Javaya

Lovelies,  You know what I look forward to each morning? Coffee!! I would have to say I have a little bit of an addiction... It's a mixture of a addiction and true love. Thats what they call passion I believe? SO I guess what I'm trying to say is I'm passionate about coffee! 

Because of this passion I always have coffee at all times in my house! Sometimes life can get a little hectic and I just can't find the time to make it to the store when I need to. Well not having coffee is just not an option in my life. I found the answer to my busy schedule GetJavaya.com delivers  fresh coffee straight to my door so I never have to worry about running out of coffee. They have online baristas that help narrow down the best roasts for your palette. You can have your beans delivered whole or grounded they meet all your coffee needs! I ended up with "Little Foot coffee" It was a perfect balance of nutty and sweet with a silky finish! Javaya also have other coffee goodies like mugs, pour overs and other coffee lover gifts.  

Another great concept behind GetJavaya.com is they give back to our troops with "Donating to Coffee For Courage" helps give members of the military a taste of Home and can literally help them make it through a deployment." - Javaya 

I hope you lovelies give www.GetJavaya.com a try and in doing so know you are helping a soldier enjoy some coffee miles away as well! All you need to do is go on their website and in no time you will be sipping some amazing coffee in your lovely home!  

Thank you for reading and I hope you have a lovely day! 

xoxo 

Shaunté 

Tacos Tu Madre

Hola Lovelies! 

It's almost  Cinco De Mayo and that means Mexican food and tequila! Two of my favorite things and a holiday that encourages me to indulge in them! I wanted to share with you one of my favorite Mexican restaurants in Los Angeles for this lovely occasion. Tacos Tu Madre is located in the heart of Los Feliz and that means it's walking distance from my place! Oh Yeah!! I have been coming to Tacos Tu Madre for a few months now and they never disappoint me. They have a walk up window to order and seating inside and outside.They also do to-go orders and stay open till 11p.m. Monday-Thursday and Midnight on Friday and Saturday.  It's super cute and trendy plants hanging all around and bright paintings all along the building outside and a neon sign inside that reads "Make tacos not war" isn't that the truth?! I love how quick and convenient this place is and the quality is outstandingly fresh. I love fish and Ahi is definitely one of my favorite fishes and Tacos Tu Madre has some of the freshest Ahi tacos I have ever had. They have all kinds of tacos here from carne asada to vegan options and they all are very delicious! 

 My favorites are the grilled shrimp and Ahi tacos.  I finally tried the Korean BBQ bowl and WOW! It is so flavorful I did half rice and half kale it was topped with sweet and savory beef, kimchi, avocado and jalepenos. Tacos Tu Madre gives you the option to have any protein in a taco, burrito or bowl. They all come prepared a little different, but all delicious just depending on your style preference. Max and Daniel were the chefs for my visit and they did a excellent job from the quality and taste to presentation. The whole staff was friendly from the lady at the register to dropping food at the table.So happy I have this awesome Mexican restaurant so close to me for my taco Tuesdays burrito moods and holiday indulgence. If you aren't sure where you want to get your Cinco De Mayo fix at or next Taco's on Tuesday check out Tacos Tu Madre.  Oh and did I mention there is a movie theater next door as well? Maybe dinner and movie this weekend?!

Thanks for reading lovelies! 

 I hope you have a great Cinco De Mayo and weekend! 

Xoxo Shaunté

Chips salsa & Guacamole (I love their hot salsa) 

Shrimp tacos grilled fried and grilled topped with a poblano ranch slaw. 

Korean BBQ Bowl with half kale and half rice, kimchi, avocado and jalepenos.

Ahi Taco my absolute favorite! **

Forager

Hello Lovelies!

Hope everyone is having a good start to their week. I have been trying to stay productive today and wanted to share with you one of my new favorite snack products. I love eating as most of you already know and if I could I would eat all the time. So having healthier snack options is something I try to consistently have. Forager is a great company that offers healthy snack options from smoothies, chips to yogurt. I got introduced to the product while at a social media event in downtown Los Angeles a few weeks ago. They were sweet enough to let me try multiple yogurts and chips they sell. I brought some goodies home with me and have been enjoying their products as my daily snacks. I wanted to share with you lovelies this great new brand of products I now make a part of my weekly snacks.

There are so many awesome things about Forager that separates them from other products one being they use the left over fruit from smoothies to make their chips. They use pressed juice as their main ingredient to their delicious chips! My favorite are the Chipotle and then the Greens. This is also great for anyone with a gluten allergy did I mention they are also organic and vegan! I paired my Greens chips with some homemade salsa as a mid day snack I also have paired them with homemade guacamole and cheese sauce or just ate them right out of the bag. 

 My next favorite snack food from Forager is their yogurt. I am not a huge fan of dairy and this yogurt is dairy free made with cashew milk. This is also a nice alternative for anyone with any lactose sensitivities. They have a variety of flavors and even plain so you can dress up or down your smoothies or yogurt.  I had the lovely Lemon flavored today while finishing up this blog post. It was refreshing and 

made me feel like it was summer again! This warm weather also helped with a lovely 75 degrees in Los Angeles...We are in February right? 

Hope you lovelies check out Forager for some healthy alternatives for your daily snacks.  Their smoothies are also the perfect snack for anyone on the go or a busy lifestyle without having to starve or make a fast food stop. 

Have a lovely and healthy rest of your week Lovelies! 

          Find the closest store that sells their products by clicking the picture below: 

Naples inside Downtown Disney, CA

Hello Lovelies!

I had some friends in town last month and they were going to my favorite and happiest place on earth Disneyland! I was so excited for my friend Ally it was going to be her first time at the park and me being a previous season pass holder I helped her map out what rides and sights to see.  We walked around downtown Disney and decided to eat at Naples. It was a very welcoming restaurant and pizza always is a good idea. We sat outside and shared a margarita pizza Caesar salad and a pitcher of Stella beer.

I loved the pizza its crust was cooked to a perfect crisp. The oven bakes at 700 degrees and is a brick oven you can view from the moment you walk inside.  We just missed happy hour it is from 2-5 p.m. daily! The pitcher of beer was just as good for three people sharing. We also took a shot to celebrate them coming to visit me and Disneyland! We also got a photo taken of us to keep as a souvenir. You can get 5x7 framed photos for a cost or a little post card collage for free. It was a nice gesture the restaurant offers to guests to remember their time at Naples.  I loved how the outdoor seating was so spacious and had dangling lights all around it was such a nice ambiance. There is also seating up stairs outside that overlooks the Disney walk you can have private parties up and have the space to yourself. There is some seating inside as well upstairs and downstairs with bar seating as well.

I was so impressed with Naples I decided to go back and try more items that they are known for. I sat outside again since it was such a beautiful night at a nice little table surrounded by trees and plants.  I had mule flight that gave me a taste through Italy with some sweet selections.  My favorite was the Sicilian it was a nice mix off ginger and sweet. I also enjoyed their calamari for an appetizer it was so flaky and good. Not over breaded or cooked in any way just right I love a lot of lemon on mine and used about 3 wedges. Really brings out the flavors and the marinara for dipping just made everything come together so deliciously.   For my main entrée I tried the Gargonelli pasta with white cream sauce.  It was a wonderful recommendation from Assistant manager Todd Benson.  It was similar to chicken alfredo with pieces of broccoli inside. I topped it off with red pepper flakes, because you know me and spicy! I finished a third of it and boxed the rest up for lunch the next day. The portion size was big enough for two or three people.  Of course no great dinner can go without dessert! I had a lovely light and fluffy Tiramisu it paired nicely with my cappuccino.  It was a great end to a wonderful evening in one of my favorite places in California. 

Naples is such a popular place that they are expanding not only their restraunt and seats, but their bar as well! They are adding in more pizza ovens to be able to accommodate takeout orders and all this is set to start this January 2018. The company hopes to finalize the re model by late Fall of 2018. I can’t wait to see it and watch the transformation.  I hope you lovelies stop on by if you are ever in the Anaheim area! Free parking Validation when you dine with Naples as well! Just an added bonus! Thank you again to my server Jessica for taking great care of me and Todd for such a lovely time!

Have a great rest of your week lovelies!

Xoxo Shaunté

Halo Top Ice cream

Lovelies!!

I am so excited to share with you one of my favorite desserts and the one item I never leave the grocery store without! Halo Top ice cream is seriously the best thing invented for ice cream lovers like me because it has all of the goodness of ice cream without the calories! It is protein based and has a low amount of sugar and each pint is under 400 calories! You heard correctly a whole pint!! I would say ice cream is my guilty pleasure and the one reason I don’t think I could ever go Vegan I love it way too much! It’s just not the best for you to have weekly… unless it’s Halo Top then it’s not a problem! Since the ice cream is protein based I actually can’t finish a pint in one sitting… I mean I could, but I choose not to since it does fill me up faster than regular ice cream would from the amount of protein per serving.  I first heard about this ice cream on Instagram and once my local grocery store started selling it a year ago I have been a frequent customer of it and of course have tried EVERY flavor I could each shopping trip I get a pint or two depending if they have a flavor in store I have never had. I love ice cream lovelies and Halo Top lets me enjoy my favorite treat without feeling guilty. Today I am going to go over all the flavors I have tried so far. This past month Halo Top has come out with 7 new flavors and sadly no store in my city sells them… I wanted to be able to talk about those flavors with you, but unfortunately I’ll have to share that another time! I promise once I get a hold of one of the new flavors like “Cinnamon roll” I will let you guys know exactly what I thought about it.

 You can go to Halotop.com and see where you can buy this yummy ice cream and even see what stores are selling what kind! How awesome is that?! I was going to be running around town looking for a certain flavor and instead I just used my iphone and saved some time.  I will have to say that not all the flavors are as amazing as they sound and I have gotten a little disappointed in a few flavors, but the majority of them are true to what they say and the texture is just like regular ice cream. I have tried other protein ice creams like Artic Zero and that was like flavored chocolate water so gross! I am going to break down each flavor for you from my prospective and tell you my favorites and not so favorites to help you decide which flavor you will pick up on your next grocery trip!

My Favorites:

Cookie Dough: This is my number one pick because it actually has pieces of cookie dough and the ice cream it’s self is sweet and savory. The texture of everything is just like regular cookie dough ice cream, but for only 360 calories for the pint.

Birthday Cake: This is close to number one since I love cake ice cream flavor and Cold Stone “birthday cake remix” has always been my favorite. Halo Top birthday cake has confetti sprinkles inside it and it taste just like a fun fetti cake like I would have growing up! SO delicious and 280 calories a pint.

Salted Caramel: I love caramel as a topping and think it goes best with chocolate, but in Halo Top there are actual swirls of caramel! It’s so good and salted caramel is the best kind salty and sweet and all for 320 calories a pint.

Smores: If you are a fan of the camping favorite treat you will love this ice cream! Every bite is filled with graham cracker, marshmallow and chocolate all for a lovely 320 calories a pint. 

Mint Chip: I love mint anything from Mojitos to ice cream and add chocolate and it makes everything that much better! For this ice cream you really taste the mint and it’s fresh tasting no artificial taste here and pieces of chocolate chip in every bite for a lovely 240 calories a pint!

Oatmeal Cookie: I actually just tried this flavor for the first time and fell in love! I am more of a chocolate chip cookie lover, but this ice cream takes oatmeal cookies to a whole new level. There is even chunks of oats inside I think that’s what got me! The flavor taste just like grandma’s classic cookie, but for only 280 calories a pint.

Red Velvet: You are probably going to say I am crazy, but I actually don’t care for red Velvet cake however Halo Top ice cream has the perfect flavor to me. I really liked the flavors inside each bite. For me I would take this ice cream over the cake any day and for 360 calories a pint you might just too.

Peanut Butter Cup:  If it’s not caramel with chocolate it’s peanut butter for me. This pint is almost like having a Reese’s, but of course for only 320 calories a pint.

Chocolate Mocha Chip: I just tried this flavor as well and I really liked it. I like coffee ice cream and I mentioned my love for chocolate so the combination was just right with little mocha chip pieces in every bite! For a lovely 280 calories a pint!

Chocolate Almond crunch: This flavor reminded me of a crunch bar with crunch pieces in every bite and a chocolate ice cream base.  A lovely 280 calories a pint!

Least Favorites:  

Cookies & Cream: I was excited for this flavor and a little disappointed it was good and taste similar to Oreo cookie, but not quit Oreo. If your craving Oreo’s or cookies and Cream ice cream this can do the craving fix for 320 calories a pint!

Lemon Cake: I love lemons and the freshness in its taste. This ice cream taste just like a lemon cake my only complaint is after you open the pint and save it the next time you go to eat it they texture changes a bit. Other than that it’s a great alternative for your favorite lemon cake for 240 calories a pint!

Pistachio:  This is one of my favorite nuts and I am a fan of the Gelato and I guess I was expecting Halo to have the same taste. It is very similar don’t get me wrong just not as good as Gelato, but of course not cause it’s not full of sugar. So to get that Pistachio Gelato craving out of the way Halo wins with a 240 calories a pint!

Chocolate Covered Banana: This is my least favorite Halo Top I ever had. I was pretty sad about it thinking it would taste similar to an ice cream Sunday.  The banana tastes so artificial and I hate things that taste fake and specially banana! Laffy Taffy candy anything that’s banana “flavor” is usually not the same.  So save your money on this one lovelies. Unless that doesn’t bother you then You can enjoy it for 280 calories a pint.

I obviously tried a lot of what Halo has to offer and I still have seven new flavors to try! I guess you can say I am a huge fan and a little bit of an addict. I hope this helped you in deciding what flavors you want to try and maybe even not try.  I would love to hear what you think about any of their flavors they sell. Or if you have tried a new flavor or seasonal flavor like the “Pumpkin Spice” I want to try that one soooo bad! Leave a comment and let me know lovelies I’d love to hear some feedback!  

Thank you for reading and this weekend is my birthday so I will be sharing with you some of my birthday foodie adventures on Instagram bellow are links to my accounts! Have a lovely weekend lovelies! 

Xoxo Shaunté

“I’ll stop the world and melt with you. ”