Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Totally Obsessed Tuesdays--Frivolous and Delicious

Time flies when you're having fun, right?

First let me say, holy crap.  I had fifty views on my post about the difference a dollar can make from last week.  Holy crap.

I know that doesn't seem like a lot, but for someone whose audience is usually around fifteen people, that's pretty big for me.  And double holy crap, Rachel Macy Stafford, the woman who wrote the original post I was talking about, came and left a comment on my blog.  So holy crap.

I don't know if all (or even any) of you donated a dollar to the Campbells after reading my post, but I'd like to think that some of you did, and thank you for it.  However, I promised to get back to business as usual this week, so I will. 

But first, I have this bonus recipe for those of you who are a little less than gifted in the kitchen.  I found it at The Boomer Brief, via Pinterest.  It's really simple and easy to follow.  Also, it's effing delicious.  All you need is some spaghetti, two cans of soup, some Rotel, sour cream, chicken, and some cheese. You cook the pasta, mix it all together, and bake it for thirty minutes.  BAM.  Dinner.

I will say I changed a few simple things.  First off, I hate Rotel because I don't like spicy things.  So I subbed a can of plain old diced tomatoes.  Also, since Jimmy and I are making an effort to be healthier than we have been lately, I've been using plain, non-fat Greek yogurt in place of sour cream in all my recipes (including as a topping on tacos and baked potatoes).  It tastes just the same but contains a lot less fat.  Finally, I'm lazy, and didn't feel like grilling chicken for this recipe, so I used Tyson's frozen chicken breast chunks.  I just defrosted them in the microwave and dumped them in with everything else.  So this recipe is awesome for two reasons; it's quick and easy, but it's also easy to change up to suit your tastes. 

Also pictured is this amazingly delicious bread I baked last night, which you should also try.  It's quite easy as far as bread baking goes.

Enjoy!




Anyways, the reason you're all here; coconut oil brownies.  (Don't act like you care about the lip pencil I teased last week.  We all know the truth).

Coconut Oil

Let me start by saying I am obsessed with coconut oil in general.  I use it to cook with (obviously), to clean with, and as a beauty/hygiene product. There are about a million reasons you should replace olive oil and butter with coconut oil, but I won't bore you with them here.  Suffice it to say that you can use coconut oil in just about any recipe, and you should, because it's better for you.  If you won't take my word for it, here is a long article detailing its many benefits and uses.

Personally, I use coconut oil in place of store-bought body lotion, face wash, makeup remover, and hot oil treatments for my hair.  (Let me know if you'd like the recipes.)  I've also recently started looking into homemade, natural hygiene and home cleaning products.  Angela over at Earth Mama's World has quite a few good recipes in that area, and many of them contain coconut oil as well.  I'm planning on making her whipped coconut lotion and homemade herbal detangler spray (although I can't say I'm willing to go as far as ditching Dove for her homemade deodorant).  I believe coconut oil is also an ingredient in some of her natural household cleaners, my favorite being her orange-infused all purpose cleaner.

This is the brand I use:
 

It's organic and unrefined, which basically means there's nothing in there but coconut oil, plain and simple.  There are other good brands out there, but this is the one the PX carries for $5 a jar, which is about half of what it costs at Publix and Whole Foods.

 I've been using coconut oil as a beauty product for well over a year now, and as a cooking oil for several months. I don't know why it took me this long to bake a batch of brownies, but there you go.  A few weeks ago, I made a s'mores brownie pie for an FRG event.  For some reason, I bought a box of brownie mix AND the ingredients to make brownies from scratch.  Since the pie was for a fundraising raffle, I decided to go all out and make the entire pie from scratch.  So I had this box of brownie mix just chilling in my pantry.

Yeah, that lasted for about five minutes.

I don't know whether I consciously decided to try making the brownies with coconut oil, or if I just happened to have finally run out of vegetable oil, or what.  Also, if your box mix gives you the option for cake-like versus fudge-like, go for the fudge.  (I think it requires one less egg). But I do know what the result was.

Heaven.  Absolute heaven.  Jimmy actually asked me if I had put heroin or some other addicting drug in the brownies because they were SO GOOD.  They were sweeter, richer, and just all around better than any batch of brownies I had ever had in my life, from a box or otherwise.  I didn't get a picture (yes, they went that fast), but they look like ordinary brownies anyways.  Seriously.  If you do nothing else ever in your life that I've talked about on my blog, please, do yourself a favor and make some damn coconut oil brownies.  I promise, you won't regret it.

Lip Pencil

Have you ever been on an absolute mission for the perfect beauty product?  I know, I know, I can't believe those words just came out of me either.  But I've been having a dilemma lately.  I cannot, for the LIFE of me, find a lipstick that doesn't make me look either like a twelve-year-old who got into her mom's makeup bag, or a two-bit hooker.  Literally, it's one or the other.  Cotton Candy Pink or Original Sin Red.  I look ridiculous in both colors, and I cannot find an in between.  I've bought probably seven tubes of lipstick in as many months, and NONE of them are what I want.

I should mention that I ascribe to the "less is more, natural is better" school of makeup.  I don't own turquoise eyeshadow and I have never once done the weird Cleopatra wing thing with my eyeliner. It's a rare day when I wear eyeshadow at all, actually.  I wear just enough makeup to not look like I could scare small children at the grocery store, so Cotton Candy Pink is not really my thing. Let's be honest.  I hang out with a four-year-old all day.  He doesn't give a damn if I'm wearing blush or not.  He just cares that I'm the person in charge of the cookies.

In any event, I was browsing on Pinterest the other day, and I came across one of those "amazing transformation makeup tutorials," where some chick goes from looking like something out of a horror movie to looking like Olivia Wilde.  (Okay, this girl doesn't look like the swamp thing, just like a girl who hasn't had her coffee yet.  But whatever, you get my drift.) Out of curiosity, I watched it.  My favorite thing about her video is she actually gives you the name of each product she used. (My least favorite thing is the stupid duck face she does at the end.) Which is how I discovered my new favorite lipstick.

Or rather, lip pencil.

 

Exaggerate Automatic Lip Liner in "Eastend Snob" by Rimmel, to be exact.  I don't use it as just a liner, I use it over the whole lip surface.  FINALLY, I found a lip color that looks decent and natural.  It was around $5 at Ulta.  I literally color it on and top it with some chapstick (or if I'm dressing up, some fancy, high-shine lipgloss from Bath and Body Works). Since I'm using it as a lipstick rather than a liner, I'll probably go through it pretty quick, but I don't care.  I've completed my quest for lipstick, and yes, I realize that this is likely the girliest thing I've ever discussed on my blog.  I do girly shit sometimes.  Deal with it.

PSL10

You know what happened this week?

PUMPKIN SPICE LATTES, THAT'S WHAT HAPPENED.
 

Yes, I am one of "those people."  I would seriously have a PSL every morning for the rest of my life if I could.  (It's the tenth anniversary of them, by the way.)

Anyways, I know that there are two kinds of people out there--those who love pumpkin spice lattes, and those who don't.  So I won't try to change your mind if you don't love them.  Just consider this a public service announcement, letting all you other PSL lovers out there know that Fall has arrived.

That's all I've got for now.  I know, I got all long-winded again.  But it was worth it, right? No?  Go have a coconut oil brownie, and I think you'll change your mind.

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