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I knew eventually eating in all week would probably become more of a challenge but I didn’t know it would happen so soon. I found out today was National Free Pancake Day at Ihop. I love their pancakes, especially when they’re free! In my head I tried justifying it. Ya know, it was supposed to be about saving money and if it’s a free meal then it doesn’t really count. In fact it should be even better because it doesn’t cost me anything at all… right? *sigh* I didn’t give in to temptation though and held out. I can get free pancakes next year.

This morning I didn’t have anywhere to be so I was able to have a normal breakfast. It wasn’t anything fancy, just some cold cereal. For lunch I made Joel and myself spinach and cheese omelets. It was my first time making omelets and I was surprised that it went pretty well. It actually came out looking like an omelet instead of scrambled eggs so I was pleased.

Dinner was another story. I got a recipe for portabella mushroom burgers off Spark People. I love mushrooms and when I looked at the ingredients it seemed like it would be delicious. I didn’t pay close attention to the instructions when I decided to make it though, and that was my big mistake. We bought all the ingredients yesterday and as I was preparing to make the burgers I read the recipe more closely. That’s when I realized this was not going to be a quick and easy meal to make.

The recipe called for garlic, rosemary, thyme, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. When I read the ingredient list I assumed they all would be mixed together and then rubbed on the mushroom cap. Yeeeah, not exactly. What I actually had to do was this:

I cut little slits in the top and had to insert the garlic, rosemary and thyme into the holes one by one. It took for.ever.

Once I finally finished stuffing the four mushroom caps I brushed the oil and balsamic vinegar on them and grilled until they were tender. The looked pretty nice once they were done.

Unfortunately they weren’t as delicious as they sounded and looked. They weren’t awful but they were no where near worth the time it took to prepare them.

So, out of six meals at home I’m only classifying one as a fail so far. Not too bad for a girl who almost never cooks.

Joel and I eat out way too much. This is mostly out of laziness. I have a really bad habit of not thinking about food until I’m ready to eat. I don’t tend to plan ahead and by the time I start thinking about food I’m too hungry to want to cook something. More often than not there’s not much of anything in the house for me to cook even if I wanted to. This is also because of laziness, I really hate grocery shopping. Joel doesn’t mind doing it but his work schedule doesn’t give him a whole lot of time. All this eating out is expensive and it’s been awful on my waistline.

Joel and I have been meaning to eat in more for awhile and so when the Huffington Post announced their Week of Eating In challenge I was excited. It was the perfect excuse to stay in, eat healthier and save money.

Today was day one:

On Mondays Phoebe has obedience class. Of course I stayed up too late the night before and got out of bed later than I should have. Then the shower water wouldn’t get hot (grrrr) so I took too much time fiddling with that before I just gave up and took a cold shower. Anyway, all that meant that I was running out the door at the last minute so my breakfast was a cheese stick. Not exactly gourmet but it kept me from fainting during class.

For lunch I ate some leftover vegetarian chili. I got the recipe off Spark People. It was pretty good and it lasted me three meals so definitely inexpensive. Normally on Mondays I’m so hungry I pick Joel up and we grab some kind of fast food. Today it was nice to eat at home and not spend the money.

For dinner I made my Greek turkey burgers. Those are always delicious and one recipe makes seven or eight burgers so I was able to freeze half and we’ll have them again later this week or next week.

So far we’re off to a good start. We have all the ingredients we need for our meals tomorrow and we’ll go grocery shopping for the rest of the week on Wednesday. I’m looking forward to cooking more this week. If I cook anything extra delicious I’ll be sure to share the recipe. I’ll also share if I have any cooking disasters so you can laugh at along with me.

While at the Auto Show we got a chance to ride the Camp Jeep test course. It was a series of obstacles and were designed after real life off road trails.  We had to wait a good hour and a half (with the world’s most annoying family behind us) but it was a lot of fun.

A bumpy track and….

A 20 foot hill with a 35 degree angles were just a couple of the many obstacles.

Here is a video of the full experience.

And yes our driver did say I have a “round butt”. Um…. thanks?

Joel and I went to the Chicago Auto Show today. It my first time so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I’m not really a car person but I thought it could be interesting and since we were given the tickets I figured if it was boring we could just leave. Well it was the opposite of boring, I had a blast. We ended up staying for 7 1/2 hours! Even staying that long we still didn’t see and do everything. Honestly we probably could have spent another 7 hours there if we hadn’t been so exhausted.

This is just a fraction of one area of the show. It was enormous. As you can see it was really busy since it was the second to last day of the show.

This is the DIY Suzuki…

I love me a pretty Mini Cooper.

Note: this car does not actually fly.

I fit… in the Fit… *giggle*

Remember that Superbowl commercial?

This car had sparkly seats! I might have squealed a little.

What you’re looking at is a grill, and I’m not talking about what bugs usually die on. This is a fully functional grill. Also included, a mini fridge and sink. This is the ultimate tailgating machine.

Nice thing about the auto show is you are introduced to new cars and find out which ones are nice and which ones aren’t nearly as cool as they look. This Toyota was a dud.

I think Joel liked this car more than I did. Shh! Don’t tell him I told. *wink*

We aren’t in the market for a new car right now but we got some great ideas for when we do start to look and we had a great time in the process. Hopefully Joel and I can make The Auto Show a yearly tradition.

Stay tuned tomorrow for a video of the Jeep test course we got to ride on. Watch Joel and I get whiplash!

We have a dog, but sometimes I’m pretty sure she thinks she’s a kitty.

She really likes to climb on things. The only thing I worry about is I’m not sure she’d land on her feet if she slipped.

Other times I think she thinks she’s a human being.

She covered herself with that blanket and she uses that pink bone as a pillow.

And then there are times when she definitely acts like a dog.

Cat, person, dog… Whatever. She’s my baby and I love her.