My first couple of days off the ‘cleanse’ were pretty interesting. I really enjoyed the food I was not able to eat last week. Saturday morning I was in a rush to get out the door – I really enjoyed the fact that I could grab a Kashi bar and take it with me on the road. Here is what my breakfast looked like on Saturday:

Water, coffee and a kasha granola bar. It was strange how much I enjoyed the granola bar. Normally I don’t really think about a Kashi bar as I eat it – but I savored this one. Weird. I know.

I did a lot of running around on Saturday and had a really great day. I ended up eating at Whole Foods for dinner:

Roasted vegetables, saffron rice, tofu, chicken and a little bit of mac & cheese. It was a pretty good combination.

Overall, the weekend went by really quickly. I feel like the week of the Fourth of July is basically a week of national vacation. I used to always take the week of the 4th off with one of my best friends from college. We would go to Cape Cod every year with her family – and it was such a great time. The only thing I was sad about was taking my summer vacation so early in the season. Last year I did the total opposite and took a great week off the week after Labor Day and went to the Cape – it was fantastic, and a lot quieter than it is during the months of July and August.

I spent some time weeding on Sunday. After we were done weeding, mulch went down. I must say the outdoor area that we worked on looks pretty great now. My reward for doing yard work (not my forte, I will admit!) was a trip to Trader Joe’s and an amazing Sunday night dinner. 😀 I was pretty excited about what I had planned for the menu. Chicken tacos!

Andy grilled chicken breasts that I marinaded and put a spice rub on. I made all of the fixings for ‘healthy’ homemade tacos. Guacamole with fresh tomatoes, lemon and lime juice mixed in. The avocado was not perfectly ripe. I literally had to use a potato masher to start everything out. I also [inside] grilled some zucchini and red peppers. It seemed like a lot of work – but everything came together perfectly. It was the freshest tasting taco I can remember. Even if Trader Joe’s was out of cilantro.

On my taco: grilled chicken, salsa, zucchini, red pepper, guacamole, and cheese. Along with our tacos, I made a frozen raspberry lemonade in the blender. I put in a couple of handfuls of raspberries, a good amount of freshly squeezed lemon juice (I squeezed it by hand!), ice and a little Truvia to sweeten things up just a tad. The drink was pretty – and a little puckering. I loved how tart it was!

I utilized some of the grilled chicken breast and made a salad for Monday’s lunch. It had arugula, spinach, tomato (yellow and cherry!) and chicken. I made a dressing with leftover lemon juice, olive oil, freshly ground pepper and the smallest smidge of salt. The salad was great today – oh, and I had a piece of sour dough bread on the side!! I missed bread with my salad so much last week – it was great today!

(For the record: breakfast this morning was a greek yogurt with fresh blueberries. My afternoon snack was a banana and a mini Larabar.) This afternoon I studied the sky a little bit while I worked. I had a running date with a colleague at 5:15 and the sky was concerning me:

There were tornado warnings in four different parts of the state – mostly north of my office and north of Boston. The sky kept getting darker and darker. But at 5:10 I signed off from work and quickly changed into my running gear. I met my friend at 5:15 and we started our run. We ran for half an hour and most of the time we were running in light rain – but it felt pretty refreshing because it was hot and humid out! Once we got back to the office parking lot the sky started to open up and the rain really started to come down. I was so glad we got a short run in.

Eventually I got home and went straight into the kitchen to start dinner. I had decided to make a panzanella salad because I knew the leftovers would be good for lunch tomorrow. I had almost all of the ingredients – but Trader Joe’s was out of fresh basil. (really?!) Normally I have basil in my backyard – but I think the constant rain might have killed the plant.

I chopped up tomato, red onion, cut up fresh mozzarella cheese, opened up a can of white beans, toasted up some french bread, and drizzled things with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and put everything in a bed of arugula… the finished product:

That about sums up the last couple of days. Signing off for now – see you soon!