Taylor Family Pictures

Here are a few of the family pictures we had taken while the fam was in town for Brad's homecoming.

2010

So here are a few goals for the year 2010.

1. Eat healthier than I do now (I think I eat semi-healthy right now).
2. Cook one meal a week for 3 months out of my Cook Yourself Thin cookbook.
3. Work out at least 4 times a week.
4. Dessert once a week, preferrably on Sunday.
5. Read each Sunday lesson before Sunday.
6. Pray morning and night every day.
7. Read my scriptures every day (and finish the Book of Mormon by May)
8. Read two books a month (I know, isn't that sad that I don't read a whole lot)
9. Save 10% of Josh's income each week and 100% of my income each week.
10. Continue to build my food storage and have a 1 year supply by the end of the year.

What are your 2010 goals?

Look what I came home to today!

Yes, I came home to shelves inside my food storage room! I am so excited. Josh is not quite done with it, but that's only because he ran out of the L-shaped things that hold the shelves (I don't know what they're called) and we cleaned Home Depot out of those the other day when we were there, so we have to wait until some more come in. Bummer. But I have PLENTY of shelves to get me started on my food storage, considering the fact that right now my food storage pretty much consists of the 72-hour kits that I made at Super Saturday, plus a few odds and ends, here and there. But, YAY for shelves, and a husband who is very handy! P.S. Maren, if you have anything you ever want done, feel free to ask Josh, he likes to do stuff like this.

To the left in the picture is where there still needs to be shelves put up. And, there are my 72-hour kits.

Food Storage Made Easy

So, as some of you know, I've been working on my food storage. I found this wonderful website that has been very helpful in not feeling overwhelmed in starting a food storage. One of the steps to take is to (obviously) have somewhere to store the food/water. We have a very small house and not much storage. We decided to open up underneath our stairs so we can have some extra storage space for the food storage. I'm so excited for it to get finished. And I love the space because it's downstairs, very close to the kitchen so if I ever need to get anything, it will be fairly easy.

Josh started working on it on Friday (basically I came home to a house that was covered in dust from him cutting a huge hole in the wall). I was very excited, though, cuz I've been asking him to do it for a few weeks now, but he's just been so busy at work to start. So on Saturday, we went to Home Depot and got the majority of the supplies we needed.

First, Josh had to rewire a few things so that there wasn't an electrical wire right across the middle of the entrance. He also put in two lights and a light switch.

Second was to clean up all of the trash that the workers who built our house decided to leave in there, since we would never know.

Third was to lay some 2x4's down so that we would have something to nail the floor (which is just made out of plywood) into. You might wonder why we didn't just use the concrete as a floor, and I'm not quite sure what the answer is except on the Food Storage Made Easy website, it says not to store your water directly on concrete, so we raised the floor a little and put down plywood. I'm definitely going to get some type of cheap rug or something to put on top of the walking area so that I don't get splinters while I walk on it.

That's basically all that's done right now. We still have to put up the shelves (which he hopefully will get home early enough to do today) and then we need to find a door that will fit the hole in the wall. We are hoping to find one standard but since the door is going to be pretty short (I will have to get on my knees in order to get in) we might have to special order one.

YAY for food storage. I will definitely post pictures of the finished product, but as for now, this is what we have finished. I'm so excited.
Here is the big hole in the wall. This is right inside the hole to the left. This is where we plan to store our water. You can also see where some of the wiring that he did.
In this picture, Josh is hammering down the floor. You can also see the light he put in.

Same as the picture above. Where he is sitting right now, though, you can actually stand all the way up back there, so I'm excited for all of the storage that I am going to be able to get out of that part.

It's a lot bigger of an area than I had expected. I can't believe we haven't opened this space up sooner. I'm excited.

Super Saturday

Yesterday was Super Saturday at church. It was a lot of fun! I made 2 Christmas Card holders (I was going to give one away, but I haven't decided to who yet). I also made a "The Liddell Family est. 2006 sign) 2 72-hour kits and a Christmas card. It was a good day. Here are the pics.

This is the first Christmas card I have ever made.

2 72-hour kits. I'm so excited to be working on food storage.

Card holder #1

Card holder #2

Here's the established sign I made. Sorry it's sideways, it won't let me rotate it...I don't know why. It's a bit irritating.

Some exciting news, although a little late.

I know...I am a lame blogger lately. I don't know what my problem is.

So, here's the latest news. As most of you know, I've been in school for court reporting for the last 5 years (yes, it really has been that long). I've been close to being done for a while and last Thursday I passed on of my mocks, which is a big test that basically is the ticket to taking the state test. Now, I do have to pass 3 mocks, so I've got one down and two to go, but I am seeing a light at the end of the tunnel and it's really GREAT! I'm so excited, as is Josh since he's been waiting for me to get done with school before he goes (thanks for being so patient, honey). That's basically the only news I have. I have to pass the two more mocks before November 26th, and I totally think I can do it. Wish me luck.

In other news:

Do you remember this post that I did a month or so ago. Well, we got two more caricatures back today. We have started on the celebrity caricatures and the ones that we got back today are of Jim Carrey in Ace Ventura and Audrey Hepburn. They turned out so good! I'm excited about getting the other ones back. The next two are going to be Danny Devito as the Penguin in Batman and Angelina Jolie in Mr. and Mrs. Smith. I'll post some more pictures of these once we get a few more back and start getting them on the wall.

Brad gets home from his mission in Piura, Peru in less than two months already. We are really excited for that. I can't wait! I can't believe it's already been two years. Crazy!

Cooking Yourself Thin

So, I bought the Cook Yourself Thin cookbook, and I really enjoy it. I haven't tried everything but I will share a few of my favorite things.

This is what we're eating tonight. It's the Southwestern Turkey Burgers. We have tried it a few times, and I absolute love it. Josh really likes it as well.

Now at first glance, I would never have wanted to try a turkey burger, but I just happened to have everything for it the first time I made it, and it was one of those days that you just didn't have anything to make, so I ended up with this. And it was really, really good. Very flavorful! We even had the sweet potato fries, and they were good, even for someone who isn't a huge fan of sweet potatoes. The only thing I didn't like about those was that they come out kind of soft, and I haven't quite figured out how to fix that, but besides that, they were great.

We're not having the sweet potato fries tonight, because I'm too lazy to go to the store for just two sweet potatoes, but here's the recipe, in case you're interested.

Serves 4

Calories per serving, turkey burger: 342

Calories per serving, sweet potato fries: 89

For the sweet potato fries:

2 sweet potatoes, 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon chili powder, 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, 1/4 teaspoon salt, plus more for sprinkling, Juice of 1/2 lime.

For the turkey burger:

1 1/3 pounds lean ground turkey, 1 4-ounce can diced green chiles, drained, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, 2–3 spritzes canola oil in a mister, 3 ounces 50%-reduced-fat pepper-jack cheese, cut into thin slices, 4 whole-wheat Kaiser rolls, Romaine lettuce leaves, Tomato, slicedRed onion, sliced1/2 avocado, sliced

1. For the sweet potato fries, preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

2. Wash and dry the potatoes and, with the skin on, slice into 1/2-inch-thick rounds; cut the rounds into 1/2-inch-thick finger-shaped pieces. Toss the potatoes in a bowl with the oil, chili powder, garlic powder and salt.

3. On a baking sheet, spread the sweet potato fries in a single layer and roast, stirring every 10 minutes, until brown and tender, 30 to 35 minutes. Remove from the oven, transfer to a platter or bowl and sprinkle with a little more salt.
Recipes From This Episode

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, mix the lean ground turkey with the diced chiles and season with salt and pepper. Shape into patties and refrigerate until ready to cook.

5. Heat a large grill pan or nonstick skillet on medium heat and spritz with canola oil. Add the turkey patties to the grill pan and cook until browned on one side, about 4 minutes. Flip, reduce the heat to low, cover (if using a skillet) and cook until the juices run pale pink, about 4 more minutes. Top with the reduced-fat pepper-jack cheese during the last minute.

6. Toast the rolls in the oven or in a toaster oven. Alternatively, grill them 1 minute on each side.

7. To assemble: On a platter, place the fries and a burger on a bun and top with lettuce, tomato, onion and avocado slices. Squeeze lime juice over the fries and serve.

Hope you enjoy!