All about food

I feel like Ryan and I have had some really good food lately and I just wanted to make a list of things so I don't forget them. Sorry this post will be boring and sans pictures. 

This past weekend we ate at the Pie Hole and wow. Such good sweet pies. The maple custard is a must get. I am drooling a little bit just thinking about it. The savory pie I had (curried veggie) was ok. But then again, I'm not much of a savory pie girl unless it's quiche. Ryan loved the chicken cornbread pie he had for lunch. I want to go back!

We also walked to this Italian restaurant in our neighborhood called Spumante. We've walked by it many times in the almost 4 years we've lived in our neighborhood, but always forgot to go back to it. I'm so glad we tried it out because it is so good! I had the cheese ravioli and it was the best cheese ravioli I've ever had. The marinara sauce was soooo good. 

Recipes we've been eating lately:

-This vegan queso is quite tasty. Even Ryan loves it - he even said if I hadn't told him it was vegan, he would have assumed it was cheese-based. Win! We liked it enough that I've made it a second time. 

- These pumpkin chocolate chip bars are delicious. I had a can of leftover pumpkin from Thanksgiving and decided to make these before Fall treats stop sounding good. They were a hit for sure. 

-Real Simple's chicken paella was so good. I used frozen chicken breast tenderloins (didn't even thaw them beforehand) in place of the chicken thighs, used a bit more smoked paprika, and upped the chicken stock to almost 3 cups. I love one pot meals and will definitely be making this again.

I think that's it for now. What are your favorite recipes or things you've been trying lately? 

Life in a nutshell

Happy New Year, everyone! 2015 is going to be great.

I can't believe my pregnancy is already over halfway done. What. How did that happen so fast? We've been slowly cleaning out our guest room and turning it into our baby room, and it's starting to come together. And by starting to come together, I basically just mean it's become a baby storage room. Definitely have a ways to go with all that, but we have time.

Maybe it's nesting, or maybe I'm just finally getting my act together, but I've been spending my weekends on all of the various apartment projects that have been on my list forever. Among them include this amazing, life-changing, rolling kitchen storage shelf:

[Apologies in advance for the poorly lit iPhone photos that follow]

I'm obsessed with this thing. We don't have a pantry in our kitchen, so many of our cupboards have become a pseudo pantry which just ends up taking away the cupboard space we actually need. This shelf is the best at maximizing the small space. It was pretty easy to assemble - I used this tutorial loosely. We made our version shorter, didn't use the dowels (they would have greatly limited what could fit on the shelves + we haven't had any problems with things falling out without them), and only used two casters on the bottom instead of 4. Now more things fit in our kitchen - it's amazing! It came together surprisingly fast, too. We put it together in a day, including painting and drying time. Ryan was the spray painting master of this project and he did a bang up job.

Another project Ryan and I tackled was installing these shelves above our couch. I think I've mentioned it before, but I have a hard time to committing when it comes to decorating/hanging art. These picture ledges are perfect. They let us change up the decor without having to leave gaping holes in our walls. Win.

And last, but certainly not least, I spent a good chunk of my day off on Monday repotting plants, propagating some succulents, and cleaning our patios. We have two small balcony/patio areas in our apartment but we haven't done much with them other than storing our plants out there. We finally bought a cute plant stand and I salvaged what plants were left. Plus I bought a hummingbird feeder! I've been wanting one for a while, but decided to bite the bullet. I'm so glad I did. I love watching it in the morning while I drink my coffee - it makes the morning a tad more enjoyable [for me, a non-morning person].

Well, I think that's all for now! Thanks for reading the book I just wrote. Hope your 2015 is off to a great start!