First off, I finished a great guest post on the importance of weight training for runners for my friend Katie over at Peace, Love And Oats… You can read it here!  If you like it, let her know, show her some love!

I love Friday nights!

They are almost guaranteed to look something like this:

If you like Sauvignon Blanc, this is an excellent wine! And at Trader Joe’s it’s only $ 7.99. But I promise it taste as if it cost more. It’s very citrusy and perfect for a warm day sitting on the porch!

I’m A Cheating Type Of Girl

Friday’s are my “cheat” days, my days to let me hair fall down and just relax with a few glasses of wine, a normal dinner and then I allow myself to have cake and eat it too!

Having a cheat day makes me feel great knowing that I am not depriving myself from my favorite foods, and yes while even my cheat meals are still healthy and fit into my nutritional guidelines they are a bit more over the top than our weekly meals… but I will let you see for yourself!

• Do you have a cheat day? 
• What’s your favorite food to cheat with?

After we opened up the wine, it was time for cooking! Normally each Friday I make it an “in-house” date night, filled with wine, dinner and dessert. This is the night I practice new techniques and recipes for The Art of Weight Lifting and tonight wasn’t any different.

Except that it was, beacause I was in the mood to surprise Dan with his Fav, steamed dumplings (you might remember these), however I COULDN’T get my dough to behave for the life of me. So instead we have steamed ravioli. They were not as good as normal and I won’t lie, I was pretty disappointed. Boo for a bad date night dinner!

At least I made up for it with these:

Coconut + Strawberries + Chocolate + Clean & Vegan = Happy Taylor 

This was my new recipe that I wanted to experiment with. The recipe isn’t quite where I want it yet, but these coconut layered cakes were AWESOME! Almost bread pudding like which is what I wanted, layered with fresh strawberries and vegan chocolate chips. Topped with more melted chocolate (clearly).

OMG… I can’t wait to get this just the way I want so I can share it!

Then it was movie time, which I may or may not have fallen asleep during the last 30 minutes… oops.

This morning we got up, cooked up some breakfast and headed off for Farmer’s Market Adventures, which I can’t wait to share! But that will come next! Gotta build some anticipation, right?

How’s this for a attention grabber: Want a butt eggplant?

Fitness Strength Training For Women and Clean Eating Suport