The Magic Bathing Suit

7 Jun

So far in my few years as a bigger girl I have had the blessing of finding some magic pieces of clothing. Kut makes a pair of magic jeans that makes my legs look longer and leaner than they are in real life. Nike has a magic style of workout pants that makes everything from the waist down look curvy and firm. Yesterday my second magic bathing suit came in the mail, and I thank the good people at ModCloth for bringing this bathing suit into the world.

i’m looking at the world through rose-colored glasses…

It’s called the Bathing Beauty, and boy is it! In the words of A when I tried mine on for the first time last year, “It’s like it smooths out all the places you’d want smoothed out and accentuates everything you’d want accentuated!” (Yes, my husband uses the word accentuated. He’s very smart that way.) Anyway, this suit rocks.

snow white

I bought one last year before Hawaii and quickly figured out that one bathing suit for a beach vacation isn’t that practical, especially when you need your suits to hold their shape without the benefit of a washing machine for seven days. So I got another, as A and I are planning another beach getaway later in the summer.

The thing I love most about this suit (besides the cute vintage styling and the fact that it’s both sexy and modest – not easy to find in swimwear nowadays) is that it looks great on women of all sizes. I’m nowhere near the top of their size chart, but their customer reviews are filled with pictures of girls with vastly different measurements rocking these suits. Last Fourth of July I went to a pool party at a friend’s house. Her younger sister is a size two at best, we were both wearing the same suit, and we both looked amazing (if I do say so myself). The suit is magic!

black beauty

pretty in any size!

The only thing I would improve on is the style options for this suit. They offer it as the one piece, and as two-piece for small and plus sizes alike. One-pieces are inconvenient if you’re staying in your suit all day, and even though the two-piece has a pretty covered-up bottom (that, sorry, looks a little like a diaper to me) there is a lot of skin shown in the mid-section, which isn’t helpful if you’re trying to keep things modest. I would love it if they offered a tankini option, so you’d have the great look of the one-piece with the convenience of the two-piece.

I’ve been singing the praises of this suit since Hawaii last year, and the thing I hear over and over again is, “I’d never buy a suit online, sight unseen!” All I can say is that this suit is worth the gamble. They offer great sizing charts to help you find your perfect fit, and so many women have bought them and commented with their measurements and size they bought that it’s easy to shop with confidence. Mine fit perfectly right out of the box, and I cannot say the same for everything I’ve bought from ModCloth. And there is so many great colors! Next year I’m getting the one with the cherries!

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My So-Called Quote

6 Jun

my tribute to flannel, teen-angst, and the mid-90’s

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How Tuesday: Ricotta Blueberry Breakfast

5 Jun

I don’t remember where I first heard the idea that ricotta would make a good breakfast protein, but I decided to give it a try yesterday with a few other ingredients. Here’s what I came up with:

Oh. My. Gosh. Can you say delish? I’ve never really cared for ricotta, I tend to use other cheeses in lasagna, but this made me a convert.

I call it my ricotta blueberry breakfast to-go. It’s really easy to make, it’s more assembling than cooking, which is perfect for me in the morning. I need my breakfasts to be fast and simple. I eat them on the go almost exclusively, a bad habit I know, but I’ve never consistently managed to make myself get up early enough to sit down to a bowl of cereal, much less fry up an egg or two. This takes as long to make as toasting a waffle, and is pretty portable, as long as you don’t pile the ricotta too high. Here’s how it’s done:

Start with a good multi-grain toaster waffle and part-skim ricotta cheese. I like these from Nature’s Path. The figs add a nice sweetness, but Trader Joe’s has a multi-grain that is excellent as well. Toast up a waffle, nice and crispy. While it’s toasting, take about 1/4 cup of ricotta and mix it with 2 teaspoons of honey. Less, if you’re not as much of a sweet tooth at breakfast.

Top toasted waffle with the ricotta.

Top ricotta with 1/4 cup of sliced almonds. You can toast them ahead of time if you’d like. I had some left over from the last time I made a salad, so I used those.

You can mix the almonds into the ricotta if you want them to stick better. I was eating at home for once, so I left them on top. You can stop right here and eat it as is, but with so many gorgeous berries in the market now, how could you resist adding some extra fresh sweetness?

I’m looking forward to trying this with strawberries or a fresh berry compote, too. It’s a surprisingly hearty breakfast. One waffle kept me more than satisfied until lunch time, and I was still a little full and had to keep lunch light. And with 330 calories, 14 grams of protein, and antioxidant-rich blueberries, I call that a win.

How are you making use of the summer’s fresh berries?

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Intentionally May

4 Jun

Happy June everyone! May was a pretty good month for A and I; I feel like I’m getting back into the swing of the spirit of my one little word for 2012: intentional, and I can’t wait to share it with you.

If you want to see how 2012 is going so far, January’s wrap-up is here, February, March, and April.

Pursuing the Lord’s heart like I did when I first loved Him.

I think I’m happiest with my progress on this one this month. The more work on my relationship with God, the more I realize hom unquantifiable this goal is. With other intentional goals I san say, “Yes, I had three friends over for dinner, two friends without food dates, four…” You can’t really do that with something as intangible as growing close to the Lord. All I know is that I feel closer to Him, I’m more actively aware of His presence in my life, and I’m feeling the quiet security that comes from being in the word more often. Thank God that He is always there when we decide we want to come back to Him.

Moving into a season of greater spiritual and emotional intimacy with my husband.

We’ve done a devotional almost every night for the last month and a half. This obviously helps our spiritual intimacy, but it’s also slowly but surely building our emotional intimacy. We’ve been using Drs. Les and Leslie Parrott’s Just the Two of Us, a small book that my mom bought us for an engagement present (I think). It’s sweet. A little cheesy at times, which is par for the corse for the Parrotts, but great stories that make us think and are eminently applicable for our marriage.

We also celebrated our six-year anniversary on the 28th. Yay, us!

Making the most of the relationships I have, and taking time to nurture them.

I’ve had some great girlfriend time this month. Lunch dates with my bff, champagne evenings with a purpose, lunch dates with former high school students, grabbing Jamba Juice after a Saturday morning workout with the girls. It’s been a great month for relationships.

Tackling some of the harder things on The List, especially the ones that scare me.

I don’t know about scaring me, but accomplishing #16, planting my container garden, has definitely been a process. Now that they’re in the ground I’m scared…scared that all my plants are going to die without producing. Especially since some of my tomatoes are getting white spots on their leaves. 😦 A tomato-savvy friend told me yesterday to let my tomatoes dry out a bit and not over-water, and it’s raining today! What are the odds? Rain in June in northern California. Arrrrgggghhhh!

Having more people over for dinner, and not letting time/stress/money get in the way of my love of being a hostess.

My buddy Kedrick finally made it back over for dinner, and we had a couple over that we’ve grown to know and love as individuals and have decided we need to hang out more as couples. Considering that this month has been crazy for me, I think two hostess days is pretty good.

Buying locally as much as possible.

So much good produce out right now! It’s super easy to eat locally at this time of year in California. Done and done.

Reading challenging, empowering, quality books instead of solely feeding my brain a mental fast food diet of chick-lit.

I’ve read so many gardening books this month it’s not even funny. All of them are from You Grow Girl, and are wonderful.

Putting my health first and making the time to exercise

No problem. Even being crazy busy I made time for exercise. The only weeks I had trouble was when I was having another terrible bout of insomnia, and I had zero energy for two weeks. I still worked out, but not as much, and definitely not at my full potential.

After several months of trying I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t like step class. I’ve given it the old college try, and the only thing I really like about it is doing it with my girlfriends. All in all I’ve decided that I’d really rather spend the hour running. Speaking of which, this month I’m going to be trying to get back into running. I’ve worked on strength training for months, and have been LOVING it, but I miss running. And my stamina isn’t there anymore for running, so I’d like to see that come back up.

If you had a resolution or a word for 2012, how’s it going? I’d love to hear! Leave a comment or link to a blog post you’ve written on this below.

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Morning Photo Op and a Juicy Friday Five

1 Jun

I woke up this morning and my hair looked like this:

The result of falling asleep on wet hair. All those gorgeous waves that my hair will never hold in real life will be gone the second I hit them with a brush. Not exactly appropriate for a day at the office, but if I were going to the beach I would be all set.

Lest you think I always fall out of bed with beach-ready tousled hair, usually I look like this in the morning:

what? this is what i look like before coffee.

Given that I woke up with the first one, I’m taking it as a sign that this Friday is going to rock.

On to the Friday Five!

Life is just a bowl of….

cherries!

Told you I was cherry mad right now. I have a ton of them hanging out in my freezer right now, so I wanted to look for interesting ways to use them. I know many of you won’t have the experience of picking boat-loads of cherries this summer, so everything on my list of things to do with cherries can be done with frozen ones from the store.

Of course, you could always just make tons of cherry lime granita. So far that’s working for me! Ok, here’s five things I want to do with frozen cherries. Click the photos below for links. Here we go!

cherry-cubes

This totally isn’t my photo, but I did put some of my cherries in ice-cube trays and made ice cubes. Everyone who comes over to our house gets a glass of sparkling water with cherry ice cubes. It’s very fancy. Unlike above, if you choose to make cherry ice cubes I would highly recommend you stem them and pit them first. It looks cool to have your stems attached, yes, but having stems in your glass when you’re trying to enjoy a tasty beverage isn’t fun. And give your guests a break and take the pits out. No one wants to break a tooth on a harmless-looking cherry floating innocently in their glass.

frozen cherry mojitos

Um, yes! This recipe is very similar to my granita, but slushier and boozier. Both are a win for a hot summer day in my book.

almost instant cherry frozen yogurt

almost instant cherry frozen yogurt – gluten free!

I want to make this so badly it’s not even funny. Four ingredients, all healthy enough that I could legitimately eat this for breakfast and not feel bad, and ready in less than a minute? I’m sold.

Fresh berries with sugar and cream has been a guilty pleasure for years. So when I saw this simple dessert with frozen cherries, coconut milk, and dark chocolate my mouth began to water. Apparently the coconut milk freezes on the cherries and makes a texture like ice cream. I’m going to the store tonight to pick up some dark chocolate.

cherry vanilla pops

No matter how hard I looked, this Pinterest dessert didn’t have a link to a how-to. However, the concept seems is simple enough. Vanilla pudding, greek yogurt, frozen cherries, Trader Joes Tart Cherry Juice. Blend in a blender, pour into molds. Yum!

Do you know any ways to use frozen cherries I should try?

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