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This meal is my husbands favorite dish. I get proposed to every time. We’ve been married for just shy of 8 years at this point, so I have been proposed to A LOT.

There are a few key things that make my lasagna different than a traditional Italian lasagna. For starters, I don’t like ricotta cheese. So I don’t use it. I know I could use cottage cheese too, however I don’t care for that either. When available I like to mix mozzarella and jack cheese, but frequently the lasagna only receives mozzarella. I also don’t use noodles. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes a girl just wants a REAL lasagna. In that case I 100% will use noodles. Usually I will spoil myself and make homemade noodles. But this is a zucchini lasagna.

FYI

There are other options too like eggplant which we have done before but again, texture. Frying the eggplant and making it an ‘eggplant parm’ makes a big difference. If you’re still gung ho for noodles and you don’t want to make them from scratch, my recommendation is the ‘oven ready’ pasta sheets. They are in the same pasta aisle, usually on the top shelf when I see them.

I have made this lasagna with the zucchini cut into discs and length wise into long strips. The strips are easier/nicer for layering, but the majority of the ‘noodles’ are the inner seed area of the zucchini and they tend to fall apart and shred. The discs hold together much better but they scatter when you are trying to serve the lasagna and make the serving less beautiful. The texture of the discs, since the surface area is less seeded, has a crisp crunch when biting. The strips are less crisp unless eating a piece that happens to be one of the first slices that typically don’t have seeds. The consistency of the strip lasagna is like cheesy spaghetti with zoodles. Not terrible, but not what I am going for.

Ya, but how do I make it?

Glad you asked. Start with the sauce. Get it heating and build the flavor from there. I like to use pre-seasoned sauces rather than a plain tomato sauce. When the sauce has extra flavor and is very herbaceous before the recipe even begins, that’s the best.

While that is warming slowly, start your prep work. This is an on the go meal. I diced the onion, the garlic, the fresh basil, and the zucchini during this time. By the time I had finished that prep, the sauce had begun to do that weird simmer/boil that thicker liquids tend to do. You know what I’m talking about, the slow bubbles that splatter everywhere. I had a screen over it but still.

And then…

I got the meat cooking sometime during the prep work. The goal was a meat crumble consistency, and that can take some time. I would intermittently break up the meat *stab stab stab with the spatula* then go back to cutting the vegetables. Gotta make smart use of your time when you have a hungry family waiting.

I cooked the spicy pork sausage into an almost crisp texture first. That was planned so I could cook the ground turkey in the grease for both the flavor offerings and because turkey is a very lean meat anyways. The hubs and I are just not ground beef fans. If you are, go for it. But not me. I will usually use a turkey sausage in this recipe, but that was not something available to me at this time. I also wasn’t willing to make my own.

Keep on Juggling

With whatever grease is remaining in the pan, get the onion going. The color going in will be mostly white. I stir the onion around a bit to ensure that the pan bits evenly coat the onions. When the first few onions turn brown, add the garlic. Garlic tends to burn easy and onions take longer to cook. Always start the onions first! Alright, now that I have ingrained that life skill into you… When the onions are evenly brown outside but still white inside they are ready.

Don’t go to far past this point or you will caramelize the onions. Although that is DELICIOUS, it just isn’t the right thing for this dish. If you do happen to go that far, don’t waste it. Slather it on bread to soak up remaining sauce that you are bound to have when we’re done. Life skill #2 ladies and gentleman.

Hearty Tomato Soup

Add all the ingredients into the sauce and stir. At this point I usually pull out a bowl and just start eating it. I love it. I always have. Most of the sauces I have grown up eating I will eat as a soup. I guess I’m weird like that but I have no regrets!! Yum.

Let the sauce simmer/boil for around 15 minutes to get a good flavor boost. Plus we are trying to get the heat of the sauce up to help the zucchini soften and cook before it goes into the oven. After that time, ladle sauce into the baking dish. Don’t add to much like I did.

Final Boss Match

The goal of the first layer is to really just prevent sticking. The layer should be so thin you can still see the baking dish beneath. After that, add the zucchini all the way across the pan. Add more sauce on top sandwiching the zucchini in hot bubbly goodness starting their cooking process. Next comes cheese. Rinse and repeat until your pan runs out of room. I fit 9 layers into my pan. 10 if you count basil. Crazy!

After I got all that deliciousness into the pan, I garnished it with basil. Everything is better garnished with basil. Then I popped it into the oven 190C for 15 minutes. I assume most of you reading will be in America so you should use 375F instead.

Fun fact, my oven frustrates the crap out of me. I can do okay with weights and distances in metric, but temperature. Pfft, forget about it. Here is what I KNOW about metric temperature: in the winter I like when the thermostat is set to between 23 and 25, and in the summer I prefer that it hover between 19 and 21. I would love to say that I also know 375F is 190C but I cooked mine at 180 and when I looked it up I realized why I was disappointed in the bake. Whomp whomp. At least I am letting you know the right stuff.

Enjoy your hard work

Now the best part. Getting to eat this deliciousness. It truly is amazing. Even if it doesn’t look as pretty as pasta lasagna. This gives me happy tummy without the noodles and the hubby doesn’t mind so it stays on the menu. In all of its delicately placed plop goodness. Enjoy!

Zucchini Lasagna

Sauce

In a large pot combine:
4 Cans Seasoned Tomato Sauce (24 oz each)
1 Pound Ground Turkey (cooked, crumble consistency)
1 Pound Ground Sausage (cooked, crumble consistency)
2 Medium Yellow Onion (diced, cooked until brown on all edges)
4 Cloves Garlic (minced, cooked until brown on all edges)
2 Ounces Basil leaves (minced, about 2 small bushels , volume not weight)

Simmer 15 minutes. While sauce is hot, apply to baking dish to prevent sticking, use a very small amount.

Lasagna

Begin layering lasagna. Repeat in the order listed until no ingredients remain:
3 Zucchini (sliced, 1mm thin)
4 Scoops Sauce (heaping scoops, enough to fully cover the layer beneath)
16 Ounces Mozzarella Cheese (shredded)

Bake at 375F for 15 mintes. Garnish with basil before or after baking if desired.

I have now been in Japan just over 1 week. Plenty has happened to keep me VERY busy. Aside from going out and meeting new friends (hello again co-workers of hubby). I spent time reorganizing the house this week as well. It went from “my wife hasn’t lived here in a year” to “we’re a family again”. Honestly though, bike hunting was the task that took the most of my time with busywork this week.

Now that the main room I spend time in is more tidy, the ideas been having are great! . It’s amazing what a clutter free zone does for mental health. The first benefit I noticed from the change is that I feel less stress. For the record, I am not less stressed by any means. It only feels less stressful. The second benefit I have found from my organizing is environmental distractions no longer getting in the way of my thinking ability. Allowing me to do excellent research on bikes and have the brilliant idea to write about this process.

The clutter that was downstairs is now upstairs. Unfortunately the other rooms in my house now look as though they are in disrepair thanks to transplanting everything. Speaking of other rooms, the room that has suffered the most is the crap room. Out of sight out of mind. “What is a crap room?” you may be wondering. Well, the junk drawer is just the gateway crap holder. Plus I don’t have a garage at the moment which is most peoples crap room. However, the crap room is a project is a project for another day…or month…

Enough about that, back to the busy!

The Agenda

The goals of the week was rest from the travel, look for a bike, spend time together, and get groceries. Check, check, check, check.

Luckily for me the hubs was off work because of the holiday. Kevon was thrilled to get quality baby bear time and she was equally happy to get daddy time. The only downside is that he is ABSOLUTE putty in her hands. *sigh*.

The holiday also allowed me to get some good rest and for us to spend time together. It was nice to snuggle together again. Just to talk to each other in the same room. Amazing. Watched some good shows (Big Mouth anyone?!). Talked about the future plans (my favorite subject!!). Groceries I already covered in this post.

The Bike Hunt

Look for a bike. What an irritating sentence. Looking for a bike was not the joyous experience I had been hoping for. It was exhausting, and tedious, and frustrating, and worst of all…it’s not over. To be fair…most of the frustration is my own fault. I could have prepared better.

I am looking for a 3 wheel bike that will hold a child seat and has at least 3 speeds.

It can’t be just any tricycle either. I can’t just order one on Amazon like I had originally planned due to Japanese regulation with rear axle width restrictions on what is street legal. AKA American trikes are too wide. Boo.

We knew going into this journey that we didn’t want to make a whole quest out of the hunt but we also didn’t want to get “just anything”. So we selected several shops to see that were also close enough to walk to.

At recomendation of local facebook groups, we added Wattmans to the visit list. We added D2 to the visit list mostly because it was very close and we had found a trike there before. The 2 Cycle Base Asahi shops we visited were suggested in Facebook and had excellent google reviews. We mapped out a circuit and got to walking.

The Shops

We went to Wattmans which is a local resale store but likely due to the time of year did not have a good bike selection at all. We have a store called D2 down the road and we have found a trike there every time. Unfortunately for us, it has no gears and we would like at least 3. Let alone a trike selection. The store we had the most success with was Cycle Base Asahi, we went to 2 different locations and had a different experience at both.

We walked to the first cycle shop from the house. The immediate welcoming when the doors opened was the trikes! Huzzah! One electric and one not. We’re not in the market for electric. The other had no gears. Boo!! Eventually a lovely attendant came over. After we said our hellos, we fumbled through explaining what we were looking for. (First I pointed at 2 bikes and then made the motions of “combine”) The lady nodded, left and returned with some papers. After she handed me some pages she printed we left defeated. In hindsight my charades must have been on point. Which I realized later when I translated the pages and did some further research. Anyways…

From the first shop we walked all the way across Yokosuka to the other cycle shop. We were greeted and shown a 3 speed bike option which was exciting and a real possibility. The bike came in 3 colors and we had the choice of 3 speed or 5 speed. The cost of 5 speed quickly removed that option from the table. Bike color is something I was indifferent towards but I would likely go neutral. That way anyone would feel comfortable riding it. The plan was to order the bike at the end of the month since it met all the criteria. One problem…

Bike Research

The intention was to get the 3 speed bike and mount baby bear to the handle bars. She exceeds the weight for that. Yay growing, sigh plan. Time to return to the drawing board because clearly that plan was a flop. Freshly discouraged from my failed plan I had to quickly come up with an alternative. Eventually I remembered the papers the attendant handed me at the first cycle shop. From there I decided to look up the printed bike specifically for more information.

I looked up the site specifically from the URL printed at the bottom, not an easy task but I am stubborn. Except I don’t know how to read or write Japanese. First I had to figure out what the characters meant. I used my phone to translate the characters. After I reverse translated the English translation into google to obtain the characters. Finally I used copy/paste to insert the characters into the URL. I was able to pull up the website and google translate was able to help me fumble through it. From there I was able to do deeper research after learning the name of the bike and was able to learn quite a lot. I will save you the trouble of looking up the Japanese, here is the site printed at the bottom of the paper…

https://ogk.co.jp/press_cat/%E8%A3%BD%E5%93%81%E6%83%85%E5%A0%B1

Beautiful. I am in love with this bike. I stopped riding years ago from being so unsteady on 2 wheels. Let’s be honest…I’m unsteady on 2 feet! I am planning on sharing my bike with baby bear, you best believe safety is getting high priority. That also includes safety from the driver. Which is why is HAS to be a trike. Or 4 wheels. Honestly more than 2 wheels is the only requirement, I need stability.

Futago Bicycle

From what I read in the translations of articles, it is the first bike of this type of design to pass Japan standards and receive the seal of approval. I’m hoping the seal of approval makes a difference registering the bike. I don’t want or need complications when the time comes for registration of the bike.

My research leads me to believe that this bike is the first Japan approved child seat trike on the market or it is just the first with 2 seats in back. I still need to dig deeper. Current MamaChari have the front for a small child and back for a large child on 2 wheels. Those types of bikes can be very unsteady especially with uncooperative kids even for steady and experienced drivers. The Futago bike was designed for use with 2 children from infancy to toddler age to ride the bike before exceeding the bikes limitations from what I understood reading the translations. (site mentions up to age 6) Great for parents of twins. Or in my case, great for parents who fail miserably at riding a bike.

In order to purchase this bike you have to receive a certificate which I went through the steps to obtain so if this becomes THE bike I am already prepared for purchase. Unfortunately it also appears that this bike isn’t even officially on the market yes as they haven’t given a definitive available date only an ‘around February’ estimation.

The bike hunt continues

This particular bike checks all the boxes. It’s hard to commit to spending that much money though, especially when I am unsure if that price includes the child seats. (120,000 yen).

The average bike cost for Japan is over 100,000 yen. Bikes are considered vehicles here in Japan, not JUST a bike. Bikes also come with electric assist options as well but that isn’t a feature I am looking for.

Basically I need to know that I am making the best decision for our situation so until I feel that I have exhausted all resources I will not commit to ordering a bike. Even though I am horribly impatient and would like more freedom to explore the area.

Anyone else researching so you can make a decision?

It has been a year since I have been back this time. So much has changed and yet has still stayed the same. It is like muscle memory to return.

I arrived very late a few days ago. Since recovering a little jet lag and working on adjusting baby bear’s sleep schedule too (we started today at 6am) and having a damn good meal (more on that shortly) I feel rejuvenated enough to get this written out.

We got back into the local area around midnight Japan time. Not a lot was open but luckily the amazing 7-11 is always there to save the day. We acquired some groceries *cough milk cough* and snacks. You cannot go to any Japanese convenience store and not get snacks! I usually don’t know what I am eating, I look at the package and hope for the best. I suppose it’s like that jelly bean game that was all the rage a while back. I like my version better. I scored some tasty coffee while we were there. Not my FAVORITE coffee but I haven’t found it yet. The search is part of the adventure that makes finding my coffee more rewarding. We also had to get onigiri while we were there.

Onigiri

I love onigiri. It is so simple but so powerful. It is one of my favorite foods. I want to learn how to make salmon onigiri (my FAVORITE onigiri). I have a terrible stomach. It is so fickle and makes eating such a pain. Onigiri is both bland and flavorful. The outer seaweed crisp and flavored of the sea (not all onigiri separates the seaweed from the rice keeping the nori crisp, I don’t care for that particular style) The sticky rice triangle is everything you would expect rice to taste like. However the center…is magic. There is so much yummy in the center that the bland outer shell makes sense. On it’s own, way to salty, but diluted by the rice. Heaven. When nothing else sounds good, onigiri sounds good. My angry stomach from the travel food was happy to have a comfort food after what I had put it through.

After I slept and was able to send Kevon on the morning baby bear routine and get some extra zzz’s we planned out our day. We had a limited time left with the rental car he used to retrieve us from the airport. We knew we needed to get some things to adjust better to returning to Japan. We got a toddler seat for the toilets. Baby bear might not be a fan of the heated seats but I sure am!! Plus now I won’t worry as much about her possibly falling in. We also got some toddler clothes hangers while we were at the “bunny store”. The “bunny store” is what the American locals call the store as the logo has a bunny on it with a blue circle in the background.

In the same shopping complex is the grocery store Sanwa. We didn’t really go in with a plan, we knew some basics that were needed but mostly just exploring the store. We had never shopped in that particular grocery before but it was convenient since it allowed us to finish multiple tasks in one stop. We now have eggs and butter which is a breakfast staple for baby bear and I. I grabbed some tiny eggplant that I want to grill up on top of some ramen I grabbed to eat later this week. I also grabbed a few of the local cups of ramen to try soon as they were a brand I could get back home but not a flavor and I enjoy that.

Once we got home and unloaded it was time to return the rental. I stayed behind with the baby (carrying the carseat back would have been miserable). I rearranged a bit to better suit our needs AKA our sectional is in a different shape now. One more day of unpacking and settling and I think we will be done. For about 3 months when we start prep-work for our PCS back to the United States and start all over again. After Kevon got back it was time for my damn good meal.

Yakiniku

Grilled meat. Amazing, delicious, intoxicating, primal grilled meat. Similar to Korean BBQ, I guess it could be called Japanese BBQ. Either way I love it. We have tried it several times at several shops and it is fairly similar across the board. At this point we may have even reach connoisseur status because there are key features we look at before ultimately agreeing to eat somewhere. We love the tablet option at the restaurants. With the language barrier it is much easier to order on the tablet which can typically be set to English in settings. We have eaten at restaurants without and it has been clumsy and awkward. Having a server who speaks any English is not a guarantee so it is really nice. We like the timed all you can eat option. This allows me to take my time and eat and get to try a little of everything while also getting Kevon as much as he wants too. Between the two of us we still eat for 2 people, not necessarily an even 2. I also got to meet one of the hub’s coworkers which was nice and he was excellent company over dinner so that made the evening so much better.

Now to plan out the week for whatever is yet to come. What adventures are on the books in your house?

Do not be discouraged. Anyone can create their logo. Here are my 3 reasons I am glad I chose to go that route. Truth be told I would do it again in a heart beat. I made the right decision for me, you decide the right choice for you.

Reason #1

Nobody knows you like you know you! I have a hard time explaining myself. I get jumbled and I feel like I am not accurately describing what I am trying to say. For me to take the time to speak to a professional designer sounds like $$$$ because time is money. With the Canva free online software that was recommended in all the ‘beginner’ blogging posts I read I got to work. The software took some time to get the hang of. Significantly easier to use on my computer rather than my phone. However it was pretty self explanatory. The hardest part was searching for the right words to find images to reflect what I was going for. Doing it yourself allows you to take time and really dwell to know if this is the right thing to market yourself as. I drew up several similar designs. Just like shopping in a store I had to feel like I was making a good decision. Best way I know how to do that is to compete 2 things against each other. With my multiple designs I compared them against each other until I felt that the best image won. I still feel like I chose a winner.

Reason #2

You can make it personal, honest, heartfelt, and true to self. I didn’t want some stock image. The first place I went when looking for a logo was Etsy. But most of the images are so similar to each other. I wanted something original. More importantly I wanted something me. I went through tons of Etsy listings narrowing them down. I still have a few saved in my favorites. Etsy helped me to figure out that I didn’t want some animal to represent us. I haven’t raised farm animals and I don’t know when that possibility is going to present itself. So pig, cow, and chicken logo’s felt dishonest. Then I looked into kitchen type logo’s. I fell in love with the plate setting logo’s but those felt more restaurant like to me. Although I did put in a very hard argument to my husband about how it was sooo perfect.

Eventually I stumbled across an image of a mason jar. From there I was sold. I have used mason jars many of times for many of things. Who hasn’t? That felt more honest then the other choices I had been looking at. One minor thing, I am obsessed with Weck jars not mason jars and a cute graphic for that doesn’t exist. I made it work finding the most Weck-like jar I could find. Now what.

Then I thought about how to keep it heartfelt. Making it a family logo seemed perfect. Which is why I opted for 3 jars rather than 1. Daddy jar, Mama jar, baby jar. Simple, subtle, silly. True to self? Check. But 3 lone jars are boring. So I picked things I have grown and love utilizing. I stuck with herbs though in one design I included ginger. With the final draft chosen I see how busy my other designs were. Top advice for branding is K-I-S-S. Keep It Simple, Stupid.

Reason #3

I was able to become more personal with my logo by designing it and I can already see ways of altering or expanding the logo should my brand change. I like that it is an image I can continue to grow as I do. I understand how the logo was made to make changes later without having to hire someone else for alterations to it. There is enough publishing resources online to print your logo on anything which I am excited to do. I had so much fun designing my logo that I also was inspired to create a printable planner using the same software and I changed the look of every month to reflect them.

Now that I have my logo working I can turn it into a watermark for my images. I don’t even have to learn anything else. The same tool to make the logo makes it a watermark. After you download your completed image as a PNG file with transparent background you can over lay that on any image and adjust transparency. Perfect! I love when things just work out without any extra forethought from me. I am a busy lady and saving time is always appreciated. Also, now that I have a watermark I feel better about going picture crazy. Enjoy!

When I started writing about this subject I didn’t believe our family had any traditions. But the more examples I tried to write about the more I realized that we did have some traditions already. I want more traditions. And consistent traditions! I want holiday traditions and birthday traditions. First day of school and last day of school. I want traditions to be a mix of food/fun. The idea of waking up on my birthday looking forward to it seems like such a strange idea, but to have something to look forward to when I go to bed the night before like a delicious and special breakfast. Fantastic!

My childhood traditions were less to do with material things and more to do with each other. At Christmas time there was never a guarantee that there would be anything under the tree, but in the weeks leading up to Christmas we would work on decorating the house together. That time was something I could always look forward to, consistently. Even if life had become crazy, we still had the festive feeling. I want those feelings and memories for my kids.

My hubs has traditions that he talks about too but they are so different than what I grew up with. He had family vacations. That was not something I remember having. I can think of going to Disney Land when I was 5 but not much after that. On the flip side my hubs doesn’t have any food traditions other than what we have started. He knows turkey is traditionally for thanksgiving. The Navy goes that far at least. He says growing up, that home cooked meals weren’t really a memory he had. For his birthday every year I try to give him the option of lasagna or steak. His 2 favorite foods. He usually picks the lasagna. Mostly because my steak game needs a LOT of improvement.

New Years Day

I would like to make it a tradition to spend this day putting up all the holiday decorations. It makes sense since most people have it off anyways. The month of January would be a good time to ‘start fresh’ too and clean out some closets. Make room for the new gifts received without over crowding your life. Clutter causes anxiety. Organization promotes well being. Is that a fact. I don’t know but it’s a personal belief for sure!

Valentines Day

I always used to wake up to a small box of candy and a valentines doll the morning of. Being a kid I was much more appreciative of the chocolate than the doll but that is likely most kids. Yay chocolate. I would like to start a tradition where we cook a nice dinner together as a family and try to make an intricate but not elaborate dessert together. I have never made a souffle before but I would like to try to. I also wouldn’t mind trying my hand at homemade macrons. I think it would be fun to try a new dessert together each year as a family. Making it together and dealing with the wins/fails as they come. We will either learn that some of those fancy looking desserts maybe aren’t so difficult or that even if they look terrible and don’t turn out right, they still taste good. Sometimes things going wrong make a better/funnier later memory anyways.

St. Patrick’s Day

I don’t really have memories associated with this holiday other than at school. You always need to wear green to prevent getting pinched and usually there was a class party with lots of green food. I fully support making a green dinner every year for this day. I could keep is simple, hello pesto. Or get creative with the foods to get them green. Color is always fun.

Easter

Decorating eggs is fun, I would like to try this year using natural dyes on the eggs. AKA beets to dye them red (ish?) I am not sure. Every time I have ever dyed eyes, I have gotten the little dye pellets like most other people. But I like eating the eggs after as egg salad or deviled eggs. The egg white are always tinted. How much of that dye is getting into my food. I would feel better about ingesting a natural color rather than a synthetic one. So starting now this will be an easy one to start implementing. Easter dinner I don’t have any traditions. I believe ham is a common dinner choice. I am not against it, but it isn’t love for me. I love ham, however I don’t love it as a main dish. A slice of ham sure. But eh. I love ham in soups and breakfast scrambles and such. But it’s not a star! The verdict is still out for an ideal Easter dinner.

Mother’s Day

I don’t feel this is a ‘dinner’ holiday. Brunch on the other hand… I don’t know the perfect menu. I will happily volunteer my tummy to the cause though.

Father’s Day

Father’s day feels more like a grilling holiday. If dad’s and setting things on fire don’t go hand in hand, I don’t know what does. Probably super loaded gourmet type burgers if I had to guess. Avocado, bacon, homemade sauce. Mmmm.

Independence Day

We intermittently celebrate this one. It depends whats going on really. We try to go see fireworks. Good food and good friends make this holiday the real treat. Something grilled to eat. Too hot to cook. BBQ ribs are usually a hit with my homemade sauce. Can’t wait to start sharing recipes. I love my BBQ sauce recipe. Sweet, spicy, savory, tangy, delicious.

Halloween

I love doing family costumes where we all match. I think it is fun for us and fun for the kiddo when we all participate. We have done a year where we were Nintendo characters which was a lot of fun. I feel like this tradition may ebb and flow as the kids grow but that is okay. Life is always changing after all.

Thanksgiving

Turkey! I usually make more food than should be allowed. But the tradition we have held on to since our first year together was to open up our home to those who do not have a place to go for the holidays. We usually have family. But we get coworkers too. I have made to-go boxes for people to grab on the way to work. I have been “forwarded” people looking for a meal. I have made food for mamas stuck in the hospital after having baby (it was enough for the new dad too) it is thanksGIVING after all. And cooking a little more when I already have a ton of cooking to do doesn’t make much of a difference for me, but can change someones whole day to have a home cooked thanksgiving meal.

Christmas

I would like to continue the 4 gift rule. 1 want, 1 need, 1 outfit, 1 book. I would like to begin decorating. This year with the help of my neighbor was the first year we have decorated for Christmas and baby bear loved it!! So I will never not decorate again. I would like to make a huge family event out of it someday. Make some homemade cocoa in the crock pot, maybe a cinnamon braid in the oven with quiche. Hanging up the decorations while reminiscing what the years endeavors held. Make a day of it. Maybe add some of the holiday baking to that day too. Then everyone can splurge on the cookies while they are still warm from the oven. Smells and tastes trigger some of the strongest memories. Like Thanksgiving we typically open our home Christmas day for dinner and I would like to continue that. I would like to hone my menu though. I aspire to someday pass my recipes down to my family and friends. So getting my staples is important to me.

Birthdays

I would like to do a traditional birthday breakfast and dinner. I think rainbow sprinkle pancakes for breakfast (unless the birthday person wants something else) and birthday dinner of their choosing. I alternate between 2 things I want for dinner. I want to go out or I want kielbasa casserole. Those are my birthday dinners of choice. Always. So basically I don’t feel like cooking on my birthday or I wan’t kielbasa casserole bad enough to make it. Hubs usually wants Lasagna as that is his favorite dish. We try a new macaroni and cheese recipe to celebrate our first daughters birthday. And as for baby bear…the verdict is still out.

Now that this is written down I can start making small adjustments each celebration in this upcoming year to work towards these aspirations for myself and my family. Things always seem more achievable when written down because you can break things up in to steps. This year new years day will be spent helping my grandparents take down their Christmas decorations. Valentines plans will commence soon. Suddenly I can see why stores put out holiday garb so early. Looking forward to Valentines day already and December isn’t even finished.

-Cait

I have been away from my husband a long time. This year we saw each other twice. Once in January and again in August. That’s it. It has been hard on me, hard on him, and even harder on our kiddo. But we are 3 weeks away from reuniting.

Why are you apart?

After unfortunate orders to Japan were received we all moved there as a happy family. We lived there for a year. It was beautiful, delicious, enlightening, and culturally rich. It was also expensive. Especially when a 2 income family is forced into 1 income. I am a nurse by trade and that just isn’t something available in that area. Sure the jobs come up, but it isn’t a local hire. You will be on the same website with all the people around the world. The odds are not in anyone’s favor. Working off base in my field might be a possibility if I spoke the local language but I do not. I learned enough to interact but that is about it. Alternatively there is occasionally availability in the embassy but that is rare.

Alternatively the available options outside of my field could include working at the base market, the base department stores, teaching English to locals, and opening a home based business. After factoring in the cost of childcare and transportation to facilitate maintaining the job, it wasn’t worth it to be away from my family.

What did you do?

The best solution we could come up with was to separate the family, I would return with the babe and resume work as a nurse. This would also benefit my need to maintain a certain amount of hours to keep my nursing license valid. And so I did. And I have been back for a year and a half. A YEAR AND A HALF. We have been a family via internet and ‘visits’. Awful.

The comfort was knowing that all of this sacrifice and struggle now would pay off later. This was benefiting the ‘dream’ and the ‘big picture’. It wasn’t actually comforting in case you were wondering. It’s been miserable. But being the ever optimist that I am (The glass is neither half full, nor half empty. There is room for ice. Add the ice yourself.) I tried to make the most out of my time away.

How did you do it?

HARD WORK! But mostly friends actually. Friends helped me so much with childcare. I had friends help me load yard debris several times. (Fun Fact: It NEVER stops growing, the work never ends) I also had family help. I have grandparents and cousins local who have helped a ton. And my Aunt has been amazing with dump runs. My saving grace however is my neighbor. More accurately my BFF. She has been amazing. She has restored the sanity in my brain. I am still crazy as all get out I’m sure but I am functioning again. She helped me get my derailed renovation back on track and now it is finally wrapping up.

Reaching a point in the project where I walk away is hard. I want to FINISH the project. There is a term among crafters called UFO (unfinished object). That is what this feels like. Not every project is a ‘right now’ project. Most are ‘someday’ and ‘later’ projects. So only completing the ‘right now’ to do list is less than satisfying. This whole home has been such a DIY journey which felt worth sharing so from here on forward we will. But for now this project goes on to the UFO shelf.

When did the plan change back?

Shortly after our August ‘visit’ we decided that this was to emotionally draining and wasn’t worth it. So we crunched the numbers and determined that we could be back on our feet by the end of the year and allow myself to return to unemployment. So we went online and determined ticket cost and found a reasonable ticket for mid January. Which brings me back to 21 days.

I am 3 weeks away from reunification. I am counting down. I didn’t even realize I had been counting until I was asked and immediately responded with the exact days remaining. It is hard not to. My husband is my other half. There are just no substitutions.

Where is the adventure leading?

From here in good ol’ Oregon USA I will fly to Japan. Flying into Haneda this time so that will be new. Our family is stationed in Yokosuka so that is the area I comfortably shop in but I have explored Tokyo a little and Yokohama as well. I am hoping to travel much further in the remaining time that I have in Japan and explore some more foods mostly. Japan has such a difference in foods regionally. I would like to seek them out and try them! After the 6ish (Military timelines) months we will be heading somewhere near Chicago. Not sure where yet. Must still be ‘need to know’ or something Once that information is received I will have the next piece for updating the timeline. But for now that’s what we’ve got. I am pretty good about thinking on the fly so luckily I roll with whatever I am given. But hopefully the amount of stuff I have to roll with starts to go down.

Less rolling, more living.

-Cait

I must be feeling hungry because I can’t seem to get my meal plan plan out of my head. More than just planning out a menu for the year, I want to make dietary changes for my family. By starting now I can make tweaks early to slowly acclimate everyone off of the overly processed and onto the minimally processed foods.

The Rough Draft

As I said in the goals post I want consistency but variety. I think the best solution to that would be to divide the week into different proteins per day.

Sunday- Chicken
Monday- Legumes
Tuesday- Pork
Wednesday- Left Overs
Thursday- Try A new recipe
Friday- Seafood
Saturday- Beef

My 52 week plan will be seasonally sorted. Each season will be 13 weeks. The months to roughly include:

Summer as June, July August
Fall as September, October, November
Winter as December, January, February
Spring as March, April, May

Some Fine Tuning

I feel that would be a good start. I may end up with no left overs and then I will have to figure something out but this is a good beginning to build on. At some point soon I will sit down and start sorting through my pinterest pins and compiling the recipes to try. Label them and make a jar to draw at random. If the recipe is a success then it will be added to the yearly rotation. That will take some of the pressure off of picking a pin on the fly and trying to find one that sounds good. Someday I hope to raise rabbits so that will likely fill the “left overs” void.

I want to factor in winter soups and stews in the cold hardy months, I would like summer recipes to be cooked on a grill as much as possible. I think I would like a weekly dessert to be included in the meal plan. Something seasonal and fun to make together. I am trying to spend more quality time with my family after all and my hope is that cooking will bring us together.

But I don’t want a daily dessert. If you have a treat everyday (I am writing this very hypocritically right now as I have been gorging myself on Christmas candies every time something is within arms reach) it makes it less of a treat. It is during the days without the dessert that we will miss is and then appreciate it even more then next time. It also helps me to savor and enjoy the treat when I finally do get it. With the right treat I will dance. Seriously.

Consistency but Variety

I always want to keep the try something new day. Should I ever reach a day where I run out of recipes on pinterest I will likely put regional food choices in a jar to draw names of. Like Italian, Mexican, Japanese, Hmong. What a better way to try things I never would have tried before. I can list the top 5 recipes on the card that google recommends and when I have tried all 5 I will pull the card. Simple. And then it will likely give me recipes that are authentic.

I learned a lot of differences in cultural food when I was in nursing school. We had potlucks all the time and we had a big mix of cultures in our class of 30. I was able to try so many new things and IT OPENED MY WORLD. I had no idea there were so many other varieties of food. Not everything I ate was a winner. Some foods were almost traumatizing to eat. But it was a nice experience regardless. Besides people eat gross stuff on purpose. I have seen videos of people eating gross/good jelly beans in a Russian roulette style game. I would rather risk my palate on healthy home cooking rather than artificially flavored processed sugar. Worse case scenario, the recipe is NEVER made again.

Plus since this IS a blog, I can always take recipe suggestions too. Receive reader recipes and then review my experience. Ease of cooking, flavor profile, ect. That would be an excellent way to get a variety. But for now there is no variety. It is all junk. Trying to just finish the remaining food prior to leaving. Avoiding new grocery shopping as much as possible. A few more weeks and the life plan crack down begins.

-Cait

I love learning even though I hate (strongly strongly dislike?) school. I feel a deep satisfaction when I end the day with more knowledge then I started it with. I do believe that ignorance is bliss. Once you know something it can’t be unknown. Starting a conversation with me by saying “I have bad news” leaves me sick to my stomach. Would I rather not hear it? Do I REALLY want to know? I always buck up because on the flip side of ignorance being bliss is the fact that knowledge is power. Which was a likely longer than necessary tangent to lead up to my learning goals for the new year.

It doesn’t even feel like 2019 is about to begin. But it is. I have had so many changes over the last year. But this is not a “dwell on the past” post. This is a “look to the future” post. And with this post, I will bestow upon the masses the powerful knowledge of my new years resolution to do list of sorts.

As I write this post I am sitting on my bed in my cozy room in my home in Oregon. Here I shall live for 7-10 more days. By new years day I will be moved out and living with my grandparents. I will also be unemployed. Womp womp womp. But this is not a sad story. I will be staying with my grandparents so I can get some quality grandma time (and post holiday remaining treats, grandmas always have treats). They also want to get great grandbaby time. I may be cute, but I don’t hold a candle to my baby. And after my 2 week visit I will be moving back to Japan. Yes back. A story for another day. The plan for Japan is to plan. Plan as much as we can and read as much as we can. We should be there for 6ish months. Military life gives no concrete timelines. So this list is a running tally of what I would like to start on/ work on/ learn about for 2019 to help us get to our ultimate 10 year plan endgame.

I would like to try to plan my life in 52 week increments. Which sounds crazier when I type it out like this. I would like to basically divide tasks in my life to break things up but also to coordinate tasks. Yea. That sounds confusing. For example, I want to write out a 52 week meal plan for my family. I would like to try new foods (theme night to try more foods from other countries), I would like to make family favorites (pretty sure I make at least 1 lasagna a month). I would like consistency but variety. Pretty sure that is an oxymoron but I am rolling with it. I would also like to grow my own food someday so I would like a seasonal meal plan that has fresh food for the season and uses hopefully my preserved foods in the off season.

I would like to coordinate a garden schedule to the meal plan schedule. With staggering the seed starts to extend growing seasons on certain plants. But I have to first learn about plants. I need the menu to determine what to grow and when and what I even can grow in our zone.

I want to learn more about how to draw architectural plans. I am picky. Well, I would like to think of myself more as particular. I want to know that good choices are being made with quality over quantity being a contributing factor. I want to consider longevity for our family as well as growth potential. I have been pinning on pinterest for YEARS so I have a lot of wants. And to get them all packaged into a neat little bow will take time. And patience. Time I have, patience however comes and goes. (I also want to owner build as much as I can so the more I know and understand the easier that will be too)

I want to grow my blog. I want to help people. It’s pretty much why I love being a mom and a nurse. This is just another way to do that. By helping you!

I know that our family will be moving again sometime in the summer so I will need to find housing. Problem…we don’t know where yet. But it will still be a 2019 goal.

I want to learn about raising chickens for meat and chickens for eggs. I also want to learn to raise rabbits for meat (and fur, might as well learn to tan the hides so nothing goes to waste). I would like to switch my pets to a raw diet once we are reunited after Japan and raising meat animals will help significantly with cost reduction and will reduce meat waste during culling (not that I would waste it anyways but still).

If I am going to raise these animals I would like to learn how to build their shelter. I feel like this is a smart choice over buying a kit because the materials will naturally be higher quality. (I have felt cardboard more structurally sound than some of the coops I have seen) But any troubles we encounter we should be able to modify the structures. I want solutions to my problems, not just problems. Knowing how something was made makes modification easier (this applies to building our dream home too)

I would like to spend more quality time with my family. This is a big big BIG point in our 10 year plan and all steps lead to us spending more time together. Self sufficiency leads to quality time together in my opinion. Is it hard work, yes! 1000% yes!! But it’s good! I want to garden together as a family. I want to take care of our chickens together building the memories of collecting our eggs. I want memories in my kitchen of cooking breakfast with my family of eggs that were just collected. I would love to be standing over my stove cooking, while my husband chops ingredients and my daughter mixes in a bowl. Time together. Mutually contributing to the families wellness.

I would like to truly write out my 10 year plan. Right now it is an arbitrary deadline I have placed on myself and I feel like we are going in the right direction but laying it out will allow me to know for sure. I am a visual kind of gal which is also why I think blogging will be a good outlet for me since I can add pictures and videos and sounds. I make pop culture references all the time and not everyone gets them but throw in a picture and suddenly everyone remembers exactly what your talking about.

And last on my list for the night (morning?) is to travel Japan and not waste the other opportunity I have there. So I guess I want to make a bucket list too. But telling you all about my travels I am hoping motivates me to get out and explore more. I am a homebody. This is why the idea of a farmstead doesn’t deter me. It sounds amazing.

Enjoy the pictures of my titterpittens (cats) I miss them already and I haven’t even left yet.

-Cait

The weather gives me, what I feel, is a good excuse to bum out. I should be getting up from the computer and continuing the packing and tidying to do list. I still have more items to pair down and pack. I hate packing, I hate moving. But that’s life. The whole world is ever changing and this girl can adapt. At this point in my life I can no longer count the number of times  I have moved. But being a military spouse has gotten me even more accustomed to moving. I am less than 30 days away from once again moving from the continental United States for Japan. I lived there briefly for a year. I traveled around and ate mostly. Mmmm. Then I came back to work. Can’t risk losing my nursing license! I worked waaaay to hard to get it. I now have plenty of time under my belt that going back won’t be an issue in that regard but there are others. The job market is pitiful in Yokosuka, Japan. Hence the having to come back to find work. Several things worked against me and my job prospects. I don’t speak or read or write Japanese. I attempted to teach myself but it was no luck. I retained a few words and mannerisms  to get by without being a stupid american tourist. The military hospital that everyone suggests i work at isn’t hiring. Maybe once or twice a year. The amount of nurses local to Japan and around the world hoping to get that job is astronomical. I am an LPN and I was prepared to take anything however so were RNs and NPs. My hopes were dashed. Next plan…Teach English! And the research into that lead me to “if I am desperate to get away, this could work but there is no money here” by the time i factored in childcare costs and train fare and whatever taxes may have been removed depending on how the student was obtained would leave me breaking even at best. Then my plan was to do a home based business. I can cook, I can crochet, I can quilt, I can bake, in all honesty I can do anything I put my mind to. *Hi Blog* However the base was in flux with leadership changes and policies changed with how home businesses work and the stipulations. Most people who were already approved remained grandfathered in, but new applicants were lost to the mists of time. Which lead our family to decide that the best thing for us financially was to return to the states and work and save save SAVE. (I am not good at saving. I am sure my husband could attest to the fact that if spending was an Olympic sport I would get the gold every time.) Regardless, I accomplished a lot in the time I have been away and now were are in a place where reuniting my family is once again a possibility. So now I am finishing my remaining 2 weeks at my current job and then 2 weeks after I will be back in Japan with my husband. So for now I am cleaning, and packing, and planning the next steps. Oh, and Christmas is coming. No pressure.

-Cait

I feel compelled to  start by saying I don’t have a farmstead or a farm. But that is the goal. The 10 year plan as they call it. I have a general idea of what I want to achieve within that time frame. Just a general idea. No organization. No lists. Nothing written down. Just an idea and too much time on pinterest. The plan, or goal, or dream, is to log the steps that I am taking and the progress I am making. Maybe the nurse in me is manifesting since it’s quite well known that “if it wasn’t documented, it wasn’t done”. So this would be a good way to chart all the happenings. A lot of my goals are to learn new skills, travel more, complete some craft projects that have been dragging on for way too long. But it would be beneficial to actually take the time to list it all and organize an achievable plan to accomplish it all. Which ideally would come to fruition after the new year. My new years resolution can be to blog consistently. Weekly? Between now and the new year I need to determine what a blog means to me, where I hope this blog will go, and how to get it there, how I want to communicate and how I want the site laid out. Not an easy task for someone with this level of indecisiveness. All the blogs I’ve read and vlogs I’ve watched all say the same basic principals when it comes to how to start a blog, which is, “just start”. So here I am world. Not knowing what to say or how to say it but giving it a shot and trying anyways.  I am a big believer that it will all work out in the end.

-Cait