The Five Must Do’s of Halloween

Holidays are not meant for only one day. We all know that Christmas begins on the day after Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving begins on the day after Halloween, and Halloween…well it started the day ABC Family began “13 Nights of Halloween”. 😉

Since some of us make a job out of stretching out holidays as much as humanly possible, I thought I would share what I consider the 5 things you must do before Halloween actually ends…the beginning of Thanksgiving.

Five Must Do’s of Halloween

1) Watch Hocus Pocus

Hocus Pocus is basically the greatest Halloween movie EVER. Not only does it have three witches, two cute guys (whom you fall in love with as a 9 year old), a musical number, oodles of jokes that mean different things for adults ad kids, and one talking cat but it has a great life lesson about loving your family. Perfection! You must watch it once a year for the rest of your life..because you must.

(source)

2) Carve a Pumpkin

I have a confession. I am a terrible pumpkin carver. Lucky for me I have a boyfriend who is a master of squash sculpting. He helps me carve beautimous pumpkins that I post on facebook and claim as my own handiwork. 🙂 Even though it makes me wanna poke my eyeballs out sometimes, I love the time I get to spend in the perfect fall weather with the perfect pumpkin carver! And you will too..just pick an easier pumpkin design.

I did Snow White and Carlton did Albus Dumbledore (I know you’re jealous ;)).

3) Make Caramel Apples…with friends!

Can I just say that caramel apples are MAGICAL creations?? They are delicious and an absolute must to be Halloweeny. Especially when you put ghoulish sprinkley things on them. And less Halloweeny when you put the caramel pepperoni shaped thing on the wrong side of the apple…I hope you know what I’m talking about.

4) Make a Halloween Treat

This is a new addition to the list but after doing it this year I have to say..it’s one of the best. Oh, and Halloween treats don’t mean bake-and-break chocolate chip cookies with candy corns on top..NO PLEASE! You must be creative! And daring! And scared! Not so much that last one but I was a little frightened after Carlton and I made Joy‘s Blood and Bones. (Meringue “bones” and “blood” hot chocolate) 🙂

I told you it was gross 😉 but sooo delicious!!

5) Participate in Trick-or-Treating

Welp, I fell a little short this year and couldn’t make number 5 happen. Ya see, I live in an apartment complex that is meant for college students…so there would be no trick-or-treaters :(. And I couldn’t trick-or-treat because I am twenty years old (which I’m told is grown up) and I have no children. So alas, I failed in this department. Next year will be different!!

So those are the 5 things you must do for Halloween! So take notes for next year…because only I would post this on November 1st. 🙂

What the Kale!

Okay. So maybe I’m the only one but i go through food phases. For a few days, weeks, (..ever), all I want is one type of food. When it’s cold I want oatmeal, when it’s warm I want yogurt, a couple of weeks ago I was alwaysss wanting black beans. Now? Kale chips.

Holy. Moly. Have you tried these? If you haven’t, I want you to stop what you’re doing right now and go buy some kale. It’s not expensive so you have no excuse. Seriously. Sacrifice reading my blog for this magical culinary creation.

Kale looks like this naturally.

Nice and green and leafy and superrrr good for you. I’m not exaggerating either, it’s a super food! It’s one of top sources of Vitamin A and can prevent cancer. Win-Win.

Well, I have seen the whole kale chips phenomenon on other blogging sites but have never taken the plunge…until I watched Kath’s video on how to create kale chips which can be seen here.

Life changing I am telling you! Although I mostly followed her instructions I’m going to let you know what to do on this post as well. 😉

Kale Chips

 (pretty much like Kath does)

What You’re Gonna Need:

• Lots and lots of kale (i bought a prepackaged family size..hehe)
• Cooking spray
• Parmesan cheese
• Salt and Peppa

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pat kale with paper towels if they’re kind of wet. Layer on a baking sheet and you can kind of pile it on but you may need to move it around half wa through cooking. Spray with cooking spray pretty thoroughly and toss until every piece has some on it. Sprinkle with pepper and salt and then  parmesan cheese (use less salt if you use more parmesan)…and use a healthy dose of that magical cheese.

Put in oven for 10-15 minutes depending on your oven and when you touch it with a spatula and it’s crinkly (sounds like your rustling your hand in a potato chip bag) take it out!

It is ready to eat, yum!

This picture doesn’t even begin to describe how much I ate..or have eaten…every day. 😉 Super food = super excuse to eat as much as I want.

Oh, and you have to put ketchup on it. There is no exception..seriously, we can’t be friends if you don’t. Ah JK! But honest..it will make you shout, “WHAT the kale!”

Ok, I’m done.

Roomie’s Birthday Look

Thought I would share exactly what I wore on Friday night for my roommate’s birthday celebration. It was the first cold weekend of the year so I got to bring out the sweater!

Roomie Birthday Outfit

• Geometric Oversized Sweater – h&m
• Black Leggings – Poof! (TJ Maxx)
• Knee-high Black Boots – Bamboo (Alloy)

This is a great example of not doing tight bottom and tight top/loose bottom and loose top. One of each is always the best choice!

Birthday and Good News

You know those days that are just GOOD? Well, yesterday was one of those days! 🙂

One of my roommate’s birthdays is Sunday and my other roommate and I really wanted to do something special for her. It took some planning and scheming, but we were able to surprise her with gifts and cake and a decorated apartment. It was HILARIOUS and fun!

We tied a "21" balloon to her pup's collar and she greeted her at the door..then ran away. Needless to say, she got her balloon and a laugh 🙂

Before I forget…

I recently posted about how scared I was about school and how my life plan was going to work out. Well…I GOT IN TO THE SCHOOL! Hallelujah. My major is now officially accounting 🙂 I’m so excited that I found out yesterday and could really enjoy my roomie’s birthday. It wouldn’t have gotten in the way of my fun, but what a relief to have a clear mind!

My other rooms and I made CAKES IN A JAR. Well, cakes in a beer mug ’cause its her 21st birthday. 😉 So fun!

aren't the cake in a jar and my roomie the cutesttt?

It was delicious and all of us were overcome with a rainbow sugar coma..sheesh we ate a lot!

We bought her the movie Sixteen Candles as part of her gift. She has NEVER seen an 80s movie and that was just not okay.

Most epic movie scene ever

It was such a fun birthday surprise with the best girl friends ever! I hope she had a great birthday because we loveee her! 🙂

Happy Birthday Roomie!! 🙂

Oh, and can I say that the reason my face is so squishy-excited…

Me: Let’s hug her really tight!

Birthday Girl: I’m glad the curtains are closed so no one can see.

Gah, love my life. 🙂

ABC Oatmeal

I’m the kind of person who wants to snuggle under the covers and never come out when the weather is gloomy. It’s rather sad that I can only be truly productive when the sun is out…I just like to snuggle when its cold, windy, and rainy. Bad for a busy college student. Sigh.

I had a lot of things to do on my list, so I never got to hide away. Yet, when dinnertime came around I knew I wanted something comforting and warm (it’s so cold outside!!) to make up for it.

That meant…oatmeal!

Not only oatmeal, but THE best oatmeal in the world. What are some adjectives to describe the best oatmeal in the world?

Warm, cinnamony, fluffy, banana-y, almond buttery, oat-y, perfect..y?

Ok, so the whole adjective thing doesn’t really work but how about I SHOW you and then you can truly understand the awesomeness of it!

Please observe how uhhhmazing this oatmeal is!

Ok, so I know it doesn’t look like much from the picture but the FLAVOR is unbelievable. It’s all hidden in the hugeness. (I promise it’s huge, the bowl is just huge-r :))

I am going to call it…ABC Oatmeal

Why? Because it has Almond Butter…Bananas….Cinnamon (clever, i know)

ABC Oatmeal 

What You’re Gonna Need: 

• 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1 banana, chopped into smallish pieces
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 heaping (and i mean heaping) tbsp almond butter*
• sweetener to taste, if the banana isn’t enough

* you can use another nut butter..if you MUST

Combine water and milk in a saucepan over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Once it has reached a boil, add the oats. Stir until combined and let it start boiling again. Once it does, start slowly stirring continously.

When the oats start to soak up the liquid (mixture becomes thicker rather than liquidy) add the cinnamon and optional sweetener. Mix, then add the banana. Keep stirring and completely incorporate the add-ins. I like to mash up the banana with my stirring spoon (mash = hit the pieces).

After about 13-15 minutes total time, the oatmeal should be thick enough. The banana pieces will have completely incorpoated and you won’t really see the pieces.

Remove from heat and pour into bowl (you’re gonna need a big one!) then top with the deeeelicious almond butter.

Eeek! Yum pillowy oats! In ma belly

This recipe makes a wonderfully huge amount of oatmeal. I like to make it for din-din because I don’t eat big breakfasts. I promise you’ll love it, even though I know it takes some time!

Post Almond Butter Mixage! (See how biggg it is?) My oatmeal was just what I needed after a blistery cold day and an incoming of accounting homework. Oh joy!

What are your favorite mix-ins for oatmeal? Are you more productive when it’s cold and overcast or warm and sunny?

Life’s Road Bumps

This blog may be about living life at it’s happiest and healthiest but sometimes life just knocks you down. Expecting everything to be perfect isn’t realistic, and that is something I definitely struggle with. I truly think being mentally healthy is the hardest part of the “healthful life” we all want.

School has always been very important to me and luckily, always came easy for me. When I transferred to the University of Georgia in August as a junior, I thought I would continue in the same manner as I always have with school – Push myself and always get the desired results.

My school career is a series of “am i good enough”s and “will they accept me”s. Not only did I have to get into the university, I had to apply to a certain school IN the university. The J.M. Tull School of Accounting is one of the top ten accounting schools in the country and is highly competitive. I took some of the required courses before going to UGA and thought that the material covered would be the same. Wrong. The entrance exam to get into the accounting school covered things I had never seen before. For weeks, I put aside normal school work to study for this entrance exam. I emailed my old teacher, went to a tutor, begged people I knew for their notes…everything.

When I took the exam, I felt okay about it. I never have just felt okay about school work, and it really just took the wind out of me. All that hard work and I really had no clue if they would accept me or not.

I am a few days away from finding out my fate about school, and in the mean time I have been struggling with my everyday classes. My first round of tests went great and I thought I had the school thing in the bag again. Wrong. These past two weeks have been full of tests that once again knock the wind out of me. Not good grade am I satisfied with.

Does this mean I’m not good enough? Have I gotten in too deep? What if I was wrong about the plan for my life? Why am I not as smart as everyone else?

These unhealthy thoughts are consuming me and even though I know it isn’t healthy, my mind is past the point of caring. Life is really hard sometimes and being happy through it all is even harder. I’m trying to accept that which I cannot control and change what I can but..at some points all I’ve been able to do is cry.

I’m sorry this is such a depressing post but I just wanted to be honest. Even the girl with the blog about being happy and healthy has problems!

I know the hard parts will be worth it in the long run..but in the short run, these hurdles are hard to get over.

What are some ways YOU deal with disappointments? Is anyone else struggling with similar problems?

Reinvented Cinnamon Roll

I woke up today feeling pretty stinky. My stomach was hurting, so I rolled over voting to not go to class (Thank goodness all we do in my classes is go over powerpoints..gotta love college). After sleeping a little longer my stomach gave me and break and I watched a little Sex & the City (guilty pleasure).

Anywho, I eventually listened to my growling tummy and went to the kitchen to fix some oatmeal. About two hours after the oatmeal, I got a little hungry again so I perused the refrigerator and pantry looking for something to energize me for the gym visit I had planned a little later.

Greek yogurt…always a good choice. Apple…nah, I had two yesterday. Cinnamon raisin bagel thins..ooh pb&j! Wait..I used the last of my almond butter in my oatmeal. Greek yogurt..cinnamon raisin bagel thins..together?

Light bulb!

Here enters….the Healthy Cinnamon Roll for One

Cinnamon rolls have never been my favorite but sometimes…you just want a warm, ooey, creamy, cinnamony hunk of bread. And this recipe definitely covers all those requirements. It’s amazing the substitutions you can make that really don’t sacrifice flavor, but truly satisfy your cravings.

Mmm..now I want another…

Things You’re Gonna Need

• 1 cinnamon raisin bagel thin
• 1 tbs strawberry jelly/preserves
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 cup plain greek yogurt
• splash of milk (i used almond milk)
• sweetener to taste (i used 1/2 packet of truvia but honey, sugar, etc. are good subs)

Take your bagel thin and tear each half into four pieces. On each piece, smear a small amount of the preserves on the inside half and layer the pieces until you get three layers, jelly side up, in a small bowl or plate. I layered them in a way that kind of looked like a cinnamon roll because I truly believe you eat with your eyes first.

Take the cinnamon and sprinkle on top of the layered pieces. Try and make sure to get some on the lower layers. Spread the love! Microwave the bowl for 20-30 seconds. When you take it out, the jelly should have slightly melted into the bread (It looks like the cinnamon/butter mixture that is found in cinnamon rolls).

See the preserve/cinnamon mixture?

Next, mix the yogurt and sweetener and put enough milk into it to make it creamy and thin enough to act as the “cream cheese frosting” of a cinnamon roll. Put in microwave for 15 seconds (watch it!) and then stir it to make sure the consistency is right. Pour until it completely covers the cinnamon roll (I ended up not using all of mine but some of us love the frosting more than others 😉 ). Put it in the microwave for 10-15 more seconds and then take that warm gooey thing out of the microwave and into your mouth!

It is sooo good! You must try it now because 1. it is so not bad for you and 2. it’s one portion! and 3. it tastes just as good as the pillsbury babes in the refrigerator section.

First Post! – Passion & Fashion

Well hello there, world! 🙂 This is my first post and I’m very excited. This blog is focused on healthy living and I definitely think feeling good about yourself from the inside out is key. That’s why I really think this post is the perfect first one.

Last night, the Passion University Tour stopped in Athens, GA at my church, Athens Church. If you’ve never heard of the Passion Conferences you MUST go to www.268generation.com. God is doing some amazing things in the lives of college students! Anyway, Charlie Hall and Christian Stanfield sang and the one and only Louie Giglio spoke to us! It was a beyond amazing experience and seriously helped my heart and soul get back on track, because let me tell you..this past week was a doozy!

Me and the Roomies ready for the night 🙂

This girl definitely loves clothes so I’m excited about sharing with you guys my fashion! Here is a break down of my outfit and PLEASE excuse the lame picture of myself. Self-timers and running behind never go well together.

Passion Outfit

• Poodle cardigan – Forever XXI
• Black dress – Ya (from boutique in Tifton, Ga)
• Black open-toed flats – Old Navy
• Shoes drying against the wall because of torrential downpour – Alex..& Toms

I really like classic, understated outfits with one statement piece. Audrey Hepburn is my icon and I like to think I channel her sometimes. 😉