Helpful Household Tips!

Happy Monday!! Here's some things you can easily do this week to make life just a little easier ;)

Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.

Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much longer and not mold.

Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating. Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.

Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the grease away from the meat.

To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up.

For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt Andes mints in double broiler and pour over warm brownies. Let set for a minty frosting.

Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic, and at the end of the recipe if you want a stronger taste of garlic.

Leftover snickers bars make a delicious dessert. Simply chop them up with the food chopper. Peel, core and slice a few apples. Place them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream.

Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy.

Easy Deviled Eggs: Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw bag away when done easy clean up.

Expanding Frosting: When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar and calories per serving.

Reheating refrigerated bread: To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.

Newspaper weeds away: Plant your plants in the ground, work the nutrients in your soil. Then wet newspapers, put layers around the plants overlapping as you go, cover with mulch, and forget about weeds.

Broken Glass: Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can't see easily. No More Mosquitoes: Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away.

To keep squirrels from eating your plants, sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the squirrels won't come near it.

Flexible vacuum: To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.

Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip to eliminate static cling. It works; you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose. Place pin in seam of slacks.

Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don't dry cup. Next, add your ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.

De-fog your windshield: Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car When the windows fog, rub with the eraser.

Re-opening envelopes: If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. It unseals easily.

Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It's also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn't like when you tried it in your hair.

Goodbye Fruit Flies: To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass, fill it 1/2' with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid; mix well. flies are drawn to the cup and gone forever.

Wash your dryer filter: dryer sheets cause a film over filter that will burn out the heating unit. You can't SEE the film, but it's there. It builds up on your clothes and on your lint screen. The best way to keep your dryer working for a long time (and to keep your electric bill lower) is to take the filter out and wash it with hot soapy water and an old toothbrush at least every six months.

Well, there you have it.. Your life just got a little easier. You can thank me later!! :))

-Danielle

Bottle

How cool is this?!!? Takes some serious talent.. AND I almost shed a tear! Have a watch:

Bottle from Kirsten Lepore on Vimeo.

Plans and Purposes...

Why hello there! If you are friends with me on Facebook or if you follow me on Twitter, you know that I have been beyond crazy busy and it seems like there is always something new popping up... Ty and I have just opened our dream business that we've had on our hearts for years now (more about that in a sec), Judah has been getting more and more opportunities to minister around the state of Florida, our youth group, Impact Youth, has been growing like crazy and is in the process of going through a huge overhaul that is changing the way we do youth ministry.. Ty is still going strong in the app making business along with his new techno/dance CD he just released, we are also extremely involved in our church where God is also moving greatly! On top of all of that, I am also still doing photography and trying my very best to be a good little gardener :/ lol

SO.. you may be asking yourself, what kind of superpower does Danielle have to get all of this done?!!??!?!? Yes, well I have been asking myself the same exact question, lol not to mention I am in desperate need of a vacation! :P I think the only real answer I can give you comes out of a verse that I read this morning:

"We proclaim Him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all HIS energy, which so powerfully works in me." Colossians 1:28-29

Sometimes, I look at my life and have a minor panic attack because there's just so much happening! I don't want to ever get so wrapped up in all that I'm doing that I miss God and what His plans are for my life. I frequently stop and look at all that I'm doing and make sure that everything I am putting my hand to is what God's plans and purposes are for me. On the other side of the coin, I know that the things He has for me (and Ty) right now require quite a bit of effort and strength.. I've found (through experience) that the moment I begin to try and do things in my own strength, everything falls apart. I begin losing momentum, energy, love and passion for whatever I'm doing. So, like that verse in Colossians, His energy (and taking the time to spend with Him to get that energy) is absolutely VITAL.. and I know that's the only way I've ever been able and ever will be able to do it all!

So anyway, having said all of that, instead of clogging up all of your newsfeeds with a brazillian links, I wanted to share with you guys in one central location all of the exciting things that have been happening in our lives right now! Below you can find the links/descriptions to everything and if any of them spark your interest, click away! Oh, and we LOVE feedback.. Let us know if there's any way we can make that thing better/what you'd like to see from us in the future! :)

GodLife

This is something Ty and I have had on our hearts for years now.. In our city, when you're driving around, you'll see tons of decals and stickers everywhere that say ______ Life. Whether it be Salt Life, Mud Life, Beach Life, Camp Life, Fish Life, Gym Life, or whatever kind of life, people seem to want to label themselves and the type of life that they lead. Ty was preaching one night back in 2008ish, and he blurted out that the only life he wanted to lead was the God kind of life... and so GodLife was born :)

Over the last 3 years we've been in the process of getting trademarks, shirts, equipment, etc.. To make sure we offer quality products. The GodLife design is just the beginning, we've also created 2 other awesome designs, one being (BE)LOVED for girls which came from the revelation that not only are we the Beloved of God, but in order to truly become His beloved, we must allow ourselves to BE Loved :) The other design we have is Venit Vidit Vicit which means He came, He saw, He conquered in Latin! We have so many other designs and products on our hearts for the future too! We want to offer really amazing (not corny) Christian clothing and music to the nation and even the world!! :) We are so excited to see what God is going to do through this company, go ahead and click HERE to visit our website where you can also buy these awesome new shirts online! :D

Teknon

Let me just say, Ty simply amazes me. He has more talent in his pinky finger than most people have in their entire body! This is his latest project and possibly some of the BEST music I've ever heard (and I'm really not being biased)!! Don't believe me? Check out the clips from iTunes by clicking HERE :) Perfect dance/workout music with really awesome lyrics! My personal favorites? None Like You, Yahweh and Dance Song...

JCT Software

About a year ago, Ty and his business partner Chad developed an app making company. You may remember the Ladies' Tip Calculator they did that was sort of their "testing the waters" app to see how the app making business went. They've developed a new app called Spell Tutor which is super cool for moms who want an easy way to give their kids a spelling test. You download the app, and when you open it up it gives you the instructions for how to create the spelling test. You insert the correct spelling for each of the words and then... get this... you record your own voice saying those words! Then you also record a congratulations and a "you can do better" message for your child. They take the test and then the test will show them what they did right and what they did wrong. Pretty cool if you ask me! Here's the link to download the app :)

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app​/spelltutor/id446377331?mt=8

Judah

God has been working so greatly through Judah, in the last month we've had the honor of ministering in 2 different cities in Florida, and each time God has poured out His Spirit and shown up in such a great way. I am so honored to be a part of such a talented and passionate team of people who love Jesus with all their hearts. In June, we travelled to our state's capital, Tallahassee where we were a part of 50-hours of nonstop worship. SUCH a cool experience! We also just got back 2 days ago from YEX 2011 which was a week-long youth camp with about 300 teens and young adults all over Florida coming together to seek God's face and get a renewed passion to go home and become world-changers! And that's exactly what happened! :) We have some exciting things coming up in Jacksonville too.. Check out our website if you'd like to get some of our music or if you want to book Judah for your next event!

Impact Youth

Well I.Y. is by far my favorite place to be on a Friday night, and if you know any teens or young adults from the ages of 13-25, or if you are one... come and be a part of a ministry that is changing the city of Jacksonville! We've seen so many teens and young adults come in addicted to drugs/alcohol, bound by chains of depression, low self-esteem, etc.. and even teens who have played "church" all their lives to come and find that Jesus is REAL, He still moves and sets the captive free and He has a plan and purpose for their lives. I know this better than anyone because in 2004, God did the same in my life through Impact Youth and each year just gets better and better! Come and see what God is doing.. every Friday night at 7:30pm. Click HERE for a map to City Bible Church. We're in suite #7 :)

That about sums it all up... for now! haha Stay tuned for more adventures of Danielle! Hope you're all having a FABULOUS Summer!! xoxo

Danielle

The "O" Word

#1. Oh, hi there, yeah it's been a while.. and #2. You can't say I didn't warn you! ;)

I promised a post about how I've been losing weight and whatnot. For me, it's really not so much about weight loss as it is about being healthy, and if you're looking for a quick-fix, lose-30-pounds-in-30-days kind of deal, you may want to stop reading because this is definitely NOT it. Chances are, none of those are "it".. because what they don't tell you is that the moment you've lost the 30 pounds in 30 days (if that is at all possible), the fine print is that you'll gain 60 pounds back in the next 30 days once you get back into your normal life routine...

Having said that, you've probably heard all of this before... "It has to be a lifestyle change".. "Diet and exercise is the only way you'll really lose weight".. "Portion control" and yada yada yada... We hear that all the time and usually have to learn the hard way that all those statements are actually true! Who knew!

Here's a few facts about what I've been doing the last month or so...

• I've lost 13 pounds so far!!!
• Surprisingly, this has been much easier than any other "diet" I've done!
• I have yet to begin working out.. I know, I know, 70% diet + 30% exercise. I just have to get in the swing of things. Problem is, I get bored easily when working out.. I'm planning on starting a rotation of biking, working out at my mom's gym and workout vids :)

I get asked a lot of questions about what I've been doing and how it works, etc... etc.. So, here's a little FAQ followed by a few of my favorites! :)

This is basically how a typical conversation about my weight loss goes:

1. Soo, what exactly ARE you doing?

I'm doing a little something called the "No Whites" diet, but with my own little tweaks. No whites means basically nothing that's white (with a few exceptions).. No white flour, no white potatoes, no soda or artificially flavored drinks, no white rice and no white sugar (or high fructose corn syrup), and actually no brown sugar because I found out that it's just white sugar mixed with molasses. :/

Basically, I'm trying to eat everything as close to the way that God made it.. Yes, ORGANIC.. there, I said it. The word Organic has always somewhat irked me because when you hear that word there's sort of this imagery attached to it. Like, you immediately picture some obsessive hippie who wears organic corduroy pants, doesn't use hair product and won't wear deodorant or shave their armpits... There's this whole world attached when you start getting into the whole organic thing. But when I started thinking about it, almost EVERYTHING we eat has some sort of white sugar, high fructose corn syrup or some kind of processed form of corn. Not good! After trying to lose weight several other times and not succeeding, my husband, Ty had the idea of taking all sugar out of my diet. I agreed that it would make a huge difference and decided to go the whole 9-yards and take out all whites that were processed. Almost all the food in my pantry is now organic, and it feels GREAT to know that what you are putting in your body doesn't have extra junk that you didn't know about and is making you fat!

2. So if you don't eat any of that stuff.. what the heck DO you eat?!

I actually eat a LOT.. I've tried the Atkins diet before and was MISERABLE because my body just NEEDS carbs (I know there's at least one other person out there who understands how I feel!!) So the thing I love about this is it's all about substitution.. Instead of white bread, I eat whole wheat bread.. white rice < brown rice.. white sugar < honey.. white potatoes < sweet potatoes (in moderation).. white pasta < whole grain pasta.. soda < 100% juice.. I also eat a LOT of meat, eggs, cheese, nuts and fruit.

3. What about potatoes, aren't they all natural.. And milk, eggs or yogurt, aren't they white?

Potatoes are natural, but they're loaded with carbs, so for me.. I try to steer clear of them.. I'll probably add them in later on, but for now I've decided to nix them. I do however eat sweet potatoes once in a while since they're healthier. As for yogurt, most yogurt has sugar in it, however, I do eat either plain greek yogurt with fresh fruit or greek yogurt with honey. Mmm.. That stuff is amazing and so very good for you! Milk and eggs are also great as long as they're all natural. I keep it classy and drink 1% milk. It's a good balance, I think. ;)

4. Do you ever cheat?

On tests, no. On this eating plan, *sigh* yes. For the first 2-3 weeks, I was very strict on myself and did not cheat. A couple of weeks ago I had my wisdom teeth taken out and kind of ate whatever I could.. which wasn't always healthy. There was also Ty's birthday... so yeah there have been a few cheat days, but I'm back and going strong now, so I'm excited for the next phase of weight loss!! I'm not against cheat days, but they should definitely be in moderation. There will ALWAYS be a birthday, graduation, anniversary, special occasion, bar mitzvah or whatEVER reason for you to eat unhealthy, but you just gotta get to a point where you learn to say no, set a goal for yourself and when you hit that goal, then and ONLY then you treat yourself a little bit. ;) Rather suck it up and go strong for a few months and lose the weight instead of cheating here and there and there and there and there, and then dragging out the whole process over years and years. Self control is the big winner here!

5. Is there anything you haven't given up?

Well, yes. There are one or 3 things that I just won't cut out completely. For example, cream cheese once in a while. OH! And Chik-Fil-A sauce... Nuff said. That stuff is like nectar from Heaven and I just can't eat a Chik-Fil-A grilled chicken sandwich without it! In moderation of course! :) Condiments are usually the thing I gotta have (especially when Pollo Tropical has a whole bar full of them!), so I just use them in moderation now.. What can I say, I'm a saucy girl!

6. So you only eat it if there are 0 sugars on the label?

Noooooo way Jose! It's all about checking the ingredients. Most foods have natural sugars, especially if there is fruit involved. So no, just make sure you check the ingredients. If it says sugar, high fructose corn syrup or sucralose, then it's no good!

7. What about multi-grain bread?

Multi-grain is another way of saying "White bread with a few different whole grains thrown in there".. Pretty much anything can be multi-grain if you just add a couple of grains in the mix. I generally try to steer away from them, and instead only stick to 100% whole wheat and whole grain products.

8. Oh and Splenda.. it's not sugar, so you can eat it, right?

Personally, I don't use any other sweetener other than honey.. Most of those artificial sweeteners are just that... artificial. Kind of defeats the whole purpose of organic. Many of them are not approved by the FDA and I'm not willing to ingest rat poison and who knows what else just to have something sweet. I'm good with honey! :) The only exception is Xylitol.. Xylitol is another word for fruit sugar, they basically extract the natural sugar from fruits and uses it as a sweetener.. Still, I don't eat it much, maybe a couple of times a month.

9. Any other tips?

Myfitnesspal.com - This one is a MUST! There is an app for your phone (or you can track everything online if you don't have a smart phone).. This site is completely free and has a database of over 200,000 foods with all of their nutritional information. Including most items from all well known restaurants around America. Very helpful for when you're out at a restaurant and wanting to compare foods to see which one is healthier and/or which has more calories. You can also track your weight loss/measurements and there's a great community of people on there. It's great when you do it with friends too.. and did I mention it's FREE!!?

Lastly, here are some of my favorites so far!

Favorite Breakfast:

Starbucks Perfect Oatmeal (I omit the brown sugar and use honey instead) and..

Cascadian Farms Organic Fruit & Nut Granola (best granola EVER!)

Favorite Snack:

Cheddar cheese, grapes and whole grain Wheat Thins

Favorite Fast Food Meal:

Pollo Tropical Tropi-Chop with brown rice and..

Chik-Fil-A chargrilled chicken sandwich on whole wheat

Favorite Sweet Treat:

Sauteéd Fruit with Honey drizzled over and...

Sugar Free Jello Mousse (made with Xylitol)

And that about wraps it up.. Now I do want to say, this is what's been working for ME, it's not necessarily for everyone (although I do think everyone can benefit from eating healthier!) The best thing you can do is analyze the way that you eat and make decisions for you that are going to create a healthier lifestyle for you! Just take a look at the labels of the things you eat, you'd be shocked at how many chemicals and how much corn syrup/sugar/fructose is going into your body every day!

Till next time!! :)

My New Friends!

Bought some herbs at the cute little outdoor garden place in front of Walmart.. I was supposed to just stop in to pick up some soil and came home with my new little buddies

(In a totally not-talking-to-inanimate-objects-creeper-like way.) :)

Italian Flat Leaf Parsley + Thyme

Just picked up my herb pot I painted from PotteryWorks... love it! :D

In other news.. Healthy eating is going grrreeaatt!!! 7.5 pounds down, 20.5 more to go.. I'll talk a little more about that in my next post :)

xoxo, Danielle

Make All Your Friends Jealous - Chicken Piccata!

If you know me, you know I LOVE cooking! Usually, every Monday I like to try out a new dish I've never made.. My most recent one was Chicken Piccata, and oh me, oh my.. I have to say I gave it 2 forks up!! Lucky for you, I'm in a sharing mood, so here's the recipe (with pretty pictures)! Make it for your next dinner party or for that special someone and I promise, jaws will drop :0

INGREDIENTS: (this recipe was based on feeding 2-3 people, double or triple it if needed)

• 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, 3 to 4 ounces each
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1-2 teaspoons seasoned salt
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed dried basil leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper

• 1/4 cup olive oil

• 1/2 medium yellow onion diced
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 3 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
• 3 tablespoons capers, drained

• 1 cup of chicken broth

• 2 cloves of garlic

• 1/2 cup white cooking wine or white wine vinegar

• 1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
• 1 tablespoons Italian (flat-leaf) parsley, chopped
• 1/2 cup lemon juice
• 4 large sprigs Italian parsley and several lemon slices for garnish

STEP ONE: Look at all the fancy ingredients..

STEP TWO: Get all your aggression out and pound the mess out of that chicken!

STEP THREE: Add flour, seasoned salt, crushed basil and pepper on a plate or a flat tupperware, then dredge the chicken. Get it good and coated!

STEP FOUR: Pan fry the chicken until it's browned on both sides, then remove from pan and let rest..

STEP FIVE: In the same pan add diced onion, garlic and butter and cook on medium heat for 2-5 minutes (until onions are translucent) then add lemon juice, white cooking wine and chicken broth.. You will know you're doing it right if your house smells aammmaazziiinnggg!!! Simmer for about 10 minutes.

STEP SIX: Add capers and mushrooms to the sauce and simmer for another 5 minutes or until the mushrooms are soft and then add the chicken back into the pan.

STEP SEVEN: Plate it up!! Because of my new healthy eating plan I served just the chicken with the sauce and some peas. It would be great over spaghettini or linguine with the sauce drizzled over..

Delish!!

There you have it! So simple and amazingly delicious. If you make it, let me know how it turns out for you! :) xoxo

Look what I did!!

I grew a strawberry!! Ok.. not the most interesting news. But it IS interesting because I've never actually successfully grown anything edible before. So hooray! Hope you're all having a lovely monday :)

Move over Apple!

Alphabet Dates!

Nothing like adding a little twist to your date nights! This week, Ty and I started something called Alphabet Dates.. Every other week, one of us will plan a surprise date starting with the letters of the alphabet in order. This week, I gave Ty the privilege of kicking off our alphabet dates, and here's what we did:

"A" is for Ask & Answer

Left: OJ (with cute little umbrellas of course)

Top: No date would be complete without a candlelit dinner.

Bottom: Our corny representation of our date

Right: Flowers that just bloomed in our garden :)

Ty had the idea of doing an "Ask and Answer" date where we had a candlelit dinner (bratwurst with sweet potato and summer squash) and while we ate we would ask each other questions that we have never really asked each other and we had to answer honestly! You would think that after almost 7 years together there's really not many questions that we hadn't asked each other.. Wrong!! :) We had a great time talking about our future, some of our favorite things and dreaming a little.

Next up, the letter B.. Stay tuned!

Revival of the Blog!

It's no secret that I've been a stinky blogger.. journaler.. Daily-boother.. photo-album maker.. etc... [exhibit 1] [exhibit 2] [exhibit 3]

Looking back, I've never actually (successfully) completed any of these things. Every journal I have from my childhood has a maximum of about 10 pages filled with nonsense, and well, then I figured out that I had better things to do than write about my current events. Thinking I had blossomed into a responsible adult, I started a blog some time back and once again came to terms that not much has changed since my pen and paper days. :( My husband and I began a time capsule on Valentine's Day this year... it's sitting on my living room floor, which is not very "capsule-like".... To be honest, it's taken me a week just to write this very blog entry. *sigh* Busyness has prevailed!

So alas, I have been thinking about how sad it is to not be able to have something to look back on.. The Chronicles of Danielle, if you will., So here it is, the revival of the blog! I can't promise that I'll write daily, weekly or even monthly. But, I will write. For me. For memories.

And if you're along for the ride, why I'm glad you'll be joining my ramblings about life, food, love, photography, food, Jesus, fashion, humor, food... did I mention food? Not necessarily in that order! ;) Ah well, here goes something!

xoxo,

D