Recipe Review: Egg Muffins

The last time we went grocery shopping, Brett and I bought an extra dozen eggs with the specific intent of trying out this recipe. Luckily eggs are inexpensive, so if the whole thing went bust, we weren't out much.

Again, searching for low carb options for breakfast lead me to this recipe for egg muffins. I've seen it pinned lots of times and thought it seemed like a great idea for a quick breakfast, but wasn't troubled enough to try. But when Brett and I decided to opt out of starchy, sugary, enriched flour that pretty much eliminated our breakfast options- bagels, cereal, waffles, pop tarts... (ps- if you aren't watching your diet TRY THE PUMPKIN PIE OH MY GOSH LIFE CHANGING).

Again, we know my criteria for a good recipe- easy and cheap.

I chopped up some lunchmeat ham and green onions and threw them in a muffin pan with some cheese:

Then, I put the entire dozen eggs in a bowl and whisked them up and poured the it on top of my cheese, onions, ham.

When I poured the eggs into the liners, it was a little globby. I probably should have whisked a little more throughly. They baked for about a half hour- the whole house smelled like a breakfast restaurant so that was a major perk!

Mine aren't nearly as pretty as the original recipe and you can tell how they are kinda globby. Also- apparently the right side of my oven gets significantly warmer than the left side?

I also forgot to spray my liner. That was a bit of a mistake because I think I lost about a quarter of my muffin to the liner. I think maybe those aluminum liners would work great for this recipe if you don't have a silicone muffin pan (as I don't.)

Overall taste? Just okay. I can see how I could do these better next time. More cheese, for one. I'll whisk my mixture better and maybe use a little milk to smooth it all out. However, they were really filling (I only needed two for breakfast) and I anticipate it will be quite nice to throw them in the microwave this week and have insta-breakfast available.

Day-Off Style

I have a confession. 

Most of the time on my days off, I don't bother to get dressed. I mean, I might switch from sweats to leggings and I usually put a bra on, but other than that. Nope.

Which is totally fine. I mean, I know all of you full time workers out there are like DUH! What kind of insane person gets ready on their day off? But hear me out here. 

Now that I work part time, I'm contributing half as much income to our household. Working less is doing wonders for my mental and physical health, but unfortunately job satisfaction won't pay our electric bill. Brett would never ask me to, and to be honest I'm doing a pretty piss poor job thus far, but I've made it a goal to try to keep our house tidy and livable and enjoyable to be in as part of my contribution to the Moser Lifestyle. (Have I said this before? I feel like I've said this before.) 

Anyway, for some reason, I find it SO MUCH EASIER to accomplish something with my day when I am dressed and my teeth are brushed and I've moisturized my face. I just feel less like a dirty slob and I'm happier doing whatever it is I'm doing- folding laundry, painting legs for a pet bed, or whatever. 

So today, I put on some pants, busted out my new denim shirt and got some shit done! Here we are (that's the royal we): 

New shirt? $13 at Walmart. Total score. This $80 one from J. Crew? Can suck it! 

Also, I swear I haven't been wearing shoes around my house all day. It's just for the picture. Getting dressed is one thing, but wearing shoes? That's weird. 

Anyway, if you really get into daily style blogs I highly recommend What I Wore as it is wonderful and Jessica Quirk is everything I wish I could be and also Hello, Gorgeous because her style is just so right on in terms of how to look professional and stylish on a reasonable budget.

Bathroom Bloggin

So my awesome cousin Katie (who blogs at Life with the Little R's) suggested that I do a house tour for a blog post. At first I thought- great idea! The second thing I thought was- oh my gosh no, my house is a pit!

Ok, it's not a pit, but Brett and I are constantly struggling to determine an overall aesthetic or design concept and to challenge things further, we are renters so we can never decide how much money or energy to even devote to our temporary setting. That said, we are people who need our outsides to match our insides and we try to keep our space clean, cute, and clutter free if possible.

We got lots of great decor items as wedding gifts and we've tried to make special places to showcase some of those awesome things. I've got some plans for a major switcheroo in the office nook of the kitchen and with our upstairs bedroom, and I want to do at least a little staging in each room before it's picture worthy anyway! So the easiest option was to start small.

Thinking about Katie's request for a house tour got me thinking about our upstairs bathroom. I thought to myself- I will never take pictures of this place. However, I decided to challenge myself. I decided to upgrade the bathroom using my crafty innovation, decorations on hand, and a teensy tiny budget.

Here's what it looked like to start:

A very typical rental bathroom, and one we haven't done much to improve. We've hung up a couple shelves and some hooks for my jewelry. I pulled in a nightstand that sort of floats around to different areas of our house to use for extra counter space (as you can see there is none.)

Our shower curtain is navy and cream and it's a little nautical themed. At one point, we'd picked up some strange "nautical" decor- a lighthouse figurine and this old fisherman that hung on the wall (no, really.) They were too weird and kitschy and we ditched them. Now, we've got this barely functional, hardly attractive bathroom that I'm hugely impartial to.

So, here's what I did.

Firstly, I made up a little frame for my broaches and earrings.

I had leftover fabric from the wedding and a square frame that wasn't being used that I decided was perfect. I cut out cardboard to size, used a little felt for padding, and wrapped it with the blue fabric. I didn't even end up gluing. I just used scotch tape!

I fit the cardboard into the frame, put on the frame backing (which made for a very tight fit!) and hung it up!

Simple enough. We are working with pretty much one wall to decorate, so naturally, I opted to create a small gallery with some prints (found here and here) and frames leftover and a couple other wandering decor pieces.

I'm so loosey goosey with when I hang pictures. These made for a pretty easy upgrade. (Except my printer OH MY GAWD MY PRINTER- but that's a story for another time.)

The other little project I did for the bathroom was.. wait for.. to dye my bath mat. I know, I know, but go with me for a minute here. We have this basic white bath mat. It's fine, but of course we put our grungy little feet on it every single day so it's never clean and it bugs me endlessly. The bath mat market is a TOTAL RACKET so I figured, why not spend $3 and dye the damn thing?

So I did.

I used an old wooden spoon to do the mixings. 

Here's the thing. It looked pretty stupid. I wanted it to be navy and it wound up more like cornflower. You know, cornflower. Also, a little splotchy. BUT WHATEVER OKAY. I have like a 95% success rate so I'm allowed a bomb every now and then.

I also swapped on some baskets, put out some flowers, did some "fluffing."

So, here's what it looks like now. It's a long way from my dream bathroom, but considering that the only thing I had to buy was the $5 flower arrangement- it's a pretty vast improvement!

My weird rug.

Welcome! Come inside! Fix your hair, brush your teeth, take a pee!

Well there you have it folks! My upstairs bathroom! Can't wait to show you some more!

Recipe Review: Taco Soup

So in our quest to find some healthy, lower carb options for dinner, Brett and I immediately gravitated towards homemade soup and chili. And, with the weather cooling down, we are looking for cozy meals that will warm us from the inside out!

Last night we tried this Taco Soup recipe from a website called Kalyn's Kitchen. My review? 4/5. (4 out of 5 "whats" you ask? I dunno.. Stars, Cats, Soup Bowls...)

I took some very grainy cellphone pictures. Seriously, these are low quality. Bad. It is becoming more and more evident that I really should invest in a nice DSLR camera. But I digress.

Ingredients-

This isn't a slow cooker meal, so disregard the crockpot. Also disregard the cantaloupe. That's not a part of this story either.

Finished product-

To me, a great recipe has inexpensive, common ingredients, makes plenty of leftovers, and causes inadvertent sounds of satisfaction. This recipe was good, not great, but easy and made enough for lunch today. Qualifies as a keeper for me!

A few tips:
-This is basically a chili that is sort of taco-y. To enhance the taco-ness, I would have used a packet of taco seasoning in my ground beef, in addition to the cumin, chili powder, and oregano.
-Go for mix-ins. The recipe suggests cheese, sour cream, avocados, corn chips. If we weren't watching carbs, I would have done them all!
-I used considerably less broth than what was called for. I used about half, because we like a really thick chili.
-Did you know there's a "right" way to dice an onion? I didn't. In case you want to try it, here's a tutorial from The Kitchn that made me feel like a pro.

Sunday Media Review

Practically took the weekend off from posting! I've been doing good about writing up posts when I'm off work, sometimes churning out a couple in one day and having the luxury of scheduling up to a week's worth of posts at a time. I've used up my queue however, so I'm gunna have to sit down and get creative again!

What would you LOVE to see me post about? Seriously- I'll take requests!

In the meantime, I thought I'd do a quick run down (might make this a regular thing) about what I've been reading/watching/listening to lately!

Books:

As you know, I started in on the first of the Game of Thrones novel. The first of this series was very engaging and considering how visually dense the book is, I can only imagine what a treat the television show is going to be.

I've also restarted reading the Harry Potter series. I just *gush* cannot ever get enough of the whole Harry Potter world. I'm going to read the Chamber of Secrets after I finish the book I'm currently reading which is-

And So It Goes: Kurt Vonnegut: A Life. This is a biography of Vonnegut by Charles J Shields. I simply adore Vonnegut for his simple prose, his deep philosophy, and his dark humor. I know very little about the man outside of the image he projects into semi-autobiographical plots and characters in his novels, so it's great to read about his parents, his children, his jobs, and so on. It's very touching and I expect my admiration will only grow when I finish.

If you've been reading along, you know that I've also recently finished Why We Get Fat by Gary Taubes. It's got an intriguing message and I'd say certainly worth a read.

Blogs: 
As I begin posting more, I'm trying to expand my blog reading list too! My absolute favorites are, of course, from the people I know personally. So, some shout outs:

My cousin Emily writes great posts about what she and her husband have been up to, bits of solid advice, and general pondering on the whats and hows of life. Good stuff.

A new friend Sarah has started taking photos more than recreationally and she does wonders with a camera. I can't wait to see her talent and her client base grow. If you're in the KC area, I'd highly recommend her!

I've also been keeping up with Iowa Girl Eats, a blogger with a great philosophy: "Eat well, Run often, Travel far"

TV/Movies:

I CAN'T STOP WATCHING MURDER, SHE WROTE! Honestly, I'm usually pretty noncommittal when it comes to television. I mostly like short-form, children's cartoons.  But there's just something so charming about Jessica Fletcher and her 45 minute hijinks. I lurve it.

Also, Brett and I started going through (chronologically, of course) animated Disney feature films before the wedding to get in the mood for our Disney honeymoon. We didn't get all the way through our list, so we are still trucking along. Besides, I'm always in the mood to watch a Disney movie! We just watched Hercules and it's as adorable as I remember. Next up- Toy Story!

Music: 
Y'all ever used Songza? It's a free online music player that matches a play list to your mood/activity/day. It recognizes what time of day it is and then suggests play lists to set the stage. Brett and I really like it. I'm rarely disappointed in the play lists. You can also search for play lists by name. I suggest "70s Pool Party" which is chock full of 70s disco and rock and perfect for a Saturday night drinking whiskey cokes and playing cards which is exactly what Brett and I did. Currently, I've got "Harvest Moon" pulled up which is right up my alley with artists like Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, Joni Mitchell. It's perfect for the newly crisp weather!

Happy Sunday friends!

NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo

Are you doing it?

Have you ever done it?

Do you know someone who is?

Any tips for someone who wants to?

That's me.

Fit n' Funky

Well I've been to the trainer twice now since I was assessed. One day I'll do cardio/core and the next I'll do strength. The first cardio/core day was pretty manageable though I anticipate it will get more challenging as I continue the program. The strength day? GAH. I am not strong folks, I am not strong. Everything burns. Hopefully, that's a good sign.

My friend Rachel who is like a little fitness fairy, has encouraged me to start running with her and there's a Couch to 5K group that meets every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday. We went earlier this week and even though they were quite a bit more ahead in the program than I was ready to start at, it was nice to be with a group of people to start. Makes for good motivation. My plan is start the program at my own pace, but continue to join them on group runs.

My workout schedule is going to look something like this- Mondays and Wednesdays- Running, Tuesdays and Thursdays- Trainer (or Gym when my package ends), and Fridays- Yoga. (I've never been, but there's a class at the TCC for you ATSU folk.) If you want to feel better about your current state of fitness, you're always welcome to join me!

In addition to working out more, I'm going to start tweaking my diet. Rachel gave me this book to read, and I finished it in like 3 days. It makes a really compelling argument for eliminating carbohydrates from our diets. And, while I'm not quite ready to decry the nation's physicians, the USDA, and the entire food pyramid, the evidence is strong enough for me to start experimenting with my own diet. We'll see what happens.

I'm trying to take baby steps but my hope is that I'm taking those steps in the right direction! Have you made a major tweak in your lifestyle lately or ever? Where do you stand on the whole carbs debate?