My week in photos

March 20, 2014Leave a comment

You guys! I didn’t blog last week, I know… because I was out living life. Sometimes you need to get out and actually do things so you have stuff to blog about. So I spent the hours I usually spend writing playing with my niece, having Portland adventures, frolicking in the yard, and planting flowers… because it seemed like a really good use of my time. And then I totaled my car… so needless to say the free time is now being spent with things like talking to my insurance, cleaning out my car, going car shopping, and overall being a giant ball of stress because pretty much the last thing that anyone wants to deal with ever is having their car totaled. BUT, I’m ok, so you know…. it could be way worse.

I didn’t write anything last week… or this week really… but instead here are a few photos from my adventures last week… I have a feeling that as the season starts to shift more into spring I am going to have a few less words and a few more photos to share.

Planted Ranunculus and Anemones outside my front door

JUICE! Had a great morning meeting with PJC

Stopped into Sprinklefingers to stock up on all the Quin Candy Goodness

After a day of adventures all I wanted were some salad rolls and Toby Time

Poor Buster…. I’ve been commuting to Dundee for 6 years and finally the traffic did me in.

Lucky Charms Ice Cream, Hints of Nostalgia, and Moments of Vulnerability

March 7, 2014Leave a comment

Somewhere around this time last year I met a dear childhood friend for some ice cream in Portland. Specifically, the Pots of Gold and Rainbows flavor at Salt & Straw. For you Lucky Charms fans out there, March is a dream come true in Portland, because this flavor is like biting into nostalgia.

As a child, sugary cereal was not really a staple in our house. We were more of a Rice Crispy, Crunchy Oat Bran, Crispix kind of family…. On a very rare occasion Cinnamon Toast Crunch was thrown into the mix, but it wasn’t very often that anything resembling Lucky Charms made its way into the pantry. I vividly remember spending one day after breakfast in my play room under the stairs writing in my diary about how when I grew up I was going to let my kids eat sugary cereal… which now makes me laugh. A lot… A) Who writes that kind of stuff in a diary? B) lord knows if I even have kids I will not feed them sugary cereal because I cherish my own sanity too much… and because I will probably hoard it all for myself …

Minus the dramatic journal entry, I don’t remember sugary cereal or lack thereof being a big deal, but maybe it was, because once when I was in middle school my grandmother got me a box of Lucky Charms for Christmas, and it was kind of amazing! I mean who doesn’t want their own special box of cereal? The next year I was so excited as I ripped open the cereal shaped box, only to discover instead of the treasured Lucky Charms, a box of Fruit Loops (gross), as my grandmother only remembered that I like the cereal in the red box. For the next several years, I always managed to get a box of Fruit Loops for Christmas…. It was an amazing gesture on her part, and of course no one had the heart to tell her that I actually hated Fruit Loops/ that she got the wrong sugar packed breakfast item.

Last year, as my friend and I sat in Salt and Straw savoring the tiny marshmallow speckled ice cream, we reminisced about our childhood ( Once I went with her family down to Utah to go hiking and camping, and whatnot, and our back seat car snack was a box of Lucky Charms. It. Was. Epic. In that on a trip without your own parents, pre-teen, indulging on sugared cereal kind of way). We talked about the new job I had just started, unemployment battles, how sometimes being a grown up can really suck, being in debt, adventures we were planning, and of course about how amazing the ice cream was.

Flash forward almost a year. Last Saturday I’m sitting at work, on my break and talking to a co-worker about his new relationship. He had that excited smile, a slight wistfulness in his eyes as he was telling me about the last few days and dates with this girl. He then stopped and asked me what was new in my life, and with that same excited smile and wistful look I said “I’m going to get Lucky Charms Ice cream this week at Salt & Straw.” His eye roll let me know how pathetic my news sounded compared to his, but whatever… I say relish the small things!

Monday rolled around and I was already planning out my ice cream route. I packed a cooler with ice, went to do a barre workout, and then drove the rest of the way into Portland with the sole goal of indulging in ice cream. I was pretty much dressed like a yoga fisherwoman… bright red rain boots, brown yoga pants, my trusty Jacobsen Salt hoodie, black down vest… I hadn’t showered, no makeup, post workout hot-mess… and of course it was one of those weird in-between rain moments where the sun is shining and its all humid and warm, and you know the only reason the sun is out at all is because you are traipsing around town in your rain boots.

Arbequina olive oil ice cream, Lucky Charms Ice Cream, and a waffle cone

I purchased my ice cream, and sat down for a moments to savor the marshmallowy goodness (lets face it, I also got Arbequina Olive Oil Ice Cream… I can’t go to Salt & Straw and not get it… even now years later, I still have such a huge sense of ownership over it, remembering sitting down with them before they even had a shop, talking about the possibilities of making an olive oil flavor. Way back before it was a staple there, before Oprah named it as one of her favorite flavors, it was just me and my boss and the main ice cream guy sitting in a room with a bottle of olive oil, talking about potential.) As I was enjoying the ice cream (which was naturally, extra delicious after a workout) I was catching up on social media, scanning my e-mails, and doing a little light reading. I took the opportunity to read a blog post by one of my super talented friends about being nostalgic for her life working at a nearby restaurant. I finished my ice cream, loaded up my cooler with a few pints to take home, got into the driver seat of my car, and unexpectedly burst into tears.

It took me a moment to even wrap my head around the situation… where was this upwelling of emotion coming from? Why was I suddenly feeling this overwhelming sense of vulnerability? And I realized that sitting in that particular ice cream shop thinking about my old job, my experiences over the past year, and reading that particular blog post had me feeling slightly nostalgic. And the more I cried behind my sunglasses, the more I realized that I had actually been subconsciously prepping myself for a run-in with my ex boyfriend. This revelation hit me pretty hard. What? Where did that come from? And the longer I let that marinate, the more I realized that I wasn’t quite sure if I was crying from all the suppressed and sub-conscious emotion or if I was crying because I hadn’t actually run into him. Ugh. Which of course just lead to me being really really angry with myself , and the countless of thoughts of “but I’m over this!” Overall, sitting in my car next to a cooler of Lucky Charms ice cream with tears streaming down my face, and emotions welling up from a million different directions was not how I was picturing spending my Monday. And it felt a little pathetic.

And then I decided to give myself a break. Life is so full of unexpected moments, and some of them are amazing, and some of them leave you feeling like you got hit by a bus… but I am trying to embrace those moments of vulnerability, rather than putting up a wall and trying to dam up my feelings. Because it wasn’t just one thing. It was remembering where I was a year ago, it was thinking about nasty unemployment hearings, and starting a new job, and being lonely, and filling emotional holes with ice cream. It was realizing that just last week my old boss invited me to sit down and have a glass of wine and wanted to catch up about my life. It was finally dealing with a volatile yoga client who made me feel un-safe, and standing up for myself at work, and hormones, and stress, and reading that blog and remembering that I actually met my friend and my ex at the same event, and being so thankful that I gained a friend from that situation, and yes it was partially about him, and being two blocks away from his place, knowing that it was his day off, and that running into him on the street as I was dressed like a sweaty yoga fisherwoman was a real possibility. But it was also a accumulation of all the other things, And so I just let myself feel it. Being vulnerable is hard, and taking a moment to acknowledge your feelings and observe where they stem from isn’t always easy, but I think that so much personal growth, and other amazing things can stem from these moments. Closing yourself off from vulnerability can mean closing yourself off from potential…And being nostalgic can be a good thing. It can be nice to remember things from your past, even if they aren’t things you are choosing for your future.

So I drove home, still feeling slightly ridiculous, but also feeling relieved. Relieved that I am the type of person who isn’t completely shut of from my emotions. Relieved that I can still be shaken by random moments of vulnerability, and that I can laugh at them afterwards, and really really relieved that Salt & Straw make pints of ice cream to go.

Pints to go

Pots of Gold and Rainbows

Roasted Beet Risotto, a shout out to chèvre, and some potentially awkward typos.

February 23, 20141 Comment

I’ve been really into beets lately. And by lately, I mean my entire adulthood… as a child, not so much… (for unknown reasons my mom tried to feed me canned beets as a kid… definitely not the first exposure any child should have of this amazing root nugget. Thankfully that is one of the picky eating things that I did outgrow…anyway.. ) Wednesday evening I was killing some time before heading off to yoga, and stumbled across this absolutely gorgeous cake from Local Milk. Um, beets? Red Velvet? Chevre thyme frosting. SIGN ME UP! Even though I still had to teach a yoga class, and even though I was looking at a trip to the grocery, an hour to roast the beets, and then making a cake from scratch, I could not be deterred. (I should probably note that I accidentally took a nap in the afternoon… so I was feeling a little extra motivated.)

The cake was just as amazing as I expected, and you should all go out of your way to make it, or find someone who likes making cake and have them make it for you! Overall it wasn’t complicated, though a few aspects of the recipe didn’t work entirely the way I thought it would, mostly the part about reducing the beet puree,. Somehow I ended up with about 3 cups of beet puree rather than ¼ of a cup… I could have just put more in the cake batter, but was un-sure…. I mean I can improvise on most any recipe, but baking is one of those tricky ratio things, and I wasn’t going through all the trouble of making a late night cake from scratch just to screw it up! So this left me with about 2 cups of roasted pureed beets… what’s a girl to do?

Also, before I go on about what I did with the beets, can I just say that chevre thyme frosting is a game changer. For reals. Move over cream cheese frosting, there is a new star in town. When I followed the recipe it was a little too thick to drizzle, so I did add a little bit of Meyer lemon juice. Perfection.

Tonight after I got home from work, I was hanging with the dog and trying to come up with some inspiration for dinner, and then I remembered the container of beet puree in my fridge. It was just begging to be a risotto, and after a few moments of flopping around and motivating myself to head out to the store for Arborio rice, I decided on a game plan. (note to self. If you mis-spell Arborio spellcheck will ask if you meant to spell abortion. It’s probably best not to mix these two words up when you are talking about trying to get motivated to head out and get some of said word. Especially when you are blogging about it. And since I’m not always awesome at proofreading, if I accidentally talk about abortions later, you should just assume that I’m actually talking about rice )

I will fully admit, this was one of those thrown together dinners that wasn’t exactly measured, and almost no photos were taken, but once I sat down and took a bite I sort of sighed and said “well I have to blog about this…” But let’s face it. Some of the best dinners are the ones that aren’t well photographed and well planned out…. And as I sit here and try to backtrack and write a recipe, I will just say this… go with your gut. It’s risotto… if it needs more broth, add more broth. If you want more beets, add more beets. Trust your culinary instincts… but I’m rather confident that this recipe will at least be an appropriate guideline to get you to a magically delicious dinner. I would apologize for the lack of amazing photos, but lets be real, it was too good to stop eating and stylize things… at least I got this shot with minimal spillage and some garnish (#sorrynotsorry)

beet risotto with chèvre and mascarpone

Beet Risotto with Chèvre and Mascarpone (could easily be made vegan by omitting the cheese.)

1 cipolin onion, diced
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 stalk of celery, diced
olive oil
½ cup of white wine
1 cup Arborio rice
1 ½ cups of vegetable broth
1 cup beet puree* (can be made in advance)
2 oz chevre
2 large spoonfuls of mascarpone cheese.
parsley for garnish
salt to taste.

* Beet puree:

2-3 medium beets.
¼ cup of water.

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

Wash the beets, and pierce a few times with a fork. Line a pan with foil, add the beets and about ¼ cup of water. Seal the beets with additional foil and roast in the oven for about an hour. Use a paper towel to peel the skin off the beets (be careful not to burn yourself) and chop into large pieces. Place beet chunks in food processor and add the liquid from the roasting foil, and perhaps another ¼ cup of water. Process until smooth. Set aside. (or use some for the Red Velvet cake.)

Risotto:

Drizzle olive oil in medium pan, and begin to heat. Add the onion, garlic, and celery and begin to sauté ( about 3-5 minutes)

Add the Arborio rice to the pan and cover with the olive oil. Sauté rice a few minutes until it starts to toast. It will smell a little nutty.

Add the wine, and stir… it will be absorbed by the rice fairly quickly. Add the remaining liquid ½ cup at a time, allowing the rice to almost fully absorb the broth each time. (stir stir stir… even if you don’t know anything about risotto you probably know that it required a lot of stirring) After the final liquid has been absorbed taste a grain of rice. If it is still pretty crunchy you might need a few more rounds of liquid.

Once the rice has gotten to the desired texture and consistency, add in the beet puree. Stir, and continue to cook for 5 minutes (continuing to stir frequently).

Before adding the cheese… it looks like pomegranates… or ground beef… I swear to god its delicious.

Add the chevre and the mascarpone cheese and a splash more of vegetable broth. Stir until the cheese is incorporated into the entire dish.

Serve immediately with a sprinkle of parsley, a drizzle of olive oil, and a little bit of finishing salt. (you know me… Red Ridge Olio Nuovo, and Jacobsen finishing salt)

Voila, Dinner. If your friends are a punny as mine you too will be getting text messages that read “risotto? I’ll “beet” right over” (no joke… this is a real like story).

you win some you lose some.

February 20, 2014Leave a comment

I started to panic a little bit today when I realized it’s Thursday and I don’t really have a ton of inspiration for a blog post… My other new years goals are hanging on by a thread… lets face it, a salad a day went out the window somewhere around Snowpocalypse, but my blogging aspirations have been holding on strong… Until now… I’m multitasking right now, coordinating some stuff at work, but not really working since its my day off, and overall I’m just feeling kind of meh. I’m not exactly in a head space to write… which I guess one could argue is actually the best time to write, to work through the meh and find something inspiring… I was planning on writing about yoga, barre, fitness lifestyles, eating cake for breakfast, love handles, healthy snacking and body image… but I’m thinking maybe I will save all of that for a time when I’m feeling a little more like writing… But right now I think I just need to take a breath, gather my thoughts, drink a beer, and not worry so much about not writing. Sorry readers… this isn’t exciting, or inspiring, or funny… But there is always next week… or the chance that tomorrow my motivation will return. =)

Here is what I’m snarky about: single people who are snarky about Valentine’s Day.

February 13, 2014Leave a comment

In case you forgot, this Friday is Friday. Also it’s Valentine’s Day, which, actually I kind of did forget until I saw a post for maple glazed bacon hearts on Pinterest.

Here is what is annoying about Valentine’s Day: All the people who hate Valentine’s Day.

I mean, ok, I get it, I’m a single gal, doing my thing, and God knows I can be a little snarky from time to time, but for the love! What is with all the insecure people proclaiming that Valentine’s day is the absolute worst thing ever? News flash, I am also single on February 13^th, and July 27^th (well, I can’t predict the future, but you get the point) I don’t need an entire day designated to “single’s awareness” because, let’s face it, I’m aware of my single status pretty much all the time… I don’t need a day to revel in it. Every day is Single’s Awareness day… I get up, I’m single, I brush my teeth, I’m still single. Making the French press coffee… yup, nothing has changed here. Go to work, samesies. See people I love, do things I’m passionate about… come home and snuggle the dog, Single… My day-to-day life is stagnant with my singleness. But it’s not like I’m getting up and proclaiming “It’s a new day. I’m still alone in this world. Woe is me. I’m now getting out of bed, and I’m still single. My like sucks. Everyone around me is holding hands and happy, Why? Universe Why?!?!” And it’s not like I’m going to wake up on Friday and suddenly be more aware of the fact that I’m not celebrating with a significant other this year. Yes, I am a single lady, but just because that is an adjective that might be used to describe me “oh yeah Tayler is fun, she teaches yoga, has a bulldog, is single.” it certainly isn’t a term that defines me, and it certainly doesn’t need to. Being single is part of my routine… just like getting dressed or watering my house plants… but it’s not WHO I am. And quite frankly, I’m really annoyed with all the people who are spending the week leading up to February 14^th moping around in a state of relationship status insecurity. If being single on Valentine’s day is your biggest problem, then you’ve got it made my friend. Buy yourself some gumdrops and get over it. (I did actually buy myself some amazing locally crafted gumdrops for Valentines day… I would highly recommend it.)

For me, Valentine’s Day is about wearing red lipstick, eating more chocolate than normal, and an excuse to do fun craft projects. What is not to love?

A few weeks ago I was unpacking a box of Valentines candy at works. Cute little pink boxes of assorted truffles with pigs dressed like Cupid, chocolates shaped like frogs, little signs that say things like “You are the Shake to my Bake” and I was totally loving it. What’s not to love about little pink boxes? And I look over to see one of my 24 year old male co-workers totally moping around being like “ugh, Valentine’s Day again? I hate Valentine’s Day, it totally sucks when you are single.” Me “Well what’s so bad about it?” Him “well everyone is just in love, and all mushy, and it sucks being alone and reminded that you are alone…” Me, rolling my eyes “Um… its not that bad. I’ve been single for pretty much all of my Valentine’s days, its just a day… with adorable pink Cupid pig boxes!” turning back to the unpacking and getting excited to eat a frog shaped truffle. Meanwhile he exclaims “That is A LOT of Valentine’s Days to be single! I mean, A LOT!” Me “um yeah… I’m totally fine with it… OMG we got another I heart you more than pickles sign!” … It’s moment’s like that that I am reminded that a) 24 year old boys do not have life figured out even a little bit, and b) that there are a lot of people out there who are dreading this Friday… and I just don’t understand.

I mean, I get it in theory. Being single isn’t always fun. I’ve had the nights where the loneliness feels like it is going to eat you alive, and its almost hard to breathe… it sucks. It really does. But why is it worse on February 14^th? Maybe I was just programmed differently, or maybe I’m just jaded since I have been single for all 28 of my Valentine’s Days… I was homeschooled through elementary school so I never had the shoebox full of valentines, I never had to go through the agonizing of “Does the extra heart sticker on this valentine mean that he likes me, or did he just give me a valentines because he was required to give one to every single person in the class?” Once in high school the foreign exchange student sent me and a few other single girls flowers on valentines day because he knew we wouldn’t get them from anyone else, and he was trying to be nice… and it WAS super nice, and we all appreciated it… But somehow along the way, the whole societal view of Valentine’s Day never really had an impact on my self worth… Thank god.

Because people go on dates all the time, they make romantic gestures all the time, they have totally over the top PDA 364 other days a year… so why does everyone get all bent out of shape when February rolls around? Do all the snarky single people just put blinders on until the end of January, and then suddenly start letting out all their snide comments and complaints about being alone when the heart decorations come out? And call me crazy, but am I the only one who lets out a tiny sigh of relief when I realize that I’m not obligated to celebrate Valentine’s Day with anyone? I mean, think about it… You don’t have to stress about finding a gift (or getting the wrong gift, or forgetting to get a gift, or maybe getting a gift that doesn’t say what you mean) you don’t have to make reservations, you don’t have to feel guilty if you have to work, you don’t feel guilty if you volunteer to work, you get to eat more of the chocolate… its kind of a win win.

And when did Valentine’s Day become this black and white thing where you have the lovey dovey ooey gooey jewelry buying consumer driven love birds on one side, and the totally snarky, love hating insecure single people on the other side? Please follow me over to the happy grey area of “I’m single, and fine with it, lets celebrate with bacon hearts and quirky cards, red and pink outfits and heart nail decals”

Sure… the holiday can get a little cheesy… There are the constant clichés and the people who love them, and frankly, it does get a little annoying to be around people who feel like they need to broadcast their romantic gestures to the world… especially when they are unimaginative and generic… I mean come on. I know there are the girls out there who love their long stemmed roses, boxes of chocolate, fancy dinners, jewelry etc. And sure, I probably wouldn’t go so far as to cause a scene if someone chose me as his valentine and presented me with long stemmed roses and a heart shaped box of chocolates, BUT I might seriously have doubts about his creativity and how well he knew me. (FOR REALS, if my future boyfriend ever proposes on valentines day, I will make him read this blog post, and then maybe beat him over the head with the long stemmed roses, and say “You should F’ing know me better than this! All I wanted was a terrarium and a quirky letterpress card! Try again tomorrow when this will not be a gag reflex cliché!” Ok… maybe I won’t say all those things, but I will indeed think them loudly in my head… and maybe say them. Fella’s don’t propose on Valentine’s Day. Just don’t. Trust me, it’s not what we want.)

But what we do want is this ridiculously adorable card, and maybe some pickled beets to go with it…

Don’t get me wrong, I like going out to fancy dinners, and dressing up, and valentine’s candy, as much as the next girl, and seeing all that kind of stuff doesn’t get me bent out of shape…But at this point in my life the idea of going out for a “romantic” dinner with the 8 million other people who are celebrating sounds a little bit exhausting. You know what is romantic? Take out. Not being around hundreds of people and stressing about reservations. Amazingly quirky greeting cards. Having someone clean your kitchen. Lingerie is fun, Champagne is great, and I like chocolate quite a bit… but when did unimaginative become romantic? Why not just grab a greeting card that says “lets celebrate our unique love story the same way everyone else on the planet does.”

All that being said, here are a few of the great things I’ve found that I love about V-day. Go out, be happy, make a heart wreath , embrace the grey area of the holiday, and don’t let the snarky single people or the overly gross couples get you down!

2014 NPR Valentines

Huffington Post: 21 Awkward Valentine’s Day Cards

2013 NPR Valentines

Maybe the vest vintage valentine of all time.

2012 NPR Valentines

SomebodyLovedShop

Marisa Seguin Arrested Development Valentines.

DIY rustic heart wreath in 10 easy steps

February 4, 20143 Comments

This time last year I was newly unemployed, and there was a lot of extra free time for things like cooking, yard work, and some amazing craft projects (of course there were other moments filled with resume tweaking, job searching, panic, anxiety, and lots and lots of yoga) After trimming most of the fruit trees in my yard, I was looking for something creative to do with the branches… I made a few arrangements, gave some away to people to use in weddings, and then finally settled into making these super simple heart wreaths.

With Valentines day right around the corner, and tree trimming season in full swing, it’s the perfect time to have a crafternoon and make a rustic heart wreath or two. Last year I handed these out as my valentines, and this year I’m actually selling them at Red Hills Market in Dundee. If you don’t feel like making one yourself, you know where to go.

rustic heart duo

Rustic Home Made Heart Wreath in 10 Easy Steps.

What you will need:

Twine wrapped wire
Floral wire
Hot glue gun/ hot glue
Spanish moss
Approximately 6 branches/twigs
Wire cutters
Optional: brown floral tape

I recommend using fresh cuttings as they tend to be a little more bendy/ pliable. However, trimmed branches that are left out in the elements/ rain for a few days will probably work just as well. This year I’ve been using apple and Red Twig Dogwood. Other suggestions would be cherry, plumb, crab apple or forsythia.

Prep. Take a handful of reindeer moss out of the package and place it in a bowl. Lay out branches in a neat pile. Turn on some music, and if you are over 21, pour yourself a glass of wine. Crafting is so much better with a glass of wine.

Step 1) Decide what size wreath you want to make. (this may depend on the size of your cuttings etc.) Cut the twine wrapped wire to desired size and make a circle, wrapping the ends together.

Step 2) Form the wire circle into a heart shape (does not have to be exactly the shape you want the wreath, its just a guideline) Then measure the distance between the dip of the heart and the bottom point of the heart. Cut another piece of the twine wrapped wire and anchor the dip and the point together. *This step is actually pretty important, because the branches have a lot of spring to them, and without the anchoring of the two points, the branches will start to pull the wreath back into a circle.

Step 3) take the floral wire, and one of the branches, and start wrapping the wire around the branch, attaching the base of the branch to the base of the heart frame. Make 4-6 loops (this depends on how thick of a branch or twig you are using… it doesn’t need to be perfectly secure, as we will reinforce a little later with hot glue) Cut the wire, and smooth the edges down as much as possible. You will be working on one side of the wreath with this branch, and then starting to build the second side with the next branch.

attaching the branch to the frame

Step 4) Repeat step 3 higher up on the frame, securing the branch to the heart frame fairly close to where the frame begins to curve.

Step 5) being to bend the branch to make a half heart. At this point the branch doesn’t need to follow the lay-out of the heart frame. Secure the branch to the frame close to the dip of the top of the heart. And once more on the center anchoring wire close to the base of the heart. (Since you need the anchoring wire, I like to make the branches come all the way through the middle of the heart)

Step 6) Repeat steps 3-5 on the second side. Keep in mind, you will be covering the wire with moss when the wreath is finished. You should decide if you want the mossy patches to be symmetrical from side to side or if you want them to be a little more random. This will dictate where on the wreath you secure the branches to the frame.

Step 7) Take the next branch and begin to repeat steps 3-5 on the first side. Trying to wrap the wire in the same places on each side. This will get a little bulky as you keep adding branches, but keep wrapping and pulling the wire tight to secure the branches. Repeat on the second side.

Step 8) Keep repeating until the wreath has reached the desired size. I recommend using 3 branches on each side, but this depends on the side and width of the branches, how big the wreath is, and the effect you are going for. After you have finished assembling the wreath, plug in the hot glue gun.

terrible shadow… oops

Step 9 ) If you would like to further camouflage the floral wire, you can wrap the wired sections of the wreath with brown floral tape. This step is optional.

Step 10) Take the hot glue gun, and begin attaching small clumps of moss to hide the wire. The glue will also help reinforce the wire and keep everything together. A little moss goes a long way, and since the Spanish moss is fairly long, you can let some of it dangle, or even weave some of the moss up the branches. Start by hiding the wire on the front and side of the wreath, and if so desired you can also put moss on the back side of the wreath. If you used the floral tape, this probably isn’t necessary.

Voila! You now have a rustic heart wreath, and its pretty charming. And now you probably want to make at least seven more because you realized how easy it was, and how stinking cute they actually are. Hang one on your front door, in your kitchen, on your back porch, give one to a friend, give five to different friends, or maybe even sell them on ETSY, because earlier when I was trying to figure out how much to sell them for I did a search for comparable items, and apparently no one is actually making rustic heart wreaths these days. You are welcome.

Easy Appetizer: Winter Endive Bites with persimmon and pomegranate

January 28, 2014Leave a comment

Winter endive bites with persimmon and pomegranate

Happy National Appetizer Day! (What? Really? There is such a thing? I had no idea until Sunday night when I saw a sign announcing it at Trader Joes, but since I had already been mentally composing this blog post about my favorite go-to appetizer, I thought it was kismet.)

I’ve always thought that as an adult, one should have a go to, meal, dessert, and appetizer in his or her cooking repertoire. Ideally the dishes should be easy, tasty, and just a little bit unique… ( Mine are: endive bites, coconut oven fried chicken, rosemary thyme sugar cookies. ) Even if you don’t cook for yourself on a regular basis, you still need to be able to have those meals you can pull together to impress a date, the in-laws, or survive a work potluck or bake-sale. These items don’t necessarily need to be cohesive, and they most certainly don’t need to be complicated… but having these go to meal components up your sleeve will most definitely come in handy.

Tangent: You might also want to consider adding a vegan dish to your repertoire. Because lets face it, we all have vegan friends, and they like to eat delicious things too, and though they are choosing to miss out on things like crème fraiche, you also don’t want to be the friend who serves them things that taste like cardboard because you can’t figure out something delicious and plant based to make. Fact: Cooking vegan is NOT THAT HARD… and yet I know so many people who down right panic at the idea of eliminating meat, and dairy. Last year I had two Vegan and gluten free friends over for dinner… we had a delightful meal of black rice, raw zucchini noodles and tahini dressing with roasted vegetables…(ok, confession, I rarely cook meat a home, because it grosses me out, and since I rarely cook it it makes me nervous… so when I’m at home I’m mostly a vegetarian… so I’m allowed to go off about how vegan cooking isn’t that hard… because if you take eggs and cheese out of my diet… I pretty much live in a land of quinoa and roasted veggies…) and as we sat there, they told me about all the dinner party horror stories they had from people who just couldn’t quite get a grip on vegan cooking. Here is a hint… just because you are limiting your ingredients does not mean you have to limit the flavor. Plants are delicious, seasonal plants are even more delicious… you can still use things like salt, and spices, seeds and a myriad of other things to make your food taste awesome.

Also, to all my vegan friends out there. Don’t freak out when you cook for non-vegan people. You don’t need to defend how you eat or what you made for me… and don’t sit around fretting about if I’m going to be satisfied with the meal, or if I am judging you… I will be satisfied, and I’m not judging you (and most other people probably aren’t either). Fact: you eat this way, and it satisfies you, Cooking for someone is a wonderfully nice thing, and educating someone on new ways of thinking and eating is pretty neat too. Just because I choose to eat eggs and cheese doesn’t mean I think you are crazy for choosing not to eat those things. So just relax, keep doing what you do…

But I digress, and this IS supposed to be about appetizers.. and is, in fact, not a lecture on life skills and eating habits…. So onto Winter Endive Bites.

Here is what I love about endive bites. Everything. They are ridiculously simple, but seem a little bit fancy, so you kind of get extra bang for your buck. You can make them in about 5 minutes, put just about anything in them, and they act as their own cup, so they are a completely self contained nibble that works great for passed apps, or stationary h’orderves. The endive is crunchy, so you automatically have texture built in, and the bitterness of the green is remarkably versatile.

You could come up with hundreds of different fillings to put in endive bites, but one thing to consider is texture, color, taste and overall presentation. (another favorite is roasted beets with walnuts and blue cheese… or blood oranges with fennel, parley and chévre) What I love most about this particular recipe is the marriage of sweet and savory. The persimmon has a little sweet nuttiness to it, and the pomegranate is simultaneously sweet and tart. The pistachios add some texture, and then the gremolata brings in a little zing. There are a lot of flavors at work, but they all meld together to present this really gorgeous bite.

persimmons, cubed.

Winter Endive Bites with persimmon and pomegranate

Serves 5-6

2-3 heads of endive
seeds from ½ of a pomegranate
2 persimmons
1 handful of shelled pistachios (pulsed in a food processor a few times, or lightly smashed)
2-3 spoonful’s of gremolata*
olive oil (I recommend using a slightly fruity olive oil in this recipe. I used the 2013 olio nuovo Koroneiki olive oil from The Oregon Olive Mill… which was very ripe, and has a lot of green banana flavor. )
Finishing salt to taste (obviously I use Jacobsen Sea Salt Cause it’s amazing.)

Cut the bottoms off the endive and separate the leaves. Wash and dry the endive leaves and set aside.
Cut the persimmon into small chunks and place in mixing bowl with pomegranate seeds and pistachio. Lightly mix together and then add 2-3 spoonful’s of gremolata. Drizzle with olive oil. Taste, and add salt as needed.
Scoop the mixture into endive cups, and serve immediately.

*Gremolata

Zest from 1 lemon
2 cloves of garlic, minced.
1 bunch of parsley, chopped.
Mix gremolata ingredients together in small bowl and set aside.

*Gremolata is one of my new favorite things. It is great in soups, on salads, mixed in with rice, on fish… the list goes on. For this recipe, I recommend making it separately and adding it to the rest of the filling, that way you can keep the excess gremolata to garnish other dishes throughout the week.

Note. The gremolata will last a few days in the refrigerator but due to the texture of the persimmons, the fruit mixture doesn’t keep as well.

Words and Intentions for 2014

January 23, 2014January 13, 20151 Comment

Three weeks into January and my resolutions are still going strong (I know, I know, anyone can do anything for three weeks) I will admit, I have yet to see a nutria, and I’m taking some creative licensing with what defines a salad…

While I was sitting down typing out my resolutions it seems like everyone else was out there picking a few key words and intentions they wanted to focus on in 2014. Resolutions are out, intentions are in, and though I try not to be a jump-on-the-bandwagon type of person, I do kind of like this idea.

As a writer, words are a pretty big part of my life, and I like the idea of choosing a few words help to define my intentions for this year. This also got me thinking about words I might use to describe myself, and words that people I know might use to describe me… its funny how you can have what you think is a 100% clear view of yourself, and then you ask others to describe you and they see something completely different.

Sometimes it is fun to try on other people’s view of you, to try and see what they see, and it can be really empowering and uplifting… other times it just makes you feel totally mis-understood, and like you have failed at building your own brand (or at least failed at communicating it…) but a lot of that depends on how well people know you, and the context of relationships. I know that I am an introvert, and at times I can be quiet and reserved… but I also know that my inner dialog is pretty quick witted, very sarcastic, and sometimes snarky… Therefore, I perceive myself as vibrant, confident, and secure person… but I’m pretty sure a lot of people view me as this quiet, demure, ball of awkwardness…. In reality, I’m probably somewhere in-between. (and I’m pretty ok with that.)

As I began to make a short list of words I wanted to focus on this year, I started to think a little bit about my own personal brand. What are some key words that I want people to use to describe me? What are some of my assets that go un-noticed? How can I adjust my focus this year to help myself stand out for the right reasons? How can I start to “re-brand “myself so that what I see, and what other people see are the same thing? I’m not trying to be self-involved here… I’m a little nervous is it going to come off that way… I’m 100% confident with who I am, and I am not the type of person who goes around fretting about what other people think of me… truly. This is not me saying that I’m trying to change for other people, or that I want to change who I am… more so just that I’m figuring out some characteristics that I already have that I’m ready to take off the back burner. I think a little energy, and a little intention can go a long way, and when you are taking the time and investing in yourself, its only a matter of time before other people notice that shift in energy. I like to call it the “je ne sais quoi” factor… and I’m excited to head into the next 11 months with an open mind and a whole lot of intention.

Words for 2014

: My words for 2014

A follow up on my juice cleanse: some observations from last week, and a few more tips

January 15, 2014Leave a comment

obviously the only thing to do when your friends are drinking wine and you are on a juice cleanse is bring your juice to the wine bar and ask for a glass. (I love small town life)

I thought I’d write a follow up on my juice cleanse experience and keep everyone updated on the progress. Firstly, I took a fair amount of photos, however my phone committed suicide on Sunday (or I dropped it and it died, whatever) so I lost all of my pictures from last week. I did post a quite a few of them to instagram, so if you’d like to see some pictures of things like beet juice, you can find my profile here

The cleanse was pretty amazing actually, and somewhere around day 4, I was I decided to extend the experience for two days and just do a full week. I mean if you are juicing for 5 days you can juice for seven, so why not? I had an excess of produce (though I did have to buy more carrots, cilantro, apples, and 1 pineapple), an excess of energy, and thankfully I was working some shorter shifts, so I had plenty of time to juice.

I woke up on Monday and felt like I could do anything. I just went for an entire week without eating solid food, caffeine, added sugar, meat, dairy, and alcohol. I was 100% plant based, and I didn’t get hungry once! I was pumped. You know that song from The Sound of Music that the crazy old nun sings? “Climb Every Mountain!” This was playing in my head on repeat like my victory chant on Monday morning… (though I just looked up all the lyrics, and not just the first verse that has been on repeat all week, and it doesn’t really so much apply, because its about finding your dreams and chasing rainbows and stuff… Eye of the Tiger might work a little better… but maybe if I just stick with “Climb Every Mountain!!!” over and over again it accurately portrays how I felt on Monday morning. Though I just sang it out loud right now for emphasis, and the dog looked at me like I was bat shit crazy.) Needless to say, You go for a week without eating real food, and you pretty much feel amazing, and its an empowering thing. So sing yourself some sort of victory song.

Here are some other observations from last week. (I’m making these as I remember them, they are in no way in order of importance/ interest)

Firstly:I lost seven pounds, can I get a what what!? I wasn’t doing to cleanse to lose weight as much as I was to hit a restart on my metabolism, but the weight loss was an added bonus. I could tell by day two that I was less bloated, and people (ok my dad) told me my face looked thinner. My jeans… well they fit exactly the same (how is that possible? I blame my dryer) and I’m sure a lot of what came off was water weight. I felt like I was going pee about every 45 minutes, but hello, it was a 7 day liquid diet.

Secondly: My fears were confirmed and I’m 95% sure I have an allergy to gluten. People have been telling me years that my eczema might be gluten related, and I’ve only sort of listened to them, because who wants to have a gluten allergy? No one. Croutons are practically one of my food group, and bread and butter is like manna… I suspected that coming off gluten would do some good things for my body (ie goodbye belly bloat) but I was also thinking that an obscene amount of toxins would be seeping out of my pores, so I was mentally prepared to be an eczema covered, pimply version of myself last week. Surprise! My skin looks great, and by day two, there were no signs of dragon skin. My eczema was 100% gone. It’s bitter sweet. I mean how awesome that I was able to fix the problem… but I’m still not ready to let go of my gluten addiction… Don’t get me wrong, I’m cutting way back, and opting for gluten free on a lot of things (have any of you tried the gluten free pizza at Red Hills Market? It is insanely good… like even the chef tends to eat gluten free pizza rather than regular.) Anyway, I’m cutting back on my gluten intake, and we’ll see how it goes.

Surprisingly enough my skin didn’t break out either. I’m choosing to believe this was because I was oil pulling and all the toxins were being pulled out of my mouth before they could erupt through my pores. I have nothing to back this up, and I could be full of shit, but I’m sticking with my theory anyway. That, and the fact that I was drinking a ton of water, which his always good for your skin.

Thirdly: I have no idea why, but my lips have never been so chapped in my entire life, it seems like an odd observation, but my juicing buddy noticed the same thing… it might be a coincidence (and weird since we were very well hydrated) but maybe keep some lip balm on you if you are starting a juice cleanse.

Fourthly: Hello energy. Like crazy amounts of energy. I was already a night owl, but I felt like I could come home after work and actually be productive. I was waking up in the morning and not feeling groggy, I was 100% fine without having coffee! If you know anyone in my family, you will agree that this is a shocking thing. Its not a matter of if we are going for coffee, but when we are going for coffee. Its practically pumping through our veins… add to that the fact that RHM serves stumptown and one of our work perks is free coffee with every shift… I’m almost never without it.

I’m going to go off on a little tangent here and say that I do not want to have children (bear with me, I’ll bring it back around.) I’ve never really had the desire to grow a human. I reserve the right to change my mind someday, maybe… and its perfectly possible that I will meet a man, and decide that I’m baby crazy and want to have a gaggle of tiny humans (only probably not, because the only way that more than one is coming out of me is if they are twins or whatever). For example if say Ben Jacobsen decided that he wanted me to be the mother of a child to inherit his salt empire… I might consider it… We’d probably have an adorable ginger baby. (I will stop there. I don’t know Ben that well, and we are having dinner next month, and I don’t want him to think that I’m a total creeper who is blogging about having his babies… I want him to think that I’m a witty, well adjusted, total not creeper who is blogging about having his babies… sometimes people don’t get my sense of humor OR my sarcasm… All I can say is, they are not my people.) Anyway, I am all for other people having babies, and to all of my friends/relatives who have recently had offspring, and who are planning on reproducing I DO really like your kids/ will like your kids… and I like some other people’s kids… but not most other peoples kids… ok before I dig myself into an even deeper hole, I’m bringing this back around to say that one of the reasons I have such a strong aversion to growing my own tiny human (there is a really long list of aversions, this is just one of many) is the whole giving up caffeine thing. *

I always assumed that it would be nearly impossible for me to do, and that it would be a slow and painful process in which I wanted to die, and was planning on taking everyone else down with me… Turns out, it wasn’t that bad, I only got two headaches, and I was off it for 8 days! (“Climb Every Mountain!!!”)

Fifthly: I’m not craving sugar anymore. Mostly I’ve been more of a savory person anyway, but over the holidays I was doing my fare share of indulging in hot chocolate, caramels etc. The juice cleanse really helped me to quit the sugar, and now my body is craving more greens and whole foods than ever before. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still planning on making a trip to Sprinkefingers next week, and eating handfuls of gumdrops (it’s a good fantasy) but the important thing is that I’m no longer craving the sugar (fantasizing and craving are two entirely different things.)

Sixthly: I noticed a lot about my eating habits, and how a lot of the time I eat when I’m not hungry… I really enjoy eating, I think most of us do, but sometimes I do it out of boredom, and sometimes it is honestly just a reflex. I can’t tell you how many times I went over to my parent’s house an instinctively went to reach for a handful of almonds… not because I was hungry, but because that is what I always do when I’m over there because there is a bowl of them on the kitchen counter. I do this at work all the time too with cookies, salads, spoonful’s of whipped cream… it’s a habit, and hopefully a habit that this juice cleanse was able to break. I’m now much more aware of what I’m putting into my body, and listening for when I’m actually hungry. I’m also being better about guzzling water anytime I feel that snack grabbing reflex kick in. It’s a little change, but awareness is half the battle.

I did forget a few pieces of advice in my post last week about gearing up for a juice cleanse, so here they are now.

1) use the buddy system. It is so much easier to stay accountable and on track if you are juicing with a friend. Especially when you work in a restaurant surrounded by delicious things, and some of your co-workers are jerks and keep eating things like bacon jam in front of you. Yes, your family probably supports you, and in the end you are doing it for your own reasons, but there are always going to be the people out there who are a little bit annoyed at your for not eating, who don’t understand it, and who sometimes say dumb things like “well it’s your choices not to eat!” or who try to get you to fall off the wagon. Its really helpful to have someone else who is going through the same thing that you are, and who will actually be 100% over the moon for you when you finish strong, and will whole heartedly share in your success. (because “Climb Every Mountain” should be sung as a duet. Duh) A huge shout out to my co-worker Lindsey who did the first five days of juicing with me, who lost 8 pounds, and who did it all while still feeing her husband and children, and also working all five of those days in the restaurant. I’m pretty sure I would have probably faltered/ at least had a handful of chips or something if I had all of those factors involved in my juice cleanse.

2) As much as you can, try to get rid of “Temptations” from your fridge and pantry beforehand. Sometimes it is unavoidable, and sometimes you still have to cook for your family etc. But I cannot tell you how nice it was to come home and know that I didn’t have bags of chips, or cartons of leftovers begging me to eat them.

3) Hazelnut milk saved my bacon. I think one of the reasons my juice cleanse was so successful, and why I didn’t have any hunger pangs, and didn’t feel like death for the first few days (minus that caffeine headache on day one… I didn’t wean off early enough) was that my last “juice” of the day was actually home made hazelnut milk. I think protein is vital, and having a relatively thick and delicious treat like beverage every night was pretty amazing. Hazelnut milk is super easy to make (it just takes a little time.)

* I know that not wanting to give up caffeine is not a valid reason to not want to be pregnant. I also know that a lot of women drink caffeine throughout their entire pregnancy, and their babies are normal, and caffeine isn’t as bad as some other things. Considering my family, my offspring would probably be addicted to coffee at birth anyway, I think its genetic anyway, so I’d probably be fine slurping cold brew by the gallon… I also know that I’ve been watching a whole lot of Mad Men, and seeing all the pregnant ladies who are drinking gimlets and smoking cigarettes, and I’m starting to wonder how there isn’t an entire generation of completely f*ed up people.

5 tips for at home juicers

January 6, 20141 Comment

$141 worth of produce

Here we are, day one of Juice Cleanse extravaganza 2014 (It’s a working title) I’m going to spend the next five days not eating solid food, living off of juice, water, tea, and coconut water! Hooray! (no really, I’m excited) This will be my 3^rd juice cleanse, and by far the longest, and though I’m a little nervous (I work in a restaurant surrounded by amazingly delicious things all the time… hello temptation) I’m mostly just ready to get this show on the road.

I wrote out menus for each day, made a grocery list, and made a few decisions about what sort of cleanse I was going to do. After giving it a lot of thought, I decided to try and do all organic. I’m not about to get on my high horse and preach the benefits of organic eating, but eating organic whenever possible makes a lot of sense to me, and especially when juicing. Juice allows the nutrients to enter into your blood stream rather quickly, because your body doesn’t have to break down any fiber etc. Call me crazy, but it seems like anything that is essentially going to be directly entering your blood stream should be organic (I know my logic is flawed. But so what!)

And even though I’m on a tight budget I figured I would let myself splurge on organic. After all, I don’t have a family to support, I won’t be going out all week, and I won’t have expenses like coffee, takeout, and sadly I won’t have Wine Wednesday. I set a budget for myself, and shopped around a little and tried to find the best bargains. This was a little labor intensive, and I ended up going to 5 different stores, but overall I was successful. (I know five stores sounds like a lot. I could have narrowed it down, but I knew some stuff I wanted to get in bulk, some stuff I could only find at Whole Foods, some stuff I knew Trader Joe’s had at an excellent price… This is why planning is key. ) I couldn’t find organic grapes, and I opted to get a case of Meyer lemons at Costco rather than conventional organic lemons. I also did not buy organic fennel bulb ( I feel like I’m confessing my sins… but its my blog, so I’m not going to justify why I bought the fennel that I did..) And I was able to get everything I’m going to need for 5 days (and then some) for $141. I This breaks down to $28/ day. Manageable. (my professional juice cleanse ended up being about $50 a day including delivery, so I’m thrilled with $28).

super delicious OM juice from Portland Juice Press

golden beets, meyer lemons, ginger and turmeric root, kale.

I’m not planning on eating anything, though I might supplement with chia seeds, coconut oil and, depending on how the first few days go, nuts. I’m also going to practice oil pulling while I’m on my cleanse. I haven’t done any research about a combination of the two, but it seems as though they would go hand in hand. (you can read more about oil pulling here.) I know that my hardest day will likely be Tuesday, since I’m working a 10 hour shift. If I can make it through a day at the restaurant, and a staff meeting where everyone is drinking beer and eating cheese, than I can make it through anything.

I thought a bit about what I wanted to say in this post, and decided that I’m not going to ramble on about how wonderful juicing is, why I’m doing it, the health benefits, the pros and cons etc. I’m not a nutritionist /doctor/health coach/ expert in any sense of the word, and there are about nine gazillion other websites and blogs you can visit to get menus, facts, benefits etc. I really like the way juicing makes me feel, and after the holidays my entire life feels like it needs a mini-detox.

I am going to offer up 5 pieces of advice for anyone who is embarking on, or thinking about embarking on a juice cleanse, and hopefully these little nuggets of information will help make your life a little easier.

1) Do your research. Whether you are going to be juicing at home, or juicing through a company, you need to spend a little time looking into things. How much will it cost? Do they deliver? what kind of juicer are you going to get? How long will the juice last? Do you have time to juice? These are all pretty basic questions, and all things you should probably have a pretty good grasp on before you commit to a cleanse. My first 3 day cleanse was through Portland Juice Press, and I really cannot say enough good things about it. They were so wonderful to work with, they offered a group rate, delivered it all the way to us in Dundee, and the best part is that there is no mess. You don’t have to spend hours a day making juice and cleaning up, you just open up your fridge every few hours and reach for the juice. They even tell you what order to drink them in. The flavors were really interesting, the juice was satisfying, and the entire process was pretty much painless. From there I became a little addicted, and since I’m an hour outside of the city, I decided to invest in my own juicer. There are countless different brands, makes, and models out there, so again you really have to know what it is you are looking for in a juicer. My priorities were juice quality, and easiness to clean. I ended up with the Omega 8006 juicer, and I’m so in love. A little on the pricey side, but it has 15 year warrantee, is super easy to clean, and it is what they call a masticating juicer. Essentially it crushes the juice using a very slow rpm, which helps keep the juice from oxidizing, and it maintains more of the healthy enzymes and benefits. Juice from a masticating juicer also has a longer shelf life, so you have up to 72 hours to drink your juice (other types they recommend consuming the juice right away or within 24 hours) This type of juicer is perfect for doing a cleanse because you can make juice for a couple of days in advance. Once you know what you are wanting out of a juice cleanse/ juicer it is easier to commit. Also keep in mind that juicing is not a quick process. You are going to need to block off some time to make the juice (its like cooking) you have to chop everything, juice it, clean the juicer etc… If you are going to be juicing for the entire day, it could take up to two hours ( including all the prep and clean up…masticating juicer do go a little bit slower, but they also extract more juice.)

2) Make a Plan: sit down and write a menu. Seriously, treat it like you would a dinner party. List out all the days and exactly what juices you are planning on making (you can always switch it up) and from there make a grocery list. Its easy to see exactly what you are going to need once everything is listed out, and once the grocery list is made its easy to write out notes about where you are going to look for each item. Spending 15 minutes making a menu and grocery list will make it so easy once you are actually out shopping, especially if you have to go to multiple stores, you will know exactly what you need to get.

3) Plan Ahead (this goes hand in hand with Make a plan). Though I’m sure there are people who just jump into a detox like this, I think you will be a lot happier with the results and the entire process if you take a little time before and after the cleanse to make some minor changes to your diet and lifestyle. For me the biggest things to cut out in advance are alcohol and caffeine.( Of course it is recommended to cut out dairy, meet etc. beforehand, and to try and eat a clean and unprocessed diet at least a few days in advance) All I know is that I drink a lot of coffee, and the last thing I want to do is be on a juice cleanse while suffering from caffeine headaches. Save yourself the headache (sorry, couldn’t resist) and get off caffeine a few days before you start. I switched to tea about a week ago, and stopped caffeine entirely two days before. Look at your calendar, because the last thing you want is to be in the middle of a juice cleanse while you are out at a birthday party, wedding, or other social engagement. I mean its fine, its not like you are on house arrest when you are juicing, but if everyone around you is drinking, eating, and having a grand old time, you will probably hate your life a little bit, and be tempted to cheat. Also, clean out your refrigerator before you go shopping. You are going to need to place to store the produce, and all the juice, and it takes up quite a bit of space. How are you going to store your juice? (I personally use mason jars, they are the perfect size for one 16ish oz serving, and they fit well in the fridge) Are all your jars clean?

4) Drink so much water. Seriously. Drink it. You are essentially releasing a ton of toxins from your body, and they need to be flushed out. They are looking for any way to get out of your body, and chances are they are going to be flooding out of your pores (breakouts, and bad breath are common side effects of juicing because of this) drink water, drink water, drink water. (this is probably the hardest part for me. Especially when I’m at work, and literally have to get someone to cover my station every time I go to the bathroom. Its not like I can discretely slip away and have no one notice, I actually have to tell someone, sometimes multiple people “hey I’m going pee, cover the front” On normal days this is fine, but on busy days there are lines out the door, and sometimes abandoning your post, even for a 2 minutes bathroom break, just isn’t happening. )

5) Make your own rules, and give yourself a break. Juicing is hard, and you know your body. If you need to eat, then eat. You have just stocked up on all this great stuff to put in your juice, if you absolutely need a snack, then eat one of the oranges, have a handful of nuts, do what you need to do, and don’t judge yourself for it. I always carry a handful of almonds in my bag when I’m doing a juice cleanse, just incase I need a little boost of texture and protein. Maybe on your juice fast you juice during the day and have a healthy meal at night. Maybe you eat nuts and solids all day. Maybe you are just juicing as a supplement. Find what works for you. Also have fun, try some new ingredients! Have you juiced asparagus? Tumeric root?

*Side Note: Because I feel like it has to be addressed, because everyone always asks me in person: Does a juice cleanse make you poop a lot/ give you the runs? Though it seems of-putting to be talking about brown-towning in a blog about juicing/ being healthy, I get why people ask that question. My simple answer is: everybody poops. Lets just think about it… you are drinking liquid for days… what do you think that would do to your bowel movements? Everyone’s bodies and eating habits are different, and I think if you eat enough fiber on a regular basis you aren’t going to really notice a big difference. Some days were looser than others, and I’m just going to leave it at that. I never felt like I had to stay close to a restroom, or like I couldn’t go out and do things, there were no emergencies.

And just because I don’t want to end a blog post with everyone thinking about bowel movements here is a recipe for one of my favorite juices .

5 carrots

¾ of a red bell pepper

1 apple

1 inch of turmeric root

cranberry, orange, fennel bulb, pomegranate

golden beet, carrot, orange, fennel bulb and ginger juice

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