Beach Body Cleansing Green Smoothie

I'm trying this green smoothie recipe to get in shape for summer. Let me know what you think!

You will need:

1 handful of kale leaves (make sure to take the leaves off of the stem) coarsely chopped

1 apple (I used a Gala apple) chopped

2 celery stalks chopped

about 1 tsp. of finely chopped ginger

1 small cucumber chopped

Skinny Quiche Cups

The hubby and I are starting a low carb diet and one of my go-to meals is this super quick and easy mini quiche recipe. I originally found the recipe on Pinterest and it came from this site. I wanted to share the general ingredients that make up the recipe with my friends here on the blog. Make it your own by customizing with different veggie choices. Mushrooms, kale, red onions, and hot peppers could be yummy to experiment with. Enjoy!

Skinny Mini Quiche Cups

• the whites of 6 eggs
• 1/2-3/4 cup of chopped veggies...I used 3/4 cup total of chopped onion, red pepper, and green pepper
• 10 oz. frozen spinach cooked and squeezed dry
• 3/4 cup of cheese (you can use fat free, but I prefer to use a nice cheddar to get my dairy intake for the day)
• Hot Sauce (optional)...I use Frank's hot sauce and do 3 shakes
• sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a medium sized bowl and stir. Separate into 12 foil baking cups in a muffin tin.  Bake at 350 for 20 minutes and you are done! Super easy, low carb, and yummy!

How To Make Fresh Flowers Live Longer

Spring time is upon us and my favorite thing about Spring is all of the beautiful flowers that come into season. Fresh flowers can be expensive so here are my tips to make your fresh flowers last longer.

Tips and Tricks to Make Fresh Flowers Live Longer

1. Make sure to cut 1-2 inches off the stem of each flower. Cut the stem under warm running water using sharp shears.
2. Cut the stem on an angle
3. Remove all low leaves from the flower (cut anything that is below water level). Low leaves tend to rot and will put bacteria into the water.
3. Make sure that your vase is CLEAN. This is a big mistake that many people make. Your vase needs to be clean and free of bacteria before you add your flowers. I usually clean my vase right before I fill it with water.
4.  Give the flowers food. A good trick is to add sugar (about 2 tbsp) to the water to encourage the flowers to bloom. I know it sounds funny but it works!
5. Add a preservative to the water. Many household items act as a preservative, such as:

• 1 aspirin crushed in water and added to the water in the vase...this is my go to and it works fabulously!
• 2 tbsp of white vinegar
• 1 capful of Bleach

6. Change the water every other day. Once again you want to limit bacteria and overall yuckiness so make sure to change the water frequently and of course add your sugar and preservative as well.

7. Different flowers need different care. It may be worth it to do a quick Google search for care of your flower of choice. For instance I learned that Daffodils should not be used in vase arrangements with other flowers because thy secrete a substance that will kill the other flowers...who knew?!

The arrangement below that I highlighted in this post lasted for almost 20 DAYS! (19 to be exact). Take care of your flowers and they will stay beautiful longer for you.

Skinny Spinach Dip With Greek Yogurt

One of my favorite recipes of all time to bring to a party is the Knorr Spinach Dip recipe (found here). This recipe is so yummy but it requires a full cup of mayo and a 16 oz. container of sour cream. While browsing their website I noticed they had a recipe using Greek Yogurt but it still used a full cup of reduced fat mayo (find it here). I've altered this recipe to be more health conscious and I LOVE how it turned out. I hope you enjoy!

Skinny Spinach Dip With Greek Yogurt

You Need:

1 Package of Knorr Vegetable Recipe Mix

16 oz. of Greek Yogurt (I used Chobani)

4 TBS. Mayonnaise

3 Green Onions Chopped

Living Room Decor: Before & After

Continuing on with my Before & After posts our home is the living room. Nic and I truly do live in our living room. You can find us there 95% of the time while we're home. It was a little difficult organizing a design scheme around a 67 in. big screen TV but we were able to make compromises and we love how things turned out.

While redecorating the condo from Nic's bachelor pad to a family home we did not want to spend very much money. We knew we would need some additional pieces of furniture; so we tried to buy things that will still work well in our next home. Redecorating the condo really got me interested in designing on a budget, yet still buying quality pieces.

Here are the Before & After photos of our living room. My favorite part of the room is the matching wingback chairs. What is your favorite piece in your living room? Leave me a comment!

As always, if you see something that you like there are links to where I purchased each piece at the end of the post. If I have not linked to a website just leave me a comment and ask where I purchased it. I would love to help you find pieces that you love.

Before

Please take notice to the half naked guy Karate striking poster over the fire place. (Don't worry he's not actually naked)

After

Guest Bathroom Decor: Before & After

Nic bought this cute condo in the Riverwoods development of Provo, UT in 2007. He moved in along with some friends as roommates. The condo remained a bachelor pad until April 2011 when we got married and I moved in (and the roommates were kicked out). The past year has been spent merging our tastes and making this condo feel like home.

I hesitated at first to display pictures of our home because I have not done a lot of work on the condo. I have done the bare minimum to make it feel homey and put my stamp on things because I knew our time here would be fairly short term. So please don't judge my design skills on what I've done here.  When we move into a more permanent home I intend to get a lot more creative :)

A few weeks before I moved in I took some "before" pictures of the place and I thought it would be a fun blog post to show you my "after" pics. The before pictures were taken in all of its messy, unorganized, bachelor pad glory (sorry Nic!). Here are the changes that I have made to our guest bathroom. Stay tuned for more Before & After pics to follow.

Like something that you see? Click the links at the bottom of the post to find out where I bought each piece.

Before

After

And a quick "Hello!" from me

Shower Curtain: West Elm, Sold Out but loving this shower curtain

Organic White WoodGrain Towels: West Elm

Navy Hand Towels: Tahari via TJ Maxx, loving these similar Pottery Barn towels

Sunburst Mirror: TJ Maxx and DIY... Tutorial here

Soap Dispenser and Toothbrush Holder: West Elm, Sold Out but obsessing over these

Vase and Flowers: Hobby Lobby