Milspouse Fill In #49

I haven't done one of these in a few weeks (oops...) but I'm looking forward to participating again in Wife of a Sailor's fill in! If you want to give it a go hop on over to her blog and link up. Here it goes;

1. If you could have a private concert with any singer, who would it be? submitted by An Air Force Wife’s Blog
Ooh, tough one. I'm a big music dork so it's hard to narrow down. I'll go top 3; Gwen Stefani (but she can only sing No Doubt songs, thankyouverymuch), Dave Grohl, or Matt Skiba.

2. Is there anything you do to supplement your family’s income? submitted by Our Life, One Adventure at a Time
I do a lot of crafty type stuff but haven't had much luck selling yet. Since we're moving back home soon I haven't put a lot of roots down trying to find customers though, so it's mostly my fault.

3. During your pregnancy (whether past, present, or future), what did you nickname your unborn baby before you knew the sex? submitted by Explosions of Love
Not pregnant, no babies, but will probably come up with a totally ridiculous thing to call it. Just our dog alone has about 5 nicknames so I can only imagine. Or, depending on how my pregnancy goes, I'll just refer to it as the spawn.

4. Have you ever won a blog giveaway? If so what did you win? submitted by Mrs. O’s Life
Sadly, no, but it seems all the ones I enter have a large amount of entrants so my chances are lowered. I'll keep trying, though!


5. If I looked into your refrigerator right now, what would I find? submitted by Married to the Army
It's pretty slim pickins in there right now but off the top of my head I can tell you there are;
eggs from the farmer's market, skim milk, sweet tea, OJ, mozzarella, blueberry goat cheese, homemade chicken broth, blue cheese, tons of onions, whole wheat flour, an open jar of salsa and marinara sauce, and lots of condiments.

Until next time,


xoxo Stacie

It's too dang hot!

Phew, I have never realized how much of a New Englander I am until the last couple GRUELING hot days. Secretly I'm daydreaming of Maine snowstorms and woodstoves (it's totally sick, I know).  Anyway, with the temperatures so high the last thing I want to do is turn on the oven. So yesterday I cooked up some sesame noodles for my husband and made myself a tomato salad. I thought I'd post the recipes since it's hard to come up with good, healthy things to make on a hot day.

Sesame Noodles (loosely based off of this recipe)
2 bundles of lo mein noodles (you can use any kind of thin noodle, this is just what I had in my cabinet)
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tblsp. brown sugar
4 cloves garlic, smashed and minced
1/2 a medium onion, diced
thumb size piece of ginger, diced
1 tblsp. red pepper flakes (adjust to taste, we like it spicy 'round these parts)
2 tblsp. rice vinegar
2 tblsp. sesame oil
2 tblsp. vegetable or canola oil
sesame seeds, for garnish

Cook your noodles according to package directions, drain and run under cold water. Then mix up all your other ingredients and combine with noodles. Enjoy immediately or chill for an hour or so to let the sauce get soaked into the noodles and for the seasoning to meld. Don't forget to sprinkle on some sesame seeds right before diving in!

Tomato Salad
2 large tomatoes, cut into chunks
one huge ol' handful of basil, torn
2-3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
2-3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar (If you haven't had this stuff before, you haven't truly lived. Do yourself and invest in a bottle of the good stuff. You will NOT be disappointed!)
1/2 cup of mozzarella, shredded (use the pre-shredded kind, shred the block stuff, shred the fresh stuff, totally up to you)
salt and pepper to taste

Combine everything in a bowl. Enjoy immediately! If you want to let it chill in the fridge for a while, that's fine too but don't add the cheese until just before eating. It can get a little slimy or break down...you get the idea.

I definitely liked the sesame noodles but I am not a big fan of sesame oil so I gobbled up all the tomato salad and left the noodles for my husband to enjoy on duty. What about you guys? What's your favorite thing to whip up on a sweltering summer day?

Until next time (and stay cool!),

xoxo Stacie

Week 3 & Week 4

Sorry about missing last week, with the holiday it was a little crazy around here! Week 3 was a total bust. I spent $69.35 at the commissary and $3.75 at the farmer's market (I had to have my eggs). Thankfully this week (week 4) I fared much better by spending $19.25 at the farmer's market and $36.03 at the commissary. It's still a bit over budget but this week I had to buy dog food, so that pushed us over. Basically, I'm crap at this! Only one week out of four has gone well. I'm still sticking to it though. I haven't made this weeks whole meal plan yet because I wanted to see what was good at the farmer's market first. I do know that tonight I'm making caramelized onion and blue cheese pizza which sounds absolutely fantastic!

Other than trying to save money and cooking we've been on a big time "get in shape" kick in our house. I picked up Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred. I've only done 2 days so far and I can feel a difference already. It's pretty fantastic. We've also been trying to go for a few runs here and there and bring the dog for more walks (Sookie approves). It makes us both feel better to be more active.

I've also got an ever-growing pile of granny squares getting ready to be made into an afghan. I picked up 8 skeins in blues and greys of Debbie Stoller's Bamboo Ewe yarn at Michael's for $1.99 each and I figured the best thing to do was to make something like a blanket with it. It's coming along nicely. We just recently got streaming Netflix for Mr. Marine's Xbox and while I'm watching random and weird indie flicks I've been knocking them out like crazy. I like having something to do with my hands while I'm sitting still.

How about you? Any projects you're making headway in? How is your budgeting going?

Until next time,

xoxo Stacie