Our brand NEW kitchen!

Part of the reason I was slacking over the last couple months, was our big kitchen reno!  We're so pleased with it, and I LOVE cooking in the new digs.

We ripped up the floors, the counter, the backsplash, the baseboard, door trim, window trim...it scared the hell out of me when it was bare bones.

We hired our amazing tiler/good friend Rob who we have used many times in the past...he did the flooring from the kitchen back door, to the front door all through my hallway as well.  He did the backsplash, and coordinated the install of our new quartz countertop.

We hired our good friend Paul who is an awesome carpenter to build us a wine rack, which rules!  He also did all of the baseboards, and window trim in the kitchen, and throughout the hallway to the front door.

Our cupboards were in really good shape and we couldn't justify getting new ones.  They just needed new colour.  My friend Laura referred me to Leo, who transformed our cupboards into brand spanking new ones!  He sands down the doors, and drawer covers four times, then paints them.  Then he came back and sanded the sides of the cupboards that are attached to the wall and painted those.

We're still working on the other aspects of it (needed some time in between to think about choices) such as paint colour, and window coverings, light fixtures.

The end result is amazing...here are some photos, and one photo will show you before and after :)

I'm going to try and catch up and KEEP current!

I've seriously been sucking at keeping up with the blog lately.  I think winter has just irritated my spirit too much that I have been forgetting to take pictures and keep my followers cooking!

I'm going to get back on the blogging wagon and keep up again....so in the meantime (before tomorrow's soup kitchen) I'll give you two good recipes that I've made three times each in the last couple months.

They're both SUPER YUMMY, and really simple.  Also, the ingredients are very inexpensive so it's a great price for a big batch of food!

First recipe is a stir fry beef recipe.  I was scouring Pinterest a couple months back for a good flavour to marinate the beef in and found this gem!

Korean Beef Stir Fry

This marinade is simple, quick, and so filled with flavour!  I chose my own veggies so I didn't follow the recipe for that component.  Each time I've made it I've chosen different veggies to switch it up.  The recipe calls for Soba noodles.  I used rice instead.  My kids don't really like soba noodles very much, in fact, neither does the husband.

Next recipe is a new favourite around here - beef stroganoff in the slow cooker!! This recipe is so easy, calls for so few ingredients, and takes nearly ten minutes in total for prep time!

Classic Beef Stroganoff

I served this over egg noodles.  It tastes amazing on day one, and as much as I don't like eating the same meal the next day for lunch, it tasted just as good on day two!

I'll post more tomorrow...after my Sunday cooking! Happy weekend to all!