Cacoa Bean and Peanut Butter Breakfast Smoothie Recipe

Hey guys! This week I wanted to share with you one of my favorite recipes of all time. I drink this smoothie practically every morning for breakfast and it keeps me full until lunchtime. It's the best tasting smoothie I've ever made and it gives me SO much energy. Plus, it's to die for. I've actually had it as a dessert smoothie before, too. It's not overwhelmingly sweet, just the right balance of all those great flavors.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• 1 banana 
• 1/8 cup cocoa powder
• 1 scoop chocolate protein powder
• 2 tbls. peanut butter
• 1 tbls. chia seed
• 1/8 tsp. Truvia Sweetener 
• 1/2 tsp. almond extract 
• 3 cups ice cubes (more or less. You can adjust depending on how thick you want it.)

Put all of the ingredients in a blender and blend until it's your desired consistency. 

Favorites Friday 6/6/14- Fitness Edition

This week I want to share with you guys some of my favorite things for working out, from clothes to equipment and everything in between.

Nike Air Max: Although I love my Nike Airs, I found that, for my personal running needs, they don't offer enough support. However, I still love my Nike Airs for everyday wear and walking. For running, I use my Air Max.

CamelBak Podium Chill: I love this water bottle dearly for running. It's super easy to just squirt into your mouth so you don't even have to stop running. It keeps your water nice and cold, so no matter how long a run you go on, it's still cool and refreshing.

You can buy it here for $12. 

Under Armour Still Gotta Have It Bra: I just recently bought a few of these. Previously I used Champion and Victoria Secret sports bras. I liked those, but I have to say I like my new Under Armour ones so much more. They keep everything up there really firm and in place while still being really flexible, breathable and easy to move in. My Victoria's Secret ones had really great support, but they were really stiff and my Champions ones were really flexible and breathable...but kind of too much so. You all see where I'm going with that, right? Right.

Blogilates: Hands down my absolute favorite work out videos. Ever. Cassey Ho (the instructor) is so motivating and bubbly. Her videos are SO effective, too. She has videos targeting all different parts of the body, cardio videos and total body videos. Cassey kicks your butt so good that you don't only look amazing, but you really do feel amazing...and sore. If you want a work out video plan to follow, you can subscribe to her news letter and get a password for her monthly workout calenders. I promise you won't regret it.  Visit the Blogilates website at www.blogilates.com anc follow Blogilates on YouTube. 

Teen Party Playlist on Spotify: I don't know about you guys, but I literally can't run if I don't have music. I don't now what it is about it, but when if I don't have my music playing while I run, I just die. I like to listen to Spotify when I workout, whether it's running or doing Pilates, because it has such a variety of stations and very limited commercials. My favorite channel to list to when working out is Teen Party.

Quote: "Run like there's a hot guy in front of you and a creepy guy behind you."

myfitnesspal: I love this app because it helps you set a goal and achieve it. To put the calories into the app, you need to know how many calories are in what you're eating whereas normally you probably wouldn't keep track of the calories in EVERYTHING you eat. It definitely keeps you accountable for what your eating. If you're looking to lose weight, I would absolutely get this *free* app (no excuses). 

Okay, guys. I've given you all of my fitness favorites. No more excuses. Go out and give that next workout your all. 

Baby, Baby

Hey guys! So as you all know I am super thrilled about my brother and sister-in-laws first baby and her arrival is quickly approaching!  I'm out-of-my-mind excited to be an Aunt and it seems like everywhere I go I see something that makes me think about the baby. I'm a big Christmas fan and I start buying presents in, like, June. If I see something that I think someone in my family would like, even if it's in January, I'll buy it and put it in this big Tupperware box that I filled with presents that I peruse when I don't know what to get someone.

Anyways, considering I love Christmas, kids and I'm dying to be an aunt, I'm constantly on the look out for gifts for the baby. For Christmas 2014, 2015, and 2016. I think I might be a little bit crazy.

So I was at the outlets the other day just mousing around and I went into Michael Kors. And Oh.My.Gosh.

This bag is so adorable and tiny. It fit in the palm of my hand. To myself I was like "Oh my Lord, this is what I need to get that baby girl for her third birthday." It was just too perfect. 

And they have a larger, normal sized version of it. 

Like, really. How adorable would it be to get the mama and baby matching bags? I just can't deal with it. 

I also went into the Bloomingdales outlet. I didn't even know Bloomingdales had outlet store. Learn something new everyday, don't ya? 

I thought that this was soooo adorable. I'm not sure if my sister-in-law would ever put it on her baby, but I thought it was pretty funny. 

These little Ralph Lauren socks pretty much melted my heart. 

Umm...yes please! Let's get real, if this came in my size, I'd buy it. xD

This is kind of similar to the one above, but more comfortable for nap time. A girl's gotta have options.

This is pretty much the cutest thing I've seen, like, ever. When it gets closer to the due date, I'm definitely going to buy this for baby. My sister-in-laws birthday is in July so I might throw it in with her gifts. 

According to my mom, I refused to wear shoes when I was a baby. However, I think these might fit into the toddler years and they're kind of to die for so....

So, as you guys can see, I'm already in the midst of preparation for baby's first Christmas. Most of these gifts are geared more toward mom for baby than directly for baby, but it was just some stuff that I saw when I was shopping that made me think of baby. Of course, I'll be buying A LOT of toys for baby for Christmas since I think she'll appreciate those a little bit more :)

I hope you guys enjoyed this post. If any of you are expecting, let me know what you think of these fashionable baby clothes in the comments. 

Symphony Hall, Spider Veins and The Movies

Hey guys! So I can't tell you what a hectic weekend I've had! It's been absolutely insane!

Friday at 2:30 myself and my school's band left for Boston. When we arrived, we immediately went to Faneuil Hall. A couple of my friend's and I shopped around at the different stands outside. After we finished out there we went inside and got some food. I got a gyro that was absolutely out of this world! One of the best I've ever had! A little while latter I got some taro bubble tea. Also very good!

We left Faneuil Hall at 6:30 and arrived at Symphony Hall. We were going to see (the) John Williams conduct the Boston Pops orchestra. My seat was on the third balcony a few seats away from the end of the row (so VERY close to the stage). I could read the musicians music I was so close! Luckily, my seat was next to a few of my friends.

The performance was absolutely extraordinary. They had SO many pieces in their set, among them the Harry Potter theme song and the Star Wars theme song.

We loaded back onto the buses and arrived home at around 1 AM Saturday morning. Unfortunately, I had to wake up at 6 AM to take a VERY important test. I had to be at the test center at 7:30. I guess taking the test on 5 hours of sleep probably wasn't the best thing, but what are you gonna do?

The test (which lasted 5 hours) was actually pretty easy. It just went on FOREVER. After the test was finally over, my sister-in-law at the test center. I walked out of the test center and looked around for her in the parking lot (I knew she would be there because we had planned to go for a walk on the track, but I was in the test so late that by the time I got out she was starving).
So here I am looking around for skinny Natasha and I see this woman in the distance with this big-ass baby bump and I'm like 'Well, that can't be her' and start walking the other way when all of a sudden I hear 'LIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!' shouted from across the parking lot.

Yep. That lady with the big-ass baby bump was my sister. She looked like she could pop any minute and she's only 7 months! Having not seen each other in FOREVER we did like a slow-motion run towards each other from across the parking lot (and I say slow motion because she wasn't moving to fast with the baby in there).

I was absolutely shocked at how good she looked! I mean, I wasn't expecting her to be, like, obese or anything, but I had expected her to be a little pudgy . Nope! She looked amazing! She had such a beautiful tan (which made me happy because I knew that meant she had been relaxing and chilling in the sun). She was seriously glowing!

We went for lunch at Panera where we caught up. After we talked about what we'd been up to the past few months non-baby wise, we started talking pregnancy. It's kind of crazy how drastically our conversations had changed since the last time we'd been together! It went from "OMG did you see what so-so did on TMZ!" to "Ugh, Lil, I'm already getting spider veins in my legs." and "So...I put those disposable boob leakage pads on my registry...hint-hint."  

To be honest, I didn't notice any spider veins, but okay...

At Panera, I got the Bacon Turkey Bravo which, had I known that pregnant woman are no longer aloud to eat lunch meat, I would not have gotten. Anyway, Tash got a salad and a smoothie. Apparently, she's a Panera regular now because she had this whole thing about how amazing their blackberry smoothie is and how she usually get's that but it's not in season right now which she did not understand.

She's been living a really healthy pregnant life style and hasn't had any cravings. I guess she was running up until she was four months when my brother, Kevin, had nearly had a heart attack about her running giving the baby brain damage (which I agree with).

During her first trimester, Tash said was really tired all of the time and it was kind of getting like that now again. All she wanted to do was nap.

And she CONSTANTLY has to pee. I swear the whole day I was with her, she had to pee. And she takes forever in the bathroom now because she can't squat. She has to lay all the toilet paper down.

And the best part of all? Her boobs have doubled in size. She was D before so....just take that in for a minute. She says to me, "So, you know Lil. Everyone's always saying to me 'Oh, your belly isn't that big', but it's really just because my boobs are so ginormous. They dwarf my belly....and the doc says their gonna double again once I get my milk." Do they even make bras that big?

She told me she was also getting a 'mommy mask' which I didn't notice either. I just thought it was part of her tan lines on her face because she always gets freckles when she's in the sun. In addition, she told me about how her belly gives her the weirdest tan line. And that hormones have been wreaking havoc on her hair.

We left Panera and went to go get some ice cream at Golden Rods. On the drive there, Tash talked to me about how Kevin was pretty much obsessed with everything being pink. Like, everything. And it's killing her.

We got our ice cream and attempted to go to the lake nearby to eat it, but we got lost so.....

After that excursions, Natasha was pooped and needed to go home and take a nap, so she dropped me off at and I gave her her late mother's day gift. She loved the two books I had gotten for the baby and said she had a little collection going at home. She said when she got home she was going to write 'from Auntie Lily' which made my heart glow because it's still so surreal to me that I'm finally going to be aunt.

Sunday, I went to the movies to see the long awaited Fault In Our Stars with my friends Kelsey and Taylor. Yep, to answer your question, I cried. I cried for 45 minutes after reading the book and I cried pretty darn hard during this movie. Tay, Kels and I were just passing around our little packet of tissues with tears streaming down our faces.

When we left the movies, feeling very depressed might I add, we went to the mall to do some shopping therapy. I got two new dresses, a sweater and this super cute lace bra crop-toppy thing. We also got some frozen yogurt to heal our wounded hearts.

So, that was my super busy weekend! I hope you guys all had a great weekend as well!

It's Monday Again....

*Sigh* Once again, it's Monday. I swear it was just Friday. But what are you gonna do? Just make the best of it and enjoy the moment. Don't constantly wish for the weekend. Just enjoy every second. I know what you're thinking 'Yeah, right.' I know it can be pretty hard to get pumped for the week, but I hope these help: 

Baby Shower

Hey guys! So, two week ago I gave you guys the big announcement that my sister-in-law, Natasha, is pregnant! I also told you guys that she's a MAJOR workaholic, as is my brother. So I haven't gotten a chance to speak to her much about the baby.

The first thing that I did after I got the call from Natasha was go on Pinterest and make a baby shower board. I don't even know if she wants a baby shower, but I figured its better if I get all of the ideas straightened out and prepare to make reservations somewhere and find out that she doesn't want one than be completely unprepared and find out that she does.

I would ask her about it on the phone, but I'd rather talk to her about it in person at our lunch date in June, even though that's cutting it really close. Like, REALLY close. I just feel like it's one of those very personal things that should be discussed in person. I'm going away for the summer on June 19th and I have a feeling that it will take longer than two weeks to get reservations and get invitations out, so I will probably have to come back to town for a few days. But, honestly, it's not a problem. This is a once in a lifetime thing and I have no problem clearing my schedule for a weekend and traveling back to make this happen for my fabulous sister.

I wanted to share with you some of my ideas for the baby shower. I'm not a big fan of themes, but I think that some of them can be really cute.

        I love tea party/garden party baby showers. They have a casual elegance to them. You can great food and drinks and a beautiful setting. However, my sister had an Alice In Wonderland themed wedding shower, so I'm not sure if my sister wants to do that tea party type of idea again.

A 'guess the baby's due date' game for guests to do when they first arrive.

Love as a DIY decoration.

Gorgeous, brightly colored cake. 

For more of my baby shower ideas you can checkout my Pinterest board here.

Favorites Friday- 5/30/14

It's that time of week again, dolls. I hope you've all had a fabulous week and have plans to unwind this weekend. Here are my favorite things of the week.

Cookie Dough Cafe: I know I don't normally put food items on here, but this is one of my favorite things. I first tried Cookie Dough Cafe when I was down in Myrtle Beach and I was blown away by how it tasted exactly like raw cookie dough. For anyone who doesn't know what it is, Cookie Dough Cafe is, well, cookie dough but it isn't made with eggs so the risk for getting salmonella is gone. It's really a genius idea because it allows people to eat their most favorite food (cookie dough, duh), but not be at risk of getting sick. Kinda wish I'd thought of that.
It comes in various 'flavors', but you can only buy it at Fresh Market. Click here to find a Fresh Market near you. For more information on Cookie Dough Cafe, you can visit their website www.thecookiedoughcafe.com.

Crabtree and Evelyn: I love everything this company makes, especially their hand lotions. 

I always buy their lily scented ultra-moisturizing hand cream. It leaves your hands feeling like a baby's butt. I've tried a lot of different hand creams, but I've never found one that makes my hands as soft as this one. Plus, it comes in a beautiful package. You can buy your's here.

Sammy's Noodles: I'm just switching everything up this week, aren't I? Sammy's Noodles is a Chinese food restaurant in New York City that I go to literally every single time I'm there. I have never gone to New York City and not gone to Sammy's Noodles. They make their own noodles and they are to die for. I always order the general tso's chicken, seafood dumplings and shrimp lo mein. It's a lot of food and every time I go I say that I'm only going to order one of the entrees, but they're both just so good that I have to end up getting them both. Even when I go with my two cousins and my aunt and uncle, we have leftovers. They have amazing prices there to. To order everything I just said it only costs at most $35.  

Their address is 453 Avenue of the Americas #1 New York, NY 10011‎. You can call them at (212) 924-6688. 

Patterned Nylons: Recently, I've been wearing nylons a lot with my dresses and skirts. The good old class, plain black ones are great, but I keep seeing nylons with these great patterns on them and I'm really feeling them. I haven't experimented with any yet, but I definitely want to. 

How cool are these? You can get them at Bloomingdale's for only $25.

"Sporty" Swimwear: My family sails and the kind of bathing suits I typically buy usually aren't too suitable for that kind of activity. However, Juicy Couture came out with a line of "sporty" swimsuits this season and I'm really diggin' 'em! They're super stylish and more suitable for sailing and swimming. 

Get it at Bloomingdale's.

Get it at Bloomingdale's.

I love the back of this one. Buy it here.

I hope you guys enjoyed this weeks Favorites Friday and saw at least one thing that you guys want to try! Talk to you guys next week!

Happy Day After Memorial Day!

Hey guys! I hope you all had a great Memorial Day vacation. For Memorial Day weekend I went up to Portland, Maine. Shockingly enough, I had never been before. I was amazed at how beautiful the city and the Old Port was. And the food was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.

I left Thursday afternoon.

Our motorhome.



We got to the Wassamki Springs campground about 3 hours later. We got our lot and started to put out the slides. Unfortunately, we almost hit a tree with the bedroom slide, so we had to get a new, more spacious spot.

After we got all of the slides out and hooked up, we headed out to the town to find a place to eat.

The Old Port.

We decided on a place called Boone's...because it was the only place we could find parking for.



When we walked in, it smelled wicked good and it was really busy, so we decided to stay. We got seated almost immediately.


The interior of Boone's.

I ordered the fried oysters and a side of french fries. 





Fried oysters with a slightly lemony sauce that had a bit of a spicy kick to it.

Amazing french fries with pepper and ketchup.

For dessert I order a slice of blueberry pie that they make fresh every morning. It was delicious.

Blueberry pie with sweet house-made whipped cream.



The next day (Friday), we went to the city to do some shopping.

OOTD

The first store we went in was Cross Jewelers. Since I had never been to Portland before, I had obviously never been to Cross, but my grandparents (whom I was with) had gone many times and had bought many great pieces from there, so I was excited to go take a look. 

After I got past the intimidating armed guard, I was enthralled with their selection. They had the most beautiful tourmaline jewelry I had ever seen. Definitely I must go place if your planning a trip to Portland.

For lunch we went to Gilbert's Chowder House. Apparently, they are known for having the best chowder in Portland.

I ordered clam chowder in a bread bowl.

  Amazing steamers.

For as much as Gilbert's touts their amazing chowder, I didn't think it was anything to write home about. Was it good chowder? Absolutely. But it wasn't like "Wow, I NEED to get that again!" There just weren't enough oysters. It was more like a potato chowder with like five tiny clams.

We did some more shopping. I went into this wonderful Fair Trade shop. I bought a Lucky Pig, which was made in Chile.

We also got gelato (yum!) from Gorgeous Gelato. It truly was the best gelato I've ever had. It was so rich and creamy. The flavors were out of this world. I got a scoop of lemoncello and a scoop of expresso. The lemoncello was amazing, but not in excess. The expresso was to die for. I wish I had asked for a smaller scoop of lemoncello and have the expresso be the larger scoop.

Expresso and lemoncello gelato in a waffle cone. 

Then I stopped off at the Holy Donut. They make their donuts out of potato, so I was a little unsure of what to expect. Turns out, it was the best donut I have ever had. I'm not really a huge fan of donuts, but this one was SO good! I had to get some to bring back to the motorhome (I would say to bring home, but we all know they didn't last that long). 

When we got back to the motorhome, I settled in for some "What Would You Do?"

My WWYD watching outfit. 

Saturday morning, we went to Cape Elizabeth. It was absolutely beautiful. For lunch we went to the Lobster Shack Restaurant. 

The restaurant had an absolutely gorgeous view. 

For lunch, we all had lobster rolls. I had never had a cold lobster roll with the mayonnaise before (only ever the hot buttered kind), but I thought it was delicious. The lobster itself was to die for. 

Can I get a yum?

We also bought a whoopie pie because everyone knows Maine whoopie pies are the best. 

We then went to a national park up that way (I don't remember what the name of it was). It was such a beautiful place. 

There was this little boy learning how to fly his kite and it was just the cutest thing. I had to take a picture. 

We headed back into the Old Port and went into a few shops. 

I got a colored Alex and Ani because I thought it would be nice to have a pop of color amidst all of the silver.

For dinner, we went out and intended to go to Fore Street, but they were full until 10 and we were all hungry. We decided to go back to Gilbert's since I guess I was the only one who wasn't thrilled with my chowder. 

We got another order of steamers for an appetizer and I got a small cup of seafood chowder. The seafood chowder was amazing. It was full of seafood and was seasoned very nicely. For my meal, I got fish and chips which was very good. It was a pretty big portion, too. I had leftovers. 

Seafood Chowder

Steamers

Fish and Chips

Sunday morning, we went out for breakfast at a diner on the Bayside. 

Sunday morning OOTD

Spanish omelet with home fries and white toast.

After breakfast, we went for a train ride along the coast line on this old train. It had beautiful old wood paneling all on the inside. The seats and lighting were all original. 

After the train ride, we went back to the Old Port and went into this amazing place called Vena's Fizz House. It's a bar that serves all natural soda and mocktails; no alcoholic beverages. All of the drinks are made right in front of you. None of the drinks are typical soda flavors (for example you might find Lumberjack Love or Chocolate Raspberry Shrub as options on the menu). 

I ordered the Chocolate Raspberry Shrub.

 

It was TO DIE FOR!!!! I might even go as far as to say that it was the best thing I had all vacation. I highly recommend going to Vena's if only because it's such a cool experience. But more than that, their drinks are so much better than you'd ever imagine. I definitely recommend the chocolate raspberry shrub.

When you finish in the bar area, you can walk down the steps into the shop area where you can buy the various syrups, etc that you would need to recreate the drink at home. Very cool. 

After we finished at Vena's, we went on a hunt for lobsters. We wanted to get some lobster to bring back to the motorhome to have for dinner as our last meal before we went home. First, we stopped at a fish market down a side street on the harbor. 

It was definitely a very authentic, port-side fish market. The smell said it all. While (of course) they did have live lobsters, they wouldn't steam them there. So we moved on. 

On our way back to the campsite, we saw a sign for a candy store (Len Libby) and decided to take a detour to check it out. It was pretty cool. They had a life sized moose made out of chocolate. 

We bought a bunch of stuff (dark chocolate nut bark, chocolate covered espresso beans, chocolate caramel sea salt truffles and various other chocolates).

We drove back to the motorhome and later my Gramma and I went out on the hunt for lobster. We went to Oceans Garden Restaurant because it was the nearest place to our campsite. 

We had success. They had live lobsters there and we had them steam three. We went back out to the parking lot and searched for our car. Eventually, we found it. As I stepped into the car, I look down at the carpet and saw the lack of travel magazines. Hmm, I thought, someone must have brought them into the motorhome. Then I looked up at the radio control panel and thought it looked different from how I remembered it. "Gram," I said. "I don't think this is our car." We quick got out and sure enough we had gotten into the wrong car. It wasn't even the same kind as ours. 

We went to Hannaford's next to get nutcrackers. They had good sized lobsters there, so we decided to buy two more. Then we made our way back to the campsite. 

We set up dinner outside. 

Me with my fabulous lobster bib. 

Yum!

For our last night, we had a campfire. 

And, of course, s'mores. 

We were trying to melt the chocolate.

It's perfect!

Finally the moment we've all been waiting for. 

Sammy wants in on the eats.

And that was my Memorial Day Weekend! 

I hope you all had a fabulous weekend as well!