Hello everyone! How is your week going so far? It has been a weird few weeks over here. We ended up getting a terrible stomach/flu sickness (or we suspect food poisoning??) that pretty much knocked us out for the end of April. So we have been catching up from that and are finally getting back into more regular rhythms. It was one of the sickest experiences I have ever had. Not fun!!

Hopefully your start to spring has been going more smoothly than that and you are getting out to enjoy the nicer weather!

Some unusual eats from the past few weeks!

The sickness totally threw my eating off for a couple of weeks. I went from couldn’t stomach anything –> mostly just crackers –> also other carb-like foods –> finally getting back into more regular eating recently.

When I was feeling a little better, applesauce was randomly sounding good. I made this AMAZING raspberry applesauce in our Vitamix by blending frozen raspberries, apples, lemon juice, water, and a bit of agave syrup. This totally hit the spot and is something I will continue to make in the future! The recipe was from the Vitamix Cookbook.

The other thing that was sounding amazing once I could eat a little more was POPSICLES. I am not generally a big popsicle person but these were surprisingly tasty. Gotta roll with whatever is sounding good when the going gets tough!

I was so much feeling the popsicles that I ended up buying a popsicle mold and making my own! Mixed berry yogurt which turned out decently well. I kind of winged it so want to fine tune my popsicle-making skills as the summer goes on. Maybe some peach + honey or pineapple + mint varieties will be in my future!

In other eating news, I made a pasta salad for lunches last week to switch things up a bit. Chickpea pasta noodles with fresh veg (bell pepper, cucumber, tomato, snap peas, red onion, + steamed broccoli) with feta, olive oil, lemon juice, salt + pepper, and red pepper flakes. Eaten with plenty of cantaloupe on the side. I’m wanting to keep the pasta salad train going for lunches throughout the summer!

Fresh Greek salad from JK a few weeks back. Organic mixed greens topped with crumbled feta, chickpeas, cucumber, beets, roasted red pepper, and house-marinated tempeh. I have been super into tempeh lately! I like the organic tempeh I can easily pick up at TJ’s for another cheaper protein option.

This was quite possibly my best-tasting sourdough loaf to date! Another thing that hit the spot once I could eat more. Smothered with salted butter. Why has salted butter not been in my life until now?? 10/10 would recommend to instantly upgrade your life.

Things that were sounding good after peak sickness: tortilla chips, plain oatmeal, crackers, a little parmesan cheese, bread, applesauce, popsicles.

Things I could not do for at least a solid week or so: salad, coffee, most fruits + vegetables, chocolate cashew milk, energy bites, and chocolate(!!!!). Basically a lot of my favorite usual foods lol. And almost certainly was the longest I had ever gone without my usual dark chocolate routine! Simply could not handle anything I associated with being sick!!

Lately I have been back into cold overnight oats topped with a drizzle of agave, plenty of creamy peanut butter, and fresh blueberries (or frozen strawberries if we are out). I’m going to post my official overnight oats recipe soon!

I tried a honey mustard marinade for chicken which was pretty good but unfortunately not as flavorful as I’d hoped. Planning to make again soon with extra honey mustard sauce for drizzling! Served with my favorite roasted potatoes and more bread because #carbohydrates.

I made these maple tahini oat bars with drizzled peanut butter similar to a recipe that I found on Elyse Kopecky’s Instagram. I’ve been trying to use a little time on Saturdays to prep a snack (bar/bite/or muffin) for the week! I’m finding this is generally working out better than trying to squeeze one more task into my at-home/errands “workdays” on Mondays.

Gorgeous ahi tuna dish that I enjoyed on my birthday a few weeks ago! I always appreciate nice food presentation since I think it adds a lot to the eating experience. 🙂

Frittata for a simple dinner towards the end of last week. Veggie mix of broccoli + sweet potato + jalapeño + yellow onion + corn. Also some parmesan and plenty of crushed red pepper flakes! I sautéed the veggies to soften a bit on Monday so then all I had to do after work on Thursday was add the egg mixture and pop it in the oven.

Everyday Enjoyment:

Country music: While I listen to country music all year round, I really get into listening to it more during spring + summer. It is basically the one genre of music that I actually “follow” / pay attention to as far as new music goes. Which I find somewhat hilarious because Alec (who is much more into music than me) listens to pretty much everything except country. You can check out my current country Spotify playlist here or my running playlist of favorites with 14+ hours of music here!

Hikes + trails: We LOVE hiking but don’t end up doing as much of it as we would like because (a) the hiking is not generally great in southeastern Michigan and (b) most of the year it is either cold/snowy or hot/buggy. SO we have been trying to take advantage of the non-rainy weekend days in April and May to get out and enjoy the best hiking / trail areas around us before it gets overly buggy for the summer! This has been a lot of fun getting out and exploring more nearby trails!

Trees in full bloom: Loving the trees in full bloom lately. The picture below is from the tree outside our kitchen window. One of the things I enjoy about running and walking outside all year round is noticing and appreciating how the trees and landscape changes gradually yet drastically throughout the year!

What have you been enjoying about spring?
Any recipes I should try??

Enjoy the rest of your week!