Fourth of July Ribs

Having the day off Tuesday allowed me to be super productive. One of the biggest tasks I took on for the day-besides our kitchen cabinets- were the ribs we ate for dinner. This past year one of the things I have worked on doing better is cooking. I noticed through my first year at Washburn we were eating extremely unhealthy and I could tell I was gaining weight. I've alluded to this is previous posts but have been exceptionally happy with how big of a habit it has become.

Every Sunday one of the first things I do when I get up is meal plan for the week. Trust me- it is not an extravagant meal plan like those you see on health blogs but it is something. I typically pick anywhere between 4-5 meals for the week to buy groceries for. I don't pre-prep the food unless I know it will be a super busy week. I just lay out five meals during the week and choose one to cook at the end of each day. 

Now for those who know me, I am not the best cook. I never have felt "comfortable" in the kitchen. However, I do enjoy cooking... as long as there is a recipe associated with what I am cooking. I don't know what pairs well with what so I leave that to Pinterest. This week I decided with the fourth I would tackle cooking ribs. 

Andrew is not a huge fan of eating meat off the bone or really anything other than beef, chicken, and turkey. But every once and awhile I am able to sneak in another meat of choice so I thought what better day than the fourth of July! 

Recently I stumbled across the Little Bits Of blog and have been drawn to multiple of her recipes. Especially this BBQ Ribs post she highlighted when she took over the Whole 30 Instagram page awhile back. By all means I am not following the Whole 30... which is proven when I substituted her homemade BBQ sauce for store bought. However, this served as a guiding point for my venture to make our ribs somewhat edible. 

  

Although Andrew didn't eat much they satisfied my craving for BBQ! We hope your fourth was filled with delicious food and {safe} celebrating! 

Sunday Project

Can't believe we are already into December and are fully into the Christmas season! This will be the first year I have a place that is "mine." I've always shared an apartment with roommates and had the liberty to do what I wanted but this year I've been responsible with making it my "home" and I've come to realize I enjoy cooking, crafting, and decorating more than I thought before.

In other apartments where I knew I'd be for a short year before I went home for the summer I never put more effort than to hang a poster on the wall and call it good. However, now our plan is to stay in one place for awhile. To be completely honest, that was one of the main things I was looking forward to after graduating grad school- have a place to live for more than 2 years. I was tired of moving. In our new apartment I have been able to really make it ours and have started to think more "domesticated" (I used to always call my best friend Stephanie this because she always was thinking in a Susie Homemaker way when I would just shrug these things off). 

One project I've been waiting to tackle is cleaning and re-doing my Kitchen Aid mixer. When Andrew, my sister, and I rented a house out in Warrensburg I got the opportunity to go through Andrew's grandma's old things and take what we needed. When I was in the process of doing this I came across her old KitchenAid mixer. The mixer was a dingy yellow color that needed a little TLC. When I took it, I didn't care what it looked like- it was functional and that's all that mattered to me. Now that the kitchen is mine and Andrew could careless what it looks like, I've started to make it look "pretty." My mom had told me about some blogs she had read awhile back about taking them apart and cleaning them and hand sent me one that seemed fairly easy to tackle and with the holidays approaching, I bust out the KitchenAid mixer and started baking. 

There were a couple of different recipe's I wanted to try so I  spent the majority of yesterday making

• Butterscotch shortbread
• Puppy chow
• Crockpot Chex Mix
• Espresso Chocolate Chip Muffins

After my baking purge I finally decided to take the time and deep clean- and I mean DEEP CLEAN- this KitchenAid mixer and repaint it. We decided to go with a Hunter Green color that would cover the spots that didn't seem to come off and WALA!

There are still a couple places I need to touch up but I'll save that for another Sunday! Next on my list of projects- Christmas gifts! 

A few of my favorite things

Lately I've been in a "mood" according to Andrew. His exact words tonight were "What has gotten into you? Crafting, cooking, and cleaning?!"

In all reality, when we're at home I don't want to just sit around and watch football. I want to do something. With the holidays in full swing we've started to decorate our apartment. My husband is a real life Grinch. He doesn't see the fun in doing all these things but that makes it more fun for me! :)

Two weekends ago, I started cleaning and came across a DIY Burlap Wreath I started making shortly after Andrew and I got married. It was looking a little drab so I decided to finally take the Nebraska football down outside our apartment and switch it up with something more festive. 

The wreath itself was super easy to make. I unwrapped a wire hanger and thread different types of burlap through. I then fastened the Santa and pinecones on with ornament hangers. The whole project probably took about 60 minutes total, which is exactly what I need since I get bored easily with projects. 

Next we decided to put our Christmas tree up. This was supposed to be done "after Thanksgiving" but since we planned on going home for Thanksgiving we had to have it up so we can return home to it! Andrew put a total of three ornaments on before he got bored. 

This is him telling our dog Alba to sit for a photo in front of the tree

Since I was already in the crafting mood and we were at Michaels, I decided to update our tray we use to hold remotes in our living room. I painted the tray and used scrapbook paper to cover the inside. Again, super easy and done within one night. 

1. Painted the tray

2. Cooked dinner

3. Painted a second coat

4. Ate dinner

5. Glued the scrapbook paper in the middle

Phew... and I'd be lying if I said I don't still have the crafting bug. When I get into these "moods" as Andrew calls it, I end up spending hours on Pinterest. My t-shirt quilt is a project I've slowly been gathering supplies for and tonight I officially "started." Stay tuned!

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A Case of the Mondays

In case you weren't aware, today is Monday and let me tell you... every part of the world made that known to me today. Of course, that meant when I got home from work all I wanted to do was veg out in front of the TV but Andrew and I recently decided we were going to try and be better about our eating so I knew the old habit of serving ice cream for dinner wasn't going to work.

When brainstorming for dinner ideas I remembered last week I had planned to make an easy one pot Mexican pasta dish I found on Pinterest. When work got crazy and I didn't get a chance to those ingredients just sat in the cupboard. Since we had almost everything together I had Andrew stop and grab the remaining two ingredients from the store and we made that for dinner. This meal was a hit with Andrew and I'm glad we stayed strong and tried it out.

This "One Pot Wonder Southwest Pasta" was so easy to make and will keep it in my back pocket for another "Monday." All you have to do is throw all the ingredients into a pot and wait.
**We left out the black beans because I forgot to have Andrew grab those at the store but it was still delicious

Finally- the marinade review:

Our first attempt at grilling went SUPER well. The meat-we used chicken- was delicious! Would definitely recommend the marinade in the future and am glad I made a large batch to start. We've already used it again

We're one day closer to a long weekend. Happy Monday!
:)

Birthday love!

Tomorrow is Andrew's 27th birthday! Holy COW is he getting old or what? This past weekend we were able to celebrate his birthday a little early with his mom and step-dad by going to the winery and out to dinner. Andrew just LOVED that we were at the winery for HIS birthday. Especially since he's the only one in the group who DOESN'T drink wine! :)

While we were at the winery I was able to learn a thing or two about grapes. The winery owner showed us how he knows when the grapes are ready to be picked. He squirts the juice on what looks like an eye doctor tool and it reads how ripe the grapes are. Obviously, different types of grapes and wines call for different ripeness. We got to look at a basic table grape (not used to make wine) and one of their most popular wine grapes! Not only were we able to look at the grapes ripeness but we got to eat some too and I swear it is like a whole different fruit than the grapes we buy at Aldi's!

Anyways, for Andrews birthday his mom got him a gas grill for our new apartment. I think I'm more excited about the grill than he is... so much we are going to grill tonight for the first time!

This morning before work I marinated chicken with a recipe I found on Pinterest. It was the first marinade I came across that we had the majority of the ingredients for. I'm hoping it turns out!

1/2 cup Soy Sauce
1/3 cup Worechester sauce
1/3 cup balsamic vineagar
3/4 cup olive oil
1 tbs Dijon mustard
1 tbs Parsley
3 cloves garlic
pepper
Serving size: 2 tbs

I'm also excited to grill the cabbage we bought at the store. Two summers ago I lived in Greensboro, NC and tried grilled cabbage and HOLY MOLEY was it good- I love me some veggies.... if only my husband did!

Stay tuned to find out if the half-asleep me knows how to pick a marinade :)