Dreaming of a Better Summer

Summer in Arizona is a little more desperate than merry. The heat is oppressive and I have to spend most of my time during the "warmer" half of the year indoors. I live for road trips and daydream of cooler locales where summers might mean picnics or beaches, not melanoma and air conditioning.

Choose your daydream:

Summer Picnic?!

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And, of course, glamping.

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How about a bike ride down a Parisian street? 

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Or the ocean?

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Homemade Beauty Products

I recently had to do away with many of my bath and beauty products as part of my journey toward chemical-free living. Sigh. Now that I'm really starting to miss some of my favs I decided it's time to seek out suitable (homemade) replacements for the products I just can't live without. 

Here are some recipes for homemade bath products I'm about to get underway!

Natural Lip Balm

I am a chapstick junkie. I haven't fully relinquished all of my store bought / questionably produced lip moisturizers, but I'm hoping a homemade replacement will help me part with those last couple renegade tubes I keep shoved in my purse.

Cheek & Lip Stain

I love my lip stain. Love it. I almost cried when I tossed it. Beets, however, just might be the answer.

Lotion Bars

Lotion bars are great to rub into rough elbows and feet (or knuckles, in my case). They're easier to take on the road than leaky bottles of liquid lotion (say that 10 times fast). 

Bath Fizzies

Soaking in a delightfully scented tub is one of those simple joys I don't want to give up even though I gave away all the store-bought bath concoctions lurking tubside. Time to make my own!

Sugar Scrub

Sugar Scrub is my joy of joys! And, it sounds super easy to make at home!

Meal Planning Monday :: Fancy Sandwiches

Okay, so I've been out of town two weekends in a row and I'm officially all tuckered out. I don't want to cook this week. Or clean. Or write. I just want to nap. Nevertheless, I must persevere. I think I'll just make sandwiches this week. Just sandwiches. Sandwiches for all. To be fair, I was always a sandwich fan. I love a classic PBJ but I also enjoy getting a little fancier what I put my bread around. Here are three fabu sandwiches that just landed on my must-make list...

Coconut-Curry Chickpea Quinoa Pineapple Burgers

Healthy, vegetarian, and an interesting meeting place between a variety of flavors? Count me in. Quinoa is still holding its own as our preferred grain this season. 

Tuscan Tuna Sandwiches

My fella loves a good tuna salad but we're not too keen on mayo these days. This tuna salad promises tons of flavor without the mayo. A little lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil prevents too-dry tuna.

Gouda Grilled Cheese with Roasted Mushrooms & Onions

Ummm, delicious.

Art Day :: Pierre Mornet

I just recently discovered the work of Pierre Mornet and I'm totally loving it this week.

I had to share. 

All of the images can be found on the Marlena Agency page for Pierre Mornet here.

Healthy Eating Help

I try to find new, exciting, healthy recipes every week. Not the easiest of tasks but there are some great websites that can help. I thought I would share some of my favorite locales for health-eating ideas online. And, of course, I had to throw in my own Radish Arugula Salad pictured below because how fancy does that look?! 

I roasted radishes and white carrots with a little olive oil and salt'n'peppa. Then, I added the roasted veggies to arugula and mixed lettuce for a healthy (and tasty) meal. The fella thought it might be a little too healthy and asked for some honey mustard dressing - which I was able to whip up in a jiffy with just a little honey, stone-ground mustard, and olive oil!

I'm always looking for creative veggie combos as well as ways to kick up a salad from ho-hum to actually enjoyable. Ugh. I've been working toward healthier and am always looking for suggestions to step up boring veggies.

Here are some of my favorite resources for cleaning & healthy living...

The Gracious Pantry

Clean Eating recipes everyone can enjoy. 

Naturally Ella

 Vegetarian food gets fancy and delicious here. 

My New Roots

Healthy eating based on seasonal availability from a holistic nutritional.

The Chubby Vegetarian

Vegetarian dining gets a little more delicious and often un-Vegan here. I repeat, delicious.

Clean Eating

If you've ever picked up Clean Eating Magazine at the grocery store, here is your chance to check it out online. Not vegetarian, but wonderful, healthy recipes and other resources. 

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

So, this was an amazing read. Especially considering it was non-fiction which I've been trying to avoid as much as possible post-grad-school. Bleh. The book was recommended to me by a friend from the local music scene and all-around rad chick Anamieke (check out her band Treasurefruit here). The "tipping point" refers to that mystical, magical place where an idea or trend takes hold and blows up... like an epidemic, but a social epidemic rather than medical. I think just about everyone would find this book interesting. The Tipping Point is a terrifically fertile place for new ideas and new ways of thinking about the world around you.

I , for one example, was taken in by the description of children's understanding of narrative structure, more specifically, of how reliant children are on narrative structure for organizing the world around them in the chapter titled "The Stickiness Factor". Somehow, it offered me hope in the grand sense. I think I have an easier time conceiving of life as something souls would opt into if our lives really are simply narratives at their core, as opposed to random onslaughts of suffering in a sea of just-getting-by... but that might just be me.

Here's a great quote from the book that captures its essence...

"To appreciate the power of epidemics, we have to abandon this expectation about proportionality. We need to prepare ourselves for the possibility that sometimes big changes follow from small events, and that sometimes these changes can happen very quickly."

Meal Planning Monday :: Quick & Healthy Dinners

Oh my goodness, I just got back from a weekend of Glamping... more to come on that. Right now, however, I'm in a rush to plan out some quick and healthy meals for the week. I had a bit too much sun exposure this weekend which can make the week extra difficult for me health-wise. I'll be taking it easy for a few days until I'm back to more normal level of sass. That doesn't mean I won't be cooking. Well, that probably doesn't mean I won't be cooking. We still have to eat and it's safer if I eat food made with my own hands so I know where it's coming from! Speedy and healthy - here we go!

Butternut Squash & Coconut Milk Rice

Simple and healthy. I've just begun exploring coconut milk recipes so I'll be excited to try this one out.

Fish Tacos with Cabbage Slaw

Well, we didn't catch any fish this weekend so I have to make sure to include some on our menu this week. I've before attempted fish tacos so this could end in take-out.

Summer Vegetable Crêpes

Savory crêpes for a weeknight meal? Yes, please, and thank you.

Sweet Potato & Red Pepper Pasta

Shredded sweet potatoes make for an interesting addition to this pasta dish. And, anything with goat cheese is alright in my book. 

Fashion Friday:: Summer Love

Today, I head out for a glamping weekend!!

Let's start the celebration early with some fabulous warm weather wear!

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Coal to Diamonds:: Beth Ditto

In an effort to consolidate my blogging practices in order to free up more fiction-writing time, I have decided to do away with Book.Read.Good. and simply include book write-ups here on my personal mainstay. I found blogging just about books a little frustration mainly because it impeded my reading and writing time. I realized the ridiculous confliction in play and did away with it. Anyhoo, here we go... 

I'm a fan of the band Gossip. I'm a big music fan in general. What I'm not a fan of, however, is biographies so why I decided to pick up Coal to Diamonds still remains a bit of a mystery to me. Of course, I picked it up this morning and I've already knocked it out by the time I sat down to work on posts in the evening so it wasn't a terribly involved undertaking. I think Beth Ditto is an interesting persona - the femme punkrocker and Riot Grrrl in the post-Grrrl era. From her Arkansas upbringing to her emergence on the not-quite-underground scene, Ditto relates (with the help of writer Michelle Tea) her short life (she's only 32) with concision. Touching upon fat-positive body image and LBGTQ identity, the book was worth reading. My favorite quotes from the book are as follows:

"Punk to me has always been a moral philosophy, more than a style of music or a fashion you wear. The underpinnings of all the songs and clothes was, for me, a core rejection of the way the world operates, the mainstream world. It was a critique of capitalism, which makes some people rich on the backs of so many powerless workers. It was about smashing beauty standards that taught fat girls and boys and anyone not adhering to inhuman expectations to hate themselves."

"It's like I've won some crazy fucking lottery, and the prize has been my life."

Going Glamping

I'm super excited for my glamping trip with friends this weekend. It's been several years and then some since I've been camping. My unusual health restrictions make "roughing it" a little more difficult than it might be for others. No matter. This year, my friends and I decided to kick in for some picturesque digs in nature so we can enjoy the best of both worlds: clean, natural living and indoor plumbing! And, because I have the best friends in the whole universe, they even found a spot that will allow Ms. Eleanor, the dog-faced girl, to join our adventure. This week I'm busy planning and preparing for the trip... 

Sure, as campers we usually just brought a package of hot dogs and enough beer for the end of the world, but as glampers a little forethought is required.

The Cowboy Hotdog

Hotdogs are a camping must, but there's no reason we can get a little fancy with this classic. I know my fella will insist upon a veggie dog anyway so we've already abandoned the traditionalists. 

Perfect Picnic Sandwich

Not only is this supposed to be the perfect picnic sandwich, it's also supposed to be better a day or two after it was made so I can pack it up and bring it along.

Beer-Steamed Hobo Potato Pack

In theory, my friends might actually catch some fish at this lake. If that happens, this would be a great accompaniment. If not, PBJ for all! 

Lemon Meringue S'mores

S'mores are the camping treat for the ages. I, however, have been trying to eliminate chocolate from my repertoire so I might have to get a little fancy with these Lemon Meringue S'mores. 

And, if all else fails, the Food Network has this handy guide to 50 Things to Grill in Foil...