noBOLOGNA

Favorite Things #6

Good morning!!  I hope you all are having a great week so far – it’s Wednesday, so we’re half way to the weekend.  Hang in there if things are a little tough this week, you’ll get through it!  I have some fun favorites to share with you today.  I plan on doing  a quarterly recap of my 2015 goals at the end of the month to help me stay on track and if I’m not reaching any of them, at least I know I’ve been on top of my Favorite Things posts!  Success.

I don’t usually post serious stuff on the blog because I want to keep things light and fun around here, at least that’s been my overall goal since converting to No Bologna, so if my post on Monday was uncomfortable (McAlister’s, we’re breaking up!), I’m not going to apologize for it because it was something I truly believe in, but I will promise not to get that serious for at least another few months!  Now let’s roll right into our Favorite Things, shall we….

I’m about to toot my own horn for a split second because it’s just so dang exciting for little ole’ bloggers like myself.

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I WAS FEATURED IN MISSISSIPPI MAGAZINE!!!!!!! Okay, I’m calm now. It was truly an honor and a blessing to be featured by one of the most prestigious magazines in Mississippi.  They wrote a beautiful article about the reasoning behind my blog and why I chose to become a vegetarian as well as tips I would provide someone who may be interested in a vegetarian lifestyle.  I definitely feel like it was a huge milestone for me and the blog.  I’m hoping to increase my local traffic – so this was surely a big step in the right direction.

One way to increase local traffic is to post directly on your personal face book page.  I’ve never been good about that because it makes me nervous.  I can’t really explain it, but I’ve always steered clear of my personal page and when I accidentally sent some blog posts to my personal page while I was vacationing in Jamaica, I may have definitely freaked out at first.  I realized though, that if I’m wanting to grow, then it’s logically the next step – so if you’re here from face book, WELCOME! 🙂

  • Raw Apple Crisp

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I’ve been eating a lot of this raw apple crisp lately.  It was one of my favorite go-to recipes when I did the Health Starts Here diet, but for some reason I didn’t even consider making it during the Engine 2 diet.  As I was meal prepping last week, I came across the recipe again and made a batch.  I love the crispness and freshness of this delightful treat!

  • Chili… lots and lots of chili!!!!

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I have been on a chili frenzy lately!  Not so unfortunately, the weather is finally starting to warm up, but that hasn’t stopped me from making chili.  I think the biggest reason for that is because it’s easy to make and makes excellent leftovers for lunch at work.  Nick and I made this batch of chili last Saturday night and it turned out delicious!  It was filled with vegetables and we made a vegan sour cream to go on top!

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It was so simple to make this sourcream – cashews, water, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar!  I’ll come up with a more solid recipe soon and share that with y’all.  This is a delicious sour cream alternative and it doesn’t have the unhealthy aspects to it.  Win in my book!

  • Weekends in Starkville, of course!

This past weekend was filled with lots of quality time with Nick and my sisters.  It was just what I needed!  Friday we hung out with my sisters and split a free pizza from Papa Johns – it was a pineapple, jalapeno, and mushroom pizza.  Odd combination, but it turned out delicious. Nick and I spent a good chunk of time at Starbucks planning an upcoming trip to Orlando.  My work has a conference for people in my position and this year it’s being held in Orlando, so I’m going down for the conference and while I’m at the conference, Nick can hang out with his brother and sister-in-law at Disney.  I’ll be done with my conference that Thursday, which also happens to be my birthday, so I’ll meet up with them afterwards and celebrate my 26th birthday at Disney!  We selected all of our fast passes and made 2 meal reservations, so we’re really excited!  The rest of the weekend didn’t have much going on, but it was enjoyable nonetheless!

  • This pleather skirt

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I would have never expected to like this skirt, but I loved it when I tried it on, so I bought it!  I haven’t had a chance to wear it yet, but I’m excited to see what all I can do with it.  I think it’ll be long enough for work, so I can pair it with some nice black heels and a button up shirt.  It’ll also be a fun “outing” skirt!  You’ll probably see this around the blog a lot this summer.  In this same shopping trip, I bought somewhere near 1,000 (ok, maybe just 4) solid color tee’s to wear this summer too.  Can you tell I’m ready for warmer weather and lighter clothes?!

  • What are you looking forward to most this summer?
  • What’s your favorite meal currently? 
  • How are you keeping up with your 2015 resolutions/goals?

North Farm

Good Morning!  How was your Valentine’s Day weekend everyone?!  Mine turned out beautiful and you’ll see why shortly.

I headed up to Starkville on Friday after work and had a pretty low-key evening watching Friends, which has become a pretty typical day in my life!  I’m pretty sure this is my all-time favorite TV show that never gets old. I can play it in the background for hours & days & weeks & months… seriously, never gets old!

Saturday morning, I woke up and went to Starbucks with my sisters.  We had a few hours of conversation and of course delicious coffee!  Nick and I ordered the Engine 2 Diet book and My Beef with Meat by Rip Esselstyne, so I started reading while we were at Starbucks also.

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After we finished up, I picked Nick up so we could have lunch with a good friend of mine.  We ate Mexican and I was able to meet her precious little baby boy!  He was the sweetest thing!  Pretty sure I’m in love with the 5-7 month age because I was head over heels for this little guy and I feel the exact same way with Nick’s nephew who is around that age.

After lunch we headed out to the baseball game and the weather was perfect on Saturday!  State played well and although there was another game at 4:00, we didn’t stay for the game to start.  Since Nick is doing my marathon next weekend, he wanted to go for a run, so we headed out to North Farm.  I started out running a little bit here and there, but eventually my knee gave me more trouble, so I ended up walking the rest of our time out there.  I need to go buy new shoes and see if they make a difference.  I feel like I’ve tried so many other things and I’m still stuck with this knee pain, that getting new shoes is the next step.  I’ll report back!

North Farm turned out to be absolutely beautiful on Saturday as the sun was setting!

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Mississippi State University has a lot of land and we’re a big agriculture school.  We have some farm land that has a great gravel road that surrounds it.  The total circle comes close to 4 miles so you can get a fairly good run in.  As the sun was setting, I couldn’t help but snap some beautiful pictures of our Valentine’s Day activities!  Nick was running up ahead of me, so we didn’t get a picture of the two us together.

That evening, we hung out with my sister, made spaghetti, had King Cake, and watched This is Where I Leave You.  The night ended perfectly spending time with the people I love!

On Sunday morning, Nick and I headed out for Starbucks (yes, I can get obsessed on the weekends when I’m in Starkville.)  Surprisingly I watched more Friends with my sister while Nick did another run, and then before I left town, Nick and I had dinner at this local Thai restaurant!  I was really resistant to trying it, but it turned out delicious!!  I got the pineapple fried rice with tofu.

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I actually hope Nick and I eat there again soon!  The atmosphere is perfect for a date night – low lighting, quiet environment, and delicious food!  I’m learning to really enjoy tofu, Thai Siam did an excellent job on the tofu portion of my meal.  I’ve had my fair share of not so great tofu from restaurants (one in particular is when I ordered tofu that came cooked with meat, WTF?) so I’m always appreciative of great tofu!

Well I hope you all have a wonderful week – Talk to you tomorrow!

  • What’s your favorite TV show to leave on throughout the day that never gets old?
  • What did you do for Valentine’s Day?
  • Have you ever had Pineapple Fried Rice?

Girls on the Run

Good Morning! How was your weekend?  As always, I’m a little sad it’s over and now I’m getting ready for another day of work.  Luckily, I enjoy my job, but who would rather be at work than relaxing on a weekend?  Not any sane person.

Friday night, I went over to Nick’s mom house to have dinner with his family while we waited for him to get in town! I made some delicious banana oatmeal cookies to share with everyone and they turned out better than the first batch I ever made, so that was pretty exciting!  I used them as a breakfast cookie and then later on as a post-workout snack.  They were officially gone by Saturday!

On Saturday, I woke up for my Girls on the Run Training!  I have been so excited for this program.  I originally heard about it from Julie @ Peanut Butter Fingers and enjoyed checking in each week as her enthusiasm for the program grew throughout the season.  I can’t wait to meet my co-coach and meet our girls in a few short weeks.  I hope this is an empowering program for them and a beautiful continuation of ending obesity, teen pregnancy, and diabetes in Mississippi.

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I’m currently waiting to hear back from my co-coach so we can set up a time for us to get to know each other and plan out our first couple of lessons.

After training I met up with Nick’s family for lunch at Piccadilly’s and it was delicious!  I had never been, but I got an assortment of different vegetable dishes and the most wonderful Mexican cornbread!

I may have mentioned that Nick is running in my place for the Mercedes Marathon.  After lunch, it was time for one of Nick’s training runs – the longest run he’ll do before the actual marathon.  So we set out to do 15 miles – him on foot, of course, and I decided to ride my bike with him to keep him company and help him out with water & snacks throughout the run.  He finished the 15 miles a little over 3 hours so I have no doubt he’ll survive the marathon in under 6 hours!  Now he’s focusing on stretching and endurance.  I look forward to seeing how he does!  Since he did so great on the run, I treated him to some Japanese that night – he loves sushi!

Sunday was pretty low key around here – I went and hung out with a friend and her daughter then Nick and I headed out to Engine 2 Graduation!  Nick has done excellent on the Engine 2 Challenge and lost almost 10 pounds with it.  He plans to continue it until the marathon so the weight loss will help him run easier.  I also didn’t do great on the last week of the diet, so I’ll be sticking to the diet for another few weeks during the week day, but I’ll splurge a little on the weekends due to being out of town and such.

Mary Lindsey did such a great job on the dinner and in true bad blogger fashion, I forgot to get a great picture of the meal, but I did happen to snap a picture of the delicious chocolate cupcakes she made.  Seriously, how can you call this a diet when you can eat wonderful things like this?!

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Switching gears here…. this is my workout schedule for the week:

Monday – Leg Strength Training, Stretching, run 1/4 mile

Tuesday – Arms, Abs, Stretching, run 1/4 mile

Wednesday – Pilates Reformer (my first time!)

Thursday – Leg Strength Training, Stretching, run 1/4  mile

Friday – Arms, Abs, Stretching, run 1/4 mile

Saturday & Sunday – I’m going to do a 1/2 mile each day and see how my knee feels!

  • Have you participated in Girls on the Run?
  • What workouts are you doing this week?  Trying anything new?

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The views and statements expressed on No Bologna are my own. You are reading No Bologna at your own risk and I am not providing any type of professional advice. Unless otherwise noted, all material on No Bologna may not be used, reprinted, or published without my consent. I do occasionally have affiliated links on my blog - this does not raise the price of the product, I simply get a very small commission from the regular retail price if something is purchased using an affiliated link on my site. I appreciate any support by you in regards to affiliated links.