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I am Grateful

Post author:Melanie
Post published:April 11, 2014
Post category:Health / Home Life / Misc. / Moose / Travel
Post comments:5 Comments

I’m grateful for so many things, and I don’t express my gratitude nearly as often as I should. As always, I am so grateful for my family and friends. You make my life wonderful. I am thankful for the warm sunshine. It rejuvenates my soul and feeds my body with the Vitamin D it so needs. I’m grateful for Moose. Even though he annoys me like no other sometimes, the majority of the time he is hysterical and keeps me smiling. I’m grateful for my passion for cooking and experimenting with healthy ingredients and creations (like this sweet potato gluten-free crust). I’m grateful for all of the opportunities I have to travel and explore the world. There is so much to see and do, I can’t wait to see it all! I am grateful for Young Living Essential Oils. They have opened my world to a new way of treating headaches, anxiety, cold and flu, etc. Let me know if you want me to order anything for you! I am grateful for my chiropractor who keeps my spine in line and helps me to feel my best. I am grateful for my acupuncturist who I see weekly. My sessions help me relax and ease any tension that I may be holding on to. My list is much greater than this but it is a start. I have a lot to be thankful for. Now, it’s your turn. What are you grateful for?!

Treat Yourself: Sweet Treats, Sunshine & Clothing Bargains

Post author:Melanie
Post published:April 8, 2014
Post category:Friends / Home Life / Misc. / Moose / Snacks
Post comments:12 Comments

Happy Treat Yourself Tuesday! It’s been a while since I’ve linked up with Becky’s TYT and I have some fun things to share with you all, so today I am linking up!

To read about Becky’s Treat Yourself Tuesday, head on over here and learn why Becky is a firm believer in treating yourself on a weekly (and even daily) basis.

Since the weather has been amazingly beautiful, I have been treating myself to extra time outside. I am loving the Vitamin D and Moose is loving my company outside.

This was a total random purchase as are most of my clothing purchases, but I happened to stumble upon the clearance section at Gap and found this adorable polka dot blue sweatshirt. It fit me just perfectly so it was meant to be. I snagged it for just $9!

I am treating myself to a huge container of Driscoll’s strawberries. They are so sweet and perfect! They scream summer to me.

From healthy strawberries to a not at all healthy doughnut. I enjoy a doughnut I’d say maybe once or twice a year. We had a free doughnut coupon for a doughnut shop in our neighborhood so…….guess what happened. A long john, that’s what happened. I was bummed they didn’t have any long johns with chocolate and sprinkles but I made due with just the solo chocolate and it sure was tasty still. #allinmoderation #doughnutsaredelicious This maxi dress from Target. I wanted it ever since I saw Becky post about it but this one is the one I wanted and it was no longer available online and it wasn’t at my normal target. BUT…..after acupuncture last week I stopped at a different target and lo and behold…my dress! I also found a 15% off coupon on Cartwheel and got an extra 5% off by using my redcard. Boo ya.

On Sunday my mom and I went out for a nice long walk. It was sunny, it was peaceful, it was lovely. We chatted away and talked about how we wish we could meet up for walks everyday! That walk was definitely a treat.

How did YOU treat yourself this week?

What’s your favorite kind of doughnut?

Thanks, Becky again for the link-up!

Currently I’m…

Post author:Melanie
Post published:April 3, 2014
Post category:Friends / Home Life / Lunch / Misc. / Sweet Treats
Post comments:7 Comments

It’s time for a little update on “currently I’m…” Here we go!

Currently I’m…

Enjoying hot water with lemon. I always think of Caroline now when I drink it! 🙂 It’s such a comforting way to start the day.

Onto season three of Pretty Little Liars. This show just keeps getting better and better!

source

Loving these oatmeal raisin cookie bites. Go make these! They taste like oatmeal raisin cookies but they are grain free and freaking amazing! Recipe: “Fauxtmeal” Raisin Cookie Bites.

Dreaming of eating another one of these egg sandwiches. Gluten-free waffle, pepperjack cheese, mustard and a fried egg. Ummm yea.

Reminiscing about my amazing weekend with these ladies.

Looking forward to a quiet weekend! It’s time to FINALLY take the Christmas lights down. Yikes!

Now it’s your turn. Currently I’m…

It’s Okay to Order Take Out

Post author:Melanie
Post published:March 17, 2014
Post category:Home Life / Misc.
Post comments:6 Comments

Good day my friends and happy St. Patty’s day!

I’m not at all Irish and don’t usually celebrate this day whole lot, but someday I’d like to get more into it and make green foods and eat corned beef and cabbage! I really want to make this recipe for corned beef and cabbage soup…

source

It looks SO good!

If you plan to celebrate today, be safe and have fun!

**************

This weekend was sure a lazy one for me and I loved it.

A few scenes from the weekend…

A humongo salad loaded with lots of goodies!

Cheering on Kevin and Dana as they ran the Get Lucky half-marathon. I decided to sit out the 7k this year. I signed up and everything but just wasn’t feeling ready for it or up to it so I decided just to spectate this year. I had a blast!

The boys did great!

A beautiful baby shower with tons of delicious food.

Vietnamese take-out…

And pizza…

As you can see I wasn’t really in the mood for much meal prep this weekend. We ordered more take out this weekend then we usually do in about 2-3 months! It’s definitely okay to have this kind of weekend every once in a while if you ask me.

We watched a couple of movies, and had a quiet, relaxing, and fantastic weekend. How was yours?!

How often do you order take out? What is your favorite take out food?

Our go-to is usually Chipotle, but every now and then we will go for Chinese or pizza.

Favorite Soup, Clean Things & Pups

Post author:Melanie
Post published:February 21, 2014
Post category:Fav Products / Home Life / Restaurants / Snacks
Post comments:10 Comments

TGIF!

I’m linking up with Katie once again for Friday favorites!

1. Getting goodies delivered to my door. Blue Diamond hooked me up with a fun little Olympic-inspired box of almonds.

2. Lunch with two amazing and inspiring women at Panera. Can you believe I ordered the French Onion soup? I’m a creature of habit apparently. That, and French Onion soup is one of my all-time favs and since I don’t go to Panera too often, it’s one I like to order on repeat. And yes, I ate my whole loaf of bread with little repercussions (yay!) but I don’t plan on making that a habit.

3. As much as Moose is driving me crazy lately with his stir-craziness, he is so stinking cute still. I mean really, who can blame him. I would go stir-crazy too this winter. As you may have heard, we got bombarded with snow yesterday and Moose was in his dreamland. He just sat out in the snow and watched the world go by.

4. Experimenting with my Young Living Essential Oils and finding new combos that work for different ailments/household messes/stinky gym shoes/sticker residue, etc. Being that I’m a science nerd, experimenting with oils gets me all happy.

5. These cleaning brushes from Collections Etc. The kind folks at CollectionsEtc.com sent me these cleaning brushes to review.

I realize this is a bit of a random one for me, but the reason I agreed to review these is because I thought they would be perfect for cleaning the CamelBak water bottles which both Dana and I use on a daily basis. The downfall to the CamelBak is that there are a lot of nooks and crannies where bacteria can grow and it’s not always easy to clean out.

Well…I am happy to report that these little gadgets did a pretty fine job at disinfecting the water bottles. I used a lemon oil/vinegar/water blend to clean these along with the brushes.

The only issue I had was that not all of the straws on the water bottles are the same size, and so the cleaning tool got stuck in one of the straws. I had to unwind it out. So, technically it came out, just not easily so I guess I shouldn’t necessarily say it got “stuck.”

It worked great for the mouthpiece.

And inside of the straw insert hole.

So far I have only used these brushes on the water bottle but I am definitely satisfied with the product! I have my eye on some cute tumblers on their website too!

Happy Friday to you all!

Disclaimer: Collections Etc. sent me these cleaning brushes to review on Beautifully Nutty. All opinions expressed on the product are solely my own.

Food Network’s Cupcake Wars & Asian Chicken Slaw

Post author:Melanie
Post published:February 11, 2014
Post category:Dinners / Friends / Gluten-Free / Home Life / Recipes / Sweet Treats
Post comments:17 Comments

It’s time for Treat Yourself Tuesday hosted by the one and only Becky!

1. I’ve had one too many sweet treats this past week, and it all started last Thursday. I mentioned last Friday briefly that I went to a pastry shop called “Cupcake” to celebrate a co-worker’s retirement. The shop splits is split up into two areas: the Cupcake side and the restaurant side which is called “The Mason Jar.”

When we arrived to celebrate, my co-worker (and friend) Mary, had bought a bunch of cupcakes for each table to enjoy.

My table had the brilliant idea to split all of them into sevenths so that we could all get a taste of all of them!

There was lemon, raspberry, mocha, vanilla, peanut butter, german chocolate, red velvet, and some type of marshmallow one. After we tasted all of these, we actually got to try a few more still! Talk about sugar-load, but seriously how much fun to sit around eating cupcakes with your girlfriends?!

As we ~~mowed~~ chatted over our cupcakes, the owner and winner of Food Network’s Cupcake Wars, Kevin VanDeraa came by our table and greeted us! He was incredibly humble and just wanted to see how we were enjoying our time at Cupcake. Very cool!

I didn’t love every single cupcake I tried but I did enjoy a lot of them! I especially liked the lemon-filled one which is definitely not like me. The peanut butter one was pretty awesome too (duh, right?)!

I think that Cupcake would be a perfect place to go for a date or to meet up with friends and I will more than likely be making my way back there at some point. The cupcakes range from about $2.75-$4.25 a piece (don’t quote me on that).

2. I’ve been treating myself to caramel coffee at home as well as lots of veggie and fruit loaded smoothies!

3. On Sunday morning, I treated myself to a relaxing morning: reading the newspaper (and my new favorite section!), looking through weekly ads, watching Olympics and sipping on my café con crema!

4. On Sunday I made an amazing dish I found on Pinterest for Asian Chicken Slaw. Link: Asian Chicken Slaw. I cut down on the peanut butter, omitted the basil, and only used 3/4 head of cabbage, but other than that I followed the recipe and holy cow…so good! Make this.

5. The Valentine’s decor is finally up! I totally forgot about it until yesterday when I was organizing some ~~crap~~ gift bags in the basement and stumbled upon them! They make the house look so much more fun and festive! They may have to stay up past Valentine’s Day.
Side note: when you get married you get loads of gift bags. Keep all of them and you will never have to buy a gift bag again! Win!

I am really starting to feel the lovey in the air. How about you?

Questions of the day:

Any good Pinterest recipe finds lately that you’ve tried?
If you were to order any flavor of cupcake, what would you choose?

Currently I’m…

Post author:Melanie
Post published:February 4, 2014
Post category:Home Life / Misc. / Travel
Post comments:11 Comments

Currently I’m… infusing the air with my new Young Living Essential Oil. This time it’s one called EndoFlex which helps regulate the ol’ hormones! I have a feeling there will be a lot of essential oil talk in the future. Stay tuned.

Currently I’m…sipping on the world’s ugliest smoothie which also happens to be one of my favorite smoothies. Kale, frozen banana, raw cacao powder, peanut butter.

Currently I’m… looking for a new book to read. I just finished a book I borrowed from my chiropractor called Golden Rules for Vibrant Health in Body, Mind, and Spirit, A Holistic Approach to Health and Wellness by Joseph J. Sweere. It is a great book which reminds you to think about the foods and drinks that go into your body, how your environment can affect your health, handling stressors, etc.

Currently I’m…dreaming of an exciting trip coming up this month! Destination is yet to be announced!

Currently I’m...trying to stay warm. I’m in my warmest robe and have the heat cranked.

Currently I’m…very thankful that we have a treadmill in our basement. I have been using that thing like it’s my job! Plus, it helps having the iPad right along with me. I am on the final season of Gossip Girl and the suspense keeps me running and walking for miles! Check out this article about the “Netflix Fitness Effect”: Binge Watching I’m completely guilty. I don’t know if it’s a good or a bad thing. I guess I just don’t like the word ‘binge’ because it is usually associated with a negative behavior.

‘

Currently I’m…excited about the loads of good food in my fridge. Zucchini, coconut milk, cottage cheese, cheese, organic carrots, grapes, leftover guacamole, leftover sliders, raw vegan brownie bites. So many delicious options around this place.

Questions for YOU!

Any good book recommendations?

Thoughts on holistic wellness and complementary wellness?

Favorite smoothie concoctions?

Good shows on Netflix for me to watch after Gossip Girl?

What I’ve Been Eating Lately: Mediterranean Salad and Healthy Snacks

Post author:Melanie
Post published:January 2, 2014
Post category:Breakfast / Dinners / Home Life / Snacks
Post comments:5 Comments

It’s Thursday already! How about that? We are almost to the weekend again. I love having New Years in the middle of the week!

I haven’t been doing a fantastic job of snapping photos of my delicious eats, but I do have a few to share with you that have just been hanging around and deserve mentioning.

I missed the official WIAW yesterday but I’m still going to roll with it and make this a some of what I’ve been eating lately post.

This Mediterranean inspired salad: fresh spinach, roasted zucchini, asparagus, Golden Teacher (mushroom strain), and onions, hummus, olives, feta, and yellow quinoa. I was originally planning on putting this all into a wrap but changed my mind last-minute; go figure.

I really enjoyed this salad. Dana had his as a wrap and liked it a lot too. I made a ton of the roasted veggies so we have been eating this as leftovers for days.

There have been a lot of smoothies. I go back and forth about whether or not I appreciate a cold smoothie on a cold winter’s day, but lately I have been absolutely okay with it.

My latest mix might sound strange but I am really into it: frozen bananas, frozen kale, frozen blueberries, kefir, almond milk, ground flaxseed, maca powder, raw cacao powder, peanut butter, and one date. It has a smoky chocolately slightly sweet taste and I feel like I’m eating a shake for breakfast.

I never said it was pretty though!

For New Year’s Eve we went over to a friend’s house for dinner. They made us Cuban calzones and parmesan spicy sweet potato fries. OMG. Everything was absolutely amazing. This inspires me to have Cuban wraps or sandwiches more often! I love the combination of textures and tastes from the smoky saltiness of the shredded pork and ham, crunchy pickle, melty cheese, and tangy mustard. K, I want to go make a Cuban right now. My compliments to the chef!!

My snacks lately have been: popcorn, nuts, raisins, fresh fruit and veggies, and raw brownie bites! Have you made the brownie bites yet? If not, please do so!

This was a Harry and David’s pear from Christmas. I’ve never met a more juicy pear in my life. I could go for another one of these as well. 🙂

I’ve been increasing my tea (decaf) intake to help to cleanse my body of the Christmas sugar load. Plus, I’m giving my colon a break from coffee for a bit. Lately my favorite is Wild Harvest’s Green Chai Tea!

Last night I made lemon pepper shrimp and roasted acorn squash but was incredibly disappointed when I bit into the squash. It just didn’t taste right. No wonder they were on sale I guess. I pitched the squash and made myself an array of random food: peas, crackers and cheese, some raisins, peanut butter…it turned out alright.

I’ve definitely been cleaning up my act when it comes to clean and healthy food choices (for the most part). Besides eating well, I have been staying active and ACTUALLY getting to the gym and not just doing cardio; I’m actually strength training again! Wooo! I am staying hydrated by drinking plenty of water and organic green tea. My body is thanking me and patting me on the back.

So far so good with keeping to my New Year’s casual resolution although I’m not sure what we are having for dinner tonight. I’ll get on that.

Have a great Thursday!

Did you make a New Year’s Resolution? Wish to share?

Has anyone else experienced bad squash lately?

What are you snacking on these days?

Friday Favorites: Holiday Spirit

Post author:Melanie
Post published:December 6, 2013
Post category:holidays / Home Life / Misc.
Post comments:13 Comments

One of my best blends, Katie and Running4Cupcakes, has started a Friday Favorites link up and since I truly enjoy writing about Friday Favorites sometimes otherwise known as Five Things Friday, I just had to join in!

Her theme for Friday favorites is to focus in on “the little things that made you smile over the past week. And anything goes! Because we all know that it’s the little things in life that make it count, right?” source

I am really getting into the holiday spirit as I’ve mentioned before. The minty coffee drinks, the Christmas music, the lights, the cookies….I am just full of Christmas spirit and loving every second of it. A few of my Friday Favs are holiday related, and a few are just completely random. So without further ado….

Friday Favorites

1. Online shopping. I am not one for crowds, so online Christmas shopping at Flyp has been something wonderful to me. It keeps me stress-free and we all can appreciate that, I always shop at Macy’s during Christmas since it literally has everything you could think of, I always look for coupons online, you can click for more info.

2. Watching Gossip Girl while walking or running on the treadmill. This keeps me occupied for a good hour! The drama gives me a little bit of anxiety, but then I remember it’s just a show and then I’m okay. It’s ridiculous but I’m addicted.

3. Snow. It finally snowed around here and I love how much prettier it looks outside. Many people complain about it but I think it’s gorgeous. Sure we have to be more careful on the roads, shovel our driveways, and give ourselves extra time to wipe off our cars, but it’s worth it.

4. Christmas Lights. We have the front and back of our house decorated with Christmas lights along with our Christmas tree and they make me so happy every time I look at them. The simple joys.

5. Victoria’s Secret Boyfriend Sweatpants.

Dana got me these for my birthday (light pink top and navy blue bottoms) and I LOVE them. These pants are so amazingly comfortable. I feel like I should stock up on a bunch of these they are so great.

Happy FRIDAY my loves!

What are some of your Friday Favorites?!

WIAW: Sweet Potato Nachos & Five a Day

Post author:Melanie
Post published:November 27, 2013
Post category:Breakfast / Dinners / Home Life / Lunch / Moose
Post comments:10 Comments

Tomorrow is THANKSGIVING (to those of you who are unaware) and I am just a tad excited!!!!! Tomorrow I will be walking and possibly jogging in the best ever 5K and then I will be going to mom and dad’s for family time and crazy good food!

I am bringing two pies: one homemade pumpkin and one homemade caramel apple. I’m also bringing green bean casserole. I happen to be a huge green bean casserole fan. I know it can be pretty hit or miss for most. I’m trying a new recipe too.

Enough about tomorrow, let’s talk about yesterday. I actually took off my lazy pants and made myself some pretty awesome meals. I’m going to join in on the What I Ate Wednesday fun!

To start the day, a cup of decaf vanilla bean creme brulee coffee with coconut creamer and stevia in my adorable owl cup that makes me very happy.

For breakfast, a fruit and yogurt bowl: FAGE Greek yogurt, agave, raspberries, blueberries, banana, raisins, cacao nibs, and pecan pieces.

A walk/jog on the treadmill happened mid-morning while watching Gossip Girl! I am getting back into running and I’m hoping to write about this soon. 🙂 Lunch: one of my favorite ol’ salads. In the mix is romaine lettuce (we ran out of dark greens), peas, avocado, red bell pepper, olives, broccoli, sunflower seeds, cottage cheese, and honey mustard dressing.

Dessert: dates with peanut butter!

Afternoon snack: crunchy juicy grapes, a handful of Crunchmaster’s Multi-Seed gluten-free crackers and a cup of tea.

Dinner: sweet potato nachos. Crispy sweet potato “chips” with cheddar cheese, black beans, corn, tomato, avocado, and salsa. So satisfying!

I rounded out the day with some Fiber One 80 calorie chocolate squares. Those babies are dangerous! They taste like candy but they are loaded with fiber so you need to be careful with your intake or you could face some major bloating and other issues.

The remainder of the night was spent on the couch hanging with my boys in my warm home and of course, in my sweatpants.

I’d say it was a pretty healthy day! I’m working towards redeeming my 5-9 daily servings of fruits and veggies. I used to be so good about it but lately have been sliding. I feel so much better when I reach the 5-9 mark and it’s something I am continuing to be mindful of and you should too!

As always, thank you Jenn for hosting the WIAW!

Are you celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow? Are you cooking up anything tasty? How do you make sure to get your five servings of fruits and veggies daily?