Today I'm linking up for the (unofficial) Winter Pinterest Challenge.  I say unofficial because it's not hosted by Pinterest, but it IS hosted by a couple of my favorite DIY bloggers.  Check out the list and visit their sites to see all of the amazing projects that people have linked up.

Sherry from Young House Love
Katie from Bower Power
Megan from The Remodeled Life
Michelle from Decor & The Dog

The idea is to stop pinning (gasp!) and start doing.  Take one (or ten) of those pins and actually DO them.  This has been a busy week for me so I didn't tackle anything brand new, but I have done a few projects based on Pinterest in the past so I'm (sorta) cheating and just dusting those posts off for this challenge.
 

First up, the coffee crate table.  This is one of my most popular posts and it's largely because of Pinterest.  I had seen a picture of a crate table floating around, but no tutorial so I decided to make my own and share it. 

It's so simple and you can find all of the materials at a craft store.  The whole project cost me less than $60.  Click here to view the full post and tutorial.

Next up, the children's height ruler.  Anyone on Pinterest knows that this one is everywhere.  There are loads of versions out there so if you're thinking about building one, just browse around and see what speaks to you. 

The ruler I built was for my friend's sweet daughter and it hangs in her nursery.  We kept the ruler neutral so she could let all of her kids use it (one day) and just mark their heights with different colors.  They'll eventually move it to their playroom, but for now it looks so cute where it is. 

Click here to view the full post and tutorial.      

Last, but not least, is the headboard made from basic lumber.  The whole project took two afternoons, including dry time for the stain, and cost less than $40.  I whitewashed the boards so that you can still see the grain and knots in the wood.   

A headboard is a simple way to make a bedroom look more polished.  We don't have any art on our walls yet, but this gives our room character and makes it look less like a plain 'ole boring bedroom. 

Click here to view the full post and tutorial.

Happy Monday, y'all!  As we're all gearing up for the week, I thought I'd share a few of my favorite books and blogs that inspire me to create healthy, Earth-conscious recipes at home.  Enjoy!

I'm not normally a gym workout kinda girl, but this Chicago winter is starting to break me.  I can't run on the sidewalks without slipping on ice and the wind by the lake makes me wish I was back in bed.  In short, the things I love about running outside are being overpowered by the damn winter. 

Sure, I can still do yoga and lift weights in the comfort of my own cozy home, but this girl likes to run!  So, I caved.  I got a gym membership.  I tacked on to Serial's membership and took advantage of the new year specials (yep, they're still in effect) so it really didn't cost very much and we are certainly making the most if it.

Serial plays basketball there a few times a week and I mostly use the treadmills with a few yoga classes thrown in for good measure.  I keep threatening to take a spin class, but I haven't cashed in on that one yet. 

For the days that I use the treadmill, I've found that I am really easily bored while I run.  Don't get me wrong, running is my jam.  And if you give me an outdoor trail, I can zone out and just enjoy the process of running.  I don't even use music most of the time. 

But the treadmill?  Eek, so boring.  Each machine has a TV, which definitely helps, but even a Property Brothers marathon wouldn't keep my attention for a full hour.  Thankfully, I've found that using intervals and incline variations makes the time go by much faster than simply running for an hour. 

In case anyone else is in the same boat, I thought I would share one my my go-to routines.  If you run faster than 6 mph, then you can just go faster during those intervals.  Similarly, if you want more of a break in between the runs or if the inclines are too tough, you can adjust the walking speeds accordingly.  The point is just to change up running with walking on an incline. 

How do you keep things interesting on the treadmill?  I'd love to hear suggestions to help me get through these next few months!

This post is part of a series on Chicagoland Parks.  You can read more about how we are finding the woods while living in the city here.  You can read all of the posts in this series here.

This past week we had a few really cold days.  The kind of cold that you can actually see just by looking out the window.  So like the crazy fools that we are, we bundled up and made our way to a trail.  We were spending a few days at my cousin's wonderful lake house in Indiana so we had a chance to explore the area a bit.  The trail that we liked best was a short one, but a really pretty one. 

The Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore is a really large park about 60 miles from Chicago and there several different areas to check out.  Mount Baldy is a 126 foot sand dune with a trail that leads to the beach and a trail that leads to the summit of the dune.  You can read more about the park here.

We really liked this little hike and it was a great chance to be alone in the woods.  Turns out that we're the only crazies who decided to walk the park in 10 degree weather.  Go figure. 

I would imagine that this would be a gem in the summer too.  It's not the main beach at the Dunes, which is always crowded, and it's very easy to get to.  And the parking lot doesn't lead directly to the beach which, surprisingly, deters some people.  That's their loss though because the trail to the beach is short and easy enough for kids making it the perfect little jaunt.

After Mt. Baldy we drove up the road a bit and found an old forest road.  This is one of our favorite things to do.  Large state or national parks usually have several roads around the outskirts and they don't have as much foot traffic as the trails do.  We love that because Rooney can run free and we don't worry about running into other people or other dogs. 

Making milk out of sunflower seeds isn't something we had done before today, but we had been thinking about it for awhile.  I'm always curious about new recipe adventures so we soaked the seeds yesterday and made the milk this morning.  It's definitely not as sweet or creamy as the cashew milk or the almond milk we make, but I think it would be great in smoothies or in baked goods.

Yields: 3 cups milk & 1 cup pulp

1 cup raw sunflower seeds
3 cups water
2 tbsp raw agave (or other raw sweetener)
1 tsp vanilla
1 dash salt
Cheesecloth

1. Soak the seeds for 8-10 hours, changing the water out every 2-3 hours. 
   
2. Drain the seeds and remove as many of the hulls as possible.  You will see that while the seeds soak, the hulls naturally separate and float to the top.  Just take a spoon and scoop out, as best as you can.  I say this because you won't be able to get every last one (unless you are incredible patient) so just get as many as you can. 
   
3. Add the seeds and the remainder of the ingredients to your food processor (we use a Ninja).  Blend until everything is mixed well and as smooth as possible.
   
4. Take your cheesecloth and drape it over a mason jar, then pour the liquid through it.  When we did it, we had to pour it in 1/2 cup increments because it doesn't easily pour through the cloth.  To get the most milk out of it, Serial would pour the 1/2 cup into the cheesecloth and then squeeze as much liquid out of it as possible.  Then he would take the remaining pulp out of the cheesecloth and set it aside.  He repeated this until he had filtered all of the milk through the cloth.
5. Once we were done, we stored the milk in an airtight container in the fridge.  Be sure to save your pulp too - it can be used in lots of recipes (click here for ideas).

We are on a nut milk kick these days.  It's just so easy to make and so delicious in coffee and smoothies.  This time we tried out almond milk.  It's really similar to the cashew milk we made, but requires an extra step to blanch the almonds before turning them into milk. 

The resulting almond milk is crisp and sweet, and a little bit thinner than the cashew milk.  I think both of these milks will be regulars in our fridge.  (To see all of our non-dairy milk recipes, click here).

Yields: 3 cups almond milk & 1 cup almond pulp

1 cup raw almonds
3 cups water
2 tbsp raw agave (or other raw sweetener)
1 tsp vanilla
1 dash salt
Cheesecloth

1. Soak the almonds for 6-8 hours, changing the water out every 2-3 hours. 
   
2. Drain the almonds and blanch them.  To do this, you soak the almonds in near boiling water for about a minute, then drain them in a colander.  While still in the colander, pour cold water over the almonds for about 15-20 seconds.  At this point, you should be able to "pop" the almonds out of their skins fairly easily.  Do this until each almond skin is removed.
   
3. Add the skinless almonds and the remainder of the ingredients to your food processor (we use a Ninja).  Blend until everything is mixed well and as smooth as possible.
   
4. Take your cheesecloth and drape it over a mason jar, then pour the liquid through it.  When we did it, we had to pour it in 1/2 cup increments because it doesn't easily pour through the cloth.  To get the most milk out of it, Serial would pour the 1/2 cup into the cheesecloth and then squeeze as much liquid out of it as possible.  Then he would take the remaining pulp out of the cheesecloth and set it aside.  He repeated this until he had filtered all of the milk through the cloth.
5. Once we were done, we stored the milk in an airtight container in the fridge.  Be sure to save your pulp too - it can be used in lots of recipes (click here for ideas).
   

First things first, let's look at what comes with the Mega Kitchen System. 

• (1) 72 oz pitcher
• (1) 8 cup food processor
  
• (2) 16 oz cups with lids
• (1) 1500 watt base (works with all of the above)

Overall:
I'm a big fan of Ninja Kitchen products and I'm borderline obsessed with my Ninja Master Prep, but this Mega Kitchen System needs a little bit of improvement before I can obsess over it too.  If the motor was a bit quieter and the blades in the food processor were more efficient at grinding hard ingredients into a fine powder, I'd be sold. 

I do love the single serve cups and I've made a lot of delicious meals with all of the containers so I do think this is a good product; I just don't know if the price tag is justified.  I suspect many see this as an affordable alternative to the more expensive systems like Vitamix, but you could get a lower end or refurbished Vitamix for not much more.  I'm still a loyal Ninja Kitchen girl, but I think I'd be happy with some of the cheaper options.

I first got this system as a gift from Serial's parents back in 2009 and I've been in love with it ever since.  My original motor died after about 3 years and I replaced it with another because I missed it so much.  But I'm getting ahead of myself, let's start with the basics of what's included with this product.

• (1) 48 oz pitcher
• (1) 16 oz bowl
• (1) 400 watt power head
• (2) storage lids
• (2) splash guards (for use with the power head)
  

If you're on Pinterest, you already know about the "Hey Girl" meme craze.  And if you're not, it's basically just taking a picture of Ryan Gosling and creating a funny little sentence...on second thought, this is hard to explain.  Let me just show you a few examples.

Funny right?  For Valentine's day this year one of my favorite blogs, Domestic Imperfection, hosted a link-up party and asked everyone to create their own Hey Girl meme with a picture of someone in their life.  You can look through the ones other bloggers posted here.  Some of them are so funny - I laughed out loud a bunch. 

And then, of course, I wanted in on this Hey Girl action.  Yeah, I'm late for the Valentine's deadline, but she extended the link-up through Saturday because of the popular response so I figured, why not?  So, here they are - enjoy!

So what do you think??  Let me know if you have a favorite :-)

Cheesecake is such a classic dessert food and while normally I'm a chocolate girl, there's something about the texture of a good cheesecake that draws me in.  I was looking for sweets the other day and I happened to have some pulp leftover from when Serial made nut milk so I decided to try my hand at a dairy-free and raw cheesecake. 

I had about a cup of raw almond pulp and I soaked another cup of cashews earlier in the morning, but if you don't have pulp you could just use 2 cups of soaked cashews (macadamia nuts would work well too).  This recipe makes a pretty large cheesecake so you could always cut this recipe in half and make a smaller one instead.  Or use a smaller pan and make a thicker cheesecake.  Work with what you have in the kitchen and have fun.

Yields: 13" round cheesecake, about an inch thick

Crust
1 cup of nuts (I used raw almonds, but you can use anything that you like)
1/4 cup agave or coconut nectar
5-6 dates (can substitute 1/2 cup raisins or dried cherries/cranberries, if desired)
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp coconut (optional)

Cheesecake Filling
2 cups of nut pulp or soaked cashews (can substitute macadamia nuts)
1/2 cup agave or coconut nectar
1/2 cup coconut oil or coconut butter
1 tbsp lemon juice

1. Start by preparing the crust.  In a food processor (I use a Ninja), blend your nuts until they are finely ground.  Add in the remaining ingredients (except the coconut) and pulse until thoroughly mixed and the crust sticks together when pressed with a spoon. 
2. Use your coconut to dust the bottom of your pan.  This will help prevent the crust from sticking to the pan in the next step.  You could use parchment paper instead, if you prefer. 
   
3. Spread your crust mixture into the pan and press down using a spoon or spatula until it forms an even, solid crust base.  Place in the fridge while you prepare the filling.
   
4. For your filling, start by draining the water from the nuts you were soaking and give them a quick rinse with fresh water.  Place the rinsed nuts in a food processor with the nut pulp and pulse until relatively smooth (it doesn't need to be perfectly smooth yet).
   
5. Add in the remaining ingredients and continue to blend/pulse until the mixture is smooth.  You may need to stop blending and scrape down the sides of the food processor a few times, but it will eventually be really smooth. 
   
6. Spread the mixture evenly on top of the crust and place back in the fridge to firm up a little.  Leave it in for at least 10-15 minutes, but it's best after an hour or so. 
   
7. (Optional) To give your cheesecake an extra kick, you can add toppings.  Since I used a fairly large pan, I had a lot of surface area to work with and decided to try out a few different toppings.  I had a jar of low sugar blueberry preserves so I simply spread that on top of the cheesecake for one section.  For another section, I made a raw chocolate and let it harden on top.  And of course, I left one section plain to just enjoy the cheesecake.  Be creative - there are so many yummy toppings you could add to this recipe. 
   

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