Kitchen Before/Afters

This is what our kitchen looked like 5 years ago when we bought the house. The dishwasher was tiny, the floor was awful and the walls were very very white. For those of you who know me, you know I am not a white wall fan.

I don't have a bunch of inbetween photos, but here you can see we painted (right after we moved in), then over the years we have added a bigger dishwasher, a new countertop, new floor and door pulls.

Well, I got a wild hair up my patootie and decided we needed a backsplash. I priced out tile but it was pricey and I wanted to be cheap (creative)!:) So we ended up with this. A painted gray with a travertine and glass mixed border.

Oh and because I can't do anything normal....the paint isn't just paint; its chalkboard paint! I found this company online that does chalkboard paint in about a bagillion colors. So, I can write my grocery list up there as I go and then just take a photo with my phone and have it when I go to the store!

I cut the final pieces today. I really liked how the colors went with the stone look countertops.

Oh, and yes that is the Pioneer Woman cookbook on my stand. I use it a ton....plus its one of the funnest cookbooks to look through!

Meals for the week

Ever since going gluten free, one of the most common things I hear is "Isn't that expensive?" or "that seems like too much work." While I can't make up Hamburger Helper or just grab a frozen pizza (Actually Amy's makes one that is GF), its not as hard or pricey as it sounds. Here are our meals for this week.

In no particular order (b/c we usually decide what we want to make the day of):

1. Cookout Meal: Baked Beans with Ground Beef, Coleslaw, and Potato Salad
The nice thing about these dishes is that they can be made ahead. You can make them when convienient and then just pop the beans in the oven to heat up.

Baked Beans
1 lb ground beef
1 lb bacon
2 cans of Bush's Original (22 oz)
Medium Onion-diced
1/2 cup Montgomery Inn or favorite barbecue sauce
1/2 cup ketchup
1/3 cup brown sugar
mustard

Brown bacon and remove from pan. Drain most of the bacon grease. Add onion to pan and cook for 3-5 minutes, then add ground beef and cook till brown. Add in other ingredients with just a squirt around the pan of mustard. (I also add hot sauce) Transfer contents to a 9x13 baking dish and put in oven for 30-40 minutes at 350. You can also put in a crock pot. The longer this sits the better it gets!
( I only made a 1/2 recipe of this and we still had a bunch of leftovers)

Creamy Carolina Cole Slaw-from the Southern Living 2005 Annual Recipes Cookbook

1 cup mayo
1 cup sour cream
2 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. cider vinegar
2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. dry mustard
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp hot sauce
2 (16 oz) pkgs of shredded coleslaw mix

Stir together everything but the shredded mix. Then add slaw and cover and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Bacon Potato Salad-from the Southern Living Cookbook
Note: I modified this b/c I already had so much bacon in the beans

6 to 8 medium potatoes, cut into small cubes
1/2 lb bacon, cooked and crumbled (left out)
6 green onions
2 celery ribs (left out)
2 Tbsp. diced pimiento (left out)
3/4 tsp sale
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 cup mayo
1/2 cup sour cream
things I added: capers, fresh parsley

Cook potatoes and cool. Mix together all other ingredients and toss gently with potatoes. Cover and chill for at least an hour.

2. A Southern Gumbo Night

Southern Gumbo-from Allrecipes
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Southern-Gumbo/Detail.aspx

Cornbread- package of Bob's Red Mill Cornbread Mix + 2 Tbsp. of sugar

Key Lime Pie for dessert- Allrecipes ( I made this the night before so it had time to sit in the freezer)
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Key-Lime-Pie-I/Detail.aspx

3. Pizza Chicken and Pasta

My friend Kim makes this and always tells me about it.

Bake chicken in oven until mostly done. Add spaghetti sauce ( I used Ragu) and any toppings you would put on your pizza. I used mushrooms and pepperoni. Top with shredded mozzerella and put back in the oven until the sauce is bubbly and the cheese melts.

We serve this with a GF pasta with butter and parmesean tossed in.

4.Lemon Thyme Chicken Wings

You can serve this with french fries and apple sauce or something healthier like a side salad.

5. Ham and Swiss Breakfast Pie-from Southern Living 2005

Because my husband loves brinner (breakfast for dinner) I usually make one a week.

1 2/3 cups water

1 cup whipping cream

2 garlic cloves, pressed

2 Tbsp butter

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

2/3 cup uncooked quick cooking grits

1 1/4 cups shredded swiss cheese

8 large eggs

1/2 bl cooked ham, diced

4 green onions, chopped

1/2 cup milk

Bring 1st six ingredients to a boil. Whisk in grits vigorously or they will clump. Cover, reduce heat and simmer 5 yo 7 minutes. Add 1/2 cup cheese until melts. Remove from heat. Lightly beat 2 eggs and still into grits mixture and pour into a 10" deep dish pieplate.

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes, remove and increase oven to 400.

Saute ham and onions for 5 minutes. Layer mixture over grits crust. Whisk together milk and remaining six eggs; pour over mixture. Sprinkle remaining 3/4 cup cheese.

Bake at 400 for 35 minutes. Let stand 10 minues, and cut into wedges.

Serve with fresh fruit.

Sorry about the double spacing all of a sudden. If anyone knows why blogger suddenly started doing this please let me know! :) Oh and another thing, my grocery bill for the week, including some other stuff I bought for breakfast and lunches, was only $51.49. I did already have chicken from Sams, and a lb of ground beef in the freezer, but as you can see, you can easily do 5 meals for under $75 for the week.

New Entry!

So I forgot to take a picture before they took out the old screen door. I probably have one on the blog here somewhere. Anyways, the purple people eater is about to go in this pic. The dent, the peeling trim around the tiny window....all going away!


The trim around this thing was horrendous. So glad to see it go!

Here's the new door coming in. The installer showed up at my house and I knew he would be good. His first words were, "Nice sticker on your car." Talking about the UT sticker in my back window. He had a UT hat on! :)

Here's the new door. It was white but I had to put some color on it.....and what better color? Actually, we had to do something lighter than the eggplant because it would cause the door to warp from the hot sun. I like it though!

(Ooops, I didn't stand out of the way enough to miss my reflection in the glass!)

Fun with Flowers

Last weekend Nicole and I went to check out Rowe Arboretum. I had no idea what to expect and while it wasn't very large, they had the most beautiful rhododendrons in bloom! They happen to be one of those things that really reminds me of Tennessee.......
but I have never seen such beautiful orange ones! I wanted to take them home!


Then there's this girl! What a hoot!


Pretty purple


This was one area of a bunch of them!

Sunbathing in Siberia

I have a Siberian Husky....at least that's what I am told. But give her a 75 degree day and the first place she runs is onto our very sunny deck....plops down....and probably wouldn't move until you made her. She LOVES to sunbathe. Seems a little odd considering how much fur she carries around (and sheds all over my house).

See here, I have made her sit up.....she's not happy about it. (Oh and yes we are restaining our deck this year. I know it looks awful!)

But, if she must get up....she will go visit the fishes while I feed them. I can't tell if she thinks they are funny or look tasty.....but no chance of her jumping in the water to find out.

Now, Rosco, on the other hand,

prefers to lay and stand in the cool shade of the back tree.

He's not too happy when I make him come inside either. Sometimes I hate going back to work! :(

Strolling on a Saturday

This weekend was forecasted to be beautiful, so early last week I had my Saturday planned. Jaime and I went down to Findlay Market, one of my favorite historical places in Cincinnati. Its located in a very historic, but rundown, part of Cincinnati and is just a great place to visit and be a part of. Over the Rhine is currently in a state of Renaissance, with many new businesses coming in to revive the area.

Amongst the vegetables, fresh eggs (which I didn't need this time thanks to Jaime bringing me fresh ones from her parents casa), and even jewelry, there is this little place that sells gelato. Now, I haven't been to Italy, but from what I have been told (Kat!) this stuff is the bomb. Dojo makes the stuff in small batches and wonderful flavors like Honey Lavender and Sea Salted Caramel. I opted for a small which allows you two flavors....my picks?....Sea Salted Caramel and Turkish Coffee.......OH..My...Goodness!

(See all the lovely flavors and colors here!)

This is Jaime's bowl (with her cute red toenails in the background) Aren't these the cutest cups they serve in? I took mine home....yeah I am a dork. It was a #5 so I couldn't recycle it that way, why not use it again at home! By the way, the gelato was fantastic!

Here's a quick shot of some of the veggies. We cooked up some of them tonight! If you are ever in Cincinnati, especially during the spring/summer, stop by Findlay Market.....oh and if you live here and haven't been, you must, read, must go NOW! Enjoy local produce!

Gluten What?!

Many of you know that I have been eating gluten free since last June. It started as a trial week. I have a friend who has Celiac's at work as well as another who is gluten intolerant. (I will get to the differences later) By the second day of eating gluten free I was noticing big differences. I had been putting up with stomach growling, bloating, and other unpleasant things without realizing I could be rid of it. I would come home exhausted every day from work and barely make it through making dinner and crash on the couch. But, once going gluten free, I would stay up looking for things to do at night......I'm not kidding, I had so much energy and was so excited that I did, that I was looking for things to do.

Many of the symptoms of Celiacs and gluten intolerance are almost identical but the conditions are pretty different. Also interesting though, is that the fix is the same. A gluten free lifestyle! This is a good link to compare/contrast the symptoms for the two.

Now for those of you who aren't aware, gluten comes from wheat, barley, rye, and oats. For me, I first thought, but wait...aren't those good for you? Basically some people (this is becoming an increasing number every day) don't digest the gluten very well and it irritates the lining of your intestine. When this happens, you don't absorb the good nutrients from the rest of your foods well. (If you really want to get into the nitty gritty, look up what a good poop should be, floaters indicate low nutrition.....just sayin, I had lots of those!)

Okay, so what to do if you want to try this crazy eating habit? First of all, start reading labels....and get used to perimeter shopping. Huh? You know those rows of boxed premixed preserved for 2 years shelf food at the grocery store? Yeah, surprise surprise....its not very good for you, and it usually has gluten in it. I will go into this more in coming posts (I am hoping to make this blog a bit more about my GF adventures) but I do want to give you a few tips....

#1. Buy more produce, cook with it, learn new ways to cook it. Maybe you grew up hating veggies....try them again, your tastes might have changed.....and your digestive system will thank you for it.

#2. Eat more lean protein

#3. This seems obvious, but bypass the bakery and breads and pastas.

#4. Oh pasta you say!? I can't give that up! Well good for you there are wonderful rice pastas that I use instead. Look for them in the organic section of most stores. Some stores now have their own GF section too (Meijer, Trader Joes, Kroger)



I would recommend trying this first. Stick with things that are naturally gluten free, then you can venture into all the things that are out there to give you that bread/pancake/donut fix without giving you a belly ache. By the way, not all starches and carbs are off limits. Rice, Potatoes, Quinoa, and other grains are fine, just be sure to google them first. There is tons of info out there. Oh, and the Lipton Rice blends (the flavored ones like broccoli cheddar "rice" aren't rice!) They mix in Orzo pasta with the rice.....yeah, sneaky. Remember what I said above, read labels. Oh, and it won't say gluten. Look for these. It seems like a lot, but most of those you won't ever see, and after a week or two, you get used to it. You get a feeling for what foods are going to have stuff in them.



Oh, so by the way, some 9 months later, I have lost about 20 lbs, lost the bloat, gained better skin, more energy and even a better mood. All of which I would somewhat contribute to going gluten free. I am working out more often which I am sure helped with shedding pounds but I woudn't have had the energy before. But don't do it just for that. I can't begin to explain to you the difference in how I feel. Its awesome, and well worth giving up some hamburger buns!



Okay, so here in Cincinnati we have this wonderful store called Jungle Jim's. They have a huge GF section (amongst some of the best produce in Cincinnati) and I went in yesterday to get some flours. I am making carrot cake cupcakes for Easter. GF of course. I saw a new (to me) brand of GF bread. Oh....my.....goodness. Yummmmmy! Its got pockets of air, a wonderful taste and doesn't crumble. So, if you can find it near you, pick it up. I have already had 4 slices! Yikes!