Hello and I hope this finds all of you staying warm and dry. What crazy weather that we are having all over the country right now. In Charlotte we are getting a short reprieve from a week of rain before it’s 37 and raining again on Thursday. I met a friend for a walk this afternoon with the pups and the sunshine and fresh air was so good for my soul. It feels like my house has permanent muddy footprints all over it and my yard is a swamp that hasn’t had a chance to fully dry out in weeks. I would love to hear all of your best dog feet cleaning tips. You’d think I’d have figured it out by now but I’ve almost given up hope.
Hopefully all of these February showers will help us have a beautiful spring (I know that’s not how the rhyme goes but oh well.). In the meantime, I’m feeling grateful that it’s a lot of rain and not snow. Could be colder and snowier!
5×5 DUMBBELL WORKOUT
Moving onto a topic more exciting than the weather…I shared an awesome workout on Instagram today and just have to post it here too!
The workout consists of 5 movement combos. You work through the movements combos one at a time by doing 5 reps of each exercise in the combo for 5 rounds total. After you’ve finished all 5 rounds, move to the next movement combo.
Here are the movements!
- 5 bottom half squat pulses, 5 bicep curl mid-range pulses
- 5 tricep push ups (hands on dumbbells), 5 kneeling overhead presses
- 5 staggered stance romanian deadlifts, 5 bodyweight single leg squat to airplane press backs (yes…5 rounds on each leg!)
- 5 chest to dumbbell push ups, 5 kneeling upright rows
- 5 scissor leg pulse crunches L, 5 scissor leg pulse crunches R, 5 straight leg pulse crunches center
You can find movement demos in the video above but the video is sped up. If you want to see real-time videos of each movement, head over to my Instagram where you’ll find the videos in a carousel.
Moving along to some recent eats!
BREAKFAST
Half of a Dave’s Killer Cinnamon Raisin Remix bagel toasted with butter and cream cheese, cottage cheese scrambled eggs and a sumo mandarin.
Plain greek yogurt with honey, bananas, strawberries, blueberries, peanut butter and Whole Foods brand oat + honey granola.
Avocado toast with hemp hearts on homemade sourdough with cottage cheese scrambled eggs and a mandarin orange.
It’s rare that I feel like drinking smoothies instead of eating them in a bowl with granola but lately that’s what I’ve been craving. This was a mix of frozen strawberries, raspberries, peaches, bananas, spinach and cauliflower rice with plain greek yogurt, a medjool date, almond butter and oat milk. Black coffee with Bulletproof Collagen along with it.
Taking it old school with overnight oats. It’s easy for me to prep ahead of time and pack for teacher training weekends. This was a mix of oats, chia seeds, plain greek yogurt, oat milk, dried cranberries and a little bit of maple syrup. Topped with peanut butter.
LUNCH
The most delicious bagel sandwich. There is a bagel shop next door to VIDA and they make a great bagel sandwich. This was a simple turkey sandwich with tomatoes, lettuce and provolone but I get it on a toasted sun-dried tomato bagel that is so flavorful and I love that they mayonnaise both sides of the bagel. I am 100% on team mayo.
Speaking of deli sandwiches, here’s another turkey sandwich very similar to the above but on wheat with a little spicy mustard too. I love the giant Boar’s Head pickles that you can get at delis.
Here’s a lunch salad that I made at home. Arugula and spinach blend with hearts of palm, carrots, tomatoes, pepitas, dried cranberries, avocado and a packet of Blue Harbor wild caught tuna. The dressing is my homemade honey dijon balsamic and you can find the recipe here.
Grilled cheese and tomato soup lunch with Finn. Perfect lunch for all of this cold, rainy weather we’ve had.
Car lunch on my way to Tennessee for TT. Avocado toast with hemp hearts, apple slices and kettle chips. Chips were never something I kept on hand regularly but when I was pregnant I craved them and rediscovered how much I love them! My favorite these days is a good old fashioned sea salt kettle chip…or plain Ruffles. YUM!
DINNER
Homemade turkey meatballs served over pine nut couscous (from a box, the Near East brand) with sautéed shredded brussel sprouts with a little balsamic added at the end. Topped it all off with feta, spinach and parmesan tzatziki and hummus. This was a solid bowl!
Honey dijon chopped salad kit from Eat Smart with feta and avocado added. I topped it off with sautéed shrimp that I seasoned with Dizzy Pig Shakin’ the Tree rub.
Rotisserie chicken + roasted veggie bowl. Roasted sweet potatoes, brussel sprouts and sweet onions topped with shredded dark meat rotisserie chicken, hummus, half an avocado and hot sauce. I have gone my whole life without really caring about hot sauce (other than Sriracha…which I always keep on hand) and lately I have found myself wanting to put hot sauce on quite a few things.
Like this veggie burger bowl. Steamed quinoa, steamed frozen asparagus and an air fried Dr. Praeger’s veggie burger that I melted cheese on top of. Finished off the bowl with tzatziki, avocado, hummus and hot sauce.
Sheet pan dinner with Italian chicken sausage, potatoes, cauliflower, red peppers and cherry tomatoes. Seasoned with sea salt and Dizzy Pig Dizzy Dust rub.
I packed the leftovers to eat in the hotel on Friday night when I arrived in Tennessee for teacher training. We don’t get out until 8:30p on Fridays and I’m always starving on the verge of hangry so it worked well to heat up my leftovers in the lobby when I got there!
My Saturday night hotel dinner was this salmon dish delivered from Stir Fry Cafe courtesy of Uber Eats. It was grilled salmon over rice with asparagus, avocado, sweet chili sauce and firecracker sauce.
I saved the best dinner for last. I dreamed up this dinner yesterday while it was cold and pouring rain. Ricotta gnocchi tossed with sautéed shrimp, baby portobello mushrooms, fresh basil, shallots and garlic and a three-cheese pomodoro sauce from Trader Joes. The gnocchi was frozen from Rio Bertolini and I get it at the Charlotte Regional Farmers Market. I had roasted broccoli on the side. I cannot wait to eat these leftovers tonight!
ETC
I made another batch of the quick and easy banana muffins from Sally’s Baking Addiction yesterday afternoon. Finn LOVES these muffins. I’ve made them so many times in recent months. For the record, I use half wheat/half white flour and butter instead of coconut oil.
They are tasty for breakfast or a snack. I had one with a cup of ginger tea while I was typing this post. They also freeze great! I individually wrap them and then store them in a ziplock bag.
And that does it for today!
QUESTIONS
Do you like hot sauce? Favorite type? What do you put it on?
Current favorite muffin recipe?
What’s your favorite crunchy snack?
