Weekend Gratitude || 11.3.14

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|| And the Party Never Stops||

My birthday weekend in a word -- awesome. Lying in bed eating chocolate for breakfast, dancing until the clock turns and a bus full of strangers sing you Happy Birthday, gifts wrapped in paper towels, and skyping with my momma -- couldn't have asked for a better birthday weekend to end my teens and start my twenties. Such a shock -- ending my age in a -ty rather than -teen ... I've had the same ending for the last seven years of my life! What ... change is difficult : - ) . I've never felt so relaxed being myself before. Does that make sense? Just not letting others get in the way... it seems easier now, even though it's only been a few days of this new age. It's as if being a teen gives little authority. Anyone else feel that way about a different age? I'll be writing more about this over the course of the week -- I'd love to hear your thoughts.

I'll be working on making up work, holding meetings, staying calm, and loving on my friends because of how supportive they have been lately. And then I'll be graduating this weekend from my yoga teacher training ... wow -- 8 months already! What are you up to this week?
I'd love to hear how you all are doing. How was everyone's weekend?

|| GRATITUDE ||

I am grateful for friends that have become family. I am grateful for bright water bottles that make me excited to drink water. I am grateful for road trips and heated cars. I am grateful for messages of love and hope and inspiration. I am grateful for Gilmore Girls. I am grateful for my own company. I am grateful for life, for aging, for being one hundred percent real. I am grateful for all this and more -- overflowing really -- there isn't enough room.

What are you grateful for?

xxoo

[weekend snapshots by emily friend]

Boo! It's Halloween || Friday Finds

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WEEKEND || HALLOWEEN + BIRTHDAY

I cannot believe it's Halloween already -- my favorite time of the year!!! I'm being a pineapple tonight -- inspired by the picture above. Fun right? What are you being tonight? This week was pure dedication for me; there were exams, interesting posts, pictures to edit, fun things to share, and a need for love and exploration and adventure. Busy! But now tomorrow is my birthday -- as you can read on the countdown to the right, and it is such an interesting pace and mind that I leave my teens and head into my twenties. Wow. It still shocks me to say that. It isn't as if the number is scary, but the monumental jump to true adulthood is gratifying and humbling. The feeling is pretty darn cool. Next week I'll be throwing a little post out there about age and turning twenty, but I also wanted to touch on the blog's posts this week. The How To three part productivity series kicked off on Tuesday: Part I + Part II + Part III. And yesterday I compared quick and easy Caramel recipes for your tastebuds -- I hope you enjoy! Lastly, but for me, most importantly, I wrote on the peace that can be found in gratitude, and I think as we rush ourselves into the holiday season and begin to lose touch with what true graciousness means, we need to come back to center and refocus on what it means to be filled with humbling attitude and peace. I hope you found this week's posts to be encouraging, freeing, and yummy. If you have any ideas for content you'd like to see on the blog, let me here em! Love you all -- have an amazing weekend xx

How are you spending the weekend?

LINKS & FINDS ||

Right in line with this week's How To series ... here's how to write a productive to-do list.

Great party idea: have a floral bar.

Because I’ve always wondered what I would do in the event of an earthquake… no really, I’m not being sarcastic, ask my mom.

8 things recruiters look for and a few things they don’t care an ounce about.

Found this great blog: honestly yum + this one: style me pretty.

Embrace what is working… and give yourself a break -- beautiful.

Because bread is heavenly and I wanted to lick my screen.

The grace and beauty of dancers – can I be one please?

Happy Halloween and Happy All Saints Day tomorrow! Have a cozy and happy weekend. Explore, love, hope, and be yourself.

xxoo

 

 

Halloween Recipe || Caramel ||10.30.14

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Halloween is upon us! In fact it’s tomorrow!!! Do you love Halloween as much as I do? Because my room is decorated with fake leaves, window stickies, and pumpkin paintings. I have been reading some great blog posts written by ladies who painted their pumpkins white to line their entryways and others who spread out huge cobwebs throughout their houses. In honor of our Health and Wellness Thursdays, here’s what I’m contributing to the best day of the year… Introducing a beautifying and delicious, blended to perfection caramel! And since I couldn’t decide just which one to make, I decided to make three and let you know how they all worked out! The recipes below are vegan, gluten-free, refined sugar free, and definitely so delicious your spoon will be diving back in for more.

Enjoy some of this deliciousness with apples (my personal favorite), on top of oatmeal, inside homemade peanut butter cups, or straight from the spoon. Imagine this stirred into a container of peanut butter … drool.

|| CARAMEL ||

date based, with oil or without, maybe some almond butter – all good

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first recipe //

Ingredients ||

  • ¼ cup maple syrup
  • ¼ cup organic coconut oil
  • 1/6 cup + 1 tbsp almond butter
  • 2 dates
  • 1 teaspoon honey
  • Dash of salt (to taste)

Recipe ||

  1. Add all of the ingredients to a high speed blender (I used my magic bullet – not the best, but hey, dorm room) and blend until all ingredients are incorporated, the texture is a light golden brown, and the consistency is smooth – easy peasy

Notes ||

Experimenting with this recipe was so fun, because the flavors individually are so far from the taste of caramel – but when combined I must kiss my fingers and say mmmmagnificent. At first I could still taste almond butter in one bite, maple syrup in the other, maybe a little date, but after letting the flavors sit and mingle, the flavor was more caramel than I ever imagined -- not exact but pretty darn close. Plus, it looks like caramel and has that gorgeous drippy texture that I was looking for in my little experiment. The original recipe uses vanilla, and I bet that would have added another dynamic, but I didn’t have some quality vanilla extract on me and since we were keeping this raw, I didn’t want any of that alcohol aftertaste. This one is great with apples. I had to restrain myself. Majorly restrain. I also made my almond butter in my Magic Bullet before I made this, so it was a little drier than the usual store-bought brands and that might have contributed to the original overwhelming almond butter taste.

tested and adapted from Nutrition Stripped

second recipe //

Ingredients ||

  • ¼ cup soaked dates
  • 2 tablespoons melted coconut oil
  • ½ tablespoon almond butter (can be omitted)
  • cinnamon
  • a dash of sea salt
  • water as needed

Recipe ||

  1. Send all of the ingredients to a high speed blender, like above, and let it do it’s thing --

Notes ||

Dates naturally taste very carameley – it’s awesome for quick snacks with a little chocolate chips and almond butter inside, but that's beside the point . This recipe had a very nice light flavor, an airy texture, and didn’t sit heavy in my stomach. It also didn’t taste rich and decadent which is what I was going for, but it would be awesome in a peanut butter cup inspired recipe with tahini and this caramel wrapped with raw chocolate. Yum. The almond butter wasn’t in the original recipe but just added a nice depth of flavor I couldn’t pass up.

 

tested and adapted from This Rawsome Vegan Life 

 

third recipe //

Ingredients ||

  • ½ cup of dates
  • ½ banana (or 2 tbsp coconut oil if not staying oil free)
  • 1 tablespoon maple syrup
  • dash of sea salt

Recipe ||

  1. Yep! You guessed right – throw them all in the blender and wait for smooth perfection --

Notes ||

This recipe looked the most like caramel, but unfortunately tasted too much like banana (duh em, there’s a banana in there). Nevertheless, I think this would be amazing swirled into a banana bread recipe or cookie rather than dipped with apples or eaten by itself.

tested and adapted from This Rawsome Vegan Life 

 

Overall, I love the first one for eating on its own and the other two for swirling into some delicious recipes. I really encourage you to tweak all the recipes, throw them all together if you want, and let me know what you think! I was playing with these during a really upsetting weekend, so it was a great relief. Just go in there with no expectations and let me know what magic you whip up?

 

[photos by emily friend]