Raspberry Swirl Sweet Rolls

Since I am going to be doing Paleo this coming month, I had a few recipes I wanted to try out before the deadline came. One of those recipe I tried was from Pinterest (of course!). Look at how delicious this looks!! But, I was actually a little disappointed. I think if I make them again I can probably adjust them to my liking. The picture above is not the ones I made but from the person I got this recipe from.

Surprisingly, they were too sweet for me! So I think next time I make them I'm going to add half the amount of sugar. They were also a little dry, so I'll bake them a little less longer and add less flour. My last complaint is that it needed WAY more fruit! I actually didn't have any raspberries so I used just a bag of mixed berries, which was delicious by the way, but I wanted way more than what the recipe called for.

Ok, so I lied when I said that was my last complaint. I hated the glaze recipe. Absolutely hated it. I'm still searching for a recipe for glaze that I like, but I definitely wont be using that one again. Granted it was just powdered sugar and milk, but there has got to be something better than that. Maybe I will look for a copycat of the Cinnabon glaze....

So that was my weekend! As fun as it was to make it, I probably won't make them again for a good long while.

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Paleo (Part 1)

All my life I have been known for my insatiable sweet tooth, but believe it or not I have actually done a lot of studying on healthy eating. This last month I've been trying to get healthier and just eat better in general. One of the things I've experimented with is called the Paleo Diet. Starting in February I'm going to be on it exclusively. The principle is fairly easy: eat like a cave man would have! Seems simple right? Wrong! Some of the things I'll have to cut out is all dairy (sob), peanuts (yep, that means peanut butter too), and even oatmeal!

Since I'm probably not going to be able to keep track of every single little thing that's Paleo and what's not, I bought an app called Paleo (io) for about  $.99. This will help me make sure that what I'm eating is actually Paleo. I also have an app that I got for free called HealthyOut for when I'm going out to eat with friends. Dieting can be so hard when you eat out often or if you don't want to feel left out. So this app shows me restaurants in the area and I can type in what foods I'm allowed to eat and it will pull up meals available at those places. It even has a Paleo option to make it that much easier!

If you're not really sure what Paleo is, let me break it down into the very basics:

EAT THIS

• Fish & Seafood
• Meats
• Fruits (but in moderation, as sweets are high in sugar)
• Veggies
• Eggs
• Nuts & Seeds
• Healthy Oils (like coconut oil, olive oil, etc)
• Natural Sweeteners (my personal favorite is Stevia)

NOT THIS

• Grains
• Legumes (beans, peanuts, peas, etc)
• Dairy
• Refined Sugar
• Potatoes (I know, it's devastating)
• Processed Foods
• Refined oils (canola, corn, grapeseed, hydrogenated, etc.)
• Soy

This diet is pretty straight forward, with no weird hoops to jump through that a lot of extreme diets have. You could live on this diet, and actually I believe if more people did they would be healthier and happier. But just like with any life changes (especially ones that affect your health), make sure this is right for you and wouldn't have any bad repercussions before you try it.

For me personally, I like this diet because it's fairly easy to remember what's ok to eat and what's not. Not only that but it cuts out all the stuff my body reacts badly to anyways (all the delicious stuff of course,).

Like I mentioned earlier, I'll be starting this diet at the beginning of February. I'll write a post at the end of the month to tell you how it went! Throughout the month I will also be posting Paleo friendly recipes that I find and try out to make sure they taste good enough for you to try (if you're so inclined).

Revenge

First of all, it is really hard to review a TV show without giving away a ton of spoilers. Also, I am learning it is more difficult than I thought it'd be to write one little post once week. My procrastination and laziness knows no end! So full disclosure, I will still be doing one post a week but it may or may not always be on Wednesdays.

So I started watching this show about a week ago and I am on season 2. I don't usually like shows right away but this one caught my attention from the very first episode. For those of you who are familiar with Count of Monte Christo, it is roughly based off of that story.

I have really enjoyed the first two seasons. However, I got impatient and looked up the episode summaries of the most current episodes and I have to say I am a little disappointed with where the story line has gone. What I liked about it at first was that it wasn't too contrived but still had me pleasantly surprised with plot twists. Unfortunately though, as the seasons continue it's clear that they are just going for shock value. It's not as believable any more and on top of that many of the important and loved (more like love to hate) characters are killed off.

All in all, it's a good show to start and maybe have on in the background, but it's not a show I feel any real loyalties or passion about.

Christmas Gifts

Hello everyone!! I know I've been gone for awhile, but this year my family was hosting Christmas and so it's been quite busy. Whatever holiday you celebrate (or even if you don't) I hope you had a good winter and that you had lots of yummy food. I sure did, and now I am still burning off all that holiday food, haha. Some news in my life, today we got a dog (named Ozzy), and it's good news because my mom is always happier when she has a dog. I'm not really a huge dog person, but if it makes someone I love happy, then I'm willing to sacrifice. He is pretty cute and lovable, so I'm sure I'll get attached (even though I don't want to, I don't think I'll be able to help it). Let's get started!

DECOR

I don't usually review things that are so expensive, but I got this for Christmas from my step-dad so I wanted to show it off! First things first, it is VERY complicated to put together. In fact, I wasn't even the one who put mine together. I had to have my cousin Jaden do it (he's just super smart, what a nerd) but now it's up in my room and I love it. It has a lot of color options from Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, White, and multiple colors in between. You can also choose the brightness of each color as well as choose to have it play every color on a timer kind of thing. The only bad thing is that it is very hard to put together like I mentioned before, and it's quite pricey for just one light. 

The pieces themselves are about $25.00 and come separately in 30 pieces that you have to put together. The color changing light bulb and remote are $20.00 and for some reason is sold separate from the light cord which is $10.00. I'm sure you can find this product somewhere else for much cheaper, but these are the prices I found from the official website.

BOOKS

This is just a simple journal from Fireworks and it was also from my step-dad (shout out to Peter, gift giver winner of the year). There's a quote on the inside by the artist of the cover that says, "The soul would have no rainbow if the eyes had no tears." I love knowing about amazing women in history so it was really cool to learn about Laurel Birch, the artist. The back page of this journal gives a brief biography of her, and it was fun to learn about how she was a self-taught artist as well as "flower child." In the back is also a pocket sort of thing to keep small papers or something which is just super neat and I will probably forget about and never use. I have terrible trouble keeping a journal because I never know what to write and I'm always paranoid someone will find it and read it so I've decided to just record my dreams instead. Eventually, I'll be able to look back at some of them and say, "What the heck, I am nuts. How could I dream that?!" and that'll be fun.

I received more things than these, but these are just two of my favorite things and they are easy to write about so I decided to keep it short. Actually, this last Christmas was probably the best (if not the only good) Christmas I've ever had. Sure, there were people I missed and thought about, but there was no drama or recent heart break and I was surrounded by people I love and that I know love me. 

It's crazy to think that the Christmas before this one I was so down, and felt so hopeless. This year has had it's ups and downs but I'm so glad I survived to see it get better. If this year is your hard year, hang in there! It may not get better right away but you are not alone in your struggle, and just know that there are people who have gone through similar things that you are and have not only survived but got better. Believe it or not, they didn't believe they were strong enough either.

Happy New Year!