Dana Burland

Yep, this is a whole blog post about yogurt—and it’s a long one—pure wildness ahead, buckle your seat belts friends. I jumped on the yogurt bandwagon at a trendy time. Greek yogurt especially is like the Caitlyn Jenner of the grocery store these days. So hip. So now. So in demand. Recently Chobani came out with Chobani Flips—half amazing flavored Greek yogurt, half yummy crunchy mix-ins. My current fav is Almond Coco-Loco—coconut flavored Greek yogurt with honey roasted almonds and mini chocolate chips. OMG GIVE IT TO ME!!! Except… they’re kind of pricy, kind of calorie heavy and they kind of annoy me when throwing away that much plastic. This weekend I ventured out to recreate these on my own, putting my middle school knowledge of the scientific method to use. Ugh, that reminds me of those awkward safety goggles we were forced to wear. Ughhhhhh. Question : Can I haz Chobani flips better? Background Research : Google says either cream of coconut or coconut extract can...

There's just something about Lake Michigan beach towns...      

In a house around the block from the one I grew up in was a guy named Kirby. Nice guy. Weird guy. Weird like he'd "run" at a walking speed in a full sweatsuit in the summer. And weird like one day he came over while my parents were painting the outside of the house and asked for a swatch of the color they were using so he could use it. A few weeks later, Kirby's house matched ours almost perfectly. He Kirby copied. And now Ben and I are about to, too. We have three new neighbors--one in front, one next door and one behind us. It doesn't look like anyone has fully moved in yet, but neighbors are coming--I've got three paper plates of chocolate chip cookies waiting for delivery. The house behind us? Yesterday a crew taped off each window prepping for a paint job. Today the whole house is gray. Gray as in the same gray we're planning to paint our house. The same gray we've had up on the siding by the garage as a test swatch for the last month and a ...

I had it in Denver first. A simple three ingredient spaghetti that rocked my little world. When we got back from our honeymoon I made it again. And again. And again. And while we were up north this past weekend— again . Can’t stop, won’t stop. Roasted cherry tomatoes, warm pasta and melty ricotta cheese—that’s my love language. Actually, I think I might make this tonight… Ingredients Cherry or grape tomatoes Ricotta cheese (I use part-skim) Spaghetti (or a long shape pasta) Directions 1. Pre-heat oven to 475. In a baking pan, toss tomatoes with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast until tomatoes pop, about 10-12 minutes. Be liberal with the olive oil—this is your pasta sauce. 2. Cook pasta according to directions. Drain and return to pot. 3. Combine pasta and tomatoes plus roasting juices. Add a spoonful of ricotta cheese at a time, stirring in to melt until it reaches that cheesy spot that feels right to you. Notes : I like to cook a big vat of tomatoes over the ...

Recently a coworker mentioned she’d been tossing flaxseed into her smoothies to add some nutrients to her diet. Right, me too… not . You can add “eat more flaxseed” to my should-do list right under trim cuticles more often. This week though, I’m celebrating a few big wins from that list—including a flaxseed one. On Friday we paid off the reminder of our (cough, my) student loans. The reminder. Every near-failed stats class, every 3am dorm room giggle-fest over a bag of marshmallows, every distraction due to a missing button on my rotund journalism adviser’s sweat-stained shirts. Every. Last. Cent. We could have spent it on a third car/multiple trips to Europe/a baby elephant I’m sure, but we didn’t. We sucked it up and made a really big payment knowing we were more than able to—meaning we’d be stupid not to. Which somehow reminds me of eating flaxseed. On a rare morning in Colorado when letting Ben sleep in, I found a recipe that made adding flaxseed to rice sound and lo...