Sunshine Weekend

For a weekend that was supposed to have thundershowers, it turned out to be really nice!! I woke up to gorgeous sunshine on Saturday. Brian had left early at 6am to go fishing with his buddy, so I decided to go for a nice long walk. I'm still congested a little so I'm hesitant to do too much hard cardio. On my walk I realized it was Farmer's Market time!!!

I went to the ATM then hit up the market.Yellow Carrots!!
A fresh ball o' Mozzarella made that morning!! I decided that a caprese salad was definitely in order later that day!

I have a hard time resisting fresh baked breadThis was a prune walnut bread! A delicious bread with chunks of walnuts and prunes.

Later that day we set out to one of my favorite produce grocery stores...Russo's!

Ok so we (my roommate and I), may have driven by my reception site...you know to see if there was a wedding! They we're setting one up! FUN! Lucky biatch of a bride that day had so many Peonies!! MY FAVORITE FLOWER!! I'll admit I am SO bitter that they are not in season in Sept :(

So I had to buy some:
*sigh* so beautiful.

Remember that caprese salad I mentioned I wanted to make?
So fresh and delicious!

Well Brian caught 7 stripers but none were big enough to keep, but I asked him to come home with some fish anyways hehe.

He picked up 1.5lbs of Halibut...one of my faves!I placed it in a marinade of olive oil, fresh lime juice, lots of garlic, salt and pepper!

It cooked up perfectly on the grill. We also grilled fresh corn on the cob, and roomie made a delicious Bulgar salad!
For the corn, we husked it, brushed it with olive oil, and placed it right on the grill...rotating it a few times for about 10min total.

The Bulgar salad started with her wanting to make a quinoa salad, but I had a box of Bulgar instead :) We added:

• bell peppers - different colors
  
• red onion
  
• grape tomatoes
  
• chickpeas
  
• feta
  
• tossed with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.
• 

This was a perfect summer meal!

This morning the cooking (well baking) continued.

I made granola and muffins!
This granola contained:

• 2.5 cups thick cut oats
• 1/2 cups sunflower seeds
• 3/4 cup unsweetened coconut
• 1/2 cup almond slices

Into a small sauce pan:

• 2 T canola oil
• 2 tsp. coconut oil
• 1 T brown sugar
• 1-2T honey (I had to use a small spoon to get it out so I don't know exactly)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp almond extract

Heat those ingredients until combined/thinned out. Pour over dry ingredients and mix!

Spread over sheet pan, bake at 270 degrees for about 45min, stirring once in the middle.

When you take it out, RESIST the urge to stir it around, let it just sit...it will clump together this way :)I enjoyed a little on a Blueberry Oikos

Banana Blueberry Muffins

• 1.5 cups White Whole Wheat Flour
• 1/2 cup APF
• 1/4 cup cornmeal
• 1/4 cup quick oats
• 1-2T flax
• 2 T Sucanant
• 1/4 c. unsweetened coconut
• 2 tsp Baking Powder
• 1 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
• 1tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp Nutmeg (would of added more next time)
  

wet ingredients:

• 3 bananas
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 T canola oil
• 1 T Honey (I recommend adding another 1-2 T of honey or another sweetener...these came out less sweet than usual, and my usual isn't that sweet to begin with)
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla

Add wet to dry...stir to combine.

• 1 cup blueberries - place in a small bowl and sprinkle with flour, stir flour around onto berries (this will keep them from sinking to the bottom of the muffins).

Fold in berries, place in muffin tin that has been sprayed with cooking spray.

Bake for 18min at 375.

I made a mini loaf with the extra batter!These were delicious and moist!! As I said before, I'd add a tad more sweet to these next time, but I love them this way too.

New House Updates: Brian's first Mow!! He's been DYING to try out his new mower, and all this rain lately has NOT made that possible, until this weekend:
Beautiful lines ;) I love that he loves to mow the grass hehe.

And that's another weekend folks...back to work tomorrow :( Boooooooooo!