Mmm Bok Choi!

Right now I could be sitting at home by myself… I could be nuzzled up all by my lonesome watching TV – but instead I am not alone!  Dave is still here with me! You see, he was suppose to be travelling to the US for two weeks for work, but thanks to some messed up paperwork he gets to STAY HOME!  Don’t get me wrong, I like having my alone time as much as the next girl but I’ve gotten tired of him coming and going so often.  We have been getting along fabulously for the past while and really building a nice solid foundation… I would hate for him to have to leave again (never mind the fact that he’d miss Halloween and fly back in on his birthday!)

Today I had my first in-car driving lesson for my drivers training class. It was two hours of just driving all around town, on familiar roads, doing maneuvers I already know how to do.

Boring!

I still have to do this four more times before I get my certificate saying I passed.  That’s when I can stride right on down to my lovely insurance company and have them reduce my insurance by a sweet $1000!

Dave and I did up our budget the other day.  It’s embarrassing to admit that we have been budget-less for the longest time.  We just joined bank accounts this weekend so along with that is time to keep a closer eye on our dolla dolla bills, yo!  For our budget we used the Till Debt Do Us Part lady’s spreadsheet found here.  We will be getting the jars and going the paper way instead of always using our debit cards!  This should keep us more accountable!  We will see!

Along with that budget we decided we need to PLAN!  We actually have a cleaning schedule which has helped us tremendously!  We decided to also do up somewhat of a meal plan for this week.  The meal plan was discussed inside of Superstore so hopefully next time we can get more organized and write our menu down, along with the ingredients, etc.  This will help us not overspend by buying things we just don’t need.

Today I had oatmeal for breakfast at work, a Lifestyle Michalena’s for lunch, and salmon with bok choi and roasted potatoes for supper.  mmmm dinner was delish!

The potatoes were roasted in the oven in a bit of EVOO and sprinkled with Epicure’s 3 onion dip mix (one of my favs).

We had Superstore’s Blue menu salmon:

I spiced the salmon fillets with some Lemon Dilly Dip mix from Epicure, and cooked them on my griddler pan (I think that’s what you call it?)

For the veggie I had some stirfried Bok Choi with garlic and mushrooms.  Bok Choi is a yummy vegetable that I don’t eat as often as I could and should.  It is so easy to cook and packed with vitamin C, calcium and vitamin A.

- wash the bok choi

- slice off the ends of the crunchy stalk part.  I like to slice the stalk in half, then separate the crunchy part from the leaves (I cook the crunchy part first then add the leaves after)

- heat up some oil in a pan on medium then add the crunchy stalky part of the bok choi.   Cook for about 5-7minutes

- Ad a bit of water or chicken stalk for flavor.  I added neither and sprinkled some epicure minced garlic and a TEENY drop of sesame oil instead.

- Add the leafy part of the bok choi and cook for a little while longer.  It’s going to be very full once you put the leafs in but they will shrink like spinach shortly.

The only variation I did was add my mushrooms after the oil was heated.  I cooked them up before adding any of the bok choi.  You can use any veggies if you wish, or just enjoy the bok choi on it’s own!

When all is said and done… voila: