Not Your Average Gal

Copywriter. Content Creator. Constant Sassypants.

Funny

Breakfast for Lazy People

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Ideally, I’ll give myself enough time for a hearty, healthy breakfast in the morning. Reality? The fact that I walk out the door with pants on is a win in my book. The solution? Egg Muffin Thingies

I’ve found these to be such a good solution for breakfasts that I thought I’d share it. This probably takes me 10 minutes, tops, to prepare for the week.

What you’ll need:
One dozen eggs

‘das it.

Egg Muffin Thingies:

Crack those eggs, slap ’em into a muffin pan. If you’re OCD like me, you’ll move the yolks into the center with a spoon. Top with salt and pepper, if you so desire. My husband bought this muffin pan for me after my old pan rusted so much that he worried he’d get tetanus. Med students. So overdramatic. Anyway, it’s awesome. I highly recommend it. He got it on Amazon.

Egg Muffin Thingies | Caroline Made This

Pop them in the oven at 350 degrees for 10-15 depending on how much you want the yolk cooked. I like mine a liiiiittle runny.

Egg Muffin Thingies | Caroline Made This

Spoon them out, toss ’em individually in tin foil and throw ’em in the fridge.

Egg Muffin Thingies | Caroline Made This

Boom. Nailed it.

I often add some turkey bacon and put them in a half wrap, I prefer Spinach. It’s dee-lish.

Egg Muffin Thingies | Caroline Made ThisEgg Muffin Thingies | Caroline Made This

Even cold.

Because I’m too lazy to walk to the microwave.

Enjoy!

I Felt Like Crap. So, I Curled my Hair.

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Last night, in an attempt to put my adult pants on, I made a valiant effort at going to bed before 1 am on a school night. I’ve been taking an eye-opening copywriting class and one nugget of brilliant information that stuck with me was how to prioritize myself and my creative work. Not work in the 9-6 sense, but the work that helps motivate your creativity. The work that inspires you. The work that lights a fire under your ass and invokes sashaying to Beyoncé down the hall to the bathroom for your morning piss.

That kind of work.

I just don’t have the energy for that sort of sashaying when I get home from work.

Let me offer some perspective — I’m typically gone 11-13 hours a day depending on my workload. Often, the last thing I want to do when I get home is work on anything else other than a bag of potato chips on the couch. Don’t forget those annoying life things to take care of too, like bills, cleaning and changing my underwear. It’s recently meant that taking care of things that fulfill me outside of work get shoved to the side because I’m just. trying. to. relax. when I get home.

So, with this newfound information that (duh) I need to prioritize myself and my creative work, I took a page from this copywriting seminar’s book (Get it? Writing jokes are hysterical!) and decided to get up earlier than usual to take care of my needs first thing in the morning.

Like-5-fucking-am-first-thing.

That gives me a good 3-ish hours to get my creative writing juices flowing before I need to hit the road and flip the bird at Florida drivers. This morning I had a gecko pop its little head out from under my hood while I was going 65 mph. Little guy held on until I got to work.

Sorry, little guy. Welcome to your new concrete home of my parking structure in downtown Fort Lauderdale. I know I took you away from your family and lush paradise. But, hey, you lived?

Moving on.

The alarm went off this morning at 5:03 a.m. (because somehow that made me less likely to throat punch someone than 5:00 a.m.). I hit sleep. 5:11. Sleep. 5:20. Sleep.

By the time I got up, I felt like crap because I hadn’t fulfilled a new goal. So I beat myself up about for it a few minutes while I laid in bed, because that’s normal and healthy. I was productive for a bit, answering emails and looking up recipes on Pinterest.

HEY! Judgment-free zone.

So after I pinned another recipe to my board that easily has enough food to feed several Duggar families, I thought I’d try to make myself feel better by dressing the part.

You look good, you feel good, right?! <cue giant eye roll>

So I threw on a dress and curled my damn hair.

Bathroom selfies require looking off into the distance with a glow filter added because I couldn't put on foundation properly this morning. Pardon the cleavage, it happens with bathroom selfies.
Bathroom selfies require looking off into the distance with a glow filter added because I couldn’t put on foundation properly this morning.

 

(It fell out before lunchtime.)

(I still feel like crap.)

But someone at work told me I must be going out on an interview or something because I don’t normally look this nice…

So I’ve got that going for me.

Enjoy Your Hollow Chocolate Bunny

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Remember when the holidays could be THIS exciting?

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I still react like that to chocolate, let’s not lie. (My sister is giving her best “Not Impressed” face.)

So often we get wrapped up in holiday planning and logistics that we forget all you need is a hollow chocolate bunny to be happy. The hubster and I are heading across the state today for holiday festivities, plus I’ve been going to the gym extra early to avoid the gross grunting crowd, putting in a lot of hours at work and then just crashing in bed when I get home in a drool-filled induced sleep. It doesn’t exactly put me in the Easter spirit.

Then I came across the above picture and although I may not remember that moment (or interesting haircut), I do know feeling pure joy and apparently it’s wrapped up in the shape of a chocolate Easter bunny.

I’m going sit back and embrace that this weekend.

Enjoy your hollow chocolate bunny this weekend too, folks!

The Sometimes Silly Reviews on TripAdvisor

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As you know, we’re heading on another adventure this July to: Vietnam, Myanmar (Burma), Cambodia and South Korea. Since I like to painstakingly go through detailed logistics of our trips, I spend a lot of time reading reviews on TripAdvisor.

First of all, TripAdvisor is fantastic. I can honestly say it has helped create some amazing memories on our adventures. They do a really good job of weeding out fake or paid reviews and leave it in the hands of “the people.”

Except, sometimes “the people” suck.

For instance, I was looking at hotels and guesthouses for our upcoming stay in Bagan, Myanmar.

Sidenote: If you have any recommendations, please let me know!

The accommodations around Bagan are a bit of a mystery. Traveling to Myanmar hasn’t been open to everyone until fairly recently. The tourist culture has essentially just started to exist, with hotels and tour companies popping up all the time. So there really are only a handful of hotels to explore and leaning on the reviews of other travelers is essential.

While narrowing down options for hotels, I came across a review that essentially said this:

This place was spotless, staff was friendly and we had a wonderful time. I would have given this hotel more stars, but they offered very few options for a western breakfast and that was truly disappointing. 

I mean, really?!

You’ve traveled tens of thousands of miles away from your normal breakfast and because they don’t have that as an option in their country, you’re going to dock points? We aren’t talking about an international hotel chain here people. We’re talking about a mom and pop guesthouse that is dealing with the sudden influx of tourism in an otherwise cut off portion of the world.

But, you didn’t get your damn omelet and bacon.

Live a little, lady. Try out that crazy Eastern breakfast. It may be delicious and dare I say, you may actually like it. Plus, worse case scenario, you go outside the hotel and get the precise breakfast you want.

The hubster and I like to take quick staycations sometimes and stay at local hotels in Fort Lauderdale. It’s the beauty of living in a tourist town— we can snag really good deals last minute. Since I have Hilton Gold status, I try to earn points staying with them, plus the chances of an upgrade are better.

One time we stayed at the Fort Lauderdale Hilton Marina.

Fort Lauderdale Hilton Marina. Fort Lauderdale Hilton Marina.

Looks gorgeous, right?

Well, let me tell you after reading quite a few reviews on TripAdvisor about how dilapidated this place was, I actually got sort of worried that even the $99 we were spending may not have been worth it.

That was until I stepped inside the hotel and realized people are ridiculous.

This hotel is near the cruise port, so a lot of cruisers stay here the day before they leave. I like cruises, it’s not my favorite way to travel, but I do like sitting back and going with the motion of the ocean. I’m not sure how people who enjoy floating cafeterias cruise can have such an acquired taste for first-class digs, but apparently it’s possible.

I just couldn’t see how this hotel was run-down and dirty. Granted, there is an older portion of the hotel but it’s easy to request not to stay in that part. That said, I can’t imagine it had the third-world conditions these people were speaking about. The complaints seemed to be more along the lines of it wasn’t precisely what they wanted.

Which leads me to my TripAdvisor tips when leaving a review.

1) Know your audience

If you’re staying in a small budget guesthouse, know that the people who are looking at reviews for that hotel, are looking for a bed, clean digs, a warm shower and a friendly smile. They most likely don’t care that breakfast doesn’t come with hash browns. Don’t bring your petty stuff ’round here.

2) Slow your roll with expectations

You pay for a certain level of service, certainly. But if you’re staying at a busy chain hotel for $150 a night the day before you leave for your cruise, you most likely aren’t going to have the red carpet rolled out for you with an offer for a massage poolside by a good looking chap who is simultaneously whipping you up any cocktail your little heart desires. Would be nice though…

Don’t let TripAdvisor be your medium for a travel power trip.

Braving the Cold, Florida Style

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You guys are getting a lot of snow. I heard it was even cold enough that there was this funny looking hyphen in front of the temperature number.

As a former Michigander I feel obligated to tell you that it’s getting pretty cold in Florida too. Just to make you feel better, I’m struggling with this sudden cold front.

I mean, look at this cold front that rolled through 2 weeks ago?! Even the thermometer was a bit frosted over!

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I had to wear a jacket last night while having dinner outside by the beach. Brrr.

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It’s supposed to get into the mid-thirties at night tomorrow. Mid. Thirties. Perhaps even break a record! The hubster is preparing wisely for this bitter cold by making chili tonight. We’ve been advised to wear protective clothing if we brave the cold outdoors.

Don’t worry, we stocked up on bread and milk in case school and work are called off tomorrow. If it’s not, I may actually use the butt-warmers in my car in the morning while I avoid coconuts that have fallen from the palm trees that line our street.

In other news, we’ve had friends visit from Michigan for the last 3 weeks. Bless their hearts for braving this freezing weather.

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