And the spread- Oh the spread! Halibut with mango salsa, sweet potato mash, strawberries and candied walnuts tossed in spinach and balsamic, Brie cheese baked in puff pastry with raspberry jam and two jugs of iced tea. While everything was amazing, there was one salad in particular that tempted me back for scoop after scoop – a recipe I immediately picked up and then brought my own version to the bachelorette party I was at last weekend. I’m telling you – this salad is amazing, and the only thing you’ll need to bring along this summer to barbecues with friends (well, that and some sangria, perhaps).

The secret ingredient? Newman’s Own Light Lime Vinaigrette – a rare salad dressing that I scoured FIVE grocery stores to find. But it’s the peanut butter to this salad’s jelly! You have to try this:

Just right click and save to print for your records!

By the way – did you know quinoa is pronounced KEEN-WAAH, and it’s a “grain” that was cultivated more than 5,000 years ago by the Incas. Here’s why you should eat it: compared to other grains, quinoa is higher in calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, iron, copper, manganese, and zinc than wheat, barley, or corn, and it’s been linked to preventing and treating diabetes, breast cancer and more. (It’s also gluten free). Hello superfood!

</dorkyhealthrant>

I’m in love with quinoa – but I’m absolutely obsessed with this lime vinaigrette! Next stop – a recipe I found on the site for the dressing – Scallop Ceviche w/Watermelon & Cucumber.

I love summer cooking!

Do you have a quinoa go-to recipe? Share it with me, lovelies!

Currently Feeling: Excited for a desk/space change at work – I love event the slightest bit of change.
Currently Anticipating: A cooking party at a new friend’s house tonight and Girl Power Hour on the patio at Joey Lake Union tomorrow!
Currently Needing: To ditch the book I’m reading and get a new one – I haven’t been reading cause it’s too slow-paced!

Life has been trucking along quite nicely these days – I’ve got a few little updates for you.

I finished my 30-day challenge – you can read my somewhat wrap-up thoughts here since they were the same for the last two weeks of the challenge. I was a couple days shy of the complete 30 days. It was tough to make it to class every day the last two weeks cause I became super burnt out. But for the most part, I did it! So, I’m back to boot camp a couple days a week, and hot yoga a couple days a week. I’m also walking to work now that the weather is nice! Two miles – 45 minutes of walking a day – so it’s been a great addition to my workouts.

Me putting the last star on the challenge board

My Fourth of July holiday weekend was one of the best ever. Choosing Lake Chelan over Seattle turned out to be the best decision I could have made since Seattle gifted everyone with grey skies and rain for the holiday. Meanwhile, I hung out in my bathing suit, drank BLs on the beach all day and finished the evening up with a crazy dance party boat ride to watch the Chelan city fireworks. Lots of funny pictures and memories of the weekend that, unfortunately, don’t belong on the Internet. Good times were had by all.

Left: All the girls at the beach. Center: Boating it. Right: Wine tasting on our way back.

My summer garden is rockin’ and rollin’. I had to upgrade my basil plant because I used it so much, I dried the first one out and killed it. So, I purchased a bigger and better one. I have basil for days! My favorite summertime dinner meal these days has been some whole wheat pasta tossed with olive oil, garlic, fresh mozerella, tomatoes and basil from my garden – finished with salt and pepper. Mmm. Someone told me our summers in Seattle don’t usually last long enough for peppers or strawberry plants, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed there. And I have a couple tiny green tomatoes that I’m watching with much love!

Caprese pasta - my summertime staple!

Turns out my work is sending me to New York City for the BlogHer 10 conference the first weekend of August. I’m super, duper excited and geeked out to meet so many bloggers and make some (hopefully) lifelong connections. I’ll get to hang out with Doniree for the first time, which I’m fantastically excited about. I feel like I’m the only 20-something blogger left in this world that doesn’t know her personally. I’ll also be hosting a fun Sex and the City walk through the city with a Kindle giveaway at the end. I think it’s going to be a fabulous, successful event, so that pushes my excitement that much further. Have I mentioned lately how much I love my job? By the way – this will be the first time I’ll have visited NYC while 21 and over. Trouble to be had! NEW YORK…. These streets will make you feel brand new…Big lights will inspire you…Let’s hear it for New York, New York, NEW YORK.

Can you think of a better event?! Excited!

I’m heading over the mountain pass again this weekend for a bachelorette party for one of my high school girl friends – lots of longtime girls of mine will be there. I hang out with all 10 of them about twice a year, so this should be interesting and fun. We’re starting off with a night out in the tiny town our cabin is in, wearing ugly bridesmaid dresses. (Thank you, Goodwill, for mine). We’re also floating a river Saturday in intertubes and then heading back out in matching tie-dyed tank tops with nicknames on the back. Mine? G-Spot Je-Spot. Yeah. That’s right. High school nickname I can’t seem to freakin’ get ride of. (For no other reason than my name being Je Anna). Should have some fun stories and pictures to share with all of you. Happy weekend!

Currently Feeling: A little bit of a nervous belly.
Currently Anticipating: Relaxing this weekend in the sun before a SUPER busy work week next week. Time to recharge!
Currently Loving: The new Eminem CD. Seriously – it’s so good. He amazes me, and brings me back to memories in high school when I used to listen to his first CD, all at the same time.

This will be the first year in forever that I’ve spent the Fourth of July outside of Seattle, and I have to admit that I’m going to miss the rooftop patio parties and fireworks on Lake Union like you would not believe. But I’m looking forward to a girly weekend of boating, sunbathing in 80-degrees, reading mags and laughing.

Hope all of you have a safe and happy holiday weekend!

God Bless America!

This little gem was posted as part of the 20-Something Bloggers Blog Carnival, in partnership with Charles Schwab.  Read more about the carnival and add your own post by clicking here.

This weekend on my way back from camping, I was flipping through Glamour - my all time fav magazine. To me, it’s the smart girl’s guide to life. Not just beauty, fashion and sex tips – but real stories of survival, news, politics and finances are peppered throughout the more fluffy pieces. I like my fluff with a side of smarts.

Ironically, I believe the piece that caught my attention most was called something along the lines of, “The Smart Girl’s Guide to Finances.”

I’m not a smart girl about finances. Not one bit.

The funny thing is – I consider myself really smart. (If I do so say myself). In almost all other facets of life except finances. (I only scored 49 points on Schwab’s Financial Fitness Quiz). I’ve been through it all – too many credit cards to pay with a less than 20K salary a year at 19, resulting in a bail-out from the parentals. Collections for parking tickets, BlockBuster movies and forgotten medical payments. Bad credit marks because I consciously decided to buy new jeans and figured I’d just double up my payment the next month. The list goes on. Normally I’d be a bit embarrassed to share details like this, but I realize throughout conversations I’ve had with girl friends, coworkers and acquaintances that a number of women my age have been through the same stuff. Why so many women I know are Thought Leaders, Activists, Mothers, Business Owners and Influencers, but still kinda bad with money?

So I read on…

The article had some really great tips from not being afraid to tell your spending-happy friends that you “just can’t afford it” and not borrowing from your future just because you feel you have to have a two-carat wedding ring (Amen), to always having a $500 cushion in your savings and six to eight months in living expenses saved.

But the best tip I think throughout the whole article was this, in a nut shell: Don’t let the banks make money off of you, and clean up unnecessary expenses.

Do you know that U.S. banks make $38 billion a year from overdraft fees? Yeah, that’s a B not an M.

Holy cow. That’s crazy. I’ve fallen in the overdraft hole for a list of $2 and $3 purchases just because I didn’t transfer money from savings in time, and my bank refuses to link the two accounts. At $35 a pop for overdraft fees, on more than one occasion, I’ve racked up $300 + in one paycheck by small mistakes. I’ve used a bank for more than two years that nickels and dimes me, but I’ve been too “busy” to switch. Additionally, I have reoccurring charges every month from previously authorized purchases or subscriptions that I really didn’t need anymore, but have been too “busy” to cancel.

But this week, I decided to take back my money in a baby step toward being financially smart.

I canceled the BooksFree.com subscription that at the time seemed like a good idea, but really I’ve been paying $10 a month for a service I’ve used twice. (That’s $120 a year!) I canceled the Web site hosting fee for a site I started to build back when I was unemployed, but never finished. At $10 a month, that’s another $120 I’m spending a year on nothing. And I finally called to cancel the #$@& credit monitoring service that’s been charging me $14.99 a month for a service I didn’t sign up for, but never seemed to find the energy to call and dispute it with them. That’s $180 a year! $420 bucks a year I was spending on charges because I couldn’t take five minutes out of my day to fix it.

Finally, I used BankRate.com (also a tip from Glamour) to research banks in my area with the lowest fees, finding a bank that can transfer money from my savings to checking if I go over. This bank also has lower NSF fees (by $15!). Turns out the a-hole bank I was using *ahem, Bank of America, ahem* are near the highest rate in every category of fees a bank can charge.

It felt really good, I tell yeah, to make choices to take back my money. Because yes, at 28, I still don’t have all this figured out.

Obvs this doesn’t make me the next Suze Orman. But, I thought it was worth “sharing the wealth,” so to speak, in a really simple switch everyone could do that wasn’t necessarily apparent to me until I read an article in a beauty magazine.

To Wanda!*

*Reference here.

Currently Feeling: Excited today marks the end of a looong month of hot yoga. Recap of my challenge coming soon!
Currently Anticipating: A celebration party tonight for Sassy Fit (and myself!)
Currently Obsessed With: Cribbage! I’ve downloaded the Cribbage iPhone app, and now I can’t get enough!

I’m a huge fan of camping. I love it more than this much *holding arms out wide.* I grew up with two families who didn’t take off on planes to Europe or Hawaii… we spent a week in the woods, eating graham crackers with honey and hot dogs on buns. I remember the first time my dad roasted me a marshmallow (and I’ve never looked back). I remember playing horseshoes and riding bikes through Mt. St. Helen’s State Park. I remember feeding chips to deer that walked up to our passing car in Deception Pass.

Seattle is a beautiful city. But one of the things I love best about it is that it’s only two hours away outside of the city to dry, warmer weather, traveling through apple fields on a two-lane highway with rolling hills, lakes and fruit stands along the way where you can stop at buy peaches for pie, homemade salsa and pickled vegetables. Eastern and Western Washington are the best of both worlds.

When I think of my past relationship – the best times I remember are camping. We traveled all over the state together. We’d even go away for three-day weekends, just the two of us, biking, swimming and playing cards under the glow of a lantern till way late in the night. (We even had a blog for it). It’s those times that make me the most sad about the relationship coming to an end. He taught me that one thing I really want in my next relationship is someone who will pack up the car and head east with me for some down home grubbiness underneath the stars.

With the exit of my last lover [of camping], however, went the exit of all my camping gear.

And here’s where I end waxing poetically.

It sucks to camp without camping gear. It hadn’t quite struck my mind how unprepared I am to do one of my most favorite pastimes until I was ready to pack up for a camp night with friends this weekend, and I looked around and realized all I had was a pillow…some couch blankets…a cooler big enough for a six pack of beer pop. Hmm. What’s a girl to do.

So I threw a yoga mat and a Snuggie I won in the back of my car, thinking I wouldn’t care too much by the time I fell asleep, and at least I’d have some padding between myself and the ground.

Big mistake. Huge.

I spent a miserable night, shoving my hands into the Snuggie. Then my feet into the arms. Then pulling my hands out of my sweatshirt to hug myself and create more body heat. Then transferring to the back seat of a Honda Civic, which was five degrees warmer but caused me to sleep in the shape of a hairpin. Then pulling on every layer I could find in my bag and around the car. Then lying beach towels on top of me, while trying not to expose my body outside of the Snuggie, while my arms were out of both sleeves and wrapped against my body for warmth. Then putting my sweatshirt hood over my face to create more warmth, but then gasping for air cause I couldn’t breath. Then thinking about all the air being breathed out of the car by me and suffocating in my sleep.

Phew. I didn’t die.

I’ve never wanted a camping partner so bad. If for nothing more than a warm body to brave the early summer cold. Or to cook me bacon in the morning. Or to set up the tent and blow up the air mattress for me. Whatever you like! The world’s your oyster!

Now accepting applications.

Currently Feeling: Proud that I took some steps toward financial changes that I’ve been wanting to make for awhile (which I’ll write about soon for the 20SB Carnival about finances. You should join too!)
Currently Anticipating: Wednesday to come. I’m super burnt out from hot yoga – love it, but need a break. Plus, I get to celebrate the end of my 30-day challenge at a fun party on Capitol Hill.
Currently Loving: Honey. On everything.

Yesterday marked my 15th day of yoga – I’m officially halfway through my 30-day challenge.

Not sure if I’m supposed to shout it from the rooftops, or be all Zen like. But, either way, I honestly feel amazing. (I’m going to speak a little bit more about yoga here than giving up consumerism because the later has been easier than the yoga).

I have to say – it’s been more like 15 classes of yoga, not days. Because as much as I hate to admit it, life happened a couple times. So, I’ve missed a couple days, going twice the next day to make up for it. (Totally acceptable according to the challenge “rules”). The trickiest part of the challenge has been just to make time for a yoga class every day. To schedule it before nighttime events, dinners or happy hours. To get up and go even when I’m hungover and feel like all I want to do is nap. To squeeze it in on my lunch, to run there in the middle of my day, shower, then run back to work. Speaking of showering – I have never showered so much in my life. Two showers a day, every day. And my skin has never been so clear. No joke. It’s so soft; it’s almost shocking. There’s something to be said about sweating out the toxins on a daily basis…it’s like instant $150 facials for free-ish.

A lot of people have asked me how I like hot yoga, and here’s what I say: the first nine days were a tug-o-war, a love/hate relationship with my body. I was hot as hell every class, a couple times feeling so uncomfortable that it was all I could do to sit in the class a minute longer. The last 20 minutes were agonizing as I mentally begged the teacher to open the door, questioned what the hell I was doing and why, and thought about how great the cool air was going to be when I left the god damn room. #$@%@

Then it was like a light switch day 10. No joke – as dorky as that sounds. Suddenly my body became a little bit more used to the heat, making each class more bearable. I challenged myself to personally let go of all the impatience I held in during the last half of class. I told myself to simply enjoy it. Just stretch. Just push yourself a little harder. Take each pose a little further. Just breathe.

And what emerged was a crazy, euphoric feeling that is INSANE, I tell you. Absolutely insane. I still have a bad, hot-as-hell, impatient class here and there, depending on my mood. But most days, I sail to class – hauling my yoga mat and pounding in flipflops to get there in time to reserve a spot next to the door, knowing that when I leave an hour and 15 minutes later, I’m going to feel like a million bucks.

It’s not even a question of IF I want to go. It’s no longer telling myself I HAVE.TO go because of the challenge. It’s turned into what time of day, and which class, I want to go to. And thinking about how great it’s going to be when I get back into that 104-degree room. (What the…?!)

It’s like hot yoga has turned me into Holly Go Lightly – which is just weird, I tell yah.

“Oh, golly, gee damn!”*

*”Holly Go Lightly” and quote is from this movie, if you’re not familiar

Currently Feeling: Hungry – but it’s 11p.m. Dangit! I’m never good at going to bed hungry. But that whole “don’t eat past 5p.m.” is a myth, no?
Currently Anticipating: Happy hour tomorrow at one of my favorite Ballard bars, and a salmon & wine dinner on Thursday at a friend’s new condo.
Currently Loving: Fage Greek yogurt – YUM. I’ve been trying all brands, and have thought about doing a mini review. More on that soon.

Thank you, Seattle. For finally bringing me a fantastic first weekend of summer filled with barbecues, patios and friends. A weekend where I could put on my new bathing suit (even if all I did was wear it under my shorts and tank top for a whole day). It still had that awesome, it’s summer and I’m living in my bathing suit feel.

Thank you, for a weekend that started out with an amazing art show for the Greenwood-Phinney Art Walk. A friend was showing his drawings at one of the coolest, funkiest retro spaces I’ve ever been to – The Greenwood Collective. Each room in the building held different artwork and the artist – photography, paintings, sculpture. We listened to a rad DJ, drank [free] beer out of a keg and even sat in on “Art Camp for Big Kids” where we made a light switch cover out of fabulous paper and Mod Podge. If that isn’t the most random start to a Friday, I don’t know what is. Even better – I wrapped it up by dancing to Michael Jackson vs. Prince night with three of my high school girls and a gaggle of other friends. My heels now have that “I’ve danced all night in a bar” grime all over them, but the amount of fun I had makes up for it.

Thank you, Seattle, for gracing me with warmth for a good friend’s graduation barbecue on Saturday. It was my first grilled hamburger of the summer and worth the ketchup and mustard stain on my shorts (and every calorie). I caught up with some friends I don’t see very often and later sat on a sun-soaked patio for pitchers of cold beer. It was an exhausting, fun summery day that left me with sunkisses on my shoulder, full to the brim and in bed by 9 p.m.

And finally, thank you Seattle, for not only another amazing day on Sunday, but for giving me two of the best friends a girl could want. Sunday Funday for the gals… raspberry vodka with lemonade slush on a patio overlooking a lake and boats, and a pitcher of sangria followed by individual nachos “Ponchos” at one of our favorite neighborhood bars, Laredos. I mean, whoever thought of creating a nacho dish where every single chip is covered with just the right amount of beans, cheese, guac, and sour cream (topped with an individual jalapeno) is GENIUS. Pure genius, I tell yah. Are you single?

Currently Feeling: Bummed to miss out on Ignite Seattle tonight, (are you going?), but totally needing a night in. After yoga, of course!
Currently Anticipating: Doing the grocery shopping and catch up for my week that I never got to yesterday.
Currently Reading: “The Tender Bar” by J.R. Moehringer. After 10 pages, I could already tell I was going to love it.