Slowly but surely, we’re making progress on our home renovations and redecorations and making the house feel more like ours. We used to have a pass through between our kitchen and our living room.
Now we don’t.
The white balance wasn’t off in one of those pictures; the kitchen is now a different color too. It’s more of a greenish yellow now. While the pass through was something that Jason really hated, my main concern was the lack of cabinets. Honestly, this is what we were working with:
Those black cabinets are the only upper cabinets that we have. The former owners redid the kitchen at some point with all Ikea stuff. I actually asked them why they didn’t put more cabinets in and they said that they didn’t want to make the kitchen too dark. Fair enough, but why do black cabinets in the first place if you’re worried about that?
On Saturday morning we took a trip to Ikea. While Ikea might not be my first choice for new cabinets, we figured it would be easier (and cheaper) to add to what we have rather than getting rid of everything and starting over. As luck would have it, they were having some sort of promotion where if you spent more than $100 dollars, you’d get a free lunch. I’d never eaten in the Ikea cafeteria before and I probably never will again. Meatballs and tilapia floating in butter sauce aren’t for me. I had a salad and a bowl of tomato basil soup.
Doesn’t look like much, but look what it is:
Obviously, they still need to be hung, but definite progress. I also went to World Market to make a return. Here’s an FYI: if you don’t know what a jute rug is or what it feels like, don’t order one online; you’ll be surprised and not in a good way. I was too lazy to return the rug for a few weeks but I’m glad I finally did because I got the coolest jars there to store my grains. They have little chalkboard ovals so you can label them. No more, “Is this barley or millet?”
Only not as cute as I thought because some of the lids don’t stay on very well.
The cabinet side of the kitchen was out of commission tonight, but the stove side wasn’t so I made a nice dinner – dairy-free spinach stuffed shells.
For some reason, I had a ton of shells leftover. I don’t know if I bought a big box or I was overstuffing what I had or too much of the stuffing was making it’s way into my mouth instead of the shells, but I had big bowl full of leftover shells. Pasta salad, maybe?
This was delicious and tasted exactly like ricotta cheese stuffed shells. I didn’t tell Jason that they were vegan until after he’d finished and he was shocked.
It really is a long process to make a house more homey…I felt like we’d finally really done it in our PA house…and then we moved!!
I love those jars!
Those cabinets are going to look great! Love your new grain jars too, I’m thinking of doing something similar for all my bulk foods.
Im totally goIng to checked that recipe out!! Ive been missing pasta dishes due to the dairy issues! Love the jard. Glad you found some cabinet solutions!!
Lee, I made that same dairy-free stuffed shells recipe this week too. I had probably half the package of shells left over (cooked) — so it’s not just you. I didn’t love the recipe but my hubby did. He ate the leftovers another night and I think he’s eating them again sometime this week.
The filling just wasn’t creamy enough for my tastes. (but I did feed some of the tofu to my dog so maybe it was “pilot error”).
Hooray for more kitchen storage. There is no such things as too much storage.
It seems that you and I share the same feelings on Ikea. On one hand you can find some really sweet deals. Hello $1 wine glasses. On the other you can end up with some stupid $hit. My college roomie and I had the same experience with that rug. It felt like walking on broken glass!
Ikea has food? I had no idea, but I don’t think I’ll be checking it out anytime soon.
And World Market has the cutest containers! I bought little “bulk bin” type containers an I LOVE them! BUT, as I was pouring the xantham gum into one of them, it began to seep out of the bottom. There was an opening in the seam of the container. so while they are cute, I’m not sure they are the best quality.
They do have really good frozen yogurt though.
Oh! Loving what you are doing! Your kitchen already looks great and te extra space will totally help!!
I haven’t made the actual stuffed shells yet, but I have made the tofu ricotta and I love it!
I’ve been wanting to do a tofu ricotta concoction for awhile…thanks for making me even more excited to try!
You guys are making so much progress! I’m scared of home renos, but I love the idea of someday having a space that I can make all my own.
The kitchen is looking good!
I had a ton of shells leftover too. Chris wasn’t home last night when I made them, so I packed them for his lunch today without telling him the tofu part. Hopefully his reaction will be like Jason’s.
You have to navigate Ikea’s stuff very carefully: Some of it is a deal and works out great for what it is. Other stuff is crap, and you quickly learn why it’s so cheap.
I’ve never eaten at IKEA. I love their stuff but I need to get out of there ASAP after shopping. It’s so overwhelming!
Everything looks so great! I love the spice labels.
I <3 stuffed shells. Mainly for the cheese.
There’s no way I could handle just those 2 cabinets. I’d have been IKEA’ing, too!