membership once Dustin got laid off. So, maybe posting what I have done will help me stay on track.

Strange & Creepy News Story

Some may call me paranoid, but this story is a reason to be careful about how much info you put out in "Cyberspace".

Boring Week w/ Nothing to Blog

This week has been so boring and mundane I really haven't had much to write about. I did get my hair cut quite a bit shorter and like it. I will post pics soon. And, the mama bird on our balcony finally left the nest last night so I was able to check on the status of the eggs which have now hatched and there are two baby birds. They are actually pretty cute. I took some pic's that I will be posting soon.

Dustin has spent the week fine tuning his resume which is looking better and better. I would hire him :)

We tried out our Belgium WaffleMaker over the weekend and it works great! We are going to have a waffle night for dinner that I'm looking forward to. I love waffles esp with strawberries on top, yummy!