Here’s a fun project to try this strawberry season…

Does this look familiar?

I mean, from the photo, we appear to have something I’ve blogged about before – Farm-Fresh Strawberry Shortcakes with Amaretto-Spiked Whipped Cream (click for recipe).

It looks like a rich shortcake with sugar-sweetened strawberries and fluffy, potentially-spiked, whipped cream, right?

As it turns out, looks can definitely be deceiving…

What we actually have here is a strawberry shortcake made-over for breakfast. I added one of my favorite breakfast ingredients – oats. I also used a whole grain flour (spelt), cut the sugar by not macerating the strawberries in sugar, and found a fabulous, breakfast-worthy substitute for the whipped cream – yogurt.

I’m not going to promise you that this is healthy, but it is more breakfast-friendly. Would a chocolate croissant have more butter and sugar? I don’t really know, and I don’t really care. But, anywho, you could probably use this version as another Not So Sweet dessert with even less sugar than the original. Just tell them it’s good for you because of the probiotics. Yeaaaaaa…

Breakfast Strawberry Shortcake for One

I took my dessert strawberry shortcake recipe and switched up the ingredients to make it more breakfast-friendly. I used a whole grain flour, added oats, skipped macerating the strawberries, and substituted yogurt for the whipped cream. You could probably make this even healthier by substituting a good oil (maybe coconut?) for the butter (and please report back if you do). Oh, and I took almost all of the sugar out of this baby, so if you like your breakfast sweeter, by all means, add your preferred sweetener, to taste.

*Vegetarian, Vegan Options Listed*

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup spelt flour (or flour of choice)
• 2 tablespoons oats
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon butter, cold (or sub vegan substitute, like Earth Balance)
• 3 tablespoons milk (or vegan non-dairy milk)
• 3-4 strawberries, tops removed, sliced
• 1 small container vanilla, Greek yogurt (or yogurt of choice or vegan yogurt, like a coconut-milk-based option) – or sub plain yogurt and add sweetener of choice, to taste

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F. Prepare a small baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Combine flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a medium-sized bowl. Whisk (or use a fork) to evenly combine.
3. Use a pastry cutter or fork to cut butter into the dry ingredients until the butter is in small bits (about the size of rice grains or pop rocks…yea, I said pop rocks).
4. Gently stir in the milk/non-dairy milk until just combined (careful to not over-mix, but do ensure all flour combined into dough).
5. Form dough into a ball-shape and place on the prepared baking sheet.
6. Bake for 15-18 minutes, until golden brown on top and cooked through (if a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean).
7. Allow to cool to room temperature. Cut shortcake in half. Top bottom half of shortcake with strawberries. Stir yogurt to desired texture and spoon as much as you’d like (I used about half the container) over the strawberries. Top yogurt with top half of shortcake and enjoy.

You may also like:

• Farm-Fresh Strawberry Shortcakes with Amaretto-Spiked Whipped Cream
• Green Monster Muffins (or click here for the vegan version)
• Individual Peach Blueberry Breakfast Crisp

Dessert for breakfast? You betcha.

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Thanks for reading!

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Reader question: What’s the sweetest thing you ever ate for breakfast?

When I originally started planning this series on Photography & Lightroom Organization, I expected to write just one post to cover all points. Now, I’m planning to write multiple, smaller posts that will be easier to digest and organize. I already shared the intro (which explains how this whole series came about), and now I’m ready to discuss my photography workflow. At first, my workflow was just going to be a simple sentence at the beginning of the Plan section, but after some thought, I decided that it could use some elaboration and a dedicated post. Plus, I was inspired by the workflow posts linked at the end of this post. Not to mention, I also thought this would be easier for people to share their workflows, since I’m hoping to get lots of reader feedback on each post of the series. You guys are a wealth of knowledge, and I love it when you share your know-how. Who knows? Maybe you’ll inspire me to change my workflow?

{I made a diagram for this post. Is my geek-ness showing yet?}

My Photography Workflow

1. Take Pictures – Duh! You need photos to edit and organize. But, I often will shoot photos for multiple blog posts (or for personal use) in between importing to Lightroom. Some people like to shoot one set of photos and then import right away. 1photoshoot to 1 import. I just shoot whenever I feel like it and import when I have time. I can have photos from many different events on one card at one time. Currently, I have photos from about 10 recipes, 1 themed Zumba class, 1 wedding, and a couple random blog posts. I use Lightroom to keep these straight by organizing them at Import. Once I’ve imported all the photos from the card, I format the card in my camera to delete all the photos and make space for new ones.
2. Import to Lightroom – Some people import their photos from their memory card to the computer and then to Lightroom. I choose to import straight to Lightroom. Since Lightroom is so powerful and actually creates your folder(s) on your computer and puts the images in them, I find importing straight to Lightroom saves a step. I add all my metadata and keywords during import.
3. Work with Files – I do almost all of my photo editing in Lightroom. I go through all my photos, decide which ones to edit, and edit the selected photos.
4. Export .jpgs – I export the edited photos as smaller-sized .jpgs for use in blog posts, etc.
5. Clean Up – I usually wait until I’ve published the blog post for the related photos before I go back to Lightroom and clean-up those I don’t want to keep. I usually do this so if I change my mind about any photos while I’m working on the blog post, I can go back and select a different one (or a couple) to edit and export. Usually, once I’m done with the blog post, I know with more certainty which photos I want to keep and which I want to delete. I used to be lazy and skip this step, which helped my laptop filled up with superfluous photos quite quickly. Not good. Now, I delete extra photos almost immediately, and I find it’s much easier to do this as you go, rather than returning at a later date and reviewing old folders.
6. Move External – I don’t have a good system at the moment for when I move photos to external storage. I just recently moved all my photos through 2011 to an external drive. So far, my computer is still pretty empty, so I’m in no rush to move the current photos off.

Please note: I went over each of these steps at a pretty high level because we’ll be discussing these in more detail in the other posts of the series.

While I was researching tips and tricks for this series, I stumbled upon these great posts on Photography Workflows, which you may also find helpful:

• Thomas Hawk’s Digital Connection – My Photography Workflow 2009
• Eric Scouten – Lightroom 2 Technique: How I Organize My Catalog and Why (2009 Edition) – Note: the post has a lot of great detail, but if you’re just looking for the workflow portion, it’s a piece of this whole post.

Next up in this series, I’ll go over:

• Folder and file naming conventions
• How to move folders without creating Lightroom errors
• How to work with your photos / deciding what to delete and keep
• Utilizing external storage (making space on your computer for more photos!)
• Advanced organization considerations

Reader question: What’s your photography workflow? Do you like it? What do you want to change or why do you use it the way you do?

Hey guys!

Note: If you’re a reader of TCL for food or fashion (wait a minute…you’re just reading for Bailey photos, aren’t you?), you may want to skip this one. This post is an introduction to a series I’m writing on Photography and Lightroom Organization.

So, I somewhat recently ran into a major issue related to photography and blogging. I managed to fill up my entire laptop with photos, making it very difficult for me to import new photos or new blog posts. I shoot in RAW, so this didn’t actually take very long. My problem was that I was being lazy about not only organizing my photos, but also about learning best practices for doing so. I felt like I didn’t know what I was doing, and I was too busy to research, so I just didn’t try. I procrastinated. This was a big mistake. I was also afraid of moving all my photos to an external drive because I was worried I’d do it the wrong way and/or the drive would crash and I’d lose all my photos. I didn’t clean my photos up as well as I could, sure. But, the more serious issues was that I didn’t come up with a good system to follow. So, with a laptop full to the brim with photos, I knew something had to change, and I needed to get it together. I did the best thing I knew – I consulted the experts.

I contacted 4 fellow food bloggers and professional photographers to ask for their tips and feedback. They are:

• Marc of No Recipes
• Taylor of Taylor Takes a Taste
• Laura of The Cooking Photographer
• Sean of Sean Busher Imagery

(Check out their blogs and web sites – they’re amazing!)

They were all wonderful and sent me their tips and strategies. I happily read through them, and when I had the time, I started implementing some of their suggestions. First, I worked on fixing what was broken – I created a system for how I wanted to organize my photos, and I stuck to it. Afterwards, once I had some free time, I re-organized all of my old photos and moved most of them to external storage. Now, my photos are organized (and stay that way with every import), and my laptop has plenty of space for new photos.

I’m not an expert in photography, Lightroom, or organization. But, I did think it would be helpful to others if I shared the information I collected from my photo gurus, as well as, my experience with organizing photos. The important thing to note is that there isn’t one right way to do things. There are many ways, and you’ll want to tailor your solution so it best fits you. Hopefully, some of the information from these posts or resources I share get you on the right path.

In this series, I’m going to go over:

• My photography workflow
• Folder and file naming conventions
• How to move folders without creating Lightroom errors
• How to work with your photos / deciding what to delete and keep
• Utilizing external storage (making space on your computer for more photos!)
• Advanced organization considerations

Stay tuned for more follow-up posts to come!

Oh, and if you’re a professional photographer and/or advanced Lightroom user, please feel free to weigh in at any time with your thoughts. I’m sure you have great feedback, and I invite you to share your know-how if you want.

Do you use Lightroom? Do you have any questions for now one general Photography or Lightroom Organization?

Hello TCL Readers! Hope you’re all doing well.

I’ve had so many blog post ideas swimming around in my head lately that I think I may have short-circuited. Or maybe I’m just suffering from writer’s block. Either way, I’ve been meaning to post more, and I’m going to go ahead and start getting some of these ideas published for once!

First up…I want to talk to you about closets and clothes. I’ve been thinking about mine a lot lately, and I think I want to work towards something different. I call it the “Parisian Closet”. I’ll explain the meaning in a minute, but first, let’s talk about “Then” and “Now”:

Then {Quantity Over Quality}

Back in the day, I used to be quite the bargain shopper when it came to clothes. I think I could have taken down almost any coupon mom out there in my heyday, except I just knew how to shop the sales racks (they didn’t seem to have as many coupons for clothing back in the day). Now, don’t get me wrong, I still love a good sale and a great deal. But, where I think I went wrong was that I was so focused on quantity over quality. Was there ever enough clothes in my closet? No. It could have been bulging at the seams with clothes falling out in some grotesque hoarder-esque way and I still wouldn’t have had enough. I didn’t really care how nice something was, I just wanted more. Did it look kind of cute? Is it super cheap or greatly discounted? Sold! Luckily, I didn’t have a lot of money, so the lack of funds kept me from getting too out of control. Oh, and this will sound pretty crazy, but when I was in high school, and Cher (not the singer) was my “idol”, I used to track my outfits. I’d write down what I wore to school each day in my planner so I wouldn’t wear the same thing again for at least a month (preferably never).

Now {Quality Over Quantity}

These days, I’m starting to focus on quality over quantity, and I don’t mean just expensive things. I don’t think something has to be pricey for it to be quality. I’ve just noticed that I have a ridiculous amount of clothes that I’ve collected over the last several years. Do I wear most of it? Not really. I find myself wearing a lot of the same things over and over. So, what’s the point of having all those clothes if you aren’t even going to wear them? I don’t think there is one…at least, not for me. And unlike the days of high school, I actually like wearing the same outfit repeatedly. And what I really like is when you get to wear that one special piece of jewelry or unique dress that makes you feel like a million bucks. I don’t want to have a giant closet full of okay clothes. I want a smaller closet of clothes that make me feel wonderful. I want to find more of those magical pieces and slowly collect them.

The Parisian Wardrobe {Or Parisian Closet}

I could be wrong here, but I’ve heard that Europeans tend to have less clothes than Americans. Can anyone confirm? It seems like Europeans are generally more concerned about the quality over quantity. With this idea in mind and since I love all things French, I’m nicknaming my goal the “Parisian Wardrobe.” I just think it’s more catchy than “European Wardrobe”.

Reasons

I have a few reasons, some mentioned above, why I’m working towards a “Parisian Wardrobe”:

• Wearing the same thing: I’ve noticed I wear the same things from my closet. There’s no point in cluttering up my space with stuff I don’t use. I need to purge and be more selective about what makes it in the closet. Which brings me to my next point…
• Space: We have an older house with un-renovated closets. We’re hoping to remodel one day, but let’s get real – that’s not going to happen any time soon (unless I win the lottery). I have clothes spread out between 4 tiny closets in the house, which is simply ridiculous.
• Easier to Dress: With less so-so clothes cluttering up my closet, I believe I’ll more easily be able to put outfits together.
• Eco-Friendly: It’s more eco-friendly to have a “Parisian Wardrobe.” I’ll be purchasing less from the stores, which will at minimum save waste from all the packaging tied to shopping.
• Magic Items: Instead of having a lot of so-so things in my wardrobe, I want more of those magic items that make you feel special when you wear them.

Challenges:

I have a couple challenges to face as I work towards my goal:

• Shopaholicism: Okay, I don’t need a therapist for this or anything, but I have definitely been a bit of a shopaholic in the past. If I’m going to have a smaller wardrobe one day, I need to slow down on the shopping. Luckily, my mortgage and other bills help keep this in check by stealing all my shopping money!
• Too Much Clothes: Like I mentioned before, I already have too much clothing. I’ve tried purging in the past. I’m having a hard time letting go of a lot of my clothes, even if I don’t wear them. I’ve tried doing the whole “if you haven’t worn this in a year then get rid of it” thing, but that’s so much easier said than done.

Projects:

To reach my goal, I’m going to have to tackle a few projects:

• Closet Pare Down – I’m going to have to get serious about purging
• Adventures in Re-Sale – It would be pretty sweet if I could make some money on all those items I purge.
• Strategic Shopping – I’m going to have to work on my shopping style so it’s more in line with the “Parisian Wardrobe” concept. Less is more!

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What’s your wardrobe style?

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Now, is it just me, or does anyone else feel like watching Clueless?

***

Reader question: I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. How do you keep your wardrobe/closet in check? Do you think you have too much clothes, the right amount, or too little?

Did you guys have a good weekend? Mine was jam-packed but with fun stuff. The laundry will just have to wait.

{Wth is wrong with my hair in this photo!? lol}

On Friday night, hubby and I went on a date.

We visited the swanky theaters at the Epicentre. I love these theaters because you can reserve your seat in advance and choose exactly where you want to sit in the theater. Oh, and the seats are super plush, oversized, and comfy, by the way.

You can even order food (not just popcorn, yo) and drinks (cocktails, etc.), which you can enjoy inside the theater. We had pizza, popcorn, and sodas and watched The Avengers. I thought the movie was really good, but I wish I’d seen all the related movies before since they hinted at them throughout the flick. Also, did anyone else think that “Jake” has come a long way since “Not Another Teen Movie?” Just me? Okay…

We weren’t quite ready to call it a night after the movie…plus, my sweet tooth was calling. So, we headed next door to the Ritz’s Bar Cocoa for dessert.

The prices are surprisingly reasonable on the sweets – about $1.25 for a truffle up to $22 for a whole cake.

We did not buy a whole cake. We did get two macarons and a cupcake for under $6.

We found a cozy seat next to the dessert bar and enjoyed some live music. The place was pretty packed!

{pistachio macaron}

{chocolate cupcake to share}

{red wine to go with the chocolate}

Date night was so fun. I think we’re going to have to repeat this one again soon!

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By the way, thanks for the suggestions on my last outfit. I’m going to try those out…as soon as I get that laundry done.

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Reader question: What did you do this past weekend? Do you have any affordable date night ideas?

I was just thinking the other day how I was getting tired of seeing the polka dot + stripes look pop up in my google reader. Have you guys noticed that, too? Of course, it wasn’t but a few hours later that I was organizing my clothes when I noticed a polka dot dress (one I’ve been considering donating since I haven’t worn it in forever, mind you) hanging in my closet. I found myself staring at the dress when an uncontrollable thought entered my mind – heeeeeeey…how would that black and white striped shirt look with that? Yup, it’s fashion blogging brainwashing, people, and it’s working. Is this what happens when you read too many fashion blogs?

Anywho, I did the next most logical thing. I burned the dress decided to try the dress on with said stripey shirt. The result…well, you can see.

I don’t hate it. Dare I say, I even like it?

The moral of the story? Don’t read too many fashion blogs! No! Wait…it’s – don’t be afraid to play with your clothes. Or was it never throw your clothes away EVER! Who am I kidding, there’s no moral here. But, I do think you shouldn’t be afraid to play with your clothes and try out combinations you may not normally be inclined to try.

Sometimes the combinations will suck. Sometimes, you’ll publish said bad-combination publicly online and your readers will tell you your look sucks. And sometimes, it just matters if you’re happy with the look you put together.

{Bailey photo bombing}

Polka Dot Dress: Lotus (local boutique)
Striped shirt: Gap
Wedges: J Crew
Purse: MARC by Marc Jacobs
Sunglasses: Vogue
Trench coat: Banana Republic
Lip Stick: MAC  

Reader question: Polka dots worn with stripes – yay or nay?

As if Saturday wasn’t fun-filled enough already…

…we got a surprise on Sunday that Bailey was really excited about – an impromptu visit by my parents to help us with our house, namely the yard.

But first, I headed out for Caitlin’s bebe shower.

Caitlin’s shower was at FABO, which was a gorgeous venue – so colorful!

The shower was put together so well – from the cool straws to the great refreshments. I really liked the game they played where Caitlin had to pull random baby-items from a bag and guess what they’re used for. I had fun guessing what they were used for, too, since I hadn’t seen most of the objects before. Hey, maybe if I attend enough baby showers, I won’t be quite so baby-clueless.

And do you see that hat on Caitlin’s head? Her mom made that baby-shower-themed-hat for her! I talked to her about how she made it, and she was so proud of her creation. It was really sweet and a fun touch to the shower.

After the shower, I headed back to the Chic house to help out in the yard. We pulled weeds and did basic clean-up. You know…stuff most people know but our house-clueless selves need guidance doing.

I treated my parents to dinner to thank them for their help. We went to Mama Ricotta’s.

The rolls were hard to resist. I definitely had a couple, dipped into their red pepper olive oil.

And for eats, we got 2 family-style entrees – this penne with chicken, broccoli and a lemon cream sauce. It came out piping hot with al dente penne. It was mouth-wateringly good (as in, my mouth is watering thinking about it while I blog…yum!).

The family favorite was angel hair with meatballs, which i really enjoyed, too.

My parents really loved the meal, which made me happy. It was the least I could do before they had to head back home for the night.

Reader question: What did you do this weekend? Anything fun?

After my Zumbatomic training, I went home, baked up a double-batch of dough balls (that I prepped the night before), got ready, and headed out to meet up with some friends for a casual dinner…old-school-style.

{Jason with Carson, hubby, Matt with Liam, and Nate}

{Caitlin, me, Kate, and Kath}

We haven’t been able to get together with our whole group together since Kath moved, so we were really excited to see everyone…

…plus a couple adorable, new additions.

Nate was our grill-master.

{The spread}

We did a traditional pot-luck and had quite the spread.

{Chardonnay for moi}

I had a little bit of everything – salad, quinoa salad, grilled veggies, and a cheese burger. Everything was delicious as always!

{Liam & Kath}

For dessert, I brought sugar cookie dough balls (click for recipe) (sans the drizzle frosting), and Kath & Matt brought lots of Great Harvest goodness – muffins, scuffins, and Savannah bars.

A little bit of everything – watermelon, a dough ball, plus some Savannah bar.

I definitely picked up a couple more pieces of Savannah bar over the night – they were so good!

It’s funny how you can go for a long time without seeing your friends and when you see them next, it’s like time never passed. We had so much fun catching up with everyone’s recent life changes – from family additions to work. We’re definitely going to have to do this again soon!

Reader question: What’s your favorite thing to bring to a pot-luck?

On Saturday, my friend Shamecia (an instructor-in-training) and I headed north of the city to attend one of the other training sessions that Zumba offers – Zumbatomic Instructor Training. The name is not exactly intuitive, but Zumbatomic is basically Zumba for kids.

I already teach Zumba three times a week, work full-time, and blog, too. But, while I didn’t think I have the time to take on a new class, I did think it would be interesting to learn how to modify moves to make them kid-friendly, especially since I’ve had parents bring their children to class in the past.

{Me & Shamecia}

You won’t see a brighter (or should I say “more colorful”) group than at a Zumba training.

Oh wait…actually, you will see a MUCH brighter group here (and please check out the video on that post!).

Anywho, the training went from 8:30-5:30 with only about an hour’s worth of breaks spread out through the day. We had a jam-packed day, people!

We started with an intro and a one hour master class (adult-style). After a quick break to change, we had lectures and learned kid-friendly choreography for the Lil Starz (ages 4-7). Then we had a short lunch break, followed by more lectures, choreography for Big Starz (ages 8-12), networking (where we broke into groups to tackle different topics and then shared our results with the whole group), modifications (how to make regular Zumba moves kid-friendly), and finally legal-type stuff (parental and legal considerations).

One of the most interesting things I learned is that Zumbatomic is becoming approved for use in schools (and for home schoolers) around the country. Your kids could be doing Zumbatomic for PE one day!

I also really loved how Zumbatomic teaches more than just dancing – it teaches confidence, respect, responsibility, team work, and much more! It seems like Zumbatomic has the potential to have such a positive impact on a child’s life in so many ways.

Before we knew it, the day was over, and Shamecia and I were licensed Zumbatomic instructors! {Here I am getting my certificate.}

Here we are with our ZES (Zumba Education Specialist) Loretta Bates. I first met Loretta at a master class my company sponsored for her, and I also was at her Reggaeton Rebellion session at Zumba Convention last year when Wyclef popped in and did an impromptu performance.

I loved Loretta as our ZES! She was engaging, fun, and really enthusiastic about Zumbatomic. I thought she was really in control of the training and very knowledgeable. She was wonderful!

Before training, I wasn’t really interesting in teaching a Zumbatomic class. Like I mentioned before, I just wanted to have the knowledge of what to do for kids in my existing Zumba classes. But, now that I’ve completed the training, I kind of wish I had more time so I could teach a Zumbatomic class. Who knows where things will go in the next couple years, but for now, there’s the opportunity for me to do Zumbatomic classes at special events, like birthdays. I think that could be really fun, too!

I found a video on YouTube of a real Zumbatomic class. Aren’t they cute?

Reader question: What do you think about the Zumbatomic concept? Would you want your kids to do Zumbatomic? Why or why not?

Zumba Instructor question: If you’re not Zumbatomic certified – are you thinking about it? Do you have any questions about the training? If you are Zumbatomic certified, what do you think about teaching Zumba for kids? Any tips or suggestions?

A great game night should include the following: a fun game, a delicious meal, and a dance off.

Wait.

Oh, that’s just what we did with our game night this past weekend.

My friend Erica and I hosted a game night at The Chic House.

Our friends aren’t the biggest fans of cooking, but we had a great solution. Erica made chili, I was in charge of corn bread, and we asked everyone else to simply bring chili toppings. Okay, so we also asked my friend Sarah to make her famous cheesecake, but other than that, we left things pretty simple.

I had a bowl of chili with onions (a first for me, and it was awesome) and plenty of cheese.

And Erica does her chili Cincinati-style – with pasta. It’s a pretty awesome way to eat chili, and I definitely recommend it, if you’ve never tried it.

Dessert included Sarah’s cheesecake and some chocolate chip dough balls I whipped up earlier that day.

After eating, the gaming began. The word box was definitely my least favorite, while the drawing one was my most favorite. I’m pretty terrible at real trivia, but luckily, my other teammates picked up my slack on the red box. And Sarah and I split up the green box, which made for an interesting show.

My favorite moment was probably when Sarah chose a green card and kept making faces after reading it that screamed, “I have no idea how to act out this person.” She sighed, lifted up her arms and went “RAWR!” My teammate Amy screamed “The Hulk!”, and I followed up with “Shrek!” As it turns out, Shrek was correct. I still can’t believe we won that round in about 3 seconds from her interesting impersonation.

After my team lost, we held a quick Jekyll dance-off. Okay, it randomly came about, but it was still pretty awesome. I’d never seen “the Jekyll” before, but we convinced Shamecia’s SO to show us, and after some serious pleading, he gave in. I tried to find a YouTube video of what this dance looks like, but I can’t find one. It’s sorta similar to what this guy looks like after he drinks his concoction – think shaky hands. It’s a joke dance…sort of like “The Bernie.” You’ve seen that one, right?

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By the way, thanks for the sweet comments on my last outfit post!

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Reader question: What’s your favorite board game?