My First Giveaway: $40 CSN Gift Certificate

Hello Bloggettes!

As promised, here is my amazing giveway! Jess from CSN Stores was so kind to contact me and ask if I could do a giveaway on my site. One of my very lucky readers will get a $40 gift certificate to one of the 200+ stores on CSN's site. CSN Stores is such a great website and has lots of cool online stores that range from dining room furniture and accessories to housewares and decor to much more!
Fun fact- one of the 2 founders of CSN Stores, Niraj Shah, is my cousin...so this giveaway is extra exciting for me!
I would have such a hard time choosing what to buy... there is just so much :)
I love these knives:

and these classy stemless wine glasses:

And I have been eying this awesome patio set:

This would be just perfect on my new 3rd floor balcony :) A girl can dream, right?

Check out CSN Stores to see what you'd get!

The rules of this giveaway are quite simple: 

This giveaway is only open to US and Canadian readers (Canada readers may have an International shipping charge)

To enter,

1) For 1 entry, tell me what your dream kitchen or dining area would have! Go to this site and leave me a comment telling me what you'd get,

2) For another entry, follow my blog in Google Reader and leave another comment here.

3) For two entries blog about this giveaway and leave two comments linking me to that post!

You have one week to enter! I will accept all entries until midnight (CST) on Saturday, August 7th.

Good luck!

A Rocky Start in Charleston, IL

Hello Friends! Oh, how I have missed you all!

Raine and I are finally settled in Charleston, Illinois. We left Lubbock early Saturday morning.

That little 4 foot tall, 8 foot long trailer contained all of our worldly possessions.
We drove about 10 hours to get to Wichita, Kansas, where Raine's mom lives. There was a storm on the way there!

Scary!
We spent the weekend + Monday in Kansas and started off for Charleston Tuesday morning.
After 9 sweaty hours in the car (did I mention that our old Volvo has no air conditioning?!), we arrived at our landlord's house to pick up the keys to our house.
We stopped off at the store to pick up a shower curtain, some towels, and a case of beer- we wanted to shower ASAP after that long drive and order a pizza to relax.
After getting to the house it was after 8pm and we brought a few boxes in and took turns in the shower. That is when we encountered problem #1. The shower didn't drain! And I don't mean it drained slowly...it didn't drain at all. We figured we'd just pick up some Drain-O or something similar in the morning, and didn't think much of it.
Then, problem #2 occurred. Fleas. In the bedroom. I called the landlord and left a message, and we set up our air mattress in the living room. Nothing a bug bomb couldn't take care of, right?
We sat on our mattress on the living room floor and started making a list of some groceries and other things we'd need to get the next day. We decided to unpack the trailer in the morning since it was dark by this point. That's when problem #3 happened. Roaches...the tiny ones that are impossible to get rid of. We snatched our overnight stuff off of the floor and headed to the car. I was so upset and felt horrible for bringing Raine to a house like this!
In June when I visited Charleston with my mom and sister, the house seemed fine! Granted, we did only tour the house for a few minutes- but we definitely didn't see any bugs. So, we packed up the car with a majority of the stuff we'd brought and I started calling hotels and our moms. Moms always have the best advice :)
We found a hotel down the street that had free wi-fi and made a reservation. On our way out, we ran into one of the upstairs neighbors. I asked her if she had a bug problem and she said she did, and that she was moving out this weekend after spending a horrible few months at the house. She told us that the landlord was like a slum lord and that one of the previous tenants had finally sued him. What a nightmare!
We hightailed it out of there as fast as we could and checked into our hotel. I immediately started looking for housing options online. But, it was so late by this point there was nothing we could really do but wait for morning.
Thankfully, both Raine's and my mom are in the real estate business. They advised us on what to do and what to say to the landlord. In the morning, Raine got on the phone with the landlord and tough talked him into agreeing to tear up the lease and return our deposit. That was great, but we were basically homeless in Illinois at this point. I started making calls to see if any apartments in the area had any housing available. On my 3rd call, we found a place that was available! We hurriedly got ready to go over there and it turned out to be wonderful. The apartment manager was extremely sympathetic to our situation and even offered to let us sign the lease the next day and have the apartment cleaned that day so we could move in 3 days before the lease started. 
With that weight off of our shoulders, we went back to the "gross house" as we call it now to get the few things we'd hastily left behind out of there. In the few minutes we were there, we both got flea bites :( We found fleas in the bedding we'd left there and threw it out along with a few clothing items and the air mattress. And my spiralizer!!! I was so upset about this casualty... it was in the backseat of the car all the way to Illinois so it was one of the things I grabbed when we first got to the house. I had set it in the kitchen and I was not going to take any chances of transporting a single bug to our new house! What if one had gotten inside?! I shudder. We also had to ditch a garment bag containing Raine's suit, my graduation dress, and a few other button up shirts and dresses! What a waste.
We went to the landlord's house after that to void the lease and get our deposit. They tried to convince us to check out some of their other properties but we declined :)
We were pretty much free after that so we just headed back to the hotel for the evening. In the morning we went to our new apartment, signed the lease, and got our keys. Then, in about 40 minutes we unloaded the trailer and carried all of our stuff up 3 flights of stairs to our new place!
I will have pictures soon- there are boxes everywhere right now!
After our stuff was in the apartment, we returned the UHAUL trailer, and hit the grocery store!
Since our new apartment is quite a bit more than we were hoping to pay... we are on a limited budget as far as groceries and entertainment go. At the store, I stuck with produce and a few other things. You may or may not see Ramen noodles in my future ;)
This was my first meal in the new apartment:

Simple, but filling! Cherries were $1.50 for a large container, strawberries $2.50 and grapes $1.00 a pound! The pumpernickel bread was only $1.50 for an entire loaf...can you believe that the little hunk you see has just 150 calories and packs 7g of protein?! The broccoli was $0.75 a pound, carrots $0.68 a pound, and radishes $1.00 a pound. The celery was most expensive at $1.88 for the pound. I also made "ranch dip" using Greek yogurt and powdered Ranch mix. I cut up all of the veggies and put them into containers for easy access. I ended up with 1 full veggie container and 2 fruit containers. 

So, this is where we are now! Out some money due to staying in a hotel for 2 days and keeping the trailer longer than we were supposed to...but happy, safe, and in a bug-free apartment!
I can't wait to start catching up on all of y'all's (Do I have to stop using "y'all" now that I live up north?!) blogs and start unpacking!

If you are still reading... you are a good friend :)

PS- I have an amazing giveaway coming up tomorrow! Stay tuned!

Weekend Update

Hi, y'all!

Just wanted to let you know that Raine and I are at the halfway point of our cross-country move. We're in Wichita, Kansas at Raine's mom's house for the weekend. We'll be continuing on to Illinois early tomorrow morning!

Hope you are all having wonderful weekends!

XOXO,
Sonia


Sent from my iPad

Spiralizer, Spiralizer

Cucumber,
Green and ripe, you are glowing,
I got some zukes,
Ready for the chewing,
Orange carrots and peppers, gonna make them disappear
Cause I know they're good, I know they're good, baby

Fresh veggies,
Not just to chop up,
Veggies you,
Got spiraled for your closeup

I made some sauce and covered 'em,
They're so good, they're so good, pad thai

Spiralizer, Spiral, Spiralizer
I got a Spiralizer, oh Spiralizer oh
I got a Spiralizer, baby
I, I got it... I, I got it...
Spiralizer, Spiralizer, Spiralizer


Hi friends!
Sorry about the song- couldn't resist that one! It has been playing in my head all day :)
Obviously my spiralizer finally came in the mail and I used it right away! I invited Colleen over and we got started right away...

First we spiraled several zucchini.
That was the only veggie we really had to spiral...but couldn't resist trying the bell pepper as well!

It actually worked- what I'm holding is about a fourth of the orange pepper- so cool. We ended up spiraling the cucumber the same way, and chopping up the carrots, green onion, and red pepper to add to the mix.
We made Averie's Thai Inspired Peanut Sauce, replacing the orange juice with lime juice, and added it to the veggies.

On the side, I made some cauliflower "rice" for sweet potato rolls.

This was just raw cauliflower florets chopped in the food processor, then sprinkled with white rice vinegar and some cane sugar.
I steamed up some sweet potatoes and rolled everything up in nori sheets.

Garnished with black sesame seeds and ready to munch on!
We served everything together with lots of edamame and some organic white table wine.

And don't forget the hot sauce! Gotta love Sriracha :)
We cued up some Gossip Girl Season 1 and chowed down.

my plate (I garnished the pad thai with raw peanuts!), plus lots more unpictured edamame and a few more sweet potato rolls

After mmm-ing and ahhh-ing over our food and watching several hours of Blair-Serena-Nate-Chuck drama, we decided to whip up some dessert!

We made No Meat Athlete's Black Bean Brownies once again subbing the hazelnuts for pecans and reducing the sugar. They were even better this time around.

All in all, it was a very successful dinner! The food was delicious and the spiralizer was so fun...even my boyfriend loves it- he made curly fries! I had a few and they were delicious. I can't wait to make curly sweet potato fries and lots of other things with this! This morning I even spiralized half of an apple and it was great in an almond butter sandwich- much more manageable than stuffing it with slices. 

What else can I do with the spiralizer?

Also, on an unrelated note, What is your favorite "strange" food combination? What items do you like to mix? Today I discovered grapes + nutritional yeast... seriously! So Good. 

Last Day of Work!, Mint-Chocolate Chip Banana Soft Serve Sandwiches, and the Overton Hotel

Hi Everyone! You are officially reading the words of a free woman! My last day of work was Friday and I have been Living.It.Up. since exactly 5pm on Friday afternoon! 

First I met my friends at a bar called Chimy's and we ordered a huge platter of nachos- bean and cheese + piles of lettuce, onions, and pico.

Be sure to notice the size of the fork compared to the nachos. That big. 3 of us split this.

Me and Raine!

and my co-worker who came out to meet us!

Plus BFF Colleen:

We had a blast! We stayed out til around midnight and took the partay back to my house. I forced everyone to eat my newest creation (inspired by Averie!): Mint-Chocolate Chip Banana Soft-Serve Sandwiches!
Well, the only touch I added was the sandwich part- the rest is all Averie!
I halved her recipe and reduced the sugar to 1 tablespoon, as well as reduced the chocolate chips. I also added a special touch- Green Food Coloring!
After making this, I spooned the softserve on top of halved chocolate graham crackers.

Made sandwiches,

admired the sandwiches from afar,

and put them in inappropriate poses took one more pic before they melted:

OMG. After being in the freezer for a few hours, the graham crackers tasted exactly like ice cream sandwich outsides! And the softserve was amazing too- could not tell it wasn't ice cream!

Everyone loved them :)
I also made Averie's Peanut Butter Soft Serve and added chocolate chips!
So decadent:

So delicious:

I have told Averie this before, so now I'll tell y'all...For some reason I always gravitate towards her recipes; I don't know what it is (besides the amazing blog and scrumptious pictures), but I want to make every single thing on her blog! I cannot wait until I get my spiralizer because I've had my eye on her Thai Inspired Noodles and her Sesame Ginger Tofu also looks amaizng (who wants to buy me a tofu press?!). <--Not really kidding about that ;)

But seriously, my boyfriend and I spent about half an hour last Thursday evening ogling her food pictures... if you have not been to her site, GO!

And not on the topic of soft serve, something I've been eating lately is waffles with Laughing Cow and Vegemite...

I know that probably looks and sounds really strange...but it's so good! I toast 2 waffles in the oven, split a wedge of Laughing Cow between them, and use about half a teaspoon of Vegemite on each one. It's very filling too- this held me over from 9:30am today to almost 2pm! I have been trying to reduce the amount of cheese I eat but so far it is not working... I found the Laughing Cow in the back of the fridge and there's only one wedge left- so, as I said last week I won't be buying anymore after I use this up! 

The biggest problem I have with dairy is that it makes my throat all mucousy-gross! Also my stomach cannot tolerate milk or any amount of yogurt larger than a fourth cup. So I think it's best I stay away!

Enough about dairy, let's get back to my fun weekend! After recovering all day Saturday, our friend Adam called Raine and said his aunt was able to get him a discount on a VIP Suite at one of the nicest and newest hotels in Lubbock- The Overton! We got a luxury suite on the 14th floor- the top 3 floors (13-15) needed a special card to get to...we felt extra important :)

We put our stuff in the room when we got there- check out the view!

hello Lubbock!

Our room was so nice too- loved the comfy bed

and the room itself,

^hi Adam! 

There was a hi-tech coffee maker and I made myself a cup of Columbian!

Le Bathroom:

and the other view:

We then made our way down the hall,

down 14 floors, and past a cute sitting area,

to the bar!

The decor was amazing- it was like contemporary meets the Southwest!

I ordered a martini- the best martini I have ever had! (not that I have a lot of martinis)

hello turtle!

I questioned the bartender about the martini recipe and she said she only swirled the Vermouth around in the glass and shook it out before adding the rest of the ingredients- I think that was what made it so good!

Turtle also got thirsty...

He had a mancala game under his shell! I wanted to play but there were no stones for it.

We each just had 1 drink at the bar and went back to our room- I snagged the comfy chair :)

We had about 8 people up there all together and the party began! Beer was had (I brought a 6-pack of Steam Anchor- highly recommend it!), mad libs were played, and gangsta rap was listened to...

I was a little worried we'd get into trouble due to noise or having way too many people in our room, but it seemed like a few other people in the top 3 floors were up to the same thing as us!

Things got a little crazy after pizza was ordered and got too cold...

It was a little strange that there was no microwave in the room, but the iron and coffee tray did the trick :) (the pizza was on the tray)

I stayed up all night was the only person to fall asleep- but just for about an hour around 5:30 am... after that I woke up and took advantage of the workout room! It was really nice, and empty too. I forgot to take a picture of it but there were several cardio machines, rows of free weights, and a few weight machines. I just did 2 miles on the treadmill and lifted weights. 

Then, I joined everyone down by the pool. I wasn't in the mood to swim so I just stuck my legs in. After that, we enjoyed a free continental breakfast and went home exhausted. It was a great time though and I'm so glad I got to spend it having fun with my friends!

I only have 12 more days in Lubbock now- eep!

In other news, I packed 6 boxes today! 

Do y'all have any good tips for packing and/or moving across the country?

Blogger Meet-Up, Recent Eats, and Mates of State

Hiya everyone! Holla to a 4-day workweek! 

Aaand, I only have 2 days of work left in Lubbock! I can't wait until Friday afternoon :)

I've been having a great last couple of days. Saturday, Kendall from Whisk Her Away and I met up for coffee! Kendall found my blog a while ago- and it turned out we both live in Lubbock! 

This was my very first blog meet-up- I was nervous! I think I changed outfits like 3 times...
We decided to meet at J&B Coffee:

We chatted for about an hour- it turned out that we had a lot in common- and that she had actually worked at the same place I do a year ago! She worked for a different part of office though so I had never met her. But we did gossip talk about all of the people we both new from the job!
I also brought Kendall some of the black-bean brownies- she liked them!
In true blogger fashion, we ended up at the grocery store after leaving J&B.

Kendall was looking for leeks! You can read about that on her blog :)
All in all I had a blast- Kendall is so sweet and down-to-earth, I am so glad we were able to meet up!

The whole weekend was rainy and gloomy and I didn't feel like going anywhere else- not even for the 4th of July! Instead, I opted to stay home and teach myself how to make Jacob's Ladder from Raine's shoelace.

Please excuse my drunkface messy hair + no makeup
I proceeded to take the shoelace to work on Tuesday and show my co-workers... You would too, right??


So, the weekend was pretty uneventful- in a good way :)
I lounged all day Monday because I was off work, and Raine and I also went out to lunch.

Yesterday, my friend Colleen and I had plans to go to a concert. Mates of State was in town! I used to listen to them in high school so it was kind of like a flashback being there. Before I left for the show, I made a very filling early dinner:

a pile of sweet potato fries with ketchup
(I have recently started to not be afraid of a little oil. I usually make the fries with spray-Smart Balance, but they are never crispy that way. I bit the bullet, tossed my sweet potato strips with EVOO, cumin, and chili powder, and baked them! The improved taste was sooo worth it.)
and a summery salad:

This was inspired by a Giada recipe I found on the Food Network site. I changed it a bit- mine was:
1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
2 zucchini, sliced
4 green onion stalks, chopped
tossed with
1-2 TBS EVOO
juice of 1 very juicy lemon
a little salt and pepper

It was so good! I ate about half of the recipe.
Then, I got ready for the show :)
The 'fit:

We got there early and played pool for a while. Fried Pickles were also ordered...

mmm

And the show was great! One of the perks of being as short as I am (5'1") is that I can squeeze my way up front and stand right in front of the stage...nobody minds!

We even got to meet the band after the show was over!

sweaty from dancing! Dancing in heels counts as a great workout, right?

2 more days...2 more days...eee!


PS: I just ordered a spiralizer from Amazon!

What's your favorite kitchen gadget?