Sunday Summary - 2.26.23
Reading and Watching
Winter in Paradise by Elin Hilderbrand
I love a good series, and Hilderbrand’s three-part paradise series is getting me really excited for the spring and summer months ahead. This book is the first in the series and follows a family who expectedly loses their husband/father in a helicopter crash…in the British Virgin Islands…where he’s apparently been living a secret life? There’s mystery, memorable characters, suspense, relaxing beach imagery — it has it all!
Formula 1: Drive to Survive Season 5
Even though the fight for the championship this season wasn’t super exciting, all of the other random happenings — retirements, drama during silly season, principal terminations, driver swaps — still made for an exciting live season and a great Netflix season. It’s fun to relive it all through the show after watching it in real time, and I’m already looking forward to the start of the 2023 season!
Cooking
This week is Operation: Clean Out the Fridge! The number of different cheeses we’ve accumulated over the last few weeks for varying recipes is astounding - mozzarella, provolone, gruyere, parmesan, sharp cheddar, swiss! We also have a pint of cherry tomatoes begging to be used, a dozen eggs from our latest Costco run…you get the gist. We’re headed out of town this weekend, so we’re going to limit our eating out this week in and effort to prep for fabulous food while away AND to use up all the fine food we already have.
Calabrian Chili Roasted Red Pepper Pizza - This will help us use up the rest of the mozzarella, provolone, and jarred Calabrian Chili Paste that expires toward the end of this month. We bought a jar of roasted red peppers last week for paninis that never got made, so we’re repurposing them here and using some of the marinara we got from Costco (best deal in town — 2, 24-oz jars of Rao’s for $8.99!) All we had to buy was the pizza dough!
2. Our Go-To Kale Caesar — Meant to cook this for lunch last week and never got around to it thanks to an unexpectedly wild work week. This will use up all of our kale, the sweet potatoes from last week, the rest of our tahini, and lemons that are on their last leg!
3. Turkey Burgers — We’re going to make these with lettuce wraps or turn them into bowls or something. We’ll likely have a little kale leftover from the salads, and we have some butter lettuce that needs to go, too. We’ll get a bag of avocados to use for this recipe and for the breakfast sandwiches…which brings me to the next recipe!
4. Everything Bagel Breakfast Sandwiches — Half Baked Harvest has a breakfast bagel recipe in her cookbook (I linked a similar one from her blog) that we’re going to loosely follow based on what we have on hand. We picked up fresh bagels this morning from a local bakery and thought it would be fun to do breakfast for dinner. It’ll help us eat our eggs, cheese, and any leftover avocados from the turkey burger bowl recipe.
The Latest
I am officially 31 today! It’s a strange age, but so far my 30s have treated me well! Birthdays aren’t a huge deal in my family. That’s not to say that they aren’t celebrated at all, but we aren’t the people who celebrate for a whole week, we never exchange a lot of gifts, and we generally don’t make a huge to-do. Given my birthday is right after Christmas and right in the middle of the winter slump, I usually request that we book some sort of trip to look forward to in lieu of physical gifts.
And book a trip we did! We’re headed back to Maui in a few months, and I’m putting the finishing touches on an article about how we booked the whole trip for a couple of hundred dollars. Stay tuned for that!
Bryan, on the other hand, never likes to show up to a holiday empty handed and got me the coolest, dual phone and watch charging dock that uses MagSafe technology. I think it will be great for everyday use AND travel — win win! Gone are the days of tangled charging cords next to my bedside and in my carry on.
If you recall, he also got me the MagSafe portable battery pack that magnetizes to the back of the phone for Christmas. These two devices may seem duplicative, but I view them as serving two totally different purposes. The foldable dock will stay on my bedside table while at home or in our hotel room while away. The portable battery pack will come with me throughout the day while we’re exploring on trips or if my phone is running low on battery while we’re running errands at home. The portable pack isn’t as cumbersome as trying to use the foldable dock when you want to handle your phone while you’re on the go.
Current Beauty Favorites: February 2023
This year I discovered some fantastic products and services that I know will be well-loved for years to come. I only feature newly discovered favorites from 2022 to keep this year’s list interesting