Back in Action/ Kale & Banana Smoothie Review

So I am a bold faced liar seeing as zero posts about my life occurred during my summer position. Never fear, however, because I am here to get back to my roots with a food review!!! I am super excited about this review because I have been thinking about trying a kale smoothie for over a year now and, alas, it has come to fruition! I picked up the original recipe from here, but of course I made changes as I went along.


1 banana (I froze it)
2 cups chopped kale (I didn't measure; next time I will)
1/2 cup light unsweetened soy milk 1/4 cup low fat milk (what I had on hand)
1 tablespoon flax seeds
1 teaspoon maple syrup 1 tablespoon honey (I misread the teaspoon part)
Then I added:
2 tablespoon Greek yogurt
1/2 cup strawberries

In retrospect, I am unsure why I went so rogue with this recipe. I think there was another recipe I viewed and then just combined the ingredients. I do not think the strawberries were necessary, per se, and the next time I make it I will definitely use a teaspoon (vs tablespoon *forehead slap*) of honey. That being said, this smoothie turned out to be particularly enjoyable. My mother said she could still taste the kale, but I personally did not find the kale taste to be prominent or overwhelming. This is coming from a girl who does not usually like kale because of its bitterness. I think this is an excellent recipe to play around with according to what you want to taste in your smoothie. The next time I make this I might add kiwi instead of strawberries, for example. Overall, I really enjoyed the outcome. Definitely a 5 star recipe. I hope you all take the time to try it. Salud!

Update!

Life has really taken off over the past month or so. This, actually, does not account for the hiatus prior to May, but I like to lie to myself so I am going to pretend it does. Since I last checked in I moved on from my job at the Gap and am now working at a summer program on the east coast. I am super excited about this new position. So far it seems that it is going to utilize and expand my broad, but often overlooked, skill of usefulness. I have recognized that I am prime material for working in an office setting in a receptionist/secretary/office manager type position, but without background it was tricky convincing employers of my conviction. With this position, however, I am hoping the tide is about to change. Especially as I look for employment this fall while I am in graduate school. That is my second piece of "life changing" news. This fall I commence graduate studies at Oregon State University. I am also very excited about that.
The reason I am denoting all of these life changes is because it seems there will be a shift in blog content. I assume there will still be periodical posts about "fashion" just because I still really like clothes. However, I do not foresee many recipe reviews (which were some of my favorite posts) in the near future. Instead I anticipate more "life update" posts as well as book reviews...those book reviews I have alluded to yet never actually gone about doing. I'm really on book, like, 7 in J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood series and I have actually written down stuff I wanted to discuss, yet nothing has ever made it into this space. Ridiculous. But hopefully over the summer I'll do better. And here ends this quick update. Happy Tuesday!

Salud!

Healthy Strawberry Shortcake Oatmeal Review

I recently discovered this youtube site that is all about providing clean, yet tasty recipes. I have tried a couple of the recipes posted and today I tried the "Easy to Make Healthy Strawberry Shortcake Oatmeal". I quite liked the recipe, though I did have to make it twice. I ALWAYS have issues following oatmeal recipes; that liquid to oats ratio kills me every time! So the first time I followed the instructions blind: 1/2 cup oats, 1 cup liquid. HORRIBLE IDEA. After 2 minutes in the microwave my oats were still swimming. :( So I threw them out. :/ (I've tried salvaging oatmeal before, it doesn't work.) On the second go-around I used 1/2 cup of oats and 3/4 cup liquid. Worked out so much better. After that, everything was on the up-and-up. Greek Yogurt, I believe, is an acquired taste and if you haven't acquired it, you most likely won't like its usage in this recipe. Nevertheless, I do agree adding sweetener and vanilla extract takes the edge off. On the one downside, I was not a fan of the strawberries. Maybe mine weren't sweet enough, but I think I would have enjoyed the recipe just as much, if not more, without them. But that's just personal preference. I'll add the video and recipe list below. Definitely a recipe worth trying! Salud!


You will need:
1/2 cup oats
3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk 1/2 cup 2% milk
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup sliced strawberries
2 tbsp. Greek yogurt
1/2 tbsp. stevia Agave Nectar
Vanilla extract

Website Wednesday

Because I know I'm not doing anything this week that will result in a Friday Favorites post, I've decided to be semi-clever and have Website Wednesday. Here are the [Youtube] websites I am SUPER into this week.

1. LeanBodyLifestyle



This site has some SUPER tasty, SUPER easy food ideas for the clean eater that gets bored with clean eating. I 100% recommend trying a good half of his recipes. I personally like to combine his "pizza" recipes for a quick lunch when I have a craving for pizza. Which happens to be like once a week. I also can't wait to try the "Low-Carb Protein Cinnamon Rolls" recipe. I'm pretty skeptical about that one, we will have to wait and see.

2. ThoseGirlsAreWild




Sometimes it is nice to watch videos where a person has an opinion and this is their informing you. Most of their videos are comedy based (and hilarious), but through it all you get an overriding sense that these videos are very personality infused. I think these women are very aware of who they are and what they believe in and they make videos to talk about their...life.  There is this genuineness about it all that makes it infinitely interesting to me. And the videos give me a serious case of the giggles frequently.

3. BeiMaejor



I think this man is infinitely talented. (Infinitely is apparently the word of the day) Watch the "Bei Maejor Makes A Beat Out of Christmas" to see what I mean. His talent just seems so spanned, he has a musical ear and it shows through his singing, his beats, his lyrical compositions. I feel he's a nice break from what main stream society is peddling. Don't get me wrong, his commercial debut of "Trouble" is decidedly commercial and I am a HUGE fan of Drake so I undoubtedly appreciate the commercial, but listening to music coming from a different angle is always pleasant.

Well, have a wonderful Website Wednesday! Hope you enjoy some of these sites. Salud!

Best! Week! Ever! (Part 1)

Do you ever have those weeks that are SUPER SPECTACULAR? Everything is going right and everything seems to be going from good to better to great ALL WEEK. I'm having one of those weeks. I have them everyone once in a while, a few times a year, and I LOVE them every time they come around. I am on cloud nine. So, I am going to detail my week for you thus far (and since I'm an augur, I'll include the rest of the week as well.)

• Monday: I received my first acceptance to a Graduate school. Indeed, the Director called me personally. <- That was, in my opinion, the bossiest part.
• Tuesday: I got the okay from my work to dye my hair multiple unnatural colors!!! You DID read my Multicolored Hair post, no?
• Wednesday: Got my nails done. Now the tips have a pretty pink glitter to them. I've decided that I can for sure do this on my own and decided to purchase an acrylic nail kit for my birthday...3 months in the future. Lol!
• Monday-Friday: I worked out all week, every day, according to my new exercise regime AND I cleaned up my eating for the week.
• Sunday: Mikey is coming to visit and I get to spend all day with him in San Fran. THEN I get to experience Sunday Funday with Binx. Hopefully adding Mikey to that mix as well. I'm pre-excited for this.

I hope you lovelies have an exceptional week as well! I'll fill this in more as the week continues; of course I'm assuming more goodness is headed my way! Salud!

Multicolored Hair

I am obsessed! Post Rihanna-fire-engine-red-hair, women have fallen HARD for ridiculously colored tresses. And up until now I have been very take-it-or-leave-it about it. Ombre hair wasn't even on my radar, I only caught onto colored tips because of Lauren Conrad's peach tips (still think that was novel) and I was never into a whole head dyed crazy colors because it was such a tricky look to pull off and 85% of those who tried failed. Unbeknownst to them, of course. However, I came across Stephanie Bettinger's photo on Instagram when she tried out multicolored streaks and I was instantly sucked in!


Look at her! Her hair is FIRE. Complete and utter FIRE! I can't get enough. These women with 3 or more colored streaks are making me so jealous.
Katy Perry rocked it! LC [supposedly] rocked it! These other random girls rocked it!
     

I want to rock it too! I honestly think it is a combination of my genuinely liking the controlled wildness and the result of my recently reading J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood series and the character Phury who has, you guessed it, multicolored hair. My life is always being influenced by the fictional literature I read. Nevertheless, I am 100% going to have to ask my work how bad it is if I add pink, grey & blue/purple streaks to my hair. I know I am not 16, save for at heart, but this as a summertime hairstyle is SO appealing. I have months to make this happen. We will see. Salud!

Romp It Up, Part Deux!

Yesterday's post about denim overalls gave me food for thought and lead me to the conclusion that a much safer alternative to denim overalls would be: denim romper. I actually thought of this as I was creating the denim overalls post, but wanted two separate posts in the end. Anyway, Free People has the cutest denim romper.
 

It is also an astronomical amount for a romper. Baby Phat has a pretty cute one as well, below. (Side note- I didn't know Baby Phat was still in business!?)
 
 Further, ASOS, quite possibly my new favorite online store, has some out-and-out overall shorts. They are all over this trend.  I think these are my favorite because they stay true to the denim overalls concept, which is what has me intrigued. And, to top it off, they have it in a different color!
 
 
Free People: http://bit.ly/wjJ0fy
Baby Phat: http://bit.ly/xlLKhb
Asos: http://bit.ly/yM3Gvv
Asos (Colored): http://bit.ly/zywIqZ

Also, I just found this gem! Asos is truly on top of their game. Check it out: Colored Overalls!
 
Too cute, yea?!? Salud!
Asos: http://bit.ly/wffes6