Colorful Kale Salad with Pomegranate Seeds and Roasted Nuts + Make your own dressing!

Even though Christmas and New Years have come and gone, the Hallmark channel has ceased the showings of their complex (just kidding....) Christmas movies, and the Christmas trees have piled up at local parks waiting for pick up, I tried to keep Christmastide surfing past New Years day. This past week in Nashville, we had the most delightful winter weather! At times, I felt like I was back in Minnesota, where, for me, the heart of Christmas truly lives.

We did miss the sun though, so I had to come up with something bright, green, and crunchy for us to eat! This is the kind of salad that you will want to use your hands for the last few bits so you don't leave anything behind. DON'T ACT LIKE YOU'VE NEVER DONE THAT BEFORE!!!

2015 - CHALLENGE: Intention, Connection, and Accountability

In 2014, I played it pretty safe and was armed with a heap of excuses for just about everything. I had flashes of bravery and determination, took a few risks, went out on a limb a couple of times.

Those risks felt good. I learned SO MUCH, even from the small ones. They gave me the courage to take more risks and to challenge myself a little bit more.

That being said, my focus for 2015 is CHALLENGE.

Hearty Peanut Butter Banana Bread

Let it be known that between the dates of approximately December 8th to December 24th 25th 26th, my body composition consisted of 70% cookies, 10% caramel, 10% chocolate, 5% eggs, 3% oranges, and 2% water. Maybe that's why I feel like December sprinted past me. I was in a cookie/candy coma.

While I had visions of myself presenting people with large platters of delectable, Martha Stewart-worthy Christmas cookies, the very thought of eating another baked good or candy actually increased my bloating exponentially. I really didn’t even want to taste the batter, and the batter is one of the best parts about baking! It finally dawned on me. No one else wants any more Christmas goodies either.

Thanksgiving Leftover Sliders

Obviously, breakfast on Friday was pumpin pie, and then for lunch we had leftovers. Growing up, I loved leftovers on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Everyone loves the first round of leftovers.

Its when day 4 of leftovers comes around that its not as exciting. The turkey is dry. The rolls are rather stale. Someone ate all the marshmallows off of the sweet potato casserole. And I wouldn't touch the green bean casserole with a ten foot pole, no matter how fresh they were.

'Pack All the Snacks' Mode - Pumpkin Pie Granola

Eating healthy is definitely a priority to me so setting aside time to plan out or prepare food is necessary. My favorite meal of the day is breakfast, I actually require two of them. Since I’ve been working during this time I had to come up with something easy, satiating, delicious, AND mobile.

Sweet Potato Black Bean Chili - Fourth Item in The Grateful Plate Series

Sometimes after a long day, the best kind of dinner is the one where you just throw a bunch of stuff into a pot. You use up some of those vegetables that you forgot you had, pop open some beans, throw in some canned tomatoes, and not only do you have a delicious dinner, but you have some marvelous, healthy, delicious, leftovers for the week. (LEFTOVERS ARE THE BEST)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN - Harry Potter Workout!

When people say they haven’t read any of the Harry Potter books, I genuinely feel bad for them! They haven’t experienced how wonderful the Wizarding World of Harry Potter is!! The creativity of those books, its just astounding.

I wish Hogwards was real. I wish I could participate in the Welcome feasts and the Christmas feasts!! (Do the feasts in the books make anyone else hungry???) I wish I could apparate and use portkeys!!

I’ve seen various Harry Potter workouts around Pinterest before, and always thought they looked interesting. My husband and I did one in May that was SO much fun, check it out here! To celebrate Halloween, I thought we could do another one! We wanted to watch one of the later movies, and I couldn’t find a workout for any of the movies past Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I decided to make my own to work in accordance with Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix!!

Grilled Panzanella

Soon enough, I will have to say goodbye to most of my plants until next spring. Waaaaaaahhhh. The mailman, UPS, Fedex, our dogs, and probably most of our neighbors are all secretly cheering for the disappearance of the tiny jungle I’ve amassed in front of our house and on the steps leading to our front door. We live in a row of townhouses, so I pretty much use every square inch we have and even still, we run over at least one plant a week. I just ran over the oregano I brought back to life and I’m pretty ticked off at myself.

Update #5 from Lainee Lou Hou's gofundme account!

Sorry it has been so long since we posted an update! The good news is that Lainee Lou Hou has had so much more energy and with that, she is a little bit more of a handful! It feels like chasing/carrying a furry non-conversational toddler around the house most of the time. Her appetite has fluctuated quite a bit over the last two weeks and she has vomited a few times but that could be a result of many different factors! Lainee managed to take out all of the stitches from her front paw and somehow, even with her cone on, she figured out how to extract toilet paper from the bathroom. We will take all of this naughtiness with open arms! Increased mischief means she is feeling better and is closer to being her old welsh terrier self! Yesterday we went on our first normal walk with Lainee. It made me quite teary because I didn't know if we would ever do that again!! She was so joyful and even frolicked in the grass! We were overjoyed!!

Breakfast Crumbles - Second in The Grateful Plate Series!

I have been dreaming of this recipe for a while now. I’ve tried a couple of variations but things all came together Friday night, on a whim. I wanted something similar to granola, but not as scattered. Something akin to an apple crisp topping but may not as crunchy. It needed to have some spice in it, kind of like a good ginger molasses cookie. This is what happened. I figured it was the perfect second post for ‘The Grateful Plate’ series. In case you missed the last post, The Grateful Plate series is my response to the benevolence of those who donated to Lainee’s gofundme account.