Delicata, Pomegranate & Avocado Kale Salad {Gluten-Free, Paleo & Vegan}

Recently I completed a ten day cleanse. I needed a reset. My body was feeling sluggish, tired and heavy. I consulted a holistic nutritionist and off I went. Shakes. Veggies. Supplements. Repeat.

I didn’t talk about the cleansing process on here. I didn’t really want to trouble you all with my inevitable “EHRMAGHERD, ALL I WANT TO DO IS EAT MY ARM OFF AND YELL LOUDLY” attitude. That happened around day seven. Detox is a funny thing. It can make a usually jovial human being into a crazy, wonky-eyed monster, willing to sell their first born child on the black market for half a steak and a glass of bourbon. Perhaps this is dramatic, but still… it’s a thing. One night I cried into a bowl of Brussels sprouts. Just sobbing and eating. No big deal. I asked my husband to ignore me, as this was all just “part of my process”. He kept his eyes to himself like a gentleman as I tried to choke down sprouts through light sobs. This is no easy feat. Did you know you use a lot of your cry muscles to swallow? No? You don’t cry when you eat? Oh, ok… […]

Totally Loaded Oatmeal Cookies | Gluten Free

Let me start off this post by openly acknowledging I’m a hot mess.

My desk is usually a sea of papers. Most of these papers are recipes either printed out or crudely scrawled with a sharpie onto the backs of envelopes or pieces of junk mail (you never know when inspiration will strike, right?). There are composition books filled with ideas and more than likely at least four drawings of polar bears in pant suits. I am constantly cleaning up the mess and thinning down the horde, but it always seems to come right on back. I will call this my process. It’s a messy process, but it gets you Cheesy Cauliflower Bakes and Peppermint Patty Brownies. I vow to myself at least once a week to get it together and type my recipes directly into a very organized folder on my desktop. This doesn’t happen. It’s not as much fun. It’s so much harder to doodle cupcakes and pandas in the margins of the page of a Word document. It’s all part of my flow.

This morning, I woke up hell-bent on sharing this cookie recipe with you. I’ve been sitting on it for a few weeks and I figured it was just time. Fridays are the time to start dreaming about chewy-gooey cookies. It’s a fact. […]

Apple Cinnamon Whiskey | Musings From A Birthday Girl Mess

This is the whiskey that turns a non-whiskey drinker into a friendly, sloppy, whiskey-filled birthday girl mess.

It is delicious.

You’ll think it’s good enough to drink by the half glass. Don’t bother with what your mother taught you…that whole “Stick with one kind of liquor” nonsense. What does she know? You are twenty-eight now. Total grown-up. You can make decisions. When your girlfriend asks you to have a Skinny Girl Margarita with her, you do it. It’s your freaking’ birthday, right? So what if you switch from tequila to vodka? That should be fine. You are twenty-eight. You know what you are doing. Not your first rodeo.  So what if you’re not a big drinker? You just want to play Dance Central and show off some moves.

How do I know all this? I might have been this birthday girl (yup).

Flash forward to the next morning. […]