Monthly Archives: January 2014

Fashion Friday- Workout Edition

Posted in Fashion Friday, Fitness, obsessions by

I think most people who exercise on a regular basis will agree that having cute workout gear is a huge plus to working out. Between that well-known fact, and the exercise related New Year’s resolutions that some of you may have made, I thought it would be a good time to do a workout themed Fashion Friday.

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The majority of my workout gear is from Old Navy– I love their Active brand- it’s all good quality and fits well.  They’re having a huge Active sale until 1/15- everything is 40% off right now. So a lot of my picks for this week are from Old Navy, with a few other brands mixed in, and a couple workout ideas for you to try. 

Compression Capris

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These pants are very similar to the Old Navy capris that I bought at least 9 months ago- the quality is excellent and they fit perfectly. I wear them practically every day and they haven’t stretched or pilled.

Tone Up Tight Workout

20130803182948-tone-up-tight-routineI tried this the other day, repeating the circuit three times like they recommend, and it felt like a really good workout. Their time frame is about right- it took me around 18 minutes, so it’s great if you don’t have a ton of time.

Padded Sports Bra

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Another thing I own and love- a perfect amount of support and super comfortable.

Sweaty Bands Chevron Slide

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My mom got one of these headbands for her last birthday and she loves it. It’s so cute and it stays in place during the workout.  And they have a ton of colors and designs to choose from.

Nike Air Cross-Trainers

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Since I got these for Christmas, I’ve worn them running, walking, hiking and to bootcamp and I love them! Travis said that it looks like Dr. Seuss threw up on my feet, but personally, I like the bright colors- they look really cute in person.

Give Me 50 Workout

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This looks like a good one.

Semi-Fitted Tank

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This is so cute- I love the colors and fit.

Side Mesh Running Shorts
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I’m wearing these very shorts as I write- needless to say, I love them.

Over Easy Workout Tank

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The Core Challenge Workout

20130803201027-the-core-workoutI sometimes wonder about the pictures that they put with these workouts- if I do the workout, will my abs look like this gal’s? 😉 Haha but seriously, this looks like a challenging and good workout.

Jordan

One Hour Cast Iron Focaccia

Posted in extras, side dishes, things we like to eat by

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When I found this recipe the other day, I was a little skeptical- a delicious bread that can be made from start to finish in an hour? I’ve had a few, *ahem*, interesting experiences with rolling out dough, so that didn’t add to my optimism. I decided to give it a go though, and boy, was it worth it!

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The recipe really was incredibly simple, it only take an hour, and it couldn’t have been any easier to roll out. And the bread was so delicious! The texture was so good- soft inside and a bit crisp on top. I modified the original recipe by adding garlic powder and garlic sea salt- the garlic got a bit crunchy and added a really yummy flavor.

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Cast Iron Focaccia

Slight alterations to Crunchy Creamy Sweet’s recipe

Ingredients for the dough:

3/4 cup warm water

1/2 tsp. sugar

1 1/2 tsp. yeast (Active Dry Yeast)

2 Tbsp. olive oil

2 cups flour (divided in half)

1/2 tsp. salt

For the melted butter mixture:

3 Tbsp. butter, melted

1 Tbsp. grated parmesan

1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 tsp. garlic sea salt

Instructions:

Place warm water and sugar in the mixing bowl of a stand mixer, and stir until sugar dissolves. Sprinkle the yeast over the top of the water and stir a few times. Let stand for about 5 minutes, or until foamy.

Turn the mixer onto low and add one cup of the flour and the salt, and mix until combined. Add olive oil and mix well. With the mixer on low, add flour until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl- I used a bit more than 3/4 of a cup, but it may need anywhere from 3/4 cup to a full cup.

At this point, preheat the oven to 220* and turn it off once it has preheated. Keep the door closed.

Grease the skillet well. Place dough onto a floured surface and fold the dough a few times until it’s no longer sticky. Shape into a ball. Roll out the dough until it’s about the size of your skillet. Place the rolled out dough into the skillet and stretch it up the sides. Cover the skillet with a kitchen towel and place in the oven for 20 minutes to rise.

Take the skillet out of the oven and preheat the oven to 400*. Make indentations in the dough with your fingers. Mix melted butter, parmesan and seasoning in a small bowl. Brush the dough with half the butter.

Place skillet in the preheated oven and bake 16-18 minutes, or until golden brown. Brush with remaining butter. Slice into wedges or squares and serve.

Jordan

Green Breakfast Smoothie

Posted in breakfast, things we like to eat by

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Awhile back, Jordan posted the purple breakfast smoothie that she drinks every morning for breakfast. She got me on board and now it’s my favorite breakfast too.

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Recently we started adding even more fresh spinach to the smoothie and omitting the mixed berries.  It looks a bit like guacamole, but once you get over the color it is the perfect breakfast.  The measurements below are not exact, we just keep adding and mixing until it seems like a good consistency and flavor.  The recipe below fills our blender and makes two large glasses.  It’s not necessarily low calorie (or low in sugar), but it’s definitely filling and you end up eating a ton of fruits and veggies. If your New Year’s resolution is to get more fruits and veggies in your diet, than this is an easy and yummy way to do it.

Green Breakfast Smoothie

1/4 cup quick oats

1/4 to 1/2 cup milk

1/4  cup vanilla yogurt, we just started adding Greek yogurt to up the protein

1 to 2 bananas, sliced and frozen (we slice several bananas and store in a baggie in the freezer)

1 large handful of fresh spinach, approximately 3 cups

1 whole orange, peeled

1 whole apple, cut into chunks, core removed

1 whole pear, cut into chunks, core removed

1 cup of frozen chunk pineapple

Juice from a lime, just squeezed in (if desired)

Sometimes we add in about 1 T of almond butter

Place quick oats and milk into the bottom of the blender first, and then add the rest of the ingredients. Blend together until smooth. Continue to taste and add what you think the smoothie is missing as you go.

Cindy

Raspberry Bars & Downton Abbey Ramblings

Posted in obsessions, other obsessions, sweets, things we like to eat by

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For all of you who somehow don’t know….Downton Abbey Season 4 premieres TOMORROW!!! Watch this for me real quick-

Is it just me, or isn’t that the most mysterious, non-helpful trailer ever? Talk about vague.

Anyway,  we were invited to a Downton Abbey premiere watching party – yay! We signed up to bring dessert and these raspberry bars seemed perfect to share on this momentous occasion. These. Are. Delicious. We’ve tried a lot of similar recipes (see Fresh Strawberry Oatmeal Bars) but for some reason these stand out as our favorite. There is a perfect amount of crumb topping and they are overall amazing.

I’m not sure if we’ve talked about it before on the blog, but we store all of our recipe clippings in large three-ring binders. When we try a new recipe, we decide if it’s a “keeper” or not, a.k.a. whether it has earned a permanent spot in a binder. This raspberry bar recipe is definitely a “keeper”.

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Raspberry Bars

2 sticks butter, softened
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 cup old fashioned oats, or rolled oats
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
1 cup raspberry preserves, I used seedless
Sliced almonds, optional

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter an 8-inch square baking pan. I just used the excess butter leftover on the butter wrapping, and smeared it around.

Add the flour, both sugars, oats and salt to a bowl in your stand mixer. Add in the butter and egg and beat at low speed. Stop the machine and scrape the bowl down a couple of times. Keep processing until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Keep 2 cups crumb mixture aside.

Press the remaining crumb mixture on the bottom the prepared pan. Spread the Raspberry Preserves over the top of the crust. Crumble the rest of the oat mixture over the preserves and then I sprinkled approximately 1/4 cup of sliced almonds over the top of that. I loved the addition of the almonds. They gave the bars a yummy extra texture and looked really pretty.

Bake until lightly browned, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool completely before cutting into bars.

Cindy & Jordan

Happy New Year Fitness Challenge

Posted in Fitness by

Happy New Year! I’ve decided to do a 30 Day Abs Challenge. I went onto Tribesports.com and picked this out. It should be interesting – and difficult. I did a plank challenge last August and by the end of the 30 days I was holding the plank for 5 minutes. It can be done! The key is doing it every day and you will get stronger.

Are you a resolution maker? I don’t think I normally am – but I’m excited to try this and get a bit stronger. Anyone want to join me?

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Cindy