Crock Pot Freezer Meals

Today when I woke up, I spent my normal 20 minutes checking Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. Nearly every time I log into Pinterest I see posts about "freezer meals for a month for $100" or other things along those lines. I was never too inspired by them until today. As I'm laying in bed with no plans prior to work, I thought to myself, I could do that. Sure enough I work up and started planning. The pin that I went off of had shopping lists, recipes, and a ton of other resources for first timers. I printed off everything she said to print off and went to the grocery store. I spent an hour gathering the copious amount of supplies that the list had, and let me tell you, I felt awesome going through the checkout line with 11 onions and 8 zucchinis. My grocery bill was exactly $97.97. I did grab a few other things we needed from around the house but not many. To begin with, this is already about $20-50 less than our trips to the grocery store.

Anyways, once I got home I organized everything on my counter and went to work.

I started with labeling my gallon ziploc baggies for what the meal was inside and the date. The recipes on the website all yielded services of 5-8 and because it's just my husband and I, I decided to split everything in half. Hopefully this works okay, I guess I'll find out as I make them all. In the end I spent about two hours cutting everything up. My hands hurt and won't stop shaking. It's definitely an uncomfortable feeling, however, it excites me to know that I have twenty meals in my freezer right now that require zero preparation other than putting them in a crockpot when I want to eat them.

 I am pretty darn excited and proud of myself. I hope this post inspires some of you to try this out! I'll report back more information once I've had an opportunity to try out some of the meals. My plan is, if it all works out well, to use my own crockpot cookbook and create my own lists and recipes (not all of them on the initial website are ones I'd like to eat over and over again).

Holiday Spirit!

Today I got around to cutting out some paper bows for my Christmas tree with my Silhouette Cameo. I saw this idea on Instagram and knew I had to copy it. I used this bow from the Silhouette Online Store. Although it's just a simple bow, I think it adds just enough femininity to the tree. I just love it!

Veteran's Day Weekend

What an amazing and busy weekend we've had in the Westpfahl household. This past Thursday, November 8th, my husband and I had the honor of attending the 3D Combat Engineer Batallion 237th Birthday Ball in San Diego California. Let me tell you, that was one heck of a good time! I got to get my hair done, do my makeup all fancy, and wear a nice dress. My husband looked handsome as ever in his Dress Blue Alphas, a fresh hair cut, and a clean shave. He definitely knows how to look good. The events of the evening involved a formal presentation from the Commanding Officer as well as a guest speaker. In addition to that, there was a lot of drinking and a lot of ridiculous dance moves.

Our "formal" picture from the evening! Sadly my hair had started falling out at this point!

Lovely iPhone quality photo from during dinner!

The following day we took the opportunity to stop in San Diego to do some shopping and go to the ocean. Where we live we really don't have anything - 30 minutes from Wal Mart, 90 or so from Target, and over 2 hours from Hobby Lobby! Although it was a little chilly for us in the 50-60 degree weather we did enjoy seeing the ocean! I also managed to score a few needed things from Hobby Lobby!

My husband and I at Del Mar beach on Camp Pendleton!

My minimal Hobby Lobby loot!

In addition, with it being Veteran's Day weekend we always want to take time to thank our veterans - current, past, and future. I am lucky enough to be married to the most handsome veteran on the planet and we enjoyed the day together. Here are a collection of my favorite photos of us together with him in uniform from over the past two years!

And, some people may call us crazy for this but I don't care! Today we went out and bought our first Christmas tree and set of ornaments and lights! We will be back in Wisconsin for a week next week and then both of our birthdays are quickly after that so we knew this weekend would be the best time to get that purchased and set up. We went with a non-prelit tree with white lights and an array of blue of ornaments. I am extremely happy with how pretty it is!

Well, that's all I have for you at this point, but before I go, one last piece of photo goodness for your entertainment purposes. My husband and I shaved our dog last week, and he insisted on giving him a MoHawk. I'm not sure how I feel about this, but he seems to be enjoying it thus far! Cheers!

Halloween Fun!

A friend of mine out here in the desert has kindly invited my husband and I over for dinner tomorrow (Halloween). I think it's mainly because my husband and I refuse to hand out candy to the thousands of kids that come trick or treating in base housing - they don't pay us enough for that.

Tonight I decided to throw together a cute card to say "Happy Halloween" and thanks for having us over. This also gave me an excuse to test out using the rosette shape that I've seen lately on the Silhouette blog!

I know it's nothing special, but I like how it came together!

Pre-Blog Creations!

Here are some items that I crafted prior to having this blog! Nothing special to explain, just photos!

Sketch Challenge

As part of the recent "Sketch Challenge" by Silhouette America, I've decided to not only participate, but also make a blog to post my creations on. 

This is the sketch in which the card or scrapbook layout was to be designed from

Here is my rendition of the sketch! 

The 3 little dots are actually "button" brackets. I'm in love with them! I wish you could identify them better in this photo!

I am a beginner in regards to using my machine, and if you check out the other submissions that is quite obvious. With being a Marine Corps spouse, I spend a lot of holidays away from family, and I thought this challenge would be a great opportunity to make a "Thinking of You" fall themed card! Cheers!