I am back... with food!

Last month sometime I signed up for NatureBox. I'm pretty excited - I love getting packages in the mail! And there's a little bit of extra excitement because I don't know exactly what I'll be getting in each box. But let me back up a little bit. NatureBox is a company that sends you a box of five different healthy snacks every month. AND for every box sent out, they feed a hungry child. Pretty awesome deal, huh?

After waiting and waiting, my box finally arrived. I couldn't wait to check it out! I got:

• Cranberry Almond Bites - A super crunchy combo of dried rice cereal, almonds and cranberries. A big hit with Wayne. I think I got like five pieces out of the whole package.
• Masa Crisps - Salty little cracker/chip thingies that taste similar to Fritos. Wayne liked them with chili.
• Orange Crush Granola - Orange flavored granola. Very tasty, especially in yogurt.
• Wild Berry Bunch - A mix of various dried berries including blueberries, cherries and raisins. This month's box had a recipe for Berries & Cream Oatmeal so I mixed the berries with the granola in my morning oatmeal. Yum! I added some brown sugar splenda to the mix but I think it would've been sweet enough without it.
• Country Ranch Peas - So, I hate peas. Bleh. When I saw these in the box I was pretty disappointed. Then curiosity took over. I've been on a kick lately where I try new things and revisit things I thought I previously hated. So, why not try some Country Ranch Peas? They. Were. Awesome. Crunchy and tangy with a little bit of the sweetness from the pea in there, too. But none of the pea-ness that I hate from fresh peas. I ate pretty much the entire bag over the course of two days.

There you have it. Our first NatureBox experience. I can't wait for next month. The only problem with the whole experience is... I want more peas!

Stay tuned... I signed up for Citrus Lane and I'll be reviewing that when it arrives. I might even throw in some pictures.

PS - As you may have noticed, I am back from a bajillion year absence. We'll see if it sticks. Since I last posted I had a baby and he's not much of a napper so my time is somewhat limited. I seem to have a lot to say lately, though, so hopefully I'll keep posting. I plan on redesigning the blog (or at least fixing the broken links in the sidebar) soon. I probably won't reopen Love That Vintage for awhile. We also moved during my absence so a lot of my vintage stuff is packed away. Well, the stuff I didn't declare as my own and use to decorate my house is packed away. Anyway, hi! Thanks for reading.

Easily distrac... Ooh, shiny....

Lots of stuff cooking for the shop right now. Got some cool design-related stuff coming up. Hopefully. It's going to take awhile before it's ready though. Some of it is still in the planning stages. Vague enough for ya?

I realized how totally distractable I am today. I had some stuff in my brain I was trying to put into my computer and every little thing kept leading me off in different directions. I pulled it together though! For the most part.

Amigurumi Fever!

I think I have a new addiction. At least I hope I do. I need to replace that pesky Starbucks one I currently have. Anyway... the new addiction: Amigurumi. Which is (basically) Japanese for knitting, or in my case crocheting, super cute toys. I needed some presents for a couple of adorable babies in my life but, alas, I am poor. But I had a crochet hook. And yarn. And google.

The result:

Oh oh, it's magic!

Chocolate-Covered Katie is giving away a magic bullet!

No, not the kind fired by a second gunman on a grassy knoll. The kind that makes tasty blended concoctions!

One sucky thing and two good things

I totally slacked off with my writing. Yet another year of NaNoWriMo failure! Oh well. I still want to write, I'll just have to do it on my own time. Clearly having a 30-day deadline is not much of a motivator. But I kind of have an excuse. I got a job. FINALLY.

AND.

I got into grad school at Texas State University in the Educational Technology program. I'll be starting in January. I'm very excited!

What's the plural of apocalypse?

I love me some apocalypse, be it zombie, nuclear or other. I guess I'm a little strange in that I think way too much about what I would do if the world were thrown into chaos and I was one of the few survivors. Because I am about 99% sure I would survive. No reasoning or logic behind that number, I just know.

I recently found out that I'm not alone in this slightly morbid line of thinking. I inherited it from my dad, apparently. On a visit last summer we spent hours talking about how much we love apocalypses, what our plans would be, where we'd go, what we'd do, etc. He even had his eye on a piece of land that was easily defend-able and had an ample supply of fresh water. How awesome is that?

But I guess when it comes down to it, I would really prefer to experience an apocalypse from afar. So of course it's my favorite genre of book, movie and TV show. I just finished watching the complete BBC series Survivors. So good! The basic storyline is there's a super mega-flu and it kills 99% of the population. Abby meets Greg on the road and they end up forming a little group of survivors while searching for Abby's son. The characters are pretty great. I'd go into more detail, but I don't want to spoil anything. I'll just say that they evolve so slowly and so perfectly you don't even notice when you go from hating to loving some of them.

But now I have some bad news and some good news. Which do you want first. Bad news? Okay... BBC canceled the show after 12 episodes, at the end of season two. So sad.

But the good news... It's definitely worth a watch and is available instantly on Netflix. Yay!

And just for fun, here's a list of other apocalypse-related stuff that I love:

• Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler - My favorite book of all time, no question. This is the book that made me love sci-fi, apocalypses and helped me learn to think for myself, especially where religion is concerned. Read it. Now.
• Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank - My dad recommended this book to me and it was awesome. It's set in (and was written in) the 1950s. Not only a great nuclear apocalypse story, but an interesting glimpse into race and gender roles at the time.
• Zombieland - Fun and funny. Best zombie movie ever.
• The Walking Dead - Excellent new series on AMC. Graphic and violent and fan-freaking-tastic. Really kind of pushes the envelope for violence on TV, but at the same time it has a good storyline. Unfortunately though, everytime I think of or talk about the title of this show I get Surfin' Dead by The Cramps stuck in my head. Luckily I love The Cramps.

I was going to link to a video of Surfin' Dead, but sadly that one is nowhere to be found online. Instead, please to enjoy Ultra Twist. It's not very end-of-the-worldy, but it's still a kick-ass song.

Protein... Candy!

Eventually I might stop raving about coconut butter... but it won't be anytime soon.

I have a hard time getting in all the protein I need, so I came up with this little combo. Well, I kind of came up with it, but not really at all. Mostly it was Heather and Katie.

Anyway...



2 TBSP Artisana Coconut Butter
1 Scoop Whole Foods 365 Whey Protein Powder (I used Natural Chocolate Flavor)

Melt the coconut butter and stir in the protein powder. The result will be very loose. Press it into candy molds or ice cube trays. I bought these from Ikea a couple of years ago and they've been sitting in the cabinet since then.



Then I threw it in the freezer for about 15-20 minutes. You can just put them in the refrigerator and they should set up fine, but I was anxious to test them out. This is also why you see six candies instead of the seven that I made!



I will definitely be snacking on these again. The amount of fat and calories in these babies is a little painful to me, but I keep reminding myself of all the extra protein and the fact that it's coconut oil so it's a GOOD fat. Plus they taste really, really good.