Welcome back!

Here were my goals for the month of January:

1. Publish at least two Book Reviews. — Did not accomplish yet.
2. Publish my latest TBR Recap post. — Accomplished!
3. Spend at least two hours every weekend on my office. — Did not accomplish yet.
4. Look up at least five new recipes to use in meal planning. — Accomplished!
5. Celebrate Al’s birthday! — Accomplished!
6. Celebrate P.E.O. Founders Day. — Accomplished!
7. Complete the filing project with the filing cabinet in my office. — Did not accomplish yet.

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I didn’t have the energy to write the Book Reviews in January, but I’m hoping February will be a different story! Al and I were just talking about getting up 15 minutes earlier in the mornings, to shift back to our “traditional” schedule/routine, so I’m hoping those extra 15 minutes will help me blog a bit more in the mornings before starting work. We’re determined to start it on Monday. He remarked that it was a possible “unpopular opinion,” but I think it’s a good idea. I’m eventually going back into the office full-time, so doing this now will help ease that transition for me. It’s supposed to happen at the end of June / early July, but we shall see.

You can read my latest TBR Recap post here: Getting Personal #236: Seventeenth TBR Recap

My office is still a work in progress. I’m hoping to completely clear off the couch, and keep it clean, in February.

The recipes were the easiest thing that I accomplished this month!

1. Sheet-Pan Chili-Lime Salmon with Sweet Potatoes & Broccoli – This one was a hit. I’m definitely doing this one more than once in 2021. The salmon is a bit expensive, but we found it on sale at Lidl.
2. Olive Garden Alfredo Sauce (See photo below) – This was easily as good, maybe better, than Olive Garden’s. Super easy to make! I poured it over rotini pasta, and it fed us for four nights.
3. Chicken with Curried Mango Sauce (Haven’t made this yet, but it’s on the list)
4. Slow Cooker Cilantro Lime Chicken Tacos (Haven’t made this yet, but it’s on the list)
5. Crispy Honey Sriracha Chicken Wings (Haven’t made this yet, but it’s on the list)
6. Slow Cooker Pork Carnitas (Mexican Pulled Pork) – Haven’t made this yet, but it’s on the list.
7. Best Chicken Alfredo Roll-Ups (Planning to do this one next week!)
8. Honey Garlic Steak Bites (I think I made this once last year, but I can’t remember, so I’m counting it as new)
9. Hawaiian Roll Ham Sliders – I made this for Al and I and they did not last long. Yummy. I’m making them again this weekend when we watch the Super Bowl.
10. Crispy Baked Shrimp Scampi (Haven’t made this yet, but it’s on the list)

I also watched Baby Driver (2017) for the first time! It was an excellent movie. Edgar Wright is a master.

Al’s birthday was on a Monday this year. We both worked, and then we had steak, shrimp with cocktail sauce, and crab puppies. My mom made amazing key lime cake for him, and I bought a cookie cake. I’ll post the Crab Puppies recipe below. I’ve substituted the Ritz crackers for bread crumbs both times I’ve made it, and I don’t think I’ll change that. My college roommate, Amanda, made that suggestion when I shared the recipe on Facebook.

We had a wonderful P.E.O. Tidewater Reciprocity Founders Day event – Our first virtual one! We had over 50 women join us via Zoom.

I was able to sell several American Girl items that were duplicates through the big doll board/group on Facebook, so that was exciting! I’m slowly reducing that volume, piece by piece.

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Did you have any goals for the month of January?

Come back tomorrow to see my February Goals!

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Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂