A Weekend in the Life

In the past I have a done a day in the life posts and it is fun to look back at those posts so I decided to do a weekend in the life.  I probably should have picked a more exciting weekend (and remembered to take more pictures) but here is my weekend.

The weekend started off on a fun note with dinner and an escape room with some of my coworkers. We didn't end up actually escaping from the escape room but we had fun anyway!

After sleeping in a bit on Saturday morning I got myself up and packed up to go to the gym. There is always such good energy in a 10:30 AM class on a Saturday morning.  Just late enough that you can still sleep in a bit but not so late that it kills your whole day.

After a quick shower and a change of clothes I took a detour to Starbucks to grab a Berry Prickly Pear Cream thing before heading out. I was meeting some friends for lunch but I didn't need anything at Target that couldn't sit in the car for an hour or two so I headed there before I had to meet them. I actually managed to stick to my list so I think that should count as a successful day right there!

My friend has some temporary dietary restrictions so we decided something where she could make her own salad was the easiest place to meet.  Conveniently there is a Sweet Tomato nearby so that fit the bill.  After a nice lunch they headed off to Santa Cruz and I went to finish off my errands for the day.

I am actually going to be out to dinner a couple of times this week so we didn't actually need too much this week at Trader Joe's.  Always  nice to have a cheap week at the grocery store. My husband and I both eat bananas on a regular basis so I feel like every time I am in a grocery store I am buying bananas.

I got home around 3 PM and can honestly say I pretty much did nothing else for the rest of the day other than try to stay cool.  As I have mentioned (just a few times...) we don't have air conditioning so when we have a hot day that falls on a weekend we pretty much melt.  Once it finally cooled down at about 8 PM my husband made us some tika masala and I a made some naan. Not the best food for a hot day but oh well.

Sunday morning started pretty much the same way Saturday morning did with a bit of sleeping in and then the gym.

I usually shower at the gym during the week before going to work but on the weekends I usually just run errands in my gym clothes.  You never know who you are going to run into when running errands so I have been using Game Face Grooming wipes after my workout just in case.  They are 4 varieties of wipes but for my needs the deodorizing ones are the ones that address my concern.  I may not look good (see picture) but at least I smell good. I love that they are big enough to only have to use one wipe and then I am on my way on on with my day.

My husband and I have started to accept the fact that there is just no way we are going to be able to afford to buy something with 2 bedrooms at the moment in the market we live in so we are looking in to renting. We went to look at a 2 bedroom townhouse today so we will see what the future holds.

The weather was a few degrees cooler on Sunday but it was still in the high 80s at 4 PM. Not my favorite!

By 6:30 the weather had cooled down enough to make a delicious chicken dish from Blue Apron. It had a round pasta with peppers and summer squash and a lemon butter sauce.  It was super quick to make and nice and light which is great for summer.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

I received the face wipes to try but all opinions in this post are my own.

Chili-Lime Fish Tacos

I haven't shared a recipe here in quite some time so I decided it was high time to share one of the best recipes I discovered through my meal delivery service. These tacos are a super fast weeknight meal and are great on a hot night because between the citrus and the jicama they are super refreshing. This recipe is originally from Marley Spoon.

You need:

• 2 limes
• 1 naval orange
• 2-3 tablespoons of chopped cilantro
• 2-3 scallions or green onions sliced
• 8 oz jicama peeled and chopped into matchsticks
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1 tbsp guajillo chili powder
• 12 oz pollock filets or cod filets
• 6 small flour tortillas
• 2 tbsp oil
• Salt and pepper

To make the slaw:

Zest the orange and one of the limes into a large bowl. Zest the other lime and set the zest aside. Juice the orange and both limes into the bowl and add the chopped cilantro, sliced scallions and jicama. Also add 1 tbsp oil and the red pepper flakes. Using a knife cut the peel and pith off of the orange and then slice the orange into pieces. Toss and season with salt and pepper.

To make the fish and tortillas:

Combine the reserved lime zest, the guajillo chili powder and a teaspoon of salt in a small bowl. Rub this mixture on both sides of the fish.  Cook the tortillas in a dry cast iron pan on high for about 1 minute per side to get a little charing on them.  Wrap them in a towel to keep them warm while the fish cooks.  Using the same hot pan add 1 teaspoon of oil and then cook the fish for about 4 minutes on the first side and then 1 minute on the second side or until the fish is fully cooked.

Making the tacos:

Slice the fish into strips. Take a warm tortilla and add the fish followed by a good helping of the slaw.  There is usually enough slaw to have some on the side of the tacos too.

Note: You can find the guajillo powder at hispanic grocery stores or you can easily order it from Amazon. Gotta love Prime shipping!

Enjoy!

Weekend and 4th of July

I have to say that having a holiday on a Tuesday kind of throws thing off for the whole week.  While a lot of people took the 3rd off to make it into a 4 day weekend I didn't have any grand plans for the 4th so I worked on Monday.

Friday after work the husband and I headed home from work and were looking forward to a nice quiet night at home after a long week but our neighbors had other plans for us.  We live on the second floor of a condo complex and share a landing with another condo.  We went up the stairs to head inside and there was painters tape blocking the top of the stairway.  Our neighbor rents out his condo and the renters had recently moved out so he had been doing some work on the condo. As part of this work apparently he (or his property management company) decided that the landing needed to be painted.  Ummmm painting a shared landing without telling the other people who you share a landing with is not a good idea! There was no one around and we didn't want to risk walking on wet paint so we went over to the food trucks and had dinner before venturing into our house.  Good food but not quite what we had planned for the evening!

Saturday after the gym I headed up to a few towns north of me to meet up with a friend, her fiancee and her mom to do some shopping. We were shopping for her wedding sari! California has a couple of freeways that I just hate and of course I ended up having to take one of them.  This freeway is extra narrow and always seems to have traffic no matter when I am on it.  It is noon on a Saturday. Why is there traffic?!?!?!? Either way I sat in some traffic and then arrived to help with the shopping.  She picked out the most beautiful sari and I can't wait to see her all done up at the wedding in October.

Sunday I declared war on my kitchen cabinets!  I pulled all the food out of all of my cabinets, put it on a sheet on my living room floor and then with the help of my husband we put it all back in a logical order.  We threw out expired food, wiped down things that had leaked and put everything back in a manner that makes it much easier to find everything.

Tuesday I woke up and put on my best red, white and blue workout clothes to head to the gym. Before and after selfies!  Looking super glamorous in my patriotic hat after class.

Since we were heading back to work again the next day we decided to stay home and have a quiet 4th of July.  We are not allowed to have an actual BBQ in our complex so we made do with out cast iron grill pan to cook some hot dogs for dinner.  Add a little bit of watermelon and it almost feels like we were at a BBQ. When it got dark we headed outside to the street where we are able to see multiple fireworks shows in the area. The view is a little bit blocked by trees but it is still a pretty good view.

Even with working on Monday it almost felt like a 3 day weekend!

Stitch Fix #25

Almost caught up with my Stitch Fix posts! This is my box from last month and my new box only arrived this week so I am not too far behind.

These earrings were cute and nice and lightweight (which is always good for larger earrings) but they didn't seem like anything too special.  I ended up sending them back for this reason.

This royal blue shirt was super comfy and flowey with cute lace sleeves.  I liked that I could wear it untucked with shorts or tucked into a pencil skirt for work. I kept this shirt.

It is a little hard to tell from this picture but this is a dress.  This is actually the back of the dress since that was the more interesting side of the garment.  I liked the color of this dress but the way it draped on me it showed every bump and ripple so I had to send it back.

This is one of those dresses where my first thought when pulling it out of the box was hmmm that is cute but I think it is going to be too short.  I put it on and not only was it too short but it was too tight in the hips and chest so it was an easy decision to send this one back.

This was another piece that had a more interesting back than front.  The shirt draped so that the back was partially open.  I like the idea of this but in reality having to wear a tank top under a shirt meant to be worn in the summer didn't really appeal to me.

As I said earlier my next box just arrived so I will be back soon with one more review to get all caught up on my Stitch Fix posts.  For now if you want your own box head on over to get your own.

Some 4th of July Decorations

After a busy few weeks I finally took down my Spring decorations and put up some fun patriotic decorations around our condo. In my defense Spring technically doesn't end until June 20th so I wasn't too far off.

Since the 4th of July is really the only decorate-able holiday during summer I will probably leave these decorations up longer than is really appropriate. 

The little sign is from the dollar section of Target a few years ago but the sparkly firecracker hat thing is from Hobby Lobby this year.

I don't really have a way to hang banners on our walls other than tape so I decided to use it as draped decoration across our counter. It ended up kind of looking like I put a bunch of cheerleading pom poms but I kind of like it.

I have grand ambitions of making some fun holiday table clothes later this year but for now I have to settle for this one from Target.  It washes well and doesn't require ironing as long as you don't leave it all bunched up in the dryer for days on end.

Happy 4th of July!

Stitch Fix #24

I am a little behind on my Stitch Fix posts ( and blog posts in general) so you may be lucky enough to get two Stitch Fix posts in one week!  

The great colors were the first thing I noticed when I opened this box.  I pulled out these teal cropped jeans and while I loved the color I was not super optimistic about them fitting well because pants and I are just not the best of friends.  My fears were justified and they didn't fit well so back they went.

This shirt was cute and would have been cute with a pair of shorts but the way it was so flowey at the bottom made it so I couldn't tuck it into a pencil skirt to wear to work.  I decided it was not special enough to keep so it went back too.

This dress was super cute but the first thing I thought when I pulled it out of the box was ooooh I think that is going to be a little short. The top of the dress fit great but I needed another couple of inches in the skirt to make it appropriate to wear without leggings. I even checked the item description in the box to make sure it wasn't meant to be a tunic but it said dress.

I loved the pattern of this dress it was immediately obvious that this dress was long enough to wear for all sorts of occasions so I was excited to try it on.  The faux wrap to ended up laying all kinds of funny on my chest so this too had to be sent back.

This last piece also had some great colors and a few unique features.  As you can see by the not so good picture of me wearing it I ended up keeping this shirt.  From the front it looks like a fairly standard sleeveless blouse with a fairly high slightly scooped neck.  The back is where it gets interesting so that I what I was trying to take a picture of.  It had a split back that looks super cute with shorts but is also long enough that I can tuck it into a pencil skirt at work and have it look like a regular blouse.

Come back later in the week to see what I got in my next box and in the meantime if you want your own fee free to use this link and happy shopping!

I Am Still Here

Anyone still out there?  I know it has been a while since I have written here but life just got a bit busy and this little blog was what ended up loosing out on my limited time.

I have have 2 Stitch Fix posts, a Disneyland post and a fun ice cream party I threw for work started in my draft folder which I hope to finish this weekend and have posted next week.

In the meantime here are a few pictures of life over the last month

Went berry picking with my mom and of course we had to reward ourselves with some strawberry shortcake afterwards!

Did a little wine tasting in Monterey County

Getting stronger at the OrangeTheory but that doesn't mean I don't feel like this by the time class is over most of the time.