Empty Nest Menu #61

Monday - Honey Dijon Chicken Bites, baked sweet potato, garlic toast

Tuesday - Tilapia (seasoned and baked), skillet potatoes, chard

Wednesday - Taco Bean Soup, corn muffins

Thursday - Pork and Eggplant Skillet, seasoned corn

Friday - Ba$tard BBQ, butternut squash, peas {on call tonight only}

Saturday - Free Choice!

Sunday - Scallop Stir Fry with green beans and lo mein (we never had this a few weeks ago)

Dessert this week is mini Eskimo pies, just because...

Gina

Five thing Friday - reading, meal prep, shopping, chairs, empty fridge

I bought this book by the author of the Hyperbole and a Half book and blog both because I need something to read AND I thought it would be super funny and entertaining like the first book.

It is funny - in places - but it is also incredibly sad.  The author seems like a genuinely likeable person who had a hell of some rough time while she was on hiatus from her blog.  I've been reading it a little here and there.  I could sure some book suggestions!

I made these "tuna bowls" for us one night this week and they came out surprisingly good!  I used a leftover tomato/avocado/green onion salad from chicken taco night, a can of cannellini beans, a can of skipjack tuna in oil, and some feta.  I sprinkled a little Italian seasoning over the beans and freshly ground black pepper over the whole thing.  It only took 5 minutes to prep.

Imperfect Foods sends me some very marginal carrots, not just because they are weirdly shaped, but also because they seem very limp.  I cook them anyway and they taste great.

I am still working on the folding chairs.  I am taking my time because I don't want to rush through something I want to end up looking great. Each chair had to have the seat removed, two layers of cloth and some quilt batting and staples removed, the seats sanded and painted, the rubber feet pried off, the metal scrubbed and sanded, then several coats of paint will dry before I screw the seats back on and replace the rubber feet.  I do it in spurts and it is taking forever. 

I don't know how I can spend $100 a week on food and supplies, and the fridge look like this.  Its all condiments!  It makes me miss my peeps even more.  Remember storing three gallons of milk, mom?

It looks like Hubby and I aren't fending for ourselves, but we are!  I am cooking dinner every day, packing lunches for us, and there is always something in there for breakfast.  The freezer looks a little better, but it feels like we have a fridge that's too big for two people, overall. 

Gina 

This is not a furniture makeover

Its more like a dumpster diving cleaning, repainting, and re-purposing story.  We've been talking about getting a small metal table to use out in the yard at Highlands.  Something we could set our phones and drinks on, since the chaise loungers don't have a spot for setting things.

 As luck would have it, we saw this metal table by the side of the road as we were pulling out of a restaurant.  I made Hubby circle around and pick it up!

It was rusted and banged up and looked almost like it had creosote or somesuch caked all over it.  In short, it was a mess. But, redeemable.

After I used a metal brush to "sand" all of the crud off, I gave it a few coats of all the leftover dibs and dabs of black spray paint we had at Highlands.  Don't worry - there was at least one can that had primer built into it.

Its never going to win any prizes, but it cleaned up OK.  

It cost me zero dollars total.

And it will definitely work for its intended purpose. 

Gina 

Empty Nest Menu #60

Monday - Chicken Rio for Tacos with cheese, avocado, tomato {order produce box}

Tuesday - Tuna Salad Bowls with romaine, tomato, green onion, white kidney beans, feta, vinaigrette {pay bills}

Wednesday - Farro and Sausage Skillet with corn, onions, peppers

Thursday - Baked Meatballs, green beans

Friday - Pastor Chicken Thighs, carrots, maybe a twice baked

Saturday - Free Choice {Sol Vinum release at Save The World}

Sunday - Classic Shrimp Rolls, low salt chips {picnic lunch at Perissos for wine club pick-up}

Gina

5 thing Friday {anniversary version} - eating, church, jewelry, sight seeing, sunsets

Going back to work after our Austin Anniversary Staycation was hard.  And partly because we weren't going to be eating like this for the rest of the week:

Breakfast at Juan in a Million in Austin

Lunch at Young's BBQ in Lampasas

Pizza at 600 Degrees in Georgetown

Seafood at Deckhands in Austin

Not to mention, a fancy buffet lunch, picnic at Mt. Bonnell, dinner at home, and plenty of beer!

It was what a vacation should be - fun and relaxing.  We even spent time listening to live music and meeting new people. And yes, he won most of the card games we played!

One of the highlights of the weekend was getting to go to a service at the church we were married in.  I experienced a flood of memories - even small details.  We reminisced about it all day.

The front of the church is flanked by huge trees that were very small 35 years ago.  Of course we recognized no one - both priests were long gone, as well as many of the regulars. - after all, its been 35 years  The new normal for churches must be very strange, but we were warmly welcomed and they printed a sweet anniversary prayer for us in the program.

I bought a cute new dress and had Hubby take a new headshot for me.  Just afterwards he gifted me with these:

Beautiful jade drop earrings! 

 I gave him a jade bracelet just before we left to enjoy our picnic, and he was thrilled with it.  Hubby likes bling.

We spent lots of time walking all that food off at Mt. Bonnell and Zilker Gardens in downtown Austin.

You can tell Fall is here, even if it feels like late summer.  The sunsets are more dramatic and come a little bit earlier.  A minute later getting out of work and I would miss it!  In fact, the timing of the sunset figured prominently in our wedding service.  Its only fitting that we enjoy them so much now.

Gina

Tourist in our town - revisiting Zilker Gardens

I have not been to Zilker Gardens in Austin since Spring of 2013 when I took the boys.  (I wrote about it here, too.) And Hubby and I have not been there together since we first moved to Austin.  So it seemed fitting that while we were trippin' down memory lane for our staycation anniversary that we would make this one of our stops.  Its an enchanting place! And we spent an entire hour walking over as much of it as our old legs could carry us...

Maybe it isn't, but it kind of felt like the last time we would visit this particular place.  So it was almost like fixing it into my memory in place of the one from so many years ago.  The entire garden has grown yet still retains the feel of a secret place smack dab in the middle of Austin.  

Gina

Empty Nest Menu #59

We had a great weekend eating all of the things!

Monday - Anniversary dinner OUT {Happy Hour on the fly}

Tuesday - Salmon, green beans with garlic {start walking in the mornings}

Wednesday - Pinto Bean Soup with green onion and avocado, garlic bread

Thursday - Adobo Pork Chop, butternut squash

Friday - Chicken and Bacon BBQ Cubes, sweet potato

Saturday - TBD {work on projects at Camp Rustown}

Sunday - Polenta with peppers, onions, and marinara, broccoli

Gina