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Staying at an extended stay hotel is great. You can save a lot of money by cooking when you’re traveling instead of eating out. It also comes in handy if you have food allergies or special dietary restrictions. Extended stay hotels typically advertise that they have fully stocked kitchens. In my experience, that means two plates, two bowls, a dull knife, a fork and a pot. Not quite everything I need to prepare food.

Here are some things I take when we’re staying at an extended stay hotel.

Dish soap

Extra hand towels and rags (One kitchen towel to get me through a week? How often do these people wash their hands?)

A sharp knife and cutting board (You’re much more likely to get cut with a dull knife than a sharp knife.)

A spatula

You might also consider bringing a colander if you plan to make pasta. I figure I’m packing an ice chest with food anyway, so I might as well throw in a few items to make food prep easier. It works for me! Do have a kitchen gadget that you rely on when traveling?

Stay tuned for my next post about an extended stay hotel that has perfectly stocked kitchens!

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The weather in my neck of the woods:
Warmer today and sunny. I think the high is 56, but the weather man says it’s going to be a cold Christmas in Dallas.

One of my simple pleasures:
Petting my dog, Henry.

On my bedside table:
A spiral notebook where I’ve been writing down bits of stories as they come to me.

On my TV:
This weekend we watched Cranford. It was cute.

On the menu for tonight:
Quesadillas

On my To Do List:
Sweep and mop the kitchen.
Vacuum whole house.
Workout – I’ve gotten really off track with my workouts lately.

New Recipe I tried last week:
Macaroni and cheese from a magazine. Not my favorite.

In the craft basket:
I’m working on a painting for my master bedroom. It’s a very simple, modern design. I’ll post a picture when I’m done.

Looking forward to:
Christmas! Christmas Eve will be spent with David’s side of the family. We’re looking forward to spending time with everyone and playing board games. Christmas Day we’ll be with my side of the family, and we’re having Mexican food. Yum!

Homemaking Tip for this week:
I don’t know if this helps other women, but I make deals with myself. I’ll find a girly movie I want to watch, and then I can only watch it while I’m ironing. Or I can have a piece of cake after I clean the shower. Sometimes if I’m in the middle of a good book, I’ll read a chapter, clean a bathroom, read a chapter, and vacuum a room.

Favorite Blog Post of the week (mine or other):
I’ve found another craft blog I love. It’s Dollar Store Crafts. I really like this and this.

Favorite photo from last week:

I took my brother’s lab, Grizzly, to the vet.

Lesson learned the past few days:
Nothing deep or spiritual is coming to mind. Uh, The Pact was my least favorite of all the Jodi Picoult books I’ve read. I learned that when you’re curling your hair, you can alternate curling one strand up and one under to give your hair more volume. And I hate driving during rush hour in Dallas. But I already knew that.

On my Prayer List:
Kerri
For David to start a new job on January 4 since his current contract ends December 31.

Devotionals, Scripture Reading, Key Verses:
Ephesians 4:32 Be ye kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ’s sake has forgiven you.

Phillipians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice!

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Our chiropractor wants David to limit his animal protein consumption to help reduce inflammation. It’s been a little difficult because I can’t have soy, and I don’t want to make two meals. We’ve come up with a few vegetarian recipes that we like such as ratatouille, cheese tortellini with Pesto, and mushroom risotto. And here are a few recipes I thought you might like to try.

We leave the beef out of this Layered Fiesta Casserole and top it with sliced avacado. Delicious!

Pioneer Woman’s Migas are wonderful! Instead of frying the tortillas I just put the eggs in a tortilla like a breakfast burrito. Yeah, we like our Tex-Mex. How could you tell?

Going meatless is supposed to save you money. I disagree. Unless you’re going to eat plain old rice and beans. Produce is expensive. Most of the vegetarian recipes we like cost the same as a meat meal. However, fruits and vegetables are so healthy I think they’re worth the money.

Do you have a vegetarian recipe even a meat lover would like?

Love,
A Young Wife

P.S. One my very favorite vegetarian recipes is Rachel Ray’s Jaw Droppingly Good Asparagus Pasta. It’s found in her Big Orange Cookbook. I don’t have permission to publish it here, so go buy or borrow the cookbook ’cause it’s really good!

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The Aftermath or My Recovery from David’s Flare Up Part 2

I’m getting the house under control. I just dusted the whole house, in the hopes that it would make my throat feel better. My allergies are always severe in the fall, and they’ve started up early this year, probably due to all the rain we’ve been having here in Dallas. And of course, rain aggravates David’s arthritis, so he’s hurting, but the ligament does seem to be better.

I really wanted a few days where I was just at home doing nothing but cleaning. But, life goes on, and I’m not getting any days of staying at home. Still, I think I’m getting there with the house. We’re getting back into our “normal amount of arthritis pain” routine. The dishes are cleaned up every night. A load of laundry is done every day. I clean something every day. I’m hopeful that by Thursday I’ll be caught up.

The real challenge is meals. We’ve gotten off of David’s diet. We’re back to eating lots of meat, and too much junk food. Dinner tonight was a pizza. I had planned to cook a healthy, vegetarian dish, but it’s so easy to give in when David calls on his way home from work and says, “Gee, are you sure you don’t want me to pick up a pizza?”

To me, diet is one thing we can control. We have no control over the weather or David’s arthritis flares or his ligaments. But, we can make healthy food choices. Lord willing, we’ll be back to healthier choices tomorrow. That’s my goal anyway. I was especially encouraged by the podcast from the National Chronic Invisible Illness Awareness Week conference about Simplifying Your Home and Housework. You can listen to the archived radio shows here or download them on Itunes. After listening to the show, I sort of started meal planning by making a list of all the meals I cook regularly. Just that helped clear my mental fog. I started thinking, “Oh, yeah! I make a great mushroom risotto that David loves! I can get back to cooking.”

Good grief. It’s not like he was even in the hospital. He was only bedridden for a few days. How do people do it? I mean, it could be so much worse.

Things are getting back to normal. David was finally convinced to cancel our open house scheduled for Sunday. Thank goodness! Our house will be off the market on September 30. This has taken a lot of pressure off of me. That, and the hope we’ve been given with the Humira has helped me tremendously.

David is still not sleeping well. Hence, I am not sleeping well. And with that, I’d better stop. I’m really tired. This isn’t the greatest blog post I’ve ever written. I just wanted to let folks know that things are looking up for David and me this week. I hope you’re having a good week to.

Thank you so much for all your prayers. God is good.

Love,
A Young Wife

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1. Do not make ratatouille when it is 101 degrees outside, even though all the ingredients are in season and on sale. In fact, let’s just say you shouldn’t make anything that requires the oven temperature to be set at over 400 degrees.

2. Men’s fashion magazines do not sell. Therefore, do not buy your husband a shirt you think is beautiful.

3. When you need mad money, sell stuff. Go through your books, pull out the ones you’ll never read again and take them to Half Price books. They take cookbooks, too. You could also take DVDs to Movie Trading company. A season of a TV series on DVD will sell on ebay.

4. When you are at someone else’s house, loading the dishwasher, be sure you read the label and use dishwashing detergent not dish soap.

5. Environmentally friendly cleaners are great. Except for green toilet bowl cleaner. I mean, literally, the toilet bowl cleaner that is green in color. It makes it look like you’ve got pond scum growing in your toilet.

6. Magic Erasers are incredible. They can get stains and scuffs off of everything. They will also take the paint completely off the walls of a cheap apartment.

7. When you are ironing and your clothes suddenly stop becoming wrinkle free, check to be sure the outlet hasn’t stopped working. Took me half an hour to realize that one.

Love,
A Young Wife

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1. Cook in a cast iron skillet to get more iron in your diet.
2. When adding milk or cream to a hot sauce cooking in a pan, do not dump it in cold with the hot ingredients. Add a little of the warm sauce to the cold dairy first, then start mixing the milk in. This keeps it from curdling.
3. When you’re going to bake something, the first thing you should do is set out your eggs and butter. Ideally all of your ingredient would be the same temperature. Butter needs to be softened for baking, unless you’re making pastries or pie crusts.
4. If you’re watching your weight and don’t want to sneak bites of food as you’re cooking chew gum. Are you really going to take the gum out of your mouth for a bite of food?
5. Add a cup of baking soda to towels in the washing machine to get rid of mildew smells.
6. I mix linen spray with water in a squirt bottle to spritz clothes while I’m ironing. It’s cheap, smells great and is one more way I motivate myself to iron. I get mine at Bed, Bath and Beyond for $6. I like the Egyptian Cotton fragrance.
7. Dull knives are very dangerous. PLEASE take your kitchen knives and have them sharpened.
8. Use Dryel instead of dry cleaning when items just need to be freshened. If a dry clean only garmet is really wrinkled, I find that Dryel won’t get the job done.
9. Try store brands. They’re less expensive, and sometimes they’re just as good if not better than name brands. This goes for plastic baggies, trash bags, cleaning products, canned goods, pasta, cereal…the list goes on and on.
10. Wear dishwashing gloves while you clean house. They will protect your hands from chemicals and wet rags.
11. When shopping at thrift stores and yard sales, remember you can almost always paint things. A little sanding and a coat of paint make a big difference. I’ve spray painted picture frames and chandeliers. So much cheaper than buying new!
12. Show hospitality. Invite friends and family over. Very few people entertain these days. No one will care if your house looks perfect. No one will care what you serve. They will simply be delighted that you’ve invited them to your home.

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