Oh the delicious glass of sangria, normally I am partial to red but I had a bottle of white chilled and some leftover fruit ready to be used. I thought why not go for some white sangria. A big pitcher with Sauvignon Blanc, cantaloupe, strawberries, pineapple, lemon and basil.

Yes basil. It’s a must. It give the sangria just a hint of herbal flavor that pairs so nicely with the fruit. Scott and I enjoyed this out by our fire pit. We pulled up a chair, talked about the last crazy busy few weeks (weddings, travel, moving, and family in town) and just relaxed. It was perfect.

The following post is being sponsored by Fitfluential LLC on behalf of Vitafusion.

I recently went from a small travel pill container to a large one. You know the one your Grandma has? Yup that is me with my vitamins. Scott makes fun of me all the time but I need all my vitamins to fit in one spot, with all the travel that I do I need to fill it up once a week throw it in my purse and just remember to take them everyday.

What is is currently filled with:

Fish Oil

Calcium

Vitamin B

Vitamin D

Hair, Skin & Nails (I am growing my hair out a few inches)

Zyrtec

Multi Vitamin

I just started taking the VITAFUSION® MULTIVITES, they provide an essential daily formula in a delicious gummy vitamin. They are specially formulated for adults and combine key nutrients and natural flavors for a delicious and nutritious gummy vitamin.

• Complete multivitamin with 200 percent of the
• Daily Value (DV) for Vitamin D3; as much as 3 ounces of Salmon
• Supports energy metabolism*
• Antioxidant vitamins C and E
• Supports immune health*
• An excellent source of vitamins B12 and B6, folic
  acid and pantothenic acid
• As much vitamin A as one cup of broccoli
• As much vitamin C as one tangerine
• Comes in natural berry, peach and orange flavors

I love these! Makes me feel like a kid and these are much easier to chew than having to swallow the big pills I was taking. I even have Scott taking them. I think I am a convert to gummy vitamins, next on the list to try is gummy fish oil. That would make my vitamin taking so much easier.

During the peak of tomato season I think I could live on caprese salad, fresh mozzarella, perfectly ripe tomatoes and a drizzle of delicious aged balsamic. Can’t you just picture yourself sitting in some Italian town eating this and drinking a glass of wine…

Now let’s come back to reality: work, life, etc. But you can easily have that same experience right in your home (maybe with some ear plugs) with this Quinoa Caprese Salad. A great vegetarian friendly salad that is perfect as a meal or with something grilled.

What takes this salad to that thisissogood level is balsamic glaze. I had a bottle from Trader Joe’s in the pantry ready to go but you could make your own by reducing high quality balsmic until it is thick and syrupy.

With the craziness of the past few months I had skipped out on a few rounds of Bootcamp and I quickly figured out. I missed it! A lot. I love Tina’s workouts, they keep me challenged, motivated and really do make me look forward to going to the gym. When the next round of Best Body Bootcamp was announced I signed up again.

It starts on Monday and I can not wait to get back to structured workouts. Especially in my new gyms (Anytime Fitness and Experience Fitness) and still getting to focus on yoga. Best of both worlds!

What I am looking forward to:

Supersets. My favorite way to group exercises!

Changing up my cardio.

Pushing myself! Stepping outside of half planned program and really focusing on lifting weights!

8 weeks of hard workouts!

I will be checking in weekly with thoughts, favorite exercises and how I am doing.

The winner of the Target gift  card was Matt, I will contact you. Enjoy!

We have officially been in the house almost 3 weeks and it is starting to feel like home. After about 4 days we were completely moved in, rooms painted, things put away and we were starting to hang art (I know we are crazy, but I am really organized and things were pretty easy to get in the house and put away).

This was the perfect house for us. From the moment we walked in, we know it was supposed to be our house. And the funny thing about it is that it wasn’t even on the market when we saw it. It was a friend of a friends and the previous owners had tried to sell it for almost a year in 2011/2012 and they decided to take it off the market. Our friend mentioned it to us and we had our realtor get in contact with their realtor and set up a showing.

The day we saw it (mid February) was a really cold day, lots of snow on the ground and we still knew that we wanted this house. It was a great layout, in a convenient location for both Scott and I, & on a really nice amount of land.

We put our offer in, negotiated a bit and then went through mortgage hel$. Worst experience ever. Scott and I had both owned before and it was never this bad. Lost documents, discovering identity theft, sending in documents 3 different times, having more information request days before closing and having our closing moved from a Monday, to a Wednesday to a Friday. But now we have keys in hand, are mostly settled, have a few rooms to go furniture shopping for, & our first party is on the calendar for July. It feels so good. My stress level has returned to a manageable level and I feel settled for the first time in years.

I won’t share every little detail about the house but here a few of my favorite features:

Kitchen, lots of counter space and updated appliances!

Living room fireplace, I can’t wait to decorate it for the holidays!

The pool it has been too cold/rainy to use yet, the dogs have been it in though

We are on about 2 acres, it goes way back and we have a decent front yard too. Less than 2 miles to Target, grocery stores, shopping etc but a very country feel.

A few weeks ago I participated in a Twitter Chat about Pinot Noir’s from Chile. Delicious, interesting pinot noir. I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with pinot, sometime it is the perfect wine and sometimes it just falls flat.

I find that a really good pinot can be about $30 dollars but when I step out of Washington, Oregon and California and go to Chile I can find a great one for $20. They aren’t all great but my favorite from the tasting was the 2010 Montes Alpha that retails for $23.

The lineup:

Ritual: $19.99

Nimbus: $20

Montes Alpha: $23

Each pinot had very distinct flavors and were a great showcase of Chilean Pinot Noir.

This is one of those salads that is perfect for a summer get together, lunches, or as a side to grilling. Easy to make, I often have most of the ingredients on hand (except black eyed peas, darn those were hard to find) and it’s vegan. Full of fresh flavors, beans that keep you full and just a hint of spice from the jalapeno.

I made a batch of this on Sunday afternoon after we got back from my friend Jess and Matt’s wedding (can’t wait to show pictures!!!) and we ate this for a few lunches. I want to make this with fresh Minnesota corn… my mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Since we had a non existent spring and it’s felt like it has been raining way too much we haven’t had enough time to grill! Even though it was drizzling one night Scott braved the drops and fired up the grill.

I had skirt steak on the menu and that is what I wanted! Seriously nothing better than a spice rubbed steak, add in a glass of wine and I am a happy girl. Not to mention that my country boy meat eating husband loves his steak.

Since we moved I have really changed up my morning routine, I used to go to the gym/yoga and head home to get ready. Now I had to the gym or yoga on Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday mornings and get ready there.

Since I changed gyms I no longer have this huge luxurious locker room, at yoga there is great showers but very little space to actually get ready so you end up finding some corner near a mirror and Anytime/Experience Fitness have much smaller locker rooms.

A few things I’ve learned recently:

Remember to bring a towel. Corepower, Anytime and Experience Fitness don’t provide towels. It’s rather annoying but I am getting used to it. I just triple check my gym bag the night before to make sure I have one with.

Have everything in travel sized containers and organized. I use a Thirty One organizer (they no longer have this exact one but have a few similar items). All of my shower products, lotion, hair products, brush are stored in here & never leave my gym bag.

I have gotten my gym make-up bag down to exactly what I need, no big make-up bag to haul around but the exact items I need to get ready. Saves so much time digging. I use the Timeless Beauty Bag and have face products in one pouch, eyes in another, and blush, bronzer and miscellaneous in the last. Perfect bag for on the go!

Shower shoes. A cheap pair of flip flops from Old Navy, but a most for walking around the locker room.

Drink water while getting ready. I have a hard time cooling down & it helps to drink another 24 ounces while getting ready.

Make sure everything is ready to go the night before. I pack my gym bag with towels, clothes for the next day, shoes and make sure my shower products/make up are in there. I leave it right by the back door so I can grab it in the morning when I head out to the garage. My alarm goes off about 5:15, I quickly get dressed in my workout clothes, let the dogs out & feed them and get on the road so I am ready to workout by 5:45 at the gym or my 6am sculpt class. Within another week or two I will have this process under my belt again. Amazing what a year+ of a new routine will do to a routine you were used to for 7+  years.

The winner of the Onzie giveaway is: Whitney , I will email you! Enjoy that gift card & picking out a cute outfit!

$25 dollars to Target. Because who doesn’t need that? I can barely make it out without spending a $100 dollars. I’ve been working with C9 at Target on a few posts and they sent me a $25 gift card to giveaway.

Thanks to C9 for sponsoring this giveaway. Just tell me what you would spend that $25 dollars on and I will pick a random winner on Wednesday the 5th.