100

Although I did slack there at the end on posting all my #100HappyDays pictures to Facebook and Instagram, I just finished uploading the remainder of my final days pics on my blog. I remember thinking in the beginning how easy it would be to take a moment each day for one hundred days straight and notice what makes me happy. I knew I had happy moments often, but as I went through this project, I wanted to take a beat and take note of the moments that made my heart full and my soul light. You know those moments when you just pause and say, "Wow, that is wonderful."

It was hard to differentiate at first. I found myself a little stressed during the first month, trying every day to remember to capture that one happy moment. When I didn't have a picture by mid-day, I would think, "Is this what the skeptics were talking about?" "Why is this so hard?"

As time went on, the days flew by, I kept snapping my happy pics; and all of a sudden, it wasn't a matter of trying to pick out the happy moment, it just became easier to notice. I felt more open to the beautiful things around me. And because I knew I had to get a picture at some point, it didn't seem a waste of time to pause and take notice. After a time, it wasn't about if I could get a picture, it was when, and which happy moment I would choose. I thought I was appreciative before, but actively taking the time to document each happy moment over the past few months has made me realize what is most important to me, and what makes me happiest...

...it's food.

Check out the 100 Happy Days Foundation's website, and start your own journey!

The Best Way to Travel

The next time you're on a drive, whether it be a trip to the store or to the office, be a creeper for a minute and take a peek into that car next to you. Is the driver a Frowny Face? Furrowed brow, hands firmly at ten and two, perhaps angrily shaking their fist at someone who did them wrong? Basically, do they look miserable?

The majority of the time the answer will be (sadly) yes. Driving is not my most favorite activity, I don't enjoy being surrounded by idiots driving deathtraps for hours each day, but it's something that I must do on a daily basis. This gives me a lot of time to either be angry or be better.

You know what makes your drive a thousand times better? Forgetting for a moment about all the stress in your life and blasting some P!nk. Singing/Screaming along makes it even better, and if you really want to relieve some stress, why not do some steering wheel drums?

Yes, I am that crazy person driving next to you, head bopping and scream-singing aloud. And you know what? I don't care. I don't care if I look like an idiot, I don't care if you secretly videotape me and blast it all over the Internet, I don't care if you laugh at me and tell your friends about it and then they laugh at me later. When I see traffic piling up in front of me in the morning, and I start to feel my blood pressure rise, acting like a car rockstar always makes it a thousand times better.

After all, you have the entire rest of the day to act like an adult!

Layered Pizza Dip

Aaah, Football Season....The time of year when I willingly destroy any progress I made over the summer, and resort happily back to my fat pants. I wake up each Sunday morning excited to mix and chop and arrange hors d'oeuvres for us to munch on all day! This weekend, chili's on the crock pot, brats are ready to be smoked, and I made Layered Pizza Dip...I can't hardly wait for the Bears game in a couple hours!
(This dip was inspired by BJs Pizza Dip, which we devoured last week during a working lunch.)



I started with Neufchatel Cheese at room temperature, spreading it over the bottom of a shallow glass baking dish. I sprinkled it with garlic powder, red pepper flakes, and Italian seasoning.



Instead of using prepared pizza sauce, I used about 8 ounces of petite diced tomatoes for the second layer, and sprinkled with Kosher salt to taste. Then came shredded Mozzarella cheese, chopped pepperoni, and a sprinkling of more Mozzarella on top.



So easy! I'll bake this at 350 degrees F until melted and bubbly, I think it'll take about 30 minutes. Serve with crackers or toasted French bread.

Hooray for Football, Pizza Dip, and the pounds sure to follow!

Everyone's Fave Breakfast Strudel

Breakfast is my absolutely favorite meal of the day, and when get to cook for other people, this recipe is a hit every time! I don't know if "strudel" is the absolute correct name for this meal, but it's how I think of it in my head, so Strudel it shall be named!

I make this in two stages: cook the filling the night before, and wake up super-early to fill and bake. I've found out the hard way that using a piping-hot filling in the crescents makes them soggy, and me grumpy. The first time I made these, I put hot filling right on the uncooked crescents, they didn't puff up, and I may have cried just a little. Lesson learned!


My go-to is obviously bacon, but when I'm making these for a group, I'll typically make 2 with bacon and 2 with sausage. The recipe that follows is for one strudel, which serves about 4-6, so multiply as needed.

Scramble 6 eggs (add some milk when whisking to make them fluffy) while baking 1/2 package of center-cut bacon in the oven at 350 degrees. If you're using breakfast sausage, a 1/2 pound should be enough, cook this until brown.
Chop 1/2 of a large green bell pepper (for a bacon strudel), or red bell pepper (for a sausage strudel); add to your eggs.
Chop bacon into bite-sized pieces, and add meat to egg mixture, along with about 4 ounces shredded cheese (I like cheddar or Monterey-Jack).
Put in fridge and relax!

Wake up early and make some coffee (duh!). Take 1 package Pillsbury crescents and separate, pressing them into a star shape on a greased baking sheet.
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.

Sprinkle the widest part of the crescent with a couple Tablespoons shredded cheddar cheese, then add your meaty-egg filling of choice. It will spill over, so don't worry about being neat. After your filling is piled onto the crescents, wrap each section over and carefully tuck underneath.

Make an egg wash by whisking 1 egg with a splash of water, this will add some shine and allow the cheese to stick...Speaking of...Sprinkle with cheese! I used cheddar for my sausage strudels, and parmesan for the bacon strudels.

Once your oven is preheated, bake for about 20-25 minutes, until golden brown. Remove and let cool.

I typically serve this in the ring shape, but you could also separate into servings of two sections and arrange on a platter for easy grabbing. Sprinkle with Parmesan or Cilantro, and take a giant step back to allow the stampede of hungry and grateful people who will quickly devour your creation.

I love you, Makeup!

I betcha I say that almost every single morning; after I'm done plastering my face with the various items that make me look more...Alive? ...Pretty? ... Professional?

It takes me about an hour every single morning to style my hair and design my face before I feel like I can leave my house and attack the day. My boyfriend, on the other hand, can get ready in exactly 8 minutes. Eight! In the mornings when he knocks on my bathroom door to say goodbye and I look like a hot mess, it makes me miss the days of my shaved head. But only slightly, that was a one time dealio!

This looks-conscious person I have become is new to me; I have always been kind of a tomboy. I was one of those girls who used to brag about "only wearing mascara"... Maybe it was a condition of being in my early 20s, but I didn't feel the need to look so put together. I never gave it a second thought, and lived in PJs and messy buns.

Whatever the reason for my change (maturity?), I do adore contouring my face, making my eyelashes look full and long, and adding some gloss to my snackers! Although one part of me feels like my daily routine is utterly ridiculous when men don't have to take hardly any time to achieve the same result; the other part of me cherishes the fact that unlike a man, I can wake up ugly and make myself look however I want. I get to experiment on a daily basis to be the best me on the outside.

I have noticed a sort of stigma, however, surrounding a woman's decision to wear or not wear makeup. For example, if you refuse to leave the house without make up on, then you must be insecure. Or if you just don't want to put very much time into something that in reality doesn't matter, then you're sloppy.

This is only one of the many things that women get to deal with on a daily basis, something that doesn't make a difference if you look at the big picture of life, but likely something that we stress about constantly. In addition to being successful at our careers, loving caregivers for our families, and never showing our crazy, we are also expected to look beautiful. Deep down inside, I would love to fight this type of thinking, and stop doing my hair and make up and stop wearing pretty dresses to prove a point...but the fact is I like looking "pretty". And if that means spending 15 minutes on my make up every day, then so be it! But I do it for me, and no one else.

Smoked Macaroni & Cheese

The Goat hosted a hog roast last night, which means we got to enjoy smoked ribs, chicken, and pulled pork without all the wonderful hassle of smoking the food ourselves. It was just amazing, and we both tore through our giant styrofoam plates of BBQ heaven in record time.

One of the sides was smoked Mac and Cheese with Bacon. My mouth is watering. As wonderful as this cheesy goodness was, I knew in my head that I could do better (and we did).


I couldn't wait to prep this this morning, and have just added it to our smoker for the last two hours of cooking our pork shoulder.

I used shaped pasta because it makes me happy, and followed Tyler Florence's recipe for homemade Mac and Cheese...

I won't bore you with the recipe, which can be found here, but I do offer a couple tips...

Cook the pasta for only about 8 minutes...you want it to finish cooking in the smoker and not turn into baby food mush.
Before adding your cheese to the roux, toss it with about one Tablespoon flour. This helps to both thicken the sauce and make the cheese melt as opposed to turning into clumps.
Add more bacon! I made 6 strips, but accidentally ate two (or three). Beware of this happening!

That's all. This was amaze-balls. Enjoy, fellow bacon-cheese-BBQ fanatics!

Shovel Butt

There are few things I hate more than a shovel butt. I have a small derrière, but at least it's round-ish. At least, it always was, until I stopped working on my feet and started sitting at a desk for 8-10 hours each day. Over the course of two short years, my bum has become rather flat, a symptom of "Secretary Butt"...BOO.

I've taken decisive and immediate action to prevent this from getting worse. I'm still young, my bum should be up, not flat! And when I'm old, it should still be up! (We'll see how that goes.) I rigged myself a standing desk, with the help of some of my wonderful coworkers, who gave me grief at first, but then began to give it a try themselves. The thing is, sitting is the new norm; whereas standing or walking should be our default action, and sitting should be in-between. The average office worker spends almost six hours each day sitting (and that's just during the work day)! To some, sitting is the new smoking, and being on your bum for that many hours, day after day, year after year, has been linked to diseases like diabetes and cancer, not to mention that quite a few office workers are overweight. Do you think it could be linked to, I don't know, not moving?

I have noticed some good and bad consequences to my new work style.
First with the bad:
It took quite a while to rig something that was ergonomically correct, considering I wear heels almost every day. I'm sure I did some damage to my neck and wrists in those first couple weeks where I was slouching to try to get the perfect angle.
For the first two weeks, every single person who walked by my office stopped to ask if I was working standing up. Some were impressed, most think I'm a weirdo, and a couple feel the need to remind me that it's weird every so often, as if my standing is somehow offensive to their choice to sit.
I can't move my monitors around like I once did, so when people come into my office and we try to look at the same thing, they are also forced to stand. This doesn't really affect me often, but it makes for tricksier training.

Here's what I've noticed that's great about standing vs. sitting:
My hips don't hurt like they did when I was sitting all day, and my lower back doesn't hurt at all anymore. HUGE bonus points!
I can't remember the last time I had a "2 o'clock slump". I have energy all day, and my productivity has gone up. I sound more energized on the phone, and even my emails have more personality.
I get to move and dance when a good song comes on. I listen to Pandora all day, and before, it was just background noise to help keep me alert. Now, I'm more engaged in everything I do, and when a great tune comes on, I can't help but bounce around! (As long as my office door is closed, lol.)
In addition to making standing my new sitting, I've also made it a habit to take the stairs up to my fifth floor office, and occasionally, take a stroll at lunch around the lake. Although, since Dawn left, I haven't had the gumption or time to walk around the lake at all...sigh.

I love how the simplest adjustments in your day-to-day can make such an impact. It can be positive or negative, but it's up to each of us to create the change, and make it into a habit. What a powerful feeling!