Y'all, I'm exhausted! Not sure what is about this week, but I'm worn out. I've been crashing hard after getting the kids to bed. I like to catch up on my favorite TV shows after the kids go to bed, but this week it hasn't happened. Like I'm talking it has taken me three times to get all the way through Jane the Virgin because I can't stay awake...Side note- anyone else watch Jane? I'm really bitter that they killed Michael off of the show. I could rant on, but it's Friday, so I'll move right along.

O N E
Patience, Commitment, And Progress
I'd say the past four months, I've really committed myself to getting back on a routine workout schedule and increased my workouts to five to six times a week. I'm definitely starting to to see and feel the results. My arms, thighs, and abdominals are toner and stronger. I'm paying more attention to my posture. I feel better...Pilates will do that to you. I've been combining Yoga into my routine as well...this past week I've made it to three Yoga classes. Yoga has really helped with my flexibility (which has helped with my Pilates practice). I'm feeling a difference when I do exercises such as Tree in Pilates (pictured below). I think the key here is I've noticed so much progress lately from being patient with myself and committing to prioritizing my workouts. Just in case you missed it, I blogged earlier this week about being patient both in fitness and life- read it here and here.

T W O
Spring Fever
We've had a lot of warm weather the past few weeks with highs in the 60s and 70s for part of the week. I feel like it has been a few days of spring mixed with really mild winter weather. Next week, the weather forecast looks just about the same. I'm not really complaining and we did get to enjoy one snow this year.

T H R E E 
bareMinerals Foundation Primer
F O U R 
Essential Oils of the Bible
A few months a go, a friend recommended this book to me- Essential Oils of the Bible. I use essential oils regularly, especially to fight sickness (read here and here), but I'm interested in learning more in general about essential oils and ways to incorporate oils. I just picked this book up from the library, so I really haven't had a chance to read it yet, but I'm looking forward to flipping through it. I thought I'd check it out from the library before I decided to buy it.

F I V E
Valentine's Day Dinner and Treats
I did a lot of cooking and baking for Valentine's Day. I really enjoy baking from scratch, knowing and controlling what goes in our food, and using Organic ingredients as much as possible.

Hubby loves and requested Apple Cinnamon muffins, so I made those- loosely following this recipe. The main difference is I used Organic Unsalted Butter instead of Coconut Oil (his request) and I dipped the muffins in melted butter and cinnamon after pulling them out of the oven.
For Valentine's Dinner, we had: Grilled Chicken, Roasted Broccoli, Brown Rice, and Heart-shaped Biscuits with Honey. Here's the recipe for the biscuits.

 
For dessert, I made Sugar Cookies with Strawberry Glazed Icing with my little assistant. Yes, we did use Sugar, but we used Organic ingredients and no food coloring. Side note- I just really hate the thought of adding food coloring into what I cook. The icing was delicious and the strawberries gave it the perfect color and flavor. I found the recipe for the icing here. The recipe calls for fresh strawberries and lemon zest, but we used frozen strawberries and lime zest (since that's what I had on hand). The cookies are just about gone- if that tells you anything!

Have a great weekend!

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 
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!