Maple Walnut Soft Serve & Sweetest Day

I had some inspiration when I visited a local custard joint called Cream City Custard. I picked up a couple pints of ice cream for my mom (birthday treat). One of their flavors was Maple Walnut and I thought it might be easy to recreate this as a soft serve version with my VitaMix.

Maple Walnut Soft Serve

3 bananas (frozen)

2 TBSP nut butter (I used 1 cashew and 1 crunchy PB)

1/2 cup almond milk

1 TBSP maple syrup

3-4 ice cubes

blend in high speed blender until smooth

add toppings of choice

Topped with walnuts

This was really great and it made 3 servings

Maple Syrup

Want to win some Artisana's nut butters? Go to Chocolate-covered Katie's blog and link back to her page!

Do you celebrate Sweetest Day or do you think it is just a Hallmark holiday? I personally think we should be romantic and appreciated all year round not just on Valentine's Day and Sweetest Day however we know that doesn't happen so it's nice to have a "special day" to say I love you and I appreciate you, right?

Flowers are always nice, wish I got them on a weekly basis :) Roses are definately my favorite flower and I love them in all colors. I got a fabulous bouqet a few years ago and it was 2 dozen roses of every color with glitter and a huge pink vase. I loved that!

Nichole



Night Out on the Town

Last night I went out for sushi and some martinis with a friend of mine. Since I am moving further away we thought it would be a good time to get together and enjoy some girl time.
Here I am so excited to meet up my friend Kelly!

We tried variety of sushi since Kelly is very new to it, she enjoyed it all. She put her trust in me!

After the sushi we headed over to a piano bar called 88 Keys.

This place is really cute and have a lot of martinis that are very unique.

Looking towards the piano

Looking towards the bar

One really cool waterfall table.

Open piano for artists on Tuesdays. This guy was pretty good. He played a lot of classics.

Kelly by the waterfall table!

A few martini's ensued...

Charlie Brown Maritni with a peanut butter cup

Ebony & Ivory martini, Bazooka Joe Martini

James Bond Martini with a BMW for $16,000?

My girlfriend offered to buy the first round, I pointed out this one ;)

I had a great time out and about last night with a good friend. It was nice to catch up, have some good talks and really connect before I moved futher away! We definately enjoyed some delicious food, some plum wine, our fair share of martinis, and then some!

Needless to say I had a bit of a hangover this morning, nothing a cup of coffee, some water and an aspirin won't fix! HaHa.

Happy Hump Day!

Nichole

Wellness Boosting

A few weeks ago I posted on being sick and some home remedies. I purchased some wellness booster from Outpost and was taking this along with my other remedies.

It is basically a natural herbal extract made by Outpost. The Wellness Booster supports the body's natural defenses by promoting a healty immune system, upper respiratory system and mucous membranes.

Sounds great when you are fighting a chest cold and lots of gross mucous! They seem to be working great.

I am interested to see how I do this winter in regards to getting sick and trying to stay healthy.

Have you ever tried any "wellness boosters" any herbs that do the trick for you when you are sick?

On another note let me show you some of the mess with the bath renovation with the upstairs of my duplex.

This antique claw foot tub was boxed in for who knows how long, but it has to come out because there was some leaking around the top and it just wasn't executed very well by whomever installed this. I put the tub on craigslist because I was told I could get some $$ for it however it has been a week & not one person emailed me. I don't have time to mess around anymore so we are just getting rid of it at this point.

I feel wasteful not being able to get it to someone that could restore it, however I think we can take it in the a re-store so they can at least recycle the material.

Next up is a new tub purchase, and the countdown is on for the big move. We are all excited over here.

We are going from this for a backyard..............

To this.............

Too much yard work, maybe?

Nichole

Some Lousiana Eatin'

Yesterday evening I went to a local restaraunt called Crawdaddy's which is just a few blocks from my current home. I have always wanted to try this place and it's funny I am now when I am moving in a couple weeks. I really enjoyed the menu which was fun to look over because there are so many unique items on it.

For a starter I had the Vegetarian Saute which had portabella mushrooms sauteed with fresh asparagus, red bell peppers, spinach, artichoke hearts and hearts of palm.

For dinner I had Macadamia Nut Crusted Tuna that was topped with arugula basil pesto and fresh tomato sauce. Served with angel hair pasta and carrots.

Dessert was a fantastic Creme Brulee - DIVINE! Every last bite was devoured.

Sorry for the the lack of food in this picture sometimes I am enjoying the food too much to remember to take my camera out of my purse.

Lately with all the packing I have been doing it is really hard to remember to pack a lunch or a sandwhich, wrap, soup etc.... to work with me! Sometimes a girl has to resort to some take out. This right here... is some pretty good take out.

Or pretty healthy take out.

Courtesy of The Steaming Cup in Waukesha, WI.

Garlic Dill Wrap minus the cheese

My favorite things all rolled up into a wrap!

Pumpkin Spice is my obsession very fall. I had this with lunch from the Steaming Cup and I was definately sporting serious a caffeine high!!!!

The countdown is on, less than 2 weeks now until the closing of the new house. There is a lot an enormous amount of things to do yet. I am going to be renting my duplex that I am currently staying in and I am hoping to have the lower unit ready by November 1st. I get the keys to the new place on Oct 22nd and I plan to have everything packed and ready to go. Bathroom at the old house needs to be tiled, the house has to be shown and a renter picked. A vent for the bathroom fan has to be properly vented. Cleaning of all appliances that are staying... and the list goes on. I would rather not bore you with it but I am trying to put it into perspective. It will all be taken care of! I need to not worry so much, dedication is there.

"Keep your dreams alive. Understand to achieve anything requires faith and belief in yourself, vision, hard work, determination, and dedication. Remember all things are possible for those who believe.”


Nichole

Eggplant Parmesan

I made this recipe back in July when I had a couple eggplants to use up that I got from the local farmer's market.

I sliced the eggplants and let them marinate for a couple hours in a balsamic & olive oil mixture. I grilled them for a few minutes and placed them gorgeously over the pasta and topped with some marinara sauce and Daiya mozz cheese, sprinkled with some fresh basil. 

So easy and delicious this would be a great dish to serve for houseguests :) Just looking at the picture makes me hungry for it. You can't see much of the eggplant in this picture but there was almost a whole eggplant a top of the gorgeous pasta. 

L'Appetito vien mangiando.

Appetite comes with eating.

Nichole

Feeling Accomplished

Hello out there. I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend! It is back to work for me on Monday and I feel like I accomplished quite a bit this weekend. I am moving at the end of the month and I have been doing  a lot of projects in which I encourage myself to donate stuff I will not be using or needing in the future. This includes but is not limited to clothes, shoes, decor, furniture.... the list goes on. I packed up all my summer clothes and have a bag to go to "Goodwill", yes that is what we will call her. My mother loves to go through my clothes and decide if she wants to keep any herself or donate it.

There has been progress on the house and getting it ready for new renters.. new siding on the garage.

With all that was done this weekend I was able to sneak in a sushi date, I have been craving it since last week. I swear sometimes I get fabulous sushi and can't wait to have more and other times I can't finish it because it's just not that good.

(Salmon & Avacado Roll + Rock N'Roll)

On my way to my cousins birthday party I saw a Double Rainbow - it was very pretty & I thought I would share it in all it's glory!

This is a picture of myself and my beautiful cousins Maria & Melissa. Love them!

Aside from getting a lot of packing accomplished I also got sometime with loved ones and also some relaxation on Sunday while watching football. Loved the weekend and it is defiantely starting to feel like fall in Wisconsin. Very chilly! Turned the heat on for the first time yesterday afternoon!

I went to Good Harvest Market for some hot bar lunch today and here is my stash that I am just about ready to devour...

Mixed veggies, Quinoa & roasted potatoes - all vegan and gluten free

I wish I worked closer to Good Harvest Market so I could eat like this more often!

Nichole

                            

Happy World Vegetarian Day!

Happy Friday! What an exciting day to encourage others to go meat free. I posted the link on my Facebook and hope it will inspire others. Maybe the contest where you can win money can help!

World Vegetarian Day

Enjoy!