12 Days of Kindness in December

When I asked people on my Fit & Healthy Family Facebook page what they might like to see in my December Newsletter, I loved the response I received!  One of the suggestions, by my good friend Lauren, was to do a 12 Days/Acts of Kindness (like the 12 Days of Christmas).  

This resonated with me because I am always posting and sharing about the benefit of Random Acts of Kindness both by the recipients, but also by the people performing the acts.  Doing good deeds - genuinely, from the heart - for people has been proven to reduce stress, alleviate depression, improve energy and happiness and can also positively impact fitness & nutrition as the result of an elevated emotional state of awareness.

I plan on starting my 12 days on December 8th, my 37th birthday.  What better way to celebrate my birthday than by starting this Kindness Campaign?

I came up with a list of some kind deeds as a suggestion for anyone who'd like to participate.  What would you add to this list?

Please comment below and share your thoughts!

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Random Acts of Kindness:

~ Hold doors for people when you're out and about.

~ Help an elderly person load their groceries into their car.

~ Greet everyone you see with eye contact and a genuine smile.

~ Make hot cocoa and bring it to people who work outside.

~ Pay for person behind you in the drive-thru or in line at the coffee shop.

~ Buy extra non-perishables and donate to your local food bank or church.

~ Make and deliver a meal for a friend who is sick or alone.

~ Send 3 handwritten thank you notes to people or businesses.

~ Donate a toy for a local children's Christmas gift collection or hospital.

~ Shovel snow for a neighbor.

~ Allow cars to merge or enter traffic in busy areas like shopping centers or give up the parking spot you were going to pull into.

~ Give 3 genuine compliments to people you see.

~ Call someone you haven't talked to in awhile and let them know you've been thinking about them.

~ Bake cookies for a friend or neighbor.

Random Acts of Kindness for Children:

(my daughters helped come up with some of these)

~ Have your child pick out a toy to purchase and donate to a holiday toy collection.

~ Bake & decorate cookies for friends or neighbors.

~ Color & decorate holiday cards for a local senior center.

~ Color pictures for family members.

~ Make crafts and give them to friends.

~ Help someone who has gotten hurt.

~ Say good morning to teachers, school staff and classmates.

~ Allow a friend to get in line in front of you.

~ Write a thank you note to someone who has positively impacted you (teacher, coach, neighbor, babysitter, etc).

~ Help with household chores without being asked.

~ Go through your toys and put aside anything that you can donate to children in need

~ Smile at people!

~ Say please and thank you to people who help you.

~ Tell your friends how much they mean to you.

~ Invite a friend over for a play date

~ If a child is sitting alone at lunch, invite them to sit with you and your friends.

~ Offer to help mom and dad wrap Christmas presents

Batch Meal Prep - Clean Eating

Hey friends!!  I haven't blogged in awhile - yikes!  Summer's here and all of my little princesses are home with me.  It probably goes without saying that my days are pretty busy and these kids are wearing me OUT!  Phew!

Today's post recaps my very first Batch Meal Prep!

6 portioned meals for the rest of this week & weekend

I'll save a lot of what I want to share for another post and keep it simple today.  In short, I am feeling unbalanced and not entirely healthy these days.  My stress levels are a bit higher with my girls home (more fighting, whining, crying, etc) and my adrenal fatigue is wearing on me.  I had been upping my cardio the past few weeks and it really did me in.  It put my adrenals into hibernation for a bit. Therefore, I decided that trying meal prepping & portioning might be in my best interest in order to keep my food intake on track...and also eliminate the stresses of making meals for myself and my kids, three times a day.

After some great inspiration from Instagram and a few Google searches, I came up with a quick (okay, it took me a few hours) and easy plan for the next 4 days or so.  I learned a bit and will plan better and more accordingly next week.  But this works for me right now!

My awesomesauce husband, Josh, picked up 3 organic, hormone-free chicken breasts from The Fresh Market the other day.  I rinsed and patted them dry, laid them on non-stick foil on a baking sheet and sprinkled them with salt-free Mrs. Dash.  Tossed them in the oven and baked at 400 degrees for about 35 minutes.  They were thick, hence the baking duration.

While the chicken was baking, I added a dish with 5 really small sweet potatoes and let those bake for about 50 minutes.  Halfway through the sweet potato baking time, I also put in a baking dish with asparagus.  I left it plain - no oil, no seasonings.  I left that in there for about 25 minutes.

I really liked being able to time out these three foods and use the oven for all of them at the same time.  It reduced energy used, and also cut down on my cooking times.

While the chicken, sweet potatoes and asparagus were in the oven, I steamed 2 heads of broccoli (plain) and a package of pre-washed green beans.  For a snack, I sliced up three bell peppers (yellow, red & orange).  I portioned these out into 6 containers - each had half of a chicken breast (sliced), asparagus, broccoli and sweet potato (some whole, some halved, depending on size).  I left the green beans & peppers in separate containers for snacks or meal additions.

Pictures follow - they show how I portioned everything out.  Hope this is helpful for anyone else who might want to start food prepping & portioning!

So pretty!  Lots of health benefits in different colored produce!

Seasoned chicken, prior to baking

Baked sweet potatoes 

I fully admit that I totally cheated and steamed these right in the bag!

Steamed broccoli

Chicken - after baking

Asparagus - baked plain, no oil or seasoning 

Here's a look at the 6 portions plus green beans & bell peppers

close-up of one of my portioned meals

Healthy (er) Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Hey Fit & Healthy Friends & Family!!!  Several people have asked me to share my healthy (okay, healthier than some others) pumpkin chocolate chip muffin recipe…so, here you are friends!!  I apologize in advance for my lack of pictures.  I was using my iPhone and not expecting at the time to be posting this on my blog.

I’ll start by saying that I had a sick little pumpkin home with me yesterday and she was helping me to bake.  See the third photo below and you’ll know why I don’t bake with my kids that often.  Okay…and there’s the fact that I’m really not a very good baker.  Measuring…not my style.  And I won’t mention the mess I always make all over my kitchen.  Back to that third photo, I’m not responsible for that mess, just for the record.

I thought it would be fun to channel the flavors of fall because it was a dreary, chilly day.  I know it's still March and there's that whole "in like a lion" nonsense...but it was the 18th.  Come on now!!  I'm ready for the lamb!

Three happy little girls!

Since Take One of muffin making (banana muffins) did not pan out (haha!), I opted for Take Two…and use up what I could from the ingredients I still had in the pantry.  Since I had used up most of the whole wheat pastry flour in Take One, I had to substitute in this recipe.  This recipe makes 24 muffins.  You could halve everything to make 12.


Ingredients:
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup plus a few tablespoons brown rice flour
4 eggs (use farm fresh, organic, cage-free)
1 ¼ cups Turbinado (or coconut sugar)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp Himalayan sea salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
¾ can organic pumpkin puree (NOT pumpkin pie filling)
2/3 cup natural applesauce (sugar free)
½ cup mini dark chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate chips
Splash of coconut or almond milk
 
Preheat oven to 350.  Grease or spray 2 muffin tins (this recipe makes 24 muffins) or use paper cups to line muffin trays.  I always opt for greasing (coconut oil works well here!) because I think it makes the muffins a little more moist.  But, remember I’m not a baker so do what you think is best.  Combine all dry ingredients except chocolate chips & milk in a large mixing bowl.  In smaller bowl, whisk the eggs.  Add the pumpkin, vanilla & applesauce and mix with the eggs.  Slowly add the wet mixture to the dry ingredients.

Gently mix until all ingredients are incorporated but try not to overmix.  If your batter seems dry (like mine did…I think in part due to the brown rice flour addition), add a splash of coconut milk to reach your desired consistency.  Finally, stir in the chocolate chips.  I opted for sparse chips.  You can certainly add more for a more chocolatey pumpkin muffin, but I figure my girls get enough chocolate and sugar as it is.
 
Spoon the batter into your muffin tins and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes.  Start checking at 25 minutes (a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffin should come out clean when the muffins are done).  I cooked mine 30 minutes but felt they would have been more moist if I took them out sooner.  That could have also been the brown rice flour.  If you use all whole wheat pastry flour, you might have to tweak the baking time, but I’d still check it starting at 25 minutes.
 
If you choose to make this recipe, please post here and let me know what you think!  Also, if you use substitutions or alternate ingredients, share too.  You could add walnuts, flax, chia, cranberries, all sorts of stuff!!  Try it!

After baking - they were dense but the kids loved them!

Take One - Ashelyn had trouble with the stirring when gravity kicked in.