Unpacking & Organizing

I have a feeling that this will be my life for the next several days: unpacking and organizing (and decorating – Yay!)!

Ryan and I have made great headway unpacking the many boxes that are all over our new apartment.

There are still quite a few stragglers that I don’t want to unpack because I have no clue where I want to put the contents, or we’re waiting on some new additions (like a desk!) that will serve as a new home for the stuff. All in good time!

Does clutter bother you or can you just ignore it?

Growing up my room was always messy. My sister was the neat-freak and I just couldn’t grasp how someone could feel stressed out over a mess!

Fast forward eight years and I am that person! I really cannot stand when our apartment looks junky. It eats away at me now!

Dinner

I knew Ryan and I had plans to take Sadie on a long walk before hittin’ up the grocery store after work today, so I wanted to make sure our dinner tonight was one that we could assemble in a flash.

Thank goodness for the crockpot!

We enjoyed a yummy meal of BBQ pulled chicken with Green Giant healthy vision veggies.

BBQ Pulled Chicken

Veggies

Dinner Time!

We needed some nutritious fuel to last us though a night that’s sure to be filled with more unpacking and perhaps the construction of the chest of drawers we bought from IKEA yesterday.

I’m thinking a new apartment tour will be in order once we’re fully unpacked!

Seafoodie Feast

In keeping with my promise to avoid the grocery store this week, dinner came in the form of a can and two boxes of frozen food from the freezer!

Is your mouth watering yet?

Our seafoodie dinner included:

• Campbell’s Healthy Request New England Clam Chowder
• Bantry Bay Mussels
• Green Giant Immunity Vegetable Mix

Mussels

This was our first time trying Bantry Bay frozen mussels and they were g-o-o-d!

Mussels in a Garlic Butter Sauce

Immunity Blend Veggies

Broccoli, Peppers and Carrots

The veggies were okay. Ryan was a big fan, but I like the Healthy Vision blend of the Green Giant veggies better.

Creamy Clam Chowder

Soup Talk

New England clam chowder (the creamy kind, not the tomato-based chowder) is my absolute favorite soup. Ryan is a broccoli cheese soup lover.

What’s your favorite kind of soup?

Though clam chowder is my fav, I also have a soft spot for my mom’s homemade chicken noodle soup. It’s beyond delicious.

Wanna know just how delicious her homemade chicken noodle soup is? Then come along on this little journey back to the spring of 2003, won’t you?

My family was in the process of moving from Illinois to Florida because my dad was offered an amazing job opportunity. Though my senior year of high school was over, I was still extremely upset about moving away from my friends and high school boyfriend and refused to pack up my room. (Yes, I was a brat.) I sat in my room amid my unpacked belongings and sobbed and sobbed. My mom called me down for breakfast and I refused to eat (Wow, I really am a brat). Several hours later she told me lunch was ready but I refused to come downstairs.

Then my mom honed in on her amazing mother-knowledge and brought up a tray loaded with the day’s lunch. She had made her homemade chicken noodle soup. I’ll never forget the soft knock on my door. “Honey, I thought you might want some soup. I’m just going to leave a little tray out here for you.”

Chicken Noodle Soup

Initially my approach was to remain firm. I would stay in my room pouting and wallowing in my sorrow.

Then the smell hit me. Hoooooly deliciousness. I had to have a bite. I opened my door just a crack to look at the soup and make sure no one was around. I took a slurp. Wow. It was phenomenal. I moved the tray into my room and polished off the bowl of soup before putting the tray back outside my door.

Then I heard it: laughter. Apparently this was quite funny to my family. Apparently my inability to remain strong and resist homemade chicken noodle soup is humorous. I then felt stupid for letting my taste buds get the best of me.

I continued to refuse to pack up my room and so when all of the boxes from our old house were unloaded into our new house, and my sister’s were neatly labeled “desk supplies,” “clothes,” “bathroom supplies,” my boxes were a mess and were simply labeled “Julie’s Junk” by the movers.

It took my sister about a week to unpack everything. It took me the entire summer.

Cheese Sammie and Runny Veggies

Don’t you hate it when the sauce or liquid from one food runs into another food on your plate, altering the flavor completely?

Well that almost happened to me today!

Creepin' Sauce

See that veggie sauce creepin’ up on my cheese sammie?

Fortunately I saved my sammie just in time!

Safe!

The Culprit

I enjoyed my non-soggy cheese sammie with a box of Green Giant Healthy Vision veggies.

I always try to keep some frozen veggies on hand to incorporate into a meal if I don’t have time to saute some green goodies or bake something the night before when I pack my lunch to bring to work. The Healthy Vision veggies are my favorite of the Green Giant flavors because I love the mix of green beans, zucchini and carrots.

National Chocolate Covered Anything Day

Did you know that today is National Chocolate Covered Anything Day!?

The Classic: A Chocolate-Covered Strawberry

It’s true! I wrote an article about this fantastic reason to indulge in chocolate for Examiner today. Click here to read more about it in my article and get some great ideas for foods you should try covered in chocolate.

What’s your favorite chocolate-covered food?

I love chocolate covered nuts… any and all kinds! I also adore chocolate covered raisins.

On a side note, how awesome would National Peanut Butter Covered Anything Day be? Sign me up!

Sisterly Shopping

Tonight my sister is coming in town to hit up the stores with me for some Christmas shopping! I’m excited for sisterly bonding and hope to check some people off my “still gotta get ’em a gift” list.

Giveaway

If you haven’t already, don’t forget to enter my giveaway today! Yummy popcorn and almonds are up for grabs. 😀

Pantry Scrounging Dinner

Tonight’s dinner was created from staples I always have on hand:

• frozen veggies
• soup
• bread
• cheese

I knew I wanted to use the box of V8 butternut squash soup that has been haunting me everytime I open my cubbard.

Box of Soup

As indicated by the severely torn box of soup in the above picture, I’ve  clearly never opened a box of soup before. I felt quite ravenous hacking away at the box. Just gimme my soup already! I let Sadie lick it clean and tear it up for good measure when I was done. Who’s the boss now, huh soup box!?

Butternut Squash Soup

Thank you to the readers who gave me suggestions as to what to do to transform my butternut squash soup craving into a meal. I followed your suggestions and decided to pair the soup with the old stand by: a grilled cheese sandwich.

Grilled Cheese

I made mine on a whole wheat Arnold’s sandwich thin and Ryan’s on Publix light wheat bread. His and hers grilled cheeses. 😉

We also split a box of Green Giant Healthy Vision frozen veggies.

Green Giant Healthy Vision Veggies

Grilled Cheese and Veggies

At the dinner table Ryan and  I concluded our dinner was fit for a five year old. 🙂 We loved every last bite. The soup in particular was really, really good. I’m a fan!

Low Calorie Christmas Cookies

Ryan affectionately calls me his little cookie monster because I’ve been known to polish off an embarrassing amount of freshly baked cookies on more than one occasion. They’re just too darn delicious!

I love baking Christmas cookies for Santa (and myself 😉 ). Nerd alert: My sister and I always bake cookies to ‘NSync’s Christmas CD. It’s amazing. There’s just something about that song “Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays” that makes me wanna sing and dance!

Were you a Backstreet Boys fan or an ‘NSync fan… or just a hater? I definitely preferred ‘NSync. I love my Justin Timberlake (though J.C. was my fav at the time…  I had a soft-spot for Joey, too!) .

Annnyway, in my latest Examiner article, I’ve compiled a list of low calorie Christmas cookie recipes. Click here to check it out!