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.

• Featured in Mississippi Magazine

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

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!!!!

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!

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

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?