zeelemons

Last week’s meals

May 7, 2017 by zeelemons

Many apologies – I’ve forgotten to post an update AND I’ve forgotten what I ate last Saturday… I must have been super hungry because I didn’t take any photographs nor did I write it down on the calendar. Such is life.

Sunday: broccoli rabe and black bean quesadillas I know, it sounds like an odd combination but they were SO DELICIOUS! Broccoli rabe raw as a salad is bangin’!

Monday: sweet and sour chickpeas over basmati rice. This too was an additional Pinterest keeper! Super delicious and super easy to whip up on a Monday when you don’t feel like cooking.

Tuesday: Lentil walnut tacos with slaw – I thought I had shared this recipe in the past, but I guess not. I had originally tried it with a subscription of the Purple Carrot and while I didn’t like their slaw, I loved the taco “meat.” This time around, I used a bag slaw mix from TJ’s and made my own dressing using ACV and Lime Vitality essential oil from Young Living. We both loved the way it came out and even used some of the leftover broccoli rabe as a topping for extra kick (and greens).

Wednesday: Lemon asparagus quinoa with pesto: not a Pinterest keeper. I personally didn’t mind the flavor or texture, but the beau said it was like eating slop. Yikes! It was bland and needed salt and with the pesto I thought it was delicious – this may be a meal I try to dehydrate for hiking.

Thursday: my favorite sandwich! There’s this place in Kingston that I love to visit each time we find ourselves down there, Sissy’s Cafe, and I always order the vegan delight. It’s so good and easy to recreate at home: Ezekiel sesame toast, fake bacon (I use marinated tempeh), avocado, tomato, red onion, sauerkraut, veg mayo and sprouts. I had two… I couldn’t help it!

Friday: Cinco de Mayo! I was suppose to be backpacking this weekend and hadn’t planned any meals, but the weather predicted rain all weekend so we canceled. Instead, we grabbed dinner and margaritas at Lakeview on Crystal Lake. I had some chips and salsa and then a serving of the homemade guac with jalapeños and pineapple. Yum!

I admittedly also don’t remember what we drank throughout the week. I’m pretty sure we had two bottles of red wine. Maybe a bottle of white. And Friday we picked up a case of imported beer from Mexico but we still have some of those leftover.

I can however give you a solid update on the month of April. After totaling up all the numbers, we spent a total of $914.49 on groceries, eating out and alcohol. That’s a $508 savings from March! And that was with just two weeks of conscious spending! I can’t wait to see the numbers for May – that’s a lot of savings that can be allocated to, well, savings!

This week’s meals

April 29, 2017 by zeelemons

I’m a day behind but it’s been a busy week – and the weather has been wonderful, so I haven’t wanted to come home and sit in front of another computer. I guess I should get a power cord for my laptop – that way I could sip wine and type on the back deck.

Unlike last week, we didn’t stick to a meal plan per se, but we did cobble meals together or snack on what we had on hand.

Friday: my favorite black bean soup topped with nooch, pickled jalapeños, roasted corn and not shown, a big handful (or two) of leftover tortilla chips from Easter. So good!

Saturday: sorry, no photograph: I made mini pizzas on top of leftover pitas from Easter with pasta sauce and vegan mozz. cheese from TJ’s. The beau made pasta I do believe = fend for yourself kind of night.

Sunday: Tofurky hotdogs with Lay’s wavy chips
Monday: we had a family photoshoot with the beau’s fam but we stuck with our plan of ordering takeout from Moscatiello’s. We had this wonderful pair of customers at the shop who constantly supported us and one year they asked us to participate in a fundraiser for heart health, and we did, and it’s been tradition to help out every year. Taylor loves their eggplant parm. sub, I don’t really care for their Italian food (I think it’s because without cheese it’s pretty bland, ha) so I ordered a make your own mini pizza with fresh basil, mushrooms and spinach… and a side of fries. Sorry no photograph, ate this pretty late at night.

Tuesday: taco pasta! SO SO GOOD! I adapted the recipe from here. You’ll need:

Super easy: saute the onion in a little EVOO until it starts to be translucent. Add the beef crumbles and stir until heated thru (I also added a splash of stock because they seemed dry). Stir in the taco seasoning, we had about a tbsp left over from previous meals. Add the pasta, stock and entire jar of salsa and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to a simmer for about 15-20 minutes. It took 18 minutes in our kitchen – taste pasta to know it’s done. Turn off heat, sprinkle in the nooch and stir in the cheese. It was delicious! Top with avocado, cilantro, tomatoes – anything you’d add to a taco! FYI leftovers: were kinda dry in the morning. I added a little extra salsa 🙂

Wednesday: at home Indian dish

Thursday: the beau’s empty the fridge of all veggies stir fry. Adapted from Bosh on FB – it’s called the nice spice rice. We used all of the kale from our Field Goods delivery, corn (can you tell we have SO MUCH frozen corn ha ha), red pepper, asparagus and broccoli. Also a repeat meal in our rotation.

Friday: was suppose to be green bean casserole with BBQ tempeh. Friday morning I went to find the recipe and my server was doing maintenance = I couldn’t access my blog. I was home near lunch and thought I’d try it again… well, I assumed we had green beans because we had an overflow of those as well in the freezer, but we must have eaten them all. No green beans. After grabbing a couple of PBRs and fries at a local dive bar after work with co-workers, I ate chips and salsa when I got home. The beau got Chinese takeout after we enjoyed TNO.

This week we drank: a six pack of tall PBRs, a six pack of Corona Lights, a growler from Rare Form, a bottle of red wine and one and a half bottles of white wine. The beau wants to try this crazy thing called “not drinking throughout the week”… I may or may not partake in that challenge. Ha! Especially on taco Tuesdays!

So there you have it. Not perfect but better than what has happened in our past. The month ends tomorrow, I’m excited to see our numbers and if all this planning has paid off.

First week of Meal Planning

April 21, 2017 by zeelemons

One week down and speaking for myself, I LOVE the organization of meal planning! Ha! It’s so easy to look at a list and know that you have everything on hand for any of those meals. Takes out all of the guesswork when you’re exhausted and looking for a quick meal.

A couple people reached out to me looking for recipes, so I’m going to add them here for those of you who are interested.

Friday: Crockpot veggie chili

This recipe changes, depending on what we have on hand. Also worth noting, we have a small two-person crockpot, so you may need to adjust the quantities depending on how much you’re looking to make at once. This has about 4-6 servings.

Throw it all into your crockpot, give it a good stir and set it on low while you’re at work (about 8 hours). You can also cook it overnight so that it’s ready for a hike / lunches. I topped mine with Daiya cheddar cheese and fresh cilantro… and also dunked / scooped with my fresh pretzel from Rare Form (via The Placid Baker). The perfect Friday pairing!

Saturday: leftover chili
Sunday: Easter!

Monday: one-pot Spanish rice, makes 2-4 servings, depending on hunger (3 for us)

In a pan, heat the EVOO and add the diced onion and peppers; cook until starting to go translucent. Crumble in the tofu – we usually use half a container of the organic, extra firm tofu from Trader Joe’s but this time I used a block of soft tofu. Add your spices. Stir in the tomatoes, rice and stock – cover and heat over medium-low as you would a pot of rice. Try not to stir until it looks like all of the liquid has been absorbed. It’s done when the rice it finished cooking / all liquid is gone. I topped my bowl full with a little Daiya cheddar cheese, half an avocado, fresh cilantro and a little pour of my favorite salsa. Takes about 30 minutes from start to finish.

Tuesday: portobello fajitas / tacos

1 yellow onion / 1/2 red and green pepper / EVOO / 3 portobello mushrooms / taco seasoning

Super easy: saute the onions, peppers and mushrooms in EVOO over medium heat until soft – about 15 minutes. Pour in some taco seasoning (we used the Trader Joe’s packet) – stir so that everything is coated and done! We served them in the Trader Joe’s reduced carb wheat wraps with taco sauce / salsa and some homemade guacamole (avocado, tomato, red onion, cilantro, YL lime essential oil). We each had three for reference. SO GOOD!

Wednesday: we had prior plans to celebrate the 1st birthday of Culinary Square! We went downtown to celebrate (code for buy three new ceramic pans off of our registry) and then had a spectacular dinner at Tara Kitchen. The beau and I each tried a new-to-us meal for variety because Tara Kitchen is catering our wedding party next month and we want to taste everything before making the selection. The eggplant dip was shared as an appetizer – oh, that’s going to make an appearance next month! For dinner I tried the chickpeas with oranges, almonds in an apricot and prune sauce – I thought it was going to be too sweet but oh goodness, it was delicious! Taylor had a spicy harissa dish with potatoes and while we both thought it was good, we’re debating serving something that hot at the wedding party. Maybe just one hot dish labeled for those who can handle it? We’re sticking with variety, as we understand not everyone has tried Moroccan food.

Thursday: I felt like shit after work, so frozen burritos it was! Spicy salsa for the win!

So there you have it. I’ve been loving being in the kitchen more and eating outside when we can. Oh! And alcohol wise, because we’re tracking that as well, between the two of us we’ve consumed: three bottles of red wine, a six pack of some brown ale from TJ’s (the beau picked it out), and a growler of some unnamed maple-something ale from Rare Form.

What are some of your favorite go-to (veggie) meals during the work week? Have you found any recipes online that you think I’ll love? Please share!

Budgeting and Meal Planning

April 14, 2017 by zeelemons

Occasionally I go through this phase of WE MUST BUDGET! I then set a budget, we stick to it for a while but then stray off because life is good and I know we aren’t breaking the bank. It’s not like we are missing payments, heck I just paid off my student loans, the beau just got rid of his cc debt annnnnnnd we bought a house. Not too shabby. I still have cc debt from that time I was making minimum wage during graduate school and decided living on the edge was the only way to live (totally was at the time) and the beau still has student loans and now we’d like to do some house upgrades, sooooo I’m back into the WE MUST BUDGET phase. Ha! Here’s my process :

Step one: create a budget. So many resources out there online and the nerd in me loves excel spreadsheets. A little modification now that we are married – what’s yours is mine now happening – and we’re all set. I think the word budget scares a lot of people into thinking that they have to be extremely frugal and sit home and do nothing. No. You figure out how much you make, subtract out savings and non-negotiable payments and split up the rest for food, beer and baseball games. Baseball games include both beer and food FYI.

Step two: figure out what you are currently spending on all the categories in your budget. This my friends is the best part (also the scariest). I did this for the month of March and we spent, no judging here, over $500 on alcohol that month. This included our weekly Friday beer and pretzels, a Green Day show (2 beers were $25!), and random ass trips to the liquor store. Insert jaw drop! Groceries came in just over $530 for the month and dining out, which there’s bound to be a drink mixed in there somewhere, $390. That’s $1422 in food aka fuel for a MONTH! I’m sharing these numbers for accountability; I’m determined to get those numbers down and have more spending cash (and savings too!). We had other categories that were out of whack but I’m in a wedding this summer and the beau bought a car, so I see those evening out.

Step three: figure out a game plan. I instantly turned to meal planning. If we have a plan, we tend to stick to it. Our refrigerator isn’t magnetic = we had to ditch the dry erase board, so I’m back to good old pen and paper with washi tape. Did you know that each month the USDA releases a chart with the average cost of food plans? You can check out February’s here. I’m using this as an inspiration: I’d love to spend $760 or less – that’s more than half than our current spending and a ton of money that could be invested.

Even though I’m starting this mid-April, I’m determined to drastically reduce our mindless spending. First up: the alcohol. Instead of drinking at the bar every Friday, we are going to fill up our growler. Instead of making random trips to the liquor store, we are going to take advantage of a wine club and have a certain amount shipped to us each month. It’s discounted and if we drink it, we drink it. If we don’t, it’ll help fill out our wine rack in the basement. It’s not a fixed expense, so we can stop it at any point. I’m aiming to cut our previous spending in half and spend no more than $250 on alcohol from here on out.

Food. We sure do love to eat and when we don’t feel like cooking (or don’t know what to cook), we tend to order Chinese takeout. And I can state with confidence that my hips don’t need anymore dumplings! I came up with a meal plan for the remainder of the month, starting today. Only Fridays are “locked in” with meals, as I plan to use the crockpot. I chose to do this for the simple fact that on Fridays I don’t feel like cooking – as my mother would say on Friday nights when asked what was for dinner, SKIP. A great way to enjoy a cheap, healthy meal with little to no work. And for clarification, I’ve only planned out our dinners. Both of us are really good about packing a lunch / the beau eats at home and both of us eat prior to leaving the house in the morning.

We have all but two ingredients (crispy onions + pizza dough) on hand to make the following meals:

Friday crockpot meals for the remainder of the month:
– tonight: veggie chili
– black bean soup
– BBQ tempeh with green bean casserole

To prep to keep on hand / freeze for quick meals: southwest quinoa burgers (makes ten)

Anytime meals in no particular order:
– taco salad with soy chorizo
– one pan Spanish rice
– portobello tacos!
– one pan Indian dish
– nachos!
– Shepard’s pie
– pizza or calzones
– frozen burritos
– breakfast for dinner! (pancakes, soy sausage, hash browns)
– the beau’s empty-the-fridge peanut wok meal

Note: there are only 13 meals planned with 17 days remaining this month. I tried to be realistic with how much we’ll want to eat out – like our friend is celebrating one year as a #girlboss so we may go out while downtown. Maybe we’ll skip a drink to save cash, maybe we won’t. We also grabbed some pasta and frozen meals at Trader Joe’s to help us avoid Lee Lin. As we cook our way throughout the month, I’ll try to share more recipes, like the one pot Spanish rice, and post photographs a la IG. Oh! And in case you were wondering, since I’m being open and accountable, our total spending last night on groceries was: $180.16 which did include a six-pack. I’m sure we’ll be back at the market for more fresh veggies and last minute items, but so far, we’re well below our numbers last month. Phew!

Back with an update on numbers in May!

To love. To family. To surprises!

April 4, 2017 by zeelemons

I feel like many of you have been begging for this. Here you go: vendor picks and the big day.

And forewarning, this is going to be a very looooong one.

Where to start?

To answer the number one question: YES this was planned alllllll along. I have the emails to the dress shop to prove it ha ha!

I’ve never been one for big weddings. Not judging anyone and what they choose to do, similar to childbirth, it’s your life (and your money): do what makes you happy. My family has always known this about me and for years, my mom has always said to me, “I don’t care if you elope, just please have me be your witness.” When we got back from our trip to Mexico last February, both my sister and mom asked if we had eloped. Nope, wasn’t even engaged.

The idea of eloping and throwing a surprise wedding had come up in the past, with the beau and with girlfriends. Frankly, I’m shocked that none of them caught on sooner or questioned some of my quick planning, but then again, I really ghosted a lot of people the last month and a half in fear I’d slip. So when our engagement came last October, it was an easy decision for us to settle on a “wedding” date and count backwards, knowing we’d have to sneak in the surprise before then.

Only our vendors and officiant knew what was about to go down. We invited our closest family members – siblings, parents and grandparents – to our “engagement dinner” at Peck’s Arcade. There were 11 of us total in the room. I know for elopements the hot topic is not everyone being involved and here’s my response: that’s okay. If a family member is going to “punish you” for not including them, they aren’t being very supportive of your love and desire for intimacy. Do I wish my grandparents and Uncle were present? Yes. Was I going to sacrifice my surprise to get them there? Unfortunately not. If I wasn’t going to let my mom in on the secret, I wasn’t going to spill the beans. I knew we’d be throwing a party in May and am personally still looking forward to having every single person we invited there to celebrate.

We chose Peck’s Arcade because it was in downtown Troy and we heard they had really good food; neither one of us actually ate there prior to the big day nor could we choose the menu that evening. And oddly enough, we were both pretty okay with the unknown.

Back in October when we chose May to be our “wedding” month, I knew I had to move fast for a dress because they typically say it takes 6 months to have the dress made and finished with alterations. I needed it in 3 months. I wanted to support small business as much as possible, so I chose to visit True North Bridal in Chatham, NY. I remember having to call the owner, Katee, and explaining to her, okay, if my mom says May, just shake your head: I need February! She was a breeze to work with and was a huge help when it came to rushing the dress’ arrival. My mom and sister were there and I tried on probably 10 dresses but chose the first dress I picked up off the rack and tried on: a Daughters of Simone Lilah gown.

Flowers: there was only one person I wanted to design my wedding bouquet and that was Colie, the Flower Scout. We met with her a couple of times to discuss what we wanted but the beau and I were both pretty laid back: we wanted a garland on the table and a boutonniere and a bouquet all with whites and deep reds. That’s it. We didn’t have a choice of flowers or a specific look: I knew whatever she made would be fabulous and perfect. And they were. Last minute I had asked her to decorate our cake and she was on-board; that too came out better than I could have imagined.

Our cake was a vegan vanilla naked cake filled with vanilla frosting and fresh strawberries. Sarah, formally of Xs to Os, oh so kindly made it for us – thank you Sarah!

I’m trying to think of other details we needed to solidify for February 25th: my shoes! Sooooooo, they aren’t vegan. And I had a hard time making that decision but I’m human and make the best decisions I can on a daily basis. I searched and searched and searched for a long time for a vegan replacement but just didn’t love any as much as I did this pair of Swedish Hasbeens. I justified this purchase because I’ll forever get to wear them, paired with jeans, dresses… everything! And I already have worn them a number of times happily… and guilt free. I chose red for a pop of color – thank you Lauren for helping me with this!

Something old: our first toast was done using Taylor’s parents’ champagne glasses from their wedding thirty plus years ago.

Something new: the pair of quartz earrings I purchased from Annick’s.

Something borrowed: the pair of Spanx I wore under my dress (no, I’m not kidding – thank you Maryann!).

Something blue: I had my seamstress sew in the tail of a Smurf stuffed animal – it use to be my Nanny’s.

My engagement ring was made by an artist from Kingston: Rebecca Peacock. It’s absolutely me and I wanted to support her some more and asked her to design our wedding bands. It was wonderful meeting and chatting with her in her studio – there’s something special about knowing the person who physically makes something for you, something you’ll be wearing everyday from here on out. My mom was with me when we picked them up the first time (we had to have them sized again) and I was so nervous she’d catch on by how fast everything was coming together… she didn’t.

Our officiant was my close friend, Phil. We’ve only been friends for a short amount of time (well, 6 years) and he’s been supportive since day one. He was even on our first date! He was the BEST ~~officiant~~ friend a couple could ask for. Besides writing our vows, he made sure his car was fully stocked with water and mints – he was our driver for the day – and he even bought me a clear kitty umbrella so that I could venture out in the predicted rain. And he ran some pre-wedding miles with me the morning of. Kicked my butt!

Lastly, but surely not least, our photographer! DiAnna Marr of Our Two Hearts flew in from Denver, Colorado to be a part of this surprise. When I first reached out to her, I didn’t realize she was living in CO and felt silly that I had reached out to her without figuring out that little detail. Turns out, she grew up here and still has family local, so she was happy to travel east to visit. [She took all of the fabulous photographs in this post.]

Okay, now that you know all of the vendors / little details, on to the big day…

The week prior to our wedding, I realized our birth certificates had been thrown out during the move. Whoops! I was upset and freaking out a tiny bit, but the beau mailed in an application for a duplicate and I took off from work to visit the Town Hall. They both came with time to spare and the day before the wedding, I met the beau on lunch at the Troy City Hall to get our wedding license. The employees were shocked we were there so last minute – we had a good laugh telling them the story.

Leading up to the big day, I didn’t have any nerves. The night prior when I kissed the beau goodnight, I made the comment “when we wake up tomorrow, it’ll be our wedding day.” Instant nerves! I was mostly concerned over how everyone would react. I ran with Phil, took a quick shower and before I knew it, was headed to Jean Paul for hair and makeup. I was sweating so much I was so nervous! I must have calmed down toward the end because when someone asked me where my bridal party was again, I noticed I was back to sweating. Ha!

When I got home, Phil was drinking a beer in our living room and Taylor was upstairs showering. I immediately made myself a mimosa and hung around with the photographer until we heard the beau holler down… his shirt was wayyyyyyyy too big. I ran upstairs and there was the beau, looking like an episode of Seinfeld. We had a good laugh – there was nothing we could do – this was his only white shirt. Once he was dressed with his vest on and hair did, I decided to get into my gown. The beau was there to zip me in and I remember turning around and looking at him and he had this puzzling look on his face – “why were you so worried?” he asked? “You look perfect.”

Swoon. See – and I know this is a sensitive topic for all brides – I’m not in the best shape as of right now. When I got engaged, that was an instant thought I had – “if only I looked like I did a year ago (when training).” I kept thinking to myself, okay, I’ll start working out now and I’ll have X amount of days to be ready. Well, weeks kept ticking by and nothing had changed in my life. In January it kind of clicked: I’m getting married whether I’m 130 pounds or 150 pounds and guess what, I’m pretty happy right now at 150 pounds. I told myself that regardless of how my body looked on my wedding day, I wanted to FEEL happy. I can tell you that I couldn’t stop smiling that day and it shows in our photographs. Ladies who have yet to get married: I’m not telling you to be unhealthy, I’m telling you to be happy. And if your arms aren’t toned, guess what, no one cares.

End little rant. We were dressed, drinking mimosas / beer / wine (a whole slew of bevvies) and it came time for us to figure out a game plan. I knew I wanted photographs taken downtown prior to the surprise because it was suppose to rain. But first! I had to write a little note for my dad to read. See, everyone thought they were showing up for our engagement dinner and the plan was to show up a little late. This note would be read prior to us entering to give away the surprise and kind of let it sink in before I walked in in a wedding gown. We decided to have my dad read the card because he wasn’t going to have the opportunity to walk me down an aisle. It was short and something along the lines of “(Please read out loud) Sorry we’re running a little late, there’s been a slight change in plans. We’re getting married – tonight!”

As we were walking out of the house, I noticed that our neighbor’s daughter, Emily, had drawn a starting line on our sidewalk. I thought it was the PERFECT shot: we were at the starting line of our new adventure together. It’s one of my favorite shots of the day and I can’t wait to print it out to hang in the house.

We drove downtown and decided first to take photographs at Peck’s Arcade before everything went down. I feel like I saw every single person I’ve ever known during those twenty minutes; it was fun and exciting but we were TERRIFIED that a family member would walk around the corner. Phil had to break into our house because I had forgotten the beloved kitty umbrella and as we were standing there waiting for DiAnna, I felt like I was going to freak out. We finally hopped into her car and turned the corner… and there at the light passed the beau’s family and I could have SWORN his sister saw me! Instant panic.

We grabbed some shots under the Green Island Bridge near the TroyBot mural and then headed over to Second Street, where I was living when we first met. We shared our first kiss outside of that apartment, so it was only fitting that we return. Next up: the surprise!

We easily found a parking spot and I instantly had to pee. I thought I was going to pee my pants, frankly. We sent the photographer and Phil into the place to make sure everyone was there and little did we know, they had all been there just moments after we had left. Perfect timing. We walked over and the rest really is a blur. I know Phil walked in asking for my dad, my dad read the card and we walked in to some pretty shocked family members. The one person I remember the most was my sister in the corner, hands on her cheeks, mouth open, and tears running down; I ran over to give her a hug (she admits to not like surprises). I remember a TON of questions:

was this planned all along? YES!
are you pregnant? NO!
what about the dresses we bought? Well I’m wearing mine again so feel free to wear ’em.
was this planned? YES!
are you pregnant? Can I have another glass of wine?
what’s for dinner: We don’t know.
(me) can we get married?!
my mom to my sister: I can’t believe you wore pants to your sister’s wedding!

I don’t know if people thought we were already married because I walked into the room in my dress, and together, but we weren’t and we got married right then and there at the end of the table. After sealing it with a kiss and a toast of champagne, we all sat down for a delicious meal. Really, not stressing about every little detail including the menu was kind of perfect. Also to note: the weather was kind of perfect on this day (I know, I know, can’t control that detail). It was 65 and sunny and SO STORMY while we got married / ate… I heard rain on your wedding day is good luck <3

After our meal, we decided to head over to our favorite brewery, Rare Form, to have a beer. My parents joined us despite the rain and long ride home, and it was a wonderful time. A couple of beers, more champagne, shots of whiskey (my parents had left before that – ha!) and before I knew it, we were walking to The Ruck for one last beer and hot fries. Yes, I ate hot fries on my wedding night and it was phenomenal. Phil even got a shot of us sitting where we sat over five years ago on our first date – I don’t think those college kids liked the idea of moving, but they’ll do anything for a gal in a wedding dress.

I was so hungover the next day, I just about crawled into the bathroom to check my dress for hot sauce: alllllll good.