Shelves for Mariah

While searching my parents house Jack and I found these adorable matching wall shelves and we thought they would be so cute if we repainted them. 

I wasn't a huge fan of the wood color and thought they would be adorable in a dark pink. So we headed off to Ace Hardware and picked out a gorgeous dark pink called Lucious lips. 

We decided to paint it white first so that way the color wouldn't be mixing with the brown. Although, this was a good idea we didn't realize that when we opened the pink paint that our gorgeous dark pink was actually an extremely HOT pink.

Needless to say this was not the color we were going for and does not mesh well with Mariah's sage green walls. My goal is get out the white paint again and do a sponge paint coating on the top. If anybody else has any ideas they would be greatly appreciated.

Christmas Stockings!

When my sister and I were children my best friends Grandma sewed us these wonderful decorative stockings that we still use today. Last Christmas I decided that I was going to try and make the same ones for my new family. I bought a stocking kit for Jack and one for me. I started Jack's last year in the hopes to finish it by Christmas that year, however I had no idea how long it would actually take me.  . Here is a picture of what Jack's is supposed to look like. You can purchase these at Amazon for anywhere between $17-$30.

I thought this would be perfect for Jack since he loves golfing so much. When I didn't finish it last year I basically gave up on it, but now with Christmas around the corner, a little pressure from Jack, and some serious pregnancy boredom, I decided to pick it back up again. Here's what it looks like so far:

Not exactly like the picture and besides the drunk reindeer I think it looks pretty decent for being my first one. It definitely needs some touch ups, I need to sew on the last few pieces, and the back. It should be done for Christmas and I'm kind of excited to see what the finished product looks like!

Chicken and Stuffing

Apparently at Hannaford they sell pre stuffed roasting chicken in the meat department at only $1.29 a lb. For a 6 lb chicken Jack and I paid $11 and it was delicious. I think this is a perfect idea for a night where you have some extra time and don't feel like cooking or preparing a meal. The whole thing took about 3 hours to cook and I only had to baste it every once in a while with some chicken stock.

Turkey Pie

Last night Jack and I tried a new recipe I found on Pinterest, we changed the recipe around a lot and kind of made our own thing, but it turned out to be pretty good. This meal is extremely easy to cook so it's perfect for a weeknight dinner when you don't have very much time. The ingredients are as follows:

• 1lb 97% lean ground turkey
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup baking mix
• salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 egg white
• 1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• french's fried onions

To start, set the oven to 400 degrees. Begin cooking the turkey, onions, and garlic in a skillet. You can also add other seasonings for more taste; we added garlic powder and onion powder. When browned put into an 8 inch round pan or you can use a 9 inch square pan, really whatever you have. Mix in the remaining ingredients and top it off with some french's fried onions. Stick it in the oven and let it cook for 25 minutes.

While it was cooking Jack and I made some potatoes as a side which ended up being a perfect addition to the meal.

My one complaint about this meal is it was just a little bland but nothing a little hot sauce can't fix or more seasoning. 

Nutritional Information: One recipe makes 4 servings

• 432 calories
• 22 g of fat
• 1 g of fiber
• 40 g of protein
• 13% of your iron
• 34% of your calcium

Broccoli Harvest Salad

So I'm pretty sure I've mentioned her before, but if not I'm going to mention her again, because I am in love with her blog. Kelly Hunt from Eat Yourself Skinny, http://www.eat-yourself-skinny.com/, has some of the most delicious and healthy recipes. I have so far made two of her recipes and each one was delectable. The first one I made was her macaroni and cheese with cauliflower that was amazing; Jack deemed it his new favorite mac and cheese, and the best part is it's low cal and low fat.

The most recent recipe I tried was her Broccoli Harvest Salad and oh my goodness is it amazing. It very quickly made it to the number 1 spot for pasta salads. You can find the recipe here: http://www.eat-yourself-skinny.com/2012/10/broccoli-grape-harvest-salad.html or check out my pinterest board under Food.

The recipe is as follows:

• 1/2 box of farfalle we accidentally used a whole box, it still came out great, however it does explain why we didn't have nearly enough grapes, onions, and broccoli. 
• 1lb fresh broccoli
• 1/2 cup light mayo
• 1/2 cup non fat plain yogurt 
• 1/3 cup of sugar
• 1/3 cup of diced red onion
• 1/3 cup of red wine vinegar we actually didn't have this so we combined red wine and white vinegar worked just as well.
• 2 cups seedless red grapes
• 6 cooked turkey bacon slices
• 1/4 cup chopped pecans we did not add this in because neither Jack nor I like chopped pecans

The recipe is pretty easy to make the only tedious part is slicing the grapes in half.

To begin prepare the noodles and cook the bacon; meanwhile cut the broccoli into florets, cut the onions, and the grapes. Jack and I always buy pre cut onions because neither of us can take the burning eyes, it is more expensive, but extremely worth it. Don't forget to steam the broccoli it's not mentioned in her directions. Mix everything together then cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours. 

I forgot to take a picture of ours, but it essentially looks the same just with more noodles. 

I predict that what we made will probably be about 6 servings if you're eating it as your primary meal. Nutritional information is as follows:

• 473 Calories
• 6 g of fat
• 9 g of fiber
• 20 g of protein
• 19% of your iron
• 28% of calcium

Living Room

After living at my apartment for over a year, my living room is finally starting to come together. Three out of the four corners are completely done; I just have one more corner behind the couch that needs some decorating and organizing.

I absolutely hate this corner and have not figured out what to do with it yet. It definitely needs a couple wall hangings, but I would also like to find something to put on top of that hideous large white thing. You can't see it in this picture, but right behind the couch is essentially storage space that we've just thrown things like blankets and Jack's golf clubs behind. Soon I will take care of this corner and it will look just as good as the rest of the living room, but for now I just avoid eye contact with it.

The desk is my newest and most favorite addition. It fit my living room and personality so perfectly. I am not even close to done with the desk accessories, but it looks good enough for now until I have some spare cash to make it look perfect.

To the left of the desk you can see my favorite mirror in my house and possibly the world. Jack bought this for me for my birthday two years ago. 

I know it's probably not every body's favorite, but I love animal furniture/decor. It's one of my secret obsessions.

The painting hanging above the desk came from home goods and cost a total of $14!

I am loving my mantle piece that is currently decorated for Fall.

All the fall decor came from The Christmas Tree Shops and cost $13. The mirror above was given to me and the picture frames were all ones I had saved from Christmases and birthdays. So everything on this mantle cost me a grand total of $13!

I really like everything about this corner except for the lamp which I will replace once I get around to it. Currently it is not on my top priorities. I love the picture that we just recently added. Shutterfly was giving away 2 free 8x10's all you paid was S&H so I paid a total of $3 for two 8X10's and the frame was $5 from walmart. My favorite piece in this corner is my elephant table (again with the animal furniture).

I found this beauty at burlington coat factory for $25. When I bought it the glass top was broken off, but that was a very easy fix. Jack bought some 2 part apoxy and just glued it back together it's been perfect ever since. 

My next task it getting my apartment organized. My kitchen cabinets, underneath my bathroom sink, and front closet, are a disaster. Slowly but surely I will complete them before Mariah is born.

Fluffy french toast

I know I haven't been posting as recently, but frankly I haven't been doing anything new recently. It's hard for me to clean and cook dinner so Jack has been helping me out tremendously with that. He makes dinner every night for us and doesn't complain even once. Last night we did make something new though and it could possibly be my new favorite meal. Fluffy french toast, a recipe I found on allrecipes.com, it was by far the most delicious french toast I've ever had; so delicious in fact that I had to eat three slices. We followed the recipe verbatim, which can be found here: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/fluffy-french-toast/detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Title&e11=fluffy%20french%20toast&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=Home%20Page

The ingredients are as follows:

• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 cup milk
• a pinch of salt
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• thick bread (we used texas toast bread from the bread aisle and it worked amazingly)
• syrup of your choice
• powedered sugar

To cook it you simply dip the bread in the mixture then throw it on a griddle or frying pan; it was that easy. By far the fluffiest and tastiest french toast. We topped it off with syrup, powdered sugar, and whip cream. Can I say heavenly? cause that's what it was. We also served it with a couple strips of turkey bacon to ensure I was getting some protein for the day.