Recipe of the week!

Not that I'll actually remember to post a recipe every week, or that I even know enough good ones to last more than a month, but its at least something to strive for.

This doesn't really have a name. C calls it "Tuscan sausage" or something like that, not really sure why. I think I got it from Jenni-O, LOL. Its really good, something we've made now and then for several years now. My kids all love it and its super easy to make...which makes it a great family meal!


1 package penne pasta (I use whole wheat)
4-5 links sweet italian turkey sausage (you could also use the spicy italian turkey sausage if you're so inclined)
sliced black olives, however many looks good to you
1 can diced tomatoes w/ italian seasonings (not drained)
1 jar alfredo sauce

Cook pasta according to directions on package, drain.
Slice sausage links into bite size pieces and cook in frying pan.
Mix pasta, sausage, black olives, tomatoes, and alfredo sauce together.

Eat!

I don't think we've ever done this, but it would go great with some garlic bread!

Yummy recipe that you have to make!

This recipe came from Kaysvillemomma's blog, I've made a couple adjustments to make it a bit healthier. It has been a HUGE HIT at our house!! I made it for the second time last night and R kept telling me that I made really good food. And if you know my son, that right there says everything!! This is a must make recipe!! So, go right now and buy the ingredients, its super good and your family will love you!!

Crock Pot Pizza

1 bag of whole wheat egg noodles
1 lb ground turkey
2 jars pizza sauce
16 oz shredded mozzarella cheese
1 can low fat/reduced sodium cream of mushroom soup
Pizza ingredients (I used black olives, mushrooms, and pepperoni...but you can use what you like, or experiment with different ingredients every time!)

Cook egg noodles according to the package.
Brown the ground turkey.
Spray slow cooker with oil/non-stick spray.
Place ingredients in the slow cooker making layers in the following order - 1/2 of the egg noodles, 1/2 the ground turkey, 1 jar pizza sauce, 1/2 can cream of mushroom soup, pepperoni, olives, mushrooms (or whatever you chose), 1/2 of shredded mozzarella.
Then repeat making a second layer.
Cook on low for 4-5 hours.
Eat and love it!

So I survived...

I made it through the interview and it, of course, wasn't nearly as stressful as I made it out to be. What it was, was weird. It was in groups, there were about 12 applicants in the room. One lady asked questions, one listened and wrote things down. They asked us all 4 questions and we went around the room anwering them. Now I know I haven't interviewed for anything in a really long time, and never for a place needing an entire store's worth of employees at once...but I've never heard of such a thing before tonight.

I'm not totally sure how they could determine which people they want to hire that way. You can't tell much about a person when they spend no more than 5 minutes talking to you, and many just repeated what others had said. I was especially confuzzled about the merits of this method after they said they had interviewed over 1,000 people and were filling 125 positions. As soon as she said that I was like, ok, thank you, I'll be leaving now.

Oh well. I'm not feeling hopeful, but I also don't feel like I bombed either. Who knows. If I am meant to get this job, I will get it. And, regardless, all was not a total loss...I got to go shopping *by myself* and got a new outfit out of the experience!!

What have I done???

I've thought about getting a job here and there in the past, usually when C is harping on me about how he's convinced we're going to end up living out of our car. But, I think deep down I never really had any intention of going out and finding one. Well, obviously I didn't since, well, I still don't have a job.

I mean, why in the world would I want to purposely add MORE work to the constant stream of crap I already have to do??? That would be insane, right? The laundry, and dishes, and bathrooms, and meals that need to be made all the time, and stuff just, everywhere, that needs to constantly be put away, vacuuming, throw in homework and school stuff for the majority of the year...and that doesn't even come close to desribing everything that encompasses a stay at home mom/maid does. Job, pfffft, I am SO not getting any stinking job!!

Well...for some reason lately I've actually been thinking about it more and more. All on my own even, not pressured by the thought of calling a cardboard box my bedroom. So I was talking to a dad at the boys baseball game yesterday. He was saying his wife was applying at a new Kohl's store that is opening up near here in the fall. And I thought...hey, yeah, I worked at Kohl's ages and years ago, I should totally go for that job!!

Somehow this morning I found myself looking up the website, printing out an application, and setting a time for an interview...EEEEEK!!!

And as soon as I hit the confirm button I thought...WHY did I do that?!?! It's not like they are going to hire me, aside from a brief stint at Curves I haven't worked in YEARS. They want 4 professional references...I'm certain just about anyone I ever worked for no longer works at that place or even remembers who I am. I have no clothes appropriate for an interview, or for working in a retail environment for that matter IF somehow I managed to get hired...and I mean seriously, none, zero, zip, zilch. I haven't had an interview in soooooo long, I'm surely to sound like a complete idiot. I can only work weekends, stores want people who can work all the time. I'm fat, nobody likes fat people. I hate rejection, I can't handle rejection, it makes me feel even more like crap than I do on a regular basis. OMG!!!

All of that went through my head in about the span of 15 seconds.

Why am I freaking out? I have no clue. Its totally irrational and stupid. I mean, its not like I even HAVE to go, right? I should go. I should at least make an attempt to get out of the house and make a little bit of money. And if I already know they are going to hate me then it won't really be a disappointment when I don't get hired, right?

See...this is why I never tried to find a job before, its just too much for my poor mind to handle.

I think he's doing it on purpose...

As much as I despise summer break, I almost equally despise making lunches for my children every day. Not enough to wish that they didn't have school mind you, but it definitely is near the top of my list of things I'd rather not have to do. I have a hard enough time coming up with ideas for meals to eat each night for dinner, you think I really have brain cells to spare for lunch menus???

All last year E brought his lunch to school, mostly because I was too lazy to figure out the lunch system after they started at the new school. I was annoyed almost every morning trying to come up with things to give him, he might not have cared much about eating the same thing all the time, but I was irritated making the same things. There were times he asked if he could buy lunch, but I always had some reason for not figuring it out, which, thinking back on it, was really dumb on my part.

With the new school year coming upon us I thought, hmmm...maybe he can just buy lunch this year. He liked buying lunch in 1st grade at the old school a couple times a week, he'll certainly think this is a GREAT idea!!! I checked it out, lunches only cost $2 each, that's really not bad, and adding in the reduced work for me, totally worth it...I think its a great idea!

So I asked him and he seemed unsure. I told him he could have time to think about it. Of course I'm thinking this is a no brainer, right? Well a day passes and he comes to tell me he's decided...he doesn't want to buy lunch, he wants to keep bringing it from home.

Gah! Seriously???

You think if I make him peanut butter & jelly EVERY DAY he'll get sick of it and change his mind? Wait, no, that won't work, he LIKES pb&j.... Ooh, I know, tuna sandwiches! That should do the trick!

Oh, and lest you think I'm starving my other child...R doesn't actually eat lunch at school, well, he eats like 4-5 bites, literally, and only because we have people watching him to insure that he does so. So him buying would just be a total waste of money...so I'll just have to be annoyed about packing his lunch until a miracle occurs.

Have you heard of this show?

There's a reality tv show on Oxygen that's like the illegitimate love child of The Biggest Loser and Dancing With The Stars. Its called...get this...Dance Your A$$ Off. Overweight contestants are paired with a professional dancer and must do a dance routine every week. They also workout with a trainer and are changing their diets. They perform and are judged by 3 judges. Their average score is added to their percentage of weight loss and the lowest person is kicked off each week.

I don't know what I really think about it. On hand I think its great that they are showing that fat people can shake their thang and be just as sexy as anyone else, and they are losing fairly normal amounts of weight each week. But I dunno...I mean, they had a pole dancing week. I'm no prude, but I'm not sure I really want to see that regardless if you're a size 2 or 32.

I have to hand it to those contestants though, it looks like a really fun way to lose weight, but I don't think I'd have the guts to do it...not in front of other people anyway, LOL!

Why do women wear bikinis?

Ok so I know why *I* don't wear them, but that's pretty obvious I think.

Today I took the kids to the beach and while there I happened to notice that 95% of the women there were wearing a bikini, from the very young up to those on the verge of "old"...all wearing bikinis. Honestly I'm fairly certain the only females that I saw that were not wearing them were either a) wearing regular clothes/no swim wear at all, or b) were of the slightly chubbier variety and probably wished they'd make suits that covered from the neck to the knees.

I found this quite odd. I started thinking about how many times I've heard women complain about swim suit shopping and not being able to find one that fits or one that covers up the right spots. I thought about all the women I've heard complain about and agonize over a bit of belly flab or their flappy upper arms or jiggly thighs or their *gasp* 5 extra pounds. We're a society so obsessed with our physical flaws...and yet here are all these women putting them all on display.

But why? I find it improbable that all those women I saw were totally and completely accepting of their bodies. In fact, a girl next to me who couldn't have been older than 12 or 13 and had a perfectly slender/healthy looking body was describing to her 2 friends that she was in fact sucking her stomach in and went about showing them what it looked like when she didn't.

I'm not saying that women shouldn't wear bikinis, if you've got it (physically, mentally, or both)...flaunt it baby! And if its something that makes you feel good about yourself or your body, then more power to you! I'm also not saying that they should only be for the super skinny, if you have the body confidence for it then I see no problem with that.

The things that makes me curious though, is that I just know so many of those ladies out there had to be cringing internally over their butts hanging out or thought they needed to suck in their stomach so much they could hardly breathe. Not to mention the fact that they spend a significant amount of time wearing something to cover up their bikini. So why put yourself through misery? Why not stick to a more forgiving and covering one piece model?


Maybe I have a hard time grasping this because we fat folk tend to avoid swim wear as much as possible. We have no desire to show off our physical flaws in small pieces of spandex. No matter how much we know that those itty bitty things are 200% more stylish than our butt and thigh covering muu-muu's, our piece of mind and self-confidence are worth a bit more than style.


Is this a southern California phenomenon? Maybe women in other areas around the country are not as interested in baring so much of the skin they are not thrilled with.


So ladies, I want to hear it. If you wear a bikini I want to know why. Do you have a rockin' bod and want to show it off? Is it the one piece of clothing that makes you feel sexy? Because all your friends are wearing one? You have a secret obsession with tan lines? Deep down you know that all those things you *think* are wrong with your body don't make one bit of difference to anyone else in the world?