The Little Things Newsletter #392 – Life, laughter, and lots of great food!

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Welcome to the weekend, my friends! I’m looking forward to a pretty relaxed couple of days to finish off a week that was filled with family time, games, and laughter. I absolutely love having friends and family stay with us, and you know what else I love? That moment when the house is quiet and calm again. (We can admit that, right?)

ON THE BLOGS THIS WEEK: This Brussels sprouts gratin is a savory delight, combining thinly sliced tender-crisp Brussels sprouts with a creamy sauce. A sprinkling of cheese and a breadcrumb topping finish it off nicely, creating a luxurious, comforting side dish.

Flaky buttery pastry tops a luscious medley of tender chicken, hearty vegetables, and a creamy, savory sauce in these puff pastry pot pies.

This tangy, sweet homemade cranberry sauce with lemon trumps anything you can buy at the store. Do you know how easy it is to make cranberry sauce? If you can boil water, I promise you can make cranberry sauce.

Captain Crunch ice cream is a whimsical treat that captures the essence of childhood breakfasts in a delightful homemade ice cream. The nostalgic cereal flavor infuses every scoop of this creamy, velvety ice cream.

These Chocolate Caramel Cookies – or more accurately, Caramel Stuffed Double Chocolate Chip Cookies – are a cookie that I crave every single time I see these photos. They are legitimately mouthwatering.

Buttery crunchy toffee and candy bar pieces are layered with whipped cream atop a dessert so deliriously rich, this Heath Bar cake should carry a warning label.

What I’m CRAVING: I don’t crave salad nearly as often in the winter, but right now? I’m looking forward to prepping all the salads for my lunches this week. I’m thinking I’ll roast a tray of this and this to toss into my salads this time around.

My FAVORITE THING this week is The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson. I know, I know, two book recommendations in a week? I was setting out our stack of Christmas books this week and couldn’t resist this one. I’m going to read it aloud again this year with my much older kids. (I still have trouble wrapping my mind around the fact that

Captain Crunch Ice Cream

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Captain Crunch ice cream is a whimsical treat that captures the essence of childhood breakfasts in a delightful homemade ice cream. The nostalgic cereal flavor infuses every scoop of this creamy, velvety ice cream.

Horizontal close-up of Captain Crunch Ice Cream topped with Captain Crunch cereal

Captain Crunch Ice Cream

This ice cream is SO good, my friends! When I finally nailed this recipe, the ice cream turned out perfectly smooth and creamy, tasting exactly like Captain Crunch cereal – the perfect pairing for the crunchy cereal on top when you serve it.

It’s been a few years since I first sprinkled a handful of Captain Crunch cereal over a scoop of vanilla ice cream. (I owe my friend Christi for that brilliant food pairing idea!) And let me tell you, there’s no turning back once you’ve combined cereal with ice cream.

The crunchy cereal against the creamy smooth ice cream? It’s irresistible. So, turning that flavor combination into an actual cereal ice cream – you know that needed to happen.

Adding milk to a bowl of Captain Crunch cereal

Cereal Ice Cream

When you first taste a cereal ice cream, it is something you won’t forget. Cereal milk is infused with the flavors of the cereal, in the case of this Captain Crunch ice cream, those flavors are butter and brown sugar.

When you combine that cerea

Thanksgiving Recap (Arkansas edition) + epic Black Friday Roundup

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I’m giving away two $500 Amazon gift cards today to celebrate Black Friday – be sure to follow me on IG for the details!

Hi friends! How are you? I hope you had an amazing Thanksgiving! We’re here in Arkansas with the Pilot’s mom, sis, and our niece and nephew. It’s our first time spending Thanksgiving out here in years, and it’s such a treat to have some time together. The girls were so excited to make a trip out here and are blown away by the trees and greenery. It’s a stark contrast from our lovely brown and cactus-filled Tucson desert.

The Pilot was visiting his dad this week, who lives in Atlanta, so the girls and I flew out super early Thanksgiving morning and he flew from Atlanta to meet us in Little Rock. We rented a super cute lake house for the long weekend and are looking forward to movies, hikes, and exploring.

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10 more frequently asked fitness questions

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Sharing 10 more frequently asked fitness questions and my thoughts. Check out the first post in this series here!

For today’s post, I wanted to share some more fitness FAQs since ya’ll seemed to enjoy the last one I did! So let’s dive into your questions about plateaus, time, motivation, where to focus our energy, and more below. Have a burning fitness question? Leave it in the comments section and I’d love to take a look!

5 more frequently asked fitness questions

10 more frequently asked fitness questions

11. I’ve hit a plateau – why is this happening?!

When you hit a plateau, this is a great time to access your current fitness and nutrition routine and see how it’s been going. Usually, a plateau is the result of needing additional stressors (not challenging yourself with your routine), not balancing your routine (overtraining), or unsustainable fitness and nutrition methods. I see this happen a lot with extreme dieting and/or fitness routines with high intensities. Initially, you see results, but eventually, the body becomes stressed and makes an effort to hold onto anything it can.
Plateaus are also sometimes a good reminder to switch up your fitness routine. You don’t even necessarily need to switch out the exercises (especially if you’re performing classic push/pull movements, deadlifts, squats, etc) but change up the weight, and tempo, try unilateral versions of the exercises, or add in a core or balance component.
Make sure that you’re sleeping enough each night, balancing your workouts between cardio, strength, mobility, and rest (if you need help, check out this post or join us in Fit Team), and accessing your nutrition intake. Ensure that you’re eating enough fuel for your lifestyle, hydrating appropriately, and including a balance of proteins, healthy fats, leafy greens, starchy veggies, and fruits.
If you’re doing all of these things and still not seeing results, it can be helpful to have an extra set of expert eyes on your routine and see what’s going on. Also, hormone function can affect or stall your progress. We offer quite a few different testing options depending on your goals, so if you’re curious about learning more, send me an email gina@fitnessista.com (subject TESTING).
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