Closet Studio

Meal #1

Meal #2

That bowl of yummy deserves another picture.

And a close up!

Those are my two favorite meals of the day.

Last week was such a fun week with voice over.

I did a Skype lesson with a sound engineer that works with my voice coach and he taught me SO MUCH!  The program and equipment I am using is definitely for professional people and not someone who has no idea what they are doing.  It would have taken me a long time to figure out what he taught me in a hour and a half.  I am so grateful for his time.

Once I had some sort of grasp on how to make a decent recording, I wanted my recording space set up immediately.  And since Justin’s side of our closet is STILL laying on the floor (his whole side of the closet fell off the wall), I set up my stuff in the spare bedroom closet.

I took a mattress pad and pinned it on the wall and put two pillows on the shelf over head.  It took about 2.5 minutes and….

Wa La! Sound proof!  Well, sound reduced let’s say.  Either way, it appears to be working.

Justin took some pictures.  He was pretty surprised when I asked him to come look what I did!

I have been in there every day since Tuesday and have been sending in auditions. It’s so fun!

When I’m not standing in the closet….

at the gym……

or working, I have been coloring…..

I should be cleaning or organizing something.

I should be doing laundry or going through clothes to give to good will.

Or doing paperwork, but I have a serious love for markers.

I also have a serious love for this guy!

Monday!

I started this post on Tuesday morning, when St. Patrick’s Day was just the day before. Now it’s Wednesday. Shoot.

Let’s get caught up!

Did everyone have a fun St. Patrick’s Day? Did you wear green?  Did you get pinched? Did you purposefully not wear green so you could get pinched?

Remember doing that in school?  It was so stressful for me.  And for some reason I NEVER had anything green come St. Patrick’s Day.  Why didn’t my parents make SURE this fair-skinned, red head, that blushed at even the WORD pinch, had green?

Is what I would have said, had I not been so busy blushing.

The HORROR of being pinched!

Who started that anyway?

Monday started with oats and eggs.

Then we dressed our group home clients in green. Then ourselves. Then headed to the gym.

Back at home, I  ate butternut squash soup and chicken with veggies from the crockpot meal I made on Sunday.

I headed out to run errands and one of the places was Bed, Bath & Beyond. Man, I love that store!  At the register, I found this gem:

And hilarity ensued for hours!

Well, for me anyway.

And it was more like half an hour.  Remember being a kid and those things being funny for hours?

Justin was bored from me asking him for words for HALF of the first one.  Mad Libs are still fun and had us laughing though.

Oh, I went to a home party last Thursday where my friend invited a bunch of different vendors and Stella & Dot was one of them.  I purchased a necklace and a clutch.  The clutch came Monday!

It is so pretty!  A beautiful, rich royal blue. I can see myself reaching for this often.

Monday was also laundry day.  And by laundry day, I mean wash and dry the clothes, then lay them out neatly in the living room so the cat can lay on them for a week.

He found a good spot that day. (and now the top shirt has to be rewashed!) The sun was coming in perfectly for his naptime. I was jealous.

He looked so comfy, I didn’t want to move him.  Oh well, I guess putting the laundry away can wait another day.

Butternut Squash Soup, Again

As part of meal prep for the week, I made a pot of Butternut Squash Soup.

This isn’t the first time this soup has been on the blog because I LOVE butternut squash!  I also posted a recipe here.

I pretty much made it the same way.

Start with roasting your butternut squash.

And sautéing onion, celery, carrot and white potato.

Add some chicken stock.

As it cooks down you may need to add some more liquid.  I add water at this point.

When everything is all tender and done.  Add your butternut squash to the soup.

Then the fun part! Get our the immersion blender!

ZZUT  ZZUT ZZZUT ZZZUT

Blend until it is the consistency you want to eat.

Salt and pepper to taste.  You can top with crispy bacon or apple chicken sausage or just enjoy plain.

Clean out the Fridge Enchiladas

Here is what I had:

• Frozen pork tenderloin
• Chopped bell peppers (from food prep earlier in the week)
• 1 tomato
• already opened can of black olives
• Sour Cream (3/4 of a container)
• 1 can of green chilies
• Jar of jalapeños
• Mrs. Dash Southwest Chipotle seasoning
• Black and red kidney beans (from food prep earlier in the week)
• corn tortillas
• Chunk of cheddar cheese

Here is what I made!

It turned out so good!

Here is what I did:

• Thawed, sliced and browned pork tenderloin with Mrs. Dash Southwest Chipotle seasoning.  I broke it up into smaller pieces once it was cooked.

• Removed meat from pan and added chopped bell peppers, green chilies, and about 10-15  jalapenos, chopped.

• Chopped tomato and black olives and mixed them with the sour cream.

• Set the black beans out. Nothing needed to be done to those. (earlier in the week I had soaked a bag each of black and red kidney beans over night, then cooked them in the crockpot for 10 hours)

• corn tortillas.  I used 12 and tore them into strips.

Once everything was done, I started layering it: 

corn tortillas – black beans – pork – bell peppers – sour cream mixture.

This was all the cheddar cheese we had.

So that went on top.

I covered it with tinfoil and baked at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  Then removed the tinfoil and cooked until the cheese was bubbly.

I am thrilled with how it turned out and would totally make this again.

Spring? Is that You?

Oh, it feels like Spring in Kansas City!  And we are SOAKING. IT. UP!

Everybody get outside!

Yesterday started with a hike on our favorite nature trail.

Then we headed to the gym, the chiropractor, lunch and home for a nap!  It was a nice little Friday.

Rewinding to the beginning of the week…..

Monday through Wednesday, I crawled in the cramp cave and didn’t workout and ate things like Girl Scout Cookies, Chinese food, pizza, my misery.

Thursday was amazing and glorious!

I worked out and….

……ate foods like:

andgirlscoutcookies.

I had a blast at Girls on the Run practice.  It was so beautiful out!

One of the coaches made Shamrock Shakes and wrote little messages on each cup! They were a huge hit!

Besides laundry, my part time job, I have been filling my spare time with making a plastic bag out of plastic bags.

I take a plastic bag, make it into “plarn” and crochet it.  I did not invent this. It’s all over the internet.  I’m just finally doing it.  I have been saving plastic bags forever.  Filling the entire space below our kitchen sink for this reason.

Stay tuned for the finish product!  It’s only taking 1,000 times longer than I thought. Look for a new post in JUNE about the ONE bag I made out of 5,000 plastic bags.

It is going to be epic!