Five Things Friday

It’s Friday!! I’m not sure if I could be any happier that I actually made it out of this week alive [..so far].

1. The past 2 weeks have been absolutely nuts at work but it makes the weekends all that much better.
2. Speaking of weekends, tonight at sundown begins Yom Kippur which means 24 hours of fasting. I’ll be staying off of Pinterest tonight and tomorrow!
3. HOWEVER! Today is National Peanut Day. Quite possibly one of my favorite days ever [after my wedding day and National Peanut Butter Day, of course]. So I’ve rounded up a few of my favorite peanut recipes for you.
   

   Sweet

   

   Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Bark

   

   Hail Merry Peanut Butter Coconut Banana Bites

   

   Healthy Banana Peanut Butter Cups

   

   Peanut Butter Cup Protein Shake

   

   Peanut Butter Wonderful Powerballs

   

   Sweet Potato Dippers

   Savory

   

   Buddha’s Feast with Spicy Thai Peanut Sauce

   

   Peanut Chili Baked Tofu

   

   Tilapia Stir-Fry with Chili Peanut Sauce

   Enjoy 🙂

4. Another round of Best Body Bootcamp started this week. Looking over the workouts I definitely thought they didn’t look so bad and I’d probably breeze through them. Holy cow was I wrong! All of the workouts were deceptively difficult and I left the gym drenched. It was a great feeling!
   

   Cardio and core work

5. I wandered around the food area of Marshall’s last week and found a few fun things. I’d gotten plain ginger chews for Nathan to try once upon a time and he said they were a bit spicy for his liking. When I came across a bag of peanut butter ginger chews [here I go with the peanut butter again!], I couldn’t pass them up. They have more of a peanut butter flavor with a little kick of ginger spice.. seriously addictive! And they’re individually wrapped so you can throw a few in your bag for later!
   

   Peanut Butter Ginger Chews

And on that peanutty note, I hope you have a lovely, restful weekend!

Food for Thought

Do you have a favorite food holiday?

Foodie Friday: Tropical Mango Salsa & Cinco de Mayo Recipe Roundup

Cinco de Mayo is this Sunday! And in the interest of continuing on the fun pinning spree from yesterday, I thought I’d share some of my top Cinco pins along with a new recipe.

Tropical Mango Salsa

Serves 4-6

Ingredients
– 4 champagne mangoes
– 1 red bell pepper
– 1/2 red onion
– 1 jalapeno pepper; with or without ribs depending on how spicy you like it!
– 2 cloves garlic
– 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
– Salt & pepper to taste

Directions
Dice the mangoes, bell pepper, and onion into 1/2″ pieces and finely mince the jalapeno and garlic. Add the white wine vinegar, salt, and pepper and stir gently.

You can eat this right away or let it sit for about 15 minutes to let the flavors combine. I love easy recipes 🙂

More Recipes for Your Pinning Pleasure!

Summer Salsa

5-Minute Chunky Guacamole

Jalapeno Popper Dip

Sweet Potato Burrito Smothered with Avocado Salsa Verde

Mexican Stuffed Pepper

Grilled Fish Tacos

Mexican Adobo Rubbed Grilled Pork Tenderloin

Tequila Lime Flank Steak Fajita Salad with Chile Lime Vinaigrette

Alfajores – Dulce de Leche Sandwich Cookies

Margarita Cupcakes

Talenti Frozen Sangria

Food for Thought

What are your Cinco de Mayo plans?

Foodie Friday: St. Patrick’s Day Recipe Round Up

What would a fun holiday be without a fun holiday recipe round up? I’m pretty sure you said “not fun” and I agree! And while I’ve never been big in partaking in the celebrations, I can certainly hop on board with the food- and drink-based excitement of it all.

[Breakfast]
Breakfast Reuben Sandwich – Closet Cooking
Corned Beef Hash with Carrots & Thyme – Coconut & Lime
Green Monster Spinach Smoothie – Iowa Girl Eats

Alright, so the smoothie might not be a traditional St. Patty’s Day treat, but with all of the treats around, you might want to have this recipe on hand for the next day 😉

[Snacks & Meals]
Honey Beer Bread – Gimme Some Oven
Reuben Rolls with Thousand Island Dip
Avocado Feta Dip – Two Peas & Their Pod
Corned Beef & Cabbage Soup – Skinnytaste

I love the twists on traditional fare, especially turning a heavier dish, like Corned Beef & Cabbage, into something lighter.

[Sweet Treats]
Minty Irish Powerballs – Barr & Table
Creamy Lime & Avocado Tart (Vegan + Gluten Free) – Eating Bird Food
Guinness-Milk Chocolate Ice Cream – Brown Eyed Baker
Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes – Brown Eyed Baker
Skinny(er) Shamrock Shake – Skinnytaste

A few indulgent options and a few healthier options as well. Take your pick! 🙂

Food for Thought

How will you be celebrating St. Patrick’s Day this year?

What I Ate Wednesday #34: Asian Fusion

If you gathered from my Valentine’s Day recipe roundup, Nathan and I happen to love Asian cuisine. And we really don’t discriminate either.. Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Korean.. you name it, we love it! I would say we have a problem, but in reality, it makes for some fun road trips.

[Breakfast]
Post 7 mile run [mentioned simply because it’s my longest ever!], I had my slimmed down sweet scramble topped with nut butters and Love Grown Raisin Almond Crunch granola. Have you tried their products yet? So good!

Also, every time I tweet a picture of this scramble, people ask me for the recipe! I’ve happily linked it up but always want to make sure to give credit where credit is due. Tina at Carrots ‘N’ Cake is the mastermind behind my daily breakfast and I thank her 🙂

[Lunch]
Pleased that we didn’t have a very far road trip on Sunday, we made our way to Honey Pig, a Korean restaurant where the food is cooked at your table. At your table, they give you a few sides to share: steamed broccoli, egg, pickled daikon, jalapenos, garlic, sweet potatoes [like sticky sweet potatoes.. not like regular orange sweet potatoes], plus a small salad and bowl of rice for each person.

This wasn’t our first rodeo so we knew what we wanted.. Beef Bulgogi and Spicy Chicken. We’ve had both before and they were great. This time, however, the waitress decided we could use a little extra spice. It was absolutely amazing and we devoured every last bite. Extra spicy is the way to go.

*Picture stolen from Mary.

[Dinner]
We were absolutely stuffed from lunch so I opted for a late dinner of coconut oil roasted broccoli and sweet potato with Kasey’s tahini nooch sauce. It’s definitely a favorite dinner of mine! And the picture was so terrible that I decided to spare you. Seriously, I’ve never seen such a terrible picture from a phone!

[Snacks]
Clementine
Apple

Food for Thought

What is your favorite kind of cuisine?