This post is from Calee from Sacred and the Profane. Thank you, Calee!

This summer is wearing on me. Don’t get me wrong, I love the hot, sweaty days at the pool, the promise of vacation, the grilled chicken breasts—but most days? I’m running on sunscreen fumes and when it comes to dinnertime—don’t ask me for a side dish. You may have chicken.

After one too many spinach salads (my husband won’t eat lettuce unless he has to be polite) I was out of cool, green vegetable ideas. Since we spend around half the year as vegans, this was a giant problem. No veggie ideas, no food.

Enter the shredded salad. Trader Joes saved my faux gourmet butt when they released broccoli slaw in a bag. Mixed with a little of their spicy peanut dressing, grown men start asking for seconds. I’m serious, it’s happened with our guests at least 3 times.

Since not everyone has a Trader Joes down the street, I can only get away with serving this combo once a week and our local store seems to be out of the broccoli slaw goodness, I thought I’d share the evolution of the shredded salad. You too, can eat veggies that don’t suck!

Basically. This is anything crunchy and fresh in your fridge. My bowl includes: cabbage, carrots, green onions, a couple of snap peas, radishes and a beet.

That salad shooter I got from our wedding then promptly returned would come in handy right about now. Pop all that shredded goodness in a bowl and mix it together. As is, this mixture will keep about 4-5 days, depending on your ingredient list. Put it in a plastic bag and add dressing just before serving.

I HATE mayonaise. I hate almost all white, creamy things so you’ll never see me eat traditional coleslaw. Thanks to the cabbage, you could just pour some ranch dressing on this and serve it with burgers. But if you’re feeling fancy and fusion, here’s what I used.

1 Tablespoon seasoned rice vinegar
1 squeeze of honey
3 TB olive oil
some lemon juice—sorry, I forgot to measure. Just a dash. Really.
Salt, pepper
Chopped cilantro (if you’re making this way ahead of time, save the cilantro until it’s ready to serve)

Mix all this up with a fork (or a whisk if you’re fancy) and pour it over the shredded salad up to a ½ hour before serving. Toss in a generous handful of honey roasted peanuts and you’ve got something really special for these last few summer nights.

This post is from Rhiannon from Rhi In Pink. Thank you, Rhi!

I’ve been thinking an awful lot about family the past six months or so. It’s not like I’ve never thought about family before. It’s just that, well…

My paternal grandmother passed away in February. She was my most favorite woman in the entire world. She was a woman who adopted my dad at 11 years old, after his parents died (his biological mother was a cousin). She was a woman who found delight in the little things but also really enjoyed the finer things in life.

She was a woman who taught me that a lemon tastes delightful in Coca-Cola. A woman who taught me how to play solitaire, but NEVER let me win. A woman who knew all the tricky two-letter words in Scrabble and who would exclaim, “You’re really trouncing me, Rhiannon!”

She was a woman whom I hope to be like. I think about her every day. And now I’m wondering about her family, too. You see, she adopted all 3 of her kids. And I wonder, why? Why did she choose to create her family that way?

I’m wondering about this because last week during surgery to remove an ovarian cyst, my doctor found something entirely different and diagnosed me with endometriosis.

Now, I know—I KNOW that many women suffer from this, and many women have perfectly healthy pregnancies and happy, healthy babies. But, she gave me a dreaded timeline.

I have to be completely done having kids in 4 years, by age 34. But guess what: I’m not married. I’ve only just begun dating someone (who, by the way, could possibly be The One, but that’s a lot of pressure to put on a guy)! If he’s not the one, will I do this on my own? Can I be a single parent?

I’ve really been so focused on my career—me, me, and also ME—for my entire life. It’s kind of hard to switch gears and begin thinking about slowing down the career stuff and the All Rhiannon, All The Time Show and focus on a family.

But I know this: my grandma made a perfect family, a family that I’m so happy and thankful to be a part of. Whichever way I choose to do it, I hope she’ll be proud of me.

Guest post submissions are no longer being accepted. Thank you to all the participants! It’s been super fun!

This post is from my friend Marci from LVGurl. Thank you, Marci!

My husband and I moved to Las Vegas in January 2002. We fled the San Francisco Bay Area amid the “Dot Bomb” and all its layoffs. We obtained all the things we hoped for—an affordable house, a better cost of living, job opportunities, and ultimately a family.

Leaving California didn’t come without without strange looks, eye rolls, and thousands of questions from our friends and my husband’s family (my family was thrilled since they moved to Las Vegas when I was in college). “Are you nuts?” “Why would you ever want to leave California?” “UGH, gross. I hate Vegas.”

Over the years, Las Vegas has raised its profile and people are actually intrigued to hear more about it. Whereas it was an uncool move in the early 2000′s, living in Las Vegas now has certain cachet.

For those of you who are curious, here are a list of questions that I field on a regular basis along with my answers:

How do you live in a place that is always so hot?
If Vegas were always hot, nobody would live here. In fact, Vegas only reaches its scorching temps during June, July and August. The rest of the year it is mild. The weather isn’t any different than the Bay Area at that point. Well, except for the lack of clouds and rain. I really wish we had more cloudy days here.

Do you see a lot of shows?
We do, but not the kind you’re probably thinking of! We rarely see the big shows on The Strip, like Cirque du Soleil or magic shows. One of the greatest perks of living in Vegas is that nearly every major concert tour makes a stop here…sometimes for two nights. Collectively, we have seen U2, Smashing Pumpkins, The Rolling Stones, The Police, Tool, The Beastie Boys, Duran Duran, Morrissey, Audioslave, and Incubus, and we’ll see the Foo Fighters next month.

What do you do for fun? Do you go down to The Strip a lot?
We rarely venture down to the hot spots. We live 15 miles away, which is just far enough to feel like The Strip and all its debauchery doesn’t exist. When we first moved here, heck yeah we were down there all the time. But now we drive down there for cool dinners or to see a band play.

For fun, we exercise. A LOT. We also spend time with my family, with our friends here, and with friends when they swing into town. (There is always someone visiting Vegas!) There are some beautiful, amazing places that are close to our home: Red Rock Canyon, Mount Charleston, Valley of Fire, and Lake Mead.

Is it hard to be landlocked? Do you ever feel trapped in the middle of the desert?
The beauty of Vegas—for us—is its proximity to Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco. We can hit the Southern California towns within a four- to five-hour drive or a 45-minute flight; San Francisco is a nine-hour drive, or a one-hour-and-15-minute flight. We make an effort to leave these parts whenever possible! We’ve also visited New Mexico, something we’d never have done if we were still in the Bay Area. The Las Vegas airport is really great, and with the tourist draw, we can fly all over the world from this airport. My husband flies to Europe on a semi-regular basis for work, and I joined him in Paris once.

How are the schools?
Meh, some are great, some aren’t. Like any large metropolitan city, Las Vegas schools range from excellent in the nice areas, to scary in the high-risk areas. Luckily, we are close to a great elementary school. I’m thrilled! I loved going to public school, and I’m glad my girls can do the same. Have you seen the price tag on private schools these days?

Will you ever move back to California?
If we had several million dollars…maybe. It would be great to raise our girls with the awesome, relaxed surroundings where we grew up. With all the naturally occurring vegetation, coastlines, universities, little towns…all that. But unless you’ve lived in California, you really have no idea how expensive it is…how difficult it can be to make a living. California is deep within us, and we *sorta* ache when we go back to visit. But we stay long enough, and we quickly realize how good we have it in fabulous Las Vegas.

If you would like to guest post on this website, please email me (SAJ). I have about four days open without posts before I start posting again on the 15th.

I miss you guys! I can’t wait to start blogging again!