Happy Monday, friends!
I hope you had a fabulous week last week and an even better weekend! I totally had every intention of blogging some during the week, but I had horrible troubles with allergies last week... So, let's just say, I went to work, straight to CrossFit, and then straight home most nights to rest. I tried avoiding taking any meds, but eating my vitamins instead. I gave in a took some allergy meds for 2 days, and it helped a TON! I'm feeling much better, and am so thrilled for a fresh week.
For those of you new to my new little blog, welcome! I linked up with Kelly's Korner SUYL on Friday featuring "freezer" meals. I totally am not a freezer meal type, but thought some of you might like some simple, clean eating tips! Hope you enjoy :)
So, last week didn't consist of much picture-taking... BUT, I did have a few new followers who requested some recipes.... Ask and you shall receive :) We will get to that later this week! But, first.... A few {random} scenes from last week:
I came home at lunch one day last week to find these beauties had bloomed just since I'd left for work that morning! Scenes like this just completely humble me. Isn't our God incredible?!
I promised y'all a picture of the coveted rug.... OH. EM. GEE. Right?!?! Since I moved into my cute little condo last July, I've been scouring stores for the perfect area rug for my kitchen. I knew I didn't want to spend much, so I stayed faithful to the hunt {all the while becoming increasingly impatient... it's a thing I'm working on}. I scored this baby at the Teej {AKA: TJ Maxx} in Rogers last weekend and couldn't be more pleased! I think it works perfectly!
On my lunch break last week, I made a little pit stop at the library to check out a new book my parents had been raving about. It's called
Wheat Belly, and I'd heard about it through some of my reading about Paleo. It's written by a cardiologist who suggests that wheat is the demise of the human diet. If the world could read this book, I'm convinced we'd never eat another shred of wheat again. The things that modern {genetically modified} wheat does to our bodies.... EW! If you're even considering going Paleo or just giving up wheat, I highly recommend this read! I'll admit that I am a night time reader and some of the scientific lingo and chapters on chemical research were a tad boring... & might've put me to sleep a few nights.... So, I might have done what most impatient gals do and skipped ahead to the HOW to rid wheat from your diet. {I'm bad, I know...} I'd already been considering it, so I just wanted to know the Doc's suggestions for removing wheat from your diet and with what other carbs to supplement. VERY interesting! He's got some pretty yummy sounding recipes that I can't wait to try out and share with y'all! If you only KNEW the things we eat that contain wheat... GROSS!
Wellllll, I'm obviously not the BEST student.... Sorry, Doc! Here we see evidence. The day after I'd started the book, I read a few pages at lunch time, while consuming my beloved organic soba noodles with shrimp... OOPS! I just couldn't let those things go to waste. Too yummy! Paleo tomorrow, right?! ;)
The QUEEN BEE of our house - Miss Harlow Jane! It's SO hard to snap pictures of her... She's the sweetest, yet most mischevious thing and she darts around my house like nobody's business. Everytime I try to capture a picture, she just looks like a black blur! She looks sort of... Depressed?? here... Maybe because she was annoyed that I'd chased her around with my camera until she finally posed long enough to have her picture taken? I promise, she leads a life of luxury! My friends are shocked that my fur children don't have monograms yet. Their Aunt Cait {my Junior League friend/co-chair Caitlin} so promptly assigned Henley a middle name since Harlow already had one and they "HAD" to have monograms... So, Henley Jude and Harlow Jane! I'm just waiting to decide what to have monogrammed for them. Bandanas, perhaps?
Okay, because I KNOW y'all are eager to get to the sneak peeks of the recipes {I can't say I blame you... They're GOOD ones!}, let's fast forward to the weekend!
Here is my farmers market stash from the weekend! From now on, let's just lovingly refer to this as "the haul," if that's okay with y'all?!?! It sounds cool ;) This week I scored some okra, Arkansas tomatoes, baby cucumbers, peaches, grass-fed ground beef, peaches, cantelope, a GIANT watermelon. Believe it or not, that's the smallest watermelon they had! I have 5 GIANT Ziploc bags in my fridge that are stuffed to the brim with sliced watermelon. If you know me in real life, please seriously come over this week and help a sister out with her watermelon! I'll never be able to eat all of this.... Fantastic watermelon recipes, anyone?! Let's just also talk about those gorgeous fresh flowers. Again, if you're new here, my local farmers market has bouquets of these flowers for $5 each... I know, right?! I'm crazy lucky. I buy some each week to display in my house! Nothing beats fresh flowers! The bouquet is HUGE and gorgeous and has tons of colors. This isn't a great picture of it, so I'll snap a better one this week! That adorable vase I put them in was a consignment store find this week. FOUR DOLLA! I LOVE it and picked it up totally expecting it to be $30+... When I saw the $4 sticker, I grabbed that puppy up and made a straight shot for the register before they changed their minds on the fabulous price! ;)
After the market/before our team WOD on Saturday, I ran home to make breakfast. That fabulously puffy, pastry thing is indeed a homemade peach dumpling I picked up from the farmers market. I know what you're thinking.... "Five seconds ago this girl just talked about how she's reading a book about how wheat makes you fat and is talking about cutting wheat out of her diet...." Let me just rephrase for y'all... HOMEMADE. PEACH. DUMPLING. Sacrifice, y'all! If the wheat in that puff pastry were to kill me, well at least I'd die a happy, plump woman! ;)
A little post-team WOD Kill Cliff before running errands!
My Saturday afternoon visitor - Remington! This little man is a DOLL. Cheeks for DAYS, I'm tellin' ya!
A freshly-made bed makes me a happy girl! No lie....
Saturday afternoon treat... Homemade fresh coconut ice cream! There's this little Mexican ice cream shoppe in Fort Smith that I ADORE! My love for ice cream is no secret. While no ice cream is "healthy," I do believe this is as close as it gets! This place makes all of their ice cream with fresh fruit and ingredients that I can pronounce {unless they're in Spanish... then that's an entirely different story!} Their coconut is my favorite, right before the wild cherry, cranberry, strawberry... You get the picture! I don't ice cream-scriminate.
Perhaps my very favorite scene from the weekend... Let's just talk about this, y'all. My very favorite antique store in the area is Belle Star Antiques {shout out to the fabulous owner, Beth!} I could spend HOURS in that place, just browsing! Seriously, I don't think I've ever gone in that place and left completely empty-handed... Perhaps my favorite thing about it is the very fair prices. Those vendors have some amazing picks in their booth, and a vast majority of them boast very reasonable prices. So, about 4 months ago I was in there browsing and eyed this chair. I fell in LOVE.. But, at the time, I argued with myself that I didn't "need" it and wasn't sure where I'd put it. Classic. Well, I had been long-searching for a cabinet for my craft room that would fit all of my paints and brushes and everything. Beth takes pictures of some of her favorite items in the store and uploads them on Facebook. She uploaded one of a little antique cabinet last week and I immediately knew it was exactly what I'd been searching for. So, I called and paid for it and told her I'd be by on Saturday to pick it up. Saturday after my WOD, I took a quick trip to Belle Star to grab my find. While they were getting it ready for me, I browsed. I noticed this chair was still in it's booth, so I dodged in to take a peek at the price. The tag said "$50" and I just KNEW it couldn't be true. I grabbed Beth to verify and, sure enough, that gorgeous piece of furniture had been marked down to FIFTY BUCKS! I stole this beauty up IMMEDIATELY! Funniest and coolest part of the story is that my grandma used to have 2 chairs identical to this one that flanked her fireplace. Well, she moved to Arkansas about 5 years ago and brought the chairs with her, but ended up getting rid of them while she lived here. I can't help but wonder if this one was one of those chairs that used to belong to my grandma! Even if not, it's so fun to pretend, and it's even more fun to know that I so adored a chair identical to those owned by my grandma many years ago. I got this beauty home, threw on a pillow I already had {again, the Teej}, and it found a home in my living room. I couldn't be more in love!
Speaking of decor, I'm thinking of doing a little "tour of homes" some time soon. I get asked so often for decorating tips, and now I have the perfect place to share them. Is that something y'all would be interested in?!
And, to wrap it up, a few sneak peeks of recipes for later this week:
1 - Summer Chili
2 - Spciy Sweet Potato "Fries"
3 - Turkey Lettuce Wraps
I'll be back later this week with recipes! Stay tuned :) Have a great week, y'all! xoxo
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