Bites of My Life

I had (still have) a kleenex to my nose all weekend, and got prettttty bored doing nothing, but it was nice to use my cold as an excuse to do absolutely nothing this weekend. I”m sure it helped, but I’m still trying to ward off a cold. However, lot’s of hot tea, Christmas movies and time on the couch doesn’t leave me much to complain about!

-I just love the way my house glows this time of year.
-Merriest and brightest place in the city!
-My newest MBM’s that I can’t get enough of!
-Last day with our beloved intern at work, so tacos and a few tears were put on the agenda.
-Did I mention I love the way my house glows this time of year?
-Friday night in with a head cold, so I opted to clear out my sinuses with this easy at home curry. Just frozen stir fry veggies with coconut milk, spices and a little cornstarch to thicken.
-We were supposed to get snowed in this weekend but not even a flake of snow showed up. I was set on some snow day baking, so gingerbread men were still made with White Christmas on in the background.
-Had a visitor show up during my baking, but she had no interest in being my sous chef.
-We gifted my mom a cooking class at the new Sur La Table for her birthday back in October. We finally had our class last night and loved it! Loved the food we made even more - pork chops with verde sauce over polenta with mushroom ragu.

Annie

Bites of My Life

Full in more ways than one. Thankful for so much delicious food over the past few days, thankful for a few days off, thankful for the joy this time of year brings, and thankful for QT with my family and good friends.

-Work Thanksgiving was a success! Fun afternoon getting our employees out of the restaurants and having our managers cook lunch for them. My sweet potatoes were on point, but apparently no one likes sweet potatoes but me…
-New traditions getting instilled and I love it. Sis and sister’s soon to be sis-in-law/our good friend Chloe and I all got together Wednesday to have a pie baking party.
-The Best Breakfast Casserole and our Tucker Thanksgiving and Christmas tradition of OJ with raspberries is how we started our turkey day. Not pictured: The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
-Our family does Thanksgiving as a late lunch around 2pm, so appetizers are v important.
-Chloe, our stand-in brunette sister, missed you Claire!
-The fruits of our pie baking labor. There may still be leftovers in the fridge, but 5 pies seemed necessary at the time. Chocolate, cherry, pecan, pumpkin and apple!
-L E F T O V E R S (with some celery on the side to try to be healthy. Don’t be fooled though, this was only 1 of 3 servings of leftovers).
-Take a bite of my 1am nachos. I did a poor job documenting my Friday and Saturday nights, but they involved some really good friends and really good times. Hence the late night nachos ;)
-My beautiful Gaga went to heaven Sunday morning. She instilled my love for dressing up and costumes and helped my sisters and I develop the best imagination. I hope I have half her beauty at her age, and her fashion sense!

Annie

Bite of encouragement: There has been an influx of bad news being spread in my little community. Deaths, illness, cancer, you name it. However, there is something about this time of year that puts it all in perspective. This time of year also lends to extra time with family and friends when you need them most.

Bites of My Life

“Now it’s your turn to say Happy Thanksgiving back.”

“Happy, Thanksgiving, back.”

anyone?

Thanksgiving week is here and I’m giddy. After a weekend of no plans (hallelujah), I’m feeling recharged and ready for the holiday week. We are having a big all-restaurant group Thanksgiving lunch tomorrow and made 3 lbs. of sweet potatoes yesterday to contribute. Hoping the first half of the week goes by quick, so we can skip to the big day!

-Almond Nog > Regular Nog, especially this brand. Packaging on point too.
-Trying to step away from gray and black everyday this time of year, this hot pink sweater is helping!
-Tuesday started off stressful and uneasy. Did my best to take initiative of the day and opted out of going int the office (thankful I have this luxury, I know it’s rare) and working from a cute coffee shop instead. My stress levels have been a bit all over the place lately, but I’m working on managing them. I knew going into my office wouldn’t help, so I chose to work in a peaceful surrounding and with my favorite drink.
-Pie and dressing transporting to Friendsgiving in style. This piece from Scout is one of my favorites. I use mine all the time and I’ve gifted it 3 times!
-I used this recipe for the pie and this one for the dressing, would recommend both.
-Friendsgiving was a raging success. Bonus points to all my friends after tasting their cooking abilities.
-Oklahoma City people, OSO on Paseo is o so delicious! Order the taco salad.
-Welcome Sur la Table, welcome. Kathleen and I, bought our mom a cooking class for her birthday and I literally can’t wait.
-If you like peppermint bark you MUST go but this peppermint bark popcorn from Trader Joe’s ASAP.

Annie

Breakfast bite: Did you miss last week’s recipe post? It’s the perfect thing to make for your family to eat on for breakfast over the holiday. I am!

Bites of My Life

Snow, snow, snow, snowwwwww! I won’t put up the Christmas decorations yet, but after waking up to an unexpected snow this Monday morning, I want all the Christmas music, movies and a fire in the fireplace. The most wonderful time of the year is here, but already flying by.

Most all is good in my hood, but my heart is going out to two friends who had extreme loss in their families last week. Squeeze your loved ones tight and actually tell your friends and family you love them. Don’t just think it.

-A delicious recipe from the “Fall Reset” program I did a month ago. I didn’t get to making the Maple Glazed Chicken during the reset, but I held on to it to make down the road.
-A simple breakfast I can’t quit. Cinnamon Spice Tazo tea and Better Oats 100 cal instant oats, amped up with cinnamon, chia seeds and almond butter!
-I think I’ve had soup for lunch the past three weeks. Kept the train going with The Jones seasonal soup, Kabocha Squash + Apple Soup.
-I haven’t had a protein shake in a hot minute. I still love the Arbonne nutrition and beauty products, but I have toned down my selling a bit to focus on other areas of my life. However, I woke up last week craving this seasonal shake. I have now had it 3 times since. Catch the recipe for this Peppermint Mocha Protein shake here.
-A Friday night at home with nothing to do in what seemed like f o r e v e r. My end of the week dinner was a clean out the fridge meal, made with leftover vegetable soup (from a box), amped up with Banza chickpea pasta to make it a riff on my childhood favorite - minestrone!
-My reading took a bit of a curve after getting stumped by two books I was recently reading, but couldn’t power through to finish. I deterred and decided to reread my favorite book of all time.
-With permission, the best breakfast casserole is coming to the blog this week. Recipe kudos of the O’Connors!
-I’ve mentioned Stephanie May Wilson’s podcast before, but I just purchased her 90 Day Devotional and Prayer Journal. SMW has been so relatable to my life recently, and I think could be for many of you too.
-Woke up this morning to the first snow of the season. Not.Mad.About.It!

Annie

Snow Day Bite: In honor of the snow day we are having in OKC today, this Snow Day Soup (aka White Chicken Chili) from my 2014 archives is getting brought back into circulation.

Annie's Favorite Things Gift Guide

Discover & share this Car GIF with everyone you know. GIPHY is how you search, share, discover, and create GIFs.

Raise your hand if you used to anxiously tune in to the Oprah Winfrey Show everyday near the end of November in anticipation of it being the "Oprah's Favorite Things" episode. You never knew what day it would air, and neither would the guests in the crowd, until Oprah and her elves would announce it was OPRAH'S. FAVORITE. THINGS!!!! Cue the crowd going wild because they knew they were about to rake in loads of presents that made it on Oprah's Favorite's list. I remember being in middle school turning the TV on at 4PM and going crazy when it would be this special episode. 

Oprah makes a list of her favorite things and then gives everyone in the audience one of each of those things. Ranging in price anywhere from $30 to $3,000+! RIP the Oprah Winfrey Show and long live the year when she gave everyone their very own VW Bug. "You get a car! You get a car!" 

I wanted to curate a gift guide for the blog this year. Inspired by Oprah, I bring you, Annie's Favorite Things! These are all things I own and love and want you to know about. They range in price and genre, fitting for stocking stuffers to nicer gifts.

Click through the gallery below to shop the items on my list!

A little background: my Le Cruset makes me feel like Ina Garten (and yes mine is pink), these coil hair ties are everything and give you the perfect perky pony, I love my mini SCOUT wallet, it's perfect for going day to night (disclosure this isn't the exact one I have but they don't sell mine anymore).

The CocoKind Matcha stick is a magic dry skin healer/under eye de-puffer, this MAC lipstick in TWIG is my everyday/every night color. I love changing my Cinema Lightbox for the holidays or with different sayings, these Dolce Vita boots are maybe my most worn thing I've ever bought, the My Little Steamer is a must for every girl, peppermint essential oil gets doused over my forehead when I have a head ache, all over my tummy when I'm bloated and goes into my smoothies for a seasonal boost.

Rails plaid shirts are the softest shirts ever. I proudly own two and I'm flipping out over these pajamas they have this year. The Nutri Ninja is my most used kitchen gadget and makes perfect single size smoothies and protein shakes, these gray sneaks from Target are my best kept secret, the Healthy Human tumblers are a chic version of a Yeti and what I drink my water and smoothies and tea from errrrryday, keeps them ice cold or piping hot. Lastly this is the best (and cheapest) dry shampoo ever just make sure you get it in the "fresh" scent.

You get a Rails shirt, you get a Dolce Vita Over the Knee boot, you get a My Little Steamer!

Happy Holidays!
Annie