Tonight's Dinner | Quick Quesadilla

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First and foremost, thank you to the new Bloglovin' Followers for deciding to keep up with my random, weird, all-over-the-place blog! You guys are the bomb dot com, seriously! 

Secondly, I decided to add yet another element to this blog: art. I liked writing up my last blog post about Jan Ironside, and I know I've brought art related topics up in past posts about my own personal art and what I've been working on, but I think every Tuesday will be dedicated to sharing a new artist with you guys - whether it's an old favorite of mine, or a new one that I just found out about. I think it's important to continuously look for inspiration in life, and this is going to be my way of doing just that. Let me know what you guys think! Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. I already have two Artist Focus posts scheduled for the next two upcoming Tuesdays.

Alright now. Quesadillas. They're easy. They're delicious. They're what I had for dinner tonight. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to throw a quesadilla together, but I thought I would just share this one with you guys since I have been lacking in the recipe department.

1 whole wheat quesadilla (check the ingredients! Some torillas have FISH GELATIN in them! Gross!)

1/2 bell pepper, diced

1/4 onion, diced

1/2 tomato, diced

1/4 cup frozen corn

1/4 cup shredded cheese of your choice (use soy cheese to make this vegan)

1 tbsp of your favorite hot sauce

some extra virgin olive oil

Set a large skillet over medium heat with some EVOO. Saute the onions and peppers for a few minutes, then add the corn and combine to thaw - about 2 more minutes. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Add half of your cheese to one side of the tortilla, then add your veggie mixture, tomatoes, and hot sauce. Top with the remainder of the cheese. Fold over to form a half-moon shape and throw it on the hot skillet for about 2-3 minutes on each side, or until the cheese is all melted and the tortillas is golden brown.

Serve with guac, salsa, sour cream, or just eat the whole thing on it's own in an embarrassingly short amount of time.

Enjoy!

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Artist Focus | Jan Ironside

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I've been struggling creatively for basically this entire semester. I'm in an intermediate painting class this spring, and I took it because I realized I had a deep passion for abstract painting after taking this professor's introduction to painting class. The class requires you to find your "niche", so to speak, in painting, and paint a few works based around this "theme". I put a lot of time, energy, and tears into trying to find references that truly spoke to me, only to come up with nothing each time I thought I found something.

I stumbled across one of Jan Ironside's oil paintings while I was scrolling through tumblr. I was immediately captivated by the intensity of colors she used and her impasto technique. Her subject matter also drew me in: flowers. I always loved drawing flowers, but painting them was never a strength of mine. They're so soft and delicate, and my paintings are usually loud and chaotic.

 

I love how the flowers seem to leap off the page. Something so dainty and fragile is now incredibly textured and in your face. You can purchase her paintings from her Etsy Shop and I highly suggest you snag some of these up! She's incredibly talented and deserves recognition for her beautiful works of art.

She's the inspiration behind the pieces I'm currently working on for my painting class. I'll share them on the blog once they're completed! 

Who are some of your favorite artists?

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Brand Review | Tarte

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I don't have a ton of Tarte products, but the products I do have, I absolutely love, and they're worthy of an entire blog post dedicated to them. Tarte is just an overall amazing brand. They're a completely cruelty-free make up brand, and on top of that, almost all of their products are vegan! If that's not enough reason to splurge on their products, maybe the rest of this post will convince you.

1. Clean Slate Poreless 12-hr Perfecting Primer

Now, I have to admit, this is not my favorite primer. The number 1 spot in terms of primers goes to a more luxurious brand, and I will reveal its identity in a future post. However, for an effective and everyday primer, this one takes the cake. It does exactly what it claims - leaves your face looking essentially poreless, and keeps your make up put for 12 hours. There were days when I'd do my make up at 6am, go through a 7 hour (or longer) work shift at the coffee shop, and then either go straight to hanging out with some friends, or over to babysit for the rest of the night. Whatever my schedule was, this primer kept my make up on through it all.

2. Amazonian Clay 12-hr Blush in Dazzled

As most of you know, I'm an E.L.F blush junkie. They're cheap, they're pigmented, they get the job done. So, for me to stray away from that path and try this brand of blushes (and stick with it) must mean it's damn good - and it IS. Tarte's blushes are incredibly pigmented and natural-looking. I have this color as well as a color that came in a palette, which I will talk about soon. Both of them naturally enhance the color in my cheeks and stay flawless all day - no touch ups needed! They're a little pricey, so I probably won't be splurging on ALL the colors any time soon, but I do plan on gradually increasing my collection.

3. Be MATTEnificent Amazonion Colored Clay Matte Eye and Cheek Palette

Chris actually bought me this palette because he's the sneakiest boyfriend to ever exist... I actually had it in my cart on tarte.com ready to purchase for myself and then he shows up with it as a gift for Valentine's Day without even knowing I wanted it for myself. He has some sort of 6th sense, or something. Anyway, I love it. I don't have any matte shadows in my collection other than my Lorac Pro Palette and the few matte shadows in my Naked Palette, so it's nice to have a few original colors that also happen to be matte. They shadows are a lot more pigmented than I thought they'd be. Fallout is virtually non-existent, which is always a plus. I don't think I need to say anything about the blush, except that it's awesome that a full-sized one came in the palette. Overall, fantastic palette. It's apparently limited edition, but I THINK it's still available at Sephora and/or Ulta. Seriously, get your hands on it while you can!

4. Amazonian Clay Waterproof Liner

I have to be honest... I've only had this for um... 3 days. BUT so far, so great. Best application I've experienced with a gel liner, ever. The application is smooth and the pigmentation is black as night. The liner dries nicely and doesn't crack throughout the day, nor does is smudge, smear, or fade. I'm still testing it out obviously, but so far I'm loving it. 

I've got a couple more products I've been eyeing, like the Amazonian Clay 12-Hour Full Coverage Foundation, the Glamazon Pure Performance 12-Hour Lipstick, and some of their Amazonian Clay Waterproof Cream Eyeshadows. Their Powderful Amazonian Clay Pressed Mineral Powder also looks awesome, but I've got to finish my Too Faced pressed powder before I can justify trying the Tarte one out.

I hope this post inspired you to go try out some of Tarte's products! If you're already a Tarte lover, I'd love to hear about some of your favorite products!

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Update + Recipe | Post Workout Breakfast

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Woops, I let another month go by without updating this blog. Sorry! A huge thank you to the people who have stayed with me on Bloglovin', and to the new people that just started following me! Hey! You guys are great :) I'm really gonna try and update more regularly! I promise!

A quick recap: March arrived, along with more snow and more schoolwork and more stress. I had a seriously low point last week, but I'm feeling much, MUCH better now.

My birthday was last Monday and the preceding weekend was AMAZING thanks to my wonderful friends/coworkers and Chris. I am so thankful to have made friends with such a loving group of people at work and to have an equally amazing boyfriend.

Now I'm on spring break (it's almost over!) and I was surprised with a couple days off from both of my jobs, so I jumped at the opportunity to come home and visit my mom (and dogs!)... since I haven't been home since winter break.

Anyway, on to the point of this post. One of last week's gym days was followed by a breakfast that I think is worthy enough of it's own blog post. It's easy, filling, and full of the necessary protein and energy needed to replenish what you've spent working out.

• 1 egg, scrambled with a tbsp of salsa
• small handful of "power greens" (or any greens) topped with two slices of sauteed tomato
• 1 slice of whole grain toast (mine was double protein whole grain... 6g per slice!) topped with some sliced avocado with  salt, pepper, paprika, and onion powder.
• 4 slices smokey tempeh bacon (mine was the tofurky brand. serving size is 7 slices, but I had enough food on my plate and didn't need that much)

Couple with a mug full of Blackberry Mojito tea from Teavana, this breakfast was perfect.

What do you guys like to eat after a good workout?

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Update | Friday Thoughts

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With graduation rounding the corner quicker than I had realized it would be, I'm finding myself experiencing some anticipated, but still not welcome, anxiety. I am extremely excited to start working in the field I've been passionate about and studying and preparing for for the past four years, but it's a bit scary. I've been trying my best to focus on the present and just deal with things as they come, but I still find myself constantly thinking about the future and what I'm going to be doing after graduation.

In an attempt to calm myself down, I've been trying to schedule some "me time" whenever I possibly can within my schedule of going to class, my internship, working at the coffee shop, and babysitting. Today is one of those me-days. I have an unexpected day off! I was supposed to babysit from 6:30am-2pm, but I was told I actually wasn't needed for the day, and since the schedule was already made for the coffee shop & I requested off for babysitting, I wasn't scheduled to work there either.

I started the day kind of sluggish, but in a good way. I set my alarm for 8am (even on a day off, I feel like I'm wasting the day if I sleep past 8. I know... I'm working on being less crazy about this). I guess by body is getting used to my routine of waking up earlier than that most days, because I naturally woke up around 7:30. I tossed and turned for a while, trying to snag a few extra minutes of sleep, but my body was already awake and it was not going back to sleep for anything.

So I laid in bed for a while, talked to Chris, checked twitter and instagram, and snuggled with Benji - the normal situation before I got out of bed, ate a banana, got all ready for the gym, and then whined and complained to Benji (yes, my cat) about not wanting to walk outside because it was 12 DEGREES OUT. Eventually I made myself feel as guilty as possible about not going, and dragged my butt over to the gym and had a mostly cardio-focused work out.

I came home, showered, and ate this delicious breakfast:

...which was VERY easy to make:

1/2 cup chopped zucchini
1/4 chopped avocado
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp (or more) of your favorite hot sauce
a pinch each of salt, pepper, onion powder, and paprika
1 tbsp chia seeds

Cook the zucchini over medium heat for about 5 minutes, or until they start to brown. Scramble in the eggs. I usually whisky the hot sauce directly into my eggs, but you can add it separately if you want. Add in the spices and cook your eggs to your desired done-ness. I usually cook them VERY dry. Add the zucchini and eggs to a bowl, stir in the chopped avocado and chia seeds, and enjoy!

I would have liked to add some chopped tomato and some onion instead of the onion powder to this as well, but I don't have any on hand at the moment. Today is a day for doing anything and everything that calms me, so grocery shopping might be on the list for later today. Yes, grocery shopping is definitely something I consider me-time. I love it. I'm also a big fan of cleaning, which is another thing I will be tackling today. And lastly, reading. It may be reading for my abnormal psychology class, but the book we're required to write a paper on for Tuesday is actually extremely interesting, so it doesn't seem like a chore. Maybe I'll do a review on it for the blog... who knows.

If you've made it to the end of this unnecessarily long blog post, thank you for reading. Sometimes you just need to let your thoughts out, and this blog is one of my outlets for that. I hope you're all enjoying your Friday!

xo Sam

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Recipe | Roasted Eggplant and Sweet Potato Quinoa Burger

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As promised, here's the recipe for the burgers I used for my burger-bar set up for me and Chris on Valentine's Day.

Yields 10-12 burgers, depending on how big you make them.

1 small eggplant, chopped
2 sweet potatoes, chopped
1 large white onion, roughly chopped,
1/2 cup quinoa cooked in 1 cup water
1/4 cup vegetable stock
1/2 cup old fashioned oats
1 tbsp paprika
2 tbsp chipotle hot sauce
1 tbsp spicy brown mustard
couple tbsp extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 350°F

Spread your chopped sweet potatoes on a lined or greased cookie sheet. Season with some olive oil, salt, pepper, and half of the paprika. Pop that in the oven for about 15-20 minutes. When the sweet potatoes start to soften up, remove them from the oven and add the chopped eggplant and onion to the mix. Season with some more olive oil, the remainder of paprika, salt, and pepper. Cook together for another 15-20 minutes.

While your veggies are cooking, prepare you quinoa - 1/2 cup dry quinoa to 1 cup of water (or vegetable stock). Bring to a boil, then simmer, covered, for 15 minutes.

When the sweet potato and eggplant mixture is cooked, remove from the oven and let cool for 5-10 minutes before adding to the food processor.

Once cooled, Add the veggie mixture to a food processor with the 1/4 cup vegetable stock. Pulse until the mixture is at your desired consistency. I liked mine to be slightly chunky, but this step is totall up to you.

Add the veggie mixture to a big mixing bowl. Throw in the oats, cooked quinoa, hot sauce, mustard, and some more salt and pepper. Mix together thoroughly and form into patties.

Now, you can either bake the burgers off in the oven, since it's already heated up. Or you can sear them up in a pan with some olive oil. If you choose the former option, they'll take about 10 minutes on each side in a 375° oven to get a nice golden brown color. On the stove, they'll take about 5 minutes on each side over medium heat with about a tbsp of olive oil.

Enjoy!

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Update | Valentine's Day Recap

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I wanted to make a Valentine's Day-related post on the actual holiday, but since I don't get to see Chris very often, and I was working a lot of the weekend that he was here, I didn't want to take any more time away from our time together if I didn't absolutely need to.

So anyway, our Valentine's Day was nice. Chris got here around dinner time and I had a whole spread ready for him. A sort of make-your-own veggie burger set up with allllll the fixings necessary to make a delicious burger with a side of homemade fries. Of course, I made some sangria to wash it all down with. We dined on my roasted eggplant & sweet potato quinoa burgers (recipe will be up SOON) and fruity wine while watching Breaking Bad and snuggled up on the couch with Benji. A really great night, if you ask me.

The rest of the weekend was just spent working and enjoying each other's company as much as possible before he had to go back up to school yesterday to avoid the weather that was expected last night and this morning. 

I really am so lucky to have such a great guy in my life who supports everything I do and never stops making me feel like a million bucks. Travelling to a different continent to find someone outside of my family who loves me unconditionally was worth every mile.

I hope you all had a lovely Valentine's Day!

xo Sam

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