Currently: November

As you can see, I’ve changed my blog design yet again! I am a little obsessed with page design but I didn’t want to shell out money that I don’t have to get one of the premium designs or find a professional blog designer so this is what I went with and I like it–I love the colorful, bold look!

Anyways, here’s the latest edition of Currently. These kinds of posts are always my favorite to write because they’re more personal but in a fun way!

Current Book: Am I ever reading a book I actually like, instead of something I have to read for school? No such thing! Again, currently reading this book (on my tablet) for my post-WWII history class. I really like that class, and the books are pretty interesting, so no complaints.

all soulsCurrent Music: I’m patiently awaiting the arrival of Christmas music on Sirius XM (editor’s note: actually found out it started on Tuesday, so I’m officially listening to it on the drive to and from school) and I will be listening to that nonstop until New Year’s. What can I say, I love the Christmas season!

Current Guilty Pleasure: Starbucks 1x per week. I’ve been hitting up the ‘bucks almost every week for awhile now, especially now that the red cups are back. Seriously, it’s a problem but not really because I’m working my way up to gold card status and I never order those crazy fancy expensive drinks. Tall Americanos and blonde roasts for me, please and thank you, with the occasional addition of soy or sugar free syrups.

Another guilty pleasure is car selfies.

Another guilty pleasure is car selfies.

Current Nail Color: This pretty forest green color from OPI that I got last Christmas. It came in the cutest mini-size bottle and somehow I still have some left.

Current Drink: I feel like I say water every time (boooooring!) so I’ll switch it up and say tall Americano from Starbucks with 3 pumps sugar free peppermint, in a red cup of course. I got this drink the other day when I was at Starbucks for a group project meeting, and it was surprisingly good and not overly sweet.

Current Food: Lettuce wraps for lunches on campus, random salads at home, homemade PB & J bites (basically raisins blended with peanut butter from the Whole Foods bulk section), black bean pasta (soooo good, and I love the protein it has), protein banana softserve, pomegranates and persimmons.

A totally random but yummy salad.

A totally random but yummy salad.

Current TV Show: I’m not watching any show regularly, aside from SNL every week. A lot of the cast is brand new this season, but I’ve liked most of the shows so far. I still miss Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader, though.

Current Wishlist: Basically, all I want is to make it to Thanksgiving break alive (I am crazy busy with school stuff) and then make it to graduation with good grades. I’m in the home stretch, and I’m freaked out and not at the same time. #senioritis

Current Needs: More time in my day to get shit stuff done, a break from school (Thanksgiving break in T-minus 8 days!), a little bit more money in my budget to get me through the rest of the semester.

I also need to find more persimmons, to feed my addiction.

I also need to find more persimmons, to feed my addiction. I like the hachiyas best.

Current Triumphs: This may sound weird, but learning to like the color black. Before this year, I owned basically nothing black in my closet. I was not a fan of black in any way. I finally branched out and bought a few black pieces to add into my wardrobe and I’m finally starting to love it, in small doses, paired with other colors. I just love how chic and edgy it can be!

Current Bane of Existence: School, my skin situation (I still have acne, and it’s not going away easily), stress about finding a job after graduation.

Current Indulgence: These homemade PB cups I made last week. Okay, maybe they weren’t that indulgent, being made with stevia-sweetened dark chocolate and organic, no-salt no-sugar PB, but they were really good and I’m planning on making them again once I get more chocolate chips and PB.

Current Blessing: Having the support of my family, forever and always. I’ve said it before, but I love my family. Even when they get on my nerves, I still love them and I will be forever grateful that they’re so supportive and loving. My mom’s been helping me pay for groceries lately since I’ve been running low on money, and my dad’s helped me figure out some school stuff, and my sister’s just been there to cheer me up with some new Lady Gaga music 😉

Current Outfit: This was something I wore last week, but a red peplum shirt from Forever 21, my new black jeggings from American Eagle (I’m obsessed with these, and they were $12!) and sparkly black flats from Target.

OOTD shots are always better in my new full-length mirror.

OOTD shots are always better in my new full-length mirror.

Current Excitement: ARTPOP, the new Lady Gaga album, is finally out. It’s a lot different than some of her older stuff, and I still think I prefer her Born This Way album, but the new songs are really catchy and fun.

What are some of your currentlies?

Happiness

What is happiness? I think it means different things for everyone, but there are some universal things that make most of us happy in some way or another. With that, I’m sharing a fun little list Emily posted the other day…feel free to repost with your own answers!

8 Things Every Happy Woman Should Have 

  • A go-to drink: For me, it’s sangrias (love the white wine versions especially), cider on the rocks (I had a really good one a few weeks ago) and homemade margs. And for daily drinks, water always.
  • A go-to karaoke song: Anything Lady Gaga. Her songs just pump me up like no other.
  • A uniform: colored skinny jeans (especially burgundy), faux leather jacket, riding boots, statement necklace or loop scarf
  • A hair stylist they love: I’ve switched stylists a lot over the years, so I’m going to change this one to hair style. I love my hair in big curls with full bangs.
  • An exercise routine: At home workouts 7 days per week, with some walking thrown in as well.
  • A hobby: Grocery/clothes shopping, blogging, yoga, cooking.
  • A best friend: my sister, always and forever. And at the moment, a really close friend I’ve made through working together and having classes together. I’m going to miss her a LOT when I graduate but we’re hoping someday we end up at the same TV station!
  • A healthy sense of self: I feel like I’ve really grown a lot in the past year. Maybe it’s partly because I’m almost a college grad (scary!) but I’ve been maturing and becoming more independent and focusing less on things I used to freak out about. I can’t say I don’t worry about things anymore, but I’m trying to let life happen and just being okay with whatever comes my way. And I’m excited for the future.
Selfies make me feel good, too #noshame.

Selfies make me feel good, too #noshame.

What makes YOU happy? 

I’m Outta Here! (at least for a few days)

Thanks for all the loving on my WIAW post! I loved catching up on all your WIAWs, too.

Recently, I’ve been seeing the Amazing Blogger Award on many of my favorite blogs, so I was thrilled to be awarded with it today by the very lovely Carrie of Moves ‘N Munchies! If you’ve never checked out her blog before, doooooooo it. Now. She always has yummy eats and I love her style.

I love surveys/quizzes so this should be mucho fun! (If you want to play along on your own blog, all you have to do is answer the questions and then add your own to the end. Ready…GO!!!!!!)

Favorite Cartoon Character: I used to be OB-SESSED with the show “Arthur” (anyone else????) It was actually really funny for a kids show, so funny that I still watch it today 😀 I loved Muffy, even though she’s a snob, because she’s a fashionista like me!

 

Favorite Thing to Photograph: Does it sound stuck-up if I say myself? Trust me, I’m not one of those girls who is completely self-centered, but I like to take pics of myself with goofy faces because it’s fun. Surprisingly, I don’t like it when other people take pictures of me. I look back at them later and I usually hate how I look in them. When I take pictures of myself, I can delete the ones I like and only end up with the best ones.

I'm obsessed with Instagram, and I really love this photo 🙂

 Favorite Thing to Cook: I actually have gotten into the whole raw food making/no cooking thing and I really love it. Like my obsession with overnight oats. And my recent raw desserts (including some dark chocolate pudding that I just made. It tastes a little too avocado-y for me, though, so I may have to tweak the recipe). But if I have to actually answer the question, I’d say homemade waffles or quinoa bowls. I’m planning on making a Chipotle burrito bowl-inspired one tonight, so we’ll see how that turns out.

Banana Split Overnight Oats

A quinoa bowl without the bowl: quinoa (duh!), leftover shredded sweet potato, crumbled tempeh bacon and fresh edamame guacamole

 Favorite Way to Exercise: This is sooooo hard! I love yoga (I have gotten so much stronger from it, and its calming), biking (it really works your legs and makes me feel like a champ when I make it up a huge hill!) and tennis (fun to play it with my dad and sister). I try to be active everyday, but I NEVER go to the gym. I want my workouts to be fun!!!!!

I also like to hike! One of my favorite hiking spots: Rocky Mountain National Park

Favorite Movie: Hands-down, no question…The Devil Wears Prada! If you know about my love of fashion, then this movie pick seems obvious. But I also love it because a) It has Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep and b) It’s engaging and funny.

Love this movie!

Favorite Clothing: Ughhhhhh, this is really hard since I love me some clothes, but I’d have to say summer dresses! I’ve also recently gotten into shorts (I prefer twill/culotte styles) and rompers. I wish I lived in a warm climate year round so I could wear these things all the time.

My new Hollister romper that I love to death!

 Favorite Flower: I love big daisies, or roses in any color other than red. My mom loves flowers, and she was growing some on our deck, but a lot of them died (sadly) because of our abundance of hail and lack of moisture. We are in a severe drought here, and the July 4th fireworks show is cancelled 😦 Luckily, we won’t be around, so we’re not missing much.

Favorite Breakfast:I used to be a hardcore cereal girl, but that was before I discovered the bliss that is overnight oats! Now I mix it up, with my beloved OOs, cereal (I’m picky, but I love Cascadian Farms kids cereals and some Whole Foods brand varieties), Greek yogurt (partial to Oikos) and occasionally Vitatops. I always gotta have my Morningstar spicy veggie sausages, though!

A typical breakfast: banana nut Vitatop, spicy veggie sausage, fresh mango, homemade waffle half

 Early Riser or Night Owl: Definitely the second one! I absolutely hate waking up early, even though I had to wake up at 5:15 all through high school. My first year of college spoiled me–I got to wake up at 9 every morning 😉 I’m gonna have to get used to getting up earlier next year because I have a 9 am class…yikes! I usually stay up til 11 or 12, so I’m not a super night owl.

If You Could Go Anywhere in the World Right Now, Where Would it Be?: Either Greece or somewhere in the Caribbean. I’m a sucker for pretty water and beaches 😛

Doesn't this look absolutely gorgeous?

(now for my own question addition)

Favorite Musical Artist: Don’t you know this by now? LADY GAGA! No question!

 

Well, everyone, I’m leaving for a few days on a little family vacay! It’s to one of our favorite in-state destinations, and I’m excited for a few days of hiking, swimming, soaking up the sun, shopping and some eating out. I’ll let you all know how it went when I get back, promise!

Answer one of the above survey questions, any that you’d like to!

 

 

Bad “Raw”mance

I mentioned in my last post about my obsession with  love of Lady Gaga’s songs, especially her newest album. But you can’t forget “Bad Romance”, her extremely popular hit from her previous album. I may have forgotten to mention my new obsession with making raw desserts. I say once you go raw, you never go back 😉 Okay, maybe that’s a little extreme but it’s true for me, as far as making desserts goes. I love making them from scratch, but before I discovered raw versions, I always struggled in the baked goods department. Nothing ever turned out quite right (probably because of my many, many substitutions!) and I was getting frustrated. Then I found an amazing recipe for raw brownies and I just had to try them! They turned out amazing and my obsession was born!

Raw brownie pie topped with nonfat coffee froyo and frozen raspberries

 My first foray into raw brownie making wasn’t so successful (though it was yummy) and I decided to look for another recipe. I stumbled upon a pretty simple one, from here, and of course made some changes to it to make it my own. Here’s my recipe for raw brownie pie…

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1/2 cup mint chocolate roasted almonds

1 cup dates

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (use Hershey’s Special Dark if you have it!)

1 banana

1 tbsp crunchy almond butter

Mix walnuts, almonds, dates and 1/4 cup cocoa powder in food processor. Spread into bowl or square pan. Pulse banana, remaining cocoa powder and almond butter in processor until smooth and liquidy. Spread chocolate banana almond ‘frosting’ on top of brownie batter and place container in freezer. Cut into 8 small slices (or 6 larger ones) and enjoy!

I loved those so much that I had one every day until they were gone (that was a sad day 😛 ). Today I attempted a second batch of brownies that didn’t turn out so well (the regular cocoa powder isn’t as yummy 😦 ) so I decided to try a brand new recipe, adapted from here… this time for raw blondies! OMLG (Oh My Lady Gaga 😉 ), these are even yummier than the brownies! The cinnamon almonds really made these stand out. I haven’t actually eaten a full one yet but I’ve tasted the batter and it was heavenly! If you love regular baked blondies, you will LOVE these. Raw desserts are so dense and nutritious, and this particular one has only 100 calories per square!

Raw Blondie Instagram closeup

 These are so easy to make and just require a food processor. Here’s my recipe…

3-100 calorie pack almonds (cinnamon roasted or original)

8 dates (I used a mix of California pitted and Medjool)

1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder (I used Soytein)

1 tsp honey (optional)

1 tbsp almond butter

Mix almonds and dates in food processor with about 1/4 cup water until mostly smooth. Add in protein powder, honey and almond butter until combined and thick. Spread blondie batter in square dish and cut into 8 squares. Refrigerate or freeze until ready to serve.

I just can’t get enough of the raw desserts! I’m thinking a raw chocolate raspberry mousse is gonna be next…

Have you ever tried a raw dessert? Are you Team Brownie or Team Blondie (my delicious blondies switched me over to the light side)!