Happy Friday!

 

Cute new “Love” bracelet…perfect for a fun evening out. 

Have a great weekend. 

-L&A

Bran Muffins for Breakfast

I’ve been trying to consistently eat breakfast in the morning, but much like this hysterical Jenna Marbles video explains, I’m not always the best at managing my time in the morning.  Having continual re-runs of The West Wing on in the background, I’m sure, contributes to my distraction.  As such, I’ve developed a few habits that help me shave off a few precious seconds in the morning so I can hopefully get my much needed beauty sleep!

1. Pack your gym bag in the morning.  Rooting around for that one, perfect, not-too-tight-but-still-clean tshirt at 7am in the morning will ruin your day.  Guaranteed.
2. Pack your lunch the night before.  If you’re like me and have JUST DISCOVERED how awesome bringing your own lunch is, this is a new rule.  For everyone that’s been doing it for years, thanks for NOT telling me how much money and how many calories you save when you come packing.  Thanks a lot.
3. Make your breakfasts ahead of time.  Seriously, if you’re anything like me, you’re entirely less likely to eat breakfast if 1.) you’re not hungover or b.) it’s not readily available.  Sure you could buy it on the fly, but you tell me where you can find a healthy breakfast these days.  These days?  Who talks like that, honestly, you’d think I was a senior citizen.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that…ahem.

Making a healthy breakfast is so easy and beneficial, and who doesn’t love breakfast food?  Honestly…find someone that hates breakfast.  Try.  Bran muffins are such an easy fix for a fast morning meal, it’s almost embarrassing to share how little goes into these treats.  Buy a box of Hodgeson Mill Bran Muffin Mix: it’s less than $1.50  (even in Chicago) and yields only 6 muffins.  A scant 6 muffins might sound like a drawback, but if you’re a single lady like I am, 6 muffins is the perfect amount for one batch – any more and they go stale before you have a chance to enjoy.  Mix the batter according to instructions and add fresh fruit, dried fruit, nuts, seeds…whatever you can think of!  This batch included toasted almond slivers, dried cranberries and a bit of good vanilla flavoring.  I’m already planning the next: Trail Mix.  I’m planning to create a pretzel base for the muffin mix and swirl in peanuts, raisins and a few chocolate chips.  Stay tuned…

Life Lately

Turkey Burger

After another fun weekend at home (read: food, eating, all the time, seafood salad galore, everywhere) I decided to go for something a bit lighter for Sunday night’s dinner.  Walking home from the grocery store I was again assaulted by delicious grill smell and had to have something to satisfy a charcoal craving.  Fortunately I had picked up some ground, extra lean turkey and decided to make a breadless burger.  Topped with caramelized balsamic red onions and aged bleu cheese, I thought I’d share my cabbage-wrapped creation in case the taste inspires you, too.  Enjoy!

 

Monday Motivation

 

My apologies for the iffy quality for this picture – it was a screenshot, which, if screenshots are against some sort of copyright law, then I apologize for that, too.  This was a facebook photo posted by a friend of a fbfriend with the caption that this was the 20th pincha mayurasana performed by the model on the right (I assume the FoFBF was the model on the left?).  Now apparently this pose isn’t as much about arm strength as it looks, but that’s hard for someone as uneducated on yoga for me to believe.  I’m sure there is some parallel truism in this statement where the logical conclusion would be for a reader to draw similarities from the photo caption to his or her own life: that perhaps what seems difficult at first glance is in fact, not.  But I’ll let you color your own ending

 

Dorothy Perkins

New obsession alert!  I love Dorothy Perkins.  Could there be a collection that better flatters the female figure?  Seriously, thank you.  A UK based venture, Dorothy Perkins has actually been around since the early 1900’s.  Launched initially as “Dotty P,” a shortened version of the eponymous rose, the store now has a few hundred global locations but to my sad sad knowledge, none in the US.  Until then, I will shop virtually through the cute website and eMagazine.  The entire, perfect-for-summer-casual-but-cute-can-someone-buy-me-that-bag? outfit below is from Dotty P.

Happy Friday

L&A

What the Thursday

I think its technically Friday at this point, and I blew right past my humpday headlines. Sad, but I honestly have no compilation of value to share, so I’ll store up my ideas for next week.

Truth be told, I’m a little fried. I attempted to cheer myself up after an intense few days at work with some cheesetastic country  music and somehow it accidentally oops yikes worked its way into my little picture. I am pretty sure we’ve all felt like this at one point, no? No? Ew, am I emo?

Urban Hike–Vol. 1

We all know Chicago is a pedestrian city…give it up, drivers, it is.  Partially due to the beautiful weather, half due to office-related frustration and 1/4 due to the stir crazy build-up from winter, lately I’ve abandoned the gym in favor of the Urban Hike.

1. The Urban Hike essentially works like this: I high-tail it out of work as fast as humanly possible.
2. I take the redline home, tap-tap-tapping my foot impatiently the whole time.
3. I march home from the el and the second I walk in the door, remove work shoes/clothes, remove make-up (yes, Laura, that’s actually true) and don my new yoga pants and trusty Cubs baseball hat.
4. Walk.  Anywhere, everywhere; places I love and places I haven’t been.  Just walk.

And could there be a BETTER city to do it in?

Summer Fever

Today is the second day of spring – can you believe it? Not in my mind! Spring came and went in about oh, a week or so, and I’m on to summer fever. After a week straight of 80 degree + weather, I want to not feel weird about wearing sandals in March (this is usually still boot season!), I want my summer hours at work to kick in (yay!) and I want to be spending this upcoming weekend reading magazines at Oak Street Beach and begging Ali to go on the water run for us. I’m not COMPLAINING, its just… confusing!

I recently illustrated this happy, snoozing girl on the beach that I’ve been wishing was me for the last 15 days or so. 🙂  Hope it makes you think of summer fun too!

This one’s for you, mama!