Homemade, fresh ginger cooler

I'm obsessed with ginger root.  I love the peppery, floral taste.  I love the fresh, clean, energizing scent.  I also love that as an added bonus, ginger root has a long list of health bennys.

If you do a quick search on "Health Benefits of Ginger," you'll get a host of websites from different resources detailing the power of ginger.

 The common denominators of ginger benefits (I find) are as follows:

• Promotes good digestive health (ie: helps induce appetite, reduces intestinal gas, alleviates nausea, rids body of bloat)
• Serves as an anti-inflammatory agent
• Aids in clearing sinuses
• Helps the body absorb nutrients

I can vouch for all the above.  I have IBS and fibromyalgia.  Since incorporating ginger into my diet, I have seen marked improvements in the severity and frequency of both my IBS and fibromyalgia flare ups.  When I have tummy troubles (especially when I was pregnant with my son) chewing fresh ginger totally helps reduce the intensity of those nasty, symptoms.

I brew a lot of tea-like drinks at home in an effort to thwart cravings for sodas (I miss you, Diet Coke!)  One day I decided to try and make a ginger drink with some of the extra root I had on hand in my freezer. The experiment was successful by my standards and now I regularly make this ginger cooler and personally find it to be incredibly refreshing and dare I say, spa-worthy.

Try it for yourself!  It's stupid-easy to make.

What you need:

• 7.5 - 8 cups of water
• Pot to boil water in
• Fresh ginger root, peeled and sliced*
• Honey, Stevia, Truvia, or Sugar in the Raw (or regular sugar, if you like) I use about 1.5 tablespoons of honey in my cooler for a very mild sweetness.  Play around with amounts of sweetener to please your pallet.  

*Use as much or as little as you'd like depending on how strong you want the ginger taste to be in your cooler.  I generally use a root as big as my hand and about as wide as but my thumbs pressed together.  That translates into about 1.5 cups sliced. The thinner you slice the ginger, the stronger the flavor will be as well. I generally slice mine about .25-.50 inches thick

How you make it:

Put ginger and water in a pot.  Bring to a boil.  Boil for about 5 minutes, full roar.  Turn down the heat and let simmer anywhere from 10-15 minutes.  Add your desired sweetener and mix with a wooden spoon. Remove from heat.  Allow ginger to steep in the mixture as it cools.  The longer you simmer, the longer you steep, the stronger the ginger flavor will be.  

Hello, gorgeous.

Remove ginger from pot with a slotted spoon before allowing mixture to cool if you want a more subtle flavor.  I, personally, let the ginger slices steep upwards of 45 minutes sometimes as it cools.  Do remember, though, I'm a ginger freak.  The spicier the better!  

Once cool, transfer to a container that is easy to refrigerate.  I'm partial to large, Ball canning jars with their plastic, reusable caps.  Should yield about 5.5-6 cups of ginger cooler (depending on how long you boil.)

I mean, everyone will wonder what the big jar of
urine in your fridge is all about but that means
more ginger cooler for you, right?

One batch keeps about 2-5 days in the refrigerator.  Serve over ice.  Throw in some fresh-squeezed lemon or lime juice and a few wedges of your desired citrus for an extra element of refreshment.

Cheers to good health and sunny, summer days!

Chic Trick:No-sew Sundress

Raid your mom's, grandma's, great-grandma's closets immediately.  I'm going to show you how to turn a long, "Old Lady" shirt into a sassy little no-sew sundress!

You need two things and about 30 seconds to create something fresh out of something frumpy:

1. "Old Lady" skirt

2. Belt

Let's chat about what an "Old Lady" skirt means to me.  I define Old Lady skirts as follows: long, sometimes with buttons, sometimes with pockets.  Emphasis on long.  Unflattering in its natural state.

I love thrift shopping. It's an adventurous, economical way to keep your wardrobe interesting especially if you have an open mind and an outgoing attitude.

About 3 years ago, I was struggling to find something 80's in my closet for my cousin's bridal shower.  I pulled out an Old Lady skirt I thrifted (for the attached blouse) about a month prior.  The skirt's waist was a little too big on me but I wasn't going to wear it anyway at the length that it was (long and gross.)  I decided to just hitch the skirt up over my boobs and belt it to see how that worked.

STYLE REVOLUTION!

At left: me and my "dress;" at right: my adorable sister

Since that divine moment of fashion intervention, I never leave a thrift shop without scouring for Old Lady skirts as they make sassy little sundresses.  So cute!  So cheap!  So chic!

Dress: Sag Harbor, thrifted at Goodwill Outlet/ Belt: Gap

Tips:

*Skirts with a partial elastic waist fit more comfortably and stay up more easily
*Look for skirts without pockets
*Extra adorable points for buttons and prints
*Wear over a tank top or t-shirt to switch up the look of the dress

BONUS: Depending on how well-endowed you are, your no-sew sundress might even surprise you with a trendy, high-low hemline.  You can play with how low you wear the back to get the high-low effect as well.

I mean, so adorable!

You can easily dress up or down your no-sew sundress by changing up belts, adding jewelry (or taking jewelry away,) mixing it up with jackets and cardigans, and playing with different shoe choices.

Here's me wearing the prescribed outfit in real life.  

I wore it to our friends' daughter's birthday party Memorial Day weekend.

This is an example of "dressing down" the no-sew sundress.  I wore my trusty Chaco flip flops that day because we were doing a lot of walking that day.  When I have less miles to put on during a summer outing, my sassy shoe of choice is a wedge.

I accessorized with little bluebird polymer clay earrings to bring out the blue in the dress and, I suppose a Hugh Bob & The Hustle beer coozie.  You don't want to upstage a birthday girl on her big day!

Do share if you try this Chic Trick out yourself! I'd love to see your look!

Now, get to hunting and hiking
(as in hunt for Old Lady skirts and start hiking them up over your lady lumps!)

Mani Monday!

I do not excel at DIY projects often.  I get so excited at the prospect of making or doing something awesome all by myself and 90% of the time, I run out of enthusiasm about 5 minutes into the project.  After years and years of trials and errors, I'm confident that I know what my niches are.  I don't feel guilty about leaving my technical shortfalls to the professionals out there.

There are a few DIY things that historically I'm not so craptastic at.  For instance, I made a baby one time and he turned out to be pretty awesome. I'm clutch at making dinner out of a nearly-empty pantry.  My husband thinks I have a real talent for SnapChatting.  So, though I don't claim to be at the top of my field in any of those aforementioned arenas (certainly there is always room for improvement, ) I mean, give credit where credit is due.

If there is one DIY activity that I kill  it's manis. I've been doing my own nails since I turned 11. In my 19 years of at-home manicuring, I've only gotten better through trial and error.  My aresenal has grown stronger.  My obsession with everything mani accelerates with every debuted "new color collection" each season. It's my thing.

Current mani featuring Eye Popping Poppy by Ulta. 

My attitude towards my nails is much like my husband's attitude towards food: purist.  My husband likes his cheesecake plain, his pizza with meat and cheese (NO BBQ! NO WEIRD STUFF!.) I like my nails candy-coated with lacquer.  24/7. The world of at-home manis is expanding.  I know a lot of people who last year were really into gel manicures.  This year, Jamberry is blowing up.  And, without trying either of them, I can say confidently that neither one of them is for me.  "But how can you rule out something you never tried!?!?" I'll tell you how I can rule it out. I can rule it out the same way I've ruled out doing other things in life without trying them: I've educated myself enough on the options to know that they just aren't for me. I mean, I've never tried lighting my hair on fire but I feel confident that it's not on my Bucket List. But I guess never say never, right?

More to the point, I like having a flirty relationship with my nail color.  I'm not looking for anything long-term. Nail color commitment scares me. I'm in it for fun, little flings.  I'm married.  I have enough monogamy in my life.

I 100% enjoy my little nail ritual.  I enjoy it so much that even though I can get my at-home manis to last a solid seven days+ (no, really, I can) I switch up my color at least twice a week.  My mani routine, from start to finish, takes about 30 minutes (including dry time.)  I usually do a mani right before bed or right before a run (but after putting on my sports bra...trust me on that one.)

One of the best little finds in recent years came through a referral by my friend Alissa.  Alissa and I worked together for a few years and bonded instantly over our love of nails.  She has the same attention span towards and lust for lacquer as I do. She told me to check out Essie 3-Way Glaze, an all-in-one nail primer, basecoat, and topcoat.  It has proved to be the most valuable weapon in my mani arsenal since 100% acetone industrial nail polish remover.

I apply 3-way to clean nails after I've done the prep work (ie: remove prior polish, file, smooth, buff, shine, remove cuticles, wash hands.)  Once dry, I apply 1-2 coats of lacquer.  Once that coat dries, throw on a quick topcoat of 3-way, give it a quick spray with a drying agent, and baby, you have some gorgeous nails going on.  What I super like about 3-way is that it primes nails in a way that even lower-end polishes like Wet 'n Wild, and NYC cover better and last longer. Who says cheap can't be chic?  I love mixing high/low beauty products!

Here's a peak of my basic mani kit.  I rarely cut my nails with a trimmer, mostly just filing since I do my nails so often.  There's some good stuff in there, ladies.  Check it out!  Have a fabulous Mani-Monday!

Basic Mani Kit by amateur-life-and-style featuring sally hansen nail care

Essie nail care
nordstrom.com

Sephora Collection manicure tool
sephora.com

Nail polish
target.com

Sally hansen nail treatment
target.com

Manicure tool
ulta.com

Sally hansen nail care
target.com

Nail care
walmart.com

Salon Formula Nail Lacquer
ulta.com

pancakes with a punch

These pancakes.

I've made these pancakes for about 8 years now.  I got the recipe from a personal trainer friend of the family and over the years I've streamlined it and put my own little spin on it.  I have since learned that Jillian Michaels has a similar recipe in The Biggest Loser cookbook.

  

These pancakes are full of energizing and satisfying protein (5.1 grams of protein per pancake) and they are low on fat and carbs (if you're watching that kind of thing.)  They also are gluten-free if you use certified gluten-free old fashioned oats.  Furthermore, they are delicious.

I won't tell you they taste like regular pancakes because they totally don't.  They are not fluffy but they are moist.  My son loves them which is awesome.  It's hard for me to get my 19 month old to eat protein so I like to sneak it in his diet as often as I can.

Protein Pancakes Recipe 
yeilds 16-18 small pancakes
-1 cup Cottage Cheese (4%, 2%, low-fat--doesn't matter.  I use 4% but have had just as much success with other varieties)

-1 cup Old Fashioned Oats
-1 cup liquid egg whites (or 6 egg whites)

-1 scoop Vanilla Whey Protein (I had Body Fortress Super Advanced in the house for this batch)
-1.5 tsps cinnamon (omit if you don't like cinnamon)
-1 tsp Truvia

Prior to being gifted a Ninja Blender for my baby shower, I made small batches of these pancakes in my other favorite kitchen helper the Magic Bullet.  Now, I make a large batch in my Ninja...in seconds.  The ingredients are easy to blend so I'm sure any blender you have lying around will work for this recipe.

Throw all ingredients in blender and blend until batter reaches a pancake consistency

Heat electric griddle to 300 degrees.
Grease with non-stick spray, coconut oil, butter, whatever your fave is.
Make about 6-8 pancakes on griddle at a time.
Flip when tops are bubbling (per standard pancake rules)

Here's how I enjoyed mine this morning

These are so versatile.  You can top with fruit, jam, syrup, granola, whatever you love!

I even have one with peanut butter for a post-workout snack on occasion.

These keep well in the refrigerator about a week, longer in the freezer.  Honestly, I've never had any of these pancakes leftover for more than a week so if you have them lying around longer, let me know how they fare.  I really don't think you'll have a chance to test their longevity because these pancakes are great!

Good stuff. Enjoy!