This week I'm...

Loving: This week is almost over and so is this round of clomid, I'll be so happy on Saturday!
Disliking: More snow...blah...blah...winter needs to go away

Craving: Those warmer temperatures and sunshine we got teased with last week
Wanting: The release date for the iPad 2 to finally be revealed next Wednesday! 

Reading: This week I'm reading The Baby Trail by Sinéad Moriarty, it is hilarious!

Watching: Way too much tv...there are so many new shows out...our DVR is getting very full!

Listening to: Bruno Mars and Mike Posner are getting the most ear play this week

Looking forward to: Much needed spa time this weekend. I am getting my hair done and a manicure/pedicure!

Hearing buzz about: So many crazy things going on in the world this week - New Zealand's earthquakes, Libyan violence, and protests in Wisconsin

Wordless Wednesday - Blockheads

New recipe: Chicken Stuffing Roll-ups

I found this recipe on my blog roll last week and I really wanted to try it. I had made a turkey dinner on Sunday for our Valentine's celebration so I made extra stuffing knowing I wanted to make this during the week. She used stove top, but homemade is obviously always better! This recipe was as easy as it gets and I will definitely be making it again. I didn't make the gravy she did, but we decided next time we would try it. I think a sauce would really enhance it. Try this, you'll be glad you did!

Ingredients
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup cornflake crumbs
1 cup prepared stuffing

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and spray a baking pan with cooking spray. Slice chicken breasts in half.

Pound the chicken breasts thin being careful not to rip the chicken.

Prepare your chicken for breading. Put your melted butter and cornflake crumbs in bowls for dipping.

Spread a few tablespoons of the stuffing mixture onto the chicken breast. Press the stuffing into the chicken.

Starting at the smaller end, roll the chicken up then dip into the butter followed by the cornflake crumbs.

Bake the chicken approximately 25-30 minutes.

Enjoy!

Menu Planning Monday

Monday: Deviled Chicken (new recipe!)

Tuesday: Sloppy Joes for Michael/Pad Thai for me

Wednesday: Herb crusted pork tenderloin (new recipe!)

Thursday: Baked mostaccioli

Friday: Date night or take out

Weekend Recap - Guns, Roses & Ravioli

Wow, these weeks are flying by, I can't believe it's almost March! We had another weekend of no plans which was nice. We both had a pretty crazy work week so relaxing was the only thing on the agenda. On Friday, I worked from home and got caught up on a lot of work. I had so many meetings this week I really needed to get some work done. After work we headed over to Rich and Tif's. Tif and Jacob finally came home after 2 weeks in Florida, so we were really excited to see them. Michael's parents came over and we had some pizza and just got caught up. I got lots of time with my favorite nephew too. It had been 3 weeks since I had seen him, which was far too long!

He looks very puzzled here

 

There's that smile I missed!

After eating dinner we hung out for a few hours and just talked. We were all really tired so we called it a night. On Saturday, I slept in until Michael decided he didn't want to be the only one up so he came and jumped on top of me to wake me up. At least he woke me up with the promise of breakfast! We were meeting Rich, Tif, Jacob and Ken. We all met up and had a yummy breakfast. Look who joined us at the table!

 

He's such a big boy now! After breakfast Michael and I headed home. I needed to do some things around the house and Michael wanted to go to the gun shooting range with one of his friends. I took down all of my Valentine's Day decorations, worked on our meal plan and grocery list for the week, cleaned up the house and got some blog posts ready for the week. The house looks all barren again with no holiday decor. It's going to be a while too since Easter is so late this year.

Bye-bye Valentine's Day decor

Saturday afternoon pretty much sucked because I got an unwelcome surprise and our baby hopes were crushed this month. But, we are moving on to March and hope it will be the lucky month for us. Michael knew I was having a rough day so on his way home he stopped and got me some beautiful roses and some dark chocolate to cheer me up. He is the best!

I made a new recipe, chicken stuffing rolls for dinner and it turned out really well. I will post the recipe and instructions this week. We had a nice dinner and just relaxed the rest of the night.

Today we got up and went to breakfast and to do our grocery shopping for the week. It was a rainy, crappy day so Michael finally persuaded me to go to the gun range with him. He just started shooting again in the past month or so. He shot a lot of rifles, shotguns, etc. when he was younger in boy scouts and really enjoyed it, so he wanted to take it up again as a hobby. He got his FOID card a couple of months ago and just recently got his first gun.

He has been doing everything in his power to get me to go. I have never shot a gun before and it really scares me. I really had no interest in going, but he finally wore me down. I was starting to get a little excited and then we actually stepped foot in the gun range. It was crazy! I wanted to turn around and go hide in the car. It was so loud and with every shot I thought my heart was going to beat out of my chest and I was only watching! We came to find out that my ear muffs were pretty crappy so that is one reason it was more intense.

It took Michael about a half hour for me to even consider shooting. He finally got me to shoot a small rifle which doesn't have any kick back and you don't really feel it shoot. Despite my resistance, I finally shot it and actually did pretty well. He was really trying to get me to shoot his handgun but I really wanted nothing to do with it. It's so loud and you see fire shoot out the front of it when it goes off. I was really scared. Especially when you are surrounded with 8 other people with loud guns going off, it is very intimidating. I was perfectly content going home without shooting it but Michael wanted me to know how to shoot it just in case I ever have to. You know, if the Queen of England decides to invade my house! So, I finally gave in. It was really scary and I was scared to death to pull the trigger the first time, but I did it. I fired off a whole round and I have to admit it was kind of exhilarating and a stress reliever all in one. Michael was so happy I finally went with him and proud that a shot a big boy handgun. It had quite the kick back, but I did really well. I was happy that I conquered one of my fears too. He told me this experience was very "blog worthy" and that I needed to take some pictures of me geared up, looking bad ass with his gun.

After my gun slinging adventure, we headed home. We had planned on  making homemade pasta and ravioli for Sunday dinner, so we got right to work. We made the pasta dough and started pushing it through our pasta roller to make the sheets for our ravioli press.

Long sheet of pasta ready to be put into the ravioli press.

The ravioli came out great and were really yummy. We cleaned up after dinner and now we are just relaxing. This weekend turned out a lot more action packed than I originally thought it would. We found out the disappointing news I'm not pregnant, I faced one of my biggest fears, and we did lots of yummy cooking. I hope this next week goes by fast. I am starting back on my fertility meds on Monday so it's gonna be a little bit rough for me. Especially since we are doubling my dosage. Michael is a little afraid! I hope all of you had a great weekend and have a good week ahead.

Our week in pictures: 2/13 - 2/19

Sunday, February 13: My finished Valentine's Day cake pops, I think they turned out really cute!

Monday, February 14: Happy Valentine's Day!

Tuesday, February 15: Porkchop's crazy sleeping positions never get old, HA!

Wednesday, February 16: It's that time of year, Girl Scout cookies, yum!

Thursday, February 17: Feeling sassy in my new Tahari dress that I got for a steal at Overstock

Friday, February 18: What a difference 2 weeks make, those 6 foot snow drifts are gone!

Saturday, February 19: Oh how I have missed those chubby cheeks and smiley face!

The working from home difference

One of the things I like about my job is that I usually can work from home on Fridays. If I don't have any meetings it's nice to have a catch up day to get everything done that I didn't get done during the week and plan ahead for the next week. Even better is I save 2 and half hours off of my day since I don't have to commute. I also get to sleep in at least an hour more which is always nice.

The other thing I love about working from home is that I can roll out of bed and get right to work and not have to get ready. If only I could wear yoga pants and a sports bra into the office, HA!

My Monday through Thursday look

Polished and professional

Ahh...Fridays!

Comfy and cozy

As much as I love being comfy on Fridays, I'm glad I get to dress up and look cute the rest of the week. I think I would feel like a sloth if I looked like my Friday look every day.

This week I'm...

Loving: Warmer temperatures and virtually no snow on the ground, let's hope it lasts!
Disliking: This week is going by too slow, I want it to be Friday already!

Craving: A manicure/pedicure..that might be on the agenda this weekend

Wanting: To get good news in the next week!

Reading: I'm finally reading Pioneer Woman's new book.

Watching: The snow melt away!!

Listening to: No background noise thanks to my new skull candy ear buds. They make the best ones!

Looking forward to: Seeing our nephew Jacob after 3 long weeks and getting to baby-sit!
Hearing buzz about: Target is coming to State Street in the old Carson Pirie Scott space. I can't wait to be able to walk over there on my lunch break, it could be dangerous!

Wordless Wednesday - It's that sweet time of year!

Menu Planning Monday (on Tuesday)

Monday: Turkey meatloaf with leftover boursin potatoes

Tuesday: Chicken stuffing roll-ups with leftover stuffing (new recipe!)

Wednesday: Homemade pizza

Thursday: Cheddar cracker chicken (this didn't make it to the table last week)

Friday: Date night

Happy Valentine's Day

Weekend Recap

Well as long as it took the weekend to come it was gone in a flash. After a very long work week for both us we were really happy to have a relaxing weekend with no plans. We were pretty productive for not having any plans though. On Friday, we ordered in some Chinese for dinner and just hung out and watched some tv.

On Saturday we got up and out early. I needed to get a blood test so I wanted to get there early. Apparently everyone else had the same idea because I had to wait for an hour and a half! Oh well, my blood test was easy and painless so that's all I cared about. After my test, we went to our favorite breakfast stop and then headed to Whole Foods. We had decided earlier in the week that instead of going out for Valentine's Day we were going to cook a meal on Sunday to celebrate. So we got everything we needed for our special meal and our weekly supplies. After grocery shopping we headed home. Michael is working on a project for his workshop in the garage so he worked in there most of the day. I decided to do some shopping. I have so many  coupons and gift cards stacked up I couldn't stand to wait anymore! I am glad I did though because I got some great deals. There were some great sales and with all of my gift cards and coupons I spent close to nothing. I got so many pieces that were originally $70-$80 for less than $9! I got some great new pieces for both now and Spring.

Speaking of Spring, it was in the high 30's this weekend and it felt like it was 60. I guess after weeks of sub-freezing temperatures, a few degrees really does feel warmer! A lot of the snow has melted too and hopefully it will all be gone by next weekend. Come on Spring! After my shopping extravaganza, I came home and started working on my Valentine's cake pops that I started last weekend. I needed to dip them in the chocolate and get them packaged up. I didn't end up decorating them, I liked them just as red hearts. I think they came out really cute!

Saturday night we just relaxed. After running around and doing stuff all day we pretty much crashed. We made some homemade pizza for dinner and watched a movie.

Today we got up and met up Rich and Ken at breakfast. We got to catch up with Rich on his and Tif's vacation to Florida. Tif and Baby Jacob are in Florida until Friday so I have to wait 5 more days to hear how Jacob liked Mickey! We had fun at breakfast and then headed home. Michael worked on his workshop in the garage for a few hours and I started prepping for our yummy Valentine's dinner. I made herbed turkey breast, homemade stuffing, boursin mashed potatoes and biscuits. It's one of Michael's favorite meals so I had to make it good! I worked in the kitchen for a few hours getting everything prepped and ready so that all I had to do was just put everything in the oven.

I made us some lunch and then I went upstairs clean our master bedroom and hang up all my new clothes I bought on Saturday. I really needed to clean my closet so I'm glad I got it done before Spring. I have all my warm weather clothes sorted and ready to go, now I just need the warm weather!

Ah...all clean!

By the time I was done with the closet and it was 5 o'clock so I had to get dinner in. I set up the table with our Waterford china that we don't use as much as we should and lit some candles. Dinner was finally ready and we were able to enjoy it. It was pretty yummy if I say so myself!

Our candlelight dinner set-up

The turkey breast fresh out of the oven

All sliced and ready to eat

Mmmm...stuffing

Boursin cheese mashed potatoes

Even Porkchop got to have turkey dinner and eat on china!

We enjoyed our meal and did the dishes together. We just finished our dessert as I type this. We had some yummy gelato from Whole Foods.

We are going to enjoy these last few hours of the weekend before we get ready for the week ahead. We both have another busy week in front of us so hopefully it goes by fast! I'm looking forward to the warmer weather this week too. It would really be nice if we didn't get any more snow. I'm totally over it! I hope all of you had a great weekend and have a speedy week ahead! Happy Valentine's Day everyone!