Bites of My Life

After celebrating Take a Bite's 1st birthday, cooking with one of my sweetest friends and finally finishing a 12-page paper that was hanging over my head, it was homeward bound for Easter weekend.

I love a good holiday weekend, and what a great weekend it was. I mentioned last week how we are moving, so it was fun cherishing our last holiday at the Edmond house. Between the cooking and eating (typical) we started the dreaded process of packing. Packing always takes longer than you think it should. It was the discovery of old birthday cards, yearbooks, and remnants of my high school headband business (RIP annebands) that got me hung up reminiscing on old memories.

If you follow me on insta you probably saw my obnoxious "eat, wear, make, do" pictures to follow up with my post from Friday. For all you lucky ones who didn't follow my documentation, here are my Easter weekend bites of everything I accomplished!

-|Do| Rise & Dine Barre3 class with momma on Saturday morning. The class included goodie bags, complimentary B3 approved breakfast from Cafe 501 and a beautiful morning for a workout outside. 

-|Eat| Orange and Olive Oil Coffee Cake. The original plan was to use blood oranges, but after searching four grocery stores to find out they are out of season, I had to alter the recipe. The cake turned out amaze so look forward to a yummy recipe post coming up later this week!

-|Make| Coloring eggs is a long standing tradition that almost got booted this year because we were too lazy to make the mess that comes with dying eggs. Kathleen had heard of a way where you use shaving cream and food coloring. We mixed them together then rolled the egg around in the shaving cream to color them. After drying over night we washed the shaving cream off and it worked! Mess free and cutie colorful Easter eggs!

-|Wear| Traditional Easter outfit snapshot outside before church. 

This week will start the final stretch of school, involve lots of cupcakes (more on that later) and welcome the beginning of tornado season! You probably think I'm joking, but I actually love a good serve thunderstorm!

Annie

Eat, Wear, Make, Do

Easter is one of my favorite holidays. I'm so excited for the weekend at home. It's one of the last weekends my family will all be together in the house before we move. I always have a big to-do list when I go home, so I put together what I'll be eating, wearing, making and doing. 

Do: In the spring and summer, Barre3 puts on this great event called Rise & Dine on Saturday mornings. You take a morning class outside then are provided a nourishing breakfast from one of my favorite restaurants! Mom and I are finally getting to go!

Wear: I've always loved picking out my Easter outfits. When I was little it was always a Cottontails dress with white Mary Janes. This year, I got this great skirt from Topshop for Nordstrom over spring break and have been saving for Easter Sunday!

Eat: I've had this blood orange coffee cake recipe save for a year and I can't wait to make it for an Easter sweet!

Make: Dying eggs is a big Tucker tradition. I don't care how old we get, we will still dye eggs. I love these gold painted eggs and calligraphy eggs!

Hoppy Easter everyone!

Annie

Roasted Shrimp with Lemony Spaghetti Squash

This recipe is the result of my dinner last night, cooked up with one of my dear friends. We use to live in the sorority house together, but after she moved out at semester and got a kitchen of her own, we have been planning to cook together! It is now April and we finally got around to it. 

We both love healthy dishes and were set on giving spaghetti squash a whirl. Our lemony spaghetti combined with shrimp, parmesan cheese and fresh parsley was perfect! We even cooked the spaghetti squash in the microwave, cutting the cooking time by about 30 minutes!

Roasted Shrimp with Lemony Spaghetti Squash
yields 2 servings

Ingredients:
1 lb. of shrimp, medium-large, frozen or fresh
1 spaghetti squash
2 tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped
1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
olive oil, salt, pepper

Directions:
First, thaw your shrimp if you are using frozen. Also peel, devein and remove the tails if they didn't come that way. Then, preheat your oven to 375 degrees. 

Cooking spaghetti squash in the microwave: Slice your squash in half, lengthwise. Place cut side up in the microwave and cook for 6 minutes on high. After the first 6 minutes, flip the squash over and cook for another 6 minutes on high. Check to make sure the squash is tender enough, if it is, take it out of the microwave and using a fork, start to scrape the strands from the spaghetti squash. 

While your squash is cooking, spread your shrimp out on a cookie sheet and toss with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast the shrimp for 8-10 minutes. 

Combine your squash strands, lemon juice, about a tablespoon of olive oil, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper in a bowl. Then add in the parsley and shrimp. Portion out your spaghetti and top with more cheese!

I can NOT wait to have my own kitchen!

Annie

Coffee Talk

But first, coffee. I’m stealing one of my sister’s blog features and talking all about coffee today. I love coffee. Like really really love it. I wasn’t a coffee drinker until right before I came to college, and now it is a rare day if I don’t have a cup or two. Like most, I had to ease into coffee. I started with the sugary lattes and frappuccinos, but now my morning cup is black with half of a sweet n low.  

image via

My morning routine starts with waking up, grabbing my Caribou Coffee K-cup (I finally found a favorite) and my coffee mug then heading downstairs to make a cup of coffee in the Keurig. Living in a sorority house I am limited to the Keurig, so I can’t wait to have a house next year and have my own coffee pot filled with unlimited cups of coffee.

After my daily black coffee I often need a second afternoon pick-me up.  A run through the Starbucks drive thru usually cures it. Below are some of my favorite drink orders.

For something cold:

Hanson Iced Tea

What to ask for: half iced black tea/half iced coffee. Then add a splash of skim milk and a sweet n low.

This drink got its name from someone on Instagram who started hastagging his new creation. Some Starbucks may know what you are talking about if you call it that but I usually just ask for a half and half.

Sami Special

What to ask for: iced chai with skim milk, two pumps sugar-free vanilla syrup and two scoops protein powder.

They may look at you like your crazy, but this drink is seriously good. My sweet friend Sami gets all the credit for this one (hence the name).  It isn’t blended so make sure they stir it up well. The added protein gives it an extra creamy taste!

Iced Vanilla/Hazelnut/Caramel Macchiato

What to ask for: iced vanilla macchiato with skim milk and sugar-free syrup

I tried Starbucks new vanilla macchiato the other day and it was fab. I’m a big vanilla girl so I new I would love it. I actually ordered it hot, but I can’t wait to try the iced version.

For something hot:

Coffee with steamed milk

What to ask for: pikes place roast with steam skim or soymilk.

Kathleen introduced me to this one and now it is my new regular. The steamed milk gives your plain black coffee a little boost if you want something more exciting.

GSKVL

What to ask for: grande skinny vanilla latte

This is the classic order by most sorority girls. Yes I fall into the stereotype, but it never fails. One of my friends and I use to call them GSKVLs (just try to sound it out). That is the combination of letters they write on your cup when you order and it is funny to say.

Rooibos Tea:

What to ask for: hot rooibos tea

I’ve really become a lover as tea as well. My favorite Tazo tea has recently become vanilla rooibos. You don’t have to add any honey or sugar because it already has great flavor. It is also really cheap to only order hot tea. I was first introduced to rooibos over spring bread when I ordered the rooibos teal latte at Nordstrom’s eBar. It resembles an iced chai tea latte but use the vanilla rooibos tea instead.

Now that I’ve rambled on about my favorite coffee drinks, I think I’ll go make another cup of coffee! And, I think I may try this iced mint coffee recipe too!

Annie

Happy Birthday Take A Bite!

I have officially been blogging on for a whole year! Take A Bite is still just a baby, but I can't wait to watch it grow. Blogging has been a blast, a blessing and sometimes a burden over the past year.  Out of my past 194 posts, I have done 46 Bites posts, various recipe and DIY posts, What I'm Listening To posts, Favorite Things posts and Birthday posts. Now its time to celebrate Take A Bite's birthday!

                                                                image via  @howsweeteats Instagram

Any good birthday deserves to be recognized so I am celebrating with a blog birthday breakfast. Sprinkle toast seemed just festive enough! Celebrate with me and take a bite into the past year!

Thank you to anyone who has “takin’ a bite” over the past year! I don’t think you all know how much I appreciate your comments, kind words or ideas for the blog. It makes writing my posts each day that much more worth it. 

Annie