Happy Friday Everyone!
One – Current Happenings
Well, Happy New Year… even if it has been quite a new start of a year already. We spent New Year’s Eve at home and I had champagne, cheese and crackers and more champagne. It was a nice and relaxing evening. We even got a family photo, which we were lazy and didn’t do on Christmas! Ha! One of our guinea pigs (S’mores) even got in on the photo fun!
On Christmas, I had more cheese and crackers! Ha! And, I made a delicious Mulled Wine in the crockpot. It made the house smell so good and kept me warm all day (and cheerful! ha!). I hope all of you had a good holiday and I’m looking forward to holidays with friends and family next year.
I received a couple packages in the mail with gifts from my blogging friends! Lauren from Mom Home Guide sent me a cute Holiday Gingerbread pillow, a few Christmas ornaments, Christmas gift labels and stickers and two packages of teas that she loves and wanted me to try. Thank you so much, Lauren!
Then, Jill from Doused in Pink sent me over some adorable Rae Dunn ornaments, a cute card, lotion and restoring mineral bath package. Thank you so much, Jill!
Two – Delicious Vegetarian Breakfast Recipe
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Recently, I purchased a TON of vegetarian cookbooks. I am the type of person that goes for the easy recipes that have minimal ingredients. I have ALWAYS wanted to try Chia Pudding, so I tried it out recently and it was REALLY good! It pretty much tasted like a chocolatey tapioca pudding dessert, but it wasn’t! The only sugar in the entire recipe was the strawberries! It has 3 tablespoons of chia seeds in it, which everyone knows chia seeds are a SUPER food! So good! Here is the recipe if you want to try it:
Strawberry Chocolate Chia Pudding
Ingredients:
2 Tablespoons of Cacao Powder
1 Cup Unsweetened Almond Milk (I use Trader Joe’s)
3 Tablespoons of Chia Seeds
1 Teaspoon Honey
1 Tablespoon Cacao Nibs
3 Chopped Strawberries
Mix almond milk with cacao powder, add chia seeds and honey. Mix thoroughly. Put in refrigerator for 5 minutes, then take out and mix thoroughly again (so the chia seeds don’t all float to the bottom). Leave in refrigerator for 30 minutes or overnight (like I did). After you take out of the refrigerator add chopped strawberries and cacao nibs to the top for a garnish. Enjoy!
I also made myself an easy 3 ingredient smoothie to go with it:
Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie
Ingredients:
1 Banana
1 Tablespoon Peanut Butter
1 Cup Unsweetened Almond Milk
1 Cup Ice
Mix and enjoy!! These two were SO good together! The yummiest breakfast ever and so energizing after a workout.
Three – Running & NordicTrack
Since the pandemic started in March, I’ve been a lot more active! I signed up for a half marathon while still participating in the FASTer Way Strength workouts, I’m working out 6 days a week now and sometimes have a recovery walk on the 7th day, I’ve cut down my Starbucks drink to once a week (I used to have a bad, bad habit) and I’m moving towards a vegetarian lifestyle that focuses on whole foods and low fa (except on holidays, of course!)t. This is HUGE for me and I feel so much better! I’ve just signed up for a Spring half marathon, which is the Run Disney Star Wars race and I plan to do the Bolivia Half Training my Tommy Rivs on my NordicTrack along with running my long run outside once a week. I’m trying to take baby steps towards Progress and not Perfection! It is hard some days, but honestly… I’ve been doing this since March and it really is just part of my lifestyle now. I do schedule in a few cheat days every month, but instead of going off the wagon and eating donuts and cookies all day long, I try to stick to one or two treats and a cheat meal. They say the first few bites are the ones you truly enjoy and that is SO true. So, why do I do this? I’m not looking to lose weight, I’m more in a maintain weight, yet my main goal is to be HEALTHY for the now and future! 🙂 Plus, I really love health and fitness and I may be bringing some of these types of posts to the blog this year.
Ok, so… I’ve mentioned on here that my old treadmill that I had since 2008 broke on Cyber Monday and I got myself a new NordicTrack. OH do I looovee it!!! I did a 5K race on New Year’s (it was actually the Saturday morning before New Year’s) and they emailed me this week to let me know that they’re going to mail me an actual medal from this race in Florida. How cool is that?! I’ll be sure to share it on here once I get it in the mail.
One thing that I’ve always loved is lighthouses. The NordicTrack takes you on some beautiful scenic runs and I thought this lighthouse I saw during one of my Portugal runs was so beautiful.
Four – Latest Book & Shows
First, let’s talk about HOW many books I read in 2020!! 18 books total! Some of these I read via audio (I do A LOT of driving) and some I read on my Kindle. You can see all of the books I read in the image above.
Midnight Sun by Stephanie Meyer
Stephanie Meyer is the author of all of the Twilight Books. I read these books in my late twenties and I was really hooked! She recently came out with Midnight Sun, which is Edward’s take on everything. This book was good, but since I already knew the gist of the story line it was a little ho hum. It did prompt me to watch ALL of the Twilight movies over again, which BOTH of my kids surprisingly got hooked on! So, watching all of the Twilight movies over the holidays with my kiddos was a lot of fun!
And, as for shows…
Virgin River
We are through the first season of Virgin River and we are ploughing through the newer second season now. This show has all of the good feels and some parts that you’ll need LOTS of Kleenex for, too! It is a drama about a nurse practitioner that moves to a small town in California called Virgin River to get away from her past. This is a town where everyone knows each other and she goes through some trials, finds love and learns to gradually get over what is bothering her from her past. I don’t want to give any key details away, but it is SO good!
Five – Misc. Finds
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Miss Autumn got this Baby Brush Crush from DryBar for Christmas and she LOVES it! I got it for her so she can straighten her naturally curly hair in the morning on her own and I don’t have to worry about her burning herself, like she might on a regular flat iron. This comb is a petite size, so perfect for her to maneuver (she is 12) and it works great on her fine, medium length hair. I have yet to try it out on my hair, but I want to!
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Recently I won a giveaway on Mom Home Guide’s blog for a Stainless Steel Citrus Juicer (see her post about it HERE!). I’m excited to win this, because I want to start making my own healthy salad dressings! I plan to try this Easy Citrus Salad Dressing Recipe with the juicer. I can’t wait!
I hope everyone has a nice and relaxing weekend!
