I'M CUTTING OUT SUGAR!... starting tomorrow.

I've had this brilliant idea to cut out refined sugars from my diet. As I'm writing this, though, I'm eating a bowl of icecream and last night I took it upon myself to make meringue cookies. This "reformed diet" idea may need to wait for a bit. I think healthy eating is something I'm definitely going to start incorporating into my life more, but I sat down with the February edition of Southern Living Magazine only to stop myself on the first page when I saw a recipe for cotton candy meringues! Making these little sweets was the best and worst decision of the week.

To make these, you'll need:
4 egg whites
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1 cup sugar
2 tsp. cornstarch
1 tsp. white vinegar
1&1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
OPTIONAL food coloring

To start:
1. Pre-heat oven to 250 F. Beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar until stiff peaks form.
2. Mix the sugar and cornstarch together, then gradually beat the mixture into the egg yolks.
3. With a rubber spatula, gently fold the vinegar and vanilla into the egg white mixture.
4. On a cookie sheet lined with parchment, place dollops of the mixture. I chose to pipe mine out with a bag and Wilton's 1M piping tip.
5. Bake for an 1 hour and 15 minutes. Turn the oven off, but leave the pan in for 1&1/2 hours. The meringues will be good up to five days in an airtight container.

I separated my batter into three different bowls and added food coloring to them. In one bowl, 2 drops red & 1 drop blue. In the second bowl, I added 2 blue, 1 green and 1 yellow. In the last bowl, i added 2 red and 2 yellow.  I didn't fully fold in the coloring so it was a little stripey! I layered the different colored mixtures in the piping bag so they would come out all swirly and pretty!

These would be really nice to serve at a wedding or baby shower. You can add practically any flavoring or coloring. They are just so fun. They look really sweet and dainty and taste similar to Lucky Charms marshmallows. If you're having less sugar (starting tomorrow,) like I am, I highly recommend that you binge a little on these first!

Peace and love. XXX.

Mason Jar Salad

I have all day classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so a midday meal is very necessary. At my campus, we have a Chik-Fil-A, Subway, and a cafeteria. First of all, I don't like spending a lot of money on lunch while I'm at school. Second of all, I don't want any of that freshman fifteen! I get a lot of exercise trekking around campus and I feel like I'm sabotaging that by having a huge fried meal in the middle of my day. I've been trying to come up some healthy lunch options to bring with me to school! Today, I had a chickpea and red bell pepper Greek salad.

Makes 2 servings

You will need:
1/2 Red bell pepper
2/3 cup chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
6 leaves of Romaine lettuce
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. of Greek seasoning
Dash of dried mint

To start:
1. Wash and dry the lettuce leaves and chop them into small pieces. Clean the pepper, being sure to remove all the seeds. Dice up the pepper and toss it in a bowl with the drained chickpeas and lettuce.
2. Mix together the olive oil, lemon juice, mint, and seasoning. If you feel like it needs more of a certain ingredient just go for it! Make it how you like.
3. Evenly distribute the dressing in the bottom of two large mason jars or Tupperware containers. Put the vegetable mix in on top of the dressing, but don't mix it. You can shake up the jar when your ready to eat it and the leaves don't get soggy while it sits!

If you don't like chickpeas or red bell peppers you can substitute them for literally anything else. There's more than one way to skin a cat and there's definitely more than one way to make a salad. You could even substitute the lettuce for spinach or kale. I just wanted to show you a fun and healthy lunch option which is good on the go! Greek yogurt is my one true love and it just made sense to pair it with my Greek salad! 

Enjoy coming up with fun alternatives to this! I look forward to sharing some more "clean eats" with you!

Peace and love. XXX.

This Post is Brought to You by Gingerbread

To all the people who say gingerbread is for Christmas time only, I say gingerbread knows no bounds.  Here's the recipe:

2 & 1/3 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
3/4 cup softened butter
4 tbsp. molasses 
1 large egg
1/3 cup brown sugar

1. Pre-heat oven to 325 F and line a baking sheet with parchment.
2. Mix the first 6 ingredients in a bowl. In a separate large bowl, cream the butter, egg, molasses and sugar until smooth. 
3. Fold the dry mixture into the wet mixture 1/3 at a time.
4. On a clean, dry surface, roll out the dough to about 1/2 inch thickness and cut out your shapes.
5. Transfer the shapes to the baking sheet and bake for 6-7 minutes. 

I like to frost mine with white chocolate ganache (white chocolate melted with heavy cream,) but you can frost them with anything or leave them naked. What's especially fun is wrapping up these little beauties! I found this precious wax paper at Michael's craft store that I used with washi tape from Target. If you're feeling like you need to get a Texas shaped cookie cutter (and you should feel that way,) you can find that here.

If you're a home fragrance kind of person World Market is the place to go. I went there the other day and upon seeing incense and candles, I was throwing my money at it like it had no value to me. I had to remind myself that I didn't need 16 candles or 12 packages of incense.  I bought a Moroccan Spice candle along with some Frangipani (plumeria) and Herb de Provence incense. When I first started using incense I had no idea what I was doing and I don't want you to be in the same boat.

First, you'll need an incense holder; they're fireproof and keep ashes from getting all over surfaces. There's a small hole at the end of the holder for the incense to go into. Light the incense at the thick end of the stick and let it burn for a few seconds. Blow out the flame and the incense should be glowing. It's simple to do and and just really calming.

Gingerbread and incense is not a traditional pairing, it's also not a bad one.

Peace and love. XXX.

Sugary Rings of Sweet Joy

School starts back on the 13th and I'm trying to get aaaaallll the baking out of my system.  I received a doughnut pan as a Christmas gift and, oh my lanta, I've been itching to use it.  Of course you can always make doughnuts in a big pot of sizzling oil, I like mine baked.  Yesterday I made cinnamon sugar doughnuts and today was all about chocolate. You really need a doughnut pan to make these, otherwise they'll just be "buns."

The basic recipe is the same for both doughnuts: the only difference is in the topping.

For the cinnamon doughnuts, I melted two tablespoons of butter and brushed it over one side of the doughnuts with a silicone pastry brush.  I mixed 1/4 cup granulated sugar with a tablespoon of ground cinnamon and dipped the wet side of the doughnuts in to coat them. I also substituted granulated sugar for brown, and white vinegar for apple cider vinegar.

For the chocolate doughnuts I just dunked the tops in chocolate ganache. To make ganache, just melt 1 & 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips with 1/2 cup heavy cream over medium. Stir it until smooth and transfer it to a bowl for dipping. When you dip them in the chocolate, press the doughnuts face down and lift them up and out: don't twist them.  Adorn them with colorful sprinkles, coconut flakes, or chopped nuts (I went with sprinkles!) I also added 1/8 teaspoon of nutmeg the doughnuts.  What's that? You have a lot of chocolate ganache leftover? Don't say it like it's a bad thing! It goes great with ice-cream or crepes.

What do doughnuts go great with? Coffee and friends! I got this precious giraffe mug at World Market and it comes in a set of four; enough for your friends. My favorite drink at Starbucks is a white mocha latte. Rather than spending 4-5 dollars on coffee everyday, I came up with a quick fix. I put 10-15 white chocolate chips in the bottom of my mug and pour the hot coffee over it. It's not quite the same thing as Starbucks, but it satisfies my craving. 

Oh la la. Doughnuts are easy to make and should be properly love and adored, otherwise you have no business making them in the first place. 

Peace and love. XXX.