A Sprinkle of Life

A Real RealEats Review

January 10, 2022 No Comments

I’m not much of a cook, and I grew up in a household where family dinner time wasn’t really a thing, and the fanciest we got on a weekday might have been a bowl of pasta and sauce. My family also doesn’t conform to stereotypical or old fashion gender roles, so it wasn’t like my mom was expected to cook, and some of my more favorite meals were often created by my father.

Today, I’m in my 30s and in a modern millennial relationship where no one is expected to be the chef of the household, and we often do our own thing on our own time for dinner due to work or workout schedules. However, I’ve been wanting to branch out a bit and have a few more meals that aren’t packaged up frozen dinners. We’ve been meaning to try another meal service and I just so happened to come across one on Facebook of all places that looked decent, and when I checked the menu, there was actually several options that both of us would enjoy, so I took a chance on a company called RealEats.

It’s a subscription service, but you can skip weeks or put it on hold, so you can avoid being charged week over week, which is great for testing them out on the first week. I placed my order mid/late last week and it arrived today.

For our first testing of RealEats, I went with the 6 meals options, figuring that would give us 3 nights of meals this week, and then we’d do our usual pizza night and friday night takeout adventures. There was a promo so we got 40% off but it looks like the regular price would be around $80 for this regularly, which is a bit pricey, but not too terrible since it would sustain us for most of the work week. I should note there were options for less meals, and more, plus you could buy individual items instead of a whole packed meal.

Tonight we gave it a try. I had the Grilled BBQ Chicken, which comes with Spring Veg Medley, and Fork Mashed Potatoes. Brian had the Simply Cooked Chicken with Green Beans in a Spring Pesto and Herb Roasted Baby Potatoes.

Grilled BBQ Chicken and Simply Cooked Chicken Breast – RealEats

Prep and cooking was super easy. Just boil a big pot of water, place the meat, in this evening’s case it was chicken, into the pot for 6 minutes, and the sides for 3 minutes.

I found after my first 3 minutes were up and it was time to put in the sides in, that the water stopped boiling a bit, so I was worried that the cook time may be off. To be safe we each cooked our meals for 7 minutes total, not the recommended 6. For the sake of this review, we’ll just focus on my meal, but it’s safe to say Brian approved of his since he cleaned his whole plate.

After the 7 minutes were up, I grabbed the bags with my tongs, put them on a cutting board and took scissors to open them up. The chicken was the first thing I opened, and the sauce went everywhere, including my white sweater. Yes, there was probably some user error, but the sauce was very thin and liquidy, so I don’t know how much I could have avoided making a mess of at least the plate without draining it in the sink first.

Exhibit A, my plate of beauty. You can tell I’m just an average, non-experienced person in the kitchen based on my plating skills 🙂

The sides were fairly easy to get out, but the mashed potatoes were a little bit of a pain since the bag was hot and I had to squeeze the bag like a tube of toothpaste to get it all out.

Now it was time to eat!

I love mashed potatoes so I was excited for them, but unfortunately I found the temperature to be too cold, so I ended up microwaving my whole plate for a few seconds to try and heat them up. I probably should have done it for a bit longer since they were luke warm when I went to eat again, but at least they had good flavor.

Based on the temperature of the potatoes and Brian’s plate of veggies too, I’d recommend putting the sides in for a bit longer than the recommended 3 minutes. I might be as bold to say in the future I’d cook mine for 5-6 minutes total, but I really like my food to all be really hot. I haven’t tested this yet, but that’ll be my plan next time.

I don’t really like many green veggies, but I tried some of the green beans, and they weren’t terrible. One reason I wanted to try this service was to try and expand my pallet and try new things in the comfort of my own home as a picky eater.

The chicken breast itself was nicely cooked, very easy to cut and it was nice and juicy. The sauce however was a bit strong for my liking. It was a bit more spicy than I anticipated. I didn’t hate it, but I’m not too into spicy food so the amount of sauce was a little strong for me.

I’d say for people who don’t cook and rely on the microwave for quick meals or just throw a pizza in the oven, that this was one of our fancier eating at home adventures. We eat simple things, so this was very adult feeling for me at least.

I’m looking forward to trying some of the other meals we got. There’s another chicken dish or two, and two pasta and meatballs. We’ll have to see how the rest of this week’s dinners play out! Hopefully I’ll stay a little cleaner this time around.

If you want to join me in this meal adventure but in the comfort of your own kitchen, give my code a click for 50% off.

Reading

2021 Reading Challenge Review

December 31, 2021 No Comments

With just a few hours left until the year is complete, it’s time to look back at one of my favorite things, my Goodreads yearly reading challenge!

My goal for this year was to read 30 books. I try to read a little bit every night as part of my evening ritual. Reading helps me escape the stresses of my everyday life, and hop into a different world.

Let’s take a look at the stats!

With 2021 being another Covid filled year, travel didn’t happen, and weekends weren’t busy, so I was able to smash my goal and read 10 more books than I had hoped, closing the year at 40 books read.

Some of favorite books from this year include:
The Ex Hex
Sixteen Scandals
Nature of Witches

Time to prep for 2022! I already have a stockpile of books to tackle in the coming days, thanks to a sale at my local library where I was able to fill a bag for only $5.

For this coming year, I’ll probably stick to 30 as my goal. It’s a fairly safe number that I think I can achieve, but who knows what 2022 has in store for all of us.

Happy Reading!

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Donating my hair to Children with Hair Loss

September 7, 2021 No Comments

Today, I did something I’ve been wanting to do for a while now, I donated some of my hair for those in need. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, I hadn’t had a hair cut in well over a year and a half, so I’ve been meaning to get it cut. The questions that came to mind were where should I donate, and is my hair long enough for their requirements.

After doing some research I was surprised to see the “big names” we all hear about when it comes to hair donations didn’t have the best reputation, and actually charged people for the wigs, which didn’t sit well with me. Eventually, I found a non-profit that gave wigs to children who were suffering from hair loss, and that they could receive a wig at no cost to them or their family. That charity is Children With Hair Loss. I also liked that they would take donations as small at 8 inches, as well as previously dyed hair or even grey hair. I found their inclusiveness to be really attractive.

As a redhead, our hair color is really special to us and hard to find in the wild, so I wanted to donate at least once in my life to help a fellow redhead have their special color back. I imagine red hair donations to be far and few inbetween so I wanted to support my fellow gingers out there in this small step.

I hope you’ll consider donating your hair one day if you have the opportunity. You could make someone’s day a little brighter.

Here’s my before:

And here’s me 10 inches shorter.

Pandemic hair no more!

Time to package up my ponytails and send my donation out the door! So happy I could finally donate.

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DIY Home Improvement – Lighting

August 28, 2021 No Comments

During the pandemic, my significant other and I decided to purchase our very first home. While the house wasn’t a fixer upper by any means, it needed a little TLC, aka paint and a little modernization here and there to make it our home. Follow along as I chronicle some of the improvements, tasks, and projects we take on.

One of the more recent projects we took on was replacing outdoor light fixtures. We have a balcony off of our kitchen that had a very dated light fixture that was original from when the homes in this neighborhood were built around 15 years ago. Below this balcony is a little patio area on the ground floor that had the same matching light fixture, so we figured we’d tackle both and make sure they matched since we were replacing one.

We live right off of the water, and get super crazy high wind gusts every now and then (I think the highest we recorded from our personal weather station was in the 50-60 mph range). Due to the wind, one evening the light off the kitchen fell to the ground. The fixture was made of glass panels, and one of them even chipped a bit, but we were able to put everything back together and use the light still, but I felt it was finally a sign to take on our outdoor lighting plan. It’s also worth noting that due to the wind, and living right off the water, there was also a lot of water damage/erosion done to the metal of the light. The metal had a rough texture and really lost its shine and former glory. Because of these factors, we decided to get a dark color metal/base for whatever light we ended up choosing.

Looking around at the porches of our neighbors, it seems just about everyone has kept their original lights on their porches and patios, expect our next door neighbor, who had replaced them with black sconces. Figuring we should blend in a bit with her style, and because it looked clean and nice, we decided to be on the lookout for something that was simple, not too eccentric, and would look like it belonged with the house. What we ultimately chose was a simple black sconce, similar in design shape to our neighbor, and to the lights we all have above our garages at the front of the house.

Why black? It’s modern, clean, and can go with any aesthetic, it also doesn’t seem to “date” as much as say gold fixtures do, like the ones we had. We also decided to go with some vintage style light bulbs, going for the edison bulb look, mainly because I think they look cool, but also because they give off a nice warm light.

The replacement was pretty easy. Brian did one of them, and had me do the other so I could get an understanding for the wiring and installation steps. I appreciate getting hands on in these types of home improvement activities because it gives me a new skill, confidence to tackle projects I want to do, and makes me feel like I’m living my dreams of wanting to be on one of those home improvements shows in the 90s and early 2000s.

Here’s how the new lights look fully installed. We’re super pleased with them, even though we don’t use the lights that much, it gives the outside a nice clean updated look.

On to the next project…

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Luvn Beauty, an honest review on quick fashion

June 5, 2021 1 Comment

Quick fashion companies seem to be all the rage lately due to sites like Facebook, Instagram, and perhaps more than any other site, TikTok.

On TikTok you’ll find tons of videos of women trying on clothing items from a lot of the Quick or Hot Fashion websites that have popped up and gained popularity on the internet. Most of these companies tend to be from overseas in Asia, where sizing and quality are really up in the air and it’s almost like a game to see what you end up with.

I was feeling the quarantine boredom and blues and made the decision to click around a site advertised to me on social media (most likely Instagram) called Luvn Beauty. The clothes looked cute, the prices were cheap, and there were reviews on the site for the items I was looking at, so I figured it couldn’t be that sketchy, could it?

I gave in, and purchased two rompers after what I thought was extensive review of the items, the size charts, and the customer feedback. I ended up purchasing the Sleeveless Round Neck Stripy Romper in a size medium, and the Fashion Sleeveless Round Neck Tie Button Romper in a size small. I really went back and forth a bit on what sizes to get, and it seemed based on size charts I was a different size in each. I figured the items were cheap enough that hey, let’s get the different sizes and it’ll help me understand better for the future what size I really am from this company.

Both looked cute, the first one a little more form fitting, and the second baggy and loose. There were reviews for each and people seemed to love the items, so why not?

Then reality kicked in.

I used paypal to checkout, and then a couple days later on my mobile banking app I checked to make sure the purchase went through and saw the paypal purchase went to a random place in China, no reference to Luvn Beauty. That was my first clue I had made a mistake haha. I had hoped this wasn’t coming from China, because I knew shipping would be slow and that what I got in the mail may not be what I ordered.

After talking to support, eventually my item shipped. It appeared to sit in Jamaica Queens in New York for several days after it “shipped” which probably meant after it made it to America, and then after a week or two after that it made its way to me. What was strange on the package was that the from address was in New Jersey, another odd indicator that this was a strange setup.

The first item, the stripped white and blue romper seemed decent-ish. The fabric was not what I expected. From the photos the fabric looked a bit heavier and stiff. This romper had very silky thin fabric instead. From a fit perspective, I was able to get it on and fit into it, but it was a bit loose in the armpit chest area, and was longer on my torso and legs than I expected.

The second, tan-ish looking romper which gave me safari vibes, was cheap looking. The fabric was very thin, didn’t look great, and was just a disappointment right out of the bag. Trying it on was another thing. It felt like it was riding up on my lower half of the body, and I couldn’t get the buttons to button around my chest. Of course as I was putting this post together and looking for the item on the site I realize I was wearing it backwards and the buttons are supposed to go on the back, but I would need help with that.

I reached out to learn more about returns, but of course they wanted me to send it back to some random address in China, which I expected would be costly and take forever so it wasn’t worth it. I bet they do this on purpose, knowing most people won’t go through the hassle. I did end up wearing the blue and white romper this week while working from home, and it was ok, but I’m not sure I like how big/loose it is on my frame, but alas it’s acceptable for a day at home.

While I was browsing Reddit in bed this morning, I saw a post in one of the Women subreddits about what’s something you saw and bought from social media, but regret. One of the comment threads was about clothes you see advertised online, that look good, seem well priced, but end up being a fail. The one company I recognized the name of in the thread was Shein, which I see everywhere on TikTok. For the commenters it seems that site is a hit or miss, and from TikTok it seems most people enjoy the items they get, but I think I’ll stay away. Maybe it’s time to try a clothing subscription box again. Stitch Fix maybe? I’ve also heard a bit about Wantable, and they seemed to have decent reviews. We’ll have to see what the Summer months bring to my wardrobe.

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