Thoughts on a Thursday

Link up with Carolyn to share your Thoughts on a Thursday!

• I am so so sooooo glad that tomorrow is Friday.  Sadly, one of my coworkers died very suddenly and tragically last week and ever since then we have been spread pretty thin with taking care of our clients and work, but also taking care of hers.  We are actually hiring right now (shout out to any project managers in the NC area) so hopefully once someone gets hired and trained it should slow down.
• I have to go pick up a few things at Sam's Club tomorrow and I'm already sort of excited for the train wreck that it will be.  Sam's is always super super crowded on Friday nights and there are always some of the weirdest people in there.  Last time some old woman told me that I was "beautiful" in the canned meats aisle.
• This weekend is supposed to be beautiful with highs in the mid 70s......enough said.
• I'm thinking about starting to bake our own bread on the weekends.  I normally buy a loaf of bread for KB to eat sandwiches for lunch and I've noticed that bread is sort of expensive.  It can't be that hard to make your own bread right?  My mom and grandma do it a lot and theirs always turns out okay.  Any good recipes or tips would be greatly appreciated!
• Verizon delivered me a new phone today!  I lost my phone last weekend and was due for an upgrade, so the cheapskate in me decided to get the free phone that was offered to me.  At first I really wanted a smartphone, but after talking to people that had them, I don't think I'd use it that much.  I also didn't want to pay $30 for a data package that I probably wouldn't use.  Basically it was a battle with my cool self and my cheap self.....the cheap self won.

What are your thoughts on a Thursday?

Reading Rainbow...

Take a look....it's in a book.....

Just like Levar Burton, I'm going to tell you my favorite books I'm reading these days.

This is one of the best books that I've read in a really long time.  I went into it thinking that I would hate it, especially with all the hype I'd heard about The Kite Runner.  Last night it was all I could do to stop myself from reading it and go to bed.  It actually almost made me cry....almost.....I couldn't let KB see what a weirdo I was for crying over a book.  It is really moving and I definitely want to read more of Khaled Hosseini's books now.

KB actually got me this book for Valentine's Day a really long time ago and I'm re-reading it now.  It has lots of useful factoids and tidbits in a funny easy to read style.  I normally don't read nonfiction books, but this one is pretty good.  It's very easy to understand, but also has lots of useful info about keeping yourself pretty....inside and out.

So....what are you reading these days?

Hmmmmm????

Sugar High

via

I just almost ate an entire bag of Starburst Jelly Beans.  These are one of my absolute favorite candies.  I'm normally not a huge jelly bean fan, but these are heaven.  My blood sugar levels will not be in heaven in a few hours.....but who cares.

Workout Review: The Firm Cardio Dance Fusion

When I first turned this workout on I was pretty sure I was going to hate it.  The girl that hosts is very very happy.  Most of the time by the time I get home from work, cook dinner, deal with the puppies and actually have time to work out....I'm not very happy.  She actually talks a lot like the older judge lady from the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders tryout show.

Even though the host was a little annoying, the workout itself wasn't too bad.  There are four dance segments (latin, jazz, cheer and modern).  The latin, cheer and jazz sections were all pretty challenging and had a lot of jumping and advanced choreography.  You learn the routines pretty fast, but you end up repeating them at least 4 or 5 times, so it's pretty easy to get eventually.  I was not a big fan of the modern routine.  I actually thought this was the cool down because there's such a change in the intensity level.  It's a lot of ballet type things that I'm not really into.

There are 2 segments on the DVD, an express 25 minute dance version and the full hour long version. I only did the hour version, but the 25 minutes may be better if you can't take the double dose of pageant smiles and "cheer hands"!

Menu Sunday

Here's what the Browns will be eating this week:

Mon: Tuna Noodle Casse-Bowl
        KB loves tuna.  We never really ate fish growing up, so I'm having to learn how to deal with it.  The Hungry Girl always has some really quick, easy and healthy recipes.  I couldn't find the shiritake noodles in our podunk grocery store (surprise, surprise), so I'll be using whole wheat elbow macaroni.

Tues: Mom's Frittata
         I love frittatas.  They are easy and cheap.  I'll be making the Spinach and Swiss version of this recipe.  I'm going to be substituting kale instead of spinach since I had to buy it for another recipe.

Wed: Orecchiette-alla-Rustica
         I can hardly pronounce this one, but the recipe looks pretty easy.  This will be our meatless meal for the week.  Since I couldn't find the orecchiette, I'm going to use the rest of the whole wheat elbows.  I'm not a huge olive fan, but kalamata olives are not nearly as gross as normal olives, so hopefully it won't be too bad.

Thurs: Winter Lentil Soup
         Even though it's not supposed to really feel like winter here next week, I had almost all the ingredients to make this on hand.  This looks like it would be a good recipe to use up any leftover dried beans or veggies that you have laying around.  I'm going to try to adapt this into a slow cooker recipe and up the water/stock so hopefully it won't be too dry.

Fri: Pizza, sandwiches....something I don't have to cook.
       I'm taking the day off.....kitchen's closed!

What goodies will you be eating this week?

Recipe Review: Lamb, Balsamic and Sundried Tomato Meat Loaf

While my loaf isn't quite as lovely as the one on the recipe it ended up tasting pretty good.  My loaf was a little dry.  I ended up substituting ground chicken for the lamb, but I didn't add in any additional oil to the recipe, so I think the leaner meat ended up making it dry.

This recipe was really simple and the only drawback is the fact that it has to cook for almost an hour.  Due to the balsamic vinegar and the sundried tomatoes it had a really nice salty bite.  The whole reason I made this recipe is because it doesn't have a sauce.  KB refuses to eat meat loaf with any type of sauce on it.  That being said, I think this would be really good with some balsamic vinaigrette baked on top of it.

Thoughts on a Thursday

It's time for thoughts on a Thursday!  Link up with Carolyn to play along.

• I can't believe that it's Thursday already!  This week has flown by.  Both KB and I have been really busy with work and it seems like this week has just started.
• Has anyone tried this laundry detergent before?

I got it because it was on sale at Sam's and I needed laundry detergent.  So far it smells kind of weird, but in a good way.  Supposedly it's all natural, but I'm a little skeptical.

• I scored a lot of free clothes this week...woohooo.  A coworker of mine that has lots more money than me and much better fashion sense than me, but is luckily the same size as me is cleaning out her closet and has brought me 4 bags of clothes.....4 BAGS!  It's like Christmas every time I see her.  Some people are weird about taking other people's clothes, but most of them still had the tags on them.
• I've started to look around for bathing suits for this year's summer vacations.  Most of the time I like the freedom of a bikini, but I'm definitely not the tonest girl on the block.  It doesn't really bother me and most of the time I wear a bikini anyway, but I'm thinking I might tone down my look this year. I really love this suit:

But the tightwad in me says that $200 is way too much for something you only wear a couple of months out of the year.

What are your thoughts on this Thursday???