I’m not sure if you all have heard yet, but cauliflower is having a great year! No, but, seriously, there’s so many amazing recipes you can make from cauliflower and today I’m going to share one of my very favorites. This Chicken Cauliflower Fried Rice is really easy to make, super tasty, healthy and a great recipe to meal prep. I’m hoping if you haven’t given into the cauliflower crazy this recipe will convince you to give it a try!
Ingredients:
3 Chicken Breasts
12 oz Cauliflower Rice
12 oz frozen Carrot and Peas Mix
2 eggs
1/4 of a diced onion
1 table spoon coconut oil
2 table spoon low sodium soy sauce
1 tsp spoon sesame oil
Start by chopping your three chicken breasts into smaller pieces. Spray frying pan with Pam and fry your chicken until completely white throughout and crispy brown on the outside.
In another pan, add your coconut oil, let liquefy and add diced onion to coconut oil. Let brown for 3-5 minutes. Add cauliflower rice, sesame oil, stir and cook for five minutes. Add pea and carrot mix and soy sauce, cook for 3-5 minutes. Divide rice mixture to one side of the pan. Crack and scramble eggs with a fork and add to cleared area of the frying pan. Do not crack and scramble eggs on top of cauliflower rice mixture. It will turn the rice soggy and incorporates much better if fried on side and added in. Flip eggs several times, fry completely before adding to cauliflower mixture. Stir several times. Plate, add chicken on top, throw in your favorite condiment, sriracha, if you’re like me, and dig in.
Also, easy to meal prep for a healthy yummy lunch and snack during the week.
Hi, everyone! I’m back and spring has me planning and dreaming of summer vacations and days on the beach. Today, I’m sharing my Cancun Travel Guide with you all to help you plan your first, or next, Mexican getaway. If you love gorgeous blue water, white sandy beaches, maybe some ancient ruins, Cancun might just be the next best vacation spot for you.
+Getting to Cancun-Cancun, located on the Yucatan Peninsula, is a popular tourist destination any time of the year. With a large international airport, Cancun, is an easy destination to fly in and out of from most any city in the United States and around the world. Depending on the size of your travel group, you can book a shuttle to pick you up and take you to your hotel or Airbnb. You can also catch a taxi or an Uber at the airport to take you to your destination. While in the city, you can continue to use taxi’s and Uber’s or ride the city bus for about $1. +Where to Stay-Cancun being a very popular tourist destination has many major hotels to stay, with all major accommodations. Most hotels are located in Zona Hotelera along the beach coast. Many hotels offer all inclusive packages for your stay, food and drink. You can also find many Airbnb’s for rent, depending on the area you would like to stay.
+Things to do-There is no shortage of things to do in and around Cancun. From relaxing on the beach to getting away for some adventure and historical site seeing. Cancun is an easy place to please most anyone in your group.
+Spend time at the beach. As I mentioned earlier, Cancun has some of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen. White sandy beaches, surrounded by aqua blue water, you really cannot go wrong with a day or two on the beach.
Shopping-If shopping is your thing, you can certainly take advantage of several shopping malls, from luxury to local markets and goods. Many of the shopping malls are located close to the Zona Hotelera.
Visit Parque De Las Palapas-If you’re looking for an authentic experience while visiting Cancun, Parque de las Palapas comes with my highest recommendation to visit. The town square, located in downtown Cancun, is a square full of amazing food and vendors. I’m talking about the best food you will eat on your trip! You can find a variety of tacos, tortas, elote, marquesita, churros, you name it they have it. Plus, it’s delicious and authentic. The square often has entertainment such as music and activities for kids and is busy each evening. By far one of my most favorite experiences of the trip and a place you should consider visiting while in Cancun.
+Day Trips- Although, there are plenty of activities to keep you busy in Cancun itself, there are many day trips to book to explore more of Yucatan Peninsula. Here are some popular day trips around the area, not to mention, the 7th Wonder of the World, Chichen-Itza! Most of these day trips can be arranged by your hotel concierge or through a travel site. Most bookings include transportation to and from the location, one meal and entrance tickets.
Chichen-Itza- Located a few hours from Cancun is home to a complex of Mayan ruins, including, El Castillo or Temple of Kukulcan. This ancient structure, said to be thriving in about 600 AD is well worth the day trip.
Tulum- A gorgeous, small port city on the coastline of the Yucatán Peninsula. It’s known for its beaches and well-preserved ruins of an ancient Mayan’s. Tulum is beyond beautiful and more than likely where I will stay on my next visit to the area.
Swim in a Cenote- A cenote is a natural sink whole, usually created by the collapse of the limestone bedrock, exposing the ground water underneath. There are many cenotes all over the Yucatan Peninsula, where many people visit and swim daily. We were able to book a took taking us to a local cenote and Chichen-Itza in the same day, completely worth the long day of traveling.
Other quick day trips from Cancun:
Isla Mujeres
Xcaret
Playa Del Carmen
There is so much to do and see around Cancun, no matter what your traveling style, you will find plenty of activities to keep you busy and enjoy your time. Hope this travel guide helps you plan and enjoy your trip to the Yucatan Peninsula.
It’s Coachella season and I’m here to share my survival guide with you all to help prepare you for your festival weekend!
+Buying Tickets- You have several options for purchasing your Coachella tickets. You can check the http://www.coachella.com website for a countdown for ticket sales. Set up an account ahead of time so the day tickets go on sale you have everything set up and ready to go.
Pre-Sale Tickets– Pre-sale tickets usually go on sale in June of the year before. This takes some serious planning and commitment in knowing you will be attending the festival the following year, without knowing the line up before hand in most cases. You will however, get the best price for your festival ticket if you are able to score it during pre-sale.
General Ticket Sales- Ticket sales to the public usually happen in December. Tickets cost more during this sale, and there are fewer tickets for sale at this time. You will, however, know the line up for the festival! If this ticket sale is for you, use your countdown timer, and be online to buy tickets the minute they go on sale. I’m not kidding! The festival will sell out quickly and if you aren’t ready you won’t get tickets. You might also have to buy tickets for weekend 2, rather than weekend 1, usually the first weekend sells out most quickly.
Re-Sale Tickets– If you were not able to score tickets during the pre-sale or general sale event buying re-sale tickets may be an option for you. This option is definitely more risky, but it is completely possible. Do your homework, use social media sites you trust and make sure your tickets are legit before you buy them and it not a scam. My best advice is if it feels too good to be true, it probably is. You might pay more for tickets than face value and you might also be able to buy tickets for one or two days. It all depends on what is available at the time.
+Where To Stay- Once you have your tickets you need to start working out where you are going to stay. This is not something you can put off. Hotels and Airbnb’s book quickly, so the sooner you can book a place the better off you will be.
Hotels– There are many hotels in and around the Indio Valley available for the festival. Make sure to check if they have a shuttle from the hotel to the festival. You may have to purchase a shuttle pass to access this option.
Airbnb– Lots of Airbnb homes are available in the Valley and up to an hour out of town to rent during the festival. Depending on what size of accommodations you need, how early you book, and how much your willing to pay, your options will become more limited the longer you wait. Book early, you’ll thank yourself later.
Camping– Unlike other festivals, Coachella, offers the option of camping on the premises, in a designated area of course. You do have to rent a camping space ahead of time. There are bathrooms and showers available and all the rules regarding camping can be found on the Coachella website.
+Organizing Coachella Days- An important park of any festival is figuring out what bands you want to see, what stage they are preforming on and what time they perform.
Download the Coachella App to use before and during the festival. This will give you the dates, times and stage of each performance and will help you plan your days. This will also help when you have time after a performance to see what other performances are going on around the park.
Take a tour around the park when you get there to become familiar with the grounds. This will help you navigate the park between performances, knowing where each stage is and how much time you will need to get there.
Plan out your days based on the performances you want to see. Festival doors open at noon and the festival last till about 1am-2am, each day. Some concert goers are at the festival from the moment the doors open until the day is over. I’m not one of those people. I look and see what time the performances I want to see begin and I get to the festival a little before. Some days that is later in the day, but I don’t care to be in the hot sun if I don’t have to. With that said, I will say, some of the best performance I’ve seen are random acts I’ve seen waiting for a performer I’ve been looking for. So you will definitely catch new, awesome performances no matter what time you arrive.
Have a “home base.” This is one of the first things we always do when attending a music festival. Find a spot to meet in case you get separated from your group. We all have the intention of staying together but sometimes things happen and you can’t find your group. Cell phone service is spotty during the festival and you might not be able to call out and having a arranged place to meet with help you find your peeps.
+What To Wear-
Shoes-I cannot stress enough how important it is to pack closed toed shoes, boots or sneakers. I know, I know, so many people plan their perfect outfit, and want their shoes to match, but reality is, you’re are going to be walking, a lot! The grounds mostly consist of dirt and some small areas of grass, but for the most part you are walking in the dirt all day. Closed toed shoes help so much. Your feet will literally be covered in dirt at the end of each day. Not to mention not having to worry about getting your toes stepped on during packed performances, and trust me it happens.
Blanket– I highly recommend taking a blanket with you to the festival. The days get long and often times you are waiting for the next performance to start and having a blanket to throw on the ground to sit on comes in handy. Yes, lots of people sit or lay on the ground but having a blanket helps to not be covered in dirt by the end of the day. You can also use it to keep warm during the evening when the sun is down if you need.
Backpack-Taking a small back pack to carry your blanket, jacket, sunscreen and other necessities comes in handy during the festival. It is so much easier than lugging everything around in your arms and when you need something you have what you need.
Light jacket- Yes, the festival starts in the heat of the day, but by midnight it can get chilly. Pack a light jacket, sweater, hoodie, whatever will come in handy when the sun goes down and the desert wind starts to blow, you’ll be happy you did.
Happy Spring, Everyone!! I’m currently on Spring Break and working on blog posts and business appointments before I head off on a mini vacation to get someone sunshine in my life a little later this week. I’ve been busy uploading and editing pictures and writing posts. Look for everything I’ve been up to in my first installment of She’s Such A Jam Catch Up, coming later this week.
In the mean time, something I’ve been working on the last 3 months, a little bit of healthy eating and meal planning. This is one of favorite, go to recipes for the week. It’s easy, super tasty and keeps me always feeling like I just had a burger. Something I love to eat.
Ingredients:
1 lb lean ground beef
1 egg
Cheddar Cheese
Butter lettuce
Pickles
Tomatoes
Onions, Jalapenos, Mushrooms (Any veggies you like on your burger to make it extra tasty)
1 tsp Garlic Salt, Pepper
1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
1 tbsp spicy mustard
Combine ground beef, egg, garlic salt, pepper and Worcestershire sauce in large bowl. Mix together well with hands.
Shape into burger patties and cook on a stove top or grill to your liking.
In a separate pan, grill onion, and jalapenos and any other veggies you’ve decided to add, until crispy and brown.
Top burger patty with cheese, onions and jalapenos.
Chop veggies for salad. Add any veggies you like on your burger. I personally love pickles so it’s a must on my salad, but you use what you love.
Add your spicy mustard and enjoy. I sometimes will add a little ketchup or avocado mayo, if I’m feeling like it. I always try and be careful with condiments, measure them out and try not to add too many unwanted calories.
That’s it! You’re ready to enjoy your Cheese Burger Salad and do not have to feel guilty about it with this healthy recipe! Hope you guys give it a try and enjoy!
I also, love to prep this meal during meal planning for the week. This is how I portion everything out for my lunch during the week. I add a portion of fruit for my morning breakfast or afternoon snack. Easy, healthy and delicious during my busy work day I’m able to prep the day before.
Hi, everyone! I’m back!! February turned into a crazy month and I just couldn’t find the time to get everything I needed to done. After a few weeks of getting everything together, I am back on track, and planning some exciting, upcoming travel for the year. I’m so excited to share with you all a little bit of my time in San Francisco! This is one city I had wanted to travel to for a while and was so happy I was able to make a girls weekend out of it and explore the City by the Bay.
+ Golden Gate Bridge- I’ll start off with the biggest attraction in San Francisco, The Golden Gate Bridge. You certainly will not be disappointed when checking out this incredible structure on the bay. There are several different ways to view the bridge. There are several parks around the bridge you can walk, bike, drive to, and will get a great view of the Golden Gate Bridge and the bay. You can also, drive, walk or bike across. We opted for biking across the bridge. Let’s just say, this wasn’t a part of the plan, and we didn’t realize until after biking across the bridge, you either have to bike back to the bicycle shop or bike all the way to Sausalito Island and ride the ferry back!! Although, we thought it was crazy, biking to Sausalito was so worth it. It is such a cute area, with lots of shops and restaurants to explore. A complete change and feel from the city itself. We got a bite to eat and caught the last ferry of the evening back into town, with a peaceful ride on the bay, a glimpse of Alcatraz and back into the city.
+Fisherman’s Wharf/Pier 39-Another area to explore when visiting San Francisco is Fisherman’s Wharf and Pier 39. Located on the bay, you can walk along the board walk, check out shops, restaurants, and the home of the world famous, Ghiradelli Chocolate. Not to mention, some great seafood, and a great location to sit and enjoy your meal by the water.
+China Town-China Town in San Francisco is also worth checking out and very popular in San Francisco. We were able to make our way over, walking, after some shopping at Union Square. You can easily walk the area in a short amount of time. There are many shops to buy trinkets, fresh groceries if you are staying in an Airbnb, or just enjoy the lively atmosphere .
+Painted Ladies & Lombard Street- One of the best things you can do in San Francisco is get lost walking around or riding cable cars. Pin point places you would like to see such as the famous Painted Ladies and Lombard Street. Along the way you will run into lots of great parks, places to eat, great views of the city and some awesome street art and murals. Trust me, there is not shortage of things to do in San Francisco and even 3 days may not be enough time to see everything this city has to offer, but if you plan it well you can cross everything I mentioned off your list.
Safe travels, everyone, and I’ll be back on the blog soon!!
Hey everyone, I’m back with my second post about Italy, this time all about Rome! I loved this city! Rome is an unbelievable beautiful city with so much history, it’s hard not to fall in love! We were greeted with perfect weather for the month of December and most everything worked out so easily, making the start of our Italian vacation super amazing.
+Getting to Rome- Rome is a large international hub for flights and getting in and out of Rome by plane is rather easy. The largest airport, Leonardo da Vinci airport, in the town of Fiumicino is the most commonly used airport. You can easily request for an Uber to take you to your destination, or there are many cabs at hand charging a flat fee of $50 to and from the airport to most destinations in Rome. You can also get to Rome easily from any other Italian city by train. To read a little about using the train in Rome check out my first post about Italy, https://thecharmingjay.com/2019/01/17/48-hours-in-venice-italy/
+What to see in Rome-As I mentioned earlier, Rome is a a city full of attractions and history, be prepared, you will need plenty of time to see everything. So much so, I highly recommend staying 3-4 days in the city, when visiting Rome, to be able to see most all the attractions on your list. I usually like hoping around pretty quickly, but Rome needs your time to fit everything in. Here are a few of the must see sights in Rome. Depending on where you stay, you can easily walk to the majority of these sites. I could easily add 10 other places to my list, but in 3 or 4 days you can only see so much. Some attractions such as Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps and Plaza Navona are free and you can walk over to any of these attractions any time of day. They are however, very popular. I first visited Trevi Fountain in the afternoon, close to sunset. It was packed! Crazy packed. I kinda hate experiencing sites this way, so after a pasta making class we took a walk over to Trevi Fountain, on our way home, a little after midnight. It was beautiful, there were still people, but nothing like during the day and it was enjoyable enough to take our pictures and sit and enjoy some midnight gelato. Moral of the story, the earlier or later you visit sites the less populated they will be, whatever works best for you. You can purchase tickets to enter attractions such as the Colosseum and Vatican city. I found it easiest to to purchase our own skip the line pass, which usually comes in with a group guided tour. I think this is the best way to go. Cheapest, quickest and most informative.
Colosseum
Trevi Fountain
Roman Forum
Spanish Steps
Alter of the Father Land
Plaza Navono
Pantheon
Vatican City
Sistine Chapel
St. Peter’s Basilica
Ponte Sant’Angelo
+Where to stay in Rome-Rome is a large city and there are many hotels and AirBnb’s to stay throughout the city. To really stay among the attractions your best bet is an Airbnb. We were lucky enough to find a great place, with a terrace, 5 minutes from the Colosseum! It was amazing to see the Colosseum each day! Unreal, really. We met some friends staying with a view of Trevi fountain as well. It’s a great way to experience the city and stay among some of the most popular cites in the entire cite. There are also many hotels in Rome. On our last day, after touring Vatican City, we stayed in a hotel closer to the area and closer to the airport for our early morning flight. Do your research. Plan out what sites you really want to see and then look for a places to stay.
+What to eat in Rome-Rome has no shortage of delicious food and options. There are tons of places to eat in Rome. I love to followers food bloggers on social media and try out places I’ve noted they liked in cities, more authentic places. However, wandering into a random restaurant is always part of the traveling experience. Most restaurants have menus posted outside for you to browse before deciding, which is helpful. Be assured, there will be no shortage of pasta, pizza and gelato eating. More than eating at a restaurant, I recommend taking a pasta making class while in the city. This experience was one of the best throughout the entire event. I found a pasta making class from a recommendation from AirBnb. The class had great reviews and decided to give it a try. I was so happy we did! The entire experience felt straight out of a movie. The apartment outside of the city center was beautiful and cozy and truly gave you a feel of the Italian vibe. The chef was amazing and showed us how to make 3 different kinds of pasta and sauces from scratch. We ate and drank wine till we honestly could not handle another drop of food or drink. It was beyond amazing and one of the best experiences you can have in Italy. Nothing we ate at any restaurant could compare to the food we made and ate during this class.
All in all, Rome, is an amazing city to visit and I would visit again anytime. You could easily stay and visit for weeks. I hope some of these tips are helpful to you all when planning your trip to the city of Rome! See you guys again, soon.
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