Love Love Love || 11.4.14

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I am worthy of love. I find love all around me. I am love.

No doubt, just love. Fill yourself with the magnanimous desire to scream from the rooftops and jump up with glee. Silly? Perhaps. Childlike? Of course. Necessary? Not a doubt in my mind. Love love love love love. Maybe you say the word aloud, or write it furiously in a notebook. Maybe you tattoo it into your skin, or whisper it until it sounds right. Whatever you do, just make space to find love today, in every moment, every second, everywhere.

How will you express your love today?

 xxoo

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Halloween Recipe || Caramel ||10.30.14

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Halloween is upon us! In fact it’s tomorrow!!! Do you love Halloween as much as I do? Because my room is decorated with fake leaves, window stickies, and pumpkin paintings. I have been reading some great blog posts written by ladies who painted their pumpkins white to line their entryways and others who spread out huge cobwebs throughout their houses. In honor of our Health and Wellness Thursdays, here’s what I’m contributing to the best day of the year… Introducing a beautifying and delicious, blended to perfection caramel! And since I couldn’t decide just which one to make, I decided to make three and let you know how they all worked out! The recipes below are vegan, gluten-free, refined sugar free, and definitely so delicious your spoon will be diving back in for more.

Enjoy some of this deliciousness with apples (my personal favorite), on top of oatmeal, inside homemade peanut butter cups, or straight from the spoon. Imagine this stirred into a container of peanut butter … drool.

|| CARAMEL ||

date based, with oil or without, maybe some almond butter – all good

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first recipe //

Ingredients ||

  • ¼ cup maple syrup
  • ¼ cup organic coconut oil
  • 1/6 cup + 1 tbsp almond butter
  • 2 dates
  • 1 teaspoon honey
  • Dash of salt (to taste)

Recipe ||

  1. Add all of the ingredients to a high speed blender (I used my magic bullet – not the best, but hey, dorm room) and blend until all ingredients are incorporated, the texture is a light golden brown, and the consistency is smooth – easy peasy

Notes ||

Experimenting with this recipe was so fun, because the flavors individually are so far from the taste of caramel – but when combined I must kiss my fingers and say mmmmagnificent. At first I could still taste almond butter in one bite, maple syrup in the other, maybe a little date, but after letting the flavors sit and mingle, the flavor was more caramel than I ever imagined -- not exact but pretty darn close. Plus, it looks like caramel and has that gorgeous drippy texture that I was looking for in my little experiment. The original recipe uses vanilla, and I bet that would have added another dynamic, but I didn’t have some quality vanilla extract on me and since we were keeping this raw, I didn’t want any of that alcohol aftertaste. This one is great with apples. I had to restrain myself. Majorly restrain. I also made my almond butter in my Magic Bullet before I made this, so it was a little drier than the usual store-bought brands and that might have contributed to the original overwhelming almond butter taste.

tested and adapted from Nutrition Stripped

second recipe //

Ingredients ||

  • ¼ cup soaked dates
  • 2 tablespoons melted coconut oil
  • ½ tablespoon almond butter (can be omitted)
  • cinnamon
  • a dash of sea salt
  • water as needed

Recipe ||

  1. Send all of the ingredients to a high speed blender, like above, and let it do it’s thing --

Notes ||

Dates naturally taste very carameley – it’s awesome for quick snacks with a little chocolate chips and almond butter inside, but that's beside the point . This recipe had a very nice light flavor, an airy texture, and didn’t sit heavy in my stomach. It also didn’t taste rich and decadent which is what I was going for, but it would be awesome in a peanut butter cup inspired recipe with tahini and this caramel wrapped with raw chocolate. Yum. The almond butter wasn’t in the original recipe but just added a nice depth of flavor I couldn’t pass up.

 

tested and adapted from This Rawsome Vegan Life 

 

third recipe //

Ingredients ||

  • ½ cup of dates
  • ½ banana (or 2 tbsp coconut oil if not staying oil free)
  • 1 tablespoon maple syrup
  • dash of sea salt

Recipe ||

  1. Yep! You guessed right – throw them all in the blender and wait for smooth perfection --

Notes ||

This recipe looked the most like caramel, but unfortunately tasted too much like banana (duh em, there’s a banana in there). Nevertheless, I think this would be amazing swirled into a banana bread recipe or cookie rather than dipped with apples or eaten by itself.

tested and adapted from This Rawsome Vegan Life 

 

Overall, I love the first one for eating on its own and the other two for swirling into some delicious recipes. I really encourage you to tweak all the recipes, throw them all together if you want, and let me know what you think! I was playing with these during a really upsetting weekend, so it was a great relief. Just go in there with no expectations and let me know what magic you whip up?

 

[photos by emily friend]

Part Three || How-To || October

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Welcome to part three of this month's How-To series -- How-To Be Productive!! Couldn't tell from the picture or the title, huh? I know -- I'm so sneaky. Wednesday I kicked off the post with the two ways to jump start productivity... jump back and read Part One if you'd like. Then yesterday I unleashed two more in Part Two. And today here's the final three -- enjoy!!!

Final
Final

HOW-TO || BE PRODUCTIVE || PART III

|| plan out what you need done + how much time you think it will take ||

This doesn’t have to be a time table of when you will do certain things and at the exact length of time you will do them, but having a rough estimate of how long it will take you to look up something or write up an email can help filter little activities into the breaks of your day. Having a master list of what must be done can help you pin point ‘big ticket’ items that need completing by a near deadline. This also helps you realize how much time you spend on meaningless tasks like checking facebook for the thousandth time or refreshing the instagram feed. These little tasks aren't bad by any means if you derive joy from them, but they do impede your productivity by keeping you away from your task.

Planning out what needs to be completed can help them from scrambling in your brain and creating a knot of events you’ve scheduled. It doesn’t have to be a fancy planner or crazy calendar – I keep my list on an oversized note card clipped to a clipboard. Just find what works for you and see if keeping track helps you stay on task.

|| be organized + try not to get behind ||

This keeps right in line with the point above – having that master list helps you stay organized, keeps your thoughts close, and the time structure will remind you when to get things done and not get caught behind. Staying organized also helps limit the ‘what am I doing this week’ fuzz where you scramble through your thoughts to pick out the promises you made to meet up and the meetings you scheduled with a prospective client. Hopefully, we can all understand that getting behind can be stressful and that stress inhibits our optimal production and capabilities. If you do get behind, try not to stress. There are many things that can help ease the mind and kick-start your drive again.

Organization really isn’t for everyone – but sometimes its easier to fall behind when we don’t know exactly what we are doing or what our next step will be. See below if that stress bug comes biting …

|| if panicked or getting behind, here are some tips to help ||

Okay, try not to stress! Take a deep breath, five deep ones to be exact, close your eyes and zone into the moment, into your space, feel the seat you are siting in and your surroundings. Are you comfortable? Are you hydrated? Are you ready to work? Adjust your placement until the above answers are yes. Try playing some soothing instrumental music or music that fades into the background and allows you to work harder; try changing into comfortable clothes; make yourself a mug of calming tea and try to stop the overbeating of your heart and overwhelming brain process by being right where you are this moment; perhaps prepare a light snack (i.e. pb + apples, hummus + carrots or pretzels, etc). If these steps don’t work, try taking a break, calling it for the day, packing up and going somewhere to walk, be creative, or just plain not think – lose yourself in a book, a tv show, a quick yoga practice. Find your center and then return – you’ll work harder, I promise.

Try not to get stressed -- even when you get behind and it feels impossible to catch up. Stress chokes us up and getting anything done well impossible. Just take some deep breaths. Everything is working out exactly as planned. Calm yourself down a little, regroup, and get back to the action. You're going to do great!

Remember, productivity is in the eye of the beholder – don’t let another person’s terms of success keep you from feeling accomplished. If you wrote that newsletter and it took you two months, appreciate all that it took to get done: the research, the drafting, the finalizing. Be proud that you finished. It can be so hard not to compare ourselves to others, but in terms of our own success, this is the most important. Only you can define your success. Just you. So sit down with a glass of water, a cup of tea, surrounded by little quotes that motivate and your to-do list, and work hard and strong until you are done (you get to choose when that is too, woohoo!). I bet you are more successful than you think. Happy productiveness!

Feel like you could be more productive?

Do you utilize these tips already?

Did any surprise you (from yesterday or Wednesday)?

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