Silk Marvelous Mornings House Party

Somehow I found houseparty.com or they found me, I don't remember.  Anyway, you should check them out! It's a super-fun way to host parties and promote new products.  After a few applications for different parties, I was chosen to host a Silk Marvelous Mornings party to share their new Fruit & Protein drinks!

I was so excited that I had been chosen, I started planning right away!  Russell and I are avid Silk Almond and Silk Almond Dark Chocolate drinkers.  Russell can't have dairy or a lot of soy so this is a great alternative (not to mention that Silk Almond touts 2x the calcium and about 2/3 the calories of skim milk). Although Russell won't be drinking much of the Fruit & Protein drinks, I was excited to try something new!

House Party is great!  They give you tons of party resources including recipe ideas, party games, a social network, AND a party pack.  Here are pictures of my party pack:

"I'm so excited about my party pack!"

This is what I saw when I picked up my package!

a little gift for me: Silk reusable cup- perfect for smoothies!

another little something: Silk glass tumbler for my Fruit &Protein!

Now the big stuff- goodies for my guests!

My  party was this past weekend and we had a great time!  Of course, the party centered around food since I LOVE to cook!  We had a noontime brunch with about 14 girlfriends.  My dear friends Emily and Katelyn came a little before to help me cook and get ready.

Here's a picture of the spread. I tried my best to use Silk products in ALL of the recipes.  I succeeded in almost all of them!  I also made everything bite-sized so there would be lots of sampling.

part of the spread!

favors on the table

part of the tasting station

Katelyn trying (and loving) a yummy Green Monster Smoothie

food and fun!

me trying a plate full and a little Green Monster :)

The Recipes

 Peach Mango Fruit & Protein banana muffins with granola.

Recipe: 

(since I made this up, it might not be exact but I'm going to try my best)

1c. all purpose flour

1c. whole wheat flour

1/4 t. salt

1 t. baking soda

1/2 c. butter

3/4c. brown sugar

2 eggs

1t. vanilla

1 mashed bananas in a liquid measuring 2c. measuring cup.  

Peach Mango Fruit & Protein poured over the mash banana to the 1 3/4c. line

3/4c. oats (I use Quaker Old Fashioned)

granola of your choice

Preheat oven to 350.  

1. sift together dry ingredients

2. cream butter and sugar in stand mixer for at least 2 minutes, add eggs and vanilla

3. gradually add in dry ingredients

4. pour in Fruit & Protein 

5. add oats

Now observe your batter.  It should be thicker than cake batter but not so thick that it won't easily drop from a spoon. If it's too thin add a little more flour.  If it's too thick, add a little more Fruit & Protein. 

You have the option to serve this as a breakfast bread or muffin.  I chose mini muffins.  It took about 20 minutes for each mini muffin batch to bake.  I think it would take about 30-45 minutes for regular sized muffins and for bread loaves 1 hour.  

Before baking add granola on top of the muffins/bread!

Yields about 65 mini muffins (they freeze well)

French Toast Waffles (recipe from Silk)

Recipe:

1 c. Silk Pure Coconut Vanilla Coconut Milk

3 eggs

1/8 tsp. salt

1 tsp. maple syrup

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

8 slices of day old French bread or sandwich bread.  I used this yummy oatmeal bread that I found at Kroger.

1. stir all ingredients (except bread) together

2. coat preheated waffle iron with cooking spray

3. dip bread into egg mixture so that it is saturated but not so much so that the bread falls apart when you pick it up

4. add bread to waffle iron (my iron could hold 4 pieces at a time) and cook until browned, 3 to 5 minutes I think.

5. I (actually Emily Sadlow) cut the bread into triangles to make it easy for the buffet table (and super-cute).

Whole Wheat Silver Dollar Pancakes with Blueberries

Recipe:

This recipe is easy to double or divide! 

1 c. all purpose flour

1 c. whole wheat flour

2 T. ground flaxseed

2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

2 T. sugar 

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

Silk Almond Milk (any flavor would probably work but I used unsweetened)

pastry bag with medium to large round tip. 

1. sift all dry ingredients together

2. in the same bowl add sugar eggs and vanilla

3. slowly pour in Silk Almond Milk as you stir until the batter is the consistency that it thickly coats a spoon and may drop off in blobs.  You don't want this batter to be so thin it drips from the spoon or runs in a stream (hope that helps)

4. fill pastry bag with batter

5. in a pan preheated to medium medium/low heat (spray with nonstick if your pan needs that) drop pancakes with your pastry bag.  I did about 4-5 per pan. 

6. do not flip your pancakes over and over again. Once there are bubbles scattered across the top, flip your pancake once.  

I served my pancakes in stacks of 3 with a toothpick through the middle that held blueberries on top and syrup on the side.  I found that putting blueberries in the batter did not work since these pancakes were small. 

Puff Pastry Omelet Bites

Recipe:

8 eggs

1/4 c. Silk Almond Unsweetened

4 pieces bacon chopped

1/2 carton pre sliced baby bella mushrooms

3 c. baby spinach

shredded mozzarella to taste

salt and pepper

2 sheets puff pastry

shredded parmesan cheese or hard cheese blend 

Preheat Oven to 400

1. beat eggs with almond milk and set aside

2. in a preheated pan on medium heat add chopped bacon until it begins to brown

3. remove half the grease from the pan

4. add in mushrooms

5. once mushrooms soften add spinach

6. when spinach is wilted pour egg mixture over the top and stir to make scrambled eggs

(this recipe is great if you stop here and eat the scramble)

7. add shredded mozzarella and remove from heat.

8. on a floured surface roll out pastry dough, not too thin as it has to support the egg mixture.  Basically just roll it out to remove the creases from where the dough had been folded and to even out the thickness across the sheet.

9. move one of the pastry sheets to a jelly roll pan (lipped cookie sheet) that has been sprayed with cooking spray

10. evenly distribute egg mixture across the top of the pastry sheet leaving about 1/2 inch border around the edge

11. lay 2nd pastry sheet on top of the egg mixture.  Roll or press the edges to seal in eggs.  Sprinkle top with parmesan cheese.

12. bake for 10 minutes and check to see progress (I don't remember how long I baked mine but I know it was at least 10 minutes).  Pastry should be golden brown and cheese should be toasted.

13. when pastry begins to cool, use a biscuit cutter (or cookie cutter) to cut into rounds (or whatever shape you want).  I used the second to smallest biscuit cutter in my set- maybe 1 1/2 inches?

Makes 18 rounds

You could also cut this into larger squares or triangles to serve plated at a sit down brunch!

Baked Brie in Pastry with Onion Jam/ Baked Brie with Honey

I'm not really sure that a recipe is needed for this.  I used skinny brie logs that I found at Kroger.  I wrapped one in puff  pastry that I had spread onion jam on  before rolling. The second log was just baked on it's own and drizzled with honey. I served them both with crackers.

Fresh Berries

Another dish with no need for a recipe.  I used strawberries, raspberries and blackberries

Fruit & Protein "Shots"

just straight from the boxes :)

Green Monster Smoothies (recipe from Silk) 

Recipe:

1 c. Silk Fruit & Protein Strawberry Banana

1 banana (frozen if you have one)

1/2 cup sliced strawberries

2 c. baby spinach leaves (I added more to enhance the green color)

1 T ground flaxseed

1/2 c. ice

Place all ingredients in blender with ice on top.  Blend until smooth.  I served these in 2oz. shot glasses with straws that had been cut in half and they were adorable!

Mimosas

2/3 champagne

1/3 orange juice

splash of grenadine

Playing the Silk trivia game and finding out what kind of Silk we represented was a fun little game :)  The majority of guests were Strawberry & Banana and a few were Mixed Berry.  Emma Finley walked away with a win with 9/9 correct on trivia and won a half gallon of Fruit & Protein to take home!

Here's a pic of part of the gang with their favors!  I also included recipe cards of the recipes I used at the party.

It was a success!  Everyone had a great time and the consensus was that Silk Fruit & Protein is a good addition to breakfast or even post workout drinks!

Paris Day 8 or Looking at Old Stuff

Picking up where we left off at the flea market...

We woke up, grabbed our morning pastries and headed back out to the flea market at the Porte de Vanves (on the southern outskirts of the city).  Russell couldn't stop thinking about the beautiful antique piece we saw the day before.  After talking to his parents about the logistics of shipping furniture, the quality of the piece etc. He was pretty sure we would be taking it home.

We perused the flea market for awhile- I was looking for lace for my mom, skeleton keys and maybe a vintage couture find and Russell was fixed on furniture.  I found some beautiful vintage jewelry but we couldn't get the lady to go down in price (being American and haggling isn't fun), no lace to speak of and an overwhelming number of keys.  I ended up getting no keys because I couldn't decide on which ones I wanted or what I would actually do with them once I had them!

Russell decided that we would definitely get the buffet.  I'll have to say, it IS beautiful and we're really excited to put it in our new house (that I will be blogging about very soon).  Ms. Lawrence, a gravelly-voiced character who smoked like a chimney was a very kind woman and a hard worker.  When we told her we were "in" as long as we could get a reasonable shipping price, she called shippers for an hour until she found the best one!  She was so excited to sell the buffet, I don't think she often had pieces of this quality in her "shop" (aka van) and this was a very big sale for her.  We were beyond happy to give her our business!

Here's a picture of the beauty!  It's a King Louis the XVI? (or one of those Roman numerals)

From this flea market, we traveled to another...the biggest market in Paris, I think, at the Porte de Clignacourt.  We, of course, got lost but this time we got lost on the edges of the Paris ghetto.  It was a "little" scary...ok, it was pretty significantly uncomfortable.  We got off the train one stop early and then got lost walking blocks to places that looked like they could be flea markets. 

This underpass was filled with sketchy folks peddling fake Rolexes
and who knows what else!

Once we finally found it, we had to walk through this counterfeit goods market...the kind of counterfeit goods that are a total joke (think Cancun tourist markets).  There were sketchy men thrusting perfume and watches in our faces, loud heavy bass music playing and sketchy patrons buying fake Nike tshirts.  I was pretty stressed and overwhelmed trying to get out of there.  It was the strangest thing- once we got to the edge of this madness there was this invisible line drawn where you entered into this quiet antiques market.  You could feel the "exhale" when you crossed that line.  I definitely loosed my grip on Russell's hand and we were both smiling again.  

We could've stayed in this market for DAYS we didn't even scratch the surface! There were antique chandeliers, clocks, furniture, clothes, dolls, fabrics, buttons, figurines, art, windows, I could go on and on...beautiful things that are so hard to find in US antique stores and flea markets.  It was amazing what good condition much of it was in and just how old it really was!  I walked away with some beautiful lace and if we were bazillionaires, we would have outfitted an entire house!

After our long day looking at old stuff, we headed back into the main part of town to wrap up our trip...

First to Sainte Chapelle.   It's undergoing quite the refurbishment process. It was beautiful!

Pic by Trey Ratcliff (you should follow him on Google+)

And then to the Pompidou Centre, a contemporary art museum that is AMAZING!  For some reason we didn't know anything about Pompidou and Russell had never been there on his previous trips to Paris.  We probably should have spent more time here but we just didn't know.  This was a place where our museum pass DEFINITELY came in handy.  Upon arrival there was a ridiculous line just like at the Louvre.  We saw a sign that said "pass holders this way".  We couldn't believe it possibly meant that we skipped the entire line of people, but it did and we saved ourselves at minimum an hour of wait time!

One of our favorite works at the Pompidue Center

Outside view of the Pompidue Center

I will have to say, I don't have an appreciation for all modern/contemporary art but I do love some of it.  I especially loved seeing the van Gogh paintings- that's right real van Gogh!










Unfortunately, my hunger monster emerged after about 2.5 hours and we had to go find food!  We headed to the Marais District because it's one of the only places that is actually open on Sundays. Since we hadn't planned ahead, we were just going on looking at menus outside of restaurants and quickly checking their trip adviser reviews.  We had the case of "the next one might be better" and we ended up walking much longer than we really needed to.

We settled on a steak restaurant that got good reviews and had a cozy looking atmosphere.  They had a huge wood fired oven in the back of the restaurant and a little basement area that was super-cute as well.  We decided against sitting by the fire (it was too warm for us) and headed downstairs.  Our service started off great with wine and a cheese plate.  I'm pretty sure everyone in France thought we were bizarre for always ordering cheese as our starter instead of as a dessert course.  From there we seemed to have been forgotten about and it took forever for us to get more food.  Not the perfect last dinner in Paris, but not horrible!

Before we headed home to pack up and get ready to leave in the morning, we decided to make one last visit to our favorite creperie, Little Breizh!  Not a bad way to end our wonderful vacation!

Paris Day 7 or Shop Til We Drop or How Rude!

Today was shopping day.  We wanted to go to a few flea markets and see what they were all about.  We found a great market on the Paris Trip Adviser app and headed that way.  Well, of course we went the wrong direction when getting of the train, why wouldn't we?!  Once we finally got to the market, everyone was packing up.  We were super-bummed but were there long enough to see really great things and know we needed to come back the next day.  As we were leaving, we saw a beautiful buffet table and Russell fell in love with it.  This story continues later...

Back to home base we went to do a little more shopping.

Apparently Paris rarely has sales and we happened to be there during the biggest sale of the season.  EVERY shop has markdowns.  Unlucky for us- many markdowns are only for Parisians. We figured this out after aimlessly wandering around Bon Marche trying to figure out what the stickers and key tags meant.

We were looking for the sales person who wouldn't hate us too much for being American so we found a dude in the men's department.  He was nice about explaining that the sales (and I mean they were  crazy good deals 50-75% luxury designers) were only for Bon Marche card holders.  We first thought, "Great! We'll just apply for the card, use it while we're here, pay it off immediately and then cancel it."  It didn't work that way either- bummer.  You had to have already had a card and I'm pretty sure he told us that only the French are approved for the cards. Oh well!

From there we were off in search of my souvenir.  I'm not much of a purse girl in that I don't frequently change out my bags with my outfits or lust over LV, Dior or even Kate Spade.  I will say though, I like my bag to look nice and reach further than "just another purse".  We found this place called Upla earlier in our trip- conveniently one block up from our apartment.  We took a peek inside, I loved what I saw but I couldn't commit.  We went back this day and we found out that many of the bags were on sale...and we qualified for the sale!  When I say "many" bags were on sale what I mean to say is "every bag in the store was on sale except for the color I wanted".  So I tried on every sale bag and they were "fine".  Probably if I hadn't been looking for just the right yellow purse for the past 4 years, I would've liked every sale bag in the store enough to have one of them.  But, the perfect yellow purse kept staring me in the face.  After many bag on shoulder, turn to the side, cock one knee, pose in the mirror moments, the two beautiful French sales women going back and forth on whether the tan purse would be a great compromise or whether I should stick to the yellow, Russell pleading with me to make a decision- I decided I wasn't ready to decide and off we went.

We took a break for lunch at another great creperie up the street, ducked in and out of amazing home furnishing stores (we brought home all of their brochures only to find they don't ship to the US), perused a pen and ink store, and stared in windows at baby clothes- that I wanted to buy so badly for "one day".  I was still thinking about the purse.

I knew what would help me make up my mind- Go home and put on my good brown boots to make sure the tan of the boots matched the tan of the purse that I only sort of wanted that was on sale.  While home, we took a minute to call our parents and weigh in on the purse decision (like they cared) and while talking to Fran, we remembered that we still hadn't found her hair combs.

Have I told you about the hair combs?  I can't remember.  My mother-in-law has beautiful curly hair that I'm crossing my fingers is passed on to our babies. She wears it short and often wears tortoise shell combs in it to keep it back.  Who knew those combs actually could only be found in France?!  Each time they visit France, Fran buys all of the combs she can find.  She was running low so we'd been on the hunt for the past 3 days.  I was so stressed- I didn't want to mess up and buy the wrong ones (those suckers are expensive...and I'd be sad if they didn't work).  Once both of our mothers had tried to convince me that the yellow purse was the one I should get, we were off to find more combs!


But not before I made a decision on a purse.  I just knew an Upla bag was right for me.  Oodles of storage pockets, durable leather, no big logos or flashy metal- just functional and pretty.  I was getting tired of waiting on Russell (I don't even remember what he was doing) so I marched myself over to the store, held the two contending bags (the tan bag did mach my tan boots), took a deep breath and went with the YELLOW!  The two sales women laughed at me and were happy I finally made a decision (and they made a sale).  We had a little celebration in the store, I closed my eyes and signed the receipt and met Russell for the comb quest

in this color: Jonquille

picture this purse 

We'd found the right size but the wrong color, the wrong size but the right color over and over and over again.  Today was our lucky day though because we went back to the only drug store that we could find that carried them and the Bon Marche and the BOTH had combs!  Woo Hoo!  This was probably one of my favorite shopping days- ever!

For dinner we headed to a place that was highly rated near The Louvre.  I'll make this long story short by telling you that it was closed- surprised? no? We had gotten to be quite the Paris Trip Adviser experts so we were on the hunt again for another restaurant.

We stumbled upon some beautiful store fronts and a big square with a giant statue in the middle of it and ended up on a street we'd be on earlier in the week after realizing another restaurant was closed.  We went back and forth between a Vietnamese restaurant and Le Souffle (a restaurant that only serves...souffle).  We chose the Vietnamese restaurant which oddly wasn't very full on a Saturday (we later realized that people eat late on Saturday and the restaurant was much more full by the time we left). The food was quite good and a change from the heavy Parisian food we had been eating.  We decided to go for dessert at Le Souffle.  They were busy, but there was no wait so we let them know before we sat down that we would just be having dessert, it was 9pm so we thought it wouldn't be a big deal.

Little did we know, we were about to have our first sterotypical Parisian vs. American experience.  We seated by the kitchen (we didn't mind that), were given menus, no water, and very little interaction from our waiter.  He was quickly back to hurry us through our menu and place our order.  We both ordered champagne and told him we'd order our souffle when he came back.  When we told him we would be splitting one he flat out told us "it's not possible (in French)", we laughed thinking he was jovially telling us that the souffles were too good to share one- he wasn't.  He was serious.  He wasn't going to serve us unless we ordered two!  We complied because we didn't want to leave, the souffles were the tallest we'd ever seen, and ordered a raspberry souffle and a nutella souffle that we were pretty much hassled into getting.  The raspberry souffle (which we willingly chose) was A-MAZING and the nutella souffle was, well, fine.

We were shortly handed our bill, which we paid without leaving a tip (which apparently isn't common practice anyway) and we were on our way home, chatting about our great finds and planning our last day in the city of lights.

Paris Day 6 or Cooking Like a Parisian or Beautiful Views

Since we had decided against a weekend trip away (instead opting for the Versailles day trip), we thought we'd find something a little more unique to do in Paris.  We found several well-reviewed cooking classes on our Paris Trip Adviser app and chose one that would balance a laid back atmosphere with some real cooking experience.  We chose A World In A Pan.

What a great decision that was!  We met a lovely woman named Marie outside of her train stop and met up with a young Saudi American couple (they were very friendly, both currently working as brand managers for Mars in Dubhai).  Marie suggested some menu ideas and let us choose what we wanted and then we were off to the outdoor market.

I can't tell you enough how much I love outdoor markets!  Everything at this market was fresh and organic.  There were so many fruits and vegetables I had never seen as well as many different cuts of meat and fish that aren't common in the USA.  I could've spent the entire day ogling the food but we had to stay on track and get what we needed for our cooking class!

Marie talked us through everything she purchased and we walked away with duck legs, oranges, eggs, cheese, bread, fingerling potatoes and some herbs.  We headed to Marie's family home where her husband and four children live (at least two of her children are in college now).

Marie made us all a cup of tea and we got to work learning how to be authentic French cooks!  Here are some pictures of the food we made.

We left Marie's home with full bellies and happy hearts!

From there, we headed home to freshen up and get ready for Sacre Coeur.  Sacre Coeur is one of Russell's favorite places in Paris.  He said he always had fun there when he was a little kid.  We were trying to get there before the sunset so we could watch it from the top of the mountain, but of course we missed it.  All was not lost though!  The view of the city at night from Sacre Coeur is remarkable.

After we took in the view from the steps, we went inside the chapel.  It was breathtakingly beautiful, and so moving.  The quiet made it easy to sit, reflect and thank God for our good fortune and ability to take such a wonderful vacation.  I could've stayed for hours.

Upon leaving the chapel, we took a little trip up the cobblestone streets to the square where the local artists are drawing and painting.  We were getting there just as everyone was painting their last strokes and taking down their easels.  We did a little haggling with a man for a beautiful painting but decided not to get it as we couldn't decide if he had actually painted it himself.  Of course we did a little more wandering and headed back to the steps of the chapel to drink some hot wine and watch some fun street performers sing Beetles tunes.

*side note* I can't remember if I wrote about this in the beginning and at the moment I'm too lazy to read backwards to figure it out!  Our friends Katelyn and Peter were so kind to rummage through our apartment, find our passports and overnight them to AR for us. They were both SUPER busy at the time and we appreciated their patience with us!  I should also note that Peter had to send us Passports and binders in the summer as well.  All Katelyn said she wanted was an Eiffel Tower.  For some reason, I stressed about that Eiffel Tower the WHOLE trip!  It had to be the perfect tacky souvenir.   I found the most "beautiful" pink jeweled Eiffel Tower in a gift shop on our way to Sacre Cuer. I was so excited about it- it was ridiculous!*

For dinner, we headed back to our favorite place, Au Pere Louis near the Luxembourg Gardens.  We just had to visit one more time before the trip was over.  This time our food was just as good, the atmosphere cozy and the wine superb!

To bed we went with happy hearts and full bellies!