Green Smoothies

I. Have. Been. Loving. Green smoothies lately. They're amazing and delicious! I know they may not sound it - spinach or kale blended with fruit? You may be thinking, "yuck." But think again, my friend! A few benefits that I particularly love are that they are nutrient-rich and high in fiber and antioxidants, plus they help with your digestion! And did I mention that they are delicious? Because they are. Although I don't drink them every day, I usually try to have them ~5x per week.

Here are a few of my go-to recipes:

Kiwi & Kale
1 frozen banana
4 leafs of kale {stems removed}
2 kiwis, chopped
1 c. water {or sometimes I use organic lemonade}
Blend kale & water/lemonade. Add in other fruit and blend. Enjoy!

Glowing Green
1 c. water
2 handfuls spinach
1/2 lemon, juiced
3 sticks celery
1 frozen banana
1 apple
1 pear
Blend spinach, water, and lemon juice. Add in other ingredients and blend. Enjoy!

Raspberry & Coconut
1/4 c. unsweetened coconut flakes
1/4 c. greek yogurt
6 coconut water ice cubes
1 c. frozen raspberries
1/2 frozen banana
Coconut flakes to garnish
Blend together all ingredients and garnish with coconut flakes. Enjoy!

Nutella & Cinnamon Roll Ups

This weekend was spent mostly indoors - away from the crazy wind storms we are having - and experimenting with new baked goods recipes! These tasty little roll-ups were super easy and delicious!

1 square/puff pastry dough {yes, I used pre-made pastry dough. Jamie Oliver once said that he doesn't make his own - and if it's good enough for Jamie Oliver, than it's good enough for me.}

1/3 c. Nutella spread

1 tsp. cinnamon + more for sprinkling

2 tbsp. granulated sugar

Flour for dusting

Roll out the pastry dough and until you have enough for 8-10 triangles. Spread the Nutella evenly over the pastry dough. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Cut the dough into triangles. Roll up the triangles, starting from the wide end, rolling towards the narrow end. In a small bowl, mix together cinnamon and sugar.

Place the roll-ups on a baking skeet, lined with parchment paper. Sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar mixture. Bake in preheated oven {275F} for roughly 20-25 minutes, or until your stomach starts grumbling. Whichever comes first.

Enjoy!

Homemade Marshmallows

If you know me, then you know that marshmallows are my favourite food. Marshmallows, followed very closely by strawberries and cheese. After that falls pretty much every other kind of food. 

But those ones top the charts. Every time.

So, as part of this everlasting love, I have been intrigued by the idea of making marshmallows from scratch. It's been on my list of things to try for a while now, but I had been putting off the purchase of a candy thermometer. Every recipe I found told me I must use a candy thermometer to make them, but I didn't have one. I don't know why I was putting it off, but I was for some weird reason. And then the other day, I just decided that I needed to make some marshmallows. 

So out I went to get myself a candy thermometer.

Now, before I recommend this recipe to you, I need you to be aware of the following warning: this is not a clean undertaking. It is messy. Very, very messy.

But, please also note that I am a neat-freak to the furthest extend of the term. I usually clean after every step of preparation. But between the time and heat necessary in this recipe, that wasn't too easy. Not to mention you're working with corn syrup. And honey. And sugar. But it's worth it. So go ahead and get messy.

I used a knife to cut them up in the pan, but I read that taking them out of the pan and using a pizza cutter works better - I will definitely be employing that tip next time! And yes. There most certainly will be a next time.

Enjoy!

{P.S. I finished that quilt a few weeks ago, all by myself!}

Country Music Friday

{Almost} every Friday I send out an email to a few of the other country music lovers in my office. Kind of a "Hey, it's almost the weekend - why not celebrate with a little bit of extra twang today?" type thing. Well, today in conversation with a friend of mine, I decided that I might as well share those posts on here as well.

So. Hello and welcome to our very first CMF. I’m so glad you could join me. Let’s just jump right in, shall we?

The First: I’m Gonna Miss Her – Brad Paisley

This is a very emotional song dealing with a very serious and real issue that every cowboy has to deal with at one time or another. That is, choosing between the two loves of his life: fishing or his wife. The music video also features some really great acting on behalf of both Brad and his wife (yes, that’s his real wife).


The Second: Southern Voice – Tim McGraw

In which Timmy lists all things that represent the Southern Voice. 



The Third: Camouflage – Brad Paisley

Another Brad Paisley tune. He is the master of the cheesy country music hit. In this little ditty, he discusses camouflage and honors it for its years of service to the USofA.




The Fourth and Final: Meet in the Middle – Diamond Rio

An oldie but a goodie. I love how classic this song is.



Thanks for listening!

Please excuse me while I go buy some goats.

Umm, so I just discovered Weed'em and Reap, a blog run by an urban farmer named Danelle and her outrageously funny sense of humor.

Exhibit A.

Now all I can think about is how much I want to buy a farm and be forever surrounded by chickens and prancing baby goats.

Plum Crazy

{Dress: J.Crew Factory, Cardigan & Tights: Gap, Wedges: Aldo, Belt: F21}

I always forget that I own these wedges. Mostly because I usually forget that I own any wedges, period. But once in a while it hits me that they are kicking around the back of my closet. And so I then proceed to plan an entire outfit around them. In this case, it was this great purple dress and a whole whack of black accessories. Done and done.

Sidenote: I ate a whole pack of sour patch kids prior to taking these pictures, so I'm actually fairly surprised that I was even able to stay still long enough to capture four usable frames. I hope you too appreciate that miracle.

Strawberry & Goat Cheese Quinoa

I love quinoa! I'm always looking for new ways to prepare it and this weekend I thought I would experiment a little. 

Salad:

2 c. cooked quinoa

1/2 c. chopped strawberries

1/3 c. chopped walnuts

1/3 c. goat cheese

Dressing:

1 tbs. balsamic vinegar

1 tbs. honey

2 tsp. olive oil

2 cloves garlic

Salt & pepper to taste

Combine salad ingredients, being careful not to overwork the quinoa. Mix together the dressing ingredients together with a fork and drizzle over salad. Enjoy!

I served it with these scallops, on a bed of pea shoots.

Countdown to summer

{Dress and belt: American Eagle, Jacket: Mavi, Boots: Steve Madden, Watch: Nixon}

I cannot wait for summer! Myself and a few of my coworkers keep joking about how summer is 'just a few weeks away' since the months of February-April are so busy that they tend to fly-by like nobody's business. Here's hoping!

I found these old pictures from last summer of an outfit that I love but never posted. I can't wait until it's warm enough for me to wear a sundress and a light jacket and be ready to rock!

Handmade magnets

I've found myself in desperate need of more magnets for my fridge lately but haven't been able to find any ones that I like in my weekend meanderings. While at Michael's recently I found these adorable bauble sticker embellishments and thought they would make the best fridge magnets! I then had some weird flashback to when I was 12ish and stuck animal stickers onto old real estate agent promotional magnets, cut them out, and viola! 

So, I excitedly grabbed some magnets and rushed home to get to work! Here's how to make your own:

1. Gather supplies {adhesive magnets, stock paper, adhesive embellishments}.

2. Adhere magnets to paper. Ensure to line them up to the pattern you want to highlight on the other side of the page.

3. Cut out magnets carefully.

4. Adhere any embellishments you wish to add and ta-da!

I heart tea

Ever since I saw this idea on A Beautiful Mess I fell in love {appropriate, huh?} with the idea of making my own tags for tea bags. And what better time of year than Valentine's day? Since I may or may not have started this project at 1:00 am in the bout of temporary insomnia, I didn't have any coffee filters to make them up from scratch, but I really just wanted to make the tag portion anyway.

I packaged them up in some wax paper envelopes and adhered them with some washi tape, ensuring that the tags were visible through the front of the envelopes. I will be attaching them to my homemade valentines.

~xoxo~

Homemade Valentine's Day Cards

I love making handmade cards! So of course I took this opportunity to make valentine's for all the lovely people in my life.

- Themed card stock - I used Martha Stewart's mat pad for this season. {I love that they are patterned on both sides so that the interior of the cards are also fun to look at.}

- Washi tape

- Themed felt stickers and/or other embellishments

Fold 'em up, embellish with stickers and tape, and compose your love notes!

{I love this little owl. Or any owl, really.}

What are your Valentine's Day plans?

Valentine's Day Banner

L-O-V-E

Is the frame for this picture weird? Yes. But I couldn't fix it for the life of me.

After taking down all my winter holiday decorations, I really wanted to make my place a little bit more festive. Since there aren't any other holidays coming up and all the ideas I could come up with for Valentine's Day were too sweet to pass up, I thought I would just go for it. I made this banner by cutting up a collection of hearts from scrap and designed paper and then strung them together with a needle and some embroidery thread. So fun! They have now found a home above the cabinets in my kitchen, where they can be seen by all who enter my home. ❤