What I've Been Cooking Lately

For Christmas, Patrick got me this chalkboard menu from Hobby Lobby.  I love to cook, and now I have a pretty place I can list our meals for the week!  Since there's just two of us, and I work three nights a week, menu planning like this will usually last me two weeks or so, as I won't cook every night.  Here's some of what I've been cooking lately!

Balsamic-Glazed Chicken Sandwich with Roasted Red Pepper & Goat Cheese

recipe from Closet Cooking

Patrick is crazy about goat cheese, and this is an easy favorite for us.  I don't usually bother with the basil called for in the recipe, but it's still great.  Also, if you've never roasted your own red pepper before you seriously don't know what you're missing.

Chicken Croissants

recipe from Mom

We ate these all the time growing up, and I still love them.  Basically, you fill crescent rolls with chicken and cream cheese and bake them with breadcrumbs on top.  We usually eat them with a side of asparagus and rice.

Butternut Squash & Spinach Lasagna Rolls

recipe from Skinnytaste

This isn't the quickest recipe, but it's well worth the time and effort it takes.  A bit on the dangerous side when it comes to trying to cut the butternut squash, though... why is it so hard to do?!  At any rate, I've made these a few times and they've always turned out great.

Sesame Chicken and Coconut Jasmine Rice

recipes from Budget Bytes

There's a reason Budget Bytes is my favorite recipe website, and these two are on constant rotation.  I've never bothered to add the sesame seeds, but it's still delicious without it.  The best part about the chicken recipe is that I pretty much always have the ingredients on hand, so I can make this whenever the mood strikes.  Plain old jasmine rice will go just fine with the chicken, but the coconut version just takes it to a whole new level!

Yep, you can still see the recipes from the last time.  I think I need to re-chalkboard paint the background so it doesn't keep absorbing the wet chalk pen paint.

Coconut Chicken Curry

recipe from the Budget Bytes cookbook

When I was in college, I lived downstairs from an Indian couple, and I always hated the food smells that came from their apartment.  Flash forward six years, and now I'm cooking curry and filling my house with that smell voluntarily.  Go figure.

Teriyaki Meatball Bowls

recipe from Budget Bytes

If I had to pick one favorite from Budget Bytes, this would be it.  I hate making meatballs, because touching raw meat with my hands grosses me out, but this recipe is so worth it.  Just like the sesame chicken above, I don't bother with the sesame seeds, and I make it both with regular rice and with coconut jasmine rice.  You really can't go wrong with this recipe, I promise!

Jambalaya

recipe from my cousin Brittney

I wanted to make some genuine jambalaya this month in honor of Mardi Gras, so I texted my cousin from Baton Rouge for a good recipe.  She didn't disappoint!

Beef and Mushroom Stroganoff

recipe from the Budget Bytes cookbook

Mmm, I might have lied about the Terikyaki Meatball Bowls being my favorite Budget Bytes recipe.  I don't know what it is about this one that is so phenomenal, but man oh man it is.  Think of a Hamburger Helper recipe but 10000000% better, and only 1% more work.  So good.

Chicken Enchiladas

a hybrid of this recipe from Skinnytaste and this one from Budget Bytes

I've made each of these recipes on their own before, and I decided to take the best of both and combine them.  I used the sauce from the Budget Bytes recipe (although I added chipotles like in the Skinnytaste sauce) and the filling form the Skinnytaste recipe, and the combination was even better!

What have you been cooking lately?  Am I the only one that posts a menu in the house?

Household Bills Tracker

I, for one, have always (well, since college) been one to track every dime that I make.  I wouldn't say that I'm a penny pincher, in fact, I spend more than I should, but I do know where I overspend, if that makes sense.  My dad taught me to balance a checkbook when I was young, and I still carry a checking register in my wallet and log every. single. transaction. I have for both my debit and credit cards.

In the same vein, I tend to always be on top of my bills, making sure that I know when they're due, what they are, and - most importantly - that I pay them on time, every time.  Some of my best friends, well, they pretty much suck at it.  So the other rainy day I was playing around in Photoshop, and I ended up making this Household Bills Tracker to make it easier!

This is just an image - if you'd like a PDF, click here for the Google Doc!
Also, I'm not sure why the entire image looks grey here... the Doc is a white paper, I promise.

Here's a sample of how it might look when you use it, for all those visual people (me included):

As you can see, I planned it for a couple that's living together but has separate bank accounts, although it would work for a two-person roommate situation as well.  My boyfriend and I try to split rent, and then most of our bills are on auto-pay from one of our accounts.  We typically try to keep the remaining bills about even between the two of us, and this allows me to see which one of us is "ahead" from the last month, so we can try to even it out the following month.  I also use the last column to keep track of things like confirmation numbers, late charges, or if a credit is going to be applied to the bill for the following month.

If the "calendar-on-the-fridge" method of keeping track of your bills isn't cutting it for you, hopefully this will help you change that around!

* Template design inspired by the free printables from iHeartOrganizing.  Love that blog!