Hello everyone!

Welcome to September! I am somewhat relieved to be in the almost-fall season, with the slightly cooler temps and the more energizing-to-me activities this time of year (more opportunities for hiking in better weather/without bugs, college football, various fall plans, etc.). We also just got back from our yearly end-of-summer trip, this time heading to Holland for a night and then three nights of backcountry camping in the Nordhouse Dunes on Lake Michigan.

The weather, for the most part, could not have been better! Highlights of the trip included extended time outside, three beautiful sunsets, stunning beach views throughout the day, extended time without technology, and a wonderful stay at a bed and breakfast that we would definitely go back to in the future!

How was your Labor Day weekend? Thankfully Michigan football is also off to a good start!

As we round out summer and head into fall, I have a wide variety of delicious eats to share today. Hopefully you feel inspired to try some new and/or return to some favorite flavor & food combinations in the week or two ahead!

Some favorite eats from the past few weeks!

Satisfying burger salad bowls for dinner a few nights in a row. Arugula topped w/ roasted asparagus + red onion, shredded carrot, crumbled feta, burger patty, and a delish green goddess dressing from Run Fast Cook Fast Eat Slow. (The entire salad bowl was inspired by this cookbook.) LOVE incorporating organic red meat regularly for a stellar micronutrient punch!

While we are still at the tail end of peach season, I have several peach ideas coming your way! Earlier in August I was loving topping my favorite overnight oats with peanut butter, agave, and a fresh, juicy peach. Is there a better way to start the day? I think not!

Moving on to a peach-featured lunch idea, we have this salad that I love to make at the end of summer. Greens w/ chopped cucumber + cherry tomato, fresh peach, fresh corn, crumbled feta, pepitas, and an amazing tahini dill dressing.

For dinner, I made a peach balsamic chicken dish that I served with baked potatoes w/ butter and a side salad. The sauce included shallots, white wine, balsamic vinegar, and plenty of fresh thyme. This was good, but I may try something slightly different next time!

Finally, a summer quinoa salad featuring peaches, red onion, cucumber, corn, blueberries, chopped almonds, fresh herbs, feta, and a lemony vinaigrette. I made this to take to a Juicy Kitchen dinner/hangout that we had a couple of weeks ago. I love making this salad once or twice a year when all the flavors are in season! I also think it would be great topped with chicken.

With a group of people who work in restaurants/the food industry, you might imagine we had the most delicious spread! The best salmon, stuffed portabella mushrooms, homemade guac, multiple homemade mac and cheeses + coleslaws + quinoa salads, stuffed peppers, a fabulous creamy dill dip, and more! Also an excellent rice pudding w/ dried cranberries for dessert.

We recently went to Dexter Creamery with a couple we met at our church. I had a scoop of this peanut butter brownie delight. It was the perfect summer evening!

Returning to our camping trip… you may be wondering what we packed to eat for three days away in nature! Lightweight and calorically dense is king when backpacking. And whatever fits into my bear canister. Thankfully we have a decent amount of experience with this at this point.

For breakfasts, we made oatmeal over our backpacking stoves topped w/ almond butter (I buy mini single-serving almond butter packets to keep things lightweight), pepitas, chopped dates, and chopped honeycrisp apple. Also some chai tea because I am always about the warm, caffeinated morning beverages, especially when I am outside!

Lunches were a variety of the packed snack food above, such as homemade spiced pecans (made w/ butter, honey, cinnamon, and cayenne pepper), grass-fed beef sticks from Costco (these were surprisingly good!), organic fruit/veggie packs, and pretzels.

Snacks included more of the above food, trail mix, Aloha bars for me and Macro bars for Alec, apples, and homemade tahini date cookies.

We generally opt for dehydrated or freeze-dried backpacking meals when we are camping/backpacking, both to keep things easy and to add some nutritional + flavor variety! I always find it fun to try different backpacking meals. This was a mushroom risotto w/ basil pesto from Good To-Go that I would get again! For my other backpacking dinners, I had a veggie Thai curry and a black bean quinoa bowl.

We saw the best sunsets after our dinners on the beach each night!

For dinner in Holland the night before we left for our camping segment of the trip, we ate at Hops 84 East, a recommendation from blog reader Karlie! 🙂 I enjoyed this salad of mixed greens w/ radish, carrot, peppers, red onion, spicy chickpeas, sunflower seeds, goat cheese, salmon, and a Za’atar vinaigrette. Alec had some sort of Asian chicken/noodle bowl that was on special. A satisfying dinner for sure!

Post-camping we stopped at Field & Fire Cafe in Grand Rapids on our way home. I had this super tasty falafel sandwich w/ spicy carrot hummus, pickled fennel, lettuce, and mayo. Soo good! Alec had a curry Caesar salad.

When we got home, we caught up on the Michigan game while eating taco salad bowls with leftover taco meat from the freezer, tortilla chips, shredded cheddar, chopped bell pepper + cherry tomato, & salsa. I was definitely happy to be back to more regular food at this point!

A couple of weeks ago we celebrated my brother’s birthday with his favorite cake – cherry chip! We’ll see how the Lions’ season starts off tomorrow!

Lunches the past couple of weeks have often been a toss salad w/ whatever veggies I have on hand, a homemade yogurt-based dill Ranch dressing, and pepper jack cheese w/ crackers. Always nice to eat outside! I will miss that when the temperatures start to get colder.

A simple dinner of scrambled eggs w/ onion + red bell pepper + zucchini + some sort of cheese, roasted sweet potatoes (seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika, + red pepper flakes), and a side salad.

“How to build a meal”:

–> MAIN PROTEIN: eggs (also cheese)
–> MAIN CARB: sweet potatoes
–> MAIN FAT: oil on potatoes, oil in dressing
–> + FRUITS/VEGGIES: veggies in eggs, salad

Quantities? As a rule of thumb, I recommend eating an amount in accordance with your hunger/fullness signals and general intuition (unless you are in eating disorder recovery or have additional needs such as w/ higher intensity athletes, in which case this might not be the case). Listening to your internal hunger/fullness signals is a much better gauge of “how much to eat” versus any external measure (such as tracking calories, asking a dietitian to tell you exactly what to eat, etc.). Sometimes we might need help recovering hunger signals and/or relearning to trust and listen to them.

Including a main source of each macronutrient is key to satisfaction and meeting your nutritional needs throughout the day. Avoiding any macronutrients tends to pretty much guarantee chaos/obsession in one’s relationship with food!

I always love eating this super simple black bean soup! (Note: I don’t follow the recipe exactly – I like to drain/rinse the beans and add less water for a thicker soup, and also typically add extra seasoning/spices. I also threw in a bit of salsa in this version). Topped w/ sour cream, shredded cheddar, and tortilla chips for scooping.

I used the tahini dill dressing (from the peach salad above) later on as a sauce that went excellently over salmon. Served with corn on the cob w/ salt + pepper + butter and a side salad of mixed greens, basil, cherry tomato, cucumber, mozzarella cheese, and dark balsamic dressing. Such a good summer meal!

One more meal to share — blistered shishito pepper salad from Juicy Kitchen w/ cherry tomato, corn, cheddar cheese, spiced/roasted chickpeas, and a house smoky chipotle dressing. I love the unique flavors of this salad!

Everyday Enjoyment:

Disconnecting from technology: One of the highlights of our trip for me was disconnecting from technology and not having any cell service for 3 days… so nice!!! I find that I am a lot less anxious/frazzled/overwhelmed when I am not on my phone as much and when I’m not distracted by the constant communication with others. I feel like I already don’t use my phone a lot compared to the average person and use essentially zero notifications, but I am looking to have increased phone boundaries going forward to help with my mental state and overall presence with those actually around me… I love the convenience of texting / using my phone on occasion, but am already finding this decrease in usage helpful to me upon my return home!

Currently reading: This is Home (which I randomly got at the library… TBD on how I like it as I just started it) and The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work –> so good! I also am in the middle of a couple of other books I put on hold so I can finish these two library books. My perpetual problem is having too much to read and then not being able to renew the books at the library and therefore having to rush to finish them. Lol.

My favorite couple of months! (September/October): In addition to the fall-related things mentioned at the beginning of this post, I am loving the early morning sunrises (with the later sunrise I am catching it more often in the morning when I am out running or walking), slowly getting back into fall recipes I love (this weekend am making chicken salsa verde chili; also looking forward to more soups and stir frys in the coming weeks), and the very beginning of fall colors already!

What fiction books do you recommend?? I always have a harder time finding good fiction books to read!

What are you looking forward to this fall? 

Any stir fry recipes you would recommend??