Menu Plan Monday

I was out of town this weekend, so my parents were on their own for dinner Friday and Saturday night. Menu Plan Monday is brought to you by I'm An Organizing Junkie. Check it out for over 400 meal plans and recipes.
 

Sunday: Pasta with Shrimp, Artichokes, and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Monday: Steak, Rice Pilaf, Asparagus

Tuesday: Trenette with Eggplant and Basil Pesto, Salad, Garlic Bread, and Birthday Cake – it's my mom's birthday!

Wednesday: Leftovers

Thursday: Homemade Chicken Fingers, Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Frozen Veggies

Friday: Out to dinner to celebrate Mom's birthday!

Simple Sunday

I like to spend my Sundays relaxing. I try to make them no-drive days (days where I don't leave the house, thus not driving to save gas and be more environmental) and just hang out at home. Today can't be a no-drive day because I'm driving home from spending the weekend with my best friend, but until I leave, we aren't leaving the house. We are watching movies and enjoying each other's company until I leave to go home. Most of my Sundays are the same; I spend the day reading, watching reruns of old shows with my mom, and preparing for the week ahead.

I find that spending my Sundays simply not only helps me stay relaxed and less stressed, but is also very frugal. If I don't leave the house, I'm not tempted to buy unnecessary things while out running errands. Plus it gives me more time to spend with my family.

How do you spend your Sundays?

Food Waste Friday

I'm trying to make my family understand how important it is to cut down on our food waste; that every time we through away food, we are throwing away money.  Alas, this has not been an easy task.  However, this week's waste wasn't near as bad as it's been in the past.  

What we threw away:

 

 Some hummus that had developed a weird smell and some cool whip that no one could remember when it was purchased (plus it had some sort of strange liquid at the bottom).  Mom also threw away a small bit of pasta salad left over from last Friday and some broccoli from Monday before I could get a picture.  Not sure what was wrong with it or why we didn't eat it.  Must do better next week!

I'm going out of town this weekend, so Mom's on her own to grocery shop.  I have set a goal of spending $100 or less each week on groceries and we've been doing okay.  This week's grocery list is pretty short, so I"m interested in seeing how much gets spent.  Especially when I'm not around to curb any impulse bakery buys. :)

How did you do on your food waste this week?  Hop on over to The Frugal Girl and check out why not wasting food is so important!

Recipe: Mario’s Baked Ziti

My dad, Mario, is Italian. Really, really Italian. Like, born in Italy, still speaks with an accent, eats more garlic than should be allowed, kind of Italian. 

Because I grew up eating mainly Italian dishes, Italian is my preferred cooking style. Italian cooking is simple, delicious, and (for the most part) fairly nutritious. Stick around here long enough and you may end up smelling the garlic through the computer screen.

Baked Ziti has been a staple in our house for as long as I can remember. It's not especially complicated, but the simplicity is what makes it so amazing. 

That, and the cheese. 

We like cheese in our family. Lots and lots of cheese. My dad's Baked Ziti is a favorite among family and friends and the only reason it showed up on this week's menu is because a friend of mine is coming for dinner and it was requested. Since it's my first time posting a recipe, I figured I'd start with something easy and a crowd pleaser. 

Just a note: My dad never measures when he cooks, so I had to guess on how much sauce and cheese were going into the pan.

Mario's Baked Ziti

Serves roughly 8-10

1 pound ziti (or any short cut pasta such as penne)

3-4 cups homemade red sauce (with or without meat, your choice)

2½ (or more!) cups shredded mozzarella cheese

¼ cup Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 375°. Spray a 9x13 baking pan with cooking spray. 
Cook pasta in boiling, slightly salted water 1 minute less than per package instructions. Drain. Meanwhile, heat sauce over medium low heat until heated through. Add a good ladleful or two of sauce to empty pasta pot and return cooked pasta to pot. Stir to coat pasta evenly.

Spread a layer of sauce evenly over the bottom of the greased pan. Top with half of pasta, one cup of mozzarella cheese, and an even sprinkling of Parmesan. 

Repeat with another layer of sauce, pasta, and cheeses. Spread a final, thin layer of sauce over the top. Top with any remaining cheese. 

Bake in the preheated oven 45-50 or until heated through and cheese is melted and bubbly. Allow baked ziti to rest at least 10 minutes before serving. 

So yummy! If you try this, leave me a comment and let me know how you liked it!

Recipe: Homemade Pizza

My family loves pizza. When I was in school, my parents liked to order a shrimp pesto pizza from a local pizzeria, but it ordering a specialty pizza isn't always so great on the budget. 

One weekend when I was at home, my mom and I set out to recreate a pesto pizza at home. Until yesterday, we had always used a store bought pizza crust.  But yesterday, I successfully made my first pizza dough!  

I consider myself a fairly accomplished baker. Thanks to the best birthday present ever (a stand mixer), I finally feel comfortable tackling making my own bread. Since I got the mixer in December, I've made all of our sandwich bread and most of the bread we eat at meals. But for some reason I always thought pizza crust would be hard. I was so wrong. 

The recipe below makes two 12 inch pizzas and couldn't be easier. I've listed the toppings we like on our pizzas, but you may like something entirely different. I have no doubt this crust would work well with any kind of pizza.

Homemade Pizza –
makes two 12-inch pizzas

1 4-oz package (2 1/4 teaspoons) of yeast (I use instant rise)

2 teaspoons salt

4½ - 5 cups of bread flour

3 tablespoons olive oil

1¾ lukewarm water (about 105°)

Cornmeal (for dusting surface)

Pesto (homemade or store bought)

3-4 garlic cloves, minced

Sundried tomatoes, sliced

Artichoke hearts, chopped

Sliced mushrooms (fresh or canned)

Cooked chicken breasts, shredded

1 cup mozzarella cheese

¼ cup Parmesan cheese



Sprinkle yeast over water and allow to develop for 10 minutes. Combine salt and 2 cups of flour in a food processor; plus 5 times to combine. Add water/yeast mixture and olive oil and plus another 5-6 times. Add remaining flour in batches until dough comes together. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 15 turns. Put dough into a greased large bowl. Cover with a damp tea towel and allow to rise 45 minutes, or until doubled. Punch dough down, divide in half, and form into 2 balls. Wrap each ball in plastic wrap and chill until ready to use.
 
Preheat oven to 450°. Grease two 12-inch pizza pans. Unwrap dough and roll out on surface dusted with cornmeal. Place in pan and stretch to fit. Using fingers, gently create a ridge to form the crust. Spread desired amount of pesto over each crust, making sure to coat all the way to the crust. Top each pizza with desired amount of toppings, spreading them evenly. Sprinkle each pizza with at least ½ cup mozzarella cheese and several tablespoons Parmesan cheese. Bake 16-18 minutes, or until cheese is melted and crust is golden brown.


 

The sundried tomatoes burned just a little on the veggie-only pizza :)

We had some leftover andouille sausage, so I threw that on one half

How Did I End Up Here?

How did I end being an unemployed librarian? Well, it's not that complicated. I started library school in August of 2008 with my head full of dreams of a cushy job that allowed me to help bright young college students conduct research for term papers, navigate the complex system of academic libraries, and basically help shape their collegiate lives. I knew almost from the beginning that I wanted to be a reference librarian in an academic library. I wasn't dismissing public librarianship, but I always knew that my skills (and temperament) were best suited to academic librarianship. I worked in a small library on campus for a year and did my internship in my campus's science and engineering library. Thus, my last semester entered and I was sure, with all this experience, I would have no trouble getting a job.



Obviously, that has not been the case (otherwise I wouldn't be writing this!). It turns out that academic libraries take FOREVER to make any sort of decision. Example: I applied to my very first job in September and applied to 3-4 a week thereafter. I got my first interview at the beginning of December. When was that particular application sent out? The first of October. This is a process that would test the patience of a saint. And patience is not a virtue I'm known for. I've had three interviews and one job offer (unfortunately it was not the library or place for me), but haven't been able to land that perfect ideal: the reference librarian position. I have another job interview coming up this week, so fingers crossed on that!



Being unemployed has its ups and downs. I live with my parents, rent free; in exchange I do most of the cooking and help with the grocery shopping and the housework. My dad works from home, so he does most of the laundry and the housework, but an extra pair of hands is always handy. I've introduced my parents to the world of meal planning and budget grocery shopping (the economy has not passed our family over) and am working to trying to make our household more green. Being back at home means living in a city I haven't lived in for almost 6 years, so that is taking a lot of getting used to. Being away from my friends and my comfort zone is a struggle, but I'm trying to be more social and hang out with friends I didn't see much while I was in school. There are good parts to being unemployed too: I usually get to sleep late, I've started reading 2-3 books a week, and I get to cook and bake, which are two of my favorite activities.



So that's how I came to be an unemployed librarian. If you are unemployed, please feel free to share your stories!

Menu Plan Monday

Why am I planning my menu? Menu planning is both practical and frugal. When you do all of the cooking for your family, you need to stay sane. If you've planned your menu ahead, there's no wondering what's for dinner at 4:00. Menu planning also helps me keep track of my grocery budget by forcing me to plan meals around what's already in my pantry/refrigerator and what's on sale. I do the grocery shopping on Fridays and my menu reflects that. For almost 400 menu plans and meal ideas, check out I'm an Organizing Junkie. 

Friday: Greek Tilapia, Greek pasta salad

Saturday: Hamburgers, broccoli slaw, leftover pasta salad

Sunday: Pasta with Sauce

Monday: Creamy Slow-Cooker Chicken, rice, broccoli

Tuesday: Homemade Pizzas
Wednesday: Mario's Baked Ziti, salad, Buttered Rosemary Rolls

Thursday: Leftovers

Welcome to My Blog!

For the past nine months blogging has become an increasingly important feature in my life. I completely blame it on my Information Technologies teacher who, instead of teaching us HTML, taught the class how to blog. My foray into blogging came with Chronicles of a Library School Student, my now defunct blog about living life as a library school student. During that epic summer school class in which I learned how to blog, I also discovered other peoples' blogs. I had read a few in the past, but had never subscribed to any or really thought about starting my own. Pretty soon I was obsessed with blogs and blogging, reading everything I could get my hands on. When I discovered the magical world of Google Reader and having a single place where all my blogs could be stored, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. The summer past by with me happily reading and blogging away.

Enter the fall semester where I worked three jobs, took three classes, and tried to maintain a social life. My own blog began to fade in importance, but my love for other people's blogs did not. Why do I love blogs so much? It's difficult to explain, but I think it has something to do with the intimacy of blogs. Blogs are like a window into someone else's life, job, etc. I have found that I prefer those blogs that are more about the people, their lives, and their situations to those blogs that are only about one specific thing. Don't get me wrong; I enjoy blogs that only focus on cooking, fashion, or (in my case) librarianship. However, I love blogs that encompass a wide variety of topics from family to photography to cooking to life in general.

Which brings me to this blog. Adventures of an Unemployed Librarian is not just about job hunting, librarianship, or the struggles of living with your parents in your twenties. It's about all those things, plus a lot more. I read a lot of simple living and frugal blogs and I have learned so much from them. This blog is a way for me to demonstrate how I'm putting those new skills in action. It's also a place for me to share my life and my struggles. So welcome to my adventures and I hope you enjoy!