Top 2 Tuesday

Top 2 favorite Summer Recipes!

Potato, Leek, and Feta Tart

I love this recipe, and when I've made it, everyone has thought it was great!

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 leeks (white and light green parts), cut into half-moons
• 2 small zucchini, cut into half-moons
• kosher salt and black pepper
• 1/2 cup crumbled Feta (about 2 ounces)
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
• 2 Red Bliss potatoes (8 ounces), thinly sliced
• 1 store-bought 9-inch piecrust

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375º F. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the leeks, zucchini, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until just tender, 4 to 5 minutes. Stir in the Feta and dill. Add the potatoes and toss to combine.
2. On a piece of parchment paper, roll the piecrust to a 12-inch diameter. Slide the paper onto a baking sheet. Spoon the potato mixture onto the piecrust, leaving a 2-inch border. Fold the edge of the piecrust over the edge of the potato mixture. Bake (covering with foil if the crust gets too dark) until the piecrust is golden brown and the potatoes are tender, 50 to 60 minutes. 

Peanut Butter and Chicken Noodles With Carrot and Cucumber Ribbons

This is such a great recipe that is sooo easy to make. I usually use Soba noodles, and whatever veggies I feel like throwing in or have available, raw veggies are better. You don't really need to use chicken if you want to make it vegetarian.

Ingredients

• 1 8-ounce package thin rice noodles or sticks
• 1 2- to 2 1/2-pound rotisserie chicken
• 1 carrot
• 1 seedless cucumber
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce

Directions

1. Place the noodles in a large bowl and cover with hot tap water; let soak until soft, 25 to 30 minutes. Drain in a colander or large strainer.
2. Meanwhile, using your fingers, shred the chicken meat, discarding the skin and bones. Use a vegetable peeler to make long strips of the carrot and cucumber.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the peanut butter, soy sauce, and 6 tablespoons water until smooth.
4. Divide the noodles, chicken, carrot, and cucumber among 4 bowls. Drizzle with the dressing.

Bon appetite! 

Substance Award

I've gotten a few awards these past few weeks and I'm having trouble keeping up with them all!! So, I received the same award recently from 2 great bloggers, Tarryn & Allison at 2Bloggeristas and Chloe at Tryin' to Throw My Arms Around the World. "A Blog With Substance" Award.

The rules are as follows:

1. Thank the blogger who bestowed the award on you.

2. Sum up your blogging experience, philosophy, and motivation in 5 words.

3. Pass the award on to 10 deserving bloggers.

 My Blogosophy:

To inspire and promote Health!

 10. Deserving Bloggers

1) Natasha @ A Day In the Life

2) Jennifer @ Aspiring Fashionista

3) Cara @ Lilac and Grey

4) Melissa @ From My Somewhat Serious Mind

5)Kelsey Claire Lavender Leopard,  & Lace

6)Marcie @ Lemons and Laundry

7)Freck @ It's Five O'Clock Somewhere

8) Steph S. A Day In the Life

9)Shelley Ann @ Painting the Memories

10) YoursTruly @ These Things I'll Never Say...

I feel like I can't keep up with everything lately! I still have a ton of emails I haven't even been able to look at and delete. 

TGIF!!

I'm so excited it's Friday! Every Friday I always get this one song stuck in my head by Franz Ferdinand called Jaqueline about how it's better on holiday. Totally how I feel sometimes...



It really is better on holiday... Happy Weekend!

Versatile Blogger Award

I actually received the same award from 2 great bloggers. Thank you to Kelly over at Kelly's Avenue & Stephanie over at A day in the Life of a Grad Student's Wife.

There are some rules to this award:
1. Thank the person who gave you the award (Thank you Stephanie & Kelly!)
2. Share seven things about you

(1) I love pasta, especially macaroni and cheese.

(2) I would love to have my own farm! I would have chickens, and goats, cows, maybe some horses, and definitely lots of cats and dogs! I love animals!

(3) I want to live in Boston someday.

(4) I love to travel!  I've been all over the United States and to several countries.I've been to Canada, Sweden, England, France, Spain, and Germany, I think those are all the countries I've been to...

(5) I don't like shopping for clothes, but I do love shopping at Target for all sorts of stuff.  I just wonder around the store most of the time looking at what they have in all the different departments.

(6) I love yoga and wish I was better at it and sticking to doing it regularly.

(7) I love organization, but my house appears to argue otherwise... there are not enough hours in a day!

3. Nominate 15 newly discovered blogs

4. Let your nominees know about the award

Again, I will have to figure out some nominees!

Top 2 Tuesday: Top Purchases

So, this week's Top 2 Tuesday over at The Undomestic Momma is what are my Top 2 Favorite 2 purchases so far this year.
Well, first purchase for sure is something my husband got for me for my birthday (I didn't purchase it, but technically our money comes from the same place, right?)... an iPod Touch!

Love it! I have so many applications that I really don't always take advantage of, but its fun! I still wouldn't mind a smartphone of some kind, but really I don't NEED one, I just want one. I'm way too much into gadgets.

Second purchase is kind of different, but it something I really did need. Has anyone ever heard of YurBuds?

These were such a great purchase for me! All winter when I was running outside the only thing that kept my headphones in my ears were my ear muffs! So, when I went to a fitness expo I totally was sold on these ingenious things! They size your ear and they stay in your ear no matter how much you move! They are also suppose to be safer for your ear since you don't need to turn up the music louder like you would normal ear phones. I was excited to buy the pink ones also cuz part of the money for them went to breast cancer research.

Well, I guess those aren't very exciting items, but they are things that I enjoy and kind of "need".

Hot Monday

Decided to take part in this Monday Blog hop, cuz I can't seem to find that many Monday blog hops. So my random ramblings for Monday.

{1} So, this past week has been the best weather ever, no humidity the hottest it gets was 80s. However, yesterday started the nasty humidity again and higher temperatures, there are even "severe hot weather" warnings until Wednesday.  I'm not excited about it, I hate how hot it can get here! I've gotta make myself get up super early tomorrow and get my run in cuz it will be soooo hot tomorrow afternoon.

{2} I need a hair cut, thinking of finding a new hairstylist. I really need to change the color, any hairstyle suggestions or cuts?

{3} Summer TV isn't that good, and nothing is new tonight!

{4} We live on such a busy main street and not a day goes by that a loud ambulance or police car goes screaming past our house.  It makes it a little more difficult for us to enjoy our TV watching.

{5} I watch way too much TV...

Flash from the past...

I didn't get a chance to post like I would have liked to this weekend because I went home and was pretty busy with my parents/family. I love going to my parents for the weekends, especially in the summers because they have a pool and it started again with the heat this weekend! So, I definitely got some sun, but not burnt this time around.

So, the funniest thing I did this weekend was I offered to help my mom organize all of our old photos that have been sitting in  a box in the living room. Well, its actually just 1 box of photos of several boxes (a lot more boxes.... eek!).  So, it's going to take time, but I started scanning and organizing the family memories. There are sooo many!! It was hilarious though.  Seeing old pics of me and my siblings, we look so funny!! Of course I hate the pictures of me from my awkward era... maybe they could disappear on accident?

This picture is actually really really embarrassing, cuz it really shows how much a dork I was (and still am) when I was a kid.

Yea for those of you who could possibly be sci-fi nuts, that's me dressed up as a Star Trek character (The Next Generation, for those of you who may wonder, probably no one knows the difference... yea I'm a huuuuuge dork...).

Here's one of me, and I think I had a perm?! Cuz my hair is pretty straight, and it was even more straight when I was a kid. This is me holding my violin, and I have a strange look on my face... I was such a dork!! I think I was cuter when I was a lot younger!

So, now I've shared some pretty embarrassing photos of my childhood (I'll be looking through a lot more!!) But, if anyone is inspired, post your own!! You should never take yourself too seriously, right?

Early Morning Quote of the Day...

"Make today...Someday."

-Found it in one of those Dove Chocolates, totally inspiring though

Amazing Weather!

We've been having such great weather here this week! No humidity and in the 80s in the daytime and 60s by the evenings. I was in the Botanical Gardens last night again with my friends, relaxing and drinking wine, it was awesome!!

Today I had such a great opportunity! One of my friends is out of town for the week and she's apart of one those Fair Share food coop things where you pay ahead of time for farmer's goods and pick a bunch of food up each week, so she let me get her goods this week! I've thought of joining one of these things and wanted to see what its all about and its really fun, and we got some great stuff tonight.

We of course had to do a little bbq, especially since we got some bison brots with the whole lot as well, and they were delicious! Very lean and dense meat, you can tell its not all fatty and gross. And of course you can't bbq without some beer, mmm Sam Adams!! Yea we have fancy glasses just to drink Sam Adams out of, I know we're freakin' in love with Boston!

Check out how beautiful all our food looked, we made bruschette with tomatoes and all this great basil we got today.

And we made up some zucchini to grill, mmm so good, we also made corn on the grill that was awesome!

And check out these blue berries that my husband can't stop eating, he started eating them the minute we picked up all this stuff!

Thank you to my friend who let me take her food! And thanks to all the hard working farmer's from MO and IL!!

Top 3 Thursday (Songs)

What are your Top 3 songs that you play over and over again? This seems like a fun one!

 Take Me Out- Franz Ferdinand

 


Major Tom - Shiny Toy Guns





Short skirt, long jacket- Cake





This post totally got me looking at all these other music videos, comedic videos more like and more that my husband walked and said, "Look up 2 many guys!" They are so funny! Check em out if you dare, they may be on the slightly dirtier side for some people.... but ya gotta have a sense of humor!









Hope you had little bit of a laugh!