All Hallows' Eve

So in the spirit of Halloween, I figured I would show you some of my previous costumes

 The year we went as the old TV show GUTS contestant and referee

 The year I dressed up like an Olympian Badminton player

 The year we went as Garbage Pail Kids (I was Haggy Maggie and D was Itchy Richie)

And then of course the year we chose our favorite cartoon mice to dress up as - I was Danger Mouse (the really old British mouse detective) and D was Mighty Mouse

As you can see, we're really into homemade costumes... But Riley is a little pickier, this year she was a bucking bronco:

Happy Halloween! 

Polished

One of my friends recently brought to my attention how often I change my nail color.  I used to work in an extremely buttoned up industry so felt as though I had to keep my nails pretty bare or at least natural colors.  Now, I work in a much more laid back environment so I am able to express myself through my nail colors.  I change my nail color every two weeks, sometimes if I feel extra frisky I will change it weekly.  So I figure I would post some of my favorite colors right now, and there are a lot!  But I feel like you need to wear colors you love because you're going to see it every time you look at your hands and everyone else will notice too.  So here we go...

 So starting with the lightest colors.  From left to right (all Essie):
Nice is Nice, Pilates Hottie, and Steel-ing The Scene
The last one is a mix between gunmetal and silver and is really nice for nighttime.  Both of the other colors are light lilac colors and are just super girly and pretty.

 Onto the blues & greens, from left to right:
OPI Can't Find My Czechbook, Essie Mint Candy Apple (seriously my most favorite of all probably), Essie Going Incognito, Essie Butler Please.
These are definitely not neutral and all are pretty dark, but they are just seriously great looking colors.  I also think all 4 of these look great on all skin tones.  I know they're not typical fall colors since they are so bright but I really think they look great at any time of year.

 My reds... For some reason it is really hard for me to find a red nail polish I like.  From left to right (all Essie):
She's Pampered, Times Red Square, Showstopper, Bahama Mama.
The last two are pretty dark and I prefer for my toes.  Showstopper also has a shimmer to it that I love.  The first one is a super bright, happy red that I wear whenever I want to be girly and classy.  Times Red Square is just a super classic, deep red color that is perfect with some dark berry lipstick. 

 So these are some of my favorite pinks.  I have a ton more, but I tried to limit it to just a few. From left to right:
Essie A Crewed Interest, Essie Cute as a Button, Essie Splash of Grenadine, and OPI Party in My Cabana.
Love these - all are super pretty.  The first one is pretty sheer so if you work in a corporate atmosphere where you need to tone down, this is a perfect color.  The third one is a super girly pinky-purple that is so cute on my toes.

 Onto the super dark polishes.  I'm not a fan of too dark of colors, but these 3 I love.  From left to right:
Nicole by OPI Show You Care, Essie Lady Godiva, and OPI Siberian Nights.  The first and third colors are really deep purples. These almost look black but I love them both.  Show You Care looks especially nice with a clear or pink glitter coat painted over.  The middle one is a dark brown that looks just like dark chocolate, it is the epitome of fall colors. 

And finally these really just don't have a category.  All are Essie, from left to right:
Buy Me a Cameo which is a shimmery, pinkish bronze color.  This is a great option if you want a natural color that is not the usual pink or beige.
Next is the First Base Base Coat, which is the best base coat I have used.  It goes on so smoothly and dries really quick.  Plus, I never need to use a top coat with this.  It somehow keeps my nails from chipping, which is a feat in itself.
Lastly Shine of the Times which is a clear glitter polish.  I use this to paint over other colors when I want to add a little pizzazz. 
Seriously how great are the nail polish names?  I so wish I could come up with names for nail polish because it must be so fun!  On my local radio station they actually played a game the other day called "Name of a Nail Polish or Name of an Adult Film".  It was pretty funny because I never noticed how many nail polishes have such scandalous names.  Do you have a favorite nail polish color?  I hope I'm not the only one who is constantly changing my nail color!

Beach, Bells and Bagpipes

So this past weekend, two of our friends got married in Pensacola, Florida. 

Two other friends of ours were nice enough to welcome us all to their family's beach house in Destin for the Friday before the wedding.  We of course accepted with no pause and Friday morning we awoke and were on the road by 8 am on our way to Destin.  For some reason our GPS decided to take us the longest way possible, but nothing could ruin the day.  The weather was perfect, which I unfortunately did not prepare for, so we had to run over to a super cheesy beach shop to pick up a $10 Destin outfit.  Everyone else started arriving shortly after so we all went for a walk along the beach and just hung out on the back deck.

For dinner that night we stopped by a really good seafood restaurant called Harbor Docks.  If you're in town for a visit, you should definitely stop by there.  They had a bunch of daily catches that could be made a few different ways and a long list of sushi. I went for the sushi, and it was really delicious and super fresh.  The rest of the night we spent back at the beach house drinking wine and just chatting away.  Saturday morning we all got up and went for brunch at a local place called The Pancakery.  This is another good choice if you're in town, but be forewarned that there will be a long wait on the weekends.  We waited for about 35 minutes but the wait was worth it.  They have any kind of pancake you could think of, different types of batters and a very long list of toppings to choose from - even M&Ms if you wanted.  After brunch we went back to watch some football and then had to move on to Pensacola for the wedding.  The wedding was lovely.  They got married in a small, historic church in downtown Pensacola and then the reception immediately followed at a restaurant on the water.  Everything went well with the wedding with just one little hitch - unfortunately someone locked the church doors so the bride couldn't come in when it was time.  Finally someone realized and ran to unlock the doors for her.  Other than one little delay, everything else seemed to go smoothly and we all had a blast.

After the wedding our group decided to check out a local pub we had been talking about all weekend long.  So one thing you should know about my friends and I, we are all in our early 30s but sometimes I think if someone listened in on our conversations they would think we were a bunch of 80 year olds.  So Friday night when D and I were laying in bed watching TV we were flipping through the channels and saw a local commercial talking about the $0.18 soup at the pub that is the same price as when the pub opened its doors in 1977.  We thought we had to have misheard that but of course we had to tell everyone about it the next morning so we literally brought up the $0.18 soup about 30 times during the day so after the wedding we had to stop by to check it out.  So we walked over from our hotel to McGuires Irish Pub and bellied up to the bar where we ordered some drinks and a bowl of the $0.18 soup.  It was delish! We had an interesting time at this Irish pub.  First off one of my friends decided to share some steak with a group of random guys who were sitting behind us.  Then as we were getting ready to leave a nice man walked in and started playing his bagpipes.  All in all it was an interesting evening.  Sunday morning we basically woke up and had a 6 hour drive back home so the day was spent mostly with sitting in the car unfortunately. 

Everybody's Working for the Weekend

It's that time again.  The end of the week, the day that you've been waiting for all week long.  So, hopefully you're going to have a fun weekend, so to start the weekend off right, here is just an interesting picture.  It was taken two years ago while D and I were in New Orleans for a weekend.  We were just walking around and saw this interesting pair hanging out in the main square.  At first D tried to be sneaky and take a picture of them while they weren't looking, but they saw him and invited him to come over and take a close up with the stipulation that he send a copy to the gypsy's mom so she knew her daughter was OK.  D agreed and took the email address and took the picture. There are always interesting characters to make interesting stories from NOLA!

Hope you have a silly, fun weekend!

Clean Up Time

I've learned as I've gotten older how important it is to have a night time routine. When I was younger I would go to sleep all the time without washing the makeup off of my face.  I know, the horror!  But now if I make that mistake, the next morning my skin is splotchy and gross looking.  So I've developed a routine to make it easier to follow nightly.  Sometimes I switch it up a little bit, but this is the one I use most nights.

So to start, I put my hair back to get it out of my face.  Then the next stop is to use the Almay oil free eye makeup remover.  I prefer the oil free because it is less greasy and doesn't irritate my eyes at all.  After I get all of my eye makeup off I move onto the next step, the facial scrub.  I really like the Lush Cosmetics Herbalism face wash.  It may seem a little strange, but it scrubs your skin so well and smells good.  Plus, unlike a lot of scrubs, it is so gentle you can use it every day.  You just break a little piece off and add water so it becomes a paste.  Then you just scrub your face with it.  Then about once a week, I use the Mario Badescu Rolling Cream Peel with AHA.  This is an exfoliating cream that you spread on your face and then roll in a circular motion as you watch it peel up.  Then I pour a little of the Kiehl's Calendula Herbal Extract Alcohol-Free Toner onto one of the cotton pads and use that to rub off the rest of the exfoliating cream.  Then, this is a nightly step, but I apply the Clinique Moisture Surge Overnight Mask.  This stuff is pretty nice, you just put a thin layer all over your face and let it dry and then the next morning when you wake up your skin feels so soft.  The next step, and we're getting to the end of the routine, I massage the Replenix Eye Repair Cream around my eyes, especially on the area right below my eyes all over my bags.  Now, I have to be honest I have no clue where you buy this cream from because my mother-in-law works in the industry and got it for me, but I'm sure you can get it from somewhere.  Usually the eye cream would be the last step, but unfortunately sometimes I get blemishes.  The final step if I do have blemishes, I use the Mario Badescu Drying Lotion on them.  This stuff is a life saver!  While it doesn't completely get rid of the spot overnight, it shrinks it a lot and quickens the healing process.  It also makes you look quite silly since it leaves pink spots behind.  I've been using this stuff since I was in high school, and it seriously is one product that anyone who is prone to acne should really use.
So that is my nightly routine.  Do you have any specific getting ready for bed routine that you do nightly? 

Coat Trick

So this weekend was a pretty relaxed weekend and a cooler one at that.  I'm finally able to start unpacking my sweaters and jackets that have been boxed up for the summer. 

 So as I said before, Friday was a pretty calm night, we just went to a local casual pizza place for dinner.  Luckily it was still warm enough that we could even sit on the patio.  Since it was a pretty calm night, I just put on some jeans, a black shirt and this leopard print scarf.  I was also able to take out my lighter jackets, which I'm so excited to finally be able to wear!  The jeans are just the Diva Skinny jeans from Old Navy.  The scarf is from a  boutique called Fab'rik.  There are a bunch of locations of this store all over town, and they also have a website.  Their clothes are super affordable and very trendy.  It's a good place to buy trendy clothes that you don't want to spend a ton of money on.  The green jacket is from Bloomies last fast.  My shoes were a major find!  I got them from DSW a couple of months ago.  They are Vince Camuto and I got them for $20.  They are so comfortable and are cute enough I can wear to work or just casually on the weekend.

Saturday night, we went to a neighborhood pub to watch the Seminoles beat the Tigers.  Unfortunately I couldn't find any of my team shirts so I had to improvise, but it also was pretty chilly out Saturday night.  I wore these red pants that I got from Express last winter, but I feel like I always see them in store.  I can't find them online, but I'm pretty sure I remember seeing the colored jeans in store recently.  I wore just a plain, long sleeve black shirt from Old Navy.  The jacket was also another great find!  I got it from Zara on sale also for $30.  If you have not checked out Zara, you really should.  It is a European brand that now sells in the US.  Their prices range from cheap to moderately expensive, but they also have great sales.  They also have a great men's section.  The shoes are these Steve Madden smoker loafers.  They are super comfortable and I always get a ton of compliments whenever I wear them.

We All Cheer For Ice Cream

So last week, the Atlanta Elite Yelpers were invited to sample ice cream from a new local ice cream shop.  Yelp is a website where regular people can review different local businesses.  There's a site for almost every major city in the US, and even some internationally.  If you review enough businesses and people enjoy them, you can become an Elite member, which is the best thing ever!  You get invited to try different local businesses and meet tons of other people who you would probably never would have met otherwise.  So last week, Yelp invited the Elite members to try the Jeni's Ice Cream truck.  I brought D as my plus one and we headed over to the top secret location. 

They had a few flavors for everyone to try out.  I got the sweet potato with toasted marshmallow.  It was seriously amazing!  I would never think that sweet potato flavored ice cream could ever taste good, but it tasted better than good. I am still thinking about how delicious it was.

D tried the salted caramel flavor.  This one was good also, but it would taste better with some chocolate ice cream mixed with it. 

So the moral of the story is, if you want some delicious ice cream, try out Jeni's.  Their shop is opening this week at Westside Provisions and if you go over to their website you can search for the local stores that show this delicious sweet treat. 

The Leaves Are Changing

So fall has arrived, finally!  It is finally starting to cool off in Atlanta.  Unfortunately with the cooler weather also came the rain, but the sun has come out again and leaves are falling.  We had a fall weekend here.

We started our weekend by going to Osteria 832 in the Highlands for dinner Friday night.  Osteria is a great little local pizza and pasta restaurant and if you have a family the perfect place to go!  It's very casual and trendy and the food is pretty good.  It is also extremely affordable - dishes range between $8 - $13.  The restaurant also has a super cute patio that you can watch all of the people walking along Highland Ave from.  We had a little issue on Friday, but everything worked out in the end.  We shared a Smoked Prosciutto pizza and the special pasta dish of the day.  D also ordered a seasonal pumpkin ale that literally smelled like pumpkin pie!

 After dinner on Friday night we decided to embrace the season and decided to carve some pumpkins.  This year, D is using a scary clown theme, so his pumpkin was a crazy clown face.  I tried painting a witch face on my pumpkin, which did not come out at all what I wanted it to look like.  So I moved on and decided to carve Riley's pumpkin, yes we do get a pumpkin for our dog - deal with it.  So we decided to go with a cartoon theme for Riley and I carved Jake from the Cartoon Network channel's show Adventure Time. 

Saturday morning I met a friend for brunch at a place I had never been before called Buttermilk Kitchen.  It is a super cute little house that has been converted into a brunch restaurant in northern Buckhead.  They have a small menu, but everything sounds so good!  My friend and I each got the same thing - the Fried Egg BLT, which was so good! After a nice brunch we went over to Hammond Nails for some manis and pedis.  Saturday night, D and I went to watch the Seminoles take on the Clemson Tigers at the neighborhood pub, Olde Blind Dog.  OBD is an Irish pub, but the interior design is what makes it so fabulous - they have built it out to look like an Irish town, with a life sized William Wallace statue in the center.  This is a great place to watch some games since it's never super crowded, the food is good and they have a ton of beers on draft.  What made the night even better was that the Seminoles really showed the Tigers who was boss.  Also, I won another $10 off my dad who insists on rooting for any of our rivals.

Sunday was just a calm day for getting some errands done and enjoying the fabulous weather.  This week is going to be a great one!

It's Friday, Friday, Gotta Get Down on Friday

Now, due to Rebecca Black, anytime someone says "It's Friday" that song pops in my head, so now it will be stuck in yours also! 

This Friday, I'll leave you with these pictures of paradise.  This past June, D and I went to Montego Bay, Jamaica with my parents for some huge celebrations: my dad's birthday (it was a big one, but he'd kill me if I told you, since he still wants me to tell people that he's only 39, haha), my mom's birthday, and our 3rd wedding anniversary!  We spent 8 glorious days at Iberostar Grand Rose Hall.  This was D's and my second trip to paradise, the first was for my 30th birthday.  Seriously, this hotel is amazing - we're already trying to figure out what reason we can come up with to go back again.  The hotel itself is beautiful, the food is good, the drinks are awesome, and the staff who works here wants nothing more than for your vacation to be amazing.  They all go out of their way to make sure you're enjoying yourself.  Plus, in the afternoons, the pastry chef brings you rum cake in the pool!! Seriously, I was just floating quietly in the pool one afternoon and the pastry chef comes up to the edge with a cart full of cakes, and he offered me some - while I was in the pool.  It's just fabulous!  The pictures below were taken with one of D's new toys, it's called a Tilt Shift Camera.  It takes pictures at an angle which almost makes the objects in the picture to look miniature. 

Here is a second picture of the beach that really shows the miniature effect of the camera:

With that, I say Happy Friday!  Have a fantastic weekend!

Shopping Makes Everything Better

So last weekend I had a very relaxed, calm weekend.  I also did not get dressed up at all, more like threw on some jeans and whatever shirt was clean and just chilled around town.  But, we did go shopping!  We bought a bunch of boring stuff, such as paint and stencils so that we can stencil the ceiling in our powder room, but that will be a post for later on.
I had bought a cutout dress from the Catherine Malandrino for Kohls collection, but was extremely dissatisfied with it.  I had bought the Laser Cut Shift Dress. I knew it was not real leather but in the pictures online it looked like a good fake, so I ordered it the first day it was available online.  I received it and was thoroughly disappointed.  The material was horrible - it looked like black garbage bag plastic and not at all like leather.  The lining was also super thin and itchy against my skin.  So instead of paying for return shipping (I hate that - why can't stores offer free return shipping?) I decided to bring it back to the store.  While there I took a look around. FYI - if you did want anything from the collection it's all on sale right now.  So I found this cute Lauren Conrad sweater.  And better yet, half off plus another 20% off - so it was $20.00

 If you like the sweater above, it can be found Here.
I also ordered some items from Gap while they were having 40% off everything:

 The vest above

 This skirt, which seems to be no longer available.

 

Then I got the above black lace tunic from Anthropologie, which I can't find online.  It's super cute and I'm sure will be an outfit soon though!

And since it was my birthday, I had to go in to get my birthday gift.  While there of course I couldn't help looking around, so picked up the Clinique moisture surge overnight mask and one of these Sephora instant depuffing eye masks.  I also made a stop at Ulta and picked up this Pur CC Cream.  I had received a sample of it in a Birchbox a few months ago and loved it so much!  It seriously evens out your skin tone so well and makes your skin look almost like it's airbrushed.  I use it as my day makeup because it works just as well as any foundation, but doesn't feel heavy at all.

So that is it for today, but if you have any great eye products that depuff and get rid of bags please let me know!  I'm always on the lookout for a product that actually works with bags!

Monthly Surprise in the Mail

So these subscription boxes are all the rage now!  You can get one for basically any reason.  There are ones for dogs, ones for men, healthy snacks, etc.  But my favorite of all is my Birchbox subscription box.  These monthly goodie bags cost $10 a month and provide you with all new beauty products.  Now of course, some months are better than others.  I'm going to review my first impression of this month's box. 

So this past Saturday, I opened up my mailbox and was happy to see the pink box that meant my Birchbox had arrived!  I opened it up and below is the entire contents:

This month's box looks pretty promising on first glance, let's get a closer look.

Dr. Brandt Microdermibrasion Skin Exfoliant
This is supposed to be a gentle but powerful scrub that is supposed to have results similar to those results you would get from microdermabrasion.  I used this one once so far and I have to say it definitely makes my face feel super clean.  Now, I don't know that I still wouldn't get a microdermabrasion treatment, but it definitely works for getting all traces of make-up and dirt out of my pores.

theBalm Cosmetics Staniac
So this is supposed to be a 2-in-1 lip & cheek stain.  I haven't used this yet, but this sounds very promising to me!  I used to be addicted to the Tart cheek stains, so I can't wait to try this.  It may even be a good idea for when traveling - only would need to carry one product instead of two!

 Chapstick Hydration Lock
This stuff is amazing!  It's basically regular chap stick but it lasts so much longer!  Usually I  have to reapply chap stick every hour or two, but this one I went for almost a full day without reapplying.  This will a great product for winter when my lips are constantly chapped.

 Supergoop City Sunscreen Serum
I haven't tried this one yet either.  It is supposed to be a sunscreen and moisturizer that can be worn alone or under foundation.  I'm getting low on my current moisturizer which contains sunscreen, so I'll try it once that wears out.   

12 Benefits Instant Healthy Hair Treatment
I haven't tried this yet, but am planning on trying out this weekend.  It is a leave-in conditioning treatment that is supposed to put the nutrients back into your hair that make it healthy and shiny.  The reviews of the product seem pretty positive, so maybe it will be able to accomplish what all other leave-in conditioners I've tried have not been able to. 











So there you have it, this month's box.  I think it was a pretty good box.  Definitely made up for the one month that I got a couple of samples and a pen! Yes, a pen!! 
Also if you have any leave-in conditioning products that worked wonders for you to make your dry hair healthier looking, please let me know!

Egg On My Face

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, right?  So might as well make it delicious!  Here is one my favorite things to make for breakfast, my own mini Breakfast Quiches.  There are a ton of great mini quiche recipes all over the internet.  This is mine, you can always switch up the ingredients and put different veggies/meats/cheeses and it will always turn out yummy!  Mine are sort of a cross between a mini-quiche and a breakfast biscuit.  For this recipe you need an oven, mixing bowl, cooking spray and 1 muffin pan. 

My Favorite Mini Breakfast Quiches
Makes 12 quiches

1/3 cup regular Egg Beaters (or other liquid egg)
1/3 cup Liquid Egg Whites (any brand will do)
1/4 cup chopped green onions
1/2 cup chopped yellow pepper
1/4 cup chopped green pepper
2 tablespoons Bacon Bits
Salt & Pepper to taste (I usually put a few pinches of salt and 1 pinch of pepper)
2 wedges of The Laughing Cow Light Creamy Swiss cheese
Container of any brand biscuit dough that has at least 6 biscuits (I usually prefer the light version, but lately haven't been able to find it at the market so I settle for the buttermilk biscuit dough)
1/4 cup shredded fat free Monterrey Jack cheese

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
In a medium sized bowl mix the first 7 ingredients together.  Stir well.
Spray the muffin pan with the cooking spay.
Open the biscuit dough up and break out 3 biscuits.  Break each biscuit in half and spread and flatten each half.
Spread each half along each muffin hole to make a little cup.  The dough probably won't go all the way up the side but that is fine.
Open up one of the wedges of cheese.  Slice the cheese into 6 slices.  My tip is to spray the knife with the cooking spray so that the cheese won't stick to it. Take one slice of cheese and spread along the biscuit dough in the first hole.  Then take the next slice of cheese and repeat this in the next muffin hole.  Continue until all 6 of the biscuit cups have the Laughing Cow cheese spread on them. 
Then spoon a little of the egg mixture into each biscuit hole.  Only fill up 2/3 of the way because it will rise when it bakes.
Place in the oven for 12-15 minutes.  Cooking times will vary, in my oven it took about 14 minutes.

Wait until the muffins cool off and remove from the muffin pan.  These taste best when fresh out of the oven, but I save them for the week so we can eat them for a quick grab and go breakfast.  If you're planning on doing the same, I would wait for them to fully cool before putting in an airtight container.  Then I store them in the fridge.  When I'm ready to heat one up, I just stick it in the microwave for 1.5 minutes.  Enjoy!

Just Hanging Around

So this weekend started off pretty rough.  We were supposed to go to Charlotte for the weekend to visit D's family, at least that was the plan!  Friday afternoon, I left work and found myself stuck in the notoriously bad Atlanta traffic.  But for some reason it was even worst than usual on a Friday afternoon.  After 1.5 hours of sitting in traffic, I finally got home.  That may not sound so bad if you know about Atlanta traffic, but you have to understand that I live 9.2 miles from my office.  So I get home and we get in the car to continue north to Charlotte.  After 40 minutes we were barely out of the city so we decided the universe was telling us this was not the weekend to go.  So we turned around and within 30 minutes we were finally home.  Since it was a last minute decision to stay in town we took it easy all weekend.  There was a lot of this:

 and this:

 and more of this:

Between all of this resting and just hanging out at home we also did a little shopping, errands, saw a movie and had dinner at some of our favorite low-key restaurants.
Friday night we went to the Buckhead location of Bhojanic Restaurant.  Bhojanic features Indian street food and is delicious!  It just recently opened a Buckhead location in the Shops Around Lenox.  This location is great for a low key Friday.  They have a patio with live music, corn hole and great drink concoctions and craft beers.  The food is also so good! 
Saturday night we went to see Don Jon.  It was a good movie, but there was so much weird stuff going on in the theater during the movie.  For one there was about 5 movie theater workers surrounded around some guy and girl for about 10 minutes in the middle of the movie which was pretty distracting.  Then after the movie theater workers left the couple got up like they were leaving but just sat down in a different row.  Then the guy in front of us kept looking at his cell phone and holding it up over his head which was very annoying.  But, I would recommend the movie.  It's entertaining.  Now I will say it was a little strange seeing Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a New Jersey meat-head.   After dinner we headed over to The One Sushi +.  This is a super cute neighborhood sushi and tapas restaurant in Brookhaven.  We love this place, but it always seems super quiet.  If you venture over to this neighborhood for some sushi, I suggest the Mega Tuna Roll, Tuna on the Rocks and you must get the wok stirred edamame and asparagus fries.
Sunday was some more errands and just a super chill day. 

I'll just have the salad...

So we meet again, new friends.  Back for more, are you?  My plan is to have different themes on each day, so Monday will be a weekend flashback from the previous weekend, Tuesdays may be some recipes I think you may enjoy to share with friends the following weekend, Wednesday may be the day where I post my outfits for the previous weekend, and so on.  So, since today is Tuesday, let’s start this off with some delicious food!  

There are certain dishes I have mastered and my friends ask for by name whenever they pop by.  One of such dishes is a salad my lovely mother-in-law makes that I am obsessed with!  Let’s call it Crunchy Bok Choy Salad.  I’m not sure if she got the recipe from a book or magazine or whether she whipped it up herself, but it’s amazing and I always have to make double the amount because everyone gobbles it up so quickly!  Even those crazy people who claim they dislike Bok Choy love this salad! 

Here is what you need to create the deliciousness that is Crunchy Bok Choy Salad:

Crunchy Bok Choy Salad

Serves 4-6

Dressing:

Combine the following and set aside for now:

½ cup smart balance oil (or canola oil if you prefer)

1 tablespoon sesame oil

¼ cup rice wine vinegar

2 teaspoons Splenda (or Stevia or Truvia if you prefer; I bet you could even replace this with Agave Nectar if you're trying to avoid using sugar at all)

¼ cup light soy sauce

 
Chop up the following and put it in a large bowl:

1 bunch Bok Choy

3 scallions, chopped in small pieces

1 package of Ramen noodles with the flavor packet, smashed up (any flavor will do, we use the chicken or vegetable flavor)

¼ cup sunflower seeds

¼ cup slivered almonds (just a note but the day I made this salad I realized I was out of almonds too late, so I had to leave them out)

Toss everything together.  Right before you’re ready to serve, pour the dressing on and enjoy!  You don’t want to pour the dressing on too early because half of the loveliness in this salad is the crispiness from the Ramen noodles, so we don’t want those to soak in too much dressing beforehand.  Now, it may not look like much, but didn't your mother ever tell you not to judge a book by its cover?

Bon Appetitt!  Enjoy alone or with your friends, they'll love it - I promise!