Improvements on the Guest Bathroom

Over the past year or so, my husband and I have been doing work on our spare bathroom. There was nothing really wrong with the bathroom, but the vanity was a cheaper material and style, there was a hard plastic glued half way up the walls (almost like wall paper), and it just didn't quite fit our style.

This all really started when they had a vanity that I fell in love with on sale at Lowe's (roughly 65% off). I couldn't pass it up. After some difficulty (the whole for the drain was in the bottom of the vanity, the actual drain went through the wall), we installed our vanity. Then I decided I would just peal the hard plastic off the wall. Simple, right? Unfortunately, I managed to get the plastic off, but the adhesive was so strong, some of the drywall came off with it. So my husband and I patched the spots and sanded and then painted with some leftover white paint. The wall ended up looking pretty rough. Then came the next part of the plan.

We had leftover paint from our light blue living room, and decided to save money on new paint, we would just paint the bathroom that color as well. Then, on another Lowe's visit, we found the solution to our rough walls. They sold a nice tongue and groove paneling for the wall. Slowly but surely, we cut all of the boards, painted them with leftover white ceiling paint, and put them up. To finish it off, we some left over gift cards from our wedding and my birthday, we got a new light fixture and a towel bars. To add a little pop of color, we added a picture that I took of our magnolia tree in a nice simple frame, and voila, a nice peaceful bathroom that we love.

Before:

After:

Angel Food Cupcakes

Last Thursday my husband and I were tasked with feeding the 20 or so person "small group" that we're a part of. So we made the Stuffed Shell Lasagna that I posted a recipe for earlier, and it was absolutely delicious. For dessert, we tried something a bit different - Angel Food Cupcakes. Here's how they turned out:

Recipe (ok, so they weren't quite homemade): makes roughly 30...

Ingredients:
A box of angel food cake mix (we used Giant Eagle brand because we're classy like that)
1 small tub (8 oz.) of cool whip (or store brand) - thawed
1 20 oz. can of crushed pineapple (drained)
1 3.4 oz. box of instant vanilla pudding
Strawberries or fresh fruit for topping

Directions:
1.) Preheat oven to 350 deg F.
2.) Prepare angel food cake mix according to directions on box.
3.) Fill muffin papers approx 3/4 full with the batter.
4.) Bake cupcakes for roughly 16 minutes or until golden brown and fully cooked.
5.) Let cupcakes cool.
6.) Mix together the cool whip, crushed pineapple, and pudding (don't prepare the pudding, just the powder that comes in the box), and then frost cupcakes with the resulting mixture.
7.) Top with fresh fruit.

The Growing Season

So, a few weeks ago, in the middle of March, our normally still quite cold weather decided to be 80 degrees and sunny for about a week straight. This meant for a delightful week of long after-work walks with my husband, early blooms of spring, and just the happy feeling that the first sunshine of spring provides.

And then....

It froze and everything died! Ok, well not everything. But all of our beautiful blooms lasted a few days and are now shriveled or gone. I did however get a few pictures of our beautiful tree out back before the cold spell.

In addition to the spring blooms, the warm weather prompted my husband and I (possibly somewhat prematurely) to plant some seeds inside that we can later plant in a garden outside. We did this last year with cucumbers, squash, and tomatoes and were quite successful. We might have to replant again before putting outside this year, but we already have some promising looking plants.

So far we've planted:
Squash
Tomatoes
Cucumber
Pickling Cucumber
Green Pepper
Broccoli
Watermelon
Canteloupe

I thinkk we're going to need to thin them out a bit, but I've never planted any sort of melon before so this should be an experience. I also bought seeds to plant chives, cilantro, spaghetti squash, and zucchini. I'm pretty excited. :)

Meatless Monday, Take Two

So, I didn't plan it as such, but this past Monday ended up being another meatless Monday. Pretty much the same scenario - I got home from work, didn't feel like pulling out anything to defrost for dinner, so voila, meatless goodness.

And our meal of choice ended up being: Spinach and Tomato Pizza

We used a Pilsbury bread mix to make the crust, although I'm pretty sure it was just flour and a few added ingredients and then the yeast (we followed the directions on the box for the crust, although I think next time I'll just make my own), added a can of plain tomato sauce (14.5 oz can) mixed with 1 tsp. of sugar and 1 Tbs. of what my spice rack calls pizza seasoning. We topped that off with an 8 oz. bag of mozzarella cheese, a few hand fulls of fresh flat leaf spinach, and some canned diced tomatoes (fresh would've been better but it's what we had). Then we melted some butter, added a bit of garlic and parmesean cheese and brushed it on the crust. Perhaps this step would have been better if I would have done it after it baked some or even at the very end, but even so, the end result was a very delicious pizza.

The Timeshare Bedroom

So, when I bought my house almost two years ago, my best friend made a claim on one of my downstairs bedrooms. It was dubbed 'Amanda's room' ever since. Seeing as I have a four bedroom house, and one is my bedroom, this left two for my parents to fight over. But since I don't have a huge amount of furniture, it ended up that my other downstairs bedroom had to be used for both sets of my parents (they're divorced). And thus it became the timeshare room. When I first moved in, this room had beige walls and bright red carpet. Over time I decided to paint the walls a green color to bring out the crown moulding in the room, which wasn't very noticable with the beige. Then, I decided to pull up the carpet to expose the hardwood underneath. I would have loved to keep the hardwood, but the floor wasn't completely finished and was just plywood in some areas, so finally, the room became carpetted. Below are some pictures of it's journey.

Sunset Cruise - York River

My husband and I got married roughly half a year ago, but were not exactly rich at the time, so decided to keep our honeymoon nice but not necessarily extravagant. My dad has a timeshare and had a location in Williamsburg, VA and with it being a relatively short drive from Pittsburgh, that ended up being our honeymoon location. I know, most people fly off to Hawaii or some beautiful island resort, but I have to say, I was quite pleased with our choice.

One of the experiences we had during our week in Virginia was a sunset sail on the York River. The tall ship that we were on was called the Alliance, and it was a perfect October evening for two newlyweds. We actually met a couple from Pittsburgh while we were on the boat, who were celebrating their anniversary. I've included some pictures below, but if you are in Williamsburg with your love, definitely give this a try. There was a family on our cruise too, so it would be a nice experience for families as well.

Meatless Monday, Written a Few Days Late

So I happened upon a delicious recipe when my husband and I were trying to find something for dinner, but didn't feel like dethawing meat. So, without further ado, introducing...

Black Bean and Rice Enchiladas (taken from allrecipes.com)
I just used what I have, so I altered the recipe slightly

Ingredients:

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained

1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes and green chilies

1/4 cup picante sauce

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 to 1.5 cups cooked white rice

8 (8 inch) flour tortillas, warmed

1 cup salsa

1.5 cups reduced fat shredded Colby jack cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a large nonstick skillet, saute garlic in oil for 1 to 2 minutes. Add the beans, tomatoes, picante sauce, chili powder, and cumin; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, until heated through and mixture thickens. Add rice; cook 5 minutes longer or until heated through.
3. Put a heaping serving spoonful of the mixture into the center of each tortilla. Sprinkle some cheese inside the tortilla with the mixture. Fold sides over filling and roll up. Place in a 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish coated with nonstick cooking spray. Spoon salsa over each tortilla. Cover and bake at 350 degrees F for 10 minutes. Uncover; sprinkle with cheese. Bake 2-3 minutes longer or until cheese is melted.               
 

Who Needs Restaurants

My husband and I often go home to Michigan to visit my family, and when we do, we spend far too much on food and gas. So, when we're home in Pittsburgh, we try to keep our food costs low by avoiding eating out, packing a lunch and what not. A lot of times this results in us eating delicious meals that are much healthier and cheaper than eating out.

The following are some of the dinners that we've had the past few nights:

1.) Taco Salad (Lettuce topped with taco meat, cheese, salsa, red pepper, and whatever else you happen to have on hand)

2.) Chicken Tortilla Soup (recipes taken from Allrecipes.com: Chicken Tortilla Soup V, with added black beans and leftover taco shells)

3.) Pan-Fried Tilapia, Rice, and Spinach (Tilapia was prepared according to recipe on Allrecipes.com: Ranch Tilapia ) Next time I might avoid using a ranch mix, as I believe it contains a lot of sodium, but pan-frying the fish was so delicious. It has to be healthier than that battered fried stuff at restaurants? Right? Well, maybe...  We added lemon on top of the fish too.

4.) Chicken Parmesean with whole wheat pasta and salad. I found the recipe for the chicken parmesean on Pinterest. Post a comment if you would like me to direct you to it.

5.) Slow Cooker Roast (Shoulder roast with some Steak seasoning, onion soup packet, garlic, water, on low for 8 hours) with mashed red potatoes (with most of the skins left on) and peas

My husband probably thinks I'm insane because I've been taking pictures of our food everyday, but he loves me anyway :)

Stuffed Shell Lasagna

So my dad and step mom came to visit a few weeks ago, and I was trying to figure out what to make. I had left over pasta shells and know that my dad really likes lasgna, so I figured I would combine the two. So below is the recipe for what we ended up eating:

Final product was loaded with another layer of meat sauce and then covered with mozarella cheese...

Stuffed Shell Lasagna
Adapted from Food.com's recipe: Baked Stuffed Pasta Shells

Ingredients:

• 1/2 box of jumbo pasta shells, roughly 22 shells
• 1 cup of shredded mozarella cheese
• 1 cup grated parmesean cheese
• 15 oz. ricotta cheese (I used low-fat)
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 1/4 tsp. black pepper
• 1/2 Tbs. dried parsley
• 45 oz. Tomato-based pasta sauce (I used Hunt's three cheese which I had on hand)
• 1 lb. ground sirloin or ground turkey
• A few cloves of garlic

Directions:

1. In a large skillet brown the meat with garlic. At the same time, prepare pasta shells according to directions on box (don't overcook, should be to the baking directions). Next, drain the grease from the meat and add the pasta sauce. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Drain the pasta shells and place on paper towel to dry, open side facing down.
3. In a large bowl, combine 1/2 cup of the mozarella cheese, parmesean, ricotta, eggs, pepper and parsley. Put this combination into a large ziploc bag and place in fridge for roughly 10 minutes.
4. Pull out a 9x13 pan (I'm a huge fan of my corning ware one with a nice top so I can prepare ahead of time and just stick into the fridge until ready to bake) and put half of the meat sauce into the bottom of the pan.
5. Take the pasta shells and face them open side up on top of the layer of sauce.
6. Pull the ziploc bag out of the fridge, cut off one of the corners, and pipe the cheese mixture into the shells.
7. Top the shells with the remaining sauce, and the cover with rest of mozarella cheese.
8. Loosely cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes.
9. Remove foil and then bake another 5 minutes.

Austrian Travels - En Route to Salzburg

Last year, I received a text message from my college roommate containing one simple sentence "How do you feel about Vienna in the spring?" A few months later, I was getting my first stamp in my passport - on a trip to Vienna, Austria.

Although I loved every minute spent in Vienna, one of my favorite parts of my trip was a day trip to Salzburg. On the way to Salzburg, we stopped twice. The first was at a 'rest stop'. This was definitely not an American rest stop. The building was a large log one, and inside was a large cafeteria style room where you could order anything from coffee or Gelato or even muffins or fruit. In addition, the rest stop offered spectacular views of the Austrian countryside.

The second stop was a small lakeside town in the Alps, St. Gilgen. We spent a short time in this area, but this quaint area was full of charm and natural beauty.

There were cable cars going up the moutain (which we didn't have a chance to ride), leading to what I can only imagine is a breathtaking experience.

If the whole engineering thing stops working for me, I'm thinking owning a bed and breakfast in this little town might be a dream come true...

For the Love of Nature

After I finished college, an engineering job led me to move myself and everything I owned to start a new life in Western Pennsylvania. Although this was not the easiest thing I've ever done, it gave me the opportunity to explore a new area. Below are some of the places that I've come to love in my new home.
1.) McConnells Mill State Park

This is a beautiful state park will an old mill, some waterfalls, and miles of hiking trails. Below are some pictures I've taken from the park. I don't have a fancy camera or anything, but hope to get one some day...

Hells Hollow Waterfall

2.) Ohio Pyle State Park - This area is well known for white water rafting, but there are also hiking trails and many beautiful sights to see in this area.

A small bridge off of one of the trails

Cucumber Falls

Natural waterslides - you can actually ride them if the flow isn't too strong

Love Comes In Many Forms

Two years ago, on this day, a new man came into my life. No, not my husband. Two years ago, on Valentine's Day, I adopted a 20 pound lilac point Siamese cat. Petsmart was having an adoption day, and when my mom and I walked him, and saw him in his little cage, for some reason set off from the other cats, we fell in love. He was a 3 year old, and although I had planned on picking out a kitten, things went a bit differently.

After I had explained to the lady that I was interested in Smokey, she asked if I wanted to hold him. She handed him over to me, and my first impression was "Wow, he's a whole lotta cat". And he was. It turns out they had put his cage apart from the other cats, so you couldn't see how large he was in comparison.

So I stuck my large, but loving new friend into a probably too small cat carrier, and drove the four hours from Detroit (my home town) to Pittsburgh. Four hours of constant meowing. But I brought my Smokes home, and now he is the sweetest, most loving, most personable cat. He might have had a rough past, but now he is an important part of our loving family :)

Wedding Details

This past October, my husband and I got married on my father's horse farm in Michigan. It ended up being freezing and very windy, but it was still a beautiful day for us. I just wanted to post a few of the details pictures.

The wedding was in a tent on a peninsula in a 5 acre pond. We had a bit of trouble keeping the tent up and keeping anything in the tent from blowing away, but here was the end result:

The decorations were mostly hand made by my husband and I or my stepmom and aunt, like the ones below:

The wedding favors were jars of 'country soup' that my husband, some of my bridesmaids, my mom, and I assembled one afternoon.

Our table centerpieces included mason jars with glass beads and floating candles:

The wedding colors were primarily green and white with touches of brown, but we also added some peach roses in the bridesmaid's bouquets to add a little extra color.

Here my bouquet is shown. In addition, we have a small lyric sheet. Every morning on our missions trip to the Dominican (see other post), we would sing 'I love you, Lord' before breakfast, so instead of saying grace before our meal, the pastor led everyone in this song.