Things I Love Thursday

 Hello all! I haven't been blogging as much due to being extremely busy and tired.  Work and volunteering and cooking dinner and exercising and watching Netflix's House of Cards is pretty much all I've been doing. Ravens won the super bowl Sunday (WOOHOOOO BALTIMOREEEEEEEEEEEE) so I spent Monday morning sleeping in instead of at work after a few too many  beers and not enough sleep Sunday evening.

Chobani Bites

1. Caramel with Pineapple Chunks Chobani Bites (100 calories!)

 I had finally found a couple other flavors of the new Chobani bites that I love so much. My boyfriend thought the pineapple caramel was amazing and decided to use our new ice cream maker to make a healthy treat (we christened it with a full flavor ice cream that used heavy cream!) on my afternoon off from work.  We mixed nonfat Greek yogurt, frozen pineapple bits, a little stevia, and a little almondmilk in the ice cream maker.  He also is a master at making homemade caramel (so bad for you but so delicious on anything!) so he made a small batch and swirled that in.  Thank god he only made enough for two servings because it was SO delicious and not too unhealthy, besides the caramel.

2. This song: I Love It by Icona Pop.
I heard it first on Girls on HBO (which is the best and funniest and most awkward show and you should watch it) and then again on a TV commercial. You can run so many miles listening to this song or have a dance party with it on loop, both of which I have done in the past week.  It will be stuck in your head all day, I promise.

3.  My Crockpot
I think I could cook with the crockpot everyday.  I made a turkey, corn , and black bean chili this week which was awesome. I loosely based it on this Skinnytaste recipe but only used one can of beans, added a can of corn, and some ground turkey.  Chili is the best because it's awesome to eat the next day for lunch!

I also made some crockpot applesauce from this recipe, and it might be something I make every week. I love it as a snack with some greek yogurt or on top of oatmeal for breakfast. It was so easy and so delicious.  Next week the dinner menu is definitely going to include this paleo bbq chicken crockpot recipe.  I'll keep you posted and hopefully take some photos before it gets devoured!


4.  Bootcamp Workouts!
I'm still following Tina's Best Body Bootcamp and loving the quicker circuits and strength training that has been on the plan.  I also have been trying to switch up my routine because I'm bored so I checked out a couple of bootcamp classes at my gym. Definitely broke a sweat and pushed myself during the tabata intervals.  One exercise that still has me sore were these ab rollouts using a scooter (similar to the Ab Roller concept).

You can see it here:

You can do this will a rounded dumbbell too so it's definitely something I'll be adding to my ab exercises!

5. This. Just Kidding. 

Lots of people hate on Valentine's Day, which is a week away, but I think it's nice to do something fun with the person you love because sometimes life gets so busy we don't take time to just hang out or show our appreciation as much as we can.  The expectations can be left at the door, but the chocolate can stay :)

Honestly, I'm just excited to eat out and bake something really indulgent for my man which may or may not have red and pink sprinkles on it.