Two Houses Become One



Reno Ridiculouso: Puttin' It Together

Food Mood: confused, but pulling off an awesome quinoa bowl that only I like

Handy Neighbour and the Hubby go to it one afternoon and start laying the kitchen floor.  We’ve settled on a grey, taupe, reddish brown laminate because we need to connect the reddish brown wood of the older section of the house, with the soon to be espresso cupboards and to the black/copper/grey dining room.  I (and pretty much everyone) looooove the look of it but we’ll see how the laminate holds up…. Anyways, on this day ‘tis being laid.

Handy Neighbour and Hubby are madly laying out the pieces trying to get the right flow and finish to the floor and they keep stepping over each other and moving things.  Finally Handy Neighbour says to Hubby “You know, you could reopen the wall so that we could use the living room to stage this floor…”  What?  Hubby actually laughs out loud.  He and I have fully forgotten that there’s a whole house beyond the fake wall.  And so in typical “in the moment why consult” Hubby fashion it comes down and our house is once again fully accessible from the front door. 

Sounds great right?  And it is, except the Kiddo and I have been instructed to stay away all day so that this floor can be done, so we do.  And we arrive back home to the studio kitchen fully destroyed, the kitchen items everywhere, dust from the new part all through the living room and, well, just general chaos!
 
I start putting together “kitchen version four”.  To remind you we’ve gone from old kitchen, to backyard kitchen, to studio kitchen and now are onto “Fold out table with stuff”.  We’ll live here for another three weeks.  And this is where my commitment to environmentalism that has held strong for ten months starts to waiver.  I seek out paper plates on occasion because every damned thing just gets covered in dust. And mostly the Kiddo and I just concede the downstairs and move up to her bedroom and ours.  

But the Hubby is on a role.  It’s late February and in March the Battle Troll is coming.  That’s right,  you heard me, the Battle Troll.  The Battle Troll is my Brother In Law.  He’s a small yet mighty army guy who happens to be excellent at tile.  He’s said that he’ll come and do the dining room, back entry and bathroom for us at March Break, but, WE MUST BE READY FOR HIM!  Yes sir, ok sir, we’ll be ready sir!  😊

Meanwhile, here’s my Quinoa Bowl
Buy one of those three minute microwave quinoa/wild rice/awesome grain pouches.
Buy pre cut up butternut squash (yep I did, I gave up),some brussel sprouts (cut in half)  and roll them in some olive oil and roast in your toaster oven for about 25 minutes until softish. 
Cut up an avocado
Microwave your quinoa stuff, top with squash, brussel sprouts and avocado.
In a mason jar, shake together this dressing (or you could just top with lemon an olive oil which the Kiddo preferred)
Dressing
1/3 cup tahini
3 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp maple syrup
Optional: pinch of salt, garlic clove
Hot water to thin to the consistency that you like
Pour the dressing over the bowl and mix it up.  Sometimes I add a crunch factor by topping with pepitas.
Enjoy!
Hello! Thanks for stopping by to check out my recipes and commiserate with my (our) misery. Misery loves company! I live in Toronto with my husband and little girl. We have spent a year (yep, that's right, renovating our home) About seven months into this crazy renovation I thought to myself, this has got to be funny or it will be pathetic! And so, I have chosen for funny! This is my collection of mostly crockpot (although sometimes not) recipes paired with the days (weeks, months) that inspired them. Please share your best reno stories and crockpot recipes too.

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