LEMON QUINOA AVOCADO SALAD

i discovered two things last night.

1. our bedroom has the best lighting for afternoon/evening shoots.

why did i only discover this last night?

because the blinds over the huge window right across from our bed are always down. if we kept them open, we’d have strangers peering into our bedroom…and i don’t know about you but i like to get dressed in private so the blinds remain down most of the time.

so last night i was running around the house trying desperately to take pictures of the dish i made but i couldn’t seem to find the right lighting. then all of a sudden it dawned on me…our bedroom west-facing window…duh. new afternoon/early photo shoot area established…#boom.

now onto the second thing i discovered…

2. salad success.

i made the salad that will win anyone over.

first of all, it’s de-light-ful, full of amazing flavour. you’ll actually enjoy this salad, i promise.

second of all, it’s healthy, so all those “clean-eating folk” you know will probably eat it if you bring it to a potluck. win-win my friends, win-win.

lemon quinoa avocado salad

recipe adapted from family recipe swap

serves 4

Ingredients:

1/2 c. dry quinoa

1 c. chicken broth

1 c. water

1 can chickpeas (drained and rinsed)

1 c. cherry tomatoes cut in half

2 avocados diced

2 c. spinach

1 bunch cilantro

1/4 c. onion

2 small cloves garlic

For the dressing:

Juice of 2 lemons

zest of 1 lemon

2 tsp. dijon mustard

2 tsp. olive oil

1/2 tsp. italian seasoning

dash of salt and pepper

1. cook quinoa. i used my rice steamer, but cook the quinoa however you desire and then set aside to cool. (i did this all while i was prepping the other parts of the salad)

2. finely dice spinach & cilantro in a food processor. (if you don’t have a food processor, chop by hand) add to bowl when finished.

3. dice onion & garlic in a food processor. (here’s a tip to not crying while chopping onions…light a candle! the fire will absorb the onion gas that makes your eyes burn…it works!!) add to greens when finished.

4. add chickpeas to bowl. if quinoa is cooled down, add it in as well.

5. add tomatoes & avocado to the bowl.

6. mix dressing together then pour over salad. toss so everything gets coated and then put in the fridge so flavours can set.

7. enjoy!

and there you have it folks. one of the best & easiest salads you’ll ever make.

you’re welcome ;)

s.s.♥.

COACHELLA MEMORIES

ptL for sunshine. i honestly can’t think of a summer where we had days on days on days of sun…i keep checking the weather network to see if it’s changed it’s mind to our usual unwanted friend, rain but nope, hasn’t happened yet…yaaaay!

speaking of sun, i totally remembered i had a few coachella goodies that i never shared with you all (fyi: i’m planning on producing a music lover sans drugs & alcohol survival guide to coachella, so look out for that sometime in the future!!)

it’s insanely hot at coachella. because we tented on site, we were already sweating/melting by 8am. there is no lake, there is no ocean, just hot, hot desert heat. the only place to cool off in the entire festival is in the air conditioned sponsor tents.

praise God for air conditioned sponsor tents.

we checked out the h&m one first. dj, mini dance floor, water, white couches, wifi, charging stations, makeup stations with face wipes, dry shampoo, sunscreen and most importantly, a gif booth.

check out our dancing gif here!

yep, the h&m tent was defs paradise. we discovered my second favourite tent sadly on the second day. this tent was air conditioned, had comfy chairs and had an endless supply of fruttare bars…i kid you not. you could take two or three at a time and go back for me…it was in.cred.i.ble.

and here are a few photos from other tents…

oh memories :)

stay gold,

s.s.♥.

FANCY PANTS

i was introduced to poopy pants by my bestie, rachel. she wore them way back when they weren’t even a trend yet (yeh, she’s cool like that). soon enough a lot more of my friends started wearing them but i just couldn’t bring myself to….until this year. i bought some leopard “poopy-ish” poopy pants in january and fell in love. i have been missing out my friends.

if you haven’t bought a pair of poopy pants (aka harem pants) get into your car right now and drive straight to forever 21 and do it…or just click on one of the links below…!

1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 

getcha pants on, getcha getcha pants on,

-s.s.♥.

LONG WEEKEND FUN

how was your long weekend? mine was gooood. very good. ahhh it was amazing. 

the sun came out and i was a happy camper. i’m ecstatic that the 14 day trend on weather network is all sunshine…like seriously, all sunshine!!

on saturday james & i had sabbath. a time to rest. it was glorious. 

church on sunday was amazing as always.

and monday included a delicous breakfast at the village w/ James’ mum & brother, beach, bbq & bourne…. can it get any better?

here are a few pics from the weekend!

our neighbourhood is beyond amazing! beacon hill park is literally a 1 minute walk from out front door.

james made me this delicious dinner on saturday night..mmmmm

i remember driving over that bridge as a kid with my dad…cray.

i’m always a sucker for the golden hour.

i caught this on my sunday morning run…beauty.

this little cutie bombarded us at the beach.

cupcakes at the beach? i think so.

behold, cheeseburger with grilled onions, bacon, a hot dog and an egg. insane….i could hardly eat half..ptL for husbands with big appetites!

we were going to go down for the fireworks (ummm insane about that attempted bombing hey!!!) but then we didn’t really feel like manouvering through crowds, so we ended up watching the third bourne at our house (i hadn’t seen any of them so we watch 1 on saturday, 2 on sunday and 3 yesterday ha) in hopes that we could catch some fireworks from our roof….mmm nope, didn’t consider the apartment building right beside us ha.

hope you had a happy canada day!

xoxo,

s.s.♥.

WE'RE GOING TO INDIA!

incase you didn’t know, james & i & 7 others from our church are going to india!!! i’m beyond pumped to be serving at a local church there. we got our schedule and it’s insane. we’ll be serving in multiple ministries from morning to night, ministering in the slums at the church’s life centres (equipping women & children!), doing outreach & a whole lot more!

another thing i’m very excited for is getting to visit international justice mission. ijm peeps are basically super heros. they go to into countries which have laws against slavery, human trafficking, etc and use their team of lawyers to put people away who aren’t obeying the laws…aka set slaves free and lock up traffickers!! we get to go to their main headquarters in chennai…so incredible.

james & i need to raise $5100 to make this trip happen! we’ve raised $1200 so far and know that God is going to provide :)

if you want to partner with us and give, you can donate through paypal on our website http://thoseliiras.wordpress.com/ or give through glad tidings office. thank you for your generosity!!

also keep checking our blogs! we will be updating you before the trip and in india as well!

-s.s.♥.