1.) I usually leave grilling up to my dad. (Have you seen his burgers? Why would I mess with that?) However, I was on my own for dinner last Friday, and I wanted veggies not in salad form. So, a treatment of olive oil, salt, pepper, and the grill was the answer. I served (myself) grilled zucchini and sweet potatoes with homemade ketchup, shrimp, and a heart of romaine lettuce drizzled with balsamic vinaigrette.
It was delicious, and I confirmed that the grill is not that scary.
2.) Since I had the house to myself, I also did some baking on Friday and Saturday. I made Michele’s Paleo Chocolate Chip Cupcakes and highly recommend them. They’re like deep-dish cookies, which are way more satisfying than regular cookies. I also recreated these Larabar bites because Erin mentioned them and I was silly enough to buy and demolish them. And I tested a less-successful (but still pretty) recipe for zucchini bread bars.
I want to figure those out, though, because they were close and now I really want zucchini bread.
3.) Real talk, though: I love having the house to myself, dancing around the kitchen, and making a mess while also making tasty food. But sometimes that love makes me forget that I also need human interaction. And then I get to the end of the day and feel blah and can’t explain why. So… I need to get out more. 
4.) When I go to a grocery store, I could wander around forever, checking out new products and collecting new jars of nut butter (favorite hobby). For that reason, I am rarely “in and out” of a grocery store.
My dad, however, can’t be “in and out” of a grocery store because he has to scan for sales. We stopped to get three things on Monday and walked out with a full cart. I had greatly diminished my stash of chocolate, though, so I made sure to pick up more since we were doing the rounds. He got toilet paper, I got chocolate. Typical.
5.) This extended grocery trip took place on the way home from work. And when we got home, something was off. Please believe me when I say that I know this isn’t that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things. Total #firstworldproblem ahead.
That something was the air conditioning.
If you follow me on Snapchat (@elleneveryday), you already know this, but our air conditioner has been dead since Monday afternoon. It’s been 80+ in our house pretty much since then. I’ve slept with three fans on in my room. My parents and Pippa have slept in the rec room, where it’s about 3 degrees cooler than the rest of the house. We opted out of cooking for the last two nights and haven’t finished the last load of laundry from the weekend because turning on any source of heat source is a bad idea. The tile floor in my bathroom is warm. My normally-solid coconut oil is completely liquid. You get the picture.
Today, we’re getting a new air conditioner, and I’m so excited. It’s supposed to be extra hot and humid heading into this weekend, so I guess it’s better that it happened during the first half of the week…?
6.) I haven’t talked a whole lot about my internship, but that’s because I wasn’t doing anything and I didn’t want to come across as either negative or lazy.
Really, I’ve been there about 40 hours a week for the last six weeks, and only had about 8 to 10 hours of that filled by work. The story behind all of this is long and trivial, but it’s finally getting resolved and I’ll be able to switch teams and hopefully have a little more work to do for the next four weeks.
7.) I have had a lot of massages in my life.
Anyone who has ever given me one can tell you two things:
- The amount of time they were given to work out all my knots was not nearly enough.
- No amount of time is actually enough.
I usually agree with both of these points. If I could pay someone to follow me around and rub my shoulders, I’d probably do it. I would never get tired of it. But the one exception is my favorite massage therapist at a local Massage Envy. He’s great (and always booked), but he manages to dig into my knots so hard that when we finish a session, I feel as beaten up as I do relaxed and I’m ready for the break. It’s a weird therapy, but I guess it works, right?
8.) Work meetings mean people bring free Starbucks. I’m currently obsessed with (iced and hot) Tazo Passion tea. Also, it’s pretty.
9.) One of the teams on the floor I work on is manipulating Chiptopia. They have two cards for the whole team to share, so someone has to go to Chipotle almost every day. They intend to reach “hot” status for three months and win $240 worth of catered Chipotle for the team. That’s smart, but… did Chipotle not think of that?
10.) And now I want to leave you with some of my favorite recipes + reads from the week.
- Pizza just got easier. –> Easy Gluten-Free Pizza Bowls
- Grill everything and put it in a bowl! –> Honey Lime Grilled Avocado Shrimp Nacho Bowls
- I need some baking bananas ASAP. –> Almond Butter and Jelly Chocolate Chip Paleo Banana Muffins
- Dan’s sharing his fitness journey and it’s realistic and great. –> Dan’s Journey to Health: Goals
- Meal planning makes life so much easier. –> How I Find Recipes for My Weekly Meal Plan
Your turn:
Grocery shopping: love it or hate it?
Do you ever give yourself a little too much alone time?
Anything else I should know?
Love myself some grocery shopping. And I don’t mind a good sale, but I’m also cheap and not likely to get suckered into the BOGO Christmas Ornaments in July. Although we all know that is the time to buy ;D
I have a coupon for a massage. I should probably use that…
Oh and YAY for getting onto a better team!
Yes! It sounds like you could use a good massage!
I love seeing a full grilled plate AND that you said it isn’t so scary <3 My heart!
Haha!
LOVEEEEEEEEEEE Grocery shopping! I'm so happy I get to do all the shopping for the family and take my time. It's so relaxing! I go super early on Friday morning after I workout and go pick up some iced coffee, then I just stroll through the store with all the old ladies that are also shopping at that hour
And…massages are NOT my thing….so creepy…
Going to the grocery store early is the best
The stores are so empty!
LOL I understand about the massages. If I think about it too much, I find it creepy, too.
Grill allllll the things! Basically my life story. I used to ONLY use AC in the summer, but this summer we’ve decided to try and stick it out with just fans – you’d be surprised how easily your body acclimates! My house is like, 70 this morning and I’m cold. The key is a lot of window fans (pointed both in AND out) to circulate the air and basically never cooking indoors. Also, either do laundry in the early, early morning or late late at night. We do have one AC unit installed in our kitchen for when it gets crazy hot and humid, mostly for the baby, but even then we keep most of the windows open and just crank it in the kitchen.
Eeek good for you with the fans! I’d say that I’m super spoiled by AC.
I LOVE grocery shopping, and I really hate clothes shopping.
I love grocery shopping, because I just love cooking and the variety in tastes and textures and smells. I’m kind of intimidated of grilling, and I love that you just went after it and grilled up some really delicious looking veggies. You made me want to do grill lettuce now.
O_O I’m glad your AC is getting fixed. We are so blessed to have ways to keep the houses cool during the summer, and your coconut oil will be hard again soon. Ours has definitely been more liquidy right now.
You are really pumping out the recipes… I’m kind of excited to see if you want to share any of them?
That zucchini bread looks really good to me!
I have a grilled salad recipe I should put up to inspire you to grill
I’m excited!
I’m sooo grateful for temperature control inside! The AC guys are at the house now, so hopefully everything will cool down by tomorrow.
And YES, of course I’ll share them! It might take another test round to get ’em perfect, but I have a huge list of stuff I need to take pictures of to post
Haha, I think I haven’t been giving myself quite enough alone time lately! For once most of my friends are at Carleton or around the Twin Cities this summer, so I’ve been trying to take advantage of that–but my introverted side really, really needs a break this weekend!
Oh gosh, I am so sorry for you about your AC! Anything past 80 in the house is just too much. At least you guys have had an excuse not to cook, right?
Good for you for being a little extra social! Take advantage of the chance to see your friends
But absolutely enjoy your “me time” this weekend. We all deserve that.
Haha yeah, the cooking break has been kinda nice. I’m looking forward to getting back to the kitchen, though. I’m thinking tacos
One thing that sucks about apartment life is not having access to a grill. Nothing beats a good grilled dinner that’s for sure!
I sometimes struggle with too much alone time but as an introvert who works full-time anyways, I need a lot of it! I put too much pressure on myself to be social and don’t let myself fully recharge enough. Something I’m working on!
I agree! I’d love to have a grill when I’m at school, so I take major advantage in the summer.
I also need a lot of alone time, so I feel that. And then when I get some, I want to stock up on as much as possible. Sometimes that’s what gets me into trouble
I’m always learning how to best take care of myself. I think we all are!
I’m the same way with alone time. I love it, but I can’t go through an entire day without seeing people or getting out because I start feeling loopy. It can be touch when you work form home, which is why I make an effort to go out and work from libraries or coffee shops.
“Loopy” is a great way to describe it. I do love working at coffee shops! They’re the perfect mix of people, peace and quiet, and caffeine
I love grocery shopping! Especially if I have time to kill and am not in a hurry to get somewhere. I love looking for sales but can refrain from buying things i don’t really need lol. I sometimes can find myself having little bit too much alone time, but I usually have just enough to make me feel relaxed
I also like relaxed grocery shopping the best. Definitely isn’t the same if you have to rush through everything and then speed home to put it away before moving onto the next thing.
I love, love, love grocery shopping! It’s something I genuinely look forward to weekly, probably because I love food, and if I don’t grocery shop, there’s no food.
I totally get the being alone thing. I really love having the house to myself, but after a while I just want to talk to someone besides the squirrel outside or the muffins I’m baking
Girl, I’m so impressed that you can grill yourself! The grill does still intimidate me but at some point, I want my dad to teach me his tricks
How was the grilled romaine?
I can totally relate to the struggle of balancing “love alone time” with “need socialization.” At least in my experience, having a chronic illness – and needing to always bring my own food/have access to safe food when hanging out – makes socialization much harder than typical. Too little can be bad too though…at least we have our nut butter collections to keep us company
I used to love grocery shopping when I lived at home and got to fill up the trolley and mum paid
But now I’m flatting and I have to make the trek to the store it has become more of a chore!
At the end of the day, after being surrounded my sooooo many people I come home and desperately need alone time.
I 100% agree that grocery shopping is most fun when someone else is paying
I think your Dad’s grilling skills have definitely been passed down to you! Why aren’t we neighbours so we can have awesome meals together?!?!
I feel like I need to move closer to you because that massage therapist sounds like what I need! The ones I’ve been to lately are WAY too gentle… and the knots and tightness of my muscle? SO not gentle
I think half our correspondence is that we should live closer, soooo the question is: who’s moving?