Open Letter :: Daylight Savings Time, I heart you.

Dear Daylight Savings Time,

You complete me.

{ source }

Thank you for the opportunity to wear my sunnies to AND from work today.  But you didn't end there - thank you for giving me the ability to wear them ALL throughout my run that you let me go on after work....IN THE SUNLIGHT!  It is a much needed and welcomed change in all of our worlds.  I can't wait to spend the next several months by your side!

All my love,
B.

p.s. the above picture was what came up when I Google image searched "Beth happy".  It cracks me up because that would be seriously my ideal, delicious on my lips and my tummy, finger-lickin-good dinner.

Chow down.

I've been on this massive trying-new-recipes-kick.  I love the challenge and anticipation of how it will all turn out.  Not to mention, for whatever reason, prepping the ingredients is incredibly therapeutic for me!   I love cutting up all the veggies, mixing in the spices...love, love, love.  I have dozens of new recipes on my To Cook list, but here are a few I've tried in the past few weeks.

:: Pho! ::
Hunter and I have recently really fallen for Pho, so part of his birthday day (more to come on that later) we cooked vegetarian pho!  I wasn't 100% sold on the broth, but Hunter really loved it.  The cinnamon, cloves and star anise really threw me off but once we got all the goods, fresh jalapeños, basil, cilantro, bean sprouts, lime and ALL our hot sauces in it...I loved it.  Next time I'd try a more traditional broth for it, even though Hunter said 100 times over he wouldn't change a thing.  I'll most certainly be making this again!

:: Breakfast Relleno ::
You guys.  You guys.  You guys.  You guys.  Make.  These.  For.  Breakfast.  I made them for Hunter's birthday breakfast, but substituted goat cheese for feta, only because the goat cheese I had had gone bad. Sad face.  They were amazing with feta, and they'd be amazing with goat cheese.

:: Pancit ::
I can't wait to make this pancit again!  It was so easy, the ingredients weren't difficult to find and it is so easy to season to your tastes...be it spicier with more veggies (yes please!) or more simple tastes with different proteins added.  Love it.

:: Chicken Tortilla Soup ::
Last Tuesday morning I used my crockpot for the first time, and I couldn't be more thrilled!  I did kind of an impromptu chicken tortilla soup.  Chicken, onions, jalapeños, corn, beans, cilantro, chicken broth and just tons and tons of spices.  I loved it with some homemade tortilla chips and plain yogurt!  Yum.

:: Pineapple Salsa + Grilled Chicken + Roasted Brussels Sprouts ::
Monday I had Mary over for our Yarn Party + Bachelor, so I roasted ton of brussels sprouts (always a win!), made this pineapple salsa and just cooked some chicken on the stove top and it was delightful.  Secret: After Mary left I cooked a 2nd batch of brussels, and literally just ate the salsa for lunch yesterday.  SO good, and I can't wait to make it again in the hot summer months!

:: BBQ Chicken ::
Yesterday I used my crockpot for the 2nd time (yay!).  I love coming home to a dinner already cooked for you!  And the best part?  It's cooking while I'm at work so I don't have time to pick at it.  Because I pick and snack while cooking.  Con-stantly.  Anyhoodle, I followed this Healthy Momma BBQ Chicken but it didn't pack quite the punch I was hoping for.  So I threw in some jalapeños, and a couple squeezes of BBQ sauce, left for the gym and 1.5 hours later I was beyond thrilled with the end result!  I cut up some cabbage, onions, cilantro and jalapeños, mixed it with a generous pour of red wine vinegar (I seriously adore that stuff) and put some of the coleslaw on top of the bbq chicken! BAM.  Spicy, hot mixed with cold...I was thrilled.  Hunter popped in before work tonight, and I reheated some of it for him, and he loved it too!

:: Sweet Potato Pizza with Kale and Caramelized Onions ::
Right now I'm mid cooking this recipe, and it couldn't be done quick enough!  I've had my eye on this for a few weeks now so I can't wait for it to be done!  Beth hungee.  I'll report back on the final product.

Like I said, I've got so many new recipes I am dying to try. A couple (of dozens) are:
Caramelized Onion, Red Pepper and Zucchini Frittata. I basically always have these ingredients on hand, so I can't wait to throw them together!
White Bean Kale Soup will be in my belly ASAP.  Mark my words.
Citrus Beet Salad is on my To Do list for next week!
Ricotta Cheese is one of my new fa-vorites, so why wouldn't I make this super simple and delightfully looking Spaghetti Sauce?
For reasons I wish I knew, I've recently become obsessed with chickpeas.  I love them in my salads, I love them with my cottage cheese, I LOVE them on the stovetop with an onion and curry powder.  I luff them.  With that opening, no needed explanation as to why these Roasted Chickpeas totally blew my skirt up.

Have you guys tried any new foods lately?  Any staples that fill your week?  Let me know!  I'm always up for a new flavor combination.  Until then.....I'm off to eat my 'zza!

March Photo a Day :: 1-7

Did I play coy just a little bit and leave you guys hanging after the Feburary Photo a Day Challenge? { here, here, here and here } Yes? No? Yesnoyesno? No? Naw I didn't think so. You know why? Because it was fun, mindless and helped me break away from the daily computer, emails, texts and phone calls and let me think for a minute on what photos I was going to take for the day. So without further adieu, I give you, days 1-7 of the March Photo a Day Challenge!

{ day one } Up.





My nightly drive home on my favorite street in Denver - 17th Avenue!

{ day two } Fruit.





Since it's no secret I'm a veggie gal, I rarely have fruit in the apartment (except for the chocolate covered pomegranate seeds that are in my freezer that Hunter gave me for Valentine's Day), so I looked outside the box on this one. And by looking out of the box, I mean looking in the picture frame that I got from my favorite fruit for Christmas. I love you, Eric!

{ day three } Your Neighborhood.





My favorite touch in my favorite park on my favorite run in my favorite neighborhood! I've literally noticed this since the first week I was in this apartment. Love it.

{ day four } Bedside.





Wall. Doesn't get more glamorous than this.  I told you I lived in a quirky attic apartment!  Bed being hugged by 2 walls and 2 windows = quirky.

{ day five } A Smile.





One of my all time favorites!

{ day six } 5pm.
                                


Came home and smiled at this beautimus orchid from my beautimus boyfriend!

{ day seven } Something You Wore.





I basically start every single morning like this. Top knot, tank top, cowl, and a slight scowl that will last until A) first cup of coffee or B) Flintstones Vitamin. (that is a true story my friends.)

See you back for days 8-14!
Sincerely, March Photo a Day

7 things you never wanted to know, ......yet probably still wish you didn't know.

1. I can't get enough of onions lately.  I've successfully cooked/ate 2 of them since Monday.  Yup...yesterday.

2. My Eric sent me all the seasons of Will and Grace I was missing in my collection and I can't get enough.  My favorite nights now are spent cuddled up in my Broncos blanket, crocheting my first adult blanket, and watching WAG.  That makes for a veeeeery happy Beth.

3. I'm slowly re-embracing my naturally curly hair.  The longer it gets, the harder it is to style curly.  Yet the older I get, the less I care what it looks like!  Riddle me that.

4. I wish I could figure out a way to combine my crocheting addiction with my nail polish addiction.  It really is imposible to do both at the same time.

5. Adjusting to the 2 hour time difference between Amie and I is for real a struggle.  The girl gets up at 3am my time.  If I wasn't used to being half awake at that hour on the nights Hunter works overnights, I'd be so alarmed at why my phone was going off.

6. Speaking of the nights Hunter works overnights - my new favorite game is to wake up at my normal morning time and check out what I sleep text him in the middle of the night.  It never fails to humor me.

7. The other night before bed, Hunter and I took turns reading to each other from The Art of Racing in the Rain.  His parents read each other the ENTIRE Harry Potter series, which I found adorable on like 3,425 levels, so it made my heart extra happy when we got to do the same thing on a much smaller scale.

You are welcome.

Open Letter :: Happy birthday, Katie!

This is a series I've been dreaming up doing on here for quite a while now; writing an open open letter to really anything that I feel compelled to write a letter to.  Pretty simple concept, actually.  The idea was kind of derived from this blog, but also from people, places and things that have impacted my life and I want to tell them/it just that!  The point isn't really for the person or things the letter is directed to to read it - it's more for me to put these words and thoughts out into the universe, because they are better there than in my head!  There is no better day to kick this series off than on March 5th, my beautiful sister's birthday!

Dear Kiki,


Happy birthday!!!  I really do believe that your birthday is the first birthday I ever memorized when we were little.  It always meant spring, big bouquets of balloons, the sweet blue of aquamarine as your birth stone, and evolved to calling in sick to work for sister mani-pedi's, spontaneous (3 hr!) trips to the outlet malls, flowers and breakfast in bed and the night of the first time Becky got mono.  ; )  I don't know if you will ever read this, but that isn't the point.  The point is for me to express how sincere and never wavering my love is for you, even if it is on a silly blog.  I pray to God every, single, day that you know how much I love you and how much I think about you.  If I can't tell you daily, I hope that He can in some way, shape or form.  I wish you a day as beautiful as your smile.  I wish you a day as beautiful as you heart.  I wish you a day filled with wonderful things that make you, your wonderful you.


Happy birthday to my best friend, and the biggest inspiration in my life.  


I love you!

Pro duck tive.

This weekend has been so unexpectedly productive, I don't even know what to do with myself!  After an amazingly fun dinner with Jaime and Ryan at Proto's Pizza (the word yum doesn't even begin to describe!) Friday night, we met Hunter and his roommate out for some beers and shuffleboard fun.  Saturday I hit up a few grocery stores, got in a killer workout, and went to Jon's for what I thought was going to be a leisurely unpacking party, but ended up that everyone had to cancel for one reason or another, so Jen, Jon and I tackled packing up the last bits of his duplex, loading and unloading to his house and unpacking it all.  7+ hours later, I drove as fast as I could to Hunter's where I had an amazzzzzzzzzzing grilled jalapeno, roasted tomato and avocado burger waiting for me!  With a yummy veggie packed salad and a beer of course.  I fell asleep within minutes of watching Moneyball, but Hunt and Mark seemed to really enjoy it.  Got up early this morning and got my car washed and detailed, home to clean clean clean before getting picked up by Hunt for a Red Rocks running, hiking, exploring adventure!  There was some points in the trail where I wished I had left a will at home, because I was sure that I was going to die right then and there, but my incredibly positive and aways encouraging boyfriend helped me keep going.  Little adventures like this are something that will sure be pretty regular in our future, I just know it.  Have I mentioned how much I love his adventurous spirit?  I sure do.  We scoped out a different area of town between here and Boulder where we want to try some of their trails, too!

Now you ask?  I need to jump through the shower to get ready for some guests tonight!  Tomorrow marks (not just my sister's birthday!) but the year anniversary of living in this apartment, so I'm doing what any normal adult would do and throw a 1 year anniversary party tonight!  Last year, the night before I moved, I had Jaime, Ryan, Mary and Ashley over to my new apartment for some pizza, beer and champagne...klass with a k, I tell you.  Klassy with a k.

I can't believe that it's ben 365 days since living in this apartment.  I can't believe how much growing I've done in this past year.  Growing into feeling comfortable in my own skin, and my decisions, family career, friends, most importantly, love.  Corny?  Probably, but 100% true.  I am so attached to this neighborhood, and my quirky attic apartment because of it all, too.

Before I get too sentimental, I need to scooch, but I'll be back tomorow with a super special post that is so near and dear to my heart!

Feb Photo A Day:: Grand Finale!

{ day twenty-eight } Money.


Fun fact about Beth: I collect lucky pennies. I have them everywhere! In my car, next to some of my favorite cards, at work. The list goes on. Whenever I see a penny heads up I always pause and think of what I'm doing and who I'm with and take the penny as an extra reminder of how blessed I am and to remember the moment. Truth.

{ day twenty-nine } Something You're Listening To.


Daily Grace. Every single day I watch her videos. It's some sick illness. She cracks me up.

Another fun fact: When I moved in to my apartment there was a penny in the corner that is tails up, and to this day it still lays there, tails up. Contrary to what I just talked about, I don't view this as bad luck because I found TWO, yes count them, two heads up pennies around my apartment on moving day. I also have big plans to turn that sucker Heads Up when I move out in hopes of another oddly sentimental/OCD/superstitious person moving into my apt.

And that concludes this Volume of Pointless Information You Never Needed to Know About Beth.

Lucky for everyone in life, there is a March Photo A Day list floating around IG! Will I do it? Won't I? Will I? Stay tunedddddddddddddd.

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