My busy weekend continued into Sunday, but with a fun shopping trip and errands in the house.

I think this is now my third weekend in a row enjoying a Great Harvest Blueberry Oat Bran muffin but goshdarnit, they are just so good! Plus, I think they’re fairly healthy. I had mine with a fried cage-free egg and half an organic navel orange.

I went shopping with my friend Megan for some fun stuff. Can’t spoil the surprise but these bags may give an indication – new photos to be shared tomorrow!

We also hit up McAllister’s for lunch.

Megan got a yummy looking Chicken Caesar wrap and macaroni and cheese (didn’t even know that was an option!).

I had a half turkey melt and Mediterranean salad.

Plus a giant sweet tea.

Back home, I worked on organizing my files.

Organizing files: I have hanging folders for various items (bills, taxes, etc) and in the hanging folders I put tabbed folders with the item name plus the year. This way, I can remove the tabbed folders but leave the hanging folders, only replacing the tabbed folders with new ones for the current year. As you can see the year is almost halfway over and I’m just now getting to this, but heeeey, better late than never, right?

I tried out a new BBQ sauce tonight for dinner – Annie’s Naturals Organic BBQ in Original Recipe. It’s gluten free and vegan!

Ingredients – too long for M Pollan but pretty good ingredients on there.

Nutrition.

Boneless BBQ Baked Chicken Breasts: I marinated boneless, skinless chicken breasts in some of the sauce for about an hour. I put them in a prepped baking dish and added a little bit of water to the dish. I sprinkled salt, pepper, and garlic powder on the chicken. I baked the dish covered with aluminum foil for about 20 minutes, then brushed more sauce on the tops, then baked uncovered for about 30, till the chicken was cooked through.

I had the chicken with some vegetarian Bush’s baked beans and TJ’s soycuttash. Plus a yummy Virginia roll heated in the oven so it tasted fresh-baked…yum!

Hubby and I watched the latest Flash Forward over dinner. I cant believe there’s only one episode left and then they’re canceling it! Booooooo! I can’t wait to see how it ends! I mean, they ended the episode and everyone seemed to be in all the wrong places. And how will Demetri fit into the picture???

I had an Earthfare WW vegan chocolate chip cookie on the side.

I’ve been eating so much dessert lately! I know I’m a big sweet tooth and all, but I think I’m desserted out. If that’s even possible! Think I may be laying off the sweets for a bit…well, maybe with an exception of tomorrow.

You’ll seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

How was your weekend? And what do you think is in the shopping bags!?

Hubby and I took this morning as an opportunity to get organized. We worked on putting things back into our cabinets.

Note space for new bowls and plates!

I’ve decided that though I like my kitchen tools lazy susan, it’s really not that attractive, so I’m going to try hiding it inside our cabinets.

After our hard work in the kitchen, Hubby and I took Bailey out for a walk to get some fresh air.

I must say, the day is beautiful outside! Gorgeous blue-blue skies!

Bailey, of course, loved being outside and getting some exercise.

We came home and heated up some of my Mom’s Get Well soup for lunch, which I had with a bit of OJ.

I saved some room after the soup for a snack.

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I think I’ve come up with my best oatmeal invention yet – tea-infused oats! I’ll be doing a how-to next.

I give you – Earl Gray Infused Oatmeal!

I cooked my oats stovetop and super low and let some loose Earl Grey Creme tea leaves infuse in the milk/water mixture as I went.

Such a light and simple flavor but sooo good!

Since the flavor of tea is subtle, I kept the toppings easy:

• sliced almonds
• hemp seeds
• tea leaves

I’m going to try green tea next! Which tea would you like to see me try after that?

My cleaning/organization frenzy continued when I decided to tackle a monster project…

The BASEMENT! Dum dum dum! The basement is where most of our stuff remains unpacked and where we left them on move-in day.

I haven’t taken much time tackling these boxes since we don’t really have any furniture for me to unpack stuff into. But, today, I decided that the best idea for us would be to unpack our stuff, group like items, and then take a look at what we have. Once we know what we have by group, we’ll be able to better figure out what furniture we need to store our stuff.

I got some good work done in the basement which was good, but by the time I was ready for a break, I wasn’t really feeling like cooking. We couldn’t eat out since we’re doing Eat in Month, so I decided to find an easy recipe that would cook up quickly. Hubby was sweet and went to the grocery store for us while I researched recipes for the rest of the week. I was looking for recipes to use up the mascarpone and parmesan I opened yesterday. I found a few potentials. So many good ones!

I decided to make an old favorite – Ina Garten’s Linguine with Shrimp Scampi. I usually think of this dish more as a summer dish, but I thought was perfect for tonight since it’s so easy, uses few ingredients, and cooks up quickly.

I was craving fresh pasta, so hubby picked up some fresh egg linguine pasta from a local shop that specializes in fresh pasta.

From the same shop, he picked up some rosemary foccacia. This stuff is heaven!

I refreshed the bread by drizzling it with EVOO, topping with a sprinkle of sea salt, and baking at 350 degrees F for about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, I cooked the main attraction.

Vibrant lemons and pretty green parsley from my mom’s potted plant.

This dish took about 6-7 minutes of cooking time and 2 pans. Nice, no?!

Hubby and I enjoyed dinner whilst watching The Proposal. There were some really funny scenes. Overall, it was pretty cute!

Yum yum! Round #1.

Seconds.

You know…I may have been hoping for take-out tonight but I need to remember how easy a delicious and nutritious home-cooked meal can be! I felt very satisfied for staying in for dinner tonight. Thank you Eat in Month!

Speaking of Eat in Month, I updated the page and we have 12 fabulous participants! It’s not too late to join in on the festivities if you’re interested!

The last of our cinnamon rolls for dessert. Hubby and I shared it.

Even Bailey got in on the deliciousness with a Bowser (Dog) Beer (it’s beef broth basically).

Nom nom nom!

Omg, just realizing that my staycation is almost over…so sad! I have so much more I still want to do! Back to work on Monday!

Anyone have any interesting eats tonight?

I was looking forward to leftover cinnamon rolls for breakfast today. They re-heat surprisingly well!

I made a fried egg to go along with my roll. Dee-lish! 1/2 Christmas Blend + 1/2 Peppermint Creme to drink.

Hubby noticed someone had gotten quite comfy on our bed while we were busy eating breakfast.

I took a moment to start reading Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff. I only read one chapter. I know they’re basically only a page or two long, but what I’d really like to do is take the time to understand the chapter and really think about it for a day or more before moving on to the next.

I enjoyed the book with some hot tea. I combined Teavana Mate Vana with Rooibos Caramel and organic cane sugar…mmm. Isn’t the amber color of the tea in sunlight beautiful?

Besides making resolutions and setting goals, I also like to take advantage of the fresh start of the new year to motivate myself to get organized. I decided to try to downsize my clothes since hubby and I are in the process of picking out wardrobe/clothing storage furniture. The less clothes I have, the less/smaller furniture I need (which means saving $).

I started by tackling my “sweater bins.” I have 3 – 2 for normal sweaters and 1 for casual/work-out sweatshirts/fleeces. As you can see, my bins no longer actually contain all my sweaters/sweat-shirts.

After carefully going through each bin and trying to pick out the items I truly haven’t worn in the last year, I created a pile of items to remove. I also pulled items that don’t fit me well or styles that I’ve outgrown.

The single white sweater will be donated. The rest will go to my parents house. See, I have a terrible time parting with my clothes, so as a compromise to get the clothes OUT of my house, I’ve decided to move them to my parent’s house. This way, I will have emergency clothes when we visit, in the event I forget to pack something AND it will buy me some time to think about my decision. If I miss the clothes, I can always get them back. If I don’t miss them at all, then after a year, it’s probably time to donate them.

Bins AFTER. Muuuuuch better!

After my success with the sweaters, I tackled my closets (yes, our house has no WICs so I have to use more than one).

I followed the same guidelines (not worn in a year, outgrown, doesn’t fit well) and selected several items to move to my parents house, donate, or try to consign.

Sadly, my closets don’t look much emptier for all my hard work but I do feel good about the work I got done today.

I’m considering selling some of my clothes in the best condition online. Anyone interested?

Lunch was leftovers. I ate the rest of the collards, black eyed peas, and tossed in some pretzels (not literally) because I was craving something salty.

Honestly, I also kept lunch light so I could indulge in another cinnamon roll. I mean, I don’t want them to go bad so they MUST be eaten!

Now we only have one left! Gasp!

Perhaps I should make more sooner than later, eh?

Does anyone else have any Northface fleeces? They are so darn bulky! I’m wondering how to store mine. How do you store your fleeces?

So, I kind of want to cry right now because I’m EXTREMELY sleepy and just want to go to bed and just poured an HOUR into a fabulous blog post, only to have this stupid publishing tool delete the WHOLE THING! Waah…ok, I’ll try to re-create…ugh!

This may be an abbreviated version of what was an awesome post.

Woke up at 1am to nausea and had to yak. Not sure why, but hoping it was just something not sitting right on my tummy. Woke up again at 9a to dog walking all over me trying to wake me up without being loud. Silly guy.

Made fried eggs for me and hubs for bfast.

I had mine candlelit with some GReat Harvest Honey Whole Wheat toast with Earthfare organic pomegranate jelly and coffee.

Post breakfast, I worked on my other bathroom to give it a mini makeover.

I washed out the cabinets and applied more of that pretty decorate paper.

Bailey inspected my work and gave me the A-ok. Not sure what to do about that stain in the back of the cabinet, though. I couldn’t scrub it away!

With my cabinets ready to use, I decided to organize my beauty products.

I got all my beauty products out and was SHOCKED at how much I have. Granted some were free samples from when I wrote reviews for a popular online review web site, but still!

I’d really like to work on simplifying my life overall and I see a lot of room for improvement here.

I sorted out products that were expired or almost empty and tossed them.

I grouped what was left, organized them into caddies and placed them in my newly made over cabinets.

AFter the bathroom/beauty product prjoect, I broke for lunch: toasted turkey sammie and edamame with water and OJ.

I met our new neighbors during lunch:

Mr. and Mrs. Squirrel! Aren’t they cute?

Not as cute as this guy, though!

Since I had today off, I wanted to spend the ENTIRE day cleaning and organizing but hubby had other plans, so after lunch, hubby and I headed out for some more shopping for the house.

On the way to the stores, we stopped by a local bakery to pick up a snack – I had 6 donut holes and a bite of hubby’s cinnamon swirl roll. They were delish, but didn’t sit quite well on my stomach.

We hit up the Habitat ReStore, but didn’t find anything. While we shopped around, I started feeling dizzy and icky, so decided hot tea sounded good. Luckily there was a coffee shop next door.

Check out their mug chandelier.

I got some lovely Moroccan Mint with honey. yum!

Next up, we hit up Bed Bath and Beyond.

We liked these curtains but weren’t ready to buy them.

I thought this candle had a great message: “Everyday holds the possibility of a miracle.”

Hubby and I found some stuff we liked but decided to get them when we were ready to make a big trip of it (we have a 20% off our entire purchase coupon – not easy to find).

Since it was almost 9 pm by the time we were done shopping, we had to do another dinner out. Man, all this shopping is taking all my organizing and cooking time away! Grr…

It seems we’re doing more window shopping and less buying, but I’m starting to get tired of all the window shopping! lol

Ok, guys, ecto is really not playing nice with me tonight, so I’m going to complete this post with a separate post momentarily. Hopefully, my posts don’t get deleted this time!