Travel Adventures: Horicon Marsh

What a windy but fun little hiking day. We wanted to go somewhere we had not been before and Ryan found this place after a little research. It was honestly really cool. The wind whipped around us the entire time since we were in the marsh but it was beautiful and peaceful there. We even saw a little oppossum rambling around out on the ice. Here are some photo highlights from our trip.

I earned the heck out of this Big Mac and Shamrock shake. 

Brisk hike but so fun. 

Hello little wilderness friend. A opossum!

It really is pretty we will have to come back in the summer. 

Leading the way. 

I bet this is extra pretty in the summer.

Lovely view. 

I promise he had a good time. 

The map!

It was a fun day trip. I will be doing a lot of traveling this next month so stay tuned to more fun posts.

Until next time~

XoXo Emily

Mashed Cauliflower

Just plain yummy. Now I am a slacker on posts I know. It is for a good reason though I am addicted to the Olympics it is like sucking up all the free time. I don't even watch sports until this time when I literally watch like 15 hours of ice skating and snowboarding a week. Which is pretty funny. Now this has nothing to do with this awesome sneaky healthy side. I love making this because it truly reminds me of mashed potatoes if you make it just right.

What you need~
1 head of cauliflower
2-6 cloves of garlic
Olive oil
Seasoning
Milk

Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees F. Cut your cauliflower pretty small so it gets extra tender. You want the cauliflower almost mushy to make this. I lightly coat in olive oil and and season with salt and pepper. I also remove the outer layer of the garlic and roast that too with the cauliflower. While this is roasting get your food processor out. Now I have tried the blender, food processor and stand mixer. Now they all work okay but the food processor really has the ability to get the perfect mouth texture I like to mimic potatoes. Once done roasting dump all of the cauliflower and garlic into the food processor and start to blend. Slowly add your milk to get it to the texture you like. I served this with stuffed pork chops and a mushroom/onion mole sauce I made.  SUPER good and I will always love this mashed cauliflower as a side.

NOM NOM

I really just love this option instead of heavy potatoes. You can get away with eating a ton of it as well. Happy cooking.

Until next time~
XoXo Emily

Roasted Vegetables In Salad

This will change your life. I went to a pizza joint and I got a salad. I know that sounds insane but it was so good. They actually roasted broccoli and had that in the salad and I am telling you this changed my entire life. Last night for dinner I made salad and roasted broccoli and sweet peppers. It just really adds another layer of delicious flavor and depth to the salad. It is also super easy to do and people will be blown away at the extra step you took.

What you need~
Two large heads of broccoli
6 large sweet peppers
1 tablespoon of olive oil
Salt & pepper

Start by pre-heating oven to 450 degrees F. Get a large sheet pan out to place your veggies on. Dice the vegetables to a smaller size but not to tiny as they shrink when baking. Toss the veggies in your oil and I used curry oil.  I roasted mine for about 10 minutes. Let it cool before putting in the salad or if you really want to you can serve in the salad warm. I like them cooled a bit.

Chop up the veggies.

Done roasting and cooling.

Mixed in the salad. Roasted goodness.

YUM!

I know this is an extra step but it makes salads all the better. It also makes my boring salads seem a lot more exciting.

Until next time~
XoXo Emily

Orzo Pasta Salad

Just super simple and yummy. I am sure you are like what the heck is Orzo. I mean it looks like rice but it is actually pasta. It stays true to it's size when you cook it and works really well in a cold salad. I love it with a lemon sauce. I made this due to working late last night I knew it would be the perfect lunch since I packed it with veggies. I love it. I sorta feel bad for eating it all and not leaving any for Ryan. OH well.

What you need~
2 cups of orzo (cooked according to package and cooled)
1/4 cup of oil (I used lemon liquid coconut oil)
3 tablespoons of water
1/2 a cucumber diced
4 small sweet peppers diced
3 green onions diced
5 small pepperoni chopped up
1/4 cup greek olives chopped
Italian seasoning to the oil and garlic salt to taste

I really just prep all the veggies, cook the orzo and mix up the oil and seasonings. Then dump it all together and let cool before eating in 2 hours. It is amazing!

It really is fantastic and so refreshing with the lemon undertones. Try it soon.

Until next time~
XoXo Emily

Travel Adventures: Wisconsin Dells

What is better than fun in February?
We needed a bit of a mini vacation and this was fun and much needed. We ate some really tasty food and many laughs. Some highlights:

• We may have drank drinks the size of our heads. I am a sucker for a Miami vice.
• Pretty sure the man at the check-in desk hated us but we had some funny jokes. At least smile a bit dude.
• People watching is always fun. We may have saw a man wearing a 80's bright jumpsuit at the swim up bar.
• Went on a really scary water ride with the girls. We did not realize how intense it was going to be and once we dropped into a giant tunnel it got insane.
• The food. Oh goodness the food was amazing at the places we went too.
• The friendship. So many good laughs with everyone. It really was a solid weekend.

I love that I am not looking at the camera. Brandon looks happy.

Ryan is a creeper here. Classic.

We look like we are 12. Katelyn looks all smiles though.

Liz legit has a polaroid camera. This was hilarious and fun. These pictures for some reason reminded me of when we were younger. We all patiently waited for them to develop to look at them. Big smiles.

Both Friday and Saturday night we played this super fun game where you are a wizard and you need to kill the other wizards. I managed to win Saturday night. As you can see we had some yummy beverages too.

This was amazing. Handmade bloody Mary and chaser.

Yum!

Monk's has some tasty burgers. The chips where good too.

The best biscuits in gravy I have ever had at The Keg.

I am always a fan of adventures and this was a good little get away. The Wilderness were we stayed was nice. Our giant rooms were relatively nice. This place is huge so be prepared to walk a lot.

Until next time~
XoXo Emily