Chocolate-Coated Coconut Popsicles

Hi Peoples!

It is popsicle season again and I am loving this popsicle I made for the first time a few weeks ago. It's so simple yet so decadent.

Ingredients:
Popsicle:
2 cups coconut milk
2 cups almond milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup raw cane sugar

Blend ingredients in a blender for about a minute. You can taste it if you want, to make sure the sweetness suits you. Pour into popsicle molds, insert sticks, and freeze for about 3-5 hours. Makes about 15 popsicles.

Chocolate casing:
2/3 cup coconut oil

2 3oz dark chocolate bars

Optional: Shredded coconut


Melt the coconut oil and chocolate in a sauce pan and stir together. Pour the chocolate sauce into a bowl and let it cool until it is just slightly warm. Put shredded coconut on a plate. Spoon chocolate sauce onto the popsicle until it is coated (chocolate sauce should start hardening soon after it touches the popsicle) and dip the chocolate-covered popsicle into the shredded coconut (if you wish).

 

Place the coated popsicle in a container in the freezer immediately. Continue with the other popsicles. Leave them in the freezer for about 30 minutes before eating them. Enjoy!
 
Variations:
If you want, you can dip just half the popscicle in chocolate and coconut shreds...

Or drizzle patterns of chocolate on the popsicle...

 

You can experiment with different chocolate bar flavors. I've used one that had dried cranberries and almonds in it, and that turned out nice. You can also use chocolate chips instead of a chocolate bar.

Let me know how these turn out for you!

Picture Frame Checklist

Hello my dears. How is your year going so far? Still keeping up with those New Year's resolutions? Hang in there! Don't give up!

One of my resolutions this year is keeping my room tidy. I have a tendency to not put things away when I'm done using them, so my room stays cluttered all the time. Which makes me feel like I'm drowning in stuff. The solution: a daily 15 minute tidy-up. It's really, stupidly simple. I just set a timer for 15 minutes and do nothing but tidy my room until the timer goes off. That way clutter doesn't have a chance to accumulate. It's going really well so far.

I have a very simple DIY for you, in the spirit of keeping yourself on track with your daily goals.

Picture Frame Checklist

 I used to make To-Do lists every day, but this is so much easier for daily or weekly reminders.

Materials needed:
Picture frame (with glass and back)
Printed or written list
Dry erase marker
Ribbon and hot glue gun (optional)

Instructions:
1. Write or print your checklist.
2. Put it in the frame.
3. If you want to decorate it, you can hot glue a bow or any other decorations you like to the frame.

When you complete a task on your list, check it off on the glass with the dry erase marker. After you've checked off everything on your list for the day, wipe the marker off the glass with a cloth and you're all set for the next day!

That's it! Super easy and thrifty, especially if you happen to have an empty frame just sitting around in your attic like I did. If not, you can probably find an inexpensive one at a thrift store or yard sale.

Stay awesome, peoples!
Shelby

Three Secrets for Staying in Shape

Happy New Year!

It's that time again...the time when we make our resolutions to get healthy, fit, etc. We start off with big goals and motivation, but most of us have trouble sticking with those resolutions throughout the year.



Here are three tips that have helped me stay motivated to stick with my fitness goals:

1. Find an exercise you love. You know the saying, the best type of exercise is the one you'll do? It's true, because the only way you're going to stick with it is if you love your workout for its own sake, not just because of the results you get from it (although hopefully you will like the results, too). If you enjoy it, then the exercise itself becomes your motivation. Otherwise, you will keep putting it off, making excuses to avoid it. Or you will be motivated for a while and jump in all gung-ho, and even stay on track for a while, but then when life happens as it inevitably does, you will eventually lose your momentum and maybe even stop altogether. (I've been there.) But if you look forward to the exercise activity as something fun that you enjoy, and the fact that it makes you feel great and is keeping you in shape is more like an added bonus, then you won't want to skip your workout. 

If you can't think of an exercise activity that you would enjoy, try something new. Keep trying new things until you find one that's right for you. Also, think outside the box. Maybe you don't like running or lifting weights or yoga, but Flamenco dancing or fencing might be your thing. Keep an open mind. :)

2. Accountability. It is more fun and motivating to exercise with other people. I feel like when I try to do an exercise by myself at home, it feels 10 times harder than it does when I do it with other people. Maybe that's just me, but really, when you are by yourself it is much easier to not put as much effort into your workout if you're feeling tired or lazy or had a hard day. It is harder to be laid back when in a group, especially if there is an instructor keeping an eye on you. In a group or class you can motivate and encourage each other to keep up and reach your goals. Or you can compete with each other, if that's what motivates you...either way, you challenge yourself more in a group, and yet it seems less tiring because the camaraderie makes up for the extra effort. You can help each other stay on target and have someone to keep up with so you don't slack.

3. Investment. Join a gym, fitness club, or sign up for some classes that you pay for by the month. If you are paying money to exercise, you will make time to do it more frequently and be less likely to skip when you don't feel like it, since you will want to get your money's worth. You are not paying the gym so that you can stay home, so you will make the effort to not miss the workout you are paying for. Normally I am a "save money, DIY" kind of girl, but this is one exception for me at least...unless you are a self-motivated superhuman who actually does exercise properly at home, this is one way to stay motivated to exercise.
  

BONUS TIP: When you don't feel like exercising, remember your reasons for wanting to stay in shape. You want to be healthy and strong. You want to feel proud of your body. You want to still be fit and healthy when you are old. You've got this.

"Those who think they have not time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness."
Edward Stanley

Happy Exercising!
 Shelby

Roasted Lavender Rosemary Baby Purple Potatoes

Hello Peoples,
This was supposed to be November's post but life happened and I am just getting around to posting it now.

Last month when I was at Whole Foods, I found some baby purple potatoes. Naturally I was enchanted...I mean, little baby potatoes? That are also PURPLE? I bought them.

A few nights later I was feeling all culinary and gourmet and artsy. So I took out the baby purple potatoes and tried to decide what to do with them. I looked online for ideas, of course, but I couldn't find a recipe I was happy with. So I made my own.

First, I put the adorable little brightly colored spuds in a bowl and tossed them in olive oil until they were coated. I then added fresh ground Celtic sea salt and fresh ground black pepper. I crushed about two cloves of fresh garlic on top, and sprinkled dried lavender buds and fresh rosemary leaves over that.


I then stirred the oil, potatoes, and spices together and put them in a glass baking dish. There was enough oil from coating the potatoes to put on the bottom of the baking dish, so I didn't have to add any extra...If there is less oil, add some to the bottom of the dish so the potatoes don't stick.

I then added whole garlic cloves (in the skin) to the dish, so I could have roasted garlic with my potatoes. I popped the dish in the oven and roasted them.

They were perfect. There is no other way to describe them.

I ate them with steamed green beans (seasoned with salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder) and baked salmon (seasoned with salt, pepper, crushed garlic, and a fresh lemon squeezed on top). And a salad and a glass of wine.

So here is the recipe in recipe form with approximate measurements:
(For one person)
8-9  whole baby purple potatoes
1-2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves of garlic (crushed)

1/2 teaspoons sea salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dried lavender buds
1/2 sprig fresh rosemary leaves
5 cloves of garlic (whole in skin)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place potatoes in a bowl and coat them in olive oil. Add salt and pepper, crushed garlic, lavender buds and rosemary leaves. Stir ingredients together. Coat bottom of a baking dish with oil (if there is enough olive oil at the bottom of the bowl where you mixed the potatoes, use that), and put the potatoes in the baking dish. Add the whole garlic cloves. Place dish in oven and bake at 375 for 30 minutes. Poke them with a fork to test for done-ness, and if they are soft, take them out and serve. Enjoy!

Visualize Your Dreams- Making a Vision Board

Hello Loves,

You know when you hear about some awesome project and you want to do it, but you keep putting it off and never get "around to it"? That's how it was for me with making a vision board. Actually, let's be honest...that's how it is for me with most projects.

 I've always liked making collages and scrapbooks of my favorite things, but I was first introduced to the concept of a vision board several years ago. I totally meant to make one, but I just kept putting it off. Finally, last month I found an old cork board someone was throwing away and decided to finally make it happen.

A vision board is a board where you display pictures, words, stickers, etc. that remind you of your goals and dreams for the near future. You display the board somewhere where you will look at it often every day. It is meant to focus and encourage you in manifesting your vision.

The board can be made of anything, but it is usually a cork board. Each board is unique to the individual making it, and it should be decorated so that you enjoy looking at it.

I liked the idea of a cork board because I can rearrange what I put on it, or replace things as my dreams come true and new ones take their place.

So I had an old, ugly cork board with a plain metal frame around it. I thought about how I wanted to decorate it, and in the end decided that the best (and easiest and most inexpensive) way would be to cover it in fabric that I already had in my sewing supplies.

The material I had in mind was too short, but I found some old cheetah-print sheets I was saving to re-purpose, and I liked the way it looked when I draped it over the board. I also like cheetah print in general and I have a few cheetah print items in my room, so it seemed appropriate. I lay the sheet on a flat surface and the cork board face down on the sheet and cut the sheet a few inches bigger than the board so I could staple it to the back. Once the cutting was complete I stretched the fabric tight around the board and pinned the fabric in the back, making sure the corners looked neat. Then I got a staple gun and stapled every few inches all the way around. I cut holes in the fabric for those metal things at the top of the board (that are used for hanging it on a wall), so they would stick out. I attached twine to them so I can hang it up.

Cut the fabric a few inches larger than the board

Staple the fabric to the back and add a way to hang it if you want

Now that the board was done, I spent a few days thinking about what to put on it. I wrote down my dreams of what I want for the next 3 years and wrote down ideas of pictures and words that would represent those dreams. Then I started looking for those pictures. I thought I'd be able to cut them out of magazines, but I don't subscribe to any and I couldn't find anyone who had magazines that I could use. So I ended up printing pictures off the internet. I think it's the best thing anyway if you have a color printer. Just search Google Images for whatever you are looking for. Then copy and paste the picture you choose to a blank Word or Wordpad page. You can re-size the image and arrange several on one page to print. The only drawbacks are image quality and using color ink, which is expensive to replace when you run out.

I also had some travel-related cardstock images from packaging that I used.

I printed out words and quotes I wanted in cool fonts too, and some I wrote by hand (trying to do caligraphy...haha).

Once I had most of my materials gathered, I cut them out and started arranging them on the board. I let them kind of flow naturally from one "section" to another. Arrange them however feels right to you. I taped small related pictures together (with the tape in the back so you can't see it) and pinned these larger sections to the board. I used short sewing pins pushed in at an angle for most of the pinning, as they do not distract from the pictures. I also glued acorn caps to thumbtacks to make them look interesting and used those for some sections.

At the top of my board are generally inspiring words, such as "I can do anything" and "All good things are coming to me". In the middle of my board I glued a small clothespin to a thumbtack and used it to hold a dollar bill and my income goal written on a piece of paper over it. All around it are words and quotes such as "Abundance" and "Do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life". Next to it are pictures and words related to my travel goals, and on the other side of the dollar are pictures and words pertaining to things I want to learn and hobbies I'd like to do more of.

The words and quotes I printed are both related to my dreams and also how I want to grow as a person. Some words were
Confident
Capable
Adventure
Explore
Fearless
Grow

I also pinned some dried leaves of wild plants to the board to represent my goal of getting better at plant identification.

Materials:
For assembling the board:
Cork board
Fabric
Staple gun (with staples, of course)
Pins

For decorating the board:

Images (pictures, magazines, pictures printed off internet)
Words and quotes (handwritten or printed)
Anything you can pin on that will represent or remind you of your goals
Pretty paper to embellish quotes (optional)

For affixing your decorations to the board:
Pins, push pins, and/or tacks

Tape (optional)
Glue (optional)

One of the things I love about this project is that I didn't spend any extra money on it at all. I was able to use things I had on hand in my craft supplies already. That may not be the case for everyone, but this doesn't have to cost much if you are able to re-purpose things. Recycling crafts are my favorite types of crafts for sure!
-Shelby

Pumpkin Spice Chai Latte

Dear Peoples,

Happy October!!! I am sooooo excited to finally be able to enjoy all my favorite fall things again. Pumpkin spice desserts, scarves, pumpkin spice drinks, cooler weather, pumpkin spice breakfasts, shorter days and acorns everywhere, pumpkin spice foods, boots and sweaters, fall scented candles, pumpkins....yeah, I kind of really love pumpkin spice. And fall. And pumpkins.

I am not really a coffee drinker (it usually makes me feel jittery), but I do like a nice warm latte on a fall day. And of course, all places that have coffee are advertising their pumpkin spice lattes and other delectable fall spice flavors, and so when I'm out and about, I will occasionally treat myself to one. But unfortunately, I am usually disappointed. No one seems to get it just right. Some are too sweet. Some are too bland-not enough spice. Others don't even taste like pumpkin at all. And besides, most of these drinks are flavored with sugary flavored syrups and not wholesome ingredients. They leave me feeling the blah-ness that comes after a sugar high.

 So I usually make my own lattes. I use all natural whole food ingredients, and I control how sweet and spicy I want my latte to be. And it's cheaper. Win-win-win.

Since I use real pumpkin and coconut milk, my lattes are very filling. Perfect for an on-the-go snack. I actually practically lived on these once during a very busy few weeks, when I barely had time for meals. Not that I'd recommend replacing meals with lattes, but it helped hold me over until I had time to eat something proper. Rushing out the door? No problem, I'd whip up a latte and take it to go.

I am more of a tea girl, so I usually make my lattes with chai tea instead of coffee. This recipe is the one I make for myself, but you can replace the tea with coffee if you prefer

For pumpkin, I usually use butternut squash. I will cut a squash in quarters and boil or roast it until it is soft. I use one quarter of the squash for two lattes, so I just store the quarters of squash in a container in the fridge, and use them as I need them. If you want, you could also skin and puree the entire squash after you cook it and store it in a jar, or use canned pumpkin.

Okay, enough chatter. Here's the recipe:

Pumpkin Spice Chai Latte
1 cup Chai tea
1/2 cup pureed (or mashed) squash or canned pumpkin
1/4 cup coconut milk
1 1/2 tablespoons raw cane sugar
2 tablespoons raw coconut oil
1/2 tablespoon vanilla
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground ginger (or 1/2 inch fresh ginger!)
1/8 tsp. ground cloves or allspice

Boil water and add tea bag. Let steep 3-5 minutes. Put the other ingredients in your Vitamix (or other high-powered blender) and add the tea. Blend starting at a low speed and work up to high speed. Blend for about 30-60 seconds. There should be frothy bubbles on the top. Pour in your favorite cup or travel mug and enjoy! If you want to make it even more special, you can top it with some cinnamon, whipped cream, and cinnamon sticks!

 I am thinking of trying it with some fresh turmeric added as well. I am out of turmeric at the moment so I can't try it, but I think it would be delicious.

If you try it, I'd love to hear what you think! Leave me a comment. :)

Happy Fall!
-Shelby

A Tale of Dragon Fruit

My fascination with the Dragon fruit began last month, when I first saw it at the grocery store. I was enchanted by its lovely bight pink skin with green-tipped scales, and the mystery of meeting a new exotic fruit. I stopped to wonder at it for a moment, but in the end I hurried on with my shopping. I didn't know how to pick a ripe dragon fruit and I didn't know what to do with it, I reasoned to my adventurous inner voice (which, like an excited child, was urging me to "Buy it! Buy it!") and anyway, it was pricey.

When I got home, I looked it up online and learned that dragon fruit, also called pitya, is actually the fruit of a climbing plant in the cactus family, native to Central and South America but also popular in Asian countries. The plant only flowers at night, and is pollinated by bats and moths. The fruit can be cut in half to reveal a soft, juicy white (or sometimes yellow or red, depending on the variety) flesh with lots of tiny (edible) black seeds distributed throughout. To eat it, you just scoop the fruit out of the artichoke-like pink and green outer peel with a spoon. It can also be cut into cubes and added to fruit salads, or made into a puree or juice in a blender. Dragon fruit is high in vitamin C, B vitamins, phosphorus, protein, iron, calcium, fiber, captin, lycopene, and antioxidants. The little black seeds are high in polyunsaturated fats (omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids). I looked forward to trying it.

But then I went out of town for a week. I had a chance to try dried dragon fruit while I was away, and I really liked it. It was reddish-purple and chewy with a pleasant flavor and crunchy little seeds inside. I was excited to try fresh dragon fruit when I got back home.

Dried Dragon Fruit in Trail Mix

But alas, the next time I went to the grocery store, there were no dragon fruit to be found. I haunted the produce department to the point that the produce manager would see me coming and say "sorry, still no dragon fruit". I thought I had missed my opportunity to try something different and cursed my hesitation to buy it in the first place.

But then, several weeks later, after I had given up all hope, I walked through the produce section on unrelated business and there, in a tropical fruit display, was Dragon fruit! Needless to say, I pounced and bought two of the beautiful fruits before they could disappear again.

With great anticipation, and cut the fruit in half and scooped out the seed-studded white flesh with a spoon. The feeling that followed could best be described as...disappointment. The fruit barely had any flavor! I couldn't even say that it resembled anything else...it was like watery plant flavor. What I tasted the most was the seeds, which reminded me of chia seeds and were not unpleasant, but not exciting either. You would think that the potency of the flavor would match the intensity of the fruit's beauty. Not so. If I bought any more, I think the only way I would have really enjoyed eating it would be cut up in a fruit salad with strawberries, blueberries, kiwi, and grapes, with lemon juice squeezed on top.

I went back to the internet to try to unravel the mystery of why my fruit was so flavorless. It is supposed to have a mild pear/kiwi flavor, and several sources said the fruit tastes sweet when ripe, but I didn't taste anything. It seemed ripe to me, because the fruit was soft. Maybe it was picked too soon and didn't ripen properly. I read that the fruit tastes best when it is grown locally and allowed to ripen on the tree, and that if it comes from the grocery store, it was imported and the flavor suffers. That is true of most fruits, but apparently it makes a bigger difference in dragon fruit.The internet also informed me that the peel should be darker pink (rather than bright, pretty pink) and kind of thin, dried out and leathery, with some brown on the tips, and that is when it is truly ripe. I also learned that the dragon fruits with red flesh inside (like the dried one I tried) tend to be more flavorful.

Alas, this is how my tale ends. Perhaps someday I will try dragon fruit again, hopefully with more satisfying results. Have you ever tried dragon fruit? What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments below!

Fare ye well,
Shelby