Friday, February 10, 2017

Five on Friday- Healthy Recipes & Spreading Kindness

Hey there Friday. It's been a fast week, but maybe because I've been soaking up this wonderful weather instead of folding the mountain of laundry in the extra bedroom...priorities...But let's get to it and then I should really fold some clothes.

O N E 
Who uses the Pilates mat the most?
This week, so far I've done two Pilates Advanced Reformer workouts and two Pilates Advanced mat workouts. But if you asked who was on the mat more this week- I don't know if the answer would be Kemba Walker or my oldest. (See the picture below ha)
I snapped this picture earlier this week as I was cooking dinner. I asked my oldest what she was doing and she said "teaching Kemba, App (what she calls Yosef, the mascot for Appalachian), and Hugo Pilates." Adorable. So Kemba Walker, if you need a Pilates teacher, I have one in training for you haha. I shared earlier this week how I workout with kids. Check that out here. Side note- Can you tell who our favorite sports teams are? Daddy has trained her right. We're just missing Sir Purr here. 

T W O
Peanut Butter and Honey Cookies
Yum! So I made these last night and they were delicious...and guess what?! They were made with all Organic ingredients, 100% Whole Wheat Flour and no refined sugar. All the more reason I can have one with my breakfast, right? Seriously though, they were a hit with the whole family and even hubby didn't notice they did not have sugar in them. I love cooking with honey! I made them with Bob's Red Mill 100% Whole Wheat Pastry Flour and the recipe came right off of the back of the bag. The recipe called for 1 cup of Honey, but I think you could get by with less if you wanted. I couldn't get a good picture of the recipe, so here it is in case you want to try it as well. These would make perfect Valentine's Day Treats. Speaking of which, I do have plans of making some not so healthy Valentine's Sugar Cookies before Valentine's Day.

Peanut Butter & Honey Cookies (Makes around 30 cookies)
Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1 cup Peanut Butter
1 cup of Honey
1/4 cup of Butter, softened
1 Egg, beaten
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract

Preheat oven at 350 and Grease a baking sheet (I used Coconut Oil Spray.)

Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, combine, peanut butter, honey, and butter. Then, add egg and vanilla extract and mix well. Slowly add flour mixture until combined.

Shape dough into balls (use about 2 tsp of dough per cookie) and place about 1 inch apart on the baking sheet. Using a fork, flatten each ball with a fork to make a crisscross pattern. Bake for around 10 minutes or until golden brown.

T H R E E
Chicken from Aldi
So I realized, after I shared my favorite Organic finds from Aldi earlier this week, I forgot something. (If you missed this post, check it out here.) Aldi also has a good price on boneless chicken breasts. Now, they are not certified USDA Organic, but I think they are the next best option- 100% Vegetarian Fed, No Antibiotics and No Added Hormones or Steroids. I paid $6.56 for a little over 1.5 lbs of meat.
So last night for dinner, I made Panko-Crusted Oven "Fried" Chicken using my package of chicken breasts from Aldi. You can find the recipe here. The only tweak I made was I added just a tiny bit of milk to my egg mixture. I used Ian's Original Panko Breadcrumbs to coat the chicken. It was delicious. We have a little bit left over, so I thought for dinner tonight I'd make some Honey Mustard to go along with it using this recipe.


F O U R
Blessing Box
So this is currently going on around Charlotte and I think it is such an amazing way for us to spread kindness and peace into our community. Basically, the Blessing Boxes are a place to encourage and share acts of kindness. Once you've done an act of kindness, you record it and place it in one of the Blessing Boxes found across Charlotte. Read more about it here. Later this spring, the slips of kindness will be used to create a public artwork.

You can find one of the Blessing Boxes at Charlotte Family Yoga Center.

F I V E
Blessing Bags
So feeling inspired to spread some kindness with the Blessing Boxes, I loved the idea of getting my little ones involved in this project and making "blessing bags" to give to others. I had my oldest paint the bags this week. This weekend, we're going to work on filling the bags with small snacks and treats.
Random Acts of Kindness Week is also next week (February 12-18th), so I thought the blessing bags would be a fun way to celebrate that and teach my kids about kindness. Here are some other great ideas to do with your kids.  Have a great weekend!
For this post, I'm linking up with April from Smidge of This and Christina from Carolina Charm for 5 on Friday and Erika from A Little Bit of Everything for Friday Favorites. 









6 comments:

  1. Those cookies look amazing! I'm definitely pinning the recipe for later!

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    1. Yes!! They are so good! You should definitely make them. Thanks for stopping by!

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  2. AW I love the Yosef on the mat! I'm a fellow App State grad :) Found you through 5 on Friday and I'm excited to follow along!

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    1. Thanks so much for stopping by! That's awesome..Go Mountaineers! I don't know about you, but I miss Boone so much. Have a good weekend!

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  3. I was impressed with those chicken breasts from Aldi, too. They've actually really surprised me all the way around!! Happy weekend, girlie! -Sara

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    1. I know right?! I just actually got back from my weekly trip to Aldi haha. Hope you're enjoying your weekend :)

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