Music Monday: Holidays!

Music Monday will be out for this week because of the holiday. See you all next week and Merry Christmas!

Let's Get Personal: Simplified Winter Routine

As I mentioned before in my long and tedious face routine (you can see here and here) it was long and involved so many products! But now that the weather is colder, I've had to switch it up and I've finally gotten it down. It may not be only just be officially winter, but the weather has been no joke. We've already had snow twice up here! So here it is, with less products and less steps. :)

Clease/Exfoliate/Tone:
I use Basis Cleaner Clean face wash with my Clarisonic Mia using the Deep Pore brush. It cleans without stripping and no harsh ingredients. When I have dry spots and dead skin where I couldn't leave well enough alone, I use PIDA gel to get rid of them and smooth things out. My old faithful Clinique Clarifying Lotion 2 is my serious go to toner (even though in the 3 step program Clinique has it under exfoliate) and I will never change from this. Something about it just sets my skin right.

Moisturize:
I've been using Mario Badescu Aloe Moisturizer. It was too heavy for the summer, but I am loving it for the winter. It is so moisturizing without being heavy or greasy. For the extra cold days, or when I know I will be outside for an extended period, I will put some argan oil on top to seal in the moisture and create a barrier. Currently I'm using Josie Maran 100% Pure Argan Oil Light. It sinks right into my skin and doesn't interfere with my makeup.

Treatments:
I've been using Mario Badescu Drying Lotion overnight to treat stubborn acne bumps. It really helps to shrink them after a few days. It also helps with deep painful bumps that don't come to the surface right away. For the little ones that aren't as bothersome, I use Clean & Clear Persa-Gel to get those buggers.

And that's pretty much it. I don't use masks or the peels anymore. It's too time consuming and my skin isn't as oily to warrant doing it the way I did in the summer. Plus my skin seems to be getting along better with me now, so this simple routine does it. No extra steps or products necessary!

Told you I would get my routine in check! My skin's been behaving pretty well and I'm enjoying it.

xoxo
- L

FIT Foodie Fridays

FITNESS:

Nothing has changed. LOL #OperationSlimmaz has been postponed. ::sigh:: I will try again soon. BUT I did pre-register for two 5k marathons in the boroughs. So soon (hopefully) I can get moving. Winter and all this cold weather has been killing me. I know, no excuses, but I seem to be full of them at the moment. Oops.

FOOD:

Today's food and healthy recipe is from Latoyah at Sugar Pink Food from across the waters in the UK. Thank you Latoyah! It was lovely working with you!

I love my food and creating my recipes, but I wanted to create a dish that as equally delicious as it was healthy, and I came up with this.  The beauty of this dish is that you can add as many different vegetables as you like, giving you the opportunity to get your creative juices flowing! As well as being tasty and healthy, this is quick and very simple to make.

You will need: 

900ml chicken or vegetable stock (or Miso soup mix)

2 Chicken Breasts

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

50g rice or wheat noodles

2 tbsp sweet corn, canned or frozen

Red cabbage, chopped

2-3 mushrooms, thinly sliced

2 spring onions, shredded

1 Red Onion, chopped

2 tsp soy sauce, plus extra for serving

mint or basil leaves to serve

Any other veg that you can think of

Pour the stock into a pan and add the chicken and garlic. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat, partly cover and simmer for about 20 mins, until the chicken is tender and cooked all the way through. 

Remove the chicken to a board and shred using a couple of forks.

Return the chicken to the stock with the mushrooms, sweet corn, cabbage, onion, spring onions (and any of your added veg) and the soy sauce. Simmer for 10 mins until the veg is soft, then add the noodles and simmer until they are are also soft.

Serve in bowls and sprinkle your basil or mint on top and enjoy!

Thanks again to Latoyah for her guest post! And thanks to my readers. :)

Happy Holidays!
- L