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Favorite Things #3

Happy Hump Day Everyone!  Hope you’re having a great week.  I’m keeping to my New Year’s Goals and we’re moving right along to my 3rd installment of Favorite Things this year!

  • Corn Flakes

cornflake-cereal

I’ve been wishing & hoping for a light cereal that doesn’t feel like I’m gnawing on fiber & cardboard with this Engine 2 Challenge.  I finally found one that was allowed on the Engine 2 Diet and it’s these light and flaky cornflakes that are sweetened with fruit juice and have no oils.  They remind me of eating fruity or cocoa pebbles with their airiness.  I have to be careful not to make them an entire meal though because they are not full of protein or fiber like the other Engine 2 cereals out there.

  • Hemp Hearts

hemp-hearts

The other night at the Engine 2 Meet-up, Mary Lindsey passed out samples of Hemp Hearts.  I’ve never had Hemp Hearts before, but I know Mary Lindsey loves them and puts them on a lot of stuff.  To improve the nutrition of the Corn Flake cereal and provide more fiber & protein, I tossed the packet of hemp hearts with the cereal and it’s been great!  I’m going to buy a bag of these to start adding to lots of stuff for an extra punch of nutrition.  I look forward to seeing what it tastes like on my Ezekial Bread Toast in the mornings.

  • Coconut Water

coconut-water

This past week, I’ve been working out a lot more than I had been the past few weeks.  I’m actually feeling sore and straining my muscles to fatigue.  I love this feeling of accomplishment, especially after so much knee pain – I’m feeling stronger and I actually ran a 1/4 mile last night on the treadmill.  The other day after an intense leg work out, my muscles were cramping a little so I threw in some coconut water to my smoothie.  I love the benefits of coconut water, it has so much more potassium than bananas so it helped my cramping really well that night.  I was afraid I’d wake up with Charlie Horses  throughout the night, but that didn’t happen!

  • Mississippi Women Bloggers Community

I’m so thankful for this wonderful community and I look forward to everything we have planned for the future!  I enjoyed our first meet-up and meeting some other MS bloggers was exactly what I needed.  We’re planning a “work day” to all focus on our blogs and help each other improve.  It’s going to be great!

  • Nick’s Sister-In-Law & Nephew in Town!!!!!

This is probably my favorite thing in the world right now!  Nick’s brother is also in town, but because of work, I doubt I’ll get to see him.  Today after work, I’ll be meeting Kathryn & Cade for a  walk and then tomorrow we’re having lunch at Whole Foods together!  I am just so excited to see them and see sweet baby Cade.  Just from pictures I’ve seen, he’s already grown up so much!  These next two days are going to be amazing!!

  • Whole Foods Market Jackson One-Year Anniversary

pumpkin-nice-cream.jpg

It’s not surprise that I love love love Whole Foods and I was so excited when they arrived to Jackson, MS.  Today is their One Year Anniversary of being here and I’m excited to stop by over lunch to see what all they have going on.  I’m sure there will be samples & demonstrations, plus I’ll probably grab a little snack while I’m there.  I’ve highlighted some of my favorite posts from there over the past year!

Whole Foods Market Tour before Grand Opening

Health Starts Here Graduation

Sushi Class

Healthy Holiday Cooking Class

Couponing at Whole Foods

Engine 2 Stuffed Bell Peppers

Helllloooo There!  How is your week going so far?  Mine has been pretty great, my Monday wasn’t a typical Monday – I didn’t have any “oh, it’s just a Monday!” thoughts and we weren’t overly busy at work and I was able to get some other things done that I usually post-pone at work.  After work, I headed to the Chiropractor and he said I’m looking good with my knee and he can tell that I’m taking initiative to strengthen it up (my sore muscles can certainly attest to that!) and he said I don’t have to come back for 2 weeks and then we’ll spread it out to once a month.  I’ve been seeing him twice a week and then once a week, so I’m making improvement!  Once I feel stronger, I’ll be able to slowly start running again on my own.  After my appointment, I headed straight over to the 4th week of the Engine 2 Diet Meet-up!  The topic was on fitness, so I enjoyed that a lot.  I love incorporating healthy eating and fitness into the same discussion.  The speaker mentioned a Reformer Pilate’s class at our local Y and it sounded really cool, I’m definitely putting that on my list of classes to try – I’ll go check out the schedule after this post.

I have a deliciously healthy recipe for y’all today that is Engine 2 Diet approved and full of flavor!  I’d like to also mention that it was quick & easy to make!

stuffed-bell-peppers

Servings: 2 Stuffed Bell Peppers

Ingredients

  • 2 Bell Peppers
  • 1 Tomato, chopped
  • 1/2 cup of frozen corn
  • 1 cup of cooked brown rice
  • 2 Poblano Black Bean Burger
  • 1 tbsp Cumin
  • 1 tbsp Garlic Powder
  • 1 tbsp Sea Salt
  • 1 tbsp Pepper
  • 1 tbsp Paprika

Directions

**Preheat oven to 350 degrees**

1. Start by cooking your brown rice.  I did 2 cups of water to 1 cup of dry rice and it simmered for 30 minutes.

2. While the rice is cooking, prep the rest of your stuffing – defrost the black bean burgers and chop, chop the tomato, core the bell pepper and flatten the bottom so it stands upright.

3. Mix all stuffing ingredients together – vegetables, black bean burger, and spices

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4. Overstuff the pepper because it will cook down just a bit and once you start eating, you’ll have plenty of bell pepper to eat with the excessive stuffing.

5.  Bake the Pepper for 20 minutes.

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ENJOY!  I was very impressed with the flavors & the texture of these Engine 2 stuffed bell peppers.  Look how beautiful and vibrantly colored this dish turned out!  I have an intense love for bell peppers – I’d never had an orange bell pepper, but it was just as delicious as the green or red.  I will add bell peppers to just about any dish, so I love making it the star of the show in this simple recipe!

  • What would you have stuffed in this bell pepper?
  • Have you tried Pilate’s Reformer?  Thoughts? Tips?

Small Victories

Good morning!

I assume 99% of y’all watched the Super Bowl and have opinions about what happened.  I happen to fall in the other 1% who did not watch the Super Bowl so I don’t have any opinionated comments or post for you today in that regard.  What I do have is a mini weekend re-cap post along with a few small victories!

Friday I stayed at work later than normal on a Friday, but we had a few meetings late in the day that I had to help with.  Immediately after work, the girls and I headed out to Fondren Public for a few drinks.  I’m growing to really love the girls I have at work, they’re fun & sweet & easy to talk to!  We hung out there for a few hours, but I eventually headed home with lame old lady plans of falling asleep around 9pm.  Saturday I woke up and headed out to the gym for a good arm workout because my legs were still pretty sore from a good leg workout I got on Thursday.  Now my arms have been pretty sore for the past 2 days!  I’m so glad to be back at the gym and motivated to at least get a workout – any workout – in!

After the gym it was time to head out to Whole Foods for our very first Mississippi Women Bloggers meet-up!  I had been looking forward to this event all month long and it did not disappoint.

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(Photo c/o of Kellee @ Delta Moxie & her selfie-stick!)

Check out the wonderful ladies I had the chance of meeting on Saturday:

Jessica @ Meet the Magnolias

Jenny Mac @ Crown & Owl – Currently Under Construction

Meg @ Meg the Mama

Kellee @ Delta Moxie

Jenn @ Making the Most of your Square Inch

Stefanie @ Caught Read Handed

Whitney @ Polka-Dotty Place

Mandy @ The Sassy Starfish

Leah @ The Muddy Mermaid

It was pretty funny because Me, Jessica, Jenny Mac, & Meg are all part of the leadership team for MIssissippi Women Bloggers and we were the least prepared – everyone else had business cards of some sort and we had… nada!  The event was a lot of fun and we spent a good 2 hours chatting away about our blogs and questions we have about how others blog!  They got us really pumped about increasing our involvement with MSWB and had some great questions and challenges for us!  We’re already looking forward to our next meet-up.

I cleaned up afterwards and did some grocery shopping while I was at Whole Foods then headed home.  When I finally got home, I was exhausted!  Another lazy night at home for this wild thang!

Sunday was productive with a  trip to the gym and a trip to purchase some blogging project materials.  Can’t wait to share what I’ve been working on!

SMALL VICTORIES

I mentioned that I’m having some small victories – when you can’t run and you’ve been dealing with certain pains, then any change in that behavior calls for a small victory dance!  On Friday and Saturday I noticed for the first time in weeks that my knee did NOT HURT while walking down the stairs.  Before I would struggle getting down stairs after a run or I’d feel like my knee was extremely weak and may dislocate going down the stairs.  I felt strong walking down stairs this weekend though – the only soreness I felt were in my sore muscles from my workouts.  It was so surprising when it first happened and now it’s like I want to walk down stairs ALL.THE.TIME!  Another small victor was the fact that I simply made it to the gym this week.  It’s been rough to motivate myself the past few weeks to do anything.  I’ve been bummed about my knee and I can’t run which has been my typical go-to workout.  I made it to the gym 4-5 times this past week though and it’s been absolutely wonderful!  It’s been exactly what I needed and it’s because of the running stretches and strength moves that I’ve been able to see improvement in my knee and feel comfortable walking down stairs.  I’m also trying to target other trouble zones such as my butt, arms, & abs so I can be ready for Jamaica in less than 4 weeks! Ahhhh!!

I definitely think celebrating small victories is important!

  • What small victories have you celebrated in the past?
  • Do you attend blogger meet-ups?  What type of things do you do at your meet-ups?

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