Paleo Overnight Chia Pudding

I like to hit snooze in the mornings. And when I say I like to, I mean I really, really like to. So much that Jon knows that when I say I have to get up at 6:00am I actually mean 6:45... It drives him nuts but for some reason I feel the need to have several reminders before I actually have to get up. Does anyone else do this?

Because I'm a lover of sleeping in a little bit later than I should I am a huge fan of this overnight chia pudding. It's takes seconds to make and looks so adorable in the half pint size mason jars. Food always tastes better when it's served in a mason jar. And when you have an adorable puppy nearby ;)

(P.S. this is Navajo and this is his first appearance here on the ol' blog! He is the service dog that we are currently training - follow him on Instagram @give_drop_leaveit to keep up with his adventures)

Paleo Overnight Chia Pudding

Ingredients
3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
3 tbsp. chia seeds (the more you add, the thicker the pudding will be)
2 tsp. maple syrup
1/2 tsp. vanilla
fresh berries, nuts, coconut flakes; optional

Directions
1. Put everything (except the berries) in a mason jar and shake well. The half pint size jars work perfectly.
2. Let sit in the fridge for at least 5 hours but overnight is best
3. Shake, shake, shake! Top with your favorite toppings and enjoy straight outta the jar.

Goodbye, Sweet Girl

Today I said my final goodbyes to my sweet and loyal friend, Ethel.

A little over 10 years ago I volunteered at a local animal shelter and was told that I was allowed to volunteer there as long as I didn't bring any pets home. Of course, I agreed to these terms and knew in the back of my head that I would be able to talk my parents into a pet if I really wanted to. Well a few weeks into volunteering there, I fell in love with one of the dogs. Fast forward 10 years later and you will easily see how big of an impact she has made on my family and how loved she was.

These last few weeks have been really rough for her. I hadn't seen her for a couple of months because of the move so I didn't know how bad of shape she actually was in. When I saw her on Friday evening I knew we had to do something to take her out of the pain.

Over the weekend, I spent every free minute I had with her. I am so happy that I had the opportunity to say goodbye to her and hold her in my arms for her final moments. While I hate to see her gone, I am so glad that I was blessed with such an amazing friend and now know that she is finally at peace.

Ten Years Later

A few weeks ago I promised my mom that I would drive home to help her clean, organize, and rearrange the storage room in the basement. This room holds everything from Christmas decorations to extra microwaves (thank you college dorm life). There are boxes of toys and stuffed animals, boxes full of birthday cards, trinkets, old clothes that should never see the light of day again, and so many photos.

Instead of just throwing the box of photos to the side and continuing on with the cleaning "fun" I decided to take a break and go through all of the photos. It's so strange to me to actually hold pictures in my hands as the new norm is to have them all on your phone or computer. This also makes me want to print every single picture that I have and put them in a big, old fashioned photo book just incase my computer were to randomly die and I lose every single one. (Are these considered old fashioned now?) 

Out of all of the photos, this one really stuck out to me.

This photo is from the summer of 2005, almost 10 years ago! I'm pretty sure it was taken on my 13th birthday. Ethel, my black lab was about 3 years old at the time and the only white speck on her is that tiny little spot you can see on her neck.

When I was 12 I volunteered at a local animal shelter and was told that I wasn't allowed to bring any animals home. Well when I was working there I wanted to save every single animal I saw but this sweet pup stood out to me. Every time I took her out to play she was so sweet and loving. She had a sister, Lucy, that had already been adopted so she was left on her own. I begged and begged my parents to let me bring her home. When I say begged, I literally had to ask about 100 times and tell them that I would scoop poop every week, take her to the vet, and buy her dog food. They finally gave in! So we all loaded up in the van, I gathered together every penny I owned ($50) and we headed to the animal shelter to bring Ethel home! The first night all of us kids slept in the living room with her on the floor in our sleeping bags and we've been in love with her ever since.

Fast forward 10 years and look at us now.

Still best friends! Just a little bit grayer - her, not me... yet ;)

It's crazy how fast these years have flown by and the changes in her! Looking at these two pictures side by side, I can hardly believe that it's the same dog!

Boy, oh boy do I love this girl! 

Puppy Sitting

First off, I want to say thank you for the amazing feedback on the Quest Nutrition Giveaway I held last week. I already contacted the winner, #161 Kaitlyn, and she is beyond excited to receive her bars! If you didn't win this giveaway and have never tried Quest Protein Bars before then you should definitely give them a run for their money. They are so delicious.

See this cute little guy below?

His name is Rex and he is Alex's furry little nephew! I've been puppy sitting him all week while his owners are out of town and he is so much fun. Sometimes he can be a handful but how can anyone resist an innocent puppy dog?

When we take him in the car he sits in the laundry basket and doesn't jump around the car! I'm not too sure what will happen when he doesn't fit in it anymore!

I have taken him on a few walks over the last week and the other day I took him for a short run! He did really well and seemed to enjoy it because the next day when I took him on a walk he just wanted to run!

While I have been watching him this past week I have been thinking more about my summer workouts and how I am going to fit them in with my busy schedule. Right now it's kind of hit and miss. Some days I go straight from class to work an 8 hour day and don't get home until it's dark out and I won't run outside at night by myself so I normally just skip those days. I am going to make a sincere effort from here on out to schedule more runs in the morning first thing so I don't have to miss as many. I hope to have some more fun workouts for you on the blog soon too! It's been awhile since you all have seen one of those!

Also - be sure to follow Rockin' Ribbons on Twitter! A giveaway will be happening over there sometime soon. But you must be a follower to enter!

Question

Do you have a dog that will run with you? My dogs are not runners at all.

Banana Bread & Puppy Treats

Around 10:00 last night, I wasn't tired and I saw a big bunch of bananas sitting on the kitchen counter. They weren't going to be eaten because they were too brown so it left me with two options: throw them away or make banana bread.

Can you guess what I did? I found a few recipes online and changed them up a bit because I wanted to use as many bananas as possible. Most recipes call for 2 or 3 bananas but not this one. This one doesn't have 3 or 4 bananas, it has 6! And it even has a handful of chocolate chips thrown in for a chocolatey kick!

Now I know that most of the recipes on this blog are recipes for desserts, meals, or snacks for humans but I thought I'd share one that I use when making treats for my dogs.

 

Mix all of the ingredients together

 Roll out the dough

Cut into pieces using a knife or a cookie cutter. I cut all of the treats for my dogs into squares and then used a fun shaped cookie cutter for some treats that I plan on giving to a friend's dog.

Place all of the treats on a baking sheet and then place in the oven for 18 minutes. The pieces can be realllly close together (just not touching) because they don't expand during the baking process.

Once they are cool you can then call your dogs into the kitchen (if they weren't at your feet begging already) and give them one of these tasty treats. These treats have my dogs' approval 100%.

Also, I just realized that this is my dogs' first appearance on the blog! So a little bit about my dogs.. Maci is on the left and Ethel on the right.

When I was in middle school I volunteered at a local animal shelter and I instantly fell in love with Ethel. She was such a calm dog and loved to be loved on whenever we took her out in the yard to play. She is getting close to 10 years old now but is still a really good dog. She still loves attention and gets jealous really easily. She can usually run a mile or so with me but Maci on the other hand... running isn't quite her thing. If you can't tell from the picture, she struggles with her weight a little bit, but that could also be due to the fact that my step-dad just can't say no to the puppy-dog face she puts on whenever he has food. My sister brought Maci home a couple of years ago when she was just a few weeks old and told my mom she found her in a parking lot. About a month later a lady asked my mom how the new dog was working out. My mom had never said anything to this lady about getting a new dog so she asked how she knew about the dog.. well apparently Stephanie had bought Maci off this lady for 20 bucks! Everything worked out though because Maci is such a loveable dog.

 Now that I am home for a few weeks, I am sure there will be a few more pictures up on the blog of these furry friends! I also have 3 cats but they aren't the most exciting animals so I don't think you will be seeing much of them on here.


Do you ever exercise with your dogs?