Friday Favorites #19

Happy Friday everyone! Is it just me or has this week seem to drag and go on forever? My friend at work reminded me that the two previous weeks I only had four day weeks since I took a long Memorial Day weekend soo maybe that has something to do with it! Man, switching back to a five day week has been killer then haha.

So let's end this long week on a high note shall we with some good old fashioned Friday Favorites!

1. Tumaro's Wraps

I wish that I could find these at one of my usual grocery stores so when I get these wraps it's a bit of a treat! And then I promptly make everything I can think of with them and go through them in less than a week. If I was smarter I'd try to stretch them out and make them last longer but we all know that's not gonna happen. My favorite way to use them are in Strawberry & Almond Butter Wraps and Banana Wraps. 

2. "My Body Is" Buzzfeed Video

One of my coach's clients in our Facebook group shared this the other day and I think it's pretty powerful. So often in our group we can get discouraged, lose motivation, and just have days where we're plain frustrated with our bodies. But this video reminds me that why I do what I do is not to look a certain way. Sure, I love seeing muscles pop up that I've never had before but it's what about my body can do. The feeling of being able to pick up a heavier weight or decrease my mile time is so much more satisfying than say seeing a lower number on the scale. I love in this video how these athletes talk about their insecurities or what they've gone through but at the end of the day their bodies can do some pretty amazing things! That's what's important! It's not about what our bodies look like, it matters what our bodies can do. Athletics over aesthetics!

3. Kodiak Pancakes

I found Kodiak pancake mix at Target, and I was surprised since I didn't even realize it was sold there! I would always hear about this mix but it was kinda like a mythical creature to me to be honest haha. I would always hear about people talking about it, but never really saw it for myself. Then I stumbled on it by accident! I picked the protein power mix because #gainz obviously, and it did not disappoint! I can see why everyone raves about this stuff. It was super easy to make, and the pancakes come out perfectly every time. I top mine off with homemade almond butter and Walden Farms syrup. I might or might not have had pancakes for dinner most of the nights this week! 

4. Maui Coffee

Hands down THE BEST coffee I have ever had in my entire life. I'm not even exaggerating, and me and Amanda actually had to make a rule that we can only make this on Saturday mornings or else it wouldn't last! Rachael was sweet enough to include it in the package she sent us, and I will forever be grateful because this coffee is amazing. It's so smooth and never comes out bitter. I could actually drink this without any creamer which is something I used to do before I got sick off of Starbucks coffee. After that, the taste of black coffee instantly nauseates me since it reminds me of that time. Not with this coffee, though! I can't wait to have some tomorrow morning with my meringues! That's become quite a Saturday morning tradition now. Amanda and I were joking around that we might have to find out if we can bulk order this stuff, and when I say joking we were like really 95% serious. It's that good! 

5. Little Boy & Homeless Man at Waffle House

I'm sure most of you have heard about this story already has it's gone completely viral. I wanted to include it because usually I post a quote but I think this video and what this little boy, Josiah, did demonstrates what we're called to do every day: love on one another. The fact that this 5 year-old boy was able to show such depths of compassion is truly amazing. I love how he not only touched the life of the man, but also the other patrons in the restaurant that day. He was the perfect example of showing God's love, and brought everyone to tears as he sang the blessing. Jesus said that those with child-like faith will be the first to enter heaven (Matthew 18:2-4), and this young boy showed just that. When he saw the man outside the restaurant, it seemed simple to Josiah. The man looked hungry so he asked his mother to buy the man a meal. That's all it took. As adults I think so often we get used to over-analyzing/questioning things or finding new perspectives which isn't a bad thing, but sometimes the best thing to do is look through the eyes of a child.

What are some of your favorites from this week?

Rolls, Rays, & Sugar Cookie Dough!

Sunday was a lazy day where I spent most of the time at my aunt's house. Me and my cousin Ben had some baking plans since we were trying to recreate these really good dinner rolls that were at our church's dinner a couple weeks ago. I gave him the mission of finding a recipe while I was away in Connecticut, and he did not disappoint! 

In the morning after church, I walked back to my house to pick up Layla since she loves going to my aunt's house too! Two major reasons: to see her older half-sister Lola, and my younger twin cousins. Layla LOVES them. The three of them will just run around and play all day long! 

Before lunch, we all sat out on the back deck since it was sunny and warm. We were trying to catch some sun rays and get a tan going on. Amanda was teasing me and saying that I'm so pale the light was reflecting off my legs and blinding them all. I wish I could say that was an exaggeration but...sadly it really isn't haha!

This was so cute that I had to take pictures! My cousin Elise got out some dog treats and wanted to practice tricks with Layla and Lola. She would take turns with having them do stuff, and even when it wasn't their turn both of them would be doing the trick in the background too! Layla was very good at behaving and would patiently wait for it to be her turn, I'm always so proud of how well she does with little kids. I'm very thankful that she's been exposed to my younger cousins since she was a puppy because that helped her to socialize with people of all ages. True to their golden retriever nature, both Lola and Layla are great family dogs! 

Elise definitely got the crazy dog lady gene too haha! 

We had some ice water out for Lola and Layla so they wouldn't overheat. There was plenty of shade under the umbrella but they both still needed a lot of water since it was hot, hot, hot! Layla, being the little weirdo that she is, decided to go bobbing for ice cubes.

She was not happy until she took out every single ice cube from the bowl and then just laid on them haha! It's a smart way to cool down, but also very entertaining to watch her get them all out. Lola just kinda watched her do it with a look that clearly said "this is one of those times where I'm not gonna admit we're related". Lola is now six so she's not in to the puppy shenanigans anymore.

In the afternoon, Ben and I had the house to ourselves which meant two things: secretly making sugar cookie dough and a dance party! We made the rolls, too which I'll share that recipe since they turned out fantastic! We panicked at first because we couldn't find the cookie recipe, but then I remembered it was at my house and had Amanda send me a picture. For some reason, we can't find it online so I included the picture on here (and I was slightly too lazy to type it up separately haaa). Ben and I halved this since we were only interested in the dough! 

The full story is a couple years ago we found this recipe in a Cooking Light magazine and we decided to make it. Well, we didn't read the whole recipe and when we got to the part where you have to freeze the dough for 3-6 hours we said to ourselves "ain't nobody got time for that" and just ate the cookie dough! Yeah I know there's all those warnings about not eating raw cookie dough but I'm pretty sure those people are just trying to stop me from living my life haha! 

The funny thing is we were watching the twins at the time, and they were really interested in what we were doing in the kitchen but we didn't want to share the dough with anyone so we kept making up excuses and putting the tv on to keep them busy! We only ever told the rest of the family that we made them until after we ate all the cookie dough. So for old time's sake we decided to make the sugar cookie dough and it was just as good as we remember! We froze the rest of the dough and hid it to keep it safe for another time...

The rolls were super easy to make and absolutely delicious! Even better than the ones that were at the church dinner. We ended up picking this recipe from Life Made Simple since there was hardly any rising time, only 25 minutes, and took about 20 minutes to bake. To pass the time, we had a dance party! We played Just Dance on the Wii which is always a fun game. We get a little competitive haha but I kicked his butt! We both worked up a sweat and it was a fun way to get moving. It always surprises me just how much you can workout while playing a dancing game like that because you don't realize it since you're too busy having so much fun!

Overall, it was a fun and successful day of baking, and I'll definitely be making these rolls again! 

Ice Cream Sandwich Sundae

 I'm a volume eater which means most of the time I try to trick my brain in to eating more than I actually am. Sounds crazy but it works! I was at Target this past weekend, and really wanted ice cream sandwiches. If you've been following for awhile then you know these tasty buggers were a huge hurdle for me at one point. 

Anywho, I'm past that now so I buy them whenever I want! With zero guilt or anxiety because I can trust myself to eat them in moderation. I wanted to volumize it as a dessert, though, so I picked up some cool whip and vanilla frozen yogurt. My plan was to cut up the ice cream sandwich and make a bit of a sundae with mostly cool whip and a little bit of the frozen yogurt if I wanted! 

The first time I made this on Saturday, I didn't even use the frozen yogurt! By using the cool whip, I was able to get a whole "sundae" feel with adding hardly any calories. 

Now that's what I'm talking about! 

Here's what was in this sundae: 

1 standard vanilla ice cream sandwich (160 calories)

4 tbsp cool whip (50 calories)

couple vanilla Goldfish grahams crumbled on top (like <10 calories)

Walden's chocolate sauce (0 calories)

and sprinkles of course! 

So there you have it! It was the perfect dessert that felt like I was eating a whole lot more than one ice cream sandwich since I broke it up in to smaller pieces and added the cool whip for more volume. 

I also picked up some Kodiak pancake mix at Target since I had no idea they even had it there! Everyone in my coach's Facebook group is constantly talking about this mix, and I'm happy to say it did not disappoint. I loved it, and the pancakes came out perfectly!