Friday Loves: Munch Better, Food Photography, Candy Apples, and More
Happy Friday, and Happy Halloween! After writing this post, I realized that 3 of my 5 loves this week have to do with food. The story of my life.
1. Munch Better ‘Back-to-Healthy’ Food Box. You may remember back in August I talked about Munch Better, a Canadian subscription service delivering healthy snacks right to your door each month. Well, I’m talking about them again because they’ve recently introduced a limited edition ‘Back-to-Healthy’ food box, which is a 7-day snack and meal plan to help you boost energy, combat stress and kick start (or continue) your healthy eating.
The ‘Back-to-Healthy’ food box includes a 7-day meal plan created by a holistic nutritionist (the co-founder, Amanda), a corresponding e-book with recipes and tips to develop healthier habits, and all of the delicious treats you see in the photo below, including Mood Boosting trail mix, Healthy Start smoothie mix, energy bars, raw cacao powder, camelina oil, tea, chia seeds, calming magnesium drink mix, and Hello Antioxidants cereal.
I received this ‘Back-to-Healthy’ food box as a gift, and I’m now 5 days into the 7-day plan. Let me tell you, I would purchase this Food Box for the 7-day meal plan (and recipes) alone. It has so many easy and delicious recipes that I will most definitely continue to make on a regular basis. Breakfast on Day 1 calls for a Kale Egg Scramble. Justin and I were a little hesitant because we are both die-hard spinach fans with our eggs, but after devouring the eggs loaded with kale, I honestly can’t even imagine going back to spinach. They also include a recipe for the most amazing Raw Raspberry Lemon Bites. They are super easy to make, 100% healthy and mouth-watering. I felt like I was eating a sugary, indulgent dessert, but the only sugar in them was the natural sugar from the raspberry, lemons and dates. Truly delicious.
I’m really excited to offer all of you $10 off the Munch Better ‘Back-to-Healthy box by using code ‘CRAZYSTYLELOVE’ at checkout until next Friday, November 7. Munch Better is a product and service that I whole heartedly recommend. I love what they stand for, their product/service is fantastic and the two ladies behind the company are really lovely and highly knowledgeable. I also love to support fabulous local start-ups. Definitely check them out!
2. Food Photography. If you follow along on Instagram, I’m sure you’ve quickly noticed that I like to take photos of my food. I feel like my food photography could definitely be taken up a notch, so I purchased these two books: Plate to Pixel: Digital Food Photography and Styling by Helen Dujardin, and Food Photography: From Snapshots to Great Shots by Nicole S. Young. If you have any interest in stepping up your food photography skills, I highly recommend either (or both) of these books. They have so many great tips, and they’re both very specific in terms of how to achieve great photos with use the of lighting, styling, props and camera settings.
3. Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory Candy Apples. Okay, Okay, I realize that two points earlier I was talking about eating healthy, but a girl’s got to live! I have accepted the fact that I have a major sweet tooth, but I am trying to learn how to control it and limit my sweet intake to the weekends. One of my guilty pleasures is the most delicious candy apples from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. If you haven’t tried these, drop everything, head to the store and buy one. You won’t regret it. My absolute favorite one is covered in mini M&M’s and dipped in the best caramel you’ll ever eat. The combination of the sweet apple, yummy caramel and milky chocolate is indescribably delicious. I picked up these adorable Halloween themed candy apples from Rocky Mountain yesterday to make some cute gift bags for Justin’s team at work, and of course, I couldn’t resist grabbing an M&M candy apple for myself.
4. Jimmy Choo in Canada. I vividly remember the very first pair of Jimmy Choo’s I ever purchased. It was in the Summer of 2003. I was flipping through an issue of InStyle Magazine, and my heart skipped a beat when I laid my eyes on the most gorgeous pair of black satin peep-toe slingbacks with a pink enamel flower bursting with Swarovski crystals on the toe-box. It was the first time I had heard of Jimmy Choo, but I knew those heels had to be mine. 11 years later, and those beauties are still in my closet, and my love for Jimmy Choo is still going strong.
So you can understand how excited I was that Jimmy Choo finally opened their first Canadian location earlier this month at Yorkdale Shopping Centre in Toronto. Of course, I was one of the first people in line on opening day, and the gorgeous store certainly didn’t disappoint. If you live in Toronto, and you’re a Choo Girl like me, you definitely want to make your way to Choo Heaven.
5. Ted Baker Matching Dress and Handbag. I posted this photo of this stunning Ted Baker floral dress with coordinating clutch on Instagram a few days ago, and someone left a comment asking if matching your handbag to your dress was back in style. It made me laugh out loud (really hard!), and then made me question whether I was stuck in the past and way off the mark. After thinking about it and staring at this photo for a few seconds, I quickly decided that this garden party print was fabulous, and doubling it up with the matching bag was twice as gorgeous. So I’m going to go out on a limb and say that coordinating your bag to your dress is back in fashion because I will most definitely be wearing this trend (or fashion crime, whichever way you look at it).
