Hey Wanderer

Monday, September 30, 2013

recipe: homemade sugar-free ketchup

Recently, Casey and I cut sugar and artificial sweeteners completely our of our diet. There are many reasons why but we won't get into that much right now. Alls I'm saying is... Diet Coke. Haven't had one in 9 days. Crazy! (Casey hasn't had any diet coke in 26 days, she wins...) Anyways, in this time, we have found ourselves needing ketchup occasionally. We don't need it that much but when we do, we want to be able to use it. Everything in the store has sugar and the sugar-free kind is always a little weird (and made with artificial sweeteners). But since we have also had interest in eating mostly foods that are not processed we figured... why not just make our own? We will know exactly what is in it. And everyone will be happy. Yay! So here goes...

Homemade Sugar-free Ketchup

Ingredients:

6 oz. can Tomato Paste

2 Tbs. Mustard

1/2 cup Water

1/4 cup White Wine Vinegar

1/4 Cup Apple Cider Vinegar

2 Stevia Packets (we used SweetLeaf)

1 tsp. Salt

1 tsp. Onion Powder

1 tsp. Garlic Powder

1/2 tsp. Red Pepper Flake

1/2 tsp. Oregano

Directions:

1. In a small sauce pan over medium heat, add the water, vinegars and stevia.

2. When the stevia has dissolved, add the rest of the dry ingredients.

3. Whisk to get rid of any lumps.

4. Add the rest of the ingredients and whisk together until smooth.

5. Simmer for about 5 minutes and your ketchup is ready! If the consistency is too thick for your liking, add a little more water to loosen it up.

Makes 16 servings

Serving Size: 1 Tablespoon

Calories: 7.8

If you are like us, you immediately tried this. While it was warm. And you wanted to eat it all. It's. That. Good! But it is now in the refrigerator for the next time we make burgers. Which I hope is like, tomorrow.

xo, Savannah

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

A Refreshing Twisted Lemonade Cocktail

We know summer has come to an end, and this drink may taste like the beach. But, we will NEVER get tired of it. We created this cocktail in honor of our friends Josh + Allison. They were sailing on the East Coast this summer and now they live in Haiti. We were very sad to see them go but excited for their new adventures. The flavors in this drink are just perfect for them.

You might also like:

- Color Changing Magic Lemonade

- The Sunburn Cocktail

- Watermelon Rosemary Agua Fresca

Jally Juice

Ingredients:

1 oz. Lemon Juice

6 oz. Coconut Water with Pineapple (regular will work too)

2-3 oz. Coconut Vodka

Agave Nectar to taste

Directions: Mix it all together! If you are feeling crazy, you can coat the rim of the glass with Cream of Coconut and dip it in a mixutre of salt and sugar. Garnish with a wedge of lemon. Yummy!

We were so happy to be able to make this cocktail for J + A when we visited them in August. We had created it after they were already gone. They loved it! (Phew!) If you want to make a mocktail version, just add more coconut water in place of the coconut vodka.

If you liked this posts and would like to see more like it, please pin the image below!

Cheers!

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

go for a drive: burns farms

Well, it's been a while since we took this drive but as promised, here are too many photos of our adventure. We drove south out of Nashville (with no real plan in mind) and exited somewhere off of I-65... ended up by Arrington Vineyards so we stopped there just to look around. Soon after, we found the cutest little farm with the nicest people ever working there. They basically told us to make ourselves at home so we happily obliged. We've also included some instagram photos in here too because we always use more than one camera when we go on adventures.

I think we may be going on a little adventure today but, we only have our phones. So maybe we will do a go for a drive: iPhone version post. We will see. Have you driven anywhere lately just for the fun of it?

Monday, September 23, 2013

a review: dry shampoos

I think it would be embarassing to admit to how much we actually use dry shampoo, so we won't go there. But, I will say, we have gone through our share of dry shampoos. What we've found is that each one does something different. It all depends on what you are looking for in a dry shampoo/hair powder. What I've been looking for is something that decreases the grease look in my hair and doesn't leave a terrible residue. If I get some volume out of the dry shampoo- word. I'm getting ahead of myself, let me tell you about each of these.

1. TRESemme Fresh Start Dry Shampoo- This stuff smells AMAZING. It smells very fresh. ha. The thing about this dry shampoo is that it takes a couple minutes to use it the right way. You spray it in, wait a couple minutes, then rub it in. This decreases minimal grease. Meaning... if you haven't washed your hair in a week, it's probably not going to do what you need it to. It also gives your hair a little body.

2. Bumble and Bumble Blondish Hair Powder- Now speaking of not having washed your hair in a week, this is the stuff that WILL fix that problem. It's amazing the greasy look that this will make disappear. The only thing about this stuff is that it leaves residue in your hair. And the color comes off onto your fingers. But if no one will be touching your hair and you are in a bad hair emergency, this will make it look way better. Look is the keyword though. ;) You may feel greasy still.

3. Lulu Organics Hair Powder- This stuff takes the greasy look away but it is white so if you get too much in your hair, it's hard to blend in really well. But since this is an actual powder, it leaves your hair feeling pretty nice. Your hair just feels like hair without additional products in it.

4. Batiste Dry Shampoo- WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER! This stuff is EVERYTHING. It's the best product I have ever used, I swear. We actually bought our first bottle at T.J.Maxx. The first time we tried this, well, let's just say it was a happy time at Oh So Pretty. This stuff smells amazing, makes your hair look non-greasy, gives you TONS of body aaaand it feels so soft in your hair. No residues. It is basically everything you could ever want from a dry shampoo. Moving on.

5. Kevin Murphy Fresh Hair Dry Cleaning Spray- This stuff smells great, and it gives your hair body. It doesn't really do much in the oily hair department. It helps a little but as I said above, I want my dry shampoo to do everything. If you aren't worried about that and you just need something that smells nice, something that will give you body, and something that doesn't leave a build-up feeling in your hair, this one will work!

Well there you have it. I know there are plenty more dry shampoos out there but these are just the ones we've tried. And I'm super glad that I've found one that I really love. Do you use dry shampoo? What kind do you like?

xo, Savannah

After many many many long conversations, Casey and I have decided to add contributors to our blog. We really want to diversify our content and get a fresh take on the different things we love posting about. So, if you have a blog and are interested in contributing to Oh So Pretty, here are the details...

We are looking for contributors in the following areas:

Food/Drink, Beauty, Fashion, DIY, Decor/Design

Contributors will:

1. Have a blog of their own.

2. Contribute guest posts for 6 months.

3. Post 1 or 2 times a month on Oh So Pretty. There will be a schedule and your dates will be communicated to you in advance.

4. Have aesthetically pleasing pictures and posts.

5. Credit all images that are not your own.

Contributors will not be paid but will have a bio (and link to your blog) under a "Contributors" section on Oh So Pretty. You cannot post your contributor posts on your blog but, each of your posts will be credited to you, giving your blog more exposure.

We are looking for bloggers whose style is similar to the style of our blog. We want bloggers who can take a good photo and keep the viewer's attention throughout their post.

If you are interested, send us an e-mail at ohsoprettytheemail@gmail.com. Put "Contributors: Your Blog Name" in the subject. Include a link to your blog and what area you are interested in contributing to. We will try to respond to everyone when the final decision is made. We look forward to hearing from you, good luck!

xo, Savannah