| MEXICAN QUINOA |

Brandon and I have been trying to eat more plant-based meals for a few months now. We both are busy with school and work and are often lazy when it comes to cooking dinner. This meal is super easy, quick and healthy. Win, win win.

Heres what you need:

tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic

1 cup quinoa

1 cup vegetable stock

1 can black beans

1 can corn

1 can diced tomatoes

tsp cumin

tsp chili powder
salt & pepper to taste
1 avocado (optional)
fresh cilantro (optional)

Heat olive oil in a large skillet on medium high heat. Cook garlic, stirring frequently, for about 1 minute.

Stir in quinoa, broth, tomatoes, corn, beans, chili powder, and cumin. Add salt and pepper to your liking. Bring this all to a boil and then cover. Reduce the heat and let simmer until quinoa is cooked. This usually takes about 20 minutes.

 I like to slice up an avocado and put it in mine and cilantro is always delicious if you have it around. And thats it! Really good and really filling. Hope you enjoy!

| HELLO |

Hello hello hello. So this week I am officially relaunching my blog. I have wanted to do this for a while now, but things have always gotten in the way. So no more excuses! I am passionate about a lot of things and I want this to be a place where I can put down all my thoughts and talk about the things I love. I want this blog to be a place of inspiration and knowledge. I am passionate about living a healthy lifestyle and I am constantly working on self improvement. I I am studying to be a health coach and love learning about nutrition. I am in the process of switching over to more natural cruelty free products in my skincare, makeup, and household items. I truly believe that we as consumers have the choice to make a difference in how the system works. 

"Every time you spend money, you're casting a vote for the kind of world you want"-Anna Lappe. 

I want Wild Rose to be a blog about personal growth and living your dream life. I am on a journey to a healthier more conscious way of living and what better way than to document it beautiful pictures. Ill have a recipe up for you tomorrow and then posts will be published every Tuesday and Thursday. I will also try and be posting everyday on Instagram.  Enjoy!

| ADVENTURE WEEKEND |

A few weekends ago, my friends and I decided to take a couple days and go on some adventures. We camped in an empty campground, hiked up and down waterfalls and into caves, crossed freezing cold streams, and went zip-lining for the first time. We accomplished all these things in a small town in Missouri called Eminence. It was an awesome, inexpensive weekend full of many memories so I thought I would share a little of it on the blog. Enjoy!

We headed out early Saturday morning to find some hiking trails, but unexpectedly came across this huge waterfall called Rocky Falls Shut-In. It would be an awesome place to swim and hang out for the day but since we went in the middle of October we just climbed to the top and all around it. Who knew there were such beautiful waterfalls in Missouri?

Rocky Falls Shut-In

The manly men get beat to the top by the girls

Brandon wanted to show off his knife, so this is what happened...

"Act like you're about to kill something in that opening" -Brandon

View from top of Rocky Falls

Matt trying to be a badass 

The picture above is a map of the zip-line course we conquered at Eagle Falls. We didn't take any pictures but we took some awesome Go Pro videos of it. I'm still working on editing that but stay tuned because it should be a good one. :)

After our zip-line adventure we still had amazing weather left in the day so we headed out and found a place called Alley Springs. The first thing you see when you get there is this gorgeous blue-green spring water.

There was a short mile and a half hike to an overlook so we accomplished that first.

 Hard to capture the beauty of the overlook, but you can use your imagination

On the hike back down we had fun climbing where we shouldn't be climbing, exploring creepy caves, and taking cheesy couple photos. 

 We ended the night with a delicious steak dinner and cozy bonfire. Thanks for the awesome weekend Matt and Heather and cant wait to discover more hidden treasures around us. 

DIY | TERRARIUM

I think terrariums are super cool. They add that outdoor feel to any room and they are super easy to make. And for all my fellow non-green thumbs out there they are just as easy to keep alive.

|What you will need|

    Terrarium of your choice. I found mine at Michaels.

I chose open ones which require watering about once a week. 

Completely enclosed ones require little to no water. 

  Plants of your choice. Succulents and cactus' seem to work well.

Activated Charcoal

Small rocks

Soil

Start adding your base layer- this can be gravel, coarse sand, or rocks. This layer is for drainage and I spread mine about an 1" evenly at the bottom.

On top of that, add a thin layer of your activated charcoal. I found mine at Pet-smart. This apparently helps keep the air clean (I don't know I just do what Pinterest tells me).

Next comes soil. This is pretty self explanatory. I stole mine from my mom's plants. 

Then add your succulents and voila! I think it'd be cool to add some pretty rocks or crystals or something to spice it up too.

I love my little terrariums and you will too so try it out. Here's some pictures of other ones for you to get inspired by. 

| HIKING DOWN THE GRAND CANYON |

On June 6, 2014 5 of my friends and I started our 22 hour road trip to the Grand Canyon for a trip of a lifetime. We hiked around 30 miles total, saw breath taking views from the top, bottom, middle, everywhere you can think of, swam under amazing blue-green waterfalls, and created unforgettable memories. Since then a lot of people have asked about the trip and how it all went down because they were interested in experiencing it for themselves. So I thought I would create a blog (Iv always wanted to anyways) and explain in more detail and pictures what the trip was all about. Enjoy!

DAY 1

On Sunday, June 8 we headed to the top of the hike in Hualapai Hilltop, AZ. We stayed in Seligiman the night before, which I highly recommend because its a very cool little town. We started the 10 mile hike down around 8 in the morning so it wasn't terribly hot. In fact the weather was pretty perfect the whole time and there was a lot of shady areas on the hike. We took our time, stopping for pictures and snacks and just taking it all in.

 Can you spot my Spider-man buddy? :)

We all carried backpacks with almost everything we needed except for some bigger things like tents, sleeping bags, and what not. If we had the money we would have probably bought tents and sleeping bags that were small and meant for trips like this but maybe next time. We split a mule between the 6 of us which didn't cost much. The mule could carry 4 large duffle bags that weighed 35 pounds so I recommend that route if you are in a similar situation.

About 8 miles in you will reach the little town in the Havasupia Indian Reservation. We stopped for a much needed meal at the little cafe and then proceeded the final 2 miles to our campsite. These 2 miles however consisted of streams and waterfalls that we relaxed in for a while. It was so amazing and I cant even begin to describe the views.

We then made it to camp and picked out a perfect spot right by the clear fresh spring that ran through the whole campsite. There were picnic benches all around and trees for hanging bags or clotheslines. We set up our tents, fixed our food, and fell asleep under the bright sky and surrounding canyon walls. 

DAY 2

On day two we woke up had breakfast and started on our way to Mooney Falls and Beaver Falls. Oh and by the way, for food we had oatmeal for breakfast, trail mix and cliff bars for lunch, and freeze fried packages for dinner. You can not have fires down there so we had a little Bunsen burner to boil our water. The freeze fried packages were surprisingly very good, we had chicken fajitas and rice and chicken. So we packed our little day bag with water and food and hiked to the end of the campsite. This is where Mooney Falls is located.

View from the top, where campsite is located

From here you descend at your own risk down. It was so exciting! You start by going through a cave and then straight down the mountain with only some chains and wooden steps bolted to the canyon walls. It was pretty intense but we all made it safely to the bottom. We have some cool videos of the cave part and other things along the way which I put on YouTube so click here if interested. 

This was the easy part :) but look at that view!

Mooney Falls

From here we ventured down stream for 2 miles to Beaver Falls. This was one of my favorite parts of the trip because we didn't follow a given path, just made our way through the water whichever way we thought best. There were ladder bridges in areas and little waterfalls the whole way.

The water is ridiculously beautiful.

Towards the end of the hike it was very intense. I don't even remember it all because we were out of water, food, and it was strenuous so I was a little out of it. I remember climbing up a tiny ladder that felt ridiculously long and then going down tiny path ways. But then we made it to Beaver Falls and it was all worth it!

Beaver Falls

We didn't explore the whole thing because I think it went down pretty far but it was basically all these falls that you could sit and swim in and just hang out. It was really beautiful and I wish we could have stayed longer but it awesome while we were there. We then hiked back, ate, and fell sound asleep.

DAY 3

This was our last full day and we were all pretty sore so we just wanted to relax and not do much hiking. We hadn't seen the Havasu waterfall which is the biggest and most known so we hung out there most of the day. Its located right before the campsite so it was very close.

Havasu Falls

Everyone was jumping off this little waterfall which was really fun. There were also many spots to just relax and enjoy the fresh clear water. 

DAY 4

We woke up at 4 am, packed up our remaining items, and headed up the canyon for our last 10 miles. I didn't eat much breakfast and I didn't have much energy so the last mile and a half (which is pretty much straight up) was a little difficult. The struggle was real to say the least. But we all made it safe and sound and the whole trip worked out pretty perfectly. Hopefully some of you will get a chance to experience this and see all the wonders of the Grand Canyon.