Plaid + Dots

Wednesday, September 02, 2015

clean eating challenge

I don't know about you all, but I thoroughly enjoyed my summer and am starting to feel the ramifications of a not so stellar diet. I ate ice cream (and lots of it!), some fried foods, cocktails and balanced it out with some healthy eating and exercise. Now that the kids are back to school and summer is over, I find myself looking for a new challenge and a fresh start. As such, I am going to do a clean eating challenge and would love to have some friends join in the fun. Who's in??

What is a clean eating challenge?

A clean eating challenge is a dare to eat clean for one week. To eat clean means to eat foods that are in their most natural form or only have whole foods as their ingredients. Additionally, it means to cut out things that may cause harm to your body like sugar (yikes!), alcohol (double yikes! I know..), and caffeine.

Are there rules to a clean eating challenge?

Here's a few simple rules. For seven days, you must try to do the following:

Eliminate alcohol and caffeine
Reduce sugar (preferably eliminate)
Eat whole foods (fruits, veggies, nuts, etc.)
Eat minimally processed foods with natural ingredients (no additives and try to eat foods in their natural and "real" form)

How do we check in?

On the blog... Each day I'll put up a post with some interesting facts about clean eating or I'll share a recipe. Feel free to comment away on the blog post about how your clean eating challenge is going.

On Facebook... Comment to the daily post with the #eatcleansept

On Twitter... Tweet with the #eatcleansept

Is there a winner to the challenge?

Yes! Anyone who completes the seven days is a winner :). This challenge is really about building community and support for other people looking to eat better and improve their health.

Who's In???

For those who are "in", let's start this challenge on Sunday, September 6th. Happy clean eating!

Sep 2, 2015 8:00:00 AM | clean eating

Thursday, May 29, 2014

upromise and college savings

A couple years ago I wrote a blog post about saving for college and the benefits of using uPromise to help grow your college nest egg. Well today is "College Savings Day" (get it 5/29? clever, right) ... and I'd like to take this opportunity to remind you about the benefits of using a site like uPromise to help grow your college savings account with FREE (yes, you read that correctly) money. It is very simple to set up and over time you will earn money that gets transferred to your college savings account (quarterly). At first it will seem like pennies are being added but over time it really does accrue. In just over 3+ years we have been able to accrue a little over $2,000 by using this portal to do our online shopping. I don't know about you but the little bit of time used to set up the account has definitely been worth it for me.

If you want to learn more about how uPromise works, I highly recommend that you check out my previous blog post (it gives you the nitty gritty details). For those of you who have not signed up yet... check it out.

May 29, 2014 5:55:55 PM | life

Monday, May 26, 2014

red, white + blue smoothie

We were feeling quite patriotic today (isn't everyone?!?) and started our day off with a new smoothie concoction - The Red, White and Blue Smoothie. We used frozen fruit for this amazing little treat but you could probably use fresh fruit too!

Enjoy!

Red, White + Blue Smoothie Recipe

1 cup blueberries

1 cup raspberries

1 cup vanilla yogurt

1/2 cup water

drizzle of honey

Place all ingredients in your blender and give it a whirl. Add more water if you'd like it to be a little thinner. Pour, add a fun straw, and enjoy!

May 26, 2014 8:00:00 AM | smoothie recipes

Sunday, May 25, 2014

easy summer chick pea salad recipe

Hi Everyone! Happy Memorial Day Weekend! I hope you are out and about enjoying the nice long holiday weekend. Tonight we created a new salad that I think you are going to love. It's full of some great summer veggies, is easy to make, and will likely be my "go-to" for BBQs. It's sooo good!

I hope you enjoy it as well!

EASY SUMMER CHICKPEA SALAD RECIPE

Salad Ingredients

1 15oz can of garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

1 red bell pepper, diced

1/3 orange bell pepper, diced

1 cucumber, seeded and diced

1/3 pint grape tomatoes, cut in quarters

1 shallot, finely chopped

2 Tbsp fresh dill, chopped

Dressing Ingredients

1 Tbsp olive oil (I used Greek olive oil)

2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

2 Tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp stone ground mustard

1 garlic clove, crushed

Directions

Combine all of the salad ingredients in a bowl and season lightly with fresh ground salt and pepper.
Combine all of the dressing ingredients in a bowl and whisk until well blended.
Gently toss the dressing in the salad and serve.

May 25, 2014 9:10:20 PM | salad recipes

Monday, April 28, 2014

lil bookworms - the tale of peter rabbit

Spring is in the air (finally!) and we've been reading some of our favorite spring themed books. We are particularly fond of the Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter and it's our lil bookworms feature this week. This classic story is about a mischievous little rabbit that gets into all sorts of trouble in Mr. McGregor's garden. The book is beautifully illustrated and I love that the book exposes Miss N to some new and more challenging words. It's a wonderful piece of children's literature- I hope you and your little one enjoy reading it and doing a fun gardening activity.

Since much of the story is set in Mr. McGregor's garden we are going to plant our own garden and see if Peter Rabbit invades :-). Lucky for you, this edition of lil bookworms includes two activities that related to the book: planting a garden and creating a felt toy garden (thanks to my friend, Jenny over at Habitat at Home).

Now go pick up the book and join us for a little reading and a whole lot of fun!

Activity #1: Plant a Garden

Here's what you need to plant your own garden and recreate lil bookworms at home with your child:

- The book, The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter

- Blue and white construction paper

- Scissors

- Glue

- Pencil

- Popsicle Stick

- Toothpicks

- Seeds (we went to the garden store and I let Miss N pick out the seeds)

- Potting Mix

- Peat Moss Planters

- Water & Sunshine :-)

Directions:

1. Read the book with your child (we read it three times since we like to do things on repeat these days!)

2. Create the plant markers and scarecrow for your plants.

Plant Markers - Cut a few rectangles out of white paper and fold each rectangle in half. On one side of each rectangle write the name of one of the plants. For ours I put down peppers, zucchini and squash. Place some glue on the inside of the rectangle, along with a toothpick and glue the rectangle together to create a flag.
Scarecrow - Cut a simple coat shape out of the blue construction paper and glue to the end of the Popsicle stick.

2. Plant your seeds. Put a little potting soil in each pot. Place a few seeds in each pot and cover with a little more soil. Place the appropriate plant marker in the pot.

3. Add your scarecrow to one of the posts.

4. Add water and a little sunshine and watch it grow!

Activity #2: Create a Felt Toy Garden

When my friend Jenny posted this adorable little felt toy garden, I knew I had to feature this as an option for the Peter Rabbit activity. Here's a pic of the finished garden but you can check out her blog for the full set of instructions to make this felt toy garden.