Hey There!  Happy Saturday! 

It is feeling more and more like summer, which always puts me in a GREAT mood!  And although I haven’t blogged about it, I’ve been busy!

Exercise Updates:

I had a highly successful week of exercise, including a Tuesday morning walk with the BOY and Thursday morning ab work after my run.  You’ll notice I had some competition for my yoga mat.

This morning, I was psyched to go to (instead of teach) yoga!  It was a super humid class and we worked our way into birds of paradise.  Note: using a block is helpful but you will not master this pose with wicked tight hips.  Also note…you can still have a lot of fun with it.

Almost Summer Stuff

With the warm (almost) summer temps, brings crisp and delicious white wines.  I indulged twice this week (two more times than my typical work week).  Once during Wednesday night’s Hawks game with an awesome Cooper’s Hawk blend.  And then again Thursday during sushi night!

Summer is also accompanied by No Bake summer recipes and So You Think You Can Dance!  Woo hoo!  After  yoga, I brought in Mediterranean for lunch and began watching the new season of SYTYCD as I worked my way through my never ending to do list. 

Recipes

We are having friends over for a BBQ tonight and keeping our fingers crossed that the weather stays nice.  The BOY is grilling up shrimp and calamari…Mmm!  I decided I wanted to make a tasty no bake dessert.

I settled on a Twix Caramel Apple Salad (from Pinterest)!

I adjusted the recipe a bit because I had almond milk instead of dairy milk, but I think it is just as tasty. 

Cooper kept watch from his perch in the cabinet!

Once dessert was settled in the fridge, I decided to make a banana bread with my brown bananas.  As always, I went searching for a new recipe to try.

I made a slight mistake…adding in lemon extract thinking it was almond.  Oops! I was able to scoop the majority of it out.  But although the plan was to freeze this bread for next weekend, I wanted to sneak a taste to make sure it wasn’t too lemony.

The lemon flavor was non existent and this bread was absolutely amazing!!!  It took a whole bunch of will power not to dig into the entire loaf : )

Saturday Night

Our BBQ was really fun! Our friends brought their almost 2 year old daughter and we were able to blow bubbles and draw with chalk outside before sitting down for some fantastic grilled seafood, roasted potatoes and savory salad.  Dessert was a big hit too!

And now it’s time to settle in and watch the Blackhawk’s game.  The neighborhood is alive with energy, but unfortunately, I have a splitting headache, so I am missing out on the rest of the festivities.

What do you like about summer Saturdays?

Twix Caramel Apple Salad

Adapted Slightly From iSave AtoZ

Ingredients

• 1 small package of instant Vanilla Pudding
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 small tub of whipping cream (I used TruWhip)
• 1 package of TWIX Bites
• 2 Granny Smith Apples
• Optional: Caramel or Chocolate sauce

Directions

1. Whisk together milk and pudding and then immediately add the tub of whipping cream in it before it sets. Don’t use the full amount of milk as the box says.
2. Dice the TWIX Bites into halves.  Dice the Granny Smith apples.  Stir them into the pudding mixture, and mix all the ingredients together.
3. Allow it to set in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
4. Optional: Drizzle with Caramel or Chocolate sauce before serving it.

Best Banana Bread

From An Edible Mosaic

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• ¾ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 cup sugar
• ¼ cup butter, softened
• 2 large eggs
• 1½ cups mashed ripe banana (about 3 bananas)
• ⅓ cup plain low-fat yogurt (or sour cream)
• 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon vanilla bean paste
• ½ teaspoon pure almond extract (NOT lemon!)
• Cooking spray

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a medium bowl.
3. Place the sugar and butter in a large bowl, and beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (about 1 minute). Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the banana, yogurt, vanilla extract, vanilla bean paste, and almond extract; beat until blended. Add the flour mixture; beat at low speed just until moist.
4. Spoon batter into an 8½ x 4½-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Bake for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
5. Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack; remove from the pan and cool completely on a wire rack.