pv.body & Disney Sneak Peak

We had a really wonderful week. We went to Disney World with Josh’s family. It was Kaylin’s first trip and she LOVED it. I don’t have all of our pictures loaded yet, so I will share more in a later post. For now, Kay finally got to meet Minnie:

Now that we’re home, we’re back to the usual. Continuing our salad love:

Kay is playing away (she is a big fan of the shopping cart her cousins/Aunt & Uncle gave her):

and I am back teaching at the gym. For my first class back (Body Step), I wore my new pv.body outfit.

 

Have you heard about pv.body? It is an amazing website that allows you to purchase workout clothes for MUCH cheaper than retail. They have built relationships with manufacturers so that they can offer their clients discounted clothes. According to their website:

“Why should you pay $130 or more for yoga pants? That’s just not right! So we’ve embarked on a journey to bring you the best quality active wear that we can find at a fair price. We’ll be curating brands large and small, new and old. So enjoy the selection, we’re positive you’ll love it!”

They sent me a trial outfit (disclaimer: I received this outfit for free) and I’m obsessed. The pants fit perfect and really breathed. The top was super cute. I was a little concerned with how it may hug my mid section (due to my diastasis), but it was very flattering and stayed down (did not ride up one bit) through my whole workout:

pv.body is offering Itzy’s Kitchen readers 20% off. If you’re interested, definitely check out the website. You can also find pv.body on Twitter: @pvbody and Facebook: /pvbody.

Where do you usually purchase your workout clothes?

Christmas Celebration Part 1

I hope you all have a very MERRY Christmas (and just a Merry day if you don’t celebrate ;)). We alternate holidays between our families, so we celebrated Christmas a little early with my parents this year. We started out with a fantastic brunch out. Coffee:

Delicious corn bread pineapple muffins:

and I got an egg white omelet loaded with vegetables and a side of fruit:

After, we opened presents and tried to get family pictures:

  

  

Such a good time! Today, we’re celebrating with Josh’s family (more on this to come!!). What are you up to?

Cookies, Crave & Christmas Group Fitness

I cannot believe Christmas is next week! December flew by in a flash. Some exciting things that have happened so far this weekend:

1. I made Caroline’s double chocolate cookies. They are amazing!  I had never used bread flour in cookies and I love what it does to the texture/flavor.  Caroline- you are so sweet AND talented!!

2. Josh and I went on a date to Crave. Josh’s parents and siblings watched Kay for us (thank youuuu!) and we had adult time. We nibbled on their incredible bread. I’ve said it before…but I think I could eat a whole loaf of their delicious raisin bread. Excuse the dark pictures to follow…

Josh got their special pork and shrimp dumplings to start:

He said they were good, but nothing out of the ordinary.

For dinner, he got their cappellini and meatballs. This blew him away! He said the meatballs were amazing and the sauce was some of the best he has ever had:

 

Crave makes tasty seasonal salads. I got the winter salad: “Chef’s own house made power greens – Baby tatsoi, bright lights swiss chard, and purple kale - served with honey Champagne vinaigrette, toasted pumpkin seeds, roasted beets and sweet potato croutons, topped with St. Andre Cheese.” The croutons were ridiculous good. A fantastic combination:

 

3. This morning we had our Christmas group fitness celebration. I taught Step & Pump. My silly celebration hair:

 

Kay helped me get ready for class:

 

 

and did a clean and press:

 

Our Body Pump team:

  Good stuff! What have you been up to?

I’ve mentioned before that I went to school for engineering. Recently, my blog friend Meg sent me this awesome video. I love the concept and already placed an order for Kay:

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!!

Chocolate Mint Truffle Kiss Cookies

Christmas cookies!! Last year, I made sun butter kiss cookies and they were a big hit. This year, I decided to use Hershey’s Mint Truffle Kisses and place them on a chocolate base:

 

Ingredients:

• 1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Hershey’s Mint Truffle Kisses

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

In a stand mixer (or using a hand mixer), cream the butter and sugars. Add in egg and vanilla and mix until well combined.

In a mixing bowl, stir together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients until combined.

Use a cookie scoop (or rounded tablespoon) to scoop dough onto a cookie sheet. Press an unwrapped (duh) kiss into each dough ball. Bake for ~12 minutes. Let cookies cool completely before packing.

 

The results:

  

Yayyy for chocolate and mint:

Did you come up with a new cookie recipe this year or try out a new recipe? Links welcome!!

Weekly Workouts & Meal Plan

How are you? Hopefully you’re having a good weekend. My heart goes out to all those impacted by this terrible tragedy in Connecticut. Occurrences like this will always boggle my mind….How could someone do such a thing?

On a much lighter note, I used to share my weekly meal and workout plan, but got out of habit. I enjoy seeing others post this information because it always gives me great ideas, so I figured I’d try to start doing it again.

Weekly Workouts (note: these are on the heavy side right now because we have a few injured instructors and one that just gave birth so I am subbing a good chunk):

• Friday: Taught Body Attack
• Saturday: Taught Body Step
• Sunday: Rest
• Monday: Teach Body Step
• Tuesday: Teach Body Attack
• Wednesday: Teach Pump
• Thursday: Run

Meal Plan:

• Friday: Grilled chicken salads (Josh and I are sort of on a salad kick- favorite add ins are cheese, mini cucumbers & avocado)
• Saturday: Out! Not sure where yet
• Sunday: Stuffed shells & salad
• Monday: Leftover shells
• Tuesday: Tomato soup & grilled cheese
• Wednesday: Black bean burgers & pineapple rice
• Thursday: Breakfast for dinner (omelets or pancakes)

What are you eating this week? Any fun workouts planned?

Today has been a really fun day so far. Kaylin woke up early and sat on/pushed around her new bike from impatient Santa who brought it to her early:

Then we headed to the gym where I taught step. I brought Kaylin in the room early to help me setup and she decided to try it out herself:

Future Les Mills instructor!  My WONDERFUL friend Amelia came and took class and we hit up Starbucks after. She brought Josh and I the BEST Christmas presents including jam from North Carolina (nom nom), a Starbucks card (best gift ever), and beer! Thank you so much girl!

Rest of the day is pretty open (Kaylin and I are hoping to take Josh on a surprise mini trip). What are you up to?

Mini Peanut Butter Banana Muffins

We’ve been having a crazy kind of week over here! Outside of the usual good stuff (working, teaching at the gym, taking care of the family), Mr.. Frank injured his leg and it looks like he may have partially torn a ligament in his knee. He did the SAME thing, the SAME way about a year and a half ago. He is on the mend, but isn’t allowed much activity (which isn’t a huge change from his usual routine):

 

On another front, I found a new, favorite muffin recipe! Banana and peanut butter? Awesome. I made minor adjustments.

Ingredients:

• 3 large ripe bananas, mashed
• 1/2 c natural peanut butter
• 1/4 c  no sugar added applesauce
• 1 egg
• 1/2 c granulated sugar
• 1/4 c brown sugar
• 1 1/2 c AP flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 365 degrees F (don’t ask why, I find this to be the best temperature for mini muffins…)

In the bowl of a stand mixer (or you can use a hand mixer), mash bananas. Add peanut butter, applesauce, egg and sugars and mix until well combined.

 

In a mixing bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon.

Add dry ingredients to wet, and mix until just combined.

Spray mini muffin pan with non-stick spray. Scoop rounded tablespoons full of batter (or a cookie dough scoops worth) into each well. Bake for ~14-15 minutes or until browning around the edges (can also do the toothpick test).

Makes ~ 32 mini muffins:

 

 

Ready for the weekend? Any plans?

Weekend & Coleman Public House Brunch

A little late to the game…but here is what happened this weekend:

I went shopping…for myself! This rarely happens these days, but I picked up three tops, two tank tops and some under items:

We took our yearly trip to the SPCA to make a donation. This is Kaylin’s second trip with us (finding this post reminded me that we’ve gone twice this year ;)):

   I wanted to take this cutie home:

 

 

We had a couple delicious meals out, including brunch at Coleman Public House with our good friends Bryan & Mandi. Josh and I LOVE CPH, but had never had their brunch until this past weekend. We started with their rosemary popcorn. I have blogged about this popcorn before….it is the BEST! I could eat it every night:

  

I got the no frills breakfast with scrambled eggs, sourdough toast and fruit. Very yum! Josh got the pancakes (I forgot to get a picture) and they were FANTASTIC!

 

I ran 10 miles! I am training for something…but refuse to talk about it because I’m strangely superstitious. I did 7.5 with Kay in the stroller, followed by 2.5 on my own:

 

Kaylin’s Mimi & G-Pop got her a kitchen for Christmas! Josh and I (mostly Josh while I distracted Kay) put it together. Her favorite features are the microwave and telephone…:

 

I finally got my ornament package together for Christina’s 2012 Ornament Swap:

 

 

Hope my ornament buddy likes the package!

What did you do this past weekend?

Crock Pot Cauliflower Sweet Potato Soup

Soup! So awesome this time of year. I wanted to make a veggie heavy soup and found this recipe. It sounded totally delicious, but I wanted to lighten it up a bit and eliminate the evaporated milk. I came up with the following and am loving the result

Ingredients:

• 1 lb frozen cauliflower (keep it frozen and dump it right into the crock pot)
• 1 large sweet potato, cubed (no need to peel)
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, diced
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
• 1 cup low-fat milk
• 1 tablespoon butter

Directions:

Combine the cauliflower, sweet potato, broth, onion, thyme, garlic, and ground red pepper in the crock pot and set to high for 3-4 hours.

Add the milk and butter. Use an immersion blender (or transfer to a food processor) and blend until smooth.

 

 

mmm mmm!

Are you having a good week? Ours has been just lovely. I wanted to share this picture of Kaylin hug attacking her Uncle:

 

Have a fantastic weekend!!