I usually post this at the end of the year but I have so much stuff on here I thought I would post this now.  I link to prior year's posts at the bottom of this post! I'm sharing with you some of my favorite purchases of the year. Right now I'm obsessed with the documentary Amy Bradley is Missing on Netflix! If you're looking for a good binge, check it out! 

 As we wind down 2024 I thought it would be fun to share my favorite purchases of the year. Here's a round up of my best purchases of the year! 

I bought a lot of stuff this year from amazon and wanted to share my favorites with you. I'm probably the only person out here without prime but I feel I get my orders within a week of ordering and free shipping, I just have to make sure my order is at least $25. Here's a list of my favorite amazon finds I ordered in the first half of 2021. Amazon has become one of my favorite places to shop during the pandemic.  

This review is for the vegetarian offerings of Blue Apron and I will say it's my 2nd favorite delivery meal kit option after Purple Carrot. Blue Apron has a fancy grilled cheese sandwich once a month which is the main reason I keep the box. I don't buy bread because I wouldn't be responsible with it and eat it way too fast. lol So it's very rare I eat a grilled cheese sandwich. Blue Apron's grilled cheese are always made with some kind of white cheese and then another ingredient inside the sandwich  (like mango chutney, mushrooms or caramelized onion) and served with a side salad of lettuce (something else I never buy). Normally I would still be hungry after a grilled cheese so having that side salad is perfect. 

Here are some recent purchases of mine that turned out to be products that works out really well that I wanted to share with you.

It's been said that November is the busiest shopping month of the year. I can't wait for after Thanksgiving beauty sales! Now is the time to pick up your Advent Calendar so you can have it all ready to start with on Dec 1st. Trader Joe's chocolate advent calendar is one of my favorites and retails for only $1! I already picked up mine (and a few for friends) as they do sell out early. 

I’ve been a fan of LÄRABARs for years. LÄRABARs are delicious bars made from unsweetened fruits, nuts, and spices with no added sugar. It's hard to find protein bars that don't have added sugar or artificial ingredients. Since they are primarily made of a puree of dates they have a chewy sticky texture. Depending on the flavor, they only have just two to six ingredients. They come beautifully wrapped in bright colors. The cashew cookie flavor has been my all time favorite, in fact, I loved it so much I never bothered to try any of the other flavors. I've found that I've been missing out as they come in over 26 flavors which I sampled a few below. I don't eat these every day as I'm not totally in love with the high amount of natural sugar in LÄRABARs. I’ve tried a lot of protein bars, but LÄRABARs stand out as by far the best. Here's the calorie breakdown of the cashew cookie : 230 cal, 23g carbs, 18g sugar, 6g protein. The other flavors have a little less calories but they all essentially have a similar breakdown. Some flavors come in mini size which I think is the perfect size for a quick energy bite.


Key Lime Pie- I was skeptical about this one, how can they put my favorite desert into a bar. Well, the lime flavor was authentic, not chemical. I really liked this one.

Coconut Cream Pie- had a really nice coconut flavor and it was creamy.

Carrot Cake - Tastes like a real piece of carrot cake, you can really taste the carrots!

Cherry Pie- tastes so good, it's like eating candy. Can't believe there's no sugar in it, it's made with unsweetened cherries.

Snickerdoodle - so delicious, like you're eating a cookie. Here's a recipe to make a snickerdoodle protein shake.

Gingerbread - OMG this authentically tasted like a gingerbread cookie! The ginger flavor was very strong.

Pumpkin Pie- it smelled amazing and tasted like fresh pumpkin bread.

Peanut butter chocolate chip - This is the one bar that has sugar in it because the chocolate chips are made with sugar. The bar comes in at 19g of sugar, similar to many yogurts. The bar was still moist and chewy and really tasty. It has a good chocolate-y flavor, but very subtle peanut flavor.

Peanut butter cookie- I love pb, but this was my least favorite, it just didn't taste like a pb cookie to me, wasn't very sweet.

They are available at Whole Foods and Trader Joes. It's a great healthy snack made of natural ingredients. I'm going to sample some more flavors. But don’t take my word for it, try it out yourself and let me know what your favorite flavor is?

I love all the new fall flavors of yogurt available! Chobani also has a Pumpkin Twist that I unfortuantely couldn't find. I did try their Meze Dip in Smoked Onion Parmesan but the smoked flavor made it taste like meat so I couldn't eat it. Otherwise I imagine it could be a good sauce to put over pasta. Here's my review of everything I tried.

Chobani Apple Crisp Twist - delicious, it's an apple cinnamon yogurt with pieces of spiced walnuts, cinnamon crunch & glazed pie crust pieces. The yogurt was pure white and tasted very authentic. And the pie crust pieces were an awesome add on.

Chobani Pumpkin Blended -  This tasted really authentic and delicious.

Chobani Caramel Apple - I thought the caramel flavor was a little too smoky, there were a few small pieces of apple. I would just rate this ok.

Siggi's Pumpkin Spice - This had a very mild pumpkin flavor, it was more about the spices.

Noosa Pumpkin Yogurt - This seasonal yogurt used to be only available at Target, but now Whole Foods has it! Noosa is my favorite yogurt but it's high in calories and sugar so it's only an occasional treat for me.
Noosa is an Aussie style yogurt which is similar to rich Greek yogurt. It’s made in Colorado from milk free of artificial growth hormones (rBGH) and artificial preservatives from outdoor cows that eat grain and alfalfa grown without pesticides. Eating organic yogurt free of artificial sugar (splenda) has always been really important to me. Their pumpkin flavor is absolutely divine, it was incredibly delicious!! I split the container into two servings so it’s better calorie wise. Definitely make sure to get your hands on one, you won’t regret it! Noosa also has some new flavors out, a whole line of yogurt with hot pepper in it, no thank you! But I do want to try the Mexican chocolate.

Ok so I know this is a post just about yogurt, but I had to also throw in one other thing.
Annie's Pasta in a pumpkin and sweet potat0 sauce - I was skeptical about this one, but it was surprisingly good. The directions say to use non-dairy milk but all I had was vanilla almond milk, thankfully the vanilla flavor was almost non-existent. I added some butter, peas and a little left-over pumpkin I had from a pumpkin I recently baked. Then sprinkled some cheese on top and it was delicious!

I like chocolate but was never really into chocolate ice cream until my co-worker brought in Ben & Jerry's ice cream in Chocolate Therapy and it was love at first taste! It's Chocolate Ice Cream with Chocolate Cookies & Swirls of Chocolate Pudding Ice Cream. A serving is  ½ cup at 250 calories with 130 calories from fat and 23g of sugar. I've talked about Halo low cal ice cream before and decided to try out their chocolate flavor. Now first I should say you're probably thinking, "I've tried Arctic Zero ice cream and hated it." Yes me too. It tastes like a nasty frozen protein shake. Halo top is nothing like Arctic Zero. For one it has a good frozen consistency and actually tastes good! The chocolate flavor is a dead ringer for B&Js ice cream, I'm not kidding! One entire pint of Halo top is  240 calories! But who eats a whole pint at one time? The ½ cup serving size is only 60 calories with 18g from fat and 4g of sugar! I also tried the vanilla flavor and it's just as good as well. So run, don't walk, to your local Whole Foods to pick yourself up a pint of Halo Top!

I wanted to share some (new to me) protein/snack bars that are different than your usual/traditional protein bars. These all taste delicious and are made from clean ingredients, no splenda/suralose which is a chemical I avoid in all my foods. I've written about splenda before.  I know everyone loves their Quest bars, but take a closer look at their ingredients. It has whey isolate and Isomalto-Oligosaccharides (a fake fiber), I don't like to eat processed food. I still make my peanut butter coconut balls, linked below, every month.

Health Warrior Chia Bar
These 100 calories bars are my favorite low-calorie snack. It's primarily made of chia seeds and coconut but comes in a variety of flavors. My favorite flavors are the regular coconut,  the dark chocolate and acai berry. They often go on sale at Whole Foods or you can buy them online. They have 3g of protein.

RX Bar
They are made up of only four ingredients: egg whites, fruits and nuts. You can find it at Trader Joe's, Whole Foods or online. They are 200 calories and 12g of protein.

Square Bar
These bars are soft chocolate-coated cakes. The first ingredient is coconut nectar so that's what the insides are primarily made of. They are 230 calories and 11g of protein. The only flavor I don't like is Mint, it tastes like a too strong girl scout cookie. You can find it at Whole Foods or online but don't purchase online in the summertime because the chocolate will melt.

Perfect Bar
I got turned on to these at the barre studio I take classes at. This meal bar is 290 calories and my favorite flavor is the Almond Coconut which has cranberries in it. They have 8g of protein. You can find them at Whole Foods, 7/11, Target or online.


Related Posts:
Protein Bars
22 Days Protein Bar
DIY Peanut Butter Coconut Balls

Today's post is all about green stuff for St. Patty's Day.
A couple weeks ago I woke up early to compete in a St. Patrick's Day run but when I looked at the weather report, and saw the cold weather and hail, unfortunately I decided to skip it and was really bummed. So instead I made my Match Green Tea facial mask.

I'm on the social committee at work and created a fun celebration for St. Patrick's Day including door prizes, Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes, Guinness and green jelly beans! We had a meeting scheduled for St. Patty's day, but someone suggested we be "culturally sensitive" and not book a 4pm meeting on St. Patrick's Day out of respect for Irish Americans who may want to celebrate. lol Check out my St Patrick's themed nails from last year.

If you want a healthy green food snack idea try a pot of green with grapes, kiwi and honeydew or kiwi chia pudding.

Chobani yogurt just released their new limited edition flavor - green tea. I love green tea ice cream and this yogurt has a very subtle taste.
I made Green Overnight Oats.

• 1 large handful fresh spinach 
• 1 large ripe banana
• 1.5 tbsp chia seeds (necessary for thickening)
• 1 cup almond milk
• 1/3 cup rolled oats

Keysocks $12
These no show socks are an awesome alternative to footies that always slide off your feet.  Now you can wear socks with your favorite flats or heels without having to adjust every five minutes.
They use a revolutionary process that converts coffee residue into an eco-friendly, soft fiber. How cool is that?!

They cut-out at the top of the foot so you still get that no sock look yet at the same time keeps your leg warm during this season. The only thing I didn't like about it is that there's a blue cross on the back on it so if your pants aren't super long, it will be seen. I bought my pair off of amazon.



Bluapple Ethylene Gas Absorber- 2 Apples 2 Bluapples $10
I put these in my crisper drawer which had a bell pepper in it. It kept my bell pepper fresh for weeks! I eat them regularly and find that they don't last that long in the fridge so I'm really impressed with this product. Like your Brita filter these last for 3 months then you switch out the absorber refills to prolong the freshness of the storage life of your fruits and vegetables. You can find them at Bed, Bath and Beyond, it's half the price than on amazon.

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I love subscription boxes, and well generally getting anything fun in the mail! For beauty products I get Allure's Sample Society and now for jewelry I signed up for Rocksbox. What netflix is to DVDs, rocksbox is to jewelry - a monthly subscription service! For $19 a month they send you a box (with a pretty black ribbon) with 3 pieces of designer jewelry based on your style profile. You can wear the items on loan for as long as you want or return them as fast as you can for your next box. There is the option to buy the pieces they send you but I love have the variety of pieces to wear to keep my wardrobe fresh. They include a free shipping back to return the items. From my first box I liked 2 out of the 3 pieces so I went back and adjusted my survey answers to make sure it's a better fit next time. They even have a wishlist section on their website so you can mark which items you'd like next.

I love fresh udon noodles, the kind you get in restaurants. Unfortunately the dry packages you buy at the grocery store doesn't just taste the same. But you can see the meals I made with udon noodles here and here. Then I came across Annie Chun's Udon Soup Bowl available at Trader Joe's or Target. The noodles are thick and delicious! I added tofu and shiitake mushrooms to make it a more complete meal. Try it out and let me know what you think.
 

I know there's so many gadgets out there that you think what's the point, the old fashioned way works just fine. Well let me tell you these gadgets get a lot of use of me and make things so easy!

I've been eating so many cherries this summer because of this pitter. It's just so much enjoyable to throw a pitted cherry into your mouth so all you focus on is enjoying the flavor instead of fishing out the seed with your teeth. I've been eating a lot of cherry topped oatmeal so this makes it easy for me to prep the cherries for it.


I use this container to store cut lemons in my fridge.