Healthy Living | Girl Meets Life | a lifestyle blog by Gracie Gordon

Travel Brilliantly with Marriott.

2 March, 2014 by Gracie 12 Comments

If you follow me on social media, you probably noticed that last week I had a “stay-cation” adventure in NYC. It was all thanks to Marriott Hotels, who were kind enough to invite me to join their Travel Brilliantly campaign.

I was really excited to be a part of this for a few reasons. First and foremost, I love an opportunity to share my favorite things to do in NYC! Secondly, I get so many requests about where to stay when visiting New York, so I definitely wanted the chance to check out what Marriott Hotels had to offer. And I must say, I was VERY impressed.

From the get-go, I loved the ease of my stay at Marriott Hotels. I was able to utilize their mobile check-in on Thursday morning, which couldn’t have been more simple.

When I arrived at the hotel around 5pm that day, my check-in took all of about 20 seconds. It was so seamless!

I stayed at the New York Marriott Downtown located in the Financial District, blocks from One World Trade Center. The view from my suite says it all…

My room itself was amazing too. Kiiiiinda wish I could live here…

Perfect selfie mirror – check 😛

I felt all sorts of special when I was welcomed with a card and some fancy chocolates.

After I got all settled in, I met up for a tour of the hotel with the Marriott team and some other bloggers. We also got to learn more about Travel Brilliantly and the fun new Marriott Mobile technology, followed by a welcome reception with cocktails and au d’oeuvres.

And then, it was time for me to experience Travel Brilliantly for myself! First off was a visit to nearby Century 21, where I was able to use a Visa gift card to do a mini shopping spree. I kept with the mobile theme by having my lovely Instagram followers help me choose which outfit(s) to buy.

Since the prices were way marked down, I went with two of the outfits! With your help I chose the pink dress and the green pants. Gotta love a shopping success 😀

After a quick run back to the hotel, I got on my phone once again – this time to schedule an Uber car to bring me to my next destination.

I’m not exaggerating when I say that Uber is one of those apps I can’t live without. It’s leaps and bounds more convenient than waiting outside to hail a cab, and you can even follow the car on a map with a countdown to see when it’s going to arrive.

Uber brought me right to my dinner reservation at Empellon Cocina in the East Village, which I booked through OpenTable (seriously – what did we do before mobile technology?!). Rachel and Dara joined me for some of the best Mexican food I’ve had in the city.

We were going to order off of the special restaurant week menu, but decided to just do a la carte (mostly because we wanted their famous masa chips & pistachio guacamole, haha).

All of the food was so delicious! Thumbs up from Dara 😉

After dinner we got picked up by Uber again, this time a big ol’ fancy Escalade.

We met up with some friends at Brinkley’s in SoHo, then went across the street to GoldBar.

It was such a fun night out on the town! As if I didn’t feel spoiled enough, I loved being able to go back to my hotel room and get an amazing night’s sleep. As difficult as it was to wake up in the morning, I loved feeling extra pampered thanks to a room service breakfast. I’m a sucker for the “bed office.”

A few hours later it was time to check-out, which was just as seamless and easy as the mobile check-in. Just a simple click on my phone, and I was good to go! We actually did a “Mobile Check-out race,” which included certain tasks to be shared on social media, and guess who won? Meeee!

I really must say I loved my stay at Marriott Hotels and learning more about them. Even though Marriott Hotels is already an industry leader, they’re on an exciting transformational journey looking for new ways to interact with and accommodate their guests. They’re working hard to introduce technological innovations for the next generation traveler, including being the first to introduce the mobile check-in and check-out.

Another way Marriott Hotels is enabling guests to Travel Brilliantly is through their Guest Services app, which allows guests to request service at their fingertips. I really love that option because it’s not only convenient, but it’s personalized and makes you feel like a VIP during your stay.

Click here to learn more exciting information about Marriott Hotels Travel Brilliantly!

Thanks so much to Marriott, Uber, Century 21, OpenTable, and Empellon Cocina for accomodating such a fun NYC adventure.

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Disclosure: please note that I was given a complimentary 1 night stay at New York Marriott Downtown, a $200 Visa gift card, and $40 Uber credit. All thoughts and opinions in this post are my own.

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Is mobile check-in/check-out something you’d like to try?
What’s your favorite travel app?

#LEAN14: easy almond flour pancakes.

25 February, 2014 by Gracie 6 Comments

Last week it was coconut flour, and now it’s all about the almond flour.

Almond flour is a great flour alternative as it’s grain free, low in carbs, and full of healthy fats.

I’ve experimented with almond flour in the past (which is basically finely ground almonds), but I’ve yet to try making pancakes with it. So I did a little Pinterest search and found these Coconut Almond Flour Pancakes from Clean Eating Chelsey, and I knew they were the ones I wanted to make.

The recipe looked simple enough, but the real deciding factor was how thick and cake-like they looked.

Chelsey was right when she said that these babies are filling. I followed her recipe to the T, minus the coconut because I didn’t have any. I topped mine with some butter and maple syrup.

I also love that this is a single serving recipe. It made two perfect medium-sized pancakes.

Definitely a new go-to breakfast for me!

Have you ever cooked/baked with almond flour? What’s your favorite (healthy) pancake recipe?

scenes from the weekend.

23 February, 2014 by Gracie 17 Comments

Weekends are always a fun time, but they’re especially great now that I live within walking distance of most of my favorite places in the city.

…like St. Paul’s German Church, where we had an amazing Liberty Sisterhood gathering on Friday.

Followed by a cozy late night dinner at the Meatball Shop.

Then after a few hours of bopping around we ended up at the “neighborhood club.”

In case you missed everyone’s Instagram updates, the weather in the Northeast this weekend was per-fec-tion. No winter coat necessary!

And springy nails to match.

The West Village was doing all sorts of showing off.

We brunched 13 people strong at De Santos.

I’m thankful that Rachel likes splitting meals as much as I do. Why on earth get one entrée when you can have two?

We kicked the new week off right with a visit to the gym on Sunday morning.

(Sunglasses to cover up the post-gym roughness, ha.)

With a weekly Quest Bar restock on the way home, of course.

Spring-ish attire, day two.

Dinner of lazy folk champions.

(This was actually really good!)

Last but not last is the most special part of my weekend. This is Ayanda, the adorable little girl from Zimbabwe that I’m so blessed to sponsoring through Children’s Cup.

I’ll leave you with some inspiration for the week ahead…

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What was the highlight of your weekend?

#LEAN14: coconut banana chocolate chip cookies.

21 February, 2014 by Gracie 23 Comments

Full disclosure – this is the third time I’ve posted about these cookies.

They’re just that good. Not to mention the old pictures were crap. But let’s go with the former.

I haven’t made these in about two years and honestly forgot about them, but they recently got all sorts of buzz on Pinterest, so I figured it was a good time to make them again. You know, to make sure they still taste good.

They do.

coconut banana chocolate chip cookies.

grain free, paleo*, can be made vegan**
yields 10-15 cookies

dry ingredients:

3/4 cup coconut flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

wet ingredients:

1 large banana, mashed
1 tablespoon honey OR maple syrup
1 tablespoon coconut oil OR canola oil
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup milk (I used unsweetened almond milk)

mix-ins:

1/4 cup dark chocolate chips
other options: nuts, coconut flakes, dried fruit

* depending on how strict you are with honey/maple syrup and chocolate
** if you use maple syrup and sub carob chips

directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine dry ingredients in a bowl.

In separate bowl, combine wet ingredients, except for the milk.

Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix together. Then add the milk 1/4 cup at a time and combine (it will seem like a lot of milk, but coconut flour is very dry and needs the extra moisture). Then mix in the chocolate chips.

Form cookies (about 1-2 tablespoons of dough) and place on greased baking sheet. Bake for 23-25 minutes until edges begin to turn golden brown. Immediately transfer to cooling rack, and allow cookies to cool for at least 5 minutes. Store in the refrigerator.

Baking with coconut flour can be tricky, but I think the addition of the banana and extra milk really works with these cookies. They’re soft, chewy, and a great healthy alternative to regular chocolate chip cookies.

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Have you ever baked with coconut flour?

what i hate(d) about blogging.

19 February, 2014 by Gracie 44 Comments

This post is one that I’m surprised I haven’t written yet. It’s based on something that goes through my mind every single time I hit publish on a post, or share on my gazillion social media outlets.

(It’s funny, though. When I was done writing this post I changed the title to hate(D) because I suddenly became FREE from what I thought I hated about blogging. Don’t you love it when that happens?)

Thanks to Clare and her post from yesterday for inspiring me to share my thoughts on this. Clare addressed the issue of feeling the need to censor herself on her blog, and I couldn’t agree more. For me, though, the pressure to censor myself has less to do with my blog readers and more to do with my real life friends, acquaintances, and various relationships.

Over the years I’ve definitely gotten to the point where I’m comfortable sharing my blog with everyone I know – I tell friends about it, post it on my personal Facebook, and even refer to myself as a blogger when asked my profession. Considering how I was almost embarrassed about GML at first, I’ve come a long way when it comes to being proud and confident in being a blogger.

The difficult part now, though, is coming to terms with the fact that I’ve opened myself up to so many people’s opinions and criticisms that a normal person would just never have to face. It can be uncomfortable to realize that people (whether they’re people I know or not) can know things about me that might take months or years for someone to learn if I didn’t have this little old thing called a blog.

But you know what? That’s just something I’m going to have to deal with. I know for a fact that this platform was given to me for a reason, so I’m willing to take whatever comes along with that.

I think that what it all boils down to is that having a presence on a public forum like a blog has forced me to learn what it means to be fully and unapologetically myself.

So yes – I take pictures of my food.

I share TMI sometimes.

I wear too much makeup sometimes.

I had adventures in Tinder.

I take selfies, and I love other people’s selfies. SELFIE SELFIE SELFIE.

I don’t have a “real” job.

I’m a Christian that goes clubbing.

I overuse emojis, Pinterest quotes, and hashtags.

So if you want to follow my blog, my social media, or just have me in your life – that’s what you’re gonna get. Welcome to girl meets life.

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If you’re a blogger, is this something you can relate to? If a blog reader – would love to hear your thoughts on this!

Some related posts:

#LEAN14: a full {sick} day of eats.

17 February, 2014 by Gracie 12 Comments

I hate to be all “woe is me,” buuuuut basically I feel like death. Fever, chills, congestion – the whole nine.

I woke up on Saturday with the worst sore throat of all time and knew right away it was going to be a bad one. Thankfully my parents had come up that day to see my new apartment, and I had already planned on going back to Pennsylvania with them for a few things.

Let’s just say a cozy coach, big screen TV, and doctor Mom definitely help make being sick a bit more bearable.

I’ve been getting a handful of requests for more “full day of eats” posts since starting LEAN14, so I had that scheduled to post today, and even though I’m sick - the blog must go on.

Breakfast - Koala Crisp cereal with sliced banana and coconut milk.

(Yes, Koala Crisp. I’m mature like that.)

Lunch – sandwich of mashed avocado and a fried egg on brown rice bread.

Snack – a big green smoothie.

Dinner – all day I was looking forward to having the slow-cooked pulled pork my mom made, but when dinnertime rolled around the thought of eating meat was just really unappetizing. Regular old rice and beans was all I could seem to stomach Not so pretty, but it did the job.

Dessert – a few squares of dark chocolate.

Oh, and there was tea. Lots and lots and lots of tea.

For the most part, this is pretty standard for what I’ve been eating lately. Normal days usually include more veggies and more protein – both of which seem to be the most unappealing when sick…

What do/can you eat when you’re sick?