Just Add Cooking: Fall Celebrity Chef Series

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Another week, another Just Add Cooking review to share with you. If you are new to B2B, l’ll fill you in quickly: last spring, I was graciously given 4 months of service through Just Add Cooking, which meant that once a week I was given 3 meals to make and try. This came at the most perfect time because it was during the months leading up to our wedding so knowing that I wouldn’t have to plan out our meals every week was a huge relief. Not only that, but the meals were all SO GOOD and really easy to make so it was a win-win all around.

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Recently, Just Add Cooking reached out to me again to see if I wanted to try out meals again as they kicked off their Fall Celebrity Chef series. What this means, is that Just Add Cooking will be partnering with some local celebrity chefs to bring restaurant-quality dishes to JAC, while also making sure everything is still locally sourced and easy enough to handle in your own kitchen. The chefs in the partnership are: James Beard award-winner Jody Adams of TRADE, Saloniki, and Porto; James Beard finalist and celebrated chef Andy Husbands of Tremont 647, Sister Sorel and The Smoke Shop BBQ; television personality Diane Kochilas, one of the world’s foremost authorities on Greek cuisine and Consulting Chef at Committee ; and James Beard award-winner Frank McClelland of L’Espalier and Riversbend.

For the week we chose, the signature dish was Chicken with Muhammara from Jody Adams, which also happened to be my favorite meal of the week! The flavor in the “topping” was incredible- both RM and I couldn’t stop raving about it while we ate it. Such an interesting combination of ingredients that made such a delicious end result!

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The next meal I made was the Scandinavian Cod, which was the first fish meal we received…. weird, considering we love fish! This meal was SUPER simple to make, and based on how simple the ingredients were, I wasn’t expecting it to be as full of flavor as it was! I really loved the topping of eggs, horseradish & brown butter for the fish. I ended up sauteing the snow peas, which didn’t go along with the recipe but I wasn’t sure I felt like eating them raw. Lastly, I was totally blown away with how easy it was to cook the fish. The directions told me to boil water and once the water was boiling, remove it from the heat, drop the fish in, cover it and let it cook for 5 minutes. It came out perfect!!  Mind. Blown.

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The last meal of the week was the Hungarian Goulash, which RM and I had a blast saying (you try saying it by accentuating the GOU in the Goulash… it’s funny!). As with the other recipes, this was easy to throw together AND it reheated very well. The flavor combination from the spices and veggies and the meat were wonderful- it felt like a hearty fall meal! We talked about how there are so many variations you could make from the base recipe, too, like subbing out sweet potatoes for white potatoes, adding in other veggies, etc. I see this on repeat for sure.

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The celebrity chef meals will be on rotation until the end of the year so if you like the sounds of everything in this post, Just Add Cooking is offering a great deal for those of you who haven’t yet had a chance to try them. With the code BUBBLY, you can get your first Just Add Cooking box for just $39. Which, btw, is 3 meals- one hell of a deal if you ask me! Click here to sign up for a free account and to pick your recipes.

Previous reviews can be found here:

Just Add Cooking {First Review}
Just Add Cooking {2nd Review}
Just Add Cooking {3rd Review}
Just Add Cooking {4th Review}

Disclaimer: I was not compensated for this post but I was provided with a free week of meals in response for my review. As always, all thoughts and opinions in this post are my own- I really, truly think this is a wonderful company and I’m so excited that I get to work with them! As an affiliate, I do receive a credit when you sign up for the service using my code. Thanks for your support!

 

Wednesday Workout: 15 Minute Blast #3 {Last one of the 3 part series}

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I’m back with the 3rd and final part of my 15 minute AMRAP blast series! If anyone else is running tight on time these days, then these workouts are perfect for you. They are quick & dirty, as I like to say. They cover multiple muscle group, require minimal equipment and are over in a flash. A win-win-win combination if you ask me!

In this workout we’re working the legs/glutes with lunges and the upper body with biceps curls. I’m not one to usually focus on specifically working the smaller muscle groups, but once and a while I think it’s a nice addition to my workouts. That, and I think the lunge & bicep combination is a good one 😉

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For everything that has a “right and left” component (lunges, jumping lunges, butt kicks), perform the number of reps on each side.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Questions for you: What’s your favorite “combo” exercise?

Beautycounter Review {and a free gift for you}

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Hi there! Did you guys have a nice long weekend? We had such a great weekend kicking it around Watertown/Boston. As much as it would’ve been nice to have one more Cape weekend before Italy, it was also really nice to not have to pack up and head anywhere!

Today, though, I’m talking about new-to-me beauty products that I’ve had a chance to try out over the past few weeks. Have you heard of Beatuycounter? If not, it is a personal beauty company with a mission to make safer and more effective skincare and cosmetic products for women and children. Did you know that  in the United States there have only been 11 products banned and a law has not been passed regulating skincare or cosmetics since 1938?! This means that there are lots of products on the market right now with less than ideal ingredients in them. So, when the founder and CEO, Gregg Renfrew, learned of this she started her mission to create safe and effective products. Beautycounter has created a “never” list with over 1,500 ingredients that will never be allowed in any products sold. Amazing, right?

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side note: I REALLY wanted one of these adorable makeup bags!

After Melissa, reached out to me and gave me a glimpse into this product line, I agreed to check out some of the products. For as much as I care about what goes IN my body (meaning, buying organically, etc.), I’m embarrassed to admit that I don’t really think twice about what goes ON my body. I tend to use “whatever is around” in terms of face, body and hair products, but after using some of the Beautycounter products for a few weeks, I’ve seen what a difference it makes to use good quality products. Everything lathered well and felt really light and fresh. While Melissa sent me a lot of different products to try, I have to admit that I only used a handful of them due to the fact that I just don’t care to spend a lot of time on my skincare routine. I wash my face and use a moisturizer…. that’s about it! But, even though I only tried a few I’ll share all of the with you so you can see what they have to offer.

Shower Products: Shampoo, conditioner, body wash, lotion and body butter

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These were probably my favorite products, which is funny considering they weren’t even facial products! The shampoo is made with pure plant botanicals and it lathered SO well and felt like it was really stripping the mousse and other products from my hair, leaving it feeling nice and clean. The conditioner also worked well to get my gnarly curls loosened up (I am in major need of a hair cut!), probably because of the marula and mongongo oils. Although I’m not a big body wash person (yes, I still use soap- don’t judge!), I did love the way this body wash made my skin feel- even RM was a big fan. And lastly, the lotion and body butter were amazing- there’s something so great about putting on a nice, rich lotion after you get out of the shower, #amiright?! Everything had a similar fruity smell, too.

Face Care: washes & lotions

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I also really enjoyed trying out the face washes and lotions. My only complaints were that there was no SPF in the lotion (they only have SPF in their tinted moisturizer, which I think is strange) and the face washes didn’t take off my mascara very well at all, even though it’s washable.  I didn’t try the face mist or eye cream, but I’ve heard they work really well. Even though the creams didn’t have SPF, I thought they were great because they were lightweight and didn’t leave me feeling oily. Instead, because of the coconut oil and aloe in them they left me feeling perfectly moisturized. I loved the packaging, too, because one pump gave you exactly the right amount of cream.

Rejuvenating Collection

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I didn’t try anything in this line, mostly because if I wanted to see if anything had positive effects, I needed to stick to just a few of the products. This line is also geared towards mature skin and is great for those who want to fight the signs of aging…. I suppose I should’ve tried these, though, because I don’t think it’s ever too early to start that fight! Here’s what Melissa shared with me regarding these products:

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Various other products

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This was another fun bag of goodies, although we only used the sunscreen and lip balm. If I was into spending more time on my facial care routine, I definitely would’ve tried the face oils and charcoal mask and I think that in the winter a tinted moisturizer would be awesome! If you are into a more elaborate skin care routine, the face oils can be applied directly to your face or mixed with your daily moisturizer to add extra moisture to your skin, which I imagine would be really great in the dry winter months.

All in all, I really enjoyed trying out these products and being introduced to a “new and improved” beauty product line. If you’re interested in learning more, please feel free to reach out to Melissa (beautycounter.melissac@gmail.com)- she can certainly provide more details than I have in this post! Also, if you buy any products from her site and mention Burpees to Bubbly, you can get a FREE GIFT with your purchase! Pretty nice little perk if you ask me!

Now I want to hear from you: What do you use for your daily skincare products? Do you have a strict skincare routine or are you more relaxed about it? Have you started with “age defying” products? Have you heard of or tried Beatuycounter?

Disclaimer: I was not paid to write this post nor was I provided with these products to keep. Melissa let me try them out and I’m sharing my honest opinion of them.

Five on Friday {9.2.16}

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Hello! TGIF, right?! I’ll tell you what- I am looking forward to a long weekend! We get a half day today and then we have Monday off and I have to say that I am reallllly looking forward to it, even though I have so much work to do I really could use the day in the office, haha OH WELL! It’ll get done eventually 😉

Did you guys have a good week? Mine was good- tiring for the brain, but a good week! Last night, after a great yoga class, RM and I hit up Buff’s Pub for wings, which we hadn’t done for SO long so they tasted extra delicious .

  • Just Add Cooking– I was lucky enough to receive another box of meals from Just Add Cooking this past week and, yet again, everything we had was amazing! I’ll share more on it later, but here are a few teaser pics 😉

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  • Healthified Beach Lunches- One of my favorite parts of going to the beach is packing up the cooler with various food and drinks. There’s something about the beach that just makes me want fun snacks and tasty beers (or wine!), amiright?! Last summer, when I went to make us lunches I realized we were out of pitas/wraps, so I got creative and made a “wrapless wrap”, meaning I used the thickly cut deli meat as the “wrap” and stuffed it as I would if I was actually using a wrap. Now, we don’t even bother with the wraps because we like this variation so much. We prefer snacking on crackers/healthy chips dipped in hummus for our carbs rather than bread or wraps and while this may not be for everyone, it works for us. If you’re looking for a way to change up your beach lunches, I highly suggest this! I usually buy a nice Boars Head turkey meat and provolone cheese and then layer the turkey, cheese, hummus, spinach and veggies- last weekend I used cucumbers, red pepper and avocado. SO tasty!

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  • Morning Workouts- Since I teach after work and have to be to work by 7:30 (which is 30+ minutes away), I tend to workout during my lunch break instead of the morning. I find I have more energy and more fun, but this past week I got up to workout before work on Wednesday since I knew I wouldn’t have the ability to do so during the day and didn’t want it on my “to-do” list for after work. While it’s never really FUN to get up and workout before work, this sunrise AND knowing my workout was DONE by 6:30am made it totally worth it.

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  • Book Club- I’ll admit that I while I always finish each book club book before the next meeting, most of the time I’m scrambling in the last few days to actually finish it. A few months ago, I had to sit in my parked car outside of Jessi’s house to finish the last 10 pages haha oops! This time around, though, I’m ahead of the game. We are reading What She Left Behind and it is SO good. It’s told by two different women: one from the 1920’s and one more recently so it’s super interesting to read how different the times are between the two versions of the story. I highly recommend this if you’re looking for a good book to read.

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  • National Yoga Month- Did you know September is National Yoga Month?! I’m excited to be included in the activities hosted by Corepower Yoga, including a yoga class last night at Fenway for the media crew. I needed the yoga more than you know, so it came at the perfect time. I can’t wait to practice MORE this month- it’s one of those things I know I need, but for some reason it always gets pushed aside. And ps- Corepower’s #whyiyoga campaign is amazing- totally in love with this shirt and this message!!

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And with that, I’m out! We have a half day today and I’m teaching tomorrow morning, otherwise the weekend plans are totally up in the air. We may go to the Cape, but I’m hoping we stick around here for the weekend. Whatever you have on your agenda, I hope it includes everything that makes you happy 🙂

Questions for you: How was your week? Did you have any good workouts? What’s a “must read” book you’ve read? Do you like yoga? Have you been grilling a lot? What do you pack for beach lunches?

Wednesday Workout: 15 Minute Blast # 2 {Lower, Upper & Cardio}

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Remember how I shared a quickie workout a few weeks ago that was actually one part of a workout I did {seemingly} months ago? Today I’m back with part two of that workout- same format (AMRAP 15 minutes & progression style with cardio at the end), different exercises,  but just as much fun 😉

The exercises in this workout focus on hinging and pulling rather than squatting and pressing like the first one did. I will also warn you that the cardio combo as the last 3 moves in the circuit are killer for the upper body!

15 Minute Blast #2

I think everything here is pretty self-explanatory: SLDL= single leg deadlift (you’ll do 10 on each leg), deadlift->= do 1 standard deadlift (both legs not single leg) and in the hinged position perform a double arm row and then come back up to standing position. If you need more clarification, please don’t hesitate to let me know 🙂

And with that, I’m out! I hope you all have a great rest of your week- I hope to check back in with you soon 🙂