Before & After Kitchen Style

Before & After pictures of the Kitchen! 

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

sneak peak

We did a little more work on the house this weekend between all of the running around that was this weekend. Here is a sneak peak (:

curtains in the guest bedroom

some progress in the laundry room

Egg Muffins

Last night I cooked dinner for the very first time in our new kitchen! Oh man, how I've missed it. Side note: I'm still missing a large tupperware box of our kitchen goods. I'm not quite sure how that's possible because I brought a ton of kitchen stuff from our storage unit last weekend and shared with Mike how 90% of what we own is kitchen stuff. I'm also not sure where this last huge box of stuff is going to go. Our spacious kitchen can only hold so much stuff as we quickly found out! Anyway, dinner wasn't fancy - scrambled eggs with brats [cut up and cooked], red bell pepper and seasoning. Very healthy, but besides the point. (: I've been researching Paleo recipes [if you have no idea what that is, look it up] and found an awesome Egg Muffin one. It's super simple, delicious, healthy and filling. AND, I made them last night, stuck 'em in the fridge and popped a few in the microwave for breakfast this morning.

Egg Muffins

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes
Makes 6-9

Ingredients:

6 Eggs

1 bell pepper

1/4 cup of cheddar cheese

1/4 pound sausage / meat of your choice

salt & pepper to taste

[Note: I left out the cheese because I don't like the texture it gives the eggs. Add it when you re-heat if you want. And I don't cook with a lot of salt, so I didn't use it in these either.]

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, add eggs. Chop bell pepper into small pieces. Brown meat. Add bell pepper, meat and any spices / herbs to the mixing bowl. Scramble! Pour into muffin pan. Bake on 350 F for 15-20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

*I used liners in the pan and it worked really well.

more book reviews

Here are the other 2 book reviews from the last of the books I finished in January:

Catching Fire

Suzanne Collins

Seriously, this book is as good as the first in the series. Sometimes that's hard to do. Since I had a Book Club book to finish by a certain day I had to force myself to put this one down and pick the other up. [*Spoiler Alert*] Catching Fire continues to follow Katniss Everdeen, the main character from The Hunger Games. Obviously since it's still following Katniss, she had to have won the Games in the last book. However...there was a twist, that I won't give away. In Catching Fire we learn of the Quarter Quell -- basically the Capitol puts on another Game every 25 years as a reminder to the 12 districts of how helpless they really are. This Quarter Quell marks the 75th year and after Katniss' victory in the last Games, the Capitol wants revenge. This Game is even more intense than the first as the arena is completely different and way more complex. But, yet again, there's a twist that definitely keeps you on your toes, asking what in the world is going on. By the end of the book I was reminded of the movie Taken. If you've seen the movie, then you know what I mean. Justified Revenge. Anyway, I'd really like to go on and on about this book...but I'm afraid I'll ruin if for those of you who want to read it! Maybe after the 1st movie comes out I'll come back and do a full out detailed review!

Heaven is For Real

Todd Burpo with Lynn Vincent

This was our 1st Book Club book! Since I was reading Catching Fire at the same time I sort of had to make myself read this one. However, once I got into it, I really started to enjoy it. Heaven is For Real is about an at-the-time 4 year old little boy named Colton who goes to heaven. Ultimately his appendix ruptured, but the doctors were very late in diagnosing it as that. He was rushed into emergency surgery and it's during that time that he goes to heaven, although the medical records never indicate that he died. This book raised a lot of spiritual questions for me [which I suppose is a good thing since it isn't the Bible and doesn't contain absolute Truth]. Our Book Club questioned whether the dad, a pastor in Nebraska, had any influence over his son's story or if he fabricated anything. Either way, it was a light, quick read. Some of the girls in our group even finished it in one sitting! The two things I enjoyed most were Colton's descriptions of heaven and Jesus and the use of scripture to back up what was being said about what he saw.  It was also neat that this book actually fit right in with what we've been studying at Grace on being forever people! [You can check out the Forever series here - it might just rock your world!]

january recap

January gave us a running start into this New Year. Mike & I decided to join a gym and ended up picking 4Balance Fitness [you'll remember them from here]. It's a gym with a cross / mixture of group personal training and cross fit. I love it. We go 3x a week basically to have our butts handed to us for an hour. I'm not lying, it's glorious. I might be one of those weird people who likes to be yelled at and pushed until I'm going beyond what I thought were my limits. I might like to sweat. I might like the way it makes me feel to be super active at least 3x a week. [I'm sure my neighbor Jason is gagging right now...] Maybe I should be using my personal trainer certification!

I also joined / started a book club. Between the club and my personal reading list I've already read 6 books. You can read my review of Kisses from Katie and The School of Essential Ingredients here. The other 4 books I've completed are: The Treasure Principle, Heaven is For Real, The Hunger Games and Catching Fire. That's a pretty darn good start for the year! Book Reviews for Heaven is For Real and Catching Fire will be up soon.

We ate like a king and queen twice this month! We enjoyed celebrating Bryan's birthday at Devreaux's during restaurant week. YUM! It was nice to eat somewhere we typically wouldn't choose [because of price] while celebrating a sweet friend! And, we got to go to Stella's [our favorite] with Mimi and Papa. Seriously, what a treat!

Renovations on the house have slowed down to a crawl. You know the saying "Slow as molasses in January..." Yea, that's how fast it feels we're getting things done now that we're living in the house. Here's what has gotten done: the den is painted and we have minimal furniture [a couch and coffee table]. The guest room has blinds and a bedside table [the bed was already in there and curtains are waiting to go up]. The bathroom has a curtain over the window so we can shower [up until this happened we had to take baths because we didn't want to get the wood on the window wet]. The dining room also got curtains [thanks Honey!]. The nook walls are almost finished! And, last but definitely not least, we got kitchen counter tops made and installed! Okay - now that I'm looking at all of this it doesn't seem like we haven't gotten much done. Slow and steady progress is hard to see when you live in it! Don't worry, pictures are coming! (:

*A before & after post of the kitchen will be in order very soon!

We've got big plans in the making for the upcoming months including: a Missions Training Trip with Grace, Mikey's 25th birthday celebration, a possible ski trip out west, and a weekend trip to New York with my cousin Amber to visit Alexa! (: To say I'm looking forward to these things is an understatement!