More of my Favorite Things - Trivia Night, Heart Rate Watch, Trader Joe's Find, and the NatureBox winner

Happy Friday!  I'm always happy to see Friday come around, but am even more excited this week.  Why, you may ask?  Well...tomorrow we head out for a vacation!  We're going to Jackson Hole (WY) and Yellowstone for a little adventure and R&R, and I can't wait!

YOU, on the other hand, may be excited it's Friday because I'm announcing the winner of the NatureBox giveaway that started Monday.  :)  In addition to announcing the lucky person who will be receiving a bunch of yummy snacks in a few weeks, I'm also going to share a few of other new favorite things with you today.

Heart Rate Watch - I mentioned a few weeks ago how I found a heart rate monitor at Target.  I was totally overwhelmed by the instructions that came with it (they were seriously the size of a map), but once Travis helped me go through them, we realized they didn't need to be that in depth - it was actually quite simple!

You enter your height, weight, gender, date & time information and any daily goals you may have (steps, miles and/or calories burned), strap on the watch and start working out!  Everything seems to work well except for the pulse feature - it's a little finicky.
A 25 minute run/walk session is even more exciting when you realize you burned 350 calories!  Whoop!

Trivia - A few weeks ago, a group of friends had our first "Trivia Night" experience at a local restaurant, The Brickyard.  It was so. much. fun.  The Brickyard hosts trivia in their basement lounge, so we hung out on a long sofa, ate lots of food, and spewed knowledge all over the place.

Every time you turned in an answer, you also "bid" on it, based on how confident you were in your answer, which added another fun element to the game.  It wasn't just who got the most questions right!

Best of all, we won a $50 gift card to the restaurant, so we got a discount on our food.  I can already tell we're going to be regulars.

Trader Joe's Inner Peas - I'm in love with these new veggie snacks from TJ's.  My office is conveniently across the street from Trader Joe's so I go there frequently (ok...more than frequently...like all the time).

A few weeks ago I noticed a new product situated right next to the registers, so I decided to give them a try.  These "Inner Peas" have 6 ingredients and 130 calories per 22 "peas".  The best part is they are REALLY great.  Light, slightly crispy, and a little salty - yum.  :)

If you live near a Trader Joe's, you should check them out STAT.





Ok - now for what you've been waiting for!  To pick the winner of the free NatureBox, I used Random.org.  Congratulations, commenter number 14 - VICKY MAPLES!  Vicky said:

What a great concept to have and a great price too.  Corey and I have started to make a healthy lifestyle change to benefit our future for baby Sebastian.  It's nice that every month it changes that way you're not suck eating the same thing day after day getting bored and giving up.

I'll send you an email shortly so you can claim your prize.

If you're NOT Vicky, you can still give NatureBox a try.  If you use the coupon code NATURE to get 25% off your first month's order!

Some of my new favorite things + a GIVEAWAY!

Today's a blog milestone - it's my first giveaway!!  I'm also going to share a few of my new favorite things with you.  Check'em out!

Alexander McCall Smith's series of books, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series has made me excited about reading again.  My mom gave me the first book in this series several years ago.  A few months ago I picked it up and decided to give it a shot, and have since fallen in love with Mma Ramotswe, Mma Makutsi, and Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni.  Mma Ramotswe decides to use her inheritance to open up Botswana's first detective agency, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency.

The book is about life in Africa and the cases Mma Ramotswe and her assistant, Mma Makutsi, work on.  The characters and writing are so sweet, and I often find myself chuckling to myself as I'm reading.  I just finished the fifth book and ordered 6 and 7 online earlier this week.  I'm hooked.




I'm kind of in love with my new grocery bag.  I love bags (I think I got that from my mother), and I especially love reusable grocery bags.  When we first moved to Boston and I saw the $1 reusable bags at Shaw's, I bought 4 almost every time I went to the store.  We had 25-30 in no time, and Travis put a firm "do not buy any more" order on me.  They were coming out our ears.  These worked fine, but eventually the bottoms broke, things always got jumbled, and the bags often slid around in the back of my CRV.

A few weeks ago someone from The Grocer sent me one of their reusable bags to try out.  It has a hard bottom that snaps into place, and the sides have metal bars that keep the bag from tipping over in the back of your car.  When you're not using it, fold it flat so it doesn't take up much room in your trunk.  It also has removable straps that you can use as handles, an over-the-shoulder strap, or as a backpack.  Brilliant.

The only thing I'd like to see added are more cute colors!  Right now they come in red, green, and grey which are nice.  I think it would be awesome to see some pretty polka dots or stripes.

Now for the fun part!!!  The fantastic people at The Grocer have agreed to give one of these handy bags away to a Much Ado reader.  Just leave your name and a comment below to enter, and I'll find a winner using random.org.  (The winner must reside in the US.)  Check back Monday, June 17th to see who the winner is!


If you read my blog about flatbread pizzas a few weeks ago, you know I'm now a big fan of Flat Outs.  They're 90 calories per wrap and are delicious.

You can use them to make wraps (obviously), flatbread pizzas like we did, or burritos, or quesadillas.  Mmmmm....

I really like Trader Joe's version of Fruit Roll-Ups.  They're 50 calories each and are organic and super sweet.  My favorite is the Apple Blueberry kind...YUM.

My Trader Joe's has these up at the register.  Just don't mistake them for another kind of 'fruit leather' floating around the store...those are gross.  :)

Sunday, my parents and I went to Not Your Average Joe's in Watertown for dinner.  The weather was perfect, so we sat outside and enjoyed our food.  Before dinner, their new summer drinks caught my eye and I excitedly ordered their Frozen Watermelon Lemonade.  Sounds like summer in a glass, doesn't it?  It was SO good.

I actually picked up some watermelon yesterday and am going to try to recreate it at home.  Fingers crossed it works out well, and I'll be sharing the recipe with YOU!

I'm also into DietBet.com.  (I mentioned it before in my blog about losing weight.)  When my friend Ann read the blog, she decided to start her own diet bet, so of course I joined!

I'm a little torn in this time around doing a bet with friends.  You want your friends to do well...but if everyone loses weight, you don't make money!  (haha) I'm fine with just getting my $25 back if everyone's getting healthy!  Whoop!


Ok...now...leave a comment below (don't forget your name) to be entered to win the bag!  The winner will be announced in my Monday blog, so check back!

What are some of your favorite new finds?

*I was provided a free reusable grocery bag from The Grocer to review, but all opinions are my own!