Recipe | Loaded, One Pan Breakfast Scramble

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What you'll need:

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

3 red potatoes, diced

1/2 red onion, diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 tomatoes, diced

4 eggs, whisked

1/4 cup fresh mozzarella, cubed or shredded

1 avocado, diced

1 tsp smoked paprika

1/2 tsp coriander

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp turmeric 

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400° F.

Set a large, oven-safe skillet to medium-high heat. Start sauteing your potatoes in the olive oil until they start browning - about 10 minutes total, flipping occasionally. Next, add the onions, and once they start becoming translucent (after 5 minutes or so) add the garlic. Add some salt and pepper and stir to combine.

Turn the heat down to medium-low and add your whisked eggs, spices, tomatoes, and more salt and pepper. Scramble the egg mixture until they begin to set up. Add the mozzarella to the top of the mixture, and then transfer the pan to the oven. Bake until the eggs are cooked through and the cheese is melted, about 5-7 minutes.

Remove the pan from the oven and top with your fresh avocado. 

Enjoy!

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Recipe | Super Grain Veggie Bowl

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What you'll need:

• 1 cup Super Grains mix (mine was from Whole Foods with red & white quinoa, buckwheat, and millet)
• 2 cups vegetable stock
• 1/2 red onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 10-15 grape tomatoes, halved
• 1 carrot, shredded or thinly sliced with a vegetable peeler
• 1 cup frozen edamame
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

*to make this a complete meal, add some sauteed tempeh or seitan

Combine the super grains, vegetable stock, onion, garlic, and some salt and pepper in a pot and set over high heat. Bring the mixture up to a boil and then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes, or until the liquid has been absorbed. With about 5 minutes left of cook time, add the frozen edamame to thaw.

If you're adding tempeh or seitan to the dish, start sauteeing in some olive oil on medium heat while the grain mix is cooking. This should take about 5 minutes on each side.

When the grains are done cooking, add the tomatoes, carrots, crushed red pepper flakes, and some more salt and pepper to taste. Fluff with a fork to combine everything. 

Enjoy!

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Beauty Favorites | August Edition

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I'm BACK! After a very long, unexpected, and unannounced hiatus happened on this blog... sorry about that (I know, it happens a lot. I have trouble staying committed to things, I'm working on it). But that's in the PAST now, and we're going to just go ahead and put those 2 (almost 3) blog post-less months behind us and start FRESH.

Today I bring you a new type of post that I've been wanting to do for a while after watching countless videos about it on youtube - monthly favorites! Now before you start thinking to yourself, "Sam, you've created themed posts in the past and literally NONE of them lasted. Why should we believe you're going to keep this one going strong?" Well... good point. You shouldn't believe that I will definitely have a favorites blog post every month. However, you should believe that I will TRY MY HARDEST, so long that I have enough products/things that I've been loving for the month. Just give me a chance, alright? Alright.

This post will focus on a few beauty products I've been loving during the entire month of August. 

1. Trader Joe's: 100% Pure Jojoba Oil

First up, a skin care product that has completely changed my view on skin care in general. For so long I have fallen into the abyss of buying bottle after bottle of eye make up remover and pack after pack of make up remover wipes. This resulted in an unnecessarily long skin care process every night, and stripping my skin from scrubbing it with those wipes, and still being left with a gross residue that needed to be washed off regardless. 

I read about how hydrating and nourishing jojoba oil is for not only your skin, but your scalp and hair as well, and even all over your body. I was honestly skeptical about it's ability to break down my make up enough to just be wiped away by a damp cloth, so I would use this in conjunction with my eye make up remover just to ensure that everything was being taken off before washing my face. Fed up with the extra steps involved, I decided to use the jojoba oil to take EVERYTHING off one night, and it did just that. It literally melts your make up off of your face, and then you come in with some warm water on a wash cloth and wipe it all away. It leaves your skin feeling soft, clean, and not at all sticky or gross. Follow it up with a face wash (on days where I don't wear much or any make up, I just use this and go straight to a moisturizer and I'm good to go.)

It's about $8 at Trader Joe's and it lasts a while as you don't need much to take off a full face of make up.

2. First Aid Beauty: Face Cleanser

I've been wanting to try out First Aid Beauty for a while, but it's kind of pricey to just "try out", you know? So I was browsing in Sephora one day when I found a trial package of their Face Cleanser, Ultra Repair Cream, and Facial Radiance Pads. While I'm not completely sold on the Facial Radiance Pads, the cleanser and moisturizer are AMAZING. 

The Face Cleanser is everything I want in a cleanser, simple, gentle, and not stripping at all. I've been using this either after taking off my make up with the jojoba oil or to wash my face in the morning/in the shower and my face is left squeaky clean without feeling tight and dry. Awesome cleanser for sensitive skin that does its job. 

3. First Aid Beauty: Ultra Repair Cream

If you've been reading my blog for a while (thank you!), then you know that my biggest problem areas for dry skin are my face and scalp. This product had 100% solved my dry skin problem on my face. It's a very heavy and rich moisturizer, so I recommend using it at night so it had time to soak into your skin and not be oily underneath your make up. If you do this, you'll wake up in the morning feeling absolutely no need to apply any other type of moisturizer to your face. THAT'S how awesome this stuff is.

Like the jojoba oil, a little bit goes a long way, so even this trial size, I find, is lasting me quite some time. I will absolutely be buying the full size tub once I use this tube up.

The trial package of the cleanser, wipes, and moisturizer was $28 as Sephora. 

4. NYX: Stay Matte But Not Flat Liquid Foundation

I was in dire need of a cheap, but good quality, liquid foundation. My go-to E.L.F foundation was just not cutting it anymore, so I looked to a different brand to try out. NYX blew me away.

I was weary about this foundation at first, as I hadn't read any reviews on it in the past, but I decided to give it a shot anyway. It's awesome to say the least. NYX has a great shade selection, and the product blends flawlessly into your skin. I'll have a full review on this product soon; that's how much I love it!

$7.49 at Ulta. How could you possibly beat that?! Plus, it's not considered a "prestigious" brand at Ulta, so you know those little coupons that you get that usually don't apply to many brands there? Yeah... they apply to NYX products. 

5. NYX: Stay Matte But Not Flat Powder Foundation

To go along with my liquid foundation, I needed a setting powder. Now, this IS a "powder foundation", but it honestly doesn't provide that much coverage, so I just use it as a setting powder for my liquid foundation. It sets my foundation, and also gives just a touch more coverage for a really natural looking base for your make up look.

$9.99 at Ulta

6. NYX: Butter Lipsticks

As for these NYX products, I've heard lots and lots of positive feedback. Naturally, I needed to see what the hype was about. After finding out that Revlon was no longer cruelty free, and therefore I wouldn't by buying their lip butters, I was so excited to find out that there was a similar, slightly cheaper, and cruelty free product on the market.

Again, I plan to have a full product review for these bad boys on the blog soon, but just to sum it up: they're extremely pigmented, moisturizing, and they LAST. They also don't settle into the cracks of your lips if you seem to have that problem with other lip products.

Colors shown:

Big Cherry - it's really a true, very flattering deep red color

Fizzies - a muted berry color that can go with virtually any make up look

Fireball - a coral that's more on the pink side with just a hint of orange

Sold at Ulta and certain Targets and even Wegmans! $5.99 at Target and I think the same goes for Ulta and Wegmans.

7. Bath and Body Works: Blackberry Bramble Tea Candle

Okay, a candle? In a beauty favorites post? What's wrong with you, Sam? I know, it's weird, but I just think it fits. Candles are like beauty products for your home, right? And this one smells so amazing that I just needed to include it. It's sweet, but not too sweet, a little florally, with a very slight musky/spicy scent underneath it all. It's a perfect summer to fall transition candle and I encourage ALL OF YOU to go out and buy it right now!

$22.50 at Bath and Body Works, but I got mine during their 2 for $22 deal. 

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Recipe Tips | Healthier Smoothies

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With the warmer weather in full bloom around here, a smoothie is a quick and refreshing snack to indulge in to keep yourself cool and satisfied. While they're easy and pretty much fool-proof, it's very easy to end up ingesting hundred of calories and lots of sugar and fat if you're not careful. Here are a few tips and things to look out for to ensure you're getting the most out of your smoothie!

1. Try and avoid a dairy base

For my own personal taste, this tip is easy for me to follow because I'm not a fan of creamy, yogurt-based smoothies. If you share a similar taste to mine, you can used the following to replace milk or yogurt in your smoothie recipe to achieve a thinner consistency:

• Water - adds a liquidy base to your smoothie without any fat, sugar, or calories.
• 100% Fruit Juice - if you choose this route, just make sure you're not using a fruit juice cocktail - those are loaded with unnecessary sugars. If you can, juice your own fruits/veggies to add to a smoothie!
• Almond, Soy, Rice, etc. Milk - if you still like a milky texture for your smoothie but don't want to use dairy, try these instead

For a thicker smoothie, still without milk or yogurt, try the following:

• Applesauce - make sure you buy the kind that has no added sugar - apples are sweet enough and don't need any help with that! Adding pplesauce in smoothies is a great way to achieve that desired consistency with some extra flavor while not overdoing it on the calories, fat, and sugar
• Chia seeds with water - chia seeds develop a jelly-like consistency when introduced to water -  perfect for thickening up your smoothie while also adding lots of nutrients
• Bananas - perfectly sweet way to thicken up a smoothie
• Avocados - gives your smoothie perfect thickness and a unique, delicious taste if you're feeling adventurous to try it out 

If you insist on using yogurt in your smoothie, try and avoid full fat yogurts with syrups/sugars added. Go for plain, low fat or non fat yogurt, Greek yogurt, or a non-dairy yogurt like soy, almond, or coconut yogurt.

I personally like the combination of water and applesauce the best. I like to mix chia seeds in afterwards because I enjoy the texture.

2. Use fresh fruit only when in season and ripe enough

A lot of people add sweeteners like agave, honey, or maple syrup to smoothies, which is not necessarily a bad thing if you do it in moderation. However, you can avoid this step altogether by using only in-season fresh fruit and subbing any out-of-season fruit with their frozen counterparts. Using fresh fruit when it's out of season can cause your smoothie to taste sour, bitter, and overall just not delicious. This is when people try and compensate that off taste by adding unnecessary sugars.

Frozen fruits and vegetables, much like the canned versions, are picked and packaged at the peak of their ripeness, so they'll always taste the way they're intended to. Plus, the combination of frozen and fresh fruits gives your smoothie the perfect consistency.

3. Be creative!

Don't stick to the normal strawberry banana smoothie everyday - it'll get really old, really fast. Incorporate your favorite fruits into your smoothies and keep making different variations of them to keep them interesting. Add leafy greens like baby kale or spinach to add more nutrients and an interesting spin on your typical smoothie - I PROMISE your smoothie won't taste weird!

Top your smoothies with something crunchy, like my homemade vegan granola, to play up different textures. Or add things like protein powder, flax seeds, and nuts to bump up the protein level and make it into a sustainable snack. 

Most importantly - have fun! Smoothies are a great way to get lots of fruits and veggies into your daily diet. You just want to make sure you're not undoing all the benefits of the fruits and veggies by adding lots of fats, sugars, and calories.

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Recipe | All Purpose, Everyday Seasoning Blend

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So, if you've noticed in my past recipes... I use a lot of the same spices as sort of a "base blend" and work other flavor components into that specific mix. 

Last week, my lazy self came up with a groundbreaking idea - mix those spices together so that I'm only reaching for one jar while cooking instead of 5 different ones! The ultimate lazy cook's dream. I stayed away from spices like cumin, coriander, and turmeric, because I don't think those flavors are necessarily appropriate in EVERY dish that I cook. Again, I wanted to make something that I could use in almost every recipe as the foundation of flavor, and then build up from that.

So, for the mixture, just combine the following in a mason jar or an empty spice container. If you plan on making a larger quantity, just follow the basic ratio of the 5 parts.

4 tbsp kosher salt

2 tbsp onion powder

2 tbsp paprika

1 tbsp black pepper

1 tbsp crushed red pepper flakes

Enjoy!

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Recipe | Vegan Strawberry, Mango, and Blueberry Smoothie

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Before we get to the recipe of this post, I wanted to update you guys really quick - I moved! Only about a half hour north from where I previously was, but I'm much closer to where I'll be working in two weeks as well as my job at the coffee shop. My apartment still isn't completely done being decorated, so I'm not going to post any pictures just yet, but they will come! I like how everything's turning out so far, but I have so much more space to work with than I did at my previous apartment so the place still looks a bit empty.

Today's breakfast was another quick, easy, and delicious one - three characteristics I require for sleepy morning breakfasts.

Avocado toast with a delicious vegan strawberry, mango, and blueberry smoothie. Yeah, a SMOOTHIE! I finally have a blender! Which is good news for you guys as much as it's good news for me, because that means I'll be whipping up lots of smoothie, blended soup, and maybe even some frozen cocktail recipes for you guys in the upcoming future.

Avocado toast is pretty self-explanatory... plus I've already let you in on my spice combination that I top my avocado toast with, so on to the smoothie recipe!

Here's what you'll need:

1/2 cup mango lemonade (you can easily use some mango nectar/juice and the juice of 1/2 lemon, but Trader Joe's has an amaaaaazing mango lemonade that I used)
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
4-6 strawberries, depending on their size
8-10 chunks of frozen mango, again depending on their size
1/4 cup frozen blueberries

Blend all the ingredients on high for a couple minutes, or until your desired consistency has been reached, and enjoy!

What are your favorite smoothie/juice ingredients?

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Studying Abroad | Ireland

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In honor of my commencement that's happening tomorrow, I just wanted to take this Thursday and throw it back to the happiest four months of my life

Most of you might not be aware of the four months I spent studying abroad in Ireland during my Junior year of college. It was hands down the best experience of my life, and I would give just about anything to experience it again. I actually met Chris, my boyfriend, while abroad. Who would have known I had to travel to another continent to fall in love with someone who lived about 2 hours away from me? Anyway, the memories I made studying in Ireland and traveling to Poland and France were some of the best memories I can recall. I wanted to share some of my experience with you guys via photos I took throughout my journey.

These photos will be from my time in Ireland. There's simply not enough room to include pictures from France and Poland as well, so I'm going to break my journey up into three separate posts. Enjoy!

The whole group with our supervisor, Paul, in St. Stephen's Green in Dublin

A couple of pubs in Dublin. Yes, that's Chris in the corner of the second one.

We biked 10 miles (if I'm remembering correctly) of the Aran Islands with this hazy/gorgeous view

Theeeeeen we reached the top of Dun Aengus and tried our best not to be blown off

St. Fin Barre's Cathedral in Cork, Ireland

Rachel and I in front of St. Fin Barre's Cathedral

University College Cork

Tiny me in front of a far away Blarney Castle

Beth and Chris on the way to the Cliffs of Moher 

 The Burren and some cows

The Cliffs of Moher

My feet at the Burren

Murals and Magners in Belfast

Chris and I snuck off from the group to take a picture with this horse dog (Irish Wolf Hound)

Queen's University, Belfast Ireland

Chris and I waiting to walk across the Carrick-a-Rede bridge

Yup, I walked across that

Pretty damn proud of my accomplishment

On the way to Giant's Causeway

Beth being artsy in Giant's Causeway

First night out in Galway

Live music on the streets of Galway all the time

Thanksgiving Dinner in Ireland

The Galway Christmas Market! 

Me with my coffee and French Macarons, and Chris with his kangaroo (?) burger.

This is the most accurately representative picture of these three.

Mom and Aunt Donna came to visit! (Aunt Linda, too, but she didn't get photographed with her Guinness mustache

Many, MANY more pictures were taken, but I just wanted to share a handful with you guys from my time in Ireland. It really was the best experience of my life. I urge anyone and everyone to travel abroad somewhere and really take in everything and cherish the experience. Thanks for looking/reading! Like I said, two more posts will come with my photos from Tours, France and from Warsaw and Krakow, Poland. 

Have any questions about my time abroad? Or maybe you're planning on traveling to Ireland and want come recommendations for restaurants, pubs, and sight-seeing? Definitely leave a comment below and I'll be more than happy to answer/help out!

Happy travels, everyone!

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