Friday Favorites featuring @PaneraBread Broth Bowls

Disclosure:  Panera provided the gift certificate for me and the giveaway.  Love with Food provided me with their subscription box for a paid review.  All Amazon Links included in this post are Affiliate links.  As always all opinions are 100% my own.

Happy Friday all!!!!  I hope your week was amazing!!  My week was a little disappointing, but I finally have a diagnosis and plan for my shoulder injury which I will tell you all about in a different post.

Here are five things I am loving this week:

• Panera Bread Broth Bowls:  Panera Bread was very generous in sending me a $25 gift card to try out their new broth bowls and even more generous in allowing me to give away a $25 gift card to one lucky reader (see giveaway below).  I love Panera and have been wanting to try their new broth bowls for awhile so with my $25 gift card I headed to Panera to give them a try!  I struggled with deciding which broth bowl to try because they both sounded delicious!  My choices were between a Lentil Quinoa Bowl or I Soba Noodle Bowl and after much thinking I decided to try their new Soba Noodle Bowl with Chicken with a half of a Mediterranean Flatbread.  I absolutely loved them both!!!  I cannot wait to head back and try the Lentil Quinoa Bowl with a cage-free egg!!!

• Love With Food Subscription Box:  I love subscription boxes, but as I am becoming more particular about what food products I am feeding both me and my family it has become harder and harder to find a box that fits my needs.  When the opportunity came up to try out Love with Food I jumped at the chance.  Love With Food helps you discover new organic or all-natural snacks delivered to your door every month and their boxes start as low as $10 a month.  I will be posting a full review of my box next week so stay tuned to see the amazing goodness I received in my Love with Food box!

• The Paleo Chef: Quick, Flavorful Paleo Meals for Eating Well: I received this book for review from Blogging For Books.  Despite the name, Paleo Cheff Cookbook, this cookbook is a great addition to anyone’s cookbook collection, Paleo or not.  I personally do not follow a Paleo diet, but I love this cookbook because it is about more than Paleo, it is about eating a more healthful diet filled with quality foods.  Evans promotes selecting the highest-quality, organic and sustainable foods whenever possible.  Evans’ introduction is called “Eating And Living With Love And Laughter” and in this introduction he not only tells the readers about his passion for food, he also provides 10 tips on how he stays healthy.  The recipes in this book are amazing!!!  Some of my favorites include: Black Chia Seed Pudding, Raw Zucchini Lasagna, and the Lamb Meatballs.  The only negative thing I have to say about this cookbooks is that the recipes are touted as quick and easy which for me is not necessarily true.  Some of the recipes are but some include many ingredients and are pretty complicated for basic home chef like myself.  With that being said I am always up for a challenge so I don’t mind the complexities.  Whether you follow a Paleo diet or not, I think you will love this book!

• Nutrition for Runners:  I have been reading the blog Fannetastic Food for many years and have had the opportunity to chat with Anne in person a few times at blogging events.  This past September at Fitness Magazine’s Meet and Tweet I had the opportunity to eat lunch with Anne and she told us about her collaboration with Jason from Strength Running for an upcoming ebook on Nutrition for Runners.  I knew I had to have it and as soon as it became available at the beginning of this year I purchased it!  I will admit that I have had it for while and am just starting to read it now which is an unfortunate mistake on my part because it is offers so much great information that could have really improved my running sooner.  If you are runner then this ebook is for you!!!!!!  Anne and Jason offer real life advice on how to eat for running.  No gimmicks and no complicated calorie counting, just real world advice that they follow themselves.  You should head on over to their site and check it out today!!!!  (FYI: I purchased this program with my own money and am receiving nothing in return for recommending it, except for the satisfaction maybe someone else will benefit from reading it.)

• Mrs. Doubtfire:  My 6 year old Abby was off from school today and she wanted to spend time with me while watching a movie so I chose an old favorite, Mrs. Doubtfire.  Robin Williams was a true talent and watching this movie just saddens me so much because he brought so much joy to millions of people, but unfortunately he could not find that same joy in his own life.  If you have never seen Mrs. Doubtfire then you should so immediately!!!!

Now on to the giveaway!!  This giveaway is open only to residents of Long Island, Staten Island, Queens and Brooklyn.  Enter below to win a $25 gift card to Panera Bread:

Have a great weekend all and Good Luck!