Cook Yourself Sexy

Cook Yourself Sexy by Candice Kumai (one of my favorite chefs, formerly known as Stiletto Chef) is my new favorite cookbook. It is absolutely gorgeous and the recipes are mouth-watering. All of the recipes call for ingredients that are clean, wholesome, and nutritious. Inside you will also find a "7 days to sexy" plan, sample menus, a "foods with benefits" list, and more. I love this book and highly recommend it.

You can find Candice's fabulous blog, here.

A Prius For Everyone

Hum hum hum let's hum, a Prius for everyone. This commercial makes me happy (and makes Ella dance) every time it comes on the television. Call it great marketing, but every time it comes on it makes me want to buy a Toyota Prius and drive it around humming the catchy tune. A Prius would actually be a great little car for me. It gets great gas mileage, it's compact, and it's a little more earth-friendly.

I have always driven a car that fit me perfectly at the time. Fifteen years ago I drove a Geo Tracker. I was care-free, lived on fast food, and liked loud music. Ten years ago I drove a Honda Passport. I was a newlywed and I always had a gym bag and grocery bags in the back. Five years ago I drove a Audi A4. I worked in the corporate world and always had dry cleaning in the back and a latte in the cup holder. Back then I imagined I would be driving my dream BMW by now and still working in the corporate world (and hopefully be a Mom).

Today I am a Mom, I care about the environment, and I am a little less-extravagant (I would rather put money in my daughter's college savings than buy $250 jeans). I could now imagine driving around in my little Prius, humming a happy tune, with a toddler and yoga mat in the back. Now that's a good dream.

I Have So Much To Tell You

Wow, it's been a long time since my last post. I hope at least one of you still follow this blog because I have so much to tell you.

Sadly summer is over, but fall is here and it's my very favorite time of the year. I love the weather, the pumpkin flavored everything, the changing leaves, comfort food, and cozy blankets. We have a lot of fun family fall activities planned, like; visiting the pumpkin patch, Thanksgiving Point's Barnyard Boo, Hogle Zoo's Boo at the Zoo, Gardner Village's Witches Night Out, and more. I also love the fall because it's when I celebrate my Birthday. I turned 35 this month and I made a lot of goals to become healthier and stronger by my next Birthday. I have decided that I am done with dieting, calorie counting, and other awful restrictions. I am going to continue to eat whole, all-natural, fresh, and organic foods (nothing artificial and no preservatives) and just eat smaller portions. NO MORE CRAP. I am going to cook more food from scratch like the marinara sauce I made the other night that took two hours but was worth every delicious bite. I am also planning on doing five 5K's before my next Birthday - I already have two races I definitely want to do.

Over the summer I also added two more items to my bucket list; travel to Italy and learn to paddle board. Last month I went to San Diego for 10 days and stayed in a beach house with some of my favorite people on the planet but I never worked up the courage to go rent a paddle board. Next time I am going paddle boarding.

This year we grew a garden and enjoyed all of the delicious squash, fresh tomatoes, eggplant, peas, and more - all organic, I might add. My herb garden was also amazing this year and I used herbs in a ton of recipes. My 2-year old loved helping me pick herbs and fresh veggies from the garden. We also went to every farmer's market in Salt Lake and even made it up to the Park City farmers market. We had a lot of delicious produce this summer.

I have more to share but will save them for future blog posts, which will be at least once a week, not every few months (insert smiley face here).