Top Five Photos

Today, Andrea from Momfessionals, is hosting a Show & Tell link up. Today's topic is your top five photos of all time. Well, since there is no way I could ever decide my top five photos, I decided I'd share my five favorite photos of Admiral. It seems like it's been a while since I've dedicated a post to him, so I thought this would be a good opportunity. And who doesn't like seeing cute dog photos? So here they are, in no particular order:

 

his face just cracks me up in this one...he's obviously annoyed with me

had to include a puppy pic!

And that quickly got out of control and turned in to way more than five. But I couldn't choose just five, and I figured you wouldn't mind if I threw in more :) Make sure you head over to Andrea's blog to see everyone else's top photos!

Healthy Eating (Recipes)

We've been trying to eat healthier for the past couple of years now. As in, I haven't bought pasta, rice, or bread in literally two years. Hello low carb eating. Over the past couple of months, we've been trying out some new recipes to add to our rotation. Kevin found this great app called Mealime that we've been using a lot. It's a meal planning app for healthy eating. We've found some delicious recipes and everything has been easy to make. It gives you all of the ingredients, creates a shopping list for you, and gives you detailed cooking instructions. And no, they aren't paying me to say any of this...Mealime has no idea who I am. We just really like this app.

Along with the Mealime recipes, I love trying recipes I see on blogs or ones I find on Pinterest. Here are some of our favorites:

One Pot Spicy Sausage and Kale Soup (by Eat Yourself Skinny)

This is one is SO GOOD. We make it a lot. And it's super easy. A must try.

Sausage, Bean, & Kale Soup (by Carolina Charm)

We made this one for the first time a couple weeks ago, and it was a winner!

Chili (by Carolina Charm)

This is my favorite. I could make this once a week and not get sick of it. SO GOOD.

Sweet Potato, Kale, and Sausage Bake with White Cheese Sauce (by Pinch of Yum)

In the summer, our favorite thing to do is grill our meals. We grill about 80% of our meals in the Spring, Summer, and Fall. We broke the grill out a couple of weeks and I couldn't be happier!

My biggest downfall when trying to eat healthier is snacking. I snack morning, afternoon, and night. We started using Nature Box over a year ago and we love it. Nature Box sends 4-5 healthy snacks, every month, for $19.95 (including shipping). You can choose your snacks every month, or let Nature Box choose for you. I figured it was better than spending $20/month at the grocery store on chips and other snacks that were far from healthy. They add new snacks all the time, so you don't keep getting the same thing over and over. It's worth trying it for a few months to see if you like it. You can learn more HERE.

We definitely still have our "cheat" days, but we try hard to eat pretty healthy at home, so we can live a little when we go out with friends or to parties. It was super hard at first, but it has become our new normal. What are some of your favorite healthy recipes?? I'd love to try them!

Five on Friday

Thought I'd use Five on Friday to give a little update via a list. Because lists are just easier (and more fun) to read. Am I right?

1. Blogging. This I have not been doing. I have some posts in the works, so look for those coming soon. I've still been reading blogs and following along on Instagram (it's my favorite), but I miss being engaged like I used to be.

source

2. Sickness. I think every bug that's going around has hit our house. Kevin and I both got the nasty cold that was going around about a month ago, and then last week, I got the stomach flu and Kevin got another cold. I think we're in the clear now, but man that was rough.

3. Running. I've been running as much as I can when I'm not sick. I think I'm back on track now. I run a couple of days during the week before work, just a 2-3 mile run and then I get in a longer run on the weekends. I did a 7 mile run on Sunday and it felt great. Even though it was windy and cold. Only about 1.5 months until my half-marathon!

4. Food. At the beginning of the year, Kevin and I started meal planning and cooking more meals at home and it's been going great. I've got a post in the works about the app we've been using (and loving) and some of our go-to recipes. Meal planning has helped us eat healthier and save money at the grocery store. Definitely worth the 15-20 minutes a week it takes us to plan.

5. Projects. We've done a couple DIY projects at home, which you may have seen a sneak of if you follow me on Instagram. I'm working on blog posts for both of them. And if you don't follow me on Instagram, here's a little sneak (obviously I have paint to touch up and I need to style these, but you get the idea):

So there you have it. A little life update. Thanks for sticking around during my unplanned breaks. I hope to be around here more often now.