Happy Friday! My grandparents are in town this weekend from Illinois! They got to town on Tuesday and leave Monday. We are going to spend some time with them this weekend, but keep it pretty casual. Donny & I are going to have them over for dinner tomorrow to try out some recipe for the upcoming museum dinner! My parents and my sister & Cody will join us so it should be a good time. I get to test out my sticky toffee pudding recipe again and gives these guys instant diabetes! It is good, but rich!
What plans do you have this weekend? Anything fun?
Time for Anything & Everything Friday. Today I’m discussing our next girl’s trip, fall foods and Buff Bakes Nut Butters!
Backstreet Boys:
A few weeks ago it was announced that the Backstreet Boys were going to do a residency in Las Vegas! My sister & I were super stoked. Yes, I had the CD. Well, a few days later my sister had dinner with the two gals that go on our annual girl’s trip. She mentioned the Backstreet Boy’s doing concerts again and pretty soon it was determined that we would do Girl’s Trip 2017 in Vegas and buy Backstreet Boys tickets!
We have all been to Vegas, but this different. This is LARGER-THAN-LIFE, BACKSTREET’S-BACK-ALRIGHT type of girl’s trip! It is going to be epic. We hunted for tickets the other day but didn’t commit. Then earlier this week we got a little more serious about planning, but tickets had skyrocketed! Almost all the seats were sold out, but were available for “resale”. Aka a $120 ticket was going to cost $300. No thank you. So, we did a little price-shopping and ended up committing to a Wednesday night show. We generally only take one day off of work for these trips, but this saved us several hundred dollars in both ticket prices and airline prices!
We are leaving Wednesday, March 1st (the show is that night) and returning home Friday, March 3rd. Honestly, my liver cannot handle any more days like that in Las Vegas. Plus, then we get to come home and still have the weekend. It takes more days out of our vacation time, but it will work for this year. I’m super stoked for this trip now! Watch out Backstreet Boys…the Johnson’s & Phythian’s are heading your way!
Food Myths:
Food & nutrition can be interesting, yet confusing subject. It really is a science. Fat was bad for you 15 years ago, but now studies show it can be good for you. Carbohydrates are good for you one day, then terrible for you the next. I love reading about nutrition, but it does make me wonder what is true and what is not.
Abby Langer must be thinking the same thing I am, because she wrote this article for Self.com 5 Common Food Myths This Registered Dietician Wants You To Forget Right Now. She brings up five common myths about nutrition and then explains her point about why it is false. She hooked me right off the bat with Myth #1: Quinoa is a high-protein grain. The truth about quinoa is that it has more protein compared to other grains, but that does not mean it is high in protein. See the difference? Check out her explanation and the other four myths at the link above.
Foam Rolling for Tight Hips:
Unfortunately, I have tight hips. I work out a lot and tend to be sore a lot. When I foam roll I pay a little extra attention to my quads and IT band, but tend to forget about my hips! I’ll occasionally get into those puppies and be extremely uncomfortable for a few minutes, but I need to make it more of a priority. Bari Lieberman for Self.com has come to the rescue! Here are 3 Simple Foam Rolling Exercises For Tight Hips. I’ve done the first one, the Rolling Figure Four but I tend to forget about it. I am extremely intrigued by #2 Goddess Roll. Check out the three exercises and work them into your next torturous foam rolling session. You’re hips will thank you!
Fall Foods:
We are well into fall and I haven’t had a pumpkin spice latte yet. Wait, what?!?!? I know, but don’t worry my love for pumpkin is not gone! In fact, I I love a lot of things about fall, including everything pumpkin, fall clothing, football season, leaves changing colors and fall flavors and smells. I am on Pinterest a lot looking at recipes and tips for cooking so I could have compiled a list of my favorite fall recipes right now. However, the wonderful folks at Greatist.com have already done that for me!
All of these recipes look awesome and I am pretty sure I need those Melting Sweet Potatoes right now. Did I drool on the keyboard when I saw that? Maybe, maybe not. Check out Rebecca Firkser’s list of Trendy Fall Food Ideas We Think Will Stick Around For Good and then comment below which recipe you’d like to make/eat along with me. I’m down for every. single. one. First up? Melting Sweet Potatoes!
Buff Bakes Nut Butters:
Have you heard of Buff Bakes nut butters? I’ve seen their products before (mostly people posting on Instagram), but have never tried any before! They are nut butters that have whey protein added to them. I’ve tried different brands for protein nut butters, such as P28 and Nuts ‘N More but haven’t tried the Buff Bakes. I broke down and ordered two different kinds: Snickerdoodle Almond Butter & their seasonal Pumpkin Spice Peanut Butter because, duh!
I’ve looked at the nutrition label before and looked at sugar content. These butters have 2-5 grams per serving so I never committed (I thought that was high). Well this time I looked at the ingredient list and they are all clean eating ingredients! The sugar that they use is coconut palm sugar. I’ll keep you posted on how they are…. I’m guessing they are not shitty!
Well that’s it for today’s Anything & Everything Friday! Have a great weekend….move a little, eat some delicious (and maybe some healthy) food and have LOTS of fun!
