Simple Recipe, Simply Amazing

I have had several people ask me for the recipe for the salad that I posted on Friday(which was a recreation of the salad I had for our Anniversary dinner last week!

Below is the picture that I took before I indulged.

MMmm.. My mouth is watering just looking at it!

So - In an effort to get this goodness in my mouth again. I decided to go to the store and pick up the SIMPLE ingredients to recreate it. Of course - the grocery store was out of pomegranates so I had to go without. TRUST ME... you will want them. It adds such a pop of flavor!

And with all good recipes. Of course, you need a good hand stamped utensil to accompany it. This is a salad recipe I hope to ALWAYS be friends with... (I know, lame joke). 

Recipe:

-Bibb Lettuce 

(I used a Spring Mix because the grocery store didn't have it, but it's better with the Bibb Lettuce. It is much softer and has a smooth taste. Really good!)

- Red Ruby Grapefruit

- Avocado

- Poppy Seed Dressing

(the one shown in the picture was good. I might try to make my own soon. The one at the restaurant was out of this world!)

- Sprinkle with Pomegranate seeds

And thats it!! I used half of a grapefruit and half an avocado, but you could totally use more than that depending on if you are having it for lunch or dinner. ENJOY!!

Let me know if you try it! Feel free to share pictures on my facebook page.

with love,

Aly

Day 10: Jelly Beans + Giveaway

  

Our roadtrip is slowing down to more low key and relaxing days. Its a good way to end it as the beginning was filled with A TON of hiking and walking. Today we slept in and did a little shopping near sacramento, then we stopped to have lunch at Chipolte (one of Andrews favorites). After lunch, we headed over to the Jelly Belly Factory, which was our only real plan for the day! They didnt allow pictures in the factory, but we took a few in the lobby. It was fun to see how Jelly Belly's were made and where they started. Who knew there was such a process to them!

We each got ourselves some bags of jelly belly's filled with our favorites. Below is our bags...can you guess whose is whose???

It should'nt be too hard to tell!! :) And its kind of neat to see the difference between us!

Do you have a favorite flavor?? Let me know in the comments!! :)

We ended the night with some more shopping and then a low key meal at Chic-fil-a! Ohhh it was good!! I wish someone would open up one back home!

Tomorrow we head to Napa Valley to go on an Olive Oil tour and drive by all the vineyards! Tomorrow will be our last full day and our last night in California! I just can't believe that this wonderful trip is almost over...

GIVEAWAY GIVEAWAY GIVEAWAY!!!! Yes, A GIVEAWAY! I am participating in a giveaway with The Posh Daisy! Its her birthday and she has put together a nice little giveaway to kick it off!! Happy Birthday to her and GOOD LUCK to you! Go check out her page and enter to win! There are a bunch of prizes from a bundle of different vendors, including ME! I am including a $20.00 shop credit with FREE SHIPPING!! WOO HOO!! Ready, Set, GO!! Click Here and Good Luck!!!

See you tomorrow for my last post of our vacation...I will be reopening the shop on June 1st!

Day 5 + 6: Yosemite National Park

There is so much to talk about and show you... I don't even know where to start! Andrew and I have been taking hundreds of pictures between the both of us! We are enjoying going through all our pictures at the end of the day and picking out the best ones to share! Between yesterday and today, it has taken quite a while. However, I think that the ones I will be posting will give a good overview. Andrew and I have both agreed that most of the view and scenes we have been blessed to see just can't be captured by cameras. I would reccommend this trip to anyone... its beautiful here.

The drive up was breath-taking. We finally arrived at our next destination where we would spend the night in a tent. Not the greatest night sleep for me... but I still had plenty of energy for our long day of hiking ahead! We had to put all of our food in the green bear box in the picture below and there were reminders EVERYWHERE to not leave food out!

Before we went on our hike.. we took a raft down the river. SO FUN!!

On our hike, we saw some deer... although, they are EVERYWHERE!! I got so close to them...

Then.... We saw a BEAR!!! and because I wanted a good picture... I got closer to it than I was
suppose to...good thing there were no park rangers around. ;)

We did a little bit more hiking up to Mirror Lake...

THEN! Andrew motivated me to trek up the 2.5 mile uphill hike to Vernal Falls. This hike consists of a very steep trail, that turns into a STEEP 600 staircase hike.... did I mention steep??!! Once you hit the stairs, it also starts to pour down mist from the Falls (really its like rain because you get completely soaked)!! Good thing Andrews camera is waterproof, as we got some awesome pictures...its hard to pick out the highlight pictures... there are SO many! I suppose I got my workout in for the next year or so!!! The first picture was me before he mentioned going up to the Falls... I was perfectly content with looking from afar... but in the end was THRILLED to have made it to the top!! It was amazing!!! AMAZING!!!??

Can you tell I was a little bit wet here? The rainbow was even more dazzling in real life!!

We made it to the top!!??? The pictures dont do the waterfall or the height of it justice!

And after a little break and some snacks, we started back down to the bottom.
This was the scariest part in my opinion!

Since we were already soaking wet, pictures for our fellow trekkers was in order! Its been so nice to have people around to take pictures of the both of us!

Andrew always has a good eye for the best shots! He took one of me and then told me where to stand to get the picture of him the same way! Such neat memories...

As you can see, the trip down the side of the waterfall was steep and very wet! Such an amazing experience though and I would do it again in a heartbeat!!

Thats an overview of our day 5 + 6! More to come for Day 7 as we have a little bit more time in Yosemite and then head to Murphy, CA to stay in the Victoria Inn.

Check back later for more! Don't forget you can follow my blog via google connect on the right, so you will never miss a post! :)

Day 3: Big Sur + Madonna Inn

 

Today...was amazing!! We drove along the coastline/Big Sur and must have stopped over 3 dozen times to get pictures and see the coastline. Never in my life have I seen the coast like I did today... Sure beats New England. Yes, its true! I wished we could have just driven along the coast forever. We had our Trader Joes snacks and I enjoyed every single second of it!

This was the first stop along Big Sur. The water was an unbelieveable blue color and as you can see from the picture.. it was SO windy!!

One of my favorites spots of the day... the water looked dazzling and the waterfall was beautiful!

I think this picture almost looks like I was photo-shopped into it! We saw these gorgeous poppies on the side of the road and Andrew made me go lay on the ground to get a few shots!! Then about an hour or so later, Andrew spotted a waterfall off in the distance through some trees. So, naturally...our next move was to park the car and go for a hike... WE FOUND IT!!!

After the waterfall adventure...we thought the suprises were over... Until, we looked over at the coastline about a half an hour later and saw what is in the picture below:

A WHOLE COASTLINE FULL OF SEALS!!!! A crazy sight... NOT a pleasant smell!! ha!

We stopped in a small town before sunset where we had dinner on the pier and then caught the last sunset we would see on the coast before we would head inland for the rest of the trip!

THEN! To top off the day... we arrived at Modonna Inn where we stayed in the room called "Yosemite Inn"! This hotel has a ton of different rooms to choose from. Ours had rock walls, a fireplace, a rock bathroom and rock shower, not to mention... the most amazing toilet ever!! It had a heated seat... yes, a heated seat!! HA!! Right when we arrived we ran to the pool, swam and sat in the hot tub, and I put a little work out in at the fitness center, before we hopped in the king size bed to get some good sleep before our long day at Sequoia National Park!!

(THE PICTURES DO NOT DO THIS ROOM JUSTICE!!!!)

We have about 4 hours of driving ahead of us, and then 2 more after we see the park... Hoping to catch American Idol tonight... Yes, I am an American Idol addict this season!

Day 1 : San Francisco

Just a quick little update! We made it safe and sound to San Francisco! Spent the entire first day walking around the city seeing just about everything we could and walking about 10 miles or more! By the end of the day... our feet were telling us...STOP! I also thought I was tough enough to walk around in sandals. NOT a smart idea!

We got ourselves some famous sourdough bread... in the shape of a turtle!

Waited in line for tha cable cars... a long time and made some new friends from Ohio! Shout out to you guys if you end up stopping by the blog! ;)

Sat by the sea and the golden gate bride for a while. SO PRETTY!

And walked through the Exploratoriam!! I felt like we were in another country! It was beautiful... just plopped right in the middle of a neighborhood! I was jealous to say the least.

Its been wonderful so far! Headed to Monterey/Carmel today! About 2 hours and 45 mintes of driving ahead of us and Andrew read about an off the beaten path Strawberry Picking area that we might stop by!

 Thats all for now! Keep checking in for more updates on our trip! Or - connect with google connect so you'll never miss a post, giveaway or update!!