Bingeable Media: The Books & Podcasts I’m Loving Right Now

On By SaraIn Self Improvement, Uncategorized9 Comments

 

I have always had a love of music and books. More times than I can count I was reprimanded in school for reading when I wasn’t supposed to be…and I can remember more than a few nights that I read for hours longer than I meant to. However, up to the last month or so, I had never listened to an audiobook!

Now, while I am still very attached to physical books, I am quickly falling in love with audiobooks. I have a lot of time at work that I am able to listen to my headphones, so I go through a lot of material. While I still listen to many podcasts, I’m having fun switching it up with books, both fiction and nonfiction.

Audiobooks:

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I started off with the Hunger Games Series. I had never gotten to finish reading them before and have actually been waiting to watch the movies until I finished the books!

 

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The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, read by Stephen Fry. This was fantastic and so much fun to listen to!

 

 

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The Phantom of the Opera. This one is not new to me, but I loved listening to it. I also love the movie and the play. I may also have the soundtrack. Obsessed, me? 

 

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What The Most Successful People do Before Breakfast by Laura Vanderkam: I really enjoyed this quick listen 🙂 I have been working (on-and-off) on revitalizing my wake-up routine and this gave me some motivation and some great ideas!

 

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Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein Series: I had read the first book once, but now I’m on the 3rd one and loving it! Sadly I currently only have up to that one. The last two aren’t available 😦

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Harry Potter: I am really enjoying listening to the audiobooks of this series! This is one of my fav series of all-time! I will admit, I was a little worried that the narrator would throw me off, but I’ve really enjoyed it so far 🙂

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Anita Blake Series: This is another one of my favorite series. Unlike the Harry Potter series, one of the voices of the narrator did throw me off for a bit, but as I listened to it longer it didn’t anymore. Though I’m not sure if that won’t happen again as the series progresses. Also, if you are familiar with the series at all, you might understand why I’m not sure if I will continue listening at work!

Podcasts:

Along with all of the podcasts listed in this post, I have added quite a few more to my regular listening line-up! Here are just a few of the ones I am enjoying!

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Entrepreneurs and Coffee with Brendan Hufford: One of my favorites for entrepreneurship! Brendan is great to listen to! His interviews are always interesting and engaging, plus he is quick to respond to emails and tweets from his listeners!

 

 

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This American Life hosted by Ira Glass: I can’t say enough about This American Life. This show has made me laugh out loud (while working by myself, so I get to sound a little crazy too), tear up and gets me thinking about all sorts of topics I’ve not thought much about before.

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The Art of Charm with AJ and Jordan Harbinger: While this show is meant for and geared towards men, I have found so many episodes useful and interesting. I love the wide range of topics and guests that come on!

 

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The Fizzle Show with Corbet Barr, Chase Reeves, Barrett Brooks & Steph Crowder: Oh, what to say about The Fizzle Show…not only is this show entertaining and informative, it has lead me to so many other podcasts and people! I can’t wait until I can actually join The Fizzle Community online!

Do you listen to audiobooks and/or podcasts? I am always looking for new ones, so let me know your favorites in the comments below!

Also, if you didn’t see it yet, be sure to check out the Jewelry Giveaway I am running Feb 9-16th!

Giveaway

Sara (1)

glass fusion jewelry with wire wrapping

100+ Followers…and a Giveaway to Celebrate!

On By SaraIn Art and Crafting, Uncategorized25 Comments

When I started this blog I honestly wasn’t sure how well I would do. (Sometimes I’m still not) I’m not great with putting myself out there, plus I was worried that I would give up or only post sporadically. Instead, I found out that I love blogging! This blog has already improved my life, introduced me to some amazing people online and pushed me in some unexpected ways. I can’t wait to see where it continues to take me!

Now, I know that 100 followers is not a huge milestone to a lot of bloggers, but it definitely feels like a big one to me! And I appreciate all of you! So, to celebrate this milestone, my first giveaway! I hope you like what I have for you all 🙂

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Giveaway Requirements:

  1. Be a follower of Nymph In The Woods (if you aren’t already, you can follow now to enter)
  2. Leave a comment below stating which one you would like to win. That’s it!

The giveaway will run from Feb 9th-16th, 2016. The winner will be contacted privately and also be announced on here. I can’t wait to see who wins and which one they choose! (Also, the 16th is my birthday and I can’t wait to celebrate it by giving one of you a gift!)

Edit: The giveaway is now closed! Congrats to Teresa over at Mama Muse Me on winning!Sara (1)

Weekly Food Prep

Sunday Meal Prep: February 7, 2016

On By SaraIn Meal Prep, Uncategorized3 Comments

(Note: Sorry for the delay. I had some technical difficulties. Hopefully we have gotten them solved.)

Hey everyone! I hope you all are having a wonderful weekend! Things are going pretty well here, except for my body seeming to turn on me 😦 My back is doing quite a bit better (yay!!) but now I’m fighting a rather nasty sore throat. So since I’m not feeling all that great, today’s post is going to get right to the point.

Enjoy!

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Spicy Chicken in Tomatoes 

Red Curry Lentils 

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork: Island Style

Skinny Chicken Enchiladas

Sunflower and Oat Energy Balls

Sorry for the short (and late) post today! But keep an eye out for a post later this week…I have something exciting for you guys!

Did you do meal prep today? What did you cook? I would love to hear your thoughts, so leave a comment below!

Sara (1)

Want to get started meal prepping yourself? Check out these posts for my top tips and my staple recipes!

Need some extra inspiration? Check out last week’s meal prep for other recipes and ideas!

 

metal sculpture ames iowa

Friday Favs: February 5, 2016

On By SaraIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Happy Friday everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful week! Here’s the awesome links I found this week! 🙂 Enjoy!

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Playing with angles – my favorite picture from this week of a sculpture in downtown Ames, IA

Recipes

Homemade Spicy Ramen with Tofu from Pinch of Yum – This sounds freakin’ delicious! I actually haven’t cooked with tofu yet and this recipe might be changing that.

Spinach Chana Dal from 100 Days of Real Food – So you might have noticed that I have started really getting into cooking Indian food lately…like all the others, this one sounds wonderful! Can’t wait to give it a try!

Teriyaki Grilled Chicken and Veggie Rice Bowls from Cooking Classy – This sounds so tasty! I’ve never made my own teriyaki sauce before and I really love her point about food in bowls just being awesome in general 🙂

Shrimp Summer Rolls with Peanut Hoisin Dipping Sauce from Skinnytaste – These sound delicious! I’ve never cooked with shrimp…honestly it makes me kinda nervous. But these sound like a great introduction to them!

Slow Cooker Sausage and Peppers {Lightened Up} from Organize Yourself Skinny – Slow cooker and tasty sandwich?! This sounds perfect to me! We are definitely going to make this in the future!

Sriracha Buffalo Cauliflower Bites from Half Baked Harvest – I have heard of of using cauliflower as a substitute for chicken for buffalo “wings” but haven’t really looked up any recipes. Well that is different now! I can’t wait to try these!

Game Day White Chicken Chili from Lexi’s Clean Kitchen – I have plenty of chili recipes, but no good chicken chili ones. This sounds super tasty!

Breakfast Enchiladas with Roasted Poblano Sauce from Pinch of Yum – As I’m sure you’ve noticed, we have a bit of an enchilada obsession over here…And I love any and all breakfast foods! This combination sounds just about perfect for us!

Peanut Butter Flourless Chocolate Cake from Gimme Some Oven – Ahhh…Peanut butter and chocolate. The perfect match. With my birthday coming up, this beautiful cake needs to be made!

Home and Decor

On Starting a Garden from The Small Things Blog – I love reading about new gardeners! You may remember that I did a small gardening experiment last spring/summer. What she is talking about doing for her garden sounds like what I would like to try this year!

Art and DIY

Personalized Gift Wrap from A Thoughtful Place –

Fitness

3 Shoulder & Back Strengthening Exercises I Learned in PT from Working Out and Eating In – Ok, so those of you who have been following me for a while might remember that I have a lot of problems with my back, even ending up in PT myself a few months ago. However, these 3 exercises are ones I didn’t learn in my PT and are definitely ones I am going to try out!

Blogging and Business

How to Make Your Blog Posts Stand Out from A Girl, Obsessed – This article has some great tips, including two that I really want to work on!

Ten Tips for Flay Lay Photography from A Girl, Obsessed – She is just killin’ these articles this week! (As she is most weeks) Photography is something I am really trying to work on and I hope to try out some of the tips in this article.

5 Best Pieces of Advice When Starting a Business from Goodbeads – I love this! As someone who is working towards launching a business soon (more on that to come), she has some great pieces of advice…the first and last ones I will probably have to remind myself on a regular basis!

The Blogger’s Guide to Networking from damask love – As something I have a hard time with and not many opportunities to practice, this is a great read!

Life

10 Things I’ve Learned Since Becoming An Adult from Dizzybrunette3 – With my birthday coming up later this month, this so hits close to home! (Plus, keep an eye out for a post I have planned that is similar to this on my birthday!)

5 Ways to Make Sure You Have a Good Day from Barefoot Blonde – Amber’s post is too cute and I love the idea of the 30 min power clean!

What to do After You Pay Off Debt from Making Sense of Cents – I’m not even close to paying off my debt, but this is a great article on what to do if I ever do!

This is 29 from Racing Bananas – Another post that really hits home with my 29th birthday coming up! I love how they had a pretty low key and relaxing celebration. Plus I’m kinda envious of that dog park!

5 Things I Do to Keep Meal Prep Simple from Organize Yourself Skinny – I love the tips she puts here, many of which I do myself! If you are looking at starting or simplifying your meal prep, this is a great read!

Cooking Date Night from Cupcakes & Cashmere – Draz and I work together, so this article has a particular draw for me. Creating a dedicated “date time” on a regular basis is something we could probably work on and this is a great idea for one type of date night!

I would love to hear what fun articles you found this week, so leave a link to one below! Or from an article from your blog from this week! I would love to hear from you and check out what you think and like!

Sara (1)

 

sunrise over lake

January in Review, February Goals

On By SaraIn Self Improvement, UncategorizedLeave a comment

January Goals

  1. Start establishing a morning routine – Ummm….50/50? I kept making progress with this and then my back injury acting up again plus getting sick, setting me back again
  2. Start at least one art project – Does my jewelry count? I did not start on mosaic like I had hoped to, but I got quite a few pieces of jewelry made! I’m also starting to feel a little more comfortable with my wire wrapping, though I still have a LONG way to go in that department!
  3. Active rest days – 50/50 success. During the time periods I was working out I did manage active rest days, but when I was sick and injured every day kinda became a rest day (outside of physical therapy exercises)
  4. Less TV time, especially while writing! – Again, 50/50 success. I did okay with this at the beginning of the month. Not so much the second half of the month.

January Favorites 

You guys have to be getting sick of seeing the same photos over an over…can you tell I was a little focused on my jewelry this month?! I promise that I will be working on my photography in more areas in February, so it will not be the same jewelry again. Also, I am working on some new pieces, so it will be new jewelry too! 🙂

I really am excited to be able to share these with you though. I’ve been dreaming of being able to make new pieces for months and now I finally can! I would love to hear your thoughts on the jewelry I’ve shared so far. Are there any styles or pieces that you really like or dislike?

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2016 Plum Paper Planner
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winter morning at Ada Hayden
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glass fusion jewelry
yellow and gold glass fusion jewelry
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yellow and blue glass fusion jewelry
glass fusion jewelry with red dichroic
glass fusion pendant
glass fusion pendant
glass fusion pendant
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copper wire wrapped glass fusion pendant
brown and green fused glass jewelry
Wire wrapped fused glass pendant

February Goals

  1. Keep working at that morning routine – Up no later than 6:30 all days except Saturday (This will start once my back is feeling better…my neck hurts too much to work out for at least a few hours after waking up. Hopefully next week.)
  2. Keep active 6 days a week – Until my back heals up, LISS. After that, it’s back to Kayla Itsines’ BBG for round 2!
  3. Spend at least 30 minutes a day working on either the blog or my art.

How did your goals for the first month of 2016 go? Are you setting goals for February? I would love to hear your thoughts, so please leave a comment below!

Sara (1)

weekly food prep

Sunday Meal Prep: January 31, 2016

On By SaraIn Meal Prep, Uncategorized1 Comment

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You ever have a week where nothing really sounds good? Where you try to plan it out, going through all your recipes and just can’t find anything that fits? That was definitely me this week! This hits me more in the winter months, and this week was especially hard.

Until I found these two soup recipes! These fit my mood perfectly. After I found those, all the rest of the menu just fell into place 🙂

Of course, I also whipped up another batch of Skinny Chicken Enchiladas, Breakfast Burritos and our regular Mason Jar Salads. Along with that, we bought some extra chicken this week and I made extra of both Buffalo and Southwestern Shredded Chicken to freeze for later weeks!

On to the three new recipes!

Tuscan Tortellini Soup – This soup was creamy, rich and oh-so-delicious! Definitely a good choice and I will be making it again. I did make one small change and used evaporated milk instead of heavy cream.

Sausage, Potato and Spinach Soup – A bit lighter than the other soup but no less tasty. It kinda reminded me of a little spicier version of Zuppa Tuscana. I made the same change to this one, using evaporated milk instead of heavy cream.

Slow Cooker Cashew Chicken – I love this recipe…I think I’m finding that I really like recipes with cashews in them!

You know when you think you picked up everything at the store, only to realize later that you didn’t? Well…that is what happened this week! I ended up going to the store to pick up cashews and tortellini about halfway through my cooking session. The tortellini was totally my fault, but I’m blaming Draz for the cashews 😛 I thought we had some left from the last time I used them in a recipe…turns out he enjoyed them as a snack instead!

So when I realized later that I didn’t buy enough eggs to make my normal double batch of burritos, there was no way I was going to the store for a second time! So this week was a bit smaller on the burritos, but still plenty for Draz and I to enjoy 🙂

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That’s it for this week! What did you cook this week? Any new recipes? I would love to hear your thoughts, so please leave a comment below!

Sara (1)

Want to get started meal prepping yourself? Check out these posts for my top tips and my staple recipes!

Need some extra inspiration? Check out last week’s meal prep for other recipes and ideas!

Friday Favorites: January 29, 2016

On By SaraIn Uncategorized5 Comments

This week for Friday Favs I decided to try something a little different than last week! I’ve been wanting to focus more on photography than I have been the last couple months, so I think each week will include my favorite photo from the week 🙂 I also realized that a brief description of the posts I’m linking to might be helpful, so that’s going to be present from now on too!

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Recipes

Sunflower and Oat Energy Balls from Slim Sanity – I can’t wait to try these this weekend, they look so tasty!

Creamy Garlic Roasted Red Pepper Pasta from A Pinch of Yum – Admission time…I have yet to try zucchini pasta. I want to, but haven’t gotten a spiralizer yet. That being said, this sounds delicious!

Kung Pao Chicken Meatballs from Iowa Girl Eats – Outside of the fact that I love highlighting bloggers from Iowa, these meatballs look freakin’ amazing! I can’t wait to give these a try!

Home and Decor

Valentines Day Centerpiece from Craftaholics Anonymous – This centerpiece is quick, easy and oh so cute! And it looks like they have a bunch more fun holiday DIY decor too!

Shop the Look: Casey’s Master Bedroom from The DIY Playbook – There are so many cute things in this room! I got some great inspiration for our own remodel too!

Tips for Moving House from DizzyBrunette3 – I’m not moving right now, but these are some great tips! And things to definitely think about if you are planning on moving!

Laundry Room Makeover Reveal from Vintage Revivals – This room! This room is swoon-worthy! I love this laundry room! Ok, for context, my laundry space is in an unfinished basement and not at all pretty. But this room? This room is gorgeous!

2016 Craft Room Tour from Organize Your Stuff Now – I really like this room, but the part I like the most is the shelves of photo props! I’m working on improving my photography skills and I love how all of her things are put together and so pretty!

Create Dining Room Storage with Floating Shelves from hey, let’s make stuff – These shelves are going to get built for our dining room and possibly a corner I’m designing for the kitchen! These are so pretty and I’m sure my dad would help me make them! (Right Dad?!)

Art and DIY

Knitting Projects: My First Accomplishment from 2BlueEyes – I love how honest and excited she is about her first dishcloth! I still haven’t finished my first crocheting experiment, so I’m impressed by the fact that she finished it up as well. Learning a skill like that is hard!

Fitness

The Five Best Podcasts for Running from Just A Colorado Gal – I listen to a lot of podcasts and audiobooks. There were a couple on here I haven’t check out before and the ones I had were some of my favorites! If you are looking for some new ones, check this out!

The Importance of Stretching + 12 Stretches to Help You Cool Down from Organize Yourself Skinny – Stretching is so important in your fitness routine and this is a great article about why!

Blogging and Business

7 things I wish someone had told me about business five years ago from jesscreatives – Some of these are things I have learned and some are still sinking in, but this post definitely resonates with me! As someone who is just now getting ready to start her business, this was a great read!

How to Take Better Photos for Instagram from DizzyBrunette3

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Using one of the tips from the article – Processed with VSCOca with c1 preset: I clearly still have a lot to learn! I think it was a bit of an improvement though?

– Ok, so I’m way behind on actually curating my Instagram. The whole “personal brand” for it just makes me feel weird and kinda fake (I know that’s not actually the case). But I really would like my Instagram feed to feel a little more cohesive and this has some great tips to do just that! What do you think of my first attempts?…Both the right photo of Achilles and the photo above of Crystal are edited using tips from this article 🙂

Life

I Confess…I’m Inspired by Gym & Tonic – I love this! She tells a story about giving someone a wonderful compliment and how that effected them, going on to talk about how important it is to spread kindness. This really hit home for me. One thing I’ve learned over the past few years is just how big of an impact something like that can have. So I try to do something to “spread kindness” every day.

Have you found anything new or interesting this week? I’d love to hear about it, or anything from here you like, so please leave a comment below!

Sara (1)

Currently Creating: What I Made This Month

On By SaraIn Art and Crafting, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Hey all! Welcome to a new monthly series “Currently Creating.” I’ve been focusing more on creating my art lately, especially my jewelry! At the end of each month I will show you what I made, including in-progress shots. This month is all jewelry, but next month I plan on having some progress on my next mosaic to show you too! 🙂 I hope you will enjoy the look into my studio!

I would also like to highlight other artists, so if you have anything you made that you would like me to link to, send me a picture, description and your website and I will include it in a future post!

Have you been making anything new lately? I would love to hear your thoughts, so please leave me a comment below!

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Sara (1)

Kayla Itsines’ Bikini Body Guide Round 1 Complete!…Well, Kinda Complete

On By SaraIn Self Improvement, Uncategorized4 Comments

Ever since I started Kayla’s guide the first time I have been looking forward to this moment. Through all the setbacks, the injuries, everything…I’ve been looking forward to being able to say I had completed it once and showing off these fantastic progress pics. Only…that didn’t really take real life into account.

This first round through has been full of difficulties. 3 injuries, 2 sets of stitches, 2 months of physical therapy (which I’m still needing to continue at home sometimes, this week included), sickness, the holidays, etc. All of those things were things I didn’t plan on when I started the guides. But that’s life. And that is a lesson that I think I needed to really learn when I started this journey. It’s a journey. It’s a lifestyle.

Life isn’t always smooth sailing. While I knew that, I don’t think I fully appreciated how that would play into my workout program, especially this workout program.

Weeks 9-12 fell during and directly after the holidays. Now, I’m not making excuses. I could have pushed myself harder some of the time and been more on top of things. But between work being crazy due to the season, the “winter blues” hitting me a bit and just a general feeling of exhaustion, I did not do as well during the last four weeks of the guide. I skipped some workouts, did LISS directly after my resistance workouts other times and just in general didn’t do as well as I had hoped to.

For a while towards the end and right after, I was beating myself up pretty good over my lack of performance. But I’ve come to the realization that just because I had an off few weeks doesn’t mean I failed or anything like it.

I am still in the best shape of my life! I can (usually) do 10+ push-ups in a row before I need to go to my knees! I can do box jumps and tuck jumps and all sorts of other jumps that I couldn’t really do before!

So while I may have not done every resistance workout and these progress pics aren’t as impressive as I had originally hoped they would be, I’m counting this first round as done and as a success! I have made so much progress over these last 4 months and I can’t wait to see what the next round of BBG brings! (Hopefully less injuries than the first round!)

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We did take measurements, but our methods weren’t practiced enough for me to be sure of the accuracy, though I think we are getting better at it! I am pretty positive that a few things changed though, especially one that can’t just be user error!

  • Waist: 37 in –> 31.5 in!

Things to Improve On During This Next Round

  • Go back to working out when I wake up instead of after work. I kinda fell out of that habit over the last month.
  • Keep LISS separate from resistance
  • Keep tracking diet for this whole round

I am currently having some issues with my back again, so I’m down to exercises from my physical therapy, LISS and yoga until it stops hurting so much. I can’t wait to start round 2 of BBG though!

How are your fitness goals coming? Did you have any difficulties over the holidays or due to the “winter blues” like I did? I would love to hear your thoughts, so please leave me a comment below!

Sara (1)

Sunday Meal Prep: January 24, 2016

On By SaraIn Meal Prep, Uncategorized8 Comments

Hey everyone! I am super excited to bring you this week’s meal prep! This week I am highlighting recipes from Eat Yourself Skinny. Kelly creates wonderful dishes that are not only healthy and filling, but full of flavor too! If you haven’t checked out her blog yet, you definitely should!

You’ve seen recipes from her a few times, particularly the Skinny Chicken Enchiladas that have been making an appearance the past few weeks. That one has quickly become one of Draz’s favorites, so don’t expect to see it going away anytime soon. Each week it’s “What would you like on the menu for next week?” and his response has been “Enchiladas!?” each time!

Now, on to this week’s meal prep!

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Along with our Mason Jar Salads, Sweet Potato Banana Bites, my grapes and cheese and the Skinny Chicken Enchiladas, I made three new recipes this week!

Sausage and Veggie Stir-fry: Her recipe calls for spicy chicken sausage, which I sadly couldn’t find. I did use the Sweet Italian Chicken Sausage of the same brand and it turned out wonderful! Hopefully I can find somewhere that sells the spicy version, because I would love to try it 🙂

Slow Cooker Turkey Chili: Kelly is not exaggerating when she says it is the best turkey chili you will ever taste! If there is another, better recipe out there, I haven’t tried it. Quick to prep, easy, tasty, and healthy?! I think this will be our new stand-by for chili from now on!

Crock Pot Salsa Chicken: I like the versatility of this shredded chicken. So far I’ve used it in a couple wraps with some cheese and it was really good! I want to try it with some taco fillings…I think it will be even better!

That’s it for this week! Expect to see many more recipes from Kelly’s blog in the future. Her recipes are just too tasty!

What are you making this week? Any new recipes? I would love to hear your thoughts, so leave me a comment below!

Sara (1)

Want to get started meal prepping yourself? Check out these posts for my top tips and my staple recipes!

Need some extra inspiration? Check out last week’s meal prep for other recipes and ideas!