Kitty Deschanel | Food, Wine, and Travel Adventures Across the USA

I have the next 9 days off from work (woo hoo!) and am planning to use my free time to revamp this site. Stay tuned for the "new and improved" (exciting, right?) Kitty Deschanel: A Sexy (Nerd) Humor & Lifestyle Blog. Or is it Kitty Deschanel: A Sexy (Nerd) Lifestyle & Humor Blog? I can never remember which order to use. Perhaps that's one of the things I should work on. In the meantime, here is a super-relevant and nifty archived post that received almost no traffic initially. Show it some bloggy love, my bloggy friends! It features hipster chipmunk art. Oh, and for my readers in the USA, please have a safe 4th of July. SN and I have made plans to spend the week paranoid, diligently protecting our new mountain dream home from burning to the ground. Fireworks are banned here, but there are a lot of idiots around... Which reminds me, a few years ago, a guy playing with fireworks did start a fire here. I'd been his babysitter back when he was the cutest 2-yea...

When we crave ice cream, what comes to mind tends to be an unhealthy, albeit delicious, pint from the grocery store. Unfortunately, even the ones that market themselves as 'wholesome' are often full of chemicals. (I'm looking at you, Bluebell , with your phony baloney almonds.) Great news - it doesn’t have to be this way. Peanut Butter Banana Nice Cream   It looks so indulgent, doesn't it? But this homemade ice cream has a secret... It’s possible to create ice cream, or “nice cream,” out of whole ingredients and make it taste just as good (or better!) than the unhealthy junk from the store. What's a nice cream?   A nice cream is like an ice cream that is healthy. You don't need an ice cream maker and it comes together in minutes. Instead of thickening with cream, nice creams get their thick, creamy texture from frozen fruit. Bananas are the most popular fruit for making nice cream. With fresh bananas and good-for-you ingredients, it won’t leave y...

How to Create an Outdoor Meditation Space Confession: I'm skeptical that the woman above is in her yard. I dig her peaceful, zen vibe though. Okay, on to the guest post... Meditation is about finding peace within, even when you’re under a tremendous amount of stress. Sometimes meditation is easy, but sometimes it’s difficult, and we have to concentrate hard in order to get to the place where we feel free and unburdened. Where you choose to meditate is important; the setting should help you find your own inner balance. Outdoor Meditation Space Can I meditate at home? Yes, and if you have a yard, large or small, you can transform it into a meditation oasis using the following tips. Creating a Meditation Space: The Groundwork Survey the outdoor space you have to work with. Is there a part of your yard with shade? A favorite plant with a pleasant scent? If you don’t live alone, remember that your garden will be used by others, so find a spot where you can be on your own....

How I Lost 8 Pounds Without Dieting or Exercising Today, I have the easiest weight loss tip ever to share with you. I've never been overweight, but now that I'm in my late 30s, the scale has been creeping up year after year and it has seemed impossible to drop even one pound and keep it off.  Our Alaskan cruise a few years ago really did me in - I jumped from 118 pounds to 124 and never lost an ounce. (Remember my blog post, Eating Our Way Through Alaska ? Yeah, I may have gotten carried away. I love meringue!) There wasn't much in my lifestyle to improve. We don't buy soda. I shop from the produce section more than anywhere else in the store and we eat home-cooked meals almost daily. Fad diets worked as a temporary solution, but the weight would quickly come right back. Lately, my scale has been hitting 130. 130! I haven't gotten any taller since weighing 118 a few years ago. (Wouldn't that be nice?)  My weight gain was unacceptable but I had no idea how ...

I slaved over these homemade crepes all day. Just kidding! My secret ingredient? Prepackaged crepes, which taste just as good, if not better, than homemade. Ham and Cheese Crepes For something so simple, don't these look so fancy? I have a fantastic recipe for you today. But first, behold the 50 calorie giant cookie...   Giant YUM! And only 1 measly gram of fat. Can you believe it? Best of all, with the help of your toaster oven, these mega-cookies crisp up in less than ONE minute! Prepackaged crepes, where have you been all my life? Of course, you can also devour these  Frieda's French Style Crepes (or other prepackaged crepes) as they are intended, with a fruit or mascarpone filling. It couldn't be easier to fancy up a crepe.  Filling them with chocolate chips and mini marshmallows before their party on the stove or in the toaster oven gives you smores crepes. Blueberries and whipped cream (skip the toaster oven!) is also yummy. ...

One of my favorite things about our new home is the unique assortment of lighting, including custom-made pieces and luxury designer fixtures. We even have an Arteriors light.  If you added everything up at retail price, we'd easily be looking at thousands of dollars just in lights. But, of course, we would never pay the retail price. (And you shouldn't either!) Everyone who knows me knows I love a bargain . Here are my tips for scoring the best deals on light fixtures for your home. Money-saving tip #1: Use Amazon Move, Wayfair, and Lowes coupons to save 10%, then save even more. When you move into a new place, be sure to fill out a USPS change of address form online, not at the post office. As we have a new construction home, we were required to go to the post office either way and, while there, we were encouraged not to fill out a change of address request online because it would cost us a dollar. (I've always thought this was dishonest of the post off...