Soo it's almost August and this is really confusing to me?? I have a 3 day work week as I'm flying to Atlanta on Thursday to be in one of my college BFF's weddings (her bachelorette party was in Charleston 2 weeks ago)! I am zoo excited (and a tiny bit nervous that the bridesmaid dress isn't going to fit considering I have done nothing but travel/eat/drink my face off for the last 8 weeks).


Anyway, last week I made these sweet potato "burgers" as my lunch for the week and they were delicious paired with spinach, tomatoes, avocado, and of course Greek Yogurt. Sidenote: I wonder if I'll ever get tired of Greek Yogurt and/or avocados?

Servings: 6 patties
Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 10 mins (to bake the potato) + 20 minutes (to cook the patties)

Ingredients
  • 1 cup of sweet sweet potato, mashed (I did this by microwaving 1 sweet potato for 10 minutes) ($1.00)
  • 1 can garbanzo beans, drained and mashed in a bowl ($1.00)
  • 2/3 cup oat flour (old fashioned oats in the blender)
  • 1/3 cup whole old fashioned oats
  • 2 tablespoons cajun seasoning
  • 1 tablespoon garlic seasoning
  • dash of salt and pepper
Combine the mashed potato and mashed garbanzo beans in a large bowl and mix well. Add the oat flour and oats and mix (I mixed with a spoon- no fancy tools here) until you have a pretty thick consistency going. 



Form the mixture into 6 flat patties and cook over medium heat in a non-stick pan (I always use coconut oil spray) for about 10 minutes on each side. Note: I didn't have any problems with mine falling apart but if you do, just add more oats.

So the weekend was pretty mellow. Friday afternoon, Harrison, Andi and I battled miz traffic on I-95 to get home to Richmond.



I had all kinds of grand plans for our trip such as: meeting up with friends Friday night to go to the bars, haircut, brunch with friends, dinner party, neighbor's play, more partying. However we were both exhausted and slept most of Saturday (much needed) sooo only 2 things on my agenda happened, and that's ok. Learning to live with things not going according to plan here..

We were in town to see my neighbor in a teen production of Footloose and had a few cocktails with the neighbors before heading to the performance. Our neighbor Pete had tried this cocktail in Canada and it was so delicious (3 parts prosecco, 2 parts Aperol liqueur (it's an orangey tasting thing), and a splash of club soda. So refreshing!):


Then we headed over to the production and it was incredible. The dedication and talent that we saw was insane, and who doesn't love Footloose?? 



Confession: I cried about 5 times during the play. Does this happen to anyone else? Live performances of all kinds (especially involving kids) just make me so overwhelmingly happy and the waterworks start. #embarrassing

Family after the play- that's our neighbor Claire the star in the middle!
Afterwards we stayed up for awhile drinking then hit the road Sunday morning to get back to DC. Since I'll be gone for Harrison's birthday (August 1st- we're separated for 2 different weddings womp womp), we are currently celebrating 10 Days of Harrison and last night I tried to make my own version of his favorite cake which is KFC Chocolate Chip Cake. Turned out pretty good! Recipe and recap of 10 Days coming next week!




Clean Eating Sweet Potato "Burgers" + Weekend Recap

Monday, July 28, 2014

Did yall know we just got Wal-Mart in DC?? Did yall further know that after the 4th of July pretty much all outdoor/patio stuff goes on sale at Wal-Mart?!!! Well I was a kid in a candy store browsing through the outdoor section the other day (I had 3 things on my list to pick up...I forgot about what a list-suck Wal-Mart is). My backyard is approximately 10 feet long and 5 feet wide but all these things can fit into it. All of them. And then we officially have the best party yard on the block. Look at these amazing summer time things on sale there:


1. $150 Bar & Party Cooler || 2. $89 Gravity Free Recliner || 3. $13 Bocce Set || 4. $250 Tableset || 5. $39 Firepit || 6. $15.00 Inflatable Kiddie Pool


 Ok so #2 Gravity Free Recliner- HAVE YOU TRIED THESE YET?? At first I was like psh $89 for a chair? Then I sat in it and was like "give me ALL THE gravity free recliners NOW!". And the kiddie pool! What a perfect way to cool off when you live in DC and pool memberships involve 3 year waitlists or $30 guest fees!

So tell me: what is your ideal back yard item??

 PS I don't want to talk about the fact that this stuff is on sale because "summer is winding down" because that is pretty much the saddest thing ever. They also had a back to school display that made me feel nauseas.

PSS My fav Kristen at Kandid Kristen is having a blogaversary giveaway- go check it out!

Linking up today with my favorite Amanda- come join!

Friday Favs: Backyard Essentials (on SALE)

Friday, July 25, 2014




Clean snacking on vacation = strugglecity, am I right?? Thankfully I got my hands on these Taste of Nature clean eating snack bars to try just in time for my Charleston trip. We had our own little tasting party and took the leftovers to the beach.


Not only were these a great clean snack, they were clutch on the beach because unlike fruit, veggies and yogurt(my go-to clean snacks), they don't get mushy or go bad from sitting in my bag in the heat all day.


So here's the scoop on Taste of Nature: They work with family farmers to create delicious, certified organic, gluten-free certified, non-gmo project verified snack bars with real, nuts, fruits and grains that you can see (and under 200 calories, too). Nothing artificial, no fillers and no chemicals (say whaat? in a SNACK BAR?). As an organic snack bar, they contain more nutrients and vitamins than the average not organic snack.

According to a recent Taste of Nature survey, Americans struggle to snack nutritiously (guilty) and their top consideration when snacking is taste (very guilty). Let me tell you, I was not missing out on any tastes with these puppies. My favorite flavor was Himalayan Goji Summit- it was the perfect balance of fruit and nuts (hi sweet and salty!).


These snack bars come in 5 other flavors:  Brazilian Nut Festival (close 2nd favorite), California Almond Valley, Quebec Cranberry Carnival, Canadian Maple Forest, and Persian Pomegranate Garden. They retail for $1.99 and are available at fine natural food product stores and grocery retailers (click here for where to buy). I found mine at Yes! Organic Market across the street from my work and at Whole Foods down the street. 


While $1.99 is a little steep for a snack bar, this is definitely a great option for vacay snacks. $1.99 is cheaper than any other snack (healthy OR unhealthy) at the airport, and most beach stands and restaurants don't offer healthy snack options. Plus it's easy to pack- I've made the mistake of packing a peach and plum in my carry-on (security check = fruit ends up at the bottom of my bag = bruised fruits and juice covered Kindle) and this was a much better option. Plus on vacation I usually grab the most convenient snack which is a (not clean) single serving of chips that costs ~$1.50 and keeps me full for approximately 35 minutes. Or I stop at the most convenient place- McDonald's?- where the healthiest snack option is snack wraps at $1.60 that also keep me full for 35 minutes and give me zero energy/nutrients/all that good stuff. 

Speaking of energy I ate these one morning before my beach run (YES I ran on vacation! Once..) and I stayed full the whole run and after. These were super filling, and for a clean snack I would definitely buy these again.

Running is not so horrible when this is your view.

So tell me: what do you snack on at the airport? How do you stay healthy on vacay? 
I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

Clean Snacking: Taste of Nature Snack Bars

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Ok so I just had an amaazzzing weekend celebrating an old college BFF's bachelorette party in Charleston. I hadn't been to Charleston since another bachelorette party five years ago (5? 4? 6?). Despite being around college friends and attempting to party like I was in college, I did survive and I did have an amazing time. So here's the scoop on Charleston (one of my BFFs lives there so she told me about the places we didn't go).



Beaches:

Isle of Palms: This was a nice quiet beach with a few restaurants and bars but definitely not party city. Fortunately we brought our own party so this was no prob. Saturday we took a shuttle 30 minutes into downtown Charleston that cost $5/person so def not bad.
Sullivan's Island: Closer to Charleston, location of Charleston's University of Georgia bar so obvi I went there.
Folley Beach: This party beach was our college fav. Lots of people, lots of boozing, kind of like a college party.



All very bachelorette friendly as you can see.

Bars:

Husk Bar: This place is well-known for its restaurant but my friend (a real live local!) swears by the bar scene at night.
Midtown: This was very bachelorette-party appropriate. Live southern rock band, lots of college kids, shots all around. My friend lost her phone here and at the end of the night left her name and phone number for the bartender to call her if he found her phone if that tells you anything about how the night ended there.
Republic: This place was pretty sweet because it had table service with flaming bottles and a dance-y dj playing inside but a live band playing outside.
Market Street Saloon: We fortunately didn't make it to this one but everyone said it is THE bachelorette spot. A Coyote Ugly bar (aka dancing on the bars) that forces the bachelorette to dance on the bar.
*Sidenotes about the bars: If you want to hear live music, Charleston's noise ordinance forces it to cut off by 11pm. Also taxis are maaaddd expensive BUT this weekend was their first weekend with UberX so I definitely recommend using that. Or booking a shuttle ahead of time for a big group. Just be ready for that major expense.



BACON FRIES THIS IS REAL

Restaurants:

Fish ($$$): Thai-French-Seafood fusion. Sounds weird, tastes amazing. We ate here on Saturday, it's definitely on the fancier side but not SUPER fancy.
Xiao Bao Biscuit ($$): Asian soulfood. SAY WHAT? My friend swears everyone has to eat here.
The Grocery ($$$): Farm-to-table, all local, all goodness. BFF says this is where they go when they're in the mood for something fancy. I am dying to try it, also dying to go back to Charleston asap so we'll see how that goes.
Rarebit ($$): Could eat literally everything on this menu. Also could drink every drink on the menu. Yeah yall.


See: Ghost Tours. This is Philadelphia Alley which caught on fire forever ago but apparently you can hear people's screams at night. EEEEk

Things to do:

 Beaches (above)
The Market: They have a big market place full of fun things to check out.
Carriage tour: This was totally unnecessary for me because my friend took me around town and explained everything to me but I really recommend this if you don't have someone showing you around. Charleston is so rich with interesting history.
Ghost Tour: A place this full of history has got to be haunted right?

Ok now for my photo dump of amazingness.

Woke up to this view every morning:


Hey franz!


The girls on the beach. The MOH brought us all tank tops that said "that's what she said" and the bride's said " yes". Funny.


The 3 of us met in the dorms freshman year and lived together 3 years of college. Now we are all getting married within 9 months of each other. Weird right?


The above mentioned bacon fries with the lobster roll from Fish. Yes please.



I was seriously impressed by all the greenery in IOP.


Squinty eyes = Lindsay trying to drink like she's in college


With my tour guide Steph! On the battery.


Steph told me this color is Charleston's pink and that is why so many buildings are painted pink in the city. Look for it when you're there!


Hi cute tiny streets!!


Obligatory dog pic of my friends' dog Merlot. HI!!!




Charleston Recap + Everything You Need to Know About Visiting Charleston

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Happy Friday! I'm in Charleston for one of my best college friend's bachelorette parties woooo!!



This is my view, don't be jealous or anything:


JK JK I'm jealous of myself right now! Long weekend at the beach!

And now I'm just praying that I can remember that just because I am with college friends does NOT in fact mean my body is back in college condition


Or else I'll spend the whole weekend like this:





Anyone else have this problem of being around college friends and thinking you're in college again?

Hope everyone has a great weekend!! I'm taking an extended weekend so I'll be back Tuesday with Charleston travel tips and a zillion pictures. For now follow the fun on Instagram!

 And I leave you with this amazing solution to stop wasting the skins of our summer fruits, thank you buzzfeed for this tutorial:



Happy Friday from CHARLESTON!

Friday, July 18, 2014

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of ALO Drink for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

I don't usually do promoted posts, but if and when I do, they are products that I truly believe in and think others should know about. I have turned down lots of products because I either don't like them or they don't fit with this blog, so these thoughts on ALO's Aloe Vera Juice are 100% my own opinions. Plus they offered to select a winner out of the commenters on this post to receive a free ALO prize pack (full of juices!) so how could I pass that up? To enter the contest, answer the question in the comments below: what cocktail would you make with ALO drink? Names will be randomly drawn one week from today!

I've been big on using aloe for skin purposes (healing blisters on my poor feet, sunburns, etc), but Aloe Vera in juice form is a whole different story. It's been proven to aid in digestion, lower blood sugar in diabetes patients, and prevent heart disease. So I was pretty pumped to try ALO's new Aloe Vera Juice flavors. They have 3 lines of juice with different flavors: ALO Original (that's what I tried- 8 flavors!!), ALO Light (3 flavors womp womp), and ALO Coco (2 flavors of coconut water). The aloe used in this juice comes straight from the leaf, so when I got my first sip with pulp in it I was a little thrown off but it tasted so good it didn't matter haha. It's all organic, gluten free, fat-free, and low in calories unlike a lot of juices out there, and they are the first aloe vera juice to be an approved non-GMO Aloe Vera Juice.

So, I got the box, threw my juices in the fridge and invited some friends over to try them with me because I wanted to make mixed drinks out of them (healthy cocktails? healthyISH cocktails?). My friend Jay even (accidentally) wore a shirt that matched the bottles:


I don't usually drink juice because it seems like a waste of calories to me but this stuff was so refreshing, probably because the highs in DC have been 98 degrees all week and I have been slowly melting. We decided to mix it with some Peach Ciroc because that is my all time favorite liquor and we always have a Costco-sized bottle on hand. Ohhememmmgeee this was delicious. Everyone liked the cocktail, even Harrison who, as I've said before, thinks healthy food is a gimmick and refuses to try. My favorite combination was the Watermelon Peach flavor with the Peach Ciroc.


Peachy-Watermelon Summer Drink:
  • 1 Cup Ice
  • 2 ounces Peach Ciroc
  • 5 ounces Watermelon-Peach ALO Aloe Juice
Mix it well. How easy is that? This was seriously so so good after doing a 30 minute HIIT workout + walking around in the 98 degree heat all day.
The ALO website also has other delicious looking cocktail recipes to try, this is going to be my next attempt:



I will definitely be buying this juice myself because of how refreshing and low in calories and clean it is. See: shameless sweaty selfie:



Random fact (it's the little things for me): each ALO bottle has a QR code that takes you to a song that was specifically prodcuced for that flavor. Ha! ALO also has a pretty sweet soundcloud page you can listen to here

And don't forget about the massive giveaway I mentioned earlier: ALO is also hosting a massive giveaway and everyone who comments on this post answering the question (What cocktail would you make with ALO drink?) is entered to win! Names will be drawn at random out of the pool of comments and ALO will send you drinks! So tell me: what cocktail would you mix with ALO drink? You can also earn entries in their nationwide giveaway by liking their Facebook page, following their Instagram (below), and following their Twitter.

You can find them on social media too:
ALO Website
ALO Facebook
ALO Twitter
ALO Instagram
ALO Youtube


Visit Sponsor's Site

ALO Natural Aloe Vera Juice Review and ALO Drink Giveaway!

Thursday, July 17, 2014

via

So this is something that has always bothered me and has been an issue since I was 14 years old and started running outside (14! really pervs??), and THAT is cat calling/honking/men yelling obscenities. I know this is a part of living in a city, but it has been a thing in every city I've lived in (including an incident with cat calling COPS), and even when I did a stint living in the nice quiet burbs. And I know it's not just me- I see it happen to runners and walkers every day and read about it on other running blogs.

To me this is not only incredibly degrading and disrespectful and embarrassing, but it makes me feel unsafe. If these men feel they have the right to yell out what they would like to do, what is stopping them from actually doing it? Do they feel they also have the right to assault me simply because I'm a female and I'm running or walking outside?

I have an old roommate (hi Amanda!) who started "giving it back" to the cat callers, so for example a man yells "I want to grab that ass!" she yells right back "I want to grab YOUR ass". It at least threw them off, and provided some good laughs afterwards (just imagine when comments where genitals are involved).

So I'm curious- how do you handle this or how would you handle this? Do you think it's safe to "give it back"? Is there a "right" way to handle these situations? And why is it "ok" for men to do this??

Linking up today at WOW, Humpday Blog Hop, Confessions, Weigh in Wednesday


Wednesday Workouts: Let's chat about something that's pissing me off.

Wednesday, July 16, 2014



You know how Trader Joe's does samples at lunch time? Well last week they had this quinoa-goat cheese-bean concoction and I have been on a goat cheese kick ever since. As I was drooling over Pinterest pictures of goat cheese plates I came up with this baby and oooommmmgggg. I died a little with every bite, it was that good.

Servings: 1
Prep Time: 5 mins
Cook Time: 15 mins

Ingredients:

  • 1 tortilla (I use Ezekiel)
  • 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
  • 1/4 cup crumbled goat cheese
  • 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 apple, diced
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1/4 onion, sliced thin
  • 1 Tablespoon honey

Caramelize the onion slices (do this by heating them slowly over low heat with a little bit of oil until they are brownish). Combine the water and apple in a small frying pan and cook the apples over medium heat, covered, for about 5 minutes. Uncover and cook a little longer until the water cooks off.

Brush the olive oil on the tortilla. Cover the tortilla with the apples, onion and cheeses. Drizzle honey over the top and pop it in the toaster oven (or real oven) at 350 for about 5 minutes. Trust me, you're going to die. It's so. so. GOOD.

Linking up at Delicious Dish Tuesday and Tuesday Recipe Swap

Goat Cheese + Apple + Honey Drizzle "pizza" LIIIIIKKEEEE WHAT

Tuesday, July 15, 2014


Last week I mentioned squoodles + meat sauce being my favorite meal of the week- my friend Maggie brought me squash from her mom's garden so I made it out of those, something about knowing my own friend picked the squash out of her garden made the squoodles taste so much better!

Servings: 4
Prep Time: 10 mins
Cook Time: 15 mins

Ingredients:

  • 3 large squashes (squash? squashi?) (FREE from your bff's garden)
  • 1 lb lean ground turkey ($3.50)
  • 1/2 onion, chopped ($.50)
  • 1/2 green pepper, chopped ($.50)
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/2 cup mushrooms, diced ($1.00)
  • 1 jar clean pasta sauce (I get mine at Trader Joe's for $1.89)
  • 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
  • 1 tablespoon parsley
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
Season the ground turkey with the Italian seasoning and parsley. Brown the meat over medium-high heat. Once the meat is almost browned, add the green pepper and onion to the pan. Stir constantly over the medium-high heat for about 5 minutes. After the 5 minutes, add the jar of sauce and garlic. Cook for an addition 5-7 minutes over medium heat.

While the sauce is cooking, slice the squashes long-way into thin strips, then chop those thin strips into about 4 long skinny strips like this:

Toss the squoodles with the olive oil, salt and pepper then microwave for 2 minutes or until tender.

Once the meat sauce is done cooking, top your squoodles with it and enjoy! We also sprinkled some parmesan cheese on top and enjoyed with 2 buck chuck. Life is good!

This weekend was the first time I was at home with no major plans, visitors, weddings, etc in over 2 months!! It was so great! Friday I had a half day at work and stayed hungover until 10 pm so spent some quality time with Olivia and Elliot and the rest of the SVU crew.

Saturday we went to my friends' wedding brunch. They got married a few weeks ago in Seattle but we couldn't go because Harrison was the best man in another wedding so I was so glad we got to celebrate with them! 




Harrison and I grabbed lunch at Ted's Bulletin where we had- wait for this- homemade bacon and peanut butter poptarts. Liiiiikeee whaaaat



Then we did a little bar hopping for a friends' bday and I tried all kinds of new beers, my favorite being the 312 Urban Wheat.


I bopped over to Bethesda to meet up with other friends for the World Cup and we turned it into an all-night affair ending with karaoke, always a good night.

Sunday I did some massive cleaning and planted some herbs to grow myself (after asking above-mentioned Maggie 10,000 questions):


Andi had a play date with a neighbor named Ruby and they were adorable as usual- Andi clearly loves the camera, look how she is looking at it! That's my little diva!





And that was it! This week I am SUPER PUMPED because it's one of my college BFF's bachelorette parties in CHARLESTON!! I'm flying out Thursday afternoon and cannot freaking waaaiiiittt!

Linking up today with Biana, Leeann, Kimberlee

Clean Spaghetti = Squoodles + Meat Sauce and a weekend recap

Monday, July 14, 2014

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