Update + Recipe | Happy Thanksgiving!

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No, this Friday I am not bringing you my face or the products used on it... mainly because I didn't feel like doing my make up. Instead, I thought I'd just make a little Thanksgiving-themed post since yesterday WAS Thanksgiving and all... for Americans at least.

My mom, sister, nephew and I drove up to my aunt and uncle's house for the holiday and it was really a nice time. I hadn't seen my cousins, aunt, and uncle all together since Liam's baptism back in September, so it was nice to see everyone again.

The night progressed as usual for our family get-togethers... political arguments, making fun of each other, and attacking the vegetarians of the family, and eating delicious food... just the way it's supposed to be!

Liam and I, before heading out to Thanksgiving Dinner

I am so thankful for the family I have been blessed with. They've helped me get through the roughest points in my life and I couldn't have asked for a better group of people to raise me and watch me grow up into the woman I am today :)

Now, for a recipe.

My mom gave me freedom to do whatever I wanted with the sweet potatoes we were bringing for the dinner, so I came up with this easy and delicious recipe for spiced, mashed sweet potatoes

8-10 sweet potatoes

2 tbsp butter OR butter substitute to make this a vegan recipe

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1 1/2 - 2 tbsp dried, ground sage

Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375° Fahrenheit 

*You can peel the sweet potatoes if you want. If you choose not to, make sure you scrub them really well

Bake the sweet potatoes for an hour, or until they are soft and mashable. Transfer them to a bowl and add the butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, sage, salt and pepper. Mash with a potato masher or with a hand-held or stand mixer... whatever's easiest for you... until you reach the desired consistency.

Enjoy letting people guess what the spices you used are!

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FOTD | Friday

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So, I want to make this a normal thing... Face of the Day Friday. Quite simply a day where I show you my face, tell you what make up I used to create said face, and you can do with that information what you will.

Will I stick to this for every Friday? Probably not... but here's to an honest try, right?

1. e.l.f Flawless Finish Foundation
After moisturizing, I applied a thin layer of my favorite foundation all over my face and neck with my favorite e.l.f Kabuki foundation brush

2. Rimmel London Stay Matte Pressed Powder
After my foundation is evenly distributed, I set it with this matte powder. It makes my foundation last all day without looking oily or dewy. Plus, this foundation/powder combo has gotten me a few compliments on my complexion since I've started using it :)

3. Pixi Beauty Bronzer - Subtly Suntouched
Okay, I'm not entirely sure if this is a straight up bronzer or a bronzing/blush duo thing but I apply this to the apples of my cheeks like a blush, and sort of blend a tiny bit upwards toward my temples and down into the hollows of my cheeks. It's not intensely pigmented so you can get away with a light dusting wherever you feel you need a little color

4. Benefit Watt's Up Face Highlighter
I apply this to my cheekbones every day to add a little shine to to my look. The matte-ness of my pressed powder and the shimmery-ness of this highlighter work very well together

5. Lorac Pro Palette
My favorite palette at the moment is my Lorac Pro Palette... Sorry Naked Palette! Today I dusted the color Champagne all over my lid, blended Pewter into my crease, and added a bit of Deep Purple to my outer Corners. I then finished off this eye look with White as my brow and inner corner highlight.

6. Starlooks Gem Pencil - Topaz
After the eyeshadow, I smudged on some of this silvery eyeliner at the base of my top lashes.

7. E.M Waterliner - Royal Amethyst
I took some of this dark purple waterliner and smudged in into my lower lashes.

8. Rimmel London Extra Super Lash Mascara
My favorite mascara at the moment - lengthens AND adds volume :)

9. Chella Dazzling Dark Brown Eyebrow Color
I lightly filled in my eyebrows with my favorite eyebrow pencil. Be light handed with this, because your eyebrows can go from natural to dramatic within a few sweeps of this across them.

10. Be a Bombshell Lip Crayon - Shameless
I felt like this lighter maroon shade was the perfect lip color to bring the whole look together

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Recipe | Baked Vegetable Eggrolls

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This is more of a process suggestion rather than a recipe. You can add whatever vegetables you have on hand in your egg rolls, this is just how I chose to prepare mine.

This will yield 6 egg rolls.

6 egg roll sheets... mine were vegan but that's up to you
1 bell pepper, any color, thinly sliced
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
1 small zucchini, thinly sliced
1 large or 2 small carrots, cut into matchsticks, or julienned
1 cup alfalfa sprouts, or any kind of sprout
a couple tbsp water

Preheat your oven to 425°F

Evenly distribute your veggies among the 6 egg roll sheets, layering a few pieces of each veg ontop each other

To wrap up your egg rolls, fold in the left and right sides of the egg roll sheet, so that your filling is partially covered. Then just roll over your filling until the bottom of the wrapper is facing up at at you. Then take a dab of water on your finger, and run it across the final edge of the wrapper so that it sticks to itself and doesn't come undone in the oven

Repeat this for all of your egg rolls. Place them seam side down on a baking sheet prepared with tinfoil/parchment paper and/or spray cooking oil.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the wrappers are golden brown.

I didn't salt the veggies inside the wrappers because I didn't want to bring out all of their moisture and make my egg rolls soggy. I served mine with some soy sauce mixed with grated fresh ginger, honey, and crunchy peanut butter and that was all the seasoning I needed.

Enjoy! :)

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Recipe | Cinnamon Banana Butter

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When I buy bananas for myself, there's a very small threshold of time where I can eat them and actually enjoy them. I love slightly green bananas... just under their ideal ripeness. Once the green is gone, so is my appetite for them.

Because of this weird banana preference that I have, I'm often left with 2-3 bananas on hand that are too ripe for my liking. I usually will give them to my mom to make her delicious vegan banana bread, but if I won't be seeing her for a while, I thought up a VERY easy and VERY delicious way to use them up so they're not just sitting around.

Makes about a pint of "butter"

3 ripe bananas, mashed
*my bananas were on the larger side. if your bananas are looking a little skimpy, just add another one.
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp ground cinnamon

Combine all the ingredients in a mixing bowl until they are thoroughly incorporated and the bananas are mashed to a smooth but chunky consistency.

Spread over toast, add to your oatmeal, or just eat it up with a spoon! Transfer any leftovers to an airtight container and store in the fridge for up to a week (if it even lasts that long)

Enjoy! :)

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Recipe | Vegan Apple Pumpkin Muffins

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Makes 12 muffins

2 cups brown rice flour
1/3 cup raw cane sugar
3/4 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
2-3 tbsp plain, unsweetened almond milk
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
*optionl* 2-3 tbsp raw pumpkin seeds

Preheat your oven to 325° F.

Combine all of the dry ingredients (brown rice flour, sugar, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, salt) in a large mixing bowl. Whisk together the wet ingredients (pumpkin, applesauce, almond milk, canola oil) in a separate mixing bowl.

Once both are separately combined, add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients gradually until all ingredients are thoroughly mixed. The batter will be relatively thick.

You can either lie your muffin tin with muffin cups, or you can just spray the tin with some canola oil cooking spray to ensure that the muffins don't stick when you try to take them out. Scoop the better into each muffin mold about 3/4 of the way up.

*If you want, you can top each muffin with a sprinkling of pumpkin seeds before you bake them off. The pumpkin seeds will roast in the oven a little bit and provide a nice contrast in flavor with the slight sweetness of the muffins*

Pop those bad boys in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes, depending on your oven. Mine were perfect at 15 minutes. Just keep checking on them after the 15 minute mark by sticking a toothpick or a knife or fork through the center of a muffin to see if the inside isn't a gooey mess.

Enjoy! :)

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