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Easter Eats with Gourmet Gift Baskets

April 13, 2017 1 Comment

Two food posts in a row? Now we’re talkin’.

Baskets to give for any occasion is pretty much my signature gift to people. Having a baby? You get a basket! It’s your birthday? Here’s a basket I made for you! While I do love shopping for individual items for adding to a basket, it’s always really fun to see how other people (meaning… companies) put theirs together. I’ll probably save these items for Easter morning to give to my husband (and eat some myself, too of course.. duh I love me some candy).

This lil’ Easter bunny filled basket is the Classic Easter Bunny Basket (on sale for $44.99) from Gourmet Gift Baskets.

Oof.Â Pretty late to the game posting this, since if you order the basket now, it might arrive in time for Easter as they have a ‘counter’ on their site saying if you order in the next 22 hours, it’ll get to your door on time! Excuses, but I’ve had a few things on my plate and haven’t been blogging as much as I wanted to. BUT! Gourmet Gift Baskets not only does Easter goodies, I have another one coming up to show you in the future, for a nice Mother’s Day present.Â Can you guys remember me blogging about Gourmet Gift Baskets a few years back? I searched my site and one of the first times I talked about the brand on here, was in 2009! Their site is still going strong, and selling everything from Easter Baskets, to Mother’s Day gifts and everything in between. Huge thanks to them for sending this basket for review, too.

What are your Easter plans? I’m excited to finally have my husband home with me after him traveling on two trips â€” it’s been a while since we’ve had a nice weekend together!

Daily

Skipping the grocery store and whippin’ up meals with Blue Apron

April 10, 2017 19 Comments

OMG. YAS.

Feed me all the delicious food. Or, hand over the ingredients with easy-to-follow recipes and you have yourself a gourmet meal, made by me… all thanks to Blue Apron!

This is so fantastic. The reason I enjoy these services so much is mainly for the fact it gives me ideas on how to spice things up in the kitchen, literally. I’m in no way like my Mom who can whip up a delicious meal, enough to feed an army, and has the the most delicious flavouring in everything she makes. My meals? They’re bland! I have no imagination when it comes to mixing all sorts of random ingredients together for fear of it coming out gross and…then I’d have to eat it. So I stick to what I know best.

Blue Apron and I teamed up and I’m showin’ you the 3 meals I created with it. Fret not, if you’re not the most adventurous eater (like myself), you can select from a range of meals before your delivery box comes to your door step. I ended up choosing these delicious sounding ones:

[1] Seared Salmon & Lemon Labneh with Freekeh, Kale & Dates
[2] Fontina-Stuffed Pork Chops with Potatoes & pizzaiola sauce
[3] Chicken Under a “Brick” with roasted vegetables & italian dressing

Since I just got the box Saturday, I am still cooking the meals daily because they’ll do me right up until supper-time tonight. Plus my husband wasn’t home so I got to save the second meal for lunch as the ingredients provided, makes two adult-sized meals! Yas! Win win.

Select your ‘taste profile‘ and tag whether or not you’re a vegetarian, prefer the following meats: beef, poultry, fish, pork, lamb, shellfish (I de-selected the latter two since I didn’t want it in our boxes). The first meal I made was on Saturday night, and it was theÂ Seared Salmon & Lemon Labneh with Freekeh, Kale & Dates. If I’m being honest with you, the labneh cheese was definitely not my favourite and I wish I had tasted it before topping it off on the salmon. It definitely made for a pretty dish and presentation though, don’t you think? :)

What do you think of these subscription boxes for food prepÂ services? I love trying them out, personally… since we rarely go out to eat at restaurants, I prefer cooking at home so we can take control of the sodium and fat in each meal.

Get $30 off your Blue Apron box!

Fashion

My California Casual Spring Style #FossilStyle

April 6, 2017 19 Comments

Outfit of the days are one of my favourite things to post on my blog, yet they’re far and few between lately.

I’m forever browsing the Forever 21 store at my local mall, and recently picked up a denim top. I already have one that I bought a few years ago at Target but only had worn it a handful of times. Now, comparing the two together â€” the one from Forever 21, has a more laidback look to it. Like you’re not trying so hard. Brown stitching, a softer material, and not as heavy to wear in this California weather.

So, thought I’d pull together this afford outfit and show you what I’m wearing, head-to-toe.

While I’m not used to carrying a larger bag on me anymore (I always seem to panic and lose items in the dark abyss of my purse), I’ve been wearing this one when I want to head out with my pals and I need to cart around a lot of stuff. For instance, blog photos…and I require an outfit change. It’ll all fit in this bag, ha!

Thanks for Fossil for sending over this sweet purse. It’s the Maya Hobo in the Marine shade, and available online. Yay!

Posin’ with my lunch. One of the biggest, and also one of the most expensive salads I’ve ever eaten. But it was good. And it had kale in it! You bet I ate every bite of it (because it was $$$ lol).

My wardrobe isn’t the most expensive one out there, but I thought you guys would be interested in some of my latest purchases (and PR samples: the Fossil purse). By the way, totally don’t own that keepcup in the photo above. I finally saw one at a store in Santa Cruz, andÂ snapped a pic with it. Is that weird?