Hi friends!

How were your post-July 4th weeks? Mine just felt weird. It felt so sluggish yesterday and today while I was at work but at the same time, it feels like the weekend has come unnaturally fast!

On July 4th, my sister and I had some serious shopping planned. Independence Day sales are no joke – especially at an outlet! We went out hard at Jersey Shore Premium Outlets, but unfortunately, didn’t come home with as much as we wanted. I didn’t find much I liked or in my size and my sister already has so many clothes that she was afraid of incurring the wrath of my mother if she bought more.

Photo op while in Tommy Hilfiger:

Later on, my parents wanted to go to Applebee’s, so we popped over for an early dinner. To start, my dad had the Sam Adams summer ale, I ordered the berry sangria, my sister had the mango lemonade, and my mom wanted to join in on the photo with her glass of water.

For apps, we went with the spinach artichoke dip (Steph’s very favorite) and the classic buffalo wings. Both were good!

I ordered the seasonal berry and spinach salad, which is similar to my summer salad with strawberries, but with grilled chickens and without the avocado. It was exactly what I wanted after having heavier chicken tenders for lunch and hit the spot!

My mom had the 7 oz house sirloin, which she enjoyed. I thought it was cooked perfectly! The waitress asked her to cut into it before she left to make sure, hence the butchered-looking steak and the knife on the plate.

My sister ordered the bourbon street chicken and shrimp, which came on a sizzling plate. I tried a bit of the chicken and it had way too much seasoning on top in my opinion – super salty! Then again, I season very lightly and consider a lot of things oversalted.

I don’t remember exactly what my dad had but I think it was the grilled shrimp and island rice. I love roasted vegetables so I was stealing that zucchini off his plate! No shame here.

As for the past two days, I’ve had two of what I’ve now decided officially qualify on my favorite foods list. I can’t decide what I like better!

Vegan chocolate mousse which claims to be only 42 calories but tastes like heaven?

Or authentic tzatzki filled pitas from Mamoun’s Falafel in Hoboken? Hmmm. Quite the food toss up!

My half eaten falafel hummus pita. Yum!

My sister’s visiting this weekend and tomorrow (or rather later today!) we’ll be doing the pool dive portion of the PADI open water diver certification! I convinced (okay, bullied, just a little) her into doing this with me and we both just passed the test online about an hour ago. She’s excited after getting our gear at the scuba shop today. I can’t wait to get certified so we can go diving together in Hawaii at the end of the month. Yay!

Have a lovely weekend!

Ok, not depression. I may be being a tad bit dramatic… But I really was in an Easter-induced coma all day today!

The days after a three-day weekend are always long and today was no exception. I got off to a slow start setting up my newly upgraded (as of Thursday evening) PC with my bookmarks, applications, settings, and all that jazz.

For lunch, some coworkers and I decided to go to Mamoun’s Falafel in Hoboken. It was my second time there and I ordered the baba ganouj (roasted eggplant with parsley, garlic, and tahini) sandwich. I absolutely inhaled this and thus didn’t manage to get a photo, but it was filling and delicious as usual!

A last-minute work issue ended up keeping me at the office until 6:30 tonight, much later than I’d intended. A visit to the gym was still definitely necessary after a nearly gym-less Easter weekend though, and I went there ready to try out my new Reebok Absolute Vibes!

Sadly, the purpley goodness of these babies did not make up for their poor performance. My feet were hurting after just fifteen minutes of running! I’ll try them again to see if they just need to be broken in, but that didn’t feel like the case. Ah well.

Dinner

By the time I was home and showered, it was already almost 9! Whoops. The time really got away from me today. I was craving some veggies and lightness, so I baked up the last of my kale and served it up in one of my new spring green bowls from TJ Maxx. Cute, right?

Nothing like a huge bowl of kale to end my slow Monday

Yum! For dessert, I treated myself to a few pieces of dried fruit from this Fruit & Nut Medley I picked up at Costco. My favorites are the dried bananas, strawberries, pineapples, and kiwis. Yes, I am secretly one of those pickers that goes through and eats all of what they like first.

Dried fruit and nut medley from Costco

And now it’s time for serious zzz’s. Man, do I need to work on figuring out this work-life balance thing!