The good, the bad, and the blog

As promised, here are some yummy recipes that I have made recently. All recipes (and pictures) were found on Pinterest, all were easy to make, and all received a husband approval rating of "delicious."

I'm sharing two crock pot recipes and two vegetarian recipes.
1) The crock pot has been my BFF since this semester started back. Longer school days = I'm more tired and have less time, so it has been awesome

2) At the beginning of the year I decided to cook meatless on Mondays. David and I used to do this last year, and loved it, but somehow as we moved and I started school last fall it kind of fell by the way-side. I have really enjoyed cooking this way so far and it helps us take one more step to being healthier.

First up,
Crock Pot Orange Chicken

David and I cook stir fry pretty frequently, so this was a great new, easy, alternative to the usual teriyaki sauce we use. Brown the chicken quickly, throw it in the pot, and cover with sauce. Done. I stir fried some frozen veggies with a little of the leftover sauce and whipped up some rice on the side. Very tasty.

Crock Pot Pot Roast

This took me by surprise and turned out to be one of the better pot roasts i've ever had. SO FLAVORFUL! And only five ingredients (plus waster)...FIVE. Right up my alley. My grocery store didn't have the right size pot roast I wanted, so I actually used 2 1/4 lbs of stew beef instead, which worked just as well. Try this on the next rainy night in.

Tuscan Pasta with Tomato Basil Cream Sauce

Wow, this was yummy. I think this will become a staple in our "meatless Monday" collection. And it was pretty simple with the pre-packaged ravioli and sauce. David and I inhaled it.

Red Wine and Goat Cheese Risotto with Caramelized Mushrooms

This was a fantastic company dish. Even David, who feels iffy towards mushrooms, really liked it. I personally loooove risotto, and this was no exception. Even without any meat, this was very filling and satisfying.

So there are my reviews. Hope that you get a chance to try some of these, as we loved them in our household.

Happy 2012! Yes, I know we're two weeks into it, but this is my first post of the new year. I started class last week and am slowly transitioning to waking up early again and getting back into the grind. The school days are longer, but i'm excited about this semester.

This break was not only restful, but productive in terms of getting some projects done. In addition to the Christmas stockings and tree skirt I made, I finished a couple of other things on my list.

The first to tackle was our dresser. We bought this off craigslist because it was the perfect size that we were looking for in our bedroom. The problem: it was red, silver, and black....not attractive. A couple of months ago we did the sanding, and it took forever. Lesson learned: sanding is not easy/possible on a dresser with 3 coats of paint and has lots of small grooves and surfaces. But we did the best we could.

Then we primed and painted the dresser, and added new knobs. I'm very pleased with the way it turned out, and proud of the sweat equity that went into it.

Did you notice the awesome bicycle mirrors hanging that my hubby made? Just wanted to brag on him again, they rock.

Next, I made a rack to organize most of my jewelry. I have been wanting to do this for a long time. David had recently bought some screening to fix holes in our back porch, so I snagged some and stapled it to this regular, cheap picture frame. I then added hooks at the bottom to hang my necklaces. It's worked out really well so far!

Please ignore the awful coloring of the photos, our closet is painted bright pink...what can ya do

And even though I completed this project several months ago, here is a before/after shot of our dining room chairs I recovered, but never documented. I love recovering chair seats, it's just so easy and makes a huge difference! Before: awwwwful dark floral-ness. After: burnt red color...the photo makes it look more orange than it actually is.

The next project I plan on tackling is to make a painting to put above our bed. We're lacking artwork on that wall and I finally found the right size canvas I was looking for...it's pretty huge, definitely one of he bigger pieces of art i've done. I'll let you know when that's completed, although with school it might be a while.