SweetBerries Love Affair

After work today, Ryan, Sadie and I piled into his car for a weekend trip to Sarasota to visit Ryan’s family.

Packed Up!

We made great time and walked into a house that smelled delicious!

Within 10 minutes of arriving we sat down to a delicious dinner of salmon, orzo pasta, spinach and watermelon.

Orzo

Watermelon

My Plate

I enjoyed a bit of everything (I added the orzo to my plate once I finished the salmon) and seriously dominated the watermelon. My belly was stuffed! I think I reserved myself watermelon 4+ times. Love it!

Dessert

After hanging out in the backyard for an hour or so, we were ready for dessert. We had to take a trip to SweetBerries, a local restaurant that serves the best frozen custard.

SweetBerries

Every time Ryan and I come to Sarasota we have to make a trip to SweetBerries. It’s a delicious little gem! We may or may not be in love with it. 😉

I ordered a small Hawaiian custard that included pineapple, banana and lots of sweetened coconut.

Hawaiian Custard

We are in desperate need of a frozen custard place in Orlando. This stuff is so thick and creamy. It’s ridiculously delicious.

I’m off to hang out with the gang before hittin’ the hay. I have an early-morning run planned with my friend Merri so I hope to be in bed by 11 p.m. tonight!

See ya in the mornin’!

Reader’s Recipe: Salmon Edition

Time for a new Reader’s Recipe! Hoooooray! 😀

The lovely Michelle of Life with a Crazy Pup submitted a yummy lemon rosemary salmon recipe when I first called for Reader’s Recipes.

Since I had some fresh rosemary leftover from Kelly‘s rosemary chicken and zucchini recipe, I figured I’d give her recipe a shot tonight!

I first took two frozen salmon filets out of the freezer to thaw while Ryan and I took Sadie on a 2.5 mile walk and hit up the grocery store to buy our food for the week.

Thawing Fish

When we returned home, the salmon was ready for cookin’.

I rubbed the salmon with a mixture of olive oil, salt, pepper and minced rosemary before adding lemon slices, lemon juice and white wine (I nixed the capers that the recipe called for because I am not a fan).

Ryan minced the rosemary like a pro.

Ryan + Rosemary

Ready for Cookin'

After wrapping the fish up in foil packets, I baked it at 400 degrees for 15 minutes while also roasting veggies to enjoy with the salmon.

How easy is this recipe!? I really like uncomplicated recipes that call for minimal ingredients that I have on hand. They make me smile!

Lemon Rosemary Salmon

My Plate

This dinner turned out wonderfully and I owe a big thank you to Michelle!

Dessert

For dessert Ryan and I split a white chocolate Kit Kat bar that I sneakily stuck on the belt at the grocery store.

White Chocolate Kit Kat

This dessert got me thinkin’… How good would a chocolate and peanut butter Kit Kat be!? Get on that, Hershey… or Nestlé… or whoever it is that makes Kit Kats. 😉

Submit a Recipe

If you have a Reader’s Recipe you’d like to submit, feel free to comment on this post with a recommendation. I’ll be making another one next week!

Tonight’s Recipe

Salmon with Lemon, Capers, and Rosemary

(Submitted by Michelle, Altered from Giadia De Laurentiis, Everyday Italian)

Ingredients

• 4 (6-ounce) salmon fillets
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary leaves
• 8 lemon slices (about 2 lemons)
• 1/4 cup lemon juice (about 1 lemon)
• 1/2 cup Marsala wine or white wine
• 4 teaspoons capers
• 4 pieces of aluminum foil

Directions

Place each piece of seasoned salmon on a piece of foil large enough to fold over and seal.

Mix together olive oil, salt, pepper, and minced rosemary.

Brush top and bottom of salmon fillets with olive oil mixture.

Top the each piece of salmon with 2 lemon slices, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, 2 tablespoons of wine, and 1 teaspoon of capers.

Wrap up salmon tightly in the foil packets.

Bake at 400 for 15 minutes. Check and make sure salmon is cooked all the way through.

Cooking Option: Place a grill pan over medium-high heat or preheat a gas or charcoal grill. Place the foil packets on the hot grill and cook for 10 minutes for a 1-inch thick piece of salmon. Serve in the foil packets.

Fresh Out of the Freezer

Tonight’s dinner was fresh out of the freezer! How’s that for an oxymoron?

Salmon Dinner

Before heading to work this morning, I took a couple of salmon filets out of the freezer and let them thaw in the fridge so they’d be ready for bakin’ for dinner tonight.

What’s your favorite kind of fish?

My favorite fish is salmon, followed closely by grouper.

Our salmon dinner came together quickly. After sprinkling the filets with dill, salt, pepper and lemon juice, I put them in the oven at 375 degrees and let them bake for about 10 minutes.

(For some reason Ryan finds the “Dill Weed” spice label unusually funny. :D)

Fishy

The fish was moist and flaky.

On the side we enjoyed roasted zucchini sprinkled with garlic salt and portobello mushrooms. Can’t forget the veggies!

On our evening walk with Sadie we snagged two oranges off a neighbor’s orange tree and they were a juicy and delicious addition to our meal.

Freshly Picked Orange

Am I a Runner?

I don’t consider myself a runner. Even when I was training for a half marathon, I didn’t consider myself a runner.

I’m intimidated by the people I think are “runners.” The people who run in several races a month and have completed marathon after marathon… I can’t keep up with the big guys!

I like to run for fun. I run in races because I love the atmosphere and the enthusiasm of so many people gathered to do something great for their bodies.

I started signing up for running races after I graduated college. I’ve never tried to improve my time (though it has improved a bit naturally), and always set out to enjoy the race experience.

I don’t know what criteria I have in my head that qualifies someone as a “runner.” I think anyone who runs regularly for fun or to improve their ability is a runner… so wouldn’t that make me one of them? Maybe… Right now I think I’m just a “worker-outer.” 😉

What do you think makes someone a “runner?”

Garlicy Dinn-ah!

Since I began fostering my love for Brussels sprouts this year, I’ve only tried a small handful of recipes involving the yummy vegetable. 

Fresh Brussels Sprouts

I typically limit my Brussels sprouts preparation to tossing the sprouts in olive oil, salt and pepper before roasting them. 

When I saw that this week’s Blogger Secret Ingredient was garlic, I knew I wanted to use garlic in my next Brussels sprouts dish. 

Garlic

To begin, I chopped up the Brussels sprouts, getting rid of dingy leaves and the hard bottoms. 

I then tossed the Brussels sprouts with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper before roasting them at 400 degrees for 13 minutes on one side. 

Pre-Roasted Brussels Sprouts

I then flipped the sprouts and roasted them for another five minutes on the other side until they were soft, but slightly crispy on the outside. 

Balsamic and Garlic Roasted Brussels Sprouts

This recipe was fan-flippin-tastic. I loved the added oomph of flavor from the garlic and balsamic vinegar. Delish! 

Though the Brussels sprouts were the highlight of my meal, I also enjoyed a salmon burger on a whole wheat Arnold sandwich thin with cucumber and plum tomato slices and a dill dijonaise sauce made with  light Miracle Whip, dijon mustard and dill. Great dinner! 

My Dinner!

Balsamic and Garlic Roasted Brussels Sprouts 

Ingredients:

• 1.25 lbs. Brussels sprouts (roughly 5 c. chopped)
• 1.5 tbsp. olive oil
• 2 tsp. balsamic vinegar
• 1 tbsp. minced garlic
• salt and pepper

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Chop Brussels spouts, removing hard ends and wilted leaves. Combine all ingredients, tossing to coat the Brussels sprouts in the mixture. Spread on a baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray. Bake at 400 degrees for 13 minutes before flipping the Brussels sprouts and baking for an additional 5 minutes.

Is .wordpress.com a Big Deal? 

I have a question for all of you blog-followers out there. Do you think having “.wordpress.com” in the domain name of a blog hurts readership?  

  

Wordpress "W"

 I am not computer saavy at all and have toyed around with making the jump from WordPress to my own domain name (I even purchased peanutbutterfingersblog.com – peanubutterfingers.com was taken. 😦 ) I am happy using WordPress right now, but know it’s much easier to remember blog names when it’s just the blog name.com. 

Please share your thoughts! 🙂 

Wedding Dress Input 

Thank you to all of you who commented on my simple vs. sha-zaam wedding dress post! It was so interesting to read such a wide variety of opinions. No wonder there are bazillions of wedding dresses out there to choose from. I hope I find a beautiful dress and I will be sure to keep you guys updated on my progress. 😀

Pre-Dinner Milkshake

What better way to kick off the weekend than with a McDonald’s triple thick pumpkin milkshake? How have I never tried this shake before???

Pumpkin Milkshake

Ryan and I split this shake after taking Sadie on a nice long walk. Since it’s ridiculously hot in Florida right now, a milkshake sounded perfect! Oh-my-gosh-this-was-too-tasty! We both fell instantly in love. It almost made me forget how yummy McD’s shamrock shakes are… almost.

After our lil’ treat, we cooked up a slightly more nutritious dinner.

I chopped come brussels sprouts and tossed them with olive oil, salt and pepper before roasting them in the oven at 400 degrees for 12 minutes on one side before flipping them and roasting them for another 5 minutes on the other side.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

While the lil’ brussels were roasting, I tossed a salmon burger and some onion slices on the griddle and toasted a whole wheat Arnold’s sandwich thin. I topped the bread with light mayo, dijon mustard and dill and slices plum tomatoes.

Dinnah!

Dinner was quite yummy (but the milkshake was yummier). 🙂

Now Ryan and I are having quite the hot Friday night full of laundry, cleaning and packing! As one of my gifts to Ryan for his birthday, I booked us a weekend stay in Ft. Lauderdale and we’re leaving early in the in the morning. I can’t wait! We’re staying in a boutique hotel right near the beach. It’s our first vacation as an engaged couple. Woop, woop!

Our Hotel

I’m bringing my camera and computer along in hopes of making a blog post over the weekend, but I make no promises! 🙂 Happy Weekend!