What I'm Loving Friday

Finally coming at you with some regularly scheduled programming here! Another work week has come and gone and its the best day of the week, Friday! I have so many things to be happy about right now so I will go ahead and share a couple of the things I am loving right now:

One Year Until we Say I DO!!

Shouldn't be surprising that this is number one on my list this week. One year from today I get to marry the man of my dreams :) still pretty far away but glad we are now at the one year mark. We have now kicked up planning a notch. I couldn't be more excited for that day as well as all the fun the next year will bring.

My New Job

Yep I know sounds crazy to say you like your job but at this point I think I found something I will truly enjoy. After spending the last year chained to a cubicle, close to miserable I am so thrilled to be doing something different everyday, staying active, busy and engaged. I think I am definitely in a better place. Just goes to show that not every job is right for every person, there was nothing wrong with the last place I worked and I was surrounded by really nice people but the actual job wasn't for me.

Gym Training Videos

I have been going to the gym for years, so it is bound to get boring from time to time. However I have found with weight lifting I can constantly change it up with new movements to keep me interested. This is also better for your body and more effective for better results. If your mind gets really used to your exercise routine your muscles probably have too. In order to find some new routines I have been watching tons of training videos on the Fitness RX for Women website. They post new videos with fitness competitors regularly for lots of new ideas, in addition to videos they also have training worksheets, diet info and lots more. The video above is from Amanda Latona, love her!

Gaiam Stretch Strap

With new exercises at the gym comes lots of sore and tight muscles. I picked up this little gem at the store last week and it may be the best $10 I have spent in a long time. The stretch strap allows you to do many stretches that you might usually need assistance for and get a really deep stretch. I am a fan and I think it is helping loosen up my muscles quite a bit.

Well that's really all I've got today I hope everyone has a blessed weekend!

Protein Pancakes

A while back I posted the recipe for protein waffles, it took awhile to get to a recipe for the waffles that we liked. Well things were no different trying to find a good protein pancake recipe. I tried a good handful of recipes that just weren't anything to get excited about or consider making again. Many of the recipes for protein pancakes come out sort of "tough" and hard to eat, and that is not what your looking for when you're craving pancakes.

Finally I found a combination that seems to work and make some nice fluffy pancakes and the good news is they are protein packed, made with three sources of protein.

What you need: 

• I scoop vanilla protein (I used optimum nutrition) 
• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/4 cup 0% greek yogurt
• 3 TBS egg whites
• 1 TBS almond milk
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 cap full vanilla extract
• Cinnamon to taste
• Banana (optional) 

What to do: 

• Blend oats in blender to create oat flour
• Combine all other ingredients and combine with hand mixer
• Pour 1/4 cup per pancake onto hot skillet
• We like to slice up bananas and cook them directly into the pancake it caramelizes them and makes them super yummy
• Enjoy!

Macros for whole recipe (with banana): 5F/ 43C/ 46P
Macros for one serving- half recipe: 3F/ 22C/ 23P

Bridesmaids Invites

I knew from the start that I wanted to make something special to ask my bridesmaids to be a part of the big day I had stumbled upon a similar idea and knew that was it, with some customization of course. So here is what 6 very special ladies received this week:

This project was a lot more time consuming then I originally thought but it was a lot of fun as well. Heres what I did:

• Painted each of the boxes white on the outside and pink on the inside (I don't know that I would recommend this there were issues with the paint bleeding into each other) 
• Lined the bottom with scrapbook paper
• Modge podged the glitter paper to the wooden letters for the outside and attached 
• Filled with crinkle paper and goodies

On the inside there is:

• Information cards
• The Lineup- list of all the bridesmaids with phone numbers and emails 
• The Big Day- information about our wedding day
• Your Role
• Inspiration colors 
• Mints
• Chalkboard bag tag
• Bridesmaids lip balm
• Eddies grapefruit vodka shooter

I am so thrilled to have such great people to stand by my side on my wedding day. I hope they enjoyed the boxes as much as I enjoyed making them. Here are some pictures they took of their boxes, I loved getting to see how they each set them up.

Sweet and Spicy Chicken Kabobs

We recently purchased a panini/ griddler that folds down into an open indoor grill. Overall it ranks as one of our top kitchen purposes to date, you can basically use it for everything and the plates are removable and can be put in the dishwasher...Win! As soon as we got it I knew that kabobs had to be one of the first things we made, I had been wanting them forever. So we set out to do just that and we were very happy with the result, a yummy, easy and healthy meal. Here's the "recipe"

What you need:
- Chicken breast
-Assorted bell peppers
-Can of pineapple chunks
-Caribbean jerk marinade (Safeway selects)
-Honey
-Lime
-Brown sugar (I use splenda blend)
-Wooden skewers pre-soaked in water

What to do:

1. Cut up your chicken into bite size squares, coat in marinade mixed with 1 tsp of honey and place in the fridge for 30 minutes
2. Drain juice from pineapple chunks, cut up bell peppers into bite size squares
3. Place chicken, bell peppers and pineapple on the wooden skewers
4. Coat with extra marinade, squirt with fresh lime juice and sprinkle a little brown sugar on top for sweetness
5. Grill, enjoy :)

Ordered my MOH dress

In addition to my own wedding planning, I am the Maid of Honor in my amazing friend Ellen's wedding. Which is happening in.... 104 days!!! What, it is so soon! On Friday I finally ordered my dress for the big day, I also found out I was the slacker of the group and the last to do so. Opps I am not setting the best example, but it will still get here in plenty of time before the wedding so no need to worry.

Ellen wanted to have a mismatched bridesmaid look, with all the same color but different styles. She found the site Weddingtonway.com which has hundreds of dress options. The site lets you pick a color range and view all the dresses available in that color. She let all the bridesmaids choose dresses they liked and added them to a showroom. Then she went through and narrowed it down to about eight options that we could all choose from. I loved the site and showroom concept but I really wanted to try the dresses on because I was torn between a couple and felt like I needed a visual.

I tracked down a couple local bridal shops that carried the dresses and last Friday I went to try them on. I tried on about 5 of the options from the showroom and when I put on the final one I knew that was my favorite right away and the one I would be ordering. This is it in blue, please excuse the dressing room selfie.

This is the correct color of the dress for their winter wedding and the others are a collection of the dresses the other girls ordered.

I am so excited to share in Ellen's big day with her and I can hardly wait until that time is here!

Callin Baton Rouge

Well it has been quite awhile since I have posted, I know! Life has been crazy training for my new job, I just got back on Friday from six days in Baton Rouge for field training, prior to that I had a week of major studying and a week at corporate for new hire orientation. However things will possibly slow down a bit for me now due to an unexpected schedule change that will leave my training free for three weeks.

Like I said I just got back from a week in Louisiana and goodness it was scorching there, even more hot and humid then Texas, no thank you. However this was my first time in Baton Rouge so I did a tiny bit of exploring downtown during the evenings. It was a cool spot but if I ever had to go again, downtown would not be my first choice for places to stay. Here are some pictures I snapped while I was there.

Most of these were taken on an evening run along the river, that was the coolest part about where I stayed was it was right on the river trail, also the sunsets on the water were incredible I couldn't stop myself from taking tons of photos.

By Friday evening I was so excited to get back home and enjoy the long weekend. We didn't have any big plans but it was so nice just to relax and cross some much needed items off our to-do list. On Saturday we decided we wanted to try out some beer flight tasting at a place down the street so we walked there and each ordered our choice of flight, I did the create your own and Evan sampled all local DFW brews. We both enjoyed and ordered another glass of our favorite from the group. Sunday morning we met some friends for brunch and some shopping in the bishop arts district. It is such a cool area and was full of people. Monday was definitely the day for catching up and relaxing, in fact I FINALLY may have finished my bridesmaid invites project, I know seriously took my long enough. I think they turned out great in the end and I cant wait to share the final product once they are sent out and in each girls possession.

I hope everyone has a great short week of work!