Suuuper Yummy!!!

I made the most wonderful sandwich today (compliments of Rachael Ray :) ). It is so good and figure friendly.

What you need:

2 pieces of bread

1 chicken breast

1 gala apple

One wedgde of Laughing Cow cheese or a slice of swiss cheese

olive oil/canola oil/etc. whatever you prefer.

Pound the chicken until pretty thin. Season chicken with a little salt and pepper. Cook it in a saute pan or grill it. Cut the apple into really thin slices. Saute the apple slices in oil, yes, that's right, saute it... trust me it's good. It seems to release the sugary taste and adds a wonderful sweet touch to the sandwich. Spread the laughing cow cheese on a slice of bread, scoop the apples on, add the chicken breast, add the other slice of bread. Then grill the sandwich in the same saute pan you cooked the apples in ( just like you would for grilled cheese). Hint: the bread won't sizzle like it would with butter, so you have to keep an eye on it. Remove from skillet and ENJOY!!! You'll love it! And feel a teensy bit of guilt for it either.

So I've been super curious about Laughing Cow cheese for a while now, and when I saw this recipe I used a coupon and went and got some. It's so creamy and there are only 50 calories a wedge. It's really good. But using regular swiss cheese would great too, I'm sure!!

Sugar!!

So, I seriously believe I am addicted to sugar. I purposely don't buy sugary things, because I end up craving it every single day. It's not the "good" sugar that I crave either.. it's the bad - candy, cookies, brownies - kind of sugar. And I try to ignore it, but it literally becomes annoying to ignore. It's like nagging me at the back of my mind that I have to have it. So, I'll find myself looking to see what I have in the pantry and luckily I rarely have anything on hand - it's usually mixes that I'm too lazy to make. Haha. But the annoying, nagging tendency to eat sugar is real for me. I think a lot of people have this.. at least that's what I've noticed (or maybe it's wishful thinking in hopes that I'm not alone :) ). My 2 biggest weaknesses are ice cream and chocolate chip cookies, so those are rare things that we keep in our house - I don't even like to have chocolate chips on hand because I'll probably end up making chocolate chip cookies. Does anyone have suggestions of how I can deal with this?? Help!! :D

Pavlov's Dog

I had an experience similar to this today. For those of you who aren't familiar with Pavlov's dog. This guy named Pavlov conducted an experiment with his dog. Every time he'd ring this bell he'd feed his dog. Ring the bell, feed the dog, ring the bell, feed the dog. It got to the point that the dog would begin to salivate at the sound of the bell.

Well, Lydia has really started loving this game we play with her. One of us will hide and crawl out and chase her and then tickle her. She loves it. She laughs and crawls to the other one in the room to save her. It's like we're "base" or something. Anyway, so she and I were sitting in her doctor's office today waiting for her doctor to come in. She was sitting in the middle of the room playing when all of sudden we heard thumping in the hallway (someone was walking.. rather loudly.. down the hall). To her it sounded like someone was crawling towards her.. haha. So, she stops playing, starts laughing and crawls to me as fast as she could. I picked her up and she stared at the door just waiting for daddy to crawl in and start tickling her. lol. She just stared at the door with a smile on her face. It was so funny. Of course, daddy never came in. It still makes me laugh thinking about it. She's so fun :)

Choices

We certainly don't have a lack of those. It's a totally different kind of trial. We find ourselves having to choose between 2 good things. Derek is currently working for Intermountain Healthcare. He's an assistant to an orthopedic surgeon. He (Derek) graduated from BYU with a degree in Athletic Training and also Exercise Science. This was a good call, because from here he can go a myriad of different directions. He can stay on the Athletic Training route, The Physical Therapy route, Physician Assistant route, Medical school route.. to name a few. We are currently looking into the last two on that list. It's so interesting because neither of them were even considerations until super recently. Working for a doctor of orthopedics has really struck something in Derek. He finds it so fascinating. And as he talks with the doctor and asks questions he likes it more and more. It's exciting to discover another possible future for us! The time and the money are 2 big deterants (is that a word?) for us though. So, we thought: what about PA school? They do a lot of the same things as doctors. It takes half the time (and of course pays half.. or less.. as much. which we're super fine with). There are so many advantages to both. For me, I have exactly the same number of pros and cons for both. The problem with PA school is what if he decides he wants to be a full blown doctor someday? PA seems like the perfect solution, but it has its limitations. It would be perfect if, after years and years of experience as a PA, there was a test you could take or just a couple more years of school to become an MD. But it doesn't work that way.. (oddly). You'd have to go back to Medical School.

Well, that's the boat we're in right now. We certainly are blessed to HAVE all these choices, but it seems to be a recurring trial for us. The Lord is leaving it up to us. But we just sometimes wish we could see the end from right here. We want to be able to look ahead 5, 10 years from now and see where we'd be. But that would take the fun out of life, wouldn't it? :)

Oh My Peaches!

My sis-in-law Chelsea hooked us up with a couple boxes of peaches, and so Derek and I spent Monday canning them. I have never canned before. Derek remembers helping out as a kid, so he was the knowledgeable one on this one. We canned 6 quarts and 6 pints of peaches, 6 quarts of peach pie filling, 6 pints of peach salsa, and 10 jars of peach freezer jam. Things went well for the most part. Except that in our first batch of peaches a jar exploded. Ok.. that's an exageration. See picture below. The bottom just blew out when I put in the bath. And.... then there was the fact that some of our jars didn't seal, so we then turned those peaches into the pie filling and jam. Haha. It all looks so good!

The jar that exploded :)

The Result

This was my first shopping trip with this new coupon mentality that's why I'm making kind of a big deal out of it. (See previous post) :D So, Here is what I found. The total I entered yesterday was taking into account my freshvalues card. Without that card I would have spent$32.?? I can't remember the change. Using my card brought me down to $22.29. Using my coupons brought me down to the grand total of $9.35. I don't know how I was that off, but I'd rather go down and than up. :) But from top to bottom that's a 72% savings. Kind of exciting! Here's what I got.

Money Saving Mom

I stole that title from a blog I go to frequently nowadays. I have caught the"coupon bug." Let me tell you, it can get confusing and very time consuming, but it is paying off. For example, Smith's is having a sale this week, and so I am taking advantage of it. I've gone and found coupons for all but 1 thing on my list.
Without the sale and without the coupons I'd be spending $28.33 (probably more since that total takes into account my smith's savings card).
If I were to take advantage of just the sale without the coupons I'd spend $21.92.
BUT with my coupons, ladies and gentlemen, I will be spending $14.55.
That's a huge savings and I'm getting quite a bit. I'll take a pic of it tomorrow to show what I got.

It feels to good to contribute to our finances in some way. I started learning the ropes from my sister-in-law and cousin-in-law. Now my coupons are organized and it will get easier from now on I think.

Here are a couple sites I go to if anyone is interested:

http://moneysavingmom.com/
http://thekrazycouponlady.com/