The littlest things make me happy. This morning it was a bagel with veggie cream cheese and a mocha from Panera, which was my treat for dropping my husband off at the airport at 5am. I'm such a good wife! The other day I was reflecting upon my new favorite finds that I discovered in 2009, which are some other little things that have made me a happier person. Today I want to share these with you and maybe they’ll be some of your new favorite finds of 2010 and bring some more happiness to you!
(In no particular order of greatness)
Garafalo Whole Wheat Pasta
Comes in bowtie, fusilli, and spaghetti. Tastes really good for whole wheat!
Trader Joe’s Organic Dark Chocolate Square 73%
Eat one small square for dessert and it nips my sweet cravings in the bud!
Ultra Downy Pure Essentials Fabric Softener
I had stopped using fabric softener because I read it was bad for your clothes but then I smelled my friend’s towels when I was visiting her and asked what she washed them in, and it was this fabric softener. Now I LOVE doing laundry because I love the way it smells. And I don’t care if it’s bad for my clothes and towels – so worth it!
Nuts
I stopped eating chicken early in 2009 because it was grossing me out. I then started to get the organic Smart chicken brand from Harris Teeter and noticed SUCH A DIFFERENCE! I now only buy this type of chicken – it actually tastes the way chicken is supposed to taste.
Amy Butler and Anna Maria Horner
I learned how to sew this year and I have become a fan of both of these ladies. Check out their websites and fabrics. I love them!
Villa Cerrina Montepulciana D’Abruzzo (from Trader Joe’s)
My New Waterbottle
I love the way it snaps closed and it has a marker on the side to track how many times you’ve filled it up.
Pillsbury Simply Chocolate Chip Cookies
Baking Soda
I love pasta. My sister-in-law is Italian and she makes the best pasta and risotto recipes (one day soon I’m going to post her red wine sausage risotto and you will LOVE it!)
Anyways, here is one of her pasta dishes that I love, but I swapped chicken sausage for pork sausage and whole wheat pasta for regular pasta to make it healthy.
(Again, I’m not going to put how much of each item because you can vary it for how many people will eat. Tonight I made it for one – I just looked at what one serving was for the pasta and measured it out using my scale (actually I 1 ½ it because I was starving and I’m pregnant – although I got really full and ate only half so 56 grams of dry pasta is plenty for one person. Then I add as much mushroom and spinach as I want because it’s healthy.)
Here’s how to make it:
A lot of my friends think it must be hard not to make a paycheck and depend solely on my husband.
“Does he let you shop? If I were a stay-at-home-wife I’d spend too much money!”
It’s true. It’s hard not to want to go shopping every day. You’d think you’d get bored and sick of cleaning, laundry, web surfing, organizing, etc. and turn the mall into your daily “hangout” spot. And it does at times. On days where I’m feeling bummed, I treat myself with a visit to the mall or to a bookstore and it’s really hard not to buy anything! I think the hardest part of being at home instead of working is not making any money. I feel guilty if I want to go and get a pedicure, or buy some clothes, or get a facial. Some days it’s hard to get motivated to do much and I definitely feel like a bum!
So… a few months ago I decided to come up with a system to feel like I’m getting paid for being a stay-at-home-wife. I know this job can’t come close to the amount of work it is to be a stay-at-home-Mom, but it IS work and I do feel like I should be paid or rewarded in some way and earn money to use on myself. For example, I despise cleaning! Of course, we had to cancel our cleaning service when I stopped working, so now it’s my job if I want to live in a sanitary environment – and I do. We were probably spending up to $120 a month, so why shouldn’t I earn a little bit of money for cleaning the house myself. We’ll still end up saving money because I’m not going to charge myself that much to clean this house! So now, to motivate me to clean each week, I’ve been rewarding myself points for cleaning and these points, of course, turn into real money for me to spend on myself. Cha-ching!
My husband says, “Where is this play money coming from?" when I told him about my new system, but I quickly informed him it wasn’t play money, it was real money, and it was coming from his pay check. But, I then quickly assured him I would be saving money in the long run because I would be less likely to shop unless I EARNED it. And I’m telling you – it really works!
| Item | Points Awarded |
| Eating healthy | Up to 4 points based on how healthy I was that day |
| No mocha or latte | 3 points (I’m addicted and I never get these points - it’s costs about $3 to get this drink every day which is why it’s a whopping 3 points) |
| Drink only water or green tea (no sodas, hot chocolate, reg. tea, wine, etc.) | 1 point (I still get this point even if I have a mocha – but I can’t have any of those other drinks. Can you tell I’m addicted to my Starbucks each day?) |
| Walk dogs | 2 points |
| Clean house | 20-30 points (depends on how good of a job I do) |
| Brush dogs’ teeth | 2 points |
| Groom dogs (wash and give Brady a haircut) | 15 points for Brady (costs me $70 if I take him to a dog salon so I’m saving money here!) and 5 points for Mason |
| Wash dog bed | 2 points |
| 30 minutes cardio | 3 points |
| Strength class | 2 points |
| Yoga class | 2 points |
| Volunteer | 2 points per hour |
| Sub | 20 points per day (get paid $60 so $40 goes towards stuff not directly for me) |
I hope this sounds like a fun thing for you to start and a great way to help you stay on track with your New Year’s resolutions. Reward yourself for whatever you’d like – Ex. If you’re trying to quit smoking – give yourself a point for every time you want a cigarette and don’t have one.
It definitely has been a lot of fun keeping track of my points each night and a great tool for me.
Happy Point Tracking!
Whole wheat pasta
Sometimes I use thin spaghetti, sometimes fusilli, sometimes bowties. I love the Garafalo brand from Harris Teeter (comes in spaghetti, fusilli, and bowtie form) or I’ll do the Barilla whole grain thin spaghetti.
Some type of protein -I did chicken tonight but sometimes I’ll do shrimp or chicken sausage
Cherry or grape tomatoes
Chopped onion (whatever you have – red, white, yellow)
Garlic - a few cloves
Extra virgin olive oil
A little bit of some type of liquid to deglaze the pan (either chicken or veggie stock or even better, white wine!)
Fresh baby spinach (lots!)
Red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper
Lemon (optional, but definitely if you do shrimp)
Some type of fresh herb – basil, Italian parsley (also optional)
Parmesan cheese
Here’s how I do it and it’s only takes 20 minutes or less.
*And for those who read my entry from a few days ago, I did eat this dinner tonight with the TV off and at my kitchen table. I’m still eating faster than I should, but at least I’m paying more attention to what I’m putting in my mouth and not focused on the TV. Go me!
I love to run, but it’s becoming more difficult with my growing belly. I've had to officially stop running now and resort to walking - I despise the elliptical. I don’t love the treadmill, either, but with this cold weather, I’d rather be inside than out. The other week I remembered a walking routine I used to do before I started running that I’ve been trying in order to spice up those 30 minutes on the treadmill. If you’re having one of those days where you are stuck inside on a treadmill at the gym and don’t feel like running, you might want to try this:
Set your walking pace to 4.0.
| Time | Incline |
| Minutes 0-4 | 2 |
| Minutes 4-10 | 4 |
| Minutes 10-14 | 6 |
| Minutes 14-16 | 8 |
| Minute 16-17 | 10 |
| Minutes 17-19 | 8 |
| Minutes 19-23 | 6 |
| Minutes 23-28 | 4 |
| Minutes 28-30 | 2 |
Happy Walking!
I love a new year only because it provides the opportunity to set new goals and change the bad habits I’ve formed over the past two months – especially over the holidays. I tend to do a mini-new year every Monday (eat healthy this week, go to the gym every day, etc.), but there’s something about the “real” new year that makes me feel more obligated to stick with it. I’ve read it takes six weeks to change a habit. If this is true, that means by Valentine’s Day I will one productive, healthy person and I might have to change my blog name from Bungalow Bum to Bungalow Superstar!
I’m not going to bore you with all of my new year resolutions (I always have at least five or six), but I do want to share one of them I started to work on last night – to eat slower. I’ve noticed I SCARF down my food as if someone is going to steal it any minute and I won’t get any more food for days! It’s such a bad habit and I’m sure I end up eating more food than I need to at each meal. Coincidently, I ran across an article last week in an old issue of a “Body and Soul” magazine that talked all about this and it gave me a couple of pointers:
There were probably some others, but I don’t remember them. These were the three I decided to try. So... last night instead of sitting in front of the TV I set a place at our kitchen table, which usually is a place for piling junk. I put out a napkin and cute napkin ring (Christmas gift from my friend Cameron) and picked a plate I thought the meal would look pretty on. I asked my husband to pick some classical, nice music (he picked Christmas tunes of all things!) and I worked on eating slower. Now, I still cleaned my plate and probably ate faster than I should have, but it's a start and hopefully this will be my new habit.
Giada’s Stuffed Pork Chops with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Spinach
I stuffed chicken breasts tonight but have also done the pork chops. Both are really good.
Ina Garten’s Parmesan-Roasted Broccoli
One thing I learned in 2009 is that roasting any vegetable in the oven tastes so much better than steaming them.
I used to make this all the time and my husband got sick of it, so it was a treat for me tonight and it was just as good as I remembered! Toss in fresh Italian parsley at the end to make it even better.
Happy slow eating!
