Stuffed Peppers

Ok, I know I said I would be posting in a couple of days about some changes hubby and I are making to our diet…that was more than a couple of days ago. I’ve had a busy week, a lot of it dealing with finances….the cost of everything is going WAY up while the paychecks go up a little once a year if you’re lucky. I freaked when opening the utility bills this week, we used less electricity over the previous month yet the bill is $50 higher just for the electricity part alone….everything else went up too when our consumption changed very little. Basically my utilities are at least $150 more than the previous month, plus groceries just seem to keep going up and up every month. I tried to find a way to spend less than $600 a month on groceries, but unless all we eat is Kraft Dinner there’s just no way, groceries just cost too much here, I spend less than most families for a family of 4. So, as always, money is stressing me out man! I need to find the time to focus on how to earn some money while still being here for my family, problem is being here for my family doesn’t give me a lot of time to think about how I’m going to earn money or have the time to do it.

Anyway, because of focusing on finances this week I didn’t really pay much attention to my blog at all. I will still be posting more about our change in diet and why, for now the short version is that we have cut out all carbs….no sugar, no bread, no flour period. So I have also been working on getting set up with different recipes and meal plans than I am used to, which is surprisingly more time consuming than it sounds(especially when you have to play referee in the middle of it lol).

Yesterday I made Stuffed Peppers for dinner, I’ve been meaning to make them for a long time but never got around to it. It was a perfect meal though for our new(again…yes, will get to explaining that soon) low carb lifestyle. I knew it would be as simple as omitting the rice that is usually in a stuffed pepper, but as I was looking around for a recipe I couldn’t find one I totally liked. All the recipes I found were either missing something or had too much of something, or I just didn’t like the recipe overall. So, since I have been wanting to do more of making my own recipes from scratch instead of using existing recipes as a base, I made my own recipe and it turned out better than I had even hoped! I mean, these were seriously delicious!!!

I made mine with green peppers only because I found bags of green peppers on sale for pretty cheap($2.68 for 4 peppers, if you told me years ago I would be paying that one day and calling it “cheap” I wouldn’t have believed you!), my original plan was to use a mix of all colors, but they were quite a bit more expensive. For me I think I would have preferred a yellow or orange pepper, but I also am picky on how I like green peppers, they have to be diced and cooked soft and mixed in. But you can use whatever peppers you want, I would even do it with large jalapenos if I got a deal on some. Oh, and my 11 year old who hates peppers LOVED these, inhaled 1 before I even sat down, downed another seconds later and was begging for more, he was begging me for mine!

This is how I made it and there were plenty for 5 people and one left over, adjust for how many people and whether or not you’re eating something else with them, hubby and I had only these(he had 3, I had 2), the kids and my bro in-law had 2 each and potatoes with theirs.

 

Stuffed Peppers

6 Peppers, any color

1 lb Ground Beef

1 lb Ground Pork Sausage

1 Onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 can diced tomatoes, or equivalent of fresh diced

1 tsp Cumin

1 tsp Oregano

1 tsp Chili Powder

Salt

Pepper

Shredded Cheese

Brown ground beef and pork sausage, dump meat into a strainer straddled over a bowl and let fat drain out. Saute onion, add garlic when onion is almost done and saute for a few minutes, stirring continuous so you don’t burn the garlic(if you don’t cook a lot you may not know that garlic burns very fast, I always add it in as late as possible, burnt garlic is very bitter and will ruin the taste of the dish). Add meat back into pan along with tomatoes and spices. Mix together well and cook on Med-Low while you prepare the peppers, stirring every few minutes.

Wash your peppers and slice them all in half, carefully clean out all the pepper guts and stem, try not to let the pepper half lose too much of it’s structure. Boil the pepper halves in a pot of water for 3 to 5 minutes depending how crunchy you prefer your peppers(I did about 4 minutes and it was perfect for the guys, I would have liked them a little softer).

Cover baking sheets with foil and lay pepper halves out. Fill peppers with meat mixture and top with as much shredded cheese as you would like(I used marble). Bake at 350* for 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

Please leave a comment, and you can add me to Twitter and/or Facebook too(links on the upper right column). I love connecting with people!

Jolene

 

Pinterest Interests

Here’s my top Pinterest Interests for this week!

Source: victoriassecret.com via Jolene on Pinterest

Source: sewmamasew.com via Jolene on Pinterest

Source: pinterest.com via Jolene on Pinterest

Source: theangelswearfins.blogspot.com via Jolene on Pinterest

Source: nuttykitchen.com via Jolene on Pinterest

Source: ifunny.mobi via Jolene on Pinterest

Jolene

Wonky Posts In Reader

Hey all, I just found out that some of my posts show up kind of wonky in Google Reader when they have a lot of pictures. I’m not sure if that is the case for all feed readers or not. I should have checked sooner because I know some posts I get from others in my Reader are wonky too. I do my posts in Windows Live Writer, not sure if that has anything to do with it or not(curious if others just do theirs on the blog websites or use something else). So if this happens to you just click on the post to read it in my blog instead .

Jolene

Friend Makin Monday

I missed posting a recipe yesterday on Recipe Day, but for a good reason. Hubby and I are making some changes to how we eat. We watched a documentary on Friday that confirmed some already existing beliefs we had on diet. It was sort of our wake up call because we can also say we knew from experience in the past it to be true. Anyway, I’m crazy busy now finding new recipes, re-planning how I do our menu and shopping and everything. When I get into something, I get into it big and become a little obsessed with it! LOL! Anyone who follows me on Pinterest will notice a certain trend to most of my Pins for the past couple of days. I’m working on a post explaining what we’re doing a bit as well as a little bit of “weight” history. I didn’t want to miss Friend Makin Monday though, so taking a break from working on my other post to participate in this weeks FMM. Hopefully I’ll get the other post done in the next couple of days

 

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here at: www.alltheweigh.com so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

FMM: Habits

1. Are you proactive, or do you procrastinate?  It depends, and I’m not even sure I can say depends on what. I do definitely procrastinate a lot more than I should, but then again so does everybody. I don’t know a single person who doesn’t, even people who say they don’t procrastinate DO!
2. Do you eat breakfast everyday? No, but then again our entire day and mealtimes are all jumble up because of hubby working night shift. Basically we eat when we’re hungry, not at specific times, and I just simply plan meals, I don’t plan based on this breakfast, this is supper. Hubby is up around 2 or 3pm, we first eat around 3 or 4 and it’s more often than not a “supper” type meal. And often we’ll be eating eggs before we go to bed, like last night/this morning hubby got home at 5:30am and we had scrambled eggs before going to bed.
3. How much time do you spend watching TV on an average day?  Hard one to answer. Hubby turns the TV on the second he is downstairs, I don’t always fully watch what he has on though, sometimes I do. Once he leaves for work some nights I’ll have something playing all night, other nights I don’t watch a single thing. I really love watching shows, but other than nights hubby is off and I sit and watch with him all night, there’s really no rhyme or reason to my TV watching.
4. Do you talk on the phone, or do you prefer e-mail and/or text messages?  I hate, hate, hate, hate talking on the phone. I mean I can’t say enough how much I hate talking on the phone. I don’t particularly know why, I can only guess it’s from the years of working retail and not knowing if you had a friendly or horrible customer on the end, or it could be from a short stint I did working for the local phone company on the phones and ended up quitting that job in tears because I hated it so much…I couldn’t blame the people on the other end for getting pissed off with me calling because I do too, but at the same time it was my job. I also have a hard time talking on the phone because I just don’t hear very well, it is really uncomfortable saying “pardon me” constantly so instead sometimes I end up just not knowing what the person said. Anyone who knows me knows I don’t phone unless I have to and that if they want to talk they are better off coming to see me, emailing me or messaging me on Facebook(not so much that one anymore, kind of Facebooked out). I’m not big on texting either, but I would do it over a phone call.
5. Do you exercise in the morning, afternoon or evening? hehe, exercise, yeah right! Yeah, I admit, it’s been a while. But when I do did it was usually at night while hubby was at work and the kids were in bed. Years ago I used to do any exercise in the morning.
6. Do you take time for yourself regularly? If so, how do you spend that time?  My time for myself is just working playing at the computer or watching TV while hubby is at work and the kids are in bed.
7. How often do you make your bed? These days never. I got out of the habit because hubby would be getting home from work and going to bed just as I was waking up in the morning and by the time he woke up I was too busy with other things downstairs to bother going up to make it(and of course he didn’t LOL). Now I keep his night schedule but just never got back into the habit of making it, he also still usually wakes up a couple of hours after me and I rarely go back up to the bedroom until bedtime. 
8. Do you plan meals? If so, how far in advance?  Yes, I plan a week ahead but allow flexibility in case something comes up and that meal just doesn’t work for whatever reason.
9. Do you wake up at the same time everyday? Usually within a 2 hour period…depends what time I got to bed and how many hours I spent not sleeping through the night.
10. How often do you brush your teeth?  Twice a day.

Now it’s your turn to answer this week’s questions! Don’t forget to go to www.alltheweigh.com to add your link and read Kenlie’s answers. Happy Monday friends!

Jolene

Copy-Cat Friday

Well, according to my blog schedule that I made today is Copy-Cat Friday. Even though I have been wanting to do posts like this for a while, this is my first one. And, well, it’s proving to be harder than I thought! I want to copy outfits in a way that I would wear them, but that also includes a price that I would pay. With so few plus size clothing sites out there who cater to my kind of budget it’s near impossible. So I’m going to have to be a bit more flexible than I originally planned. I will include the styles that I would wear, but pricewise some things may be much more than I would actually be able to pay(ok, I admit it, it’s a combination of can’t afford and the fact that I’m a cheapskate…you learn to be when you’ve been through what I have). Knowing that some sites run some pretty good sales every now and then is what saves people like me with little to spend on clothing. So if I include an item from City Chic that may currently be $60, I know that they have 50% off sales which will make the price a little better. And while for some things that is still more than I can will pay, I also know that some items do eventually go even lower than that after they have been around for a while, though selection in sizes may be limited the lower the price goes.

Another stumbling block I ran into was that I wanted to use Polyvore to put together the outfits. I’ve already run into sites that Polyvore just won’t work with though. So I guess I won’t be using it right now, I don’t want to limit what sites I use to put outfits together. Fortunately my graphics program works just as well!

Now, let’s get down to the fun and the copying!

I found this outfit on Pinterest, looks like it was originally put together on Polyvore, by who I have no idea though as it doesn’t link back to it. I also have no idea where the pieces in this outfit came from. I know I love it though! I love leopard, red and flats….my kind of outfit!

Here is how I would put this outfit together based on what is currently available and making it as affordable as possible:

The shoes. Yes, I know the shoes are a cheetah print and not leopard, and while the two are very similar they are not the same. I put this shoe with the outfit because this is exactly the style of shoe and around the price I would buy…and really I think you could get away with wearing this print anyway even though the purse and earrings are leopard. I’m on my second pair of leopard flats. First I got from Walmart, second from F21, both I paid under $20 for. So while I couldn’t find exactly the shoe I was looking for to add to this outfit right now, I know they’re out there and for the price I would pay. F21 usually has them and had a pair when I started putting this together, but now it’s not up anymore so must be sold out at least in Canada.

Here’s what I added to the outfit:

 

 

Whiskered Flare Leg Jeans from Forever 21+ $21.80 CDN

 

 

 

Longline V-Neck Cami from Forever 21+ $6.80 CDN

 

 

 

 

Amber Shrug from Sealed With A Kiss $39 USD(more than I would actually pay, but best value I could find at the moment)

 

 

Red Infinity Scarf from Target $14.99 USD…they don’t ship to Canada and we don’t have them until next year. Something comparable could easily be found here, just nothing online I could find right now. Or have someone in the US send you one.

 

Bueno Rouched Leopard Handbag with Croc Trim – Camel from Target $29.99 USD….best I could find online, because it’s Target same as with scarf.

 

 

Gold Leaf And Leopard Feather Dangle Earrings from Torrid $12.50 USD…a little more than I generally spend on earrings…but they’re awesome!

 

 

 Beaded Fashion Bracelet from Miz Outlet $1.49 USD

 

 

Mossimo Supply Co. Odell Ballet Flats – Cheetah from Target $12.99 USD

 

Wow, it took me WAYYYY longer than I anticipated searching out and putting everything together. Hopefully the next one will be faster and easier now that I have sites more organized and know how I’m doing it!

Jolene

I Would If I Could

It’s time for I Would If I Could. My chance to show the gorgeous things I would buy if I had the money for them. A chance for you to see what things are out there right now that I’m lusting over!

I’ve spent all day trying to figure out how to cut what we spend in a month only to come up with unless we don’t eat out even once(and our eating out is not much, so even that wouldn’t cut a lot) there is nowhere else to cut . *sigh*, how depressing huh? We need my hubby’s income but to live in a city that’s not so crazy expensive to live lol.

So while I sit and pout over finances I thought a break to torture myself over things I want but can’t have would be a good idea and lift my spirits. Ok, yes, that was total and complete sarcasm! But I’m trying to stick to my blog schedule I set as best as I can, and I really did need a break from all the number crunching(my eyes are going buuuugggy!!).

So here’s what I would love to add to my closet if my husbands income was twice as much as it is, LOL:

I loved most of the stuff at Forever 21 when I first found out last year that they carried plus sizes. I got a few things that I really liked from them, then all of a sudden not only did they seriously slow down in how many things they were listing, but I didn’t like the styles that they were listing. Now as Spring is getting closer they seem to be getting nicer things again!

 

I love this Lace Flutter Dress from Forever 21+. It’s $27.80, which is definitely less expensive than a dresses from a lot of places. With my current need to tighten the spending it’s not something I can buy right now though. It is just soooo pretty! Not surprising that on the Canadian website they are down to only 1X now though, and it hasn’t been up very long. Wish they would get more of the really nice stuff so it didn’t sell out so fast.

 

V-Day is near! We don’t celebrate it, I’ve told hubby if he wastes money on overpriced flowers or chocolates just because some made up day to make money says he should, I’ll be pissed! But, since the whole married people don’t have much sex thing is a HUGE load of BS, I wouldn’t be at all upset if something like this was laying on the bed for me, and hubby wouldn’t be at all upset if I came into the bedroom wearing it! Black With Red Trim Micro Chemise from Torrid on sale for $24.99

 

I don’t own anything from SWAK yet, just haven’t found anything in my size I could afford when I’ve looked. Found things that I could afford but they didn’t have my size, and I’ve found lots I love on there, just couldn’t afford at the time. This Classic V-Neck Dress In Grey is such a nice simple style that could be dressed up or down. Grey isn’t usually a favorite color of mine, but it looks gorgeous on the model, could only hope it would look just as nice on my pale skin. It’s on for $29.99 now, they appear to have a full selection of sizes in it too.

 

I don’t have a ton of purses like some of the fashionistas out there, which is why I don’t include my handbag in my OOTD posts, my purse doesn’t always match the best. Once again, because of money LOL, geez, isn’t that always the case? I saw one similar to this on sale on Ricki’s website recently but it’s gone now, boo! It’s the first time I’ve seen one on sale, I like most of their purses. I like this one too though. It’s their Large Croco Tote in deep violet for $39.50. Ricki’s is a Canadian store and I don’t believe ships to the US. But for you Canadian ladies and anyone visiting Canada, they carry up to a size 18 in their stores, and they carry Tall sizes in pants!! Both very hard things to find, especially in non-specialty clothing store! Some of their pants come in 3 or 4 lengths, from a 30 to a 36 length. This is a huge deal for those of us with long legs, you can’t alter a regular length to make them longer and finding anything over 31 or 32 inches you almost always have to go to specialty shops. I only wish they carried men’s clothing too, I’m having an impossible time finding 36 length for my son.

Well, there’s my I Would If I Could items for this week, must force myself back to menu planning, shopping lists and number crunching….sounds like fun hey?

What’s catching your eye out there these days? Are you having to watch every penny right now too? I know I for one cannot wait until tax time and we get some money back so things can get a little bit back to normal! I’m always pretty careful about what we spend, but this time of year tends to be the tightest for making ends meet.

Jolene

What I’m Wearing

(yes, I know it’s technically Thursday morning and I missed Wednesday, but it’s still part of my Wednesday lol)

What I’m wearing….or, wore. I wore this last week. Haven’t felt great this week between migraines and stomach issues, so I haven’t been out this week.

Mixing patterns I’ve noticed is something becoming popular lately. Normally it’s not my thing, I’m pretty picky about patterns in the first place. But I did it, I’m not sure if it really works or not though. The only reason I actually mixed patterns was because I needed a scarf to cover my neck and I have a pretty limited selection of scarves, this one was the closest match to what I was wearing. I’ve had pretty bad skin since about my late 20’s and lately it’s been horrible. It was made worse by something I was taking for energy that I didn’t know can flare things up in people with bad skin. Now I’m having a heck of a time clearing it all up. I’ve started using a different foundation that covers much better than what I was using before, but some areas it just doesn’t cover enough. My solution has been scarves! Hopefully my skin clears up soon or I’m going to have to buy a better selection of scarves lol.

What do you think of the mixing of the print on the scarf and the leopard top?

Do you have problem areas you use tricks to cover up? Whether it be skin issues like I have or certain parts of your body you try to cover your extra “curves” more than others. What kind of tricks do you use to cover up your issues?

Jeans: Forever 21+, $15(2011)

Leopard Top w/belt: 121Avenue, $11(2011)

Jacket: City Chic, $26(2011)

Boots: Payless, $40(2011, leftover style from 2010)

Scarf: hand-me-down from a friend

Earrings: Avon, gift from my Mom

Jolene