Five on Friday

So happy to link back up with The Good Life, A. Liz Adventures, Carolina Charm and Hello! Happiness for  Five on Friday!

1. These shoes! Went to Nordstrom Rack and had to have! Rocking them on casual Friday because that's how I roll!

2. Vegas! We are headed to Vegas in 3 weeks to see Jerry Seinfeld! So I've been doing lot's of looking on Pinterest for Vegas outfits.

 

3. Spray Tan! I've never had one because yes (yikes) I try to soak up actual sun or (double yikes) I've gone to the tanning bed! Well not this year! I'm planning a spray tan soon and consulted with a local pageant girl that I know who always looks perfectly tan (golden). So I am excited to get my tan on! After all, if you can't tone it - TAN IT!


4. Purses. I had to drop one of my purses off for repair yesterday but I was super happy to hear it was going to be less than $40 to repair. I also got my hand slapped for not conditioning the leathers. So note to everyone: condition your leather (especially if you live in dry climates).

5. Youth as We Know It! I just got this yesterday, but I am loving it so far! Has anyone else used it? I really like the way it smells and I shamefully do not have a skin regimen so I am trying to start somewhere!

March Excitement

How is it almost March? Where does the time go?

We've got a few things planned already for March!

1. Riding lessons! Sofia is doing great with her riding and I it is by far the highlight of her week! If you are thinking of riding lessons, be sure to check out Groupon in your area! 

2. Baseball! While I'm not a huge fan, it is fun to attend a Spring Training game each year. Honey and I are headed out to see the Cubs and the Royals play this weekend. However, it is supposed to rain on Saturday so what are the chances it won't be sunny and warm on Sunday for the game?

source

3. Spring Break! Not sure what I am doing for Sofia during her break from school. I would love for her to attend a camp or something..just not sure what it will be just yet. 

4. Anniversary! March 10th will mark our 2nd anniversary! 

5. Viva Las Vegas! Honey and I are headed to Las Vegas later in the month to see none other than Jerry Seinfeld! Super excited!

6. Spring/Pre-move cleaning! Stay tuned for more on this!!

7. Soccer! Time to sign Sofia up for more soccer! This year she has to play up with the 10-14 year olds. She is super nervous about playing with the "big" girls!

#TBT - Disneyland - 2008

Guacamole Chicken Salad - What I ate Wednesday

If it's Wednesday, that means it's time to share what I ate. I'm sharing what I ate yesterday!

Breakfast - 8am - I skipped my workout this morning and opted to get to work earlier. So I ate around 8am. I meal prep on the weekend and then bring my breakfast for the week to work on Monday morning. I had this Sweet Potato Hash and Jimmy Dean all natural sausage. I ate too quick to take a picture but you have GOT to try this! Perfect paleo yumminess.

Snack - 10:30 am -  my "go-to" snack - raw almonds

 Lunch - 12pm - Guacamole chicken salad and half of a chicken breast (same chicken used in the salad - recipe below) and some baby carrots.

Dinner - Honey grilled ribs when he grilled the chicken on Sunday so we had ribs and a salad. Simple.

I LOVE guacamole. I LOVE chicken. But let me tell you I really, really LOVE guacamole chicken salad!!

I had seen this recipe here and I thought..that looks good, maybe I will make it. Well, let me tell you I am SO glad I did!

 Now, I didn't follow this recipe, I made it my way. Here you go!

This makes roughly 4 lunch servings.

6 soft avocados
2 large grilled chicken breasts
4 roma tomatoes
1 bunch cilantro
1 diced onion
4 jalapenos
Juice from 2 lemons
salt to taste

First, we grilled out chicken breasts. You don't have to do this, but it does add a nice smoky flavor.  Once they cooled off, I chopped and shredded them up and set them aside. *if you are short on time, you can use rotisserie chicken or even the shredded chicken breast in a can*

Next, I made the guacamole. I prefer to make a chunky, pico de gallo style quacamole.

Half the avocados and scoop out the insides and put in large bowl. *remember to save a seed to place back into the container to keep your guac nice and green!*
Dice the tomatoes, onion and jalapenos and add to the avocados.
Chop the tops off the bunch of cilantro and dice up. Add it to the other ingredients.
Slice and squeeze 2 lemons into the ingredients.
Add salt to taste.

Mix everything up together. You might have to add additional salt or lemon juice. This is to your personal preference. Once your guacamole tastes how you want it to taste, add in your chicken. Give everything a good stir and you are all set! Eat then or stick in the fridge for later.

I eat this many different ways:

• on a bed of spinach
• scooped up with cucumber slices or celery sticks
• by itself

Honey eats it the same as me or on gluten-free bread. We are SUPER big fans of this meal. I usually make it at the beginning of the week (during my weekly food prep) and we eat as lunch for several days. 

Random Tuesday and I love Amazon

I love Ball jars. Love the old ones, love the new ones. I use them for drinks, vases, crafts etc.

Honey knows me super well and ordered 2 dozen of these for me yesterday! Love! They are an awesome price right now on Amazon.

Have I mentioned my love of Amazon. I've been a Prime member for a couple of years now and it is SO worth it. I do a lot of my specialty grocery shopping, most of my holiday shopping and more on Amazon. Why? It is usually cheapest and I get free shipping! Can't beat that!

Here are some random things I shop for on Amazon:

• all of Sofia's equipment for riding lessons (boots, helmet, crop, pants, etc.)
• gluten-free cooking ingredients (flours, dairy-free chocolate, etc.)
• shampoo & conditioner
• perfume
• kitchen appliances (coffee pot, blender, etc.)
• Breyer horse stuff for Sofia
• books

Oh and of course I totally love Amazon Prime Instant Video! Have you tried it?

In other random (and fabulous) news, my Honey bought this lovely for Valentine's Day to replace the shoes. Remember this?


I'm a lucky girl! 

Weekend Recap

Monday already? How does it come around so quickly?

Hope y'all had a fantastic weekend. It was warm and sunny here (what a shocker for AZ) all weekend. Not quite warm enough for the pool...but almost!

Friday morning I took pics while driving to work. OK technically I was sitting in traffic. Random.

 Friday night I took Sofia and her friend AB to see The Lego Movie. Cute but not all that. I think Sofia was right - it's a boy movie!

After the movie, we walked over to see Sofia's artwork that is on display at a local coffee shop. She was super proud of herself!

BTW - this is the fifth movie I have been to since going Whole30/Paleo and still no craving or cheat with popcorn. Yay me!

Saturday the highlight of my day was my run! 10 miles at a pace I'm  not ashamed of!!

We spent the rest of the day making plans for summer vacation with the kids (Orlando) and we had some sushi.

Yesterday was a lazy day as usual that started too early because I forgot to turn my alarm off. UGH 6:45am.

I took Sofia to riding lessons and then came home to yummy goodness my Honey had smoked on the grill! YUMMY!

 

We are totally OVER boneless, skinless chicken breasts at our house. We have switched to thighs. We buy them with bone and skin and then remove at home. SO much more flavor and way less expensive. We grilled these breasts for shredding in an attempt to use them up. Are you a thigh fan? I used to think of them as the "crab leg of the chicken" - meaning a whole lot of work for not a lot of meat. BUT if you de-bone them they are just fine!

The rest of the weekend was filled with random tv, grocery shopping and that is about it. What exciting things did you do this weekend?

Five on Friday

So happy to link back up with The Good Life, A. Liz Adventures, Carolina Charm and Hello! Happiness for  Five on Friday!

One - RUNNING! Oh my goodness!! This week my running has improved so much! I'm finally consistently running 8-8:30 miles and upping my miles to 25-30 per week. I've been struggling to get my pace down to what I normally race at (7:40 miles) and nothing has been working! But this week - I see HOPE!

Two - Whole30 continues! I'm on Day 46 or so and going strong! I have however had paleo naan and a few paleo German Chocolate cupcakes. Oh and 1 glass of wine for Valentine's day. Other than that - 100% clean eating all the time -- extreme Whole30 clean! Grains, wheat and dairy have no business in my diet!

Three - Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. I'm not really a Fallon fan, but I must say the guests this week have been awesome! My favorites are below!

Four - This girl - She makes me SO happy! She's a good girl (with a little too much attitude from time to time) but I am so proud of her. She's 10. She believe in all things make believe (Santa, Easter Bunny, etc.) and LOVES her American Girl Dolls. I'll take that over girl drama any day!

Five - my blog! I finally updated the template! It's still a work in progress, but it is coming along.

Happy Friday everyone!

What I Ate Wednesday - #1 - Whole30

It's my first time to join in the What I ate Wednesday posts - but I'm not sure why!! I take pics of my food every single day!

At our house, we are following the Whole30 way of eating, except today is actually day 45 or so. You can read all about that here. 

So if you are familiar with Paleo, it's like Paleo+. Nothing processed, no dairy, no grains, etc.

I LOVE IT!  Below is a look at my typical day:

Breakfast: 8am, baked sweet potatoes, roasted carrots with cinnamon and an organic hamburger patty. Yes. This is an odd breakfast, I know. But by 8am I've already been up almost 4 hours and worked out so I am hungry! 

Lunch: 1pm, roasted chicken thigh, more sweet potatoes and cauliflower cilantro rice.

 

Dinner: 6pm, (we actually haven't eaten yet, but this is what we are having and this is from another night), salmon filet and a HUGE spinach salad.

So what you do not see is snacks. When you follow the Whole30 way of eating, you really don't snack. You just are not hungry. Sometimes, I will have some fruit (few blueberries, half an orange) with my breakfast and dinner.

Occasionally, we make fruit smoothies with chia seeds and coconut milk. (frozen or fresh no sugar added fruit)

So that's it! My food today and a typical day for this paleo girl.

I'm also blog hopping with Fitness Blondie!

Finally updating my template and new shoes

My blog looks kinda funky today as I work on updating my template. Thank goodness for Etsy and easy to download templates. Just couldn't bring myself to pay someone else to customize it. I'll spend that money on new shoes. Like the pair I bought this week! I do love a black heel and these babies are 33% off at Nordstrom!