PEEK in my pantry

Thankfully a few months ago we got front loaders and were able to get a stack kit and put the dryer on top of the washer. This freed up a ton of space in the laundry room, so we thought of how to best utilize that space - a pantry!

Michael got a great deal at Sam's Club on a tall shelf and in the laundry room it went, along with all the food from our one cabinet and most of the large kitchen appliances. Cabinet freedom in the kitchen - no more avalanches when we open the cabinets!

The microwave also made it's way into the new pantry/multi-purpose laundry room. We don't microwave stuff too often, so it lived in the garage when we moved in. Long story stort, we had an accepted offer on another house before this one and got this above-the-stove microwave for it. We didn't end up closing on that house and got our current house where the cabinets are too low to stick one of these. Bummer. I'm glad it's actually back in the house.

This is most of the food we buy multiples of. We love Winn-Dixie BOGO deals and there just isn't enough space in the kitchen cabinets to store it all. A lot of food that isn't used on a regular basis has also made its way into the pantry.

It's also nice to keep all of the huge appliances that aren't regularly used out of the kitchen cabinets- breadmaker, pressure cooker, fryer...

This post is now making me want to get up and go organize the pantry and kitchen cabinets.

Want to participate in a different PEEK theme each week? Visit The B Keeps Us Honest to meet Jessica and check out her awesome blog! Next week she will have us peeking in each other closets.

Juicin'

Yep, that is what is going on in the Wilkins/Williams household.

Last night Michael and I were watching a documentary called "Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead" about a guy named Joe who gave up all food except juiced fruits and veggies to better his life and lose weight. He lost a ton of weight and overcame some medical issues during his 60 day stint of a juice-only diet.

At this point I'm laying on the couch half asleep, it's 9:45 p.m., and Michael wants to go to Walmart to get a juicer. I laughed, then got dressed to go with him. He picked up the handy dandy GE Juicer. It works great! First we tried a recipe the guy promoted in the documentary. It has kale, celery, cucumber, ginger root, granny smith apples and lemon. It was, interesting, to say the least. Not good, not bad. I'll try it again.

The kale went first, and boy was it stinky. I was scared at this point. If you know me, you know I am p.i.c.k.y.

After that first concoction it was time to try something fruity and a bit more appealing to my taste buds. I juiced some red grapes, a peach, apple, kiwis and oranges. It was delicious. I can see drinking that for breakfast. I do not have the willpower to give up all foods and only drink juice - no way!

The fruit juice

We'll see where this goes...

Dunzo with the heat

These record high temperatures are killing me.
I love summer, don't get me wrong, but part of me is ready for fall. I was at Lowe's the other day picking up some things and the register had apple cinnamon candles there as a last-minute item. That smell made me SO ready for the cool weather of fall, fall colors and decor.
Not to mention fall trips! We're going to Boston for the Darcus/Francis wedding in November, and I hope to squeeze a Callaway or Gatlinburg cabin stay into the season somewhere.
I'm trying not to wish the fun times of summer away since there are many more go come. I guess I will just have to hold my horses for a few more months.

Food, lunch and leftovers

Food seems to go bad so quickly, sometimes before we can even cook it! I’m really weird when it comes to expiration dates and food. I am not one to do the smell test. If the date says it’s time for it to go, well, it goes in the trash.

So many of my friends and coworkers eat leftovers or bring their lunch to work every day. I wish I had the motivation to do that. I eat out for lunch just about every day. Now, it’s not always a nice $7 lunch at McAlister’s or Firehouse, most days consist of $4 spent at Wendy’s, Moe’s or Foosacklys. I don’t guess that is too bad…

When I’m at the grocery store with that frame of mind that I’m buying stuff for lunch for the work week, a good deli sliced turkey sandwich sounds so good. Then when it’s time for lunch at work all I can do it stare at that pitiful sandwich and think about anything else I want to be eating besides that.

My other alternative is cooking foods during the week that make good leftovers, then plan to cook enough for lunch and dinner the next day. I guess I just need more meal options that are good reheated the next day. So far I can really only think of lasagna, roast, beef stew, taco soup and chili. I need more options! I guess that is two work weeks worth of dinner and lunch leftovers. Not too bad. I’m pretty picky, so it’s hard to make much more of a list.

Hopefully I can stick to the plan. For the big grocery shopping trips, I have to bribe myself by going to Super Target, otherwise, I can usually find ways to talk myself out of ‘the plan.’

Now to start prepping that grocery list. It’s on!

Wordless Wednesday - paint choices

Decision time

I heard the magic words last night. "When are we going to paint the living room?"
Um, Lowe's is still open for 45 minutes! Tonight??
I went to Lowe's on my lunch today and picked up some paint swatches. I thought picking out the colors for our bedroom, bathroom and guest room was hard. I'm worried at how hard it's going to be with picking colors for the living room, both hallways and dining room. Any color is going to be a huge difference up against baby food peas green and Crayola yellow.
We don't want to go plain with the traditional taupe, but I'm not one for making a huge statement, especially with paint colors. Everything would be in the green/blue/yellow family if it were up to me.
Just since I went to Lowe's and now at work on my break I look at some of the colors I picked and wonder what I was thinking. I guess it's the different light here at work, but whoa. Can't wait to get the swatches in their designated rooms of the house to see the colors in their future location.
Looks like my weekend may have just booked itself!

Happy Birthday Michael

The love of my life turned the big 2-9 on Friday. We had a great time celebrating with some friends at Moe's to kick off his birthday weekend.

Michael and I have been together for six years. It has been great having my best friend around all the time throughout the years. Here are some photos through the years, starting with 2005 and working our way to 2011. I would have hard more to post, but man, when I start digging through digital photo albums I just can't stop!

2005 - back in the old Pine Bend days

This picture makes me laugh. I had my camera in hand and I don't really remember what happened, but Michael fell and what do you know, perfect timing. I love how Penny is looking on from the couch to see what happened. At least Holly looks concerned.

2005

Some guitar playing on the balcony

Wow, this seems like forever ago!

Back in the good ol' days of going to shoot pool at Breakers

Grand Casino Biloxi, pre Hurricane Katrina

Panama City Beach, 2006

We saw something in the woods while we were strolling the Azalea Bowl. As we say to the girls, "what's that?" Callaway Gardens 2007

Lake Eufala 2007. We were visiting up at his parents' lake house. Holly and Penny decided they wanted to go on a boat ride with us. They actually enjoyed it - I was surprised!

Biking and enjoying Autumn Fest at Callaway Gardens. Fall 2008

Russell and Jennie's wedding, 2009

He's not only handsome, he's handy! Here he is putting up our tile backsplash in the kitchen.

He shoots and he...decides to break down into the Thriller dance. No, not really. But I joke with him that when he shoots hoops, he has Thriller hands.

A beach run at the Bird Sanctuary with the girls in Daphin Island. Spring 2011

Scootin' around at the Lost Bay KOA this summer.

I love my sweet, sweet boyfriend more than anything. Happy Birthday my love! Holly, Penny, Beebee, Ceecee and I love you very much!

Bound for glory

Boy how time sure does fly right on by when you're havin' fun!

This past weekend Michael's parents came down from Dothan to spend the long holiday weekend with us. Michael cooked up some great food, including yummy spareribs and chicken in his new electric smoker. We definitely didn't go hungry over the weekend. Sadly, a lack of photos.

Sunday once I peeled myself off the couch from watching the Casey Anthony trial we had a group of friends come over and we had a crawfish boil. It was finger lickin' good! I'm not a HUGE fan of those little guys, I'll eat a few, but the corn, potatoes and carrots that were boiled in the seasoned water suite my appetite just right.

Someone else who is not on team crawfish is my sweet goddaughter, Ari. This is my dear friend Rachel's 3-year-old daughter. We are so glad to have the Hendersons living so close to us. I love my visits from Ari!

You better bet Penny and Holly were wanting in on some crawfish action. Food stalkers, I tell ya. They did not learn this from their mommy.

After the fellas stuffed their bellies with crawfish, they decided to hold an impromptu game of disc golf in our backyard. Mr. Dennis, Michael's dad, threw his first disc ever from our patio all the way to that basket at the bottom of our yard and got an ACE! We were all blown away! Michael better watch out.

Miss Ari was proud of my home-grown tomatoes! She said they were pretty :) Isn't she just as cute as she can be?

 Deuce! This is Star and Jeremy's son dog, and Penny and Holly's best friend.

I was so glad some of our great frineds were able to make it out at the last minute to enjoy some time outside over the weekend. It is so nice to be surrounded by such great family and friends. Rachel and I go way back to 8th grade. She is also Ari's mommy.

Starlyn and I are still only mommies to our dear canine friends. Our dogs are our children. I'm so glad she and I are on the same page. You would think we birthed these dogs ourselves!

We did not get any fireworks ourselves, but did get to enjoy them from our backyard thank to some neighbors. We played around with the Nikon for a while, acutally using the manual settings, to see what we could capture. Most of the time it was a totally black picture, however, we managed to get one or two. Haha!

Hopefully everyone had a great holiday weekend with their family and friends celebrating our country's 235th birthday; one nation under God.

I'm alive

No worries! I have just been on a short Blogger hiatus, but I'm about to be back to my ol' blogging self. Be on the lookout for an longer update - now back my eating my lunch. Mmn Firehouse!