My sister, sister-in-law, mom, and I hosted my baby sister's wedding shower this past weekend. We used my parents rustic designed garage to hold the party and decorated it for a country brunch to celebrate Brittany's upcoming wedding! It was a lot of fun we had good food including quiche, donuts, yogurt parfait bar, cupcakes, coffee, and mimosas (of course!) and everything homemade too. I'm thinking we should go into party planning?! It was great mingling with lots of family for the celebration and using a little bit of my design skills to make fun signs and games! Now on to bachelorette planning! |
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Currently... wishing I was at the beach but I guess pools will have to do for now Currently... enjoying wineries and tacos and this guy, have already been to the Winery at Bull Run a few times this year Currently... taking advantage of the fresh produce at all the farmers markets around here (those cherries and cherry tomatoes were amazing!) Currently... finished my personal logo/mark and implemented it on my blog and website Currently... still obsessed with jeni's and love when there are new flavors, this one is one of my faves now (maybe jeni's will be a permanent part of my currently posts based on how much I love it) Currently... working in dc for a few weeks and really enjoying using public transportation and getting to see all the monuments daily After looking through my vacation photos I decided to split them into 3 categories for this post. Kyle and I crammed a lot of good food, drinks, and sightseeing into our vacation but we were also able to relax and not rush through anything so it was a perfect combo of planned stuff and just going with the flow. Asheville was a neat town and pretty small. We were able to see most of the city in 2 days and then spent the rest of the time checking out the other sights outside of the downtown area. I doubt we'd vacation there again to see the city but I wouldn't mind stopping back to stay in a cabin in the mountains and grab a meal or two in town since the food was amazing. FOOD! DRINK! EXPLORATION! My favorite foods lately have been cheese and chocolate (well I always love chocolate) so Kyle and I decided to have a fun fondue night and celebrate a year of dating! We looked up lots of recipes and decided to do a cheese one with a beer base and then just find yummy cheese at a local shop based on suggestions. It turned out really yummy and we dipped some steak, tater tots, and veggies in it. Then we moved on to chocolate fondue next and kept with the alcohol theme mixing dark chocolate with cream and Kahlua. In this one we dipped strawberries, pineapples, and pound cake. We definitely fell into a food coma after all the food. We enjoyed all of it and now want to do more and experiment with different cheeses and chocolate! I had a super fun and full Valentine's Day/President's Day weekend in the middle of February. I roadtripped up to Pittsburgh to hang with Kyle on Friday the 14th and then we headed to Columbus for the rest of the weekend. We had tickets to the George Strait concert with my friends on Saturday and then spent part of Sunday meeting up with my family for food and then some exploring. It was such a fun weekend even with a few bumps (hotel room not ready) and it still being snowy and super cold. I could go on and on about the whole weekend but I think my photos will tell the story better! Currently... sick of this snowy weather especially now that it's March (even if it does look pretty) Currently... want to retire my winter coat and hat for a few or more months please! Currently... loving creamer again and impulsively bought some candy flavored creamer, almost makes the long winter bearable sipping hot coffee that tastes like an almond joy Currently... doubling up my workouts a few days and love feeling the calorie burn #summeriscoming Currently... had an iced latte when it felt like spring the other day (such a tease!) Currently... dreaming of vacation but a little worried it won't be warm For Christmas I received a partner brunch cooking class from Kyle and this past weekend was the set date! I've never done a cooking class before so I was super excited and even more so since it was cooking brunch mmmm! It was at Crate Cooking School in Pittsburgh. There was 5 items on the menu so we split into groups to tackle each recipe. Kyle and I made the cheddar scone "sliders" and the cocktails, and at the end everyone cooked their own French omelet. After all the cooking we had a full meal of all the items and we were stuffed from all the good food but can't wait to make some of the recipes again. I included the two items we made below! Champagne Cocktail
1 sugar cube 2-3 dashes Angostura bitters 1 ounce brandy dry champagne 1 maraschino cherry superfine sugar and maraschino syrup for glass rim Moisten the outer rim of a champagne flute with maraschino cherry syrup and coat with super fine sugar. Place the sugar cube in the bottom of the flute and saturate with a few dashes of bitters. Add the brandy and when ready to serve fill the glass with champagne and garnish with a cherry. Cheddar Scone Sliders with Ham and Honey Mustard Butter Scones: 4 cups flour 2 tablespoons baking powder 1.5 teaspoons salt 1/2 cup cold unsalted butter 6 ounces coarsely grated extra-sharp cheddar 1 cup whole milk 2/3 cup heavy cream Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Cut butter into small bits and with pastry blender blend into flour mixture until it resembles coarse meal. With a fork stir in cheddar. Add milk and cream, stirring until just combined. Transfer mixture to a floured surface and with floured hands knead until it forms a dough. Roll out dough to 1/2 inch thick and cut out 2 inch round scones. Arrange on baking sheet and bake at 425 degrees for 12 minutes until pale golden. Sauce: 1/2 cup softened unsalted butter 3 tablespoons coarse-grained mustard 3 tablespoons honey Mix all ingredients together. Assemble by splitting the scones, spread with the honey-mustard butter, and add ham slices. Enjoy! So I've been reflecting on my sugar detox and just food and health in general and it's pretty crazy the changes I've made in my life. I remember a time not that long ago where I wouldn't touch "green" food except green beans and now I love salads and spinach and even starting to come around on peas (what?! that's crazy). On my sugar detox the yes/no foods were somewhat strict and some of the regular foods that I eat and are pretty healthy were actually not allowed. And the funny thing is I started craving these foods and not all the candy and other sugary treats I couldn't have. Just for an idea here's what I missed: fruit greek yogurt beans quinoa corn hummus It's a pretty random list but years ago I would've laughed at the thought of craving or missing those things from my food options. But I'm much healthier now and happy about that, that's it for now! Phew I survived 21 days without sugar so now what?..... First off I really liked the 21dsd program and would reccomend it to anyone that wants a chanllenge and wants a break from sugar. Plus I will definitely be using the book for recipes from now on and I will probably buy the new cookbook that can accompany the challenge and has even more healthy sugar free recipes. I don't think it changed my body too much that I noticed, clothes definitely felt better from the holiday eating frenzy. I also had pretty good energy the whole time and no sugar crashes. I still had my daily caffeine so that always helped me start the day but usually one cup was good enough and then food fueled me well the rest of the day. Overall it was a good challenging program that made me feel good but not life changing or anything. Next I will defnitely be eating sugar again and not be sugar free forever (evident by a few splurges the first day off the challenge). I will try to eat sweets and treats in moderation though and not go back to "holiday" eating. As far as more carbs and stuff I feel like my body does better with them so I will add them back in and stick to healthy whole grains with a definite splurge here and there. On my first day off the challenge my splurges starting with a little dark chocolate which tasted sweet enough even being 85%. Then after a 75 minute 100 degree level 2 power yoga class I indulged at brunch. I had a bloody mary and the chicken and waffles. All of it was so worth it and sooooo good! Later that day I did my P90X3 warrior workout around 6 and I just felt like I had more energy and more umph during it and I have no other explanation except the food I ate fueled me better. So I definitely think having the carbs and protein and whatnot helped me out, so we'll see how my workouts feel the next few weeks when I add some foods I haven't been eating back in! So that wraps up my sugar challenge now I just have my P90X3 challenge going on which is good for me for now! 21 day sugar detox = DONE!
It was a pretty good week, I ended up making some repeat recipes because I knew I liked them and wasn't feeling super creative in the kitchen or testing many new recipes. So I had more chicken buffalo egg muffins (added broccoli for some veggies) and I made the shepherd's pie again and had that all week. I also explored a little baking and made some carrot banana muffins. They turned out pretty good but didn't keep well after a couple days so I'll have to work on that next time. I think they would be better with a little bit of sweetener but not much and I liked using coconut flour. I found that and unsweetened coconut flakes at a "normal" grocery store and that made my day since it can be hard to find and I love coconut! Near the end of the week I had major cravings for wine (surprise surprise...) it's funny that I wanted that more than chocolate but that might be because I was prepared for no "sugar" but never thought about it including other things like just a glass of wine. I also really really wanted pizza! But I ended up satisfying that by making a cauliflower pizza on day 21 to finish out the challenge. I did this instead of post challenge so I wouldn't order a super carby/unhealthy pizza and binge on it afterwards. Now its time to figure out where to go from here eating wise but first here are a few pics from the final week of the challenge. |
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