Daily Dash of Danielle

Happy Friday Followers! There's 3 days until the new year which means that everyone is talking about their New Years resolution/resolutions. I'm not big on New Years Resolutions because I can never seem to follow through on them so this year I am trying to the word of the year challenge. I was researching the one word challenge and came across Mountain Modern Life - which is a blog that I can across when trying to find the perfect word of the year. They had an interesting post that offered 5 tips for choosing a word of the year. I found these tips to be incredibly useful when trying to decide on my word of the year so I decided to share them. 1. Reflect on the past year of life. Ask yourself these questions and right down whatever comes to mind without self-editing. -what could I use more of in my life? -what could I use less of in my life? -what characteristics would I like to have? -by the end of the day I fell _____(fill in the blank). -how do I want to feel? 2...

Good afternoon and Happy Thursday followers! I can't believe that there are only 5 days until Christmas and I still have Christmas shopping to do....I said I was going to be done before vacation but obviously that's not true. I know I just posted about soup the other day but I made the most delicious batch of Zuppa Toscana last night and paired it with crusty bread and nice glass of pinot noir. That's probably not the suggested pairing but after the day at work that I had...it was much needed. For those of you who aren't familiar with Zuppa Toscana, first it is a soup served at Olive Garden. Second, it is a broad category of soup that means "soup in the style of Tuscany". It usually has some combination of kale, spinach, potatoes, cannellini beans, etc. This soup was delicious and so easy to make. Shout out to Pinterest and The Chunky Chef for this recipe. Ingredients: 1 lb ground Hot Italian sausage  (I subbed tu...

Hi followers and Happy Tuesday!   I am so sorry that I have been missing in action for the last few two weeks. It was finals week, I still had to work, and I left for vacation immediately after that and am just now catching my breath. This post will be brief because I plan on catching up throughout the week - I'm shooting for a post every other day until I catch y'all up on everything.  I know I just came from the most beautiful warm weather but being back home made me crave a good bowl of soup. With that being said, today's post will be about my copy cat Olive Garden Chicken Gnocchi soup which is my favorite soup on their menu. Picture below:  Ingredients:  1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter 1/4 cup flour 1/2 cup finely diced celery 1 cup finely diced onion 2 garlic cloves, minced 4 cups half-and-half 1 (12-ounce) package gnocchi (I used the vacuum sealed gnocchi, found in the pasta aisle) 1 cup finely sh...

Happy Tuesday Followers! I hope that everyone is full of turkey, stuffing, veggies, and all the other Thanksgiving necessities. And hopefully done eating Thanksgiving leftovers. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holiday's because it's all about food. With that being said, I'm going to keep on trend and today's topic will be a short review on Raleigh Raw which is a Restaurant located down the street from my job in Downtown Raleigh. The address for those who are curious is : 7 W. Hargett Street, Raleigh, NC 27601. They serve pressed juices, poke bowls, smoothie bowls, and other things of that variety. The inside of the restaurant is quaint with a unique design and full of life. We went to Raleigh Raw for lunch. I had the Faroe Monch (Sweet and Savory) and he had The Hustle (Spicy). Both bowls come with a choice of sticky rice, greens, or mix of both. The Faroe Monch consists of mango, cucumber, scallion, pickled carrot, crispy shallot, seaweed salad, sambal,...

Good afternoon and Happy Thursday Followers!  This post is about the world's best biscuit and gravy recipe - and no it's not my recipe. The recipe is from the Pioneer Woman and for those of you who don't know....her website is one of my go to places for recipes. There's just something good southern cooking that I can not get enough of.  I will repost the recipe below but I will also be posting the link to her website in case you want to check her site out. I always dive into my biscuits and gravy without thinking of taking a picture but trust me, they were delicious. Ingredients:  1 pound  Breakfast Sausage (recipe works great with turkey breakfast sausage as well)  1 can  (16 Oz.) Canned Biscuits 2 Tablespoons  Flour (Red Mills Gluten Free All Purpose Flour is great for this recipe) 1 cup  Milk ( I have made this recipe with Skim, 2%, and 1%...all work)   Salt   Pepper Cooking instructions:  In the original...

Hello, Hello, Hello, and Happy Thanksgiving Eve Followers! For those of you who know me in real life, you know that I have been raving about getting bangs and some sort of fall color. I saw these two looks on Pinterest a few months ago. Thanks to my fantastic hairdresser (Monique) and her magic hands....I can finally say that it's done and I am in love with it. I haven't always been a huge fan of color but I have always been a fan of units and sew ins. Y'all thought I was going to do this to my own hair? Not a chance. That's why bundles and units were invented. But why this color? And why now? Let's get into that. A few months ago, I was on Pinterest searching for the perfect fall color. I work in a professional setting so I knew that it had to be fairly neutral but I still wanted it to stand out. I also knew that I wanted more of a medium-long look and possibly bangs. I have teetered with the idea of bangs for years. When done properly, they look amazing but ...

Good afternoon and Tuesday followers! I hope everyone enjoyed their long week. Today, I'll be talking about my up and coming cruise. We are officially at the 27 day mark for our cruise. I've been counting down for this vacation since we booked it in June. But what better way to celebrate the final leg of the countdown then with a post about it! For 5 days, I will be internet and cellphone free coasting away on a Carnival cruise. We're leaving out of Charleston and we will be spending 2 days at sea and 2 days at port. The two port stops are Nassau, Bahamas and Princess Cays, Bahamas. With the temperature dropping into the 20s and the highs being in the 40s here in Raleigh....this girl I can't wait for a little sunshine.The hardest part about this cruise for me is packing. I am a chronic over-packer. I want to pack 10 outfits for 5 day trip. However, I will have to be strategic when packing for this trip. Per carnival cruise, my suitcase must not weigh over 50 lb...

Good morning and Happy Hump Day followers!  I hope everyone had a great week at work or school or whatever they've been up to since I last wrote. In my first post, I mentioned that I would be writing about food so today's blog post will be featuring two very delicious and easy recipes. I made creamy herb chicken with teriyaki green beans and mushrooms. I served it with mini pillsbury biscuits and uncle ben's microwaveable wild rice.  And a delicious whiskey barrel aged red blend. Picture below for reference. Creamy Herb Chicken Recipe (Shout out to Pinterest and Karina from "Cafe Delites" food blog) Ingredient List :  For The Chicken: 4   chicken breasts   (pounded 1/2-inch thin) 2   teaspoons   each of onion powder and garlic powder 1   teaspoon   fresh chopped parsley 1/2   teaspoon   each of dried thyme and dried rosemary* (I subbed Italian seasoning for dried rosemary) salt and p...

Hi everyone and Happy Tuesday! I hope everyone had a delightful weekend. My weekend consisted of getting my first blow out of the fall season, catching up on my shows, making a delicious batch of Swedish meatballs (super easy and in my crockpot) and that's about it. So basically I did nothing productive but hey, at least I'm fully rested for the work week? Last week, I was invited to take an indoor cycling class and I said why not. So on Tuesday, I took my first indoor cycling class at the Cyclebar - North Hills and let me tell you. In the first 10 minutes (it's only a 45 minute class). I was ready to QUIT. I was breathing heavy and the sweat. I had surpassed the beading forehead sweat stage and jumped straight to dripping and that's not an exaggeration. Then we slowed down and the instructor said "that was a great warm -up". Y'all, I was ready to get off the bike and walk out the class but it was fixed so that I was directly in the middle and every bi...

Hi everyone and Happy Fri-Yay! This is the first official blog post for Daily Dash of Danielle. I apologize that it has taken me so long to get the first post up. I hope to be more consistent once things slow down. This has been a busy week at work for me and also the last week of two of my classes. But to get us started, I wanted to share a little about myself first. I want to share a few things about myself before hopping right into the fun stuff. This is my second attempt at blogging but my first attempt at a personal/lifestyle blog. I always have a lot to say, I love to write, and have been told that I would be a great blogger so I thought why not. My first blog was a food blog and if you know me, you know that I love a good meal, cooking, and trying new recipes. My first blog was called dinnerwithdanielle and while I loved writing it, it just seemed to be that I didn't have enough time to try all the recipes I wanted. Let alone write about it. So food will definitely be...