Grain-Free Cranberry Apple Tart Recipe - great for Friendsgiving!

11.16.2015

Grain-Free Cranberry Apple Tart Recipe - great for Friendsgiving!

This recipe received some of the best reviews from my food critic (dear husband) than anything in my recent memory. He loves cranberries, so that's a big part of it, but I agree that this (pretty experimental) grain-free crust and cinnamon-ey apple creation turned out fabulous.

Excited to share it with you! Keep it in mind for holiday parties this season - or if you're tired of all the classic desserts at Thanksgiving or Friendsgiving!

You'll notice that these ingredients are very similar to those in my grain-free apple/pear crumble recipe... it's kind of that recipe minus the sauce and flipped upside-down! Which does help with the elegant presentation.

I used local, organic apples we picked late this fall (we literally have a drawer in our fridge right now that is only apples) and I chose thin-skinned ones, kind of Golden Delicious-ey but a little greener, and the skins didn't get in the way of the slicing.

Grain-Free Cranberry Apple Tart

Ingredients:

Crust:

• 1/4 c. sunflower seeds
• 1/4 c. walnuts (or try any nut - pecans? cashews?)
• 1/4 c. unsweetened coconut flakes
• 1/2 c. almond flour
• 1/4 c. coconut palm sugar or sweetener of choice
• 1/4 tsp. sea salt
• 5 tbsp. butter (cold)

Fruit:

• 2 apples with thin skin (I think mine were a Golden Delicious-type) (or any apples, peeled - but I'm not a big fan of peeling apples!)
• 1/2-1 c. fresh cranberries (I used 1/2 c. but husband said he wished there were way more!)
• 1/4 c. coconut palm sugar or sweetener of choice
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Instructions:

For the crust:

1. Pulse sunflower seeds in a small food processor, until finely ground. Add walnuts or other nut; pulse until finely ground. Add other dry ingredients and pulse until combined.
2. Chop butter into small chunks and add to processor; pulse until combined. Mixture should be thick and chunky. 
3. Spread crust mixture into baking dish or springform pan. (I used one like this with a circle of parchment paper cut to size on the inside). Flatten with spatula or fingers to get an even layer.

For the fruit:

1. (Peel apples if desired, but again - no way did I have time for that so I used delicate-skin apples.) Thinly slice the apples. 
2. Arrange apple slices in the pan on top of the crust, starting at the outside edge and working in.
3. Combine the remaining sweetener of choice and cinnamon in a small dish and sprinkle over the apple slices. (You may not need all of the mixture.)
4. Slice cranberries in half and distribute over the apples.

If using a springform pan, put on a baking sheet to prevent melted sugary butter from dripping onto the oven bottom. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown and apples are soft. 

This was SUCH a treat when I made it the other weekend and would be great at a dinner party! It's so sweet it hardly needs ice cream or whipped cream on top so we ate it plain. The sugary cinnamon mixture adds a great extra touch to the apples and cranberries! The crust is sweeter than we're used to most of the time which is part of why husband wanted more cranberries!

This post was brought to you by the Cranberry Marketing Committee, USA who has partnered with Elsie and Emma of A Beautiful Mess to help you plan a great Friendsgiving (with cranberries)! See their The Ultimate Friendsgiving Guide here. For more inspiration on how to feature cranberries at your Friendsgiving, follow @uscranberries on Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest, 'Cranberry Cravers' on Facebook.

And, if you make something with cranberries, enter a photo of it at CranberryFriendsgiving.com for a chance to win a $2,000 dinner party!! Let me know what you're making!!!!

• As America's Original Superfruit®, U.S.-grown cranberries are a star at any Friendsgiving feast. In sweet or savory recipes, crafty cocktails or fashioned into elegant décor, cranberries are THE fruit for this holiday celebration.
• Get creative with cranberries this holiday for a chance to win a $2,000 dinner party in the Cranberry Friendsgiving Photo Contest. Enter at CranberryFriendsgiving.com and check out The Ultimate Friendsgiving Guide, which provides a complete party planning checklist, as well as inspirational cranberry ideas – from décor to dessert
• Don’t forget to tag your cranberry creations on social media with #FriendsgivingCranberryContest and enter them at CranberryFriendsgiving.com

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DIY Thanksgiving tea towel Silhouette stencil tutorial! & discount code

11.12.2015

DIY Thanksgiving tea towel Silhouette stencil tutorial! & discount code

I love learning new things!! And crafty skills.

This time, I put my Silhouette Fabric Ink Starter Kit to use finally, with a new kind of project on my Silhouette Cameo machine. So far I've done a lot of my own lettering/designs with iron-on vinyl, which has worked out great (see all my Silhouette projects here), but this little machine can do SO much and I wanted to start learning a few other tricks!

I forget where this project idea came from, exactly, but I guess I'm getting excited for the cozy holidays and spending time in the kitchen with family and friends.

You could use this stencil tutorial for lots of project types - tote bag, potholder??, tee of course... even art print!

Thanksgiving/Holiday DIY Stencil Tea Towels

You will need:

• Silhouette Cameo machine (after 11/20, use code ENJOY on the Silhouette website for special deals during Black Friday week!)
• Silhouette Fabric Ink Starter Kit
• Craft paint and fabric medium (or fabric paint/ink)
• Basic cutting and measuring tools

Instructions:

(There is a very helpful video on how to use the Silhouette Fabric Ink Starter Kit materials here.)

1. Pre-wash and iron tea towels or other project base.

2. Design!! I played around in the Silhouette store (linked within the program you install on your computer when you buy a Silhouette) and found quite a few great designs for what I wanted! It was hard to choose just three (or, as it turned out, a few that I combined to three larger designs).

Here are some of my ideas and combined results. You can easily manipulate shapes and delete parts of them, shrink, group, ungroup, etc. - it works a lot like a more basic graphic design program.

3. Size. I measured the space on the tea towels where I wanted the design, and sized the images to a little smaller than that (room for white space all around).

4. Cut, peel, stick, etc. to make the stencil. Watch this YouTube video for instructions on how to use the stencil kit. (It's much easier than making your own stencil with freezer paper, for example, since the tape material keeps the design completely in place!)

5. Place the stencil. Measure the center of the design and fold the tea towel in half to find its center. Peel the backing off the stencil and place it, centered, on the tea towel.

6. Paint! If using standard craft paint and fabric medium, mix them together (usually a 1:1 ratio) in a dish. Dot the paint onto the stencil. It's pretty liquid with the fabric medium mixed in, so be careful not to splash.

I went for a bit of an ombre look on this one.

(If your design is too close to an edge, you can extend the stencil with a piece of clear or masking tape.)

I got creative mixing paint colors from the few fall tones I pulled out of my craft paint collection!

7. Let dry. Once dry, peel stencil off.

Mine turned out great!!

This one's my favorite - not just cause of all the colors and how well it turned out, but because I'm a much happier person when I remember to practice gratitude and the "be grateful" message is an important one for me. It's like a command, but it's written so pretty, it's not bossy! ;)

I highly recommend trying out the Silhouette Fabric Ink Starter Kit for a simple holiday decor project like this! Would be a great hostess gift at a holiday dinner party, yes? And of course a great function decor piece to make your home feel more festive!

The Silhouette Cameo with vinyl set is also great (see all my Silhouette projects here) but might be tough to use on thinner fabric like these tea towels.

Black Friday week discounts!

Silhouette does some awesome Black Friday sales, and has some special bundle pricing for my readers! After 11/20, use code ENJOY on the Silhouette website for special deals. Put the items in your cart, then enter the promo code and you'll see the extra discounts. (Expires December 4.) Mark your calendar!

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Confidence, curly hair, and learning to work with what you've got

11.09.2015

Confidence, curly hair, and learning to work with what you've got

I've learned a lot about confidence, self love, and acceptance over the past few years. Thanks in large part to some great role models from the smart fitness and Paleo communities - like Molly Galbraith (like her 28-Day Love Your Body Challenge last year - some really emotional days in there for me!), who says things like "You can love your body right now, while wanting it to look or perform differently," and if you don't love your body, where the heck do you think you're going to live?? Stefani Ruper from Paleo for Women also has tons of work on self-love.

But so much of that self-love conversation is focused on bodies - fitness, digestion, acne, injuries, whatever it is... not much attention is paid to hair.

I was so sad to see the little girls in the "Love Your Curls" video that Dove Hair released last year - I didn't realize children could feel so negatively about themselves for any reason, much less hair.

I've had messy, wavy hair most of my life and it took me a long time to figure out what to do with it to make myself look and feel my best! Like, years, and sometimes I forgot for a while and just had crazy hair I didn't feel good about until I got a haircut.

Figuring out what to do with my hair...

This is what my hair looks like when I do the following steps: 1) Wash hair. 2) Go to bed. 3) Wake up.

Curly, but not in an organized way. As soon as I brush it, the curls turn into waves that stick out what feels like several inches on either side of my head!

I figured out in high school once when I got a haircut and the stylist scrunched my hair with mousse that if I have enough layers, I can get a more defined curl with just a little mousse. Here's that look.

But, that only lasts the first day (if that), and as soon as I brush it, it goes crazy/poufy wavy again.

When I was much older, like 22, I learned how to use a curling iron (!!! It took me that long!!) and curl my own hair. (My mom has very straight hair and never used a curling iron, so I was totally clueless about curling, straightening, doing much of anything to my hair.) Now I have a method down to about 10 minutes, using a curling iron or wand, and the curls last for 2-3 days looking pretty good most of the time! I don't need to use product; my wavy, sort of coarse/body-ful hair likes to stay curled and it stays put until I wash it.

The finished look.

I feel good with my hair like this! It's me. I sometimes wish I had Jennifer Aniston hair, but I don't, so at least I've figured out how to make it look the best it can. (A good haircut helps a lot with that, too.)

I know that self-esteem, self love, and confidence are huge issues in our culture and SO many women and girls struggle with love and acceptance of themselves. (Case in point: Amy Schumer's Compliments sketch. Watch it if you haven't already!!) I know (as the Dove Hair video says) one thing I can do to maybe make things better for others is to show off my own confidence and self-acceptance. Not put myself down when people compliment me on my hair, for example. If I have a daughter with curly hair, tell her it's beautiful and show her my favorite ways to wear mine.

Anyway - as part of this issue and their campaign encouraging girls to feel good about their hair, Dove Hair recently released the Dove Love Your Curls emoji keyboard with curly-haired characters. Now curly-haired girls can be part of the cute button movement on social media, emails, and messaging.

• Dove Love Your Curls Emojis in the App Store
• Dove Love Your Curls Emojis in the Google Play store

The emoji keyboard has 27 curly hair designs with selectable skin tone and hair color that results in 131 variations, including seven animated GIFs. (Super interesting article about it in Ad Age, btw.)

If you or someone you care about have curly hair... Download the Dove Love Your Curls Emojis in the App Store and Google Play Store to show you #LoveYourCurls!”

This post is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group® and Dove, but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #LoveYourCurls #pmgdove http://my-disclosur.es/OBsstV

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DIY pumpkin pie spice blend - great gift idea!

11.05.2015

DIY pumpkin pie spice blend - great gift idea!

Pumpkin spice season is in full swing.

One day it was 80 degrees and two weekends later it was cold with mild flooding! It's almost time for the holidays and I'm already thinking about it!

And, I decided this year to finally make my own pumpkin pie spice--and I've been putting it in my coffee every. single. day. since.

I was so surprised to learn, when I looked up recipes, that there are 50 million different ways to make pumpkin pie spice, not just in terms of proportion but also in ingredients!! I figured they'd all have the same spices, but they don't. So I modified this recipe (love The Kitchn!), which is modified from this book, except I didn't use mace, so these ingredients are similar to those in most pie spice recipes, though the proportions are different... I'm rambling.

Plus, the cute spice jar I put it in (and the red and white twine) have made it feel even more festive. If you tucked a jar of this into a gift basket with some cooking tools, cute hand towels, maybe some other ingredients - great hostess gift or simple holiday gift!

(My spice jars are from World Market - out of stock online but these and these are similar.)

And of course pumpkin pie spice is not just for pie!! Plenty of recipes call for it, and you can put it in coffee, cocoa, on top of vanilla ice cream.. insta-festive!

DIY pumpkin pie spice (whole jar recipe)

Ingredients:

• 4 tbsp cinnamon
• 2 tbsp ground ginger
• 2 tsp allspice
• 2 tsp ground cloves
• 2 tsp ground nutmeg

Instructions:

1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl; mix well.
2. Spoon, funnel, or pour into a spice jar.

Makes one jar, about 1/2 cup. Multiply the recipe and use a big bowl to make several batches for gifts! (Store extra batches in the freezer for freshness, or if not using regularly.)

If you're like me, you have a list of DIY gift ideas started already for the holidays - consider adding this one!

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If you redo a DIY, does it cancel it out? Or - repainting my stencil wall

11.03.2015

If you redo a DIY, does it cancel it out? Or - repainting my stencil wall

It's been a long time since I painted a room or made major decor changes in our townhouse. It was a huge accomplishment to decorate it the way I wanted it, and it felt like a complete project... so I've been just living in it for a couple years! But, I have the bug for a new project and since our moving plans didn't work out this summer and I don't have the perfect "cosmetic fixer" and spare cash to update it... I'm focusing my creative energy back to the place we have to make it even more perfect for us.

So that means a little redecorating! I wanted to start with a simple project with a big impact - PAINT.

One thing I learned in our recent months of house-hunting is that I like neutral walls. I know bright greens and yellows can be fun sometimes, but the homes I liked best had pale, neutral walls. Like my home did when it started... although mine looked so brand new and vanilla that I felt like I needed a few accents to make it look less naked. 

One of the cooler projects I did in our townhouse was stencil our half bath walls, faux wallpaper style. (We had added the chair railing and painted the dark accent color earlier.) But now... the color was so dark and the accents so strong (shimmery!), I felt like this was the first place where I could make a very different decor choice and still like it.

I couldn't decide on a color. I knew I wanted something neutral. Tan seemed weird with all the greys we have. I thought maybe there was a perfect beige-ey, pale color, but... I couldn't find one on my first trip to the paint store and I gave up. So instead, I literally made a mix of the pale, pale grey of all our walls and ceilings and the darker grey I used as accent stripes in our upstairs guest bathroom. (Serious plus of this project: it was totally free!)

This bathroom has been through a lot. Here's its story:

But it felt so weird to be painting over (after sanding down) something that I had worked so hard at. It was sad to see the stenciling go away.

It was a HUGE change. Every time I walked past the bathroom after repainting, I did a double-take at the bright, calm, pretty new room. I LOVED it!

I also recently did an art audit and have been thinking about moving art around to update some walls. I was sure that after I repainted, the lips print and white frames wouldn't look right. They worked pretty well on the dark stenciled walls! And the dark stenciled bathroom hardly needed any art at all since it was so visually interesting by itself.

But, perhaps out of laziness but maybe ingenuity, I put the art right back as it was before after painting, and I actually like still like it. I thought about putting some more art on the main wall you face as you walk in, but I can't decide what. It's so prominent. Suggestions??

I love the new bathroom color. I'm trying not to feel like I'm insulting my previous self's DIY powers and design by painting over my hours of work. And I still haven't committed to any new art locations in the house!

But it feels good to update.

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Veggie-dense chili recipe - weekday lunch lifesaver!

10.29.2015

Veggie-dense chili recipe - weekday lunch lifesaver!

I'm totally excited to finally share this recipe with you since it's seriously been an important part of my weekday life for a couple months now!! A while back we discovered we could make it through work lunches the first part of the week by making a big batch of hearty chili on Sunday, full of veggies and simple ingredients. Having enough leftovers for weekday lunches is often on my mind, but this way I can get a lot of them out of the way on Sunday afternoon rather than rushing around on a weekday evening. This chili is easy, tasty, and a great one dish meal with protein, fat, and veggies so it's all we each need to bring for lunch at work!

It's also a totally flexible recipe, and seasonal - you can use whatever veggies you have! We use grassfed beef from our cow share but you could also sub lamb, turkey, or a combo of a couple ground meats. This is a bean-free chili recipe since we don't often eat legumes, but you can certainly add some beans (I do this sometimes if I remember to soak them the day before before cooking them) and it won't mess up the ratios or flavors!

It's hard for me to get enough veggies into my lunches so I pack this chili FULL of them!!

Veggie-dense chili recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 yellow onion
• 1 tbsp heat-safe fat of choice (I use home-rendered lard or tallow or saved bacon fat)
• Sprinkle sea salt
• 3 large carrots (and/or beets or other root veggie)
• 1 small eggplant (or 2-3 zucchini or summer squash, whatever's in season/on-hand)
• 2 bell peppers, any color (and/or celery)
• 2 jalapenos, no seeds (optional)
• 1.5-2 lbs. grassfed ground beef
• 2 tbsp chili powder
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/4 tsp cayenne
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 1 28 oz. can tomato sauce, no flavors added
• 1 14.5 oz. can petite diced tomatoes, no flavors added

Instructions:

1. Chop onions, press garlic, and combine in a heavy-bottomed deep pan (Dutch ovens are the best real deal/knock-off/great budget knock-off) with fat and salt. Cover and cook on medium until onions soften.

2. Add chopped carrots; cover and cook on medium until carrots begin to soften.

3. On the eggplant... husband doesn't like eggplant he can see so I've gotten good at chopping it up super tiny. To do this, cut ends off, cut in half lengthwise, and make more lengthwise cuts to make discs. Then chop lengthwise from the top of the pile, then cut across.

Add eggplant to pan and toss with other ingredients; cover and cook on low.

(Note: If using zucchini instead of eggplant, add peppers first.)

4. Add chopped bell peppers and finely chopped jalepenos, if using.

Toss with other veggies and cook on medium, covered.

5. Cook ground beef and break up with a spoon or handy ground meat chopper/stirrer like this or this. Add spices and stir well.

6. Add tomato sauce and petite diced tomatoes to the veggie mixture and stir. Cook while ground beef gets completely cooked (continue to break it up).

7. Add ground beef to veggie mixture. (If using beans, add them (fully cooked) at this point). Stir and cook, covered, on medium-low for 30-45 minutes until flavors are well-combined and peppers have fully softened.

Serve hot! Good all by itself!

We normally pack the whole batch up into 4-6 glass food storage containers for our lunches for the next few days. It's SO handy to start the week with lunches so we can have some relaxed evenings not worrying about leftovers for a while.

The chili is so delicious that I'm excited to eat it every day at work. Of course, it would also be great for a group dinner! Wonderful on a chilly night. Let me know if you try it, and what special ingredients you like in your chili! 

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