Books and Cooks...

Happy Tuesday Everyone!! I hope you all are having a fabulous kick off to your week!!

I am pretty excited for tomorrow as we are having a company party!! For 6 years the company I am working for has been voted Best in the Business and we are celebrating tomorrow!! It should be a blast!!
*Side Note - I was actually laid off from my position last year (12/31/12 to be exact) but I started at my new company this past April and I love it!! :)

I thought today I'd share with you a couple new books and some new foods I've tried recently!

First up the foods....

I always hit up the clearance section at Target because you never know what kind of little items you might find to try out! I usually find small things of flavored coffee to try or flavorings to add to your meals! My other favorite place to browse the food racks is TJ Maxx. Yup TJ Maxx! I always find good flavored coffees there, scone & muffin mixes, and now I've found a Quinoa mix! I have never had Quinoa but figured I'd jump on the band wagon before another health food takes over. Last night I decided to combine my two finds - Lemon & Herb Quinoa with steak marinated in Campbell's Skillet Sauces Fire Roasted Tomato!

I will be honest I have no idea how people can rave about Quinoa the way they do! Perhaps it's because I'm a texture person when it comes to my food and there is just something wrong to me about the texture of this stuff but you can put me down as not a fan of it! I even waited the full 20 minutes for it to absorb the water, then 5 minutes to sit, then fluffed....but nope I took two bites and couldn't do it! For those of you who do like Quinoa make sure to hit up your local TJ Maxx to see what they have to offer in flavors!

Onto the skillet sauce....DELISH! I was pleasantly surprised how good this sauce was! Whenever I see Fire Roasted on anything I usually find it to not be quite as "firey" as I like but this one was right on the money! And so easy...brown up your meat, toss in your sauce, and let simmer til your meat is cooked! If you can find this one make sure to try it...I know I'll be on the look out for different flavors!

Onto the books...I recently put out a post on Facebook requesting suggestions for a book I could devour! I was looking for something that would suck me in and make it hard for me to accomplish anything over the weekend! One of my super sweet coworkers left two books sitting on my desk waiting for me the next morning! One of those was The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky.

A good friend of mine Laura had recommended this one to me  awhile back but I completely forgot about it, especially since I watched the movie (very sweet movie for all you cinema lovers). I was lucky enough to sit down Sunday and read this entire book! It was a 4 star story and such an easy read! It's written in letter format which I love! I definitely recommend this book!

And one more book that I recently purchased is a 5 Year Q&A Book!!

I heard about this book recently from a vlogger on YouTube and it sounded right up my alley. I really like to keep a journal but some nights I just want to read or I am so tired that the minute my head hits the pillow I am out...this books allows me to still record a thought each day! Basically for 5 years you record your answer to each question and every day has a different question! I really love this and think it will be so fun to see what changes and what doesn't change in my answers! Another "book" I would recommend to everyone!

Well folks I should probably wrap this post up as my lunch break is nearing its end! I will leave you with a few fun upcoming things I've got going on though...

I am currently rereading all the Harry Potter books! I have not read these since the first time I read them and think it's so fun going back through book 1 now! I just love everything about Harry Potter!! I am also reading a few other books on the side but the next one I am starting is called The Fault in Our Stars...the second book my coworker lent me!

This week, aside from the work party tomorrow, I've got happy hour with my best friend Alycia, Coffee and a walk with a friend on Saturday, Decorating for Halloween!! and Sunday morning Chuckles and I have a date to watch the first episode of the new season of Once Upon a Time! He is working nights now so we will be DVRing it and watching it together a WEEK LATE!! It's killing us both to have it sitting on the DVR but it's our show so no sneak watching it!!

I hope everyone has a great rest of your week and I'll be back on Friday with my Weekly Favorites!!