Christmas!

We went back to Boise for Christmas. We were supposed to leave Saturday morning, but there was a storm coming in, so when I got off work at 11pm Friday night, Scott was with me already so we took off from there. Scott stayed up and drove through the night! It ended up being a 12 hour journey.

The fog was horrible! This is what I would wake up to almost every time I woke up. It got to be too bad and Scott stopped at a rest stop and we took a few hours to nap in the car. (If you're thinking, that picture doesn't show anything...you're wrong...that's exactly what it looked like from inside the car).

We finally made it to Scott's parent's house and got ready for the day. Did some shopping and got to hang out with his parents and brother. 

We celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve since we would have to leave early Christmas morning to drive home to Seattle so that Scott could get to work on Wednesday. 

Scott's parents spoiled us, and Scott got a surprise I had told him I wasn't going to get him. I was so excited to give it to him! He was one happy boy. 

We went out and looked at Christmas lights. 

Christmas morning we woke up and got the car packed up. I had put together a little bag of small stocking type gifts for us to open every hour or two of the drive. There was another storm so we had to get going early. The roads were pretty bad for the first while. We ended up driving through Portland because the Washington passes were so bad, and we didn't want to have to use the tire chains if we didn't have to. It took us about 11.5 hours, with no nap stops. 

We were ready to get home to our new Wii we got for Christmas.

And of course to our Christmas Gorilla. 

Friends in Seattle

A few weekends ago, some of our friends came to visit! Jevan and Amy came for a night, and we ate at Red Robin then went to the Space Needle, which we obviously have to bring everyone that visits to. It was really cold, so we mostly stayed in the gift store :)

I found this cool postcard that I thought would look neat framed. 

Stuart met us at the Space Needle. 

The next day we went to Pike Place Market, which is where the gum wall is.

And to the Fremont Troll, which is where Stuart almost got left when Scott started to drive away without him in the car. 

We got some good Greek food from a little place in our neighborhood, and then, unfortunately Jevan and Amy had to leave :( 

Scott and I were bad hosts, so we left Stuart all by himself and went to Scott's company Christmas Party where I met lots of people Scott works with and took pictures in a photobooth they had set up. 

There was a live band who thought they were way hott, and a nice dinner and open bar. We, took advantage of the open bar to get some special drinks made for us. Scott asked for "The Best non-Alcoholic Drink", and we were given a concoction of pineapple juice, orange juice, grenadine, sprite, and a cherry. It was pretty good, we each had a couple which made people stop asking us if we were going to get something to drink. Around 10:30 or so, everyone was drunk enough to make it only fun if you're drunk too, so we left and went for a nice drive around West Seattle, where we saw a house with tons of Christmas lights.

It was so great to have friends over and get to re-explore our new city that we are in love with. 

Christmas Gorilla

This weekend, we decided to get our home decorated for Christmas. I had seen "Elf Trees" and thought they might be a good idea since they're about 2 feet tall, easy to fit in the car, less needles to fall though out our apartment complex when moving it in and out of our place, and takes up less space in our apartment. We then thought about just buying a fake tree so we didn't have to worry about the needles falling and remembering to water it... (we decided we're not ready for a dog, or any other living thing, since we couldn't even keep a tree alive last year). So we were at Fred Meyer and went inside to discuss what we should do about the tree. Right next to us was a large bin of big (very soft) stuffed animals. There was a gorilla that stole our hearts, and I jokingly told Scott that we should just have a Christmas gorilla and wrap lights around it and we could use him year after year, even when we do have a real tree, he can guard our presents and presents can be stacked underneath him. Scott agreed and after asking each other 10 times if we were serious and "really going to do it" we bought our Christmas gorilla and decided it would be our first family Christmas tradition and he will be part of our Christmas decorations every year.

Scott put his glasses on him because I guess the gorilla was having trouble seeing.......

We then wrapped him in lights and put ornaments as earrings and a star hat.

We were also able to go to a Christmas concert at our Stake building which was really nice. We watched Elf, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, and Home Alone this week, and started playing our Christmas music.

Here are some things (both old and new) that we ate this week that we just wonderful:

"Worlds Greatest Chicken" with Garlic-Rosemary Mushrooms and a salad

Left the wine out of mushrooms and used honey instead of maple syrup as well as only used 1lb chicken with the same amount of everything else. 

Couscous with Chicken Sausage Ragu and salad

Literally took less than 15 minutes start to finish. I left out the tomatoes but added a few onto my plate since Scott doesn't like tomatoes. Also almost doubled the onions (we love cooked sweet onions in everything!) It doesn't LOOK good, so I didn't get a picture, but it tastes GREAT. I used sweet italian chicken sausage from Trader Joe's. 

Asperagus with Orzo, Salmon, and Feta

Ahh, I ate way too much of this. I'd made it once before but forgotten how amazing it is. I used whole wheat orzo, used about 1/2 an ounce less of fish than is called for, and used dried dill. Gosh, I could eat this every day!


Grilled Cheese with Bacon and Garlic 
I made mine with a mix of fresh parmesan, mozzerella, and feta, Scott's with just colby jack (yes we had all these cheeses on hand from recipe's I've recently made) then added bacon to both of ours and spinach to mine. Then when they were all cooked, I rubbed a cut piece of garlic over all the pieces of bread. It was wonderful!

Farfalle, Peppers, Salmon, Ziti and Night-Stands

This week has been so fun for me in the kitchen. Instead of trying to pack up breakfast and lunch for me, and lunch and dinner for Scott, every single day and eating dinner all by myself 3 days a week, I have started sending Scott off with lunch and a large snack to tie him over until he gets home from class. It makes for a late dinner since class gets out at 8:30 (I know, not healthy to eat that late), but I prefer it to not eating dinner together and trying to figure out 18 meals/week that need to be able to be packed. (Though 15 are still required...) Plus he always ate a fourth meal after class anyway... I have also decided that I need to start eating healthier again. Since we've moved to Seattle, my habits have gone down hill.

 I have my lists ready with exactly what I need to make for the planned meals (Sun-Thurs) when I head to Trader Joe's which is usually followed up by Fred Meyer or Safeway for the thing or two they did not have (worth it though since it's better food and cheaper at Trader Joe's). Weekends are so unreliable that I don't usually plan anything (we have lots of yummy, somewhat healthy, Costco frozen foods that I use then, and always have basic staples around the house to fill in gaps).

This week was Pinterest inspired, or should I say obsessed :/ ? Here is what we ate: (excuse the horrible cell phone camera photos)

Monday: Farfalle with Spinach and Mushrooms

Ok, so I didn't use Farfalle...because I couldn't find it whole wheat. I added shrimp and may have added a bit extra cheese...opps! This will defintely be made again. Simple but delicious.

Tuesday: Stuffed Peppers  and Healthy Peanut Butter Brownies.

Ok, so the picture makes it look gross, but it was the leftovers...
I added ground turkey and used Italian Seasoning in place of their herbs because it's what I had on hand and was similar enough. It was good, but missing something, so we added skimmed mozzarella on top and it was delicious (though Scott isn't a huge fan of tomatoes so I might leave those out next time). The leftovers were even better! Oh and the brownies??? I adored them, and they are super easy and almost tasted like fudge. Another keeper! I did not take a picture of the brownies because by the time I remembered, I was embarrassed by how the dish looked (a little too empty :/ )!!

Wednesday: Pan Roasted Salmon and Green Beans.

Yes, I promise that is salmon in the picture...
This was not a Pinterest night...I have been making these two for quite some time. One of the local market's had a buy one get one free deal on Salmon fillets, so that's what inspired my deviation from Pinterest recipes. I always use chili powder instead of cumin when I make it. Oh and Scott asked for some freezer rolls with texas roadhouse butter. I used margarine instead of butter because when I made it with butter it tasted too "buttery" (I know, go figure...).

Thursday: Mama's Favorite Ziti.

(There is no picture because it did not impress me enough to think to take a picture...)

This one was good but nothing spectacular. I did make quite a few changes and didn't measure much, so it may have been my fault. Though to me, pasta with red sauce of any type is never amazing. I used ground turkey instead of beef, only 1 can of tomato soup but added tomato paste, added mushrooms, and used chicken broth instead of water. It was very flavorful, but heavier than I wanted and just sort of boring to make and eat. If you enjoy pasta with red sauce, though, it's good for what it is.

Friday and Saturdays are leftovers and eating out days in our house. P.F. Changs and Red Mill Burgers! YUMM.


This coming week's menu looks like this:
Sunday: "World's Best Chicken" and Garlic-Rosemary Mushrooms
Monday: Couscous with chicken sausage ragu and salad
Tuesday: Spaghetti squash with bean-less chili and corn cake
Wednesday: Steak (2 for 1 deal at Metropolitan Market this week!) and creamed spinach
Thursday: Whole Wheat Orzo with salmon, asparagus, and feta and a salad.


I did my grocery shopping for these meals today, and it made me feel so happy when my cart and bags were full of things labeled "organic" and a large amount of vegetables. When I got home I took this picture to remind myself later on of what a healthy shopping trip looks like incase I get back into my habits of thinking frozen pasta meals in a bag are "healthy" just because it is not very high calorie.

Scott was not too thrilled when he saw all the vegetables. I think he's worried about eating that much healthy food, I'm sure he'll be asking for "a side of cheeseburger" a couple times this week to make up the difference! He could eat burgers 6 days a week (maybe more) and be completely content, but he never puts up a fuss with what I make. He eats it, never complains, and just looks for something else to eat instead of having seconds if he's not wild about it. What a sweet man.


As far as life aside from food.... I decided I need to get some Instagram magnets... I just need to decide which 9 photos I want to use. I think they'll look super cute on the fridge.

Also, I have found myself saying how much I love Seattle on a DAILY basis... Very, very good thing since it's the first time I've really felt "at home" anywhere in about 4 years. I sort of hope we don't have to leave any time soon. At least I know I'll get to stay here until May 2014. Fingers crossed it's longer than that.

Oh and I'm going to try and start a little project soon... The plan is to make floating night-stands for our bedroom. We have never had night-stands and I've always wanted some but our room is just too small. So.... I am going to build wooden boxes to hang up on the wall and put a basket in the opening (like a drawer). Kind of like this,

only it'll be stained a dark cherry wood color instead of painted white, and I'm not a big fan of the studs around the outside. Really nothing will be the same besides the idea of having a box floating on the wall. Hopefully I can get motivated to get started on it soon! I want to find the baskets I'm going to use first, so that I can build the box to fit it perfectly. Oh, and I've NEVER done anything like this before, so who know's if it'll come out cute, or even useable!

Last and most exciting of all... This coming week is Scott's last week of his first semester of grad school! I get to have him all to my self after work and on weekends again! During which time we have some friends visiting, a trip to Boise for Christmas, and a Trip to Vancouver, BC, for our anniversary planned! Oh I can't wait!

If you're still reading, I'm sorry, but no one forced you to. ;)