Happy Friday Everyone!
One – Current Happenings
Happy Friday everyone! Well, the kids spent 2 weeks of this month in quarantine, because their dad got Covid a few days after their weekend at his house. So, I don’t have a WHOLE lot to report this month, except a few things… I did get the house decorated (inside) for the Spring and my newest favorite item is this little miniature Rae Dunn baby bird house that I found at HomeGoods.
My favorite nutritional shake place started carrying mini protein muffins/donuts! I picked up their oreo cookies and banana bread ones. They have 18 calories each, with 2g carbs, 2g protein and less than 1g sugar. Not bad for a little treat.
Autumn had her first competition for her dance team in over a year!! Thankfully, she was out of quarantine for a week before they had it. She got to perform her duet for the first time and they did GREAT! Her nationals this year are in Myrtle Beach and we just booked our condo for it. It will be so weird to leave our state this summer as we haven’t left it since Covid started. I am looking forward to seeing the beach!
Two – Clean Eating & Vegetarian Recipes
Near the end of February, I did a one week long Smoothie reset. It was a lot of fun! I had 2 smoothies a day in addition to 3 meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner). I had the first smoothie with my lunch and the second smoothie was my midday snack.
These are the different smoothies I tried for the reset:
Strawberry Almond Protein Smoothie
Creamy Apple Pie Smoothie
Vegan Gut Healing Green Smoothie (pictured above)
Blueberry Detox Smoothie
Orange Immunity Booster Smoothie
Lemon Tart Smoothie
These smoothies had minimal ingredients, fruits AND veggies in them! It was a lot of fun and a week was the perfect length for the reset.
I have been preparing my own vegetarian lunches every week and I’ve been having a lot of fun with it. I’m on a vegetarian Facebook group and I get a lot of great ideas on it for recipes. One recipe I tried out and made everyday for lunch for a week was this black bean burger recipe. I found sprouted hamburger buns and roasted cubed potatoes to go with the burgers as a side dish. I added pickles and tomatoes as a garnish. Here is the recipe for these delicious black bean burgers (I made them all at once and froze some to use later):
Black Bean Burgers
Makes 8 medium-sized patties. (You can split this recipe in half.)
2 Cans of Black Beans
1 Cup Oatmeal
1 Tbsp Milled Flax Seed
2 Tbsp Water
1 Tbsp of McCormick’s Hamburger Seasoning
2 Tbsp Maple Syrup
Garlic powder, Onion powder to taste
Mix flax seed and water and let sit. **This is your ‘egg’ for binding everything together. Grind the oats into a coarse flour.
Mix dry ingredients in a medium-sized bowl.
Drain and rinse black beans.
Coarsely grind black beans and add to dry mixture along with flax ‘egg’ and maple syrup.
Place frying pan over medium heat with a little oil.
Mix everything together thoroughly and roll into 2inch balls.
Press balls into patties and cook 3-4 at a time depending on the size of your pan.
Cook for 3-4 minutes and flip.
ANOTHER fun recipe I tried recently was John Peel’s Protein Pudding Bowl. It really has the consistency of pudding and is so easy to make for a recovery meal after a long run. John Peel is a fitness trainer for iFit and he was the trainer for the March Sun & Sand challenge.
Three – Running & NordicTrack
Well, I am in the UPPER digits of long runs right now for my half marathon training. I am training for the virtual Star Wars half marathon with runDisney. Due to the weather and quarantined kids, I have been stuck doing almost all of my runs indoors (unlike my Fall half marathon, which I trained for mostly outside). Thankfully, the NordicTrack makes you feel like you’re running outside with the video and so many different places you get to run at with their wonderful iFit trainers. I recently received my medal for the live iFit New Year’s Eve race! They are going to be doing a sunrise over Mt. Everest walk (or run, but I’m wondering what the incline will be for THAT walk/run- ha!) and I’m hoping to participate in it if I can. It is live and in the evening, so I’m not sure if I can swing it or not with all of the running around I need to do with the kids activities. 🙂 I hope to do a post about the NordicTrack in the future, it is a really neat treadmill and I love the iFit community, too. I am planning to try out some of the iFit strength training workouts soon to see if I would prefer those over the FASTer Way ones I do right now.
Four – Latest Book & Shows
On the Bright Side: Stories about Friendship, Love, and Being True to Yourself by Melanie Shankle
I really enjoyed this book! I listened to the audio which Melanie Shankle did herself. Melanie shares a lot of experiences throughout her life and she has a very bubbly and hilarious way of explaining them. Melanie has a daughter close to my daughter’s age and she gives advice and tips that she gave her daughter as she went through her teen years and I could relate a lot to it. I love the story she told of her daughter getting a new pair of shoes and she wrote bible passages all over them and that was when Melanie knew she had gotten it right with daughter. Her daughter had turned to scripture for comfort in difficult things she was going through as a teen. There are lots of other great stories in her book, not just of her being a mom, but of her childhood, marriage, etc. This book will definitely put a smile on your face and Melanie keeps it upbeat and throws in wonderful scripture that fits perfectly with her stories.
And, as for shows…
We are currently watching Outlander and it is taking us awhile to get through it. I’ll update more once we finish it. 🙂
Five – Misc. Finds
Shop This Product:
I received this Clarins V-Facial Intensive Wrap product for Christmas and WOW it is a total game changer. It is truly amazing (just read the reviews and look at the before and after photos posted on Sephora!) and I love using it the morning before my outfit photos. It would be great for a date night out or special event, too! This does NOT go all over your face, I use it under the eyes, eyelid, cheeks and jawline. It will literally look like you had a facelift. The biggest trick is to leave it on as long as you can. I usually leave it on for at least an hour in the morning before doing my moisturizer and makeup.
I hope everyone has a nice and relaxing weekend!
