Butter Me Up

Sup peeps!

Oh. Em. Gee.

I have discovered not one, but TWO heavenly treats recently. First things first, I have discovered the joys of homemade almond butter, and it is even more joyous than my previous Artisan Butter. I found THIS recipe thanks to the Fitnessista, and I am so glad I did! My almond butter oats will never be the same again. Roasting the almonds makes SUCH a wonderful difference, and I really think the extra taste and creaminess is worth any potential “nutrient loss”, especially since I don’t believe much in that anyway… not sure why I ever bought raw almond butter… hmm. Anyway, the only differences I made to this recipe were that I realized I didn’t need to add any additional maple syrup in while processing – I thought the butter was sweet enough from just the syrup the nuts were roasted in! PS, it is very hard to resist just eating the plain maple roasted nuts straight off the pan and burning your mouth in the process… that may have happened one… or three… times. Let’s follow the path of dreaminess from almond to butter…

Just gettin’ started…

A little more…

Making progress!

Is it ready yet? Nope!

I think we’ve made it!

Goodbye dry, raw almond butter… helloooo dreamy creamy!

 

Okay, and the second delight I have discovered is even MORE AMAZING. I have been meaning to make these foreverrrrr and just finally made those dreams a reality, and holy smokes I can’t believe I waited so long!

These are the yummiest, most melty-in-your-mouthiest deliciousiness peanut butter cookies. Except the beauty is, they are gluten-free, and vegan, and no actual peanut butter is used. But instead, the most famous flour of the blogosphere lately, peanut flour. Most people jumped on the Trader Joe’s peanut flour bandwagon, but for some reason I never got my hands on their version, the timing was just never right, but while placing an order at Netrition for a refill of Sun Warrior I saw their peanut flour and decided to give it a go. Because I had seen these cookies by the vegan baking mastermind, Averie, and I knew I had to create something similar, STAT. However, I don’t own white sugar, and I wanted to see if they would work with less sugar in general. I also decided to do a vegan butter and coconut oil combo, just for fun, since I’m such a big coconut oil fan. But I’m sure it would work fine with all Earth Balance instead.

So here’s what I did…

Dreamy Peanut Cookies

Inspired by Averie

(Gluten free, vegan, DREAMY)

Makes 16 small cookies

Ingredients:

- 1 cup Peanut Flour

- 1/2 tsp baking powder

- 1/2 tsp xanthan gum

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 1 tsp cinnamon

- 1/4 cup Earth Balance, softened

- 1/4 cup coconut oil

- 1/4 cup Palm Sugar

- 1/4 cup Stevia in the Raw Cup for Cup

- 2 tablespoons Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk

- 2 tablespoons Agave nectar

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 350°

2. Sift together peanut flour, baking powder, xanthan gum, salt, and cinnamon in small bowl. Set aside.

3. Beat together Earth Balance, coconut oil, palm sugar, stevia, agave and almond milk. Slowly add in dry mix until fully incorporated.

4. Drop rounded tablespoons of batter onto an un-greased cookie sheet. Bake for about 15 minutes.

5. Let cool. DEVOUR.

I totally get why Averie said these were the best thing she has ever made, and she has made A LOT of delicious treats. They seriously might be among the best cookies I have ever had… maybe the best… which is a pretty serious statement. Legit melt-in-mouth cookies. I’m sure her real sugar version was even better, but this slightly healthier version was SO GOOD. I had to use serious self control to not eat the entire tray. I was able to stop myself at 3… but it was hard. I had actually made a half batch of these, foolishly, as I wasn’t sure how they would turn out, so the recipe above is what I did but doubled. Next time I’m definitelyyyy making the double!

Another awesome thing about these is that as peanut flour is so high in protein, these can totally fit into my healthy high protein obsession, without needing any additional protein powder or eggs! Delicious, and high protein? It’s a win-win!

Try ‘em!

xoxo

Hilary

 

Nutritional Facts

Dreamy Peanut Cookies

Svg Size: 1 cookie. Svgs per Recipe: 16. Calories: 95, Total Fat: 6.8g, Sat. Fat: 3.9g, Carbs: 6.6g, Fiber: 1.4g, Sugar: 4.6g, Protein: 4g

*Please Note* All calorie and nutritional information is approximate and based on the exact ingredients I used. Any changes or substitutions to the recipe will result in changes to nutritional information. As measurements and nutrients vary from ingredient to ingredient, the exact accuracy of this data cannot be guaranteed.

 

When You’re in No Mood to Cook

Hi!

Ugh, so I have been quite under the weather this week, as they say. A sore throat Monday turned into no voice on Tuesday which turned into stuffy nose Wednesday, then Thursday and Friday were some compilation of all three things. My voice sounds like an old man. It’s sexyyyy. Stressful times at work (don’t you love when major deadlines jump up about 2 months? Sweet) certainly are not helping. Basically, I’m glad I had a lovely Sunday Funday because this week has been… weak. Ha! Ahhh I never get sick of stupid puns.

So, with the feeling under the weather and the stressful work and being buried under a pile of dirty laundry at my apartment, I have not had the time or energy or interest to cook myself delightful yummies. The only thing I made was a ginormous batch of coconut oil sweet potato fries on Tuesday and I polished those off reallll quick. Besides that it’s been snacking snacking snacking… My roommate bringing home peanut M&M’s for our candy bowl has only added to this vicious cycle… hope she didn’t actually want any of those for herself… whoops.

So what’s a girl to do when she just can’t find the will to make herself a Cubicle Friendly lunch? Buy out, of course. Lucky me that my office is in the heart of NYC so there are a bajillion lunch-friendly joints within a stones throw of my office window. Okay fine, I don’t have a window anywhere near my cubicle, but if I were to walk over to the nearest window…

So I thought I’d share a few recent faves. Probably my most frequented go-to spot is the lovely Chopt. This is no surprise as I am a salad and veggie fanatic. And the best part about Chopt is how they literally karate chop your entire salad, as the name implies. This makes it easy to avoid awkward salad leaves hanging out of your mouth like a rabbit while you get your veggie on. Everything fits easily into the mouth so salad shoveling can occur at a quickened pace. And the salads are HUGE, so they really fill you up. These are not wimpy salads, these are for sure salad beasts. You could also have them make your salad into a wrap!

My most recent fave is the seasonal special Asian BBQ salad… grilled all-natural chicken, daikon radish, pickled carrots, mushrooms and red cabbage, shown above. Swoon. I enjoyed this with the Spa Tzaiki Yogurt dressing and it was quite a delight. Although I usually do the create your own option, which allows for four free standard “choppings” (toppings), however if you order before noon you get a 5th chopping free! Yay! I of course take advantage of that. Then you can of course add in some more premium toppings (protein, cheese, special veggies) for additional charges. They also have a nutrition calculator on their website so you can build your perfect salad and see exact nutrition stats. They also do a lot of organic, all-natural options, which is definitely something I respect. I deem Chopt to be complete Salad Heaven.

Another great spot close to my office is Hale & Hearty, especially when you are sick, or just in the winter when you want some yummy warm soup in your belly. They have a TRILLION different kinds of soup that rotate on a daily basis. So it’s always a fun game to see what is available on any given day. They also have salads and sandwiches, so you can do combos when just soup isn’t going to cut it.

I recently tried the Black Lentil & Smoked Turkey and found it delightful. Got the sourdough bread on the side and was in soupy heaven. Other all-time faves include Spiced Lentil with Spinach, Maryland Crab, Chicken Marsala with Wild Mushrooms, Curried Cauliflower Chickpea and Tomato, Wild Mushroom Faglioli and Tuscan Chicken. And for sandwiches I love the Mediterranean Chicken Wrap. A cool feature on the site is you can vote for your favorite soups, and you just enter your email then check off all your favorite soups and specify your usual store location that you go to, and they email you whenever your fave soups are at your spot! Love it. Or if you just feel like walking in, you can sample as many flavors of the day as you like before picking the one you want. I’m big on the samples.

There are so many more wonderful lunch spots but I’m gunna save ‘em for another day… So this weekend it’s lots of R&R and online shopping in front of the TV for me! Although, I have been having a craving for my Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies… so if I get up any energy, I really think I need to make those… NEED to. I believe chocolate cures everything, right?

xoxo

Hilary

Soho Sites and Brooklyn Bites

Hello lovelies!

Did everyone have a fab weekend? Mine was wonderful as there were lots of fun activities to do! Unfortunately I was a bad bad blogger and didn’t take ANY pictures… ugh. I need to get better about that! But luckily, Google image searching and link backs to sources have saved the day as I have lots of wonderfulness to share with you!

Saturday night was my close friend’s birthday dinner and partayyyy. The dinner was at Adrienne’s Pizza Bar down in Financial District (she actually LIVES down there… crazy right? ) and it was pretty good. Nothing superbly special about it, but yummy enough. The party was at Sola’s in East Village… pretty standard bar scene. I had never been there before so it’s always fun to check out new places. And we had a section all reserved for the birthday party which was great as well. Some more bar hopping ensued post party but I don’t recall much of that.

(Source)

On Sunday I headed down to Boqueria in Soho to have brunch with a friend from home who was visiting, and we chose Boqueria in particular since our other friend is a hostess there. We got a little two-top table right near the hostessing stand so we were able to all chit chat! Twas lovely. The food was amazinggg and we may have been granted some complimentary beverages for being friends of the establishment… and by some beverages I mean an entire pitcher of sangria. Which we finished. Obvi. I had a rolled omelette for my meal which was filled with goat cheese and greens and came with an amazing side salad and also delcious french fries. I’m such a sucker for french fries. So both the food and drinks were delicioussssss, and I highly recommend this spot to grab a bite if you are ever in the Soho area shopping. The sangria had cranberries in it and this cinnamon-y taste… very seasonal and very heavenly. And the churros for dessert were also heavenly. Mmm.

(Source)

After brunch we took our tipsy selves to peruse some Soho shops, including the new DASH, recently opened by the Kardashian sisters… I gotta say I wasn’t super impressed with it. Maybe it had been really picked over, but everything was over-priced and a lot of it was… unfortunately… ugly. Yep, I said it. And trust me, I am one of the biggest Kardashian fans ever, I think they all have amazing style, yet somehow the store didn’t really reflect that? Hmm, perhaps they are still getting set up and it will get better eventually… I hope so! But when I was there it was just a lot of overpriced gold lamé. And it was literally LAME! Ha! Worst joke ever, but you get the point.

(Source)

We then stopped in Sabon where we got our hands scrubbed down and lotioned up for free. Lovely, lovely place. I got the lavender scent and it was just fab. My hands were so soft the rest of the day… mmm. I feel like some of the stuff there would make lovely xmas gifts… I’m going to keep that one in the back of my mind.

(Source)

THEN we took a trip to BROOKLYN. I know, crazy times. I had actually never been to Brooklyn before… considering I’ve lived in NYC almost a year and a half that’s pretty pathetic. So I’m glad I finally got to scope it out. We walked up and down Bedford Avenue a little, and stopped in Bedford Cheese Shop where I had some delicious samples of raw goat cheese. Since I’m a terrible food blogger and was still a little buzzed I don’t remember the name of the cheese. A shame I tell you. I would have bought the cheese but was a bit worried about transporting it home since we still had more shopping ahead of us. And those fancy cheeses are mad expensive! But, I’ll def put it on my list of things to buy when I’m rich. But they are very helpful there and everything I tried was delicious, so if you are a cheese aficiando I would check it out.

(Source)

Then we checked out some cute vintage-y type shops, and for our last stop we grabbed a quick drink and bite at Hotel Delmano. We were recommended to go there by a friend and it did not dissappoint. It was one of those sneaky hidden places that doesn’t have the name displayed ANYWHERE so we really were never sure we were in the right place… but I confirmed it once I looked at pictures on Yelp back at home. So un-trendy of me. Anyway… the place had a very cool old-time speakeasy type vibe, from the decor to the menu. We tried an “Alibi” cocktail which was some mixture of agave, tequila, and some vanilla-cinnamon flavoring (clearly I was into cinnamon alcoholic beverages on Sunday) and it was soooooo good. I could have gulped down about twenty but then I probably wouldn’t have made it home. We also had a ricotta cheese appetizer with little baguette toasts to nibble on… it was also very good. I loveeee ricotta. And it came with coarse sea salt that you could sprinkle on top of each bite! Really enhanced the flavor. Veryyy tasty. The place was also dripping with hipsters and I must admit I love that vibe… I think deep down I wish I were a hipster. So very Brooklyn.

All in all it was a great weekend for checking out lots of new things! Those are my favorite kinds of weekends, getting out and exploring this crazy city as much as possible. It’s seriously amazing how much stuff there is here! Still amazes me everyday even a year and a half later… I <3 NYC

Ever been to any of the above spots? Did you check out anything fun this weekend??

xoxo

Hilary

Explaining the Twinkie Diet

Hiiii!

So today I’m doing a kind of serious post… something in the news that caught my eye recently that I think needs a proper explanation. So here goes…

My brother recently sent me this article (“Twinkie Diet Helps Nutrition Professor Lose 27 Pounds” by Madison Park, CNN) about the nutrition professor who lost 27 pounds on a “twinkie diet”. Did anyone else see this?? The part that boggled me, at first, was that they also said that he not only lost weight but also lowered his BMI and his body fat percentage, and even his cholesterol! But upon close examination of the article I realized that it is really no surprise at all that he was able to do this, for several reasons:

Reason #1 is that he cut his calories from approximately 2,600 to 1,800. Any calorie reduction is going to result in weight loss, whether you eat those calories in vegetables, twinkies, or dirt. But dirt would be gross. Anyway.

Reason #2, he started out as being overweight, which means with calorie reduction he will reduce weight and BMI, and any weight loss for someone who is starting out as overweight will make them healthier, by reducing their risks of high blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol.

Most importantly…

Reason #3 is that he cut meat during the diet! I was most perplexed by the part about his cholesterol dropping, but if you read down into the article he states that he still ate vegetables around his family (didn’t want to set a bad example for the kids) and also for the first part of the diet he cut out all meat, which was when he saw the biggest decrease in cholesterol. Duh. One more reason to try my Marinated Tempeh. Then it says he reintroduced meat and his cholesterol starting going back up – also to be expected. But they hide this at the VERY BOTTOM of the article! This part should be up at the top, when they very FIRST mention the cholesterol drop!

Reason #4 is he also very seriously controlled the portions – to put things in perspective, they said 2/3 of his 1,800 daily calories came from the junk food, and the other 1/3 from vegetables and a protein shake, meaning about 1,200 from junk food and 600 from vegetables* (see note below). At 150 calories a pop, that means eight twinkies a day to reach that 1,200 calorie junk food quota, then the rest was VEGGIES. And he didn’t eat meat!! Eight twinkies is not very many if you think about that being your ONLY food besides some veggies at dinner and a protein shake. I’m not sure many people would have grasped that ratio.

Basically I’m worried that for a lot of less informed readers, the take-away from this article would be that twinkies and other junk foods are healthy/okay, as opposed to a take-away of cutting significant calories and meat to lose weight when you are overweight is healthy. This was really not clear in the article. Plus there were veggies snuck in there, and a protein shake, and a multi-vitamin, and very controlled portion sizes of various convenience store delicacies.

Some readers might get the impression it was just endless piles upon piles of twinkies and other junk, but in the scheme of things, eight twinkies is really not that many, as they are pretty small (only four inches long x 1.5 inches wide). I mean it is still a lot of junk, for sure, but it isn’t as much as you may think at first when reading the article. I was picturing him eating boxes upon boxes of twinkies all day long, but there are a dozen in a box, so it’s really less than a box a day. He really kept his portion sizes under control.

I do like, though, how the professor himself mentions that even though the short term effects of this on him were positive, there is no way to know how eating this way may be effecting his future health, for example increasing risks of cancer or diabetes. You would think with all those twinkies he would be on the way to diabetes, no? Also, he doesn’t mention anything about how he really FELT during the time of the diet, for example energy levels or mood (you would think he’d be mood swinging and sugar crashing constantly), or his digestion, or his skin quality. Things like that are important as well and got no mention. I saw this article featured on the news and I hope the increased media attention will lead to more follow up articles that will better explain the whole situation.

Anyhooooo those were just some of my thoughts on that whole crazy thing. Did anyone else see it, and what do you think? Is this in any way irresponsible journalism if they don’t more properly and prominently explain the volume impacts of the calorie restriction (many people don’t know what 1,800 calories really looks like, and they give no base point of what it means in terms of twinkies or volume* [see note below]) and the importance of avoiding meat that led to the success of this experiment? Just my two cents.

*The sample meal plan shown to the left side of the article is also confusing as they do not give serving sizes for each item, and the proportions do not add up to what they say in text in the article. From the sample it looks like he only had 16% of his daily calories in veggies and protein shakes, as opposed to the 33% they say in the article. Not sure which is correct.

Alright, that’s enough seriousness for me for about a month.  Enjoy the rest of your Thursday!!

xoxo

Hilary

 

PS: I did find some other good articles that also try to explain the dangerous side of this “Twinkie diet”, so if you are further interested in this I would check these out:

Daily Buzz: Twinkie Diet Man Loses 27 Pounds—and 10 Weeks Worth of Nutrients by Woman’s Day

“The Twinkie Diet: Caution — Toxic” by Pamela Peeke at WebMD

A Pumpkin Protein Lovechild

Alohaaaaaaaa!

I hope some of you have made the leap into non-meat and tried some lovely Marinated Tempeh!! If you haven’t, you need to do it. Immediately.

Another thing you really must try is these Pumpkin Protein Cake Bars. It was hard to nail down a name on these as the texture is so open to interpretation – I think they most closely resemble a muffin-like texture, but “Cake Bars” just sounds so much more fun, doesn’t it?

So anyway, I was overcome with inspiration to make these this weekend as I wanted to combine my pumpkin obsession with my healthy high-protein obsession. I had combined these ingredients many times before in my Pumpkin Overnight Oats and also in my un-documented Pumpkin Protein Cookies, but I was ready to make a more substantial feeling breakfast item. I wanted some type of bready/bar/loaf type creation, so I adjusted my recipe from the cookies and got cookin’.

I was crossing my fingers the whole time I was making these, as the main “flour” ingredient is my beloved Sun Warrior Vanilla Brown Rice Protein Powder. And, the main sweetener is Stevia Cup for Cup, which I hadn’t used to bake yet. So I was NERVOUS, but I knew if there was any other delightful ingredient that could turn protein + stevia into deliciousity, it was pumpkin. I don’t know how pumpkin is so magical, but it really completely (to me, anyway) masked any “protein”-y taste in these, which can be a challenge with protein baked goods (I would know…).

But anyway, with a little luck and a little MAGIC, these came out AMAZING and so so perfect for a little breakfast treat! Especially when topped with Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese and maple syrup. Or for dessert. Or for an afternoon snack. Or all day through out the day. BUT these are also SO healthy, and fairly low in fat, and I didn’t use all that much sweetener at all (as my tastebuds don’t require too much sweetness), so these are not like some fantastic rich dessert to serve to company or anything like that. But if you are looking for a delicious and protein-rific recipe for some treats, I really highly recommend you give them a try!!

Pumpkin Protein Cake Bars

Ingredients:

- 4 scoops Sun Warrior Vanilla Protein Powder (*substitution ideas below)

- 1/2 cup Whole Wheat Flour

- 1 teaspoon baking powder

- 1 teaspoon baking soda

- 2 teaspoons Pumpkin Pie Spice (or a combo of cinnamon/nutmeg/ginger/what have you)

- 1/2 teaspoon salt

- 6 tablespoons Earth Balance Buttery Spread (softened)

- 6 tablespoons Stevia Cup for Cup (*substitution ideas below)

- 2 tablespoons 100% pure maple syrup

- 1 egg (*substitution ideas below)

- 1 1/2 cups Libby’s 100% Pure Pumpkin

- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

- 1 tablespoon Raw Turbinado Sugar

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 375°. Mix Sun Warrior, flour, baking powder and soda, spices, and salt together in a bowl and set aside.

2. Using a hand/stand mixer, beat together Earth Balance, stevia, and maple syrup until smooth. Add in egg. Then add in pumpkin and vanilla, and mix until combined.

3. SLOWLY add dry ingredients into wet, and continue to mix. Towards the end of the dry mix being added it might become slightly difficult to get everything to combine but DO NOT GIVE UP! Mix by hand if you must.

4. Pour batter into a greased 9×9″ baking pan. (My baking pan is a P.O.S so I lined it with parchment paper because literally EVERYTHING sticks to it no matter how much grease I use… sigh)

5. Sprinkle the Turbinado Sugar evenly over the top of your batter. DON’T SKIP THIS STEP! Adds such a delicious, sugary crunch to the top! Yum yum yum! I mean I guess skip it if you really want to… but you’ll be sorry!

6. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cut into 9 square bars.

MMMM yummy! As I mentioned above, the BEST BEST way to eat these is to place a square on a plate or in a bowl or whatever, and top with Tofutti cream cheese and then drizzle with additional maple syrup. Also, warming it up makes it even better, so the Tofutti gets all melty and the bar is warm. Do ittttttttt!

Substitution/Addition Ideas:

- You could definitely sub out the Sun Warrior for any flour of your choice. You could use all whole wheat flour, or just regular all purpose flour, or perhaps a gluten-free flour! They wouldn’t be as high protein, but I bet they’d still be delicious!

- If you want to make these vegan, you could sub out the egg for a flax egg

- Instead of using the Stevia, you could really use any sugar in its place (as it is “cup for cup”, the amount should still be the same). You could also use ALL maple syrup, so 8 tablespoons maple syrup. I bet that would be yummy! But of course, this would up the calories/sugar if you are concerned with that.

- The next time I make these, I want to try adding raisins! I think that would be really yummy. Or perhaps sliced almonds? Or perhaps mini chocolate chips? Or chopped pecans? So many ideas!

These should keep well in an air-tight container in the fridge for at least a week or so, if you can keep from eating the whole batch for that long! For about 150 calories and 9 grams of protein per bar, you best be tryin’ these! And let me know if you do!

xoxo

Hilary

Nutritional Facts

Pumpkin Protein Cake Bars

Svg Size: 1 bar. Svgs per Recipe: 9. Calories: 152, Total Fat: 7.3g, Sat. Fat: 1.9g, Carbs: 15.5g, Fiber: 3.3g, Sugar: 6.5g, Protein: 9.4g

*Please Note* All calorie and nutritional information is approximate and based on the exact ingredients I used. Any changes or substitutions to the recipe will result in changes to nutritional information. As measurements and nutrients vary from ingredient to ingredient, the exact accuracy of this data cannot be guaranteed.

Good Enough to Marinate

Happy Monday!!!

Although, is it ever really a “happy” Monday? Blah.

So anyway, now that we are back in the swing of things over here at purelicious after an Epic-ly Long Break filled with many Non-Food Related Hobbies, I thought I would share another one of my tried and true recipes that I make ALL the time – marinated tempeh. This recipe is soooo super easy, and SO delicious, and so very versatile as you can then add your marinated tempeh to ANYTHING! I often bring my tempeh for lunch as it is a very cubicle-friendly lunch along with a salad or in a sandwich, and I always get inquisitions from co-workers once they catch whiff of its lovely marinated scent drafting through the kitchen.

But let’s back up a hot second, cuz I know many people might be wondering what the heck tempeh is. Well, it’s another non-meat vegan protein substitute, much in the vein of tofu. But do not be put off!! I hate when my friends and family hear me say “non-meat protein substitute” and start rolling their eyes at me, like “Ohhhh Hilary, again with your freaky wiggly protein products”. But tempeh doesn’t wiggle (no offense, tofu)!!! And it’s not slimey. And you don’t have to press it! Yay!!! I rarely make tofu cuz I don’t have a fancy pressing apparatus and I hate having to get out like 12 plates and a heavy hardcover dictionary to make dinner. Call me old-fashioned. Or lazy. Tempeh is also more awesome than tofu because it contains whole soy that has been fermented, which is the healthiest way to eat soy, and it is not heavily processed, as opposed to tufu which is pretty heavily processed. I found an awesome article about the differences between tempeh and tofu here. Not that I’m bashing tofu at all, you can do some great things with it… I just prefer tempeh.

ANYWAY, tempeh is really very awesome and very easy to deal with. It’s a great source of healthy protein, and has a hearty nutty texture and very mild flavor that picks up anything you cook it with, hence the amazing-ness of marinating it. So if you’ve ever been wondering to yourself, hmmm, maybe I should branch out and try a non-meat centered protein, but tofu scares me, NOW IS YOUR CHANCE! Go buy some tempeh and hop on this recipe ASAP. Raw tempeh may not be exactly very pleasing to the eyes, but don’t let that hold you back!

Awesomely Simple Marinated Tempeh

(Vegan, Gluten-Free)

You will need:

- 1/2 block tempeh (My favorite is the 3 grain tempeh from good old TJ’s)

- 2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce

- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

- 1 tablespoon 100% pure maple syrup

- 1 tablespoon olive oil

 

Cut the tempeh into about 1/4″ strips like so…

I usually then wrap up the remaining half block of tempeh in seran wrap and then in a ziplock bag and store it in the freezer to save for another time. Or you could double the recipe and make it all at once if you have multiple mouths to feed. Set aside cut strips.

SUPER EASY RECIPE ALERT: Now just take a ziplock baggie, and add in your soy sauce, balsamic, syrup, and OO. Smoosh around the bag a little bit until you feel as though they are thoroughly mixed. Now, place cut up tempeh strips into baggie:

TA DA!! Now, just place your tempeh baggie into your fridge and let it marinate 8-24 hours. You can flip it a few times throughout the process to make sure both sides of the tempeh get evenly delicious-ified. When you are ready to cook up some tempeh lovin’, you can just throw it in a saucepan and cook it up!

Or bake it in the oven… or grill it… whatever floats your boat. As TJ’s tempeh is pre-cooked and ready to eat (as I believe most if not all of the packaged varieties are?) the specifics of how or how long you cook it are really irrelevant. I like it browned a bit on the outside but find what suits your personal taste! I find I usually get 2 servings out of each 1/2 block of tempeh (so four servings in a whole block), so I’ll usually grill it all up at once and eat half, then save the other half in the fridge for lunch the next day… such as just tossin’ it on top of some greenery to bring to work for lunch:

That particular day I had it on some spinach, broccoli slaw, and cherry tomatoes and I popped this whole foil packet in our toaster oven in the kitchen so I had a warm and tasty veggie-licious and protein-licious lunch! Yummers! Tempeh is also AMAZING in a wrap with say some lettuce and hummus…. MMM! Or in a stir fry…

Perhaps the stir fry was suspiciously similar in ingredients to the toaster lunch meal above, but what can I say, when I find a combo I like I stick to it!

So that’s that! Super easy, and I bet you already have most of those ingredients in your fridge!! Give this tempeh a try and you won’t regret it. My friend Hawley liked it so much she tweeted about it… which makes it very, very special indeed.

Ta-ta for now!!! Check in later this week for a lovely Pumpkin Protein Cake Bars recipe…. I made these over the weekend and FINALLY wrote down ingredients and they are such a fabulous high protein breakfast treat that I just must share!

xoxo

Hilary

Nutritional Facts

Marinated Tempeh

Svg Size: 1/4 block tempeh. Svgs per Recipe: 2. Calories: 233, Total Fat: 12.5g, Sat. Fat: 2g, Carbs: 18.4g, Fiber: 3.5g, Sugar: 8.3g, Protein: 11.1g

*Please Note* All calorie and nutritional information is approximate and based on the exact ingredients I used. Any changes or substitutions to the recipe will result in changes to nutritional information. As measurements and nutrients vary from ingredient to ingredient, the exact accuracy of this data cannot be guaranteed.

Why I Didn’t Post About Food for Two Months

TA DA!! I’M BACK!!!!!!!!!!

It’s a miracle, I know. Don’t start getting used to it though, okay?

So there was a good reason (besides laziness, which obviously is reason #1) why I hadn’t posted for about 2 months…. my eats have really been beyond boring and so repetitive, and if I had to sum it up I would just say: Pumpkin. PUMPKIN!

Like many other food bloggers, I have found myself addicted to this orange seasonal delight. You name it, I’ve pumpkin-ified it. Overnight oats, hot oats, cookies, smoothies, lattes, pancakes, sandwiches… made a pumpkin “cheesecake”…. I seriously think I’ve had pumpkin every day for  easily at least the past 30 days in one form or another. I think my co-worker who sits behind me could attest to this as everytime she turns around I’m eating something orange, and she says “Hilary… again?” in that tone of disappointment like you would say to a lush guzzling another cocktail… but I’m not ashamed. I anticipate I could keep going at least another 30 days without a break. I might turn orange, but it would be WORTH IT. And here is the #1 most inhaled pumpkin recipe to my face… my breakfast for the past two months… ladies and gentleman, I introduce…

The Best Pumpkin Overnight Oats Recipe Ever. EVER. Period. (Now you have to try it)

And PS, they are Vegan and Gluten-Free (if you use GF oats)

- 1/3 cup rolled oats

- 1/2 scoop Vanilla Sun Warrior protein powder (obviously I put protein in this… duh)

- 1 heaping tablespoon chia seeds

- 1/2 – 2/3 cup LIBBY’s 100% Pure Pumpkin (Libby’s is by far the best. The only way to go. And yes, I usually use 2/3 cup. Don’t judge)

- about 1/2 – 1 cup Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze (I never measure but this is my best guesstimate… your final product should be about the consistency of yogurt. Regular, not greek.)

- Sprinkles of salt

- HEFTY sprinkles pumpkin pie spice (or just cinnamon + nutmeg)

- 2 packets stevia OR 1 tablespoon maple syrup (both amazing options, hard to choose) (or even just sugar or whatever your sweetener of choice)

MIX ALL INGREDIENTS TOGETHER AND PLACE IN FRIDGE OVERNIGHT.

Done! In the morning you have a thickened, delicious, pumpkin-y delight. And the best part is this SO super easy to make the night before then bring to work with you! As you may recall, I love easy cubicle-friendly meals. ANDD this serving of yummy contains 18g of protein and 13g of fiber (full nutritional stats at bottom of post)! Wowza! I’ve been known to have a bottomless pit for a stomach but this breakfast does keep me surprisingly full through lunch with all that healthiness tucked in there!

My favorite way to eat this is to pour additional almond milk on top in the morning right before eating and kinda gently fold it in… mmm. Like so:

Then add toppings!! Raisins, sliced almonds, or Cinnamon Puffins all make fabulous toppings. Or a crumbled up homemade Pumpkin Protein Cookie… yah. Basically just a cooked form of similar ingredients but it tastes GREAT! I am gunna have to share these at some point if I ever write down the exact measurements of the ingredients because let me tell ya… heaven in an orange circle.

That’s another reason I haven’t been posting, I literally just do not measure ingredients or write down ANYTHING anymore. I make some delicious nom-noms and then I’m like shoot… what did I do here? I have the memory of a gerbil so I don’t remember and then I can’t share. BOO! Thank goodness I had made the pumpkin overnight oats (I just wrote P.O.O. but then realized that’s not very appetizing…) so many times that I memorized the ingredients.

I’ve also been doing a lot of online shopping. Hellloooooo Piperlime:

Meoowwwwww. I haven’t bought THESE lovely Calvin Klein beauts (yet)… but don’t worry, I’m keeping PL in business… I perhaps have gotten about 5 packages from them in the past 6 weeks but who is REALLY counting? Besides my credit card company… anyway….

And one more thing? I’ve been making a lot of jewelry.

Any of you who have stalked me (and let’s be honest, who hasn’t? I’m awesome) and looked at my About Me page would have perhaps noticed that in addition to having a full time job, being a shopaholic, and spending hours upon hours at Trader Joe’s making googley eyes at produce, I also design and sell jewelry. I know, I KNOW, I have too many hobbies. It’s actually a real and legitimate problem. I really wish I could become LESS enthralled with all my various crafty and foodie and shopaholic pursuits but I’m just addicted man, I can’t stop. So anyway I got hit with some magical inspiration and was cranking out jewelry like a machine. Twas glorious. Think it’s out of my system but you just never know…

Are you sick of my excuses yet? Cuz I am. So I’ll quit my BSing and get back to doing what I do best (or second best… or third best… I don’t know how my hobbies rank in terms of skillz, I think I’m pretty badass at everything) (and apparently full of myself? second reference to self-awesomeness in two paragraphs) and will start making more deliciousness and WRITING IT DOWN. NOTE TO SELF. And as a side note, whenever I stray into my other hobbies, I may write about them here as well. Cuz I realized, I’m not just a one-show woman! Or is it one-woman show? The point is, I have a freakish amount of hobbies but I might as well share them ALL, cuz my freakiness is interesting, right? That’s what my parents always told me…

Make them oats or you’ll be a sorry sad pumpkin-less being.

xoxo

Hilary

Nutritional Facts

Best EVER Pumkin Overnight Oats

(Stats based on using 2/3 c. pumpkin, stevia, and 1 c. unsweetened almond milk)

Svg Size: 1 heaping bowl. Svgs per Recipe: 1. Calories: 265, Total Fat: 8.3g, Sat. Fat: 0g, Carbs: 36.5g, Fiber: 13.3g, Sugar: 5g, Protein: 17.8g

*Please Note* All calorie and nutritional information is approximate and based on the exact ingredients I used. Any changes or substitutions to the recipe will result in changes to nutritional information. As measurements and nutrients vary from ingredient to ingredient, the exact accuracy of this data cannot be guaranteed.

An Epic-ly Long Break (Alt Title: Hell Freezing Over)

Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!

How many of ya thought I’d never be back? Huh? Huh? Admit it!

Well, to all you doubters, I am BACK! WOO!

Where have I been? Well, I’ve been A LOT of places. Done A LOT of things. Let’s recap shall we?

Back in September, “the missing month”, I went on an EPIC cruise. My family and some family friends of ours went sailin’ the high seas of the Caribbean for 7 days and it was amaze-balls. Most of the eats were not exactly purelicious-approved BUT… I did take a boot camp class while I was there. It was seriously hardcore but I think I liked it. I couldn’t walk for the first 3 days of the cruise but hey, that happens! But there is no way that that class, in all of its thigh-destroying glory, evened out the extreme binge eating marathons at dinner every night, but it never hurts to try.

Fun things that happened on board…

I met Michael Jackson…

Kimmy, MJ, me

Okay so up close he doesn’t look that legit but let me tell you, from the seats this guy WAS MICHAEL. HE WAS! He moonwalked. He “wooooooh!”-ed in a delightfully high pitch. He wore high water pants and a sparkly jacket. IT WAS MICHAEL PEOPLE. Don’t question me on this.

I drank Russian vodka in a -17º ice bar for 45 minutes…

Moi, my broski, mama purelicious, papa purelicious

My mom out-lasted everyone. The woman is a trooper. I think the vodka helped but she was just on another level. Also my brother licked a viking:

My parents posed with a polar bear:

I made funny faces:

Let me tell you, weird WEIRD things happen when you are exposed to extreme low temperatures for that long. MY FATHER DANCED. Anyone out there who knows my dad, you get it. Miracles were happening in there. Hell had literally frozen over. And this is how much I liked it:

Spent quality time with the family unit and got stalked by onboard photographers…

me and the brother

mommy and me!

Things un-pictured…

Saw the Blue Man Group. Kinda weird, but neat at the same time. Bonus points for getting to spy on the men without their blue paint on at the bar late night.

Saw a mini Cirque de Soleil performance…. I really don’t get how these guys were balancing and flipping and spinning on ropes and hoops while the ship was rocking back and forth… that takes some serious talent. There was one point when I thought the two dudes teetering on a table that was on another table that was on a rolling cylinder type thing were gunna lose it, but they kept their cool. Sooo legit.

Went jewelry shopping with my mom. Hollaaa to David Yurman outlets and no taxes on the islands!

Made up some new dance moves. Which cleared out a dance floor. But… I think everyone was into it… right…?

Listened to horrible kareoke.

Ate fantastic dinners and amazing desserts every night and had multiple fabulous martinis with some fabulous company. Wait, there’s a picture of this (dark and blurry, but it still counts):

Got rained on at Atlantis, but savoured the afternoon by going on the shark slide about 12 times.

Got a massage, and laid on a hot rock chair. This chair… that curves to your body… made out of stones… and it’s warm. You need it. I need it.

I think that about wraps up the trip! Anyone who is into cruising, I would highly recommend the Norwegian Epic… it was seriously a great time. Top notch cruisin’.

I’m gunna save some other highlights from this past missing month (including some food, I promise) for another post… can’t wear myself out all at once.

I’LL BE BACK.

Or will I?

xoxo

Hilary

Beachy Eats

Hello hello!

I am back from my lovely beachy getaway vacation! It was so wonderful and relaxing. A long weekend filled with plentiful beach lounging, relaxation, childhood reminiscing with my girlies (my dad long ago dubbed us all “the girlies”, in perhaps 5th grade, and the name has stuck ever since), delicious healthy eats, casual workouts, fun with the iPad… and did I mention delicious eating? Made it kind of difficult to willingly come back to rainy, smelly, no beach in sight NYC, but alas… real life must go on.

I figured today I would share some of my delicious vacation eats! I was doing great at the beginning taking lots of pics, but a few days in vacation mode really got hold of me and I forgot to take pics, but I shall describe as best I can with words. One of my friends that I was with was recently diagnosed with a gluten intolerance, so I spent my whole weekend cooking up gluten free goodies with her in moral support! Everything was super tasty so I certainly did not mind being gluten free at all! I also felt great all week – I think being GF agreed with me! I might dabble more in this in the future just to experiment. We shall see!

Over the course of the week we tried tons of great supermarket finds, and also made tons of delicious meals and homemade treats! Apologies that there aren’t pictures for everything, but here’s a recap of some highlights…

Brunch

(So Delicious Yogurt topped with Maple Sunrise and blueberries)

So Delicious Agave Sweetened Non-Dairy Yogurt - When I grabbed these at the supermarket I actually thought they were just an agave sweetened version of this brand’s coconut yogurt (which I lurveee), and didn’t realize until later (read: when I was eating one for breakfast the next day) that these were actually soy yogurts! Whoops. I usually avoid processed soy products, but obviously I wasn’t going to let these go to waste. We tried the blueberry, vanilla, and plain varieties. All were pretty decent, but the texture kind of left something to be desired. A little more slippery and lacking that yogurty fluffy spoonability… hard to describe. Not terrible but not great… but topping with my homemade island granola definitely helped!

Nature’s Path Vanilla Sunrise and Maple Sunrise Cereal – Yum! We all LOVED these in the morning with almond milk. I think everyone was in agreeance that the Maple was the preferred flavor, but they are both DELICIOUS.

Homemade Island Granola – I followed my original recipe but used Bob’s Red Mill Certified Gluten Free Oats instead of just regular oats, sliced almonds in place of the walnuts, and omitted the Fiber Sprinkles since I forgot them back in NYC. So so yummy!! Huge hit with everyone.

Homemade Vegan Overnight Oats – I decided to share the joys of overnight oats with everyone – I mixed about 1/2 cup GF oats, 1 scoop Sun Warrior, and 2 tablespoons chia seeds with a cup or so of almond milk, and seasoned with salt, cinnamon, and stevia. It “marinated” overnight in the fridge, and in the morning was a delicious bowl of oatyness! Everyone was at first perplexed by eating oats cold, but they were eventually won over with first bite.

Dinner

Night One – Steak & Goat Cheese Salads: My friend and I were having a serious red meat craving, so we got ourselves a nice hormone-free piece of strip steak and made a delicious salad over mixed baby greens with crumbled goat cheese, cherry tomatoes, red peppers and topped with green beans sautéed in coconut oil, then finished off with a serving of Galeo’s Toasted Sesame Miso Dressing (OBSESSED), and of course a glass of red vino. Mmm! Craving satisfied.

Night Two – Shrimp & Black Bean Soft Tacos: Sadly not photographed, but… we grilled up some shrimp and heated up some black beans, then served them in soft corn tortillas with salsa! Mmm mm good.

Night Three – Mexican Breakfast Quesadillas: We scrambled up 2 eggs with 4 egg whites and added in black beans and goat cheese, then spooned the mixture inbetween corn tortillas slathered with salsa to form quesadillas. Baked ‘em in the oven to get the tortillas crispy on the outside. SO. SO. GOOD. The flavor combos were perfect, and I love melted goat cheese!

The remaining nights of the trip we snacked so much throughout the day that there was no room for a well-planned dinner… but there was plenty of ice cream and cookies to make up for it later

Snacks

RiceWorks Chips - I LOVED these!! Seriously loved. The Salsa Fresca and Sweet Chili flavors were so so good, perfect with salsa, hummus, or homemade guac, all of which were in abundance this weekend. I will definitely be purchasing more of these in the future… they may even replace my prior chip lover, Guiltless Gourmet!

Sesmark Mini Rice Crackers in Sesame Garlic - These were very yummy! Super teeny tiny, but that was kind of fun, and you get 37 crackers per 130cal serving! Also delicious as afternoon post beach snacking with hummus or guac!

Snikiddy Grilled Cheese Puffs Snack Bags – These reminded me a lot of Pirate’s Booty, but a distinct round shape, and more crunch. Very cheesy flavor, which I enjoyed. Great snack to bring to the beach, and there were a TON of puffs per 140 cal bag, which was great!

Homemade Salt & Vinegar Baked Chickpeas - I finally got around to trying this recipe from Ange at Oh She Glows that I’ve been admiring for weeks! These were SO tasty!! I made an entire can of chickpeas worth and they were gone within a few hours. Classic salt and vinegar taste combined with healthy chickpea protein… how can you go wrong?? Try these!

TONS of fresh fruit (plums, pluots (loved these! First time trying them), grapefruits, grapes, blueberries, strawberries, bananas) before the beach to stay hydrated, and lots of fresh veggies (baby carrots, zucchini, peppers) for dipping in excessive amounts of garlic lover’s hummus!

Dessert

So Delicious Coconut Ice Cream in Cookie Dough and Mint Chip – Yah, we polished off four pints of these (2 of each) between 5 girls over two nights… so clearly we hated it. This stuff is SO good! Not a low calorie/fat/sugar food by any means, but a great healthy non-dairy treat for special occasions (like BFF reunions)! I think we were split over what the favorite flavor was – I personally preferred the cookie dough. It’s very vanilla, but I love that, and the cookie dough chunks were of course amazing! We all digged through the ice cream to snag as many of these as possible, which I think is pretty typical with cookie dough ice creams, if I recall correctly from my childhood fights with my brother over the containers.

Homemade Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies - I actually made two batches of these with slight variations… the first time I followed the recipe but only had 1/2 cup of the Bob’s GF Flour, so I used 1/4 cup additional coconut flour and didn’t change anything else. While the cookies were delicious, they came out slightly dry. This is obviously because coconut flour requires more moisture, which I didn’t take into consideration, silly me. They were still tasty and were gobbled up quickly. Then a few days later, I made a variation. Followed the recipe but used 3/4 cup GF oats + 1/2 cup coconut flour for the dry mixture base, then upped the Earth Balance and Coconut Oil by a tablespoon each. Then I also added in some additional sliced almonds to boot along with the coconut and chocolate chips. Success!! These were much better. So delicious!

So that pretty much covers our eats throughout the trip! It was a totally gluten-free and mostly dairy-free vacation, and totally 100% delicious. Gotta love a good vacation to re-charge the batteries!

Here’s the only normal people picture to come out of the trip, of us at the local bar…

That’s me in red. And yes, all of my friends are gorgeous. It’s okay to be jealous.

xoxo

Hilary

Strut Out of Your Rut

Hello hello!

So lately I’ve been having a bit of a work out rut. I have been going to the gym regularly, but was always feeling kinda blah about it. Blah intervals on the elliptical, blah weight machines, blah crunches. Blah blah. It was kinda starting to bore me, which is a serious sign that a switch up is in order. So yesterday afternoon I came home after work and crashed on the couch with an open box of Peanut Butter Panda Puffs in front of a marathon of Top Chef. Yah…. not the coolest Friday afternoon I’ve ever had. I kept telling myself I would go to the gym to break myself away from the thrilling display of toothpick appetizers the chefs were whipping up, but the thought was making me yawn. More Panda Puffs… boring ellipitical…. Panda Puffs…. hip abductors…. you can see I had a dilemma here. But then a thought occurred to me: a walk down by the Chelsea Piers! I used to go all the time when spring was first turning cuz I was so excited I could go outside, but I hadn’t been in quite some time. The thought immediately perked me up and I told myself I could just walk the whole time, and turn back whenever I was tired, and the Panda Puffs would still be here waiting for me. Sneakers were tied, ponytails were upped (?), and off I went!

As soon as I hit that fresh city air (ha!) I was immediately revitalized. Had my iPhone blasting some Z100 via the I Heart Radio app (loveee this app) and I was walking at a thrilling pace. I never would have guessed it, but all of a sudden I started feeling giddy and got this urge to RUN! Go freaking figure. So off I went, crossing avenues, crossing the west side highway, past the piers, and down to the lovely Hudson River Park walking area right on the water. I stopped running and felt inspired to take some photography:

A lovely view of… Hoboken? Or something? I’m a pathetic NYCer cuz I’m really not even sure… and then I could see the Statue of Liberty off in the distance and I was so pumped to take a pic, but this is what I got:

Ermm…. yah… that’s it in the middle… I promise! Apparently my iPhone camera doesn’t have quite the zoom I dreamed it did. It looked so much closer in person. Le sigh. But anyway, then I snapped a shot facing towards the city from the end of a pier:

Pretty blue sky! And woman doing yoga in awkward position… that will happen. I made a pretty big loop, and was so amazed by all the cool stuff going on: there was a huge inflatable movie screen that was going to be showing “Ice Age 2″ at sunset, so there were families and kiddies sprawled about in front of it, THEN there was some guitar concert going on on another of the piers, and THEN, on the way back I spotted something OH SO EXCITING:

FREE STONYFIELD ORGANIC GREEK YOGURT! Yay yay yay! In my excitement I immediately approached and graciously accepted a yogurt:

I was so stoked, and then it occurred to me… where am I gunna put this? Whoops! I was still about 3 miles from home, but what kind of a greek yogurt loving food blogger would I be if I were to part with that lovely free yogurt! The thought is just appalling. So… I jogged home carrying it. Yep, I’m that cool. It was great inspiration to move my butt faster… “Go Go Go before the yogurt melts!!!” (not that yogurt really melts, but in my head this was a dire emergency). I haven’t popped it open yet as I’m saving it for b-fast tomorrow, but I’m guessing “honey on the bottom” is now “honey all over”. But hey, it’s all going to the same place anyway right?? Aka, my belly. Thanks, Stonyfield!!

One last shot of a cute/cheesy phrase carved into some stone…

“I can sail without wind, I can row without oars, but I cannot part from my friend without tears”

Aww! So cheesy, but I was kinda giddy when I saw this because I started thinking about my vacation next week, when I’m going to spend a weekend on Cape Cod with some of my bestest bestest friends from childhood. I’ve legit been friends with these girlies at least 15 years and we are still super tight, and I expect we will be for many many many more. I can’t believe I was so lucky to find such wonderful friends in my life and I am so excited to see them!!! But I can only imagine parting again will be a bummer, ALTHOUGH I think one and potentially two of them will be moving to NYC shortly!! Fingers crossed they come! More walking buddies would be much appreciated.

So once back at the casa and showered, I created an epic dinner:

Chocolate chia seed protein pancake jelly sandwiches! Yes, they are a mouthful… of deliciousness. Who knew after inhaling absurd amounts of the Panda Puffs I could still want more sweetness in my life, but I sureeeee did. For these I did a variation of Fitnessista protein pancakes: 3 egg whites, 1/4 cup almond milk, 1 scoop Vanilla Sun Warrior, 1 tablespoon coconut flour, 1 tablespoon cocoa powder, 1 tablespoon Stevia in the Raw Cup by Cup, 1/4 tsp xanthan gum, 1/4 tsp baking powder, sprinkles of salt and cinnamon. THEN I decided to mix the batter using one of my shaker cups, because in the past I had always had trouble getting the eggs and powder properly incorporated with just a fork. So a few strong shakes in the shaker and the batter was perfectly smooth and combined, yay!! Once poured on the stove, I sprinkled one side with chia seeds. This was kinda a last minute impulse decision, but I think it added such a delicious crunch!! Loved it. This made 6 mini pancakes, so I sandwiched some organic raspberry jam between two pancakes to make 3 sandwiches, then drizzled them all with sizzurp. YUMMY! Omg, loved. Not sure what I did this time that worked out so perfectly, but the texture of these was the best ever of all my protein pancake attempts. Maybe the shaker helped? Or maybe chocolate really does make everything better? Either way, they rocked.

So anyhoot, the moral of this story is that if you think you are in a rut, switch up your work out routine! I think alternating gym sessions with outside sessions can be particularly helpful, especially if you can go somewhere fun and explore. It makes things so much more interesting. I’ve also heard how you should always alternate cardio anyway, to work different muscles. So some ellipitical intervals, then some jogging, then some spinning… yoga… zumba…. etc! I def am going to make an effort to vary things up a bit more to keep myself from yawning. And who knows, you might just get a free greek yogurt in the process!!

Happy Weekend!

xoxo

Hilary