Good morning everyone, I hope that you all have enjoyed your first week of a new year. I can’t believe that it’s already 2019! I’m excited to share some NYE fun, my new year resolutions, and a full week of healthy recipes.

Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy. 😊 On NYE Jordan & I spent most of the day relaxing. We both ended up working a little bit that morning and came home to chill on the couch and check out “Bird Box.” Huk was Jordan’s cuddle buddy for a good while. That evening we stopped by a couple of parties. One of our friends was throwing a party and they had some of the most delicious food for dinner. A little later we decided to stop by Jordan’s parents house to countdown and enjoy some fireworks! My forever NYE kiss! ❤️

I woke up on New Year’s Day to texts and pictures from my poor Mom. She was trying to light some sparklers on NYE and one of them blew up in her hand… she spent the night at the trauma/burn unit in downtown Houston. Her hand won’t need any surgery, but she has been enduring 2nd degree burns… Be careful with fireworks y’all, even sparklers can be ultra dangerous apparently. On New Year’s Day, Jordan & I slept in and then I made us some eggs and wheat toast for breakfast. We did some cleaning, watched some TV, and created a grocery list to get some delicious & healthy food for the week. I wrote down a few different resolutions for myself, but overall I just want to become the healthiest version of myself possible. I want to eat foods that are good for my body, make exercise or just being more active a priority, get more sleep, be happy & confident, and just enjoy life to the fullest. I know that I am still so young, but I honestly feel like I have no energy sometimes and my body isn’t where I want it to be. I want to make myself healthier, stronger and more energetic now and for the rest of my life. Wednesday morning, I woke up bright and early to make Jordan & I green smoothies for breakfast. I made myself a small glass and also had a slice of whole grain peanut butter toast.

My Green Smoothie Recipe:

• 1 cup of coconut water
• 6-8 strawberries
• 1 whole banana
• 2 handfuls of baby spinach/kale mix
• 1 cup of ice

*optional: add 2 tablespoons of peanut butter after blending the rest of the smoothie to add some extra deliciousness and a little bit of protein.

Jordan & I decided to try our own version of a Mediterranean/plant-based style of eating. I don’t want to try anymore fad diets or completely cut things out of my life, but I want to eat things that hold as many nutrients as possible. I’m trying to cut back on eating meat (and almost all dairy except for some cheeses & sauces for now) and get most of my protein source from fish, eggs, and vegetables. My goal is to become even more plant-based, but this is my beginning and I am so excited to see how I feel. We bought a bunch of different types of fish, complex carbs, veggies, and fruit from the grocery store on Tuesday evening to eat throughout the week. For lunch I made a tuna fish sandwich on whole grain bread. I love to mix canned tuna with light miracle whip or mayo & mustard. I’m going to try to use vegan mayo next time! Wednesday was my Mom’s birthday, so we headed over to my parents house to celebrate and have dinner. My Dad made some lemon pepper shrimp tacos with cilantro lime rice. They were delicious! Happy birthday to my beautiful Momma!! I got up super early on Thursday morning for work. I brought myself a banana to snack on while I coached. Banana’s & coffee are my favorite snacks because they are both so filling and almost always hit the spot! I spent the day time making some egg cups for Jordan and I to have for breakfast & snacks for the rest of the week. I made Jordan some bacon, egg, and shredded Colby jack cheese cups. I also made some egg white, feta cheese, and spinach/kale cups & egg, red bell pepper, and shredded Colby jack cheese cups for us to share.

• How I cooked the egg cups: I used a muffin tin cook them in the oven at 400 degrees for about 18-20 min. Make sure you use some non-stick spray before adding the egg mixture to the tins. When I used the whole eggs, I made sure to mix the yolk and egg whites together before adding other ingredients like cheese & veggies or meat.

It’s so nice being able to have something to just grab and bring to work so I don’t have to run and grab something from Starbucks or something for breakfast anymore. It’s a big money & time saver for sure! Thursday evening, Jordan and I went to the gym together. Neither of us had worked out in a while so we tried to take it easy. We did some bicep exercises with dumbbells & walked on incline for half a mile. We also had fun jamming to Queen the entire workout! After our workout, we made a scallop fettuccini pasta. Jordan cooked the scallops to perfection while I worked on the noodles. We used a light Alfredo Romano sauce and added Tony’s seasoning to give it more of a Cajun kick. This pasta honestly turned out so great and will definitely be made again at our place, but next time we will use some whole grain pasta and I want to try to make a dairy-free alfredo sauce. When I finished working on Friday, I made a delicious salmon lunch! H-E-B sells the best pre-seasoned garlic pesto salmon, so I threw that in the oven while I cooked some asparagus and olive oil & garlic couscous. It was so yummy and easy to make.

Jordan & I spent most of the day rewatching season 1 of Game of Thrones (and I also took a little nap 😉). We are trying to rewatch all of the episodes together before season 8 arrives. I can’t wait! We met Jordan’s family for dinner at El Tiempo on Friday night. I ordered a shrimp taco with some red wine. I poured lemon juice on the seasoned shrimp and just ate the filling of the taco because my tortilla kept falling apart. The shrimp was very good though! Saturday morning, I went to coach for a few hours. I packed some breakfast to have during the break. I brought two of my feta, spinach/kale, & egg white cups and a cup of coffee. Jordan and I went on a fun date night Saturday evening. After watching the Texans get their butts whopped, we headed over to Olive Garden for a spectacular dinner!We split some salad, calamari, a bottle of wine, and a delicious seafood fettuccine that came with shrimp, scallops, and roasted red peppers. Jordan’s new iPhone Xs takes some of the best photos and he always reminds me to capture moments for the blog! 😉

We had such a fun night dressing up and sharing a wonderful dinner together. It’s funny how you can spend every day living life together and loving each other, but it’s so different and special when you take the time to actually go out on a “date.” We spent the rest of the evening watching some more GoT together at home. ❤️ Jordan and I met up with some of his family to see “Aquaman” at the theater yesterday. It is so funny going back in Game of Thrones to see Jason Momoa play the part of Khal Drogo and then see him as Aquaman. The movie was super good and I definitely recommend going to see it! Later that evening (in between watching more GoT & doing laundry), I meal prepped our lunch for today. I made some Southwest Ancho Tilapia, zucchini, squash, and our favorite black bean/brown rice mix! I am counting down the minutes until I get to go home and enjoy this meal. It’s definitely one of my top 10 favorite home-cooked meals and I will share the full recipe with you guys soon.

This morning I headed to a dentist appointment with Jordan and I brought along some yummy food for breakfast. I took two of my feta, spinach/kale, and egg white cups, some black bean/brown rice mix, and a cappuccino with me.

I hope that y’all have a wonderful Monday and a great rest of your week! My goal is to exercise more and get more sleep this week, along with tackling some household chores & organizing. I will be back with another recap and recipes soon.

XOXO, Paige.