Back to the Gym!

After 8 months of no gym, I'm finally headed back to get the body I want. I joined the local fitness club yesterday and I'm more than ready to get my body back! I'm doing well so far... I had a peanut butter banana smoothie for breakfast this morning and I'm already in my gym clothes.

I'm starting off like a beginner again for two reasons: I'm out of shape, and I have an erratic heart rate. Sometimes my heart rate and my breathing don't sync up during exercise and I get a little fuzzy. So I'm going to take it slow.

There are two main workouts I'm focusing on today. One is a month long challenge you can find on my Pinterest Fitness board called Mad Abs March. This is day 1 for me!

The second I'm doing is focusing on certain body parts on certain days. My workout days will be Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. On Fridays I'll focus on legs and cardio. Though cardio will always be my warm up, it's my primary on Fridays. You can see how I'm getting started here.

I will not be posting crazy pictures of myself. You guys don't wanna see that, nor do I want you all saying "well you should be doing this" or "you're doing it wrong" or my personal non-favorite "you don't need to work out!" Yes I do! I have my future and the future of my family to think of. This isn't just for me.


Love as always,
Courtney

Is this real life?

I recently found an app on Pinterest, and I have to give it a go. Apparently, you select the items you have currently in your kitchen, and it gives you a recipe. Well I found one for yellow cake.... in a mug. In. The. Mircowave. 

It's 9:30 at night. I have to try this!

Here's my story.

You'll Need:
2 tbsp. Flour 
1.5 tbsp. Sugar 
1/4 tsp. Baking powder 
1/8 tsp. Salt 
2 tbsp. Milk 
3/4 tbsp. Oil 
1/4 tsp. Vanilla

Mix all the ingredients and microwave for about a minute and a half.

Oh my gosh, it actually worked. And this is the only bite I had. Hubbers annihilated it. 

Dear Dorm Friends. YOU CAN HAVE YOUR CAKE AND EAT IT TOO!

Thank you, Pinterest. Thank you. 

With Love As Always, 

Courtney 

Oh Right... I'm Supposed To Study!

So I've posted about casseroles...

I've posted about crockpots..

About relationships, pets, and working out..

But I've never posted about the one thing that drove me to blogging.. I've never posted about being a student!

Students have to study right? I know, it sucks. I hate it. But I have found some awesome study tips and tricks along the way that I am going to share with you now.

Music

I work in radio. My life revolves around listening to the radio, listening to music or having background noise at all times. Needless to say, the silent study thing doesn't work for me, but neither does rocking out to Kelly Clarkson. Instrumentals help me a ton, and I've found that on 8tracks.com I can listen to premade playlists. Try the study+relax+instrumentals genre! Nothing is more soothing and yet gets you pumped as a piano rendition of Hall of Fame by The Script. Great, great study music.

Want new music and old school greats? Check out Southern Miss Radio and stream it live. Yes, this is completely biased because I work there, but it is also great to study to. I told you, I work in radio, and that's my place.

Study Techniques

There are tons of reading methods for you heavy-reading-burdened scholars. Personally, I've mastered the art of scanning the reading for graduate school, but that doesn't always work. I suggest the SQ3R method. It does take a lot of time, but it's worth it.

Flashcards work for more than just math. If you're having to study concepts (which I do, a lot) take the flashcard and write the name of the theory, concept, etc on one side and on the other side write everything you need to know about that subject. For example, if you're studying critical cultural theory (I have a test tonight :/ ), on one side of the card you'd write "hot medium." On the other side, you'd write "the medium is the message, Marshall MacLuhan. A hot medium is one that gives extensive data to the receiver without much interpretation or work from the receiver. Ex: television."
Run through those bad boys a few times, you'll be surprised how quickly you'll learn it.

Planning

Be organized. I can't even begin to tell you how important that is. Use different highlighters on your calendar for different classes, write everything down, and have different binder divisions or different notebooks for different subjects. Don't do like me and write things down on random loose sheets of paper.

Manage your time. Use a planner, schedule your breaks, and realize (for your own good) that you can't just spew forth a 20 page historical media research project with a proposal the day before it's due.
__________

Look, I'm a professional student. I've spent every single school year since I was five (I'm approaching 24) in school. I have learned that what once worked doesn't work anymore, that it continuously takes work, self-awareness, and organization to nail those grades. But if I could do it, you could. I know you could :) So get to the books, boo. You've got some studying to do.

Love as always,

Courtney :)

Super Spouses Must Super Take Care of Themselves! So Hit The Gym :(

When I got married, my body was in the best shape of my life. I had been working out almost every day, focusing mostly on the P90x Ab Ripper X. My dress fit beautifully,  draping where it should and clinging where it should.

Fast forward to now.

I just ate a Double Angus cheeseburger with curly fries and a large kool-aid from the campus choke-and-croak. As usual, I reminisce on the days of grabbing a salad after a rewarding workout, eating a banana between classes, and loving my body. Those days have been replaced by burgers, fries, and fleeting thoughts of joining the gym again and getting back to my long lost love.

Hubbers loves my body! He says I'm cute and curvy and he's proud of that... but I miss my abs. I don't really need to lose weight, just tone up. Siting here and bellyaching won't help my current situation, so this week, I'm joining the gym again.

I'm no beginner, but I feel like I should start from a beginner's level since it has been almost 9 months since I worked out. I decided to do a little research and see what I could find. Hoping to find realistic and manageable results, I found The Beginner Fitness Junkie. Angela does a great job of sharing her journey. Much like myself, she's a little reluctant to give up her favorite foods, but she's trying to make healthier choices that coincide with her workout routine.

I'm going to keep making the foods I make because I like them. I enjoy them, and Jeremy enjoys them. But I will also be on the lookout for some healthier snacks and smoothies which will also help with my workout. My Pinterest board "fitness" will keep you up to date on everything I'm pinning for consideration.

Until next time, my friends, all I can offer you is this piece of advice. If you don't like something, change it. YOU alone have the power to say "I'm not doing this anymore," and make the changes you need to your routine to get you back to where you want to be.

Love always,
Courtney

I Don't Do It Alone

Last night I had a moment of frustration. The laundry was done but we'd never actually gotten to the point of putting it away, the dog made a "mistake" in the carpet and the cat was having a great time terrorizing the dog. I had homework piled on top of my desk and halfway up the wall, and Jeremy and I were both just mentally and physically exhausted.

The homework thing had really gotten to me. At times I feel as if all the chaos in my house would not be there if I had not gone to graduate school. I needed to vent so before collapsing from exhaustion in my bed as Jeremy set up the weather radio, this is the conversation that happened with a friend that's out of town:

Me: I can't wait to see something other than this pavement jungle. I gotta get outta here. 

BFF: Yea no doubt lol

Me: I just need a break

BFF: I know it, you've been kicking all kinds of butt lately. 

Me: Well it comes with a price, a hard one. I'm tired. I feel like I having been showing much attention to my loved ones lately, the housework is lacking, my thoughts are scattered and Jeremy's bored. 

BFF: It's all going to be worth it, you know that, right? 

Me: I know... but nothing is really more important to me than a happy home and a happy husband. 

BFF: I know.. and what I also know is you being as successful as  you are and can be and will be makes him happy. He's proud of you.. we both are. 

Me: I know.. but I have equal pride in you guys and I fail to show it. 

BFF: Fail? Who said you do that? 

Me: I just don't feel like I show you guys how much I appreciate you. It's the little things, ya know? It means the world to me that Jeremy reminds me to eat breakfast (mornings are hectic, I often forget causing my hypoglycemia to kick into overdrive) and buys me Cadbury Cream eggs to surprise me. It warmed my heart when I fell asleep today and you reminded me to take my glasses off so they wouldn't break.  I love it when I cook and you and Hubbers fight over what's left. This is my own little family, you see? And I'd do anything I can for it. 

BFF: I know you would.. and we would do the same. You may not think you show appreciation but he sees it, I see it. You cook dinner after work, help him clean house after 10+ hours at school. It adds up. You're a great student, amazing wife, and the best friend/sister I could ask for. 

Me: Thank you ;) but I couldn't do it without help. 

BFF: Sure you could, you just don't have to :)

Do you see why I bust my butt so hard? My husband, my family, my friends.. they all support me like this. They. Are. Amazing. But I feel like I need to clear up a little detail.

I'm not a maid, nor am I treated like one. I clean house and cook for my husband because I want to. If I didn't, he'd do it, and he has when I failed. But I feel like my purpose as HIS wife, not just a wife, but HIS wife, is to do what I can everyday to show him how much I appreciate his hard work and how insanely in love I am with him. I'm not held with chains to the stove everyday. Jeremy and I actually split the chores.

Gallup did an interesting article on how spouses share the workload. You should check it out! You may find that it's not as black and white as most would think. It would make you see that the old fashioned wife and husband scenario is still the same.... and completely different at the same time.

If I cook, he washes dishes. If I sweep, he vacuums. If I walk the dog, he cleans the litter box. I clean the tubs, he does the counters. WE. SPLIT. EVERYTHING.

I couldn't be a super spouse without my super spouse! We meet in the middle and it makes us a team of Super Spouses.

Now I've given you a very deep look into my home life. What do you think? How do you share the chores? Do you ever get asked about how you feel regarding being the homemaker? Leave a comment below and we'll discuss it.

Be powerful, be precious, be patient.

Love as always,
Courtney

Chicken Fried Rice... Minus the Chinese Take Out.

Hubbers LOVES this recipe. Adores it. I try to make plenty for leftovers and that usually doesn't happen because he and my "brother in law" (Jeremy's best friend/brother, best man at our wedding) destroy it before the plates even hit the table.

You'll need:
1 can of carrots
1 can of peas
1 cup of rice
3 chicken breast
1 bottle of soy sauce
*eggs, scrambled
*green onion, diced
*zest of two oranges
*juice of two oranges

(**Means optional ingredients)

First things first, boil your rice. That's one cup rice, two cups water. Pour the rice and water in together, and bring it to a hard boil. Once it's boiling, cut the heat off, stir it, then put a lid on it. Let the steam work from there. This takes about 20 minutes. 

In the meantime, cook that chicken in the skillet. (I only used a few strips of chicken for a smaller amount. I like less chicken, you may add more.)

Next, combine all of your ingredients together. The peas should be drained as should the carrots. The chicken, once done, should be diced. Stir it all together so it looks like it does in the picture above. *If using optional ingredients, now is when you'd add the green onion, scrambled egg, and orange zest.*

Go ahead and heat up that skillet, wok, pan, what have you. I have an electric skillet that works wonders for this. 

Use max heat if using an electric skillet. 

It's not fried if there's no butter ya'll! Use about 2 tablespoons of butter to drop in that skillet. Paula Deen would use more, but we're not trying to lube up our arteries here. 

Throw that beautiful mess into the skillet once the butter has melted and sizzled. At this point we'll add the soy sauce, as much as you like (you won't use the whole bottle, hopefully. Taste it along the way. I like mine a little salty.) **If you're using the optional ingredients, add the orange juice here.

It's done when the excess juice and sauce have cooked into the rice. Enjoy this bit, kids, cause everyone is digging it!

Love as always, 

Courtney 

Meal Planning, Time Saving

King Hubs of the Ingle Castle has been asking me to blog again about my meal planning system. We've recently started a one week instead of two week menu. As you remember, we were eating a different meal every night for two weeks, rinse and repeat. Well now we have a repeating menu every week. Bland as it may be, we're trying to save up to buy a home, so every Monday night pizza night and Tuesday night casserole is worth it.

Now for the meal planning part. Make your menu first. Mine looks like this: 

Monday--Pizza night (also board game night with brother in law and friends)

Tuesday --Poppyseed chicken (which can be made in advance and refrigerated or frozen until you're ready       to cook.This is my night class special)

Wednesday--Taco Roll (easy enough for the hubs to make since I have classes late.)

Thursday--Chicken, rice, peas. 

Friday--Meatloaf (in the crockpot. Cooks while I do my research, writing and errands and is amazing. Served with any of the veggies that Hubs's grandparents send us fresh from their garden.)

Saturday--Sandwiches or out for lunch. (Common time for the hubby and I to share a romantic lunch.) Supper is hamburgers (unless we have a dinner party or plans.)

Sunday--Lasagna for lunch. (Stouffers. Don't judge me, its better than any lasagna I'll ever make. And cheap. For 2.65 it feeds me and the Hubbers.) Chicken fried rice made at home for supper. 

Then make your grocery list to correspond. Be on the lookout for meat deals like the Pick 5 for 19.99 deal at some grocery stores. I save a ton of money doing that. 

I highly recommend planning your meals around your schedule. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays I do something easy that the hubs can make or a casserole that I can prepare in advance and bake when I get home. For crockpot recipes, check out these ladies. I use a lot of their recipes to get inspiration for new things or just to wow people when I have company ;)

With love as always, 

Courtney 

A Lot Has Happened... Catching up Part 1

For the most part, I'll make this short.

After my fourth post, I suffered from a ruptured ovarian cyst. It was painful, it was sucky, and I was off my feet for a little while.

One week to the day later, I went to the doctor thinking I had the flu. It wasn't the flu--it was sinusitis, bronchitis, and an ear infection in each ear. While still hurting from the cyst. Again, that knocked me off my feet.

**Author note. If you take Sudafed at 9pm, don't think you're going to sleep. I didn't. Instead, I watched two seasons of Community within 24 hours and then went comatose for about 12 hours.

After dealing with all that, catching up on school and work and financially recovering from not having my insurance yet (the cyst ruptured the day my insurance was supposed to activate), I fell away from the social media sphere for a while.

But I'm back...BOO-YAH!

I've learned in all this that blogging takes work, it takes time, it takes dedication--but it can't take you! Honestly, in order to remain at my Super-Student, Super-Spouse status, I've had to back away from the computer and focus on myself. Granted, this wasn't a very convenient thing, but when is everything convenient. Don't worry, I'll wait.

When I decided it was time to get back to the blogging sphere, I used {never}homemaker blog for inspiration. The post that's dedicated to bloggers keeps me going, and I look at it frequently, as should you.

I'm going to spend the next couple of blogs catching up on all that's been missing. I have a couple of new recipes I tried, I've danced (sorta), I've cried (you'll see why) and we adopted a puppy. So much has happened in our lives that I can't get it all in here. So stick around for the other parts of Catching Up.

As always,
Courtney

Welcome All Struggling Super Spouses!

We are students, employees, homemakers, spouses, moms, sisters, support groups, soundboards, chefs, cheerleaders and the list goes on. How do we balance it? How do we wear so many hats at one time?

Welcome to Crockpots, Casseroles, and College. Here we will gather together to exchange ideas, give support, suggestions, and learn to balance everything we have going on. I'm going to be sharing recipe ideas with you that will make cooking a lot easier on your busy self, as well as sharing homemaking and managing tips. Together we can go from "struggling" to "Super Spouse!"

A little about myself: I'm a wife, homemaker, student, executive producer, friend, Sunday school teacher, party host, cat-mama, daughter, granddaughter, sister, cousin, advisor, boss, employee, and more! When I got married 6 months ago, my husband Jeremy had no idea what he was getting himself into. We were swimming in the changes for a while, but eventually I learned a few tips of the trade... tips I'm going to share with you. I'd learn to love more from you, so check out the Hit Me Up page.

To share some of your awesome stories and tips with me you can email me, comment, send me a tweet or whatever suits your fancy! I'm looking forward to all of us to move from "struggling" to "Super Spouse" together.

Super Spouses Unite!

Courtney

Twitter: @C_Carter_Ingle

Pinterest: CCarterIngle

Instagram: c_carter_ingle

Email: crockpots(dot)casserole(dot)college(at)gmail(dot)com