The Co-Op: Month 2

Here are some new (to us) recipes that we used for our produce this month. In case you forgot, here was what we received:

Recipe Inspiration: Easy Asian Stir-Fry

Veggie Stir Fry
Ingredients we used: 3 carrots, 1 green bell pepper, 1/2 a yellow onion, 3 garlic cloves, 2 cups of broccoli, 1/4 a head of cabbage, canola oil, Kikkoman stirfry sauce, salt & pepper

Other than changing up the ingredients, we followed the recipe as listed. It was very good, but I think I'd add more garlic next time. 



Recipe Inspiration: Baked Zucchini Chips

Squash Chips
Ingredients we used: 1 squash, Pam original cooking spray, McCormick garlic & sea salt grinder

I figured since I had done it with zucchini, I could do it with squash. I followed the directions almost exactly, but I baked them for a total of 2 hours this time, which made them much crispier than with the zucchini. These were good, and I will continue to make these as they are quite easy!



Recipe Inspiration: Crispy Smashed Potatoes 

 Roasted Smashed Potatoes
Ingredients we used: small red potatoes, olive oil, sea salt, black pepper grinder, dried rosemary

I've made these twice, the first time with not so wonderful results. So the second time I made some adjustments. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Instead of boiling the potatoes, bake them in the microwave, 3-4 minutes on each side, depending on the size. Smash them down (I used tongs), drizzle/brush with olive oil and sprinkle the salt, pepper and rosemary. Bake them for five minutes. That's it! These are SO DELICIOUS. The flavor is amazing, and it's my new favorite way to eat a potato!



Recipe Inspiration: Ranch Roasted Potatoes
** No picture for this one

Zesty Italian Potatoes
Ingredients we used: 2 pounds red potatoes, 1 packet Good Seasons Zesty Italian dry dressing mix, olive oil, salt

I followed the directions exactly, but make sure the potatoes are completely covered with oil or cooking spray and make sure the pieces are small enough to be cooked thoroughly.



Recipe Inspiration: Capellini Pomodoro 

Spaghetti Pomodoro
There are no changes to this recipe except the substitution of thin spaghetti for angel hair, and dried basil for fresh basil. It was still good! You might want to add some additional spices to give it a little more kick.      

Friday Four - June 29

What I Watched: I have a whole post about what I've been watching this summer, which you can find HERE if you missed it!

What I Read:  A Time to Kill by John Grisham

What I Listened to: Here are ten songs I'm digging right now (sorry if I've mentioned any of them before!):
                                 "Outta my Head" Daughtry
                                 "This Little Girl" Cady Groves
                                 "Two Way Street" Kimbra
                                 "Cry" Monica
                                 "Free" Haley Reinhart
                                 "Laserlight" Jessie J/David Guetta
                                 "5 O Clock" T-Pain & Lily Allen (warning: little risque!)
                                 "Burn It Down" Linkin Park
                                 "Breath of Life" Florence and the Machine
                                 "Big Hoops" Nelly Furtado

Where I Ate: We had Groucho's after church and then went over to our friends house that night and enjoyed a delicious dinner of veggie paninis, strawberry walnut salad and peaches. Yum!

Summer TV

Summer used to be the wasteland of television... but now so many shows premiere in the summer! Here's a peek into what we (mostly me!) are watching in this hot season:

All the Right Moves

Yes, I watch lots of silly, dramatic television... and I love it! :-)

Thrifty Thursday - June 28

This was a pretty big shopping week, which is somewhat surprising, since we got a new batch of co-op produce on Saturday. However, we bought a lot of baking products to help us with that produce, and I stocked up on lots of soup this week, as it was FINALLY on sale again after months! I was able to get free Pringles at CVS, as well as a free Dole Smoothie Shaker at Publix. Here are this week's totals:

PUBLIX
Total Spent: $32.36
Total Saved: $31.10

WALMART
Total Spent: $15.27
Total Saved: $1.00  

CVS
Total Spent: $0.96
Total Saved: $6.12 (+$1 ECB)

 


TOTAL SPENDING: $48.59
TOTAL SAVINGS: $38.22

Friday Four

What I Watched: The remake of Dallas premiered last week. I never watched the original when it was on, as I was a tiny young thing, but Jamie had watched it some as a kid. So we decided to check out this new version. I must say, it definitely sucked us in!

      The best movie I watched this week was Crazy, Stupid Love. It definitely lived up to the hype. Smart, funny, charming... had it all! If you haven't seen it, you should :-)

What I Read: This week I started A Time to Kill by John Grisham. The first couple of chapters were difficult to get through, but now it's moving right along.

What I Listened to: I have started the long and arduous process of uploading our CDs to ITunes, but one fun thing is that I've been listening to all sorts of fun "old" music that I haven't listened to in a while. Here are a couple of those gems... enjoy your trip back to the nineties!

Where I Ate: We ate out slightly more this week than normal. In addition to our normal Friday night fast food (Chick fil a) and after church lunch (Texas Roadhouse for Father's Day), I ate out two additional times. We picked up some Wendy's on Monday night and I went to Takosushi for lunch on Tuesday with Tara. I think I could eat Asian food everyday; it is so yummy!

Thrifty Thursday - June 21

This week was one stop shopping, with me only going to Publix. They are currently having a 'breakfast sale,' so the majority of what I bought was breakfast foods: waffles, muffin tops, Breakfast to Go, grits, etc.
As far as good deals, I was able to get a six pack of Magnum mini ice cream bars for 50 cents... and they were originally $6.00! That was nice to get a fun treat for so cheap :-)

PUBLIX
Total Spent: $46.28
Total Saved: $43.74 

Bookworm! Winter/Spring 2012

Whew,  it's been a few months since I've done one of these. I'm reviewing them in the order I read them. Hopefully I have enough books (and variety) that you may be able to find something for your summer reading!


One Day David Nicholls
     For the record, I wanted to read this book long before it became a movie (which I still haven't seen). I really liked the concept: you read about two people on the same exact day over a span of twenty years. For some reason though, it didn't completely work for me. The characters seemed authentic, but maybe too much so. At times, their flaws were exasperating. The book ended up being really depressing, so I don't know if you'd want this one for a fun summer read!

Bossypants Tina Fey
      After that downer, I needed something to bring back happiness, and this book was just that. I was lucky enough to get this for Christmas and couldn't wait to get started. Tina Fey is one of the funniest people on the planet, in my opinion. Her voice completely comes through in her writing, and her humor translates really well to the page. Now, just as a warning, there is definitely some language in this book at times, but it is hilarious. I would definitely recommend this one!

Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte
     This is the other book I got for Christmas. It is my mom's all time favorite book and I'd always promised her I'd read it, so this was my chance to make good on it. It took me SO LONG to get through this book, which you know if you follow my 'Friday Four' blogs. Almost the entire first half of the book could have been condensed into half of that length. I will tell you what I liked in a minute, but first let me rant for a moment. A good part of this book takes place in Jane's head, with many of her thoughts on the page. As she goes from place to place, she repeats her story to each new group, and it's repeated in the text. Guess what Charlotte Bronte? We already know what happened to her; we read it 100 pages ago! That was incredibly frustrating, as was the fact that literally nothing "happened" for the whole first half of the book. Once something did happen, it was actually fairly good, suspenseful even. It just took so long to get there.
     I won't completely say that I wouldn't recommend this book, I just don't think it resonates with "today's woman" as it may have resonated with those in the past. To get the gist of the story, I would say just watch the movie (haven't seen it though), because the narrative is probably much more condensed, and therefore flows better.    

13 Little Blue Envelopes Maureen Johnson
     I think I could have read anything following Jane Eyre and would have enjoyed it. However, this was definitely a fun read. A teenage girl receives a package from her aunt, that has passed away, with 13 envelopes. She can only open one at a time and has to do what each one says before she opens the next one. The journey takes her all over Europe and she meets interesting people and does cool things along the way. Anyway, this was a super easy read, and perfect for the summer!

The Lovely Bones Alice Sebold
     I'm still not sure how I feel about this book. I'm glad I read it, and it was interesting. It's a very difficult subject, so I respect the author for even tackling it. Two things bothered me though. First, the portrayal of heaven was quite ridiculous. There was no mention of God whatsoever. Second, the ending was anti-climatic and there was not enough resolution for me. I have seen this movie, and I liked it okay. I think you'll just have to make up your own mind about this one!

Delirium Lauren Oliver
     I'm not going to write much about this one because I want everyone to go read it RIGHT. NOW. This is my favorite book of the past few months. It's a young adult dystopian novel and the first of a trilogy. When the book ended, I wanted to immediately know what happened next! 


What have you read  lately?

Thrifty Thursday - June 14

Well, can't say that I stayed on budget this week, BUT I've been quite under for a few weeks, so it evens out (I think!). I didn't get a whole lot from Publix, but I had to get some higher priced items, like toilet paper, multivitamins, and bodywash and deodorant for Jamie. I also stocked up on Coke since Publix had another of their Buy 2 Get 1 Free sales. Here are the totals for this week:

PUBLIX
Total Spent: $42.13
Total Saved: $25.77

CVS
Total Spent: $14.98
Total Saved: $10.07 (+$5ECB)

WALMART
Total Spent: $6.38
Total Saved: $4.00  

 

TOTAL SPENDING: $63.49

TOTAL SAVINGS: $44.84

In the Merry, Merry Month of May

May was quite an exciting month in the Cashatt household. First of all, I got my new awesome job after searching for over a year. We also got to spend time with both of our moms on Mother's Day weekend, AND it was my birthday! (which will be a whole other separate post) In addition to that excitement, we also had a few other things going on:

If you know anything about TV, you know that ratings are what determines whether a show gets to stay on the air or not. What you may not know is that the ratings are run by a company called Nielsen. Well, I was contacted by the company back in April to keep a TV diary. So, for one week in May I wrote down EVERYTHING I watched. Now, I already knew that I watched a lot of tv, so I wasn't too surprised to see my diary quickly fill up during the afternoons and evenings. Anyway, it was kind of fun, and I would love for them to send me a Nielsen box so I can be a permanent part of the ratings, like my mom!

Our friend Tara has a Cornhole Tournament every year near Memorial Day weekend. Jamie is always my partner (duh) and this year we won two games, which obviously is not much, but it's the most we've done! So next year our goal is three... we'll see how that goes :-)  There are no pictures of us actually playing, but here's April and me (and doggie Ren) waiting for our next games.

And this is the cornhole board that hated me: at least half of my bags slid off the back of the board!

Although we didn't win the cornhole tourney, I DID win something else last month. One of my favorite blogs (see my name here!), The A Cappella Blog, did a bracket contest for the International Competition of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA). They have quarterfinals, semifinals and finals, somewhat similar to March Madness. Anyway, I filled out my bracket with who I thought would place in the top two for each competition. I did so well I got second place! And so, I won a copy of the Best of College Acappella (BOCA) 2012. It's a compilation put out every year of the top recordings from around the country and I haven't gotten one in several years, so I was very excited to receive a free one! Here's the tracklisting, in case you're interested:






I also got to go to the End of Year Author's Celebration for the class I was the long term sub for. It was so fun to hear all their amazing writing and how much growth they've had even just from when I was there. I loved seeing their sweet little faces and am so excited that I will get to see them around school next year!


So, as you can see, it's been a busy past few weeks and I enjoyed every minute of it!

12 for '12 Update: April/May

SPIRITUAL
I'm doing much better on my Bible reading, usually reading at least 4 times a week. I'm going to start doubling up on entries though because I know it will be much harder once school starts again. I want to get it in while I know I'll have the time!

PROFESSIONAL
I am kicking butt on this section :-)  Most importantly, I got a job for next year! Woohoo! I'm going to be teaching second grade, which is somewhat nerve wracking (since I have virtually no experience at that level), but I'm also looking forward to the challenge. I've been spending LOTS of time reading and searching through professional materials to see what I will be able to use next year. In conjunction with that, I'll be starting my teaching blog soon, so you can all follow my progress in preparing and teaching 2nd grade (it will also be a great resource for me to later remember everything I did!).

HEALTH
In my last goals update, I talked about my lack of motivation for working out. Well, putting back on some extra weight around the midsection will give a person some motivation :-)  As I'm making my "schedule" for the summer, I'm definitely putting some exercise time back on the list to prevent too much sitting time. I'm also continuing to do well with my eating, which joining the co-op definitely helped with!

BLOG
Goals: met and continue to be!

OTHER
The grocery budget is still working and I'm really working hard to try and make it even lower for the next couple of months (until I start making money again!) because we actually have quite a little surplus of some things. We are three episodes away from being finished with the second season of Lost. I think that we will be making great progress during the summer since we don't have any regular shows to watch (once college baseball is over anyway!). As for singing, I still really want to do something, I'm just not seeing an opportunity right now.


Well, I'd say that this update looks much better than the last! Go me!

Friday Four

What I Watched: New summer tv! Among my favorites that have returned: The Glee Project, Pretty Little Liars, and Rizolli and Isles. I may write more on my summer schedule later. The movies this week ranged from good to awful: The Bling Ring:good (based on the teens that stole from celeb houses); Just Like Heaven: decent (Reese can't do much wrong in my book); Bad Teacher: bad (I can't begin to talk about the ridiculousness of this movie); and Blue Crush 2: awful (I loved the first one!) What I Read: I started Delirium by Lauren Miller. It's a YA dystopian novel, so you know it's good! What I Listened to: I've been watching a lot of VH1 this week, and two songs they (and I) are digging right now are "The A Team" by Ed Sheeren and "Next to Me" by Emeli Sande. Where I Ate: TGI Friday's was our after church choice this week and Bojangle's was our Friday night treat :-)

Thrifty Thursday - June 7

This was a pretty decent shopping week for us. I got a 3 pack of Dr. Scholl's insoles for 33% of its original price, as well as free Uncle Ben's rice. We stocked up on coffee creamer for Jamie, and got some Bird's Eye Voila meals, which are yummy! Here's the totals for the week:

PUBLIX
Total Spent: $22.82
Total Saved: $33.13

CVS
Total Spent: $4.80
Total Saved: $9.80

WALMART
Total Spent: $16.14
Total Saved: $2.00

  
TOTAL SPENDING: $43.76
TOTAL SAVINGS: $44.93    

Memorial Day Munchies

This year, we used Memorial Day as an excuse to get a good start on using some of our produce, especially things we had an abundance of. Two of those were onions and corn on the cob, which led to this deliciousness:

You can't quite see it, but that is a grilled turkey burger patty underneath grilled peppers and onions. Then we made corn on the cob (see my previous co-op recipe blog to see how we make it) and sliced up some Roma tomatoes seasoned with salt and pepper.

And as if that's not enough, check out what we had for dessert:

That is homemade peach sorbet! We followed this recipe. We only had 2 cups of peaches though, so we used 1/2 a cup of sugar and 1/4 cup of (lite) corn syrup. We also kept it going in the ice cream maker for about 3 times as long as the recipe calls for. It was soooo good, and not too sweet at all!

Substituting: The Final Chapter

Unless you've been living under a rock, by now you've heard that I have a job for next year, which means... no more substituting! Yay!! However, one of the cool things has been getting to see lots of different classrooms and set ups, so the past couple of months, I made to sure to take pictures of things I liked and might potentially use one day. And I apologize ahead of time for some of the blurriness of photos. Here we go!

CAFE: comprehension, accuracy fluency, expand vocabulary (from the same teachers who created "The Daily Five")

Comprehension strategies posters with descriptions

Management for the Daily 3: each child's name is beside the order they should complete the activities

Hairy Money: I've used this strategy before, but I liked the silver pipe cleaners for the visual

Inference anchor chart

Spelling chart: I LOVE this for helping children figure out spellings. I want to do some more research to see how it's introduced and implemented.

Nonfiction text features

Reading Strategies Song: This is PERFECT for 1st & 2nd grade. I am absolutely going to use this!

Classroom Schedule: I like how the times and subjects are separate and magnetized, so they can be moved around (because let's face it, your schedule will inevitably change from the beginning of the year!)

Synonym Anchor Charts

Where Do Writer's Get Ideas?

The Writing Process

I also saw teachers using many ideas from Pinterest, including 'The Yellow Brick Road retelling' and Animal Decoding Strategies.

Enjoy!

Friday Four

What I Watched: Veronica Mars finished up its run on SOAP net this week. I really wish that show had lasted longer. But it was fun watching Kristen Bell on Heroes (although I hated her character!).
Anyway, I watched a bunch of movies this week, since most of our shows have ended. The two best ones were Inglorious Basterds and The Lincoln Lawyer. I'd never seen a Quentin Tarantino film, and I'm glad I saw this one (IB) on TV, as it spared me a lot of the language and probably some of the gore. TLL was good too, although I got confused at times, as Josh Lucas plays the DA in this movie (but is a laywer in the tv series The Firm). I would recommend them both!

What I Listened to: I was lucky enough to get the new Jon Mclaughlin CD for my birthday. If you haven't heard him before, you are really missing out! I think he has one of the most gorgeous voices in music. This album is more like his first one, in the style and tempo, which is a slight disappointment, as I really enjoyed his second, more upbeat album. He has a duet with Sara Barielles, which I previously wrote about here, as well as Xenia, who was on the first season of The Voice.

 

What I Read: I fnished up The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold this week. Haven't yet decided what to read next.

Where I Ate: I think the only time we ate out this week was Moe's after church. Oh, and we had McDonald's last Friday night... don't judge ;-)