weekly check-in

I totally fell off the wagon this week! I'm really having trouble keeping on top of work, school (did I mention I'm taking a class on Monday nights? In Toronto? DOWNTOWN Toronto? Which involves me driving through rush hour after working a full day?!), the house and managing to still spend quality time with Kris and Kale. My new assistant starts tomorrow (sounds fancy, but totally is not) and so I'm anticipating another couple of crazy weeks until we figure out what we're doing (I'm anticipating our time to go something like this: me: "Umm, excuse me, uhhh, yes, please, do you mind, uh? doing something for me?" Her: "uh, yeah, that's what you pay me for, right?" me: "umm, well, techincally, yes, but uhh, oh nevermind, I can do it! You relax!"). Anyway, here's the weekly run down: 

#janphotoaday

I totally failed this week, which only increases my utter awe for those who manage to do 365(+1) projects. I can't even last a month! I only managed to take two photo's for the challenge this week:

"guilty pleasure" Bacon Avocado Tomato Havarti Sandwich from With the Grain. Seriously the best sandwich I've ever eaten (and I've eaten a lot of sandwiches). The guilty part? $15 for lunch. 

"inside your fridge" produce, beer, juice - essentials.

'Tis a lesson you should heed, if at first you don't succeed, try, try again. 

That's right - despite my January failure, I'm still going to try this: 

  Who's in???

2012 Declutter Calendar

This weeks tasks were all about declutter storage shelves, which for us, means the basement. However, Kris has told me that the basement is off limits for me. He's been working on decluttering that space since we moved in back in May. Besides, after decluttering the linen closet last week, I got hooked on closets and ended up doing mine, Kris's & Kale's. I don't have photo's of those to share, but did promise to post one of the linen closet once I finished (which I'm sure you've all been losing sleep over in anticipation): 

 

 

 

 I really should have taken a before shot, because this closet was a hot mess. I managed to get three bins of random medications and toiletries into one big bin and used the two smaller ones for my hair dryer and flat iron and the other for shampoo's and whatnot. I purchased the new laundry bins which fit just about perfectly in the closet (we actually had to remove the trim around the bottom). 


Sometimes I just open this closet and stare at it. It brings me peace. 

Menu Planning

So I swear we ate this week, I'm just not totally sure what.... We only ended up cooking three meals off the menu plan, ordering in one night, making a quick pasta another and I have no idea what happened the other two nights. 


Chicken w/ Balsamic Bruschetta Vegetables


Natural Noshing has quickly become one of my favourite food blogs in the past few weeks. Like the other recipes I've tried from here, this one was simple, quick and full of flavour. 

Portobello and Black Bean Enchiladas w/ Roasted Poblano Sauce


I was about 10 minutes into this recipe before I realized that it was not a weeknight meal. During the week we have about 45 minutes from prep to plate to make dinner before people (ok, me and Kale) start snapping and getting cranky from hunger. To be fair, it does suggest making the sauce in advance, but I have a tendency not to read the full instructions before I dive in. In the end, I was totally glad I did make this because it was delicious AND there was enough for me to have for lunch the next day (HUGE bonus for me). I used a cubanelle pepper instead of poblano and feta instead of queso fresco and it was absolutely perfect. 

Sweet Potato Chicken Curry


Again, I should have read the instructions before taking this one. It required 1.5 hours of simmering and so we ended up eating a quick pasta and finished this up to have for dinner the next night. As far as curries go, this was not a favourite. I like a bit of spice and this one didn't deliver. However, it was packed full of good stuff that Kale loves - peas, chickpeas, sweet potatoes, chicken and carrots - and he gobbled it up.

What's on the menu this week: 

Orange Chicken
Baked Potato Grilled Cheese
Bacon Lettuce Avocado & Turkey Sandwich w/ Spicy Chipotle Mayo
Chicken Fajitas