City Traveler: What's in my Travel Bag?

I got an email the other day asking what essentials would I pack in my travel bag. I guess the answer to that question depends where I'm traveling to. My ideal vacation typically involves sand, sun and sea but recently I've been enjoying city site-seeing and I've crossed some fun cities off my bucket list (NYC, Vegas and San Francisco).

So, what's in my City Travel Bag?

Angelina Cocktail Dresses · Yohji Yamamoto Jackets · Just Cavalli Halters

Daytime Outfits: 

 ~ Flats, boots & sandals (comfortable walking shoes)

~ Shorts, leggings & jeans

~ Casual tops & sweaters

~ Casual dresses

~ Big purse/bag if you plan to buy souvenirs or go shopping

Nighttime Outfits:

~ Comfortable shoes & heels

~ Dressy tops

~ Warm jacket

~ Skinny jeans and dressy pants
~ Sparkly party dresses

~ Dressy earrings & accessories

~ Crossover purses & clutches to match my outfits

Other Essentials:
PJ's, underwear, cosmetics (deodorant, lotion, shampoo, conditioner etc.), makeup, flat-iron, reading material, phone charger, ibuprofen, granola bars/snacks.

By the way, get 15% off plus shipping with code SHOPSENSE15 at yoox.com.

What essentials do you pack for city trips?

Touring San Francisco

I have to say San Fran is one of the most beautiful cities I've ever visited and I was lucky enough to be there during a sunny (and non foggy) week. The first day I arrived, I took a taxi over to the Fisherman's Wharf and explored Pier 39, which also has a beautiful view of Alcatraz Island.

I then hopped on a double-decker bus tour and went site-seeing through the city ending at Union Square, which is where my hotel was.

Day 2: After a full day at my work conference, I hopped back on the same city bus tour to finish the rest of the tour.

We saw the Japanese Tea Garden, all the beautiful parks and historical buildings, Chinatown, and the most magnificent Golden Gate Bridge. 

I loved everything about this city and was so happy to get the opportunity to visit even though I was working most of the time.

Have you ever been to San Francisco?

Spinach Crescent Bites

I made this finger food recipe for a St Patrick's day party a couple weeks ago and I love how they turned out. It's pretty much like wrapping spinach dip into a crescent roll. I found the recipe here and changed it up a bit.

Serving size: 16 mini crescent bites

I multiplied the recipe by 2 to make 32 bites for the party. 

Ingredients:
1 can crescent dinner rolls
1 box or 1/2 bag of frozen chopped spinach, thawed & drained
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/2 block of cream cheese (softened in microwave)
1 egg, yolk only

What To Do:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Beat egg yolk and mix all ingredients together.
Grease baking sheet.
Separate the 8 crescent triangles and cut each triangle in half to make 16 small triangles.
Spoon about 1 tbsp of spinach mixture into the crescent triangle.
Bring all corners of the dough to cover spinach mixture and pinch together the ends.

Bake for approx 15 minutes or until they become lightly golden brown.

Enjoy!

Rules:

1. Follow Kate and myself via GFC and Bloglovin.

2. Link up your favorite recipes or food-related posts.

3. Grab our Recipe Swap button and link back to our blogs.

4. Be sure to visit other blogs and spread the love! ;-)

West Coast to East Coast Readjusting

Hello lovelies!

I spent most of last week in San Francisco for a work conference and woke up at the ungodly hour of 3:30 am on Friday to catch my flight back to Florida. Thankfully, I returned home just in time for the weekend so I had a few days to readjust to the time difference and catch up on some sleep.

A shot glass was my only souvenir from the trip. (I buy shot glasses in every country and city that I visit so I now have about 20+ shot glasses.) I had a short layover in Phoenix and loved the pretty views of the dessert from the plane.

On Friday night, I barely had enough energy to do anything so we rented American Hustle from Redbox and had a relaxing night at home. 

On Saturday, K and I went to the gym and had a lunch date at Chili's. Later in the evening we rented Dallas Buyers Club and had some wine at home. Excellent movie btw!

On Sunday, K and I went for brunch at one of my favorite restaurants. Bonefish sent me a $10 off coupon via email so I wanted to use it before it expired. They also have some delicious cocktails :-)

I had a much-needed relaxing weekend after a hectic trip and hardly any sleep last week. I'm also heading to New Orleans in two weeks so I'm happy to have some relaxing weekends in between traveling. 

Hope you had a great weekend too!

Joining Bella & Lisa for Weekend Recap and Molly for Funday Monday.

Work Week in San Fran

Happy Friday!

Phew.... what a whirlwind, busy week. I flew in to San Francisco on Tuesday for a conference on Wed & Thurs. I've never visited California before so I wanted to squeeze in as much site-seeing as I could on my free time.

After I checked into the hotel on Tues, I had a few hours to kill so I took a taxi to Pier 39 to walk around the marina, see Alcatraz island and enjoy the sunny 70 degree weather outside.

Later in the evening I met up with friends/coworkers that live in the city. They invited me to a networking event that had free drinks and food.

After working all day on Wednesday, I hopped on a double-decker city bus tour to see all the main tourist attractions including the most beautiful Golden Gate bridge.

The tour guide said the bridge is typically foggy and only about 75 days of the year is as clear as it was for us to view and take pictures of the bridge. It was beautiful!

The bus tour ended back at Pier 39 so I hopped off the tour and had a nice seafood dinner before heading back to the hotel.

This morning I had to wake up at 3:30 am to catch my flight so I'll probably be sleeping all the way home on the plane.

Happy Friday!

Joining Lauren for H54F and April for Five on Friday.

Homemade Juice Cleanse

Well this isn't your typical Thirsty Thursday post. I did a 2-day juice cleanse recently and many of you asked if I could share the recipes so here ya go. I stumbled upon this homemade juice cleanse on Pinterest from this site and decided to try it out. You can find the full grocery list and more detailed recipes on that site.

You drink 6 juices per day and it's suggested to do the cleanse from 1-3 days.

 

Here's all the ingredients I purchased for the cleanse. (My fridge could barely close)

Juice 1: The Greens

Ingredients:

1 bunch kale

Handful of spinach

1 small head of romaine

1/2 bunch parsley

1 cucumber

6 stalks of celery

2 large green apples

1 lemon

Juice 2: The Hydrator

Ingredients:

1" ginger

1 bunch kale

1 bunch mint

1 cucumber

1 lemon (with rind)

2 cups chopped pineapple

1 apple 

Juice 3: The Greens + Ginger

Ingredients:

1 bunch kale

Handful of spinach

1 small head of romaine

1/2 bunch parsley

1 cucumber

6 stalks of celery

2 large green apples

1 lemon

2" ginger

Juice 4: The Roots

Ingredients:

2" ginger

2 beets (with greens)

1 lemon (with rind)

2 apples

3 carrots

Juice 5: Hydrate & Digest

Ingredients:

2 cucumbers

1 lemon

2 cups pineapple

1 cup coconut water

1/2 cup aloe vera juice

Juice 6: Almond Milk

Ingredients:

32 oz organic almond milk

1 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp nutmet

2 tbsp vanilla

Pinch of salt

Optional: 2 packets raw stevia

Let me know if you have any questions about the cleanse.

xoxo

Meet Rebekah + Amazon Giveaway

Happy hump day lovelies! 

I have a special lady posting for me today while I'm in San Francisco for work. Rebekah lives in one of my favorite cities and has some exciting travel adventures lined up so feel free to stop by her blog and share the love! 

------------------------------------

Hi everyone! I'm Rebekah from Blue Giraffes and Concrete Jungles, a lifestyle blog about myself and my crazy adventures in NYC! Emily has been so kind to let me takeover today and I wanted you all to get to know me and my blog better:

I'm so excited to also be sponsoring a great giveaway- a $25 Amazon gift card! I don't know about the rest of you but to me Amazon is the bees knees. I order half of my life from there, between new books for my kindle, household supplies and shoes. Basically any and everything is available.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I hope you can all come over and say Hello! I'm looking forward to getting to know each and everyone of you now.... 

Recipe Swap: Tomato Basil Soup

Tomato Basil soup is one of my favorite soups and I was so happy to find a recipe that was easy to make and tasted better than any others I've tried at restaurants or packaged/canned soups. I used this recipe from Shared Appetite.

I changed up the ingredients just a bit like only using one onion instead of two but used all the main ingredients.

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 large yellow onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes

4 cups good-quality chicken stock

Ground black pepper & salt

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1 bunch basil, chopped

What To Do:
 Dice onion and cook on medium heat with olive oil in a large pot or dutch oven about 10-15 minutes.

Mince garlic and add to the pot once the onions become soft and start turning golden brown. Cook for another minute.

Add tomatoes and chicken stock to the pot and season with ground pepper and salt. Bring the mixture to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer covered for 15 minutes.

 

Puree the mixture using a blender or food processor and return to the pot.

Add cream and basil to the mixture and simmer for another 15 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes before serving.

Optional toppings: grated parmesan or chopped basil leaves.

Enjoy!

 
  
Rules:

1. Follow Kate and myself via GFC and Bloglovin.

2. Link up your favorite recipes or food-related posts.

3. Grab our Recipe Swap button and link back to our blogs.

4. Be sure to visit other blogs and spread the love! ;-)

Weekend Recap & St Patty's Celebrations

Happy St Patrick's Day!

As usual, Monday sneaks up on us too quickly, especially after a fun weekend but I'm excited to fly to San Francisco tomorrow so fun times are ahead...

After work on Friday, I went to a basketball game: Magic vs. Wizards with work peeps. The company bought us club level seats and K got to come along.  Of course the Magic lost, they have been totally sucking recently but I was glad to make it to at least one game for the season.

After the game we got to go on the court and take a group photo with the Magic dancers.

On Saturday, K and I went to the gym and had a sushi lunch date. So excited to finally eat "normal" food again after removing my wisdom teeth a couple weeks ago. 

Saturday night:

We went to a friend's St Patrick's party so got to catch up with friends and enjoy a night of Irish food and tons of drinks.

~ I made spinach and cream cheese crescent bites for the party (recipe to come soon)

~ My St Patrick's shirt that I've had for over 5 years now.

~ All the girls decorated in green.

~ Friends even showed up in kilts.

~ St Patty's party decor.

~ My and one of favorite girls who came into town for the party.

~ Green cupcakes with gold coins.

It was such a fun night!

Sunday was a nice, lazy day at home. I did laundry, prepped some food for the week and started packing for San Fran.

Joining Bella and Lisa for Weekend Recap.

 

How was your weekend?

Did you celebrate St Patrick's Day?