Walnut Berry Oatmeal

"Sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."- Lewis Carrol 

As I've previously mentioned, being a college student requires being able to throw together a good meal relatively quickly. I'm not one to wake up any earlier than absolutely necessary, but I also need breakfast or else I'm a bit scary. I've found my favorite breakfast to be one of the healthiest and most filling options out there. 

I'm not the healthiest person on the planet. I work out a couple times a week in a pretty mediocre way, and my diet isn't exactly balanced. However, there are some healthy meals that I absolutely love. This is one of them. 

I try to start every morning with a cup of green tea. I've never been able to stomach coffee, and green tea gives me the caffeine boost I need in the morning. Green tea is also a super drink. It has so many ridiculous heath benefits, some of which I listed:

• prevents cancer
• boosts your immune system 
• boosts your metabolism 
• reduces your cholesterol
• reduces likelihood of heart attacks 
• delays aging 
• reduces acne 
• increases hydration

The recipe for walnut berry oatmeal is very simple. 

What You Need (serves one)

• 1/2 cup of instant oats
• 1 cup of water or skim milk
• Handful of your choice of berries (frozen or fresh)
• 1 tbsp walnuts 
• 1 tbsp flax seed 
• 1 tbsp cinnamon 
• 1 tbsp honey

Ingredients! 

How to Make:

• Mix all ingredients together in a bowl
• Microwave for 2 minutes

Finished Product!

Enjoy!

Cheers X

Raspberry and Nutella Crepes

"Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first"- Ernestine Ulmer

They say that true love lasts a lifetime... I have no idea if that's actually true in the grand scheme of things; however, it certainly is true in respects to me and my relationship with dessert.

Raspberry Nutella Crepe

Crepes are an absolutely fantastic dessert (and breakfast). In high school, when I didn't really cook, I used to show up at a friends house and beg him to make me crepes. Obviously he eventually got annoyed with my incessant pestering and gave me his recipe. Since then, I've experimented with his recipe and made it my own... and it's fantastic.

I was in Greece three summers ago when I was first exposed to the delicious combination of crepes, nutella, and fresh fruit. Now, that's the only way I eat my crepes.

What You Need (Makes 6 Crepes):

• 1/2 cup all purpose flour 
• 1/2 teaspoon white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk (I use skim)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon of melted butter
• 4.5 tablespoons of Egg Whites (equivalent of 1.5 whole eggs) 
• Raspberries
• Nutella 

How to Make: 

• In one bowl: mix the flour, sugar, and salt together
• In a large bowl: whisk the eggs, milk, and vanilla together
• Slowly sift in the flour mixture until smooth. 

The mixture should seem thin; these are not American pancakes

• Finally, stir in melted butter
• Heat a frying pan with vegetable oil over medium to high heat
• Each crepe is equal to 2 tablespoons 
• Use a circular motion when cooking the crepes to spread the batter as thinly as possible
• Cook both sides of the crepe until brown and lacy

This is what I call 'lacy' crepes

• Spread nutella on your crepe and top with raspberries

Beauty Update: Nail Color- Velvet Rope

**Feel free to experiment with toppings. A lot of people enjoy other types of fruit or even just jam. Cinnamon sugar crepes are also delicious.

My roommate is always my crepe taste tester. She seemed pretty happy with the finished product.

She clearly loves it

Cheers X

Shrimp and Garlic Pasta

"Life is a combination of magic and pasta." - Federico Fellini

One of the last times I was home my dad introduced me to this pasta. It is insanely simple and delicious. I have altered the original recipe to have a little bit more of a kick and to include shrimp. As a college student, I am always looking for good simple recipes that can be kept as leftovers. This recipe is perfect for that. 

Olive Oil, Garlic, & Shrimp Spaghetti 

What You Need (serves two): 

• 1/4 cup of olive oil
• 1/2 pound of spaghetti 
• 6 cloves of garlic (everything is better with garlic)
• Red pepper flakes (up to you, I'm heavy handed with the red pepper)
• 15 large deveined shrimp 
• 2 tsp chopped parsley 
• 1 tsp lime juice
• 1 tsp garlic powder 

How to Make: 

Spaghetti & Sauce: 

•  Boil a large pot of water. Once the water starts to boil, add the spaghetti and cook approx.9 minutes.  Drain, and reserve 1 cup of pasta water.
• While the spaghetti is cooking, heat the olive oil over medium heat.
• Add the garlic & red pepper flakes and saute for 1 minute or until it sizzles.  Continue sauteeing until the edges of the garlic just begin to brown.
• Add the pasta water and continue cooking for 5 minutes, stiring occasionally.
• Turn the heat down to medium-low, then add the drained pasta and parsley.  Toss until the pasta has absorbed most of the liquid, about 3 minutes.  Serve immediately.

Crush cloves with the flat side of a blade

A solid handful of spaghetti is approx. 1/2 pound

Pasta and garlic

Garlic, red peppers, and olive oil

Shrimp:  

• Marinate your shrimp in lime juice, olive oil, red pepper flakes and garlic powder for 15 minutes
• Heat olive oil in a sauce pan over medium heat. Add the shrimp. (I always cook shrimp in a mix of oil, lime juice, garlic powder, and red pepper flakes)
• Cook shrimp until they are pink on both sides (around 11 minutes)
• Add shrimp to the spaghetti

Sizzling Shrimp in a lime, garlic, red pepper, olive oil medley 

Enjoy! 

Featured Fashion: Key Necklace

Cheers X

Winter Is Coming...

“A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water.” -Carl Reiner

Apparently, despite it being Spring, Winter isn't ready to let go of the East Coast just yet.  Even though it is almost April, we are still getting snow. Being a West Coast girl at heart, I'm not sure I'm down with these late snow storms...

Just a light frosting in late March...

I thought senoritis would be a product of not wanting to go to class on beautiful sunny days, but I was wrong. Trekking through the snow, slush, and puddles makes it really difficult to get excited about school and work.

View from my window yesterday

I really am getting a lot of wear out of my rain boots. When I came East as a freshman from California, I had no idea how much I would need to invest in a quality pair of boots. After the first two weeks of school (which included numerous torrential rainstorms) I wised up. These things saved my life...

Featured Fashion: Hunter Boots

On these dreary days I am really focused on comfort... comfort food, music, books, movies, ect.

After studying abroad in Edinburgh, Scotland, I really started to get into tea. It's been over a year since I've been back in the states and my pantry is stocked with green, camomile, and mint tea. It's the perfect drink on the rainy and snowy days that have become way too common.

Tea is my best friend. 

Right now, my music rotation is a super relaxed rainy day mix. I'm listening to a lot of Ben Howard, Benjamin Francis Leftwich, and Iron and Wine. It's the perfect mood music for the cold and icy outdoors. I'm playing right into the weather-I've also gone through more books in the last week than I have in the last two months of school. If I had a fireplace in my apartment it would be going all damn day and night. 

Hopefully this is the last big snowstorm of the year and we'll finally get some sun!

Cheers X

Overwhelmingly Confident and Ignorant

“All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure ”- Mark Twain

Welcome to my lifestyle blog. 

Featured Fashion: Sunglasses, Trench Coat

In case you were curious, I decided to name my blog after the above Mark Twain quote. After all, Mr. Twain was an expert at ironic musings about the world around him.

Confident and Ignorant. Those two words perfectly encapsulate everything about my life right now. Similar to many of you, I'm about to graduate college and venture off into the vast and complicated "real world". I couldn't be more excited or terrified about what awaits me. That inexplicable combination of joy and fear is one of the main reasons I decided to start this blog. I wanted a way to be able to capture the journey ahead of me, and since I am a product of social media, I might as well share it with whomever is interested.

Anyways, this blog will be an amalgamation of recipes, travel stories, pictures, and whatever else I find inspiring and interesting enough to share with all of you.

Cheers X