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I love you!
-Bean-

Hi Friends!

Happy Friday! Today it’s time to recap the first month of Foodie Penpals! In case you’re a new reader, here’s a reminder of what the program is all about:

-On the 5th of every month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact each other and get mailing addresses and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.
-You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal!
-The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!
-You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)
-Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you are to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month. *US Residents only please at this time- hopefully we can expand soon!*

If you’re interested in participating for October, please send me an email at [email protected] and include the following information:
-Your full name
-Your email address
-Your blog name/address
-Your twitter handle (if applicable)

I will need to hear from you by October 4th as pairings will be emailed on October 5th!

Now on to the good stuff….

This month I received my goodies from Kayla @ SproutyBuns. I was super excited because I love Kayla’s blog and I just knew she’d find some good stuff to send me.

The post office had a little trouble with the box:

But not to worry! Everything made it in one piece.

And was was inside you ask? Lots of goodies.

Kayla wrote me some hilarious instructions on the best ways to eat all of these foods 🙂

First, bagels! I love them. The flavor was delicious, and there are 7g of protein and 7g of fiber in each bagel! I’ve been eating them for lunch and stored them in the fridge to help them last longer since they’re preservative free!

I’d never heard of the brand but now I can’t wait to find out if they sell them around me.

Up next: Yogi Granola Crisps. Another brand I’ve never heard of but now absolutely love! She send me the blueberry flax flavor and I’ve been enjoying them on my oatmeal and with some yogurt. They’ve got some fiber and protein, are pretty low in sugar and they taste great! I can’t wait to try other flavors!! Oh, and they’re made with all sorts of fun grains 🙂

I haven’t tried the vegan queso yet, but I have big plans to bust it out at hubby’s bday party this weekend!

And finally, my favorite of all: The mini spoon! To say i’m obsessed with this thing would be an understatement. I LOVE small spoons to begin with and have several to eat my cereal with that don’t match the rest of our silverware…and this one is even smaller! WIN!!!

I even tweeted about it when I opened my package, and I think I fell just a little bit more in love with Miss Kayla that day 🙂

Thanks to everyone who participated in Foodie Penpals this month and special thanks to Kayla for all my goodies! If you want to join in the fun, just let me know 🙂

Enjoy!
–Lindsay

 

Happy Anniversary to my hubby!

Thank you for keeping me grounded, but still letting me to live my dreams.

I love you!

9.27.08

What’s a girl to do when she finds this at the store?

Make cupcakes of course!

What’s a girl to do when she finds the plain chocolate cupcakes with plain chocolate frosting that her hubby requested pretty darn boring?

Add a Reese’s to the bottom and some M&M’s on the top of the next batch!

And what’s a girl to do when she’s just dying to know how her little Reese’s on the bottom experiment worked out? Cut one in half and give it a whirl!

What’s a girl to do when she has 24 cupcakes sitting in her pantry? Share the wealth! Work friends…get excited!

They don’t make Reese’s the same size as the bottom of a muffin tin for no reason!

Oh, and what’s a girl to do when it’s 11pm and she needs to photograph said cupcakes for her blog? Use the flash and pray her readers look past it 🙂

Happy Monday!
–Lindsay–

PS…The cupcakes may have come from a box…but that frosting is homemade! 1 stick of butter, 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, 1/2 cup of cocoa and 2 Tbsp skim milk. Cream the butter until smooth, sift in the cocoa and powdered sugar and beat until well mixed. Add the milk until desired consistency is reached!

Hi Friends!

Here’s a quick easy recipe for you. The other day I found farro in the bulk bins at Whole Foods. I can’t even accurately express how happy that made me. I’ve been looking for it forever and all I could ever find was a tiny package for like $10. Crazy.

So I immediately snatched some up and earlier this week I whipped up a tasty little side dish. I was roasting potatoes anyways, so I while the oven was preheating, I started boiling some veggie broth. While the farro was cooking, I put some tomatoes and garlic in the oven to roast. The combination of all of these flavors, plus a little Parmesan cheese equals deliciousness.

Ready for the recipe?

 

 

It may not look pretty, but it’s darn tasty!

Do you like farro?

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Hi Friends!

Today is another first day of school for me…so I’ll probably be blog MIA. Have no fear though, my best friend Katharine is here to entertain you! You may remember her from her Fancy Feast guest post! She’s been experimenting with an elimination diet and recently embarked on an adventure in banana bread making! Take it away, Katharine:

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A lot of people seem to have childhood food traumas: they were forced to eat peas until they threw up or they were locked in the basement with rats after they groaned “meatloaf again?!?” Food was pretty much a non-issue in our house. I ate the, more or less, healthy meals in front of me and didn’t get too philosophical about it. My Wisconsin-born-and-raised father cultivated in me an unwavering love of peanut butter, ice cream, and cheese.

Several weeks ago I was on the phone with a dietitian-turned-integrative-doctor and family friend. We were talking about a blood disorder I discovered I have that results in a severely low platelet count. She suggested I try an elimination diet, removing certain foods from my eating regime and slowly reintroducing them one at a time. This seemed like a ridiculous suggestion at first (uh, hello, blood is in your veins…food goes in your stomach…two don’t really mix…) But I masked my skepticism with “uh huhs” as she continued on. She explained that the majority of your immune system is housed in your stomach and GI tract; therefore, problems with your diet/digestion can potentially cause problems with your immune system, maybe even make your body go all auto-immune on itself as in my case.

I’m now in my second week of the elimination diet. (“elimination” and “everything you love to eat but can no longer eat” being interchangeable.) The idea is that you embark on a 21-day stint of eating anything you’d like except dairy, gluten, soy, corn, refined sugars, caffeine, and alcohol. Easy, right?! Actually, there are many substitutes that allow you to cobble together meals that adhere to the diet. The only thing I’ve really missed is cheese (and no, there is no substitute for cheese, especially not a liquified nut), but I’ve discovered many culinary wonders I would have otherwise never considered food: coconut butter, garbanzo bean flour, arrowroot, brown rice pasta, hemp milk (this was one of the less pleasant finds, in my opinion, as it tastes like a dirty foot), and coconut aminos to name a few.

Unlike my dear friend Lindsay, I am no whiz in the kitchen. I make my way through recipes like a three-legged dog makes his was through an obstacle course–slowly and peeing on everything. (Ok, kidding about that last part.) For the past nine days, however, I’ve been doing my best hacking onions, boiling lentils, and mixing dairy-free, gluten-free, refined-sugar free, soy-free banana bread. Sounds gross, doesn’t it? It’s a lot less sweet but the texture and flavor are pretty damn close to the real deal.

To make this “banana bread” as delicious as possible I suggest listening to Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors album, the ultimate goal being to time the bread’s placement into the oven right as The Chain is cuing up. If you achieve this, then you have reached culinary greatness.

(Look closely and you will see Chef Tilly-my cat-presiding over the baking)

So once you’ve got Niki Stix tuned up, preheat the oven to 350. Mix the following:

-1/4 c. walnuts, finely ground in blender
-1 3/4 c. brown rice flour
-1/2 c. arrowroot (This definitely smells like something that would be an ingredient in a homemade bomb. Don’t be alarmed, it is just tapioca.)
-2 tsp. baking soda
-1/4 tsp. salt
-1/2 c. chopped walnuts

At this point I realized I only had one banana. This is kind of a problem when making banana bread…To compensate I used, oh say, about a 1/2 c. ground walnuts. Then, in a separate bowl I mixed together:

-1 mashed banana (I would recommend, well, at least two bananas)
-1/8 c. sesame oil (Recipe calls for 1/4 cup–they are idiots.)

And then I realized I was also lacking another ingredient–apple juice concentrate. No fears, I had unsweetened apple sauce. So I added
-7 tbsp. unsweetned apple sauce (And then later, because the dough was dry, the rest of the jar.)
-2 “eggs” (“Eggs” are nothing like eggs. “Eggs” are made by combining 1 tbsp. flax seed with 1/3 c. water. You let this sit for about five minutes and you’re left with a gooey, liquidy substance that will, in the absence of real eggs, bind your various baked goods together. These “eggs” work surprisingly well until you try to make an omelet.)
-1 tsp vanilla extract

To compensate for the lack of fruit I added a handful of dried cranberries and dried cherries. I take a very Joey-from-Friends approach to cooking. My thinking is that if an ingredient by itself is tasty then surely when mixed with other tasty things it will yield one very delicious thing! That’s math, folks. So at this point add in whatever else you want to, like some agave nectar, then mix all that dough together. And then realize you also lack a bread loaf pan. (There may or may not have been a flurry of swears at this point.) In the absence of a proper loaf vehicle, an 8″ x 8″ ceramic vessel works just as well. And because this is going on Lindsay’s blog–Lindsay who’s never licked a piece of raw dough in her life, Lindsay the most disciplined person I know, Lindsay who is actually a cook with restraint–for this reason, I will underscore the fact that because there are no raw animal products in this recipe, all of you raw-dough-eating maniacs can go crazy.

Now the careful reader might be suspiciously scrolling upward to reread that part earlier about alcohol. Wait a second. I thought she said she couldn’t have alcohol? But you’re using vanilla! That has alcohol in it! You cheater!! Yes, it is true. I cheated. Five days after I started the diet I had already rationalized alcohol back into the diet as long as it was only consumed once a week and as long as the alcohol’s ingredients adhered to the diet. For those of you who know me, I’m sure you’ll agree it’s better for everyone this way.

Depending on the pan you’re using bake anywhere from 25-55 minutes, or until a pointy object of choice inserted into the middle comes out clean. Let the bread cool for about 10 minutes then eat that sucker! It’s perfect for breakfast or for after dinner when you’re craving sweets.

In the end, I have no idea whether this diet will make one platelet of a difference. If it doesn’t, it still proved edifying. One reason I greatly admire Linds is because she thinks about what she eats and in that way respects her body. I used to think that if it was in a grocery store then it must be okay to eat. Reading ingredients labels at Whole Foods is an eye-opening experience–even there I had to search to find a chicken broth that didn’t contain evaporated cane juice or corn starch. I think everything in moderation is a good motto, but every once in a while there’s something to be learned from extremes.

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Have you ever done an elimination diet? Was it helpful?

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Over the weekend while we were back cleaning out the house I grew up in, we spent a lot of time in the kitchen. As I was cleaning out cupboards, cabinets and drawers, I found myself lost in the memories of all the times I spent in that kitchen.

The kitchen was definitely the center of our house, both literally and figuratively. It’s where I spent some of the happiest times with my mom, learning to make new things and making things that we’d made together 100 times. It’s where I learned how to bake, how to cook without measuring and how to clean up the dishes as I went.

When I reached into one of the cabinets and pulled out a stainless steel mixing bowl, I immediately thought of monster cookies. They were one of my favorite cookies to make with my mom because there was very little measuring involved. And they could be different every time….and still taste just as good. Whenever we made them, she would let me throw in whatever we had laying around- even cereal- on one condition: There must ALWAYS be M&Ms. You can throw in as many things as you want, but if there are no M&Ms, they’re just not monster cookies.

I didn’t take that bowl home with me. I have plenty of mixing bowls already. But I did take home the comfort of knowing that even when circumstances force you to get rid of your “stuff”, they can never force you to get rid of your memories.

So today, on my last day of vacation before school starts back up again, I made some monster cookies in my own kitchen for a friend’s birthday tomorrow. And as I sat there eating one fresh out of the oven, I made a silent little toast to memories of the past, and to all those memories still to come.

Over the years I’ve healthified these just a bit, cut down on the butter and sugar, used brown rice krispies instead of regular, switched to natural peanut butter and added more oats. In the interest of making a recipe, I’ve given you my best estimation on how much of all the mix-ins I used…but really, it doesn’t matter. Just throw them all into the bowl, mix them around a bit and enjoy.

And NEVER forget the M&Ms.

 

What was your favorite childhood cookie?

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Today, take a few minutes out of your busy life for a little mental vacation:

Feel better now?!

Happy Saturday!
–Lindsay–

A few months ago, Jenna posted this recipe for dairy-free stuffed shells. It was one of those that sounded intriguing but I filed it away in the back of my mind and didn’t really think I’d be making it any time soon. During our veggie month challenge, I thought of it again…but again, it fell to the bottom of the mental pile…until this week!

After we came back from Miami, the fridge was looking pretty empty…but we did have a block of tofu that we picked up when it was on sale. We also had 1/2 a jar of leftover spaghetti sauce…seemed like as good a time as any to whip up some stuffed shells.

As usual, I felt the need to put my own spin on it.

Here’s the recipe:

 

Here’s the good news: They were delicious! The cayenne pepper added just a little bit of spice and the lentils added some texture.

Here’s the great news: After the hubby cleaned his plate, I said: “Isn’t it cool that the tofu looks just like ricotta?” To which he replied, “What tofu?” WIN!

This recipe is super flavorful thanks to the sauce, the cayenne pepper and the pesto….and it’s healthy too! It makes just enough for two people, but could definitely be doubled or even tripled to feed more. If you don’t like lentils, you could substitute canellini beans.

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Sorry for my lack of posts this weekend! I was here:

Loving Life 🙂

How was your weekend?!

Lindsay

Hi Friends!

Today we have a special visitor on The Bean. Brittany is one of the few bloggers I’ve actually met in real life! She has an adorable blog of her own that you should definitely check out…and more importantly, we share a love of our beloved Buckeyes! Since Fall is officially here, Brittany put together a few of her favorite crockpot recipes for you to enjoy!

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Hey everyone! My name is Brittany and I’m guest blogging from Sweet, Sassy, and Oh So Classy. I’m so excited to be guest posting for Lindsay today! I’ve actually met Lindsay in real life when we went to a Columbus blog dinner last winter. She is super sweet! It’s so wonderful to meet new blog friends!

When Lindsay said she needed a guest blogger I jumped at the opportunity. I had a post in mind and thought it would be great for a guest post too. But after talking to Lindsay I realized that I should probably have a food post. After all this is a food blog! Duh!

If you read my blog and know me at all you will know that I’m no cook! However I was born with baking talent and bake all the time! Weird, right? Thankfully my husband is an amazing cook and comes from a family of fabulous southern cooks!

So because of my lack of cooking skills, I try to stick with easy meals. If you can put it in the microwave, crockpot, or it has less than five steps, we’re cool. But my husband and I have also been trying to eat less processed food which in basically means, “Brittany is not allowed to cook anymore”. Again, so thankful he is a great cook. But there are ways to eat healthy, less processed food, and easy to cook.

Today I’m going to share my specialties with you…CROCKPOT MEALS!!

 

Crockpot Meal#1- Salsa Chicken: I can’t take the credit for this recipe. I found it over on Erin’s blog. However, I have to tweak it a little.

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Salsa Chicken

4-5 chicken cutlets or boneless, skinless chicken breasts (we look for the leaner meats)
1 jar of salsa
1-2 pouches of Uncle Ben’s 90 second Santa Fe Rice (or any brand)
1 can of black beans
Shredded cheese

Directions:

1. Place chicken and jar of salsa in the crock pot. Cook on low for 6-8 hours (I check it at 6 and go from there). When it is done, add the cheese and let simmer for 10-15 minutes until melted.
2. Microwave the rice. Put the rice on a plate and scoop chicken mix over rice. You can add a little more cheese on top if you would like. (Optional: wrap it up in a tortilla and add sour cream).

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Notes:  Hubs doesn’t like black beans so I don’t put them in there, however if you like black beans, you can put them in with the chicken and cook all day.

See how easy? I know, I’m a genius!

Crockpot Meal #2- Shredded Chicken Sandwich

 

[print_this]

Shredded Chicken Sandwich

4-5  boneless, skinless chicken breasts
15oz pack of onion soup (I don’t usually put the whole thing in—up to your taste)
Dash of salt
¼ cup of Italian dressing
¼ cup of water

Directions:

1. Throw everything in the crockpot and cook for 8-9 hours on low heat!

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Notes: You can use this chicken to make sandwiches, put over brown rice, in a salad, or whatever your heart desires. Since the hubs is on a low carb diet, we just eat the chicken and I eat a salad with it…or perhaps two ears of corn!

Easy? You betcha!!

 Crockpot Meal #3- Chicken and Stuffing: This recipe I actually learned from my mom. I get my mad cooking skills from her.

 

[print_this]

Chicken and Stuffing

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 box of stovetop stuffing
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can chicken broth

Directions:
1. Place chicken in crockpot
2. Add stuffing on top of chicken
3. Add mushroom soup on top of stuffing
4. Pour the chicken broth all over it
5. Bake for 8 hours on low.

[/print_this]

 

Notes: This is not a very healthy meal, obviously, but it is amazing in the winter when you want some good soul/comfy food!

I’m definitely no Lindsay when it comes to cooking, but I hope you get to try one of my delicious, cheap, and easy (key word) crockpot meals! Have a great weekend!

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Huge thanks to Brittany for filling in for me today. Now it’s your turn: tell us your favorite crockpot meal. Leave links for everyone to enjoy!

Happy Friday!
Lindsay

We’ve got a winner dinner here my friends. Hubby says it should be a feature on the Bean- that means he likes it 🙂

As I mentioned earlier this week, I picked up some wontons last week and have been dreaming up some Mexican wontons for a while now. I had a basic idea going into it, but this was one of those dinners that just kinda all fell into place while I was working on it.

A light dusting of spices gives wonderful flavor that doesn’t get lost in the filling.

I like to call this party rice. For no good reason other than with all the colors it looks like a party on your plate 🙂

Keeping the tomatoes on top, instead of in the filling, helps keep the wontons from getting soggy but still adds some moisture to the dish.

On Saturday we went to the Farmer’s Market and I came home with, among other things, a GIANT bag of basil. I immediately came home and made a batch of pesto. I used this recipe and it turned out great!

Then I immediately made these breadsticks that I’ve been dreaming about ever since Nicole posted them. The only change I made was to use mozzarella cheese instead of Parmesan.

Please ignore my pictures and go look at Nicole’s. They’re much prettier 🙂

Yesterday I continued on my pesto kick and whipped up a little side dish that accidentally turned into dinner.

If you’re a long-time blog reader, you know we’re big fans of roasted potatoes in our house. Last night I kicked them up a notch by tossing them in pesto before roasting them. Then the plan was to enjoy them with some fresh mozzarella cubes….but while they were roasting I took it one step further and added in some corn and tomatoes.

 

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, putting all these ingredients (minus the potatoes) on a piece of naan makes a killer pizza 🙂

So yes we ate the whole bowl of potato salad and the pizza and called it dinner last night. Oh well 🙂

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

In December of 2006, I graduated from college the first time with a BA in Psychology. After working a few jobs totally unrelated to that major, I made the decision to go back to school again. In January 2009, I began taking classes for a Dietetic Technician program. In June 2011, I graduated from that program and this morning I took the national exam to become a Dietetic Technician, Registered…

…AND I PASSED!!

Somewhere in the middle of my last program I decided that I didn’t want to stop at being an DTR and wanted to go the extra mile to become a Registered Dietitian.

So I’m still in school. I have 3 more quarters and getting matched to an internship still ahead of me.

But for now, I have three weeks off (yay!), a mini vacation planned (double yay!) and lots of sleep to catch up on.

And tonight, I’m off to make this happen:

Have a great weekend, friends!
–Lindsay, DTR–

I’m just gonna go ahead and sign my posts like that for a few weeks if you don’t mind 🙂

We did it, friends! A successful veggie month. In the words of the hubby, “it flew by!” And it did!

So what did we eat during week 4? Hubby was out of town over the weekend so we had some different meals.

Thursday: Lentil & Veggie Pot Pies with puff pastry tops. So good! The veggies stood out more than the lentils to me and I loved the puff pastry top. I didn’t really follow a recipe but I did refer back to my last pot pie post for some guidance! (Hubby had Boca Burgers, veggies & veggie dip, blueberries and chips and salsa).

Friday: TJ naan topped with homemade hummus, scrambled eggs, black beans and avocado. (Hubby had a vegan Indian Buffet for lunch and veggie stir fry for dinner.)

Saturday: I made some pasta with veggies but just wasn’t feelin’ it…i ended up eating some hummus and chips, a smoothie and some cereal. (Hubby had a portabello and grilled cheese sandwich).

Sunday: Nachos with black beans, red & yellow peppers, corn, tomatoes, avocado and cheese.

Monday: Hubby made another delicious Chickpea Curry!

Tuesday: Black Bean Burgers and roasted sweet potatoes. I topped my burger with walnut butter and it was DELICIOUS!

Wednesday: Leftovers

For lunch:

Lots of leftovers. I made an extra pot pie to eat the next day and the batch of curry fed us for about 3 days! We also enjoyed fresh peaches and blackberries, smoothies and some watermelon & chickpea curry. Oh, and who could forget some wb &j with my new fav nut butter!

Don’t you love it when you have a really good dinner and there’s still enough left for lunch?!

The hubby says he’s not ready to stop the veggie lifestyle. We both feel good about eating more natural food, it’s saving us money on our grocery bill, our energy levels are high and we’re having fun with it! I plan to incorporate some fish back into our meals and continue eating eggs and drinking milk. We’ll take it one day at a time from now on and see where life takes us!

In case you missed it, check out the rest of the posts:
Veggie Month- Week 1
Veggie Month- Week 2
Veggie Month- Week 3

I’ll leave you with some cuteness 🙂 I’ve been playing with a new app called Lo Mob. Love it!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

This could also be called Clinging-to-the-end-of-summer-fruit-and-chickpea-salald.

Last night we grabbed what is probably one of the last watermelons of the season while we were grocery shopping. I used one of my favorite kitchen tools, the melon baller to get most of it ready to eat but I had just a little bit extra that wouldn’t git in the container. I immediately decided I would use that part to make something for lunch tomorrow…I just didn’t know what.

After sleeping on it, I woke up this morning ready to go out on a limb. For some reason, pairing watermelon with chickpeas was stuck in my head and I couldn’t get it out. After a quick google search, I appears that this is not the most popular combo out there…but I went with it anyways. And you know what? I loved it!

I ate this by itself but you could also probably eat it with chips, more like a salsa.

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Hi Friends!

Here’s a little treat to help get you through your Monday.

If you’re anything like me, before you discovered the blog world, the only nut butter you ever ate was peanut butter. Over the past year, I’ve broadened my horizons a bit and tried both almond butter and sunflower seed butter. )

Today I branched out even further- in three ways: 1) I made my own nut butter for the first time, 2) I made walnut butter, which I’ve never even tried and 3) I added mix-ins to my nut butter!

I buy really big bags of nuts at Costco to use in my homemade trail mix but since I’m out of school for a couple weeks, I haven’t been eating trail mix as often as I usually do. This giant bag of walnuts was looking a little lonely, so I thought today would be the perfect day to try my hand at making some nut butter at home.

Quite honestly, I don’t really like walnuts that much. Whenever I eat them, I have to have something else in the same bite (like a raisin or a chocolate chip from my trail mix), so I knew I probably wouldn’t like just plain old walnut butter. I decided to add a few mix-ins to please my palate 🙂 After much deliberation I settled on cinnamon. I love the flavor and knew it would go well with the nuttiness of the walnuts. At the last minute, I decided to add some raisins as well…because really, cinnamon raisin is one of the best combos out there.

I knew from the million previous nut butter posts i’ve read, that I needed to toast the walnuts first so I measured out about 3 cups of raw, unsalted walnuts, placed them on a baking sheet and put them in the oven.

After they cooled, I put them in the food processor with some cinnamon and some raisins. I was too lazy to look up a recipe so I just used my best judgement on the amounts.

On went the food processor for about 5 minutes and voila! I stopped every minute and took a picture so you could see the progression.

I chose not to add any additional sweetener because there were already raisins in it but you could add a little bit of honey if desired. You could also add a pinch of salt.

Store in a an airtight container in the fridge!

So easy and so good! I can’t wait to experiment with more nut butter mix-ins. Can we say Christmas presents?!

What’s your favorite kind of nut butter? Do you make your own? Any combos I should try?!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Good Morning, friends!

Just popping in to tell you to go check out my guest post on my best bloggie pal Sarah’s blog. She’s getting MARRIED today and I’m so happy to be filling in for her while she’s away. Since we’re right in the middle of back to school season, I wrote a post with some of my favorite lunch and snack ideas. Go check it out! It might inspire you to try something new in your lunchbox 🙂 Click here to view the post!

And now, for your viewing pleasure, a few shots for the 5K race we ran with our dogs last weekend!

And then they spent the rest of the day like this:

Best of all, check out what the hubby made for me! We bought this old window a long time ago and were never quite sure what to do with it. A few weeks ago, we were in a store and I saw one that had the window panes painted with chalkboard paint. I asked him to do that for me. But he did one better! He made one pane chalkboard, one pane a dry erase board and turned the bottom two panes into a bulletin board! I LOVE IT!!

Have a great weekend everyone!
–Lindsay–