What We are Eating This Week!

The struggle is real folks, dinner comes around every night and somedays it is a challenge to figure out what we are gonna eat.  I have to admit I hated making dinner, but lately the hate has become less and it is nice to have a home cooked meal and people to cook for.  I am constantly consulting my assistant Google for help and I have found a few websites/blogs that have some good ideas but, as of today I have not ventured onto Pintrest to solve our dinner dilemma.  I also have become a better shopper/list maker and get my shopping done on the weekend (I am a liar, I am going shopping after work today) so that I do not have to hit the market multiple times a week.   So if you are in a dinner rut check out what I have planned for this week and if you are so inclined feel free to invite me over on Wednesday’s.

I forgot to mention that we are having salad and mashed potatoes tonight as well!  Costco sells the best pre-made mashed potatoes under the sun just in case you thought I was going to take the time to mash potatoes tonight, nope, ain't gonna happen.

The Sheriff requested to skip the pie part on the Chicken Pot Pies, so I am making it more of a Chicken Pot Pie bake, we shall see how that works out, the carb junkie in me is already missing the pie crust. 

Check out Damn Delicious for the Honey Balsamic Chicken recipe I will be cooking up on Tuesday, this is a newbie, I will let you know if it is a keeper next week!  

And if you have any suggestions for what to make on Sunday I am all ears!

Enjoy!

Things Happen in 3's

This past week was quite a week!

First we lost our sweet pup Milo which was soooo incredibly sad.

Second, I sold my condo last weekend and I was so happy but the buyer was a freaking nightmare and after a few days of dealing with her I was done but yet hopeful that the deal would go through.  A few hours after Milo was gone I got a text from my agent saying that the buyer was backing out and the deal was a "no go."  I really didn't care at that moment and was actually glad that the deal fell through.  

Third, Today we had two showings at the Sheriff's house so we went to breakfast at the Broken Yolk and to get gas.  As we pulled into the gas station the Sheriff's truck died.  We called AAA to come tow the truck to a mechanic but they could only take two of us in the tow truck so I put out an SOS on Facebook and called my good friend Carrie to see if she could come get us.  Carrie was awesome and arranged child care with her parents so she could come get us.  Soon after the truck decided to start so we quickly drove home and called off Carrie and the tow truck.  Oh and a special shout out to my brother and good friend Kris who also offered to come rescue us.  

Seriously so much $$$ was on the line this week that we are broke and emotionally drained.  However, I feel that we are actually very lucky, we generally do not have drama like we have had this week so all in all this is nothing but a bump in the road of life. 

And for what some might call a silver lining, I'm not sure what I would call it but a litter of Belgian Malinois (the breed the Sheriff really wants) puppies were born the same day we said goodbye to Milo and will be ready in about 8 weeks, ahhhh!!! No final decision will be made for a few weeks until we can visit the pups. I am thinking that "if" and that is a BIG "if" we get a pup we should name the new pup "Biscuit" that way we will have Biscuit and Gracie!  I find it hilarious but the rest of the tribe is not onboard with that name yet!   

12 pups for one lucky mama!

Milo: 10/30/06-10/21/15

Mr. Pie picked this picture to have printed and kept in a special spot.

Milo as a pup! 

Wednesday morning around 1am our sweet Milo went off to chase balls in doggie heaven forever. He was not acting himself all day so we took him to the emergency vet and as we waited to find out what was wrong he went downhill quick, Milo was diagnosed with cancer, had tumors throughout his abdomen and was bleeding internally so we had him put to sleep. Ken is so sad and we have not told Mr. Pie yet, we will tell him on Thursday after school. We made sure to send him off to heaven with his favorite toy and one final picture; we will miss him so much! This is what I posted on Facebook and over 60 people posted sweet comments. 

Despite my first meeting with Milo and him trying to bite my face off (not kidding), the six months it took for him to even acknowledge my presence, the year that went by before I felt safe alone in the Sheriff’s house with him and the almost three years that it took for him to listen to me he was an AWESOME dog!

The Sheriff and Milo had an incredible bond, they spent many hours, learning, training and working together and it is so sad to see the Sheriff without his partner. 

Mr. Pie was Milo’s one true love, he loved that kid and that kid loved him sooooo much.  Every morning Milo would go in to his room and jump on his bed to wake him up and when Mr. Pie was not there Milo would sleep on his bed even though he knew he was not allowed too.  Mr. Pie is beyond heart broken and it is heartbreaking to watch a boy cry so much over his dog.  Milo knew how much Mr. Pie loved him as every time Mr. Pie would leave it was a small production of hugs, kisses and “I Love You’s” before he could leave the house.

Gracie was the one who taught Milo how to play, that girl has not a care in the world with a wild streak running through her and from the first time the two met she wanted to play.  Milo on the other hand was a “working dog” and his idea of play was to practice bite work or train to receive the reward of his ball being thrown.  For a long time Gracie would try to get Milo to wrestle with her but Milo just did not know how to wrestle and then finally one day he let loose and the two of them were nonstop wrestle mania buds.  It is truly amazing that Milo the bite work loving dog never once went too far with Gracie and that blood was never drawn between the two of them, they only had one fight and it was over some food and it was stupid, to this day we still do not know what provoked it. 

Saying goodbye :(

R.I.P.

The Weekend!

The Sheriff and I went to see the Zac Brown Band Friday night, after much deliberation I decided I needed to cancel my dentist appointment (oh darn!) so I could take Mr. Pie to school which turned out to be great cause I got a coffee date with my good friend Windy (not sure why this is relevant to anything, maybe because I was secretly thrilled to put the dentist off another month).  I met the Sheriff at work and we drove up to the Hollywood Bowl (amazingly it only took us just over two hours to get there, on a Friday night in LA traffic, that is practically unheard of).  We had dinner at Cabo Wabo and then walked to the Bowl, it was a cool 98 degrees out so we were all hot and sweaty once we made it to our amazing seats!  Seriously we have been so spoiled by concerts at the Hollywood Bowl.  The concert was awesome and the Zac Brown Band did not disappoint! 

The Sheriff and I apparently have only one going out outfit, lol!  As we were waiting for our name to be called for dinner we were standing around chit chatting and I decided we needed a picture to prove that we were together, so I snapped a selfie and at that moment I realized that we were wearing the same clothes that we had worn to the Kenny Chesney Concert, but wait it gets better, as I was typing this my memory was jogged back to a year ago when we were in Hawaii and yep, that is right, we wore the same outfit to the Luau.  We really need a new going out outfit, thank goodness I at least had a different hairdo each time! 

It is hard to tell, but I am wearing the same dress in all three pictures! 

Mr. Pie had a Kung Fu tournament bright and early Saturday morning in East LA, I opted out and made it a father/son bonding day and stayed home.  Mr. Pie did amazing and placed first in all three events that he competed in, we were so proud of him.  While they were away, I was busy serving as the Domestic Commander (the title provided by the Sheriff, lovely) by doing yardwork and housework because we had a house showing scheduled the next day.  We had a patch of grass that died in the backyard and we could not figure out why, turns out we had a broken sprinkler and that section of the new grass never got watered so we had the grass replaced and two sprinklers repaired (one of which one of the dogs broke and neither one of them will say who did it).

 
First place, we are really proud!

I updated the recipe page on the blog, I have a few favorite recipes that I either never got around to writing down or I have no idea where the recipe card is.  I know that at one point I blogged about them but I hated having to search the blog for the recipe so now they are all in one spot for everyone to enjoy.  And in the event that you want to try one and you are wondering, they are all simple recipes, I do not do complicated; cause ain’t nobody got time for that!  Click here if you are in a cooking rut and want new dinner ideas!

My parents have been on vacation for the last week and a half and they have been quite the travelers hitting many different hot spots along the east coast.  Every other day or so they send us a picture of some of the sights they have been seeing.  

My Mom thought it was funny/scary that my dad was driving, looking at a map and following his GPS so she sent us the picture of him.  I promptly replied asking what it is like to wear a sweatshirt, cause it is so damn HOT here!!

Zoodles!

Mmmmm, Zoodles!  For the last year or so the Sheriff and I have been trying to stick to a wheat free grain free diet.  The Sheriff has way more self control then I do so I have been on and off, mostly on the wheat free diet but the one thing I really miss is pasta even though I have never been a big pasta eater but I also have never really had a reason to say no to it until now.  Being wheat and grain free I can total tell a difference in how my body handles food and my gut has been much happier.  For my birthday I got a spirializer (I know, totally exciting) so I can make zucchini noodles and eat "spaghetti" again.  For those of you who have not substituted zucchini for pasta you cannot tell the difference besides the color.   Tonight I made "Pasta" with Shrimp, AMAZING if you ask me!!

4oz.  Sun dried tomatoes

1 lb. shrimp

1/2 cup chopped green onions

1/2 cup dry white wine

3 tbsp. fresh lemon juice

1 tbsp. capers

1 tbsp Olive oil from the jar of sun dried tomatoes

3/4 tsp. dried Italian seasoning 

1/4 tsp. pepper

1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

Add 1 tbsp. of oil reserve from sun dried tomatoes to a non stick skillet over medium high heat.  Add shrimp and green onions and cook for 5 minutes.  Add sun dried tomatoes, wine and the next seven ingredients (wine through garlic) cook for 1 minute or till thoroughly heated.  Remove from heat, add cooked zoodles, toss well and top with Parmesan cheese.  

I used 6 large zucchini (the Sheriff likes leftovers) and added way more shrimp cause I am feeding two growing boys (the Sheriff and Mr. Pie, I swear they are eating us out of house and home).  But usually one zucchini per person is enough.  

If you have not had zoodles before, just a warning they are very watery so to avoid that I followed these directions and it totally worked.  

And if you need to buy a spiralizer I got mine on Amazon!

ENJOY!!

So You Decided to Sell Your House!

I feel like I could write a book of what and what not to do when selling a house!  I am no expert and do not claim to be one and I have left the home selling to a trusted expert but dear God I feel like I am a huge part of the process!  Here are a few things I have learned throughout this process…

1. Sell the dog, don’t temporarily rehome the dog with your boyfriend, just sell the damn dog (kidding, kinda).  You feel like a total failure as a pet parent when you see “fluffy” just a few hours a week and then your feel like a total failure as a girlfriend because you have dumped sweet “fluffy” with your boyfriend and you are hardly there during daylight hours to do poop patrol on a regular basis, you are constantly telling yourself it is ok, “fluffy” has a friend to play with all day long and no it was not “fluffy” who chewed your boyfriends shoes, yes, that is what you tell yourself every day.

2. You answer your phone all day long!  Texts, voicemails, emails, you are connected to your phone at all times because you do not want to miss “the call” this might be “the one” who will take your property off of your hands buy your property, so you DO NOT want to miss any calls.  You promptly respond to text messages but then you get nothing in response.  See below….

It is very important that you get a response because oh that’s right you have two properties for sale and you need to know which one they want to see so you know if you need to de-dog the house or fluff up the condo. For the love of all things HOLY, please respond promptly so I know how to proceed.

3. A guaranteed way to get people to come see your house…

              a. Your boyfriend is working late so you are on kid/dog duty by yourself.  No problem you say until the agent calls and wants to see your place between 6 and 6:30pm (hello dinnertime).  You now devise a plan on how you can clean the house on your lunch break, swing by the house on your way home for a last minute vacuum job, hide important papers under the couch cushions (shhh, don’t tell anyone) and lock up the dogs, speed to daycare to pick up the kid before they close, feed the kid a nutritious meal of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich as you put the fear of God in the kid if he gets any of that anywhere in your car, speed back towards home but pass home to get the kid to Kung Fu class, speed home cause now the dogs have been locked in the garage for way longer than desired by you, your neighbors  and your local Animal Services Department, let the dogs out, sit down for a few minutes, get back in your car, go pick the kid up from his Kung Fu class, go home, fall asleep on the couch and dream about the vacation you are going to take when this is all OVER.
     
             b. You get ready for work in the dark, you gather up your most treasured belongings in your trusty backpack and don’t notice that the carpet needs to be vacuumed, the pillows are all smushed from when you crashed on the couch the night before and the spots on the mirror, but the good news is someone came to see your place and you remembered to make the bed.

              c. Host an open house when it is 107 degrees outside and you’re A/C is not working, don’t worry everyone and their country cousin will come and the whole time you are praying they will not notice it is 105 degrees inside the house, not good when they find out the A/C is not working at the moment, you continue to pray that they will make an offer despite the high temps inside.

4. Have dinner with your agent every night, seriously we do, thank goodness he is a nice guy, but he does not say much at dinner.  We make sure he has a prime seat at the table and serve good food, so I am not so sure why he is so quiet.

Danny sitting at the table!

5. You Pray every night that your boyfriend does not worry about your “house is on the market” behavior and your obsession with keeping everything “clean” as you get ready to embark on purchasing a home and moving in together. You fear that he is totally freaked out and that he does not understand how important it is to keep the house clean every single second AKA in put your damn dishes in the dishwasher, thankfully you have enough self-control and have not said those words out load and have had ridiculously high expectations of a 10 year old boy as well.

6. Be well stocked in the cleaning supplies department, period, the END.  The Sheriff’s house needed a little TLC when we started the “get the house ready” process.  I sent him to Costco and told him to buy every cleaning supply he thought we needed and then I gave him my list of what to buy.  Seriously, if I was going to clean the house then he better go buy me the supplies.  The Sheriff is a very smart man and showed up with everything I had requested and then some.  You will need the supplies and you won’t fear running out since it is COSTCO SIZE.

7. Don’t freak out every time another condo goes on the market just like yours but a tad nicer. Using the F-word does not help the situation and your real estate agent is not your therapist.

Kinda pissed is an understatement!

8. The most important thing to remember is that everything happens for a reason and when it is supposed to happen, you cannot force it and you can get through this with a good bottle of wine or two or three absolutely no judging here.

All of this has happened and number 3A almost happened tonight, but thankfully "Mary" finally got back to me and she is showing the condo so I do not need to stress as much!

Unseen Moments from this Summer!

Since it is a wet and rainy kind of day, I thought I would post a few snapshots of what you did not see this Summer!

Every Summer I have to work five to six Sundays at our Summer Concerts.  Every Summer the family comes out to hang with me while I am "working".

My good friend Darcy joined us at one of the last concerts with her sweet baby Layla and husband Eric.

I did not spend enough time with my friends this summer, but the time together was a lot of fun.

Jill, Ricki and I met for lunch and a little window shopping in Laguna Beach.

I went wine tasting with the Sheriff's cousins/family in Newport Harbor, it was tons of fun and I drank WAY WAY WAY too much wine. I drank so much wine that when I took this picture of her and I, I had no idea my finger was in the way.  I even texted this picture to the Sheriff and I still could not see any problems with it.  SMH!

Happy Birthday to Me!

I turned 28 again 37 this past Monday, (big sigh, hands on head covering eyes), I am still in shock, how did that happen?  I honestly feel like I should be turning 30, not 37.  It is kind of scary, life seems to be passing by at lightning speed and I cannot seem to slow it down and I keep telling myself that 37 is the new 27 but internally as in my biological clock it does not really matter 37 is 37 and my clock is ticking, do you hear that Sheriff TICK TOCK TICK TOCK!  Lol, he has been reminded of that every day for the past couple of months, perhaps that is why he is working a lot of overtime (to get away from them reminders)!   Anywho, it was a great day, I did not break from tradition, I took the day off from work, got my FREE birthday coffee, walked my dog, met up with Super Mom for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory, window shopping at Fashion Island, enjoyed a steak dinner with the parents (the Sheriff was working late) and had chocolate cake to finish off the night! 

Ya, my baristas are awesome!

A birthday Selfie at Fashion Island!

The Sheriff left his sunglasses at my parents, so I modeled them before returning them to him.

YUM YUM YUM!

Wow, I look weathered, lol!  

It was another 90 + degree weather day and I was done!

Since the Sheriff was working on my actual birthday he took me out to dinner on Tuesday night.  The Sheriff wanted to take me to Roy’s in Newport Beach but I just could not let him take me there, it is way too expensive and I just felt way to guilty spending all of that $$$ on food especially after he bought us Zac Brown Band tickets for next week.  Word to the wise, it is never a good idea to drink wine and whiskey and then get on the internet and buy expensive concert tickets and then realize the next day that you swapped shifts with someone and you have to work the day of the concert and you do not get off but an hour before the concert starts and Friday night traffic to the Hollywood Bowl is a NIGHTMARE!!  Ya, total FAIL, but hey we have great seats!  We ended up going to Javier’s, I love that place, it has been awhile since I have been there and the Sheriff has never been and it is a tad bit more economical, not much but a tad, so ya, I am happy!  Dinner was sooo good, I could eat there every night.  No pics from our date, it was a long day for both of us and I was not picture ready!

Thank you to everyone for all of the birthday messages, I tried to hide it from facebook, but word got out and it was nice to read all of the birthday love!!