The Next Food Network Star

I want you guys to know that I am dead serious about auditioning for Food Network Star.

Dead.

I got the casting email, and over the course of a month there will be 8 open casting events. That's it, just 8 and if you want to be on the show, you'll be there.

So I'll be there. 

My current plan is to rent a car and drive to the nearest open audition in Atlanta, Georgia. This audition is on November 9th from 10am to 1pm. I'm assuming that this short window means that not everyone is going to get to cook. That they're going to have some sort of screening process for personality and if you make it, then you get to cook. Thank goodness I have personality!

So, how can you help? 

Let's just throw it out there that I'm a broke college kid(again) that sells Mary Kay. I've decided that my profit from EVERY purchase from now until then will go towards my trip. No purchase would be to small and it doesn't even have to be for you! Why not start your Christmas shopping? We have some awesome limited edition items for the holiday. Check out www.marykay.com/ldhart1331 to shop around?

Want a different option? I've set up an account with GoFundMe where you can donate to my cause! 

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and thank you in advance for your support! Every little bit helps get me to Atlanta!

Love

Lauren  

Home is...where?

This weekend, I got to see a lot of my favorite people while visiting one of my favorite places. This weekend I got to go back to Purdue for Homecoming. I graduated from Purdue University in 2012 and didn't make it to homecoming in 2013, so this was a first for me! It was also only the second time I've ever participated in Breakfast Club. So it was a wonderful, but short, weekend. 

While driving back from Purdue, on Saturday night because I had work Sunday, I started reflecting back on my time spent at Purdue and how my life has changed since graduation. We've all heard the adage "home is where the heart is" and there are even variations like "home is wherever I'm with you" etc. Sometimes I feel like I don't know where my home is anymore. 

Sure, pre-Purdue home was with my mom. We moved around a little bit in high-school, but that one is still a no-brainer. I was still a child and therefore, home was with my parents. At this point my dad hadn't moved to Ohio yet, so home was localized in central Indiana. 

Once I left for Purdue, it became home. Going "home" on weekends was okay, but I only spent one summer away from Purdue during my 4 year tenure. West Lafayette is a beautiful place, full of tradition and people that love being there. At Purdue I met my band family and formed some of the closest friendships I have to date. In all honestly, I keep in constant communication with ONE person from high-school. All of my other friends are from Purdue or I've met them recently in Cincinnati. 

Trip to Kings Island!

Sadly, we have all graduated, with one exception and he graduates in December. We've started moving around the country and now extra effort is required to get everyone together. Between the members of this group we reside in: South Bend, West Lafayette, Indianapolis and Jeffersonville IN, Dayton and Cincinnati OH, and in the Twin Cities of  MN. That's not all, but you get the picture, we're spread out! 

Now that I've moved to the Cincinnati area, this should be home. I mean, I live here, so technically it is. Yet, I'm constantly traveling away from the area to see the people I care about. Honestly, I feel like I'm in a transition phase. Sure, I'm here for the next 3 years while I work through culinary school, but as far as I can see nothing is keeping me here after that. Cincinnati doesn't yet feel like home, and I'm not sure it will. I know that it would be nearly impossible for all of my friends to coordinate our professional lives so we could live in the same area, but I can tell you we would try pretty hard! 

For now I guess home is Cincinnati, but I'll always feel more at home when I'm around these people.

Waiting in line to get into the Cactus!

With my bestie in front of the Engineering Fountain!

Until next time,
Lauren

Single Serve Pancakes

Some people have confidence coming out of their @$$. You know the type, you see them eating alone at restaurants and not just sitting at the bar, but at a table in the middle of the dining room.

I am not one of those people.

That being said, I really wanted some pancakes this morning. Now since I'm not about to go to the pancake house down the street, I had to get creative.

Thus Whole Wheat Coconut Berry Pancakes were born. I almost never "create" an original recipe, rather I take a recipe I find online and tweak it. I always like to give credit to the original recipe but I was using my phone this morning, and now I can't find it :(

What you'll need:

• 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 TBSP sugar
• 1 TBSP coconut oil, melted
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 egg
• berries of choice - mine were raspberries!

What you do:

1. Combine dry ingredients in a small bowl.
2. Whisk together wet ingredients in a separate small bowl.
3. Add wet ingredients into dry. Whisk well to combine. 
4. Pour desired amount of batter into a warm skillet sprayed with non-stick spray.
5. Cook until bubbly (see right) and then flip. 
6. Repeat process until all pancakes are done!

I like big pancakes, so this only made two for me. Some people like smaller ones, you guys will probably get 4-5 cakes out of this recipe! Garnish as desired, I used a little bit of Speculoos Crunchy Cookie Butter and pure maple syrup. You don't have to be a fatty like me though!

Hope you enjoy these next time you're really craving some pancakes!


Lauren

Camp Holiday #TOUPININTENTIONAL

Guys, I've seriously had such an inspiring day. At the end of this blog I'm going to have two questions for you. I'll know you read this blog all the way through because once you do, you'll go to the Facebook link that lead you here and answer them in the form of a comment. I won't be offended if you don't, but c'mon, it'll take you like a minute tops. We'll come back to this.

Today was Camp Holiday in Louisville KY, put on by National Sales Director Linda Toupin. For those of you outside the pink bubble this means nothing, but it meant a lot to me. Let's rewind though to how I got there, because even that inspired me.

One thing you need to know about Mary Kay is that EVERYWOMAN is super nice and EVERYWOMAN helps EVERYWOMAN because that is what we're all about. Once I decided for sure that I was attending Camp Holiday I asked another consultant if I could carpool with her. She then went out of her way to make sure that the other two ladies she was riding with picked me up this morning. Not only did I not have to drive my car, but all three of these ladies were driving Mary Kay career cars! The one we ended up in had less than 400 miles on it when we took off this morning.

Guys. I need to earn my free car. Like right now.

Another thing you need to know about Mary Kay is that we don't have territories. This being said, sometimes a person lives far away from the unit that they were recruited into. Take me as an example: My director lives in the Jasper IN area, and when I joined I was in West Lafayette IN. So not only did I have my director to learn from but I had an adopted director named Cynda. Cynda graciously took me into her home like I was one of her own and taught me how to work my business like I was one of her own. When I moved to Cincinnati I left Cynda behind and met Liz. Now Liz is my adopted director who welcomes me into her home each week for our success meetings. When I got to Camp Holiday this morning ALL 3 of my directors knew I was going to be there and had seats for me if I needed one. Talk about feeling the love.

So, by now I'm sure you're wondering what exactly Camp Holiday was and why I was so gosh darn excited to be there. Well I'll tell you. Camp Holiday was 6 hours of listening to women who make up the top 2% of the company talk about how to be successful during the holiday season. Fun Fact: Today I learned that the holiday season starts September 1st. I for one, did not know that. Today was just so power-packed with all sorts of ideas to help me take my business where I want it to take me. We had an hour for lunch, and it was suggested that we pack our own because imagine 800 women all trying to get lunch at the same Panera. I spent that whole hour making lists and compiling my thoughts. My notes from today are eight pages long...I don't even take notes like that in class. #duh

I'll wrap this up because while I could go on and on about what I heard to day, it would just bore you. So, I have two questions for you:

1. Is there any reason why you can't buy a present for one person on your holiday list from me and my business.

2. If you had $10,000 AND a free car by Christmas, what would you do with it?

Love,

Lauren

www.marykay.com/ldhart1331

Mary Kay Monday - Mobility

Happy Labor Day everyone! Hopefully it means you have today off! I don't...but it's of my own choosing. Holidays are great days for those of us who work at restaurants. Even though Monday is my usual day off, I couldn't say no when asked if I would work dinner tonight.

I say that Monday is my usual day off, but what I mean is that Monday is my Mary Kay day. On a usual(non-holiday) Monday I have a weekly success meeting at 9:30. I love starting my day off with this meeting. Not only do we get together to celebrate each others success from the previous week, but we also share ideas and try out new products. I always leave feeling super motivated to move my business forward. After the success meeting, I drive down the street for lunch and productivity time at Panera. If you ask me, this mobility is one of the best parts of having my own business. I love that I'm not tied to an office or schedule. The fact that I can grab my laptop and work wherever I want is great!

With today being Labor Day our usual meeting was moved to tomorrow. However, I know myself well enough to know that if I don't stick with my schedule, it won't become a habit. So I'm sitting here chugging away, updating my customer profiles and gearing up for my last big push to become a Star Consultant for this quarter.

This week I have daily product goals, that when reached would skyrocket me past my goal! Tomorrow starts off my six day self challenge with a goal of selling 20 lipsticks! When you look at it, 20 seems like a lot, and I agree! I just started wearing lipstick and by that I mean I own one personally that I occasionally remember to put on. Even if you rarely or don't wear lipstick, I bet you know someone that does. Or I bet you know someone you could give one to for Christmas. I don't care if you buy one for you or if you buy five for other people. Each one is a lipstick gone and a notch in my belt, if you will.

Not to mention, I love to reward people for helping me! Anyone one that helps me out this week by referring customers to me will be awarded discounts or freebies, based on how the referrals work out for me. You can send your customers here!

So, are you ready to be bombarded with pink this week?! My daily goals are as follows:
Tuesday - 20 Lipsticks
Wednesday - 15 Satin Hands Sets
Thursday - 3 TimeWise Repair Volu-Firm Sincare Sets
Friday - 20 Mascaras
Saturday - 6 TimeWise Skincare Sets
Sunday - 7 Clearproof Acne Skincare Sets

Let's see where I stand this time next week!

Lauren
www.marykay.com/ldhart1331

Squash & Banana Brownies

Hey guys!

Remember me? Lauren, the author of this blog? I've been a bad blogger...can you forgive me?

I hope so.

So let's catch up! Things you need to know about my life so that my posts from here on out aren't totally confusing:

• I'm not a hog farmer anymore! 
• I've moved to West Chester, which is a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio! I'm living in my dad's basement. Woo yay woo.
• I'm a student at the Midwest Culinary Institute in the Pastry Arts Program.  
• I've been a Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant since February.
• This week I started training for my second half-marathon. I'll be running the Avengers Half-Marathon at Disneyland in November.

Okay, I think we're all caught up! This week fall classes began at Cincinnati State and tonight is my first baking lab! Fundamentals of baking from 4-9:50! I'll be all dressed up in my whites so I'll be sure to update this with a picture later : D

In honor of tonight, how about a recipe? I was craving chocolate Monday but I didn't want to indulge my sugar demand so I made these brownies. My inspiration came from here but I changed the recipe quite a bit by the time it went into the oven.

Summer Squash & Banana Brownies

What you need:

• 2 bananas - mashed
• 1/2 c applesauce
• 3/4 c sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 c AP flour
• 1c wheat flour - you can use 2 cups of AP flour if you don't have this.
• 1 medium summer squash - this is basically a yellow zucchini so if you can't find one, grab a zucchini!
• 1/2 c chopped walnuts - I omitted these so my nut-allergic friend could eat them.

What you do:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350F and grease a 9x13 baking dish.
2. Peel and grate the squash. Transfer grated squash into a paper towel and squeeze out the excess water. THIS IS IMPORTANT!!! Your batter will be super soupy(heh heh) if you don't do this.
3. Add mashed nanners, applesauce and sugar together and mix.
4. Add in vanilla and cocoa powder and mix again.
5. Add the your S-es: soda, salt and squash. Mix again.
6. Finally, add in the flour and nuts and give the batter a final mix.
7. Spread the batter evenly into your pan. My batter was a little clingy so you may need to coax it into the corners of your dish. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the brownies spring back when gently touched. I cut them into 20 equal servings.

Yum! These have a great chocolate flavor and won't leave you feeling guilty! I actually did the math and by subbing the applesauce in, these babies come out with .3 grams of fat per serving! Not too shabby! 

Well friends, thanks for reading! It's good to be back!

Until next time,

Lauren 

Vacation Part 1 - Amarillo Texas

Last week I had the privilege of embarking on a week long vacation with my best friend! Even though I had to work the weekend at the farm, as soon as I could escape I headed down to meet her in Jeffersonville! Then we loaded up the car and were off!

First stop? Amarillo Texas! In case you're wondering, yes I did play and sing "Amarillo By Morning" as the first song in the car. The drive really wasn't that bad and we split it up into two shifts with Jackie driving us through IN, IL and MO and myself taking OK and TX. We got into Amarillo with  plenty of time to stop for a delicious breakfast at Ye Olde Pancake Station. Totally worth it.





After breakfast we found a hotel room for the night, checked in and freshened up. We didn't book the room in advance but rather just used Priceline to find a cheap room. We actually did this twice throughout the trip and it worked pretty well for us. Now we were finally ready to take on Amarillo.  

The first place we visited was the American Quarter Horse Association Museum. I was a little worried that Jackie would find it boring but being raised riding Quarter Horses, I couldn't pass it up. The museum was small but very informative and I think we both had a good time. 

Our next stop was the Cadillac Ranch located along I-40. Cadillac Ranch is considered a sculpture and is basically a bunch of old Cadillacs shoved nose first into the ground a painted. Tourists are actually encouraged to paint them! Lucky for us we found some leftover spray paint cans and were able to add our initials to the cars! 

Inside one of the shells.

It should also be noted that we freed a tumble weed from a life of being stuck in the fence.

For dinner Monday night we went to the Big Texan, home to the free 72oz steak! That's right, this restaurant is famous for it's promise that if you can eat the 72oz steak, shrimp cocktail, baked potato, salad and roll, you get the whole thing free! We opted for the 21oz ribeye prepared for two, which we assumed meant we would split the steak and sides. But we were wrong. They say everything is bigger in Texas and this meal was no exception. Along with our 21oz steak to split, we each got two sides and rolls. I think it goes without saying that we were pretty full. Especially once you factor in the boot of in-house brewed beer we each had.

With (very)full bellies we waddled to the car and returned to our hotel room. We turned in early but it was a necessary evil as we wanted to be on the road by 4am.

So that is day 1 of our cross-country road trip to Las Vegas! Stay tuned for more adventures!

Lauren

My Crazy, Tragic, sometimes almost Magic, Awful Beautiful, Life.

Wow. What a crazy life I live. So much about my life has changed in the last month and is going to continue to change with this next month. I know I've been hush about details so this blog is to bring everyone up to the same level.

In February I hit my two year mark with MP3Farms, and while I love the pigs, I haven't been as pleased with everything else. I had told myself in November that in 6 months I would be somewhere different. So I started looking. I updated my resume and applied for jobs, with no return. Which anyone one with job search experience can tell you is pretty depressing. 

So along comes the Christmas season and while visiting my father, it comes up that if I could drop everything and go to culinary school, I would. Well leave it to my father, the wonderful man that he is, to offer to house and feed me for the duration of school if I was serious. Wait, did anyone hear that? It was opportunity pounding on the door. 

Don't worry, I wasted no time in figuring out where I could go to school and still live with my dad. Which led me to apply to the Midwest Culinary Institute at Cincinnati State. The application was the easy part, since then I've had to submit transcripts, take placement testing and apply for financial aid. The whole process has taken a couple months. 

In the meantime, completely out of the blue a few weeks ago I got an email from an Ag Talent seeking group looking to fill a position on a hog farm. The chosen person would receive a salary, company car and have a masters degree paid for. The catch was that the farm was in Iowa. Well, once again I couldn't let this opportunity pass me by so I updated my resume and sent it in. 

I then proceeded to hear absolutely nothing back. Not even a confirmation that they received my email. Bummer. 

So here it is, March and time for my vacation. I still don't know my admission status for the MCI and I don't know if I'm going to hear back about this job or not. So Friday morning I called the MCI and guess what?

 I'M GOING TO CULINARY SCHOOL!!!!

Yep! That's right, and the best part? I'm starting May 5th! So soon! So I basically have a month to quit, pack, move and start school. Did I mention I'm also putting on three Skin Care Classes and a Grand Opening Party with Mary Kay and running a Spartan Sprint? Holy hell somebody pinch me! 

So yeah, that's what my life has looked like. I plan to write some posts about my vacation as it was pretty dang awesome. So stay tuned!

Thanks for reading,

Lauren 

Potato Ham Chowder

Soup is a wonderful thing. I know a lot of people associate soups with cold weather, and while that is definitely warranted, it's not my view. Don't get me wrong, there are few things more enjoyable than coming in from the cold to a warm, delicious bowl of soup. It's fantastic, but I love to turn to soup for comfort. When I've had a long, or bad, or both day, I take comfort in the fact that I can make a big pot of something warm and creamy to enjoy. This soup was no exception.                                                                                             I got to use another new, to me, ingredient in this recipe! Ham steak! It made everything go smoothly due to being already cooked. All I had to do was dice the amount that I needed. This particular steak provided way more than I needed so I save the rest for ham sandwiches later in the week. So, let's make some soup shall we?

What you'll need:

Melting the butter.

• 4 slices bacon, diced
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 onion, diced
• 1.5 cups frozen corn kernels
• 2 tsp fresh thyme
• 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
• 3.5 cups milk
• 2 russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 7 oz ham steak, diced
• salt and pepper, to taste

Between steps 2 & 3.

What you'll do:

Ready to serve!

1. Heat a large skillet over med-high. Add bacon and cook until brown and crispy. Set aside on a paper towel lined plate.
2. Melt butter in a Dutch oven, or large pot, over medium heat. Add garlic and onion, and cook, stirring frequently, about 2-3 minutes. Stir in corn and thyme and cook until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes.
3. Whisk in flour until lightly browned, only a minute or so. Gradually whisk in milk and cook, continuously whisking, until slightly thickened, and 1-2 minutes. 
4. Stir in potatoes.
5. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are tender, about 12-15 minutes. Stir in ham, salt and pepper. 
6. If you feel your chowder is too thick you can slowly add milk as needed.
7. Serve immediately, garnished with the bacon!

I found this recipe on Damn Delicious, and it was definitely damn delicious. Wonderful for a cold night! I topped mine with some shredded cheddar and it was perfect! 

Bon appetit!

Lauren

Turkey Lasagna

Remember this?

Well, it's high time I show you how to use it!

We're making Lasagna!

This was super tasty and really good for you! By that I mean it's from Clean Eating Magazine so the ingredients are fresh and very minimally processed. This recipe does call for no-boil lasagna noodles, which I had never used before. Word for the wise, make sure that the entire noodle gets covered with sauce when you're doing your layering. If not there will be no moisture and the noodle will not get cooked. AKA you'll have crunchy bits of noodle. Slightly off-putting. 

Let's get started.

What you'll need:

Spinach turkey mixture.

• 9oz package frozen chopped spinach, thawed
• 1lb ground turkey breast
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 15 oz reduced-fat ricotta cheese, drained
• 1/3 cup loosely packed chopped fresh basil leaves
• 12 whole-wheat no-boil lasagna noodles
• 4 oz reduced-fat, grated Italian four cheese blend
• Homemade Marinara 

What you'll do:

Between steps 5 & 6.

1. Pre-heat oven to 350F.
2. Place spinach in a mesh strainer and press firmly to drain. Coat a large skillet with cooking spray and heat over medium-high. 
3. Add turkey and cook until no longer pink, about 4-5 minutes. Add spinach, salt and pepper and cook, stirring frequently, about 2 minutes. Transfer to a bowl.
4. In a second bowl, combine ricotta and basil. 
5. Reheat marinara on medium until steaming hot. Spread 3/4 cup sauce inside a 9x13 baking dish. Top with 4 noodles, half the ricotta mix, 1/3 of cheese blend, half the turkey mix and 1 cup of sauce. 
6. Repeat once more, starting with noodles and ending with sauce. 
7. Top with remaining noodles, remaining sauce and remaining cheese blend. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.Remove foil and bake until cheese is melted and sauce is bubbling, 5-10 minutes more. 
8. Allow to rest for 15 minutes before serving. 

Ready to go in the oven! 

I got this recipe straight from Clean Eating Magazine, which I LOVE!!!! If you ever want to borrow one, just ask! They have lots of recipes that not only taste great, they're great for you!

I'm gonna go write some more, overdue, blogs now! Enjoy!

Lauren

Start Something Beautiful

Wow. 

My life never seems to slow down. Seems like Monday the 3rd was yesterday and I was looking at the calendar not sure how I'd make it to my day off on the 12th. Now that's just two work days away. 

Let's talk about work shall we? So much has changed for me recently. At the farm I have moved into a secretarial role. Yay! Kinda. Now I spend most of my day up in the office doing paperwork, answering the phone, doing all the laundry and keeping the place clean. I know what you're thinking and no, it's not what I started there intending to do. But nothing has really gone the way I planned in regards to my career there. I will say this, I'm pretty happy with this change of pace. I was worried that being in the office would mean I was less active overall but my FitBit has been telling me otherwise. So hopefully that's where I'll stay until I leave for culinary school. 

As for culinary school, it's not all worked out yet. Don't worry, there'll be a blog when it is :P

In other career news, you may have seen on Facebook that I have become an Independent Beauty Consultant for Mary Kay. I cannot tell you how excited I am! I've been going through the training and new materials and I really feel like this is something I can be successful at. Which is nice because I'm going to need an income during culinary school. Please please PLEASE don't be hesitant to talk to me if you are at all curious about Mary Kay! I'm happy to share my knowledge with you and show you how wonderful Mary Kay is!

Well friends, it's bedtime. Once again I'm going to leave you with a promise to blog more. My jar needs more funds haha!

Thanks for reading, 

Lauren

Mmm...Marinara!

Mmm...doesn't that look delicious?

I don't know about you guys but I definitely prefer to use homemade ingredients over store bought. Unfortunately, like most people, I simply don't have the time on a regular week night and pre-packaged wins. 

However, when I do have the time, I go all out. This week I found this delicious Turkey Lasagna recipe in Clean Eating magazine and part of making it is making the sauce! Since I had Monday off, I knew I had to try it! And you know what? It was really easy and really tasty! I'm really glad I ventured out and tried it because now I have this in my arsenal and nothing impresses more than saying "I made it myself".

What you'll need:

• 1 Tbsp Olive Oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 large carrot, peeled & chopped
• 1 large celery stalk, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 2 28oz cans unsalted, whole tomatoes
• 1 Tbsp honey
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper

What you'll do:

1. In a dutch oven(or large saucepan) heat oil on med-high heat. Add onion, carrot and celery and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and lightly browned. About 10 minutes. 
2. Add garlic and oregano and cook, stirring constantly for 1 minute. Add vinegar and let bubble 10-20 seconds while you scrape browned bits from the bottom of the pan. 
3. Add tomatoes and stir to combine, breaking them up as you go. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to medium or med-low to maintain a steady simmer.
4. Cook for 1 hour, stirring every 10-15 minutes, until thickened. 
5. Stir in honey, salt and pepper.
6. Using an immersion blender, blend the sauce to your consistency liking. If you don't have one, carefully transfer the mixture to a food processor or blender and proceed. Just be cautious as the mixture is still very hot.

This sauce can be made up to two days in advance, provided it is stored in an air-tight container in the refrigerator. So you don't even need to have a whole day free to make this tasty meal! Just make the sauce the night before! Oh, and don't worry, the lasagna recipe will follow in a later post!

Stay tuned,
Lauren

Slow Cooked Brown Sugar & Balsamic Glazed Pork Loin

Now that I've got your attention, let me assure you that this pork loin was just as delicious as it looks. Actually, it's probably more because those Cinnamon Orange Glazed Carrots were pretty darn tasty too! 

Pork loins were on sale last week so I knew that the slow cooker was going to make an appearance at least once! I bought two but the other one is still sitting in the refrigerator waiting to become pork chops. *drools* Uh, sorry about that...Let's get on with it shall we? I also couldn't pass up a chance to use my new serving platter, a Christmas present from my grandma. I stole this recipe from Six Sisters Stuff, I love their blog, and have probably gotten a third of my food pins from them. Check 'em out!

Slow Cooker Brown Sugar & Balsamic Glazed Pork Loin

What you'll need:

•  boneless pork loin (2-3 lbs)
• 1 tsp ground thyme
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp cornstarch
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 Tbsp soy sauce

What you'll do:

1. Combine thyme, salt, pepper, garlic and rub over roast. Place in slow cooker with the water and cook on low for 6-8 hours. 
2. About an hour before the roast is done, combine remaining ingredients to make the glaze in a small saucepan. Heat and stir until mixture thickens. 
3. Brush roast with glaze 2-3 times during the last hour of cooking.
4. Serve with remaining glaze - I spooned the remaining onto my platter before transferring the loin to it.

Cinnamon Orange Glazed Carrots

What you'll need:

• 32 oz pkg baby carrots
• 1/4 cup honey
• 3 Tbsp butter, melted
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup Leinenkugel's Orange Shandy

What you'll do:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Place the carrots in a pot of water and bring it to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Drain.
3. In a large bowl, combine remaining ingredients EXCEPT for the honey. Add in the carrots and stir.
4. Transfer mixture to a baking dish and bake 15-20 minutes.
5. Allow carrots to cool a few minutes before drizzling with the honey.
6. Devour.

Hope you guys enjoy this double feature! 

Lauren

Resolutions!

Wow! 

We've already seen a whole week of 2014 come and go! How does that happen so fast? I'll admit, I'm like most Americans in that I set a New Year's Resolution. However this year I only picked one. Why? We'll let me tell you! I read an article in Fitness Magazine that said you're more likely to stick to your resolutions if you only pick one or two. Which, when you think about it, is totally believable. Instead of spreading yourself thin and stressing over multiple rules you get to channel all your focus and energy on one. So, since I really want to commit to this change, I'm sticking with just one.

What is it you ask?

 I am giving up pop/soda/coke whatever you call it. In all forms, diet, regular, caffeine free or not. This is a change I've wanted to make for a while and while I could have started earlier, making it a resolution was just so convenient. I'm proud to say that I've made it the whole week without a sip AND without any cravings. I say that last part with a little apprehension because I usually turn to pop when I'm stressed or mad, and thankfully I have not been either of those(at least enough to trigger cravings).

All that being said, I'm still going to strive to keep up on my blogging. However, since I pay myself for writing them, I'm not considering it a resolution.

Good luck on yours, help keep me honest!
Lauren

A Real World Snow-day!

Well guys, I guess hell has frozen over. I couldn't make it to work today because of the weather. 

I get a snow-day!!! 

Seriously though, I never get the day off of work for something like this. 

I mean, I worked Thanksgiving and Christmas...

Don't get me wrong, I tried to go in. My roommate and I were outside at 4:45AM shoveling
 and scraping to get my car out of the parking lot. It took a little rocking but I finally made it out of my spot. Then I drove 30-40MPH for 40 minutes to get to my halfway point. At this point I'm thinking

"Well, I made it this far, who cares if I'm late?!?!" 

Sadly, it was not meant to be. I got stuck on the small side of a major snow drift blocking my one route

to work. I really wasn't sure I was going to get out of it by myself. But with a little determination 

I was able to rock myself back and forth until I finally broke loose! 

The fun part came next when I had to back about 150 feet down the road until I could turn around in the nearest driveway. At that point I called my boss, apologized and headed home. 

So now I'm just bumming around, trying to be productive on this rare extra day off. 

Honestly, if I get some blogs pre-written, I'll consider it a productive day!

In the meantime, I hope everyone is smart and stays safe indoors! 

Enjoy your snow-day!

Lauren

My commute ending snowdrift!