oh, paper!

It's been baby city for my family lately. To be specific, my sister and two of my cousins were all pregnant this spring. Two babies were born last week, with one more to come at the end of summer. And this means - yes - there were be three newborns at Thanksgiving this year. I might actually try to hold them all at once. (!!)

This also means that my mom and aunt have been busy throwing baby showers left and right. Each time, they've enlisted my help with the invitations because, although it's not technically one of the five languages, I think paper suites are mine. 

I fall for paper products like I do restaurants: it's all in the details. The little things and the ambiance are what get me. 

And although I was once an equal opportunist (Crane! Kate Spade! Paper Source!), I have become a one-company kind of woman recently. Minted has my heart in every way possible. It's a community of independent artists who upload their own designs. And they have thought of every detail - from colored envelopes to invitation liners to addressing the cards for you (for real!) and everything in between, Minted isn't messing around.  

They even have super cute Father's Day cards! I didn't use them because I wanted to hand-write my note. But if I had, I would have done a little something like this:

That's mostly all I wanted to tell you today. Other than that you can get $25 off an order (jump-start those Christmas cards, my friends!) if you click here. And don't be fooled - I'm not getting anything out of this, nor is Minted asking me to promote them. I'm just that hooked. 

#itslove

happy atl weekend

I've said it once here and I've probably said it a million times out loud, but I still mean it when I say it makes me so happy when I stumble up an in-Atlanta, somewhat unplanned weekend. There is something so sweet about these weekends - just busy enough to feel social, but open enough for impromptu pool time and froyo with friends. Both scheduled and spontaneous, which is pretty much my ideal. 

Friday, a slightly hodgepodge (but awesome) group of friends came to see our new place and walk to El Taco and Hand in Hand. The night was pretty chill and offered the chance for new faces to meet and new connections to be made. Although I love nights where everyone is friends, with inside jokes and memories to laugh about, there is something so invigorating about watching new people connect. 

Saturday, Katie G. and I went to lunch at the Market at Parish (yum!), then tried Kale Me Crazy, which recently opened in Inman Park. It felt appropriate to try it with Katie since she introduced me to Arden's Garden last fall. 

Since I'm not exactly a kale lover, I was nervous to try their kale-based juices and smoothies. However, I was pleasantly surprised. I could barely taste the kale in my juice and am eager to go back and try a smoothie when I haven't just eaten. Our "juice-tender" was extremely knowledgeable and answered all of our questions. And the ambiance was pretty great too. The only thing I didn't like was that the cold-pressed juice came in a bottle. Even though he assured me it was fresh pressed that morning, I'm more of a straw and lid kind of person. 

Other weekend highlights include pool time and froyo with Stacy, Kate and Jill. Church with friends. And just enough exercise, rest and preparing for the week to get this Monday off to a great start.

I hope your weekend was great. It's the last week of no coffee for Lauren and me! Wahoo :)

super healthy, super tasty zucchini bread

Pack a lunch, folks. Or rather, pack this in your lunch. Because you're going to love it. This is ridiculously healthy, superly tasty zucchini bread brought to you by a wild, wild hair I got late Wednesday night.

Let me back up.

Growing up, my aunt, Betsy, made the most amazing zucchini bread. Just thinking about it makes me salivate.  On Wednesday at work, they hosted a farmers' market with local produce. The minute I picked up the zucchini, I looked at my friend Christina and said: I'm making zucchini bread tonight.

I got home from dinner and started unloading my car and remembered the zucchini. Still determined to make the bread, I looked through my cabinets and realized I actually had almost none of the ingredients it required: eggs, milk, flour, butter, vanilla, vegetable oil...

Nada.

But there are two things you should know about me:
1. When it comes to baking, I've never met a recipe I liked to follow. Measuring seems like an unnecessary evil and every ingredient is optional and substitutable as far as I'm concerned.
2. When I get an idea in my head, it pretty much has to happen immediately.

So I decided to make up my own recipe based on what was in my pantry, which resulted in incredibly healthy, incredibly tasty, vegan, gluten-free zucchini bread.

(And yes, I am as shocked as you are. In fact, I still wonder if my mom sneaked in an swapped it out for a better batch after I called her multiple times wondering if this might work in place of that).

Here's what you're going to need (and keep in mind my measurements are loose, so mix to taste)...

In a bowl, combine:
6 T ground flax seeds
1/2 c. warm water
1 c. applesauce
2 c. grated zucchini
2 c. almond flour
1 c. oats
1 T baking powder
1 t baking soda
a dash of: salt, cinnamon, olive oil and brown sugar or honey (again, these are to taste)

Beat until very-well mixed. Pour in greased pan and (optional but tasty) sprinkle brown sugar on top. Bake at 350 for 60 minutes.

Notes: If you don't like things to "taste healthy," I'd skip the flax. You can definitely taste it. Also, since it has a lot of applesauce, the bread will seem pretty gooey when it's hot, but it will firm up a bit once it cools. So don't over bake. 

And there you have it. Breakfast!

(PS: Don't forget your protein. I topped mine with sunflower butter and was then just totally on cloud nine.)

image, image, image

aaand we juice

In college, on Sunday nights in our sorority, we'd write notes saying thank you to people who had had an impact on us that week. I am an extreme purger and my friends would often joke with me as we walked back to our rooms: did you throw that away yet?

I'd like to think I'm sentimental, but not so much when it comes to physical stuff.

On the contrary, there is one area of life in which I am a bit of a hoarder. I can't think of a way to classify it, exactly, but let me explain:

Growing up, I used to keep my Halloween candy instead of eat it. I wanted to savor it. I specifically remember throwing a whole bag of untouched candy away one Christmas. I liked it so much I didn't want to eat it!

Outfits are another example. When I love one, I save it and save it until I can find a great reason to wear it.

Gift cards. Don't get me started. I hoard these like a fool. I recently realized I had an unused Atlanta Bread Company gift card, which I received for high school graduation. I just wanted to make sure I used it for something really good!

Most recently, Courtney gave me a juicer for my birthday in September. But I saved it, you see, because this fall wasn't really the best season. My foot was broken. Our house had rats. I just wasn't living in my sweet spot. And it didn't feel like the right time to unwrap the juicer.

But things are good nowadays. We're back on track and it was time to juice, my friends! So off to Whole Foods I went to snag a recipe off the juice board.

I picked up a beet and used leftover carrots, apple and spinach from my fridge. I skipped out on the suggested lemon, as I've been on a bit of lemon overload lately and wasn't in the mood for it.

I was a little nervous to try it, mainly because it looked disgusting (completely brown), but it was amazing. A total win! It was such a great add to my dinner and I am now wondering why I wasn't doing this all winter.

I am also wondering what all I can put in my juicer. Could I start adding kale and tricking myself into consuming it? Can you juice any fruit and veggie? What else can you juice? It is a pretty magical machine.

The spinach gave off surprisingly little liquid. I kept adding handfuls of it, but it was producing barely any juice. The beet, however, was the star of the show. Real bang for my buck with that guy.

Let me know if you have any excellent juice recipes to try. Now that it's broken in, there's no stopping this juicer.