This post contains affiliate links. I will be compensated for purchases made through those links at no additional cost to you. All views expressed are my own. Thanks for your support! Happy New Year everyone!! I feel like I've seen a lot of people express some great resolve for this year. I think 2020 was so hard on everyone, we're determined to make 2021 better, no matter what. Here at 3 Winks Design, we want to support you in all of your endeavors. When it comes to New Year's Resolutions, a common one is to eat healthy! Especially after the holidays we all come into the new year feeling the need to eat healthier. Whether it is a New Year or not, eating healthy helps us feel better. So, bookmark all of these healthy recipes to use throughout 2021, and may this new year be happier, and healthier, for all of us! 1. Stovetop Chicken with Quinoa This recipe is one my mom made last summer, and she STILL talks about it! She shows you how to make the quinoa perfect, and the quinoa and chicken are super tasty! Just ask my mom, she will still rave about it to you today! 2. Summer Smoothie Recipes This one is a bonus because my mom showed you a few different recipes. Smoothies are a classic healthy option. You can throw in so many fruits and vegetables. You can beef these up with some beets or spinach. It is a great way to get a few servings of fruits and veggies in your day! 3. Renny's Chicken Salad This recipe is one of my favorites. I featured it on the blog a few years ago. It really has everything you need for a flavorful and delicious chicken salad! It is packed with fruits, veggies, and nuts! Plus, instead of mayo, I used Greek yogurt! This is a fun, fresh, and delicious meal! 4. Almond Butter Chicken Wraps These Almond Butter Chicken Wraps are another favorite of mine! I showed you how to make them a few years ago on the blog. I use lettuce as a wrap, so this is the perfect recipe for anyone who is trying out a low carb/keto diet! 5. Shrimp Pesto with Zoodles In this post I showed you how to make a great shrimp pesto dish for Valentine's Day. This recipe is so light and refreshing, because the pasta is swapped out for zoodles, or, noodles made from zucchini. It cuts down on calories, and amps up the veggies! Zoodles are always a great swap in any pasta dish you want to make! 6. Apple Salmon Bake My mom made this apple salmon bake a few years ago! It is a great healthy dish! Fish is so good for you, sometimes I think about going pescatarian! I think my mom definitely could, and she loves this light, healthy dish with salmon, apples, and asparagus! 7. Home Made Beet Chips I got some fresh beets from my SIL's mom last year, and I sliced them up and tossed them in my air fryer. These beet chips are a tasty and healthy alternative to those other salty, greasy snacks out there. 8. Beef and Broccoli Bowl This beef and broccoli bowl is best served over a bed of brown rice, or even riced cauliflower to amp up the veggies! 9. Spaghetti Squash Bowl This is another great recipe with a veggie swap for pasta. Spaghetti squash is really so easy to cook and it shreds itself into a nice bowl of spaghetti squash noodles! Perfect for spaghetti night to bring up your veggies and cut those pasta calories! You don't even have to sacrifice taste to do it! 10. Zucchini Lasagna One final recipe with a veggie swap for you! Using zucchini instead of pasta noodles in your lasagna is a great way to enjoy lasagna without so much guilt. This recipe also calls for ground turkey instead of ground beef. Yes, there is still quite a bit of cheese in it, but you don't have to feel so bad about that with all the other great swaps in this recipe. It is a tasty lasagna that doesn't feel so heavy! There you have it, ten tasty, healthy dishes to take into your new year! All of us at 3 Winks wish you a healthy, happy new year, and hope these tasty healthy recipes will help you with your new year goals!
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2021 is finally here! 2020 seriously felt like the never-ending year. As we welcome this new year, we wanted to take a look back at 2020. So much has happened! Here’s a rundown of 10 of our most popular posts. Keep reading to see what our number 1 post of 2020 was, some honorable mentions, and what you can expect from us moving forward.
1. How to Make Hot Cocoa Bombs
2. How to Make a Kitchen Towel Scarf
Another older post, this post from 2019 was one of our most popular posts this year. It’s a tutorial for making a handy scarf for the kitchen that means you will always have a towel on hand!
3. The Virtual Cupcake Nailed It! Challenge
This was a fun way to bring our family together virtually even though we couldn’t get together in person. Read the post to see how we did it and do it with your own family! It was fun for adults and kids alike.
4. Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
5. Coffee-Free Tiramisu
If you’re a fan of tiramisu but not a fan of coffee, you’ll definitely want to try this recipe Alicia gave us! It wasn’t originally posted in 2020, but Alicia gave it a revamp and posted it again as part of our 12 Days of Christmas Recipes. Yum!
6. Fun Experience Gifts From Grandparents
Despite being in quarantine for most of 2020, this post featuring our Adventures with Grandparents poster is one of our top posts of the year! Experience gifts like this just give over and over again, so it’s easy to see why.
7. Fresh Herb Focaccia Bread
Throughout quarantine, many of us took up breadmaking as a hobby with delicious results! If you’ve come to love breadmaking, you need to try out this recipe my mom made in March. It is so delicious!
8. Ways to Serve During Quarantine
Everybody has felt isolated during lockdowns and quarantine, and it has been such a tough year for so many people. In this post we detailed different ways you can serve and help ease the burden for people in your communities and families. Feel free to add your own ideas in the comments as well.
9. Giving Stitch Fix a Try
This year my mom tried out Stitch Fix and wrote a review. Spoilers: she loves it! In fact, she’s still using it! Learn more about why she loves it and sign up to try it yourself onthis post.
10. Sewing a Child’s Apron
If you’re looking for a fun and easy sewing project, these cute little aprons are the perfect solution! The kids in our family loved them!
Our Most Popular Post
Even though it was posted later in the year, Lindsey’s post about sweet baby Elodie was our number one post of the year. Truly we were so blessed to feel the love and support you have all given her family this year. I won’t say much here, but if you haven’t read it yet you can read Lindsey’s story here to learn more about this sweet angel baby and the impact her life had on us all.
Honorable Mentions:
What to Expect in 2021
We have so many great things planned as we head into 2021. I’m so excited for you all to see! We are constantly working on new hot cocoa bomb flavors, delicious recipes, family activities, and printables to make your life better.
Thank you for all of the growing support you’ve given us in 2020. Every like, comment, and share means so much to us. Here’s to a great new year full of wonderful opportunities and love!
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After a year like 2020, the importance of self care has become more apparent than ever. The only problem is that all too often, self care is branded as bubble baths, shopping trips, and vacations. And while these things can be helpful, I think of them more as Band-Aids than actual self care.
Really, self care is about creating sustainable habits and a lifestyle that is beneficial to you and your mental health. Towards the end of this past year, I started working on creating these habits for myself and in just a few months started experiencing the benefits, after years of struggling with depression and anxiety. By implementing these habits of self care, I’ve been able to increase my motivation, productivity, and energy. I know I’m not the only one who can benefit from these habits, so I wanted to share them and encourage you to try them out for yourself. 1. Make Your Bed Every Day
This probably sounds kinda dumb and underwhelming, but hear me out.
Oftentimes when I would go through a depressive episode, things like cleaning would fall to the wayside. Dishes would pile up, laundry wouldn’t get done, and living in a dirty place would just make me feel more depressed, creating a cycle that is difficult to break out of. By making the bed every day, I was doing one small thing that broke the cycle. My bedroom looked better with it made and it meant that even if I did nothing else all day, I had accomplished one thing. Many times it would also encourage and motivate me to clean up the rest of the house. Eventually it just became part of my morning routine and I actually enjoy doing it now. 2. Drink More Water
This one is simple but very important. Water is essential for life, but chances are you aren’t drinking enough for your body. A good way to find out how much water your body needs is to take your body weight in pounds, divide it in 2, and drink that much in ounces.
For example, if you weigh 180 pounds, you would want to drink 90 ounces of water a day. If you are like me and don’t weigh yourself, you can either just approximate your weight or stick to the standard “8 glasses a day” and see how that makes you feel. Bottles like this are also great for keeping track of how much water you are drinking throughout the day! 3. Improve Your Mind-Body Connections
I’ve found that a habit like this can help keep you grounded during difficult times. It can be as simple as mindful stretching or taking a walk everyday or more extensive workouts like weightlifting or running everyday. The important thing is that during the exercise, you focus on how your body feels.
I liked to incorporate stretching into my morning and nighttime routines. It helped me to feel that connection throughout the entire day and relax before going to bed. 4. Set a Skincare Routine
No matter your age, gender, or hobbies, a skincare routine is important! If you don’t have one at all, I highly encourage you to start a simple one. At the very least you should be cleansing, moisturizing, and using sunscreen (yes, even if it isn’t sunny out).
Setting a regular skincare routine is truly doing future you a favor, and spending a couple minutes on it in the morning and evening are worth the long term benefits. 5. Be Intentional About Gratitude
It is so easy to focus on the negative in our lives, and I don’t want to discount how difficult life can really be for some people, especially during a global pandemic. But focusing on only the bad is detrimental to your mental health.
I firmly believe that there is something to be grateful for every day, like little rays of sunshine that leak into our lives when it’s dark. By being intentional about finding these rays of sunshine, we leave more room for them to appear. I started listing 5 things every day. Some days they were more extravagant than others, but eventually I became more appreciative of even the little things. 6. Journal Every Day
Just a couple days ago, Alicia wrote about journaling and shared some great journal prompts you can use. Now, I’m not a spill your guts on the page kinda gal like Alicia. I usually just write a couple sentences about my day or how I’m feeling and leave it at that. But however you like to journal, just do it!
It’s a healthy emotional and mental release, as well as a great way to document your progress and experiences in life. 7. Spend More Time Away from Screens
This habit is so important, especially if you are still dealing with lockdowns or working from home. It’s no secret that social media can have negative effects on mental health, and staring at a screen all day is not good for your physical health either.
Find a hobby you enjoy that can give you a break from all the screens! Baking, hiking, reading, crafting, you name it. It doesn’t matter how good you are at it. Exercise your mind and give your eyes a break, even if it’s just 30 minutes a day. 8. Set Aside More Time For Yourself
Stop overexerting yourself. Stop giving all of your time and energy to everyone else around you while neglecting yourself. Get in the habit of having time everyday that is just for you, where you aren’t working or focusing on someone else. It’s okay to spend time focusing on yourself and just relaxing! It doesn’t make you a bad parent, friend, employee, or person.
This may take the longest to truly learn and realize, but once you do it is liberating! I hope that you’ve found something useful here. Which of these self care habits are you going to try next year? You May Also EnjoyThis post contains affiliate links. We will be compensated for any purchases you make at no additional cost to you. Thanks for your support! With the year coming to its end, I'm in a contemplative mood reflecting on the happenings of the past year. I feel like it's a perfect time to journal. I've been journalling my whole life (since 2nd grade). I don't do any of the cool bullet journalling, though I love to admire it. No, I'm more of a spill my guts on the page type of girl. But sometimes it can be hard for me to think of what to write. In fact, when I was 21, I had a goal to write in my journal everyday, which I accomplished but some of my entries literally said "I'm tired. Today was boring" and that's it! So I accomplished my goal but maybe without the best results. Recently, with quarantining and staying home it's seemed like days blend together and I'm not sure what I could write about each day that would be different. For this reason my journaling has, sadly, fallen behind. 24 Journal PromptsTo take my journalling to the next level I decided to create prompts that I can use over and over again but what I'm writing won't be the same every day. I took 4 different types of days we all have; great, bad, boring, and days when you're feeling nostalgic and I wrote 6 different prompts for each day. I put them on little cards I can keep in my journal and use as a jumping off point to help me get my writing started and have it be a bit more thoughtful and interesting. As I wrote the prompts I wanted to make sure they were geared to positivity but realistic in expectations of what could be written. For example, on the bad day prompts I have "Vent about your day" but I also ask "Who put a smile on your face today?" I am a big believer in looking for the good and for those who help us out. I also have prompts that may seem like they're only good for one use like "Describe the best meal you've ever had," but that could become "Describe the best dessert you've ever had," "Describe the best day you've ever had," etc. Make the prompts work best for you! To get the cards just click the button below to download them! Why Journal?![]() I love journaling. It helps me clear my head and gain new perspectives. I also love that I can go back and read about my own life and it's easier for me to remember lessons I've learned. Sometimes reading what I wrote when I was younger makes me cringe, but it's all part of growing up and it's what has made me who I am today! A journal is most effective when you try to be as honest as possible. That's what I've tried to steer towards with these journal prompts and what makes me excited to use them. I like to think of my journal as a friend who only listens without judgement. This way I can gain more insight into my own life. Another thing that makes journaling effective is having journaling supplies you love. I found these vegan leather journals on Etsy that are amazing. I personally like using fine liner pens to write in my journal. But find the supplies that you like best. If you want more of my recommendations you can check out this post where I tell all my favorites. If journaling is a goal you have this coming new year, I know that these prompt cards would be great to keep with your journal and help on days you're just not quite sure what to write about. If you liked this post you may also like |
Creators of Hot Cocoa Bombs! (copyrighted)
Author
Helen Reynolds: Mother of six children , grandmother to eleven! I love to cook, craft and create things and I especially love doing that with my family, So, when my lawyer daughter, Lindsey, my artist daughter, Madalynn, and I came up with the idea of Hot Cocoa Bombs, this blog was born. Then, one more daughter, with her technical and science skills, plus creativity has joined in to round us out! Read more about us here! Archives
June 2024
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