What I’m Loving Lately – February 2019

Hey there! Welcome to this month’s edition of What I’m Loving Lately where I share various things from my life that are bringing me joy. Hopefully you find something on this list that interests you and perhaps adds some value to your life.

Ralphie

Meet Ralphie, our new foster dog! He came from Tijuana about 10 days ago and is getting acclimated to NYC. As you can imagine, city life was very overwhelming for him at first, and he struggled with separation anxiety and the stress of being in a completely new home. After some time to settle in, he is now doing so much better!

We really don’t know much about his background, but we guess he’s a schnauzer-poodle mix between 1 and 2 years old. He is SO sweet and relaxes instantly when being pet or held. And guess what? We’re reaaaaally leaning towards keeping him, so if all goes according to plan and a few things check out, then we may have a new doggie in our home!

P.S. Throwback to when we decided to adopt Bessie in 2014 🙂

 

Cado Avocado Frozen Dessert (Dairy-Free Ice Cream)

I do my best to avoid soy and dairy in my diet, so ice cream is usually a no-go for me. I recently found this dairy-free Mint Chocolate Chip Cado Ice Cream on sale at Whole Foods, and decided to buy a pint. I was intrigued because it’s made from avocados, as opposed to soy or coconut like many other dairy-free ice creams. It might sound like a strange concept, but it doesn’t taste like avocados at all! Personally, I think this avocado-based ice cream tastes much better than ones made from coconut milk, and it’s also lower in fat. Cado makes a few other flavors, so I look forward to trying those next.

 

Stay Here on Netflix

It’s crazy to think how much Airbnb has changed the way people travel. While I still love hotels, I think renting a whole house or apartment for certain trips makes a lot of sense, especially if you’re traveling with a large group.

I’ve always loved HGTV’s House Hunters and home renovation shows, so it was fairly inevitable that I was going to love Netflix’s new series, Stay Here. The show features short-term rentals across the United States, and the two show hosts help the property owners renovate and transform their listings to increase customers and ultimately make more money. I don’t own a rental property, but this show made me want to! And it also introduced me to a few places I now want to visit.

 

NorPro Grip-EZ Scraper

In November Travis and I took a knife skills class at the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) in NYC and we both learned so much. (If you live in the NYC area, I highly recommend taking a class with them, by the way. The teachers are fantastic and you walk away with so much new knowledge.)

One of the points our teacher emphasized was to never use your knife to scoop up vegetables from your cutting board, as this can damage the blade. She instead suggested we use a separate scraper tool, like this NorPro Scraper. I purchased this one for about $5 at TJ Maxx, but you can also find it on Amazon for a similar price.

I’ve loved using this scraper when I cook. It picks up lots of chopped ingredients at once and now I don’t have to worry about damaging the blades on my knives.

 

Commercial-Sized Cutting Board

What the heck took me so long to get a commercial-sized cutting board? For as long as I can remember, I just dealt with never having enough room to chop all of my vegetables. I’ve always used “standard” sized cutting boards, and after chopping one or two vegetables, I had to move everything to a separate bowl so I had room to chop more.

Well no more! I recently purchased an extra large cutting board and it makes me so happy (oh the little things in life, right?). For reference, this board is 18 inches x 12.25 inches and it JUST fits in my dishwasher. Make sure you measure how much space your dishwasher allows because some of the boards out there are made for industrial dishwashers.

I now use this cutting board every single day and I love it. The one I link here isn’t the exact one I have, but it’s very similar. Another tip I learned in my knife skills class is that if your cutting board slides around the counter, you can put a wet paper towel under the board and it creates a sort of seal between the board and the counter. I do that daily now and it makes a big difference.

 

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