Month: January 2019

Cocktails: The Pamplemousse

On By Cultivate WellnessIn cocktails, Recipes4 Comments
Photo by Food Photographer | Jennifer Pallian on Unsplash

It’s been a minute since I featured a cocktail recipe. I’m still trying new ones, though, so here today is one that I had recently I thought you all should know about.

But back up a second. You’ve heard me talk about our Crappy Dinner Parties, right? This past Sunday, one of our gang suggested having waffles. How fun is that?! So we divvied up the responsibilities while still trying to keep it crappy-adjacent. We had two waffle irons going, and on the side we had homemade whipped cream, berries, bacon, sausage and fruit salad. Nothing fancy (but as a side note: it was the most excited I’ve seen all of our kids get about CDP)

What *was* a little fancy was the cocktail the hosts Catherine and Mark made. I think we should be allowed to have a not-so-crappy Crappy Dinner once or twice a year, don’t you? Mark and Catherine thought it would be fun to have a brunch cocktail to accompany our brunch for dinner and it was delicious! And to think of it, Mark kept it crappy by spilling a bunch on the floor.

Featuring fresh grapefruit and lemon juices, it was the perfect cocktail to accompany our Crappy Brunch Party. Here it is!

INGREDIENTS:

1 ounce gin (preferably dry)

1/2 ounce St-Germain elderflower liqueur

1 ounce fresh grapefruit juice

1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice (I sometimes buy it pre-squeezed in bottles at Whole Foods)

1 large basil leaf or a sprig of thyme, for garnish

INSTRUCTIONS:

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add all of the ingredients except the garnish and shake well. Pour through a fine strainer over an ice sphere or straight up and garnish with the basil leaf or thyme sprig.

Cheers!

The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up: My Own Experience.

On By Cultivate WellnessIn Health and wellness, wellnessLeave a comment
A great book to help you get started. Even my dog agrees the house feels calmer.

In my opinion, and a lot of experts agree, a cluttered house leads to a cluttered mind. Higher rates of anxiety and depression can be seen in people who live in extremely cluttered environments. And when your mind is cluttered, your creativity and productivity are inhibited. As one of the foremost experts in happiness, author Gretchen Rubin has studied this extensively. She likes to say:

“Outer order contributes to inner calm.”

Gretchen Rubin


I’ve spent the last week decluttering my house. All the drawers, cabinets, storage spaces, and nooks are being methodically purged and organized one by one. I’m not finished yet, but I hope to be by the end of this week. We don’t have a lot of surface clutter, but look inside drawers and it’s a different story. This leads to me to feel like I don’t have control over my surroundings. And when I try to find something and I have to wrestle with a bunch of odds and ends in a drawer to find it, I get frustrated.

In the middle of my project, a friend told me that Marie Kondo, author of the book The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, had a new Netflix series called Tidying Up with Marie Kondo. I have read that book and used it to purge my clothes closet a few years ago. I watched the eight episodes of the series over the course of the last four days and got a lot of great tips from it. She’s calm and kind and I loved watching her process.

So, is organizing your space on your list of New Year’s Resolutions? Leave a comment below and tell me. I am amazed at how energized I feel since I’ve started decluttering. Today I’m tackling the kitchen utensils, which will make cooking even more enjoyable.


Have a great day!

Favorite Podcasts For The New Year

On By Cultivate WellnessIn exercise, Health and wellness, life hack, Nutrition, self improvementLeave a comment

I love a good podcast. I’m going through a phase right now where I just want to learn as much as possible about how to improve my daily life, whether through exercise, mindfulness, life hacks, or any number of “self improvement” type actions. I specifically am attracted to podcasts that are short and sweet. I’ve given up or severely restricted most social media and it has freed up my brain for so much more useful information. Which means I’ve been listening to podcasts like crazy lately! Below are my current five favorites, plus one that I’m excited to start listening to when it premiers later this month.

Last summer I binged on what to this day is one of my most favorite of all podcasts, Happier In Hollywood. It’s hosted by two female television writers who have been writing partners since high school. While some of what they cover is lighthearted and fluffy (like how to find the perfect black purse), they are also full of excellent job, life, fitness, nutrition, and other advice that I find so useful. They have great guests. And it’s just really fun to boot.

Happier in Hollywood is an offshoot of the Happier podcast by Gretchen Rubin. Gretchen is a writer who researches happiness and her books The Happiness Project and Happier at Home, to name a few, might sound familiar. Her podcast is also chock full of advice, all of which is designed to help you maximize your happiness quotient.

I recently discovered The Magic Pill, a podcast hosted by a Harvard Medical School physician and a health journalist. Each snippet (they are all around 8 minutes or so) is full of great information geared to inspire us to make exercise a regular part of our life. We learn the science behind exercise and all the other benefits. This is a 21 day podcast in which each day you receive an email with that day’s episode. It’s fast, it’s fun and it’s full of great info.

NPR’s Life Kit has a similar podcast called Exercise: Learn to Love It (Or At Least Like It) and it’s similarly endearing. The first episode features Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s personal trainer. It’s about 20-ish minutes long, which is the perfect amount of time to go for a brisk walk while listening.

NPR’s Life Kit also has a new podcast called Eat Your Way To A Healthier Life which premiers in mid January. I’m including it here because the promo sounds great and I’m really excited for it. I also really respond to measured, scientifically-backed nutrition advice that isn’t sensationalistic.

And lastly, I will be listening intently to Side Hustle School. For anyone who has a “side hustle” (aka: a second venture beyond your full time job or something else you do on the side even if you don’t have a full time job that provides extra income and can help satisfy your entrepreneur cravings) or anyone who aspires to have a side hustle, this is a great podcast. Most episodes are 10 minutes or less and all are full of great insight and advice.

One more fun tidbit: if you have a podcast you love and want to introduce someone to it, you can use the Gift of Podcast free printable. It’s great for people in your life who don’t know how to use podcasts, as the printable gives step by step instructions. There’s also a spot for you to write the name of the podcast as well as why you recommend it. I put one in my husband and daughter’s stockings this year.

What are your favorite podcasts? Comment in the section below!