Santa Hat Brownie Bites The dental school had a holiday party last night and in one of the emails concerning the party they said “Feel free to bring a dessert if you like to bake”. Even though I got this message the night before, I put my game face on and got creative with the ingredients I already had in the apartment. Since our winter break starts at 12PM today (wahooooooo!), I had a lot of strawberries to eat before I left and knew I could put the little ones to good use: So cute, and so so easy. I highly recommend you to bring these to any holiday party in the coming days. Those cookies in the back right were mine too, and they were definitely delicious, but not as visually enticing as these adorable santa hats. Did I mention how easy these were yet? 2 weeks off from school = lots and lots of baking, keep checking back for yummy recipes!
no-bake energy bites I probably should have poured a nice stiff drink recipe for you all on this loveliest of lovely tax days. Especially for my fellow small business owners who just gave half of their revenue back to the government. Good grief, I won’t even go there. Instead though, I thought I’d offer my idea of a more comforting alternative. Pasta. When life is good, and when life gets crazy, I turn to pasta. And just as it has for years, this one hit the spot. Read more This past Friday night was meant for celebrating. The weather was sit-out-on-the-deck-in-the-cool-evening-breeze perfection. And a very special birthday girl turned the big 3-0. Friends, meet Stacey. Read more TGIF, friends. Hope that you all have had a lovely week, and that a relaxing weekend lies ahead. Read more Ever since my friends and I met for a tapas happy hour at our neighborhood Spanish restaurant a few weeks ago, I’ve had sangria on my mind. Read more Read more I’ve always said that I like a good balance of cooking and baking in my life.
Drop 5 Pounds in 3 Days! Want to kickstart a healthier you? Try this 3-day anti-inflammatory cleanse from Lyn-Genet Recitas, director of nutrition at Neighborhood Holistic, a nonprofit health center in New York City. Three simple rules: Avoid added salt, drink plenty of water (calculate how much you need here) and if no amounts are listed for a specific ingredient below, you may eat as much as you'd like. Average weight loss on a plan like this? Nearly five pounds, says Recitas. But The Plan here. Breakfast 1 cup OAT-FREE granola (second choice: rice-based cereal) and 1 cup berries Or 20-oz smoothie (Blend 1 pear, 1 cup berries, ice and liquid. Note: Columbia County Flax Granola is great for relieving chronic constipation. Lunch Carrot ginger soup (recipe below) Mesclun-mix salad (mesclun, ¼ cup low-sodium chickpeas, cucumber, ½ ounce sunflower seeds and ¼ avocado) with lime agave or lemon oil vinaigrette (recipes below) Snack 1 cup watermelon Steamed broccoli with extra-virgin olive oil Lunch Leftover chard
Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Reindeer I had a lot of ideas in my head of projects I wanted to try out this holiday season, and this is the one that has won out as my favorite so far. My Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Pumpkins were so incredibly popular, that I knew I needed to come up with some new ideas for Christmas...and probably for every season afterward! (Can you say, Chocolate Covered Peeps??? YUM!!!) I am giddy with excitement at how cute these turned out!!! Want to make your own? Here's what you need: Large Marshmallows (I prefer Jet-Puffed over the store brand) Lollipop sticks, popsicle sticks, or pretzel sticks Ribbon Melting Chocolate (I prefer the ones you buy at the craft store for their smooth texture) Cinnamon dots, Hot Tamales or Mike & Ike's Reds Small Pretzels Pearl Sprinkles (or other candies for the eyes) Foam block First, set up your assembly line. Break the pretzels in half. Snip just the ends of the Hot Tamales or Mike & Ike's, or count out your cinnamon dots. I participate in these parties.
Homemade Strawberry Fruit Leather If you follow weelicious on Twitter or Facebook, you may have read about my recent fruit leather obsession. My kids love fruit roll-ups and while there are some great brands out there made with just fruit, I know can save a ton of dough making it myself. While I haven't spent a lot of money trying to figure it out, I have spent a lot of time! As of today, I've made 15 (yes, fifteen!!!!) batches of strawberry leather in an effort to perfect the recipe. It's been a frustrating challenge to say the least, especially when making fruit leather seems so easy in principal. Here's a breakdown of my results: Batches 1-4: I used juicy strawberries from the farmer's market, baked them for three hours and the batch turned out perfect and chewy with a deep red color. Batches 5-8: So much for being proud of myself. Batches 9-12: Back to perfection using berries from the farmer's market.
Pandora: How to Rip and Save Pandoras Music to MP3 Files for Free Pandora is an amazing music service. If you want to actually save the music to your hard drive to keep forever and forever, these steps will allow you to do it easily. Burn straight to mp3 with tags, titles, and sorting intact. Updated! You need firefox as well. 1. New instructional guide here: 3. Welcome to Pandoras Jar Attempting to lauch on port 80...OK [ready, lets grab some MP3'S!!!] 7. How to Make Greek Yogurt Make your own regular or Greek yogurt at home with this easy method. Next to salad in a jar, homemade fat-free Greek yogurt is one of my most powerful weapons in the war against extra poundage. I eat it a minimum of twice a day–with my breakfast cereal and as an afternoon snack. It’s satisfying. I honestly can’t think of a better snack. But it can be expensive to buy. Keep reading for all the details or go straight to the recipe below. These directions are perfect for making large batches as opposed to the individual servings produced by an electric yogurt maker. Directions: First: Fill Pyrex batter bowl (my preference) or 2-quart glass container with 2 quarts of fat-free milk. Heat 2 quarts of non-fat milk to 175 degrees F. If a skin forms, remove it, Second: Allow milk to cool down to somewhere between 100 and 115 degrees. Allow to cool down to 100-115 degrees F. Third: Whisk 2-3 teaspoons of commercial or homemade yogurt into cooled milk. Place into the oven and cover with a towel.
Advice At 18 Somebody asked me what advice I would give to my 18-year-old self. It is as follows: First of all, slow your load. Well, except for that one guy. No. Seriously. That being said, I don’t want you to be so cynical. Remember being vulnerable isn’t something you only do when you are young. Fill your I-Pod up with terrible music so you can one day loudly sing that music when you are 22 and drunk on a rooftop. Stop wearing so many denim skirts they look stupid. Give your best friends more hugs. Realize that many of these friends will go away, and you will soon make new ones who ask ‘so how were you at 18?’ Go to class. Learn shit. Get a job. Do your laundry. Don’t smoke because you can. Be a kid. 18 isn’t that old. Fuck peer pressure. Have the best summer possible. Don’t buy so much gourmet coffee slushies, it’s a waste of money. Go abroad if you can afford it. Have fun sober. Have fun by yourself. Don’t try to figure out your whole life right now. Tell that person you LIKE like them.
Make Your Own High Low Skirt We love the high low skirt trend. The breezy hemline makes this trend perfect for these hot summer months. You can see Elsie sporting this style here. 1. My skirt was knee-length to begin with, but you could also use this technique on a maxi skirt.