5 Favs in 5 Days – Take Two

Take two of my 5 favorite things from Mon-Fri was made a little easier with a trip back to Oklahoma! It’s always easier to find favorite things while on vacation!

My #5 favorite thing of the week…

I never understood my Mom’s obsession with ornaments, but as I begin to accumulate my own little collection I am starting to understand a little bit more. I get so much satisfaction each year I take my ornament’s out of their little boxes and place them on my Christmas tree. And thanks to Mom, I have a new guy to put on the tree this year!  The best running back of all time at the University of Oklahoma and now the Minnesota Vikings top running back, Adrian Peterson!  He will sit nicely on the tree next to my little Sooner and Charger players!

My #4 favorite thing of the week…

Every time I’m back home in Oklahoma, there a few things on the list that must be done every trip… 3 of those things will be included in this weeks “5 Favs” including the purchase of a new OU clothing item to add to my “Sooners Dresser”.  Yes, I have an entire dresser dedicated to OU clothing items… t-shirts, tanks, sweat pants, sweat shirts, boxers, if they make it, I own it!  My newest shirt involves one of the biggest rivalries in college football as well as a little irony for anyone who knows my ex-boyfriend and how that whole situation went down, a story you will surely see in a movie someday Wish I would have listened to the shirt before getting in that relationship!

My #3 favorite thing of the week…

Another Oklahoma trip ritual… dinner at Ted’s Cafe Escondido. Mexican food – Oklahoma style! While the bottomless chips, salsa, queso dip, spicy relish and tortillas are a huge selling point, my favorite part of every visit to Ted’s is their Frozen Sangria. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! Best Sangria Ever! Yes, I do have the authority to name this the best Sangria ever because I am a Sangria connoisseur. Every restaurant, bar, drinking establishment I visit that offers this tasty combination of fruit, wine and liquor (what’s not to love!), I put it to my “Sangria Connoisseur” test and this is the BEST Sangria ever!

My #2 favorite thing of the week…

New boots! So I’ve been on the look out for a pair of flat motor-cycle style boots… and apparently I found exactly what I was looking for!  Upon arrival in Oklahoma in my new boots my Dad said I looked like I was “going for a ride on a motor-cycle” perfect, haha!  I picked up these gems for only $50 at Charlotte Russe! Been wearing them for over a week straight, so comfortable and go with everything!  Love the orange detail surrounding the zipper, totally on trend for the season!

My #1 favorite thing of the week…

SHELLAC! The revolutionary new combination of nail polish and gels has changed my life!  After blogging last week in my “5 Favs” about my amazing new nail polish, it began to chip 2 days later and my newly “freed from acrylics” natural nails began to crack and something that made me so happy just a few short days before made me so sad. Then, another one of my Oklahoma trip rituals,  a visit to my family’s long time nail girl Amberlea introduced me to Shellac! No chipping, no cracking, no dry time, just a super shiny finish and easy breezy nails for 2 weeks! I got mine done 6 days ago and they are still perfect!

Is Your Life In “A Place of Yes”???

There was a time in my recent past where many days were not quite filled with rose peddles and butterflies, it was more like dead shrubs and wasps. While I’m pretty sure everyone goes through a “shrubs and wasps” time in their life, it doesn’t really make it any easier to keep getting stung day after day!  Being the persistent, determined and down right stubborn girl that I am, I was not about to allow shrubs to block the view of roses in my future! The actual, physical “little leopard book” came in very handy at this time in my life. I began to write down productive things I did throughout my day, projects I wanted to start working on and goals for the future.  This really helped me to see that there would be days filled with butterflies and roses in my future!

(And if it comes in the form of cupcakes, even better!)

I also began to read the book A Place of Yes by Bethenny Frankel. While I found the whole book entertaining because I just love everything about her (sarcastic, inappropriate humor, amazing business ethic, dedication to her friends and family, what’s not to love??) my absolute favorite chapters of the book were those on business, “Everything’s Your Business: Finding My Stride As an Entrepreneur” and “All Roads Lead to Rome: The Rise and Fall of BethennyBakes”.  I pulled many quotes, thoughts and messages that I enjoyed from the book and passed them on to my two best girlfriends for some entrepreneurial inspiration and today I will share them with you!

• Treat everything you choose to do with as much importance as if your career depended on it.
• Treat everything you do as if it is an essential part of your business or an important step forward in life.
• Know how to delegate!
• Don’t wake up one morning ready to retire with the realization that you never went for it!
• The need for money NOW should never eclipse your vision for your life.
• Hardship is better than regret.
• Don’t think of all the ways you CAN’T do something, think of all the ways you CAN!
• What is your purpose? What do you want to accomplish? What’s important to you?
• The best ideas are the simple ones that solve a problem.
• Look at your life. Look at what you want to celebrate or improve or repair, and then think of ways to do that.
• “There are two types of people: The ones who give you 50 reasons it can’t be done, and the ones who just do it!” Hoda Kotb
• Don’t think about how much you have to do all at once, just do one thing at a time.
• When starting your own business the upside can be enormous, the downside is minimal.
• Every part of your life can benefit from attention to detail and a high standard for quality.
• “There’s nothing like biting off more than you can chew, and then chewing anyway.” Mark Burnett

The Healthy Side of My Food Addiction

With all of my food/cooking/eating posts, it may seem as if I’m a little “nutritionally-challenged” but it’s actually the opposite. I’m very much interested and involved in the health and fitness industry. I won’t lie that a lot of my love for the industry came from “The Biggest Loser”. One cold winter day about 5 years ago I was home sick and found a full season marathon of “The Biggest Loser” entice me into what is now a full-blown obsession with the show!  Everyone loves a good weight loss success show, but this one takes serious commitment, it’s not a complete transformation in one hour, oh no, this is 2 hours per week (1.5 hours if you DVR and FF, which is pretty much the only way to watch tv these days), for 6 months, kind of commitment! But it is so worth it! Yes, the show is a tad on the cheesy side, but you really can learn a lot about health, fitness and weight loss from tuning in, as well as be super inspired by the 48-year-old mom that goes from a size 22 to 2, yeah, that happened!

The combination of running my first half marathon, becoming a full blown “yogi” and the influence of “The Biggest Loser” I decided to devote my summer to becoming a certified personal trainer. I did a lot of research and decided to go with ACSM (American College of Sports Medicine), everyone said it was the hardest certification to obtain and I like a good challenge so I woke up every morning and studied throughout the summer. As I got more and more into it I realized how much science was involved and found myself really only interested in the chapter on nutrition. So today I will share with you all some of, what I thought, were the most interesting facts.  This may be a review for some of you but they’re important things to think about whether you are trying to lose weight or just want to maintain a balanced diet!

• The amount of energy in carbs, proteins and fats per gram are: 4,4,9
• Carbohydrates should be 55-65% of total daily caloric intake (at least 200-400 calories daily) and should be eaten every 3 hours to maintain blood sugar levels.
• When carbs are consumed in amounts greater than required for energy they are metabolized then stored as body fat (yuck!)
• Protein should be 15% of total daily caloric intake, app 1.5 grams per kilogram of body weight should be consumed daily.
• Too much protein can cause an increase in urine production and lead to dehydration.
• The most common mineral deficiency is iron and too little iron in your diet can lead to poor endurance and a lower ability to burn fat (obviously none of us want that!)
• Fats should consume no more than 35% of daily caloric intake, the ideal intake is 25%
• Good fats are monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids that can be found in olive and canola oils or vegetable and corn oils and lower blood cholesterol levels, while maintaining high-density lipoprotein (good) cholesterol (out with the bad, in with the good is the motto here!)
• After consuming these calories, 150-400 should be expended each day in physical activity, 2000 per week for weight loss.
• And my least favorite fact: at age 17 girls have twice as much body fat as boys… life is just not fair!!!

5 Favs in 5 Days – Take One

So we all know that Saturday and Sunday get all the love when it comes to the days of the week… and who can blame them?? They’re filled with football, weekend getaways, BBQ’s, shopping and most importantly the two days of the week most people in the world don’t have to go to work! The ugly step-children of Saturday and Sunday are those “other days” during the week. You know who I’m talking about Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Just something to ponder… if Saturday and Sunday are the “week-end” days, couldn’t we propose that Monday and Tuesday be called the “week-beginning” days and Wednesday, Thursday and Friday be called the “week-middle” days?? I think I would look forward to Monday’s a lot more if I called it the “week-beginning” like it was the beginning of something new and exciting, not just another “case of the Mondays”!

All these thoughts about the days of the week and wanting to share some of my favorite things  led me to “5 Favs in 5 Days” a post I will bestow upon the world each weekend with my top 5 favorite things from those “beginning and middle” days that are usually consumed with all of the work and none of the glory.  We all know it is much easier to find five favorite things during the weekend, I’m challenging myself to find five favorite things during the week! These things can range from fashion to food to hairstyles and nail polishes to apps or books to restaurants or new spots, pretty much anything I condone as a “favorite thing” that week. Now let’s get this favorite party started!

My #5 favorite thing of the week…

“Ace of Spades” champagne. After an amazing night downtown Wednesday where I met some fun new friends , the BFF and I joined these new friends Thursday night for some more mayhem at Geisha House in Hollywood. Dinner and drinks were delicious, but the night was topped off with our endless supply of “Gold Bottles” … yes, these are the “Gold Bottles” that Jay-Z sings about in “On To The Next One”, for me it’s gold, shiny and pops bubbly so I’m sold!!

My #4 favorite thing of the week…

Perch, downtown Los Angeles. Great view, live music, amazing cocktail list, done, done and done. My first downtown excursion Wednesday evening for a “friend of a friend’s” birthday party was so much fun.  Great group of girls and always love trying new spots in LA! Highly recommend checking out Perch if you make it downtown! I can’t guarantee your group will be this really really ridiculously good looking, but the view of the downtown skyline will be

My #3 favorite thing of the week…

La Piazza Ristorante at the Grove, Los Angeles. I shared with you a recipe inspired by this restaurant back in August and while the food is yummy, I’m actually placing it on my “favorite things” list this week because of the ambiance and happy hour! After a long day of trying to dye my own hair and turning it purple (yes, there is a reason women pay hundreds of dollars to have their hair done by a professional and no I will not be sharing pictures of this travesty with you all… at least not yet… the wounds are still fresh), then doing pre-calc homework and on to buying my new laptop, it was a day of ups and downs for sure. And what’s better after a long day than happy hour with the BFF! Erin met me at La Piazza just in time to catch the last hour of happy hour (in bz terms, that’s about 2-3 glasses of happy hour wine time)! They have a rather extensive wine list for happy hour and all glasses are $6, they also have a variety of small bites for $3- $6. And best of all, who can beat a view like this??

My #2 favorite thing of the week…

My new OPI nail polish.  For the last decade I have had french tip fake nails. While they were somewhat low maintenance, good for scalp massages and being color neutral went with every outfit, it was time for a change. As of Wednesday afternoon at 4:00 PM I am fake nail free! Part of the deciding factor in this revolutionary change in my life… this glorious new OPI nail polish I caught a glimpse of while checking out at my local beauty supply store. It sparkles, it shines and when I look down as a type this it makes me very happy!! It’s called “Gettin’ Miss Piggy With It” from the OPI Muppets Collection.  Used a darker red underneath and perfection!

And my #1 favorite thing of the week…

Obviously the newest edition to my family, my MacBook, Zoe. Yes, I named her after Rachel Zoe, she’s sleek, stylish and brings a lot of joy to my life!

Hello Gorgeous!! I am so obsessed with this beautiful piece of craftsmanship. My way of honoring the life and accomplishments of Steve Jobs, purchasing my first MAC… and the fact that my HP gave up on life around Saturday…

Mexican Casserole

When it comes time to decide on and prepare a dish to take to a party, I really feel the pressure!  It must be something that I can make ahead of time, transport to the party (which in LA can take 20 minutes or 2 hours!) and still be super-delicious when I arrive!  This particular occasion called for another “Gameday Grub” recipe, as I now like to call any dish I make that corresponds with football and beer.

This dish originated at my aunts annual Christmas Eve dinner. Since we (my brother and I) were the only children in the family my parents insisted on having Christmas at our house every year after we were born, so a few years later my aunt started the tradition of having Christmas Eve dinner at her house.  She would make a lot of small bites like sausage balls, pigs in a blanket and queso dip and chips (an Oklahoma standard), but one year she started making this Mexican Casserole. It’s almost like a chili con queso with tortilla strips and cheese on top baked into the form of a casserole.

Ingredients (serves 4)

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 small onion (chopped)
• 4 oz velveeta cheese
• 1 can rotel
• 1 can ranch style beans
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup
• 2 cups shredded mexican style cheese
• 10 small corn tortillas