Good afternoon! How was everyone’s weekend? Mine was wonderful, but as usual, it was much too short.
I only have a four day work week this week because I’m attending the Healthy Living Summit in Philidelphia this weekend and am taking Friday off.
On Friday evening, I made such a simple, delicious, and really healthy meal.
It really was just so easy. I almost didn’t share it, but Brad said it was so pretty, I had to take a photo of it.
I took some wild caught salmon that I purchased from the Healthy Home Market, cut it into servings (1 large piece for Brad and too small pieces for me). I sprinkled it generously with sea salt, fresh ground pepper, and dried dill weed. Next, I sliced some lemon and placed two slices on each piece.
I baked the salmon at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
So so easy!
A few years ago, I actually used to buy the microwaveable salmon fillets in the frozen section of the grocery store. This was before I was very adventurous in the kitchen. Then, I learned how easy it is to make my own salmon and I’ve never looked back. Fresh baked or seared tastes so much better than the microwaveable frozen kind. Sure, the frozen packets are convenient, but I can wait 20 minutes for tasty salmon.
I still buy the frozen salmon from Trader Joe’s from time to time, but find that the quality of their salmon is pretty good. I defrost it, then bake, saute, or grill it as well. However, nothing beats fresh!
Making the side dish was easy as well. My friend Chloe, who I also share my CSA with is out of town this week, so I have enough veggies to feed a small army.
In a large cast iron frying pan, I sauteed these vegetables in a bit of extra virgin olive oil (from the Misto):
– yellow zucchini
– eggplant
– yellow onion
– green bell pepper
– Hungarian was pepper
– garlic
I also through almost an entire cup of basil which I chopped and tossed in at the end with some sea salt and fresh ground pepper.
Rascal was banished to his bed during our meal. Since he was so well behaved, we rewarded him with licking our plates. We made sure there were no onions left before we let him lick them clean.
He loved my dinner as well, or at least the dinner’s residue, but did not go near the lemons.
We had a quiet night at home and watched the Shawshank Redemption, which I had never seen. Brad has been trying to get me to watch it forever, so I finally gave in. He’s right, it was a really good movie.
I was invited to attend a pilates workshop with several other healthy living bloggers in Charlotte on Saturday morning.
Since we turned in around 11:30 pm and I rarely sleep past 7 am, I did not set an alarm clock. I was absolutely shocked when I woke up at 9:40 am!
Needless to say, the breakfast I wanted to make for Brad went unmade. Instead I grabbed a Luna bar and an apple and ran out the door to make it to Iron Butterfly Pilates for the workshop.
I attended one pilates class at Iron Butterfly several months ago and they really impressed me.
I love the space. Everything is very serene and calming.
The studio has a ton of natural light.
Being a cube office monkey, I really hate florescent lights so this is a big plus for me.
Snapping photos
Setting up
Ready to go!
The pilates class was challenging but not too intense, which was great because I had a long run planned for the next day. We focused a lot on ab work. I’m finally starting to feel like the 2-3 times a week of core work I’ve been doing is getting me somewhere, so I was happy to work on it some more.
After pilates, I grabbed a quick coffee with Jen, who was also our pilates model for the class. I couldn’t resist stopping by Atherton Mill’s market, adjacent to Iron Butterfly, to pick up some local meat. I bought fresh NC trout and local grass-fed lamb stew meat. They will definitely be showing up in some recipes soon!
Brad and I went to a birthday party for a friend on Saturday night where I ogled babies, then turned in pretty early so I could do my long run with Michelle the next morning.
After storming several times in the past two week, the trail was muddy, to say the least.
It’s a good thing I decided to retire these shoes after this run.
The run went okay.
I was supposed to run 6 miles this weekend as a step-back week, then run 16 next weekend. But since I’m going to HLS, I decided to swap weeks. I think my body wasn’t quite ready for the 16 miles or perhaps the lower body strength training I did in pilates and last Friday made my legs extra tired.
Michelle wasn’t feeling it either. My Garmin said 14 1/2 when we decided to call it quits. We probably walked about 1 – 1 1/2 miles mixed in with running. Overall, I wasn’t very happy with this run, but maybe I can talk some people into doing a 10 miler this upcoming weekend and everything will even out.
The obligatory after-long run coffee, thanks to Michelle who spotted me after I left my wallet at home
I spent the rest of the day chopping veggies for easy prep this week, making homemade marinara with CSA fresh tomatoes, folding and putting away laundry, and watching the past season of the Bachelorette.
Yes, it has sucked me in. 😉
It felt really nice to sit down in the movie theater with my friend Casey to watch The Help, which I read almost an entire year ago. Overall, the movie was almost as good as the book. If you’re looking for a good read, I cannot say enough good things about the book. If you’re looking for a good movie, definitely check this one out. I loved it!
So that was my weekend!
What was the best part of your weekend? Mine was the Friday night dinner with Brad tied with cuddling on the couch watching a movie.
Is anyone else going to the Healthy Living Summit this weekend?
Brad made me blog business cards, specifically for HLS and I can’t wait to use them! Aren’t they cute? He did such a wonderful job on them!