Wild Wild West

About two weekend the hubs and I visited Cave Creek, one of my favorite towns in the Phoenix area. We went for their "Western Days" weekend, so our trip was full of cowboys, horses, and awesomeness. We went to the flea market, various antique shops (where Kace scored both a Stetson and some cowboy boots for $50 due to his crazy bargaining skills), and some outdoor patios for dinner and drinks. Places like this remind me just how much I love the southwest and how stoked I am to live here. Also, can we talk about these desert sunsets? Because they are freaking amazing. 

Spinach Bianca Lasagna

So apparently it's cold in the rest of the country? It's finally beautiful here, mid 80s during the day and 60s at night (and this, my friends, is why I moved to Arizona). It's finally cold enough to start thinking about warm comfort foods. For a somewhat healthier take on casseroles and lasagna, I like making a white lasagna so I can feel healthy eating spinach and chicken, while really I'm in it for the 3 cups of cheese. Whatever. 

Ingredients:

2-3 chicken breasts

1 package of no boil lasagna noodles 

1 small bunch of green onions

1 bunch of spinach 

6 cups chicken broth 

3 cups of grated mozzarella 

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Start by cooking up the chicken in a frying and shredding it. 

Put a layer of lasagna noodles on the bottom of a 9x13" pan. Then layer, layer layer. Start with a layer of chicken and sliced green onions, then add a layer of spinach, and then mozzarella. Top with a sprinkle of salt and pepper and then add 3 cups of chicken broth.

Then repeat - chicken and onions, spinach, mozzarella, 3 cups of broth. You may not use all the broth. You want the broth to completely cover the upper layer of noodles or they'll get hard and crispy/chewy which isn't what we're going for.  Bake in the oven for 30 minutes covered with tinfoil. Remove tinfoil for the last 10 minutes to make sure the cheese is a melty golden brown.

Remove from the oven, spoon into a bowl, and eat your heart out. Mmmmm, cheesy goodness. 

Bathroom Redo Stage 1 - Stressful to Serene

Oh hey, remember that house we moved into and I was so excited about redoing? And then I never really ever said anything about it again? Well we have been (sloooowly) changing things to personalize our home. And one room is finally complete and I'm so excited to share it! Go figure that the first room we decorated was the bathroom. But I LOVE the difference! That ugly brownish tan completely covers the entire house. The gross tan sheen was irrationally stressing me out and I desperately wanted something calming and serene for the bathroom. Luckily Kacey was on board with the gray color. But let's take a closer look at the before pictures, shall we? 

She's a really beauty, isn't she? Nice shiny tan walls, half of a towel rack since the bar fell off (gotta love builder grade hardware), and ugly cabinets. Ok, so the cabinets are still ugly brown, but I have plans to eventually paint them white and add knobs.

The thing is, this bathroom has pretty good bones. Nice tile floors, white countertops and tub, and silver fixtures. But everything else needed to change. We started with Benjamin Moore paint in Stonington Gray in a flat sheen. (No more shiny walls here!!) Then I ripped out the remaining towel rack fixtures and the toilet paper holder. We added hooks from Target instead of a towel rack since you can fit more and it looks pretty. We also added a prettier toilet paper holder from Homegoods because why not? And the old one fell off anyway. Figures.

Did I ever mention that this house doesn't have a linen closet? Ok it does, but it's tiny. Like a hobbit couldn't even fit towels in it. Remind me to show you it sometime. Anyway, we added a shelf above the toilet to hold extra towels since there's nowhere else to put them. We finished with some decorations and called it a day!

So you might be wondering about the "Stage 1" part of the title. Or not, but I'm going to tell you anyway. We have more plans for this room, but lack of time (and money) caused us to break it into 2 parts. The second half is pushed off until late 2014/early 2015 but I'd like to paint the cabinets white, add silver hardware, possibly frame in the mirror, get a new light fixture, and get some fancy shutters for window coverings. Yeah, about that money thing.

But in the meantime, can I just say how much I love our bathroom? It makes me so happy that I want to hug kittens and dance on rainbows with unicorns through the power of fairy dust. Or, you know, take a nice long bubble bath while reading a good book.