She's Crafty!

I like to consider myself a pretty crafty girl. I spend a fair amount of time on Pinterest, dreaming of all the fun projects I could be making if I didn't have this pesky thing called a job holding me back. Then this weekend, I figured out the easiest way to make some home-made cat toys. The best part is, they were made out of a dog toy we already owned! Easy AND cheap! Here's how I did it, just in case you want to try it yourself.

Step 1: Give your dog a big black rubber tire chew toy. I used the one that we got when we adopted our first dog, so I didn't have to spend any money. You can try other chew toys, just keep in mind your final results may be different.

Step 2: Let the dog play with the toy for 3-4 months, until he inexplicably decides that it must be destroyed. Let him chew it into as many chunks as he can, and try not to think about how many he has probably eaten.

Step 3: Look at all the pieces of black rubber littered around your living room. Roll your eyes and sigh to yourself. Let your inherent laziness take over and leave all the pieces where they are.

Step 4: Wait for the cat to come into the living room, and if you're lucky, he will probably start batting the pieces around. Aww, so cute! He will be having so much fun, you won't have to heart to clean up and throw away his toy!

If you don't have a dog to help you, or just don't have the time and energy to put it together yourself, fear not faithful reader. I'll be opening my Etsy shop selling these home-made cat toys any day now. Once I get past that whole laziness thing.

Spending Money to Save Money

The Scene: Walking into the grocery store

The Players: Mr. & Mrs. Supercute

Mr. Supercute has just spied some strapping high school boys standing in front of the local grocery store, selling coupon books for the football team.

Mr. Supercute: NO. You are not buying one.

Mrs. Supercute: < Giggles to self > OK.

Mr: Don’t even think about it. We never used the last one.

Mrs: I promise I won’t buy one.

Mrs: Cause I bought one yesterday!

Mr: < Sighs heavily >

Mrs: I’m sorry! I’ll never do it again! … But I really think we’ll use it this time.

Mr: Fine.

Mrs: I promise, never again.

Mr: Fine. We’ll see how this one works out. When we have used all the coupons and have saved a thousand dollars, maybe you can buy one next year.

Five for Friday

This is kind of a cheat I realize, but for today's five I've decided to link to 5 websites that I really like.

1. http://gofugyourself.celebuzz.com/ Visiting Go Fug Yourself is like looking through fashion magazines with your best girlfriends and mocking what the celebrities are wearing. You can go through the archives, or choose a specific celebrity or event to gawk at.

2. http://www.daniellecorsetto.com/gws.html This is a web comic called Girls with Slingshots and it is seriously funny. Your probably best off starting at the beginning and working your way forward. It is more adult humor in case that's not your thing. My favorite strip? http://www.daniellecorsetto.com/GWS443.html

3. http://thepioneerwoman.com/ I started reading this one for the awesome food recipes and photos but have slowly become enamoured with the whole site. Ree Drummond is seriously funny, and you should make her mac & cheese with bacon and onions yesterday.

4. http://www.etiquettehell.com/ Hilarious stories of people with no sense of decent behavior. You will laugh, cry and be bewildered.

5. http://www.craftster.org/ This is an awesome place to go to see amazing things that people have made, and even get a tutorial on how to make it yourself. The best crafting website I have ever seen, hands down. I can spend hours looking at this site getting ideas.

Five for Friday

I know, I know, I've been gone forever. I have some really good excuses though, I promise! I'll explain everything in today's five:

1. I got married! Do you know how much work goes into a wedding? Holy crap! In all honesty it was without a doubt the best day of my life. Not only did I marry my best friend, but I got to spend the day with all the people in my life who I love. It doesn't get much better than that. I'll have some more detailed posts with pictures coming up soon.

2. I went on a honeymoon! Mr. Supercute and I took a 2 week cruise through the Panama Canal with stops in exciting places such as Columbia and Costa Rica. Again, more details to come in the future. I will say we had a completely blissful time reveling in each others company and not thinking or worrying about a damn thing. And thanks to getting the Norovirus (or something like it) on the last day, I only gained 2 pounds after all my eating!

3. I have a seriously messy house. We had a week before the wedding and the honeymoon, but with family in town and the need to pack for said honeymoon, I didn't get much housework done. That is project numero uno, but I'm actually looking forward to it. We never fully unpacked after moving in so I'm looking forward to getting officially settled over the next few months. Also looking forward to finding the perfect places for all of our wonderful wedding gifts.

4. Our yard looks fantastic! Even though the house is destroyed inside, you would never know from the outside. My father-in-law had told us he was planning on coming up to the house while we were gone to mow our lawn. He went above and beyond! He hired a family friend who has a landscaping business to come over and get our yard in shape; mowing, weeding, raking, the works. It looks fantastic and ready for summer. As an added surprise he also bought and installed a shed for us as a wedding present. We don't have a garage so we needed somewhere to store all of our yard tools and such, and now we have it! My father-in-law is awesome.

5. I am excited to be cooking again. I had been doing minimal cooking for the month or two before the wedding, and on the cruise everything we wanted was already prepared and served to us, so I am looking forward to doing my own cooking again. I have some recipes I'm all ready to try out (including German pancakes and a fantastic looking macaroni and cheese) so be on the lookout! Plus it means I get to use those aforementioned wedding presents.

Talk to you soon friends. I have lots more time to bore fascinate you all!

Five For Friday

I know it's been a long time since I've posted, but it's hard for me to take the time to write a well thought out and interesting post. Then I figured, who cares? I should at least write something, right? I was on another blog and saw they had something called "Five Things Friday" and it seemed like a good way to throw together some random thoughts. I should be able to keep up with this at least once a week right?

1. The wedding is so close! It's ridiculous. I'm getting some major stuff done this weekend (reception equipment rentals, my shoes, a veil maybe) so I feel a little bit better about how things are going.

2. Along with wedding related stuff, tomorrow I get my engagement ring back! She's been at the jeweler's so we can make a sister for her. We had the hardest time looking for wedding bands at Robbin's Bros (where my engagement ring is from). Daniel had found a ring he liked but it wasn't made in palladium (We found out my ring is palladium after a year and a half of thinking it was white gold. Thanks idiotic Robbins Bros employee!). I couldn't find anything I really liked and was planning on settling for something I kinda liked to make sure we would have the rings in time for the wedding. After doing some Googling I found a place here in San Diego that does custom work, loves to work with palladium, and can have the rings to us in two weeks. I can't wait to see the wax model of my ring, when he told me he could make the wedding band I had in my head I almost cried. Not to mention that it will cost less then the ring I was planning on settling with. He's also designing Mr. Supercute's ring based on the one he liked, again, for less than the other place. This man is amazing.

2. With the honeymoon booked I am unfortunately spending more time thinking about that then I am thinking about the wedding. I need to get back on track now that it's the home stretch. Concentrate!

3. Looking very much forward to the three day weekend. Not only can I get some serious wedding crafting done but I may even try to do some cleaning around the house too!

4. Having all the bosses out of the office makes for a super slow Friday.

5. I'm very happy with the way part of my bridesmaid's gifts are going. I'm using my latest obsession, embroidery, to make them personalized. Seriously people, embroidery is so easy and so much fun. I plan on embroidering everything once I have time to work on non-wedding related crafts (laundry room curtains, I'm looking at you!).

Happy Friday everyone! Enjoy the three-day weekend and make sure to snuggle your loved ones close on Valentine's Day. Or all weekend. Why scrimp on snuggling?

Cous Cous Salad

This is a great recipe that I like to use as a quick lunch. It’s fairly simple, delicious and pretty healthy!

Ingredients

1 cup cooked cous cous (any variety, any flavor)
½ cup garbanzo beans

¼ cup feta cheese (any flavor, this time I used herb and garlic)

chopped cucumber

chopped bell pepper

chopped green onion

Directions

Mix and eat

It’s that simple. Chop up your veggies while the cous cous is cooking and it takes maybe 10 minutes from start to finish. The great thing is you can use anything you happen to have lying around in your cupboards or fridge. It’s a good way to use up vegetables that might be starting to look a little sad. You could even throw in some leftover chicken or steak in there if you wanted, but the garbanzo beans give you plenty of protein and staying power.

I usually assemble this the night before and take it to work for lunch. It lasts very well in the fridge, if anything the longer it sits the fluffier the cous cous is. You could even add some olive oil and balsamic vinegar to add some flavor, or even some Italian dressing.

The other thing I like about this is there’s minimal chance for spoilage, making it good for a potluck (not to mention how easy!).

Welcome Home Chili

This past week Daniel left me all alone forever went on a business trip to Minnesota for a few days. I knew that when I picked him up at the airport the night he came home I wanted to have a nice, homey dinner ready to go when we walked in the door (you know, remind him why he came home). I thought chili would be perfect, since I could throw it in the crockpot and have plenty of time for making-out not have to fuss to much. I don’t have a go-to chili recipe but luckily my latest issue of Cooking Light did!

Black Bean Salsa Chili
(From Cooking Light Magazine, October 2009)

2 (15 oz) cans black beans; rinsed, drained and divided

2/3 cups water

1 tbsp dark brown sugar

Cooking Spray

½ pound ground turkey

1 cup chopped sweet onion

½ cup chopped green pepper

½ cup chopped red bell pepper

3 sweet hickory-smoked bacon slices, chopped

1 ½ tbsp chili powder

1 tbsp ground cumin

1 tsp dried oregano

1/8 tsp crushed red pepper

1 ½ cups mild salsa

3 tbsp tomato paste

1 (14 oz) can fat-free, less-sodium beef broth

½ cup reduced-fat sour cream

¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro

1 tsp fresh lime juice

1. Combine 1 ½ cups beans, 2/3 cup water, and sugar in a food processor; process until smooth. Combine bean puree and remaining beans in a bowl.

2. Heat a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add turkey; cook 3 minutes or until browned, stirring to crumble. Remove turkey from pan.

3. Add onion, bell peppers, and bacon to pan; cook 5 minutes or until bacon and onion are lightly browned. Return turkey to the pan. Add chili powder, cumin, oregano, and crushed red pepper to pan; stir well to coat. Stir in bean mixture, salsa, tomato paste, and broth; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

4. Combine sour cream, cilantro, and juice in a small bowl. Serve chili with sour cream mixture.

-Yields 6 servings (serving size: 1 cup chili and about 4 tsps sour cream mixture.) Calories 199; Fat 6.2 g; Fiber 5.9 g

I did take some liberties with the recipe. First off, I used a full pound of turkey. I was lazy and didn’t feel like dividing it, and I think it added some nice heft to the chili. I also skipped step 4 because I hate cilantro. Instead I just served fat-free sour cream, chopped onion and shredded cheese on the side, to be added to taste by each of us. I also didn’t do any measuring for the onion or bell pepper, I just used a smallish onion, and one of each color peppers.  Finally, I wanted to put this in the crockpot to cook while I was at work, so the night before I did everything up to the point of simmering for 30 minutes, threw it in the crockpot and stuck it in the fridge for the night. When I got up in the morning I pulled it out and plugged it in as I walked out the door.

This was a perfectly good chili recipe, but I don’t think that it’s my chili recipe. To me chili should be easy, something you can throw together and not have to worry about it. I definitely shouldn’t have to be pureeing anything. So for me, this recipe is a little fussy. The point of the pureeing is to thicken it up, but after sitting in the crockpot all day I don’t think that would be a problem. Plus, I like lots of beans in my chili, so in the future I would probably skip the first step and just use the beans whole.

All in all it was a tasty recipe, but I don’t anticipate using it again. However, it was a perfect meal to eat with my honey while we got caught up. I served it with crescent rolls on the side, and for dessert we had some hot out of the oven chocolate chip cookies (courtesy of Pillsbury).