.long time no see.

Hello!! Man, what happened there?! Things have been a little crazy around this casa. We haven't been doing much of anything that has been blog worthy and big news! We're moving! Not sure of the exact date but it is most likely in the very near future and it is another cross country move, Georgia to Washington. The Alaska to Georgia move was incredible but we will see how this one goes with a baby and a cranky cat. Eek!

For now though, I have something delicious to share with you for Father's Day. The man requested oatmeal waffles for breakfast and that's what he got! This is one of our favorite, quick and easy breakfast recipes. I've made them multiple times now but have never gotten around to taking pictures before we gobbled them up. Today though I made it a point!

These waffles are super tasty. They are soft and fluffy on the inside, crunchy on the outside, and the oatmeal adds a really great texture to them. Even la bebe loved them. Although, that's not saying much, she eats everything.

Oatmeal Waffles makes 3 waffles
1 cup oats
1 cup buttermilk (or almond milk or regular milk, with a small amount of white vinegar added)
1/4 whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
1 egg
4 tablespoons butter, melted

Combine the oats and the buttermilk in a small bowl and let sit while you prepare the other ingredients. I usually try to let them sit for at least 15 minutes.

In a large bowl combine all of the dry ingredients, mix. Add the egg and melted butter to the wet ingredients. Then add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Mix thoroughly. Pour into the waffle maker or you can make pancakes with this recipe as well (we prefer the waffles though!).

Serve with maple syrup, fresh fruit, chocolate chips... whatever your heart desires! Enjoy!

XO

.asparagus, my love.

Up until 2 weeks ago I had never tried asparagus. I know! I don't know what was going on there either. After trying it though it has quickly become a staple in the weekday meal plans. There's still many ways I would like to try it but for now I want to share with y'all a mucho delicioso preparation I tried last night.

Sauteed Asparagus with Onion and Goat Cheese serves 2
1 bunch of asparagus
1/2 medium onion, sliced
2 ounces goat cheese
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
Garlic salt for taste

Heat a large saute pan with a bit of oil. I err on the low side but you could add up to 2 tablespoons.

Once the oil is hot add the onion slices and a bit of garlic salt. Let cook for about 5 minutes until they start getting tender. Then add the asparagus to the same pan. Saute until both the onion and asparagus are to the tenderness you prefer. Plate the veggies then crumble the goat cheese on top.


Enjoy! I put mine over a bed of spinach and served it with almond meal-encrusted, pan-seared tilapia.

XO

.breakfast of champions.

I recently saw a recipe for a cheesy rice and egg bake. It looked mighty tasty and I thought maybe I could do something similar with quinoa and make it a little bit healthier than adding a cup of cheese to it. I kind of threw this all together based on what I had in the kitchen and I must say, it was super delicious. Also full of protein, complex carbs and goodness.

Quinoa and Black Bean Egg Bake serves 4
8 eggs
1 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk (or regular milk if that's what you drink)
1/2 cup quinoa
1 15-ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
2 ounces goat cheese
Salt, pepper and chili powder to taste

The black beans and quinoa made a delicious "crust" on the bottom of the eggs.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

The man loaded his second piece up with salsa!

Combine the eggs, almond milk, quinoa, black beans and spices in a large bowl. Beat well. Pour into a greased 8 x 8 pan (I used Pam spray). Crumble the goat cheese around the pan.

Cook for 45 minutes or until the eggs are set. Enjoy! This makes a great breakfast, lunch or dinner. You could also add any other veggies you want and switch the cheese up.

XO

.dresser to book shelf.

Well, technically we are using this as a media console for the time being but, eventually it will just be a cute book shelf.

Not gonna lie, I am feeling pretty freaking awesome right now. I drilled. I sawed. I hammered. I sanded. Perhaps I should back up a bit though, eh?

Paint, marks, gouges. Ogh!

Last summer the man and I got some POS unfinished dressers from some people who, to put it mildly, let their kids totally abuse the furniture. There were gouges, writing in pen and pencil, paint splatters, etc. We were feeling crafty though and thought we could redo them. We managed to get one done before la bebe came but the other one was going to require a bit more TLC so it has just been sitting in our room. For 8 months. Yeah. I hated looking at it and was tempted to just toss it because it seemed like it was going to be too much work to get the drawers in functioning order.

This was the top of the dresser. Probably the most damaged area.

But then la bebe kind of made a decision for us! She has started crawling (oh boy!) and of course the first things she goes for are the cords for the wireless router and TV. So, we needed a media console to house all of those, ASAP. Our bookshelf was also starting to get over run with DVDs! I was looking at the dresser one night a few weeks ago and a light bulb went off. I didn't want to just toss it and waste it, and repurposing it into shelves would solve the dilemma of how to fix the drawers. So, the fun began.

Here's a before of the living room. Crowded bookshelf and wireless stuff to the left of the fireplace, TV and Wally bed to the right.

Once I got started it was pretty easy. I removed all the hardware from the drawers, except for the top two small drawers, which worked and we decided to keep them in. I measured, bought my supplies and started fixing the bad boy up.

I had to add these to each side so the shelves had something to sit on, there were already the supports along the back though.

The piece is not completely finished. I still need to add trim and I'm planning on covering the back of the shelves with fabric, since the wood on the back is a cheaper piece of particle board than the rest of the wood. There are also still some pretty deep gouges that didn't get covered 100%, but I'm sure I will repaint this in the future so I will just go over everything again.

In order to get it from this

To this

I simply sanded, filled in the gouges as best I could with wood filler, sanded some more, sprayed it with Killz to keep the pen and marker from bleeding into the new paint, installed the shelves, then painted multiple coats onto everything. I also added some felt to the inside of the top drawers.

It sounds pretty easy when it's all condensed into a nice little paragraph (or, you know, run-on sentence, cause that's how I roll). Really though, it involved a good bit of work. It took much longer than I expected it to, mostly thanks to la bebe. There was nothing too terribly complicated about it though and I really think anybody could do this with the right tools. The only "special" tool you might need is a hack saw, if you need to cut the corners off the shelves before installing them, like I did. Other than that all I used was a hammer and screw driver!

I'm not sure how interested anybody is in the specifics of how I installed the shelves but if you're interested let me know in the comments and I will try to write up more detailed instructions! I figured I would just show you guys, maybe give somebody an idea, and show off my awesome handy-woman work! I really am very excited about how the whole thing is turning out. Now I just need to find some cute baskets to put in the shelves!

XO