friday favorites 4.18.14

box.com
some of you may have seen the stories flying around the last 2 weeks after dropbox announced they added condoleezza rice to their board of directors. i've used dropbox for years and have loved it, but i made the switch this week to box.com for 2 reasons. 1. personal political views, 2. more space for free. clearly, in the course of normal life, more space for free would have been my first reason to switch, but if not for the "rice" of it all, i would never have sought out an alternative. box.com works just like dropbox but with 7gb of storage more for free. it does require a higher os on my laptop than i current;y have in order to have a synced folder on the desktop, but i'll be upgrading that soon as well. even if rice's appointment doesn't bother you, it's still worth checking out box.com.

protein pancakes

nearly every fitness/health food blog i read has a recipe for protein pancakes. also a trend, these bloggers seem to have enough time to make one fresh every morning. sadly, i do not have that luxury. whether la traffic, work sched or inability to wake before 6:50, there's no way i'm getting showered, dressed and fed before i head to work.

then last weekend as i preheated my oven to warm up my trader joe's blueberry waffles i thought, i wonder if the protein pancakes would reheat? guess what, they do!

you'll also need milk

pop physique

if you're not following mindy kaling on instagram, you should be. the sartorial pics alone are enough to brighten your day. a few weeks ago in a refresh i saw this

via instagram.com/mindykaling

it was like something out of speed racer. i had to google away. pop physique is yet another exercise class created by a former ballet dancer, but this time, the music is rockin! i found one in my neighborhood and decided to give it a whirl. lucky me, groupon had a 5 classes for 50% off deal, score!

friday favorites 4.11.14

zombies run 2

i started a mission with zombies run 1 way back when i was training for the disney half. now that the sun is up long enough for a short run after work, i'm back to the zombies. in season 2 there's now an online community and base building within the app. there's also 5k and 10k side missions to help get ready for a race, rather than just interval training. the app also integrates your playlist in between instructions. it's been 2 years so i've reset the game, runner 5 is on a mission!

chicken quinoa broccoli casserole

yeah, i know, there's been a lot of quinoa lately. i found a bag in the back of the pantry and i just had to use it. years ago southern living posted a recipe for "invent your own casserole." you basically picked a pasta, meat, frozen veggie, can of soup and added them to milk, water and sour cream. perfect casserole every time. this is the same principal, save the sour cream and canned soup.

friday favorites 4.4.14

trader joe's channa marsala

this is one of those items i pick up every time i go to tj's. i got it first when a friend was going out of town for 8 months and emptied the contents of his fridge/freezer into mine. this is my go to quick dinner with some batsimi rice. i pour half the channa over rice and save the rest for later.

apple cinnamon quinoa bake

i'm always looking for something quick and portable for breakfast. i'm not really hungry, or even able to eat breakfast before i land at my desk. the oatmeal with an apple got a bit ho hum and i happened to stumble upon this treat on popsugar.com

smelled so good while cooking