Let's Get Cookin'!

Who else LOVES the beginning of a new year when you're gung-ho about your new year's resolutions??  Try 15 new recipes and blog about them??  Yes please!!

The temperatures are dropping like crazy around here and that is a great excuse to bust out the slow cooker - for not one night, but two!

Thank you Facebook community for sharing with me some delicious looking 3-ingredient recipes including this gem "Crock Pot Salsa Verde Chicken" which was YUM-O (is that the right term?)!  Last night we were impressed with how the salsa verde added such flavor with just enough kick - so good!  More importantly... so easy to make!!  We did not add the cilantro (didn't have it on hand) and I served it over white rice... today I had the chicken in a wrap for lunch - again, so good!!  We will make this one again... maybe as tacos next time... and I do think we would benefit from adding some veggies.

After dinner last night I prepped another pound of chicken for tonights feast "Parmesan Garlic Chicken with Orzo" - this was the first time I've ever made orzo... so that was fun!  The prep last night was wicked easy - I didn't want to open white wine so I went with some water and lemon juice... not sure how much of a difference that made but I don't think much?  This morning was super easy to pop the marinating chicken into the slow cooker - relatively hands off until it was time to make the orzo and we sautéed some broccoli & cauliflower.  This dish was good but not as YUM-O as last night's... I think that may be due to the fact that Mike and I both love our spices.  I'd eat this one again but I'm not putting it on the top of the list as a must-make-again like the salsa verde one.

Any way you look at it - we're eating well this week.  As the temperatures drop I'm looking forward to our warm healthy eats!

Happy New Year! A look forward...

Let's do this!  Here's My #15in15:

1- Read 5 books (only counts if I finish them!)

2- High 5 HIIT (5th and 15th of every month)

3- Yoga on Fridays

4- Workout Wednesdays... Mike's day to walk Stout, my day to workout!

5- Train for a 5 minute Birthday Plank (fitness test on Christmas too?!)

6- Learn (master) 5 new jump rope techniques 

7- Run a 5k with Stout! 

8- Cook and Blog (what did I/we make, level of difficulty, result - would we make it again, etc) - 15 new to me recipes! 

9- 15 dates with Mike... Have to try at least 5 new spots!

10- Get connected! Not just social media... ping a friend everyday and 1 hand written (old school) note per month.

11- Creative Creations - I'll aim for 15 even though I didn't quite hit my 14 last year

12- Organization!! One project space per non-Lent month (Lent will be "40 bags in 40 days" again)

13- Drop 10 lbs (goal 160 by EOY)... I typically don't believe in weight loss goals like this, however losing 25 lbs in 2014 I'm inspired!

14- See a dermatologist!!

15- Take care of myself.. 15 daily habits.. floss, take vitamins, drink 80+ oz water, etc

Happy New Year! A look back...

So tell me, how was your 2014? Are you a better person today than you were 365 days ago? I definitely feel like I am!! 

Last year I set 14 goals... Today I'm confident I hit 5 and I know I made a respectable effort on an additional 5... I'd say progress in 10 of 14 areas the first year I set goals like this is something to feel great about AND gives me room for improvement in 2015! 

Time for me to start writing my new goals, but before I get into that here's a summary of last year:

1. 14 date nights with Mike love that man!
2. 14 workouts with Mike (no, not that kind...) We were going to the gym together off and on all year.. A valuable effort to keep up with in the future :)
3. 14 loop walks with Mike Thank you puppy!
4. 14 creations (art / paint / sketch / flowers / videos / crafts / etc.) 2013 was such a creative year with all our wedding stuff I was really hoping to carry that over into 2014 but I didn't quite hit this goal. I did create our 2013 BYE book and a photo book for mom for Christmas. I made a shadow box with memories from our cruise. I tried to get creative with some of the Coke bottles we had collected, and I did redecorate our built-in in our living room. And for Alyssa's shower I put together a tub of wines for different milestones - at the shower we painted cherry blossoms and also decorated wine glasses - plus for the wedding I made a video of pictures of John and Alyssa growing up. 
5. 14 new-to-me recipes I think I'll have to make it a goal to blog any new recipes in 2015.. I know we made some good stuff this year.. just didn't keep track!
6. 14 new-to-me beers Do I get credit here even if I didn't keep track of everything? :) Between our beer of the month club and Taco Mac I'm confident I hit this one. 
7. 14 new-to-me movies I know I hit this one! Netflix plus our flights to and from Europe plus TV.. Win!!
8. 14 industry webinars (attend and write about here in the blog) I don't know if I even attended one of these this year! I'll have to find a new means of professional development for 2015!
9. 14 articles (read and write about here in the blog) Here is one that I lacked in motivation - lots to read this year but I did not do much to hone my writing skills. Thinking I will need a twist on goals 8 and 9 (and 4) to make progress in 2015. 
10. 14 jump rope workouts per month I never successfully worked this one into my workout lifestyle
11. 14 stretching workouts per month I believe I worked towards this one every month but never found the consistency I need. I want to keep this as a focus in 2015 for sure!! 
12. 14 fitness "challenges" I did not keep great track of this one! I know I did a bunch of stuff and fitness was an overall huge focus for the year, will work on better tracking in 2015! 
13. 14 language lessons a month on Duolingo I totally lost interest in this, even with a vacation in Europe!  Thinking I may need to recruit a buddy if I want to do this for real.. Hmm...
14. 14 random acts of kindness (I'll need to search for ideas so they'd won't be entirely random) Something to work on in 2015 I think... wonder how I could get started with this...

Where did December go??

Wow! I totally thought I wrote a post earlier this month - just goes to show how much of a whirlwind of a month it was!  Let's remedy that with a quick recap of the month, shall we?

I think four things really stood out this month (five if you count my workouts falling to the wayside, but that isn't something I want to highlight too much):

1. Eric Church concert!!  Matt and Dana Lotz drove out to join us.. Halestorm opened and EC put on a fantastic show!

2. Stout's first road trip!! Heading northbound for Christmas in Pennsylvania our pup figured out how to  ride like a champ!

3. Transiberian Orchestra concert!  Kristina organized a family outing to see TSO at Wells Fargo and we had a blast!

4. A Cogill Christmas!!  What a weekend - we helped John and Alyssa host Christmas Eve... headed over to Jim and Kelly's for Christmas dinner and a showing of Elf... and icing on the cake - Tim and Kristina organized and hosted Cogill Christmas with dad's side of the family!  Awesome trip overall :)

Quite a December if I do say so myself!  Now we are heading back to GA to bring 2014 to a close and kick off 2015!  #bringiton! 

HIIT #6 (yes I skipped #5)

So the 25th was our travel day, #slacker didn't get a make-up HIIT in... I did have tennis on the 24th, got to the gym on the 26th, did yoga on the 27th and ran a (treadmill) 5k on the 28th - so not a total waste of a week. 

November 30th - last High 5 HIIT of the month!  And I did it Tabata style!

4 minutes

 - jumping jacks

 - butt kickers

 - high knees 

 - ski twist jumps

4 minutes

 - chair dips

 - squats

 - push ups

 - inner thigh lift (left, then right)

4 minutes

 - plank

 - side plank dips, left

 - side plank dips, right

 - mountain climbers

Short workout but pair it with two good puppy walks and I'm feeling pretty good!

Let's bring on December!

High 5 HIIT #3 and #4

I'm delinquent in writing these but I have been keeping up with the workouts!

#3 

5 push-ups - 10 squats - 15 dips - 20 alt. lunges - 5 jumping jacks

5 squats - 10 dips - 15 alt. lunges - 20 push-ups - 5 jumping jacks

5 dips - 10 alt. lunges - 15 push-ups - 20 squats - 5 jumping jacks

5 alt. lunges - 10 push-ups - 15 squats - 20 dips - 5 jumping jacks

50 second plank

#4

From the Tone It Up girls: https://s3.amazonaws.com/ToneItUpDownloadDocuments/Workout+Printables/Love-your-body-HIIT-Tone-It-Up-Printable-fat-burn-cardio.pdf

Three Rounds / Five Exercises per Round / Perform Each Exercise Twice / 20 sec on 10 sec off

#feelingawesome

High 5 HIIT #2

2 minute dance party!

Tabata (4 min):

 - jumping jacks

 - skaters

 - butt kickers

 - high knees

no rest...

30 seconds each:

 - high plank

 - low plank

 - right side plank

 - left side plank

 - plank up and downs

 - plank jacks

 - rolling T's

 - low plank

no rest...

Tabata (4 min):

 - jumping jacks

 - squat jumps

 - plyo lunges right leg

 - plyo lunges left leg

3 minute cool down and stretch

Tonight was a High 5 HIIT and Roll as after I stretched I rolled out the lower body!

In full disclosure, I did this workout today, the 11th, not the 10th as intended... but I rocked it!!