Thanksgiving Sides (Zesty Cranberry Sauce + Orange Basil Sweet Potatoes)

Its the beginning of the best time of year, holiday season!! Its Thanksgiving this week and I have been non-stop getting in the holiday spirit, baking, making recipes for Thanksgiving and spending time with friends and family. But, lets be real, the holiday season is one of the busiest times of year and who doesn't want an easy way out or a quick recipe to make! Thats why I am sharing with you these two amazing and incredible easy recipes that your friends and family will love. 
Push that can of already made cranberry sauce to the side and say hello to this fresh & zesty cranberry sauce that takes no longer than 10 minutes. Throw in some fresh cranberries, orange zest, some sweeteners and let boil, then you're ready to go! You can find the recipe and details, here. 

Moving on to my second favorite and technically more healthy item than your average mashed potato is this incredible orange, basil mashed sweet potatoes from Andie Mitchell's recipe book Eating in the Middle.  Throw a few whole sweet potatoes in the oven for an hour. When the sweet potatoes are soft in the middle scoop the insides out and transfer to a bowl. Add 2 Tbsp of butter, 1/4 cup of maple syrup, nutmeg, salt & pepper and mash together well! Before serving add some chopped fresh basil and serve!! 

Duh, these are the two easiest side dishes you could make on this crazy day of cooking, prepping, traveling, or just relaxing. Make prepare these ahead of time and reheat as well to ease your stress away! 

Thanks again for following and have the best Thanksgiving day!  

Se apaixona por Portugal | "Falling in love with Portugal"

Se apaixona por Portugal or falling in love with Portugal would be an understatement. I just returned back to Prague from my Spring holidays traveling throughout Portugal and when the time came to go, it was a very hard to say goodbye. There are only incredible things to say about Portugal, along with everything and everyone in it. 

Arriving late in the evening, I was able to see Lisbon at night. Lively, sexy, dimly lit beautiful alleys and cobblestone for as far as the eye could see. I could only imagine how beautiful this city was with the sun shining. Waking up the next morning, I walked out on to the terrace at our hostel and was greeted with the most breath-taking view. Bright orange rooftops crammed next to one another and a beautiful cloudless blue sky. 

As with most of my travels, I tend to not have any solid plans that I need to abide by or fulfill. Most often I love to get an early start and simply wander throughout town, the streets and enjoy getting lost. In Lisbon, this was the perfect place to wander. Around each corner were the most beautifully tiled and decorated houses, streets and buildings. The embellishments on the exteriors of the buildings changed constantly and kept your eyes staring at the beautiful patterns. It is a photographers dream. I'm pretty sure I stopped to take pictures every other building I walked by. In addition to the beautiful tiles that Portugal is known for, the street art in Lisbon is incredible as well. It filled the alleys and stairways and was amazing to see how much detail and effort is put into this. 

Markets

Markets: Time Out: 

If you consider yourself a "foodie," or simply just love good food, eating and socializing, Time Out market is one of the best places to go in all of Lisbon. Opened in 2014, Time Out market has a concept of a market feel, while having high-end restaurants and shops within it. 24 restaurants to choose from all with various cuisines and incredible chefs, 8 bars and a farmers market. Also, absolutely do not miss getting an "egg tart" from the incredible Manteigaria in the market.

Market: LX Factory

Another incredible area to check out when in Lisbon is the LX Factory. With over 200 business ranging from Cafes, restaurants, design houses, show rooms, clothing stores, bars, it has everything to offer. LX Factory offers amazing culture and design to look at. While there, make sure you stop at Mez Cais LX. This quirky, yet incredibly lively restaurant is the place to get amazing margaritas, listen to good music and eat good food (do not miss out on the avocado mousse)! It has a great vibe and both times I went there (yes I went twice in 7 days), every table was full.  

Porto

After spending our first days in Lisbon, my friend and I took the train to the city of Porto. As being the birthplace of Port wine, I knew I was going to be in heaven. Give me all the red and white port wine, please! Porto was a lovely, very walkable city. Small and incredibly charming. Incredibly friendly and warm people. I can't say enough amazing things about this town. Since we visited during the winter season, it was raining most of the time we were there. I would highly recommend visiting in Spring/Summer. 

First things first, we checked into our adorable Airbnb and scoped out the best places to brunch, grab wine and to eat good food. We walked around town and stopped by the infamous library, Livraria Lello. Although being overly congested with people, the library itself was charming. It felt like stepping into a Harry Potter novel, with the beautiful hanging staircase and old, worn wooden shelves. There is an entrance fee of around $11-12. 

We then braved the wind and rain and wandered throughout the streets, looking at the architecture and made sure to stop and do a port wine tasting. Also, make sure you try the local and famous dish of Porto, Franceschini. This sandwich is filled with various meat, and covered with melted cheese in a hot tomato and beer sauce.  Yum, right? It was actually incredible.

After exploring both Porto and Lisbon, I can truly say that Portugal has been one of my favorite places I've been to. If you are planning a trip there, see all of my recommendations for places to eat and cafes to stop by below. 

Places to be obsessed with: Lisbon

Cafe: Organic Cafe Estoril - Rua da Misericórdia 139
Cafe: Bowl Lisboa
Cafe: Royal Cafe (incredible veggie burger) 
Restaurant: A Cevicheria** (has 1 michelin star) - absolutely do not miss going to this place. It doesn't take reservations, but has the best fresh ceviche I've ever tried and the vibe is incredible. 
Restaurant: Costa Do Castelo
Drinks/Food: Mez Cais or Mez Cais LX (Mez Cais LX is located in an incredibly cool and trendy area call the LX Factory). 
Drinks: Fox Trot
Drinks: Park Bar or Topo

Places to be obsessed with: Porto
Drinks: Candelabro 
Restaurant: Cruel
Cafe: Zenith cafe (great vibe and amazing food) 
Cafe: Progresso

Hope you've enjoyed this post! If so, share it with others and make sure to follow my adventures @tripleoblog on Instagram. Cheers! 

Chocolate Sea Salt Stuffed Caramel Cookies

Ok, three words: Christmas came early! You're welcome to showing you this amazing, delicious, sweet, salty and chocolatey goodness of a cookie from Ambitious Kitchen! It will change your outlook on all cookies and you can make it just in time to share with all of your friends and family for this holiday season! 

During the holiday season I love trying out new recipes and sharing them with the people I know...and obviously eating some (or mostly all) of them myself. I have always loved baking cookies, especially around this time of year, because its such a great activity that brings all of your family together, whether it be taking part in the actually baking or just sitting around the table eating and enjoying the deliciousness of a cookie!

If you love the sea salt and caramel combination or caramel and chocolate combination, these cookies should be your go to from now on! Plus, they have all of those quintessential holiday spices of cinnamon and nutmeg in them too! They are actually super easy to make, grab some already made caramels from the store, put them in the center of your cookie dough and then roll them into balls! Of course they are best when served warm! 

I can't wait to hear all of your thoughts about these cookies. Have a wonderful holiday and/or Christmas!! Spend lots of time with family and friends and eating good food. 

Share some love with me on Instagram and make sure to follow on Snapchat to watch my weekly Motivation Monday stories!