Dark Chocolate and Mixed Berry Smoothie

In my quest to eat healthy, I've been making a healthy smoothie for lunch most days this past week and this delicious blend of berries and dark chocolate has become a fast favorite. Not only does it taste amazing but it is good for you and helps with weight loss (adapted from the Belly Buster Smoothie)!

Ingredients:
1 cup baby spinach
filtered water
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
4-6 strawberries
2 ounces dark chocolate, chopped
1/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons vanilla Greek yogurt

Directions:
1. Blend spinach with a splash of water until a drinkable consistency.
2. Add remaining ingredients except yogurt and blend until smooth.
3. Top with yogurt as a garnish and enjoy your delicious and healthy treat!

Tea & Cupcakes

Tonight, I went out with my friend Kayla. Kayla and I have been friends for about four years now and have worked together at the same shoe store for just as long. She's an awesome person to spend time with and just graduated from UConn with a Communication degree so she's pretty much exactly where I'll be in a year. It was great to catch up with her because we haven't talked all summer except for a few conversations during work shifts.

We chatted about all the drama at the store and what's going on in our lives. We talked about all the bad dates we've gone on and how she's doing her best to stay positive after a pretty terrible breakup and how excited we were for me now that my love life is going so well.

We got together with plans to go to the Duck & Bunny, a fantastic place in Providence, RI. We both ordered mixed berry, dark chocolate vegan and red velvet cupcakes and shared an enormous pot of vanilla chai spice tea! Everything was so delicious. This place is adorable and, other than the awful lighting, is so photographable. I instantly whipped out my phone to snap pictures of my cupcakes and then little by little the entire cafe filled up making pictures impossible! I managed to get a few cute ones of our table though. Ever since my confession about food photography, I've been determined to take more pictures! 

There's nothing better than catching up with good friends over dessert. What have you been doing with your pals lately?

Reasons I Suck at Blogging Vol. 1

One of the things I love seeing on my favorite lifestyle blogs is beautiful food photography. Strangely enough, there is an obvious lack of food on here and on my instagram feed. Why you ask? 

Because of two of my fatal flaws: eternal hunger and impatience. I'm always so impatient, especially for food. When food appears in front of me I need it in my mouth immediately. The sushi in the above photo (along with the four other food photos on my instagram) only exists because instagram was still a novelty and I, like everyone else in the smart phone universe, had the desire to see how my food looked in filters "Amaro" through "Kelvin." Before thoughts of "Nashville" even came to be though, I probably devoured the majority of my food considering there's like less than half of the maki I ordered in this photo because I already ate it. It's a miracle I even remembered iPhone apps were a thing while consuming raw fish. 

Basically, I'm saying I wil always suck as a lifestyle blogger because I never remember to photograph my food until it's in the process of being digested. So maybe this is a reminder to pause a moment and snap a photo or two of an interesting meal or pretty culinary presentation. Or to complain about my lack of patience. Or even poke fun at the trend of food photography on lifestyle blogs. Regardless, it's something that I see a lot of and enjoy and never remember to do.

This series, by the way, isn't supposed to be taken seriously. I don't think someone can actually suck at lifestyle blogging. I also do want to start getting better at i.e. remembering to take photos of food though. So here's to pointing out what I think my blogging flaws are and working on improving them, while being amusing (for myself at least).

Sushi and Fondue.

No the sushi and fondue was not eaten together!

As I had previously promised here is a semi-epic food post from over winter break. My cousin, aunt and I spent some quality time together literally eating a boatful of sushi! I also went to a fondue restaurant with my mom and nana to celebrate me getting a 3.7 GPA last semester. 

Color Palette: Sushi

Photo via foodgawker // palette details 

Photo  // palette details

Photo // palette details

 

Weekstagram: December 30th - January 12th

Hey everyone! Sorry for being MIA for the past weeks but I am back! Here's some of my instagramming from the past two weeks!

1. My belated birthday cake

2. Me and Penny on New Year's Eve

3. Preview of a craft tutorial that will be up soon!

4. Penny cuddling on her sick day

5. I got a Babycakes Mini Doughnut machine for Christmas and made these delicious pumpkin doughnuts

6. Cheese fondue at the Melting Pot

 

Weekstagram: December 23rd-29th

  

  

1. My aunt Joan wore this necklace I made her many, many Christmases ago. 

2. Homemade shortbread cookies with cake batter frosting. Amazing.

3. Penny loves snow. I just about had to carry her in!

4. Sparkly nails and red velvet truffles. My mom picks out the best Christmas candy.

 

Links of the Week || 004

1. Cutest dog bed ever.
2. Some of the most beautiful textiles, I've ever seen.
3. My room mate found this. (For those of us who love vampire diaries or love to hate the show, like me).
4. One of my favorite street artist's flickr page.
5. Great parody of Toddlers and Tiaras.
6. Easy recipes. I want to try all of these!
7. I love bears and Shakespeare.

Lately...

I haven't been keeping up with my weekend posts, but like always I've been snapping pictures. Here's a few pictures from the past two weeks or so.

With all the homework I've been doing, I pretty much live at my desk. Of course there's coffee and a gridded cutting mat nearby.

My Top 5 Fall Drinks from Starbucks

I most likely have mentioned my love of Starbucks a few hundred times on this blog. Yes, I feel like I'm a snob for being a "regular" but I can't help it. I'm a caffeine addict. And their coffee and espresso drinks are just so good, especially in fall. Just in case you don't spend your life at a Starbucks (like I do), I'll give you a couple ideas for Fall drinks that I really like and the correct translation in Starbucks-enese for your order. (p.s. I order all of my drinks with soy milk because that's what I prefer but you can drink whatever milk you like.)

1. Sweetened Vanilla Rooibos Latte with a shot (or three). I love this drink. It's made from vanilla tea and sweetened with simple syrup and I get a shot of espresso in it because everything is better with espresso. 
How I Order it: "Vanilla Rooiboos soy latte, half sweetened with a double shot."

Featured!

This week I was featured at My Sweet and Savory's Meatless Monday for my French Onion Soup Grilled Cheese! Visit My Sweet and Savory for some delicious recipes and for the blog party where you can share your meatless recipes and find new ones.

I''m so excited that I was chosen to be featured on My Sweet and Savory. I love blogging and having my own little piece of the internet to write about my life. I just get so excited when people view my blog and comment, even though I would still love this blog if no one ever looked at it. 

Thanks for reading and be sure to check out My Sweet and Savory!

French Onion Soup Grilled Cheese

I  love French Onion Soup. Absolutely adore it. Don't get me wrong the entire bowl of soup is amazing, but that first bite! Cheese, crouton and a bit a caramelized onion. I decided to make a grilled cheese inspired by this first bite of French Onion Soup. Try it out and let me know what you think! (p.s. click on the recipe card and print out for later!)

5 Ways to Make a Boxed Mix Better

Nothing is better than homemade dessert. Sometimes you just don't have the time or patience to devote to a more complicated recipe so you reach for that cake mix and it's good but it could be better. Here's a couple of tips I use to fake a homemade dessert using a cake mix

1. Dairy: 
Whenever a boxed mix says to add water I usually add milk or half and half, depending on what I have on hand. There's nothing wrong with using water but any dairy product will add extra flavor.

2. Extracts:
I usually use vanilla but almond would also work here. Most homemade desserts call for at least a teaspoon of vanilla extract so adding a splash of it into a boxed mix is another way to add flavor.

3. Extras:
Instead of sticking with a boring plain cake or cookie, make it something special. In the above picture I transformed plain oatmeal cookies into oatmeal chocolate & craisin cookies (which disappeared within two days!).

4. Butter:
No I haven't turned into Paula Dean but have you ever made anything from scratch that called for vegetable oil? I haven't. So for boxed mixes, I'll substitute the same amount of melted butter for the oil. It'll make your cake moist and delicious.

5. Lie:
No one will no it came from a box unless you tell them... I'll keep your secret.



 

Links of the Week || 001

1. Wedding Tiara DIY- No, I'm not getting married. I dont even have a boyfriend. But this wedding tiara is just too beautiful not to share. The photos in this tutorial are gorgeous too. That lighting! 

2. foodgawker- I'm addicted to food porn... This site is pretty much just gorgeous food photo after gorgeous food photo. I really just can't express how much I love a well styled food photo.

3. My Little Pony Creator- I found this when I was reading Cheeky Cheeky. You can make your own personalized My Little Pony. Enough said.

4. A Softer World: 481- I love reading A Softer World. I was revisiting their archives recently and found this one and I love the mixed emotions it evokes.

5. Puppy- Uhmmm. It's a cute puppy. Just look at it.

Have you found anything exciting on the internet recently?

Life Lately.

My summer break has become anything but. Between the class I’m taking, my jobs and my internship, I’m busy just about every second of the day. Being this busy is good but a little overwhelming. I wanted to spend more time with my family and friends and draw and journal and blog and…. The list could go on and on. I know I took on a lot this summer; things did not go as I expected and to be frank I’m disappointed. This is not a space for me to complain about my lack of a summer vacation so I’m moving on. In my absence from Living Bittersweetly, here’s what I’ve been up to.

Studying has been my life. I’m trying to do as well in this class as possible and so cat insides have been my life. I can’t wait until I can get rid of this book with photos of cat guts inside and my lab manual and lecture notes. I may burn them.

I’m trying to make little things here and there when I get the time so I’ve been playing with the adorable stamp set I bought from the Plaid Barn and will probably post a how to for this vintage inspired stamping technique I’ve been stamping on everything. One of the things I’ve been making a lot is shortbread cookies. My entire family (including Penny!) loves them and they’ve been a hit at all the gatherings my mom and I have gone to this summer.

What have you been up to this summer?

xo, Kristen

Fajitas!

 
I love fajitas. Well, there is pretty much no Mexican food I have come across that I couldn't devour four times my weight of, if we're being honest.  My mom and I cannot get enough of south-of-the-border anything so she started making her version of fajitas. They're not authentic by any means but they sure taste delicious and are easy to make. I hope you try them out. Let me know if you do in the comments!

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces

1/4 cup lime juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 bag frozen peppers + onions
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
salt + pepper to taste

Instructions:
1. Marinate chicken in lime juice and 1 tablespoon of oil. Add salt and pepper and stir together.
2. Refridgerate for 5 minutes.
3. Saute thawed onions and peppers with garlic in olive oil until soft.
4. Add chicken.
5. When chicken is cooked, serve in tortillas. I like mine with cheese and tomatoes.

xo,
Kristen

Vacation: Food on the Cruise

When I was on my cruise, the food was amazing. Every night I ate in the Starlight Dining Room with my mom and nana. The tables were set beautifully and the food was so fancy and delicious. I loved dressing up every night and sitting in the elegant dining room. An interesting food event attended was the Midnight Buffet. The food was arranged beautifully on the pool deck complete with salami flowers and ice sculptures. Thanks for reading a bit about my vacation.
xo, Kristen
               
Fonts Used:
King and Queen

Vacation: Taste of Key West Tour

During my day in Key West, Florida, I went on a food tour. We walked to three locations to try some classic Key West flavors. We tried some Cajun chicken, coconut-crusted, pink shrimp and conch fritter (They were so good, I forgot to take pictures until after I had eaten!) at the Sunset Tiki Bar. We also tried some sauces at Pepper's of Key West, ranging from the sweet to the fiery. After trying the hottest sauce they offer samples of, I got the "Hottest Tongue in Key West" button. Once everyone had their fill of delicious sauces (or just plain crackers for my Nana...), we walked to Kermit's Key West Key Lime Shoppe, which makes the best Key [West] Lime Pie in Key West. We each tried some of the Key Lime flavored treats around the store and got to sample a piece of chocolate covered Key Lime Pie. I brought home some Chocolate Lime Macaroons for me and my family and got Penny some Key Lime flavored dog cookies!

Thanks for taking a peek at my vacation!

xo, Kristen

Frozen Chai Latte

 

 I love chai tea. It's absolutely delicious. This simple recipe is a fun way to drink your tea. It involves frozen tea ice cubes which are simple to make. I boiled water for a normal 8 oz  cup of tea but put three tea bags in the cup instead of one. I steeped the tea for 5 minutes and then poured it into an ice cube tray. You can do this with any flavor and put it in any drink. I made frozen chai lattes with my tea cubes; it is simple to make and is perfect for a summer day.

 Ingredients:

-6 to 7 tea ice cubes

- about 1 teaspoon cinnamon

- 1/2 cup milk

-1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Crush ice cubes in blender until no large chunks remain. 

Add cinnamon, vanilla and milk.
Blend until combined.

Sprinkle cinnamon on top and enjoy!