delighted to be

Dinner Idea: Sweet Potato, Lentil, & Veggie Bowls / april 16, 2014

sweet-potatoes

I’ve been digging dinner that comes in bowls lately. Chipotle bowls, sweet potato bowls, white chili, you name it. To feed my family I’ve basically been buying staples from the store each week and if we’re not feeling pasta, I concoct veggie bowls for us instead.

They always turn out a little different and unique depending on what I use and the seasonings. Last night’s was especially delicious. Here’s how I made it, in probably twenty minutes or less:

1 | I baked, diced, and lightly pan-fried a medium sweet potato in coconut oil until it was crispy and browned. Set aside.

2 | Using that same pan, I tossed in a variety of chopped veggies – celery, green & red bell pepper, onion, garlic, and carrots. I sautéed these until they were just barely soft.

3 | While all this sweet potato/veggie sautéing was happening, I started a pot of rice. Brown rice would be the better choice (or quinoa!) but we used white because it’s quicker. And because that’s what I’m capable of right now. ;)

4 | I had cooked lentils from the night before in the fridge, so while everything was finishing up I decided to make my own version of madras lentils.* I tossed some (cooked) lentils, tomato sauce, onion powder (or sautéed onions would be even better!), chili powder, salt, earth balance, and silk soy creamer into a small pan and heated it through. I’ve also added red or pinto beans in the past, if I have them on hand.

5 | While my lentils simmered and my rice finished, I chopped up an avocado. I serve everything in separate bowls, and then each person can put it all together in a bowl or plate – rice on the bottom, then lentils, and then all your veggies.

*I tasted some seriously incredible lentils at Costco a month or so ago, but upon reading the ingredients it contained a bit of dairy (which we try to avoid). So I made my own, and they’re our favorite way to eat lentils now.

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Zipperless Boppy Cover / april 11, 2014

boppy

Jack was bottle-fed, so I found that I didn’t really use my boppy pillow all that much. My mom helped me make a cover for it (covers are like $30 to buy, yikes!) and I searched high and low and could only come up with this horribly bright lemon fabric. (Unless you go to a specialty fabric store and pay $15+ a yard, the fabric stores aren’t that great in North County San Diego.) So we used that but it stood out like a sore thumb everywhere in our house and I always hated it.

So this pregnancy I decided since I’ll be breastfeeding and the boppy will make its rounds around the house again, I wanted it to look good. And kind of just blend in and not scream, “BABY!” (My sister Mackenzie laughs at me for always trying so hard to not embrace decor that screams I HAVE KIDS! But it’s not like this boppy hides the fact that we have kids; everyone knows what it is still. Can’t it look good while serving its purpose?)

This time around I went for a more neutral fabric and decided to ditch the zipper. It closes with a flap and a small square of velcro. I think I already love it more!

I was going to include a tutorial, but let’s be honest: I really just loosely followed this one from Kalleymade. The only change I made was that I added a piece of velcro at the very end to keep the flap on the back side (pictured above) more tightly closed. The entire thing, even with my little 3-year old helper, took me about an hour.

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DIY Zinc Letters / april 9, 2014

step7

I don’t think this is where the letters will go. They’re too small for that big wall, right? And please ignore my curtains – we bought the wrong size of curtain rod at Ikea (my fault!) and have yet to make it back for an exchange.

Despite being emotionally and physically exhausted this pregnancy (it’s my hardest one yet!), it’s been so much fun planning an actual nursery for baby Owen. Jack’s nursery was definitely thrown together on our meager (read: zero-dollar) college budget, and while I’m still really proud of how it turned out, I wanted something new with this baby.

But it turns out I’m still a tight-wad and will cut corners and reuse/recycle every chance I get. We are reusing a lot of things, like the rocking chair (but I’m reupholstering it; project update on that soon) and Jack’s blue dresser as our changing table. I did, however, convince Tyler to let me buy a new crib. I loved Jack’s crib (it’s a family heirloom – the same crib that my mom and 20+ babies in our family have slept in) but it isn’t the sturdiest anymore and because of its pack n’ play size he outgrew it by 18 months.

We ended up with a popular budget-friendly option, the Ikea Gulliver crib. I’ll admit I did A LOT of research before we bought it (we all know Ikea furniture isn’t built to last) but so far am so so impressed with the quality and sturdiness of the crib and it did get really high reviews everywhere I read. Jack loves it when I put him in it for a test run. Actually, he could easily still sleep in it with room to spare.

But moving on to the real reason of this post: my DIY Zinc letters. I fell in love with these ones from Anthropologie, but unfortunately don’t have $75 to spend on them, haha. :) This is most-definitely a budget-friendly project, costing me a mere $12 to complete. (Although full-disclosure, the font for the Anthropologie letters is way cooler!) Here’s how I made them:

Materials Needed |
cardboard letters (mine were $2.50/each at Hobby Lobby)
black paint
silver paint (mine is FolkArt gunmetal grey)
paint brush/foam brush
flat thumbtacks
Elmer’s glue

step1

Step 1 | Paint your letters black. I used a thin coat because I was okay with some of the brown color of the cardboard showing through in my final project.

step2

Step 2 | Let them air-dry, or optionally, paint a second coat of black. With one thin coat, my “O” was dry by the time I finished painting the “N”.

step3

Step 3 | Using a paint brush or foam brush, paint a very thin layer of silver over the black.

step4

Step 4 | You should still be able to see some of the black showing through. I made my paint job a little messy to mimic brushed, old metal.

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Step 5 | After your silver is thoroughly dry, you have the option of painting a second coat. Above you can see a comparison of two coats (left) versus one coat (right).

step6

Step 6 | Here’s the best trick for hanging them! When everything is completely dry, flip your letters over and glue flat thumbtacks on to the back. I only used one for each letter (because I could only find five flat thumbtack in my stash!) and they hung up just fine. (But two is probably preferable.)

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Step 7 | When the glue is completely dry, hang your letters and enjoy!

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The Living Room & Dining Room / april 7, 2014

fromthestairs

These pictures aren’t too great, but my cousin Sarah has been begging to see our house! Today I thought I’d start with the living room and dining room, since those are the only areas that are actually clean. ;)

Our house is small, clocking at only 1500 square feet. But we got space exactly where we needed it, and didn’t want or need anything much bigger. Our family is small and I hate to clean, so the less space the better! 1500 seems manageable to us – if we ever let it get too bad, it only takes us an hour or two on a Saturday morning to clean and whip our entire house back into shape.

We looked at larger houses that weren’t as functional or needed more work than we wanted to do, and ultimately decided this space is perfect for our family. It’s a fantastic open layout and the previous homeowners made excellent choices when they renovated. The entire house is modern (we’re not much for traditional design, Tyler and I) and in beautiful neutral tones of grey. There are still little projects here and there that we have been tackling, but it’s nice because we don’t feel like we have to spend every single Saturday at Lowes.

The downstairs is actually a wee bit smaller than the upstairs, but the layout is really open and bright. We have a large kitchen, a living room, a dining room, and a half bath. We love the deep Harry Potter closet (under the stairs) for hiding Jack’s toys and puzzles when he’s not using them.

The only tricky thing about the downstairs is the layout of the family room; we’re finding it difficult to add extra seating. We’ve added a bench in the corner (see below) and we pull in chairs from the dining room when we have guests, but we haven’t come up with a long-term solution. We’re not sure a bigger couch would fit, or if we even want a larger couch at all. But again, it’s perfect for us right now.

Our sliding door is large, and lets in quite a bit of natural light along the back wall of our house. I love to have it open all day when we’re home, as it lets in a nice ocean breeze. We don’t have the typical backyard – instead we have a large patio with a greenspace behind it. We find the greenspace is excellent for getting wiggles out, bug hunting, and the occasional picnic or preschool lesson. (We’ve also hosted a Ginos family dinner out there!) Long-term I think I’d like to add a picnic table or large sectional sofa to our patio so we can eat dinner out there in the evenings. We’ve planted a garden along one side, which has been fun for Jack to take care of every day.

gallerywall thefrontdoor fireplace thediningroom_1

I’ll tackle the kitchen (my favorite!) in another post. We weren’t home most of the weekend so it became a dumping spot and just needs to be cleaned up before I can take pictures. :)

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