Crunchy Croutons

Every salad needs a little crunch. But who wants store bought croutons with how many cals? So I created my own crunchy croutons recipe. They are simple to make & mighty tasty.

What you need:

-Freshly grated parmesan
-Day old baguette
-Olive oil
-Italian Seasoning
-Salt
-Garlic

Let's get cookin!

-Slice the day old bread into your desired crouton size
-In a skillet heat up olive oil & garlic

-Toss in bread chunks & drizzle with more olive oil
-Alternate olive oil & salt as you toss the croutons until they brown

-Sprinkle italian seasoning onto the bread
-Place the croutons in the oven at 400 degrees for 6-8 minutes
-When they are crunchy & brown remove from oven

-Freshly grate parmesan on the top

-Top off your fav salad with the croutons!
Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days, but trust me they never last that long

Choco Chunk Cookies

I continue to have a massive sweet tooth with this babes. What is a girl to do about that? Satisfy it with homemade chocolate chunk cookies. I used this recipe with a few minor swaps. I substituted 1/2 cup of splenda's brown sugar for the 1 cup of normal brown sugar called for. I am not a fan of nuts in my cookies so needless to say the walnuts didn't make the cut. 

Instead of using semisweet chocolate chunks I chopped up a 70% chocolate bar, more richness. 

Lastly, for a little fun I baked the cookies in a muffin tin. They came out chunky & delicious. Perfect size & cute shape. 

What's up doc?

 It is safe to say I have been obsessed with a carrots recipe I found in my Vegetarian Times months ago. I have finally decided to share with you this delish recipe. Say hello to carrots, dill, & orange heaven.

• All you need is:
• 1 ¼ lb. baby carrots, trimmed (4 cups)
• 4 tsp. orange juice
• 1 Tbs. butter, cut into pieces
• 2 tsp. fresh orange zest
• 1 tsp. fresh dill (dried works ok too)

It is as easy as:

Steam the carrots

Melt butter

Combine orange juice, dill & melted butter in a bowl

Toss in steamed carrots

Garnish with fresh orange zest

Enjoy!!

Cheesetacular

This past weekend us girls had a little get together full of wine, snacks, & chitchat. I am always looking for new recipes to test out on my friends. Playing around on foodgawker I stumbled upon a creamy cheddar spread. I used this very easy recipe to create a bowl licking appetizer. All you need is extra sharp cheddar, sour cream, butter, apple juice, & cayenne pepper.

 The recipe reccomends the use of apple juice or white wine vinegar. I used apple juice & absolutely love the fruity taste it adds to the sharp white cheddar.

Toss it in there & mix it up.

Comes out creamy & delicious.

Our dunking options for the evening.

Yummy in my tummy. Can't get enough of this stuff, actually made it for a second time already.

Stone Age Launch Party

A week ago we celebrated the launch of the spring alexa collection Stone Age. It was such an exciting evening, I loved getting to see all of the reactions to my new pieces.

Love this shot of one of the display tables.

Earrings galore!

I thought we should have the big bottle.

Cheers!

Mini cupcakes, the perfect size to allow you to try all the flavors.

Awesome close-up of my necklaces, see one you like? Order them here.

My vintage serving dish served as my braided bracelets holder.

Delish mac & cheese cups I used this recipe.

Taking custom orders, love it!

Trying them on to see how they look.

Shopping shopping shopping!

{Special thanks to Lauren from de[luxe] design studio for documenting the evening with pictures}

Choco-nana-fun

My soon to be sister-in-law is in town & the baking bug had bit us, hard. Searching the house for anything & everything we could throw into a bowl we came up with the idea of muffins. Not just your plain ordinary muffins, choco-nana-fun muffins! We used this recipe but made a few minor adjustments.

{We added one extra spoon full of oil, substituted the chocolate chips for dark chocolate shavings, & sweetened it up with 1/4 cup of agave nectar}

{There were not paper liners to be found so we greased the pan with vegan butter and added flour to create a non-stick surface}

{Instead of making 12 Giant muffins we opted for 15 smaller ones} 

 {We dusted the top with powder sugar to make them all perrrrttty}

{Ta-daaaaaaaaa!} 

{Red wine  & warm muffin = delightful}

Two days later they are all gone... didn't last long!