The Best Thing I Ate, And Some Simpe House Updates

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving! Mine was very relaxing and.....filling.


We follow the proper food-safety procedures in the Casagrande household.



And we start each Thanksgiving meal with some fiber (pumpkin spice hummus).



And even the men in the household eat the gluten free stuffing (and I am getting married to a man who doesn't like gravey, as is noted by Nick's plate below.)


This was my plate. Half vegetables (brussel sprouts smothered in oil and vinegar, topped with pancetta), sweet potato mash (with bananas and honey!) and random pieces of raw squash from the relish tray, one-fourth turkey (covered in gravy), and one-fourth grain (butter-loaded, and completely full of the stuff that I normally don't eat, gluten free stuffing).


I did go back for seconds (and got more turkey) and I also had two desserts. the pecan pie had chocolate chips inside, and it was by far the best pecan pie I've ever had, and my favorite part of yesterday's meal. Sorry, I'm an awful blogger because I didn't even take a picture. I didn't think I would like it as much as I did, and it was gone before I knew it. Here is a picture form last year (it's the best I could do!).





Let's depart from food and nutrition for a second, because I think we've all had enough of that in the past day or so (or at least the food part). I'm thankful that Nick and I have finally made the time to start on some much needed house updates!

When we bought our house a year ago last May, it was a blank canvas. There were a few small updates that had been done to the kitchen and upstairs bathroom, but other than that it had not been updated in a very long time, and all the walls were white. The area we moved to is known for it's old houses, with lots of charm, but I failed to find the charm in our house for quite a long time. Thankfully that charm is slowly showing itself. We really wanted a house that we could make our own, and that we could work on for the next several years. Our goal was (and still is) to do small updates throughout the first couple years, then after our wedding do some of the larger updates (like new windows). Here are some of the small things we have done in the last couple months.

We took down these curtains...



I actually liked how much light we got once the curtains were down.


The problem was the curtains just sort of hung there, with no purpose whatsoever.

So we replaced them with these!
Ok, they are the same curtains, but my aunt sewed some fabric onto the top so we could move the rods up towards the ceiling. Joyce, our decorator, said this would add the illusion of more space in our living room, and open it up. She was right.



And then we added a simple decoration between the two rods. We stuck with our bronze color scheme.

Next we took down this ugly dining room light.

And replaced it with this one. I love it.

Our next project is going to be tough, but in the end it's going to be worth all the hard work. See these AWFUL cabinets?!

They are not only ugly, but they don't close properly. We are going to paint them and plane them (that's what Nick says...I'm kind of scared). This is going to be a three weekend project, but by the end they will be a nicer color and I'll be able to shut them with ease (I'm crossing my fingers).

We also plan on painting this workout room and adding a television to the wall that the elliptical faces (the current television that is in our living room). I need my TODAY show when I'm working out! I also want to be able to use Exercise TV upstairs, rather than in the basement where I currently do those workouts.


QUESTIONS: Do you enjoy decorating your house? What was the last update you made in your house, or your condo/apartment, or even your bedroom or dorm room?

Did you have a nice Thanksgiving? Have you ever had chocolate chips in your pecan pie?!

Tempeh Sloppy Joes & House Updates

I haven't posted any life updates in a while, so today on the "post agenda" I have some house updates, then next week I will post some things I have learned thus far at my new job.


As some of you know Nick and I purchased our first home at the end of May. The house we purchased was (and still is) in need of some updates (we chose a really nice neighborhood, so in order to afford a house we had to purchase one that needed some work....). The last time you saw our bedroom it looked like this (Boring!).

My mom hired a decorator for us (love you mom) who has helped us pick out paint and a few other key decorations around the house (thanks Joyce!). Nick and I picked this comforter out ourselves, then Joyce (the decorator) picked out the paint.

Our bedroom is still a work in progress, as I would like to get a nice lamp and an area rug, and we still need to hang our giant mirror above the chest of drawers. Once we get that all finished I will provide a final picture of the room.

Before I started my new job I spent endless hours painting over this ugly green color in our living room.

Now we have yellow walls with a contrasting "clay" color on the back wall, which leads into our kitchen (painted the same color).

This room is also a work in progress, as we plan on moving the dining room table out, and putting it in our kitchen. Then we want to put a tv in the corner to make this the "hang out for friends", instead of the basement. We also need an area rug and a coffee table (Joyce suggested we get some decorative cubes instead of a coffee table. I love that idea!). We are also getting new wooden blinds next week, which we desperately need.

Ok, now it's food time.

Finally, a New Recipe!

Soy is a very healthy food for many reasons, but did you know it's good to consume soy about 2-3 weeks before your period?! Studies show it helps prevent PMS symptoms. Because of this, I often choose to buy tempeh during this time of my cycle (it's my favorite source of soy because it's not processed, and unlike tofu it doesn't give me foul gas). For the longest time I was simply marinating it in EVOO and low sodium soy sauce, then sauteeing it on the stove top. Then about a month ago I read Mari's blog and got the idea to make tempeh sloppy joe's!

I didn't follow her recipe exactly, but I still give her credit for the idea because I never would have thought to do this. I bought two blocks of tempeh and cut them into ~1 inch cubes. I added about 2 T canola oil to my pan and got the oil nice and hot before adding the tempeh.

After sauteeing the tempeh for about 10 minutes over medium heat, I started to break it up into even smaller pieces so it almost mimicked the look of ground beef. Once the tempeh was cooked I turned off the heat and waited for the pan to cool a bit before adding THIS:

SLOPPY JOE SAUCE!!

NOTE: This is not the healthiest sauce in the world, by any means, which is why I only used about 3/4 of the can. Can you spot the nutrient that really makes this unhealthy?

Sodium.

Ugh.

Oh well, despite the high sodium content, this sauce rocks. I added it to the chunks of tempeh and mixed it up so the sauce was integrated nicely with the tempeh.

Hellllllo goodness!

I served it on a plate with some melted cheese (for me, no bread), and on some whole wheat toast with cheese (for Nick). I was in heaven. Nick.....was in hell. He liked it, but the texture was too difficult for him to get past. Will I make this again? Heck yeah! I could eat this every single day.



Before I leave today I just wanted to thank all of my friends and family who have recently told me they read my blog. It means so much to me and I'm so glad you enjoy it!

Katie L.
Michelle S.
Addy (check out her blog; My Life As a Pastry Student)
Sarah C.
Claire K.
Amanda
Renee
Cathy
Cathy M.
Dasi
Kate
Annie

I love you guys!


Question: Do you eat tempeh? Tofu? How do you like to prepare them? If you want more tempeh, check out this tempeh-oatmeal meatloaf posted by my friend Amanda. Also check out Rachel's tempeh burgers!

Happy Friday everyone!