Sleep Anxiety

When Travis travels, I don’t sleep well, mostly it’s the falling asleep that’s the most difficult.  I toss and turn, and listen to every creak and noise that occurs, and play worst case scenarios in my head.  Sometimes I plan the most effective escape route, and how to best wrangle the kittehs should something terrible happen. You know, the usual.

Add to this anxiety the fact that I have been reading the Millenium Series (Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest,) which has caused me to have really strange, scary dreams involving Swedish spies, lots of Ikea furniture and weaponry.  Needless to say, these dreams do not help my sleep situation, like, at all.

After work today, I decided against working out in favor of stopping at the grocery store so I could come home, make dinner, and get to bed extra early. Now that I’ve finished all my scary books, I’m hoping rest and an early bed time will help me be less sleepy tomorrow.

So, I hit up the grocery store on my way home, and then made this delicious recipe that I found in Shape Magazine.

Chicken With Fresh Tomato Sauce and Balsamic Broccoli. I swear there’s chicken under all those veggies :)

I made a few changes to the recipe, first, I only cooked two small chicken breasts, second I didn’t measure out specific amounts of tomatoes, garlic or olives. Also, I used fresh spinach instead of frozen broccoli. But, basically it’s the same recipe! I swear ;) I also made some Trader Joe’s sweet potato fries.

The original recipe from this month’s Shape

Serves 4

Ingredients:

Cooking Spray

4 4-ounce chicken breasts
1 tsp. paprika
salt & freshly ground pepper
1 12oz bag broccoli florets (microwaveable)
2 tsp. olive oil
1 pint grape or cherry tomatoes
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup kalamata olives, pitted and sliced
4 tbsp. balsamic vinegar

- Preheat broiler to high and place an oven rack 8-10 inches from heat. Line a broiler pan with foil and coat with cooking spray. Sprinkle chicken with paprika and season with salt & pepper. Place on pan and cook for 5-7 minutes each side or until meat is no longer pink in center and internal temperature is 160 degrees Fahrenheit.

- Meanwhile, microwave broccoli according to directions. Heat oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Add tomatoes, season with salt & pepper, cook for 2 minutes. Add garlic and olives and cook for 2 minutes more or until tomatoes are soft.

- Divide chicken among four places; top with tomato mixture. Place 1/4 of the broccoli on each plate, drizzle with balsamic vinegar, and serve.

I really liked this recipe. It was quick, really easy to make, and tasty. This recipe will definitely be going into the regular rotation. I’m glad I went with fresh spinach instead of frozen broccoli. What are your favorite recipe swaps? It also felt great to eat a plate full of colorful veggies.  Another thing that happens when Travis travels is I get lazy with cooking =X

Off to get ready for bed for me! I’ve got some Z’s to catch ;)

9 Comments

Catherine, April 4th 2011 | Tags: , , ,
Posted in 2011, food, Groceries, life, recipes

Breakfastish for Dinner

I had to be at work at 7:10am this morning to set up for a meeting.  This was rough because I haven’t been sleeping well while Travis is gone. I also knew I was going to have a long day since I went immediately out to Northridge for dance after work.  I did get to squeeze in a 20 minute 1.47 mile run and a good stretch.

When I got home, I was starving, and had a pile of dishes to do because I made Pumpkin Curry soup for the girls last night, and all I had the energy to make was spinach, a poached egg, tomato and some goat cheese.  It was delicious but not enough food. I am still really, really hungry.

I’m contemplating making another bowl of this. However, it’s 9:40pm, and I’ve got The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest waiting next to my nightstand.

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Catherine, March 29th 2011 | Tags: , , ,
Posted in books, food, life

Sacrifice, My Social Life and Personal Finance: Part 1

Credit cards

Image via Wikipedia

In my life, I haven’t always taken the same path as most of my peers.  I didn’t go to a four year university after high school. I made this decision for a lot of reasons, and at the time, it was the right decision to make.  It allowed me to grow up a bit more, follow my heart and continue to dance, and grow as a dancer.  It also allowed me to experience the amazing city of San Francisco.

When I moved back to Los Angeles, I continued my different path to Cosmetology school, then to Make-up school. I’ve held many different jobs, and have learned many different skills.  While attempting to make a living as a make-up artist, I realized a lot of things about myself.  First and foremost, that while I really enjoyed doing make-up, what I loved most about it was making people feel great, and not long hours on a set, and also, not making any money.  However, I did not want to return to a retail career path.  I have been extremely lucky that my parents have been very supportive of me in many ways over the years.  Some people have criticized me for how much my parents helped me financially when I moved back to Los Angeles.  However, I have never been ashamed of their help, and I have never lied about nor denied the amount of help they have given me.  I am eternally grateful to them for allowing me to continue to find and blaze my own path in this world.

But, the real point of this post, is how I got myself out of credit card debt. You see, I woke up one morning, when I was working full-time managing the front desk of a gym while attempting to also work as a make-up artist, picking up student film work and test shoot work with photographers, when I realized, I felt far too old to continue to have my parents help me in the manner they were. At my full time job, I usually made just enough money to cover rent or food and utilities.  So, my parents helped me out with the differences.  During this time, I was not going out very often, and I very rarely saw my friends on social occasions, because I couldn’t afford to go drinking, or out to dinner or to movies with them. It was a difficult time emotionally because I felt really lonely often.  So, I took a full time, salaried job with benefits so that I would no longer be dependent on my parents financial help.

That was four years ago.  During that time as well, I began to slowly chip away at the credit card debt I had accumulated over the years.  I don’t remember what the total was when I started, but it had to have been over $10,000 between several credit cards.  I began by paying as much as I could and slowly chipping away at the totals.  Then, I began utilizing 0% balance transfers to consolidate my debt.  However, it wasn’t until last year, when I accepted the first job I ever truly took just for the money, that I made a firm mandate to myself.  I had gotten myself down to about $8,000 in credit card debt, and I vowed that I would do my best to pay that debt off in two years, a year if possible. It helped that Travis had already paid off his own credit card, and student loan debt.  Travis was a huge motivator for me, in terms of really seeing what actually having a plan and then a savings could mean for the future.  Aside from simply having an emergency fund (which even now I don’t really have,) seeing Travis save for, and purchase his 1968 Camaro in cash, was inspiring.

Stay tuned for Part 2: How I did it, and what I gave up!

6 Comments

Catherine, March 1st 2011 | Tags: , , , ,
Posted in accomplishments, lessons, life, money

Closet Organization

I wanted this post to be done and up earlier this week (like, by Wednesday,), but with work as hectic as it was, I had to impose upon myself some plugged in boundaries.  This included, stepping away from my computer (and email inbox, and google reader feed, Twitter, Tumblr, and Frontier on Frontier Ville =X,) because the number of emails, posts and debris on my Frontier were, frankly, overwhelming.  So, I apologize for how long this has taken!

Last weekend, what started as a simple, clean out/organize my jewelery project turned into a full blown Closet/Makeup organization. I know that I have some hoarder tendencies, like hanging on to t-shirts that I really don’t wear because they have sentimental value. The same problem extended to my jewelery, which was more of a lazy issue than anything else.  The thing is, I hardly ever wear jewelery anymore, but I had a full jewelery box and originally had all my dangly earrings hanging on a basket that also housed my nail polish.

After re-arranging, and Goodwill bagging several of those sentimental t-shirts, old purses, shoes and whatnot, my closet now looks like this:

I didn’t think to take Before pictures, because originally this wasn’t an actual overhaul, but, it certainly became one.

On this shelf (photo above) I now have all my workout pants, shorts, and then my sweatpants/pj pants.  Before, this shelf held a wicker basket that kept my purses.  That basket has been moved one shelf up.

This shelf used to house an old plastic container full of crap, and my Louboutins, which I keep in their box. That container was re-purposed, and then moved up one shelf.

On the little table in my closet is now my jewelery box, my perfumes a couple of lotions and a ton of bobby and hair pins. Oh, and my sparkly business card case, which I have yet to discover an actual use for because right now I use a canvas bag as a purse which doesn’t feel fancy enough for this beautiful item.

The second shelf of the table houses a basket with hair ties, headbands and some other miscellaneous items. On the left is a pretty little plate with my larger bracelets, and in the boxes under neath are the necklaces and earrings that wouldn’t fit into the jewelery box above.

The bottom shelf holds my “gym bag,” yes, I use a Trader Joe’s reusable grocery bag as my gym bag, and some extra lotions and body sprays that have been gifted to me.  So far, everything has worked in its new home, and I’m enjoying keeping my desk looking like this:

While our neighbors were moving out last week, they left a little something by the dumpster that we snatched up, like the hobos we are.

A new bedside lamp! Yay!  This lamp was a perfect addition to the bedroom because it has a switch right next to the bed now, where our wall sconces have to be turned on and off by the switch on the wall next to the door.  What’s the best item you’ve found that was meant to be trashed?

2 Comments

Catherine, February 19th 2011 | Tags: ,
Posted in 2011, accomplishments, life

Recipe Rut

Lately, we’ve been in a major recipe rut. It seems like even when we’re planning our meals we keep choosing the same recipes over and over. Our biggest problem seems to be that most nights, nothing even sounds “good.” Meaning, neither of us are particularly craving anything specific. Couple that with a few recent meal fails and you’ve got a major recipe rut on your hands.

The past few nights when we haven’t had anything planned, we’ve kind of wandered around the grocery store aimlessly, saying “how about….”  and then “….ehhhh.”  Do you ever get into recipe ruts, and how do you get out of them?

Last night, Travis had to work late, so I ended up stopping at the store to pick up food.  We have a full week of meals planned, but I didn’t want to defrost anything just for myself.  I was so hungry after an epic spin class that I just picked up a box of Annie’s mac and cheese, some broccoli and some pop chips. I was craving something salty while I was at the store, and then for a while thought I wanted a baked potato, but knew I didn’t want to wait that long to eat.

Sadly, I ate so much there weren’t any leftovers for me to take for lunch.  On tonight’s menu is broccoli cheddar soup which will be great, because the weather is supposed to be icky the rest of the week.  Later this week we’re also trying Jenna’s Vegan Walnut Loaf.  Travis was VERY hesitant to try this, so we’ll see how that goes ;)

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Catherine, February 15th 2011 | Tags: ,
Posted in food

Trying New Things

Wednesday, I didn’t make it through a full day at work, but when I woke up after my post-work, allergy med induced nap, feeling better, and hungry, Travis and I decided to make a simple pizza for dinner.  We already had cheese, and salad mix, and it would be fast.  So, off to Trader Joe’s we went, hoping to find pizza dough and milk for Travis. We’d never used anything other than Boboli, or our own homemade dough, so we wanted to try the Trader Joe’s dough and see how it stacked up.

Behold! The elusive Trader Joe’s pizza dough!  We looked all over the damn store for this dough.  I finally found it near the pre-made salads, who knew?  We also picked up some special four cheese, shredded cheese because it’s better than plain old mozzarella.

Travis tried adding an egg wash to his crust.

That giant cheese bubble? Yeah, that’s my pizza.  BAM!

Verdict?  I wasn’t blown away by the dough, in fact I think the dough we make from scratch is better.  It was kind of bland, but the four cheese mix was the way to go. It was delicious!

Lunch on Thursday was one slice of the leftover pizza and these:

Yah, I also bought these on Wednesday night at TJ’s.  They are delicious.  I may or may not have eaten one square of pizza, and then several handfuls of gummie bears.

Om nom nom.

 

Speaking of  trying new things, remember when I hand washed laundry last week? Yeah, so, it definitely took two whole days for all that laundry to dry, so maybe smaller, light weight items like underroos and sports bras would be ok, but the pants and socks took forever to dry.  Although, maybe what I really needed to do was have a drying rack, and put it on our patio during the daytime.  Instead, I only had space to hang in our bathroom and hallway.

What new things have you tried recently?

2 Comments

Catherine, February 12th 2011 | Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in 2011, Cheese, Eating, food, life

Around the Interwebs 1/28/11

Spaghetti alla carbonara

Image via Wikipedia

Happy Friday everyone! Hope you’re having a wonderful day so far.

The next time Travis is out of town, I am fully making this for myself:  Spaghetti Carbonara for One – Eat Live Run – I love bacon, and pasta, so it’s really win-win.

Another recipe for me to try, Chinese No Clay-pot Chicken - The Kitchn

Girl Scout Cookie season is upon us, and apparently they are cutting back on the cookies they offer. It doesn’t appear they are getting rid of my beloved Thin Mints (they’d be insane if they did.) So, all is well in my cookie universe.

The other day, Travis apparently watched 5 minutes of Hawaii 5-0 and was baffled at its popularity, so imagine my amusement when I open Slate.com and find one of the headlines to be :Why is Hawaii Five-O So Popular? 12 Theories.

Finally, in other recipe news, Real Simple is currently featuring 12 Heartwarming Chili Recipes, all of which look really tasty.

What are you up to this weekend? I’m supposed to do an 8 miler on Sunday, but we’ll have to see how my stupid foot is feeling.  I’m currently sending it “You better get better quick!” vibes in the hope that fear will drive it to feeling better.

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Catherine, January 28th 2011 | Tags: , ,
Posted in around the interwebs

Sunday Chores

Last night’s homemade steak and potato dinner was tasty, we threw in some Gorgonzola cheese, but I’m still searching for that elusive super yum.  I was supposed to do my final weekend run, 6 miles, this morning, but was not feeling great.  I woke up with my throat on fire, and was coughing off and on all night, so I decided, lots of water and vitamin C were in order.

This morning, Travis and I put together our menu of dinners for the week, and hit up the grocery stores.  We made our usual Trader Joe’s then Ralph’s run and manged to get everything we needed for 4 dinners (Thursday I’ve got a work event, then Friday – Sunday night I’m in Phoenix for the half-marathon!)

When we got home from the grocery store we made a quick lunch, and then packed up and headed to do laundry.

Lunch was tomato soup (Campbell’s made with milk, cause that’s how I roll,) with a handful of spinach, and English muffins that we stuck in the broiler for a few minutes with goat cheese, a slice of tomato and salt & pepper.  It was simple, quick, and really tasty.  It was also nice and filling.  I wasn’t really hungry again until 6pm

Laundry felt like it took forever, but I really hate the whole laundry process, so it’s possible it took the normal amount of time.  We actually tried a new laundromat closer to our apartment (that we discovered last night when we made a visit to our local Baskin Robbins.)  Adding to the laundry annoyance was that we were washing what seemed to be every item of clothing and fabric in our apartment.  My laundry basket was filled to the brim, Travis’ was almost as full, we washed our sheets and comforter, as well as the bathroom mats and some towels.  My laundry alone took up three washers (and I could have made it four, but was trying to save money.)  In total we had seven washers that we were using.  A triple load one for just the comforter, a double load washer for our sheets and towels, and then five regular washers for our regular laundry. =X

When we got home from the laundromat, we put all the clean and folded laundry away (phew!) we decided (and when I say we, I really mean Travis,) to do a full clean of the apartment.  Dishes, sweeping, cleaning the top of the counters and stove, mopping (note to self and readers: Do not get the Target brand of Swiffer wet pads. They are terrible,) all the floors.  Then we made dinner, and are now watching House Hunters International.  We watch way too much HGTV.  It’s pretty much one of the big reasons we couldn’t do without cable.  How did you spend your Sunday? Did you have a lot of chores or errands to run? I was a little more than disappointed to miss my run, but with only a week left to go, I’d rather play it safe.  I can’t afford to be sick work wise, let alone fitness wise.

Related Articles
  • The Laundry Agreement (getrichslowly.org)  – I follow Get Rich Slowly on my Google Reader, and when I read this post I totally cracked up.  If you have a significant other, do you have agreements about who does chores? I know a lot of the time Travis cooks, and I do the dishes.

4 Comments

Catherine, January 9th 2011 | Tags: , ,
Posted in food, life

Fried Rice Fail

On our menu for Monday night was roast chicken.  However, the whole chicken we bought on sale at 69 cents a pound on Sunday, was still mostly frozen so, we improvised, and made the frozen Trader Joe’s Orange Chicken and attempted fried rice.

It didn’t turn out as well as we’d hoped.  The rice ended up mushy and kind of pastey :( I don’t know what happened.

I cooked the rice on the stove with chicken broth (not water, way more flavorful that way!) instead of in the rice cooker which may have been my first mistake.

Then, Travis put it in the frying pan with an egg, and some soy sauce.  Sadly, it didn’t even taste that great.  We probably should have added some veggies.  Oh well, it was a quick meal.

4 Comments

Catherine, November 2nd 2010 | Tags: , ,
Posted in food, Recipe

Woo Hoo!

You guys! I won another writing award from Eat Move Write.  Talk about awesome self esteem boost! :) This prompt was a toughie, and the two other winners have excellent stories as well! I urge you all to head over and check them all out.

This afternoon I had lunch with my parents out in Pasadena.  We decided on PF Chang’s which my mom had never been to before.

We started with the famous Chicken Lettuce Wraps.

I had two.  Sorry for the terrible photo quality, I had to use my cell phone. Oye.

My entree was the Coconut Curry Vegetables with Tofu, but I also had a few bites of my dad’s Lemon Chicken, and my mom’s Lemon Scallops.  All the dishes were tasty, but my veggies had a little more curry than peanut in the sauce.

On the agenda for this evening is a mini One Tree Hill marathon with the girls.  We’ve got the first three episodes of this season to catch up on.  So, Travis and I will be making homemade pizza (homemade dough too!) and the girls are bringing some garlic bread. Yummy!  Keeping this evening low key is crucial since we were out til 2am last night (and Travis may have had a bit too much to drink =X and I’ve got a 7am 7miler on the schedule for tomorrow morning!

What are your weekend plans?

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Catherine, October 2nd 2010 | Tags: , ,
Posted in accomplishments, around the interwebs, blogs, TV, writing
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