A Month of Dinner by Larson Folkerts - Recipe Booklet Review

       I love cooking and baking, but sometimes feel overwhelmed taking the time to cook from scratch on weeknights. I stay pretty busy in my M-F life; between work (and sometimes having weekday evening work events), Junior League commitments, working out, spending time with Ryan, meeting up with friends, chores in my apartment...etc! I'm not even a wife or parent yet and I already feel pretty busy most weeknights. 

     I am a connoisseur of cookbooks with a decent sized collection on my bookshelves, and I also have many food blogs that I enjoy reading. But even with all of these recipes at my disposal, sometimes I still feel overwhelmed and too pressed for time to jump into anything. I can't tell you how many times I've tried a new cookbook recipe thinking it will be quick, and two hours later I'm still working on it. For years now, I've been looking for an organized "database" of sorts for recipes that are actually both quick and delicious that I can easily turn to on busy weekdays. Something that's easily accessible and doesn't involve digging through cookbooks or food blogs when in a pinch. For a couple years I really enjoyed doing the Hello Fresh meal kits, but their prices kept getting higher and higher. 

     What has finally helped to solve my weeknight dinner recipe dilemmas? The A Month of Dinner recipe booklets by Larson Folkerts! I have been loving these for the past six months, and it's about time I finally write a dedicated review of them on the blog. These recipe booklets have helped so much with my weeknight dinner woes, and I think they can help you a lot too!

Easy From Scratch Cookies: Chocolate Stamp Cookies.

      Cookies will always be one of my favorite things to make myself at home. The famous Nestle Toll House cookie recipe was actually the first thing that I ever learned to make on my own without help from my mom- and that recipe remains a favorite of mine today. In addition to the Toll House cookies, I have a few other cookie recipes that are tried and true. Some are a bit more time intensive, and some are quick and easy, like today's recipe!

     I've been wanting to share these Chocolate Stamp Cookies for years now on the blog. I made some a couple weeks ago and made sure to snap a photo so I could finally do this blog post. 😊

Untraditional Thanksgiving Menu: Our Thanksgiving Brunch

      I know that it's already been a few weeks since Thanksgiving and we are well into the Christmas season already, but I still wanted to get a post up about my menu for this Thanksgiving. Save this to use as inspiration for a future year, or maybe you'll even want to incorporate a recipe or two from here for your Christmas meals!

Unsponsored + Unbiased Hello Fresh Review!

     It's here- my unsponsored and unbiased review of Hello Fresh, the meal kit service that I've been enjoying using for the past two months! I never thought I would be this excited about using a meal kit, but here we are. I am still planning to try out a few of Hello Fresh's competitors like Home Chef, Blue Apron, etc this winter and write a larger blog post comparing and contrasting several of them, but some of you messaged me on Instagram saying you still really wanted to see a dedicated Hello Fresh review first. So here we go! Spoiler alert: I love it!

10 Best Recipes From My Quarantine Kitchen.

    If there's one thing I've been doing a lot more of while staying home, it's cooking and baking! I've loved both of these things for many years, but never in my life have I eaten this much at home and tried to rely as much as possible on my own culinary skills. Today I'm rounding up my 10 favorite recipes that I've made over the past two months! There's a mix of dinners and desserts- but one theme here is that most of these are comfort food items. With all the stress going on in the world, I've craved comfort food more than ever. Some of these recipes might not be the healthiest... but at least they're homemade right? 😉

    The photo below is of my very first cheesecake, which I baked a few weeks ago. The irony of me sharing this photos is this is probably the worst thing that I made in the past two months, haha! I labored over it one Saturday morning, and when it was finally ready to eat I was so proud that I made my roommate Abigail take my picture with it. Turns out that it was nice looking on the outside but didn't taste good in the slightest. You will most definitely not find the recipe for it in today's post. Oh well! 

My 10 Favorite Pinterest Recipes.

     I feel like trying a random recipe from Pinterest is the definition of the phrase "You win some, you lose some." You just never quite know what you're going to get with a Pinterest recipe! I've had some of the worst cooking and baking fails of my life from pins that looked enticing. So why do I keep using my recipe boards for so much of my cooking? Because for every fail, there's been a lot more recipe wins! I've found some of my favorite recipes of all time from pins. Pinterest is also really convenient! I have a large cookbook collection, but nothing beats pulling up a recipe on your phone.

     To save you the hassle of possibly trying a recipe that's no-good, I've rounded up 10 of my favorite Pinterest recipes, with direct links to each pin so you can save them for yourself! A bit about my cooking habits: I love rice based dishes (which you'll see evidenced here!), and I love spicy food. I'm trying to get better about eating more vegetables... but that's a work in progress. Many of these recipes below can be made meatless though! 

    1. Quick and Easy Black Bean and Rice Burritos - This is the Pinterest recipe that I make the most often! If you read my Midweek Ramblings posts where I give a "Recipe of the week," you've definitely heard me reference this a lot. These burritos are super easy to make and a very affordable (and tasty) vegetarian meal! I love making a cheesy burrito for dinner, and I add in hot sauce since I like spicy food. Then the next few days for lunch at work I bring the beans, corn and rice mixture to heat up!

    2. Light and Creamy Chicken Tortellini Soup - A great winter soup! It's also just as good without the chicken if you want a vegetarian version. I add a lot of red pepper flakes to it since I like spice.

    3. Italian Herb Meatballs - BEST Italian meatballs ever. Seriously- I think they taste better than a lot of restaurant meatballs. This is my favorite thing to make when I have company for dinner! I accompany the meatballs with a homemade spicy Arrabiata sauce from a cookbook of mine and penne pasta.

    4. Italian Roasted Potatoes - I don't make these as often as some of the other recipes here, but they are delicious! A great side dish to make for a fancier dinner. FYI - the recipe does make a pretty large portion, so I recommend making this is you have company over.

    5. Salsa Verde Chicken Pasta - This is a fun and spicy take on mac n cheese! Personally I prefer this without chicken. 

    6. Korean Beef Rice Bowls - After the burrito recipe above, this is the Pinterest recipe that I make the most often! I was able to buy the Gochujang sauce that the recipe requests at my local grocery store in the ethnic food section.

    7. Chicken Teriyaki Meatballs - This is a totally different type of meatballs than the recipe above, but these are really good, and fairly easy to make!

    8. Garlic Honey Ginger Glazed Salmon - In all honesty, I find fish kind of intimidating to cook and most seafood recipes to be hard to make for just one person (since I live alone), but when I do make it I cook salmon using this recipe! It's very easy and absolutely delicious. 

    9. Banana Cinnamon Muffins - I make muffins regularly. Homemade tastes so much better than store bought, and they're so simple to make! In addition to being a tasty breakfast item, I love baking muffins for road trips or work snacks. Banana muffins are a great way to add some fruit to your day and these are my favorite banana muffins.

    10. Cinnamon Apple Muffins - When I don't make banana muffins, I love making apple muffins! Especially in this season with apples from a local orchard. This is another simple fruit muffin recipe.


     Now here's my request from you! If you enjoyed this blog post, would you leave me a comment below with a link or two to some of your favorite Pinterest recipes? I'm always looking for more to try, and we can keep this going!! I can write a future blog post in a few months after I've tried the ones y'all leave me. 😊



     God Bless,


     xoxo Annaliese
   

Fun & Easy Recipe: How I Made a Patriotic Tie-Dye Cake!

     To preface today's post, I realize I am posting a patriotic recipe at an interesting time of the summer! I meant to get this blog post up much closer to the 4th of July, but hey- better late than never right? I personally thing we should all enjoy showing our patriotic pride at all times of the year... July or not! 😉I also thought this recipe might make a tasty Labor Day Weekend treat- so you might want to save this recipe if you'll be entertaining that weekend. 

Happy Hanukkah! My Favorite Matzo Ball Soup Recipe.

      Happy Hanukkah Friends! Here's a fun fact that you probably don't know about me: I'm half-Jewish! Both sides of my dad's family are Jewish through and through, and he and his siblings were all raised Jewish in Long Island, NY. My dad didn't continue practicing his faith into adulthood (he now attends a Christian church in Maine), but growing up my parents used to celebrate a few Hanukkah traditions each December so that I could learn about that side of my family's spiritual heritage. We also had several family friends in Maine who were Jewish, so between all of them and my family out-of-state, I have attended my fair share of bar/bat mitzvahs and Hanukkah parties through the years!


      Although I don't practice the Jewish faith, I think it's wonderful that my parents worked so hard to make that part of my heritage apart of my childhood. One part of Jewish customs that I am a large fan of are many of the traditional foods. Yum. If you've never had a potato latke before... oh you are missing out my friend! Anyways, one of my favorite traditional Jewish meals is matzo ball soup. This is actually a recipe associated more so with the holiday of Passover, (not Hanukkah) however I have definitely gotten to eat matzo ball soup at Hanukkah parties through the years. I also think this soup is the ideal winter comfort food, so as a tribute to my family heritage, I wanted to share my own take on this tasty soup with y'all today! I use a box mix to make the balls, and my own made-up recipe for the broth!

My Favorite Matzo Ball Soup

     Ingredients:

• One package of matzo ball mix (I prefer the reduced sodium variety)
• Eggs
• Canola oil
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 3 cups chicken bone broth
• 1/2 onion, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 teaspooon thyme
• Salt and pepper, to taste (I like a lot of pepper)

     1. Prepare the matzo balls according to the directions on the package (this is what the eggs and canola oil is for). You have to cook them in very hot boiling water for them to properly form and not fall apart. I prefer to cook them in a pot of plain water instead of the soup broth- I cook the matzo balls separately and then add them into the soup after they're cooked.

     2. Finely chop half an onion (or more if you love onions!). Next saute the onion and tablespoon of minced garlic for a couple minutes, until both just begin to brown.

     3. Combine 3 cups of chicken broth and 3 cups of chicken bone broth in a pot. I like to mix the two types of broth for a richer flavor! Add the cooked onion and garlic mixture, thyme, and salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil.

       4. Add the cooked matzo balls to the broth mixture. Bring heat down and simmer for 10 minutes. Then enjoy your delicious matzo ball soup! 

      This has seriously become one of my go-to comfort food recipes this fall and winter. It's easy to make, absolutely delicious, and one bowl of this soup warms you right up. Hope that you enjoy this recipe, and happy Hanukkah to those celebrating right now!

     God Bless,

     xoxo Annaliese 

The BEST No-Bake Icebox Cake.

     Doing something a little different for this Saturday blog post! I absolutely love cooking and baking, they're two of my favorite hobbies, and something I do regularly. However, it's not something I blog about too often. With the busy work schedule that I have now, I tend to stick to making a lot of the same recipes again and again. This is unrelated to my own cooking habits- but I also find food photography to be quite difficult. I am kind of a perfectionist about photography on my blog (hence why I work with photographers for most of my posts), and you would be amazed at the amount of recipe posts I actually have tried to shoot, but I've let the bad lighting in my kitchen or difficulty getting good shots of the finished product prevent me from ever blogging about it- ha! Well, that's changing today. This recipe is too good to keep to myself, so I have to share it with all of you. (And I think the photos came out okay-ish. 😉)

Four Cookbooks Every 20 Something Needs.

     I feel like I've been saying this on a weekly basis here on my blog since I graduated college, but by far the thing that I love the most about adult life so far is having my own kitchen at last, and getting to cook and bake to my heart's content. Spending time in my kitchen has become such a form of both creativity and stress relief for me, and I look forward each week to experimenting with new recipes and whipping up ones that are quickly becoming tried and true favorites.

{Sweater old, similar here} // Pants 

     A lot of the recipes that I have been making in recent months are Pinterest recipes, solely because it's very convenient for me to do a quick search on there for the type of dish that I'm wanting to cook or bake, and results will come up instantly. And there are some real recipe wins on Pinterest! (Check out this blog post that I wrote last month: Tried and True Pinterest Dinner Recipes)


     But despite being like every other 22 year old female who is Pinterest-obsessed, I have also inherited a certain trait from my mother: collecting cookbooks! My mom has shelves upon shelves of all types of cookbooks throughout our house, and I have fond memories when I was growing up of her rotating through different ones through different years and reading through pages and pages of recipes the way that others read novels. Like my mom, I also adore cookbooks and have from a young age. My mom has bought me many of the ones that I own- they were a popular Christmas present for me to receive growing up! But now that I'm older, I also enjoy buying and discovering them myself, and I proudly have a full shelf of cookbooks in my own little apartment.


     I definitely haven't had the opportunity yet to fully discover all of my cookbooks, and of course I keep buying more and more. #ofcourse But I thought it would be fun to share a little bit about four of the cookbooks that I have made several recipes from, and that I truly find to be staples in my kitchen!



     Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook: This is essentially the bible of American kitchens. Almost everyone's house or apartment that I visit- whether back home in Maine, here in NC, (or anywhere really for that matter!) has a copy of this in the kitchen. If you've never seen the inside of this cookbook, it's organized very easily into tabbed sections for different types of main dishes, side dishes, and desserts. Some of the newer editions, like the the one that I have, feature pictures in beginnings of sections for some of the popular recipes. If there's any cookbook that you need to have - it's this one!


      Betty Crocker's Cooking Basics: One of my neighbors in Maine gave this cookbook to me for Christmas when I was in elementary school. I was already a proud owner of several kid's cookbooks, but this was one of my first grown-up cookbooks, and I was ecstatic! This cookbook will always be special to me because the memories that come along with it, but the recipes are great as well. It features many tried and true recipes for classic American favorites, and lots of comfort dishes. My two personal favorite recipes from this cookbook are the corn bread and apple crisp recipes - I made the apple crisp on a weekly basis for a lot of September and October this year! My roommate, who is not as big into cooking and baking as I am, has also really started to love this cookbook, and finds the recipes very easy to follow. She is a big fan of the meatloaf recipe.


      Better Homes and Gardens The Ultimate Cookie Cookbook: Possibly my favorite thing on earth to make are cookies. The very first thing that my mom let me bake in the kitchen by myself when I was little was the original Nestle Toll House cookie recipe (from scratch of course- no pre-made dough for us!). While Toll House cookies are still a favorite recipe of mine, I enjoy baking (and eating large quantities of) cookies of all shapes and sizes. That's why I adore this cookbook! It's another winner from Better Homes and Gardens. My go-to recipe in it is the Melt-In-Your-Mouth Sugar Cookies- my book literally falls open to the page that's on! But everything that I've made from here has been tasty- and especially with the holiday season approaching I look forward to trying more of the recipes.


     The Fix-It and Forget It Cookbook: During my first couple months of living on my own, I did most of my cooking in my roommate and I's Crock-Pot. Slow cooker meals are so easy to make, and most have really large portions, so they provide lots of leftovers! This is the quintessential Crock-Pot cookbook with all sorts of meals from soups to various meat and vegetarian main dishes, and even breakfast items and desserts!

      Do you have any favorite cookbooks? Please share them in the comments!



      Wishing you all a wonderful weekend! I am working for part of this weekend, but I also have some extra time which will be spent getting some holiday blog posts ready. Deeana and I are shooting early on Sunday morning- we've been doing Sunday shoots for the past couple of months and it's been working well. I'll try and post some behind the scenes pics on Snapchat and Insta Stories that day!



      xoxo Miss ALK


   

Tried and True Pinterest Dinner Recipes.

      There were many things that I was looking forward to about moving into my first apartment this past spring. I couldn't believe that my days of communal laundry rooms, late night fire drills, closet-less clothing storage, and claustrophobically small shower situations were finally over. However, what surprisingly proved to be the absolute greatest thing about having an apartment was the kitchen situation! (Yes- despite that I'm a fashion blogger, my kitchen even beats my walk-in closet for me, can't believe I'm saying that!)


      I absolutely adore cooking and baking- especially baking! I have barely had the opportunity to do either of these things during the past four years while I was in school. The lack of a kitchen access was definitely one downside to living on-campus. Now that I do have a kitchen, I cook and bake all the time! I usually bake some sort of a treat to take with me through the week to school and work as snacks on Saturday or Sunday nights (depending on my schedule), and I try and cook dinner at home on most weeks for the majority of weeknights. It both saves money, and is fun and relaxing for me! I joke all of the time to my friends that I am the world's most single "housewife". ;-)



     I would like to start blogging more about my cooking and baking adventures since it's become such a hobby of mine this year. I thought that sharing a Pinterest recipe round-up post might be of interest to y'all! I do love cookbooks and own many, but usually I prefer to try recipes directly from Pinterest. They can be kind of hit or miss though- I've had some that have turned out to be big hits, and others that have been flops. With Pinterest sometimes you never quite know what you're getting.


    I've done the hard part and actually tested all of these out, but here are some Pinterest recipes that I have deemed to be "tried and true." I would definitely recommend adding any of these to your recipe boards! If y'all would like, I can continue to share Pinterest recipe round-ups as I continue cooking my way through my Pinterest boards. :-)



*Korean Beef Rice Bowls - This might be my favorite dinner recipe of all that I've found and tried from Pinterest since I moved into my apartment! These are very easy to make, and SO tasty. The leftovers are also delicious. I love spicy food, so I always add a lot of red pepper flakes. Also- I've never made mine with the Gochujang (Korean ingredient), but they still come out amazing even without that.



*Garlic Honey Ginger Glazed Salmon - My go-to recipe when I have company for dinner! It tastes much fancier than it is to make! The sauce on this is so delicious (and again- I can't stress how easy it is).



*Sesame Ginger Turkey Meatballs - These are a really unique twist on meatballs. They have such a delicious seasoning blend in them!! They would not be good in traditional spaghetti and meatballs, but are amazing on their own, or served with plain pasta or rice. 




*Slow Cooker Thai Chicken Soup - Can y'all tell that I like Asian influences in my food?! Haha!! This soup really does taste just like Thai curry, it's so good! Since it is a slow cooker soup, it does make a very large portion. I've stopped making it often because it often makes too much just for me to eat, but would be great for having people over for dinner (or for anyone who lives with more than just themselves!).



*Italian Roasted Garlic and Parmesan Potatoes - This is such a tasty side dish!! I have served it before when I've had company over with the glazed salmon recipe that's linked above. It makes a lot- so if you live by yourself you'll definitely have leftovers!!



*Easy Indian Chicken Biryani - A fairly simple Indian dish!! I am not a fan of raisins so I omit them in this recipe, but if you don't mind them then they would add a fun touch of sweetness to the recipe.



*The Best Crockpot Chicken Noodle Soup - Another great slow cooker soup option! This would be ideal for a sick day, or for some cold weather comfort food. As with the other soup I shared, my only downside on this is that the portion is huge!




     Happy cooking!! Please let me know if you would like to see more cooking/baking/adulting/apartment living type blog posts. And stay tuned for a fun outfit post tomorrow- we're almost to Friday!



    xoxo Miss ALK

Midweek Ramblings + Recent Purchases (on a Thursday!).

{Follow me on Instagram and Snapchat @miss_alk!} 

Ramblings:

• Blogger meet-up fun: In tomorrow's post I'm excited to share my outfit details and a recap of the latest meet-up for the North Carolina region of the InfluenceHer blogger network! As I have shared before, I am the regional chair for NC, so I get to plan fun meet-ups for other local bloggers. As always, this month's meet-up was a total blast! The above picture was taken with Cara from Caralina Style at the event. 
• The BEST Crock Pot recipe EVER: With moving into my new apartment, I am so excited to finally have my own kitchen to cook in! I absolutely love cooking and baking, but I never had a place to do it while in college. Something that I realized very quickly though after the move is that kitchens are built over time! All of the necessary appliances and utensils necessary to make complicated recipes add up to being a lot of money, so my kitchen tools will grow with time. In the meantime, I have been adoring the Crock Pot that my roommate bought for us! (This is the one that we have for those interested!) I have already made a few Crock Pot recipes since it is such a simple method for cooking meals with, but y'all, this recipe right here... LIFE CHANGING. Possibly one of the best soups that I have ever tasted! I can't wait to make it again soon.
• Post-grad friendships: Something that I have learned very quickly in the weeks since graduation is that your college friendships change quickly after the diplomas are received. I don't remember their being such a big transition with my high school friends immediately after graduation (things started to change more once I moved to NC for school). It has definitely been an adjustment for me not to be living on campus anymore and to be immersed in college life. As an extrovert, I loved having people around me 24/7, even if they weren't all my close friends! While I love my new apartment, life is much quieter here, and I have to go out of my way to find time to meet up with friends. Can anyone else relate to the weird friendship transition after college? 
• Citizenship!!! Something very exciting that happened for me last week was finally becoming a citizen of North Carolina! I passed the (modified) version of the NC drivers' exam, and finally have a new license to call my own. Y'all- my Maine license was rough. I'm honestly not sure what was worse, the large moose decoration on the license, or my horrific picture! But luckily I have a beautiful new license on its way to me, and I'm finally a resident of the city and state that I adore so much. Next on the post-grad to-do list: get a library card!

Purchases:

• One of my newfound fashion obsessions is the clothing brand Cece by Cynthia Steffe. Their pieces are always colorful and feminine, and they make the most unique styles! A couple of the department stores in Charlotte's SouthPark Mall carry Cece, and I always enjoy browsing at the latest styles. I picked up this beautiful dress  this past week, which I can't wait to style on the blog soon! 
• I have been suffering from a lot of break-outs this week, which is unusual for me. I'm not really sure what it's due to, but I know that I want them gone ASAP! I picked up this new acne spot treatment yesterday and am currently testing it out- hoping for great results! 
• These adorable shorts are on their way to me in the mail right now and I just can't wait for them to get here!! 

     xoxo Miss ALK

Bloggers' Holiday Christmas Cookie Swap: My Favorite Christmas Cookies!

     I'm so excited to be participating in a very fun holiday link-up today! Fellow Charlotte fashion blogger Laura from Louella Reese has organized a virtual holiday cookie swap for several bloggers to participate in. Each blogger participating will be sharing one of their favorite holiday cookie recipes, and then "tagging" the next blogger's recipe (almost like a loop giveaway, except it will be a whole loop of recipes if you visit all of the blogs!).


     I was so excited to be included in this fun link-up, because I just adore any chance that I get while at school to bake! Baking and cooking are two of my loves, but since I have lived on campus all four years in rooms that don't have kitchens, it's something that I don't get the chance to do a lot at the stage in my life. A friend of mine who lives off-campus generously let me use her apartment's kitchen for this post. ;-)


     I am sharing a recipe for Chocolate Thumbprint cookies! It's a super easy recipe to make from scratch, and the cookies come out tasting rich and fudgy. I first received this recipe when I attended a cooking day camp called Measuring Up! Cooking for Kids way back when I was in middle school. I saved the recipe ever since, and it remains one of my favorites.

 

Chocolate Thumbprint cookies:

*1/2 cup butter
*3/4 cup sugar
*1/3 cup cocoa powder 
*1 egg
*1 Tbsp. milk
*1 tsp. vanilla extract
*2 cups flour

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Cream butter, sugar and cocoa in mixer on lowest speed until light and fluffy. (I didn't have access to a mixer this time when I made the cookies, so instead I melted the butter in the microwave so it was easier to mix by hand with the dry ingredients.) 

3. Beat in egg, milk and vanilla.

4. Add flour and mix well until blended.

5. Roll dough into 2 inch balls and place 4 inches apart on a baking sheet.

6. Then comes the fun part- the thumbprints! See picture below:

7. Bake for 8 minutes.

8. Remove from cookie sheets and cool on wire rack.

Yields approx. 16 cookies.

     There you go! My favorite easy-peasy cookie recipe, perfect for the holidays (or really any time of year!).

     A note on my appearance in these pictures- I am wearing absolutely no make-up, my friend's yoga pants, and an oversized sorority sweatshirt. I thought about getting ready for the pictures to be taken during this blog post, but then I thought that I would show y'all the more natural side of me for a change.


   

     Next up in the holiday cookie swap is my Charlotte blogger bestie Morgan from How 2 Wear It! She is sharing a recipe for Hot Cocoa cookies- be sure to check it out!


     Do you have any favorite treat recipes for the holidays? (If you do and they're on Pinterest- send me the pins!! My dessert Pinterest board is continually growing... :-) )


     xoxo Miss ALK

Restful weekend.

     I barely posted at all last week, and the post that I left y'all with last Wednesday wasn't exactly on a positive note. I wrote honestly about the hard times that have come with transferring schools. But I'm pleased to report that after having such a difficult past couple of weeks, I had a relaxing and enjoyable weekend! Nothing too exciting happened, but I got to spend some quality time with sorority sisters, and try some new things.

     On Friday night some of my sorority sisters that I'm closest with wanted to go Food Truck Friday, which is a Charlotte tradition! Held in an empty lot in Charlotte's South End, tons of food trucks come in during the dinner hours and serve creative and affordable cuisine! The weather this past weekend was beautiful and it felt more like late spring instead of the beginning of October! It was a perfect night to eat some yummy food outside in the company of sisters. My sorority sister Hannah's best friend from high school was also in town, and she joined us as well!

Throwin' Diamonds at Food Truck Friday! Left to Righ: L, Hannah, P and yours truly!

     For my meal I visited a truck that was selling different varieties of tacos. One of my tacos was Chicken Tinga which was a spicy chicken mixture, and the other was seriously a dream come true for me. My favorite Indian dish is Chana Masala which is a spicy chick pea dish... and I got to have a Chana Masala taco! With goat cheese! Y'all, it was amazing.

     I didn't get a picture of my dessert, but there was a homemade popsicle company set up that I visited! I had a coconut chai popsicle. Coconut and chai are two of my favorite things, and I was very okay with them being combined into one icy treat. :-)


     Saturday involved crossing a couple things off of my "Pinterest bucket list" :-)... and buying new nail polish! Hannah, P and I went to Ulta on Saturday afternoon. I usually shop at Sephora for my make-up needs so I hadn't really been in an Ulta before! I loved it and bought a brand new Essie polish called "Toggle to the Top" that is fresh out of their new winter collection. I'm becoming addicted to the overpriced nicer nail polishes! Here's my growing Essie collection: (Also, sorry my Instagram photos in this post are so small! They came out all blury when I made them bigger!)

     I have been wanting to bake something off of my dessert board on Pinterest for awhile, but living in a dorm that has a communal kitchen (that's at the bottom of three flights of stairs!) and limited cooking supplies proves to make that a difficult thing. I'm also not really big on baking from box mixes... I prefer scratch! I finally decided though that I was going to bake something this weekend. After buying a few basic baking supplies I decided on a recipe- chocolate chip cream cheese cookies! The base of the recipe was Pillsbury crescent dough... better in my opinion than a box mix but still easier for me to work with then baking truly from scratch. Here's my make-shirt dorm room "kitchen:"

     And the cookies! The recipe only made about 12, but the proved to be a great study snack in the library on Sunday! It's probably a good thing there weren't too many more... I don't need that many cookies! ;-)


     Another pin that I've been wanting to try is no-heat curls. I followed this technique after washing my hair in the shower on Saturday night, and below is a little collage of my before and after!

     Some of the curls were great, but others turned out kind of weird. It also hurt my head a lot to sleep with tons of bobby pins in it. I'm glad that I tried this technique, but I'm not sure that I'll use it again anytime soon! Haha. It might work better on someone that has thinner hair... I have a TON of hair, and it's really thick, so I needed lots of bobby pins.

     Sunday I woke up feeling like I might be coming down with a cold, so I skipped church to sleep later. I took cold medicine and vitamin C, so hopefully that will prevent this from becoming worse! I spent the day working on French homework and relaxing.

     I also crafted a clever way to ask my roommate to be my date to my first and upcoming sorority event, which is called Mallard Ball. It's something that all ADPi chapters do. I spelled this out in candy corn on the floor of our room! My roomie said yes! :-)

     I forgot to add that on Saturday night, Hannah, P and I had dinner with two of my friends from my former school! They happened to be in Charlotte for Disney on Ice, so we all met at Moe's for a quick dinner. Sadly I didn't get any pictures of this, but I still wanted to include it here. :-)


     How was your weekend? Did you do anything fun?


     xoxo Miss ALK

Summer of Something New blog challenge: Week 1

     Finally time to share my first post for the Summer of Something New blog challenge! I did my "new thing" for the challenge last Sunday, at the start of the week. Since I had such a busy week coming up with work, I wanted to make a little treat item that I could take with me as a snack for my breaks. However, since I've left for college last summer my mom has been trying to have a sugar-free diet for her health, and has asked that I don't bake large portions of sweet treats anymore and leave them around the house. So with this in mind, I knew that whatever I made had to be small. Small portion recipes are also great to have around for instances such as if you're having a friend over for the afternoon and want to share some homemade treats, but don't want the hassle of making a huge batch of something and having the whole kitchen a mess.

     Well, the recipe that I found had a lot of great qualities! First, it was a very small portion. I was able to make everything using only a tiny mixing bowl and one cookie sheet. Second, the cookies didn't have any regular sugar in them, the only sweeteners were honey and the semi-sweet chocolate chips. Not quite "sugar free," but better then using a ton of regular sugar. And third, they're eggless! This is big for me because I HATE eggs. Seriously, I think they're the most disgusting things ever. I don't eat any type of eggs (like scrambled or boiled), and just the smell of them cooking makes me want to puke.   Obviously I do need to usually use eggs when I bake, but even just cracking and touching them makes me grossed out. So it was great for me to find a recipe that made delicious cookies and avoided them altogether! This also means that the batter is safe to eat! ;-)

     The original recipe for the cookies that I made can be found here at a website called Sugar-Free Mom, but I changed a couple things so below is the exact recipe that I used:


Almost Sugar-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 2 tablespoons softened butter 
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup white flour (you can also use whole wheat flour for even healthier cookies)
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

      Ready to hear how easy this recipe is? You combine everything in a small mixing bowl. Since there's no eggs and only a few ingredients, there's no order as to how things should go into the mixing bowl. 

    Next you make small balls of cookie dough on a baking sheet, and then bake the cookies at 375 degrees for about 10ish minutes!

     These cookies came out really soft, which was wonderful because I'm not really a big crunchy cookie person. They tasted best warm and right out of the oven, but made a decent snack for my first few days of working both jobs. The whole recipe only made like 12 cookies, but that was perfect because clean-up was easy and since I was the only one eating them it meant that I wouldn't eat too many. I'm definitely going to keep this recipe on hand for the next time I have a friend over and want to make something quickly! 

     To see more Summer of Something New posts, check out these blogs today!

• elle-oh-vee
• The Shore Life According to M
• Forever Convinced
• A Beautiful Heart

     Tonight is my very first (and only!) night off from work this week, and I'm going to use it to do some errands, which include a trip to Michael's to get some craft supplies for an upcoming week of the Summer of Something New challenge! (I know that I just posted about how I'm currently on a spending fast, but this craft project will create storage for some important items of mine, so I think it's necessary! It will also help with dorm room organization once I head to school.) I also hope to grab some Indian take-out food to bring home for dinner, and after I'll hopefully continue to make my way through season eight of the That 70s Show on Netflix. :-)

     

     xoxo Miss ALK

HEALTHY chocolate chip cookie cake.

     Oh yes, you read that right. Today I am sharing one of the most genius recipes that I've ever come across. Below are two pictures of my results! (Sorry that the picture quality is a little low. My camera decided to go missing so I had to use my iPhone).

     Looks amazing right?! But if I had seen this pictures without knowing the recipe, I'd think that it was a big gooey mess of saturated fat, and a heart attack waiting to happen. The good news is that couldn't be further from the truth! This chocolate chip cookie cake has no eggs, butter, or white flour! Come to think of it, there's no flour of any type! 

     The recipe comes from an awesome healthy dessert blog called Chocolate Covered Katie. Click here for the amazing recipe! I was thrilled by how my cookie cake turned out (very moist and extremely delicious) and I hope to try more recipes from Katie's blog in the future!

     Hope this makes your Monday a little bit sweeter! I'll be enjoying my last piece of this cookie cake after I come home from my first day for the season at one of my summer jobs. I'm so excited to be working again!

     xoxo Miss ALK