BCT Sandwiches

This summer I've been on a BLT kick....but usually without the "L", only because I don't keep lettuce on hand very often. I've decided that the BLT is a very underrated sandwich!

Since Kyle likes 'em too (hold the "L" and the "T" on his) we've had them several times. And while I would love to use the same bacon Kyle likes.....


....I try to make my BLT healthier with this:


However, this presents a problem, since bacon doesn't last very long in the fridge, especially with only one person eating it. And as much as a like BLTs for dinner, I don't want to eat them every night for a straight week. So finally, the solution came to me last night:


Divide the bacon up into individual portions to keep in the freezer, then thaw one at a time as needed!! Hallelujah, no more wasted bacon!

Fry it up, and add the veggies (decided to slap some cucumber on there...in place of lettuce I suppose), and it's the perfect summer sandwich.


Don't worry, I haven't forgotten that I haven't posted pictures of the house. I decided to wait until Friday when we get the rest of our furniture to give the "tour".

We Are In The House!!

Well, we've been in for over a week now, but I've been super busy getting settled. We LOVE it here. Already feels like home.

There's so much to show and blog about, so I'll have to do it little by little so that I still have things to talk about a month from now :)

Let's start with one of the more critical things we had to take care of. We have a half bathroom on the lower level, which looks right out to the front porch. It looks like this:


This picture does not do a good job of showing just how visible you'd be to someone at the front door if you were sitting on the toilet. Or even more awkward, how easy it would be for the neighbors across the street to watch you go to the bathroom at night. We knew we had to do something, because after a week of having to go all the way upstairs to go to the bathroom, it was already getting old.

I didn't really want a blind or shade there, because there would never be a time when we wanted the blinds open. Plus I didn't want to block out all the natural light that comes in through that gigantic window. What to do, what do do....

Well, I found this "window film" at Home Depot. For only $24, it seemed like a quick, easy and inexpensive solution. I have to admit, I was weary that it would look cheap (which for 24 bucks, it is!), but I decided to give it a try. Plus it would definitely bring color to our very neutral home, hide the perfect view of the toilet from the outside, and still let light in.

It was very easy to put on. You just measure and cut the appropriate sized piece from the roll, spray the window down with soapy water, peel the backing off, and place the film on the window. It comes with a squeegee to remove air bubbles, and since the window is wet, you can the film around until it's even on all sides.

And now, the window looks like this:


No need to do the top, since it's below eye and toilet level :) Plus we still want to be able to see who's at the door when it rings!

So, here's the bathroom now.


Not sure that this will stay up for all of eternity, but it's a good solution for now.

On a side note, it is really easy to match other bathroom accessories (towels, soap dispensers, decor) to this window film since it contains just about every color of the rainbow!

Chill Out

If you're like me, you don't crave heavy pasta in the summer. But this Greek Pasta Salad is served cold, and loaded with lots of summer seasonal veggies, making it light and refreshing! I got this recipe from Women's Day magazine.

You will need:

5 oz (2.5 cups) dried conchiglie pasta (which are basically just shells)
1 pint grape tomatoes, halved lengthwise
1/2 cucumber, quartered lengthwise and cut into 1/4 inch pieces
1 yellow bell pepper cut into 1/4 inch pieces
1 cup canned cannelini beans (which are just white kidney beans...and I just used the whole can)
1/2 small rid or white onion, diced
2 ounces reduced fat feta cheese
1/4 cup pitted kalamata olives, halved
1/4 cup chopped fresh mint (I didn't have any on hand so I eliminated it)
2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 tsp. honey
1/2 tsp. Dijon mustard (again, I didn't have any so I eliminated this too)
1/4 tsp. dried oregano
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. freshly ground black pepper


Seems like a lot of ingredients, but I already had most of it on hand.

Step 1:
Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain, rinse under cold water, drain again and transfer to paper towels to absorb excess water.

Step 2:
Combine tomatoes, cucumber, bell pepper, beans, onion, feta, olives and mint in a large serving bowl. Add pasta and mix.


Step 3:
In a small bowl, whisk together oil, vinegar, lemon juice, garlic, honey, mustard, oregano, salt and black pepper.


Step 4:
Pour over the pasta and vegetables; toss well. Season with additional salt and black pepper to taste.

Step 5:
Enjoy!

Iowa Girl Eats blog

I have recently found this blog (thanks Chris!!) and I just wanted to share. It's done by a 27 girl who lives in Iowa (so very applicable to me). It has amazing recipes and great treadmill workouts. Check it out!!

Sorry for the lack of posting lately. Things will get back to normal after our move next weekend!!

Room Planning

Since I pretty much have a one-track mind these days (new house) I spent my Saturday evening planning the living room furniture arrangement. I Googled "free room planner" and got tons of hits! I just went with the Bassett furniture one, and boy, was it fun!


You can put in the exact measurements of the room and all the furnishings. This is what I'm thinking for the living room. Don't have the chair yet, because one of the main purposes of this little exercise was to see if an accent chair would fit. Here's the layout I came up with:


I decided to "float" the furniture....a.k.a. not push them all the way up against the walls. I decided this because on the left side of this room is where the entryway comes into the house and the kitchen/dining room, and on the right side is where the stairs lead to the 2nd story (I'm not advanced enough to depict this on the drawing). By moving the furniture inward, it allows a walkway to go upstairs without having to circle the whole living room. While this is what I had been thinking to do all along, a show I was watching on TLC yesterday mentioned this exact idea. They talked about this idea of moving the furniture in toward the center of the room to create one focal point (in this case, the fireplace with the TV above it). Makes sense, right?

Speaking of the house, wanna see what it's looking like? Well it just so happens that I drove by today (and everyday) and here it is:

Ground Beef Gadget

Last month, I was at a bridal shower where the bride received one of these.

Everyone started talking about how handy these things are, how they use them all the time. I started thing, "Hm. Maybe I need one of those." Then it occurred to me that I might already have one. Sure enough, I found it stuffed in the way back of my kitchen utensil drawer. Of course, I started using it right away.


It's called a Mix N Chop, made by Pampered Chef. I think my mom gave it to me a long time ago when she felt obligated to buy something at a Pampered Chef party. But it actually is really great for browning ground beef and mixing in seasonings.

It retails on Amazon for about $17, which is pretty pricey, but it is now one of our favorite kitchen gadgets. If you are one of those people that obsesses over making ground beef very fine, this is definitely what you've been looking for!

A Not So Simple Project

Remember that $15 chair we bought from an Antique Mall a month ago?

One of the first things that attracted me to it was it's color, and also the sturdiness of it. However, it had a few signs of wear....

And while I liked the bright painted look of it, it didn't really go with the color scheme we had going in the office. So I decided to strip the old paint, a very tedious process with no pictures to prove it, but let's just say that chair had been at least 3 colors before it made it's way into our home. After literally hours and hours of stripping the old layers of paint, I primed it:

And painted it! Then fun part :)


We went with "Desert Mirage" which I thought would turn out a little more burnt orange rather than pastel orange, but that's alright.

Then I put 2 layers of polyurethane on to make the chair less "sticky" feeling.


Before:


After: