Noelle likes Good Food

So I have posted pictures and told you about my work in the bathroom and kitchen. Chris and I worked together on this next project. Despite some early misgivings about the paint color, I feel everything came together beautifully and it is now a place that feels inviting and relaxing. In true redesign style I will post before and after pictures so you can get the full effect. The crazy thing is that there are four more totes of books in the office. Despite our relatively short time being alive; it seems we have amassed quite the collection of books. Very uninspiring if you ask me. It looks cluttered too. Eck. I strongly dislike clutter. Our beautiful new bookshelves that Chris diligently put together while I was on family vacation. What a wonderful man that I married. We have so many books that each shelf has two rows of books. Good thing for deep shelves. The left side of the room. I love that everything has a place. I feel an inspiring piece of art would look great over the fireplac...

Yummulicious! Last night I was hit with a craving. You know how it goes. You get something into your mind and nothing else will satisfy your longing. Nothing else will satiate your taste buds. I wanted chocolate and I wanted it bad. Good thing I had some dark chocolate baking chips in the freezer. I dumped some chocolate chips into bowl and melted them in the microwave on power level five. Then I mixed in a dollop of natural peanut butter, a squirt of honey, and some nutty flax cereal. I spooned the mixture into a mold (or you can just spoon it onto wax paper) and placed in the freezer. Once they had hardened I popped them out of the mold onto a plate. It was a delightful treat that fully satisfied my chocolate craving. Chris even thought it was delicious. But I guess you can't go wrong with chocolate, peanut butter, and crunchy cereal :). This is a great brand of cereal. It stays crunchy even after being in milk for a long time and it was perfect for my crispy chocolate squares!

I am sorry to all of you readers for my lack of posting. I went on vacation (not a good excuse) and haven't felt very inspired lately (an even worse excuse). But I am making a new goal of writing in my blog at least three times a week. I mean, who even wants to read a blog where there is nothing new to read? I sure don't. So come and check back often and I will have new recipes and pictures and exploits for you to read about. I have a major advantage where I live. I can walk to the library. It is only 3/4 of a mile from my front door. I love going to the library and searching through aisles of books in pursuit of unexpected treasures. Reading nourishes me, and what I love most about a good book is it's ability to transport you to another world. I also enjoy learning and welcome the how-to books that help me grow in my interests find out things I never knew before. The weather was beautiful and since I had books I needed to return anyway. I set out with my camera, water bott...

I made lasagna last night for dinner. But it wasn't any ordinary lasagna. The 'noodles' that I used were made out of eggs and spinach. You cook them like crepes and therefore don't look anything like lasagna noodles. But that's what makes it cool, right? I saw the idea for an egg noodle the other day when I was surfing the food web trying to plan my menu for the week. I was definitely interested and wanted to try it. In hopes of a great success, I even wrote down what I put in my lasagna so I could share the recipe with you. What I love about this concept is how versatile it is. It is like a crepe, but naturally gluten and dairy free, as well as low-carb and high protein. You could make them savory or sweet. I bet mixing the eggs with cinnamon and vanilla and filling them with spiced apples or fresh fruit and coconut cream would make an awesome dessert. Or you could make "tortillas" by mixing the eggs with some fresh cilantro and tomatoes, then fill them w...

Okay, okay. So this is my third post today. I have two great reasons for this. First, I have so many pictures and recipes that I have been wanting to post about and today seemed like a good day to do it. Second, I need to work out and I am putting it off. But really, this recipe is awesome, and if you like ginger and lemon you are going to love it! My normal routine is to plan out my menu and go grocery shopping on Monday. I usually plan out meals Monday-Friday and assume that there will be leftovers for us to eat over the weekend. That way we spend less on groceries and there is less waste. However, sometimes there are no leftovers and by Sunday I have to scrounge to try to make a meal out of the random ingredients left in my cupboards and fridge. Last Sunday the randomness consisted of leftover ginger root, spinach and shrooms that were about to go bad, and soba noodles. This is going off topic... but have any of you ever tried soba noodles? They are made out of buckwheat. Many peopl...

I finally got the supplies and painted the kitchen yesterday. I did come across an unexpected challenge though. First off, when I started taking off the plates to the switches and outlets I saw they were all completely painted and stuck to the wall. I had to pry the plates off and you can see from the picture bad it looked. On one outlet, the plate broke in half because the paint was so thick! So I scraped, puttied, sanded, and wiped down to get it ready for painting. Just a wee setback, and it looks much better. We are also going to get new plates to replace the old ones. Gotta make it look good. This picture is not upside down by the way. That's how they put in the outlet. After I cut in the with paintbrush. Our new and improved antique yellow kitchen! Outlet and switch covers coming soon... as soon as I go to Home Depot to get some. It was hard to get a good picture, but I really think it brightens up the whole room. It is even more fun to cook now in my happy yellow kitchen. Co...

I have made another culinary discovery. I can make milk with rice, and it tastes great :)! For awhile now I have been on the alternate milk wagon. I have never really liked cow's milk. Then a couple years ago I started doing research about what they feed the cows, how they process it, and what they add to the milk. Let's just say, for me it was an easy choice and for the most part I try to stay away from dairy. Besides the occasional bowl of ice-cream and cheese on my pizza :). Fortunately, there are many substitutes, and I have tried hemp, coconut, almond, rice, and soy. I like all of them for different reasons and different uses. Unfortunately, they either have so many additives and fillers to preserve it and give it a certain consistency, or they are super expensive. I am sure many of you can relate, we are on a pretty tight budget for food, and I try to be thrifty and save money where I can. That is why I was so excited to find a recipe for making it myself. I found it off ...

Yesterday was the big day. I told my friends and family about my blog. haha For some reason I was nervous about it. But they have all been so encouraging and supportive which gave me even more motivation to keep going. Thank you all for your kind words. I appreciate them more than you know! Even though I haven't blogged much in the last month it doesn't mean I haven't been cooking. Here are pictures of some things I have made. Like I've talked about before, most of them were precipitated by things that needed to be used up. I think it is a great challenge, and the more things I can use up and make a meal of that I don't have to throw out, the more victorious I feel! Thai green curry Sauce with chicken and veggies of over quinoa Garden fresh tomato soup w/ roasted okra croutons on the side Baked wild rice, fresh pea, and goat cheese zucchini boat Twice baked potatoes with chicken, spinach and goat cheese Quinoa, corn, and black bean salad with lime and cilantro Those...

This was several weeks ago, but I was too proud of myself not to post about it. I love baking and decorating cakes and so I volunteered to make the cake for my older brothers birthday party. I am working on figuring out how to make healthier cakes and icings, but for this cake I was given strict instructions not to 'healthify' his favorite chocolate buttermilk cake recipe. haha I guess sometimes you just don't mess with a good thing. He really likes video games and my original idea was to try and make an Xbox cake. Chris and I were looking for ideas online and we came across a picture of cupcakes where each one represented an iphone app. We quickly forsook our previous idea and went to work on cupcake logistics. We picked out the 24 apps that would go on top of each cupcake. Then Chris drew them out to figure out how much fondant to make and how much of each color we needed. I had never worked with fondant before and it was a challenge to keep it from sticking to the counte...

Big news... I moved to Homer, GA! My husband has been looking for a different job for awhile and he sent in countless applications and had several disappointing interviews. Finally, about 3 weeks ago he went in for an interview and they hired him two days later. In one week we found a gorgeous house to rent, packed up and moved, and he started work. Every time I stop and think about how it all happened I just have to praise God. There is a great peace in being confident that you are right where God wants you. We are located about an hour north of Atlanta. Life is a bit different here in Homer, GA. First of all, we moved from a tiny 1br 1bath apartment, to a rather large 3br 2bath house with a courtyard off the back of the house. I think our dog Bowdon is still adjusting to having so much space. Our house is right in the middle of downtown Homer. Two doors down on my right is City Hall, across the street is the Chamber of Commerce and the Courthouse, and two doors down on my left is an ...