My Oscar Fashion Favorites

I LOVE the awards show season, mostly because of the fashion.  I love princess dresses and all things feminine.  These were my favorite from this years Academy Awards (in no particular order, except that Jennifer Lawrence was my very favorite).

Recipe of the week: Blood Orange and Beet Salad

I've seen a couple of beet and orange salad recipes lately so I decided to come up with my own.  I'm not a big fan of raw onions but if you are, red onions might be nice in this.  I blanched my beets but you could also roast them like I did here.  If you can't find blood oranges you can always use regular ones or tangerines.  I made my own dressing but you can easily use any prepared dressing you like.  This salad had a hearty feeling to it but was also light and refreshing if that makes sense.  Let me know what you think.  A Votre Sante!

Blood Orange and Beet Salad

1 medium to large bowl of spinach and mixed greens

1 beets, blanched and sliced

2-3 blood oranges, depending on the size

2-3 sprigs of fresh parsley

1 Tbsp honey mustard

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 1/2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

freshly ground pepper

In a pan with a steamer basket, steam beets for 4-5 minutes, then drain and rinse with cold water (that will stop them from continuing to cook).  While the beets are cooking, remove the stems from the spinach leaves,   peel and section the oranges, set aside.  Slice the beets.  In a small bowl add your honey mustard, olive oil, and vinegar, whisk together, add freshly ground pepper to taste.  Add oranges, beets, and parsley to your greens and toss.  Drizzle with dressing and serve.  If you're not serving it right away, wait on the dressing, no one likes soggy salad.  Enjoy.  

First Love

On Wednesday night's, I'm going to a Beth Moore (via video) Bible study called 'Beloved Disciple'.  It's a study based on the life of the Apostle John.  Last night at the end of the video Beth was talking about how at the end of his life the elderly man preached almost exclusively about love.

In Revelation 2, John writes to the church in Ephesus, and in verse 4-5 says this:  "4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. 5 Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.".  Again, I am no Bible scholar but I know Beth Moore has done her homework and I wanted to share this with you.  According to Beth the word forsaken in the Greek is the same word as forgive in Matthew 6:12  "And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors."  I, for one, found this very interesting.  The word in both places is afihmi, which means “to let go of or release".  She went on to make the point that if you are holding on to unforgiveness you don't have any room for love.  I don't know about you, but I think that's true.

I once heard that unforgiveness is a prison and the prisoner is you.  I've worked hard in my life to forgive people that have hurt me and move on but it's not always easy.  I think it might be easier if we knew on the other side we'd have more room to love, at least that's what I'm hoping.  So, I'm asking myself these questions "what am I holding onto?  Am I holding onto my First Love (Christ) or am I holding onto unforgiveness?"

I want to love more, I want to be someone known for showing the love of Christ.  Today (Valentine's Day) of all days is about love....so here's hoping that today finds you showered with love, the love of Christ and the love of those around you.

Until next time.

Ciao.

Recipe of the week: Buttermilk Pancakes

It's hard to believe it's been 2 weeks since I posted here....it's been a very long two weeks.  First, it was my daughter's 21st birthday and we celebrated a few times.  Then, we had tragedy strike in our community and no one has really wanted do anything or go anywhere.  So, just like that it's Fat Tuesday/Shrove Tueday/Mardi Gras.  I decided to make pancakes tonight to try to make everything right with the world...I'm sure nothing has changed but at least we were comforted for a bit.  You can easily make this gluten free by using coconut or almond flour and dairy free by using coconut or almond milk.  I doubled this batched and made half with chocolate chips and half with blueberries and a smashed banana.  Both were amazing!  Let me know what you think.  (I used about 1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips for the first one and one banana and 3/4 cup blueberries for the other.)
A Vorte Sante!


1 1/2 cups flour (of choice)
2 Tbsp sugar (of choice)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg slightly beaten
1/2 tsp pure vanilla
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
3 Tbsp oil of choice

In a large bowl, mix dry ingredients.  In another bowl stir together wet ingredients, whisk together until just slightly lumpy.  Cook about 1/4 cup of batter on medium heat until golden brown, flip and repeat until all the batter is gone.  Enjoy!

*Add fruit or chocolate chips once the batter is mixed.  If you don't have buttermilk add 1Tbsp of vinegar (I use apple cider vinegar) to the milk, let sit for 10 minutes and voila, you've got buttermilk!

Resolutions vs. Small Changes

A lot of people I know made New Years resolutions and have already abandoned them.  I read that 60% of the people that make resolutions are regarding health, these are the top four:  lose weight, quit drinking, exercise more, and quit smoking.  I think sometimes resolutions set you up to fail because it's an all or nothing mentality.  I'd rather strive for progress instead of perfection.

So,  in an attempt to keep it real and in striving for progress, I thought I'd share a couple of things I've been keeping track of.  For January, I had a total of 16 workouts.  Sixteen out of 31 days was not my goal, but considering I didn't do anything until the 7th due to illness (either I was sick or had a sickie at home) 16 out of 25 is okay.

Another small change I wanted to make was to juice more, not every day because sometimes even that can sometimes cause stress.  My goal was to make juice (primarily vegetable) every other day, that hasn't happened either but hey I've done it 3-4 times a week, so I'm going with this as a win.  I was taking one of Christian's friends home the other day and we were talking about diet.  Christian proceeded to tell him how nasty my vegetable juice is but then said "dude, you feel so good after drinking it!"  Another win.

Another goal of mine was to get outside and enjoy beauty more, so far I haven't done that, but I surely hope you have.

I hope you find beauty all around you....ciao.

xo,
B

Recipe of the week: Triple Layer Brownies

These are by far the most decadent thing I make, therefore I don't make them very often.  I've been making this for several years now, and over time have modified the recipe a bit.  

The original recipe called for unsalted butter in the brownie layer, but as you may recall, I'm a big fan of the sweet and salty thing, I use regular butter.  If you use unsalted, you'll need to add 1/4 tsp of salt.  Since there is only 1 cup of flour you could easily make these gluten free by using almond or coconut flour, or whatever else you might use.  I also reduced the amount of unsweetened chocolate in the glaze to just 2 oz instead of 4.  (You can use the 4 oz if you like, or even try semi sweet.) 

I made these today for my oldest daughter's 21st birthday.  We will probably have them with some vanilla bean ice cream, if I get to the store.  These also go well with coffee or an after dinner coffee cocktail.  Cut them into small pieces, I'm often told these are too rich....which there is no such thing, in my book, haha!   Let me know what you think....even though these aren't healthy.  A Votre Sante!

Triple Layer Brownies

Ingredients:

1 cup of butter + 3 Tbsp

8 oz unsweetened chocolate

2 cups sugar

4 large eggs
1 cup flour

3 tsp vanilla

2 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup heavy cream or half and half

For the 1st layer:

(Preheat oven to 300 degrees)

Melt together (in a double boiler or the microwave):

1/2 cup butter

6 oz unsweetened chocolate, set aside and let cool slightly

Beat together for 8 minutes (you want this fluffy) on medium-med/high speed:

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

Fold chocolate mixture into egg mixture.  Add by folding 1 cup of flour and 1 tsp vanilla.  Bake in a greased 9x13 pan for 30-35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.  Let cool completely before frosting.  (You can always do this the night before.)

Frosting:

Melt until a caramel color, approximately 7-8 minutes on medium low heat:

1/2 cup butter

Beat the butter with 2 cups powdered sugar, 1/4 heavy cream and the remaining 2 tsp of vanilla.  Frost brownies while the frosting is still warm then cool to room temperature.

Glaze:

2 oz unsweetened chocolate

3 Tbsp butter

Melt together and pour over frosting.  You can serve them as is or cold.  I usually serve them cold, they're a little easier to cut when cold.  They freeze nicely.  Enjoy with ice cream, coffee, or a coffee cocktail!

Recipe of the week: Chicken Tortilla Soup

I love tortilla soup and have for years, I think the first time I had it I was in high school and I've been trying to perfect the recipe ever since.  You can very easily make this vegan, which I sometimes do for my husband....instead of the chicken I will use more beans and more corn (1 can of kidney beans, 1 can of pinto beans, and the entire bag of corn and obviously vegetable broth).  I use Trader Joe's taco seasoning because there's no MSG or junk in it.  I have a friend who hates beans so she uses zucchini and yellow squash instead, if you want to do that, you just need to add them towards end so they don't get mushy.  Let me know what you think.  A Votre Sante!



Chicken Tortilla Soup

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
32oz/1qt chicken or vegetable broth
1 onion diced
2 Tbsp olive oil
3-4 carrots chopped
2 cloves of garlic minced
2-3 small zucchini chopped
1 can black beans
1 can diced tomatoes
1/2 bag of frozen corn
1/2 package taco seasoning
1 tsp sugar (optional)
1 tsp salt
1/4-1/2 bunch cilantro

Toppings:
cheese
lime
sour cream
avocado
salsa
tortilla chips

Cut chicken into small pieces. In a large soup pot, saute with onion, carrots, and garlic until almost done.  Add broth, tomatoes, black beans, taco seasoning, salt, sugar, pepper, and corn.  Bring to a boil and turn down to very low, after about 10 minutes and add zucchini and cilantro.  Simmer for about 20 minutes, serve with your choice of toppings.  Enjoy.