Recipe Guest Post // Pumpkin Swirl Cocoa Brownies

Hey guys! I'm off in San Diego this weekend, so I asked Abby to share one of her yummy recipes she is always creating! Hope you enjoy it and I will be back here tomorrow :)

Hello Foreign Room peeps! My name is Abby, I blog over at Little City Adventures, and you may "recognize" me from the East vs West series that Jess and I recently did together. But if you don't know much about me: I'm a newlywed living in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and I love to bake, cook, and eat food. So yeah, my life involves around food. I even work at a bakery. Jess has gotten to know me pretty well and knows just how much I love food and asked me to write up a fall-ish recipe while she was away this weekend. When I got her email I literally jumped up and down and excitedly texted my husband. Then came the thinking up a recipe. I was craving chocolate so it obviously had to include chocolate. But it also needed to be fall-ish. Pumpkin is fall-ish. Chocolate and pumpkin, chocolate and pumpkin, chocolate and pumpkin....Pumpkin Swirl Cocoa Brownies! And yes my friends, they are as good as they sound! Now for any of you out there who are slightly wary of that much chocolate being all up in pumpkin, it really is good. Have you ever had pumpkin bread with chocolate chips in it? See, it really is a good combination! If you like this recipe, be sure to check out my blog for even more recipes, as I post at least one per week. 

Pumpkin Swirl Cocoa Brownies

prep time: 8 minutes          cook time: 35 minutes          total time: 43 minutes

What you'll need:

- 3/4 cup butter, melted

- 1 cup white sugar

- 1/2 cup brown sugar

- 1 tsp vanilla

- 3 eggs

- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

- 1/2 tsp baking powder

- dash of salt

- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

- 1 cup dark chocolate chips

- 3/4 cup pumpkin puree

- 1 tsp cinnamon

- 1/2 tsp nutmeg

- 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

- 2 Tbsp milk (I used soy)

- 2 Tbsp butter, melted

How to do it:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8x8 pan with foil and spray foil with non-stick spray.

2. In a large bowl, stir together melted butter, sugar, and vanilla. Add eggs and mix until incorporated.

3. In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, salt, cocoa powder, and chocolate chips. Add dry to wet until incorporated.

4. In another bowl (or same one that held dry ingredients), blend together pumpkin puree, cinnamon, nutmeg, pumpkin pie spice, milk, and 2 Tbsp butter. 

5. Pour chocolate batter into prepared pan. Spoon pumpkin mixture overtop of batter at random spots. Using a knife, swirl pumpkin mixture throughout chocolate batter. 

6. Bake for approximately 35-40 minutes, or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. 
Note: the pumpkin parts will not be as firm as the chocolate brownie part. Cool completely before cutting into squares. 

Love, Abby

DIY: Pretty Pumpkins

Hello all! Today I have an awesome DIY for you that I had so much fun doing over this past weekend. It is fall. There are pumpkins everywhere. I always love getting pumpkins to decorate my house with, but this year I wanted to do something unique with them. So, since I also love gold glitter, I figured why not put the two together to make some chic, glamorous pumpkins?

Here's what you'll need:

- Pumpkins of your choice

- White acrylic paint

- Extra fine loose gold glitter

- Mod Podge (or maybe liquid glue that dries clear)

- Paintbrushes (large + medium)

What it cost me:

- Pumkins = $5

- Paint = $0.75

- Glitter = $2.50 (had a Michael's 40% off coupon)

- Already had Mod Podge & brushes

Total: $7.25

What to do:
- Paint pumpkins with white paint. Mine required 3 coats. Let dry for 3 minutes between coats.

- While pumpkins are drying, mix 2-3 tablespoons of Mod Podge with a generous amount of glitter. Ideally you want the glitter to be pretty dense. The more glitter the better!

- Once pumpkins are completely dry, use paintbrush with glitter Mod Podge mixture to paint the glitter onto your pumpkin. Be sure to wait until white paint is completely dry for better application.

- Sprinkle additional glitter on spots where you painted it on. This gives it a nice finish!
(TIP: When sprinkling glitter on, it is especially important to wait until white paint is completely dry so that glitter doesn't stick to the spots you don't want it to, if you care about precision)

- Let dry for about 45 minutes.

- Shake off excess glitter for smaller mess.
And then enjoy!

And that's all, my friends! I hope that this DIY inspires you to get creative with your own pumpkins and please do let me know if you decide to try this project!

Weekly Wishes #12

Hello my friends! Things have been pretty quiet around here, I know. Between going to school full time, working anywhere between 25-30 hours per week, going to the gym, doing homework, prepping healthy meals, taking care of chores, and sleeping, I have not found much energy for anything else. I have missed this space this past week and hope to be able to fit it into my life better this week. October was so promising around here and I had the whole month planned out before it even arrived. I always feel awful having to postpone ideas and erase things from my calendar! Oh to have endless hours in a day and still get to sleep for nine of them... So, with all that being said, I will warn you now that I pretty much FAILED at my weekly wishes.

- Return emails within 48 hours and texts before the end of the day. I really wish that I did better at this. For the life of me, I cannot understand why such a simple thing is so difficult for me to do. I get distracted, and then it gets late, and then I don't feel like responding to or writing anything. It's an awful habit that I know I need to change, but didn't this week.

- Edit photos from my baby nephew's shoot. Nope. Didn't happen. I wish it did though because he is so dang cute. I don't mind looking at his face for a few hours :) 

- Stick to my new meal plan. Yes! I did pretty well at this. With the exception of this weekend. Gosh darn you family and birthday dinners out. What is a girl to do? For those of you who asked last week, my meal plan primarily consists of lean proteins, fresh veggies, brown rice, avocado, and black beans. I also eat greek yogurt, oatmeal, egg whites, fresh fruit, and protein bars. Perhaps I will share the complete daily menu with photos one day soon if there is interest :)

- Take care of little tasks. I did not make a vet appointment for Marly or find a new dentist (although my dad did send me a link for where to find one!), but I DID reschedule my jury duty, which allows me to do something VERY exciting that I think should be a blog post announcement in itself :)

- Blog regularly. Last week was a drag in blogland and I think I saw a few tumbleweeds roll on by. So let's make this week much better, shall we?

- Focus in Biology lecture. I hate to admit this (especially since my sisters are teachers and might shoot me), but I do not focus in my bio lecture class and usually spend my time blogging, reading blogs, or thinking about blogging. Yep, I said it. It is just. So. BORING. But I know I just need to suck it up and make myself focus and probably not bring my laptop. I tell myself I am going to be taking notes with it, but who am I kidding?

- Do most of or even complete my English essay before Thursday evening. I am going to San Diego Thursday evening! I am super stoked, but unfortunately, it looks like I will have an English essay due the day after I get back. Boo. Things have an uncanny way of working out, don't they? I hope to get most of it done before going though because I need to be spending my time drinking iced coffee and shopping with my sister, playing with my nephews, and carving pumpkins. None of that school garbage.

- Spend time with Marly. That poor pup. I love him to pieces, but I have just been so busy that when I come home at the end of the day, it is usually just time to hop in bed to catch a few hours of sleep. He always comes running faithfully with that old blue and yellow ball in his mouth, hoping for a few minutes to play. I will do my best to carve out some special time for the boy, especially since I will be gone this coming weekend.

What does your week look like? Any weekly wishes?

And the winner is... + East vs. West Wrap-Up

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Remember this giveaway from last week? Well, we have a winner! Congratulations to Katie of Chestnut Mocha! Katie, I will be contacting you very soon to get your address :)

Thank you to all who participated! As it turns out, there will actually be two separate winners, one for my blog and one for my friend Abby's blog, Little City Adventures. We originally intended to have just one winner, but due to some technical difficulties (and it being our first time using Rafflecopter hehe) there are two winners! The more the merrier, right?!

So this giveaway was the conclusion of East vs. West, but I really loved this series and hope you did too! Here is a look back at this series...

We first started things off with one of my favorite things, ice cream. I visited Bi-Rite Creamery in San Francisco's Mission District and it was heavenly.

In the second week, Marly and I had an afternoon treat at Vanilla Moon Bakery. Such a wonderful salted caramel macaron and vanilla latte.

Later, I gave you a tour of a local boutique I enjoy shopping at, Therapy. I love all of the nick-naks and unique items they have.

I took you on a hike to my very favorite outdoor exploring spot, Lands End at the tip of the San Francisco Peninsula. This place has breathtaking views of the ocean, bay, and Golden Gate Bridge. Plus it is a great work out!

Lastly, we ended things at Sol Food in San Rafael to highlight one of my very favorite lunch spots. This Puerto Rican Cuisine restaurant serves fresh, local, and gluten free foods and serves yummy homemade drinks in mason jars. Need I say more?

And there we go! Like I said, I have loved this series and how it has forced me to get out and explore where I live a bit more. I am thinking I will keep this up in some way, maybe have a "West Coast Love" section? That way, if you ever come to visit, you can have a list of go-to spots that I have highlighted. Any thoughts on this?

So with that, I wish everyone a wonderful Thursday and I cannot even tell you how much I am already looking forward to the weekend! Sleep is on the horizon...

Weekly Wishes #11

Happy Monday! Today I'm linking up with Melyssa over a The Nectar Collective for the motivating Weekly Wishes.

- Buy and start the Busy Bloggers Book Club book. Done! I got it for my Kindle and I really like it so far :) Hopefully I will find time to finish it this week!

- Get a calligraphy set. I got one! Don't know much about it, but I messed around with it a bit and want to practice more. I would love to take a class from Laren at Blue Eye Brown Eye. What a dream!

- Rock my midterms! Honestly, I didn't study much, but I did feel alright about them and the best part is that they are behind me haha.

- Put 100% of my effort into my personal training sessions. Gosh, they have been tough so far, but I know that they aren't supposed to be easy. I am definitely working hard and it feels good to do so. Gotta keep with it!

- Return emails within 48 hours and texts before the end of the day. I don't know when or how, but somewhere along the way, I became awful at returning texts and e-mails. Just awful. I know I need to fix that, so no time like the present!

- Edit photos from my baby nephew's shoot. It was a week ago and I haven't gotten around to editing them yet... That is very unlike me though since I am usually just itching to get started. I've just had a lot going on!

- Stick to my new meal plan. With my new personal training sessions comes a new meal plan! I love food, so this is sometimes hard for me to do. I stuck to the plan yesterday, and I'll be honest, the lunch and dinner was pretty underwhelming. Bland and boring. But, I know it won't be like that forever, so I need to do my best to stick to it!

- Take care of little tasks. Like making a vet appointment for Marly's check-up, filling out and sending forms to postpone jury duty, and maybe even finding a new dentist because mine moved and I haven't been in quite a while...

East vs. West: Sol Food + GIVEAWAY!

This week's East vs. West is very special. I am talking about one of my very favorite places and there is also a GIVEAWAY! Yay! As a request from one great reader (thanks, Britt!) Abby and I decided to highlight one of our favorite lunch spots where we live. Dai and I were visiting my sister in San Rafael (about 15 minutes north over the Golden Gate Bridge), and decided to stop at Sol Food on our way home for a late lunch because no trip to Marin County is complete without eating at Sol Food, this lovely bright green building.


Sol Food is a Puerto Rican Cuisine restaurant that specializes in only using organic, gluten-free, locally grown products. Their menu is quite extensive and unique, though I always get the same thing! That's what boyfriends and husbands are for right? They get new things and you can try them, but still have your go-to favorite as well. It's a wonderful system.



The decor is colorful, vibrant, and full of character. One of my favorite parts of the restaurant is the long table with barstools that run along the windows that slide completely open. It is the nicest place to enjoy a meal on a breezy day. Sometimes we even bring Marly and he sits happily at my feet, between the pavement and the restaurant.

They make wonderful drinks, like this limade that Dai always gets. Plus they all come in a mason jar, so I am a happy camper.

Plantain chips! With a perfect sauce. I don't like cooked plantains very much, but in chip form they are awesome.


While Dai prefers the limeade, I am all about their mango-orange iced tea. It is simply the best. I could drink it every day and wish Sol Food were closer to home so I could just stop in for a drink!






I always, always get this glorious steak sandwich. It has thinly sliced steak, carmelized onions, avocado, swiss cheese, and a sauce I could just bathe in. It is just so wonderful that I hardly have any words for it. You just need to come here and try it for yourself!


Dai got rotisserie chicken with rice, black beans, salad, and plantains. His was also very good! The chicken was so tender and moist, and all of their classic sides are just great and complimented it well.

The steak sandwich is also very good with some of their homemade hot sauce on it! I still need to buy a bottle of this stuff to put on everything at home.

Pretty dreamy, right? I know you already have that Southwest tab open so you can see when the next flight to the Bay Area leaves so you can make it here for lunch. I just know it. At any rate, I have loved sharing with you this unique place! I will be dreaming of that steak sandwich and iced tea tonight...

I think this is my favorite East vs. West post yet, and it only gets better with this awesome giveaway we have for you as well! I decided to make my package a surprise to build up the suspense, you know, but you can find out what Abby is giving away over at her blog! I am really excited for this giveaway and for a lucky winner to get our east and west coast themed packages!

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