Thanks so much to all of you that entered my new site giveaway!  And also I can’t tell you how thankful I am for all your link backs and shout outs as well

Drum roll please . . . . .

The 2 winners of eatingRD’s new site giveaway generated from Random.org are

1.  Jessica @ How Sweet  (since you were numero uno, you get first dibs on either one)

2.  Brittany from Eating Bird Food

Congratulations!!!

Please send me your mailing address so I can get your goods out to you!

Here are the prizes . . .

No worries if you missed it, check back for more giveaways in the future

Hope you all are having a nice week!

]]> http://eatingrd.com/2010/02/and-the-winner-is/feed/ 3 http://eatingrd.com/2009/05/just-about-done-well-almost-and-giveaways/ http://eatingrd.com/2009/05/just-about-done-well-almost-and-giveaways/#comments Wed, 20 May 2009 01:21:00 +0000 Kristen :) http://wp.eatingrd.com/?p=69

Well we moved in two weeks ago on Friday and it’s just starting to feel like a home!  This first time home ownership, do-it-yourself stuff is not for the faint of heart.  It’s a lot of work!  I truly admire those that do this kind of work for a living.  We’ve been busy and yet it still seems like there is so much more to do.  I am a list writer and I have lists and lists of things to buy, things to do, things to plan . . . Definitely won’t be bored anytime soon.

We haven’t made much more progress on the painting, but are having the professionals come back out this Saturday to finish our master bath, guest bath and powder room.  After that we just have the guest room, laundry room and molding to paint and touch-up.  We ended up having to buy a new fridge because the stink just wouldn’t come out of the other one, it was icky!  The new one is amazing; I’ve never had a fridge like this before.  A dining room table and a bedroom set for us is still on the list.  We are going to go look at a couple furniture outlets this weekend and I also saw a nice table at Big Lots that we really liked.  The budget is surely dwindling!

Warning:  Installing your own laminate “easy floating lock-in” floor is NOT easy, I repeat is NOT easy!  Making all the cuts was the hardest part.  The hammering in the boards wasn’t too bad, but my knees and joints didn’t like all the floor action.  Ouch!  I felt like an old lady afterwards even with knee pads.  But, it’s pretty much done, and after 500 sq ft. and 20 hours of hard work it looks really nice.  Woo-hoo, we did it!  We still have to put all the base boards back on and get all the thresholds to make the transitions from tile to laminate much smoother.  Sometimes I wish I could afford to be a not do-it-yourself-er!  But, Chris was on his high horse feeling like a manly man.  I just wanted to get it over with.  I may be smiling, but I’m really thinking . . this sucks!  What did I get myself into?  When is this going to be over?  Get me out of here!

Here are some pictures!

Where did all the carpet go?

There it is!  I see a couple loads to the dump in our future.

Swimming pool floor . . . this is the moisture barrier.

Chris made all the cuts, and re-cuts . . .

Lots and lots of measurements . . . carpenter squares are amazing and a must-have.

Lots of saw dust and dirt . . .

Finished product so far . . .  Lots of decorating to do.  Gotta love the 19” TV that my friend let us borrow.  I have to wear my glasses to see it haha.  A new TV will be way down the road.

Why hasn’t the dining table and drapery fairy visited yet?

Also need a couple large area rugs . . . those are so darn expensive!

I have made it to the grocery store finally.  We’ve been eating out way too much.  There is also this self-serve frozen yogurt shop somewhat near our house where you can put on all your toppings and then they weigh it . . . this is sooo dangerous and sooo good!  I seriously have to hit myself to keep me from going there every day!  It’s that good.

I made a really easy pasta salad the other day, and it was just the thing in this heat and with working our butts off.

Here’s what in it . . . sorry no specific measurements.  These kind of things I just throw whatever sounds good, or whatever is in the fridge, into it and it’s different every time!

Dressing:

• Orange and Lemon Juice + zest of both
• olive oil
• salt, pepper and all-purpose seasoning like Mrs. Dash
• Dijon mustard
• rice wine vinegar (sweet tang)

Salad:

• 1/2 box favorite pasta shape
• shredded chicken breast
• bell pepper
• cucumber
• grapes
• artichoke hearts
• green onions
• toasty walnuts
• goat cheese (it gets melty from the pasta and makes a creamy sauce by itself!)

So refreshing!  I also like to put it atop a nice bed of romaine lettuce or spinach.

Here are the winning numbers randomly generated for the EatingRD survey giveaway (finally!) . . .

• 13 – Sweta
• 11 – skibum40
• 10 – sorensenjamie
• 12 – mdwyer1970
• 6 – willsmj

Please e-mail me at Kristen@eatingRD.com and let me know your contact information and whether you would like a 1GB flash drive or 5 iTunes downloads.  Congrats!

I hope you all haven’t forgotten me and I really appreciate all your kind words and compliments with the house.  Hopefully I’ll be getting back to regularly scheduled blogging pretty soon.  I sure hope you are having a wonderful summer (if it’s summer where you’re at yet) and the sunshine is making you happy happy!

What’s your favorite part about summer?

Well, things are finally starting to come together!  I won’t lie, I’ve been stressing these last few weeks.  We still have yet to pack and move, but we are hoping to get everything moved by this week . . . eek!  I’m so sorry I’ve been lacking in the blog postings something terrible.  There has just been so much going on, I had to set priorities with myself.  I can’t wait to get settled and have time to relax and blog this summer.  I’m not going to be taking any summer school, so that will be nice.

I finished my finals and now am concentrating on getting things packed and ready for moving.  It’s hard trying to move when you have to do it after a full day of work, but it’s getting there!

We still have to finish painting the master bath, laundry room, powder room and guest room, along with touch up, but those will have to wait till after we move in.  We’ve got the majority of it done and I had the professionals tackle the high staircase and hallway, thank goodness!  They were life savers.  We also started (with the help of my dad) on the crown molding and hope to have that done by tomorrow?  We also picked up our laminate flooring and want to start that in a couple weeks.  So much to do!  Man, and I thought this place was move in ready!

Here is the master looking into the bath.  The colors seem much brighter on the camera in the light, but are a bit darker and richer.  Still have to paint the bath the same color as the staircase/hallway.

Here’s some of the beginnings of crown molding.  Sorry for the poor quality, it’s from my phone   It sure is amazing what crown molding can do to a room!

Here’s Chris with the flooring, I think it will look nice!

I’ll be posting more (and better) pictures when we get closer!

I now have a © logo thanks to the talented designers at Canyon Creative!!!  Hopefully, we can get this incorporated to the new site and get it up and running this summer.  What do you think?

I’ve been cooking (uh em . . throwing together) a lot of quick and easy things these days, like tacos, annie’s mac and cheese, frittatas, anything I can find in the back cupboard, etc.  And we’ve even sneaked in a few eating out occasions with coupons if we can help it.  I have to get a ton of gifts for everyone that have helped us and continue to help us through this process.  It’s amazing how a few extra hands can make all the difference.  We are so thankful.

Well, I better get to packing and hopefully when you hear from me again we’ll be moved!  I’ll also be posting the 5 winners to the giveaway.  Yay!  Hope all is well in your world

We’ve made decisions on the paint colors finally, and our walls have little patches of color all over them from testing out the colors.  But our painting adventure is coming along pretty well.  I think we’re just exhausted from non-stop painting and lack of sleep!  It’s amazing how different colors look on a little swatch compared to when you get them on the wall.  We had a few ‘too bright’ surprises!

These next few weeks are going to be interesting, especially in the midst of painting, moving, finals and putting together a graduation/birthday party.  I am going to try to make the easiest things possible without resorting to the conveniences of eating out (well, as much as I can!).  That money can add up so quickly!  I have to say that I haven’t had much desire to cook (gasp!) with getting over being sick and all the craziness of this house thing.  It will be hard too when all the cooking utensils will be packed and we’ll be trying to get rid of all our food.  Bear with me!

Sometimes I wish I could afford to be a not-do-it-yourselfer.  We almost finished the downstairs and need to tackle a very high stair-case and most all of the upstairs.

Taping is more than 1/2 the battle and takes up most of the time, especially since I am so darn meticulous with having straight lines.  But, they turned out pretty darn good!

I’m not sure what these colors will look like on your computer, but . . . This color is called greenfield pumpkin and is like a dark brownish, slightly orange-ish color.  (gotta get a new chandelier)

Lots of cutting in and sore knees!  This color is called olivesheen, almost like a rich sage-y green.

This was interesting!  I still have to put the pumpkin in the alcove.

So far we have pretty much all the downstairs done (more than this photo), and need to start on the staircase and upstairs.  We also want to start the crown molding.

You all know my love for spices because they impart such wonderful flavor without having to add extra calories.  I decided to play on the flavors of chicken shawarma with a simple yogurt-marinated grilled chicken and quinoa pilaf.  Super easy + good eats = extra yum!

Yogurt-Marinated Chicken

with a Quinoa Pilaf

For the marinade:

• 1 cup non-fat yogurt (I used greek)
• 2 tsp garam masala
• 1 tsp curry powder
• 1 tsp cumin
• salt and pepper
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tsp olive oil
• juice from one lemon
• standard package of chicken tenders (1.25lbs)

Mix everything together in a zippy bag along with the chicken and marinate on the counter for 25 minutes.  Cook chicken on grill pan for about 3 minutes per side until charred and slightly firm.

For the Quinoa:

• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 bell pepper and 2 zucchini, chopped
• 1 cup quinoa
• 2 cups water
• garam masala, curry powder, garlic powder and cumin
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 3 tbsp pine nuts

Sauté the bell pepper and zucchini in the oil until browned.  Add the quinoa and spices and let them get toasty.  Add the water along with the raisins, bring to a boil, cover and simmer for about 15 minutes.  Stir in the pine nuts.  Serve along side the chicken.  Yum!

Do you like to be a do-it-yourselfer, or do you prefer to have the professionals do it?

Either I’m super busy running around like a chicken with its head cut off, or else there is not much going on.  Does that happen to you?  Sometimes it seems that everything all of a sudden culminates around a certain time . . . and this time it’s NOW!  The next few weeks are going to be pretty busy and I apologize for the lack of posts.  I would so much rather blog and read blogs all day!

In House News . . .

We are hoping to sign papers on Wednesday to get the keys on Friday.  On Thursday we want to get all our paint supplies rounded up.  Friday is time to prep everything for painting (I’m not looking forward to this because taping off is half the battle!)  Saturday and Sunday we are going to be PAINTING like crazy people and hope it doesn’t look icky with uneven lines (fingers crossed).  The next weekend will be for touch up and a family birthday party, and have we even started packing yet??   The weekend after that will be dedicated to carpet/couch cleaning and the big MOVE!  But that’s not all . . . finals are the next week, along with Chris’ graduation and his grad/my b-day party!  Whew, there is a lot going on!  We also ordered the laminate flooring, but that won’t get here till after graduation, so that will be our next week’s project.  I think Home Depot has become our second home!

This weeks grocery shopping was very frugal ($35 for two!) because, not only am I trying to save as much as I can, we have a lot of leftovers in the freezer that need to be used up.  One of them being Lamb Daube Provencal.  I thought I would serve it with some nice corn bread for dipping tonight.

I wanted to highlight my oats this morning, I call them Mang-oats, featuring the tropical love of my life . . . MANGO!

These guys are not only taste like the tropics they are great for you too.  In 1-cup sliced, there’s nearly most your Vitamin C needs and 3 g of fiber, super filling!

Here’s how I like to slice mine:  First cut off both ends to see how the direction of the pit in the middle is going.  Take your knife and cut along the pit in a oval shape.  Once you get the fleshy sides, I cube them with the skin still on.  Then you just have to cut the cubes off into the bowl.  Yum!

Mang-Oats

Serving for Two:

• 1 3/4 cup non-fat milk
• 2 tbsp raisins
• hefty sprinkling of pumpkin pie spice and cinnamon
• 1 cup quick oats
• 1/2 mashed banana, the other half sliced on top
• splash of vanilla extract, or any other tropical extract
• 1 mango, cubed (see above)
• Favorite toppings:  I topped mine this morning with ‘mix my granola’, scoop of TJ’s peanut butter, a scoop of cottage cheese and mango.  Some shredded coconut would be great too!

Boil the milk, raisins, spices together in a large pot.  Add the oats and mashed banana; stir.  Cook until desired consistency, about 5-7 minutes.  Turn off the heat, add extract and all your favorite toppings!

Here’s a picture with all the paint swatches and project plans in the background . . . wish us luck!

Do you have any good tips for painting textured walls and keeping lines straight?

I never thought the day would actually come when I would be investing in a home of my own!  It just doesn’t seem quite possible to me.  It really says something about the markets these days when my fiancée and I can actually afford to buy!  We are so excited with this new chapter in our lives together and quite nervous as to what the future will bring.

I am also very happy to not have to move again for awhile after this next big one.  I think I have moved every year for the past 6 or 7 years!  All throughout school, dorms, apartments, condos, roomies, limited space, dirty laundry . . . . good times!  And it seems every year that I move the more crap I have accumulated.  So I guess moving isn’t such a bad thing because it forces me to get rid of junk that would otherwise keep piling up, right?

We have opened escrow and are now waiting to get all the financial stuff squared away and close within 45 days.  We are hoping that we will get to move in mid-May when school is over for the semester!  Lots to think about!

What is good about this townhouse, even though it is a foreclosure, is everything is in really good shape and still has all the appliances.  Most foreclosures we have seen have been completely trashed with everything missing.  We will just have to clean the carpets and splash some paint on the walls for now.

Here is the kitchen, we like it because it’s a really open floorplan, conducive to lots of cooking while still being able to talk to guests!

Here is the living room . . .

I hope this range will work better than the one we have now that heats the entire condo when you turn it on . . . not good for 115 degree Vegas weather haha.

I really try my hardest to avoid using that stove like the plague in the summer.  It’s so hard because you know how I love a good baked casserole and broiled pasta.

Here is the master!  I’ve never had a room this spacious.

Peace from the master bath!

And a laundry room without those dang stackables where I can only fit like 2 pairs of jeans in it!!  Hallelujah for a full-sized washer and dryer!

Little view of Red Rock from our balcony . . .

Any words of advice on house ownership?

A little taste of dinner from the crock. . .

Beef Daube Provencal on top of cous cous and wilted spinach