Good evening!
I’m not sure about you, but today has flown by for me. My in laws were here today and Eric was also working from home, so we had a full house! I still have a lot of work to get caught up on tonight. My MIL was off to Ireland this afternoon to meet her brothers for an Ireland-Spain road trip. I attempted to hide in her suitcase, but unfortunately she is an over-packer much like her daughter-in-law…
She was SO proud to show me one of her purchases for her trip from a store called Ricki’s…
She knows how much I love lace and detailed-backs on tops. We actually have a very similar style…we are always complimenting each other on each other’s clothing! One thing she got me hooked on are brightly coloured scarves…I never used to wear them and now I always do. They are a great way to accent clothing or spruce up an outfit.
For dinner, Eric and I threw together a huge salad. We realized that it is our CSA pick-up tonight (Week 2!) and we still have a lot of veggies to plough through! We managed to demolish about 75% of our produce in these salads. Not bad!
This was one of the best salads…wait, I said that last time. :lol: They are ALL amazing, I will just leave it at that!
In this huuuuge salad contained: 1.5 organic romaine hearts, 1 small avocado, 1 tomato, 1/2 cup leftover stir-fry veggies, 3/4 cup lentils mixed in pasta sauce (on bottom), 3-4 tbsp of my better than bottled balsamic vinaigrette (obsessed!!), sea salt, and freshly ground black pepper.
A little tidbit about Eric- he used to only eat Caesar salad when I first met him 10 years ago, but he has developed a love for all kinds of salads now. Sometimes we have to fight over the last of the lettuce!
For dessert, some dark chocolate…
I LOVE this chocolate!!! I may have snuck another square when I was putting it away… :whistle: Cannot stop eating it.
Some backyard photography ensued..
Nature makes my heart go a flutter.
Don’t these pictures just make you want to go camping??
Swoon.
Health News Round Up
- 10 reasons you hate to cook and what to do about it – Huffington Post
- How to maximize the life in your produce – Fitsugar
- 10 Delicious and mouth-watering meat-free meals – Yum Sugar
- 7 Tips for a less toxic world – Huffington Post
- A lovely write up on Green Monsters – My Adventures In Veg
- Workout clothes for hot weather- what is best polyester or cotton? – Thatsfit.ca
- Are there really benefits from being a grump!? – BBC
- When a Crazy Produce Sticker Lady and Crazy Produce Sticker man collide… – Florida Food Snob
- Bethany’s Light Gazpacho recipe – Health
- Follow a personal trainer as she completes the Insanity DVD workout challenge – Physique Speak
- Should fast food restaurants post personalized calorie counts on the receipt? – That’sFit.com
- Pricey grocery stores attract the skinniest shoppers – MSNBC
- Trying to kick the pop habit? here are some fun tricks to spruce up plain water – Globe and Mail
- Too old to start yoga? This 90-year old grandma will prove you wrong – Huffington Post
- Try these simple tricks to slash your laundry bill by 90% – Casa Sugar
Spotted:
- 60 second black bean dip
- Vegan Overnight Oats
- Spelt pancakes for 2
- Banana soft serve vegan overnight oats and again here
Tonight’s question- Are you a nature girl? Do you like to go camping? Any camping stories/tips to share?
I am a huge nature girl! I feel like I am in my element when I am in nature. That is why living in the big city for 2 years didn’t really mesh with my personality. Eric is the same way. I’m on the fence with camping…I have only been a couple times (we don’t own tents) so I don’t really know HOW to camp. I feel like I need a tutorial…I wouldn’t know what to bring or what food to pack. Might make for an interesting blog post though! :biggrin:
When my best friend and I were young (grades 7-9 mostly), we used to camp in my backyard. We would pack all kinds of food (enough for a week!), grab our flashlights, and then put a super-powerful trinket lock on the tent. One time we woke up to a crazy pheasant trying to get into our tent! That was the end of that!
We are off to pick up our CSA box!
Haha, your trinket lock for the tent reminds me of the “raccoon lock” my friends and I used for our tent (we camped a couple times/summer – Ontario Provincial parks are abundant and usually awesome). We used to bring lots of candy and chocolate into our tents at night. One night my sister woke us all up yelling that there was an animal on her. We told her to be quiet and go back to sleep, haha… the next morning there were muddy raccoon paw prints ALL OVER the inside and outside of our tent. He stole the chocolate right out from under my pillow!!! OMG! We invented the raccoon lock after that. And stopped bringing food into the tent at night. :)
I do love camping, but mostly because it gives me an opportunity to drink beer and eat s’mores. Don’t be ashamed of me!!!!!!!!
I wasn’t always a nature gal. When I was younger my mom said my idea of roughing it was slow room service which is why no one believed I could hack it treeplanting…for 2 seasons nonetheless. Well I did! And the first season we slept in a tent (we bough a hippy van for season 2). Now that we have the kid I miss just being in a bush camp in the middle of nowhere and working outside, come rain, snow, hail or roasting hot sun. Our country is absolutely beautiful and even if I never plant again I am so grateful for being able to do it even for a little bit.
My husband is one of the most organized campers ever. He has a tupperware box that is the “camping box”, and we put everything we need inside it. Paper towels, garbage bags, cutlery, plates, old pots and pans, rope, knives. This way when you are looking for something, you always know where ti is.
Hi Angela – I am always a bit shy about commenting, but I keep seeing the white bowl you use for salads, and I am finally breaking down and asking you where you found it. I am looking for a similarly sized white salad bowl to eat my huge salads out of (instead of eating 2-3 regular sized bowls). Basically I need a large white bowl that is not an enormous serving bowl. So would love to know where you found yours :) Thank you!
Hey Valerie! Thanks for your comment :)
I *think* if I remember properly that the bowl is from IKEA!
Thanks so much for the quick reply Angela :) Have a wonderful day!
I by a lot of my work clothes at Rickis, work appropriate yet trendy at the same time. I may have to search out that shirt, I LOVE that it!
I am camper extraordinaire! I have checklists for each kind of seasonal camping and all the gear to go along with it. I love, love, love camping. I even took a solo camping trip last fall and it was an amazing experience to be in that campground. All. By. Myself.
Nature girl to the max!! ;)
My fondest memory is when my sister and I went trail running and half way through our run we stopped, sat on a log and meditated in silence. It was EPIC.
I love that top, I’m not a big pink person but in purple, now that would rock!!! I have a black very similar and I too love lace, crocheted, knitted type tops. My black top is more of a open front type top where you can wear a shell, like a camisole underneath. I love it.
Your salad looked so lovely when I pulled this up this AM, that I had to go have lunch at Jason’s Deli with a girlfriend. Thanks!
OMG, I love camping, primitive at that, the hubby not so much. He’s retired Army and says civilians have no idea what real camping is….lol! I do love being out in nature, however, being one with nature in Texas, we have Texas sized mosquitos and all kinds of other critters and they are not fun to fight with….
I would demolish that salad in a second, it looks SO good!!
I love camping. I have always been a nature girl, yes. I used to backpack and camp far more often than I do now, but there is nothing quite like sleeping in a tent and waking up kind of cold, kind of uncomfortable, and unzipping the tent to the crisp air. If there is a campfire allowed, I will be in heaven!