Cooking & Decluttering

YUM! YUM! Look what I get to eat tonight! Michael, the greatest husband ever, who cooked me breakfast this morning and hung out with me today at HomeGoods, Home Depot, and Bed Bath and Beyond, has officially kicked off our tour of The Pioneer Woman Cookbook with her chicken spaghetti.

This recipe could feed a family of eight, and it looks like we are going to be eating this for lunch and dinner tomorrow before freezing the rest, but it smells and looks so good! I am so excited and can't wait for it to be out of the oven in just a few minutes.

Most of her recipes are cooked in an iron skillet. I bought one on Friday (you should have seen me trying to lug that heavy thing to my car), and I can't wait to try it out. If you haven't, go get her book! Try a used bookstore like I did, and get it for a steal. I promise it is money well spent! I guess I should probably tell you that after I've tried the first recipe. Whoops!

This is my favorite part of her book. She has pictures of every step of the recipe. It's awesome, and every cook should do this in my opinion.

Here is Michael cutting up the chicken, and of course our little Sweet Pea is right under him hoping a few scraps will fall her way. On a different note, do you see how white our kitchen is? It drives me crazy!!! Our entire apartment is white, I mean everything! I am slowly working on it, and luckily we get to paint. Michael promised me we will paint before football season starts. I also started a fun project today that will add some more color in the kitchen. I will post that very soon, I promise!

In addition to my fun kitchen project, I also worked on a few decluttering projects too. I hate clutter. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Moving from a large home to a two bedroom apartment has been great in so many ways, but some spaces are cramped. Especially my closet that I now share with Michael. My mission was to go through my shoes, belts, purses, and jewelry, and I decided to donate what I haven't used in several months. Most of the things I donated haven't been used in years. Why in the world have I been keeping this stuff?

You can see Scarlett snoozing in the background of this picture. She looks thrilled doesn't she? I had a real mess on my hands, but I love decluttering. It makes me discover new treasures I forgot I had, it makes me feel good to donate nice things to people who can snag up great deals, and it relieves stress. I am a firm believer that living more simply relieves so much stress in life. After spending hours organizing and decluttering today, there is no way I want to have a cluttered life that forces me to do this several times a year. I can't really pinpoint the exact cause, but there is something about living with so much stuff that makes you feel like your drowning.

The bigger issue is learning not to buy new stuff to replace the stuff that you give away. There is a reason I gave away all those shoes. Its' probably best that I find a few great pairs of shoes and wear them out instead of buying 10 pairs of cheap shoes that just sit in my closet. Old habits die hard, but I want to learn to buy with more intention and really think "Do I really need this?" Besides, saving on clothes I don't wear will probably give us more money to buy groceries for our Pioneer Cooking Adventures!!!