Friday Favorites – Little Things to Love

Happy Friday! I’m joining Katie’s Friday party again today to share my favorite things from the week.

These Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies that I made last night seem like a good place to start. My love affair with Nutella began in high school and I’ve finally learned ways to incorporate it into recipes in addition to eating it out of the jar. Long recipe short – Preheat oven to 375 – 1 stick butter + 2 eggs + 3/4 c brown sugar + 3/4 c granulated sugar + 1/2 c Nutella + 2 1/4 c flour + 2 t baking soda + capful of vanilla + lots of chocolate chips – 10 minutes!

And to even the nutritional playing field, smoothies are also in my roundup of favorites this week!

If I am making smoothies for myself, I will usually add a banana. If Dan is joining me, we stick to raspberries only. He’s been in a war against bananas since he was 4 years old, so we’re still finding ways to deal with that in our marriage. 🙂

I am so grateful for the spring weather that showed up this week and have been loving having training sessions outside. The more space for squat jumps, stairs, lunges, planks, and sprints, the better!

And before signing off, I also wanted to share my favorite meditation from Melody Beattie’s ‘Journey to the Heart’ this week.

“Each emotion, attitude, and experience – each piece of scenery – leads into the next. Put them all together and what do you have? A grand journey – an exciting trip that leads to someplace worth going and someplace worth being, each moment you are here.”

Reader Question – What little things are you loving this week?!

Wedding Favorites

Happy Friday! I am linking up with Katie again today to share some of my favorite details from our wedding 🙂 My mom and I spent many afternoons leading up to the big day prepping mason jars, wine corks, chalkboards, and burlap all to give Dan and my wedding a beachy-rustic feel. Here are some of my favorite pictures that captured the theme that we worked to create!

Reader Question – Do you enjoy planning themed parties and events?

Have an awesome weekend, y’all!!

Friday Favorites

Hey y’all! Being that I am back in Texas and that today is, in fact, Go Texan Day in Houston, it felt appropriate to begin my post with a y’all. It’s also Friday, which of course brings its own kind of awesome with it. I am excited to be linking up with Katie again this week to share some of my Friday favorites from our trip to Florida!

A trip out of town means new restaurants and amazing eats. You can always count on me to pull out my iPhone and start taking pictures of dinner and dessert before a bite is taken. Unless I am on the verge of hangriness, in which case, pictures are only an afterthought.

Another Florida favorite was the awesome mini golf course. It’s difficult for me to find the words to convey just how much I love mini golf. It’s been a couple years since I last played, so I was giddy the entire time.

While Dan worked during the days, I did as much poolside reading as possible. I am currently in the middle of The Gifts of Imperfection and cannot even tell you how many lines are highlighted. It will absolutely be a read and read again book for me, full of lightbulb moments. I wanted to share one of my favorite pieces so far – “Many of us are willing to extend a helping hand, but we’re very reluctant to reach out for help when we need it ourselves. It’s as ifwe’ve divided the world into “those who offer help” and “those who need help”. The truth is that we are both.”

And with that, I am off to yoga, another one of my favorites! TGIF!

Reader Questions – Favorite book? Food? Vacation? Mini Golf Course? 🙂

Friday Favorites – Build Your Own Pizza Night!

Full disclosure, I completely suck at meal planning and food prep. I scroll through my Instagram feed and have moments of borderline idolatry as I stare longingly at a week’s worth of protein bites, homemade casseroles, fruit salads, and perfectly proportioned snacks. If I can make it to the store on the weekend to buy enough food for lunches for the week, I typically chalk it up as a success. As much as I would love to get my act together enough to go into the week with a refrigerator full of containers with post-it notes of, “Preheat to 350 and bake for an hour,” I am yet to experience the joy of it.

Instead, each afternoon, I sort through the same habitual routine with my inner dialogue of What type of food sounds good? Mexican? No, we’ll have that this weekend. Italian? Maybe. Chinese? Better for a night that I don’t feel like cooking. We could do Sushi.

So today, I am linking up with the lovely Katie and sharing one of my (Friday) Favorite solutions for a dinner that will leave everyone saying, “Please, Sir. I want some more.”

As a vegetarian living amongst a lot of meat eaters, I found that one of the best ways to solve the dinner dilemma is ‘Build Your Own Pizza Night.’ That way, each person can decide exactly which toppings they want right down to the marinara, barbeque, pesto, or Thai sauce.

Reader Question – What is your favorite go to dinner during the week?