The Kitchen - part 3

But wait... I thought the kitchen was done?  What is this all about?  Dishwasher details?  Nope, sorry.  But I was right there with you as far as thinking this was done... until my family came to visit for Easter.   Not exactly sure how it happened, but next thing I knew we were back at Lowe's - my parents, sister and her boyfriend included - looking at Formica colors, sinks, faucets, etc.  Somehow we managed to convince my husband that granite is not the only option for a kitchen countertop, and that we could make a wonderful - and much more reasonably priced - change by simply picking new laminate.  We picked a color (from the 4 colors of countertop that they carry in-stock) and thought we could install it ourselves, perhaps with the help of a handyman with a bit of experience.
On their way out of town, Mom called her handyman, who gave her the name of a laminate installer buddy of his.  Within a few days, "Bob the builder" (turns out he lives next door to a co-worker of mine whose young children lovingly gave him this nickname) was over to give us his thoughts.  For various reasons, we couldn't use the in-stock pieces, but his price was very affordable, and his schedule was open enough to get us done before Baby, which was crucial since we were about 4 weeks from due date.  Pro: we got to go back to the sample-board to pick a new color... great since I hadn't actually been 100% sold on the in-stock one we had picked.  Con: we had to go back to the sample-board to pick a new color... this time, without the color-wise eyes of my family members in tow.  We came up with the following options:

Didn't take too long to eliminate the middle option due to the distinct leaf pattern that I wasn't sure we wanted on as big a space as our kitchen counter (it was called "Frosted Leaves" after all).  But then we got stuck.  I wanted the lighter top color as I feared the lower would be too dark.  Isaac wanted the darker color, fearing the other would be too similar to what we have and would show too many spots.  We nagged votes from 2 family members... who were also split down the middle.  Oh man.  Headed out on the morning of my birthday to buy the new sink, faucet, disposal, etc. planning to poll my cousins that afternoon when they came over to celebrate, and hoping they'd break the tie.  We stopped at the sample-board again, and (yeah God!) stumbled across another color we must have missed the first time around:

Though closer to the dark one, it was light enough that I thought it might be okay, and yet dark enough that Isaac felt comfortable.  My cousins' votes, interestingly enough, had one going for either of the 2 lighter colors, and the other for either of the 2 darker!  Thus, the middle ground won :)  Isaac and I both felt good about it, and we had external confirmation that we weren't making a terrible mistake.  By Friday, our buddy Bob was over and ready to get to work.  He took it from this:

to this:

to this:

 to this:

in about 36 hours (no worries, he went home to sleep for part of that time!).  Wow.  What a difference!  I'll be honest, the darker countertop took a bit of getting used to. 

 But the sink, faucet, and filtered water dispenser had me at hello :)

 In all it's completed glory:

FINISHING the kitchen project... Soli Deo Gloria.

The Kitchen - part 2

What I failed to mention at the end of the last post is that, when we decided to not renovate the whole kitchen, my hubby agreed to getting a new dishwasher.  Ours still technically worked, but it was icky-looking on the inside and it gave me the heeby-jeebies to think about washing baby bottles in it.  So at the end of my peaceful sleeping week, we were in Lowe's starting the dishwasher investigation, and Isaac stumbles across some clearance cabinets.  Can't say I ever even knew they sold pre-made cabinets at home improvement stores.  Next thing I knew, these puppies were sitting in our kitchen:

At $4 each, they had our "renovation" plans started back up, and at a whole different level.  Wow.  So much for sleeping well!  Had to bring the "design team" back in, evaluate whether it would look tacky to add new cabinets on top of our existing ones, how we'd get them to match (i.e. whether we felt comfortable painting them or not), and determine whether neighbor/cabinet guy would be interested in the project and at what price.  In addition to the significant savings on cabinetry, another benefit to this option is that we would not be forced to replace the countertop at the same time.  We could split the cost by doing the countertop in a few months/years/decades.  We eventually decided to move forward, and by mid-April, our kitchen looked like this:

We saved so much that we were even able to add fun features like the shelves to the left of the sink, and the roll-out shelves to the right of the fridge!  Now... how to make them look like one unit, rather than a hodge-podge of miscellany?

Mom and I were in a paint store preparing to paint nursery furniture (post forth-coming), and "happened" to overhear a lady ordering paint for her kitchen cabinets.  Always on the ball, my Mom starting asking her questions, and turns out she was an interior designer and had a cabinet painter that she regularly recommended to her clients, who was also getting ready to have him paint her own cabinets!  Wow.  Again.  We snagged his number and called him on the way back home.

His price was very reasonable, and after painting (or assisting with) the nursery furniture, I was ready to never see another paint brush again, so we signed him up.  We had picked a paint color back in phase 1, so that was easy-peasy at this point.  Just a few days later, our kitchen looked like this:

Crazy!  We went out of town for the weekend to avoid the fumes from oil-based paint, and then came back to hang the doors.  By Easter, we had this:

And just in case you forgot where we started:

Beautiful.  Lovely.  Wonderfully spacious and practical.  Fresh and clean.  Not orangey.  Oh, so many ways to describe our "new" kitchen.  (P.S.  Did you note the new dishwasher from picture 3 to 4?  My hubby still let me follow through on that one.  We haven't done a great job of capturing photos of that, but maybe one of these days.)  Essentially, I was in love, content, and not broke.  And there was even time to spare before Baby's arrival!  Life was good.

Going green (really)... Soli Deo Gloria.

The Kitchen - part 1

Get ready... this may be a long post (I mean, it's already long overdue, so why not just make it long as well, right?).  Scratch that - I'm going to write it in phases, pre-dating it so you can see a basic timeline.  Feel free to read it all, or just look at the pretty pictures :)

For Christmas this year, Isaac gave me a card that said we were going to renovate the kitchen.  As that's something we've been talking about since we moved in but never felt like spending the money on, that was awesome and exciting!  If it didn't happen now, one could safely assume it would "never" happen after Baby's arrival, so no time like the present.  This is what we were starting with:

My pet peeves were the orangy tone of the cabinets, and the essentially unusable (and poorly decorated) space above the cabinetry.  My husband's was the white laminate.

We had two contractors come to give us estimates, and essentially we discovered that our "budgets" were quite different... oopsies :)  Lesson #1... at least minimally discuss budget with spouse BEFORE starting to get estimates.  Then we found a neighbor who goes to our church who does custom cabinetry.  Turns out, his price was in the same ballpark as the other folks, though of course it required us to track down our own countertop installer.  And thus came our tour of granite shops.  As it would be, we have expensive taste in granite.  Who knew? 

The whole thing snowballed into chaos - in an effort to find some clarity, we had several design-savvy friends (including my sister-in-law) and a realtor friend come to give us ideas.  Of course, that just led to more confusion, as they all had wonderful - but very different - suggestions.

In the midst of all this, and with Isaac spending 3-4 nights out of town with work for several weeks in a row, our fridge broke.  Appliances were never part of the original plan, so that threw us for a loop.  Praise the Lord, we found a 1-yr-old but unused fridge on Craigslist for essentially half-price.  My "blog-friend" Kim had recently purchased a new fridge, and thus had done all the hard work for me, and the fridge on Craigslist met all the requirements.  Wow.  Total God thing.  So with the help of some cousin-muscle, we brought this puppy home one Saturday in February:

Tax refund unexpectedly put to wonderful use :)  We continued to mull, plan and investigate, all the while realizing that most projects would take 6-10 weeks (order or build cabinets, install, cut granite, install, etc) and that we were running out of time if we didn't want a half-completed kitchen when we headed off to the hospital for delivery.  Add in some potential job changes which essentially served to remind us that we have no idea exactly how long we'll be in this house, and we finally came to the conclusion that the project was not meant to be at this time.  We could have our dream kitchen for way too much money, or we could have a half-baked partial upgrade for more than we wanted to spend for something only half-baked.  The Lord gave us peace, and I slept beautifully for a whole week!

Putting projects on hold... Soli Deo Gloria.

A wonderful new "trick"

Stopped at EarthFare the other night... great store, too far away.  BUT - it was right on the way home from our friends' house where we had been for dinner, so I couldn't NOT stop :)  Didn't get much, but I had a coupon for a free pound of organic grapes (wonderful, since they're on the so-called dirty dozen list), another for a free reusable lunch bag, and a third for $1.50 off some organic chicken.  Needless to say, it was a pretty successful trip, savings-wise. 

So what's the trick, you ask?  First, a bit of history:  I found a recipe a while ago for Pork Chili Colorado since I had gotten some cheap pork (also at EarthFare, if I recall properly).  I stuck the pork in the freezer since the recipe is more of a winter stew-type, and will pull it out this Fall when the weather is better for that sort of thing.  The recipe, however, calls for 1/2 tsp of Ground Coriander.  As it turns out, I don't have that particular spice, nor do I have room in my cabinet for any more spice jars.  Not to mention, since I have "survived" without it for the full 3 years of my marriage, I wasn't too keen on spending $5 for a spice that I'm probably never going to use up.  Being a "perfectionist" - especially when experimenting with new recipes, I wanted to make the recipe correctly.  So, I decided to be modern and offer a trade on Facebook... I buy Basil, Parsley, Cinnamon and Garlic Powder at Costco, so I've got more than enough to trade.  I got a few offers, but all the local ones were for Coriander Seed, not the ground kind.  Having it mailed by a friend in California was somewhat appealing, until someone posted that EarthFare sells bulk spices - who knew such a concept existed?  Sure enough.  I came home with this:

They don't have actual measuring spoons there, but it's close enough to 1/2 tsp to work for me.  And it cost 14¢!  I will DEFINITELY be keeping that in mind for future spice needs that are not native to my pantry :)

Buying bulk spices... Soli Deo Gloria

Birds' Nests... for dinner?

We tried something new for dinner last night, and since it was kinda fun, I thought I'd share.  I came across this recipe for Potato, Zucchini, and Carrot 'Nests' with Eggs while reading Denise's blog, Wholesome Mommy (formerly The Centsible Sawyer).  I've been reading her blog for over a year probably, and I love the turn she's taken with it lately, focusing a bit less on general coupons/saving and more on eating healthy on a budget... I'm sure subconsciously she's affected my own healthy-eating focus over the last few months as well.
Anyway, she posted this recipe a few days ago, and it's just my style - 6 ingredients!  Since I received some zucchini last week from Absolute Organics, I figured now was a great time to try it out.  Stopped by the store (on the way to see my cousin Mimsies, who I'm thrilled to have living nearby now!) to grab some Organic Russet potatoes, and whipped up these bad boys for dinner:

We both liked them, and the recipe made just the right amount for the 2 of use for dinner with no side items (though we did try them with a little ketchup, which was also good).  I'd only make a few changes to my preparation:

1. I'd remember to add the salt to the veggies. - Not a big deal, as it can always be added later, but it saves some hassle at the plate if it's already got it.
2. I'd shred the potatoes immediately before cooking. - Since I cooked them after my Zumba class and didn't want to eat dinner too late, I shredded the veggies ahead of time, but then of course the potatoes took on that beautiful pinky-brown shade that they get when exposed to air so they didn't look as pretty as they could have.
3. I'd follow her baking time. - Having never baked eggs before, I wasn't sure what they were supposed to look like when they were cooked.  I'm not sure what I was expecting, but after 11 mins they didn't look "done" to me, so I left them another 7 or so... and they were quite hard.  Still tasty, but hard.
4. I'd probably make 5 nests instead of 4, and use 6 or 7 eggs.  One more egg mixed in with the flour and veggies may have helped the "hashbrown" part to stick together more, and a 5th nest would require an extra egg for the center and make them each a little bit smaller and easier to flip.

So there you have it.  Buried vegetables + protein in a creative meal.

Soli Deo Gloria.

Mmm... lunch!

Yeah for school being out!  I finished up on Friday, had a fairly relaxing weekend, and am (of course) loving being out for the summer so far this week.  Thankfully, I have been able to be rather productive so far - I even had the fleeting thought that I wasn't sure what I would do with the rest of the summer, since I'll probably finish everything on my list by tomorrow. 
HAHAHAHA.  And then I remembered all the non-urgent stuff that I haven't done for the past X months that really should get done.  I might need a few extra months of vacation to finish it all.
Anyway, since I can, I thought I'd share my fun, non-lunchbox lunch that I just enjoyed.  Really, it could work in a lunchbox, which almost makes it better.  I started with this recipe for Creamy Apple & Carrot Roll-Ups that I stumbled across this morning.  5 ingredients - I can handle that!  And I had them all on hand (organic apple and carrot thanks to Absolute Organics, of course).  Don't tell Nature's Own, but I used tortillas that I had on hand instead of their bread.  Even though it says "serves 4," I honestly figured I would end up eating it all... 'cuz that's how I roll.  But alas!  It was more filling than I thought.  I used the big tortillas, so it made 2 and I've got 1 leftover for tomorrow.  I ate the extra 1/2 carrot by itself, and the extra 1/2 apple I dipped in Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter that I got from EarthFare a few weeks ago.  Yummy!  Top it off with a Wild Berry Simply Tea that I got for free with a coupon at EF (with a little sugar, since tea is too bitter for my tastes) and I'm a happy girl.
Hope your lunch was as good as mine!  I'm off to be productive again.

Soli Deo Gloria...

Look, Gram! It's your pot!

In the last post, I briefly mentioned an unexpected "produce delivery": basically, our Pastor got a call from someone who literally had a truckload of produce to donate.  While this isn't a common occurrence, similar things have happened before, so he did what he always does -- call everyone in our small congregation, several friends, some folks he's met in the community and is reaching out to, and his neighbors, and then have everyone over to "shop" from his driveway.  I ended up with 3 heads of Iceberg lettuce, a 10lb bag of potatoes, 11 small-ish apples, a 1lb bag of kale, and a few handfuls of key limes.
Adding that to Thursday's normal delivery, I've been able bit creative and "adventurous" this week, due to all the produce that came flooding in our doors!  I was excited about the free kale, because I hadn't heard of it until recently and was hesitant to try it, but have had several friends lately say how much they love it.
Wednesday I made Chamberlayne Chicken and Kale Stew, posted by a friend of mine.  I made a few adjustments (like no chicken, and all chicken broth instead of some veggie, as well as less pepper), but it was yummy.  We both decided that, while kale is not our new favorite veggie, it's good for you and certainly doesn't taste bad, so we'd eat it :)
Friday, since I get off work early, I really spent good time in the kitchen and made a batch of applesauce with the apples.  I got the recipe from the book I had just treated myself to: Food to Live By by Myra Goodman (the used copy cost me $4.99, shipping included!)  She's got an affinity for raspberries, but I adjusted it since I didn't have any of those on hand.  The first batch I made was just apples.  When my hubby tried to eat the whole batch in one sitting, I knew I should use the other 1/2 of the apples to make more!  This time, I replaced Myra's raspberries with 1 cup of chopped strawberries.  Yumm!  I can't even tell you how amazing this stuff is :)

apples before cooking, and the finished strawberry applesauce.  nothin' but fruit and sugar.  wow.

While I was chillin' in the kitchen (and avoiding the TV for TV Turnoff Week), I figured I'd try another way to incorporate the kale.  Dear Vonda over Absolute Organics kindly sent me several recipes, one of which hit close to home: Kale and Potato Spanish Tortilla.  I had potatoes, kale, eggs (thanks to my co-worker and her chickens) and salt, so I was good to go.  The only hesitation: how would the hubby react when he saw green in the legendary spanish tortilla?

                            

Thankfully, though it seemed to take forever, it was the best of the 5 tortilla attempts I've had in my life, and we both loved it.  I think he was so glad to have a yummy tortilla for dinner that he didn't even complain about the green.  And honestly, the kale didn't seem to change the flavor much either.  Maybe the kale will become standard in my tortillas - adding a few extra antioxidants and vitamins to the otherwise protein-and-starch-heavy meal.

                                 

So there you have them - this week's kitchen experiments with fresh produce.  They all were pretty good, and clearly it was an inexpensive week, grocery-wise, so I'm doubly happy.  

Eating produce... Soli Deo Gloria

Yeah for organic strawberries!

I have been waiting for this day since I signed up for Absolute Organics a few months ago - the berries have arrived!  Since finding out that strawberries are in the "dirty dozen" due to high amounts of pesticide residue, I cringe just a little every time I bite into one that's not organic... yet I love them!  So I was thrilled to find that they were going to show up in my box today.  A whole pound!  Yippee!  The Lord unexpectedly provided a few handfuls of non-organic key limes (as well as potatoes, kale, apples and lettuce) this week, so this batch of strawbs may end up in a Strawberry Key Lime Pie that I found a recipe for.
While on the topic of organic strawberries, want to see my sprouts?  I thought you would!

If you look very closely you can see one little sprout with 2 little leaves!  Unless my pots got mixed up, those are strawberry leaves!  They took 3 weeks and 1 day to sprout, and they are now about 11 days old.  Whether I'll actually get any strawberries out of them I have no earthly idea (haha... no pun intended), but it's a fun experiment anyway!  I have pretty much given up hope on the bell pepper seeds that were planted at the same time and have yet to show any signs of sprouting, but we shall see.  Perhaps more patience is needed.  Goodness knows if the Lord gave up on me after looking for evidence of change after only 4.5 weeks, I would be in a sad place!

P.S.  Thanks to Vonda and Steve for the free pineapple in honor of AO's 5th birthday... may they continue sharing organic goodness for many more years!

Soli Deo Gloria

AO is back :)

Since we were out of town for Easter weekend, and have been a bit behind in consuming our bi-weekly produce, I opted to skip last week and start back this week.  Despite the fact that I still haven't used the red potatoes they brought me 3 weeks ago (yes, they've started to sprout, but I don't mind), I was excited for my next delivery.  And since I'm home on Spring Break this week, I actually got to meet the kind gentlemen who brought it to me :)

Above you can see the following bits of organic goodness:

• 5 Navel oranges 
• 5 Fuji apples
• 3 Bartlett pears
• 3 HUGE Russet potatoes
• 2 zucchini
• 2 cucumbers
• 4 bananas
• 1 head of lettuce
• approx 6 Rainbow carrots (which is where a lot of the leafy green comes from - they said to cut that off for better storage)

The varied colors of carrots might require an explanation for my somewhat skeptical hubby, but thankfully a snazzy article was posted to the Absolute Organics Facebook page not too long ago, which you can read here.  And the zucchini is already slated for dinner tonight with the red potatoes, as suggested in this Rosemary Red Potatoes recipe.

That is, if I can pick out the zucchini from the cukes...

Soli Deo Gloria

Nacho Bake

Toni, otherwise known as Happy, has become one of my heroes over the last 6mos? year?  however long it's been since I started reading her blog.  Whether she knows it or not, she's taught me a lot about saving money and raising lots of kids, though of course the former skills are getting more practice currently than the latter.  Oh yeah, and she always has great, easy, inexpensive recipes.  I recently made one that she posted not long ago and - surprise, surprise - it was a hit!  You can find her Nacho Bake recipe here.  I used black beans (couldn't find a can of kidneys lying around... haha), and added a can each of diced tomatoes and corn to the meat/bean mix.  The hardest part was spreading the refried beans around, but this is not a recipe that has to be perfect - which is why I like it!!  As she suggested, I served it with sour cream.  It probably would be good with guacamole too, but I didn't think to take a package out of the freezer soon enough.  The 9"x13" served the 2 of us with enough left for at least one more meal, if not two - and I didn't put any sides or extras with it.  Well, unless you count the cupcake and cookie that we shared for dessert... courtesy of the St. Patrick's Day party put on by the 6th grade cooking class at school.
Are you salivating yet?  If not, this should get you started:

Soli Deo Gloria

3rd Fruit/Veggie Delivery

Need I say more?  Pears (12 or so), Cameo Apples (about 9), bananas (6 or 7), lettuce (2 bunches), red potatoes (counted, but forgot how many while I walked up the stairs to the computer) and green onions -- all ORGANIC and all left AT MY DOORSTEP by Absolute Organics, LLC!  That's 13.5 lbs of God-created yumminess.  Broccoli was supposed to be in the mix, but since it's not my hubby's favorite and I still haven't cooked what they brought me last time, I asked them to bring more pears and/or lettuce instead.  Since my next delivery is schedule to come right before Easter weekend, I think I'm going to have them "postpone" it until the following week as we'll be out of town for the long weekend and aren't quite eating everything in the two weeks anyway.
When my very basic photography makes you drool so much you just can't wait to get your hands on some produce of your very own, just be sure to tell them I sent you :)

Soli Deo Gloria

Another produce delivery!

Today was an AWESOME day!  The sun was shining and though it was chilly, it wasn't deceptively cold, like several days last week.  It was Teacher Appreciation Day at school, so I didn't have to pack a lunch and we got a wonderful, homemade meal and 45 minutes to just chill with co-workers while volunteers supervised lunch/recess with the kids.  I got some cheap Kashi cereal at CVS & Target (went to both places so I could use ECBs/gift card, and actually paid only 6¢ out of pocket for 4 boxes!).  And last but not least, my second Absolute Organics delivery arrived!  Who knew produce could be so exciting?
First thing I did was head to the bathroom scale to weigh myself with the full cooler, and then I reweighed after emptying the cooler.  What you see on the picture below is 13 pounds of fresh, delivered, organic produce!  That's $2.30/lb average, which seems pretty good to me.  Did I mention it was DELIVERED?!?!  :)

 

I'll give you a list, just so you know what you're lookin' at:

• 6 seedless, Gold Nugget oranges
• 7 Braeburn apples
• 2 Haas avocados
• 1 mango
• 1 lg. head of lettuce
• white mushrooms
• 3 averaged-sized broccoli crowns
• 6 bananas

If I've convinced you, just be sure to give them my name when you order so I can get some free produce for referring you!

On another note, here's a picture of my homemade yogurt served over that granola-type cereal I had in the stockpile.  Since mine turned out a bit thinner than I prefer for yogurt, it works great when mixed in with something like this!

Soli Deo Gloria...

Homemade Yogurt!

I am pleased to report that my first-ever yogurt-making experiment went fairly well!  I found the directions here. I read Alyssa's blog regularly, and when I saw this, I decided to try it, just for a challenge.  And, since we do eat a fair amount of yogurt, I figured if it worked I could use it more often to save us some money and to be healthier (there are a fair amount of random ingredients in store-bought yogurt, if you actually read the list).
The directions are really detailed (especially if you click-thru to the more thorough version here), so I felt pretty confident.  Worst-case scenario, I was out a few bucks for the milk and yogurt cup (starter), and would have a damaged ego; best-case scenario I could feel really cool (and save $$, be healthy, cut down on production of plastic yogurt cups, etc... but mostly just feel cool)!
I borrowed a candy thermometer from a friend/co-worker, since I wanted to be sure I was doing it right.  The whole process took me about 8 hours, though most of that was just letting it "incubate" and didn't require much work.  I did discover that my cooler probably isn't the most insulated one ever and when I went to take the yogurt out the temp had dropped, so I added some more boiling water and let it sit for another 1-2 hours instead.  Here are some pics I took:

 

We had some of it for dessert tonight (yeah, I know... it's generally strange for Americans to eat non-frozen yogurt for dessert, but it's normal in Spain and now I'm used to it!) with a little sugar and honey - natural/plain yogurt all by itself is kinda icky if you ask me.  It was pretty good, though if I do it again, I think I'll try to let it incubate longer (and add the extra boiling water sooner to keep the temp up) as it was a bit runnier than I'm used to, and I can only assume it's due to an incubation faux pas. 

Overall, I'm just glad I have an edible result and didn't have to dump it out completely.  I got some free Post Trail Mix Crunch a while back, and I'm thinking this yogurt will probably be a great substitute for milk with that, since the cereal has a granola-y texture.

Making yogurt, Soli Deo Gloria...