Japanese Hibachi White Sauce

One of my absolute favorite places to go eat is Wild Chef. It's a Japanese hibachi restaurant, and it's amazing. Possibly the best part of the meal is the white sauce they give you. It. Is. Amazing. I was on Pinterest one day and stumbled across a recipe for it. A couple months went by, and I finally picked up the ingredients to try it. I was feeling daring. In the past, a lot of the Pinterest recipes I've tried have not turned out well, such as the 75 Calorie Greek Yogurt Cheesecakes and Homemade Beer Bread. It's not that those aren't great recipes, but they just somehow didn't turn out or taste good to me. The white sauce did not turn out like those ones. It was soo good. 

The ingredients are all in the photo below. The recipe also calls for a dash of cayenne pepper, but since I only made a half batch I wasn't going to buy it for half a dash, so it is not pictured. I have to say, I was skeptical.

 Especially when it looked like this...

I mixed it all together and put it in the fridge, and began cooking the chicken.

Things started smelling good with the chicken, and later cooking the carrots as well.

Once the rice, chicken, and carrots were all finished, I topped it with the sauce, mixed it, and enjoyed. It tasted exactly like at the restaurants. It's amazing. Job well done, Japanese Steakhouse!

First Post! Yayyy!

So we've all seen them, we've all been curious. I'm talking about those Pinterest DIY ideas that seem borderline genius. This blog is dedicated to trying them out. Sometimes these turn out awesome, and sometimes they don't. This is where I'll post the before, during, and after of those projects along with prices, because let's face it, who doesn't love saving a dollar here or there?

I am a twenty year old who is not financially independent. I am currently living in an apartment near my current school, but plan on moving back home once summer starts and I transfer schools in order to save a little money before really moving out. One thing that I have learned to love during my first two years of college is saving money. However, I also love to craft and make things myself. It saves a lot of money, and it's fun. I have also become addicted to Pinterest. This website is, in my opinion, the best website to enter the internet. This is where I find the majority of my DIY projects. 

This is a DIY dry-erase board. (Don't judge the number on the board, I am a busy college student :P) I cannot remember where I saw the idea for this one, but I do not claim the idea as my own. The total cost of this one breaks down as follows:
Frame: $10.00, Meijer

Scrapbook Paper: roughly $1.00, Michael's

Dry erase pen: had on hand

This one was pretty simple, so good news for those of you who say you "can't" DIY. All it took was to pop out the the glass from the frame, cut down the paper to fit inside, then pop the glass back on with the paper inside. DONE. 

This project took help from my dad because Mom didn't trust me with spray paint. Ugh. Anyways, this was another pretty cheap project. The file cabinet used to be my grandma's, which I acquired once she moved out of her apartment. These can be found on Craigslist for a couple bucks if your grandma doesn't happen to be moving right now. The spray paint we had on hand, and it happened to match my room so it worked out perfectly. I recommend painting it in a garage or outdoors to avoid fumes or unwanted paint in the house. The original idea came from here, and worked wonderfully.

This one is my most recent, and I love it! Before you get too worried, it's just mouthwash (:

Everyone has their mouthwash in those ugly plastic bottles that it comes in. I came across this pin, and loved it. Another easy DIY that anyone can do, and only takes a matter of minutes. The trickiest part was getting the label off. That took some hot water, a razor blade, about 15 minutes of elbow grease. However, it turned out awesome and makes a great piece in my bathroom. 

I don't recall seeing this one on Pinterest, so if there is an original link I apologize for not posting it. I had the bottle in my room for a couple years. I never really had anything in it, and one day when my little sister and I made a trip to Michael's, I saw these flowers on sale and BOOM. Perfect. This project, also relatively simple as long as you can pick out flowers, in total cost me about $3. 

And then there's this one. This is a project that I wish had turned out better, but it was one of my first DIY projects. I saw the idea here, and thought it looked really neat for a toothbrush holder. I had originally not put the holder in, and looking back I think it would have looked better without it. I had gotten the wrong kind of paint so it was streaky, they pebbles were/are still falling off, and the glue on the top part looks messy. If I had it to re-do, I would have definitely done a glossy spray paint on the inside, and I would have cut down the holder a little more so it fit snugger. Here's the price breakdown:

Vase: 1.00, Dollar Tree

Paint: .80, Michael's

Pebbles: 1.00, Dollar Tree

Holder: roughly 2.00, Walmart

So I hope that you all enjoy those early projects! I hope to continue to do more DIY things, and keep posting them. I will take suggestions to try things out, feel free to leave those in the comments. I am poor and don't have a ton of space for things, so some suggestions may be saved for a time when I have more cash/a  place of my own. Thanks for reading!