Sparkling Grapefruit Juice

I'm sure we've all heard about the health benefits of grapefruits by now. They are packed with Vitamin A and Vitamin C. They are also a good source of potassium. We've been told that grapefruits can help us lose weight faster and can help prevent cancer. Grapefruit is a part of the ever popular "Military Diet"... and of course there are even a few diets simply referred to as the "Grapefruit Diet". So... with the buzz about grapefruits, they should be pretty good, right?

Grapefruits are one of my favorite fruits; however, sometimes I just don't have the patience to eat one. I can't just bite into it like an apple, and I can't just peel it like a banana. I actually have to work for it. And of course there's always that stringy stuff that gets stuck in my teeth.

So, for a quick fix that makes a grapefruit a little more portable... I love grapefruit juice.

Now, I will admit, sometimes grapefruit juice on it's own can be a bit sour/tart (I guess that is why my mom always ate her grapefruit with sugar sprinkled on the top). To help with this I just water it down a bit with some sparkling water. It adds no calories and no sugars/artificial sweeteners. It just adds a little extra fizz which is also a great morning pick me up.

mmMmmmm Good.

Here's everything I needed! My citrus juicer, my sparkling water, and my grapefruit (I actually ended up using 2 instead of one like I originally planned...)

Nothing really fancy about my juicer. Just some kind of Black and Decker thing we got from one of my coworkers who never used it!

This is the amount of juice I got from 2 grapefruits. So... just add in some sparkling water and...

Whoot Whoot! We have sparkling grapefruit juice! What a way to say good morning :)

Recipe:

• 2 Grapefruits (juiced)
• Sparkling Water

Ultra Red Monster Steak

I'm not a huge fan of energy drinks, but I do drink my fair share of them from time to time. Yes I know.. not the healthiest of options... but oh well. My personal favorite is the Monster Energy Zero Ultra ( red, blue, or white... I like them all).

Well, the other day I was drinking the Red Ultra and ended up only drinking half the can. Instead of wasting it, since I paid a good $1.99 for that, I decided to make use of it. Steak marinade!! And behold... the Ultra Red Monster Steak was born!

Step 1: Put the steak in a plastic bag. Pour in the Monster (I had about half a can left), close the bag and refrigerate. I left it for about 4 hours.

Step 2: Throw it in a fry pan (I used coconut oil to grease the pan).

Step 3: Add some seasonings and such all up in there. I used some soy sauce, garlic, steak seasoning, adoba, rosemary, and cayenne pepper. I also poured just a little bit of the monster into the pan.

Step 4: Cook until it's done and enjoy! I was really surprised by how tasty this really was. And I will admit to you.. I actually ate the entire thing..

15 Calorie Flavored Iced Coffee (with Milksplash)

I can't say that I'm a huge coffee addict, but I do enjoy the occasional cup o' joe. However, I have no interest in paying big bucks for a coffee beverage that is just overflowing with calories. If I have a coffee, it's usually one I made myself.

This has fast become my favorite iced coffee. And, it's quick and easy! So on the days when I am rushing to get to work early in the morning, I can still have my coffee.

I found these cute little guys at Walmart. And since I'm a sucker for cute packaging (and anything banana...) I just had to get them. They also had a strawberry flavor, but I did not buy that one. According to the website there is also an orange creamsicle flavor, but I suppose my Walmart did not have that one in stock.

I don't drink a lot of milk by itself. I usually add it to smoothies or eat it with cereal, so I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to do with these when I bought them... I just knew I wanted them (we have an impulse buyer right here). I decided to try them in my coffee... and I found a winner!

 

Basically I just put everything into my magic bullet and blend it up. I'm a cheater so I use instant coffee so I don't have to bother with cooling my coffee down... I just stick a spoonful right into the blender with the water. But if you make your coffee with a coffeemaker... you go right ahead.

• 1 cup coffee (chilled)
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• truvia or other calorie-free sweetener (optional)
• Milksplash flavor of your choice
• ice

blend them all together (or stir...) and you got yourself a nice iced coffee! Of course you can use other types of milk or sweeteners, it just won't be the same calorie content.

Personally I like to add 2 squirts of Jammin' Banana and 1 squirt of Cocoa Loco to my coffee, but it's fun mix it up and try different combinations!

Cleaning Your Makeup Brushes

I'm a makeup girl. I love wearing makeup. I may not be an expert or a professional makeup artist by any means, but I've learned a bit from playing around with makeup for quite a few years. Although I have always had a fairly large makeup collection.. It wasn't until recently that I finally acquired the proper tools to use it all. For years I was using brushes from The Dollar Tree and the cheap applicators/brushes and sponges that come with a lot of products (not very effective...)

And because I now have good quality makeup brushes (most are from Coastal Scents btw).. I needed to learn how to clean them. This is the best method that I have found.

• Set down a towel... this may get messy

• Mix together 1 cup warm water, 1 tablespoon white vinegar, 1 tablespoon dish detergent (I used Ajax) and 1/2 tablespoon baby shampoo

• Fill another bowl/cup/whatever with warm water

 

• Give each brush a good swirl in the soapy water. I like to wipe them on a paper towel to make sure all the product is off, and if not, put them back in the soapy water. I also let some of the brushes sit in the water a bit if they are very dirty. 

• Once they are clean, rinse them in the clean water, reshape them, and lay them on the towel to dry.

I do the smaller brushes first since they tend to not dirty the water very much. I will usually change both the soapy water and clean water when I get to my foundation and powder brushes since they are a lot dirtier than the others..

Usually this works perfectly for my makeup brushes, but I do give my foundation brushes some extra TLC since they are very stubborn and never seem to be clean enough.

 

I put a bit of face wash (I'm using Neutrogena naturals) in my palm, wet the brush, and just swirl the brush in my hand, then rinse. Sometimes I will do this multiple times...but when I deem that they are clean I again reshape them and lay them out to dry.

And there you have it! Clean makeup brushes!

Just let them dry and they are ready to dirty again!

Throw it in the Crockpot: Episode Two

I was looking in my freezer the other day and came to the realization that we have waaayyyy too many peas. There are just bags and bags and bags of frozen peas everywhere. So, on today's episode of Throw it in the Crockpot, I decided to use some of those frozen peas. And so we have:

Ham and Peas and Such

 

Basically this is a very simple meal of:

2 partially used bags of frozen peas

some frozen carrots 

almost 2 pounds of ham (cubed)

1/2 onion

half a box of pasta
about a tbs of butter

2 packets of soy sauce from a Chinese takeaway

some garlic salt

and that's it! Some cheese or alfredo sauce would have probably been a good addition.. but I didn't have any on hand that I wanted to add... so that's it!

Slowly but surely, the old things hidden at the back of the freezer and cupboard are being used...

My first tattoo!

I've known I wanted a tattoo for quite some time. Since I was a child, I always thought I would get some awesome dragon tattoo; however, as I got older I began to realize just how many people had dragon tattoos... and I'm not a person who likes overly popular things. I like unique things. And unfortunately, a dragon is not very unique. I am also a person who thinks there should be a lot of meaning behind a tattoo, not just because it looks cool.

After thinking about it for some time.. I finally decided on my design.

 

I hear you saying to yourself, "what the heck is that?!" Well, it's a line from one of my favorite songs ever. "Someday.." by ZE:A. It's a Korean song and I absolutely love it.

line at 1:50

I'm one of those people that think it's ridiculous to get a random tattoo in a language you don't understand, so I was very hesitant about getting this tattoo. However, I have studied a bit of Korean, been to Korea a few times, and I have seen this song performed live on more than one occasion and actually met the band that sings it.. so it really does have a lot of meaning behind it for me.

 Now that we have that cleared up.. onto the process. I don't really have pictures to show of the actual experience (because my phone was dying... we were waiting a really long time and pinterest used all my battery). But here's a picture of the room.

so bright and cheery!

Did it hurt? Yes.. it did. The pain was not unbearable, though. However, I do have a high pain tolerance. What surprised me was that it felt more like a knife than a needle. I was not expecting that. But, I survived. Here is the final result!

I'm very happy with the way it turned out. Sure, it may not be perfect, but neither am I.

 

and no, this will definitely not be my last tattoo...

Throw it in the Crockpot: Episode One

My family likes to buy food. We shop at discount stores and buy things on sale a lot.. and it's not always things we need.. or that we have any plans to use any time soon. So, needless to say, our freezer, pantry, and refrigerator are always full (too full). So many times I find things buried that have been forgotten for way way way too long... and are long since expired.

So, to help clean out our extreme stash of food, I like to take a whole bunch of crap and just throw it all into the crockpot together. Surprisingly... this has led to some wonderful meals (some of which my family tells me I should make again... which I won't). No one knows my secret and they usually think I followed a recipe... or that I am just a brilliant cook.

Today in the crockpot we have...

This glob of mush

I will call it...

BBQ Chickeny Fiesta

What's inside?

1 cup white rice
2 pounds ground chicken
3 sweet peppers (chopped)
1/2 onion (chopped)
some frozen peas
tad bit of leftover turkey meat
3 chicken sausages w/ cheese and peppers
1 packet soy sauce from a Chinese takeaway
the rest of a bottle of BBQ sauce (maybe a cup?)


So there you have it! If you ever need a way to get rid of random food that is taking up too much space... just throw it in the crockpot! It's fun to think of different combinations.