S'mores Pie

 Hey friends!

How was your weekend? We kept things very low key around here, mostly just running errands and doing chores around the house. We watched a couple of scary movies on Saturday night (Ready or Not and The Invisible Man) and I liked both of them even though I'm a big scaredy cat. Have you seen Emily in Paris? I'm watching it right now and it's really cute. It reminds me a lot of Sex and the City but on a millennial scale. (Which makes sense because Darren Star...) I've been enjoying watching it when I'm getting cleaning and cooking done. It's very lighthearted and easy to follow, I recommend it if you are looking for that type of show! If you want something a little more intense definitely check out Bly Manor on Netflix. If you haven't watched it already, it's definitely creepy but I love the storyline and that you really need to be paying attention to the story. 

Anyways, on to todays recipe! This weekend I made a S'mores Pie and it was delicious. I have been looking at the recipes for this on Pinterest recently and was thinking about making it for Thanksgiving so I wanted to test it out and last night was the perfect night to do that. 

I followed this recipe so definitely go check it out but I wanted to share how the process went for me here as well. 

We only needed four ingredients: 12oz semi sweet chocolate chips, 1 cup of heavy whipping cream, 4 cups of mini marshmallows, and 1 graham cracker crust.

I purchased the pre-made graham cracker crust from the grocery store but you can definitely make your own if you are looking for more of a challenge.

The first step is to make the chocolate ganache which sounded intimidating to me but it was super simple. All you do is mix the chocolate chips and heavy whipping cream in microwavable bowl. I heated mine in 30 second increments and then whipped it until it was smooth.

Then I poured the ganache into the pie crust and put it in the fridge. The recipe recommends putting it in for at least 2 hours. Mine was in for 6 hours uncovered and did just fine. 

Now right before serving you need to add the marshmallows and toast them. I used the broiler in our oven for this. (I had no idea we had a broiler) I put the broiler on high, making sure the oven rack was as far up as possible and I only let the pie sit inside for 30 seconds or so. Make sure you are watching it because those marshmallows heat up fast! 

Here is the completed pie. I think it looks amazing!! It definitely is something that looks super enticing and I am seriously considering making it on Thanksgiving. 

I think it tastes amazing as well. It definitely is super rich chocolate, so if you aren't a chocolate fan you might not like this one. But if you like chocolate and s'mores you will love it!

My toughest critic (Tim) said it was good but agreed with me that the chocolate was very rich. He had a piece and I had two (whoops). I think this is such a fun (and easy) dessert and I can picture myself making this for my kids someday!

Have you made any new desserts lately? I would love to know what they are!

My Slightly Organized Kitchen Drawers and Cupboards

Hi everyone! Today I am sharing my "slightly organized" kitchen drawers and cupboards. I am labeling this "slightly organized: because BOY do we have far to go. This is a starting point and I truly hope that one day my drawers and cupboards will be Home Edit worthy but for now at least we know where to find everything!

For now we just have random organizers inside the drawers but I definitely want to create a more uniform look in the future but will be buying items slowly since buying a ton of product does get super pricey. Also, I feel like we filled up this kitchen super fast! We have been in this house for one whole year at this point and when we moved here I felt like we had so much room and now I could use some more space! My mom keeps telling me that everyone feels this way about their home, that there's never enough space but I know our house is on the smaller side so we will have to figure that out one day!

Anyways, let's take a look at what's going on in those kitchen drawers and cupboards and what my plans are for this kitchen in the future.

Here are my first two kitchen drawers. These hold all of our silverware and other kitchen utensils. The silverware organizer is just a cheap one that we picked up from Target back when we first moved into our apartment years ago and it works just fine but I would love one that is lighter and brighter. Also, our silverware is only a few years old but I can see it starting to tarnish. I need to either figure out how to fix that or purchase some new silverware at some point. Anyways let's take a closer look at each of these drawers.

Keep in mind too that our dishwasher was running at this point so some items are missing. I would like to get a slim container to hold all of our chip clips which all just get placed on the side of the silverware. In the back behind the silverware we also need a small container that can hold all the random items that get shoved back there. 

This drawer is full of organizers but also full of a ton of stuff! Tim and I need to go through this drawer together and decide if there are items we can get rid of. When I went through it by myself I identified a lot of items I could get rid of but I never want to get rid of things without checking with Tim since he is the true cook of the house. 

We also have a ton of coozies but I can't bring myself to get rid of some since they came from events we went to. I definitely need to declutter though. After watching Get Organized with The Home Edit on Netflix I feel ashamed that my kitchen doesn't look as pretty as they make others look!

This is our double cabinet that holds some of our food. The rest of our food is on the back of our basement door and on the shelves at the top of our basement stairs. I purged a ton of items in this cabinet right before this picture was taken. We also needed to grocery shop so there isn't a ton in here but honestly I prefer it that way!

This is our appliance cabinet, along with our cutting boards and grilling tools. We have quite a bit and I don't love the look of appliances on the countertops so it's nice that we are able to store them down in this cabinet. 

This is our notorious junk drawer. I don't love the concept of junk drawers, but there is definitely a need to store these types of items. These containers slide around in the drawer and drive me crazy. I need to purchase some museum putty to hold them in place. Add that to the "to buy" list.

This cabinet holds all our Tupperware on the top and our bowls and plates on the bottom two shelves. I love our fiestaware dishes. This is one of the cabinets I feel pretty okay about and there's not much I can do to make it any different!

Our island has two pull out drawers which are great for our pots and pans. I like the way that the top drawer looks with our colanders, pots, and glass trays. It is definitely nice and neat which I appreciate.

The second drawer however.....I'm not sure what to do here. There isn't enough room here for any organizer and we probably have too many pans. Right now it's just a lot of stacking and unstacking items but some day I will find a solution for it!

Also in the island we have three smaller drawers. The top holds some of Sophie's items. We keep smaller treats and some other items in here. 

I am a dish towel hoarder. This drawer is full of dish towels and there are a few molds for dog treats inside there as well. I am not allowed to buy any more dish towels! I always find such cute ones and can't help myself. 

This drawer holds our cling wrap, aluminum wrap, and all our ziplock bags. Honestly we don't use these items all the time so it's nice to have them in a bottom drawer where we don't need to reach for them constantly.

Our corner cabinet holds all of our glasses and mugs. We have far too many for only two humans living in the house. The top shelf looks slightly empty but that's because we had a few in the dishwasher, it is honestly normally full. We definitely don't need anything else in this cabinet!

This next cabinet holds random dishes, measuring cups and mixing bowls. I am in and out of here whenever I'm cooking for the mixing bowls and measuring cups but I honestly don't use any of our serving dishes very often. I love the Disney dishes my college roommate Megan gave us for our wedding but we haven't had much of a chance to use them yet!

Above our microwave we have all our spices. This is fairly organized although I would love to make this look more uniform in the future. I also want to make new labels and have bigger spice jars. 

This little drawer next to our stove just holds our oven mitts. 

We have this little cupboard next to the stove with a super small cabinet door. I just keep a few appliances in here including the blender I use daily.

Above our refrigerator I keep items we don't access every day. Vases are on the left and then on the right we have a ton of water bottles and cups that we received from different events. We could probably go through this cabinet and get rid of quite a bit but that will be a future project.

Lastly, under the kitchen sink! I decluttered this area before taking this picture but I do need to order some products to make this area look a bit nicer. I also plan to put some liner down to brighten this area up. I am thinking about getting some lazy susans for the cleaning products and some containers to hold things like trash bags and sponges. 

So that's a tour of my slightly organized kitchen. I hope that some day my kitchen will be as beautiful as The Home Edit makes kitchens look! I will definitely keep you updated on any updates I make and I plan to get started soon!

Have a great day everyone!

 

One Year

Guys. It's been ONE year that we've been in our house!!! Can you believe it?! 

One year ago yesterday we started moving in but we actually reached the one year mark of owning our home on September 12th. Let's recap some of the changes that have happened in the last year of home ownership, shall we?

I shared the news that we had officially bought our house and I shared when we moved. 

Our first project (before even moving in) was painting all of the kitchen cabinets.

We brought Sophie home.

We went to Ikea and did a few small projects with Ikea organizers. and purchased some Ikea furniture. We bought some new kitchen appliances from Home Depot.

We decorated for Christmas, bought some new decor, and figured out how to deal with having no pantry.

I made extensive to-do lists for our house interior and the exterior.

I straightened up our office.

We updated our wall decor and bought some cool wall art for our kitchen. 

We installed new blinds- finally some privacy!

I organized some kitchen drawers (check back on Wednesday to see inside all our kitchen drawers and cupboards!)

Some small house updates were made, did some yard work, learned all about gardening, and Tim built a walkway all by himself!

Once that was completed I created some new front gardens. I managed to keep everything alive that I planted! I have been loving having gardens this summer and can't wait to add on next year!

Can you believe we completed all that stuff in our first year here? Tim is currently working on a project right now and I will drop a little teaser picture right here....

Any guesses what we are up to?

Cheers to another year of projects in our first home!

Fall Decorating!

Well it's officially September and you know what that means.... time for fall decorating!

This past Saturday was rainy and gross so it was the perfect day to haul my fall decor out of the basement and get it set up. I know it seems a little early but this year I was more than ready to change things up in our home since I am home pretty much 24/7 lately! Last fall was our first fall in our home and I didn't buy anything new decor-wise since I had to be so careful about what I had out with a new puppy. After I pulled out my one bin of decor I realized I had a ton of dish towels so I went through and decluttered what I didn't need anymore. Then I realized I don't really have that much decor. I know I don't have a huge space to decorate but I am going to try to start collecting some more decor. 

To see previous years fall decor:

• Fall 2018 Apartment Fall Decor
• Fall 2017 Apartment Fall Decor
• Fall 2016 Apartment Fall Decor

I unfortunately didn't do a post last year on fall decor. I think things were so hectic with moving and getting Sophie!

Here's what my decor looks like so far this year...

 

On the bathroom shelf I placed this small Hocus Pocus pumpkin which I got at The Christmas Tree Shop years ago. I didn't want to do anything too crazy in the bathroom but putting one small little pumpkin brings a tiny bit of fall to this little room.

I know I didn't use this sign last year but I thought that placing it on the kitchen counter was just too perfect. Hopefully we can keep the kitchen counter clear so this is on display all fall. Does your kitchen counter become a collection area??

These towels look SUPER wrinkled but I had just pulled them from the dryer. These are my favorite fall dish towels and I believe they came from the Target dollar spot a few years ago. I only kept a few fall dish towels because my dish towel drawer is overflowing!

The leaves candle from Bath and Body works is my absolute favorite. It smells amazing and I need to place a Bath and Body Works order to restock! I only have one back up right now and that is not enough with how much I love this candle! 

This half wall between the kitchen and the living room is both fun and challenging to decorate. I love that I can do things like this with the leaf garland but I don't always know what to do with it the rest of the year. Do you have any challenging spots to decorate in your home? 

The table by our front door always is super simple because Sophie knocks into it sometimes. I am risking my Mickey Halloween pumpkin here, fingers crossed it makes it through! This little leaf tray is something I found a few years ago (I can't remember where...) but I love little trays and having them around my home!

I placed this glass pumpkin that my mom gave me for my birthday last year (I think from HomeGoods?), more leaf garland, and my little witch on the tv stand.  

Not fall decor related but I pulled this picture of Tim and I from our wedding out of the guest room and placed it out here. Since we got married in the fall I think it is definitely appropriate and I may keep it out here full time. I am still loving my fiddle leaf fig and despite getting a bit dusty it's still going strong!

I plan on decorating outside in a few weeks once the pumpkins become available. Do you have plans for outdoor fall decorating? I am definitely grabbing some mums, I'm thinking of white and a deep wine color. I will also be grabbing a ton of white pumpkins if I can find them and then maybe some mini orange pumpkins for the walkway. I will definitely share pictures once it's completed!

Let me know what you are doing for fall decor this year and what your favorite places to shop decor are!

Our Kitchen

Hey everyone!

Today we are talking about our kitchen! If you've been reading along you might have noticed that I'm slowly sharing with you each room of our house. Our kitchen is used daily and along with the living room is the place we spend the most time.

When we first moved in we immediately painted the cabinets and then bought new appliances. Here's what it currently looks like:

Our island is where we sit to eat all of our meals. There isn't room for a kitchen table in our house currently so we spend our meals at the counter. In our apartment we sat on the couch so at least this is a step up!

Eventually we would like to replace the countertops and floors. I could see us also redoing the entire kitchen if we decide to make this our forever home. For right now it works just fine but seeing a quartz countertop would be so nice :)

I love the appliances we picked. Tim was the person who actually pointed them out. I was so set on getting stainless steel but I never thought about the black stainless and I honestly like it better. It looks so good with the white cabinets. We have loved our LG appliances so far and I would definitely pick them again in a future home!

All of our KitchenAid supplies and other teal decor is my favorite! How nice would it all look with a grayish quartz countertop on both the regular counter and the island?!

This is the main door we come in and out every day. I really love how homey it feels. As many improvements as I can come up with, I love this being our first home! I know we will probably outgrow it someday and need to make a decision whether to add on or move but I do love coming through that door into our home every day. Especially when a little furry face greets me :)

What is your kitchen like? Do you have any big plans for it?

Healthy Tuscan Chicken Pasta

 Hi everyone!

This weekend I made a delicious pasta dish that I discovered on Pinterest. You can find the original recipe here.

I ended up choosing the stovetop version because to me that seems to be the most fresh version but I'm sure that the slow cooker or instant pot version is great as well! I was nervous to try this recipe because I don't really like greek yogurt or cottage cheese but honestly you can't even tell that either of those ingredients are in there.

Now I stuck pretty close to the recipe from My Crazy Good Life but I did change things a little bit, so I will share that here.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes (buy the bagged tomatoes so there is no oil)
• 1 tbsp Italian seasoning
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 2 chicken breasts (chopped into small chunks)
• 4 cups of low sodium chicken broth
• 1 box of penne pasta (I used Barilla penne pasta, you can use a whole wheat to make it healthier)
• 3/4 cup cottage cheese (low fat 2%)
• 3/4 cup plain Greek yogurt (low-fat)
• 2 cups spinach (you add a little extra if you want)
• 1/4 cup basil
• 2/3 cup shredded parmesan cheese (I threw in a little bit extra if I'm being honest)

Directions

1. Spray a large skillet with cooking spray.
2. Heat pan to medium-high heat. 
3. Sauté sun dried tomatoes, Italian seasoning, and garlic for a few minutes. The recipe said until "fragrant" but I'm not a great cook and it smelled fragrant the second I threw everything in...so I stirred it for about 4 minutes and called it good.
4. Toss in chicken and sauté until brown all over.
5. Add the chicken broth and penne pasta. 
6. Wait until the broth starts to boil and then put the cover on the skillet for 12-15 minutes. 
7. After 12-15 minutes make sure the pasta is cooked and then drain all extra liquid.
8. Add spinach and basil. Stir until both look wilted.
9. In a separate bowl blend the cottage cheese and Greek yogurt until it's smooth.
10. Add the cottage cheese and Greek yogurt mixture into the skillet and mix everything together.
11. Add parmesan cheese and stir everything well.
12. When serving add some additional parmesan cheese on top. You can also add some fresh basil on top too if you would like.
13. Enjoy!

I'm so glad I discovered this recipe from My Crazy Good Life! I will definitely be making this again because it's both healthy and delicious!

Kitchen Paint Touchups

In my ultimate house to do list post I shared that I wanted to get touchups done on the paint in the kitchen. Mostly on the cabinets next to the oven and the little areas above the cabinet where we had raised the cabinet up. I knew neither area needed to be super intensely painted but I just needed it to be the same color as the rest of the cabinets. 

When I moved the stove it was pretty gross underneath so I made sure to clean the floor while I was back there. 

It's amazing how things get gross so quickly! 

Sorry for the blurry picture but this the side of the cabinet where I needed to paint. 

Ptimed and ready for some paint!

So much better!

Like I said, it didn't need to be perfect. It just needed to be painted to match the rest of the kitchen and now it does! A lot of our projects are ones to get us buy until bigger redos in the future. I love our white cabinets, but someday we might completely redo our kitchen and that would probably involve all new cabinets. So this project is to hold us over until we can afford a full kitchen renovation. Or until we decide to move or add on one day. Who knows what will happen!

The cabinets look so much better with that small touch up! Now there's no more wood poking out!

Same on this side! Now Tim is just going to touch up the paint under the microwave and the kitchen will be pretty much all set!

What projects did you work on this past weekend?