Hey, there! Happy Friday! I, for one, am pretty glad it’s (almost) the weekend. I don’t know exactly what I’ll be doing, but hopefully some baking, shopping, and relaxing are on the agenda. It has definitely been a long week over here, but there have been a few pretty fantastic parts, so let’s end the week on a high note and talk about those.
- Fun Trader Joe’s finds
When we went to Trader Joe’s on Sunday, I picked up a few new products that I’ve been enjoying quite a bit this week. I highly recommend the sweet potato frites, chili lime chicken burgers, and guacamole. And all of it together 🙂
- Cooking & being domestic
I’ve only cooked one full dinner since I’ve been home, due to some crazy schedules, but I loved it. It’s so relaxing for me. Also, I’ve really enjoyed doing dishes and grocery shopping and tidying up here and there. It feels productive, which is my favorite.
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I picked both the Pacific sea salt and cinnamon crunch flavors up at Target on Sunday and have been absolutely loving snacking on them. They’re crunchy and nutty-tasting and super satisfying.
- Long life conversations
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Nothing is more reassuring than discussing how uncertain the future is for everyone and how many options there really are in life. Also, nothing is more frightening. But I appreciate the wonderful people in my life who help me through these conversations and share their own concerns with me.
- Grapes
So after the more serious “favorite”, I put something as simple as grapes? Yes. I don’t know what it is, but they were on sale, which means we have a ton of grapes. And they’ve been tasting pretty incredible lately.
Do you like doing little domestic chores?
What fruit has been tasting especially good lately?
What have you been loving this week?
I eat grapes like it’s the end of the world lol…I love them! I went to Trader Joe’s the other day looking for new products to try and the line to get into the store was out the door. Have to go back 🙂
Haha I’m snacking on some grapes right now. And, oh, darn – such a shame to have to go back to Trader Joe’s 😉
Ah what are those Somersault things?? They look like such a yummy snack! And also, I totally feel you on grapes. I could eat a pound a day! 🙂
They’re crunchy nuggets (for lack of a better word) made of sunflower seeds! I guess they’re hard to describe, but they’re super tasty 🙂 And YES, I’m totally snacking on grapes right now.
Ellen, I’ve loved reading your blog these past couple weeks! Sweet potato frites and the chicken burgers from TJ’s are also my favorite 🙂 Try the egg white salad and bbq pulled chicken. They also have these chicken parm bite/ball things in the frozen section….SO good
Aww thanks so much, Mandi! And thanks for the recommendations – TJ’s is awesome and I love trying new things 😀
I absolutely love cleaning. It’s bizarre but it’s one of my favorite activities. I’m almost sad when my apartment is spotless haha. I also really enjoy doing laundry. I think that might be my favorite task above all else. Best fruit lately = frozen bananas, but for some reason I just started thinking about and craving grapefruit! Hope you have a great weekend!!
I generally like cleaning a lot, too! And I think I’m the only college student who does kind of looks forward to doing laundry (except that it costs money…). Frozen bananas are pretty excellent. I always have a bag of sliced ones in my freezer! Thanks, Jamie! I hope you have a lovely weekend, too 🙂
at first when i read somersaults i thought you meant the actual flipping over your head into a body roll… i was like, yep those ARE pretty awesome. BUT the snack version looks pretty delicious too
Haha it’s been a little while since I’ve done a somersault, but they are pretty fun :0
Yes, for some reason washing dishes has become therapeutic for me? Haha, never thought I would be the one saying that! I have always wanted to try those somersault snacks, I never seem to find good savory snacks.
Favorite fruit? Right now I am totally loving some fresh figs, sweet melons, and wild strawberries!
I feel the same way about doing dishes. It’s really calming.
The Somersaults are one of very few examples where I really think I like the savory version over the sweet version. Some of my other favorite savory snacks are salted nuts, rice cakes with cheese and ham, and veggies and hummus.
I’ve never had a fresh fig (just the dried ones), but that sounds pretty awesome 🙂
You and your mom both know that I don’t mind ironing.
We always have grapes on hand. Did you used to dip those in our ranch dip??
Cantaloupe has been very good.
I enjoyed a couple pool visit this week as well as harvesting a little from our garden–just radishes and lettuce so far. I did not enjoy the “on again, off again” rain. Not good for golf game. I need to remember the Texans and stop complaining.
Of course I did! I dipped everything in that dip 🙂 Yeah, I could do without some of this rain and humidity right now.
I am awaiting to go strawberry picking sometime soon. Hopefully the strawberries are nice and sweet!
I’ve had those chili lime burgers from Trader Joe’s. They are very tasty! Have you tried putting it between two tortillas instead of buns? That’s what my mom does!
Ooh that sounds so fun! I’ve never really been strawberry picking. We used to have some strawberry plants, but they mostly yielded teeny strawberries. I might have to try to schedule a real strawberry picking trip. Thanks for the idea!
That’s a genius idea! Moms are pretty smart 😉
Grapes are so refreshing in the summer!
Definitely!
I enjoy tinkering around with just about any food in the kitchen. And, rather bizarrely, also washing dishes. Cleaning everything up is just kind of therapeutic I guess.
Funny you should ask about the fruit…see below what I already knew was going to be one of my favorites of the week!
1) Farm fresh strawberries! We have this local farm near us, and although their strawberries are pricey, we bought a summer’s-worth this week for eating/freezing/making jam. And these strawberries are close to the best I’ve ever had. Small, sweet, deep red, perfect.
2) Lindsay’s Magic Green Sauce from Pinch of Yum. That stuff…it’s so awesomely scrumptious. If you haven’t had it, you should try it. You just can’t get enough and I found myself shamelessly licking off various parts of the food processor, my fingers, etc. 😛
3) Disney Princess jokes. My siblings ran into a website this week with all sorts of Disney quizzes you can take to find out what Disney princess you are, which Disney pet you should have, how well do you know such-and-such Disney movie…lol, total time-waster, but hysterically funny!! Especially the running jokes about Disney Princesses, princes and fairy tales. Even funnier if you’ve seen the movie. 😛
4) Argon oil. It’s pretty much the only oil I’ve found that restores my skin, but doesn’t make it oily (I know…seems like an oxymoron, right??). My skin is very dry, but prone to be greasy, so an oil that keeps my skin from getting dry/flaky and leaves it feeling smooth and healthy is wonderful! It’s pricey, but thankfully a wee bit goes a long way!
5) C. S. Lewis. I can’t even begin to count how many times I’ve read/listened to “The Chronicles of Narnia”. Even though they’re technically kids’ books, they remain some of my favorite books and I find myself loving them more with every reading. Even though I know many of the quotes by heart, they can still thrill my heart or make me laugh. Plus, I love pretty much every quote I’ve heard from C. S. Lewis.
Have a wonderful weekend, Ellen!!
I really enjoy doing dishes… I think I did them about four times today since I was baking…
1.) Oooh those strawberries sound incredible. I need to go berry-picking sometime to experience reeeally fresh strawberries.
2.) I love Pinch of Yum! Lindsay is a genius! Yesss I’ll have to get on that – thanks for the recommendation.
3.) I’ve take way too many Disney Buzzfeed quizzes, so I can definitely see where you’re coming from there. Pretty sure I have 5-10 screenshots of my results, because how else will the world know which Disney princess I am and who my Disney enemy is and which Disney kingdom I should live in? 😉
4.) I think maybe I use a hair product with argon oil. It’s fabulous and I totally get what you mean about it not being super greasy/oily.
5.) Love those books!
Thanks, Hannah! You, too!