on the menu / a czech breakfast

I have traveled to Czech twice. The first time, I was a high school student. This was my first trip to Europe, the first time traveling without my family, and it was going to be longer than a week. I had friends go on this trip in previous years, each coming home with so many great stories and memories. I still think it's amazing that as high school students, we were offered to be apart of this trip. We had to raise the money for cost of the trip, creatively work with our team to come up with interesting an informative english lessons, and we got to learn about this culture that was so foreign to us. I didn't know much about Czech when the opportunity to go first came about (honestly, had you asked me to point it out on a map, I would have desperately been searching for the name Czechoslovakia) , but I was eager to learn and experience this place that was so new to me.

My time in The Czech Republic was more meaningful than I ever thought it would be. I loved the beautiful country that we were in, the cities that felt so different than our own, the people that I came to love, and a language that I still wish I could master. We spent a lot of time at the beautiful Malenovice. We had our training here. We learned about Czech culture, got acquainted with American interns and Czechs that we would be working with throughout camp, some lessons on teaching English, and the schedule of how camps are typically ran. Our team was lucky enough to host our camp here. Once camp was over, we were invited to stay with the families of some of the students. It was so fun to experience where and how they lived. And before we left to travel back home, we got to spend a few days in Prague. The style of this trip was great because we weren't just sight seeing a new country. We were learning by truly experiencing it. I'm grateful that at such a young age, I was able to gain an appreciation for that type of travel.

I now have multiple friends who are living in Czech, working with the same organization, but full time. I get to see photos of them with some of my friends that I made there, see their kids growing up in this environment of a new culture, language and food, and hear all about the ups and downs of moving your entire life to such a different place. With the combination of facebook, skype, e-mail, and instant everything, I am able to see what's going on in the lives of my friends who are so far. It's a constant reminder of this place and makes me think back to what those trips meant to me. One of the simple ways I am able to recreate memories of my time spent there is with food. This breakfast, for example, is my version of a Czech breakfast. A bowl of rolls (rolihk) and breads were always served with honey, jams, and spreads. Various meats and veggies as well, a long with coffee and tea. I never had scrambled eggs (boiled, yes) while I was there or a bagel, but this familiar combination of spreadable cheese, salami, veggies, and a bread is such a privilege to my taste buds and bucket full of memories. It's also a little way to share this experience with Philip. I have shared stories and photos with him about my journeys to eastern Europe, but being able to make this little meal that we enjoy together is such a treat to me. Even drinking our coffee from these mugs is significant, as they came from a pottery shop in Prague... So much story behind such a simple meal.

on the menu / tuna salad stuffed avocado

This tuna salad was super easy and quick to make. I originally made it for the tuna melts we had for dinner last night. I was extra hungry and had it stuffed in an avocado for  snack afterwards. I think that next time I'll add either shredded lettuce (for more crunchiness) or pasta for more substance. Enjoy!

on the menu / quinoa salad

This is definitely a favorite in our house. It makes a great snack in small portions, but is a nice light meal as well. It has a good amount of protein in it- pecans, chicken, and quinoa. (Did you know that quinoa is a complete protein?) It's also easy to make if you have some of these ingredients ready to go. I usually keep cooked quinoa and chicken in our fridge for easy to assemble snacks or meals. (The biggest motivation for this is to avoid the dreaded hanger.) Since I've been doing a great job at actually keeping plants alive, I planted some basil. This means that I always have fresh basil when needed. I also have green onions. They're not exactly planted, just re-sprouting. Did you see this on Pinterest? It totally works! It's great for us because I usually have some in my little mason jar. The dressing I like best is Trader Joe's Ramano Caesar. If we're out of that, I normally use a balsamic vinaigrette dressing.

That's it! Hope you guys enjoy this recipe. Like I said, it's one of our favorites!

on the menu / lunch + dessert

I normally don't have dessert with lunch, but today was an exception. Last night I made mocha silk pie and OH. MY. GOODNESS. It is SO delicious!! I followed a recipe from The Pioneer Woman's website. I've had it on my Pinterest board forever, but never thought I could tackle it. Instead of telling myself that I'm not good at baking (like I have for so long) I decided to just practice a little more until I can do it. My family got me a stand up Kitchen Aid mixer for my birthday, so now I have no excuse!

I don't have any pie tins in my house. Instead, I divided the mixture into some ceramic soufflé dishes and tiny ceramic pie dishes that I have. This works out better, because the tiny ones are great servings for just me. I should share the ones in the bigger soufflé dishes with someone else (but honestly, I could totally eat one by myself). If you like coffee flavored dessert, I would definitely give this recipe a try! It will save you the  cost of going out a few times each week when you get a craving for it...oh, is that just me that does that?

vol. 2

In no particular order, here's a little of what happened last week:

1. I was grateful to have two plates on the breakfast table. This only happens on the weekends, as Philip is at work during the week.
2. Patrick had lots of playtime at the park. This is his new friend Noi, a little Australian Shepherd puppy.
3. We picked up some beautiful ranunculus at the farmer's market (and realized just how affordable they are there compared to the grocery store).
4. I enjoyed a lot of lunches at home.
5. We got out new bulbs for our international customers.
6. We played around with some beautiful piano remains for a special project we're working on.
7 + 8. We had breakfast with some friends who were downtown for the day. This is my favorite breakfast at Craft + Commerce (and in San Diego).

on the menu // brunch

Technically, this was my breakfast. However, since I slept in and didn't eat until around 11:30, why don't we just call it brunch?

I'm not the best at making sure that I drink a lot of (if any!) water during the day. Since I started keeping this bottle full (with water and herbs) and with me at all times during the day, I can't stop drinking water! Not only is it making me drink water, it's helping me keep track of how much I've been consuming. It's really amazing how small things like having it in a cute bottle make me remember to do things I don't enjoy. That's how I get myself to take my vitamins as well. I always put my them in a mini ceramic pie dish that I think is adorable. I'm not sure why these things work for me, but they do. 

This was a pretty typical breakfast for me. I normally have an egg, toast, coffee, and some sort of fruit. What does breakfast look like for you?

Vol. 1

Last week was sunny and mellow. This a little bit of what happened.

1. I took too many walks to count. Patrick loved it.
2. We received our March/April copy of Mountain Living, where one of our book lamps was featured.
3. We ate at the Lincoln Room twice. They have filling and yummy $5 dinners during their Happy Hour.
4. Both of those dinners were followed by a trip to Cremolose where I discovered their cappuccino flavored mousse.
5. I did a tiny bit of decorating.
6. I did a lot of business planning, brainstorming, and sketching.
7. I got to see William Fitzsimmons at Anthology thanks to Jessica.
8. I got reacquainted with my camera and the blog.
9. We went to Noble Experiment where I had the best mojito. They aren't joking about their well balanced drinks. Absolutely fantastic.
10. Once we realized that Noble Experiment didn't serve food, we reserved a table in The Neighborhood for dinner.

styled.

1 | 2 | 3

I really admire styling that looks so effortless. Although beautiful, don't these photos look so casual and inviting? I also love the pops of color in each one.

I have been missing my camera lately. Now that we live somewhere with so much natural light, I have been inspired to start taking more photos. I've always wanted to try my hand at styling, so I think I'll start with food. If you follow me on instagram, you know that I love eating and photographing what I eat. What a better place to share these photos than here?

let's talk about breakfast.

When I go to breakfast, I'm the annoying person that orders a bunch of sides as a meal. Luckily, my husband doesn't mind. I'v been noticing how much I do this at home now. I never make myself a full omelet, I'm never in the mood for waffles and my breakfast burrito from Saguaro's doesn't sound appealing anymore. Here's an example of my breakfasts (this is what I had yesterday):

1. The peaches from Trader Joe's are amazing right now!

2. Sprouted wheat toast (also from Trader Joe's- I love their bread).

3.Hard boiled eggs with mustard. When I nannied for a family, this is how the little girl ate her eggs. After smelling the combo so many times and taking tiny nibbles of hers every once in a while, this is the only way I'll eat hard boiled eggs.

4. Avocado goes with every meal and is my favorite snack.

I also have yogurt with my breakfast everyday, but with a little something extra added to it. (More on that later) Although, I'm not having omelettes and waffles for breakfast, I feel like my meals are pretty well balanced and enjoyable for me. If I have too many scrambled eggs a few days in a row, I won't eat them for a couple of weeks. I get sick of certain foods really fast if I have too much of them. These "snack plates" (as I like to call them) seem to keep my taste buds interested.

What do you usually eat for breakfast? Do you like small portions of a lot of different foods or bigger portions of a couple things?

breakfast.

Breakfast and I have a love/ hate relationship. I love the idea of breakfast. I love the idea of waking up early, having coffee out of my french press, making myself a big meal, and actually enjoying the morning before my day starts. I hate that on most days, I feel like I don't have time to enjoy this ritual. Sometimes, my stomach isn't always ready for a big meal first thing in the morning. Other times, I get side tracked with 50 other things before I even make it to the kitchen. It's not breakfast's fault. I need to work on letting myself relax and enjoy certain things. Today, breakfast and I decided to work things out. It was lovely.

Not pictured: my cup of coffee. It is a big part of my breakfast [and lunch and mid-day snack]. We get a long swimmingly. Even if breakfast and I aren't sharing our mornings together, I can always count on my cup of coffee.

Do you make time for the most important meal of the day?

made with love ♥

I'm not the most amazing chef ever- heck I'm not really that brilliant in the kitchen. However, the things that I do know how to make, I try and make them as fancy as I can (explains the love I have for sandwich making). This recipe is a favorite in the Hansen home (and too easy to make).

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Ingredients:

You could get all of this on a trip to your local Trader Joe's.

- 1 regular sized package of boneless, skinless chicken fillets

-1 bottle of Trader Joe's Goddess Dressing (If you don't live near Trader Joe's, I've seen Annie's Goddess dressing in regular grocery stores)

-Feta cheese

-Fresh sage

-Brown rice (I just buy Trader Joe's 3 minute rice)*

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Preheat your oven to 375. Put the chicken fillets in an oven safe dish. Lightly coat the fillets in the dressing. Sprinkle crumbled feta cheese on both sides of the fillets (the dressing will make the cheese stick). Pour more dressing into the dish (I usually pour enough to almost cover the chicken). Once your oven is preheated, bake your chicken for 20 minutes. When your timer goes off, flip the chicken and put it back in the oven for 12-18 minutes (This depends on how much you're making. Just make sure that your chicken is white all the way through.)

While your waiting for the chicken to bake, cook your rice and finely chop a little fresh sage. Once done, let the chicken sit just for a minute or two before serving up dishes. (The dressing will thicken to create the perfect sauce to pour over the chicken and rice.) Sprinkle some fresh sage on top and voila! I'm telling you, this dish tastes amazing (and smells so good as you're making it). Serve it with your favorite salad and some garlic bread and you've got yourself (what seems like) a fancy dinner.

*you could substitute the brown rice for quinoa. yumm!

what's for lunch?

One of the things that I love about working from home is eating better meals. When I worked at Starbucks, I was usually late and didn't have time to make myself anything. When you wake up early for work, you you tend to chose snoozing over making lunch.

I really enjoy making myself a good sandwich. There are certain things that my sandwiches must have for me to consider them a great sandwich.

1. Avocado. If I go to a cafe and they don't have avocado, I'll usually order something other than a sandwich.

2. Sour dough bread. The texture and taste of sour dough is by far my favorite. I hate when restaurants say that they serve sour dough and bring out what tastes and feels like white bread.

3. Can I get it grilled? I'd rather have my bread grilled, not toasted. Toasted usually means that they just toast the bread. When that happens, it's normally too crunchy and not fun to eat. When you grill a sandwich, the cheese melts, the bread has a perfect crispiness to it, and the meat is nice and warm.

Some people might call me picky, but I know a good sandwich when I eat it. It's one of those little things that I enjoy in life.

This was yesterday's lunch (pictured above):

quinoa.

After reading Krista's post and wanting nothing but healthy foods (that always happens after being sick), I've been craving quinoa like crazy. Then I found this cute little video on cooking it.

Easy, right?! I think this will be a good snack around 4:00 when I always seem to get hungry (I usually just eat something sugary).

[Video found via Design Love Fest]

Blue Eyed Yonder

I think you should scoot on over Blue Eyed Yonder. It's a lovely blog written by a family member of mine. Krista and I are cousins-ish. Well, our mom's are cousins. I think that makes us twice removed or something. I really don't know for sure ;)
What I do know is that she has WONDERFUL taste! Her blog is full of oh-so-tasty-looking desserts and inspiring craft projects. She just threw a graduation party for her cousin, Savannah Jane [who i've heard is also amazing in the kitchen] and the pictures were gorgeous!


I'm hoping that one day we'll get to craft together. That would be such a lovely day.


Notice her gorgeous necklace and hairpiece! Yes, she made them!! Such a beautiful bride! Their wedding pictures were so much fun to see. There were so many wonderful details and personal touches. Everything looked amazing!


Go check it out!