How's it going? This is Mat again - I'm actually going to share how to make a dairy-free, gluten-free  mousse pie recipe (adapted from a regular version) I made for Jen.

Ingredients:

18 oz silken tofu

7 oz dark chocolate (70% or higher)

1/2 package sugar-free dark chocolate Jello pudding mix

2 tsp vanilla

1/4 C light agave

1 6oz box crunchy dark chocolate cookies*

2 Tbsp margarine

Run the cookies in a food processor until coarsely crumbled. Melt the margarine and pour into a bowl with the cookie crumbs, then mix until the crumbs are well covered and moist. In a 9" pie tin, evenly distribute the crumb mix and press lightly with fingers. Place a piece of wrapping plastic over the tin, then use another tin to press the crumb mix until smooth. Remove the plastic and set aside.

Melt the chocolate - use either a double boiler or break into small pieces in a microwave safe bowl and heat for 45 seconds then stir until fully melted (don't cook longer or it will burn). Put tofu, chocolate, pudding mix, vanilla, and agave in a food processor or blender and blend until well blended - about 3-4 minutes.

Pour the mousse mix into the pie crust, spreading carefully to the edges. Refrigerate covered for at least 1 hour, preferably overnight.  Cut thin slices and plate with strawberries or raspberries. We also sprinkled some edible gold on top, creating a fancier look. Bon Appétit.

-images by Jen Ramos

https://sexygirlspic79.blogspot.com/2013/10/dairy-free-chocolate-mousse-pie.html

Hey everyone! I'm so excited to be sharing a recent, special experience with you. I recently stumbled across what appears to be the 'evolution of dating' – and I'm here to give you a little taste.

How many of you LOVE the idea of a great date-night but infrequently have them due to the daunting task of planning!??  There are times my husband & I are at a loss on what to do next when it comes to date night. Well, HowAboutWe, the ultimate dating source, found a way to fix that problem! It's basically a company that started out as an online dating site and then expanded to become a destination for all couples seeking a way out of their normal routines. Yup, going out can get stale when you don't have any idea where to go next! Know what I mean??

HowAboutWe prides itself in helping couples not only fall in love, but stay in love.  It allows you to discover new experiences and date ideas you may never have considered.

With DATE options like:   

• 'Dumpling Making With Bite Size Kitchen' 
• 'Roll Like VIP's at Jay Z's Club'

You can pick & choose your activity and location from a curated collection of local date experiences and just go – it's that easy!!  This is a company that def takes care of all the details. They basically just say "Hey, I've got this" and give you a wonderful date night you won't forget!  I've had the pleasure of trying it out, so can you! Feel free to check out the HowAboutWe site to discover some interesting dates!

And if the whole idea of a readily prepared date isn't great enough –  now you can take $50.00 off your first-date booking! Just click here to start browsing, dating & falling in love all over again!

Now onto OUR DATE:

My husband & I chose the, 'Veggie date at SuiteThreeOhSix Supper Club' here in NYC.

Even though we're not vegetarians, we thought this would be a pretty healthy way to spend our date night. At first glance the location seemed like a regular apt./loft building. We were buzzed inside and got into the elevator. Walked down what seemed like a residential hallway, then arrived at suite 306. When the door opened, I was surprised to see this gorgeous white loft with a long white table waiting for the guests to arrive. We sat down with some wine as the guests continued to arrive.  We were served a 5 course meal with some amazingly unique veggie dishes by chef Daphne Cheng.  I have to say,  we loved the idea of glancing over at the food being prepared as we sat & waited at our table. 

This was a fantastic experience because we normally wouldn't have tried vegan dishes & date night would've never consisted of us sitting at a table with several other couples. Both of us enjoyed the feel of the place & trying something was definitely exciting!

Shoes are by ShoeMint // Black denim with ankle zippers via Anine Bing // Popoche animal print Clutch via Jerome Dreyfuss

....who's that handsome guy on his cell phone?!

photo below via eat big apple

P.S. The $50.00 promotion is for new members only and expires 12.31.13!

this is a sponsored post

-first 7 images by jen ramos




https://sexygirlspic79.blogspot.com/2013/10/about-we-date-night.html

Hi MadeByGirl readers, it is Alison here from Heart of Gold and I am incredibly excited to share with you a rustic fall dessert that incorporates one of my favorite fall fruits, plums.  The farmers market here in New York is over-flowing with delicious fruit, in particularly stone fruit like peaches and a variety of plums. We have already approached apple season, but I wanted to really savor the season so I decided to make a galette incorporating beautiful Italian Blue Plus.  

This type of 'pie' is very easy because it doesn't require a pan and the beauty is that it doesn't look perfect, but it tastes delicious.  As the plums bake, they succumb to almost a syrup like consistency, while the nutmeg and cinnamon create a comforting taste reminiscent of fall.  

Rustic Plum Galette

Serves 6

Crust Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups flour

3 tablespoons sugar

1 cup unsalted butter, chilled and diced

2 egg yolks

1/4 cup ice water

1 egg

sanding sugar, optional 

Filling Ingredients:

1 pound plums, sliced thin

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 cup sugar

pinch of salt

Directions: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  To make the crust, combine the flour and sugar into a food processor.  Add the diced butter and pulse until mixture resembles course meal.  Slowly add the egg yolks and ice water and pulse until combined.  Pour mixture into plastic wrap, form into a ball and let chill for at least one hour in the refrigerator.  Meanwhile make the filling - add the plums, cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar and a pinch of salt and stir to combine.  Once the crust has been chilled, roll-out onto a floured surface.

Roll into a circle and arrange the plums in the center of the crust allowing for about 2 inches of overhang.  Once filling as been assembled, close the galette by folding the sides in.  Beat the remaining egg and brush onto crust and sprinkle with sanding sugar.  Bake for 25 minutes or until crust is golden brown.  Serve warm or at room temperature with whipped cream or ice cream.

- Post & Photography by Alison


https://sexygirlspic79.blogspot.com/2013/09/food-rustic-plum-galette.html

Hey! This is Mat, Jen's husband guest-posting today.

This beet salad was inspired by the beet salad served at Lincoln Restaurant in Washington, DC. - one of the best salads we've ever had. Jen was so excited about this salad, but unfortunately we live in NYC & couldn't go back again to have it. So, I thought, why not make something similar for her? You can also try this recipe, since it turned out pretty good Here we go.

Ingredients:

Raw beets, mixed colors
Sea salt
Micro-greens or sprouts
Radishes
Nicoise olives, drained
Ginger
Honey
Red wine vinegar
Olive Oil
Ahi tuna - sushi grade
Soy sauce or
Sesame seeds

If you can find baby beets, they work best but you can just as easily cut bigger ones. In a pot of boiling water, add 1/2 tsp salt and boil the beets whole until tender - about 25-30 mins for smaller ones, 45 for larger. When finished, drop into an ice bath to cool them. The outer skin should peel off easily. If larger, cut the beets into bite-sized chunks.

Finely grate some peeled ginger until you have about 1/2 tsp of mash. In a bowl, mix that with 1/4 tsp sea salt, 1/4 C honey, 1/4 C vinegar and 1/3 C olive oil. Finely chop or grate the nicoise olives into a crumb. Slice very thin slices of radish.

In a large bowl, roughly toss the beets, radishes and greens in the dressing and then place a batch into a serving bowl, spreading about 1 tsp of the olive crumb on top.

Heat a skillet with a smeared layer of olive oil. When very hot, gently place the tuna into the pan, sear for 45 seconds on one side, flip and do the same on the other. Remove from the heat and let rest.

In a small bowl, mix 1 Tbs soy sauce with 1 tsp honey. Slice the tuna into 1/4" slices and plate, then drizzle with the soy mix. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

The original recipe calls for sunflower sprouts for the micro-greens but you can substitute with any hearty stemmed green such as daikon sprouts or snow pea shoots. Traditionally beet salads are served with mache, which is also a good green but more difficult to find and a bit delicate.

images by jen ramos

https://sexygirlspic79.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-perfect-beet-salad.html

Hello MBG!  Fallon here sharing with you a delicious way to enjoy what is left of summer.  Can you believe Fall is right around the corner?  I for one couldn't be more thrilled (it's my favorite season after all) but that doesn't mean I'm not going to spend the next few weeks enjoying all the summer fruit options while I still can.  I made this appetizer for dinner and ended up eating every last one, never making it to my main course. That's what I love about crostini's they are perfect for an appetizer when having friends over for dinner,  but also work well as a quick and delicious dinner for one.

   
Ingredients:  makes 6

• 1/2  small baguette (I used a combo of Italian & pumpernickel)
• 2 oz Soft Goat Cheese (or Tofutti cream cheese for those allergic to Dairy)
• 1 Peach
• 1 handful of fresh basil
• 2 Tbsp EVOO
• Honey for drizzle

Directions: 

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Slice bread, place on cookie sheet, and drizzle both sides with EVOO;  bake for 5 min each side
• Meanwhile slice peach and grill, both sides
• Slice basil and saute in a small pan with a dash of EVOO for approx. 3 mins, until slightly crunchy
• Remove bread from over and let cool
• Style it yummy... starting with the  goat cheese, adding the peach slice, and a pinch of crunchy basil
•  Make it sparkle with a drizzle of honey

 - recipe & photos by Fallon Carmichael, Sage & Sparkle


 
https://sexygirlspic79.blogspot.com/2013/09/food-peach-crostini-goat-cheese.html

Good morning! We recently went on a road-trip VACATION to Washington D.C. & Philly.  I'm a chicken when it comes to flying, so road trips are super ideal. For this trip, Nissan provided us with a 1-week loan of the 2014 Versa Note in addition to a $500 gift card to explore our passions & things we love to do the most.

We took a ton of photos - but I'm going to post a few before you actually get sick of it all, ha!
The first few days we drove to D.C- & it was my favorite part of the trip. Seeing the historic sites - the White House, the Capitol & the Lincoln Memorial all for the very first time.  D.C. was a very clean city overall & we loved the architecture of the buildings.

Above is my husband sitting in the Nissan VersaNote in front of the capitol building - I love that this car was our door to more during this trip!

Our hotel, The Westin Washington DC City Center was fantastic, with great service & attention to detail. Their continental breakfast was top-notch too, with some amazing Eggs Benedict.  They also had a state-of-the-art gym facility where my husband & I worked out during our stay. We'd love to stay there again during our next visit because it was such a great central location. I took advantage of the room service breakfast & ordered almost everyday we were there. At one point, it was my husband's birthday & I asked them to sign a card & deliver it with the food, & they did.  Loved that!! The room we stayed in was spacious and clean & the hotel was pretty quiet & relaxing.

While in D.C. I also explored one of my fave things to do, getting pampered at a spa. Thanks To Nissan, I got to spend some time at the Paris Alexander Day Spa - with a long hot stone massage by Tammy.  If you've never had one, you have to. So GOOD.

While driving around the city, parking was super easy. D.C.  has a COOL parking system where you can pay at the meter directly from your mobile phone. HOW? By simply downloading a free app called ParkMobile. We don't have this in NYC (that I know of) - so we were blown away at how easy & convenient it was to park with this app. We could pay directly through the app and input the amount of time we wanted to park for. Let's say we were in the museum & the meter was about to expire, the app would notify us through my iPhone & we would just add more time & money directly through our phone.  You don't even have to rush back to your car! Brilliant. Please NYC do this! 

Parking was also made easy with the Nissan VersaNote - the car has a cool technology feature called Around View® Monitor.  It uses four small superwide-angle cameras mounted on the front, side and rear of the car which provide a virtual 360° view of objects around the vehicle, with selectable split-screen close-ups of the front, rear and curb views, helping us get into tight parking spots.

I love this pic of my husband getting the car from the hotel valet  - the car appears small & compact but when you look inside, it's quite spacious.

Went to the Lincoln memorial,  museums, then some shopping in Georgetown at Intermix.

 

Breakfast in the hotel Westin Hotel room - one of my fave things!

Healthy eating at The Westin Washington DC City Center.

Had to eat at one of the MANY lunch trucks in D.C. as well as head over to get gluten & dairy free cupcakes at Sticky Fingers Bakery.

After our D.C. trip, we headed toward Philly in the VersaNote & it was a smooth & quiet ride. You can't hear a lot of the outside traffic noise, which we loved.  The car was extremely roomy and the back seat could be pushed forward creating a large flat back area - perfect for luggage.  On our way to Philly we stopped at a few Starbucks locations. As many of you know I'm a BIG coffee fan & Nissan gifted us a nice Starbucks card which we used on the trip!

We arrived at the Hotel Monaco in Philly, which was super cute. I loved it!  They really paid attention to the details of the room. The view was gorgeous as well - with lots of greenery outside our windows. Check out the mirrored headboard - so chic. I have to say, the lobby was the most impressive, with a beautiful pink wall lined with hanging brushes and carpeting to die for, looked like a gigantic Franz Kline painting!

The blue velvet Chesterfield sofa in the lobby - how amazing right?

Check out the funky leopard bathrobe they had for the guests along with the bright yellow doors.

The lovely view from our hotel window while I had breakfast.

While in Philly - we decided to officially celebrate Mat's Birthday. We went to dinner at Alma De Cuba  - this was a modern Latin cuisine & by far OUR fave restaurant while on our trip. We enjoyed some lovely dishes as well as a gorgeous chocolate cigar dessert - which I surprised him with.

Thankfully we were able to get around without using a map because the NissanVersa note had a built in GPS system which we used for the entire trip. So handy.  This car is definitely on our list, if we end up buying another car. It gets great mileage - 40 MPG on the interstate, so we only had to fill the tank once and it's only $13,990 - super affordable.

this post is sponsored by Nissan.

-images by jen ramos



https://sexygirlspic79.blogspot.com/2013/09/vacation-photos.html

Fallon of Sage and Sparkle here, and I have to admit I'm pretty excited we're now in mid-September!  This month signifies Fall, my favorite season! And while Fall doesn't officially start until the 22nd, it feels perfectly appropriate to start to incorporate some "Fall Favorites" back into the mix.  For me, soup is at the top of the list, however the star of this quick and easy meal is not the soup, but rather the amazingly delicious polenta fries! Up until a few weeks ago, when I had Polenta Lasagna, I had never thought of Polenta in any other form that creamy, but there is so much you can do with polenta... seriously, check out Pinterest.

I decided Polenta Fries would be a nice addition to my favorite store bought soup, Roasted Red Pepper & Tomato Soup. Using store bought Polenta... (yes, your seeing a trend here, as I said, this meal is quick and easy, but trust me, you will be impressed), this meal took a little over 30min to make.  Keep in mind, if you have the time, polenta is easy to make, but if you wanted to make fries, you would have to let it sit in the refrigerator overnight.

 Ingredients: 

• 1 package of store bought polenta
• salt + pepper
• Olive oil
• Roasted Red Pepper & Tomato Soup
• Chives
• Fresh parmesan

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees 2. Slice the polenta in half, then thinly cut off the edges to make more rectangular, and slice into medium shaped fries

3. Drizzle a large baking tray with olive oil and place sliced polenta on top;  drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt + pepper 4. Bake for 25 min, until crispy, then turn and bake an additional 5-10 min 5. Heat soup on stove in a small sauce pan 6. Garnish soup with chives and freshly grated parmesan.  Make it sparkle with a "polenta fry fort"... and enjoy!

 -post & photos by Fallon Carmichael, Sage & Sparkle 

 
https://sexygirlspic79.blogspot.com/2013/09/food-polenta-fries.html

Hello! Lauren from Perpetually Chic here today, sharing a recipe from my mother-in-law’s kitchen to yours. You’ve likely noticed at the market that zucchini is in season? There are millions of ways to use your zucchini, but one of my favorites is this zucchini-lemon bread. It’s perfectly moist, not too sweet, and has just a hint of lemon for a fresh twist—I love eating this bread with coffee in the morning, but it’s also VERY hard not to sneak a piece as an afternoon snack, too! Keep reading for the recipe…

Zucchini & Lemon Breakfast Bread

Ingredients:

3 cups of all-purpose flour

3 teaspoons of cinnamon

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1 teaspoon of salt

3 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

1 cup sugar

3 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups grated zucchini

Zest of half a lemon + juice of half a lemon

1 cup chopped walnuts

Instructions:

1. Grease and flour two 8x4 inch pans or two muffin tins. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F.

2. In a bowl, combine shredded zucchini, lemon zest, lemon juice and chopped walnuts. Set aside.

3. In another bowl, sift together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

4. In a third bowl, beat eggs, oil, vanilla and sugar together until well combined.

5. Add your bowl of sifted ingredients into the egg-sugar mixture and mix well. Stir in the zucchini-lemon-nut mixture until everything is combined. Pour the batter into the prepared pans or muffin tins.

6. Bake for 40 minutes to an hour, until a toothpick inserted in the center of your bread or a muffin comes out clean. Time will vary based on whether you use the bread pans or muffin tins. Let the pans or muffin tins cool on a rack for 20 minutes…if you can!

7. If you want to freeze the second loaf or some of the muffins, just wrap them individually with Saran wrap and place in a freezer Ziploc bag. To thaw, just let sit on the counter until they come to room temperature.

*Photos and recipe by Lauren Craig


https://sexygirlspic79.blogspot.com/2013/08/food-zucchini-lemon-breakfast-bread.html