Category Archives: Lifestyle

Homemade Granola Recipe

Homemade Granola Recipe
Homemade Granola Recipe

The Nantucket youth hostel used to be one of the most beautiful and affordable locations to stay on the island. Right across from Surfside beach, I would grab a cup of coffee from the communal kitchen in the morning and walk down to enjoy it on the deserted beach. The Hostel was sold to developers in 2020, but my fond memories of staying there remain. We were there to do the Nantucket Triathlon one weekend when we wandered into the kitchen to find a young rustic Italian backpacker with tousled hair making homemade granola. Warm maple syrup scented the room. The granola was delicious and something that I had never thought to make at home before that moment. When I make this recipe, I always think of my friend Jo and our delight and surprise as we entered the kitchen that morning. She had published this recipe on her blog, Creative Whimzy, a while back, and I’ve been making it ever since.

This recipe makes about 6 cups of granola.

3 cups rolled oats

1 cup unsweetened coconut chips

1/2-1 cup of shelled pistachios

1/4 cup Pumpkin seeds

1/3 cup maple syrup

1/4 or 1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

optional 3/4 cup dried raisins or craisins or sour cherries

Pre-heat oven to 300F. In a large mixing bowl, toss together the oats, coconut, pistachios, pumpkin seeds, salt, and cinnamon.

Over low heat, in a small saucepan, warm the brown sugar, maple syrup, and olive oil until all dissolved together. Pour it over the oats mixture and stir until evenly coated. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and spread the granola mixture evenly in one layer. Bake for approx. 20 min, or until lightly toasted.

Enjoy!!

 

Valentine’s Day Gifts To Give With Love!

Valentine’s Day Gifts To Give With Love!

v-day 2019My favorite holiday is coming up! Life is about love in all of its precious forms and although it should be given generously every day, there is no better excuse to spread the love and celebrate its beauty than Valentine’s Day. Here are a few of my favorites this year for a sentimental gift, gifts that give back, or ways to up your chocolate, flower, and wine game.

#LoveIsProject

Puppy Love! How cute is our dog Leo’s new collar we gave him as an early Valentine’s Day gift?!  Every purchase of a handmade Love Is Project dog collar, or any of their other many products handmade by global artisans, provides a sustainable livelihood for women and their families. This product is made by Masaai women in rural Kenya. Read more about the  Love Is Project story on their website.

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FEED PROJECTS

Candles always make great gifts.  This one is even better because each FEED candle and card bundle purchased provides 26 school meals to children around the world. 

FEED Candle & Card

Ella Stein

Ella Stein is a new way to purchase diamond jewelry that is conflict-free, empowers the female artisans who craft the diamonds in India, and is affordably priced. Plus….we love their designs! 

Ella Stein Heart

Ella Stein

ONE HOPE WINES

Of course, I was introduced to One Hope wines by my friend and founder of World Moms Network Jennifer Burden. I was thrilled to find out that we could give back by drinking wine! One Hope has a great selection with the part of the proceeds of each wine going to a worthy cause. They always have fun holiday editions that make great gifts like their limited edition Valentine’s Day gift boxes this year.

One Hope Wines

Shutterfly

These custom photo collages by Shutterfly make beautiful and sentimental gifts, perfect for Valentine’s Day.

To The Moon and Back photo collage

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Olive & Cocoa

The gorgeous bouquets offered by Olive  & Cocoa take flower giving to a new level!

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Vosges Chocolates

Cosmic Heart Truffle Collection! Need I say more? The tag line for Vosges chocolates is “Travel the world through chocolate” and the exotic flavors in their truffle collection reflects that goal. 

Vosges

Guest Interview on the Dramatic Travels Podcast

Guest Interview on the Dramatic Travels Podcast

 

I was thrilled at the opportunity to be interviewed by Aaron Schlein for the Dramatic Travels podcast. Interestingly it felt more vulnerale or revealing to share some of these stories in a podcast interview than has felt for me to write about them in the past. Eleanor Roosevelt suggested:

“Do one thing every day that scares you.” Eleanor Roosevelt

This was my thing that day. You can listen to the podcast through the link below:

Elizabeth Atalay on Dramatic Travels

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Aaron Schlein launched the inspirational family travel podcast Dramatic Travels earlier this year as a resource for family travel, a way to ignite curiosity, and to open people’s minds to the power of travel. In each episode Aaron talks travel with passionate and experienced travelers who are sharing the world, and that love of adventure, with their kids.

Follow more Dramatic Travels on:

Instagram

the Dramatic Travels website

and Twitter

 

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3 Great Family Road Trips Abroad

3 Great Family Road Trips Abroad

A number of years ago we decided that we needed to seize our opportunity for the six of us to take valuable memory making family trips as frequently as we could before the kids went off to college. Often our destinations have been dictated as much by desired locations as flight costs. We search on websites like Cheapoair and kayak to help us find the best flight deals. We usually end up doing what we call high/low travel, mixing youth hostel stays in with resorts, and tend to keep our itineraries somewhat flexible by booking key accommodations and then finding others along the way. This is surprisingly easy to do with websites like booking.com, tripadvisor, and hostelworld, and that flexibility has led us to some incredible experiences. Keep an eye out for detailed travelogues and trip guides for each of the below family adventures on documama in the next few months.

Iceland

Iceland

I call this the land of rainbows and ponies because we saw at least 1 rainbow a day and Icelandic horses were everywhere. Iceland had not been on our radar until we saw the amazing airfare on WOW airlines. We’d never heard of WOW airlines… but we were intrigued! This was a fantastic trip that the kids all loved. You have to rent a car to get around and there was a lot of driving involved, but the roads were pretty much empty, and the scenery is spectacular.  Frequent stops to take pictures of waterfalls, climb on the lava rocks, check out the ancient moss fields, and visit volcanos, glaciers, and hot springs make the driving worthwhile. And in 5 days we only made it around 1/4 of the country’s one main ring road! accommodations are few and far between but through booking.com and airbnb everyplace we stayed was great. 

iceland trip

Croatia, Bosnia & Montenegro

croatia

We flew into Zagreb instead of Split because, you guessed it…..the flights were more affordable. Zagreb is a great little city though with a vibrant market, some beautiful architecture, and a bustling city square. This also gave us the opportunity to visit the spectacular waterfalls of plitvice and the birth place of Nikola Tesla on our way to and from the coast. This region has very good roads and was easy to navigate in our rental a car ( aside from the hair-raising mountain pass our navigation system took us through in Bosnia in error). Accommodation highlights were nights inside the ancient walled Roman cities, which I highly recommend, and a couple of fantastic beach resorts. Between the rich history, the spectacular beaches, and the numerous world heritage sites, this trip has something for everyone.

Croatia map

Ireland/Northern Ireland

ireland

Despite the narrow roads a road trip around Ireland and Northern Ireland is easy to do. We found wonderful bed and breakfasts along the way which we mixed in with a few youth hostel stays . Our itinerary was provided by our Irish friend and we pretty much visited all of the places he suggested. There is amazing history and scenery everywhere and of course great pub food! We were blown away by the ancient beehive huts around Dingle and the 5,000 year old megalithic passage tomb sites of Newgrange, the kids loved climbing around abandoned castles and the incredible Giant’s Causeway. This is again a wonderful family trip that was a crowd pleaser!

ire roadmap

 

Bon Voyage!

Explore The World With A Travel Scholarship

Explore The World With A Travel Scholarship

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Travel changes You. You change the world.

HI USA

International travel opens up your world and provides an unparalleled education. The good news is that there are many ways to afford to travel abroad even if you don’t think that you have the means to do so. There are organizations out there that believe in the power of travel. Hostelling International USA has just opened up applications for the 2018 Explore The World Travel Scholarships  . Through this scholarship more than 100 $2,000.00 travel scholarships will be awarded in 2018 toward an educational or service learning trip! This is an incredible opportunity for you or someone you know to explore the world. 

Social Media Image Explore the World

Experiencing new places, meeting new people, and being exposed to different cultures enhances global awareness and builds bridges toward cross-cultural understanding. That in turn creates a more peaceful world. Hostelling International USA not only wants to give travelers the opportunity to see new places, but a chance to make a positive impact along the way. That is what this scholarship is all about, making the world a better place through travel.  Past recipients of the Explore The World Travel Scholarships have done things like studied Arabic in Jordan or taught math in the Dominican Republic. You choose the path that you would like to take, and you are sure to return with an enhanced global perspective. Check out the eligibility requirements and start dreaming or share this opportunity with someone you know who would love it.

Every time I Travel I am amazed by the new things I learn about history, geography and the world. Travel has exposed me to the deep generosity of strangers and heightened my own desire to give back to others. It has given me a glimpse into perspectives I never could have otherwise understood and exposed me to cultures as different as possible from the one I grew up in. What I have observed in over 70 countries that I have visited is that at the core we are all more alike than we are different. I have become fascinated by learning perspectives and seeing the world through a different lens, and the greatest lesson is how much more there is to learn.  My husband and I hope to pass our love of travel on to our own children along with the knowledge that the world is a big beautiful place with a multitude of roads to travel, endless possibility, and different lifestyles to be lived. It all begins with that first trip. I love that Hostelling International USA is committed to making sure that everyone can share in the opportunity to explore the world. 

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Where will you go? What will you do to make a difference? APPLY NOW