F&F Friday Favorites ~ 05.30.14

Good morning, and happy Friday! My life finally feels back to normal this week, and I couldn’t be happier about it. The long weekend definitely helped me de-stress and catch up, which I’m thankful for.

If you missed any F&F posts this week, here’s my recap:

• Memorial Day and Teaching Schedule Changes
• Katrina’s Bridal Shower and Bachelorette
• Southwestern Fiesta Salad with Cilantro Lime Dressing
• The Awk Spot: The Time I Blew Up A Ball At My Desk

And here’s my weekly link love!

Fitness

• Good stuff on kettlebell use: Why do kettlebell swings hurt my lower back? and how to “handle” the kettlebell
• Are you causing your body more harm than good? So you need a rest day
• Good ideas in here: Best weighted ab exercises and five core rules of core workouts
• Need some tips for rowing form? How to get better at rowing

Worksite Wellness

• Deskercise: 33 legit ways to exercise at work
• I cannot WAIT for our CSA program to start with this company: What if you could pick up your produce at work?

Foodie & Recipes

• I am guilty of thinking honey, agave, etc. are better for you: Sorry, but there’s no such thing as healthy sugar
• This is perfect since we just bought a new grill last weekend: 56 healthier burger recipes to kick off grilling season
• Another great round-up: 36 summer salads and sides
• YUM: No bake blueberry custard pie
• So GREEN and perfect for summer: Spiralized raw zucchini salad with avocado and edamame

Inspiration

• Truth: 6 things you can’t learn from your bathroom scale
• I may have shared this before, but I re-read it this week, and it still resonates: Consider the dominoes

Blogging

• Still on my to do list, but this is a great resource: How to design a free media kit for your blog
• Google Plus Guide: 5 easy steps to getting started on Google+
• Kudos to this blogger for staying true to herself despite the haters: My ever-changing viewpoint on Paleo and CrossFit

—Let’s chat–
Any link love you’d like to share? What did you do over the long weekend? Were your weeks busy or relaxing? What’s on tap for this weekend?

For me: Staying in tonight, subbing 9am cardio conditioning tomorrow and helping our friends Ashley and Bret move, family party, and Sunday seeing my awesome friend Bridget receive her coach of the year award at Fenway Park. Whatever you do, hope it’s awesome!

The Awk Spot: The Time I Blew Up A Ball At My Desk

You GUYS. I haven’t posted something in my Awk Spot series in a WHOLE YEAR. Don’t worry, I haven’t lost my love for awkward moments. Rest assured that awkward situations and people are CERTAINLY still finding me. I guess I just haven’t written about as many of my awkward experiences as I used to? A reader actually called me out recently on not having posted any awk spots in a long time, so today I’m here to warn you guys about how NOT to blow up an exercise ball at work.

Obviously.

Through my worksite wellness program, we encourage staff to decrease the amount of time spent sitting all day, and we recommend replacing standard desk chairs with alternative workstations. My group recently purchased a few stability balls and standing desks to “practice what we preach.” I put that in quotes because I haven’t been the best about making the switch from my desk chair, but I’m trying!

However, if you ARE making the switch to a stability ball chair, my advice to you is to forgo the old-fashioned hand pump when trying to blow the damn thing up. Otherwise, you are going to look extremely awkward while pumping away under your desk.

Really, it’s not the best motion to be doing in the work place. It gets you weird looks. Oh, and welcome to my little 9-5 home. Now you have a visual of my work environment. Pretty exciting standard. I look smart in my glasses though, don’t I?

ANYWAYS. Back to pumping. Get rid of the hand pump. But really, the foot pump isn’t necessarily much better…

Right?! Why is blowing up a darn stability ball the funniest slash dirtiest thing ever?! Even the directions were dirty. I can’t even repeat what they said to do. Don’t worry, once the ball is blown up, sitting on it is a whole different story. Every movement gets you an awkward squeak where you feel obligated to explain that you are sitting on a stability ball so your co-workers don’t think you are THAT person who farted at their desk. Oh, and there’s really no graceful way to get off of the ball when standing back up. Trust me. None.

I promise that my corporate wellness programming is more advanced than this, but I needed something silly to get me through the end of my week. Now I’m off to put together an inspirational wellness talk that I’m giving to a group of nurses at a marketing event in a couple of weeks.

I’m thinking I’ll leave the balls out of it.

–Let’s chat–
Do you use an alternative workstation? Any awkward exercise ball stories you’d like to share? Does anyone want to tell me about an awkward moment you’ve had recently?

New to F&F in the past year? You have a lot of catching up to do!

• The Time I Was Poised (But Still Spilled the Coffee)
• The Time I Tripped and Dropped the Wine
• The Time I Taught Barefoot Zumba
• The Time Tim Tried Spin Class
• The Time Slesh Hugged A Stranger
• The Time I Was THAT Girl in the Audience
• The Time I Got Hit On at the Gym and then Tripped
• The Time I Was Afraid of Balls
• The Time Everyone Put Their Hands Up
• The Time(s) I Got Pooped On
• The Time I Got Stuck in a Drive Through ATM
• The Time I Got Yelled At On a Plane
• The Time I Forgot My Towel
• The Time I Was a Massage Virgin
• The Time I Needed Mothballs & Pantyhose

Enjoy!

Southwestern Fiesta Salad with Cilantro Lime Dressing

Southwestern meals are always a big hit in our home. Sometimes we’ll plan our meals for the week, only to realize that everything we have to prep involves avocado or cilantro in some way. We just can’t get enough of these flavors!

Southwestern Fiesta Salad with Cilantro Lime Dressing

Ingredients

For the salad

• 1/2 pound ground turkey thigh and 1/2 pound of ground turkey breast (can also use one pound of either or)
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 head of Bibb lettuce
• 2 ears of corn
• 1/2 pint grape tomatoes
• 2 red peppers, roasted
• 1/2 yellow onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 avocado
• 1 can black beans, rinsed
• 2 tbsp chili powder
• 1/2 tbsp paprika
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tbsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 2 tbsp oregano
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Shredded cheese of choice

For the dressing

• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
• 1/4 cup grapeseed oil (EVOO would also be fine)
• Juice from 3 limes
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp plain Greek yogurt
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

For the salad

1. Mix the two turkey meats together in a bowl
2. Add the extra virgin olive oil to a skillet over medium heat, and then sauté the onion until translucent. Add the garlic, and let cook for one minute.
3. Add the turkey and all the seasonings to the pan, and cook until the turkey is brown.
4. While turkey is cooking, thinly slice the lettuce and set aside.
5. Roast the peppers, then let them sit for seven minutes before peeling and chopping.
6. Grill the corn for two minutes on each side on a very hot grill. If you get char marks, it will add extra flavor and color!
7. Cut the grape tomatoes in half.
8. Slice the avocado.
9. Put the lettuce in a bowl, then mix everything else together, including the black beans. Plate over the lettuce, and sprinkle with shredded cheese if desired.

For the dressing

1. In a medium bowl, whisk all dressing ingredients except for the yogurt.
2. Once fully combined, add yogurt.
3. Add to salads for extra flavor, and enjoy!

In this recipe, you could easily replace all those seasonings with a taco packet, but we prefer to season ourselves to control sodium levels. Plus, we always feel more comfortable knowing what’s going into our food. You could also choose to buy the roasted red peppers in a jar, but I always think the jarred version is pretty oily so we do the roasting ourselves too.

The dressing is the hit of this meal! The combination of cilantro and lime is to die for, unless you are one of those weird people who was born with the “cilantro tastes like soap” gene. If that’s you, I feel sorry for you.

This is a good choice for a healthy lunch or dinner. Hope you like it!

–Let’s chat–
What’s a tried and true flavor in your household? Anyone else obsessed with southwestern?

For more F&F southwestern recipes, try:

• Five layer Mexican bean dip
• Southwestern stuffed acorn squash
• Very colorful quinoa salad