New office

It has been 6 months in the making and now my home office is complete. I am so so please with how it turned out, I personally can not work in a space that I am not comfortable in. Since I spend hours at a time editing and blogging it was important and worth the work to create a space that I absolutely loved. One of my main obstacles was finding the RIGHT desk. I looked and looked some more and never found one that was "the look" I was going for. I found a desk on Pinterest that I loved and with some help from a talented and amazing couple the built me my dream desk. I have become a huge fan of "rustic" things or as my husband calls it old so this is the direction I wanted to go with for my decor. The desk along with some mix-matched patterns and personal touched brought my vision to life.

Desk: Custom Made (you can find plans for desk very similar on online)

 Red night stand: Marshall's

Lamp: Marshalls

Dresser: Mine from when I was young 

Throw pillows: Etsy 

Wire basket: Hobby Lobby

xoxo,

Bucket list

I was sitting on the couch the other night and my husband and I were talking about all of the things that we would like to do someday. As I was telling him some things that I have always wanted to do, I realized I have accomplished some and some are no longer accomplishable. Being the visual person I am I ran and got my notepad and starting writing down; now I want to share with all of you. I personally feel that anything is possible and even though some of my goals are might be a tad extreme working hard to get something and then finally getting it is sometimes more rewarding then the goal itself. 

Bucket List

See a whale in the wild

Meet Ellen DeGeneres

Travel to Australia 

Go skydiving 

See Michael Jackson in person :(

Own my own business

Own a motorcycle and be able to drive it 

Be on the Price is Right

Complete the Tough Mudder 

Help a stranger in a big way

Go visit the place in DC my Grandpa loved to go

Live to see a cure for MS

Be a mom 

Walk on Rodeo Dr

Go see ground zero

Release a Chinese Lantern 

Have a full six pack 

See Usher in concert

Take a cooking class

Eat italian in Italy

Go to a red carpet event 

Release a letter in a bottle 

Own a farm

Watch the Cardinals in a world series game

Go to a Victorias Secrets Fashion show 

Ride horses on a beach 

Learn to surf 

Stay in an over water bungalow 

Take a hiphop class 

xoxo,

Chocolate Banana Pancakes

I am finding that there is a healthy alternative to pretty much all the junk I used to eat, which is AMAZING. I recently started following @tastyhealth on Instagram and found that I was stalking her each day to see what yummy recipes she was posting. This morning I tried her Chocolate Banana Protein Pancakes but with no protein powder just because I don't have any.

You are going to LOVE them, they are so yummy. I seriously would rather eat these over regular pancakes, weird? I think not. 

Ingredients: 

- 1/2 cup oats

- 1/2 tsp coco

- 1 tsp baking powder

- 1 tsp honey 

- 2 egg whites 

-2/3 medium banana 

- 2 tsp unsweetened almond milk ( I didn't have any so I used my GoYin in its place)

- Mix all the ingredients together with hand blender. Fry in pan with some coconut oil for 30-45 sec each side.

Frosting:

- 1/3 cup cottage cheese

- 1/3 nonfat greek yogart

- 2-3 tbs honey (you can use sugar free syrup or agave if you want) 

- add some water for desired consistency ( I didn't add any water) 

xoxo,

FOCUS BRENDA FOCUS

I have a TERRIBLE time staying on track. I can be editing or working on something and BAM I think about where I put a pair of shoes or what everyone is doing on Facebook. In attempts to help myself stay on track I have created this little daily organizer, I don't know about you but I am visual if I can write something down and cross it off I am way more apt to getting it done. With one little check mark or cross off I feel like I am getting things accomplished and poof there comes the motivation.

I wanted to share them with you all so below are the images to save all you have to do is click the picture, save and print.  One of them I have left the "dailies" open for you to customize yourself. Hope you all enjoy and lets starting getting some stuff done :)

xoxo, 

Dark chocolate, banana, and oat muffins.

NO SUGER NO FLOUR people.... amazing right! Not only are they healthy they are so yummy. I found this recipe here but I tweaked it just a little.


If you follow the link I did pretty much everything she did but added a little but more banana, added cinnamon, and did half a cup of dark chocolate chips in all of the batter! You are going to be hooked once you try these, I don't have any kids but my husband liked them there for I can label them kid friendly  :)

xoxo,

Grilled dill pickle chicken with a summer salsa

Its finally summer here in Mid Mo, so I wanted to try a little something fresh and fun. My mom made this dill pickle chicken for me once when I was home and I loved it! Since my husband is a pickle addict I had lots of extra jars of juice I had been collecting till I had enough to marinate the chicken in. So here goes....


Take your chicken breast and place them in a baggie or bow and pour all of your pickle juice in with the chicken so they are all fully covered in juice. Place the chicken in the fridge for at least 2 hour, I did mine all day. I LOVE PICKLES :) After you have marinated simply grill or bake.

I am gradually getting better at cooking healthy for myself so, I went to my cabinet and threw this little summer salsa together.

- 1 can black beans (rinsed)
- 1 can corn
- 1 cup chopped broccolie
- half a cup chopped onion
- half a medium sized cucumber chopped
- half of a green pepper chopped
- 2 tbs any low fat vinaigrette you have laying around ( you can substitute 1 tbs balsamic vinegar and olive oil if you don't have any)
- red pepper flakes to taste ( I like my food SPICY so I added a lot)
- salt and pepper to taste

You can really play around with this any way you want add or substitute any of the veggies, everything I used is just what I happened to have already. Nate came home and decided he wanted to make a wrap out of it, so with a little hot sauce he devoured them. Have fun with it and make your own concoction. Comment below and tell me how you made yours or changed it up.


xoxo,