Quinoa Beanballs

I like this variation of a meatball as they are hearty and have a fantastic texture. The sage and paprika together will bring through a meatier, smoky flavor. This recipe created ~24 balls and they can be kept in the refrigerator, uncooked, up to 1 week or you can freeze them for about a month. 

1 cup dry quinoa
2 cups vegetable broth or water
1 can Great Northern White Beans
1 jar sundried tomatoes, with oil (4oz jar)
2 whole cloves of garlic
1.5 tsp paprika
1 tbsp sage
0.5 tbsp parsley
salt, to taste
black pepper, to taste

**PREHEAT YOUR OVEN BEFORE GETTING STARTED: 375° F

1. Blend the Beans and tomatoes! In a food processor or blender, you will want to pulse the beans along with the garlic and sundried tomatoes until smooth. Once this is done, set aside. No need to strain the tomatoes prior to adding to the food processor: the oil from the tomatoes will assist in holding the mixture together. 
2. Rinse the Quinoa. If you are using a quinoa that is not pre-rinsed, you will want to rinse the quinoa.* You can rinse quinoa by using a fine sieve and running warm water over the quinoa while agitating the quinoa a bit with your hands or a spoon.
3. Cook Your Quinoa. I like to cook my quinoa in vegetable broth. Combine the broth and quinoa in a saucepan, bring to a boil. Once boiling lower the heat and cover your saucepan. It will take 10-15 minutes for the quinoa to cook. Cooked quinoa will be fluffy and most (if not all) of the liquid will be absorbed.** I then let the quinoa rest for a few minutes, removed from heat so that it cools a bit before being handled.
4. Mix it all together. Once your quinoa has cooled a bit, combine the bean mixture and quinoa in a large mixing bowl. At this point, you will also add your spices: the sage, paprika, black pepper, and salt. The mixture should be tacky (that's the beauty of the white beans! food glue!) 
5. MAKE THE BALLS. roll the mixture with your palms into 1.5inch balls. I like to scoop the mixture into my palm using a spoon -- this creates less mess. Once you have your balls, place them gently on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. 
6. Bake at 375° for ~35 minutes. The outside will brown a bit. 

These quinoa and bean balls are great with pasta. I like to add these into my marinara and simmer for a few minutes prior to serving. I'd image these would be AWESOME on a sub too :)
 

*Rinsing quinoa removes the natural coating on it. If you do not do this, your quinoa might taste a little more bitter than you're expecting. Some brands of boxed quinoa comes pre-rinsed so no effort is needed there :) If you buy bulk foods, you will need to rinse! 
**Cooked quinoa will have "germ" (the outer ring of the quinoa) start to separate from the seed. 

2017 Favorites: Cosmetics

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There were quite a few products purchased this year, so I will keep this extremely brief. The below are the items that I kept revisiting and became staples in my cosmetics drawers and now I cannot imagine what makeup life would be like without them ;)

image from my instagram - lcatkinson

Fenty Beauty Stunna Lip Paint

This is both a recently released product and recent purchase of mine -- Beyond it being recent and fresh in my mind, this is one of the best lipsticks I have purchase in a while (and yes, I own a lot) The color payoff is honestly, unreal. The application is both smooth and feels luxurious. Once dry, this lip paint is more of a matte-velvet finish. The only downside is there is some transfer when eating but the color lasts all day otherwise! 

I am hoping that this product results in additional colors in the line and I am confident that as soon as those colors are released, they would sell out immediately. 

Image via TomFord.com

Tom Ford Lipstick - BOYS&GIRLS Collection

Not only is the packaging perfectly Tom Ford, the ad campaigns for this line are some of my favorite. The images are striking and sexy. 
I picked up the shade "Evan" which happens to be my most worn lipstick at the moment. It's a mauve-y nude and looks great on both glammed up and effortless days. This lipstick is a creamy matte: It applies smoothly but has a matte finish. 

image from drunkelephant.com

Drunk Elephant - like, everything...
This year I've been really focusing on skincare. One of the brands that I cannot get enough of is Drunk Elephant: I love nearly every product of theirs that I have purchased. My favorite has been a secret to keeping my skin in great condition all year: The T.L.C. Framboos™ Glycolic Night Serum. This stuff kept my skin smooth (I tend to get dry patches on my cheeks and the skin is stubborn to lift) and the Night Serum allowed for a beautiful exfoliation -- you can feel it working without the harsh impact or burning. 

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What cosmetics and beauty items to you grab this year and love? 

My Week in Movies: December 3 - December 9

This was a lighter week for movies with only two movies being watched. 

Image via variety.com

The Revenant (2015)
Prior to watching this at home this week, I had only viewed The Revenant once before in theaters. Although I enjoyed the movie in theaters, I had a not so great experience of sitting too close to the screen. So watching this at home proved to be a better experience. 
The director Alejandro González Iñárritu has an interesting range of filmmaking and I'd say that the only common thread is that many of the stories are grim and have hints of supernatural/metaphysical plane involved. 
There's a reason that DiCaprio finally got his his Oscar with this one. He plays emotional, apathetic, tough, and quiet all so well in this film: it is his most dynamic performance. 
This gets 4 stars for me. It is one of the most beautifully shot movies of recent years. 

Image via IMDb

Sun Choke (2016)
This was a rough watch. A rough watch that I loved.
Our main is a twenty-something year old suffering from psychological trauma and under the watch of a caretaker is going through some...interesting holistic treatment. 
At the start, I was unsure whether to be sympathetic towards the main character but as the story unfolds, I felt a disconnect from both the main and her nanny as they both carry darkness and disturbing habits. That only further rang true as the movie progressed. 
This takes you on a slow but wild ride where at first you are hoping for vengeance and then you are looking towards relief. 
I give this one 4 stars for originality, cinematography, and pure creepiness. 

Throwback Thursday: Pictures from the past few years

Not sure what it is about the holiday season, but it always has me reminiscing of where I've been and all that has happened in the past few years. It got me scrolling through photos and I figured I'd share simply the photos from December 7. 

2016:

On 12/7/16 Jesse sent me an Usagi and Luna funko pop to my office. It was a cute surprise and this now sits on my desk at home. She's the guardian of my work habits, too 😊

2015:

Nothing has changed. I take a lot of pictures of my food now and did then as well. This was captioned as being a salad made with leftovers. A "kitchen sink" salad, if you will. 

2014:

This is just a shot of our livingroom. It's changed so much from 2014 -- we had just moved in and knew that we finally had a more permanent place to live but hadn't really spent the time decorating to our liking yet. I remember that our apartment (especially the livingroom) still felt like a hodge-podge of furniture and wall decor but there wasn't much that we absolutely loved. Looking back on this, I am glad we've taken the time this year to really decorate our apartment exactly as we want it. We've also gotten rid of so much clutter: looking at this picture, all I see is mess (I know, that's just me) 

2013:

Ahead of the holidays in 2013, I was eating extremely clean. There was a point where about 75-80% of my meals were raw foods. It paid off because I was in great shape and felt good. Looking at this encourages me to get back to eating clean but not taking it to such extremes. 

2012: 

And finally, a selfie. This is actually the oldest picture on my instagram too and was posted in March. Looking through my photo library, however, it's conveniently taken on December 7. I look younger, of course, but not that different really 

My Week in Movies: November 26 - December 2

A new thing that I am starting is to watch as many movies as possible in a week. I've been focusing my attention on de-stressing and taking time for myself throughout the week. Part of this is breaking up routine with things that I enjoy. The best break for me is watching movies.

In the coming weeks, I will re-watch old classics, see new horror and experience recent releases. The goal is to not watch only new movies but to also watch films I haven't seen in a while.

I will post brief impressions and reviews here... if you hate spoilers, better to not read (although I will keep them to a minimum)

This week:

What We Become
A Danish zombie movie. Slowly everyone in a smalltown becomes quarantined and it is unclear who is infected and who is clean. 
This sticks to every zombie method: bleak apocalypse. 
Spoiler alert: this doesn't end as happy as most zombie movies. That's the calling card, in my opinion. 
The effects (makeup, practical, digital) were all solid -- but I do wish there were more of them. 
2.5 stars. Although I really enjoyed the plot and the visuals, this lacked anything special. 

A Dark Song
A grieving mother consults an occultist in an attempt for vengeance. The occultist takes this woman through rituals in order to see her son. 
This is cinematically... pretty. The sound is fantastically eerie and the dialogue is solid. The part where this one lost me is with some of the visuals of the alternate realms and explanation of the rites. At points, it was unclear which part of the ritual the two were partaking in and it left me questioning that instead of paying attention to the plot unfolding on the screen. This was both distracting and made the pacing feel to loose. 
2 stars. The plot was original and although visually stunning, the ending felt rushed and lackluster. 

The Babysitter
Comedic gore gold.
Parents go away for the weekend quite a bit and leave their preteen son with a hot, feisty, yet super sweet babysitter. She's seemingly attentive except...The Babysitter has a dark secret: she's the leader of a pack of satanists. 

I love this Babysitter: she's relatably nerdy and a babe, yet makes deals with the devill. Lots of references to cult classics: red bikini-clad babe in the family pool à la Fast Times at Ridgemont High. A sequence of the babysitter and preteen acting out western shoot-out scenes from Billy Jack. Arguments about Star Trek. A preteen boy watching his babysitter play a round of spin the bottle. Human sacrifice...

I adore this one. 4 stars. It's original, smart, and fun. Highly recommend if you're into comedic horror. 

The Imitation Game
I am behind the "game" with this one, but here we are. 

This movie is pretty... standard. It's somewhat predictable and simple except for Benedict Cumberbatch's Alan who is exceptionally played. Alan's story is more important and compelling to me than the main plot thread. 

My love of horror films

I un-ironically, unapologetically, love horror films. And not just the good stuff: in fact, I love the cult classics and dumb stuff almost as much as the "intelligent" films. I have a lot of fun memories around watching movies with friends and family. But horror movies, I remember vividly. 

There is an adrenaline rush that makes watching a movie not only mentally engaging but also a physical entertainment. 

As someone with anxiety, this might seem a bit contradictory to what you'd expect. An unexpected physical reaction to something can be emotionally triggering to some. In many ways, the feeling that I get from watching a horror movie is somewhat therapeutic: it's like I am taking all of the anxiety that normally results in a migraine or muscle pain and channeling it into something that is temporary and even, rational. 

it's ok to be afraid and nervous about someone lurking in the corner and it's also ok to freak out over a client meeting or presentation of a big project. But I don't want either to eat me alive.

 
Horror movies give me the ability to engage with something nerve-racking and come out on the other side unscathed. That's what appeals to me. I come out knowing that everything is ok -- at least for me. 

I can remember the first time I saw a single scene of a horror film: it was Child's Play, the scene where Chucky strangles Mike as he's driving. There was a made-for-tv edit that was playing one Saturday evening. I remember my mom was at a bible study and my dad was channel surfing. He kept it on, thinking I wasn't watching, then when he realized I actually was, he quickly flipped the channel and said "Sorry, thought you were in the other room." Let's be honest, that really didn't leave a mark.

The first full movie I saw was Poltergeist, followed by Children of the Corn in my friend's basement when I was 11. The whole time that I was watching, I felt like an outsider as I was focused on the humor of both movies. To this day, I can still quote most of Poltergeist and take every opportunity to watch it once a year. 

Discover & share this Poltergeist GIF with everyone you know. GIPHY is how you search, share, discover, and create GIFs.

Discover & share this Friday The 13Th GIF with everyone you know. GIPHY is how you search, share, discover, and create GIFs.

One of my high school boyfriends and I had a movie marathon one year on halloween weekend: Freddy v. Jason, Jason X, Friday the 13th VI. I remember walking home from his house and making a mental note to revisit my favorite killer, jason voorhees, soon. 

Luckily, I visit him often now. 

 

One night, my best friend and I sat down and watched The Ring and the original Texas Chainsaw in the basement of my parent's house. She spent the hours after huddled under the covers as I attempted to convince her that there were more movies I wanted to watch. I was on a roll and my heart was racing for more.  That ended up proving futile and I allowed her to pick another movie instead, ending the evening on a rom-com. 

The first time I watched Saw was at my crush's house. His family had one of those impressive theater rooms in their basement. (for context of our evening: this was not a date. I was definitely the cool girl he watched movies with: After Saw, we also put on Irreversible and Mulholland Drive. Far from date night movies.) After our movie marathon, he lended me his copy of Saw on VHS and I drove home, proceeding to watch it three more times that weekend. 

I accidentally watched Skeleton Key in theaters in 2005, when I had gone into the theater to see a comedy (I want to say it was 40 Year Old Virgin, could be wrong) and walked into the wrong movie screen. I started watching and kept watching, knowing it was the wrong movie. (Although, I now regret my choices -- should've left for the intended film)

Prom night, I didn't party. Instead, my group watched Seven in the living room of my good friend's (a Belgian exchange student) host house while eating mini donuts and pizza.

Each week, I am searching for the next movie to be an outlet for my pent up anxiety. Do you have any horror favorites? 

Vibrant Hair Care

If you've been here longer than five minutes, you'll know that I change my hair color a lot. I've achieved these colors both in salon and at-home and I've learned a lot along the way. In a "do as I say, not as I do" manner, I wouldn't ever recommend someone color their hair at home. There are a number of reasons, main ones being that if you screw up, it could result in permanent damage to your hair cuticles and really, that's not something anyone wants.

This post is not about how-to dye your hair. This is about maintenance -- ways that I keep my color-treated hair healthy and vibrant. I'm going to give a typical disclaimer: I am not a licensed professional but I am going to give what I personally do because I get asked questions every day on how I manage my hair. I've had just about every color of the rainbow at this point. 

Leave the lightening to the professionals
Vibrant colors require light hair. If you do not have a nice base for the color, consult a professional. Lightening your hair at home can have really terrifying results if done incorrectly. It's also incredibly harsh. Let's put it this way: you are working with chemicals. Are you a chemist? No? Well, your hairstylist pretty much is. Your hair isn't the place for science experiments so don't do it! 

Color depositing conditioners
It is important that when you wash your hair, you condition it as well. Shampoo opens the cuticles of the hair, conditioners seal them -- which keeps your hair healthy. If you like science, I would highly recommend this article. We all know that colorsafe hair treatments exist and have for a long time, but what some do not know is that there are now products that deposit color safely without using dye. This is less work for you -- you don't have to dye your hair every week to keep it vibrant.

I personally use Overtone. Overtone deposits color back into your hair while conditioning it. And the biggest benefit: no longer do you as a vibrant-haired person have to rinse in cool water! That's right, overtone allows you to keep your vibrant locks while washing and conditioning with warm water. 

Wash your hair -- but don't overwash it. 
Really, going 3ish days without washing your hair is one of the best thing that you can do for your color. And use a shampoo that is gentle on color: I like Unite Moisturizing Shampoo as it's both color safe and vegan :)

Use a silk or satin  (or similar alternative fabric) pillowcase
They come with a high price but not only do these pillowcases prevent breakage, they also aid in taming bedhead between washes. Two of my favorite options are Slip (which is silk, so non-vegan) and Savvy (which is satin and vegan!)