In honor of the upcoming holiday, I rounded up some of my favorite summer potluck recipes that have been featured on the blog. If you have other favorite summertime recipes, feel free to add a link in the comments.
Salads
Fresh Spinach and Barley Salad
Main Dishes
Desserts
Greek Yogurt Blueberry Muffins
Drinks
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I am also a Featured Blogger on Fitblogger today! You can read the feature piece here
I have another great summer salad today!
I made kale chips earlier in the week, but I had over half the bag of kale left. I decided to give raw kale salads a second chance, and pulled together this apple raisin salad. A couple months ago I stopped forcing myself to eat raw kale because I just hated it. But every so often I think about giving it another chance, and I just happened to be in the mood for a heartier salad.
I actually don’t mind eating this kale salad, and tastes much better the second day-not a usual occurrence for salads! But the tough kale absorbs some of the oil and vinegar, and become a lot more palatable (this is coming from someone who does not prefer raw kale, can you tell? 
).
Apple Raisin Kale Salad
Makes 4 side dish servings
Ingredients
2 cups raw kale, chopped
1/2 apple (use a sweeter variety like Fuji, Gala, or Honey Crisp), thinly sliced
3 Tbsp raisins
Dressing
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
2 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
salt
Directions:
Look over the kale and remove any thick stems. Wisk together oil, vinegar and salt. Pour dressing over salad, and massage it into the kale. Add apple slices and raisins; toss to combine. For best flavor and texture let sit overnight.
Are you a kale enthusiast? What’s the best way to prepare it?
I am finally running a half marathon! I chose this one because of the date, location, and relative flatness.
Running a 1/2 is only something I have wanted to do for about a year. I never ran consistently until I trained for an international length triathlon last summer. But after that experience I knew I wanted to continue running (but not compete in another tri until I bought a decent bike).
I started half-heartedly training last fall, but school and the whole finding a job thing took up too much time. Before my mini summer break, I also thought about trying to train for something to do after graduation. However with moving from school to home, graduation, and moving from home to Charlotte, plus our cruise vacation, everything was a little up in the air until the last minute.
Any way, after going through all the reasons why I haven’t ever ran a half, I do feel like I have the stability and structure to start training.
The race is 12 weeks away (including this week) so I have the perfect amount of time to build up my mileage.
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On another note, my first day of work was great. Thanks for everyone who called, texted and commented to wish me luck 
I was ridiculously nervous-not that there was anything but filling out HR paperwork and training to be worried about. I really like my office and supervisor so far. It is a very young office, and I think it will be pretty fun as far as work environments go.
So apparently today is National Strawberry Parfait Day!
I decided to participate by making this beauty
Strawberries, Greek yogurt, oats, honey, repeat. I topped it with chia seeds for some Omega 3s.
Also today is my first day of work, so I am heading out early to make sure I don’t get lost (even though I practiced my route a couple times over the weekend-I just can’t trust my shaky sense of direction).
Ready to go!
Wish me luck
It has been a long couple of days! On Wednesday I moved into my new apartment in the Charlotte area. Thursday was spent unpacking and reassembling all of my Ikea furniture. I also christened the kitchen by baking up a batch of kale chips.
I love how crunchy and light these get, but I wish I had some humidity proof storage. After only a couple hours, the chips go from crispy to a chewy :/ For now, I’ll just make small enough batches for myself.
On Friday, Perry came down to visit and help me install some of the finishing touches. He helped put up two shelves and a mirror.
There was a bit of trouble with finding wall studs and him not reading directions lack of proper tools, but we managed to get everything up on the walls.
On Saturday, we went out to see the new Steve Carell movie, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World.
Perry and I both like Steve Carell, and I was excited for a fun romantic comedy. I had not seen any trailers, or even talked to someone who had seen the movie, but I assumed the tone would be in line with his usual films. Unfortunately, I was totally wrong about the mood of the movie. It did have a sweet romantic storyline, but it was more of a romantic tragedy than a romantic comedy! I thought it was a good movie, but since I tend to cry easily during movies, I ended up sobbing during the last scenes….Needless to say, the movie did not make for a lighthearted date night!
Tomorrow is my first day of “real” work, so I’m going to prep food for the week and pick out my outfit!
Moving and settling into my new apartment in the Charlotte area is going well. Most of my ikea furniture has been assembled, and all of my clothes are out of the boxes. I’ll be back with a settling in post on Sunday, because today I want to share a recipe for one of the summer staples at my home growing up. My mom would make this simple Greek salad almost weekly in the summer when we had access to delicious home grown tomatoes. Although we do have a chicken coop, unfortunately we don’t have anything but a herb garden in the yard. So we have to rely on neighbors and the farmers market for fresh, local produce. Since this recipe comes from my mom, I have to share her advice that this salad is exclusively for tomatoes in season. Don’t even think of making this recipe with store-bought vegetables shipped from miles away! It just won’t be the same.
The juice of the tomatoes combines perfectly with the drizzle of olive oil and feta crumbles for a flavorful, light dressing. The cucumbers add a nice crunch to the cool summer salad. Double the recipe and bring it for cookouts and barbecues.
Simple Greek Salad
serves 4 (side dish portions)
Ingredients
2 large tomatoes
1 cucumber, thinly sliced
1/8 onion (about 1/4 of a cup), thinly sliced
2 oz feta cheese, crumbled
1 Tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
Directions:
Cut the tomatoes into bite size chunks. Combine the tomatoes, cucumber and onion in a large bowl. Mix in the olive oil and feta. Toss to combine. Add salt and pepper to taste. Chill until serving.
I am moving to Charlotte today, so instead of a boring post about the smoothie I am making, here are some more cruise pictures from our excursions in Haiti, Grand Cayman, Jamaica, and Cozumel
Labadee, Haiti: Beach Day
Falsmouth, Jamaica: Zipline through the forest
Jamaica Jerk Chicken-soooo good
Grand Cayman: Sting Ray Beach and Snorkeling
Cozumel: Snorkeling and Shopping
We rented a snorkel camera and were able to get a couple neat underwater shots
And last but not least, our favorite towel animal
I am finally back in blogging action after a lovely week cruising in the Caribbean with my family. It was great to have a week of relaxation and pampering. I want to give a huge thank you to my three lovely guest bloggers: Lora, Kath, and CJ.
This week, I am rudely confronted with the reality of moving to Charlotte to start my first “real” job next Monday. But first I want to relive a little bit of my vacation and share some of the highlights with you all.
We cruised on the huge Freedom of the Seas.
The ship offered a lot of activities throughout the day, so we were never bored!
There are were several pools to swim in (but we mostly used them for tanning around;)).
Speaking of tanning, my family is drastically separated by skin types. My mom, sister, and myself naturally have olive-toned skin that tans very easily-yay for Asian genes! However my dad is super pale and sunburns very easily. Even when he tans, it is to a pink-brown. For the trip, my mom bought these two bottles of suntan spray to cater to the different needs of the family.
A 102 SPF difference.
I didn’t even know SPF 110 existed! To be fair, the girls actually prefer an SPF of 30 and we used 50 for most of the trip. So the difference is not that huge, but still I thought it was an apt depiction of the differences in our family.
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Mini golf-one of my favorite cruise activities.
A rock climbing wall and basketball court.
I will say that climbing the rock wall was probably the scariest venture of the whole vacation! I have climbed several rock walls at camps and in indoor centers, without ever being afraid. However when I started to scale this wall on the last day, the wind was blowing at a fierce 25 mph. During the harrowing climb it took all my willpower to push away the visions of me losing my grip on the wall and flying out into the ocean. I really didn’t want to quit without reaching the top, so I focused on scaling the wall as quickly as possible so I could return to the ground.
We ate amazing food every night. The daily desserts and ice cream did not coordinate well with my goal of staying trim on vacation, but vacations are for indulging!
Despite my goal of working out 3-4 times, I only made it to the gym once. Running on the treadmill while the boat is gently rocking was a little unnerving, and I clung to the handle bars to keep myself upright while running in serpentine patterns. This form of exercise was exhausting for my body and my sanity, so I never attempted it again.
Claire and I shared a room/cubby hole. I loved that it was pitch black with the lights off, we could sleep in until noon and never know it until we looked at the clock.
Tomorrow I will share a bit about our adventures in Haiti and Jamaica!
I have one last summer dessert recipe to share with you all before I return from my cruise
Remember those Peanut Granola Bites I blogged about a couple weeks ago? I decided to try another version of these crispy bites with almond butter instead peanut for a lighter taste. I also added some more mix-ins, and rolled them into balls for a great crispy cookie.
Enjoy!
White Chocolate Cherry Oatmeal Cookies
adapted from Peanut Butter Granola Bites
makes 10 cookies
Ingredients:
I am still cruising, but I wanted to share one of my favorite summer recipes. It is chock full of summer berries, and antioxidants. Although it does have sugar in it, I think it would fairly easy to make a sugar-free version.
This is one of my mom’s favorite dessert recipes to bring to a summer picnic. I love that it is so light and fruity. It also looks great for Fourth of July!
Summer Berry Terrine
adapted from Mixed Berry Terrine
serves 8
Ingredients
1 1/2 envelopes (.25 oz) each unflavored gelatin
1 1/3 cups white grape juice
1/3 cup sugar (increase if berries are not sweet)
4 cups mixed berries, we use hulled and halved strawberries and blueberries
Directions
Sprinkle gelatin over 1/3 cup grape juice and let soften for 2 to 3 minutes.
Heat another 1/4 cup of grape juice in a small saucepan. Add the sugar and stir over medium heat until dissolved. Add the gelatin mixture to the warm sugar mixture. Stir to combine and then add in the remaining 3/4 cups of grape juice.
Place the berries into a 4×8 inch loaf pan. Pour the gelatin mixture over the berries. You may need to gently press down the berries so they submerge. Refrigerate until firm, about 3 hours.
To unmold, first use a knife to loosen the edges of the mold. Then microwave 2 cups of water until hot. Pour water into a large casserole dish. Set the mold in the casserole dish and let sit for 1-2 minutes. Invert onto a serving platter and shake firmly to release.
