Saturday, August 9, 2014

Quick Summer Recipe: Sweet Corn, Mango, Avocado, and Tomato Salad

Quick Summer Recipe: Sweet Corn, Mango, Avocado, and Tomato Salad 




This will probably be a pretty quick post but thought I would give a little update about a tasty and impromptu recipe I threw together last night. This summer we purchased a biweekly share from a local organic farm. This basically means that once every two weeks we get to pick up a box of assorted produce all grown at an organic farm right here in Illinois! Through out the summer the contents of the box have varied including a mix of cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, swiss chard, oregano, dandelion greens, cabbage, corn, squash, beets, kohlrabi, carrots and more. This week we got lots of corn, a few cucumbers, a jalapeño, plus some other goodies; and we also had a mango, some limes, and an avocado lying around. These ingredients all sort of jumped out at me when I was trying to think of a quick snack to throw together, so I went for it! In a large bowl I combined the corn, tomatoes, cucumber, jalapeño, mango, lime juice, and avocado along with some salt and pepper. After giving everything a mix I tasted it and loved it, it was super refreshing and had a nice balance of sweetness from the mango and corn, spice from the jalapeño, and tartness from the lime. The avocado also added a nice rich, creamy texture to the salad. In retrospect I would have liked to add some smoky cumin and either fresh garlic or granulated garlic for added layers of flavor, but I didn’t have those ingredients on hand so I’ll keep that in mind for next time. I think this recipe makes for a great stand alone salad or a nice, fresh side dish. Hope you enjoy!

Friday, August 8, 2014

Costco Beauty Steals: Estée Lauder & YSL

     Costco Beauty Steals: Estée Lauder & Yves Saint Laurent


Eek! I am so excited by my recent beauty finds at Costco I thought I had to share in case anyone else out there is in the market for these products - or if you’re simply looking to try out something new - either way you will be getting an amazing deal! So for a while now I have been using Estée Lauder’s Advanced Night Repair Synchronized Recovery Complex II ($62/1 oz. at Nordstrom). This is generally thought to be a night time serum, but I occasionally use it in the day as well because it has a light formula that makes it great for use under makeup (I can do a separate review on this product if anyone is interested?? Comment below if anyone would like a review on Estée Lauder’s Advanced Night Repair Synchronized Recovery Complex II). The main reason I had been using the Night Repair serum in the daytime was because I hadn’t yet found another serum I loved for day. However, after watching loads of YouTube videos and reading a bunch of blog posts and reviews, I started to get a few ideas of other serums to try out that are more targeted to daytime use. One that I heard a lot of positive reviews for is another from Estée Lauder’s skincare line, the Idealist Even Skintone Illuminator.  Although I really wanted to try this out I was hesitant because, like the Advanced Night Repair serum, it is also fairly pricey ($62/1 oz., $92/1.7 oz., and $120/2.5 oz. at Nordstrom).