Menu Planning Monday

We did really well with our menu last week and all but one thing made it to the table. This week we are trying 2 new recipes that I found in magazines this month. The best part is they both use fresh herbs we are currently growing, I love when that happens! Here's our menu for the week. 

Monday: Memorial day BBQ at our neighbors

Tuesday: Shrimp and sausage skewers with smoky paprika glaze (new recipe!)

Wednesday: Organic grass fed beef hot dogs from the Meat Goat

Thursday: Walnut and rosemary oven-fried chicken (new recipe!)

Friday: Chicken Parmesan

Our week in pictures: 5/23 - 5/29

Sunday, May 23: New hat from the farmer's market

Monday, May 24: Our first tomato is growing on the vine!

Tuesday, May 25: Our delicious dessert at Ruth's Chris. Happy Anniversary to us!

Wednesday, May 26: Weekly manicure, it's Pamplona Purple this week

Thursday, May 27: Shrimp tacos, yum!

Friday, May 28: Friday night stroll after dinner

Saturday, May 29: Farmer's market bounty

New Recipe: Shrimp Tacos

 

I saw a recipe for shrimp tacos on my blogroll last week and knew I wanted to make them. I changed them a little compared to the recipe I originally found. I added some more spices and we didn't make the sauce she suggested. Michael just wanted sour cream and guacamole instead of the sauce. These were super yummy and it was a nice change to have the shrimp instead of ground turkey or steak. We'll definitely have these again. Below I have included the ingredients and step-by-step photo pictures.

Ingredients:
3/4 lb. medium raw shrimp
1 tsp. Old Bay Seasoning
1/2 tsp. paprika
Salt and pepper to taste
2-3 Tbs. of oil for frying
sour cream
guacamole
lime juice
chopped lettuce shreds
chopped tomatoes
corn or flour tortillas

Ingredients

Peel and de-vein shrimp. Generously sprinkle shrimp with Old Bay Seasoning, paprika, salt and pepper, then toss to coat. 

Heat a skillet over medium-high heat and put a couple tablespoons of oil in it. Add the shrimp, but don’t stir. Let the shrimp get very browned on one side before flipping. Remove from the skillet when cooked.

Instead of making the sauce that she did, Michael had sour cream and guacamole on his tacos. Warm the tortillas and assemble the tacos and sprinkle with some fresh lime juice. This recipe will feed 2 people. We also had some taco rice on the side. Enjoy!

May and June Goals

May Goals:
1. Weight loss goal - I would love to hit 90 by June 1! Goal not met, I am down 86lbs which is nothing to be too upset about, at least I'm still losing! 
2. Workout 4 times a week, I need to be realistic with everything going on, but I have to workout to keep losing weight. Epic Fail! I am still walking a ton, but have not been working out as regularly as I had been. I have been keeping my eating in check which is why I lost any weight this month. Things should be a little less crazy in June so I am geting back on the workout train!
3. Try 4 new recipes this month. This is all on Michael and his weekly picks! Goal met! This month we made: Cracker and cheddar chicken, So gone pork tenderloin, Rosemary lamb chops, and Shrimp tacos All of our picks this month were winners! They will definitely be added to the rotation and already have. We've had cracker cheddar chicken 3 times already!
4. Complete "our week in pictures" twice. I am really enjoying this! Goal Met! I did it twice, here and here
5. Have our hotels booked for California trip Goal Met! We are staying at some beautiful hotels, I can't wait!

June Goals:
1. Weight loss goal - hit 90lbs lost by July 1!
2. Workout 4 times a week - no excuses this month!
3. Try 4 new recipes this month.
4. Complete "our week in pictures" twice.
5. Take a cooking class together

Things I'm loving: May

 

Lill Lexi Bag

I ordered this bag for our trip to California in July. I have several 1154 Lill bags and I love that you get to choose your style of bag, fabric, etc. They have a new line of bags, the Links collection, that perform different functions. I chose the Lexi bag because by just changing the strap this bag goes from a shoulder bag, to a messenger bag to a backpack. I thought it would be great because I can wear it somewhere like the San Diego Zoo as a backpack and then change it into a shoulder bag when we go out to a nice dinner. I got my custom bag in the mail yesterday, which looks like the above. I love it and can't wait to use it!

 OKAb sandals

 I mentioned last week that I ordered these new OKAb sandals and I finally got to try them out this past weekend! I am in love! They are so comfortable and are so much more supportive than just plain plastic flip flops. I wore them all day on Saturday and they felt great all day long. I think these will be great for California and the rest of summer. I would definitely recommend these to anyone.

Wheaton French Market

We are loving going to this market every Saturday. It's become part of our weekend routine. We do almost all of our grocery shopping at the market every week now. We end up just going to the grocery store to pick a few things we can't get at the market. I just love getting super fresh produce. It's better for us, we're supporting local farmers and its very economical compared to the price of organic produce at the stores. I am looking forward to see the additions to the farmers market every week as we get further into the growing season.

Stanley Cup

 We still have hockey fever in the house and the Blackhawk's are Stanley Cup bound! It's been nice to have a sport to root for here in Chicago since our baseball teams are absolutely embarrassing this year! I really hope the Hawks can close it out and bring the Cup home to Chicago!

Our Anniversary

 

Of course my favorite thing in May has to be our anniversary! We celebrated our second anniversary this week and we had an amazing night. We went to Ruth's Chris steakhouse and it was incredible! We had a romantic dinner and then walked around to do some shopping and came home to have a relaxing night together. I'm such a lucky girl to be married to this man.

Celebrating 2 years of wedded bliss!

At last, my love has come along,

My lonely days are over,

And life is like a song,

Ohhh at last

The stars above are blue

My heart was wrapped up in clover,

The night I looked at you

I found a dream that I could speak to,

 A dream that I, can call my own,

 I found a thrill, to press my cheek to,

A thrill that I, have never known,

Ohhh you smile, you smile 

And then the spell was cast

And here we are in heaven,

For you are mine, at last!

Two years ago today all my dreams came true when I walked down the aisle to meet my forever with Michael. I didn't think I could be any happier than I was that day, but the truth is that I am happier everyday. Anyone who says that the fun is all over once you get married is totally wrong in our eyes! We are best friends, a team, a true partnership and our ultimate goal is to make each other happy. We grow everyday and our relationship only gets stronger. We have been through ups and downs and I wouldn't choose anyone else to be on this life roller coaster with. I can't wait to see how our story continues and what our next chapter will be! 

Happy Anniversary, my love. I love you forever, ever.

Menu Planning Monday

Last week's menu was kind of boring so we have to try at least one new thing this week! We loaded up on all kinds of fresh ingredients this week at the farmers market and the butcher, so dinner is gonna be tasty this week! So here is our menu for the week. 

Monday: Chicken parm paninis

Tuesday: Shrimp tacos (new recipe!)

Wednesday: Polish sausage and pierogi

Thursday: Homemade pizza (this didn't make it to the table last week)

Friday: Take out

Saturday: Anniversary dinner

Weekend Recap

We had a great weekend. Thanks to the great weather, we spent most of it outside since it was beautiful. It was nice too since we didn't have a whole lot planned for the weekend. On Friday, I had a crazy day at work and I came home and we met up with Rich, Tif and Ken for dinner. After dinner we came home and watched the Hawks win game 3 of their series against the Sharks and we called it a night.

Saturday morning we woke up bright and early and headed to breakfast. After breakfast we picked up Michael's mom and headed to the Wheaton French Market. She had never been to it before so we thought she would enjoy it. We had a lot of fun walking around picking up fresh produce for the week. They seem to add new vendors and selection every week, which is nice. This week there was a woman that had a booth with my name written all over it. It was a French themed booth with all kinds of cute accessories, jewelry and handbags. It was a good thing I had limited cash with me, because I could have bought about 10 things. I bought a super cute umbrella and hat from her booth this week. I already have some necklaces in mind for next week! The umbrella I bought is designed with my favorite painting, "Sunday afternoon on the island of la grande jatte" by Seurat. I also got a cute hat with a crystal fleur di lis on it. She has a website, but it doesn't have a ton of inventory on it.

A picture of the umbrella

Michael and I in my new hat

After the French market we headed home and did a few things around the house and had lunch before heading down by my parents. We wanted to sit down with my parents and plan out a few things for our California trip in July. We figured out the rental car situation and got that all booked and we did some research on restaurants in Disneyland, Anaheim and San Diego. We found some great restaurants for our 2 days in San Diego and are planning on going here and here for dinner. We grilled out at my parents for dinner and had some yummy filets and fresh asparagus, salad, biscuits and beans. It was so nice to grill out and eat outside for once! After dinner we hung out a while and then headed home and crashed. 

Today, we got up and went to breakfast and we finally got to check out our new Whole Foods in Schaumburg! It just opened May 5 and we've been so busy on the weekends, we haven't been able to get there. It was so nice, we picked up some of our favorite products we've been missing the past few weeks and some fresh brats to grill out at Michael's parents house later in the day. 

Inside the beautiful new Whole Foods! Check out that produce!

After we went to Whole Foods we headed home and Michael started to cook potatoes and eggs for potato salad and I ran out to get a few more errands done. When I got home Michael and I finished chopping and dicing celery and onion and assembled the potato salad. I made us some lunch and a few chocolate strawberries as a treat and we relaxed for a few hours. Michael took a little cat nap while I caught some rays on the deck.

Michael taking a little snooze

In the afternoon we headed to Michael's parents to celebrate Michael's Mom's birthday. We had a cookout and hung outside all afternoon. The men mostly stayed inside watching the Hawks game; Stanley Cup here we come! Me, Tif and Wendy sat outside almost the whole day. It was so nice out and it was great to just sit outside. We hung out and munched on veggies and dip and just talked. For dinner they sparked up the grill and we had brats and burgers along with beans, potato salad and a delicious fruit salad. Everything was really good and we capped it off with make your own sundaes for dessert.

We got home a little while ago and we are chilling out on the deck as I write this. It's so beautiful out, we just didn't want to go inside! It's supposed to be great weather all week and hopefully next weekend for Memorial Day too! Hopefully we have officially made the turn towards summer weather. I hope everyone had a great weekend and has a great week ahead! I'm looking forward to a 4 day week and a 4 day weekend!

TGIF!

I am so excited it is Friday, I can't even tell you. It has been a long week, even though it was only a 4 day work week for me. Apparently I am being punished for taking a few days off. The good news is one of my big projects will be done today when I leave.

I can't wait for this weekend! This is one of our first weekends in a while that we don't have a million things going on. We don't really have a lot of plans either and that makes me so happy! Saturday, we are going to go to the farmers market and later in the day we are going to head to my parents for dinner and finish planning our Anaheim/San Diego part of our California trip. Everything is finally coming together for our trip. We have our plane tickets and hotels all booked and this week we bought our tickets to Disneyland and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The big thing we still need to book is our rental car.

On Sunday we have nothing planned and we plan on just enjoying the weather! It's supposed to be 89 degrees and it's about time! I will be back on Sunday with a full weekend recap and some pictures! Have a great weekend everyone!

Lake Geneva shopping!

One of my favorite things about going to Lake Geneva is the shopping! They have some great shops and boutiques that I always make sure I check out. Here's a recap of some of my purchases from this weekend.

My favorite store in Lake Geneva is the Cornerstone Shop I have found some great things there over the years. I was lucky to walk away some great finds this time!

I found this super cute lady bug vase to go with my lady bug runner I sewed this winter.

My other great find was a set of plates for our china cabinet. They each have "rules of the table" on them and they are really fun. I love finding unique things that you can't find just anywhere.

"Don't treat the spoon and cup as a musical instrument making clinking noises as you stir!"

"Enjoy your meal quietly! Don't smack your lips or heave sighs of satisfaction after swallowing."

"Wait for everyone at your table to be served before you begin to eat."

"Don't blow your nose using your napkin, its sole purpose is to wipe your mouth."

Behind each of the "rules of the table" plates are these scalloped fork and spoon plates. I just love these!

I also found some vacation clothes for our California trip. I have literally nothing to wear for summer since everything is about 4 or 5 sizes too big now. I found some really cute tops, I put pictures of some of them below. I couldn't find pictures of everything online.

I also found 2 pairs of shoes at Nine West. They were doing buy one pair get one half off. I found a cute pair of sandals for vacation and a pair of shoes for work. Speaking of shoes, I just ordered 3 pairs of these great sandals I found online for California. They are from OKA b and their tagline is, "shoes that love you." They are ergonomic and are great for your feet since they give arch support plus, they are really cute! Also no pair is more than $45 so they are a great deal as well. They are so comfortable and I can't wait to try them out this weekend since it's finally going to be warm! These are the sandals that I picked.