Thankful in 2011

Happy Thanksgiving to all! Tomorrow is the big day and I am so excited to totally indulge myself with all the great food to be expected by my family. Unfortunately my Food Challenge didn't go as good as planned. Just got way to busy with weekend trips and busy work days. But my selected dish for tomorrow is sweet potatoes...so it's GO-TIME! Must get to the store quickly today after work and hit the kitchen! Hopefully it's a success...not the un-wanted dish on the table that's left over after dinner.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving I wanted to mention 5 things that I am thankful for this year! It's been a pretty great 2011 and I feel there is lots to be thankful for.

1. My family and friends who I am so close too and have got to spend some very special days with them this year that made me so excited and happy to be there for them!
2. A little doggie who was brought home in January and makes up the other half of my "family"!
3. A job that I love with people who make my day more joyful!
4. A nice clean and warm (well most of the time) apartment that makes me excited to be at home!
5. The life experiences I have had this year that have made me stronger and taught me a lot about myself and who I am and what I want to strive to be!  

What are you thankful for?

Wear to go from here... hitting I5 at 3pm to head south for the holiday! WAHOOOOO!!!! 

*Megs 

Back to Basic

I am in dire need of a new basic black dress boot. I have practically worn through mine and they are looking quite shabby these days! I am really interested in a wedge boot since they tend to be slightly more comfortable and are a good style that goes with everything. I’ve been on the hunt for a few weeks now and haven’t found that perfect pair yet! But with payday and an wide open weekend I am on a shopping mission!

But here are some contenders I have found that I want to check out!

Vince Camuto

Pour La Victoire

Report

Not sure if I will want to spurge for the Pour La Victoire… but just in case they are amazing, I’m keeping an open mind. Giving Christmas gifts are over rated right! Hehe!!

Wear to go from here... off the the mall!

*Megs

Holiday Food Challenge #2 - complete!

So I finally got around to my 2nd Holiday Food Challenge this week. And since I have committed to a dairy free November (Hopefully I can stay strong the entire month...cheese is my biggest weakness!!) I thought I would try some recipes that use alternative ingredients to dairy. For my first attempt at being dairyless I tried Creamy Vegan Mashed Potatoes. The secret to the creaminess was Vegenaise which made me super skeptical, but it turned out so good it might be the way I always make them!

I made them at the new boy's (yes there is a new bf!) house and was so focused on talking to him and being so hungry I totally forgot to snap any pictures, but really they looked just like regular old mashed potatoes so you were not missing much.

Here are the ingredients... Recipe link above!

8 -10 potatoes

1/4 cup Vegenaise

1/2-1 1/2 cup plain soy milk

1/2-1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 -3 tablespoons italian seasoning

1 -2 teaspoon seasoning salt

1 -2 teaspoon onion powder

1 -2 teaspoon garlic powder

salt & pepper

So if you are not oppose to soy milk and vegenaise you will really enjoy this because it was AMAZING!! And was super easy. After boling the potatoes for 30 minutes the rest literilly took about 10 minutes.

Wear to go from here... onto Holiday Food Challenge #3!
Gotta get going, only have 2 more weeks and so many recipes to try!
*Megs

Make it Glitter & Shine

The upcoming holidays always puts me in a festive mood! So naturally I think of any way to add sparkle to myself… and today I am obsessed with sparkle and glitter nails! There are so many ways to do it and so many options of colors and techniques I will never run out of ideas. Just browsing some of my favorite blogs I got a few ideas to start with.

From top left clockwise:

Mimi and Meg - Red Nails with Sparkle Gold

Cupcakes & Cashmere - Pink, Orange & Silver

Nail Nerd - Blue with Multi Sparkle

The Beauty Department - Gold Metallic & Sparkle

Cupcakes & Cashmere - Aqua Sparkle

With the next too weekend free before my "weekend marathon of getaways" (I have a trip planned every weekend from Thanksgiving to New Years…YIKES!) I can test some of these out and also start some of home and cooking projects I have been procrastination on.

Wear to go from here… the beauty store for some festive sparkle nail colors!   

*Megs

Holiday Food Challenge #1 - complete!

Ok so my first week's Holiday Food Challenge finally got made this weekend. (Sorry for the delay, my week got busy) I must say it didn't turn out as amazing as I had hoped, but that's why I am doing the trial run...to make sure my dish is not only delicious, but knocks the socks off my family at our thanksgiving dinner! 

I think where I went wrong was I may have cooked the sauce a little too much on too high of heat that it became more of a jelly than a liquid sauce. And I think I would need to double the sauce recipe to cover the amount of yams that the recipe calls for. 

Again a learning experience... and glad to get more practice in my new found hobby! So here are some pics of my trial run! At least the yams were a pretty orange that was great to photograph.

Wear to go from here... back the kitchen for Food Challenge #2! Stay tuned!

*Megs