it’s all greek to me

the lovely danica over at friends for weightloss has teamed up with chobani greek yogurt to give away a free case of greek yogurt! chobani is one of my absolute favorite yogurts in the entire world – simple, yet so delicious. make sure you visit danica’s site and enter the contest by tonight at midnight! FINGERS CROSSED

xo,

p.s. free is DEFINITELY the new black. and just in time for tax season! let the freebies continue…

look at me now

this will SURELY clear up any case of the mondays. enjoy, my loves!

xo,

free sounds good to me!

make sure you head on over to danica’s daily to enter to win a year of free organic valley food! did i mention it was FREE?! like, totally completely utterly free?! just making sure. you’ll be glad you did!

xo,

in the name of fashion

i’ve been known to grab highly intellectual fairly juvenile books when perusing barnes&noble. i would hands-down pick harry potter (i would SO go to hogwarts if at all possible – don’t judge!) over pretty much any other book. unless we’re talking twilight. twilight will fully trump harry potter in a moment of weakness.

however, in the name of fashion and my love for celebrities, i stumbled upon whitney port’s new book, entitled true whit at the library yesterday and grabbed it immediately! she shares some personal stories, along with her tips on how to lead a life of style, beauty, and fun. definitely my kind of girl! i found it to be the perfect lazy sunday afternoon book, and i even jotted down some of her tips on how to throw an easy dinner party. whitney happens to be one of my favorite fashionistas, and i absolutely enjoyed reading every page of it! definitely check it out.

my other library find, kardashian konfidential? eh, not so much. hope you’re having a glorious monday, my loves!

xo,

love: chipotle

these love posts are all about my current love (duh) of the week! pretty clever obvious, huh? well, ladies and gentlemen, my current obsession of the week is…chipotle! tis DELICIOUS. as in omgicantstopcravingit delicious. major props in the delish department, mr. steve ells!

embarrassingly enough, my first chipotle adventure was a mere 7 days ago! the chipotle facebook fan page was offering a buy-one-get-one deal in honor of the new nbc television show, “america’s next great restaurant”. BOGO at chipotle? SIGN. ME. UP. the mama and i have been wanting to try chipotle forever (even though we are both loyal moe’s customers thanks to my obsession with moo moo mr. cow during frosh year at UF), so we immediately made a mad dash to chipotle.

the menu is super simple and straightforward – just the way i like it. you pick your base (burrito, bowl, taco, salad) and then you’re ready to go! i made sure to investigate the situation beforehand and found a nifty chipotle nutritional calculator online. definitely check it outtt! the mama and i both went with super huge ginormous salads:

mine included: lettuce, chicken, black + pinto beans, grilled peppers and onions, pico de gallo, corn salsa, and a pinch of cheese

the damage: 500 calories, 11g of total fat, 2 grams of sat fat, 1 week’s worth of fiber

the verdict: SO good and filling! i’ve already been back 2 more times, no joke. fresh, delicious, and healthy. and, at $6 (considering i used my bogo coupon within 0.2 seconds of receiving it arghhh), super affordable. LOVES IT!

xo,

p.s. what’s your favorite quick and casual restaurant? my favorite is jason’s deli! but, chipotle is definitely making a stronggg case for the #1 position

i’m backkkk!

sorry for the unexpected (and loooong overdue) hiatus. but, in better news…i’m backkk, yo! and beyond ready for some new frillyfoodie adventures. new posts to follow!

food chain

i was once told that music is the universal language, and i couldn’t agree more! i definitely feel like it’s one of very few things in our world that truly has neither rules nor boundaries. and have you ever met anyone that doesn’t like music? yeah, me either. i’m normally pretty weird eclectic in my taste of music and happen to love everything from the beatles, to miley cyrus, to lil wayne (um hi hello please get out of jail soon? kthanks!). and my mood definitely tends to dictate my taste in music. likeee,

studying? bring on the jack johnson

sad? helllllo, michael buble

nostalgic? the beatles

running? eye of the tiger, babayy

ready to partayy? lady gaga/jay z/michael jackson it is

blogging? my newest find, eric hutchison!

well, to be honest, i didn’t really find eric hutchinson…my ever-so-trusted perez hilton did! from the minute i first listened to eric, i was SOLD. he’s poppy/witty/jason mraz-y in the absolute best way possible! it was fully love at first listen. and, shockingly, not-so-shockingly, my favorite of eric’s songs is called food chain. the word food? in a song? SOLD. enjoyyy the fabulosity:

i especially love the way he bobs his head like a turtle! sigh. hope you’re all having a fabulous day! see you later alligator.

xo,

p.s. i also loveee old-school *nsync – curly haired justin timberlake and all!! just sayin 🙂

butterface

nobody likes a butterface…unless it’s a pumpkin butterface! i was starvin marvin about an hour ago and decided to take a little looksy in my fridge. allllll the way to the back, i noticed that i had an open (and almost full) can of pumpkin puree! hmm what to do? i vaguely remembered my papa mentioning apple butter a while back and it hit me – pumpkin butter, it is! after a little perusing online, i found the perfect healthy & uber simple recipe from danica’s daily.

pumpkin buttahh (borrowed from danica)

ingredients:

1 15-oz can pumpkin puree

1/2 cup agave syrup or honey (i used honey)

1 Tbsp pure maple syrup (i used sugar free pancake syrup)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp cinnamon

3/4  tsp pumpkin pie spice

Pinch of salt

directions:

step 1: combine the pumpkin, honey, maple syrup and vanilla extract in a small saucepan over medium heat, mixing until well combined. stirring constantly, cook for ~ 15 minutes (or until thickened).

step 2: stir in the spices and salt, and cook for an additional 5 minutes.

step 3: remove the pan from heat, and transfer your pumpkin butter to a small bowl or jar. Let cool completely before covering and refrigerating. pumpkin butter will keep for about 2 weeks in a covered air tight container in the refrigerator.

andddd, done! it was SO easy and oh so delicious (i took a spoonful amid *cooling*- i couldn’t resist!). i can just imagine the possibilities…pumpkin butter with waffles, protein pancakes, biscuits, greek yogurt, oh my. ahh so excited! can’t wait for ya’ll to try it.

xo,

p.s. any other fun pumpkin butttah ideas?!

love: ikea

i’m backkkk! and officially in love, yet again. this time, however, my love affair is with ikea! i know i must be living under a rock, but i just visited ikea for the first time yesterday. and, let me just say that it was absolutely fabulous. the south florida location opened fairly recently and i’ve been itching to go for months to see what the hype is all about. now i fully understand why people are so entranced by it! i used to think, “what’s so special about a…gasp…home furnishings store?” however, upon walking into ikea, i was greeted with a map and a meatball – solddd!

ikea is absolutely incredible and literally has every home item you can imagine. i seriously turned to the mama within 3.2 seconds of perusing the 1st floor and announced that, “ikea is dangerous”! i could easily spend hours (& millions of dollars) here. not good. not good at all! luckily, i kept myself under control and only bought: a make-your-own desk, a floor lamp, and new silverware! not too shabby.

and, of course, no ikea adventure would be complete without having lunch! the mama and i decided to share the swedish meatball meal with veggies, a slice of apple cake, and an iced coffee. it was DELICIOUS! so so good. the mama and i each had 5 meatballs (brought 5 home for the schnitz), and made sure to buy huuge chocolate bars ($1!) for the daddy and the brother.

all in all, my ikea experience was absolutely glorious. can’t wait to go back!

*on a side note, the fabulous danica is having a giveaway – a $60 shopping spree to spend at any of the 200+ CSN stores – how cool is that?! ahh love her! make sure to check it out!

xo,

p.s. what are your favorite stores? i could literally go to target (and ikea!) EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

d is for disney

happy monday, everyone! i hope ya’ll had a fabulous weekend. sorry for the lack of posting, but i was whisked away on an impromptu adventure to disney world and just returned! it was absolutely marvelous, as always, and filled with healthy fun foods! we stayed at the cutest little hotel, the disney beach club, and it literally felt as if we were in snow white’s cupboard! it was very kitschy and oh-so-disney-like. here’s joey in the kitchen:

the view from our room:

the two of us on our balcony, pre-dinnaa:

dinner at wolfgang puck’s restaurant at downtown disney:

we split sushi & bbq chicken pizza:

post-din snacky! chocolate covered marshmallows = too yummo for words:

then off to cirque du soleil!

luckily, we had fab seats! this was our last photo before the usher screamed at us asked joey to put the camera awaaaay.

cirque du soleil was fantastic! we both loved it. post-show, we took a stroll along the boardwalk and made sure to walk by ghirardelli. as we were walking by, a waiter turned toward us, said “would you like a free hot fudge sundae? they made 1 extra by mistake.” umm, YES PLEASE! it was sheer perfection:

thennn, bed time! the next day started off with a fruit & yogurt parfait and wataa. so fresh and delish:

disney time! the weather was gorgeous and it was a beastly lovely 85 degree day:

mr. puppet got a little frisky in china:

andd, chubby checker was at epcot for the day! so fun and random:

pit stop at the international coca cola taste-tester station:

and then dinna time! we were absolutely starved and decided to eat at morocco. i had the falafel pita with sides of couscous and lentil salad (joey had the chicken & lamb platter). the couscous was sweet, and the lentil salad was very green-pepperish in a good way. it was absolutely DELISH! in fact, my $8 disney din was MUCH more delish than wolfgang puck’s. just sayin 🙂

hello kitty doll at japan. go gators!

anddd back to the real world 🙂 disney was absolutely magical, but i’m definitely happy to be home. hope ya’ll had a fabulous weekend as well! can’t wait to hear all about it.

xo,

p.s. what are your favorite theme park foods? i’m CONVINCED that i heard the freshly made ice cream sandwiches call my name!