Whole30: Zoodles with Tomato Sausage Sauce

Part of a tbd series, sharing my favorite (easy) Whole30 recipes to make your 30 days more bearable!

This recipe doesn't take much and was hot and ready in about 30 minutes.

WHAT YOU'LL NEED 

3 small zucchini

Spiralizer, for zoodlin'

28 oz. can crushed tomatoes

   - double check for no added sugar. Hunt's passed the test!

Basil (fresh is better)

Garlic Salt

Pepper

Aidell's Chicken and Apple sausage

   - one of the only sausages out there with no added sugar

Garlic clove

Olive Oil

The steps are as easy to list as the ingredients!

First, wash your zucchini and slice one end off. Then, spiralize away. After you spiralize all 3 zucchini, set aside.

Pour your crushed tomatoes into a pot and heat up. When heated, mix in some pepper, garlic salt and basil. (It's really easy to make your own pasta sauce by seasoning it yourself, rather than buying whatever's on the shelf). Heat, stir, simmer.

Slice the chicken sausage. Pour a little bit of olive oil into a pan, press a garlic clove and heat up your garlic. When oil is hot, put in the slice of sausage and brown them. Even though they're already cooked, I think this gives them a bit of added flavor and texture and makes the sauce better. When they're browned to your liking, stir them into the sauce.

Serve and enjoy, hot on the table within 30 minutes and barely any mess to clean up. #kitchengoals

Watermelon Margaritas

I'm always looking for a reason to make a good cocktail or eat a juicy watermelon. Nothing quite says summer like mixing the two together.

Most recipes I've seen tried to make this too complicated, but who has time to do that when all they really want is a drink? Let's get this summer started. 

WHAT YOU'LL NEED

1 - 1.5 shot of tequila
2 c. watermelon, diced
2 tbsp. lime juice
1 tbsp. simple syrup (optional)
Lime

First things first, salt your rim. I always use a lime slice instead of water to give it even more flavor.

Pro tip: don't fall for "margarita salt." Instead, grab some coarse kosher sea salt and save your bucks for something else.

I think the right amount of watermelon per drink is about 3 small triangles. Dice them in small chunks. Side note: still obsessed with these discontinued Anthropologie plates.

Rose's sweetened lime juice is the perfect amount of sweet for this cocktail. I don't think it needs any additional sugar, but add simple syrup to your taste. Lime, however, is necessary. Slice off a large slice to squeeze in to your drink.

In a cocktail shaker, combine the diced watermelon, tequila, lime juice and some ice. Then...

shake, shake, shake!

Pour into a mason jar and cheers to summah!

Let me know if you like what you sip!

Love is the closest thing we have to magic.

Keep your magic alive. 

Snapped at Paris on Ponce in Atlanta, Georgia. 

21.

21 was not my favorite year. Not a bad year, overall, but it was my least favorite thus far.

It was not as good as carefree times at 19. USC. First taste of puppy love. My first apartment. An internship that introduced me to a lot of people that helped me get to where I am today. A taste of adulthood without the responsibility.

21 was a year sprinkled - no, soaked - with change. Living in Barcelona,  returning to the states a single woman, graduating, getting hired by an awesome company, living in Portland, living in Portland with questionable roommates, moving to Atlanta...I could keep going.

But, here's what I learned throughout this year.

It's okay to not be okay.

Communication is key.
Ditch the passive aggressive act. 

Some guys people are just assholes.
Not everyone. Learn from how others hurt people and vow to never do it. 

Stay in touch with friends.

Work hard, play harder.

Love you. Do you.
Others will inevitably let you down from your high expectations of them. Set those expectations for yourself, and exceed them.

Move it, move it.
Your pants are shrinking. 

There's only so much you can do to get someone to give you what you deserve.
Realize the point where you have to realize they will never come around and forget about it. 

Always be the bigger person.
Don't speak in anger, hurt or frustration. It won't solve anything.

It always pays off to be nice to everyone you meet.
Everyone.

Talk is cheap when you use your words negatively.

Tomorrow is another day and chance to be a better person.
Always work towards that. 

Patience is a virtue that I do not possess.
Hurry and understand that!

The only person you can control is yourself.

Adulthood is hard and it sucks.

Adulthood is hard and it's awesome.

You'll never be able to please everyone.
And that's fine. 

Saying "no" to things is a lot better than saying "yes" and doing something half-heartedly.

Moving to a new place is exhausting, a little lonely but extremely rewarding.

People on the internet are cruel and love to hide behind a computer screen.
Working in social media, I see a lot of things that make me lose faith in humanity. 



So, 22, I welcome you with open arms. Please be good to me.



[Edit: this post should've been pubished in July 2014. So far 22 has been just as Taylor Swift meant it to be. More on that later ;)]

Songs that Make Me Happy: Summer 2014

It's important to have a playlist that you can throw on shuffle and know that you'll immediately start tapping your foot and bobbing your head (guiltlessly, of course). For me, that's exactly what this is.

I've been adding to this playlist for some time, but the catchiest most recent additions I've been diggin' are "All About that Bass" by Meghan Trainor, "Pumpin Blood" by NONONO, "Dance Apocalyptic" by Janelle Monáe and "Dance with Me" by Ra Ra Riot.

C'mon, fess up -- what's your guilty pleasure song you love to blast with the windows down?

A St. Patrick's Day Meal For the Irish at Heart

Today's the day when most Americans dig through ancestry records to find their excuse to drink like an Irishman. I'm pretty sure all those girls wearing the "Kiss Me I'm Irish" shirts are not, in fact, Irish. Whether you're two percent or 92 percent Irish, use today as an excuse to celebrate like I would - with a delicious meal!

If you can't get to the Old Storehouse in Dublin for a true taste of Irish fare, try making your own "traditionally irish" meal of corned beef casserole and Irish champ at home. If you have 20 minutes and want to see me chop a bunch of vegetables, I can show you how in the video I hosted/produced for the University of South Carolina's student television station, SGTV, in March 2013.

But if you don't, here are the recipes I followed.

Adapted from BBC's recipe for Corned Beef Casserole:

Ingredients:

• Packaged puff pastry (found in the frozen section), at room temp
• 1 large white onion, diced
• 2 large carrots, diced
• 2 celery stalks, 1/2 inch pieces
• 5 potatoes, diced
• 2 tbsp ketchup
• 1 can corned beef
• Stick of butter
• 1/4 c. flour
• 1 egg
• Olive Oil

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 375. 
• Melt 1 oz. butter and a little olive oil in large saucepan. Pour in chopped celery, carrots, potatoes and onion. Cook over low heat, stirring, around 15 minutes.
• Stir in ketchup to cover vegetables, then stir in corned beef. Mix well and remove from heat for about 20 minutes.
• Sprinkle flour on a flat surface and lay out puff pastry. Line the bottom and sides of your casserole dish. 
• In a prep bowl, whisk egg. Brush pastry with whisked egg.
• Spoon in filling mixture, pack down and lay the second pastry sheet over the top, sealing the dish.
• Brush remaining egg on the top of the pastry. 
• Use a knife to cut an "x" on the top of the pastry. 
• Bake for 40 minutes. 

AllRecipes' Irish Champ recipe and this super easy Food.com Shamrock shake recipe.

And, of course, wash it all down with a Guinness, Harp or Irish whiskey.

Kiss the cook? Or, kiss me I'm (cooking like the) Irish? Let me know if you like what you eat!

Dear, Future Life Partner.

I say life partner - instead of husband, lover, etc. - not because it has anything to do with gender. But, because that is what I hope for in a marriage. My real-life, legal BFF.

Typing the word marriage makes me a little nauseated, tbh. Also, BFF. 

Yeah, sure, ideally it will be the kind of can't-keep-our-hands-off-each-other attraction, but that's an added value, I think. What it has to be is supportive. What it has to be is flexible, devoted, loyal, relentless. A steel bond of two people on the same team always working together to help each other.

So, as I go through my twenties and make a million dating mistakes, as EVERYONE has told me I will, (though I would rather just not date and skip that whole part, please?) I'm keeping things in mind that I do and don't want in my future life partner. I'm not saying that I'm holding every guy I meet up to a laundry list of "expectations." I just think it's good to keep what I want in mind.

Here goes.

The will and want to see the world. 
I love traveling. I haven't even gotten my first paycheck and I'm trying to plan a trip somewhere. I have a list of places I want to see and that list isn't going to get any shorter. I'll go by myself fearlessly, but I'd love to have someone I love to share it with. "She is too independent and wont care whether you travel with her or not."

Challenge me. Make me smarter.
I'm never going to stop wanting to learn. I think someone who can teach you is invaluable and someone to hold onto. I'm also going to need support when I want to try something new - because I will (just ask my mother). Never stop pushing me to be a smarter or better person.

Wit. Appreciation.
"Wit beyond measure is a man's greatest treasure." If you got that Harry Potter reference, you're probably fine for this one. A guy who is witty is way more attractive to me than so many other qualities. Wit = intelligence.

Next to wit, I really admire people with appreciation. That sound vague, but think about it. Appreciating the little things. Appreciation for food, art, a quiet night. Realizing how lucky you are. It's a pretty subjective definition, but absolutely recognizable.

Respect.
If you think what I like is silly, we should not be together. Think it's silly if you want, but never tell me it's dumb to believe in what I believe in or love what I love. If you do, remember that you're somewhere on that list. We are not going to love all of the same things and THANK GOD because if I married someone who loved to paint their nails and watch New Girl as much as I do, something would be seriously wrong. Do it for me and I'll [try to] do the same for you (I'm probably never going to love basketball, but it may grow on me).

[Side note] I recently read an article, written by a man/boy, about why he didn't want a girlfriend. One of his biggest reasons was that all of his friends were missing fun things (like sporting events) because their girlfriends were making them do things, like go shopping with them. I was so confused when I read that. Girls were willingly bringing their mopey boyfriend to the mall to do something he doesn't want to do? Girls were enjoying that? The guys weren't speaking up for themselves? I don't understand why you can't do your own thing and be okay for a few hours while the other person, like, LIVES THEIR LIFE.

Faith. 
Yes, ideally, I would like to find someone to help me in my own spiritual journey and someone that will make it easy to be rooted in and raise our family on the same values. But, I think you need to believe in something. It's hard for me to understand people that just respond with, "I don't know," instead of thinking about the big picture world around them. Always a complicated subject, but it doesn't have to be.

Space. 
We both need it. I think I may need it more. I need time to myself to recharge and do my own thing, just like you do. We have to love ourselves before we can love each other and without time independent from each other, we could lose sight of this.

The understanding that I really think jewelry is a cop out.
Unpopular opinion, I know. I'm not saying I don't like jewelry, I do. Buuuut -- I think guys buy girls jewelry because they don't know the girl well enough to get her what she really likes or wants. It's not about gifts, but be thoughtful and think about what the other person would really appreciate. (I feel the same way about flowers. If you truly know me, you'll know that I would MUCH rather have some chocolate.)

-----

As I'm going through life and dating, I'm figuring these things out. What I want. But more so what I don't want in a future life partner.

I have no idea who this person is, or if he even exists. Either way, I'm going to live my life the same and hope someone comes along to share some laughs with me.

To be continued...