Monthly Archives: October 2013

We always keep ingredients for Chili Mac in our cupboard, and it’s often our go to dinner recipe!  Not only is it delicious, but on a busy night it’s a super quick and easy meal to get onto the table.  It’s great if you have a bunch of veggies you need to use up before they spoil.  And there are so many ways to vary the basic recipe it never gets old!

Here’s what you need:

• 2 boxes of mac and cheese
• 3/4 large white onion, diced
• 3/4 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 cup frozen corn
• 1/2 cup sliced black olives
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/4-1/2 tsp cayenne
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1 1/2 tsp cilantro
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 3-5 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 can turkey or chicken chili

Here’s what you do:

Prepare the mac and cheese according to the instructions on the box.  In a large skillet, saute onion and pepper in olive oil for about 3 minutes (or until slightly softened).

If you have any softer veggies, you can add them to the pan and cook for another 3 minutes.  For this batch of chili mac, we had some mushrooms we needed to use up, so in they went!  Add frozen corn and black olives, and cook for another 3 minutes or until the corn has defrosted.

Add spices, garlic, and chili into the pan and cook until heated through.  Add the chili to your prepared mac and cheese, and you’re done!

Ordinary mac and cheese…

Chili mac!

For Daniel and I, this usually lasts about 4-5 dinners if we don’t have a side dish.  We often pair it with a salad though, so it ends up yielding A LOT more.  Bonus:  Chili mac freezes extremely well!  We always have too much to eat and end up freezing about half the pot, which is great for nights we don’t feel like cooking!

We prefer to use either turkey or chicken chili, but you can certainly use any chili you like.  We’ve seen a tofu chili at Trader Joes, which would easily turn this meal into a vegetarian friendly dish!  Some other ingredients we’ve added in the past:  beer, diced canned tomatoes, canned green chilies, extra shredded cheddar cheese, and we’ve substituted regular mac and cheese with white cheddar shells.

We have topped it with bread crumbs and parmesan, and popped it in the oven to turn it into Baked Chili Mac!

We’ve also added it on top of a hotdog with jalapenos to make a Chili Mac Dog!

Trust me, you’ve got to try it!

I’m sure many of you have seen the wondrous trend of Highlight and Contouring (HAC) on Pinterest, and probably want to see if it’s all it’s cracked up to be.  I know I did!  I really wanted to see if it worked because I don’t feel like my bone structure stands out on film that well.  If successful, perhaps this could be a camera friendly trick to land more roles!

As I’ve mentioned before, Maskcara is my go to blog for beauty videos, and was one of my first introductions to HAC.  So I’ve only followed her tips on how to Highlight and Contour thus far.  She basically does it in every makeup tutorial, each time a little differently and with different products.  The two products I bought upon her recommendation was the L’Oreal Paris True Match Foundation Powder in Deep Cool for Contouring, and Maybelline New York Dream Lumi Touch Highlighting Concealer in Nude for Highlighting.  Being a beginner, I’m not sure if these colors are working for me, since I don’t notice much of a difference in my before and after shots.  Take a look!

This is the first time I tried HAC out.  Not really noticing much of a difference here, maybe a little more definition on my cheekbones.  Because I’m new to this, I think I’m a little worried about going too heavy, as I don’t want it to be obvious in person.  This could be why there isn’t much of a contrast between the two photos.  I also think my Highlighter could be one shade lighter.

This is my second attempt.  I think I got a little better, or am I just imagining it?  I think I’m seeing more definition on my cheeks, a sharper jaw line, and a thinner nose.  I find it so hard to tell though!  Is it the makeup or the angle of my face?!

Third time’s a charm, right?  I think so?  I definitely notice more of a difference between the before and after shot.  Overall it looks like my bone structure is more defined and my face is a little thinner.  I also have a bump on my nose (thanks to the Austrian side of my family), which looks less noticeable after HAC.

All in all, I was expecting more of a drastic difference after seeing all those side-by-side comparisons on Pinterest.  Beauty blogs make it look so easy!  Either my bone structure is already more defined than I think it is, or I’m just doing it wrong (most likely the latter)!

If anyone has any tips or tricks, or know what I’m doing wrong, please share in the comments section.  I’d love to hear from you!

I plan on coming back to this topic again in the future with another HAC series, to see if I’ve improved at all (and if I can take better photographs of makeup).  Stay tuned!

The weather in Portland has been especially fall-like lately.  As I’m remembering what it’s like to have seasons again, I’m getting pretty pumpkin crazy!  After recently buying Samuel Adams Harvest Pumpkin Ale and Trader Joes Pumpkin Ice Cream, I quickly realized what must be done:  Pumpkin Beer Float.

I first heard of a beer float when I went to The Golden State in Los Angeles (highly recommend for anyone in the area), but had never tried it.  The reason being, well, it didn’t sound as delicious as a regular ice cream float.  But something about this combination told me it was going to be good!

Here’s what you need:

• 2-3 scoops Trader Joes Pumpkin ice cream
• One 12 oz. bottle of Samuel Adams Harvest Pumpkin Ale

I recommend putting the ice cream in first and slowly pouring the beer in after.  Be warned though, as soon as the beer touches the ice creamit will foam up A LOT, no matter how slowly you pour it in.

Boom!

Daniel seemed a little suspicious about the combination beforehand, but he later agreed that it was super tasty.  I wasn’t a huge fan of the Sam Adams on its own, as it was very pumpkin-y.  But the ice cream gave it the much needed flavor and sweetness, and it really balanced out the bitterness of the ale.  Although these two worked well together, I’m sure other brands would be great in this as well.

Try it out!  I will definitely be having another one before the season is over!

One of my absolute favorite beauty blogs is Maskcara, and as I’m trying out new makeup looks, I find myself constantly gravitating to all of her videos.

One look I thought I could pull off (and had almost all the right makeup for) was this Megan Fox inspired look.

I really loved how soft and natural this makeup was, while still being incredibly sexy (of course, maybe that’s just because it’s Megan Fox).

Here is how Maskcara’s completed look turned out.  Gorgeous, right?

As much as I wish I could go out and buy all the products she uses in every makeup video, the sad truth is I can’t.

I’m sure many of you can’t either, so at the end of this post I will list what I used.  Who knows, maybe you have some of the same products too!  Or maybe they will just give you an idea of how you can substitute with what you have!

I have to say trying to find good lighting in my house is impossible!  So I apologize for the light switch, but this seemed like the only halfway decent spot.

Hard to tell because I’m a little washed out, but in person it looked more like the examples above.  Hopefully I will learn how to take better pictures as I do more tutorials!

Here is a list of what I used:

Clinique Superbalanced Makeup Foundation in Ivory
Clinique Superbalanced Powder Makeup in Natural 2
L’Oreal Paris True Match Foundation Powder in Deep Cool
Maybelline New York Dream Lumi Touch Highlighting Concealer in Nude
L’Oreal Paris Voluminous Million Lashes Waterproof Mascara in Blackest Black
CoverGirl Perfect Blend Eye Pencil in Mink
Sephora Collection Pro Lesson Palette: Brown Eyes
Burt’s Bees Lip Shimmer in Raisin
Ben Nye Eyeliner Pencil in Black

I love wine and I love Halloween, so when I saw this great DIY project on Pinterest by Lombardo Lagniappe, I knew I had to try it.

Our house is severely lacking in Halloween decorations, but this DIY was a pretty quick, painless, and somewhat inexpensive (depending on what supplies you already have on hand) way to fix that.

I mainly followed the original design, but changed a few techniques and aesthetics to suit my needs.

As you can see, I chose to vary the shape of the bottles rather than keep them uniform like pictured above.  I really loved how each bottle seemed to fit each “character” perfectly.  I already had these lying at home in our recycling bin, but if you don’t (and you want to keep this project inexpensive), you can’t go wrong with 2-Buck Chuck from Trader Joes!

In fact, the bottle on the left is Charles Shaw Chardonnay, and the bottle on the right is Charles Shaw Merlot!

Being on a budget, I couldn’t really justify buying all of the spray paint colors that were used in the original DIY.  Specifically because I didn’t know when I’d use them again, since I didn’t have any projects in the works that used spray paint.  So I chose to only buy the Frosted Glass spray paint (which I found at Home Depot), and use acrylic paint I already had for the rest of the color.

I’m sure it definitely took longer than just spraying them and using paint pens for the detailed work.  But I have to say I really liked the texture that came from hand painting them.  Not to mention the feeling of accomplishment!

And here they are, my ghoulish wine bottles!

I followed the taping suggestions from the original blog post.  For Frankenstein, I sort of followed both examples.  I cut the notches first, and then put the tape on the bottle.  Once the paint was dry, I used an exacto knife to trace over the notches again so the paint wouldn’t peel off with the tape.  Because I couldn’t find black glitter at the store, I decided to nix it.  And in the end, I don’t think they really needed it!

Here they are on our dining room table!

A pretty spook-tacular addition, if I do say so myself!