The Quiddity of Kayla-ness

Magical Grout Refresh

noreply@blogger.com (seekerkay) — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 07:00:00 +0000

I've been working hard on several home improvement projects lately. One thing that's been bothering us for a while now is the grout in all our tiled areas. We have light colored tile and what used to be white grout.. but 6 years of traffic and 1 flood later, our white grout is yuckily close to black.

We've scrubbed til our backs, arms, and fingers hurt, purchased industrial strength cleaners, and even hired a professional to work on the grout. Still it was, at best, a dark gray.

Then I found out about this:

[cue angels singing] It's actually a grout paint with a sealant mixed in. It costs about $12 at Home Depot and comes in a variety of colors. It's so easy to use. You just paint it on with a toothbrush and then wipe it off with a towel. I did end up having to do two coats in most areas to achieve the brightest results.

Here you can see my guest bathroom after I'd painted the first few tiles. Night and day difference, right?

This is all you need!

We chose "Antique White," and against our beige tile it looks really bright and snowy, which I like, but I'm glad we didn't actually opt for the "snow" option.

All white lines! We also purchased an additional spray-on sealant that I plan to use to make sure this look lasts. While it wasn't hard to do, it took a good bit of time. I've now finished the entire kitchen and dining area as well, and have spent at least 10 hours painting and wiping grout. But it was totally worth it! The results are so instantly gratifying, you may find yourself hunting for more grout lines to paint.

I discovered this little gem from Live, Love, DIY's review. I was a bit skeptical at first, but at $12 a pop, why not? You know how they said, "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is??" Well, in this case, it's not!! This product really delivered. I haven't had a chance to test its durability over time yet, but I'm feeling optimistic!

And now that I've added my DIY shower curtain ribbons to match the new sink, our guest bathroom is finally, officially, finished!

Remember the sink and counter update? Now we have a sparkling clean floor to match!

Making Life Easier

noreply@blogger.com (seekerkay) — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 03:11:00 +0000

Since Nate's been gone so much, I've been watching quite a bit of tv at night. But we don't have cable, so I mostly watch Netflix. And I've been getting pretty frustrated lately because something is wrong with the way our computer runs Netflix and it keeps crashing while I'm watching it. I've done everything possible to fix it with no luck. So I was venting to him about how mad it made me and he surprised me with this!

It's a Roku! It streams all kinds of tv shows and movies through the internet, and it's only as big as my hand! It was soo simple to set up. I plugged it into the wall, and then plugged it into the tv. I synced it with our wifi- and then I was pretty much done!

You know what else is nice? It has this simple little remote control.

Check out the remote I WAS using to control my Netflix:

A few more buttons, eh? And it runs on a semi-weak bluetooth signal so it gets a little quirky sometimes.

Oh and PS, take a gander at the system I was using to run Netflix.

nbd right?

Soo I think it goes without saying that this is not the easiest thing in the world to troubleshoot. You see those blinky blue lights at the bottom? Well, apparently they have to blink some certain color in some certain order, and if they're not, you have to fix them. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THIS?! Yet somehow Nate does know it, and can actually walk me through fixing one problem after another from 1,000 miles away. Which is fantastic, but he's not always available, and sometimes you just want things to work when you turn them on, you know?

So in sum, my husband is really awesome for understanding my need for simplicity and making it easy for me to watch my Netflix when he's not here to set it up for me. He takes such good care of me. Thank you babe :)

Wall Art

noreply@blogger.com (seekerkay) — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 00:55:00 +0000

I've been working on brightening up the living room, which is full of mostly neutral colors. Nate has these geometric sound dampening panels hanging on the walls... which I am not the biggest fan of. I would prefer to take them down and replace them with something pretty and personal, like wedding photos or bookshelves or something. But he wants to keep them because sound quality is a very important part of his life. He compromised by allowing me to cover them with pretty fabric.

Here there are before, in all their boring glory:

Not too bad, but I knew I could make them better. I went to Hobby Lobby and bought some fabric that I've been drooling over for a long time. All I needed was a staple gun and I could put the new fabric right over the old. Unfortunately mine has gone missing, but I have some great friends that let me borrow theirs!

So my friend Ashley and I had a little craft day. I worked on my sound panels and she worked on a new piece of art to hang in her crafting room.

Ashley is quite the seamstress. She taught me to waste as little fabric as is necessary. So we wrapped the panels tightly and cut off the extra to use for another project. At first I was nervous to use the electric staple gun, but it worked so well and I got the hang of it quickly.

We wrapped up the corners like a present!

Finishing up stapling the first panel

Here's what they look like before and after:

There's a set on the wall on both sides of the tv. Look how pretty they are! I just love this fabric so much.

I went ahead and hung them on the wall, but I really need to cover the black rectangular ones behind them. I want them to be dark brown to match the small flowers in the fabric. But they still brighten up the room a bunch!

I do like them a lot, but I will be happier when the black ones are brown!

We actually had quite a bit of leftover fabric when we were done, and we put it to great use on another project. I'll show you the amazing results soon!

But for now, here's what Ashley made while I covered my sound dampening panels. Isn't it adorable?

She got an old painting from Goodwill, put down the letters with contact paper, then spray-painted white over all of it. So peeling off the letters let the painting shine through! So cute. You can see her whole process over on her blog at Quilted Affair!

We had so much fun on our crafting afternoon. Ashley is great with fabric and taught me a lot about sewing. I hope we get to be creative together again sometime soon!

Bathroom Remodel

noreply@blogger.com (seekerkay) — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 15:11:00 +0000

Presenting...

Our new bathroom!!

We've been talking about remodeling our guest bathroom for a while now. I actually bought the sink waay back around Thanksgiving (!!) and the faucet shortly after, but we could never settle on a counter top. I thought I wanted mosaic tile, but could never find the right one. So finally we decided on granite. We visited a warehouse and checked out their remnant pieces, since they wouldn't cut a large piece for our small job. We found one we liked and ordered it! They said we had to remove the old sink and counter top before they came to install the granite, and my hubby was going out of town, so I went to work myself!

Before the demolition

I started by cutting all the seals with a razor blade...

...and various other tools. And then I man-handled those side-splashes right off of the wall!

After the man-handling, I turned off the water to the faucet and disconnected the tubing to the pipes (see below). In order to completely remove the sink and counter, I had to unscrew the drain from the pipe in the wall. I was able to unscrew the hardware, but there was a suction or something keeping them together and I ended up having to wait for my husband to help me finish it. I was so mad, I wanted to do the whole thing myself!

Official Plumbing Assistant

Fortunately, he was able to [watch a YouTube video and] figure it out.

Ready for installation!

The granite guys brought the counter all in one piece and drilled the holes for the sink and faucet onsite to make sure it was just right.

Work in progress

Drilling the holes

After they were gone, it still wasn't an easy task! Hubby had to connect all the plumbing to get it working properly and prevent leaking. He had a little conundrum on his hands...

The sink drain didn't line up with the wall plumbing!! Somehow, after multiple trips to Lowe's, he managed it get it all up and running. Now we have a beautiful bathroom and couldn't be happier with it!! The only bad news is - now we want to redo the master.

DIY Hydrangea Basket

noreply@blogger.com (seekerkay) — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 21:25:00 +0000

I've been making a lot of changes around the house lately. Moving things around, throwing out [a few] things. So I have this shelf in the front entry way and I was getting bored of its current arrangement. So I moved some pieces around and put together a multi-photo frame as a new centerpiece. But then I was left with this emptiness sitting on the shelf below where it was hung. I thought a low and wide flower arrangement would be perfect, but everything I could find was too big and blocked part of the photos. So I decided to make my own! Just one [not] quick trip to Joann Fabrics and I had all the supplies I needed.

I grabbed some green floral-arrangement-foam-type-stuff in the size I was looking for and some faux hydrangeas, and from home dug up a paper shopping bag.

Cut the bag to be a little bigger than the foam.

And started wrapping it up like a package, hot-gluing the paper as I went. As you can see, I folded the paper to be bigger than my foam, so you can't see where the flowers are poking into it. It also gives the illusion of a larger piece.

Almost done creating my "vase!"

Be sure to glue down these edges so it doesn't LOOK like it's made out of a paper bag!

And it's done! One side got a little bent in the process, but you won't be able to notice in the end. Now we start cutting the flowers.

I decided it was best to insert the leaves separately from the flowers, so you have more control over how they sit and your final arrangement.

I kept adding flowers and leaves until it was full and I liked the way it looked.

When I was finished I set it in the place of honor on the shelf!

It turned out exactly how I had hoped! Here is my the whole re-done unit so far. The top shelf still needs some work, but I have a few ideas.

It was easier than I thought to do it myself. I bet you could too!

POWER smoothie

noreply@blogger.com (seekerkay) — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 15:00:00 +0000

We've been drinking green smoothies for quite a while now. I've played around with different supplements and fruits and veggies to include. Lately I've laid off the protein and super-food mixes; my standard has been mixing various fruits with spinach, greek yogurt, and chia seeds.

Since we're both rock climbers, we frequently have joint pain. I struggle the most with my elbows and wrists. We try to take supplements like fish oil and glucosamine to help repair our joints and ligaments, but I really hate swallowing those big pills.

Today when Nate suggested we take our glucosamine, I was dragging my feet. I told him that I wished it didn't come in pill form, it would be so much better as a liquid or a powder that could be added to smoothies or other food. And then I thought, well, why can't I make some?!

I got out my mortar and pestle and finely ground a few pills.

I whipped up a few afternoon snack smoothies using a plum, cantaloupe, and fresh blackberries, along with my usual additions. I blended them and did a taste test, then added a cautious 1/4 teaspoon of ground glucosamine. Blended again, tasted again. I couldn't detect a hint of difference! I added another 1/4 teaspoon and blended again. Still perfect! I was afraid to add anymore at this point, because I didn't want to risk ruining that great blackberry-cantaloupe flavor. Nate agreed the powder was unnoticeable. Once I started drinking it I got afraid it may have all settled at the bottom and I'd get an icky, grainy, last slurp. But happily, I never noticed it at all - it seemed to be dissolved in the drink.

I was so impressed with the results that I decided to grind up another bunch of pills and keep the powder on hand to add to our smoothies. You want to make sure you grind them very fine or you might bite into a little chunk, and I doubt that would taste very good. I'm going to try increasing the amount of powder in the smoothies until it's detectable. A half teaspoon isn't a whole recommended dosage, but it has to be better than nothing. And it keeps me from having to swallow those giant pills!

A Taste of Spain at Home

noreply@blogger.com (seekerkay) — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 14:30:00 +0000

We learned a lot about Spanish culture on our recent honeymoon cruise along the Spanish coast. For one thing, we learned that only tourists order sangria. We found this out after trying a few different variations of the iconic drink, the best of which contained sliced local mini-bananas and was out of this world.

Flaunting my touristness with the best sangria ever, in the Canary Islands

But the point is, we stopped ordering sangria. We learned that locals order the simpler (and cheaper) drink, tinto del verano. Literally translated to "red wine of summer," it is a delicious mix of Spanish red wine and carbonated lemonade. For me, it transformed red wine from a complement to a dinner-time meal to a refreshing afternoon beverage. We did a lot of walking and liked to stop for a refreshment and a tapa or two, and we started ordering a tinto del verano at every stop. I think we might have earned a little respect from the locals for not ordering a sangria like they expected us to do. We also saved a few euros by avoiding a menu item reserved for tourists.

Standard tapas-style lunch, complete with tinto del verano

I was a little sad to leave Spain and my daily tinto del verano fix. Luckily, while at the store the other day I happened to notice a 2-liter of calorie-free carbonated lemonade! I didn't know they even made that, and I immediately thought of attempting my own version of tinto del verano.

Sparkling lemonade to the rescue!

I found some super-cheap Spanish tempranillo wine and came home to experiment.

Add ice to a wine glass and fill about halfway with the wine. Add sparkling lemonade to fill glass. Add a squirt of lemon juice if you like it extra lemony.

Give it a try, we really love it!

Southern Comfort Food

noreply@blogger.com (seekerkay) — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 20:21:00 +0000

Pinto beans in the crockpot with onions, ham, red pepper flakes, garlic, parsley, and apple cider vinegar. Simmered all day then served with a dash of hot sauce and corn-shaped cornbread. Simple, southern, comfort food. YUM! :)

Half Birthday

noreply@blogger.com (seekerkay) — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 18:01:00 +0000

Apparently it's my half-birthday. Thanks to Macaroni Grill for emailing and letting me know. And they want to give me a free dessert! How nice! If only the calories were free.

Happy half-birthday to me!

Baby Girl Project

noreply@blogger.com (seekerkay) — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 14:00:00 +0000

I'm really excited because soon I'm headed to Kansas City to meet my new baby cousin Lizi. She's actually the daughter of my cousin Will and his wife Sami. Will was my childhood neighbor and best friend. Lizi was born less than a week after my wedding and he still flew down to be there for it. He just barely got home in time for her birth. Now I get to go visit him and his family in their new house for the first time, and meet the new baby girl!

I wanted to bring her something special and I've had a thing for Mary Poppins lately, so I came up with this little outfit I wanted to put together. Lucky for me, my good friend Ashley from Quilted Affair just got a new embroidery machine! She hadn't even gotten a chance to test it out yet, being so busy with her Etsy shop and wedding plans. But I asked her if I could experiment with it and try to make something. So she was super awesome and let me come over and play with the fancy new machine!

It really wasn't very easy. We had to keep tweaking the settings and checking the book to learn HOW to tweak the settings, and embroidering tests on a piece of scrap fabric.

There were quite a few issues along the way. We had to change the thread type, use a different type of stabilizer backing, adjust the thread tension, it just seemed like one thing after another! It was a good thing I bought a 6-pack of onesies, because even after we thought we had the settings right using the test fabric, there was a bit more tweaking to do.

A few of the knots and snarls I made on the first onesie.

The first attempt resulted in a tangle so bad we had to cut the onesie out of the machine!

I also managed to get some oil from the machine on the onesie. Thank goodness this all happened to the first one!

Finally I got all the settings right and set up another onesie to go on the machine. Here it is working away!

And here it is after it came off the embroidery machine! It actually worked!! I couldn't believe it!

We were so happy with how the embroidery turned out. For a first project with a machine we'd never used I'd say it was a big success! Now I just had to finish decorating it!

First I ironed some cute patterned fabric onto adhesive paper. Then I cut out a little kite and some bows to go on the tail. Here it is all set up.

It's already looking cuter!

Then I just added some paint trim to finish it off!

I'm so excited!! I can't believe I did the whole thing! I couldn't have done the embroidery without the help of my friend Ashley, and I'm so glad she was willing to let me use her machine. It was so fun working together on it!

I bought the cutest little hoodie and skirt to finish off the outfit. I didn't even realize the hoodie had ears until I laid it out for the picture! How funny. I just love how the whole thing came together.

Isn't it cute? I can't wait to see her in it. By the way, I've got 4 more blank onesies if anyone wants to have a go at them!

Small Victory

noreply@blogger.com (seekerkay) — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 15:00:00 +0000

Just got this update from Fitbit!

This officially means I get to buy new bathroom hand towels, because that's the deal I made with myself. We've been drying our hands on old beach towels for several weeks now and I decided that would be good motivation to lose 5 pounds.

By the way, can we just get a visual of what 5 pounds really looks like?

Now that's some disgusting stuff right there. I find it hard to believe that much nastiness has been eliminated from my body, but the super smart scale tells me it's true. So guess we can't argue with that.

Nate beat me to this goal but now I've finally reached it too. I've got a few more to go but at least I get new towels now! Off to the shops I go!

Baking with Spent Grains

noreply@blogger.com (seekerkay) — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 14:00:00 +0000

After brewing on Saturday, we were left with a bag of spent grains from Nate's red ale. I just hate throwing things away that could have been put to good use, so I went to work looking for ways to use the grains. I found this recipe for muffins and threw it together right after brewing. I only made one batch since I didn't have any idea how they'd taste, but they were actually really good! Thanks to Chef Lisa for the recipe.

Banana Peanut Butter Spent Grain Muffins

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups spent grains
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup mashed banana (about 2 med.)
1/2 cup natural peanut butter
1 cup milk

Smelly grains!

The grains lent a nice chewiness to the muffins that we really enjoyed. The peanut butter flavor wasn't very apparent, but I think this could be used as a good template for other flavors of muffins using spent grains. I think you could replace the banana with shredded zucchini, add nuts or raisins or whatever else suits your fancy. This recipe wasn't overly sweet, they seem more like a breakfast muffin to me than a dessert.

They had some distinctly brewey undertones in them and were a hit with the boys. I plan to experiment with some grainy goodies every time Nate brews from now on!

Saturday Brewday

noreply@blogger.com (seekerkay) — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 18:59:00 +0000

This weekend I decided to try round two of making my own hard cider. The time I made it before it came out delicious and I'm not sure why I've waited this long to try it again! They had a great deal on apple juice at Publix last week so I stocked up. We made a trip down to our friend Brock's Homebrew Store and got a few other necessary ingredients then headed home to brew.

The whole process is pretty simple - sanitizing all the equipment is actually the hardest part! That's only true for cider though; Nate made a red ale at the same time and it was considerably more work. I created my recipe to sort of mimic my new favorite store-bought cider, Angry Orchard Apple Ginger. I'm so excited to see how it turns out!

Kayla's Sweet Honey Ginger Cider

5 gallons Mott's Natural Fresh-Pressed juice

1 pound light brown sugar

1 pound clover honey

Cider yeast

5 gallons of juice!

The juice does not have to be heated to make the cider. I only heated one half gallon in order to dissolve the brown sugar and honey, then I added it to the rest of the juice in the primary fermentation bucket. When heating the juice it's important not to let it boil, as this will set the pectins and result in a hazy cider. Not pretty!

That's all there is to the first step in making the cider. It's fermenting in our kegerator at 68 degrees for a few weeks. After the primary fermentation stage, I'll add another 1-2 pounds of honey, along with some fresh ginger and some dried orange peel. Adding the honey at this point will prevent the yeast from turning it into alcohol and preserve that great honey flavor. The fresh ginger is a wild card - it has great potential but it's a little risky, so let's hope it works out.

Our kegerator is painted with chalkboard paint, so I redecorated it for our new brews! Can't wait to try it in a few weeks!

Asian Obsession

noreply@blogger.com (seekerkay) — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 16:30:00 +0000

I really just can't get enough Asian Gourmet! It was there that I took my first Asian cooking class, which I loved. Maria was such a great teacher and an even better chef. And ever since taking her class, I just can't get enough of her food. I had my first sample of pho at Asian Gourmet, and I was instantly hooked. I keep saying I'm going to try something new the next time we go, but I just can't help myself from ordering the pho!! Since my introduction to this wonderful soup I've done some traveling and sampled pho from other cities, but I'm yet to find anything that compares to Maria's. I'm a little obsessive about it.

Pho Sate with Beef

Aside from the amazing broth, the best part about it is the wonderful fresh herbs that it's served with. To. Die. For.

Our other all-time favorite from Maria's is the Papaya Salad. It's this super flavorful, party-in-your-mouth concoction that we can't help ordering as an appetizer every time we go there. We are definitely creatures of habit, but at least we know what we like!

Papaya Salad with mixed seafood

Isn't it lovely? My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

I just wanted to share these favorites with you since we enjoy them so so much. They occupy my daydreams on a pretty regular basis. Here I am posting this all on Sunday, when Asian Gourmet is closed, just to torture us all. I hope one day you get to try them!

Inspiration

noreply@blogger.com (seekerkay) — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 14:30:00 +0000

Determine your own destiny.

Food for Thought

noreply@blogger.com (seekerkay) — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 17:00:00 +0000

My mantra

Think you can't afford a healthy lifestyle? Think again.

yikes!

Roasted Cauliflower & Greens Soup

noreply@blogger.com (seekerkay) — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 15:00:00 +0000

I came up with this soup to help fulfill my mission to use up leftovers, as well as eat healthy yummy food. So the other night I planned ahead and roasted a whole head of cauliflower and a bunch of okra. We each had a serving of the veggies for our side dish and I saved the rest for this delicious soup!

The original idea came from Martha, and you can see her recipe here. But I thought her version sounded a little bland, so I kicked it up by using roasted cauliflower, which I re-heated in chicken broth instead of water. I also added the roasted okra, which is great for thickening as well as flavor; I grated a bit of fresh jalapeno to add a little zest; and I included about 1/4 of a Florida avocado to add some healthy creaminess. I substituted fresh spinach for collards and I added it at the very last minute before pureeing to keep it raw. The ever-useful immersion blender finished up this soup like a boss. Sooo easy!

I served it with sour cream and green onions and it was super yummy! The hubby enjoyed it too, though he prefers a big hunk o' meat as a main dish. :)

We'll be fit..in a bit!

noreply@blogger.com (seekerkay) — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 18:20:00 +0000

For the last three weeks or so the hubby and I have had a new health obsession: our FitBit!

To put it simply: it's a pedometer. But really, it's so much more than that. It not only counts your steps, it counts flights of stairs climbed, estimates the calories you're burning, and greets you with cute messages like "You rock!". Did I mention it also measures your sleep efficiency?

If you really want to invest in your health, the whole setup includes a digital, bluetooth-enabled scale.

The scale not only weighs you, but estimates your body fat percentage and BMI, and THEN uploads that information to your profile on the fitbit website! It makes it so easy to set goals and track your progress.

My favorite parts of the whole system are the food and activity logs on the website. Fitbit will tell you how many calories you should be eating each day based on your current weight, goal weight, height, and the program intensity you choose. To make sure you stay on track, you keep records of everything you eat and any physical activities you do. This has been so motivating to me in a variety of ways. First, having to own up to every morsel of food I put in my mouth has pushed me to eat simpler, healthier meals. And isn't that what I should be doing anyway?! I mean, typing "greek yogurt", "zucchini", and "salmon", is waaay easier than typing (and looking up nutrition info for) "Five Guys Cheeseburger with Cajun Fries." And surprise! those foods are infinitely healthier options.

Second, every time you tell fitbit about some physical activity you took part in, it rewards you with BONUS calories you can consume that day! And hello, that's what your body is already doing, fitbit is just visualizing the process for you! So now I make it a goal to add extra little activities into my day- say, walking to the mailbox (hello extra 35 calories), mid-day crunches, or ping-pong after dinner with the hubby (I'm well on my way to earning dessert!). We've found the activity tracker to be pretty motivating to do bigger activities as well, such as running, swimming, and rock climbing.

As if that's not enough, the fitbit also tracks your sleep. You move it from your waistband to a soft wrist strap and you press a button to tell it it's bedtime. You press it again when you wake up and it tracks your sleep efficiency. This hasn't done a whole lot for my fitness level, but it's an interesting bit of info to learn about yourself. :)

Here's a glance at my weekly summary:

You can also link your web profile to friends' and compete on daily steps, weight loss, etc. And you can even hide the numbers you'd rather not share. ;)

So there you have it! That's our current GET FIT plan in a nutshell. We're really enjoying it and have lost 7 pounds between us. Woo-hoo!

Quick Kitty Project

noreply@blogger.com (seekerkay) — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 23:55:00 +0000

I recently acquired a kitty food bowl from my mother-in-law, who got it from her mother, who meant to give it to her granddaughter, and I don't know how but I ended up with it. It's a handy little thing, but it wasn't the cutest, so I thought I'd spruce it up for my little girl. She has very particular taste. :) So one quick trip to Lowe's, a little TLC, and here are the before and after's!

Before: Red & White

After: Pink & Silver!

I thought it turned out pretty well, but the most important thing was...

Sydney approves!!

Leftover Sausage Barley Skillet

noreply@blogger.com (seekerkay) — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 20:33:00 +0000

I'm doing so great this week using up leftover ingredients! I had some leftover sausage in the freezer from a breakfast about 2 weeks ago, and about half a package of hot smoked sausage leftover from making shrimp & grits last week (which were AMAZING by the way), so I hunted down this recipe to use up both kinds of sausage. I decided to add some fresh okra to up the veggie content, I didn't add all the barley because it just seemed like too much, and I didn't have Madeira wine so I substituted Chardonnay. I cooked the onions longer than the rest of the veggies (with a few spices) to get a good base flavor and leave the rest nice and crunchy. And as usual, I rinsed both types of sausage after cooking them to lower the fat content.

It came out SO yummy! The hubby absolutely loved it; I was really surprised because he's not a huge veggie eater and I was apprehensive as to how he'd feel about the barley. Turns out, he went back for seconds and even heaped some extra "oats" (as he called them) on top! So we've got a winner.

We served it with some fresh basil from my herb garden- so tasty!

Even though I'm trying not to eat sweets, I had a full carton of fresh figs in the fridge that were quickly passing their peak. So I tried to come up with several recipes that could incorporate them for the week. Last night we cheated and I made Emeril's Upside Down Fig Cake! I knew I couldn't make a whole cake or one night of cheating would turn into a whole week on a sugar high. So I did some research and found you can easily freeze cake batter in zip-lock bags for up to 6 months! Who knew?? So I made the whole recipe of cake batter, but only enough figs for 2 servings. I cut down the sugar in the batter by about 1/4 and it still came out delicious. I put it together in a 10 oz stoneware crock, which we split. I hated the idea of heating up the whole oven for this personal-sized cake, so I baked it in the toaster oven and saved energy! It came out just as nice as ever! So I was feeling pretty good about how my meal came together. Sorry no pictures of the cake, but I just loved the idea of making the 10 oz size. No leftover cake = no guilt about wasting food! I froze the batter in 2 quart-sized bags and hope to get 2 more 10 oz cakes out of them. Maybe next time I'll try peaches or apricots on the bottom.

Tonight we're set to have a grilled chicken and fig dinner with roasted veggies, and in the morning I'll finish up the figs in some green smoothies. Here's to hoping I can finish this week without many leftovers in the fridge!

I'm BACK!!

noreply@blogger.com (seekerkay) — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 18:52:00 +0000

Wow, has it really been one YEAR since I've posted anything?! The time sure flies by. I've had a ton of changes since the last update. I may go back and tell you more details about them later, but here's my last year in a nutshell: I went on a crazy European adventure during which I got engaged (see story here!), planned a mostly-DIY southern style outdoor wedding, took a 4-day cruise with all my best girlfriends, got married, had a wonderful honeymoon, quit my job, moved to a new city, and apparently turned into Suzy Homemaker (or so I am told).

So that's a whole lotta stuff you missed out on. If my current job situation continues (in that I don't have one), maybe I'll find the time you fill you in on the whole year's worth of excitement! But I figured for now we'll start with what's going on right now.

My big concerns as of late are eating healthy, getting fit, and getting my house and yard in top shape. We're not on any specific diet, I just try to limit sugars, incorporate whole grains, lean meats, and plenty of fruit. When we're in town, we try to stick to "meatless Mondays", and we consume a ton of Green Monsters (we've even graduated to including kale!). I'm trying to save calories on drinks, so I've been keeping sassy water, or other variations of homemade, non-sweetened, flavored waters in the fridge.

As part of my healthy eating campaign, I'm trying extra hard to minimize my kitchen waste. I've had a bad habit in the past of buying specialty ingredients for one meal and then allowing the leftovers to spoil in the refrigerator. So now that I'm the full-time cook of the house, I'm trying to plan my meals around these key ingredients. It's the same story with leftovers. Nobody likes eating the same thing for 4 days straight, so I'm trying to cook smaller portions and find different ways to eat them the following day. Like yesterday, we had Apple-Cinnamon Steel Cut Oats for breakfast. Today, I made the leftovers into oatmeal pancakes. Tomorrow I think I'll try to make some banana-oatmeal bread with them.

The downside of healthy eating is the added expense. Isn't it sad how much more you have to pay for healthy, whole foods, than processed items?! It's a little discouraging. I'm interesting in couponing, but not sure I have the energy to do all the planning involved. Plus I hate being restricted to cook only using items that are on sale. I'm definitely a sucker for the BOGO items at Publix, but I really try to resist the ones that are perishable.

To get fit I've been trying to run 1-2 times a week, rock climb once a week, do at-home workouts such as tabata, and I'm trying to incorporate swimming (if it would just stop raining!). I told myself I can buy new bathroom hand towels when I lose 5 pounds, and every time I wipe my hands on the old ones I'm reminded to be good! Hopefully they will be replaced soon! ;)

The house is an ongoing project full of distractions. I have a ton of DIY improvements I want to attempt, but I'm trying to prioritize organizing the clutter. I have several yard projects I'm working on, but the most exciting is my plan to uproot the sad little tree in the backyard (poorly placed by the builders), and replace it with a potted fig that I've been nursing for months. I can just imagine it growing tall, shading our patio and producing more figs than I'll know what to do with. I just hope my dreams come to fruition. (ha! you see what I did there??)

So that's my life as I know it today. Sorry no pictures this time. And I'll try to stay in better touch.. :)

New DIY Obsession

noreply@blogger.com (seekerkay) — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 15:11:00 +0000

I have a confession to make.

I am

completely

obsessed

with MOD PODGE!

[source]

I'm still just getting started, but there are so many possibilities with this stuff! I've begun purchasing supplies for projects I haven't even planned yet. It might be turning into a problem.

Here's my first, impromptu, project:

Necessity is the mother of invention.

I was in need of high-quality, acid-free, pretty pens. "Pretty" is the keyword here, because these type of pens are generally sold for utility only. So to remedy the situation, I dug deep into the crafty recesses of my brain (where I admit some cobwebs may have accumulated), and came up with the idea to mod podge some pretty scrapbook paper to the plain pens.

Photo: Not pretty. Pens: PRETTY!

The caps were the hardest to work with, but the whole project was really very easy. It took me about an hour to finish both pens, and you have to factor in that this was my very first mod podging experiment. I felt pretty successful about the final product! I'm not sure many people are in need of fancy-writing, pretty-looking pens, but I want to find a reason to make these again. I just love them!

I have an even more exciting project to share with you soon. So stay tuned for more mod podge fun!

Sunday Afternoon Blueberry Picking

noreply@blogger.com (seekerkay) — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 03:11:00 +0000

I recently discovered a blueberry you-pick farm right near my house! The place is amazing; I can't believe I've lived here eight years and never knew about it. I had no idea what I was missing!

Every bush was loaded with gorgeous blueberries! The farm is owned and operated by a family, right on their property. And even better, they're completely organic!

The price was nice too. Even cheaper than the store's non-organic berries, plus you get the enjoyment of picking them yourself. I made sure to take home enough to enjoy for several days. We did a taste test and confirmed they do taste better than store-bought. I'm having them with everything!

I'm completely obsessed. Sadly, the blueberry season in sunny Florida is ending now, so I'll have to wait until next June to get my fix again. But I may just be there every Sunday afternoon in June from now on!

Green Monster Madness

noreply@blogger.com (seekerkay) — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 15:11:00 +0000

I'm really enjoying my green smoothie breakfasts. I'm feeling completely satisfied, and I've noticed decreased cravings throughout the day, especially for sweets. I'm feeling more adventurous and may attempt to start adding in more veggies such as kale, cucumber, and beets. Let's not get carried away though. Here are three more green and delicious fruit-filled days.

Day 4

Recipe:
- 2 cups raw baby spinach
- 4 fresh strawberries, whole (greens on!)
- 2 whole guavas (soaked in water overnight to flush out canning sugar)
- generous splash POM pomegranate juice (1/4 cup?)
- 1/2 can coconut water
- 1 packet Amazing Grass Pomegranate Mango Infusion supplement

This one was so good! How can it not be with that ingredient list, right? Next time I will go a tad easier on the POM juice since that junk's not cheap, and its flavor is so strong that a little goes a long way. The guavas were brilliant, and I really liked today's supplement. As a side note, I didn't notice the strawberry greens at all. Bonus nutrients!

Day 5

Recipe:
- 1 1/2 cups raw baby spinach
- 1/2 can coconut water
- 1/2 cup frozen blueberries
- 1/2 banana
- 1 packet Spiru-tein Vanilla High Protein Energy Meal supplement

Day 5 was maybe the best day yet. I just loved the combination of the blueberries with the Vanilla Spirutein, and the banana helped to make it all creamy. Delicious!

After 5 days in a row of documenting my recipes, I've started winging it and throwing in whatever I have in the fridge. Here's a few of the new ingredients I've enjoyed though.

Accidental self-photo!

-Mango
-Honeydew - nice subtle flavor
-Apple (makes it so much more filling!)
-Hemp protein
-Almond butter - great nutty flavor
-Exotic fruit nectars (watch out for sugar content though)

I've also been experimenting with alternative blending methods. My Cuisinart immersion blender works great! I've even used it in hotel rooms while working on the road - soo quick and easy. Another exciting blender is the Magic Bullet. I used it at a friend's house and it was amazing!

Lately I've been making smoothies for afternoon snacks instead of breakfast, and even mini-smoothies as healthy desserts. I can't get enough of them!

My New Favorite Thing

noreply@blogger.com (seekerkay) — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 17:49:00 +0000

This stuff is straight up deliciousness. I can't wait to try the other flavors. I may have to buy it in bulk.