Circle of Life

May 3, 2016May 3, 2016 / beautyatbeard / 1 Comment

Adulting is hard. There are some many things you’re supposed to do and often certain things, while well intentioned, fall by the wayside. One of those things for me is remembering to take my vitamins!

There is no worse smell to me than when you open a bottle of vitamins. It’s the most unappetizing thing. It smells fowl and I’m supposed to stick it in my mouth and quickly try and choke it down before I can taste too much of it! Yeah, that’s on the top of my to-do list…So then I tried the gummy vitamins. That’s right, nothing says grown up like fruit shaped sugar.

Then I stumbled across this machine and after doing a lot of research decided to give it a try. Best decision ever! Let me introduce you to my vitamin buddy. Tespo.

Tespo is similar to a Keurig in that it uses a pod to dispense liquid but instead of coffee this is mixing together a vitamin shot. Each disc dispenses thirty-one individual servings; enough for one month. However unlike Keurig, these vitamin discs are recyclable!

While most pills contain vitamins, they also contain unnecessary ingredients such as binding agents, fillers, flow agents, additives, artificial colors and flavors. All things I try to avoid with my clean eating approach and yet was still ingesting with my vitamins. Upon further research I learned that our bodies can only absorb roughly 20% of the vitamins in pill form. You mean I’ve been choking down these things for years only to get a slight benefit? However, in this liquid vitamin form our bodies can absorb upwards of 90%! Talk about bang for your buck!

So how does this baby work? You place the vitamin disc in the front cover. This is a women’s disc, but they also carry men’s, children’s, energy, focus and sleep. The side of the machine also has storage for multiple discs if you wanted to rotate.

Next you fill up the back with water and push the circular button. It will turn green and then tell you how many servings are left in your disc.

It will begin to spin the shot glass as it dispense the shot it’s making in order to mix the ingredients. This little cup is really cool. It has a magnetic bottom so it stays in place and has a mixer in the bottom of the cup to make sure everything is combined.

So what does it look and taste like? The women’s formula is a yellow color and tastes like a mix of tang and flintstone vitamins! Now that is the kind of adulting I can get behind! The little white specs are the vitamins that are not water soluble. They are supposed to do that, and they do not add any sort of gritty texture!

Every morning I let the dog out, walk over and push the button on my Tespo and proceed to make the bed while my vitamin shot is being made. By the time I’m done the dog is barking to come inside, he’s so impatient, and my shot is ready. Easy Peasy! The best part is the vitamin discs are on a subscription basis so my refills automatically come to me each month! I may have a tendency to forget said things if left to my own devices….

While this is great for mornings when I’m home, what about when I’m not? Tespo thought of that too. This month they are launching their Tespo on the Go System. This little baby holds the same vitamin discs but allows you to add water, shake and drink wherever you are. Mine will be covering a lot of miles as we plan to hike up the Red River Gorge, Grand Tetons and Yellowstone this summer. While vitamins are always important, getting enough nutrients while hiking is a must! I will be sending The Beard with one when he hikes the Appalachian Trail in 2017!

I don’t endorse a lot of things, and like you, people drive me crazy trying to sell stuff on social media platforms. I don’t want to attend your online party for leggings, nail stickers, energy patches or cheap jewelry! So I am not doing that! I honestly love this product, it has transformed the vitamin world for me and I wanted to share it! I got a discount code when I purchased the product to give friends and family $40 off. If you want to use it, feel free, and feel free to pass it on if you know someone interested.

Discount Code: Tespo40Jessica

https://gettespo.com

Sorta Spaghetti

May 2, 2016May 2, 2016 / beautyatbeard / 2 Comments

Do you ever have a moment where you just thank God for Netflix? That was me Friday night. Let me set the scene. Sitting in bed sipping tea, dog snuggled up at my hip, attempting to tackle a cross stitch pattern and watching episode after episode of various cooking competitions.

I don’t know about you, but when I watch TV in general it makes me hungry. Everything the characters eat I suddenly crave. Within a 30 minute span I can want tacos, pizza, pancakes etc. That’s also just a typical Tuesday…but you get the point.

So how does this relate to spaghetti? I’m getting there, just hold on a second. One of the baking shows I watched had a competition where they had to make a dessert look like a savory dish. Can you guess what that dish was? Spaghetti! See how I tied that all together? *Brushes off shoulder*

I decided that I would make The Beard & I a delicious plate of pasta on Saturday. However, I didn’t want just any ole jar of sauce! I wanted to make my own! So I started with some tasty ingredients. I like a sauce to be hearty, as in the pasta is there, but the sauce is the real meal. On the cutting board is a red onion, zucchini, eggplant and parsley.

I chopped all that up and began sauteing until slightly soft. It already smelled amazing!

Meanwhile The Beard was cooking up some delicious sage sausage for our sauce.

Next I chopped up some parsley. I was pretty excited when I found these dried oyster mushrooms at the store, so I decided to chop them up and reconstitute them in the sauce!

I added two cans of organic stewed tomatoes to the mix. I know the picture is pretty steamy but this is real time photography folks.

While my sauce was simmering away I added our gluten free spaghetti to the boiling water. We don’t eat a lot of pasta, even the gluten free kind. Following a Paleo diet doesn’t mean you substitute everything gluten free for the items you are trying to avoid. We are also big fans of using a spiralizer, but occasionally we indulge in some GF pasta.

This is where things got weird. The spaghetti was the Simple Truth Brand, which I bought at Kroger. While I have purchased many of their products I have never tried their pasta. After tossing it in the pot the water started to turn a white-ish cream color, like someone had dumped cornstarch in the mix. From there it continued to thicken and the noodles turned into a gelatinous mess! We strained the noodles and the sink filled up with noodle gravy so thick we had to get the sprayer to wash it off. Since I didn’t know what the mystery goop was we opted to forgo the spaghetti noodles! Thankfully there was a box of Penne in the pantry! Pasta party round 2!

While the pasta was boiling once more, I whipped together a chopped salad with cranberries, flax seeds and a pomegranate vinaigrette. So good!

Finally the penne was ready and cooked to perfection, thanks to The Beard, and dinner was ready!

Our hearty, savory and sorta spaghetti was delicious! In the kitchen, just as in life, you gotta roll with the punches and be happy with sorta anything!

Decadent Date Night

April 28, 2016 / beautyatbeard / Leave a comment

The Beard & I have set aside each Wednesday night as date night. Sometimes we go out to dinner, other times we do a quick stir fry and binge watch episodes of The Walking Dead or Vikings that I am behind on. The main purpose is that we spend time together. This week I decided that I was going to make him a decadent dinner. He’s an amazing boyfriend and by George he deserves it!

I was at Lucky’s, one of my favorite grocery stores, when I remembered a recipe I had mentally book marked awhile ago for a stuffed steak roll. We are all about meat, and despite whatever crap Arby’s is advertising, I got the meat!

One of my habits, good or bad, is that I never give a recipe a chance. I read it all while mentally substituting ingredients to what I think would be better. So buckle up and I’ll share what my brain came up with.

Behold the Lardon! Like any delicious dinner, it starts with some variation of bacon.

While this was rendering I heated my oven to 425 degrees and proceed to slice my fennel bulb and Peruvian purple potatoes. Purple is one of my favorite colors so when I saw these at the store, somehow several of them ended up in my cart. I coated these with melted ghee, salt, pepper, bacon and a few garlic cloves.Bake for 30-40 min.

Now the Mise en Place. That’s just a fancy french term for getting everything set up or just chopping the heck out of everything. Below I have the mushrooms, shallots and fennel stalk. (I put the fennel fronds in the freezer to save for stock)

After these were sauteed in my pork drippings, it was time to build my masterpiece. I originally wanted a flank steak but they were out and so I ended up with a flat iron steak that I tried to pound down. The flat iron ended up taking longer to cook so I would recommend a flank cut if you can find it.

Next I covered up my delicious sauteed veggies with some slices of provolone.

Then topped it off with some freshly chopped spinach. It’s just so pretty…

Now it’s time to sear this future hunk of deliciousness. Because my flat iron steak wasn’t thin enough I had to start with it in one giant roll and cut into pinwheels afterwards. If you end up with Flank, you should be able to slice from the beginning.

Can you feel the saliva puddling up on your tongue?

I tossed this in the oven for about 10 minutes to make sure it cooked through, then sliced and seared the pinwheels. I will eat things pretty rare but The Beard prefers a little less pink.

My best suggestion when cooking is learning to let the flavors speak for themselves. Not everything needs a sauce, or lots of salt. We had earthiness from the mushrooms, richness from the bacon, an anise like flavor from the fennel, crispiness from the potatoes, and of course pure joy with the roasted garlic.

Our decadent dinner was delicious and we capped it off with chocolate coconut macaroons which I bought, because I had already made enough stuff for one evening! So I challenge you next week to have a decadent date night with your significant other, your friend, or your family. Life is about experiences and sometimes you’ve just got to treat yourself!

Spring Shenanigans

April 26, 2016April 26, 2016 / beautyatbeard / 1 Comment

This past weekend we had the perfect combo of things. Great weather, great friends and a great weekend out of town. The Beard and I, along with two of our friends headed to Columbus Ohio for a dance workshop and social. That’s right, when we aren’t busy climbing mountains we are cutting a rug – latin style.

Our workshops consisted of Cha Cha, Afro-Cuban Movement, Casino Partner and Rueda de Casino. We had a great time learning new things and improving our skills. However, I think my favorite part was our airbnb rental and it’s location across from the most beautiful park!

This is the park! I don’t know what kind of fancy parks they have in Columbus, but they are beyond compare to anything back home.

And let’s not forget The Beard modeling. I’m a lucky girl folks!

We did go slightly off our Paleo-Diet and had fried onion rings. We don’t normally eat fried foods and as I discovered later that day – they were fried in soy bean oil. This is what happened on my arms and legs.

But over all it was a wonderful and relaxing weekend away. The video pretty much sums up the awesomeness. Side Note: The faces I’m making at the end are a result of trying Dutch double salted licorice candy purchased by The Beard. Don’t ever try them! I shutter still thinking about it.

Laundry Room Gardening

April 22, 2016April 22, 2016 / beautyatbeard / Leave a comment

Seeds? Check. Soil? Check. A dark room? Laundry Room it is!

Last year The Beard gifted me with raised garden beds and all the seeds for our anniversary. He’s awesome, I know. We started the process of planting our seeds and then my kidney’s decided to try and break some sort of record and produced five kidney stones. Needless to say our garden took a backseat and never came to fruition. However, this year is the year. Let’s do this.

Step one: Obtain some kick ass seeds.
The Beard purchased these beauties and our only struggle was deciding what we actually wanted to plant. So many options!

Step Two: Soil. You need it.
We ended up purchasing two trays with 140 soil pods. Go big or go home people. We have trail food to prep!

Step 3: Label your plants
As you can see from this highly technical chart, we have documented our seedlings. If you’re really into surprises skip this step and just see what happens.

Step 4: Heat Mat
While this step is optional, it has really helped the seeds sprout quickly and also made a really cool greenhouse on top of my dryer. Blog Note: I have a picture of the heating mat but it keeps getting turned side wise when I upload it. After messing with it for a good five minutes longer than I should have, I gave up. It’s a heating mat. You know what they look like.

Step 5: When your laundry room becomes a grow house
Imagine that moment when you come home from work, glance at your laundry garden and discover your plans are attempting to escape from their perfectly constructed greenhouse. Are you thinking what I’m thinking?

Plastic Spoons to the rescue! I know you thought I was going to say, “Try and take over the world” but I’m busy with my laundry garden right now.

Step 6: Rig that sucker
They aren’t quite ready to be transferred and I would still like them on the heating mats for the smaller seedlings to continue to sprout so this was my interim solution. Notice heating mats under the trays. I did have a picture after all!

Just a few more weeks and these plants will be ready to harden off and plant! Guess The Beard and I better get our garden beds prepared. Then it will be so long laundry garden, see you next year. Oh yah, Happy Earth Day!

These Boots Were Actually Made for Walking

April 19, 2016April 22, 2016 / beautyatbeard / Leave a comment

Fifty miles or 110,943 steps across three countries is where these boots took me. I recently took a trip to the Czech Republic, Austria and Hungary. I wanted to pack light and that meant only bringing one pair of shoes with me. I know, for some of us ladies this can seem like an impossible task. Having visited Europe two years prior I learned the importance of selecting the right shoes. I know you’ve heard the expression, I left a piece of me in <insert location.> However, that story is true. I literally left pieces of my feet all over Italy and France and I have the bloody shoes to prove it! So this time around I did my research and selected these boots which were fantastic, not to mention pretty darn cute with jeans.

View looking across Prague

View of the Mozart Statue in Vienna

Heroes Square in Budapest

I know what you’re thinking, and yes I climbed up the monument. However, I have a perfectly logical explanation. Everybody else was doing it…

So, who makes these magical boots that kept my feet intact despite all that walking? Elves. That’s right, Elf cobblers who happen to work for Clarks.

I highly recommend these Desert Boots for walking. They were great for getting around the cities and the cobblestones didn’t slow me down one bit! But don’t forget, as with all leather shoes, you need to take care of that precious leather and condition them!

Hammock Time

April 18, 2016April 22, 2016 / beautyatbeard / 1 Comment

Last Friday night we spent the evening, like any other wild couple, doing yard work. After the storms this winter my backyard had been transformed into a Lion King replica of the elephant graveyard. Limbs everywhere! By the time we finished stacking our pile it was almost as tall as my impressive 5′ 4″ stature.

However, all work and no play makes for a very dull evening. The Beard had purchased a camping hammock over the winter and we’ve been dying to test this bad boy out.

This is a two person hammock, complete with bug net and rain guard. While it may not look like it, at this height the hammock was equivalent to my chest and after opting against the belly flop entry, we had to lower it. Also – note the giant pile of sticks to the left.

It was my turn to test it out and Petey was along for quality control. The real fun began when both of us attempted to test the limits of this two person hammock. Imagine laying in a cocoon. Now visualize scooting over to one side while attempting to hold out the edges of the cocoon for The Beard meanwhile knowing the inevitable is bound to happen. You are going to be sat on….

After several laughs and some strategic maneuvering we were finally situated and the three of us snuggled in! We can’t wait to test this out on our hikes this summer because it’s always Hammock Time.

P.S. After several hours of burning brush I finally worked my way through the giant stick pile and somehow managed to singe my eyelashes. Just another weekend….

H2O Melon

April 7, 2016 / beautyatbeard / Leave a comment

My current obsession is dehydrating. Everything. I can’t stop my brain from looking at various produce or recipes and thinking how I can convert that into a fantastic trail meal. With The Beard planning to hike the AT in 2017 I am a woman on a mission to provide him with nutritious and delicious meals. I will become the Top Trail Chef!

We have several hikes planned for this year in which we can try out my various concoctions and then we can narrow down a menu of our favorites.

Recently in the midst of packing for my trip to Eastern Europe I decided, like any normal person, that I should dehydrate a watermelon. I kid you not, as I was packing my suit case my trusty Excalibur machine was whirring in the background with juicy slices of watermelon. I told you, I have a problem.

Now, the concept of dehydrating is to remove moisture. When you take something that is 92% water and decide to remove said water it will take awhile. As in possibly days depending on the thickness of your slices. Or forever, give or take.

At this point they were getting closer but still a bit mushy and I needed to leave the house so again, like any normal person, I loaded the dehydrator in the car with my suitcase and took it with me over to The Beard Cave.

Finally the majority of them were finished and I had my melon jerky! For those of you wondering, it tastes just like watermelon. Surprise!

Ode to Quinoa

April 6, 2016April 6, 2016 / beautyatbeard / Leave a comment

I stumbled across a recipe for Cherry Pistachio Quinoa a few weeks ago but didn’t have a chance to make it since I was in the middle of preparing for my Europe trip. (more to come on that later) I’m a doer, which is why Pinterest is dangerous for me. While most people are just pinning away recipes or projects that they will never do anything with, I’m headed to the grocery, craft and hardware store immediately!

So after overcoming my jet lag I headed to the grocery as there was nothing in my house post-Euro trip. At least I did manage to clean when I got home. Sometimes I contemplate creating my own sticker chart. I feel like I should get credit for my efforts.

Anyways, back to Quinoa. I have a confession. I have never cooked this before. *Gasp heard around the world* I know, from the person who has watched every reality cooking competition and can rattle off substitutions for anything it is shocking. But being Paleo, we don’t eat a lot of grains. Recently the Beard has added rice back into the diet as we need to up the calorie intake. As I’ve been considering dehydrated trail meal options I thought we would give Quinoa a try. Best decision ever.

I started with chopping up a Shallot. These are delicious little suckers and you should put them in everything. I cooked those in a saute pan until they became translucent and then added my quinoa with water and white wine.

While the quinoa was absorbing all the liquid I set about chopping the rest of my ingredients. I splurged and bought the pre-shelled pistachios from the bulk bin aisle. I only needed half a cup and was pleased that my ability to measure pistachios with my eye balls was spot on! Talk about life skills….

If you have a mini food processor or a ninja mixer like I do that is the way to go. Ain’t nobody got time for hand chopping!

Next I mixed together lemon, olive oil and pepper. Lots of cracked pepper. Then I tossed in my pistachios, chopped cherries and dressing.

Can you hear the angels singing?

I had a big bowl for dinner and had enough left over for The Beard who is anxiously awaiting his jar. I also plan on dehydrating this meal in the future. Cook the quinoa as normal, mix in the dressing and let cool. Spread on the dehydrator trays at 135 degrees for 8-12 hours. When complete you can store in vacuum seal bags with dried cherries and pistachios.

Quick note: I typically cook with what is on hand so if you don’t have pistachios substitute almonds. If you don’t have dried cherries, dried cranberries work wonderfully too. If you don’t have quinoa, well you should probably just make something else.

Talk Discount To Me

March 24, 2016March 24, 2016 / beautyatbeard / Leave a comment

With all the hiking The Beard and I have planned this year we decided I should probably upgrade my shoes. I have a perfectly nice pair of trail shoes that have worked well thus far, but with upping our mileage I needed to up my footwear game.

After spending a few weeks researching shoes online I decided the best plan would be to to go to REI and actually try some on. What a concept!

We arrived at REI with the idea of just trying on a few pairs to get an idea of what I was looking for. I selected two styles from the same brand and instantly noticed a major difference in the more expensive pair. There was just no comparison. One cradled my feet on a bed of clouds and the other kept digging into my ankle leaving a red mark every time I walked.

To give you a bit of my background, I love a good bargain. I’m not the crazy lady digging through discount bins and I don’t buy cheap products that will disintegrate after a few uses. My shopping high comes from finding quality items at a great price. Thankfully The Beard knows and accepts my love of savings. So much so that when he gifted me with a pair of Bose headphones for my upcoming Europe trip the first thing he said was, “Don’t worry, I used a coupon.” Those four words made me love him even more.

Back to the shoe department at REI. Set Scene.

I have one boot on climbing the fake rock cluster display they have for checking the sole of your shoes. I’m on top of the world..or at least higher than my usual 5’4″ self is in any crowd of people. I’m really loving these shoes, but mentally struggling with the $164 price tag. Now I know, in the hiking boot world that is not a lot. I could easily spend $400 on a pair of boots. However, I’ve never spent $164 on any pair of shoes and if I ever were to I imagined them to be a very sexy pair of stilettos. The Beard, reading me like a book, reminds me he has a 20% off coupon we could use bringing the total to $132. Decisions, decisions.

As any good bargain shopper would do, I pulled out my IPhone and began checking prices online. Everyone seemed to be priced similarly until the last place I checked. My discount go-to is a site called 6pm. The comfy shoe I was currently sporting on my right foot only, was staring at me on the screen for $80. Now that is a price I can get behind! I packaged the boots up nicely, handed them back to the sales clerk and proceeded to order them right there in the store! Savings wait for no man…

Last night they arrived and I couldn’t be happier with them. They also have a Vibram sole. I’ve noticed Vibram is partnering with a lot of companies to provide quality soles to various style shoes and I think it’s fantastic. Hopefully we will christen these with a hike soon.

*The stylish stud showing off his good side in the photo is Petey.