Reduce, reuse, recycle your clothes

The official start of summer coincided with a heat wave that brought temperatures of over 90 degrees along the East coast. It was also fitting that I, a huge procrastinator in every aspect of my life, finally finished spring cleaning of my closet. Most of the clothing that I weeded out were items that have not and will not get much wear - for example, a baby blue sweater vest with ruffle detailing that was given to me as a gift from my aunt, and a longer black and white chevron striped skirt in a jersey material, purchased from The Garment District. Even though I have worn the black and white striped skirt in the past, as both a skirt and a strapless dress or beach coverup, I don't see the potential of a revival in my wardrobe. (I had thought about turning it into an eternity scarf, however, the material is just too slinky.) 

For all those items of clothing that no longer receive any love, luckily there are many options for reusing and recycling that could also earn you some cash. 

Healthy Dessert: Quinoa Coconut Pudding

Holidays such as Father's Day (today) always give me the opportunity to concoct scrumptious desserts. With limited ingredients in my kitchen this time, I decided to experiment with a quinoa dessert. I bought two bags of truRoots organic quinoa at 2/$7 from Whole Foods a while back, when I was looking for a carb substance to replace my run-of-the-mill pasta that I had been bringing to work. Since then, I have been discovering as well as creating different recipes using quinoa, including portobello stuffed quinoa and curry quinoa. I also learned that this versatile superfood can be used to make dessert puddings! 

Back in the fall, I made a delicious rice pudding. I figured I would base this quinoa pudding off that recipe and essentially substitute quinoa for the rice. This recipe yields roughly 6 servings and takes about 40 minutes. 

Homemade Pizza with Trader Joe's Dough featuring Fresh Basil

Homemade pizza has always been a go-to meal for me and my boyfriend. In the past, we have created pizzas using store bought items including Boboli crust, pizza sauce, and frozen chicken appetizers. Since my meat-consuming days, we still enjoy tossing ingredients onto a pizza crust for a meal that allows great flexibility - his half, the omnivore's delight, doused in extra parmesan cheese and mine with fresh veggies.

Lately, we have been purchasing the $1 pizza dough from (you guessed it) my favorite store Trader Joe's. Of the three varieties of dough (regular, wheat and garlic & herb), we have been getting the garlic & herb flavor. The instruction says to allow the dough to sit in room temperature for about 20 minutes before kneading and stretching it out on a floured surface. And it only needs 8-10 minutes of cooking at 450 degrees!