A New Beginning

OK, so we are all moved in to our new apartment in Independence, OR. It’s 20 miles north of Corvallis, where Nick will be going to school. We had a hard time finding a place in our budget near campus and kept expanding out until we found our current place. The drive down to Corvallis can get long, but it is pretty. I love living in the country and hearing crickets at night time.

Now that we live more than an hour south of Portland the new job search begins. I am applying EVERYWHERE! I applied to many different places in Portland but had no luck. Now I have new goals. I plan to start taking classes soon to get ready for grad school. I have to take a few science classes to be admitted without deficiencies. So, my main goal is finding a job I can do while in school. This means internship or shit job.

***definition of a Shit Job: A job which is not in my field of interest, and will be a mindless position paying at least one bill.

I have been accustom to being turned down for positions, so an interview or YES would be a shock!

Nick likes his work thus far and is looking forward to school starting. I am really jealous of him! I want to be a fulltime student again!!  Oh well, my time will come.

We’re not poor or anything, but we eat a lot of spaghetti

This entry is about food we like to eat on the cheap! Other than spaghetti, we eat a lot of stuff that costs less than $5 a meal. The only real thing that makes our frugal meal planning pricy-ish is the dietary restrictions we have. Nick doesn’t do dairy and I can’t have gluten. Thank God for Trader Joe's! Trader Joe's has tons of GF foods and we haven’t been regular dairy eaters for some time now. So what’s for dinner? Here are some recipes I like to make that cost almost nothing!

The Best Potato Salad Ever

3 potatoes

1 packet of dill dip mix

A few spoonfuls of plane Greek yogurt

Peal and cube the potatoes and put in the microwave for about 8 minutes with ½ a cup of water. Drain any water left after cooking and smash the potatoes into mush. I keep some chunks in it. Add the yogurt, the dill dip mix and mix. I also add a little garlic salt at the end. Chill in the fridge until you are ready to chow down. 

Roasted Veggies

Get whatever veggies are on sale I usually get an eggplant, red onion (or I use a white one we already have), potatoes, zucchini and sometimes a tomato.

Peal everything except the zucchini and tomato. Slice everything up and arrange them in the baking dish however you want. I usually put all the veggies in rows and put the tomatoes on top.

Spice with your favorite medley. I use rosemary, dill, garlic salt, and sometimes some basil. Use olive oil of your choice to coat the veggies in the spices and keep from sticking. Bake at 350 degrees until potatoes are tender.

Fish Tacos

Tortillas of your choice

2 cans of your favorite Tuna

¼ cup of plane Greek yogurt

1 packet taco or fajita seasoning

1 tomato cubed

1 avocado sliced

Drain the tuna and dump into a bowl. Add the yogurt, seasoning packet, and mix until it’s mushy and everything is a pink color. Put the tuna in your tortilla and add the tomato and avocado. It is really tasty! You can also go as big with this as you want. In the end add whatever you love on tacos like beans, salsa, or rice. Make it your own!

Rice and beans

2 cups brown rice

4 cups cooked pink beans

1 regular sized can tomato paste (just don’t get the really tiny can)

I made my own beans which is way cheaper and better for you than the caned stuff. Just soak a bag of pink beans in water over night. The next day add water so the beans are covered and bring it to a boil. Let the beans boil, adding water as needed for about 30 minutes. Turn the heat down to a simmer, keep adding water as needed and cook until beans are tender.

I drained the beans so the water went into a bowl rather than down the sink. I reused the bean water to cook the rice which just gets cooked like the bag would say. Once the rice is done add the cooked beans and can of tomato paste. Stir these guys so the tomato paste has coated everything. Let this stuff get comfy together while you do something for like 20 minutes. I walked the dog. Come back and enjoy.  Add salt and pepper if you want. This makes enough to feed a small army, and the next day you will have it again. We put it in tortillas with some plane Greek yogurt the next day.

So these are just a few things we like to make in addition to GF spaghetti.

So much has happened!

OK, so don’t get excited I don’t have a job yet, but I am still loving life. We have decided to move to Corvallis so Nick can attend Oregon State University rather than stay in PDX and attend Portland State University. We have also made frugality fun by making a game out of grocery shopping. I have decided what grad program I want to do although it’s a secret. We also went on a few adventures to see more of Oregon!

So, Nick and I have been going back and forth on whether to move to Corvallis or stay in PDX. This decision has caused much stress and lack of sleep. We really didn’t know what the right choice would be. We were almost hoping I got a job far away, and that would make the decision for us. The decision was made when we realized we go down to Corvallis every chance we get. I said “we need to just make a choice and figure it out!” This is how I do everything. I make a choice to do something and then figure out logistics later. My Mom used to say I was a plotter because I would “plot” to have a sleep over with friends and ask their Moms if they could stay before I asked mine. I figured she couldn’t say no if the other Moms were cool with it. So we made the decision and all the other pieces fell into place. We also were able to extend our current lease an extra month and move Sept 1. 

To afford the move and living in Corvallis we have become very frugal. We made frugality fun by making a game we call, ‘how cheap dinner can be?’  We made fish tacos with two cans of tuna, Greek yogurt, corn tortillas, a tomato and an avocado. When we broke it down to the cost of the food per ounce (we each had 3 tacos) it came to $3.94 for dinner! We can also have wine since we can get 2-buck for $2.49 a bottle! We eat a lot of pasta since Trader Joes has GF pasta for $1.29 lb. We love going to the farm stands and picking up veggies and fruit. We don’t buy anything we don’t need and we use it all. 

I figured out what I want to do for school! When I started this blog I figured I would get some thoughts out there, and be able to choose which environmental path I would take. This option, which I didn’t think would be an option with my background, combines all of them!! I would like to start school a year from this fall so I will be getting my references and my portfolio together! I am really excited and hope I get in with funding.

The last thing that recently happened was we saw more of the area! In our quest for mental clarity and trying to figure out what we should do, we like to go for drives. A couple weeks ago, when we made the choice to move, we went for a drive and ended up in Bend, OR. Bend was OK but not really our style in terms of a town. We went for drives up and down coastal communities, through the gorge, and around rural Washington. 

See, tons of stuff has happened and now you are all caught up!

East to West and Learning Patience

          Moving from the east coast to the west coast is teaching me to be very patient. On the east coast everything happens fast. People drive fast, talk fast, walk fast, and respond to an email fast. There is no reason to be patient on the east coast, because you don’t have to wait very long for anything. The only time people have to wait in the east is in traffic. Even in traffic everyone is honking, yelling, and changing lanes just to get two cars ahead. This is patience on the east coast. On the west coast (mainly just Oregon) everything is the opposite. People drive slow, walk slowly, and respond to an email REALLY SLOW! I have learned, in Portland, when someone says they will contact you early next week they really mean Thursday-ish. Sometimes they don’t get back with me for weeks. I understand people are busy and I need to take a more laid back approach. People in Portland are just never in a rush and will get things done when they get them done. The only people who defy this logic are those who went to school or grew up in the east.

            I really need to be more Portland! I need to learn patients! When waiting to hear back from a job it always seems like forever, but when people take their time getting back to you it takes even longer. I know I will get something back eventually but come on! I started doing yoga and telling myself daily that I am thankful for what I have. I have the idea that if I am calm, I will be more patient. I will keep you posted as to how that goes.

The Housewife

Since we’ve moved to Portland I have been looking for a job in the planning field. I started out very confident in my ability to find a planning job in the “city of planners”! That was three months ago. I have gone through all the common stages of looking for work: the “I will so get a job fast” stage, the “this is my week” stage, the “how can I get a job when all the jobs want experience and how do I get experience without the job” stage, the “reevaluate what I really need” stage, and now “the right job is out there for me; I just need to find it” stage. I have made it my full time job looking for a job. While Nick is at work I spend all day looking for work. Every time I think I may have a shot it doesn’t work out. So, I sit at home, look for work, make dinner, and clean. I am a housewife.

Nothing against housewives… I think if you can do it that’s great! But, it is definitely not for me. After my first few days sitting at home doing my thing while Nick was at work I got to thinking. I thought what do these women do with their time after the place is clean and dinner for a week is made? I did all the cooking and cleaning (granted with Berkeley’s fur the place needs swept daily) in day one. After a few days I talked to my Dad and asked him this question. His answer: “this is when you have your affair.” I asked my Mom this question and she said: “this is when you take up and activity with an attractive trainer.” REALLY???!!!! This is what these women do? Being a housewife is really not for me!

This discovery motivated me to look for work even harder. I thought I was being aggressive before, but now it’s intense! I am doing everything in my power to find work now! I had an interview on Thursday and I am waiting to hear back. I am still looking and applying though. Maybe I have moved back to the “this is my week” stage…