One just isn't cutting it anymore

For most people I know the number of people in a household and the number of computers in a household are usually equal. Not so in our home. For the past couple of years we have been a one computer home. We bought a laptop and for the most part the hubs and I were good about sharing. There really wasn't a need for more than 1 computer. Neither of us have occupations that require us to be on a computer for a long period of time or have the need to do work from home.


But lately this is what it looks like in our home. I'm lucky if I even have an opportunity to use the computer when I get home. Most of time I use my i-phone. After discussion with the hub we've decided it's time to get a new computer. We've looked around and are searching for a new desktop. Hopefully something with tons of memory (1 tarobyte perhaps) and a nice sized monitor. With the husband doing more work with photography we figured it would come in handy. We almost purchased one a few weeks ago but decided to hold off hoping we'd hit some good deals during the Labor Day holiday weekend. So here's hoping we have a new addition to our home soon and the hub and I can stop "fighting" over the computer. :-)

Goodbye Chase, Hello Wells Fargo

So after a year of marriage the hub and I finally decided to open a joint checking account. After receiving an offer in the mail from Chase bank offering free $100 when opening an account with them, we figured what the heck? What do we have to lose? Well...our relationship with Chase bank was very short lived. Only 2 weeks after opening our account we closed our account. Let me correct that, they closed our account. Here is how events transpired:

-Opened our account (guy seemed like he was new and seemed nervous when helping us)
-A few days later receive a letter in the mail stating the hub's SSN was inputted incorrectly.
-Hub goes into the bank the next day to fix the issue (or so we thought)
-Activate my debit card but the hub is unable to activate his (per the account rep on the phone, "you need to go into the bank to fix it"
-Try to use my debit card at a restaurant and it gets denied
-Go into bank inquiring about hub's card and my card. Per the account reps, "oh we'll send a new card out to you [hub]" and "we don't know why your card [me] was denied everything is fine"
-Try to use my debit card again at the grocery store and get denied
-On the same day receive mail with the hub's new debit card plus a letter stating our account was closed with a check enclosed for the full amount. WTF?!

At this point I was too angry at Chase to even try to rectify our situation. So with our check in hand from Chase we walked into Wells Fargo today.

Our experience at Wells Fargo today was WAAAAAY better. We've had an account with them for only a few hours but I'm hoping this relationship lasts a little bit longer. Plus I'm stoked about their rewards program for using your ATM card for credit purchases. And we got free parting gifts. :-)

Thursday and Friday: Cooking Interrupted

So I did real well the first three days last week of operation cooking at home but Thursday and Friday were a bust. Boo to me. Hopefully this week will be a better week.

Wednesday: "Fajita" Turkey Burgers

So 3 days in row of operating cooking at home! Tonight's recipe was "Fajita" Turkey Burgers. And I put "fajita" in quotations because when I got home I didn't have any fajita seasoning so I had to improvise with taco seasoning. I've made these burgers once before and they were delicious so I decided to give them another try. Not too many ingredients in this recipe.


Once you mix everything together (after giving the onion and bell pepper a saute) you get 4 generous sized burger patties.


While the burgers were cooking I prepared the avocado salsa to go on top of the burgers. This salsa is delicious and in my opinion, is what really makes this dish. All it is a combination of avocado, cilantro (btw, i really looooooove cilantro), and green salsa.


I should've probably prepared a salad or veggies to accompany our burgers but while shopping at Trader Joe's today I couldn't help but buy this:


And once everything was cooked here's the final product!

Tuesday: Crockpot Salsa Chicken

This is the first time I've made this dish but I've read about it several times through other blogs I read. Since we had chicken yesterday and I knew I would have half of the chicken package left I decided to give this recipe a try. I love crockpot cooking. Just throw everything in the crockpot and 6-8 hours later you've got a meal! This dish was really easy. Not too many ingredients.

boneless chicken, a can of cream of mushroom soup, taco seasoning, and salsa


Throw everything in the crockpot and you start out with this:

And 8 hours later I had this:

I cooked up some spanish rice, heated some tortillas and this was my final product:

I was pleasantly suprised by this dish. The cream of mushroom and salsa made me wary but this was GOOD! Definitely a keeper and I'll be making this again.

Monday: Chicken Scallopini

First night of operation cook every night during the week was a success. I've never cooked chicken scallopini and found the recipe I made here.

First I pounded the chicken breasts thinner with my one of my favorite kitchen tools. :-)

Then prepared the ingredients together to cook the chicken (lemon juice, salt, pepper, breadcrumbs). I know, a lot of chicken for just 2 people but I wanted to make enough so both the hubs and I had leftovers for lunch.

Pan-fried the chicken breasts in a little bit of olive oil.

While the chicken was cooking, collected all the ingredients for the sauce. (white wine, chicken broth, capers, butter).

Made a side of rice pilaf to go with the chicken. I "cheated" and used a box mix. :-)

And voila! Here's the finished product!

It was delicious! And the hub loved it too! Glad I made enough for both od us to have leftovers tomorrow. :-)

Tomorrow: Crockpot Salsa Chicken

Cooking: Getting Back on Track

For the past several weeks our eating habits have been terrible. Too many days of take-out and eating junk out of a bag have not been friendly on our wallets or our waistlines. In an effort to save our wallets and waistlines I am going to make more of an effort to cook. Pre-planning our meals for the entire week worked well for us awhile back and I'm hoping it works out again. So after some internet browsing for new recipes and grocery shopping, here's the menu I've planned for this coming week.


Despite all this hot weather we've been having, hopefully this will get my butt into gear and start cooking again. Let's see how the week goes...