DIY Rustic X Console & Coffee Tables!

Hi!

I recently decided to tackle building some tables for our home, including a coffee table and a console table. My new hubby (reluctantly) agreed to help after I begged. I found a table I liked from, of course, Ana White's website. If you aren't familiar with it, she is crazy AWESOME, and you can find plans to build anything on there! HERE are the original plans for the console and HERE are the plans for the coffee table. We modified both so the tables would be perfect for the spaces we had in mind for them. (Of course, I had to be difficult..) We wanted a shorter in length/taller in height console table and a more square/less rectangular coffee table. The console took us about a day. The X's on the sides were the most time consuming part since we changed the dimensions of the table, the angle of the X's had to be changed.. who knew?! My husband, the engineer, did. He, who is completely left-brained, busted out the calculator and started figuring out the cosine or tangent or some crap for the angle. And I, right-brained, criss-crossed the boards in the space and marked where to cut with a pencil.. (and it worked). We also decided to do a slatted bottom, instead of one board, which, of course, made it a little more difficult, but worth it :) After tackling that table, the coffee table was a breeze and took about 4 hours to build. I used Rustoleum Weathered Gray stain on them first and then Rustoleum Dark Walnut stain on top of that. I felt that having the gray underneath it warmed up the dark brown color a bit! The console cost us about $60 total and the coffee table about $35!! Hell yea.  Here are our results:

Clean Eating Etouffee!

I wanted an EASY, healthy, and delicious way to eat one of my fiance's favorite dishes, especially now that it's Lent- we need healthy seafood options! My friend, Kayla, used to make a simple etouffee for us in college. She passed the recipe to me years ago, so I whipped that out and modified it to make it a clean eat! I guess I was SO anxious to try this that I forgot to snap a picture of the final product! But I'll be making it often so that will come :)

The original recipe ingredients:

• 1 stick of butter
• 1/4 frozen seasoning blend (optional)
• 1 can of rotel
• 1 can of cream of mushroom soup
• 1 pound of crawfish OR shrimp

MY modified ingredients:

• 1/2 cup low fat butter substitute (my favorite is Brummel and Brown yogurt butter)
• 1/4 Louisiana's Choice creole seasoning mix (in the produce section)
• 1 can Mild Rotel
• 1 can of All Natural Gluten Free Cafe Fresh cream of mushroom soup
• 1 lb shrimp (or crawfish)

First, melt butter in sauce pan and add seasoning mix.

Once the seasoning mix is cooked down, add the can of rotel, and let that simmer several minutes.

Add the can of soup, mix, and let simmer for 10-15 minutes. 

Add your cooked seafood. Serve over whole grain brown rice and ENJOY! :)

Pesto Chicken Spaghetti Squash!

Pesto Chicken Spaghetti Squash

You need: 1 Spaghetti Squash , Pesto/Basil jar (I used Classico brand), Reduced Fat Parmesan Cheese, 1 lb diced chicken breasts

• Cut squash in half lengthwise and BAKE open side down at 375 for 30-40 minutes
• Remove all seeds/middle of squash and disgard. 
• Scrape insides of squash with a fork to loosen the "spaghetti"
• Place all spaghetti in a baking dish.
• Add approx. 2/3 cup of Pesto and 2/3 cup of Parm cheese and mix (add/reduce amounts as desired)
• Add uncooked diced chicken breasts on top of squash in baking dish
• Sprinkle with Parm cheese and season with Italian seasoning and pepper
• Bake for 20 min or until chicken is completely cooked

 Max Phase approved! :)