Tag: summer

Five on Friday {6.3.16}

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Good morning and happy Friday, friends! Can you believe it’s JUNE already?! Even crazier, is tomorrow will mark the official 30 day count down until the big day. I’m so excited I can hardly contain myself… which is why there are a few wedding-related topics in this post- #sorryimnotsorry 😉

  • Thirst for Wellness: B Strong Bootcamp- Thirst Juice Co. is launching a summer wellness series that I think you’ll all be very interested in. From their Eventbrite page: Our slogan is “Thirst. For Life.” That means many things, including living fully, joyfully, and generously. Wellness is an essential component to living the kind of life we aspire to. You’ve loved our Sip & Learn events, and now we’re rolling them into a broader series of wellness events. For our Thirst for Wellness event series we’re partnering with some of your favorite Boston fitness pros to bring you great workouts with healthful plant-based refreshments.
    What: B Strong Bootcamp is an outdoor HIIT (high intensity interval training) workout led by Trainer Cassie B., that combines intervals of running with bodyweight exercises for a complete total body cardio and strength workout experience. WHEN: Tuesday, June 7, 2016 from 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM (EDT). WHERE: Thirst Juice Co. – 44 School Street, Boston, MA 02108All you have to to do is head on over to this page to sign up ($15 is the cost)! Unfortunately I teach on Tuesdays, so I won’t be able to make it which I’m super bummed around!
  • Bags & Beats– The above bullet was a perfect segway into this topic! So far, I’ve taught 4 classes and it gets more and more fun every class! This past week was especially awesome because I had so many familiar faces in the crowd, including my sister, a coworker and her friend and Athena… oh, and some repeats from last which, which is always the best compliment an instructor can get! GF3 paid me a surprise visit halfway through my second class of the night which was a little nerve-wracking, but he seemed pleased so I’ll take that as a good thing! If you’re interested in checking it out, I’m at GymIt in Watertown on Tuesdays at 5:30 and 6:30pm… with the exception of next Tuesday since I have to travel to CA for work 😦

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  • Summer Eats- With the warmer weather upon us, my appetite has been craving all things summer, including the most amazing lobster roll from the Raw Bar near the Popponesset Inn, grilling and loaded salads.

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  • Wedding Songs- We are in full on wedding mode, including figuring out what songs we want the band to play. RM said he thought we should walk in to the reception to the “Marry Me” song by Bruno Mars so I downloaded it the other day and it’s pretty much been on repeat every since! I cannot wait to marry him! Also, do you have any dancing song suggestions you love hearing at the wedding?! Do share!

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  • Monogrammed Jack Rogers– The monogrammed Jack Rogers I ordered for the big day finally came in and I couldn’t be more pleased with how they came out. I got my mom and sister a pair too (they found out about it, so it’s not a surprise) and I think it’s going to be so cute to all have them on when we are getting ready!

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And that does it for me! RM is in Nashville for his bachelor party this weekend- if you’ve ever been and have “must visit” suggestions for me to send to him- let me know! With him gone this weekend it means that I will have time to get {hopefully} some serious wedding stuff done. I have a laundry list of things to do so I hope to be able to really attack that list!

I hope you all have a great weekend!!

Questions for you: What was your best workout this week? What’s a song you love to hear at a wedding? Have your eats changed at all with the nicer weather? What is your go-to summer meal? What’s on the agenda for the weekend?

Loaded Quinoa Salad

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As I mentioned yesterday, I randomly threw together a quinoa salad that ended up coming out good enough to share! In the summer, I love light and refreshing meals (similar to this zoodle recipe) because they pair so nicely with the hot weather 😉 Winter time? Sure, I love being in the kitchen for hours with the stove going, whipping up a bunch of delicious things, but when it’s hot, the last thing I want to do is start my stove.

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Our plan last Friday was to grill up some burgers and when I asked what RM wanted to go with them, he just said “veggies. you pick what kind”. Since I am not one to go boring or basic with side dishes, I spent some time thinking about what I could make that would be quick, easy and veggie-filled.

Thinking about what I had in my fridge helped get things going:

  • cucumbers from my dad’s garden
  • tomatoes from the fresh garden section at Whole Foods
  • mozzarella cheese
  • avocado

From there, I thought about how I could throw those together, while coming up with something different than the Caprese Orzo Salad I made when my parents were here. Enter: Loaded Quinoa Salad. In addition to the ingredients above, I picked up an ear of corn and can of black beans… and frozen microwaveable quinoa! Have you guys heard of this? It’s amazing- in three and a half minutes I had some delicious quinoa ready for my use. Normally I’d just make it on the stovetop, but I had already packed all of my pots and pans so I needed to figure something else out. This worked perfectly.

Loaded quinoa salad

Ingredients

  • 1 bag of frozen quinoa, cooked according to the package
  • 1 ear of corn, steamed and kernels shaved off
  • 1/2 can of black beans, rinsed
  • 4 small garden cucumbers, chopped into small pieces
  • 1 big handful of cherry tomatoes, cut in half
  • 1/2-1 cup mozzarella, chopped into small pieces
  • 1/2 avocado, chopped into small pieces
  • 1/2 cup EVOO
  • 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
  • Juice of 1 lime
  • S&P, garlic & basil

Directions

  1. Cook quinoa according to the package and steam the corn. Chop up the veggies & cheese and drain the beans and add to a big bowl.

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2. Once the quinoa has cooked, let it cool. Once the corn has cooked, take a knife and shave the kernels off.

3. While the corn and quinoa are cooling, assemble the dressing by combining the EVOO, white wine vinegar, lime juice and herbs/seasonings in a small container or glass.

4. Once the corn and quinoa have cooled, add them to the chopped veggies, beans and cheese and mix well.

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5. Drizzle the dressing over everything and continue to mix until it looks as though everything has been coated with the dressing.

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We just ate this as a side dish with our burgers, but there are so many other ways to enjoy it, too!

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The other night I topped a bed of spinach with this and it was such a nice change up to my normal, boring salads!

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The colors and various textures/flavors in the dish created a little party in my mouth and I found myself continuing to go back for more spoonfuls!

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Not only is this great for weekly dinner sides and lunches, but this is also a great dish to bring to a party as it’s different than most salads you’ll see. I highly suggest giving this a try!

Questions for you: What’s your favorite summer salad? What do you make when you don’t want to start the stove?

 

Chicken & Veggie Zoodles- Scampi Style

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Good morning! It’s hard to believe that we are entering our last full week of August. On the one hand, this summer has gone by in a blur, but on the other, I feel like it’s been one of the most relaxing summers I’ve had in a long time. We only had 1 wedding, we didn’t have any big trips planned and we were able to get to the Cape for a few nice weekends. Even though I always want a nice, sunny weekend, this past one- rainy/gloomy/humid weather and all- was actually welcomed.

It was nice to be able to do stuff inside my apartment rather than go to the beach! Plus, my parents came down on Saturday for the night to help my sister and me with some packing and to celebrate my dad’s birthday. We ordered lunch when they got here on Saturday and then headed to Piers Park to hang out and relax before going food shopping in order to make dinner on Saturday night. We ended up grilling burgers- some were beef/veal/pork and the others were plan ol’ beef burgers. So good! On Sunday , mom and I went to church and then we all helped pack up some stuff that they were gracious enough to take home for us. All in all, it was a great weekend and so nice to just be home. I can’t remember the last time I woke up in my apartment on a Sunday and then had most of the day to do whatever the heck I wanted to do (which, consisted of watching part of a movie, doing a quickie workout, cooking, reading and blogging).

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Anyway! The point of this post was to share an easy “zoodle” recipe with you. It seems like spiralizers are all the rage these days, and I can’t lie- I love using mine! I’ve used it for carrots, zucchini and summer squash, but zucchini is my favorite. This recipe came together pretty quickly and I enjoyed it all week. Loaded with wine and garlic and veggies, you can’t really go wrong 😉

chicken & veggie zoodle scampi bowl

Ingredients- rough estimate- I didn’t measure 🙂

  • 2 large zucchinis, spiralized
  • 1 ear of corn, steamed and kernels cut off the cob
  • handful of small Brussels sprouts- cut in half
  • 4 chicken breast tenders
  • 2 tbsp. pine nuts (or nut of choice)
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 1/4 cup EVOO
  • 1/4 cup white wine
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • S&P to taste

Directions

  1. Steam the corn & cut the kernels off. Meanwhile, cut the Brussels sprouts and steam for 2-3 minutes to speed up the cooking time.
  2. Spiralize your zucchini and set aside. Head a skillet at medium heat and let the oil, garlic, wine and lemon juice simmer.
  3. Once it’s simmerd a bit, add in the steamed Brussels sprouts and let them cook for a bit. Once they are mostly soft, add in the pine nuts and corn and raw zucchini. While that is cooking, heat up another skillet and cook the chicken.
  4. Once the chicken is cooked, chop it up and add it to the veggies.

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I’ll be honest, I had no idea what I was creating when I started this dish- I just knew I had a bunch of things in my fridge that I needed to use up so I went with it and I have to say- I’m pretty happy with the end result!

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I loved the flavor combination as well as the bright green and yellow colors- and the slight crunch from the pine nuts was great for a texture queen like myself.

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I ended up even eating it cold throughout the week and it tasted just as good as when it was nice and hot.

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I tend to eat more veggies in the summer (because everything is fresh and they are light and easy), and this meal totally hit the spot in that department. Nothing like quick, easy & healthy meals to throw together and eat throughout the week!

Questions for you: How was your weekend? Has your summer been busy with weddings and travel? What’s your favorite dinner to make in the summer? Do you have a spiralizer?

 

 

 

Weekending: A Boston Summer Weekend

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It’s crazy to think that we spent all of last weekend in Boston. I can’t remember the last time we did that during the summer months and even though I had wished we were at the Cape since the weather was so gorgeous, it was so nice just being close to home and not having to deal with summer traffic! Here’s a picture-focused post with the weekend highlights- enjoy!

  • Making good use of time by going for a walk while waiting for my oil to get changed

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  • Beautiful sky on my way to dinner with some friends in the North End

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  • Saturday afternoon at the beach

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  • Dinner and margs at Tico in the Back Bay- absolutely delicious!

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  • To get some movement in on my rest day, I walked to church and then walked to Shaws and the liquor store- it was a heavy walk home!

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  • Delicious fruit salad that I whipped together before going to a pool party

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  • I could get used to this- absolutely gorgeous!

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  • Hazy, hot and humid during my morning 4 miler- so happy to have done it first thing!

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Questions for you: What did you do this weekend? Did you go anywhere or stay local? How did you survive the heat? Do you prefer the beach or pool? 

Sausage, Veggie & Pineapple Grilled Summer Skewers

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Good morning! I am so happy to say that I FINALLY have a recipe for you 🙂 RM and I have been grilling quite a bit lately and this meal was so healthy, tasty and fun I figured it was perfect to share with you. I loved the colors from everything and it was like a flavor party in your mouth between the sausage, veggies and sweet pineapple.

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We decided to amp the skewer meal up even more by serving them on a bed of deliciousness- spinach, quinoa and corn and everything was topped with a really simple and fresh EVOO/fresh lemon juice/s&p/garlic powder concoction.

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Of course, if you don’t have sausage, you could do this same meal with steak or chicken- no problem at all!

Ingredients

Skewers:

  • 4 sausage links (we used RM’s homemade sausage- 2 were plain and 2 were garlic, parmesan and parsley)
  • 1 small green pepper, cut into 1 inch cubes
  • 1 small red pepper, cut into 1 inch cubes
  • 1 small onion, cut into thick slices
  • 1 cup chopped pineapple

Salad:

  • Spinach for 2 people (about 1/2 a box for us)
  • 1/4-1/2 cup cooked quinoa
  • 1 ear of corn, steamed and then the kernels shaved off
  • 2-4 tbsp. EVOO per salad
  • Juice of 1 lemon- 1/2 lemon per salad
  • Salt/pepper/garlic powder to taste

Directions

1. Cook quinoa according to the package and let cool. Steam the corn and let cool- once cool, take a knife and shave off the kernels.

2. Turn on your grill to heat. Cut up your veggies, pineapple and sausage and arrange them on skewers. Place on grill, rotating sides every 3-5 minutes. I think it took about 15 minutes for the sausage to be cooked through on low heat.

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3. Combine the EVOO, lemon juice and salt/pepper/garlic powder and set aside. Place the spinach in the bowls, top with the quinoa and corn and then the skewered items. Lastly, coat everything with the dressing and serve.

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This meal came together so quickly, which was perfect for a weeknight meal. I was also able to enjoy leftovers the next day, too. We decided that we are big fans of quinoa spinach salads- so much so that we made them on Thursday of last week, too, to go with the burgers we grilled. Great texture/flavor combo!

Would love to know if you see these- take pics and tag me @Burpeestobubbly.

Questions for you: What’s your favorite thing to grill? Do you like sausage or do you prefer chicken or steak? Cooked pineapple- yay or nay?