the giraffe life

I'm a sucker for a Pinterest Challenge . So when I heard that Janssen and her sisters were hosting another challenge, I was excited to join in! The rules were simple: blog to say you'd be participating, write a post about what you're going to do, then write about them after the dust clears (or maybe there's no dust at your house. lucky duck.). I managed to follow exactly one of her rules. Sounds about right. 1. Cauliflower Crust Pizza . Please make this - super easy and so tasty. Also a little messy, but give up on eating it by the slice, and you'll be fine. 2. Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars . I skipped the icing and still loved these bars! Mine were a little crumbly, but that just gave me an excuse to sprinkle the chunks over a bowl of ice cream, so no harm done ;) 3. Sugar Cookies with Cookie Dough Icing . Everyone and their brother has a favorite sugar cookie recipe, so I wasn't too concerned by this recipe's bland cookie. That icing, though - WHOA....

What I ate yesterday . .  linking up here and here

Planning the garden felt really weird. Maybe because the daily highs hovered around the mid-30 to low-40s all month? It just seems too early to be thinking about anything growing. Here's what we're working with: Pretty spectacular, right? I know you're jealous of my 4x8 dirt patch. ;) I need to finish cleaning it out and add some compost, but that won't take long. I'm hoping to add a second bed this year for perennials (strawberries and asparagus, most likely) with a little space left over for something that won't run amok (I'm leaning towards carrots).  BUT, since I only have one bed right now, and that's all I can count on having for sure , I'm just planning for the one bed at this moment. I planned my garden here .  This year, I'm planting:  carrots (so-so in years past)  regular and cherry tomatoes (last year was my first try - great success) beans (they always give me trouble, but I'll try again) cucumbers (they usually ...

I'm a huge fan of the public libraries. I have been on a self-imposed book-buying ban for over a year now, and haven't felt deprived at all because my library takes good care of me. (Ice cream, however, I couldn't give up for a year without feeling deprived.) I'm lucky to have a library that lets you request books from other nearby libraries (and they even deliver those books to my local library - so convenient!).  Requesting books is a tricky puzzle, though - you want to have enough books listed to ensure a steady stream of books that you're dying to read, but not have so many books on your list that two or three (or four!) might arrive in the same week. Usually it works out well, but four books came in for me last week. And I only have three weeks to read these bad boys - eek! Needless to say, I'm on a reading blitz! Here's a few I recently enjoyed: Up first:  Bomb: The Race to Build - and Steal - the World's Most Dangerous Weapon   This...

I've seen this cauliflower pizza crust idea all over Pinterest, and I'm sorry I waited so long to just try it ! Some will try to convince you it tastes exactly like flour-based pizza crust - I disagree. It tasted like cheesy, egg-y goodness to me - and that's not a bad thing.  I also ate it with a fork. Sacrilege, I know. But, so so worth it. Cauliflower Pizza Crust • 1 cup steamed cauliflower, riced (I used 1 1/2 - no worries about being precise) • 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese • 1 egg • 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning (none on hand? recipe here ) Instructions Chop cauliflower florets off a head of fresh cauliflower. Steam in the microwave (about 6-7 minutes), then rice in a food processor, or grate with a cheese grater. Mix the riced cauliflower, cheese, and egg. Spread evenly on a cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 - 25 minutes (it all depends on how thick you make your crust). Top with sauce and cheese, then bake for another 5 minutes, or unti...

art from here     linking up here and here

So I finally made it to Trader Joe's. I enjoyed wandering the aisles and checking out products I'd never heard of (kimchi?), right next to things I love. And the signs were too cute - some were decorated with pictures, and they all looked hand-written. The prices made me squeal with happiness (I only spent $53). I may have even clapped a little when my cashier told me nothing in the store contains HFCS or artificial ingredients. (awkward, hah!) Here's some of the stuff I'm excited to try: I was a little sad to find no bulk food items . My area really sucks in this department. There are no stores that sell things like beans, nuts, and pasta without packaging. So my hunt for that continues :) I t also took me 68 minutes to drive to Trader Joe's...  so maybe I'll just make the trek once every few months and stock up. Where do you shop for groceries? Do you have bulk food bins?

It's been a good week for reading around here (you know, one where the temperature is only cold enough for snow on the days you're not expecting precipitation - ugh), and the last book I read was a winner:   The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared . (Don't you feel tired just reading that?) The title sums up the premise of this book fairly well. On the day Allan turns 100, he decides to escape from his nursing home by climbing out the window. From there, he steals a suitcase, begins working with a thief, and befriends a woman with a pet elephant, among other things. Chapters alternate between his current adventures and a retelling of his life - also full of crazy antics. Of course, you have to be willing to forgive slight twists on many important events, like when Allan befriends Harry Truman (it's unfortunate that I read this right after Bomb , and knew how much was fabricated). One thing to note - this book was translated from Swed...

linking up here and here

The weather finally broke 50 degrees around here this weekend (yay!), and I guess that gave me the spring cleaning bug. I worked on another small portion of the basement and set aside a whole box of stuff to donate: Then I decided to tackle the fridge: It really wasn't bad, no mold or anything too sticky, just a lot of crumbs and cat fur. (Is my cat the only one who jumps in the fridge when I'm trying to put things away?) A good scrub and a little rearranging was all it needed. I thought about moving the furniture to tackle the cat hair that's multiplying underneath, but decided to read instead. :) It was the weekend, after all. And I'm already pumped for next weekend: I'm hosting a family dinner (any recipe ideas for me?) and planning a road trip to Trader Joe's (the closest one's a little over an hour from my house). Why? I've heard they sell a ton of vegetarian/vegan products and other goodies, like  vegetarian parmesan , organic gnocchi, ...

One of the reasons I'm only vegetarian, not full-on vegan, is that I love cheese. The switch from cow's milk to almond milk was easy, buying vegan sprinkles was easy, but finding a suitable substitute for cheese - not so easy. But I keep trying! I read about this crazy vegan recipe on Kelsey's blog a while ago but didn't trust my blender to do the job. (Why is it crazy, you ask? Because it's macaroni and cheese without the (wait for it) cheese !) So I did what any adult would: borrowed my parents' blender, hah. Vegan Macaroni and Cheese promised to be a creamy, cheesy substitute for the traditional stuff, so I was eager to taste it! The recipe did not disappoint. :) It's weird how creamy and cheesy it tastes when you know  there's no cheese in it! (kinda like eating that green ketchup back in 2001) Serve it with a side of veggies or a salad, and you have a tasty, satisfying, completely vegan meal. I'll admit, the prep for this recipe seemed...

linking up here and here

In elementary school, my teachers passed out book orders every month - basically a small catalog (4-8 pages) of books published by a certain company. (I checked - they still exist .) These were some of best things ever for a bookworm like me. I would peruse the catalog when it was handed out, on the bus ride home, after I finished my homework . . just pour over those few pages until I could narrow it down to one or two to ask my parents to buy for me (which they sometimes did, and sometimes didn't - but the catalog was a thrill either way). One of the book series that frequented my book order wish lists was Horrible Histories, written by Terry Deary.  a sampling of the Horrible Histories books that I own These books rocked, plain and simple. They taught me so much about ancient societies (and I'm nosy, so I ate that up!) in a super fun format - comic strips, trivia challenges, and in-depth descriptions of gross stuff. So imagine my surprise when I was browsing the int...

I kinda like setting goals month by month. Kinda. The only problem is creating a sense of urgency to convince myself to work on the goals I'm dreading (read: cleaning the 50-degree basement in February) rather than browsing Pinterest. I have no solution to offer - I took the easy route the first 27 days of this month and spent last night in the basement. Check here for my original post on February goals. Organize part of the basement:  I spent about 3 hours on this and while the basement as a whole is far from finished, I'm happy with the progress I made in this one corner. When I started opening boxes and sifting through the contents, I was surprised to find many empty or half-filled boxes (it's not like I should know what's in my own basement or anything). I condensed things and wound up with tons of boxes for the recycling bins: This was the end result: Write a love note:   Success ! Exercise daily:  I ...