Seasonal Flavors Fill the Air

Hi there!

First cocoa of the season--complete with puffy marshmallows

I don't know about you but I still get super excited for the holidays. As in, I listen to Christmas music in October and anxiously await Halloween since the next day holiday gear kicks in full-blast. That being said, be prepared for seasonal overload below!

Seasonal Flavors

Seasonal flavors such as pumpkin, gingerbread, and peppermint sneak their way into my daily eats. Lately, peppermint has come in the form of this new limited-edition flavored bar from Clif! Awhile back I saw on Twitter that Clif was sending out free samples of their new bar if you followed them. Being a loyal Clif fan, I jumped at the chance.

The bar actually came while we were on our honeymoon, but you'd better believe I was pretty excited to see it in my mailbox when we arrived home.

I taste-tested it this past weekend in between designing at Starbucks with Krystine and hitting up the gym for a sweaty elliptical ride while watching Wheel of Fortune (have I mentioned that I'm obsessed with that show? Andy and I may or may not watch it most evenings after work...)

At first I was surprised to see the bright red bits of peppermint flavor woven into the bar. I was not expecting this at all! These are definitely different than the Luna Chocolate Peppermint Stick bars that I love, but it was a good different! These bars seem to be more minty and more spot-on candy cane flavor. I love anything mint, so this was definitely right up my alley.

I was actually really impressed and would definitely purchase these to enjoy throughout the holiday season. Now if only I could find the pumpkin and gingerbread varieties of these bars! I'm itching to try them before they're all snatched up for the holidays.

Holiday Baking
On Sunday afternoon, I headed down to my mom's house for the day since my dad was out of town and we wanted to get some seasonal baking under our belts. On the agenda: our annual granola and pumpkin white chocolate chip muffins!

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My mom actually came across the recipe for pumpkin white chocolate chip muffins over on Pinterest! I was so impressed!

We immediately started making them after reading through the recipe--the batter smelled so good! Pumpkin and cinnamon filled the air! I wasn't sure if I would like the addition of the white chocolate chips since I'm not a huge white chocolate fan, but in the end it turned out to be a great flavor complement to the pumpkin.

After mixing all of the ingredients, off to the oven they went! About twenty minutes later, we had a dozen delicious muffins--and you'd better believe we sampled one right away! 

After having another one this morning for breakfast, I've come to the conclusion that I like them better when they aren't warm from the oven, but either way--they're so good! 

Next up on our baking agenda: homemade granola! My mom and I make this granola together every year as a tradition. We also make homemade Chex mix but we didn't get to that this weekend--we decided to save it for a day when Andrea could make it with us, since she enjoys it just as much! 

Each year we switch up the ingredients just a little bit, but overall, we stick to the same tried and true recipe. This year's new addition was a swirl of real maple syrup for some extra sweetness. Also into the mixing bowl went oats, honey, cinnamon, brown sugar, oil, coconut, and sliced almonds. 

We stirred it all up before pouring it onto a cookie sheet to bake in the oven--stirring at regular intervals until it was golden and crunchy! After it cools, we always add mini dark chocolate chips to finish it off! It's great in yogurt or eaten as cereal, but I prefer it plain as a snack--it's got the perfect amount of crunch, texture, and sweetness! 

I was also super excited when I found out that my mom had Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride tea in her cupboard! You know I stocked up upon leaving her house. For those that were asking about it, I usually get it at my local grocery store, but my mom said she found it at a Wal-Mart Superstore.

I'll have to find a box of my own sometime soon to add to my snack drawer in my desk at work. This drawer of snacks has saved my butt more than a few times when I've forgotten my lunch bag on my kitchen counter in the morning. 

I almost always have the following in my snack drawer:

• Candy
• Peanut Butter
• Granola (to add to my yogurt)
• Varieties of tea (our office is so cold all year round!)
• Clif-Z bars
• Luna bars
• Dry cereal
• Drink mixes (Pure by Crystal Light, etc.)
• Microwave popcorn
• Instant oatmeal
• Snack crackers like Kashi or Goldfish
• Can of soup

It's great for if I find myself needing something in the afternoon or if I'm in a pinch and don't bring a lunch for the day!

Speaking of work, it's time to head out for the day. I'm excited because I'm meeting up with Kaaren after work! We're headed to one of my favorite places--and no, it's not Starbucks this time! 

I promise honeymoon recaps will be coming soon...I'm still in the process of sorting through hundreds of images from that week.

Have you been able to find the seasonal flavors of Clif bars?

Do you like white chocolate?

What's in your snack drawer?

Harvest Party, New Snacks, and The Photo Challenge Returns

Good morning and happy weekend! 

I woke up starving this morning so I made a bowl of pumpkin oatmeal with a big scoop of peanut butter on top. Seriously, don't knock it until you try it--it's so good! For the pumpkin oatmeal, I made oats on the stove using milk, pumpkin, brown sugar, pumpkin pie spice, and about 1/2 cup of oats. So good paired with some gingerbread coffee in my new Mrs. mug!

This week has been a crazy one! During our first full-week at home together, I somehow managed to break our microwave! 

I promise I've been using more than the microwave to make our meals! The other night I made white pizza with chicken--can you tell which side is his and which is hers? 

Luckily the new microwave will arrive soon so we can resume convenience cooking. It's crazy how much you don't realize how much you use the microwave. For example, last night we made baked potatoes to go with our turkey burgers; normally I pre-cook the potatoes in the oven for about 8 minutes, then toss them in the oven to get crispy since they will cook much faster. Well, last night sans microwave, I stuck the cold potatoes directly into the oven and nearly an hour (!!) later, they were done. They were still super tasty though! 

Harvest Party

Earlier in the week, on Halloween night, my friend Amy hosted a little harvest party for us. It was so fun to see some friends and kick back while catching up with one another. 

My contribution, along with caramel Chex mix! See the bottom of this post for the recipe! 

One of the girls brought a recipe and ingredients to make peanut butter caramel corn and wow, was it ever delicious! Recipe will be appearing on the blog when I make it sometime this winter. 

Last night around 8:15pm, we had the great idea to unpack the rest of our boxes and organize Andy's office. Two and a half hours later, we called it a night and we'll be wrapping it up today (hopefully!). I can't wait to get all settled in so that I know exactly where things are. Andy also suggested putting up our Christmas tree so I am way excited about that--whenever we get around to it. It'll be fun to celebrate our first married Christmas together! It's so hard to believe that it is literally right around the corner.

New Snacks

www.snapzcrisps.com

I recently tried these new apple crisps and thought I'd share my thoughts on them because I was really impressed. 

I've tried apple chips in the past and I feel as though they are either hit or miss; a lot of times they have a chemical-y aftertaste or just taste "off." However, these new snacks didn't disappoint! 

The flavor was spot on and the crunch was perfect. Each snack size bag is made from 1 whole apple, has 45 calories, and is 100% all-natural. Now those are stats to get excited about! You'd better believe I will be picking up some more of these soon! I'm thinking they'd be a great addition to my snack drawer at work--you know, for when you get the munchies around 3pm.

Photo Challenge Returns

Now that I'm almost back into my routine, I'm happy to reintroduce the 30 Day Photo Challenge that I started awhile ago. Looking back, I left off on Day 10, which brings us to: Something I made! 

The mix before adding the m&m's and candy corn

For our harvest party, I contributed a caramel snack mix that we soon dubbed as "Rot your teeth mix" since it was so sweet and addicting. I first sampled this yummy mix a few years ago when my friend Allie brought it over to my house--I remember not being able to stop munching on it--that's how good it was! I randomly remembered it last weekend while I was trying to decide what to make for our party and decided to give it a whirl. 

You may find the recipe below, which I snagged from a forum about cereal recipes. Although, I switched it up a bit by adding some candy corn to the mix--had to make it festive for the occasion, you know! 

Caramel Chex Mix

• 1 lg. box Crispix cereal (Rice Chex will also work)
• 10 oz. bag thin pretzel sticks (I used the pretzel rounds)
• 2 cups of peanuts
• 2 cups of m&m's
• 1 small bag of candy corn

Mix all ingredients except for the candy in a large mixing bowl and set aside.

• 2 c. brown sugar
• 1 c. butter
• 1/2 c. corn syrup

Boil 2 minutes. Pour over cereal mixture and stir. Bake in oven at 350 degrees for 8 minutes. Take out and stir. Bake another 8 minutes. Spread on foil to cool completely, then add candy, stir, and enjoy!

Saturday Plans

On the agenda for this weekend: unpack/organize, meet up with Krystine for a Starbucks design date, gym time x2, and maybe make some granola with my mom! 

When do you usually put up your Christmas tree?

Would you last long without a microwave?

Do you prefer sweet or savory Chex mixes?

Let's Talk in Tangents, Okay?

Good morning, friends!

Fall is here! 

So far The Shack is pretty good!

Hope you are doing well on this mid-week marker! I'm super excited for this week to fly by because this Saturday is my bachelorette party with my friends! Since the whole "let's bar hop and be super obnoxious" isn't really my thing, Andrea is throwing a "girl's night" themed party at my place instead. It'll be great to see a bunch of friends that I haven't seen for awhile--some since college.

So, I just got all excited because I thought I heard thunder, and when I looked out my window, I realized it was my neighbor rolling his trash bin down to the curb...killjoy.

Is it sad that I get more excited about the food photography and design/layout of Target mailers than I do about the coupons that are inside? Either way, I always save these mailers in my inspiration file. Speaking of which, I'll have to do a post on that sometime in the future--I keep a filing system of design ideas that I've come across over the years. It's a great resource when you're stuck on a project and need a fresh idea!

A thank-you card I drew for my mother-in-law after she showered me with a ton of gifts a few weeks ago. I'm so excited to be using my new kitchen gadgets! Now if only she'll share her recipe for pumpkin bread...that stuff is so delicious!

My mom and I always grab a free Starbucks coffee after trading in the empty bags whenever we run errands! This past weekend we added a pump of Pumpkin Spice syrup into them and it sure was delicious for a chilly fall morning!

We were on a mission to figure out the wedding table centerpieces and the wedding cake! We left rather inspired and hope to go flower shopping within the next week or so to get that item checked off of the wedding to-do list.

Car snacks en route to my bridal shower. A string cheese was also consumed along the way.

Reading blogs on my mom's phone during the ride--it made the time fly by! Now I just need to get my hands on a smart phone!

Pumpkin bread and some pretty flowers that are adorning my kitchen counter this week! 

Finally took 5 minutes to clean out my purse--makes for a less stressful day since I don't have to dig around for everything. It's funny how my phone always seems to sneak to the bottom of my purse--it makes it hard to find when it rings! To see what I keep in my purse, you may read about it here.

Mid-afternoon snack before getting my tires rotated and hitting up the grocery store!

What in the world?!

Last night's dinner: Trader Joe's Roasted Red Pepper + Tomato soup and a side of multigrain bread. I just love soups on cold nights...this was my first time trying this soup and I loved it--I'll definitely be picking this up again soon.

I also picked this up at TJ's...I wasn't sure what to expect from it...it's dairy-free and I didn't realize that until after I got home. I guess that's what sorbet means...? 

However, it was actually really good! It tasted like a fudge bar (remember those from when you were a kid?!) and is just slightly less creamy than regular ice cream. It also has a very strong dark chocolate flavor--mmm, it definitely hit the spot! 

Dippin' Ketchup

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While riding the elliptical the other day at the gym, I saw this new product being introduced on the evening news and I was intrigued. Heinz just launched new ketchup packets that you can either dip your food into or you can tear the opposite end and squeeze it onto your food or plate. How nifty! Have you seen these at fast food places yet?

Ever had dairy-free "ice cream"?
Have you seen or tried the new ketchup packets?
Favorite thing to put ketchup on? Sweet potato fries for me!

Invitations Out the Door

Good morning!

I took the day off from blogging yesterday since Friday was such a busy day! After work, I headed up to my step-grandma's house so that she could work on altering my wedding dress. Sine I'm such a shrimp, a good chunk of material needs to be cut off before it can be hemmed. After trying on the dress and pining it to the right height, we played around with bustle ideas and then headed upstairs for dinner.

It was great to catch up with her and my grandpa, since although they live right by me, I don't get to see them very often. My step-grandma is an awesome seamstress and has a little sewing shop set up in her house! I am so thankful that she is able to help me out with the alterations!

After saying goodbye and heading back home, I popped in a movie and waited for Andy to arrive. He got to my place around 10 and we started putting postage on all of our wedding invitations. We also assembled all of the invitations since we needed to include an invite, an RSVP card, and a smaller, stamped envelope for our guest to send in their RSVP card.

We finished the first round of invitations around 2am! It was a late night for this girl! Around 12am, I headed to the couch and assembled the invitations while laying down and watching another movie since I'm normal in bed by 10:30 each night!

The next morning, I dropped off the invitations at the Post Office and they are out the door! Friends and family should be receiving them this week! This was a major wedding to-do and it feels great to have it complete! Now we will just wait to receive the response cards!

We're getting married in 61 days! Ah! I remember for the longest time that that number was well over 200 days! Now it is so close!

After the post office, I ran and errand and couldn't help picking up some of these. Since I'm not going back to school this Fall, but still wanted some new supplies, I purchased some markers for my desk at work! I'm excited to use these tomorrow at the office!

Of course I put my name on them just as I would have done for school. ;-)

I was surprised when I took the larger markers out of their box and found that the barrels were black! I had never seen this before! After looking at the back of the box, I soon learned why!

After running my errand, I hit up the gym for a sweaty workout to start the day! This past week, I was chatting with Allie about strength training. I've always used to the weight machines, but recently started using free weights.

This intimidates me like crazy since I don't know much about free weights except what I learned in dance. My studio required us to do a lot of training on top of dancing (lifting weights, sit ups, push ups, running, etc.). Since I knew I wanted to step this area of my workouts up a notch, I bit the bullet and signed up for a few training sessions with a personal trainer at the gym. My first one is this week and I'm excited but also a little nervous! I'll let you know how it goes.

Upon returning home from the gym, I cooled off with a shower and a delicious protein-packed smoothie!
It definitely hit the spot! After awhile, Andy came over and we headed out to get his birthday gift a little early! I'll reveal what it was tomorrow! Last night, we were wiped after our late night the night before, so we cooked up some turkey burgers and settled in on the couch while enjoying a movie that we picked up while we were out. I had heard that it was a great movie from a few friends of mine, and they were right!

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It was very uplifting and had a great message that was woven throughout the film. Bethany Hamilton endured so much yet remained optimistic about it all and in the end, so much good came out of her tragic event. I would highly recommend it!

A sure sign that you need to run your dishwasher? When you're sipping iced coffee from a mug since all of your drinking glasses are dirty! 

I'm off to start the dishwasher and hit the shower before heading out to spend the day with Andy! Have a great Sunday!

Do you use free weights or the machines? 

Ever worked with a personal trainer? 

What was your favorite thing about going back to school as a kid? I loved new backpacks and art supplies!