Good Old Rice 'n Beans

We needed something quick and filling tonight before we went to a play. What did we do? Rice and Beans, of course! It was super yummy and I'm still comfortably full after almost 5 hours. 

Here's what I did:

Cook 1 cup of rice with chicken broth (1c. rice to 2c. water)

Dice up red some red pepper and a whole onion then cook in olive oil

Add two or three garlic cloves, chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika and some Worcestershire sauce. 

It didn't look quite right, so I added a can of diced tomatoes with green chilis with the liquid (I got it at Aldi) and some hot red pepper relish. Then I added a can of white beans (Maybe black beans would be better? I just had white and it was great)

After that had cooked up and the rice was done, plated it with the beans and veggies over the rice along with some shredded cheese, a dollop of sour cream and a few corn chips! A+

Curried Lentil Bugers

Hello hello!

We just had some delicious lentil bugers tonight. It's something that I certainly want to make again, but certainly won't remember how. So here is my super easy recipe.

Sauté 1/2 an Onion, 1/2 Green Pepper, about a teaspoon of fresh Ginger, a dash of Cheyenne Pepper, and some crushed Coriander Seeds.
In the meantime, cook about a 1/2 cup of Rice with Chicken Bouillon and 1/2 a Tomato.
In a bowl, combine about a cup of Cooked Lentils, 1 Egg, Cumin, Smoked Paprika, Tumeric, Chinese  5 Spice, Chicken Bouillon and Garlic Powder.
Once the onion mixture is cooled a bit, add it to the lentils.
Add more oil to the sauté pan. Form the lentil mixture into small balls and add to the hot pan. Flip when browned on one side. Cook all the way through (about 15 mins)
Serve with rice and sour cream (if you like sour cream)

Yum yum yum!

I stole this picture too. 

Bathroom Before and After

The upstairs half bath was the most yucky room in the house. It was dirty, but do much more. It had an ugly shelf-like thing in it and it was half painted/half primed with stains all over the walls.

I'd like to show the before and after pictures. ^_^ I'm so proud.


I had to clean the whole thing, bottom to top before I painted. I knew that stains bleed through paint quite easily and I didn't want to repaint the next day.

It still needs a lot of work, but for just the cost of some "Mess up" paint at home depot, a paint brush and roller, and some $1 L.A.'s Totally Awesome Cleaner with Bleach, I think it's a great improvement.

You Have to Clean Walls??

I didn't know this, but walls get really really dirty.

Our new house has the most disgusting walls I've ever seen! I think the previous owners must have smoked inside...a lot.

Fig. 1

There is also this lovely wood paneling in the hall (see fig. 1) that is so amazingly dirty that I think it must be wood-stain that never really took.

The bathroom also had this stunning wood paneling (see fig. 2) that I, of course, make my first project to paint over. I found that, even after a good wipe down, the dirt/stain bled through the Killz primer! I did two coats of heavy duty primer and the walls still look a bit dirty (see fig. 3).

Fig. 2

Fig. 3

So, before I can paint over these lovely walls, I have to CLEAN them. I've been experimenting and found that ammonia works wonders. I've also found that L.A.'s Totally Awesome Cleaner works wonders and it's $1 at Family Dollar!!

So, today I sprayed down each panel with a 1:1 solution of the LA stuff, scrubbed it with this brush thingy (see fig. 4) and wiped it clean with a sponge. It took forever, but it's clean and ready for primer... or, more like ready for putty to fill in cracks, sanding then primer!

I hope you can learn from my mistakes and my poor writing skills. Cheerio!

Kale and White Bean Soup

I stole this picture...

I don't think that I'll ever be so on top of my life that I can take pictures while I cook, but here is the basic over view of the fantastic soup I made the other day.

Again, this is for me to remember what I've done because I tend to not to remember what I've eaten the day before, never mind remember how I made it. Here goes...

8 cups Water
6 tsps Chicken Bouillon
1 Onion
2 stalks Celery
2 cloves garlic
1 bunch Kale
1 can White Beans
2 Carrots
1/2 cup rinsed Quinoa
1 Bay Leaf


Instructions:
Chop it up and put it in a pot. Woot woot!

New Home/New Living

Sooo.... It's July of 2015. It's been about 2 1/2 years since I last posted. Where do people find time for this stuff?!?

UPDATE:
Ian and I were married Aug. 3rd 2013 on a beautiful overcast summer day in my parents' backyard. ^_^ We had the perfect ceremony and left immediately for our honeymoon in Montreal. It was perfect. Perfect. Perfect.
We stayed in a little apartment for 5 days in the Gay Village right near St. Catherine's St. So beautiful and so fun. We had good food, went to every tourist attraction and even got kicked out of a large, well known music festival. Perfect.

The reason I'm back blogging is because we just bought a house! We did! It's a cute little 1940s barn style place with a back yard and gardens! ...I have no idea what I'm doing! So, I thought (for my own sake) that I would keep track of some of the things I have been doing (Cleaning/cooking/saving/gardening) so that, in the future, I can look back and see what worked and what didn't. I don't think anyone else will read this...except maybe for the recipes.

I hope I can look back on this and remember. ^_^

Our lovely living room!