The Eclectic Blogger Award

It is always an honor and literally brings a smile to my face whenever I get nominated for a blogger award or tagged for one of the many fun tags floating around out there. Despite how much I always appreciate being nominated for tags/awards, I must confess that I am a forgetful master of procrastination who is normally horrible about getting around to actually doing them.

Buuuuut, when the lovely Shameful Narcissist created, and was kind enough to nominate me for The Eclectic Blogger Award, well, of course I am going to participate in that! 😀

So, what is The Eclectic Blogger Award you may ask? And what are the rules, you also ask? Allow me to bestow you with the answers to those burning questions:

“The Eclectic Blogger Award is presented to those blogs that are both eclectic and engaging, where conversation flows freely, where new and different ideas are always welcome.  It’s to recognize blogs that always have interesting content to match the amazing, creative, and hard-working creators that make them possible.  These are the blogs that inspire you to read, watch, play, and/or create content to further enhance not only the blogosphere but also the general zeitgeist, because they themselves enrich it with their existence.”

THE RULES

• Nominate whomever and however many bloggers you want for the award.
• Share links from your blog for some of your favorite (or most eclectic!) posts.

So, that said, let the nominations commence!!

Read Rant Rock & Roll: Flower Fridays, Music Mondays, book reviews, Breakfast and a Book posts, adorable pets, this blog has a lot to offer and definitely falls under the category of eclectic. There’s always a fun variety of posts to enjoy and topics to discuss.

The Happiest Pixel: Tasty recipes, creative writing tips, and a variety of other types of posts, there’s a lot of different things going on at this blog. Speaking of their tasty recipes, this blog is a bounty of meatless recipes, so if you just so happen to be vegetarian or vegan you’re bound to find some delicious ideas for things to make at home and promptly stuff in your face! 😛

Imperial Rebel Ork: The passionate hobby of creating and painting miniatures is a big focus at this awesome blog, but IRO also presents a variety of questions and topics meant to get us bloggers talking, like his recent “Real Life Vs. Hobby Life” post. Creativity and hobbies are definitely the fuel that sets the blog ablaze and it’ll no doubt inspire you to make more time to enjoy your own hobbies as well. I’m always blown away at the variety and creativity in his work.

All the Trinkets: This amazing feel-good blog is just filled to the brim with inspiration, motivation, humorous and endearing writing, as well as tips for personal growth. She also shares her own struggles, triumphs, and creative endeavors with us in the process, making it extremely relatable and a great place for discussion among bloggers!

Invisibly Me: This is another inspiring blog that I just can’t help but admire. 🙂 Spanning topics like invisible illnesses and awareness, Frugal Friday posts, and product picks, there’s always something to be discussed. I’m also always impressed by this lovely bloggers openness and fantastic and inspiring outlook on things.

Aaaand even though I always tag these 2 ladies for things when I actually do tag people and even though one of them MADE this award, I gotta mention my BFF and partner in crime and general mayhem Cupcakes and Machetes along with the always-awesome and impressively organized The Shameful Narcissist. If you enjoy honest book reviews, yummy recipes, adorable pet photos, and only the cheesiest of puns, these blogs are for you! 😀

There are so many other blogs I could (and want to) nominate, but I’ll spread that love on another day because after this dreadfully stressful day I am amazed I’ve managed to keep my eyes open long enough to make this post. Sleep calls to meeee . . .

Thanks, as always, for reading. ❤ This is a snazzy new award, so if it looks like something you’d like to participate in just jump on in, and help spread this baby across the blogosphere. 🙂

 

 

 

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Book Club, Buddy Reads, and Vegan Chocolate Mousse– OH, MY!

This weekend has been a blast. We had some good friends over to the house for the first time, which was very exciting. I hosted this month’s book club get-together, and my boyfriend and Cupcakes and Machetes‘ husband went out to one of the nearby breweries so we ladies could have the whole place to ourselves. Which basically involved a lot of snacking, inappropriate conversation, a tour of the house (the reading nook and giant bean bag were both a hit!) and more snacking. Most of the girls in our book club are strictly vegan, so I made a variety of vegan dishes for everyone to nom on and everything turned out great. The chocolate mousse was definitely a success, so I’ll share the recipe at the bottom of this post in case any of you are interested. 😉

C&M and her hubby brought us an amazing bundle of goodies, which was so sweet and thoughtful. Aaaaand she and I decided to do a buddy read for Kevin Hearne’s A Plague of Giants in August, so there’s that to look forward to as well.

3 Ingredient Vegan Chocolate Mousse Recipe:

This recipe is SO EASY. You just need 3 ingredients:

• 2 small boxes of Jello brand instant chocolate pudding mix
• Chocolate almond milk
• “So Delicious Dairy Free” coconut whipped topping

In a large mixing bowl, whisk your pudding mix and chocolate almond milk together, adding enough almond milk so that it gets to a cake batter consistency. Then, using a rubber spatula, fold in the coconut whipped topping so that it is fully blended but not over-whipped. Refrigerate until you’re ready to serve.

I served ours with graham crackers for dipping and it was seriously addicting. I think it would be great for dipping strawberries or sliced banana into, too, though. The great thing about this mousse, is how versatile the recipe can be. If you want to use vanilla or plain almond milk instead of chocolate, the pistachio, banana cream, vanilla, and lemon flavors of Jello instant pudding are also vegan-friendly, so you could make a mousse in any of those flavors just as easily. The mousse is also great for filling or topping cupcakes, or even just eating plain or parfait-style, so you can really do a lot of different things with it.

And, if you are not interested in making it vegan, just use regular milk and a tub of regular whipped topping instead, and you can use whatever flavor of instant pudding mix you want, so the possibilities are unlimited. Go crazy, this stuff is so easy and delicious.