Happy Friday and Father’s Day weekend! How was your week? Mine was pretty slow, since I’m not currently working on any projects at my internship and was just getting a feel for my work environment, but hopefully next week will be better! Now, what do you say we kick of the weekend the right way by looking back at some of our favorites from the week? Let’s do it!
Nectarines
Nectarines are probably my favorite summer fruit. I do love berries a lot, but a good, juicy nectarine is sweet and messy and perfect to me. I bought some when they started showing up at grocery stores in Chicago, but it was before they were really good, you know?
Well, my nectarine record for the season changed when my mom and I went to Trader Joe’s this weekend and bought a whole box of pretty much perfect nectarines. I foresee another trip there this weekend, because they were all gone in about 3 days.
Vintage cereal box puzzle
Last week, my friends and I were at a local bookstore, and it reminded me that puzzles exist. I’ve gone in phases with them throughout my life, but suddenly, I wanted to do a puzzle. My mom and I promptly bought, well, probably too many puzzles. We have four puzzles featuring hot sauce bottles, candy, cake pops, and vintage cereal boxes. We started the cereal one first, and I’m excited to work on the rest. Putting together puzzles is about as relaxing for me as coloring, and it’s a nice way to wind down in the evening.
The Best Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies
As part of my quest to prove that paleo baked goods can be as good as “regular” ones (and not scare off a family that’s used to me baking all the time), I whipped up a batch of these cookies from Monique last weekend. They’re soft, chocolate-y, and completely delicious. You would really never know they weren’t “regular” ones, and that was the goal.
Ninja Mega Kitchen System
I finally broke out one of my birthday presents and I’m loving it! I’ve made some spoon-able smoothies to pack for (part of) breakfast, including a trendy golden milk one. 🙂 I’ll get to sharing some of those soon!
Crab Cake Cobb Salad Stacks
I made these salads for dinner on Wednesday, and they were so good! Absolutely the perfect summer meal. They’re quite easy, and include avocado, crab, and bacon. Can you really go wrong? (No.) I made a couple minor adjustments to the recipe in Jessica’s fabulous cookbook, Seriously Delish, to make the crab cakes paleo-friendly, and everything worked out beautifully!
And that’s all for me this week. I hope you have a fabulous weekend eating delicious food and spending time with lovely people!
Your turn:
What’s your favorite summer fruit?
Do you have any favorite smoothie recipes?
What all are you loving this week?
Linking up with Heather
I’m seriously obsessed with that crab cake cobb. I need that in my LIFE. Hey, at least they are giving you a chance to get oriented to the environment at the internship, rather than just throwing you to the wolves, lol.
Pretty sure everyone needs that salad in their lives 😀
That puzzle <3 O dear, I want it!
I have too many favorite summer fruits, but top ranking would be cherries and watermelon :O
Oooh I haven’t had cherries yet! But they are amazing!
That puzzle looks awesome! I haven’t done one in forever. I love watermelon in the summer, it’s so refreshing! I’m pretty lame with my smoothies…stick to protein powder, milk and berries usually. This week I’m loving the sun and warm weather! Happy Friday 🙂
Not lame at all! Sometimes simple smoothies really are the best 🙂 Have a great weekend, Jordan!
That puzzle is awesome, especially considering I am a cereal feign! Favorite summer fruits are watermelon, cherries and peaches!
I’m also a bit of a cereal freak 🙂 There are so many tasty varieties!
That salad looks sooo good. Cobb salads are my favorite salads! And I need to try those chocolate chip cookies… I just invested in a 4-pound bag of coconut flour and now I need to bake all the things with it, haha 😛
My favorite summer fruit is blueberries! My family likes to go berry-picking during the peak of the season and we bring home gallons of them. They are so good fresh! 🙂
I’ve just recently started ordering Cobb salads and I can totally see why you love them! And definitely try the cookies and put that coconut flour to use 😉 Also, there are lots of other coconut flour recipes on Ambitious Kitchen that are really good if you need to use more 😀
That crab cake looks delish! I love love love cereal. Seriously so good! Fav summer fruit is definitely watermelon!
Loving all the cereal love ❤️
Those cookies DO look delicious! Not overly “healthified” at all 🙂
And I don’t think I’ve ever had a nectarine but now I’m dying to try one after hearing you talk about them!
Oooh yes, try a nectarine! They’re a bit like peaches, but… different 🙂
Favorite summer fruit? I LOVE grapes and peaches and watermelon. So hard to choose! I still can’t get over how pretty that salad stack is. And I go through phases with puzzles. Most of the time, I’m pretty hopeless with them, but sometimes I can actually survive one! 😉
Haha I’ll get through this puzzle with my mom’s help – 1000 pieces is a lot! 🙂
Wait, that cobb salad stack though! I love crab cakes. SO good. And I haven’t done a puzzle in SO long – I’m the same way, I do a bunch and then won’t do them for a while.I’m dying to do one now!
Crab cakes are one of my favorite dishes! I don’t eat them enough, but they’re so yummy!
Puzzles are a ton of fun! You’ll have to update us once you’ve completed one. I love playing with puzzles, but I wish I could return them- like a library book! I try to keep what I buy to a minimum because I hate clutter, and unfortunately puzzles end up turning into clutter. 🙁 But I still love them a lot!
Happy weekend, Ellen!
Haha a puzzle library would be a fun concept to develop if puzzles were more popular 🙂 Have a great weekend, Julia!
Watermelon or strawberries are my favorite Summer fruits! I need to start making smoothies again, they are so refreshing.
I love love love sweet summer strawberries! So good!
I loveee puzzles! We have a serious collection of puzzles for lazy weekends and vacations as it means Jesse doesn’t play video games, haha!
Those crab cakes look so good – and your Mom’s behind the scenes photo totally made me laugh because I do the exact same thing! 😛
I love the idea of a collection! It’s definitely a good way to take a bit of a technology break (and we could all probably use a few more of those).
Hahaha yeah… ya know, the things we do to get a good shot ?
I don’t know. Watermelon, peached, strawberries. Problem is I buy strawberries all year long. Not like getting them from local patch.
But summer strawberries are a little more special 🙂
I love puzzles! But once you start, you can’t stop. My favourite summer fruit are raspberries. We grew some in our garden this year which was the best idea ever. I loved getting to pick and eat them straight from the bush.
Hahaha speaking of “can’t stop”… I stayed up later than I have in ages last night because I wanted to keep working on it. And I’m totally jealous of your homegrown raspberries – that sounds fantastic!
I love nectarines! One of my favorite things about summer is fresh fruit 🙂 Have an awesome weekend, Ellen <3
Blessings,
Edye | http://gracefulcoffee.wordpress.com
Fresh fruit is the best! Thanks, Edye, have a great weekend!