my fitness routine // easy healthy granola bars

omething I've wanted to do for a while is try my hand at making my own granola bars.  I liked the idea of being able to customize what was in them and play around with different ingredients to make them more healthy, or more sweet.  They're super nice because you can make a bunch and keep them in a tupperware bin in the fridge or freezer and pull one out for breakfast, or throw one in your lunchbag.  It's a great quick snack to munch on and they don't take very long to make either!

The last couple months I've been trying to get back to a more healthy lifestyle.  I let myself get super lazy during the summer months, both with exercise and with eating, so I'm trying to shift my focus again towards more healthy living.  I got an 8 week gym membership through Groupon which I plan on activating in January after all the craziness and frequent travel of the holidays dies down.  For now I've been doing Insanity at home, trying to teach my body how to be active again.   For some reason it's way easier for me to be mindful of my eating and workout routine during the colder months, those summer months just make me want to laze around and eat/drink all of the things.  Also, it's just way too hot without A/C to want to do a workout and most people in the PNW don't have A/C, including us.  Hot Yoga is horrible (sorry hot yoga fans, I just can't), but Hot Insanity?  That sounds like death.

Anyway,  I'm trying to make a shift back towards a more healthy life and I love being able to make my own granola bars instead of buying ones that inevitably are packed with sugar or unnatural flavors.  These ones are a little less healthy because I added a bit of chocolate, but omit the chocolate and they're a lot more fit-friendly.

(Recipe adapted from MinimalistBaker)
INGREDIENTS

2 cups packed dates, pitted (deglet nour or medjool)

1/2 cup honey 

1/2 cup creamy salted natural peanut butter or almond butter

1 cup roasted unsalted almonds, chopped

1 cup banana chips, chopped

3 cups rolled oats, baked

2 cups chocolate chips, melted

1. Process dates in a food processor until small bits remain and forms into a "dough" like, balled up consistency. 

2. Toast your oats in a 350 degree oven for 15-ish minutes or until slightly golden brown. Place oats, almonds and dates in a bowl - set aside.

3. Melt chocolate chips, pour into a 9x13 dish lined with plastic wrap or parchment paper.  Place in the refrigerator for a couple minutes.

4. Warm honey and peanut butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir and pour over oat mixture and then mix, breaking up the dates to disperse throughout.

5. Once thoroughly mixed, press down until uniformly flattened. Cover with parchment or plastic wrap, and let set in fridge or freezer for 15-20 minutes to harden.

6. Remove bars from pan and chop into bars. Store in an airtight container for up to a few days. I kept mine in the freezer to keep them extra fresh, but it isn't necessary.

 

three years

t's been three years since we stood on this beach, in our fancy outfits, exhausted at the end of our wedding day.  It's so funny to look back at the photos from our wedding day and think about the people we were just three years ago.  Sometimes it feels like we were just kids.  Today was low key, and we had some fun plans for an anniversary weekend out on the town up in Seattle, but something came up so hopefully we can have a fancy night sometime soon to make up for it.  I got a sexy red dress for it, so we'd better reschedule!  I'd say more but I gotta go pick up my love and I think we might hit the town for a quick anniversary beverage (or two).  G'night!

ERIN // tacoma senior photography

ast Saturday I spent the afternoon with Erin doing her senior photos!  We split our time between the woods at Point Defiance park and some more urban locations in downtown Tacoma.  A couple weeks before her shoot we got coffee and I learned about her violin skills, so we did a few photos featuring her violin.  I coaxed her into playing a little bit for me while we were shooting, it was pretty magical listening to the violin in the middle of a moss covered forest!  We've been getting lots of rain these days but thankfully the rain held off on Saturday for our shoot.  I'm glad I scheduled the shoot before daylight saving time though!  We would've run out of light halfway through the shoot if it was just a few days later.  It always sneaks up on me!  

 

spooktacular

othing about the pieces of this outfit seems particularly halloween-y, but for some reason the outfit as a whole definitely gives me a spooky halloween vibe.  People keep thinking my green hair was done for a halloween costume, haha.  Back in the day, Kelly from The Glamourai used to call her daily outfit posts "costume of the day," which I rather liked.  Getting dressed is kind of like putting on a costume, trying to decide what you want to look like on any given day.  So I suppose my hair is for a costume, but it's just my everyday costume.  
This week has been... strange.  A lot has been going on in life that I just haven't wanted to talk about here on the blog.  The next couple months are going to be pretty busy, but I'm excited.  I feel like I'm going to blink and it'll be 2015.  Every year I'm amazed how fast the time flies.  November!  I mean, what??  Guess I'd better start brainstorming my Christmas gifts, eh?  And our Anniversary is on Wednesday!  So much fun stuff happens this time of year.  

 
top(similar) + shoes/thrifted :: cardigan/courtesy of dear creatures  shades/moorea seal:: jacket(similar)/modcloth  jeans/courtesy of modcloth :: necklaces/courtesy of adorn by sarah lewis

a truly outrageous halloween

o, I was planning on being Wonder Woman for Halloween, but as I lay in bed the night before Halloween, I remembered that I had the perfect Jem-pink wig and that a Jem costume could be pretty easy to pull together last minute.  Dan and I went to Value Village yesterday and I found a pink night gown and shoes that were the perfect pink, and I grabbed a slip which I cut into Jem's fringe belt and then painted with the blue design.  We found the microphone at Goodwill and I was set!  The make up was super fun, I used Lime Crime's Centrifuchsia for both my lips and for Jem's signature eye makeup.  On top of the lipstick I brushed on some of Sugarpill's Magentric loose eyeshadow and then some loose MAC glitter all over.  A little black liner and some dark bold brows and the make up was done!  It was a really fun costume and I'm glad I decided to go for Jem.  I'm still itching to wear my Wonder Woman costume, though!  A friend has a Halloween party up in Seattle tonight, so I might end up going to that, which will give me the perfect excuse to dress up again.

Oh, and Dan was a cowboy!