Coconut Lime Chicken Strips & Swimming

Happy Monday! Hope you all had a good weekend. What did you do? I had a great weekend filled with friends, Kaylin’s first swim lesson & a baby shower. I also donated blood!! I will dive into the baby shower (and food) in another post. This post is going to focus on coconut lime chicken strips and Kay’s first swim lesson.

Its secret recipe club time again!! As a part of the club, each month you’re assigned another Secret Recipe Club blogger to make a recipe from. If you want to join, click here to sign up.

This month, I was assigned Lisa from Parsley, Sage & Sweet. Lisa is a HUGE baseball fan and used to blog about it. Now, she's all about the food. Lisa cooks and bakes everything from scratch (which is awesome).  I found her take on Edesia’s Coconut Lime Chicken Strips and knew I had to make them. I followed her recipe almost exactly. I subbed regular coconut (for the desiccated coconut) and almond milk (in place of the coconut milk). Although my pictures aren’t very pretty…the result was delicious! Pre-bake:

and post! With purple potatoes, Brussels sprouts & jalapenos:

Thanks for the great recipe Lisa!!

Ok, onto the swimming! Kaylin had her first swim lesson this weekend with Amy’s Ryan.

Both of them did awesome! Kaylin adores the water:

 

I will posting a little more regularly in the upcoming weeks. I’m going to share a pasta salad recipe and I have a couple of giveaways.

Do you love the water?? I was a total fish as a kid and still enjoy floating around.

Sweet & Salty Granola & Wedding Showers

Hey All! Happy almost Fourth of July! I hope you have a good one. Plans?? We’re headed to my Aunt’s house for a party. I cannot wait. I wanted to share with you a couple things today: 1. A Z bar review, 2. a granola recipe, and 3. a little bit about one of my besties wedding shower this past weekend.

Z Bar review:

I recently received the new Zbar Crispy Cookies ‘N Cream bars to try out (disclaimer: I received these bars for free). I was super excited to try the new flavor, as I’m a big Zbar fan.

The bars are definitely sweet, but very delicious. They’re the perfect substitute for an oreo, cookie in general, or other sweet craving. They tasted cocoa krispie-esque to me.  I enjoyed mine after a workout:

Recipe:

I attended one of my best friend’s wedding shower this past weekend. All of the bridesmaids and the mom’s of the bride and groom helped make the food for the occasion. Since I was traveling to Boston from Charleston, I made something I knew wouldn’t get too smashed up on the plane ride, granola!

For one of the granolas, I used Heather’s recipe with a few modifications. The ingredient list is shown below, and the baking instructions are on Heather’s blog:

Ingredients:

• 3 cups old-fashioned oats
• 1/2 cup pumpkin & sunflower seeds
• 1/4 cup sesame seeds
• 1/2 cup slivered almonds
• 1 cup sweetened coconut flakes
• 1/3 cup dried currants
• 1/3 cup dried apricots, diced
• 1/3 cup dried figs, diced
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup natural cane sugar  
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 egg white

This granola is unreal good!

Shower!!

As I mentioned above, I headed to Boston this past weekend for the shower:

I hadn’t been back to Boston (where I went to high school) in a VERY long time. It was so fun to walk (and run!) around my old town.

Even more fun? My friend Kelley’s bridal shower! I cannot wait for Kelley’s wedding- it is going to be incredible.

Kelley’s sister, Future Groom, & Kelley:

Kelley’s Mom & Sister did a TON of work for the shower. Everything was just perfect. Some of the food:

The centerpieces, which included cookies and some of Kelley’s favorite candies (circus peanuts & sweet tarts- I am a HUGE circus peanut fan too):

More food:

My granolas:

Even more food:

The cake:

The favors:

The games (hilarious):

My bestie:

Bridal party (I’m the tiny tot in the back row, middle/left with the white/navy on):

Such a great weekend!

And now, I’m home with my favorite girl! It was SO hard to leave her:

What did you do this past weekend?