Welcome back to Foodie Friday! I’ve got a super fresh and easy lunch idea for you this week in the form of a quinoa salad. Check out the recipe below!
Ingredients:
• 1 cup uncooked quinoa
• 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1 can (2.25 oz.) sliver black olives
• 1 cucumber, chopped
• 1/2 red onion, chopped
• 1 bunch parsley, chopped
• 6oz. Crumbled Feta cheese
Cooke the quinoa according to package directions. Once quinoa has cooled combine and mix with all other ingredients. Serve chilled.
I’ve been eating on this everyday for lunch this week. It’s health, easy, and fresh for when you need a quick lunch for non-travel weeks. Give it and try and let me know what you think!
If you’ve been hanging around my blog for a little while now then you know that I have tried my hand at a Youtube channel over the last few months. I’ve taken a break to become more familiar with the editing process and improve my videos, but I’m hoping to get back at it soon… and better than before! Big in the meantime I thought I’d share some of my favorite Youtube channels to watch in my spare time. Grab a cup of coffee or tea or whatever you like and check out these channels for some awesome and fun content! Be sure to subscribe to them if you like what you see!
Favorite Travel Channel: Kara and Nate
Aaron and I discovered Kara and Nate when we were looking to visit Hong Kong. We searched for YouTube videos about its and discovered this channel. They had a goal of traveling to 100 countries and completed that goal right before 2020 started. Their videos are binge-worthy, so go back and watch their journey through 100 countries. Right now they are experiencing van life with some international travel sprinkled it, but we still get so excited every time they publish a new video! Check out their 100 Country Documentary below:
Favorite Disney Vlogger: Paging Mr. Morrow
If you know me then you know I’m a huge Disney fan and would live at Walt Disney World if I could. But since I don’t have that option right now, I live vicariously through Disney bloggers who get to be in the park almost daily. We love watching Nate Morrow and his adventures around the parks. He is so entertaining and I always walk away from watching his videos feeling so happy. His joy is contagious! Check out one of his latest videos!
Favorite Amusement Park Channel: Coaster Studios
Aaron introduced me to this channel, and you have probably seen a theme in many of my posts. We frequent amusement parks often. We are self-proclaimed adrenaline junkies always looking for the next best coaster to add to our credits! We love watching Coaster Studios rank the parks and rides that he has experienced, as well as, his vlogs from his park visits. He even made a documentary about the Rocky Mountain Coaster Company and it was so impressive! Be sure to watch one oh his videos if you love amusement parks as much as we do!
Favorite Health & Fitness Channel: Kylie Ross
When I get into a rut with my fitness routine or healthy eating I love turning to Youtube to gain back some motivation. Kylie Ross is relatable seems down to earth. Those qualities can be hard to find in the online fitness community sometimes. She is local to where I am so sometimes I even get inspired to try a new coffee shop or running trail I see on her videos! Check out her latest video and get inspired!
Favorite True Crime Channel: Kendall Rae
This fave is a little different than the others listed above, but I am a huge True Crime fan. I’m always looking for new podcasts to listen to or reading books inspired by true crime, but nothing has compared to Kendall Rae’s channel. It is clear she thoroughly does her research on the cases and she is extremely respectful for the families and victims. While many True Crime Channels have a tendency to exploit the cases for their own gain, Kendall really seems to genuinely care and wants to raise awareness for the families experiencing these tragedies. Give it a listen!
I hope I’ve helped you find some new channels to enjoy. And if you haven’t checked out my Youtube channel I’m linking my favorite of my videos below. Like I mentioned above, I’ll be getting back to it soon with improved videoing and editing skills. Hope you enjoy!
Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. I have some fun travels to catch you all up on and we’re going to rewind the clock back to the week before Christmas. Aaron and I spent a long weekend in Branson, Missouri with his family.
I’m pretty sure Branson is America’s Christmas capitol as the whole town is decked out for the holiday. Every hotel, shop and restaurant screams MERRY CHRISTMAS!
We drive in a day early and spent a little time exploring, but really ended up turning in early as we knew it was going to be a busy weekend. We picked up the most “healthy” dinner imaginable of Chick-Fil-A nuggets and a New York style cheese pizza from a local eatery. What can I say? It was vacation.
We ate our dinner in our hotel room and turned in early.
His family wasn’t coming into town h til later the next day so we took advantage of the first half of the day by exploring around Branson. We first had breakfast at our hotel, Savannah House. It looked about the same every Mekong. Biscuits + gravy, eggs, potatoes, monkey bread and orange juice. We love this hotel and their free breakfast!
We booked it over to a cute shopping center that has a Thomas Kinkade gallery and year-round Christmas store. we did some exploring and shopping before checking out the Bass Pro Shop in the downtown area.
We had lunch at a 50s diner complete with jukeboxes and arcade games. We have eaten here on both of our trips to Branson and have yet to be disappointed. I overheard another family talking about how they had eaten there every day of their vacation so far. Cakes’n’Cream diner has pretty much any diner food you could ask for, including their famous funnel cakes!
We spent the rest of the vacation soaking up family time at Silver Dollar City. Even if you don’t like rollercoasters, I still recommend visiting this theme park! It is rated America’s #1 Christmas attraction with the millions of lights displayed throughout the park.
And they even have a real cave that you can explore for free with your park admission. The guided tour lasts a little over an hour with lots of walking and stairs, but I really enjoyed it!
I’ll be sharing all my Branson travel recommendations on the blog tomorrow so stay tuned!
This was the year of the highest highs and the lowest lows.
We started the year with Aaron’s cancer diagnosis. It was scary and so unexpected, but we are so thankful for how well he has responded to treatment.
A month later we got engaged and quickly planned a wedding in three months!
Over the next couple months I began to step into new roles at my job and grow my skills in ways that pushed me far outside of my comfort zone. But that’s how you grow.
A week before our wedding Aaron became mysteriously very ill. We had no idea if we were going to be able to have our wedding the following weekend. And as a result we have been going to doctor after doctor this year attempting to figure out what is going on with his heart. We still don’t have answers, BUT we still got to have our wedding. It was the most perfect day and we spent a week in Colorado celebrating.
A few months later our world turned upside down when my dad was hospitalized with COVID and met his Savior 11 days later. It’s been 4 months now and it doesn’t get easier.
We walked through the holidays as a family. I finished my Masters degree. Aaron and I are currently finishing out the year in San Antonio.
Through it all one thing has remained. The Lord’s faithfulness in all things. And it’s the only thing I can remain hopeful in going into 2022.
Hello fellow travelers! I am back in Texas readjusting to the time change after returning from the West coast this past weekend. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend, as well. I wanted to share my perfect day in Los Angeles because that is exactly what I had a few days ago!
We took an incredibly early flight Friday morning to LA, which meant our wake up alarm was going off at 3:30AM. It was a difficult wake-up call, but we made it to the airport and I got a good little nap on the plane. We landed a little before 8AM pacific time and were able to pick up our rental car quickly. From that point we booked it to Downtown Disney. Of course my perfect day starts with Disney…did you expect anything else?
By this point I was SO HUNGRY, so we started the day off at Starbucks and I’m sure it wouldn’t surprise many of you that we waited a good 25 minutes for a coffee, water bottle, and breakfast wrap at the Downtown Disney location.
After fueling up we walked through the shops and took in the sights. We didn’t realize how much smaller Downtown Disney was compared to Disney Springs in Orlando so it definitely didn’t take lake to explore the entire area. We tortured ourselves by walking to the front gate of Disneyland and Disney California Adventure, but we are already making plans for a 2022 trip!
We ate an early lunch at Earl of Sandwich, which is one of our favorites and we only eat it when we go to Disney. And we spent way too much time exploring the Star Wars Trading Post.
We made good use of the first half of the afternoon by exploring the different Disneyland Hotels. They all had their Christmas decorations up which was fun to see how they were tailored to the theme of each hotel. And the Grand Californian had their life-size Gingerbread House up. It’s a real gingerbread house made with a load of real ingredients! The hotels at Disney World do this too!
After an ample amount of time on the Disney grounds we headed to the next fun stop on our perfect LA day. If you are a fan of The Karate Kid you’ll recognize Golf-n-Stuff from Daniel and Ali’s date in the movie. Aaron and I had a blast trying to replicate some of the movie scenes in pictures and playing a round of mini golf on the same course they filmed the movie!
By the time our golf game was over (I won by 1 point!), our Air BnB was ready to be checked into. We rented a cute time apartment in Anaheim that was perfect for a two night stay. The host was wonderful and on top of every detail. I’ll be linking this rental in my upcoming Los Angeles travel information post later this week!
After checking out our accommodations for the weekend and dropping off our luggage we opted for a quick dinner at Chipotle before heading to Knott’s Berry Merry Farm for an evening of a couple rides and looking at Christmas decorations.
It was decorated beautifully for the holidays and we spent just enough time there before our 3:30AM Texas time wake up started to catch up with us.
I’ll be sharing our day 2 & 3 on the blog this week, as well as, some travel information for Los Angeles as a guide for your future trips! But this was my absolute perfect day in Los Angeles. The only th8ing missing was the beach, but we got that done on Day 2. See ya’ll tomorrow!
It’s time for another giveaway! And this is a great one going into 2022!
I am giving away 12 months of Hilton Honors Gold Status! This will provide you with some additional perks anytime you stay at a Hilton hotel next year.
Perks include: 80% Bonus points in stats, space-available room upgrades, daily food & beverage credit, and many other perks!
Here’s how you can enter:
1. Go to the About page and subscribe to get updates anytime there is a new blog post!
Hey there! I hope you all had wonderful Thanksgiving filled with family, food and gratitude! We had a great Thanksgiving around here. My sister and I decided to have a girl’s weekend following all the celebrations to knock out Christmas shopping!
We met up on Saturday afternoon and checked into am local Nylo hotel. It is part of Hilton’s Tapestry brand and they are minimalistic and trendy.
We spent Saturday afternoon knocking out ALL the Christmas shopping, and I have to say, I am so relieved to have it done! We picked up some coffee and sat around Barnes & Noble for awhile sipping our coffee and chatting before braving the crazy, crowded mall.
I didn’t get many pictures of our shopping because honestly we were just trying not to get trampled by all the other shoppers. Honestly, I should have stuck to online shopping this year.
We had dinner at Yoshi which is a Shabu Shabu restaurant. This simple means ‘Swish swish” in Japanese, and that is exactly what you do. The provide you with your own Hot Pot. You have the option for the standard base with is basically just slightly flavored boiled water, or you can choose a more flavorful one for an additional charge. They also start you out with three dipping sauces, rice, and a plate of raw vegetables which you cook to your liking in the pot.
You then order the meat you would like that you then cook yourself in the hot pot. This is where the “swish swish” comes in. You swish it back and forth in the water until it is cooked. We always go for the thinly-sliced New York strip. It’s really the only cut I trust myself to cook throughly.
At the end of your meal, when you’re ready, they bring you your choice of Japanese noodles that you cook in the hot pot and then scoop into a bowl with flavoring to create a type of ramen soup to end your meal. It is so much food, but so good!
We went back to the hotel after dinner for a movie. night, junk food, and facials.
We both crashed right around when the movie was over. Michaela is an EARLY riser, and made sure to wake me up the next morning we she did. Thanks, sis. We took advantage of the early morning and went to First Watch as soon as they opened for a healthy breakfast. I opted for the Tri-Athelete which includes an egg-white veggie omelet, toast, and fruit. It was a great healthy start to the day.
We parted ways after breakfast and went home to relax with Aaron + decorate the Christmas tree as we quickly move into December!
Question of the Day:
What was the best part of your Thanksgiving this year?
Whew, it was a lonnngg travel day to Fort Smith Arkansas, but I made it and I’m ready to get my week started.
I picked up a rental car at the start of the day and hit the road. And none of my roadtrips would be complete without a stop at Buc-ee’s. I picked up my coffee, water, Celsius, and breakfast tacos to get me through the drive.
I was hoping for some beautiful Fall sites on my drive, but I don’t think I realized how much of the trip was going to be through Oklahoma which can be very hit or miss with Fall foliage. Everything was pretty dull and dead looking, no vibrant Fall colors this time. I made it to Fort Smith a little after 2PM and decided to try a coffee shop in town while getting some work done. I picked up a coffee and scone to power me through emails and projects.
Unfortunately, the coffee shop was filled with wasps flying around and my fear of being stung would not allow me to focus, so I called in quits and decided I’d get that work done later. I started my journey around town to experience the Unexpected Mural Project. It’s a revitalization project that’s bringing urban art, music, and speakers downtown areas. The murals were not incredibly easy to find, but I drove around and stopped whenever I saw one. Check out some of these murals!
My dinner plans fell through because both places I was planning on trying this week were unexpectedly closed on Mondays. So after checking into my hotel and picking up groceries I had a quiet evening in with some takeout and Disney movies.
If you want to see more of my travels from today, check out my Youtube video!
Traveling by Nature 