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Tiny Toast
Happy Spring!

We experienced the nicest day in Idaho in over 180 days on Easter. The Boise area actually broke a record from the 1800s about most consecutive days under 60 degrees. Even when it did start to creep into the upper 50s, intense wind always made it less pleasant to spend time in! You don’t know how APPRECIATED that sunshine was! Brynnley and I celebrated Easter with a beautiful brunch at my parents’ house and then spent as much time outside as we could.



On Saturday I had a girlfriend come over for a little brunch together while we watched the newest episodes of Love is Blind. I have to say, I am not a reality TV junkie. My TV is typically always just rewatching Friends and Gilmore Girls episodes on repeat. But there is something about the (totally ridiculous) Netflix show Love is Blind that always hooks me. My friend Nicole and I bond over our mutual love/hate relationship with the cringy show that we can’t look away from.

I’ve had a wheel of French Brie cheese in my fridge from Costco for a bit and I needed to find a use for it. Obviously I took to Pinterest and searched “brunch recipe with brie.” I found some really pretty crostinis with melted brie, apple butter and honey. Then I remembered a recent photo I’d seen from a restaurant that used shredded hard boiled egg on top of avocado toast and I immediately wanted to recreate that as well. I decided to just make both, using crostini as my base for a few different tiny toast varieties.



French baguettes are less than $2 at the grocery store. You can slice them into whatever thickness you want your toast, and lay them out on a lined baking sheet. I sprayed them with olive oil and popped in the oven at 350 for 10 minutes. Even if they don’t have quite as much of a golden glow as you’d like, I wouldn’t cook them longer than 10 minutes. They really crunch up. A few of mine were overcooked and we joked that we needed subtitles on our show because we couldn’t hear the words over the sound of our chewing!


For our tiny toast toppings, we had mashed avocado, sliced cherry tomatoes, shredded hard boiled eggs, thinly sliced apple, cherry jam, brie cheese, honey, balsamic vinegar, and everything but the bagel seasoning. I made one of each variety and went back for seconds! You have to try this brunch idea for your next girls get together. They were SO CUTE and tasty and it really wasn’t much effort to throw together.


I’m currently in the middle of two intriguing books. April is my turn to host book club, and I picked Someone Else’s Shoes by Jojo Moyes. I loved Me Before You, which is a movie now if you aren’t interested in reading the book. As you know, I’m always in the middle of an audiobook and a physical book at the same time. Somone Else’s Shoes is my audiobook right now, which I usually listen to on 1.3x speed to get through it a little faster. Sometimes they just talk so slow! But the narrator is British and one of the characters has a THICK cockney accent which I already can’t understand so I have to put it back to normal speed. It’s so funny that she is speaking English, my native language, and it is still so difficult to grasp what she’s saying. Sometimes I’m listening in my car and I just giggle because it truly sounds like someone speaking a foreign language haha.
The physical book I’m reading right now is The Younger Wife, which my friend Rebecca sent to me in her birthday present for Brynnley which was so sweet! The next episodes of Love is Blind don’t come out until Friday so I should be able to get in a few more chapters tonight and tomorrow ;)

It’s almost time to pick out my seeds and plant my vegetable garden again! This will be my third spring/summer growing a little veggie patch in my backyard garden box and I’m excited for Brynnley to be old enough to come water it with me and watch everything grow. She will at least be able to share some fresh picked blackberries with me! Those are my mini updates for this spring so far, and I will leave you with some Easter cuteness until my next post. :)


Sprint to the Finish
I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve logged on and intended to type up a quick post. But then my Excel sheet to-do list reminds me about the dozen other high-priority tasks to tackle that I can’t justify postponing. In a week, my junior year of college will be over. Finals and group projects and term papers will be done. And I will regain my sanity. :)
But I have a moment now, and not a clue where to start…
There was Easter brunch, inspired by Pinterest:
In the midst of chaotic days, there were several drives out to my peaceful place:
Group projects consumed my life. There were a few spontaneous froyo stops with friends for some chocolate therapy. We’ve given ourselves a “free pass” on our diet for the last couple weeks of school. Projects, papers, presentations, final exams, packing, workouts, appointments, meetings and every day life….it can be stressful. This is the time to go a little easy on yourself and just do the best you can.
Then Ellie Goulding came to town:
Ellie was amazing live! Her voice is so angelic. People-watching the drunken freshman in crop tops and flower crowns was hilarious. And we sang along to every word we knew. “God knows I’m not dying but I’ll bleed now. And God knows it’s the only way to heal now.” “It’s a shame you don’t know what you’re running from….you know this your biggest mistake. What a waste, what a waste, what a waste.” “And I don’t know where I’m going, but I know it’s gonna be a long time…Wanna hear your beating heart, tonight.” “
The year-ending brunch for the college of business was another opportunity to dress like a “grown-up.”
I stuck with good ole’ Special K for breakfast though ;)
I have one more very exciting life event to share……
.. but I’m going to have to save that for it’s own post next time ;)
Seven more days until I move back home for the summer and reunite with my snuggle buddy Missy. I can’t believe my junior year of college is already over, but at the same time I need it to just end. This has been one of the most stressful and overwhelming semesters, academically. Fall will bring a fresh start after a summer full of eating clean and building up my running mileage again. :)
But I still have finals to get through first! Time for a best-friend-study-date. Every semester Kerri and I spend finals week together for evening study sessions with country music, Sprout’s coffee, snacks on snacks, and sporadic dance breaks :)
Easter Brunch & Lemony Pasta Salad
I couldn’t have picked a better way to spend my Easter Sunday. After rising extra early for a church service with one of my best friends Kerri, we got to enjoy the radiant sunshine and bright blue sky. It was glorious! Knocked out an 8-miler before noon with plenty of time to get ready for our Girl’s Team Easter Brunch.
We see each other daily at practice, when we are not trying to impress anyone. T-shirts and spandex. Make-up is minimal. Don’t even ask about my hair. Blatantly mismatched outfits have become normal, especially when it’s getting closer to laundry day…We have mastered getting ready for practice in under 15 minutes. Which is why getting dressed up in our Sunday Best was so fun! Dresses and heels obviously warranted some photographic proof that we can, in fact, look girly.
Kerri and I got a ride from our friends Emily and Carissa……when we got in the car, we noticed that we all happened to be sporting denim jackets. Classic.
The brunch was potluck style, and our team can cook! The table looked amazing with homemade goodies from everyone. I knew I wanted to bring something light and springy, so I turned to my faithful Pinterest for some recipe-searching. The result:
Light Lemony Pasta Salad.
- 1 lb. cooked pasta noodles
- Drizzle of olive oil
- 2 minced garlic cloves
- zest and juice of 2 lemons
- salt and pepper to preference
- 10 oz. non-fat greek yogurt
- 12 oz. low-sodium chicken broth
- 2 cups arugula
- 1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
- 1 cup steamed edamame, shelled
- Cook and drain pasta; set aside.
- Heat olive oil in medium sauce pan, brown garlic for about one minute. Add in lemon juice, lemon zest, chicken broth and salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, and allow to simmer for 15 minutes.
- Add sauce to pasta; add in arugula, tomatoes, and edamame.
- Stir in greek yogurt; chill overnight.
- Top with fresh lemon slices and serve cold!
Our meal was rounded out with some fresh pineapple, kale chips, chicken salad sandwiches, homemade whole wheat cinnamon rolls and other delicious dishes.
Next on the agenda: dyeing eggs! Guess what? Water and food coloring is not a sufficient substitute for vinegar and egg dye. Plan B: Expo Markers!
Hope you enjoyed you Easter weekend :) Now it’s back to the grind.