Faves & Life Lately -4

It’s high time I shared some Faves & Life Lately 4 with you guys (here are past ones), so many exciting things are happening, and I always love seeing what people are loving and behind-the-scenes, so I hope you enjoy.

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Cookbook related:

• 5 recipes from my 5 ingredient cookbook were featured in the Aug/Sept issue of FamilyFun magazine! 
• All the social media sharing #Sweetphicookbook on Instagram, @philiakelnhofer – I am beyond humbled, thank you. Someone wrote on my facebook wall “Hey Philia, we’re 4 recipes in and you haven’t failed us yet!!Everyone needs to order this cookbook. Easy 5 ingredient recipes that are absolutely delicious!” <- left me speechless.
• Kristen from Dine and Dish shared one of the recipes from my cookbook in this amazing post, and took the above picture of her cats paw on the cookbook, it just makes me smile, isn’t it the cutest thing ever? So in love with this picture she took!
• I was at a birthday party and was talking with one of the guests who I had met before in passing – a friend-of-a-friend if you will. She said that she was reading Gina’s blog (SkinnyTaste, which is amazing) and she saw Gina’s post on 5 ingredient chocolate cheesecake cups and recognized my name and then bought my cookbook. It was so sweet, and I loved hearing about how she made several recipes for a family dinner.
• The fact that I can walk into Barnes & Nobles and see my book on the shelves. CRAZY, and so cool.
• HUGE FAVOR to ask -> if you are enjoying the cookbook, would you mind leaving a review on Amazon and/or Barnes & Noble? SO MANY THANKS!! This really helps keep the book seen, and I appreciate it from the bottom of my heart.

Catching my eye:

• Farm Girl Flowers – their bouquets are the prettiest. period. My bestie Lynn sent me a bouquet as a thank you gift for cohosting the Fresh Coast Retreat, and I gotta say, it brought tears to my eyes. The flowers are just gorgeous , I’ve never seen anything like it, just look at them – this is the actual bouquet I got. Whenever I send flowers now I’ll be using them. Also, they use all-American grown flowers, super cool! This is not sponsored, I just really was in awe of the flowers (if Farmgirl Flowers wanted to send me endless flowers I would not mind one single bit lol)

Music/Entertainment:

• Last month my hubby and I went to the outdoor music venue Alpine Valley to hear Dave Matthews Band, the sunset that night was gorgeous. It was so cold though that I had him buy me a sweatshirt, it’s one of the most comfortable sweatshirts ever, and now I wear it around the house all the time (are you one of those people that likes it super cold in the house? I know I am! I would rather wear a hoodie inside in the summer than have it be hot!) 
• The Hydraulic Press YouTube Channel – my hubby was laughing and watching a video one day, and I just had to see, I too started laughing – check out this fresh fruit salad – LOL. Now I immediately smile when I see any of the videos and hear their voices – so funny!
• Soooo, my name is Philia, right? Well, growing up you know how there were always bracelets or key-chains or whatever that had peoples’ names on them? Yeah, I remember them because there was never one for me – the closest I came was “Phil” (which is still what my parents call me, lol). Anyway, one day I was listening to the radio and I HEARD MY NAME! I freaked out and was like “what is this amazingness?!” It was the Lumineers’ new song Ophelia – close enough to Philia, I’ll take it. And it’s not a bad song, in fact, I really really love it – and their whole album – highly suggest it! 

Food-related faves:

• This faves and life lately 4 includes meal prepping! This has really been helpful. Yes, it’s annoying to have your kitchen look like a hurricane visited after you spend a few hours cooking on the weekend (I usually try to do it on Sundays) but I gotta tell you – it’s totally worth it, it’s saved me so much time during the week and it’s so nice to have lunches all ready to go during the week.
• In the left picture I made shawarma spiced chicken with garlic yogurt from SkinnyTaste and then made stuffed poblano peppers from Ambitious Kitchen (I used regular cheddar cheese and added ground turkey) and then in the right picture you see the best shrimp and cauliflower fried rice, vegetable frittata and oatmeal cookie energy bites that I’m really obsessed with.
• This chicken shawarma from SkinnyTaste (remember how I just mentioned that I meal prepped it? Well it’s like the 5th time I’ve made it lol). It reheats really well (and I’m weird about reheated chicken so you know it has to be good) and it goes great on salads, along side rice and hummus (I get those 90 second rice packets so easy-peasy).
• On the weekends we’ve been going down by the lake (Lake Michigan in Milwaukee) for a walk (the colors, omg they’re so pretty) and then on the way home stopping for breakfast. I’m really digging it, it just ‘feels’ like a summertime activity and makes me happy. 
• Another one of my faves and life lately 4 is that I branched out and tried something totally new – I made Bon Appetit magazine’s recipe for Tuna Poke Bowls. Yes, every dish in my house was dirty and there were multiple trips to multiple grocery stores that were involved, but the end result was really amazing. I’m relying more and more on magazines and Pinterest (are we friends? I’m username Sweetphi) – because all my cookbooks are in storage right now because we’re selling our house.

Other posts you might enjoy:

• Power Greens and Potato Breakfast Casserole
• Iced Baileys Coffee Latte
• 5 Ingredient Spinach Hummus Feta Wraps

These are my faves and life lately 4, what are your faves lately? What’s catching your eye? What are you listening to? What are you cooking? Hope you have a wonderful month ahead, and as always, thank you for stopping by.