Five on Friday!

Anyone else ridiculously pumped that Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow and we’ll be getting an early Spring!?! I am beyond ready to pack up my turtlenecks and break out my bright colors!

On to a lengthy post of highlights from this week…

one.  For those of you looking for a Valentine’s Day gift for the man in your life I wanted to share one of my best gifts to Matt – a Moscow Mule kit! I gave this to him last year and he still talks about how much he loves it! And his Moscow Mule Mug has gotten lots of use! This kit is really so easy to put together too. In a basket I threw in some Tito’s vodka, a ginger beer, a lime and a copper mug!

two. To break away from our usual tacos, breakfast, pizza, takeout dinner rotation I signed up for HelloFresh (at the strong recommendation from a friend) to add some gourmet variety to our meals! To say I am impressed with this incredible service would be a huge understatement. And NO, this is NOT a sponsored post. I am just really that impressed that I wanted to pass along this goodness to y’all.

If I were going to narrow down my experience to three highlights I’d say…

1. Packaging: I really appreciated the way the meals were packaged and insulated with ice packs. Each recipe has it’s own box of fresh ingredients and you get exactly what you need. So not only did I save money by not making three extra trips to the grocery store this week, I didn’t waste a whole bunch of herbs when all I needed was exactly a tablespoon!

2. Quality Ingredients: I am pretty picky when selecting my meat and fresh veggies at the grocery store but my ingredients were super fresh and perfect (the chicken didn’t have any extra fat, my tomatoes were firm, my herbs weren’t wilted, etc.).

3. Gourmet Recipe Variety: In our first box we received ingredients for generous portion sizes of Stuffed Zucchini Boats, Chicken Yakatori and Brown Sugar Glazed Pork Tenderloin. I honestly didn’t even know what Chicken Yakatori was until it arrived to my house and I read the recipe card. But that’s why this is so cool! I would have never thought to put this in my meal plan but am glad that HelloFresh pushed some variety on me. I should also mention that the recipes are kept to under 30-40 minutes, including prep and cook time and last all week in the fridge. Each meal comes with a pretty recipe card that simply outlines the steps with photos too.

Okay, one more!

4. Subscription Cost. Because this is important! We keep our grocery shopping on a tight budget so I was hesitant that this would increase our meal planning costs but it actually reduced our grocery bill a teeny bit and prevented us from stopping at the Chick-fil-a drive-thru. I also priced out the ingredients at the grocery store and it was about the same cost to make the meal if I bought the ingredients myself.

So I subscribed to the Classic Food Box which allows you to pick 3 meals from five choices. This box costs $69. You can pause your subscription anytime you want, as often you want, for as long as you want. Or cancel it anytime! So you don’t really have to commit to getting the boxes every week or every other week. You also have the option to choose between different types of boxes (family size, vegetarian, etc.) of meals that serve 2 people, 4 people or 6 people.

Want to try HelloFresh? Use promo code MG8GKD for $40 off your first box! That means you can try out HelloFresh for $29 and then cancel after your box arrives or keep on going.

three. Yesterday we came home to the happiest package on our door step — Valentine hair bows from Julia’s Bowtique! Watching Caroline rip open her package and scream “bows!!!” was too cute too. I often get asked where her bows are from and well, 99% of them are from Julia’s Bowtique! So here is a little peek into Caroline’s bows for this holiday of love!

four. Going to a Super Bowl party this weekend? I have the perfect food post for you which includes my favorite Loaded Baked Potato Dip, my Hot Caprese Dip,the best dang burgers you’ll ever eat and more! Check out the post here.

five. Last weekend Matt was away for a retreat and I had the kids on my own. Phew. I’m still exhausted just thinking about it. I kept them so busy bouncing around to activities and play dates to keep us all sane and happy and by the end of the weekend I was whooped. Stay at home mamas, I give you the biggest shout out ever. It’s no easy feat to keep two minis entertained all day long on your own! A few highlights from our busy agenda…

We met friends for a yummy bagel date!

 And it was finally warm enough to get outside and run around.

Y’all know how obsessed with wagon rides we are! Thomas is finally at an age where we can strap him in and he loves it. So every few hours we did a lap around the neighborhood.

We also met April and Camille for lunch at Cowfish! The kiddos had a blast (and so did the mamas)!

These two. Love it. And yes, Caroline is really that petite! Gets it from her mama.

We wrapped up both nights with lots of bath play time. Both kids confined in a small space and happily entertaining themselves after a long day is the best. I highly recommend Mr Bubble Foam Soap if you’re looking to add more fun to your bath routine!

 

Wanna join Darci, April, Natasha and I on the
Friday fun? You can link-up on any of our four blogs every Friday! All you have
to do is…

1.)
Write your post about five things you’re lovin’ this week (or any five things
you want to share!).

2.) Share the logo on your blog and link back. 

3.)
Link-up at the bottom of the post so some new readers can check out your five
things and say hello!