May 2019 Favorites (food, home, toddler, + more!)

May really hasn’t flown by for me this year…but still, now that we’ve concluded the month, I’m finding myself surprised that June is here! It was in the 50s when I started writing this post, but eventually we did get hit with some truly summery weather! 🙂 I’ve been collecting a list all month long of my favorites, and I’m excited to share them with you today!

May 2019 Favorites

Note: some links in this post may be affiliate links, which means I’d receive a tiny commission if you use the link to make a purchase. Thanks, as always, for supporting my blog! 🙂

Food:

Almond & Coconut KIND Bars // I’ve been really into KIND bars lately. I eventually caved and bought this box on Amazon, since I love this variety so much. They’re low sugar (low glycemic index), which I really love in a granola bar – I really don’t do well with bars that only offer a sugar rush (and therefore, a sugar crash!). These are totally delicious and are great to have on hand for breakfast or for a snack on the go.

Homemade Scones // I only made scones once this past month (for our fancy Mother’s Day Afternoon Tea – you can see them in the back in the photo above) but I loved them so much, I’m considering this recipe to be my new go-to scones recipe! Not too sweet, and perfect for serving warm with jam!

Ozery Bakery Snacking Rounds // I know that it’s hard to guess what these are just by their name…but they are basically little whole grain and fruit rolls that taste exactly like a bagel! I call them Sophie’s “bagel bites” and she likes to eat one as her “first breakfast” in the early morning! They’re about 70 calories each and aren’t too big, but they’re soft and really delicious! Our favorite varieties are the apple cinnamon and cranberry orange. These are available in our small town grocery store, so I assume they’re found in most other grocery stores! 🙂

Honey Pecan Cream Cheese // Speaking of bagels…I’ve always been a fan of bagels with cream cheese, and I’ve been getting back into them lately. This past month I’ve been buying plain bagels and spreading a more “fancy” cream cheese on them! My favorite spread is Philadelphia’s Honey Pecan Cream Cheese. If you like pecans, you’ll love this one!!

Skippy Peanut Butter Bites // Bjorn’s cousins were in town a couple weeks ago and Sophie got to play with her cute second cousin! Sophie and Emily are close in age and it is always so sweet to see them play together! Anyway, one of Emily’s snacks were these yummy little peanut butter balls and Sophie absolutely loved them. You can find them near the peanut butter and jelly at the grocery store. I love how they offer Sophie a fun snack that’s full of protein and calories! (And I’ve become a big fan of them myself! They’re delicious!) The best part? They’re way less messy than spreading peanut butter all over, especially when you’re on the go! If you’re a fan of peanut butter, or you have a little one who loves peanut butter, I recommend trying out this snack. We get the “Double Peanut Butter” ones especially for Sophie, because the center is just more peanut butter, but I’ve also liked the ones with pretzel or granola inside.

Home/Books/Media:

Spotify’s “Acoustic Spring” Playlist // Although I usually prefer curating my own playlists (like my “Bloom” playlist), lately I’ve been enjoying Spotify’s “Acoustic Spring” songs! For whatever reason, I can’t find the “Acoustic Spring” playlist, so here’s their “Acoustic Summer” playlist, which I’m also loving!

Spring Flowers Pillow Cover // I got this from Jane.com when I was looking for a more springy pillowcase for our living room. I actually put it over our snowflake pillow and I’m thinking I’ll use it for over half the year! (And then when the weather changes to cold and snow, I’ll just take the cover off and have a wintry theme again!) I love it so much! It really freshens up our living room and makes me happy every time I see it!

MasterChef Junior // I love watching cooking shows, especially the competition ones. MasterChef is a favorite of mine, but I also really love MasterChef Junior. The kids are so incredibly talented!

1Canoe2 Planner // I did life without an official planner for a long time – perhaps a year. We always have a wall calendar to record upcoming commitments, but it did feel nice to take a break from referring to a planner all the time. I was finally ready to get into planner mode again this month, and snagged this gorgeous little planner from my fave planner/calendar shop for only $7!! The upside to purchasing a planner in May, I guess! 🙂 I love this one. The way 1Canoe2 structures their planners works really well for my brain, and there are lovely added touches like gold-edged pages, a pen holder loop, and the fact that the planner lays flat! 🙂 I think the planner I got is totally out of stock now, but this one is similar.

Cook Once, Eat All Week Cookbook // I’ve really enjoyed working through this cookbook so far! It fascinated me when I first heard about it. Unlike other meal prep cookbooks, Cassy Garcia builds each week (3 big meals) around just one main protein all week, plus one main starch and one main vegetable. Of course, there are other ingredients involved, but I love the idea of having the same main components to shop for (reducing waste). I also love how creative Cassy is in her recipe development! I never liked the idea of meal prep where you eat the same meal for 3-4 days in a row. This is a great approach! We’ve had 2 weeks’ worth of her meals by now and there have been some real winners when it comes to healthy, delicious meals! PS – the cookbook is gluten-free, which wasn’t my reason for getting it; I was just interested in her method! Just a side note.

FitDesk Bike // I talked a LOT more about my new exercise bike in this post, but I’ve really been enjoying this bike so it deserves to be on the favorites list this month. It’s an exercise bike with a special desk platform on top, allowing you to work on your laptop or tablet while exercising!

RELATED READING: Staying Active as a Busy Mom (with a coupon code for you!)

Clothes/Beauty:

“Wild Grasses” T-shirt // I got this shirt on Jane.com a while ago and it has quickly become one of my new favorites! I love clothing and cute outfits, but I always tend to gravitate back to a more basic T-shirt during the warmer months. The “sketched nature” look of this shirt really appealed to me – it’s simple but still interesting! I bought it in the color Ash Gray and I seriously want to wear it every day. I definitely recommend this one if you’re in the market for a graphic tee!

Native Deodorant (& Body Wash) // I’ve been skeptical of natural deodorants after trying Schmidt’s a couple years ago and having a horrible, painful skin reaction to it. I thought, It just isn’t worth it. But my friend recommended trying Native and I’m a big fan now! I’ve been using it for a whole month now. I am not an “everything MUST be all-natural” kind of person, but I do like knowing I have an aluminum-free deodorant on every day. I have the deodorant in Coconut & Vanilla (smells SO good without being heavy), and I also got their body wash in Coconut & Vanilla because they had a deal where I could add the body wash on for just $5 more. There are a lot of scents to choose from, too. If you’ve tried Schmidt’s or other brands before and have reacted to them, I would recommend giving Native deodorant a try.

Toddler:

Baby Animals Matching Puzzles // I bought these a long time ago, because I got super excited when I came across them on Amazon, even though Sophie wasn’t ready for them yet. 😉 Lately, though, she has been obsessed with these puzzles and she has gotten so good at matching them on her own! 🙂 They are so darling and are the perfect gift for a toddler! There are other puzzle options, too, that I’d like to get for Sophie someday – numbers and more. But right now, matching mama animals and baby animals is RIGHT up her alley. She gets so excited when she “helps” the mama animal match up with her baby animals!

Tiny, Perfect Things by M.H. Clark // One of my VERY favorite books, “You Belong Here,” is by M.H. Clark – I loved it so much I used part of the poem as a canvas for Sophie’s room. “Tiny, Perfect Things” is another darling book by Clark. It talks about a little girl and her grandfather going on a walk in their neighborhood and searching all over for tiny, perfect things – like snails, leaves, feathers, a bottle cap… It’s so cute! Sophie has been asking for that book over and over this past month, and she especially loves to search for the moon in the sky once it starts to get dark on their walk home! 🙂

Mini Melissa Sandals // Although we are still HUGE fans of Sophie’s Boatilus rain boots over here, and she loves wearing them whenever possible, we’ve recently entered sandals season here in Minnesota and these are just so sweet on Sophie! They’re almost like jelly sandals, so they’re very pliable and comfortable for her, with velcro on the sides. They’re stable enough that she can still run all over in them, too! I actually snagged Sophie’s 2 pairs of these Mini Melissa sandals on my Kidizen app, and I saw even more listed on the app, so definitely check them out! (Use this link to get $5 for free on Kidizen!) PS – This is going to sound weird, too, but the sandals also smell really good. It’s surprising but I wonder if all Mini Melissa products are scented with vanilla or something! Haha!

Little Tikes Frog Pond Water Table // I wanted a summery activity for Sophie to enjoy in our yard that didn’t always involve a swimming pool. 🙂 I’m so glad I went ahead and got her a water table! I think this will be a lot of fun for her for a long time! This table is one of the very cheapest ones on Amazon, and I’m thrilled with the sturdiness and cute elements! And it’s under $25!

Munchkin Magnetic Fishing Pole Toy // I got this as a bit of an afterthought when I purchased Sophie’s water table, since I thought a fishing component could be fun! It ended up being the perfect little water toy for her! She can play with these in the bathtub or outside, and the magnets work very well, so there’s a high success rate for the toddler operating it! 🙂

There you have it! This month’s list of favorites was a lengthy one! I guess I’ve discovered a lot of new things to love this month! 🙂 What have you been loving lately?