Apartment Basics List

Last summer, I did three posts about what was needed to start a kitchen. (You can check them out here, here and here) This year, I decided to make a list of some of the basics to help. Mind you, this is the bare minimum, I did not even list a rug. But, I did leave two blank columns for you to be able to add things. Feel free to add things, delete things, move things around. Sometimes, you just need a jumping off point when starting. My biggest piece is don’t rush to buy everything on the list, wait, and see what you need. Maybe you realize you don’t need a couch but a futon or several arm chairs that double as dining room chairs. Think carefully before spending tons of money on that adorable printed couch that totally goes with your rug, styles change and furniture is expensive. You are better off picking something plain and adding fun pillows or slip covers.

 

Apartment Basics List

Cauliflower Steak

My mother and I are on a vegetarian kick right now, and we are loving it! It surprised us both that we aren’t missing meat, the only thing we do miss is being able to eat more at restaurants. It seems like our only options are Caesar Salad hold the chicken or pasta with sauce of some sort. And as much as I love those two options, they aren’t the healthiest. The other day a friend took us to this restaurant that’s all vegetarian. WooHoo! I had a cauliflower steak and it was delicious. (Disclaimer: I love cauliflower, I think one month, my roommate thought I lived on just Bird’s Eye steamfresh Garlic Cauliflower) AMAZING actually. It was so good, the next night, mom and I came home and tried to make it. Our results are pretty darn good if we do say so ourselves.

Ingredients:

1 head of cauliflower

1 Jar of marinara type sauce (heavy veggies kind)

1 package of tofu crumbles

Olive Oil

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 400 f degrees. Peel leaves off of the cauliflower, but leave the stem intact. On a cutting board, slice cauliflower into large one inch sections. (it should look like the inside of  a brain) You should be able to get about two to three good sections and then have left over pieces. They all taste the same anyways so do not agonize over perfection.

2) Pour about a tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Place cauliflower steaks in skillet and brown about 5 minutes per side. (You may have to do it in two batches)

3) Place cauliflower gently on cookie sheet and bake for 15 minutes at 400 degrees. Then turn oven down to 350 degrees, and bake an additional 15 minutes.

4) After turning the oven to 350 degrees, place a small pot over medium heat on the stove. Pour in tofu crumbles and as much marinara sauce as you like. Personally I like my a little saucy, lol. Heat through.

 

5) Once cauliflower is done, remove from oven and place it on plates. Then pour the sauce over the cauliflower. And enjoy!

Weekly Wonderings: July 4th, 2012

Happy fourth of July! I hope your day is filled with fireworks and good food! I went to Daytona a few weekends ago and got to see fireworks! It was also my Dad's birthday. So the fireworks were a nice addition. They have a show every Saturday evening at the pier. It was wonderful. I also had a fabulous crab cake. I took a bungee ball type thing and the views were fantastic. It was not jerky at all. Probably one of my favorite things about the trip. So do you have any big plans for the fourth? Any family traditions? I'm in Miami trying to figure out how to get a sleeper couch into a small SUV, it may end up besting me. Oh well, this is what Uhaul is for right...

Containing myself

Sometimes I feel like I have so many ideas bouncing around in my head I don't know where to start. Currently, I'm in one of those quandaries. I'm helping a friend decorate/furnish her apartment and I feel like I just can't contain myself. I just have so many ideas! Looking at a white canvas is sometime the hardest because then you have to decide what to do. Here goes nothing!

Summer Challenge 2012: Minimize

 

           Moving this summer made me realize how much stuff I have. Too much. You only need to look at this photo to realize. Often, something is on sale and so I buy it because it’s such a good price. Buy one get one free is my other downfall. So this summer, I am challenging myself to use some of it up. Maybe that means putting on lotion every day or changing my makeup routine. I have grown too accustomed to certain looks, so hopefully this will help me to put some of that pinning to good use! Seriously, who has 25 different lip glosses/stains/sticks (only half got in the photo). Here goes nothing!

Weekly Wonders: June 27th, 2012

       So in case you haven’t seen the news recently, Florida has been blessed to be hit with a tropical storm again. This is the first time that there have been 4 named storms before July 1st (They have been keeping track since 1851). Lovely, things are looking great for this year’s hurricane season. Anyways, we did what ever other normal person does: we went to the beach! You know, just to see how cool everything looks. To be fair, it was after the really bad portion of the storm and it was not raining. Plus, she is only a tropical storm. Anyways, enough justifying, it was one of the coolest things I have done and apparently a bunch of people decided to do the same thing. It was amazing, and I hope you enjoy some of the photos below!

Packing Tip #2: Liquor Boxes

        

      So now that you have everything wrapped up, you need to store it in a box. Plastic bins are expen$ive. I bought three and they cost like 10 bucks each. I ended up just using them for odds and ends. And you can’t make them too heavy to carry which thus detracts from their large size (thus the flotsam and jetsam getting thrown in there). The keys to boxes are SMALL and LIGHT. I thought it was ridiculous to go out and buy cardboard boxes for a college move. Seriously, I have a lot of “stuff” but not enough and definitely not nice enough stuff to justify that. So what’s a college girl got to do to get free boxes? Go to the liquor store. That’s right, you heard me correctly. The Liquor Store. You just walk in, and ask for some boxes. Normally they have huge stacks of them. And living in a college towns, there were plenty of stores to choose from, two were walking distance from my apartment. So why liquor boxes other than they are free? They are sturdy (think of how heavy bottles are) and the perfect size (about six to eight big bottles per box). Some even still have the dividers in them to help when packing your own glasses. I think I ended up using eight boxes, mostly for the kitchen stuff.

      Another quick tip: Shoe boxes. Sturdy ones are great for packing the kitchen utensils and other odds and ends.