Weekend Update

What a fun weekend! But I guess that's to be expected if your weekend is kickstarted with fireworks.

Friday morning meant another red, white & blue breakfast for me!

After Erik got home from work, we decided to try out a new restaurant for dinner.  I had this fabulous Pho.

And I made sure my leftovers got home safely ;)

Erik took on the task of mounting the TV in our bedroom.

Kobe & I supervised

Saturday we partook in my favorite activity, wine tasting!!!

We redecorated our bathroom.

Easy like Sunday morning ... blueberry & banana pancakes

Kobe got a new bone...

...and we got the Playstation Move. SO fun!

Sunday night we ended our weekend with our favorite pasta (recipe here) & current favorite shows (Dexter & Ray Donovan)

The first 5 days after the weekend are always the hardest.

4th of July Recap

Good 5th-of-July morning! I've seen a barrage of "who invented work on July 5th?!" statuses this morning & all I have to say is... should have been a teacher! ;)

We started the day yesterday with Patriotic Pancakes. And bacon. (because you can't have an American breakfast without bacon). Let me just say, I used to make pancakes by myself when I was 8 years old. Flash forward 16 years to yesterday morning and I was making pancakes on the struggle bus. I burned about 3 5. Made a huge mess. And had to start making blue pancakes because I lost too many red ones to burn city. After topping these bad boys with whipped cream & blueberries, I promised myself I would never do this again! But I was quickly reminded how good pancakes taste. And thought, "Okaaaaay. Maybe I can do this again." And channel my 8 year old pancake makin' badass.

After breakfast, we hung out & watched some of our morning programs (because we're 85 years old). One of these shows happened to be Rachael Ray. I had stocked our fridge with beer prior to the 4th, but Rachael was making sangria. Mr. Boyfriend suggests we make sangria too. UGGGGGGGHHH. Fine. Twist my arm. But since sangria is best if you let it sit for several hours (I ain't got time for that) we decided on blueberry mojitos. 

And to make it all the more festive, we threw some sparklers in 'em!

My Favorite Workout

I used to think that if when I'm rich, I would want to hire a personal trainer. Someone who is always coming up with new & exciting exercises for you while helping you look your best... what could be better?? But alas, something like that is "too rich for my blood" -as my boyfriend would say. 

But one fine day, I came across Fitness Blender on YouTube. My thoughts of hiring an expensive personal trainer flew out the window! These guys (well. girl and guy, actually) have sooooooooo many videos. All I have to do is type in what kinda workout I want to do and am greeted with a plethora of choices. Some are longer, some are shorter. (I never pick one longer than 40 minutes, but if you so desire, go ahead, you psycho, and pick a video longer than 40 mins.) But DO NOT let the shortness of any video fool you! Shortness does not equal easiness, as my naive ass once thought. However, once you're done feeling like you're gonna die, you will feel absolutely fantastic about yourself and life! And after you're done dying, you can thank me them for saving you thousands on a personal trainer. ;)

Patriotic Pedi

In the spirit of Independence Day (or Christmas) I gave myself a patriotic pedi! However, I didn't have any blue ... hence the "it could be Christmas" nails too! 

Red & white & red & white stripes.

Let the 4th of July festivities begin!

I Scream, You Scream

...we all scream for ice cream!

Scene: Saturday at the grocery store with my boyfriend.

Me: I want some popsicles.
Him: We should get ice cream instead.
Me: No, popsicles are better. (lieeeeeeeeees)
Him: Okay. Fine. Pick some out.


Scene: Monday night after dinner at home.
Him: I could really go for some ice cream.
Me: Why didn't we get the ice cream?!
Me: POPSICLES ARE SO STUPID!!!!
Him: I told you.


Well. This morning I composed myself. Apologized to the popsicles for calling them stupid. And decided to make some "ice cream." Yes. It's "ice cream" not ice cream (but I swear it's just as good! almost).

Look that's all you need!

I cut up the bananas like that before I put them in the freezer (makes life a little easier).

Place frozen bananas slices and about a tablespoon or 2 of the almond butter & chocolate syrup in a food processor.

Bleeeeeeeeeend! 

....and enjoy! :)

Father's Day Festiveness

Happy belated Father's Day! I was looking through some pictures on my computer and came across several of Father's Day that I thought were blog-worthy.

We started the day with a Bloody Mary Bar because you can't go wrong with that. Ever. (Side note: my boyfriend just showed me a picture of a really fancy bloody mary. Dude. Do not show me pictures of fancy bloody marys unless you can grab the drink from your computer and hand it to me! Party foul.) Anyways, back to the bloody mary bar. My staples include worcestershire, pickles, jalapeños, olives, pepper & spicy tomato juice. My dad is a sophisticated man and had bloody mary flavored vodka, so of course we were using that, making the occasion all the more special!

I want one nowwwwww. I was feeling particularly extravagant this day and even added some bacon to the mix.

Maybe it was the bloody marys, but I also decided I was going to make my Dad a homemade Father's Day cake that looked like a hole-in-one. Because what screams Happy Father's Day like a homemade golf cake?! It was actually quite easy to make (maybe that was also the bloody marys talking) and I think it turned out quite nice. I used a small glass to remove part of the chocolate cake to look like a hole-in-one and got one three of those frosting dispensers to create the green grass. I made the flag with a toothpick and some construction paper and just happened to find those mini golf clubs in my "junk drawer" at home. Father was impressed.

Snack Time

Snack time is my favorite time. And with the summer off, I've had a lot time to indulge in this pastime. Most of my snacks are pretty boring but these bad boys are tasty & cute... and super simple to make, albeit a little messy.

For this perfect summer snack, you'll need almond butter (or PB or Nutella - if you're into that kinda thing), bananas and toothpicks (you don't reeeeally need the toothpicks but everything is better on a stick!)

Slice the bananas, smear a small dollop of the almond butter atop one slice, place another banana slice on top and skewer each one with a toothpick. (Insert messiness here). But here is the really hard part: put them in the freezer for about an hour before eating.

Waiting, waiting hating waiting.