Shrimp and Salad

Ryan went out of town for a few days so I broke out the shrimp for dinner. Actually, I've been cheating lately and I've just been making shrimp for lunch, so Ryan doesn't have to see it and I can eat it anytime. And Lucas loves it. Success! But anyway, since Ryan was out of town I had shrimp for lunch and dinner. I made some shrimp alfredo with asparagus for dinner. Yummy! Asparagus is another thing Ryan won't eat.

And then for lunch I had salad. This salad recipe started out as an apple and pear salad that my family has all the time. We've been making it for years. After eating a salad at Rumbi's once and trying to copy it, it turned into Mango Chicken salad, and I make that sometimes still too. But my absolute favorite is the next version of the salad that my sisters and I created with shrimp. We used to call it Sister Salad but then someone pointed out that it sounded to Relief Society-y, so now we have to come up with a new name. Seriously, this salad is amazing and I would have it every day if I could. I know I've posted about it before, but I don't think I posted the recipe so here you go.
Salad

1-1 1/2 heads of Lettuce (I use red leaf or green leaf)

1 Mango, chopped

1 Red Pepper, chopped

Crumbled Feta Cheese

Shrimp - You can also use teriyaki chicken, this is how I made the Rumbi's salad version

Dressing

The dressing is the key. I LOVE this dressing. I used to be very picky about dressings and this was pretty much the only salad I would eat. Now I'm not as picky, but I still love it.

2/3 C Olive oil (I use light or regular - I think virgin is too strong)

1/3 C Lemon juice

1/4 C Sugar

3/4 t Salt

1 t Poppy Seeds

The last time I made the dressing I added a bit of lemon zest too, it was delicious. I'm kinda a lemon freak, though, so if you're making it for the first time you should probably leave it out.

And if you want to try original apple and pear salad, here's the ingredients for the salad part, the dressing is exactly the same.

Apple and Pear Salad

1 - 1 1/2 heads of Lettuce

1 Apples, diced

1 Pears, diced

1/4 C Dried Cranberries

1/4 C Toasted Pecans

1/2 C grated Swiss Cheese

How to make twins...

Spring Cleaning

I have been doing some spring cleaning lately. I LOVE deep cleaning, organizing, and throwing stuff out. It seriously makes me so happy. Although I do have to be in the right mood to do it. I like doing puzzles too. I like when things have a place to go. Anyway, in preparation for our move I've been going through a lot of papers and stuff and throwing away things that we don't need. Our apartment is looking a little less cluttered and I'm a lot happier. Now if only I can keep Ryan from making more piles. I don't know what it is about husbands and piles. Do they just have no clue how to put things away?

Breakfast for Dinner

I love making breakfast foods for dinner. I made omelets with sausage and homemade hash browns last night. We almost always have a bag of potatoes and eggs so all I had to get was the sausage. French toast is another favorite of ours. Yum!

The Aquarium

We kinda have an animal theme going on lately. I've just been trying to do fun stuff with Lucas lately, and he really likes animals. This time we went with some cousins to the Aquarium. I couldn't tell what Lucas loved more, spending time with Dash, or seeing the fish, but he was one happy camper.

There were a lot of cool things to see there. Our two favorites were the big salt water fish tank with all the pretty colorful fish...

And the penguin exhibit.

They had a cool jungle gym playground thing with fish tanks inside of the tunnels. Lucas had a lot of fun climbing around in them.

They also had a sting ray tank that was open so you could feed and touch them. The kids enjoyed watching the sting rays swim around, but only Jessica and I actually pet them.

We had a lot of fun. I'm enjoying this stage that Lucas is at, where he actually has fun going places and seeing different things. The aquarium was definitely a good choice.

It's Warming Up...

Lucas and I went for a walk yesterday wearing t-shirts and no jackets, and we saw some of these...

That means it's warming up and we couldn't be happier. To celebrate the warm weather Ryan and I decided to take Lucas to Thanksgiving Point to see the animals. Lucas loved it even more this time than he did last time. And he could say all the names of the animals this time. Although he still thinks almost all of them say moo.

Here he is trying to feed the goats.

They had little baby lambs that were so cute.

And Lucas actually rode the horse this time. He loved it.

Looking at the ducks with daddy.

And the "cow chair" (Lucas's own words). He would have sat on this all day if we would let him. And he has a blanket because it did end up getting chilly by the end of the day. Good thing we took advantage of the warm while we could.

Couponing

Ryan and I were watching tv a month or so ago, and we stumbled across a show called Extreme Couponing. The people on this show were buying hundreds of dollars worth of groceries for $10 or less. It was incredible. So we decided that it might be a good idea to get in on this couponing craze. I feel like I was realistic about it too. I realize that the people who really save a lot of money with coupons almost treat it like a part time job, and you have to put about that much time into finding the coupons and planning your shopping and everything.

So, I started reading a bunch of blogs and joined a bunch of sites. I found some coupons, but not many that were for things we actually needed. Most of the coupons said do not double on them, which was how the people on this show saved the most money. Anyway, I kept trying and watched for store deals to combine with my coupons and finally I had a coupon for something that Smiths already had on sale. Nothing compared to the hundreds that other people save, but every dollar counts right? Anyway, I went into the store prepared to stock up on diced tomatoes and get them for less than half the normal price. And they were completely out of stock. I was so mad. Now, I read on one of the sites that even if the item is out of stock you can ask for a raincheck on the price so that when they get more, you can still have the great price. So I asked, and they said no.

I was so frustrated and disappointed. This was like 3-4 hours worth of work that I had spent on looking up coupons. And even if it had worked I still would have only saved like $7. I've never had a job that pays that badly. Even when I babysat for $3 an hour. So after a day or two of being depressed and then finally deciding to give up on couponing, Ryan had an idea. If I'm going to be spending the time like I have a part time job anyway, why not get a real part time job? I realize that maybe some people are good at couponing and they can make more than $2 an hour at it, but I am not good at couponing. I am good at math, though. So I put an ad up on the internet soliciting my services as a Math Tutor. Less than two days later I had my first call, and since then I've been tutoring for about 3-4 hours a week making almost enough to pay for our weekly groceries. This is my version of couponing and I must say, it's working wonderfully.

Too Early?

Maybe, but it makes me happy to look at it.