Menu Monday

Know what's super, super, SUPER expensive?

If you guessed "moving", you are CORRECT!

This is a roundabout way of telling you all that I'm making an extra-concerted effort to cook at home this week, use the stuff I've got in the pantry, and stay away from those tempting goodies at Trader Joe's. We've finally got the kitchen put away, so last week was our first foray into making a menu plan and sticking to it.

(Of course, after I planned it out, I realized that it was entirely inspired by Kate at Elefantitas Alegres. So she gets all the credit for this one.)

Wednesday

Southwestern Falafel with Quesadillas

 

This was the point when I thought that I would have a falafel failure.

Falafel SUCCESS!

   Thursday

 Quinoa Cups from Kate

 

What's that, you say? That does not appear to be a cup, but rather a pile of quinoa? Balderdash, I say!

No really, this was a structural failure but a culinary "pretty good." I wanted to find something that I could use as an end of the week vehicle for leftovers. It wound up pretty tasty, but could definitely use some improvements seasoning-wise. On the architectural side, I've got absolutely no idea where I went wrong, but I promise that Kate seems to always get hers to stay in one muffin-sized piece.

Friday

Broccoli-Stuffed Chicken (adapted from Skinnytaste)

Forgot to take a picture, but this was tasty and easy. I stupidly used the same spoon that I scooped the broccoli out of the food processor with to stuff the raw chicken breasts and wound up contaminating the leftovers. Don't be like me, because there was a whole bunch of broccoli-cheesy-garlicky deliciousness left over that I probably could have used creatively. 

Sunday

"Mad Men Mango Margaritas" and Portobello Mushroom Quesadillas

Again, forgot to take a picture, but I will definitely be making these margaritas again soon. They are not normally called Mad Men Margaritas, but when you drink alongside Don Draper things tend to get monikers. Also, you should probably go make one for yourself. Call it a Monday Mango Margarita, and then bring me one.

Here's Your Thursday Giggle

x10000 points to whoever can find me the "Spiritually Exhausted" sweatshirt.

Some things I would not recommend

1. Renting a U-Haul, loading it with several pieces of your boyfriend's extremely heavy furniture with your tiny T-Rex arms, driving to Ohio, unloading the truck at 10pm, and returning the truck to a shady parking lot in Beachwood, OH in the space of a single day. This will make you very tired. So tired, in fact, that you may misjudge the distance between the roof and the truck when you are supposed to be directing your boyfriend while he is turning the truck around. His parents' rain gutter may suffer.

2. Contracting the stomach flu while you are at your parents' house the following weekend. While being sick with your mom there to take care of you is of course preferable, eventually you will have to leave her warm embrace and tender ministrations and take the Amtrak back to DC while trying to conceal your stomach flue from the rest of the passengers on the Quiet Car.  Not recommended. Eventually you will wind up back at your apartment, laying on your bathroom floor, clutching your blackberry in one hand, sipping Pedialyte with the other and wailing to the stomach flu Gods. I also don't recommend having this particular strain of flu for five full days, although you will finally hit your goal weight through sheer starvation.

3. Don't worry though! You'll immediately gain that all back and more (once your appetite returns) through stress eating. See, after you recover from the flu? You are moving! In two days! And you haven't packed anything at all because you've been laying in bed (or on the bathroom floor) trying to choke down Gatorade and watching NCIS marathons. So you'll throw all of your belongings into bags and boxes haphazardly with no system, rhyme, or reason.  Don't do this. For the sake of your sanity, do not do this.

4. Actually, just don't move at all. Even if you wind up as a squatter in your old apartment. Because the alternative may very well be living in Boxlandia, where you find cable boxes in laundry hampers and kitchen knives mixed in with college PoliSci textbooks. To top it off, nothing will work in your new apartment. Your icemaker will make brown ice. Your washing machine will not wash things and make strange noises. Your mailbox key will not open the mailbox. Your dishwasher will spew water all over the kitchen floor. Your dryer will have CHEWING GUM THAT HAS BEEN IN A STRANGER'S MOUTH stuck to the inside. You will begin to lose your mind.

5. You will come to Blogger and pour your feelings out into a rambling, incoherent post. Hi guys! Don't be like me.

Laying it All Out

Laying out a floor plan, naturally! Talking about feelings is for NERDS!

For those of you curious about the new apt, I spent a little time on www.floorplanner.com (which, please be warned, is quite addictive) and came up with this little ditty for you all.

Now the next, far less fun, step is to get our stuff moved in! We've got movers, a google doc, and two neurotic apt-owners. This'll be fun.

That Time We Signed a Lease

...........whew.

We are coming off a serious real estate whirlwind over here (in the best way possible).

SK and I both had Monday off of work, so we decided it would be the perfect time to start our apartment search. Neither of our leases are up until April, so this was really more of a fact-finding mission. Testing the waters. Dipping a toe in the water, so to speak.

(You all know where this is going, right?)

After an unsuccessful afternoon of searching, including some apartments that were outrageously out of our price range and one that could charitably be described as a construction site, we were beginning to feel despairingly about our search for the perfect Logan Circle apartment.

(To note, I'm the one that is picky about location, not SK.Guilty)

We were about to head in from the cold and call it a day when we remembered one last place that we'd looked at. In fact, we'd laughed about it, because they had already sent us a quote without us ever setting foot in the place.

We walked in without an appointment and met with the leasing staff, who informed us that the quote they'd sent us was actually a President's Day special and they couldn't hold it at that price until April. This is where I started thinking unkind thoughts about their staff in my head. Why would you send us a quote that wasn't applicable? They wanted us to sign a lease to move in immediately - a completely laughable idea.

Even after they showed us the apartment, I knew it would be out of our price range. I tried very hard not to fall in love with the closets (which are quite loveable.)

After our tour we sat down with the leasing agent, who asked us if there was anything she could do to get us to move in sooner. Almost simultaneously, SK and I said, "I don't know. Is there?"

Suffice to say......

Yes. Yes, there was quite a bit she could do for us.

I won't get into the details, but our leasing agent (who is actually quite lovely and I felt bad for thinking mean things about her at first) made the deal EXTREMELY worth our while.

So that's how we found ourselves signing a lease to a new apartment on Tuesday afternoon, less than 24 hours after 'dipping our toes in the water.'

After signing there was a lot of "Holy crap did we really just do that??" and "Oh my God now we have three apartments" (in the true spirit of American excess) and "How did we become people who have a rule about shoes in the apartment?" (It's white carpet!)

So.....yeah! I'll post more about decor and moving and all that good stuff, but for now....

Holy crap. We signed a lease.

Yeah!

Giveaway Winner ANNOUNCED!

Happy cold, rainy Monday, folks. On days like these, it's always fun to spread a little cheer...which is why I'm pleased to announce the winner of my inaugural giveaway is LEANNA, from OMG I'm Back in DC!

Leanna, email me at littlebindc1@gmail.com to let me know where to send your prizes. To everyone who participated, thank you so much - I loved hearing from all of you and celebrating 100 posts. Thank you for reading and being my blog friends!

Friday's Fancies: Rainy Spring Day

Shameless plug - Today is the LAST day to enter my giveaway! Sephora, itunes, and state pride await you!
Join HERE!

I know it's only February, and it's cliche to say I'm ready for spring, but here I am, doing it anyway.

I. hate. winter.

A tourist from Florida was behind me on the Metro escalator last weekend and started screaming with excitement when it started to snow. I almost felt bad for the look I gave her. Almost. But then I remembered she never had to clean a car out of a three foot blizzard. Snow makes me a bitter, bitter b.

So today for Friday's Fancies I decided that I would layer it up for a rainy spring day! A trench is always a classic, and bright rain accessories make a rainy day a little bit cheerier.

I'd layer the bright cardigan over the muted colored top, and dress it up with some simple gold accessories. I included flats because I'd wear them around the office, but added nude shoes in case this outfit traveled to a happy hour after work.

Happy Friday, everyone. Hope its fancy!