Blog Posts

National Pecan Month

The Retreat at Tampa Blog is featuring a few easy recipes for National Pecan Month. We hope that you get the chance to make one of these treats before the month is through. Head to your local bakery for a pecan pie if baking in your apartment isn’t quite for you. Brown Sugar Pecan Pie Cheesecake from I Wash You Dry This brown sugar pecan pie cheesecake is one of our favorite desserts of all time. Graham crackers, brown sugar, pecans, and melted butter make the perfect pecan crust. The creamy filling, made with cream cheese, sour cream, brown sugar, vanilla, and eggs, is heavenly. Chocolate Caramel Turtle Cake Roll from Crazy for Crust This chocolate caramel turtle cake roll is an amazing National Pecan Month dessert. This recipe, made with cake mix, is easy to throw together and doesn’t take too long to make. The pecan frosting is made with heavy whipping cream, chocolate chips, corn syrup, vanilla, and chopped toasted pecans. Caramel Pecan Sticky Buns from Chocolate with Grace These caramel pecan sticky buns combine delicious dough, cinnamon filling, and a sugary pecan topping for a treat you’ll love. Our favorite part of this recipe is the pecan topping. Throw together the pecan topping using brown sugar, corn syrup, butter, and chopped pecans. Chocolate Pecan Pie from Handle the Heat This chocolate pecan pie is a step up from the traditional pecan pie. Throw together your own pie crust or head to the store for a premade pie crust. Pecan halves, semisweet chocolate chips, eggs, sugar, brown sugar, corn syrup, bourbon, vanilla extract, cinnamon, and salt combine for a filling that is just the right amount of sweet. We know that you’ll love sharing a chocolate pecan pie with friends for National Pecan Month this year. Apple Pecan Fritter Bites from Great Grub, Delicious Treats These apple pecan fritter bites are the perfect breakfast for National Pecan Day on April 14th. Make this treat with flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, cinnamon, warm water, almond milk, apples, pecans, and vegetable oil. Top it all off with a delicious, sugary glaze made with powdered sugar, vanilla, and almond milk. What’s your favorite pecan recipe? Let us know in the comments. Thanks for reading our post!

Plan an Epic Road Trip

This month the Retreat at Tampa Blog is featuring a few tips to help you organize an epic road trip. Head out of town to see something new before April is through. We have everything you need to do before, during, and after your road trip in this post. Before Your Trip Before you head out on your trip, put together a packing list. We found The Ultimate Cross Country Road Trip Packing List from A Passion & A Passport. Make a list of the clothing and food you’ll need to bring before your trip. We really love the safety list from A Passion & A Passport. Pack a flashlight, umbrella, spare tire, spiral bound road atlas, and a copy of your insurance card in case of an emergency out on the road. Also remember to come up with a budget before you go. Estimate how often you’ll have to stop for food on the road. Estimate how much money you’ll need for gas and souvenirs on your trip. Remember to make room in your budget for emergencies. Map out your route before you go. Avoid the road during rush hour and plan your stops. It’s important to remember to have another driver on hand to drive when you get tired. Also remember to plan your meals. Pack a cooler full of food to avoid stopping every couple of hours for fast food. We really love this article on 44 Healthy Road Trip Snack Ideas from Wholefully. During Your Trip During your trip, remember to make time for stops along the way. Checking out different small towns on your route is a great way to explore the country. Country Living has an article on The 50 Most Beautiful Small Towns in America . We think that stopping at the national parks on your route is another awesome way to explore the countryside. You can find information on the different national parks here . After Your Trip After your trip, launder your clothes, dust your apartment, and throw away any food that might have spoiled or expired during your trip. Head to the grocery store for food and other supplies, and retrieve your mail for a seamless transition into your everyday routine. Do you have any road trip tips for us? Let us know in the comments. Thanks for reading our post!

Get a Good Nights Sleep

Get a better night’s sleep this month with these helpful tips and tricks from the Retreat at Tampa Blog! We have some advice from the National Sleep Foundation and the Mayo Clinic to help you get to bed and get a good night’s sleep. Having trouble falling asleep? We have advice from WikiHow and The Huffington Post. We hope that you have a great March! Get ready for bed The Mayo Clinic has some great advice on how you can get your nighttime routine to line up with your sleep schedule. Stick to the same routine every night. Brush your teeth, listen to some music, write in a journal, and then get to bed. Sticking to a routine (and going to bed at the same time each night) will help your body know when it’s time to get to sleep and will make falling asleep much, much easier. Let Yourself Wake Up The National Sleep Foundation suggests dimming your lights about an hour before bedtime to help you get to sleep and letting in the daylight in the morning to help you wake up. Make sure that you stop hitting that snooze button in the morning. It’s better to wake up with your first alarm rather than let yourself get low quality sleep after your alarm goes off. Relax before bed WikiHow has several routines to help you fall asleep. They advise keeping your room clean, dressing in comfortable clothing, learning to relax your mind (and body), turning on some relaxing music, and stretching before bed. You can find more of their advice by clicking this link . Think of a happy memory The Huffington Post cites an Oxford University study that proved that relaxing imagery could help you fall asleep. Picture the place where you feel more relaxed and focus on that image until you slowly feel yourself falling asleep. You can learn more about that study (and other methods to help you fall asleep at night) here . Do you have any sleep tips for us? Leave us your advice in the comments. Thanks for reading our post!

Spring Cleaning Advice

The Retreat at Tampa Blog has some advice on getting your spring cleaning done before the month is through. Declutter your home and clean the places in your apartment that usually get ignored when you’re doing your weekly chores. Change the batteries in your detectors Make sure that your Retreat at Tampa apartment is ready for anything. Change the batteries in the fire and carbon monoxide detectors in your apartment. Make sure that your detectors are working properly. Contact maintenance if they need to be replaced. Clean your kitchen Wash your dishes, clean out your kitchen cabinets, disinfect the sink, mop the floors, and get rid of any hard water or food stains that may be sticking around. Clean out your fridge and throw away anything that’s old or expired. Wash the shelves in your fridge with soap and water, and get rid of any residue food with a cleaner like 409. Wipe down your freezer and dust your kitchen cabinets. Get rid of any pots, pans, etc. that you no longer use. Dust Dust your apartment! Remove your books and knick knacks from the shelves so that you can dust everything thoroughly. Be sure to dust the top of your fridge and any tall furniture. Dust behind your furniture, and go over windowsills, appliances, and hard to reach corners. WikiHow has some great advice on dusting your apartment . Get rid of anything you don’t need Find the donation center closest to your Retreat at Tampa apartment. Donate any unwanted or unused items to the center, or offer your old coffee maker or breadmaker to a friend. Get rid of anything you haven’t used in a year. Evaluate every item and try to predict how often you’ll use it in the coming year. If you can’t picture yourself using something more than once, get rid of it! Don’t be afraid to haul several boxes or trash bags full of stuff to your local thrift store. Haul any damaged or broken items to the local dump. You can find a full spring cleaning checklist from Martha Stewart. Leave us your spring cleaning tips in the comments. Thanks for reading our post!

Caring for Houseplants

Decorate your Retreat at Tampa apartment home with a few well-placed houseplants this February. We have a few tips and tricks to help you pick plants that will thrive and last in your home. We hope that you find the chance to bring a few houseplants into your home sometime this month. It’s important to pick the right kind of houseplant for your lifestyle and your apartment. If you travel a lot, or if you’re more forgetful, it’s important to pick a plant that needs infrequent watering and attention. Cacti and succulents are excellent choices for anyone who wants a low-maintenance (but beautiful!) plant to take care of. Make sure that your plant fits your home, as well. You don’t want to put a huge houseplant near a doorway (it’ll get tiring walking around it every time you enter a room). You should also make sure that your rooms are right for the plants you’ve picked. Some plants need more sunlight than others. Some plants thrive in the dark. Scout your house for the right places for each of your new houseplants. Once you’ve picked your houseplants, it’s important to know just how to care for your plants. Ask the gardener or caretaker at the nursery or garden you purchase your houseplants from how to care for each plant. A herb garden is another great houseplant option. Grow a small herb garden in your Retreat at Tampa kitchen and use the herbs the next time you cook a meal for the people you care about. An herb garden is a great way to add some interest into your kitchen space, and fresh cut flowers can serve as a great centerpiece. Fresh flowers also tend to brighten up a room. If you aren’t a fan of traditional houseplants, but still want some green in your home, fresh flowers are a great way to decorate your space. We have a few links that we think will help you take care of your houseplants: Houseplants from Better Homes & Gardens Houseplants from HGTV 20 Super-Easy Houseplants You’ll Love from Midwest Living Houseplants Pests and Diseases from Gardener’s Supply Company 10 Best Houseplants for Low Light from Sunset Are you a fan of houseplants? Let us know in the comments. Thanks for reading our post!

Valentines Day Dessert

The Retreat at Tampa Blog has five chocolate recipes to help you celebrate your Valentine’s day this month. These are some of our favorite treats, and we think you’ll enjoy making them on February 14th. We hope that you have a wonderful Valentine’s day with the people you love. French Hot Chocolate Recipe from A Spicy Perspective Drink your chocolate for dessert. This french hot chocolate is even thicker and sweeter than your regular cup of hot chocolate. You’ll love its sweet, decadent, delicious taste. Make this treat with bittersweet chocolate bars, whole milk, heavy cream, brown sugar, and vanilla extract. Mint Chocolate Chip Truffles from Shugary Sweets We love these mint chocolate chip truffles. Use cream cheese, unsalted butter, peppermint extract, chocolate chips, and food coloring gel to make the filling, and use your favorite brand of melting chocolate for the exterior. These are the perfect dessert to snack on after a heavy Valentine’s day dinner. French Chocolate Macarons with Chocolate Ganache from Chowhound Macarons are famously difficult to make, but there’s no better time to try than Valentine’s day! Enlist someone you love to help you make these delicious, decadent macarons. Our favorite part of this recipe? The chocolate ganache made with bittersweet chocolate, heavy cream, and unsalted butter. Brooklyn Blackout Cupcakes from Baking Mischief These Brooklyn blackout cupcakes are loaded with chocolate with a slight bite from the hot coffee in this recipe. You’ll love how the cake, pudding filling, and chocolate glaze all add up for an extra-chocolatey (and delicious) Valentine’s day dessert. Mini Sour Cream Chocolate Cakes from Handle the Heat The sour cream in these mini sour cream chocolate cakes give this treat the perfect texture. You’ll love just how sugary sweet this dessert is — caster sugar and brown sugar make these cakes one of the sweetest treats we’ve ever tried. The chocolate frosting (butter, powdered sugar, milk, semi-sweet chocolate, chocolate shavings) is the perfect finishing touch. Leave us your favorite Valentine’s day dessert recipe in the comments, and we’ll check it out. Thanks for reading our post!