My current mantra.

Getting my grocery list together.

Huevos Rancheros for Casey. I used jalapeno jack this time.

Roasted butternut squash & arugula salad (recipe soon!)

I cleaned out my fridge a little. Grocery shopping prep!

Hearts, cookies & food coloring. Recipe soon!

Pinkies up!

While I was doing laundry, I took a sheet and swaddled Cooper with it.

GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!!!  Dang he's huge.

Bring your dog to work day! This is Siena. She's not my dog.

Mailed a letter JUST IN TIME!

Tuesday night fried chicken at Mack's BBQ.

Messing around on Pinterest while eating a freezer burrito.

Gray shellac!  It has little purple/pink glitter undertones.

Indian food with my boys.

Wine tasting dinner with Rewinery at Kokkari.

1. I've always wanted to go to Yosemite.
2. Paul Rudd makes me giggle. Love the glasses!
3. How cute is this San Francisco themed birthday party??!!
4. I'd eat the heck out of this.
5. This place would be so pretty on a rainy afternoon with cookies & tea.
6. Freckle's Guide to Thrifting ONE & TWO might turn me into a thrifter!
7. Make an awesome cardigan out of your fave shirt. YES!
8. Pretzel Dogs, I think I love you.
9. I love how this little bird eats.
10. I wish I had some down time...
11. Nicole redesigned her website. It's SOOO PRETTY.
12. Helen Jane! You're my meal planning guru! I love it all!
13. Someone please make this for me. Oprah voice app!
14. Cooking with Colors. And yummy risotto too!
15. Girl Crush! These workshops look awesome. I want to go to one.

Episode #36 of the Joy the Baker Podcast is called Some Breathing Room. Me & Joy talk about Valentine's Day, strippers, gifts for men & woman and cutting off your underwear. Yeah I totally went there.

While you're over at Homefries, check out this week's High Straightenence! I totally ORGANIZED: MY PURSE!

Look what came! I got my notebooks from the Minted giveaway this week. We have 6 winners!

I'll be sending you an email soon!!! Thank you everyone for entering!

You guys! I'm going through some SERIOUS Oprah withdrawals. It's really bad. Last week I had a crazy dream where I was trying to find a pair of sunglasses and all of a sudden I was in Walmart and Oprah (who was wearing FLIP FLOPS!) handed me a pair. I woke up before I could hear her sweet voice. Sigh. THEN yesterday while I was driving to work, I pulled up at a stop light and a shiny black suburban passed by. OMG it was Oprah driving the car. Well...not really. It was a woman that looked just like her.

While figuring out what to type in this paragraph, I did a google search for "Oprah Vegan" because I remembered the show where she went vegan for a week with all of her staffers and LOOK! that post was a year ago! WHAT WHAT?! I think this means we're destined to meet. Or if not, maybe someone who knows her really well could get her drunk on Moscow Mules and have her call my voicemail? All I want her to say is TRACY SHUTTERBEAN in her voice. It would seriously make my decade.

I wonder if Oprah would like this salad? I'm pretty sure she would. Besides the base of romaine lettuce, there's a bit of brown rice, avocado chunks, cucumber, nori shreds, edamame, carrots & sesame seeds. It's hearty yet light! I bet she'd ask for more green onion miso dressing. Of course she'd ask for more dressing! That dressing IS SO DANG GOOD.

Without further adieu...

SUSHI ROLL EDAMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAME SAAAAAAAALAD FOR EVERYONE!

Did I tell you that Cooper can do the Oprah voice now? It's glorious.

And we're off!

First things first. Green onion miso dressing.

Ginger grating & miso!

Green onion chopping.

The star ingredients.

Green onions, ginger, garlic & miso go into a blender. Water goes in too. BLEND!

Green onion miso dressing!

Take the edamame (I always feel like I'm spelling that wrong) and put it in a bowl with a little agave & rice wine vinegar.

Set aside.

Salad ingredient TIME. Get yo' chop on!

Use kitchen scissors for your nori. It's easier than cutting with a knife.

Get all your ingredients together. Look who showed up! Hello, cooled brown rice. Nice of you to stop by.

Lay down a foundation of romaine. Top with dressing. Stir.

Add the rest of your fun stuff.

EDAMAME!! I spelled that right, right?!

Mismatching chopsticks... Go ducks!

Leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

I can't wait for lunch tomorrow!

Sushi Roll Edamame Salad

Makes 4 servings

(recipe slightly adapted from Appetite for Reduction by Isa Chandra Moskowitz)

• 3/4 cup dry brown rice, cooked and cooled
• 1 cup shelled frozen edamame, thawed
• 1 tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 tsp agave nectar
• 8 cups romaine lettuce, chopped
• 1 small cucumber, cut into small pieces
• 1 medium size carrot, shredded
• 1 cup thinly sliced green onion
• 4 teaspoons sesame seeds
• 2 sheets nori, chiffonaded
• 1 avocado, chopped
• 1 recipe Green Onion-Miso Vinaigrette (recipe below)
• sriracha (optional)

In a small bowl, mix the edamame, rice vinegar and agave together, set aside.

Set out 4 bowls and divide the ingredients evenly among them. Place the lettuce in a bowl and drizzle a spoonful of dressing on top. Add rice, cucumber, carrot shreds, green onions, sesame seeds, nori and avocado to the lettuce and drizzle more green onion miso dressing on top. Top with a bit of sriracha and dig in!

Green Onion-Miso Vinaigrette

• 1/4 cup red miso
• 1 cup roughly chopped green onions
• 3 tbsp rice vinegar
• 2 tsp minced ginger
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 tsp agave nectar
• 2 tsp toasted sesame oil
• 1/2 cup water

Put everything in a blender and blend until smooth. Chill until ready to use.

ADDITIONAL OPTIONS/ADD-INS:

• wasabi
• pickled ginger
• smoked salmon
• kale

Homemade Pretzels

Guacamole Hummus

Southwestern Pizzas

Easy Baked Potato Chips

Spicy Cocktail Nuts

Maple Bourbon Cider

Dark & Stormy

Moscow Mules

Dude. Have a Nacho Party! (I think we're having one!)

Pulled Pork Sandwiches

Babyback Ribs with Espresso BBQ Sauce

Peppery Chicken Wings

Crispy Fried Chicken

Baked Coconut Shrimp with Pineapple Salsa

Shrimp Tacos with Cabbage & Lime

Shrimp Scampi French Bread Pizzas

Salt & Vinegar Potato Salad

Carnival Slaw

Italian Fries

Tracy's Killer Garlic Bread

Buttermilk Cheddar Biscuits

Sausage Cheddar Biscuits

Salted Caramel Popcorn Pretzel Bars

Peanut Butter BACON Cookies

Banana Donuts with Peanut Butter Frosting

Random thoughts going through my head:

Do you think that someone actually counted out a thousand seeds in this recipe? At what point did they get interrupted by a 3 year old and lose count? My guess is 33. Do you think it's a thousand seeds per muffin or per batch? If I walked over to the mirror right now, how many seeds would be stuck in my front teeth? Who would be the first person to tell me about that poppy seed stuck near my canine? Why is the term muffin top so good yet so frightening? Why can I not resist a bread product covered in seeds?

Do you think there's a thousand specks of glitter in my nail polish? I put on three coats...

Pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, poppy seeds and sesame seeds make up that seeded muffin top. I told you they were seedy! They're super healthy (almost NO oil!) and packed with a fun ingredients including yogurt, bananas, whole wheat flour, ground flaxseed, whipped eggs whites and pureed dates! If you're planning on eating one before you leave the house, check your grill in the mirror! It's totally seed central.

And we're off!

Ingredient gathering...there are two bananas not pictured in this get up.

Seeds go into pans. Pans go into oven. It's a roast! Not like a Charlie Sheen Roast. Just browning seeds, roast.

Pitted dates get a whirl.

Add a little water to get it more paste like.

Egg separation. That yolk is pretty, isn't it?

Yolk, dates, banana, sugar, vanilla & yogurt. Wet!

Egg white time! Things get all mixy! Cream of tartar is in the egg whites and here comes sugar.

Fluffy egg whites get folded into the banana date mixture.

Dry ingredient sifting...

Dry meets wet. More folding!

Scoop the muffin batter into lubed muffin tins. Top with seeds.

THINGS ARE GETTING SEEDY.

BAKE! And look at these fluffy muffin tops.

Feel free to lift that plate...

Now dump the rest of the seeds in your mouth. You're totes classy.

1000 Seed Banana Date Muffins

makes 12 muffins

(recipe from Sunset Magazine)

• 1/4 cup sesame seeds
• 1/4 cup poppy seeds
• 1/4 cup sunflower seeds
• 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
• 1/2 cup packed pitted dates
• 1 cup mashed ripe bananas
• 1/4 cup plain low-fat yogurt
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 large egg, separated, plus 1 large egg white
• 1 cup sugar, divided
• 1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup flaxseed meal
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar

Preheat oven to 350°. Butter 12 muffin cups (1/3-cup size) and set aside. Put sesame and poppy seeds in a pie pan and sunflower and pumpkin seeds in another. Bake seeds, stirring once, until golden, 6 to 8 minutes. Combine seeds in 1 pan and set aside.

Whirl dates with 1/2 cup water in a blender or food processor until very smooth. Scrape into a medium bowl and add bananas, yogurt, oil, vanilla, egg yolk, and 3/4 cup sugar. Whisk to blend, then set aside.

Stir flours in a large bowl with flaxseed meal, baking powder and soda, salt, and all but 2 tbsp. of the seeds.

Beat egg whites with cream of tartar in a bowl with a mixer on high speed until foamy. Gradually add remaining 1/4 cup sugar, beating until soft peaks form. Fold whites into banana mixture. Fold into flour mixture just until blended. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups (they'll be very full). Sprinkle with remaining 2 tbsp. seeds.
Bake muffins until just firm to touch and edges are golden, 22 to 25 minutes. Loosen from pans with a small metal spatula. Serve warm or cool.

Reminder Alert: Valentine's Day is just around the corner.

This year I decided to doing something a little different; I'm making personalized journals from Minted!

When I was at Alt last week, I spied these cute/custom journals at the Minted booth. Top-notch paper & print quality, customization options, with a fantastic assortment of designs? COUNT ME IN!

A few days ago, I made six personalized journals yesterday for a few of my friends & family. Each journal contains 40 pages of lined/unlined paper. I made the executive decision and chose lined paper for each journal and I customized each one of them with a few personal touches. Here's what my journals will look like:

This is a journal for my Valentine. That's me & Casey. Although I think I'll be the one using this notebook ;)

Since that journal might be a little too girly for Casey, I made him a custom wine journal!

He's always stealing my notebooks & ripping papers out. Now he has a special custom journal with a few pictures I took of wine on the outside. On the inside I put a picture of me drinking red wine.

I also included a cute little quote from Dean Martin- "You haven't drunk too much wine if you can still lie on the floor without holding on."

Hilarious.

Here's one for Cooper! I bet he'll love the fact that his picture is on this inside.

We can draw in it together. I'm pretty excited about that.

Here's one for Joy. It's special, just like her. Maybe she'll scribble ingredients for a super special recipe in it?

Maybe she'll draw pictures of leg candy in it? Who knows!

My friend Christine deserves one! She's redesigning my website, after all!

Plus she just put up with my messy hotel habits at ALT. This print reminded me a little of her blog background.

I know she'll love the paper quality and the fact that her name is on it!

And of course I made a notebook for MY MOM. She loves reading & she loves making lists of books she's read.

Hopefully she'll like this little book journal! How could she not? I put a pic of Cooper in it!

I added a quote from Carlos Ruiz Zafón "Books are mirrors: you can only see in them what you already have inside you."

Here's the deal! I'm picking SIX different winners for this giveaway.

You each get to make your own custom journal!

To enter, please leave a comment below.

You can enter TWICE by going to the Shutterbean Facebook page and liking/following me!

(Just leave another comment telling me that you did so)

GIVEAWAY ENDS WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 1, 2012.

Be sure to check out all the cool journal designs at Minted. They have a fantastic assortment of customizable Valentine's Day Cards too!

THOUSAND seed muffins coming at ya next week!

Making this Brussels sprouts salad for a birthday party. It's so meta, right?

My nephew Henry turned 7!!  He made me a name tag!

Sending my friend Megan off to Seattle with burgers!

And then there was ice cream...

Rootbeer and a "breakfast soda"

An edamame salad with Melanie (recipe soon!)

Shaking things up a bit for breakfast. Almond milk in my cappuccino & avo on my toast.

Lunch with my girl, Alix.

Boots & butterflies.

Impromptu sushi with Wilson & Scott.

M C Q. Cooper requested those letters.

Pizza 101 with Cooper. Of course he was more entertained with eating the cheese...

This kid is growing bigger and bigger each day. Also, he put my necklace on. Funny dude.

A new scarf  that matches my new necklace (thank you Melanie!).

This is what getting organized looks like.

Chicken stir fry on a weeknight.

The usual.

(that's me & my friend Jenny at the Alt Summit! Thank you Smilebooth! I'm kind of obsessed with you!)

1. This is such a good idea! Confetti shooters!
2. My friend Becky got me hooked on this website.
3. 48 Things to Be Grateful for When you Need to Shift Your Focus
4. Pantry Porn! Truly Madly Deeply.
5. Bloody Mary. Number 1 item on my TO DO LIST.
6. If only I had enough hair for a sock bun.
7. This was one of the most valuable panels I attended at Alt Summit this year!
8. Cooper needs one of these. I'm sure of it.
9. Sh*t Liz Lemon Says (thank you Nicole!)
10. You Should Read These Blogs!
11. Beautiful photos, Beautiful soup!
12. Chipper Things!! This blog is adorabuns!
13. How to Give Compliments & How to Take Them!
14. I have major love for pinterest.
15. Proud to be letter S in this post! xoxo to Lisa!
16. Thinking of going Sugar Free? Danielle is doing it. I wanna do it!
17. This needs to be an audio book!

Episode #35 of the Joy the Baker Podcast is up!  It's called My Legs are Not Candy. This week, we talk about The Bachelor (I totally watched it) Glee, Jamie Oliver, Lists & LISPS. We also share two musical play lists that get us motivated! Lotta giggles. Hope you enjoy!

MY ORGANIZING GOALS FOR 2012 are up on High Straightenence! I'm putting it all out there. Let's get organized together!