Reading Challenge

I love to read, and I have since I was five.  Sure, I took a couple of years off after finishing each of my degrees, and I don't have time to read as much as I'd like to, I really love books.  The last few years, I've taken the Goodreads reading challenge, setting a number of books that I'd like to finish in a year.  The first year I failed miserably, but last year I far exceeded my goal.  This year my goal is 36 books, and I've already finished seven.

One day in early January, I ran across this reading challenge on Pinterest.  I decided to mix it up and little and give the 26 book challenge a shot! 

I have a Pinterest board where I track all the books I read, as well as marking them on Goodreads, but I'll also check in here from time to time to make sure I'm keeping up with this particular challenge.  Here's where I stand as of this morning:

The 26-book 2017 reading challenge

1. A book you read in school
2. A book from your childhood - On the Banks of Plum Creek, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
3. A book published over 100 years ago - Dracula, by Bram Stoker
4. A book published in the last year - The Magnolia Story, by Chip and Joanna Gaines
5. A non-fiction book - In Cheap We Trust, by Lauren Weber
6. A book written by a male author
7. A book written by a female author - The Sage Stone Prophecy, by NS Wikarski
8. A book by someone who isn’t a writer (think Paul Kalathani or Richard Branson)
9. A book that became/is becoming a film
10. A book published in the 20th Century
11. A book set in your hometown/region
12. A book with someone’s name in the title
13. A book with a number in the title
14. A book with a character with your first name
15. A book someone else recommended to you
16. A book with over 500 pages
17. A book you can finish in a day
18. A previously banned book
19. A book with a one-word title
20. A book translated from another language
21. A book that will improve a specific area of your life
22. A memoir or journal - Talking as Fast as I Can, by Lauren Graham
23. A book written by someone younger than you
24. A book set somewhere you’ll be visiting this year
25. An award-winning book
26. A self-published book

I'm off to a great start.   I have to laugh, because Dracula counts for several, but I'll be honest and just take it for one!  Took me a while to figure out how to find a book with a character with my first name, but I did a little creative searching on Overdrive and found one to check out that I will read soon!

What about you - do you like to read?  How do you feel about reading challenges?  Fun or too much pressure? 

This week's menu plan

I am getting a late, late start on this week's menu!  Ironic, since this is the week we REALLY need a plan.  My daughter started swimming lessons again, so our evenings have become really busy (wait until next week when she and I start our cardio dance class and we have something four nights a week!). 

Swimming lessons start at 7:00 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which means from the time I get home from work I have 70 minutes to cook, eat, and be out the door.  That's not a lot of time for us!  So I'm going to have to be hyper organized and ready to go.

Last week we didn't really stick to the menu, so there are a few repeats here.

Sunday - Corn and bacon chowder (I used the recipe from this cookbook - loved it!), salad, rolls
Monday - fish sticks, popcorn shrimp, frozen fries
Tuesday -  Farro and sausage (recipe coming soon)
Wednesday - Grilled chicken and sauteed pasta
Thursday - Chicken stir fry
Friday - Sub sandwiches (we're doing a Girl Scout cookie booth until 7:00 so we'll just stop at our favorite sandwich shop afterward)
Saturday - out for a birthday party

Hope you all are having a fantastic week!  Have you visited Menu Plan Monday?  You should! 

Homemade Valentines

My daughter decided to make her own Valentines this year.  I didn't even know she was doing it until they were done!  They turned out really cute - like giant Sweethearts.  She was so proud of them she asked me to put them on Pinterest.  Even made the background pretty for the picture "because that's how they do it for Pinterest, Mom!"

They all say "Cool!" or "Wow!" or "Awesome!"

Super cute.

Revisitng January's Goals

So...we're more than a third of the way through February already (WHAT?????) and I haven't looked at how I did on my goals for January.  Better late than never, right?  Let's see...

Personal:

• Set up a new journal (I'm looking at the bullet journal method).  I started this but it only lasted a week and a half or so.  I think I'm just not a journaler though it would be fun to have something to look back on in the future to see what the day to day was like. 
• Read my Bible every day (after working my way through the New Testament twice last year, I'm starting over at Genesis). I'm almost finished with Leviticus.  I haven't ready every single day but I've only missed four or five days since I started.
• Exercise 30 minutes at least three days per week.  Still working on this one.  20 minutes two days a week is more like it!
• Blog something at least twice per week.  I had 11 posts in January.  And they weren't even all about menus!  It has been fun to get back to blogging. 

Household:

• Mend my daughter's favorite hat (it's been on the pile for months).  No, but I did darn her Wonder Woman sock that got a hole in the toe after the first wearing.
• Track every expenditure (I reworked our budget over the Christmas break so we are ready to go).  This I did.  And we stayed in our overall budget (the overages and the unders balanced each other out to within $1.11).  Was able to transfer almost $100 leftover to our mortgage principle. 
• Menu plan weekly (you'll find those here on the blog!).  Done!  So helpful, even if we don't stick to it.
• Plan our summer vacation (we're finally taking one this year).  Hotels are booked!!!!!!!  Working on deciding on activities as we go.
• Order my garden seeds.  Not yet.  My daughter is taking over the garden planning this year.  She's picked out the seeds but I still need to review the list to make sure everything will work in our raised beds.  We need to get hopping though because radish planting season is almost upon us!

Work:

•  Write at least six grant proposals. I think I only did four.  I had six on the list but we weren't ready for a couple of them. 
•  Make my to do list more reasonable so I can actually feel like I'm accomplishing something.  Haven't done this, though it's still a good idea.

All in all, I'd say it was a successful month.  In addition to these, I've started establishing a more productive morning routine for myself, so I'm not just sitting there staring at a computer monitor for an hour before my daughter gets up every day, and that has helped me a lot.  Now, I just need to figure out how to squeeze more hours into my days so I can get more done!

What goals did you accomplish last month?

Menu Plan February 5-11

Here we are again, with another menu post!  I hope you all had a great week.  Our menu last week turned out to be...just a suggestion.  I think we ate half of the things I thought we would, but that's ok.  We never ate the chicken skillet or the chicken garlic noodles.  We went out to Panda Express one night.  I know I made chicken strips and roasted potatoes one night.  I don't remember when we ate what, but we ate well!

Here's what's on the schedule for this week:

Sunday:  Beef and noodles with mushrooms (I used hamburger because that's what we had, and upped the mustard and horseradish.  Also I used this recipe for homemade egg noodles.  Delicious.  Definitely a keeper!

Monday:  Frozen chicken skillet meal

Tuesday:  Stir fried cabbage and pork

Wednesday:  Tamale pie casserole - using a recipe for tamale pie from an old community cookbook.  My family doesn't like the cornmeal topping (what's wrong with them?) so I'm going to mix cooked rice in instead. 

Thursday:  Sausage and farro (recipe from the back of the Trader Joe's farro bag).

Friday:  Garlic mushroom chicken (can't wait to try this one!)

Saturday:  Chicken garlic noodles (this one stays on the menu because every time I don't make it, my daughter asks when we're having it!). 

That's the plan, anyway.  Have a great week, everyone - and visit Menu Plan Monday for tons of great menu ideas!

Sauerkraut - Day 12

We have sauerkraut success!  I've got to admit, I fully expected my cabbage to turn into a slimy, disgusting mass on my counter over the last week and a half.  Instead, it held its shape, stayed crunchy, and tastes delicious!  We opened the jar yesterday and ate some off the top.  It wasn't very sour, but my daughter decided it was to her liking and asked me to put it in the fridge to stop the ferment.

Today, we ate some off the bottom of the jar.  Much more sour, but she still said she'd eat it (I'll eat it even if she won't!).  It's a little salty, probably because I didn't measure, but still good!

We'll definitely be doing this again, and we've decided to experiment with some other fermented foods.  This afternoon I'm starting a ginger bug, and next time we get a fresh bag of carrots we'll try some fermented carrot sticks.  We're having fun with it! 

Not Quite Minestrone Soup

I made this soup for dinner the other night and everyone thought it was delicious.  I think my daughter (the zucchini hater) is even planning to take the leftovers in her thermos for lunch today. 

It's not quite minestrone, since I'm pretty sure minestrone is always vegetarian, and I put meat in it (my family requires meat in almost all things).  Not a lot of meat, though, just a little.

I started with this recipe and tweaked it to suit our tastes.

Easy Meaty Not Quite Minestrone Soup

2 links sweet Italian sausage, casing removed
1 small onion, diced
2 large carrots, diced (I didn't bother to peel them)
2 celery ribs, diced
2 T. minced garlic (or four cloves)
2 c. shredded zucchini
2 c. diced tomatoes (I actually used six whole frozen tomatoes, peels removed)
4 c. chicken broth
1 12-oz bag frozen spinach
1 15-ounce can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1 T. dried Italian seasoning
2 bay leaves
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 c. dried orzo pasta
shredded parmesan cheese, for serving

In a six-quart pot, break up sausage.  Add onion, carrots, and celery, and cook five minutes over medium heat until sausage is cooked through and vegetables are soft.  Add remaining ingredients except orzo and parmesan.  Bring just to a boil; reduce heat, cover, and simmer 30 minutes.  Add orzo pasta and cook an additional 10-12 minutes or until pasta is cooked.  Serve topped with shredded parmesan cheese.

Makes six large servings,