year of kindness challenge: week 12

Posted on March 25, 2013 by dallaswoodburn

Hi, everyone! Hope your week is off to a good start.

Last week’s kindness challenge was to thank someone in a genuine and meaningful way. I wrote three thank-you notes to friends, and I also tried to be extra-aware of the many small kindnesses and smiles that people give me in everyday life. For every “Thank you!” I said, I tried to fill my words with genuine warmth and gratitude. And, whaddaya know? Just that simple awareness made me feel more grateful.

This past week’s challenge also got me thinking about the various people in the community who are there, keeping me safe in the event of an emergency … which inspired this week’s act of kindness: The Week 12 Kindness Challenge is to deliver something sweet — coffee, cookies, baked goods, etc. — to your local fire station.

As always, blog about your experiences and include your links in the comments section below, or feel free to send me an email at dallaswoodburn <AT> gmail <DOT> com.

-Dallas

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year of kindness archives:
– week 1 challenge: donate items to those in need
– week 2 challenge: leave quarters & note at laundry machine
– week 3 challenge: write & send a kind handwritten note
– week 4 challenge: give hot chocolate to someone outside in the cold
– week 5 challenge: do something kind for a neighbor
– week 6 challenge: deliver valentines to a nursing home
– week 7 challenge: donate to a food pantry
– week 8 challenge: donate toiletries to a shelter
– week 9 challenge: post a kind note in a public place
– week 10 challenge: do something kind for a child
– week 11 challenge: thank someone in a genuine & meaningful way

year of kindness challenge: week 11

Posted on March 20, 2013 by dallaswoodburn

Last week’s kindness challenge was to do something kind for a child. I bought extra tickets at Chuck E. Cheese and gave them to a very sweet little girl who was just beaming with excitement to receive them.

My dad sent me this email about what he did for last week’s kindness challenge:

I bought an extra box of Girl Scout cookies (Peanut butter & chocolate Tagalongs) in front of Albertson’s and gave them to a young boy, maybe 8 years old, who was leaving the store with his mom (she said it was OK) 🙂

The Week 11 Kindness Challenge is to thank someone in a genuine and meaningful way. It might be anyone from your mail delivery person to your neighbor to a colleague to a family member. Write a note, make a phone call, mail a letter, bake cookies — anything that feels to you like a worthy expression of thanks!

As always, blog about your experiences and include your links in the comments section below, or feel free to send me an email at dallaswoodburn <AT> gmail <DOT> com.

-Dallas

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goals & menu plan for the week of 3/17

Posted on March 17, 2013 by dallaswoodburn

Happy St. Patty’s Day!

Here’s how I did on my goals last week:

revise up to page 180 of my thesis novel
~~blog about Week 10 Act of Kindness Challenge & complete it myself this week~~
~~finish reading Where’d You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple~~
~~finish grading papers for both classes~~
~~finish the baby blanket I’m knitting~~

And here are my goals for this upcoming week:

turn in my thesis manuscript to my committee! {this is a big one!}
blog about Week 11 Act of Kindness Challenge & complete it myself this week
read The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
finish grading reports for my freshman class
start a new knitting project
clean out papers in the back room

Finally, here are some recipes I’m looking forward to trying this week:

– twice-baked potato soup
– quinoa salad with apples, chickpeas + feta
– curried carrot soup with cornbread
– peanut-butter breakfast cookies
– cupcakes with chocolate fudge frosting

What are your goals and meal plans for the week?

baked cinnamon french toast

Posted on March 14, 2013 by dallaswoodburn

Do you have stale bread to use up? This recipe for baked cinnamon French toast is a winner! As soon as I saw this drool-worthy recipe on The Pioneer Woman’s blog, I knew I had to make it.

The recipe would be perfect for a weekend brunch, and it’s so easy you could make it on a weekday, too! Here’s my recipe, slightly adapted from The Pioneer Woman’s original version:

baked cinnamon french toast

1 loaf slightly stale sourdough or French bread
8 eggs
2 cups skim milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp cinnamon

for the topping:

1/2 cup flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 stick cold butter
fresh fruit {optional}

1. Grease a 9 x 13-inch glass baking pan with butter. Tear bread into chunks (or cut into cubes) and evenly distribute in the pan.

2. Beat eggs. Add the milk, cream, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1 tbsp cinnamon, and vanilla.

3. Pour the egg mixture evenly over bread. Cover tightly and store in the fridge several hours or overnight.

4. In a separate bowl, make the topping: mix flour, 1/3 cup brown sugar, 2 tsp cinnamon, and salt.

5. Cut butter into small pieces.

6. Stir the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles fine pebbles. If you are baking the casserole in the morning, keep the topping in a plastic bag or container in the fridge until ready to bake.

7. When you’re ready to bake the casserole: preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

8. Remove casserole from the fridge and sprinkle flour crumb mixture over the top. {If you’re using fruit, sprinkle on before the crumb mixture. Next time, I’m going to try using apples. I think strawberries would be delicious, too!}

9. Bake for 45 minutes for a softer, more bread pudding texture. Bake 1 hour or more for a firmer, less liquid texture.

10. Scoop out individual portions with a large spoon. Top with more fruit if desired and drizzle with maple syrup.

Enjoy! Store any leftovers covered in the fridge and microwave to reheat. I enjoyed this dish for a decadent breakfast three days in a row. 🙂

How do you add little moments of luxury to your weekday routine?

Kitchen Tip Tuesdays: making the most of oven time

Posted on March 12, 2013 by dallaswoodburn

Hi everyone! Today I’m excited to be participating in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays, hosted by Tammy’s Recipes!

I have a simple tip to share: something I’ve just started doing recently that relates to meal-planning, saving time and saving money/energy!

I eat a lot of chicken — for most meat recipes I use chicken, whether it’s baked with veggies, diced up in soups and chili, shredded in the crock pot, or tossed with a bit of mayo to make chicken salad sandwiches.

I used to just bake the chicken when I needed it. But one night I had an idea: why not bake some extra chicken to use later in the week? It seems simple, but it had never crossed my mind. Now, whenever I am baking a chicken dish, I put a couple extra chicken breasts in the oven. I usually cook them in a glass pan with a little bit of water or chicken broth in the bottom of the pan to keep them moist.

That way, I have cooked chicken to use the rest of the week! Now it’s so easy to add cooked chicken to salads, rice, sandwiches, or pasta. Making dinner is so much quicker!

This tip can also work with roasting veggies, baking cookies, or making bread. Now pretty much whenever I need to turn on my oven for one dish, I think, “Is there another dish I can also cook right now? This maximizes my use of the oven and saves energy, time, and meal preparation later!

What are your kitchen tips? I’d love to hear in the comments section below!

year of kindness challenge: week 10

Posted on March 11, 2013 by dallaswoodburn

Happy Monday! It doesn’t quite feel like Monday to me because I’m on Spring Break and with Daylight Saving “spring forward” yesterday, I’m still a little off timewise. But I’m thrilled to get to spend the whole week soaking up time with our little man, plus it feels so nice to have daylight until 7pm!

Let’s move on to the kindness. Last week’s challenge was inspired by Operation Beautiful, which I discovered via this moving post by Anne at Fannetastic Food, and was pretty simple: write a kind or inspiring note and hang it up in a public place. I hung up some post-it notes in a school restroom:

My dad hung up a wonderful sign in the bathroom at the local park, where he goes for runs every day and where many youth soccer teams practice:

It was probably the easiest kindness challenge yet, and definitely something I want to do again. It took maybe two minutes and made me feel happy the whole week! A perfect example of how doing something to brighten others’ days immediately brightens your own day!

Does anyone else drink Yogi brand tea? One of my favorite things is the fortune-cookie-like sayings printed on their tea bags! My cup of green tea two days ago had a very appropriate saying printed on it:

{I know the type looks a little strange: I couldn’t get my camera to focus on the tiny print, so I used a bit of photo editing to make it clearer.}

Here are a couple more kindness-related links I came across this past week:

Looking for some inspiration to hit the trails {or treadmill}? I love this HAPPY 5K that is going on worldwide through April 15 to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society: https://www.racemenu.com/events/23201-HAPPY-5K
I love this nonprofit organization Moore Love with the aim of making kindness contagious, especially for kids: http://posts.dailyworth.com/posts/1759-a-sister-s-death-inspires-the-birth-of-a-nonprofit-group#readmore

The Week 10 Kindness Challenge was jointly inspired by Moore Love: do something surprising and kind for a child. You might donate toys or art supplies to a local school, leave quarters on top of a gumball machine in a restaurant, or even buy a toy for a child you don’t know like Rhiannon did. Think about what would have seemed totally magical and wondrous to you as a child — and then make that happen for a child {or children} today!

As always, blog about your experiences and include your links in the comments section below, or feel free to send me an email at dallaswoodburn <AT> gmail <DOT> com.

Have a marvelous week!

-Dallas

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goals & meal-plan for the week of 3/10

Posted on March 10, 2013 by dallaswoodburn

First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my dear friend Erica! I love you so much, sweets! Wish I was there to celebrate with you, but you are in my thoughts!

Erica and I have been friends since seventh grade, more than half our lives. She is thoughtful, witty, brilliant, kind, and an amazing listener. Whenever I am home, we meet up for epic 3-hour chai latte dates at our favorite local cafe, Simone’s. Everyone should be so lucky to have a friend they can talk and talk and talk for hours with, laughing so much their cheeks hurt. I feel so blessed to have her as my friend!

Here’s how I did on my goals this past week:

revise up to page 120 of my thesis novel {I feel like I should be able to cross this off, but technically not sure if I’m up to page 120… I’ve started revising from the beginning forward AND from the end backwards, because when I make changes in the beginning I go ahead and revise the later chapters they correlate with so I don’t miss anything … eventually, I guess I’ll meet in the middle!}
~~blog about Week 9 Act of Kindness Challenge & complete it myself this week~~
~~finish reading Vanishing by Deborah Willis~~
~~finish grading papers for both classes~~
~~send cards to my Gramps and Aunt Shirley~~
~~knit 25 rows of the baby blanket I’m working on~~

And here are my goals for the upcoming week:

revise up to page 180 of my thesis novel
blog about Week 10 Act of Kindness Challenge & complete it myself this week
finish reading Where’d You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple
finish grading papers for both classes
finish the baby blanket I’m knitting

What are your goals and menu plans for the week?

This post is linked up at Menu Plan Monday!

happy friday!

Posted on March 8, 2013 by dallaswoodburn

I have finished teaching my afternoon class, which means it is offically SPRING BREAK here at Purdue! Woo hoo! There may still be snow on the ground, but it is beginning to feel a little more like spring. Today’s temperature was a balmy 40 degrees, and it is staying light out later and later, which is so nice after a long winter of 5 pm sunsets.

A few fun things of late:

Yesterday I saw Warm Bodies, a zombie love story. It was witty and hilarious and surprisingly moving. I loved it! If it’s still playing where you are, I’d highly recommend it.
Today I had lunch with good friends at Panera {shout-out to Sarah The Pajama Chef: fuji apple chicken salad is the best!} My friend Matt and his wife Casey recently got the most adorable basset hound puppy named Merriwether, and I could not stop petting her soft ears and wrinkly face. I miss our family dog Murray a TON — I even dreamed about him last night! — and I can’t wait to see him this summer! He would have been jealous at all the attention I was giving Merriwether.

I just finished reading Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, a suspenseful, twists-and-turns mystery that was recommended to me by mulitple people and I have to say, I really could not put it down. The book is over 400 pages but I flew through it in a matter of days, even staying up late to read it a few nights! I was over-all satisfied by the book and very impressed with the author’s plotting and characterization talents, but for me the ending was disappointing. It felt like a roller-coaster that is building and building, and then just stops before the final descent. There is a final twist, but my main feeling when closing the book was frustration. Has anyone else read Gone Girl? What did you think of it?
The next book I’m planning to read is The Fault in Our Stars by John Green as part of the March PBF Book Club. I have read other books by John Green in the past and LOVED them, so I have high hopes for this one!
Maybe I am feeling book-crazy because I stopped by the local library this afternoon and spent some time browsing — one of my favorite things to do! I go to the library pretty much once a week and stock up on not just books, but also DVDs and CDs. Before I moved to Lafayette, I often used to overlook the library as a wonderful treasure trove of free entertainment.
I’m super excited to be participating in The Lean Green Bean’s Foodie Pen Pals group for March! It’s free to sign up, and you’re paired with another blogger or reader to send a box of treats and food goodies to that month. I’m having a blast picking out things to send to my pen-pal. You can learn more about the group and sign up for next month at The Lean Green Bean.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend! Anyone else getting spring fever?

“make mornings matter” in march!

Posted on March 7, 2013 by dallaswoodburn

“If you eat a frog first thing in the morning, that will probably be the worst thing you do all day.” – Mark Twain.

Source: Frog by David Wagner

Happy Thursday, friends! How is your week going so far?

The always-amazing Crystal over at Money-Saving Mom is hosting a really neat Early to Rise Challenge during the month of March. I have been inspired by her posts, and floored by her {and other participants} wake-up times: 5:33. 6:01. 5:45. A.M.!!

Now to some of you, that is a piece of cake. That is simply routine for you. 5 a.m. and sunrises are a normal part of your day. {My mom is one of those people. Hi, Mom!}

But I have always been a night owl. Maybe it’s related to writing — I often feel more creative late at night, when the world is quiet and I am close to dreamland. {In fact, I titled my short story collection 3 a.m. because that’s when I was up writing many of the stories in the book!} I’ve read that we all have natural body rhythms as either night owls or early birds, and I am definitely in the night owl category. I often joke with my Gramps, who lives out in California, that he and I are on the same time schedule — we go to bed at the same time and wake up at the same time; I’m just three hours ahead of him on the clock! 🙂

Still, I like to feel productive, and I’ve found my mornings often set the tone for the rest of my day. If I have a sluggish morning where I wake up, head straight to my computer, check my email first thing, and browse around on Facebook, it will soon be an hour later and I will feel totally crummy. Then I’ll be rushing to “get a start” on my day and very likely the whole entire day will seem like a giant game of catch-up.

If, instead, I wake up, drink two glasses of water, brew some tea and cook a healthy, hearty breakfast, and start the day with one chore I do not want to do or have been putting off — just do it and get it DONE so I don’t have to worry about it anymore — then the entire day seems sunnier, easier, lovelier. I feel on top of things. I feel productive. Even if the task I’ve been putting off takes me a total of three minutes, like yesterday morning, when I called the mechanic who I had been been playing phone tag with the entire day before. I called him first thing when I got up, was done with the task in three minutes, and felt a sense of motivation and accomplishment that carried me through the entire day!

To paraphrase Mark Twain’s quote from the beginning of this post, what “frogs” are you putting off? Think how great you will feel if you get them done first thing and then have the whole day to not worry about it!

Another thing that really gets my day off on a great, energetic note is to do a little bit of exercise first thing in the morning. One of my goals for 2013 is to stretch every day, and I feel so much better the rest of the day if I take a few minutes to stretch my legs and hips when I first get out of bed. I am also trying to motivate myself to get into the routine of doing my sit ups and push ups first thing in morning, before I hop in the shower and eat breakfast. I often feel too tired or busy to do them at night, but I really want to work on building up the strength of my core, and so doing my sit-ups and push-ups are important to me. For the rest of March — and beyond — that is a small goal I am focusing on!

How about you? How do you make your mornings matter? If you’re looking for inspiration, I love this post by Crystal: “15 Things You Can Do Each Morning to Make Your Day More Successful.” I think she gives great advice! And whether your morning starts at 5 a.m. or noon, this is a no-judgment zone! It’s all about what works best for you and your lifestyle. 🙂

orange chicken in the crock pot

Posted on March 6, 2013 by dallaswoodburn

I have an easy crock-pot recipe to share with you today! My inspiration came when I saw this bottle at the grocery store …

Zesty orange sauce! As a fan of orange chicken, I was intrigued. Plus the bottle was on sale, which was enough motivation for me to grab it off the shelf and take a chance on a new recipe! While I was there, I also picked up a couple carrots, celery, and a package of frozen asian veggies.

This recipe could not have been easier, and was great over rice. It heated up nice for lunch the next day, too!

crock-pot orange chicken

– 1 package chicken breasts OR 1 package frozen chicken tenders {whichever you prefer}
– veggies of your choice {carrots, celery, onion, broccoli, snow peas all work great!}
– 1 bottle orange sauce
– rice for serving

1. Place the chicken in the crock pot and cover with veggies.