Slices of my life

This weekend I hit up the farmers market for the first time in a while! The market is kept inside in the winter months and moves back outside in the beginning of May. There is something so much more appealing to me about visiting the market when it is outside, especially when the weather is nice! I picked up a bag of fresh spinach with plans on using it for this weeks recipe. This isn’t much of a recipe per say, but more like a quick and easy salad that can be made in bulk for parties (hellloo graduation parties!) and big family dinners. I have been trying to get more avocado in my life, so this was my first attempt at avocado in salad.

Simple Summer Salad

Whatcha Need: 

• Fresh spinach
• Cucumber
• Ripe avocado
• Feta cheese
• Cherry tomatoes

How to do it: 

• Rip up spinach and remove any woody stems
• Add cherry tomatoes, avocado, feta & cucumbers

For pretty much any salad, I throw together a quick balsamic salad dressing. I really really like the strong flavor of balsamic, so I generally add much more vinegar than oil. It is totally up to you on how much you would like to add. I generally do about 1 tablespoon olive oil, 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, a squeeze of yellow mustard and salt & pepper. Wisk together and enjoy!

I am going to try to actively keep monthly goals for myself now that I am DONE with the semester. I finished my last class on Tuesday and have been reacquainting myself with what free time is. This summer I have the opportunity to work full time starting in June, so these remaining free days in May should be spent well! I attempted to keep monthly goals last summer, and truly believe that keeping monthly goals is much better than making a huge list of summer goals. Much less overwhelming.

Fitness: 

Run at least 15 miles a week

Do a “Sunday Set Up” (aka plan workouts for the week)

Begin a weight training plan

Yoga once a week

Food: 

Create & Post 1 new recipe a week

Clean eating

Fun: 

More puppy walks

Find a road bike

Go to the drive-ins

Blogging: 

Design new layout

Clean up unused tags

Make a posting schedule

Personal: 

Move bed under window for Buddy

READ for fun!

What are your summer goals???

(last years July goals & August goals)

image via pinterest

I have spent my entire life living on the East Coast, upstate NY is generally pretty hidden from most natural disasters (blizzards don’t count!). Tornadoes, Hurricanes, Tsunami’s and Earthquakes sometimes make slight disturbances in my life, but that usually just means an extra day of rain or an aftershock.  So, you can imagine my shock when I heard that we have a hurricane headed our way with the possibility to make some real damage! I don’t live near the coast, but as of today there should be substantial winds and over ten inches of rain on Sunday. I am not worried about my safety, but am worried about what may happen outdoors. I live in a wooded area and am nervous about giant trees smashing into my house! One of the other things I am worried about is the safety of my families garden (is that sad?). Anyway, late August for us means that almost all of the veggies are almost ready!

This year we planted lots of different herbs, tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, yellow squash & butternut squash.

I have done a bit of research on how to protect your garden from heavy winds and substantial rain. Sadly, there isn’t a whole lot you can do. Because we don’t really know exactly what will happen, you have to prepare the best that you can and assess the damage later. Here I will list some of the more helpful hints that I have found.

1. Make sure that nothing can lift off of the ground. That means: put away all chairs, bird-feeders, birdhouses, barbaques, wind chimes, etc in a garage or shed where they won’t fly away.
2. Pick any produce that may be close to being mature.
3. Cut back any herbs and attempt to preserve them.
4. Hope for the best!

1. Survey the damage. Remove any debris from the garden and pickup any produce that may have fallen off during the storm.
2. Check for exposed roots & replenish nutrients. Heavy rains will have diminished any stored nutrients that the plants have been storing, spray the plants with any natural fertilizer that you have.

My baby butternut squash is my pride and joy! I hope he survives!

How are you preparing for the Hurricane??