WEEKEND RECAP AND MENU MONDAY

Hope everyone had a very Happy Halloween. I had a very low key weekend because I sent Kenny off to Austin, Texas to see his favorite band play with a bunch of his friends for his birthday. He had an absolute blast and dressed up as a cowboy for Halloween. When in Texas do what the Texans do...right?

On Friday night I went to dinner with Tracy where I ordered an obscene amount of sushi. I have a serious self control problem when it comes to ordering sushi. After dinner we ran to the grocery store because I needed to pick some things up for my Junior League shift the next morning. We did talk about how old we are. I mean really. Dinner and grocery shopping on a Friday night. Ha!

Saturday morning I had two Junior League Merry Marketplace Shifts back to back. Uggg. One I worked in the hospitality suite and another was for my Kids in the Kitchen placement. We were doing food demonstrations. After being there since 7:30 AM i went home and napped for 4 hours. I never nap. I was soooo tired.

Saturday night I met up with Christin and JR where we gave out candy to trick or treater at their house, watched The Exorcist (really fast forwarded to all the good parts) and then went to a local bar for some food, drinks and a little karaoke. It was low key and wonderful.

Sunday, I picked Kenny up from the airport and then we napped during a little football. It was heavenly. It seemed like I napped through most of my weekend. I did manage to make a delicious and low fat casserole for dinner. Can yall believe its November????? Time to start planning our Thanksgiving menu.

Here is what is on the Menu for the week.

SUNDAY - Taco Casserole served with corn and green beans (this is from the past menus but I just now got around to making it) WW- 6pts per serving

MONDAY- Baked Shrimp & Grits served with a side salad and a Dijon lemon vinaigrette.

WW-8pts per serving

TUESDAY - Taco Casserole leftovers

WEDNESDAY - Ultimate Chicken Fingers served with new potatoes and broccoli 

WW- 3pts for 3 chicken fingers

THURSDAY - Shrimp and Grits leftovers

BACK TO THE GRIND

I started feeling bad last weekend and by Tuesday I was in bed. Not sure if it was a cold or virus but I am pretty sure that it was not the Swine. Which I almost wish it was just so that I could be done with it. But after two whole days of watching every horror movie on TV along with a marathon of that show A Haunting which I happen to love I am back to work. Although looking at the weather here in Memphis I should of just stayed in bed. It is sooooo gross here.

On a much much happier note! I was so pleased to see that as of today I have lost 15lbs!! I am so happy with my results and can't wait to get to my next goal!! I would like to lose at least another 10lbs. But we will see. If I were to lose 10 more I would be the smallest I have been in a loooooong time. Weight Watchers works! Ha!

Last night when Kenny got home we made plans to watch Poltergeist. One of my favorite Halloween movies ever. I love this movie! And for the entire seven years that Kenny and I have been together I try to get him to watch this movie every Halloween. Last night we FINALLY watched it. Annnnnnnd he hated it. How is that even possible. I looove that movie and think that it is such a Halloween classic.

I think in the next couple nights I want to watch a horror movie that I remember terrifying me when I was little that I noticed was listed on OnDemand. Sleepaway Camp II. Anyone ever seen it? Can you tell I love scary movies.

EDITED TO ADD: Okay so I watched Sleepaway Camp II last night and that movie was soooo different than the way I remembered it. It was so scary when I was younger but this time I found parts of it to be funny. The acting was horrible and overall the movie was very campy. It was demented and dirty and most of just weird. Will not be watching it again.

BIRTHDAY WEEKEND

So let me first say HAPPY BIRTHDAY KENNY!!!! This weekend was Kenny's birthday. So we made plans to relax and enjoy ourselves a little since we had been going non-stop.

Friday night Kenny and I went for a casual dinner date to Memphis Pizza Cafe. It was slammed but very delicious. Once we were done eating we headed home to meet my mom who was coming in town.

On Saturday Kenny had to work in the morning but had requested for my mom to make his favorite meal that she cooks and watch the Florida vs. State game. So while Kenny worked my mom and I ran errands. I ran into Vineyard Vines to buy him some hokies that he had wanted so that he would have something small to unwrap because I am sending him to Austin to see his favorite band for his big birthday present, but I couldn't resist getting him one of their new college polos that has the Mississippi State Bulldog on the chest. Then we grabbed lunch and swung by Muddy's Cupcakes to get the birthday boy some cupcakes. The New Yorker is his favorite. Chocolate cake with cream cheese icing. All of their cupcakes are so good though!!!

Saturday night my sister came over and we watched the Bulldogs hang in there with Florida. We played our hearts out even if we did lose.

Sunday morning Kenny had requested a country breakfast with country ham (which I have never cooked before). I found him the biggest piece of country ham you have ever seen. It was so big that he cut a big piece of it off to put in a biscuit as a snack for later. We were helping my mom load her car when I came back into the kitchen to find that the ham that was on the plate was now gone. Lena ate Kenny's ham. How selfish! Ha! Guess dogs don't understand birthdays.

Sunday night we went to see Paranormal Activity. It was really good. I can't say that I was as terrified in the theatre as I was for The Ring or even as scared as I was during the strangers but parts of Paranormal Activity were incredibly creepy and Kenny and I both were jumpy when we got home.

And today Kenny and I both have colds. We came down with them over the weekend. Heres to hoping its not the Swine.

Here is what we are having to eat this week. I found a great website that had casseroles with WW points. So they are all from that site this week.

MENU MONDAY
Monday - Beef Stroganoff with a side salad and a lemon Dijon vinaigrette.

Tuesday - Taco Casserole

Wednesday - Pulled Pork sandwiches served with corn on the cob

Thursday - Taco Casserole leftovers

HALLOWEEN (the parts I like)

Halloween. I love it. But there are definitely parts of it that I like more than others.

My least favorite part really is the whole dressing up and costumes mumbo jumbo. I just don't really enjoy costumes. In college(Starkville) you went to this second hand place where you payed money to rent these used costumes and then you had to return them in your hungover stupor the next day before you had to pay more money. State people what was the name of this place? That lady was crazy as all get out. And honestly those costumes were so disgusting. Think about it. Sweat, alcohol and who knows what else.....yuck. I also don't enjoy wearing costumes because they always seem to be itchy and uncomfortable, especially when props are involved. Not to mention the time and money it takes to pull them together. And please do not even get me started on the skankified versions of costumes they have now. I know I sound like a spoil sport and its not to say you won't see me dressed up this year. Just not my favorite part.

My favorite most favoritest part of Halloween and I mean big time is the spooky stuff. I have been obsessed with ghosts stories, scary movies, haunted houses and stuff like that since I was younger and I still love that aspect of Halloween. I love the scary movies on TV. ( I already tivoed some thing on Bravo: 13 Most Horrifying Moments of Scary Movies) I love pulling out my copy of Poltergeist and watching it. This morning, on the radio station I listen to, they were talking about whether you believed in ghosts and people were calling in and telling their stories. I could listen to that all day. I love hearing people's ghost stories. I like to get goosebumps when things get creepy. I am dying to see that movie Paranormal Activity. I heard it is soooo scary and think that would be the perfect thing to get in the Halloween mood.

Other things I do not mind about Halloween:
Fun Size Dark Chocolate Milky Ways
Fun Size Snickers
Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
Fun Size M&Ms
Fun Size Kit Kats
Fun Size Twix
Candy Corn

DO YOU KNOW ANYBODY?

I need help finding someone who makes T-shirt quilts. I finally got the motivation to go through all of our drawers and even ventured into the attic to try and find all of our fraternity and sorority t-shirts. This is something I have been meaning to do for a while considering we have been out of college for a while, and we just keep wearing these t-shirts around the house or to sleep in making them more worn out. I was pleased with the amount that we managed to keep and was really excited when I found the trash bag in the attic that I suspected had a lot of Kenny's old t-shirts actually had a lot of the main parties and formals and what I was missing. Now I am just excited that we will have this to look at when we get old. Ha!

So! I have looked on Etsy and I have seen a few people who make the quilts but I am really nervous about sending the T-shirts off to someone I do not know. I mean it took 4 long years to collect all these t-shirts(alright maybe a couple of extra semesters) and I would hate to lose them. Has anyone had a quilt made or know somebody that has one? Or maybe you know someone who makes them. I just want to have some kind of connection or testimonial to the product ya know. I would appreciate any help!

I had a very uneventful weekend. Kenny has been out of town since Tuesday and is finally coming back today!!! Snaps!!! Finally!!! And I was supposed to go to Jackson for a friend of mines shower but my plans fell through. So on Friday I was the epitome of old and went grocery shopping and ordered out sushi for myself and watched a movie.

On Saturday I had a hair appointment which I desperately needed and then went to get a manicure and pedicure with my friend Mollie. Later that night she cooked and we watched football at her house with some other people. It was a lot of fun. Sunday, I literally watched Lifetime movies alllllll day. So pathetic. So ready for Kenny to get home. In my spare time I did manage to do a little meal planning for this week. So here is what we are having. Still doing Weight Watchers so all WW recipes.

MENU MONDAY
MONDAY - Weight Watcher Broccoli and Cheese Soup with buttered toast (for Kenny) and Oreo Pie for dessert. I made the Oreo Pie with healthier choices and got the points down a good bit.

TUESDAY - WW Stuffed Peppers with a side salad

WEDNESDAY- Broccoli and Cheese Soup leftovers

THURSDAY- WW Sweet and Sour Chicken served over Rice.

FRIDAY - Leftovers or go out

MINT

Mint.com just might be the bomb.com. That's right. I said it! Ha!  It is my new discovery and to say that I am a wee bit obsessed would be an understatement. Have yall heard of it?

Here is how they describe themselves:
In five minutes or less, you’ll see where you’re spending your money, understand how your investments are performing, and set up realistic budgets. Set up email and SMS alerts and you’ll be automatically updated whenever there’s an important change in your finances. Only Mint.com finds you personalized ways to save money, using patent-pending software which analyzes your current spending. The typical Mint.com user finds $1,000 in savings in their first visit. Learn more about our award-winning service.

Mint is a website that allows you to upload any and every financial account you have and in turn categorizes all your spending and creates a budget for you. I know that this is similar to Quicken and other software programs but this one really takes the fuss out of it all. This really plays to my personality. I love to see where it is all going and I love that it sets an amount of money for me budget wise for each category without me having to worry about it. If we go over we go over and it will adjust for next time. Love it!