Catching Up With The Kelnhofers-25

This week on Catching up with the Kelnhofers-25, I’m sharing recipes that give you energy (yay for some ways to sneak a little more energy into each day), talking Super Bowl snacks, giving you a sneak peak at a tasteful nude artwork piece and sharing a hilarious Kylo Ren skit!

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As we enter the last week of January, we could all use a little more energy (whether it’s a little boost from coffee or an afternoon energy bite…or even a dinner you’ve prepared ahead of time and then is all ready to go so you don’t have to cook and you have energy to be present with your family!). I think it’s safe to say we could all use a little extra energy every day!

New on the Blog:

• Catching up with the Kelnhofers – catch up with what’s going on in our lives.
• Ground Turkey Balsamic Meatloaf – delicious and all made on one sheet pan.
• Small home office makeover – it’s so fun to see this transformation and what a difference a coat of paint makes, it’s only been 3 years…no one’s keeping track, right?
• Tomato, white bean and noodle soup – only 5 ingredients and a super cost-effective meal.

What to Make:

I’m sharing recipes that give you energy in one way or another – maybe it’s a jolt of caffeine or tasty ingredients. Or maybe it’s just a little extra time since you have your meal prepped!

• Iced Maple Latte
• Iced Salted Honey Latte
• No Bake Oatmeal Cookie Energy Bite
• Coconut date energy bites
• Almond Butter Date Pepita Granola Bars
• Make ahead freezer meal Quiche
• 5 Ingredient pesto salmon recipe
• 5 ingredient freezer vegetarian burritos

In case you’re watching the big game this weekend, I’m sharing some of my Super Bowl suggestions for ya!

• Cheesy Bacon Dip
• How to Make a Slow Cooker Chili Bar
• Sausage Puff Pastry Appetizer
• Find more delicious ideas here!

Reader Comments:

I love helping people find or make condiments that can totally transform a meal. One reader made her own ketchup using my recipe and had this to say about it:

• “I’ve made this Ketchup 3 times now and I absolutely love it! Sometimes I forget to core the tomatoes but I enjoy the seeds, makes it more like a relish Ketchup. Thanks for sharing! I’ll never go back to store bought Ketchup now.

Did you see that someone bottled my ketchup?! On Instagram, someone shared that they re-used an old ketchup bottle to bottle their very own homemade ketchup – how fun!

General Stories:

• Only 10 tote bags left – do you have yours yet? Find out how to get one here!
• Had a meeting with my friends over at Envy Creative, and they have a little area where they have signed memorabilia …and the SWEETPHI TOTE was there!! I felt so honored!
  
• OMG my husband is the best, he found German Fitness Bread and Farmers cheese, two things I grew up eating! You have to have the bread with some farmers cheese on it and then some cucumber slices on top with a little bit of salt. Very nostalgic for me and was oh so sweet. 
  

Products I’m Loving:

• I’ve been wanting a tasteful nude art piece in my bathroom for years (literally the first time I saw one in a bathroom and loved it was 2003…so 17 years ago) but I’ve never found one I liked, and always said that was not something I was just going to get for the sake of it if it didn’t really speak to me. Well, I FINALLY found the most beautiful piece of artwork by this artist called Emma Currie ( I actually found her on Instagram) and she just so happened to be having a sale of the print I wanted!! So it was a gift for myself, and I am so so so in love with it!

• Home Chef has slow cooker meals now! I tried one and loved it. Meal delivery services are so great and Home chef is one of my faves. Use code SweetPhi100 for $100 off your first four orders ($25 off each order!) or code 40Sweetphi for $40 off your first two orders ($30 off your first and $10 off your second).

Links from Around the Web:

• Just ordered this book as a funny Valentines gift for my husband. Check out the associated Instagram page here.
• Love this list of 9 books to read before they hit the big screen, I loved Little Fires Everywhere, in fact it’s a book I always recommend when saying ‘best read’ books!!

What I’m Reading:

• Currently reading: Everything is Figureoutable by Marie Forleo. It makes you feel empowered and like everything can be figured out (hence the title everything is figureoutable), I’m loving it!! I know I mentioned this last week, but I’m still reading it. I’ve re-listened to some sections because it is so great! and I really want to use some of her tips in my daily life.
• Next up: The Hideaway – I cannot wait! It sounds nice and has some really good reviews!! My sister recommended it so I’m excited to get started.
• I heard the Alli Wong book Dear Girls was really good; adding it to my list!

What I’m Watching:

• Nick and I watch Saturday Night Live and lately they’ve been really funny!!! Adam Driver and Eddie Murphy are two that were so good! If you’re a Star Wars fan, you need to watch the clip where Kylo Ren goes Undercover Boss – SO funny!

Personal Stories

• The twins turned 7 months old! How is time flying so fast? Taking monthly photos is getting increasingly harder.

• Potty training update – it’s a slow progress, but I’m happy to report at least some progress. The thing with potty training is that you can’t force it and every child is different. Some get potty trained in a day, some in a week, some in a month, some over a year…some respond to prize, others don’t…so it’s just up in the air. Ben did seem to like being reminded that if he went enough times in a row he’d get a prize, and he had so much fun picking out his toy at Target (he got this truck) and it’s his most prized possession. He literally wakes up and asks to play with it, and brings it in my office and plays quietly with it!

• We had friends over and made a little cheese board, then they saw the charcuterie board in Ben’s kitchen and the joke was that Ben’s was fancier than the real thing lol.

• The twins love to play with Ben’s toys when he’s napping…they look like they’ve been caught lol

• Ben is such a good kitchen helper – we made oatmeal from my cookbook for our weekend breakfast!

• Whenever we take pictures of the Twins, Ben wants in, it’s really cute (hence I have 17K photos on my phone)!

Like I said, 17 THOUSAND photos!…anyone have any tips to go through them? I want it down to like 1K. I’d love if you leave a comment below and let me know – am I the only one with a billion photos on my phone? What do you do? Do you have a system? Tips? Can you commiserate?