101 in 1001

Happy first day of Fall!  In a lovely surprise, I stepped out into a crisp chilly morning when I went to take B out.  I love autumn.  I’m not sure if it is getting away from summer’s ridiculous Alabama heat and humidity or pulling out sweaters and boots and everything pumpkin.  The arrival of Autumn is always welcome.  The turning of a new season, especially spring and fall, always feels like a fresh start.  So, to kick off this lovely season, I'm staring a new to-do list.  101 in 1001 is a list of things I would like to accomplish in the next 1001 days (which equals approximately 2.75 years).  The idea, which came from Mackenzie Horan at Design Darling, is a happy medium between a to do list and keeping a bucket list.  In addition to a lot of personal goals I have had for some time now, my list includes a lot of activities around Montgomery.  Despite growing up just outside the state capitol and actually moving to Montgomery a little less than a year ago, I really haven’t explored the city as much as I’d like to.  I  really think this list will encourage me not only to live a little better, but to be more intentional in the weekly plans I make.  I have until the start of summer 2017 to meet my goals and will happily donate $5 to a charitable organization for each I do not complete.  I’ll keep you updated and hope that you will join in with your own list!

Personal Goals:
1.	Donate $5 for every uncompleted task (charitable organization TBD)
2.	Take a pottery class
3.	Learn calligraphy
4.	Sew a dress by myself
5.	Evenly hem a pair of pants
6.	Finish my t-shirt quilt
7.	See a TED talk live
8.	Get a new camera
9.	Learn how to use said camera
10.	Join a book club
11.	Read 5 career books
12.	Read 3 biographies
13.	Pick back up with Spanish and get to a somewhat conversational point
14.	Get a massage
15.	Take a cooking class
16.	Learn how to dry herbs
17.	Learn how to can and make jam
18.	Bake a soufflé
19.	Make ravioli from scratch
20.	Bake doughnuts
21.	Make macaroons
22.	Make my bed every day for a month
23.	Clean out my living room and office
24.	Keep my desk/table clean for an entire month
25.	Research savings options
Professional:
26.	Learn how to code VBA
27.	Take someone I want to learn from out to lunch
28.	Interview an environmental scientist about their career
29.	Keep a separate work to do list, leave it at work
Wellbeing:
30.	Drink 8 glasses of water every day for 2 weeks
31.	Go a month without eating fast food
32.	Try a juice cleanse
33.	See the sun rise every morning for a week
34.	Run every day for a week
35.	Run a 5K with a family member
36.	Run my 6th half marathon
37.	Join a yoga studio
38.	Try hot yoga
39.	Yoga outside
40.	Be able to do a headstand
41.	Go rock climbing
42.	Try a new workout class
43.	Take a self defense class
44.	Gardening-figure out what I’m doing
45.	Join a CSA
46.	Stick to a vegan diet for a week
47.	Stick to a vegetarian diet for a month
48.	Go a week without caffeine
49.	Go 3 months without killing a cactus
50.	Go a week without swearing, may involve taking a different route to work
51.	Complete 50 hours of community service
52.	Join a local church
Travel:
53.	Plan a trip to Europe
54.	Visit a new city
55.	Visit a new state
56.	Visit a new country
57.	Rent bicycles at the beach
58.	Go camping
59.	Visit an aquarium
In Town:
60.	Visit the Montgomery Museum of Fine Art
61.	See a play at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival
62.	See a play at the Cloverdale Playhouse
63.	Go to Montgomery Ballet’s holiday show
64.	See a movie at the Capri Theater
65.	Explore the F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum
66.	Visit the Museum of Alabama at the Alabama Department of Archives & History
67.	Visit the Moo-seum (take Gray)
68.	Take a dinner cruise on the Harriott II
69.	Go to the planetarium
70.	Eat at 10 new restaurants around Montgomery
71.	Visit the Nature Center at Lanark
72.	Spend a day at a spa
73.	Do yoga at Old Alabama Town
74.	Visit 2 local art galleries
75.	Visit the Montgomery Zoo
76.	Kayak 2 new places in the area
Friends and Family:
77.	Buy my mom or grandmother flowers just because
78.	Take my dad out to eat
79.	Do something special with each of my nieces and nephews
80.	Go a year without missing a single family birthday
81.	Watch a sunrise with Seth
82.	Plan and cook a brunch for friends
83.	Throw a dinner party
84.	Reconnect with friends from high school
85.	Reconnect with undergrad friends
86.	Find ways to be more involved with other alumnae
87.	Go on a hike with friends
88.	Have an arts and crafts day/night with friends
89.	Celebrate 3 little holidays I normally wouldn’t with friends
90.	Ring in a new year with friends
91.	Bake cookies for the mailman
92.	Bake cookies for my landlord
93.	Bake cookies for my fix-it guy
94.	Buy a stranger coffee
95.	Leave a 100% tip for good service
Blogging:
96.	Learn and use html design elements on my blog
97.	Join a blogging network
98.	Meet other bloggers
99.	Start a blog series
100.	Add pin it feature to images
101.	Figure out my blogging routine

High Five for Friday

1. My new planner came in the mail! Its the Kate Spade Large Agenda and I absolutely love it. As environmentally friendly as I try to be, I absolutely love planners and to-do lists. I have yet to find an app or online calendar that makes me feel as prepared as having my day written out does.

2. I have gotten in such a habit of snacking, I completely forgot about lunch yesterday. I am not one to starve myself or anything; I just eat a lot of really small "meals" throughout the day. This week included granola (homemade), cranberry almond trail mix, apples, overnight oats and some awesome snacks from Graze. I especially love the Mississippi BBQ Pistachios and the Key Lime Pie Mix.

3. I have gotten back to running. For me, running is a very freeing practice. Every few months I get out of the practice, generally because I have clumsily injured myself or I get frustrated with how it is constantly hot here, but I'm always surprised by how easy it is to get back into it. My running partner makes it ever better too; he will hopefully be a little more enthusiastic as the weather starts to cool off.  My current running motivation was learning about SeaWheeze. Yoga, running and brunch...count me in! (I'm so sad to see that registration for next year is already sold out!)

4. I got to spend a little time with Seth in Mountain Brook, Alabama this weekend. Mountain Brook is this adorable little town in the Birmingham area and it happens to be Seth's hometown. I love the botanical gardens and the zoo, but just walking around the villages provides plenty to see and do. This adorable little guy is in a community garden in Crestline Village.

5. Following this month's challenge of self-improvement and growth by The Everygirl, I've been working on blogging.  I'm hoping this will help me in learning a little html and learning how to cook a few healthy meals. I've been researching recipes and all things blog related and have found so many interesting tidbits, but haven't put many into practice just yet.

Hope your weekend is wonderful!

Cinnamon Raisin Granola

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, but I love cinnamon. Also, raisins, the original favorite dried fruit. I love mixing the combination into oatmeal and of course adding cinnamon to oatmeal raisin cookies. I’ve never tried making granola before, and couldn’t believe how easy it was. With the honey and brown sugar, this isn’t the healthiest snack, but it is very filling. I love eating it dry for a snack, or with cold milk or yogurt. With a little warm milk, this would make a great cold weather snack.

CINNAMON RAISIN GRANOLA Quick and easy homemade granola Prep time: 10 minutes Bake time:  30 minutes INGREDIENTS: 3 cups old fashion or steel cut oats 1 1/2 cup raisins 1 cup sliced or slivered almonds 1/4 cup ground flax seed 1 tbsp. cinnamon 1 tsp. nutmeg a pinch of salt 1/2 cup honey 1/4 cup grape seed oil (you could also use coconut or canola) 1/4 cup brown sugar DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 300F and line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper. Once again, grind the flax seed. A coffee grinder would be ideal for this, but I used a food processor/blender. It took a little more patience and stirring but still worked well. Combine the oats, raisins, almonds, flax seed, cinnamon, nutmeg and sea salt in an over-sized bowl. In a small saucepan and over medium-low heat, combine the oil, honey and brown sugar. Stir frequently until the brown sugar starts to dissolve, this should take no more than 5 minutes; do not bring to a boil. Pour the hot sugar mixture over the oat mixture and stir. This isn’t something you would need a mixer for. Just a few quick stirs to make sure everything is coated and you’re good to go. Spread the oat mixture on the parchment paper and bake for 15 minutes. After the initial 15 minutes, stir/flip/turn the granola. Check and turn the granola every 8-10 minutes until golden brown. Mine was done in 30 minutes, but I have a gas oven- which can be a little dryer of a heat. Let cool. I left mine on the cookie sheet for a few hours. NOTES: Deciding when the granola was done was probably the hardest part of this process with all the cinnamon in there. I taste tested each time I pulled the pan out and stopped when the granola started to reach a crunchy consistency.                                                                                                     Hope you Enjoy!

No Bake Energy Cookies

I've made a couple batches of these over the past week and I really like how they've turned out.  It's similar to eating cookie dough, but with a little less refined sugar. I've been enjoying them as mid-morning snacks
and they have been super filling.  Kept refrigerated, the cookies should be good up to a week.

No Bake Energy Cookies
A healthier and energy filled sweet treat

Makes about 24 cookies

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Set Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:
1 cup old fashion or steel cut oats
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup ground flaxseed
1/3 cup white chocolate chunks (finely chopped)
1/4 cup protein powder
1/3 cup chopped almonds
1/3 cup semi-sweet mini chocolate chips

Directions: 

1. Line a couple of large cookie sheets with parchment paper. 
2. Grind the flax seed.  A coffee grinder would be ideal for this, but I used a food processor/blender.  It took a little more patience and stirring but still worked well. 
3. Combine the oats, peanut butter, honey, flax seed, white chocolate, and protein powder. You could also add dried fruit or nuts. 
4. in a separate bowl, mix together the chopped almonds and chocolate chips
5. Roll the dough into a ball and flatten into a cookie shape. Dip into chocolate-almond mixture and place on parchment paper. 
6. refrigerate 1 hour and enjoy!

Notes: 
If the oat concoction isn't sticking together very well, try adding more peanut butter.

High Five for Friday

1.       I kicked off the week by cleaning every bit of coconut out of my house and I have felt so much better!  No more allergic reactions and I ended up getting rid of a lot of products.  The thing is, most of those products haven’t been used in at least a month. Getting rid of so much stuff inspired me to clean out my bathroom which then led me to start cleaning out my closet and my kitchen… I love feeling a little more minimalistic.  Listening to this week’s TED talk on NPR, specifically this TED Talk by Graham Hill definitely helped with motivation.
2.       Since I have this abundance of stuff to get rid of I decided to try ThredUp.  A friend told me about this a  month or two ago.  I signed up this week and a rather large prepaid bag arrived in about 3-5 days. I love the thought of cleaning stuff out and shipping it off for someone else to figure out the consignment aspect.  The best part is ThredUp will send items they do not accept to charitable partners or textile recycling.  You can also shop the finds; check out how it works here.
3.       I did yoga.  This is a weekly thing for me, but it is always one of the high points of my week.  I’ve been going to the local YMCA, but also started taking another class.  Both of the teachers are just awesome.  I’m a little sad to say, it’s easier for me to go to a class and push myself when people are around.  When it’s just me, it’s harder to slow down and spend more time in the postures I don’t like as much.  In addition to the classes, I’ve been using the Yogify app by EA Sports. The app is free and it comes with a few courses, but you have the option to purchase additional courses specific to your level and you can also buy some really good classes which are based on ability and focus on balance, strength and flexibility.
4.       I made some pretty delicious no bake energy bites.  Recipe coming soon!

5.       I found a recipe on the Everyday Occasions blog for Lobster Mac and Cheese and Seth and I fixed it for dinner together. Delicious!   

Blueberry Oatmeal Cookies

Over the past few months I have developed some type of aversion to coconut, which is really unfortunate considering how much I love coconut. I typically break out on my face after eating actual coconut or drinking coconut milk (which is delicious by the way). Until this week I hadn't really had much of any issues with coconut oil unless I used mass amounts of it, but using my EOS lip balm one too many times led to another annoying reaction.  Most allergies can progressively get worse with each exposure, and while I have had no other allergy related symptoms, I think its probably best to quit while I'm ahead.  This weekend I've started cleaning coconut out of my house.  I had almost exactly 3/4 cup of coconut oil in the kitchen cabinet, and being the good decision-maker that I am, I decided to use it to make some blueberry oatmeal cookies to take to work. I have made these a few times before and really love them. Not to sound like a chubster, but eating a warm one almost feels like a hug, and it was also really hard to avoid eating this cookie dough. I’m sure this won't be my last time making these, but I may be reverting to butter in future cookie making.



Blueberry Oatmeal Cookies
A summer twist on the classic oatmeal raisin cookie

Makes 24 cookies

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Bake Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:
¾ cup coconut oil
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup sugar
2 eggs
3 teaspoon vanilla extract
1½ cup all purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
3 cups old fashion oats
1½ cup blueberries fresh or frozen

Directions: 

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF and line a couple cookie sheets with parchment paper. The paper isn’t completely necessary, but it is easier to get the cookies off the pan and to the cooling rack.  If you don’t use parchment paper, just be sure not to butter or grease the pan.
2.  Cream together the coconut oil and sugars on medium speed. I left the mixer going about 4 minutes. It isn’t going to look very creamy, as butter would, just make sure it is well mixed. Add the eggs one at a time, and then the vanilla; the concoction will look something like brown sugar soup at this point.
3.  In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt, then slowly mix the dry mixture with the sugar mixture. 
4. Use a wooden spoon or spatula to fold in the oats and blueberries. I used frozen blueberries; making It a little easier to fold the berries in without breaking but also a little harder to mix and scoop as your dough will start to freeze if you don't work quickly enough. Don’t worry if you do break blueberries, it’s inevitable, the cookies will still be delicious. 
5. Bake for 16-20 minutes. I made some pretty large cookies, a little smaller than a golf ball when all rolled up. Because of the size and the fact that I used frozen berries, it took a little longer to bake, closer to 20 minutes. Leave the cookies on the pan for a minute or two before moving to cooling racks.  Enjoy!

*disclaimer… coconut oil melts at 76ºF. As it is summer in Alabama and I live in a very old house, it was about 77ºF-80ºF in my kitchen at the time I was baking these; do not try to combine coconut oil with any type of cold ingredients (ie. cold butter or milk). It doesn't go well.

Things to look forward to

• To actually churn out some blog posts.  I have happily spent more time outside and with friends and family over the past month and not much time on the computer.  Don't get me wrong, I'm completely okay with giving up a little computer time, but finding recipes and DIY projects to share keeps my diet and my free time moving in a positive direction.  Over the past month, I've been eating more fruits and vegetables and less meat. For the most part, I have stuck to a vegetarian diet throughout the week, and given in on the weekend when I’m generally eating with friends and family.  I feel so much better when I reduce the amount of meat and processed food I consume.  I'll be sharing a few recipes for smoothies and hopefully a few vegetarian friendly meals.   
• To get a little more organized.  I’m slightly concerned I am turning into a work-hoarder.  My desk is constantly covered in papers and I have way too many post-it notes scattered about to serve any type of productive purpose.  I’ve also been using a desk calendar this year, and while it is a beautiful Sugar Paper calendar, I hate that I can’t slip it into my purse and that everyone who comes into my office can see everything I have planned (granted it is only visible if I have moved around some of the mass amounts of paper).  In addition to finding a planner (I’m leaning toward this Kate Spade) and thinking about organizing my office, I will be looking for a few new ways to get organized around my house. 
• To going kayaking.  Seth got me a kayak for my birthday, which I love.  We've already gone down the Coosa River (Coosa River Adventures was fun and so easy to work with) and are working on plans for more adventures around both of our towns.

How Not To Pack

     

1. Don't make a plan. Generally, I pack everything because I'm unsure of what the weekend will have in store, because I just don't know what exactly I'll be doing, because there is always a chance the weather will change course from what the pros have predicted, or because I may just be having a fat day come Saturday.  This game play often ends in me packing a weeks worth of clothes for a weekend with the accompanied 6 pairs of shoes and jewelry options.  Learn from my mistakes people, this is not the best way to do it.  Make a plan, check the weather, verify your itinerary.  At the very least, pack multifunctional clothing.  Knowing or at least having any idea of what's in the works is a great start, from there, you know you don't need a ball gown, and can start to take a more realistic approach to packing your bags. 

2. Pack a variety of colors. I'm not saying you should pack all black, but sticking to a mostly neutrals, which can be easily interchanged (ie. all of those "pack a year in a carry-on" Pinterest posts), will minimize the need for extra shoes and accessories. 

3. Just throw it in there. Even though I always pull out the luggage a day or so before, I rarely actually pack any earlier than I absolutely have to. "Oh I'll just stop by the house after work to grab my bags and the dog" means I have packed less than 5 things the night before and will throw about 25 more items in my suitcase in a 10 minute period.  If I do pack the night before, I either start packing about 10:00pm (aka bed time) or I'm getting on a plane and have to fit a weeks worth in a carry-on (side note, I have managed to pack over a weeks worth or business and fun clothes on a carry-on; proper rolling and folding was the only way I managed to do so).  Believe it or not, this is not the most efficient form of packing.  Taking time to roll your shirts and undergarments, stuff your socks inside your boots, and actually refill your tiny shampoo bottles saves so much space!