A few of my favorite things

A few loves have come to my attention lately that I think you should know about also:

1. Amazon Prime
You pay for it yearly (unless you are a student, which I happen to be..), but it gives you free 2-day shipping. I've figured out that I can get almost anything on Amazon for cheaper than I can in any store: our cover for our laptop, my phone case was like $30 cheaper on amazon, a watch that I just purchased was over 30% cheaper.

2. Smith Optics
Cody introduced me to this sunglass company and I bought a pair of sunglasses from them a few Christmases ago. Well I happened to break them in the Spring (not at all surprising if you know me). They have a lifetime warranty and they no longer carried my particular glasses, so I got to pick a brand new pair of sunglasses! A company that actually stands by their lifetime warranty = amazing! Also, if you do not have polarized lenses you are missing out! They are AMAZING!

3. Rest days
I tend to push myself when running/working out . Rest days are so important. I usually have at least one day a week that I do not run/workout at all and my body is better for it. (A few rest days are good, but my allergies have been AWFUL since Friday, so I haven't been able to get in a good run...enough already!)

4. Breakfast
Now that I actually have time for breakfast in the summer, I'm developing some new favorites.
1. Green Monster Smoothies (greek yogurt, a tiny bit of milk, frozen fruit, spinach and a few ice cubes)
2. Breakfast sandwiches (Bagels/english muffins with 2 scrambled eggs, a piece of cheddar and 2 pieces of turkey bacon)
3. Toast with greek yogurt instead of butter topped with a little bit of Crofter's Superfruit Spread
4. Overnight oats - it makes me feel like I've cooked breakfast for my husband who still has to get up early for work in the summer..

What are your favorite things right now?

Tilapia Stuffed with Spinach and Feta

On Monday, aka the day after we returned from the beach, I had been teaching a science camp and had not yet taken the time for my weekly grocery store trip, which meant creative thinking for dinner. I could not come up with something on my own, so I googled recipes+tilapia+spinach (ingredients that I did have at home). This little gem came up and even added feta to the mix (which I of course also had). It was super easy and had great flavor. I served it with zucchini and squash that had been tossed in olive oil and season all and grilled on the George Foreman (I have also heard that zucchini and squash is great to grill after tossing in Italian seasoning..I just didn't have any). I know it kind of looks like a wimpy meal, but it was super filling.



Tilapia Stuffed with Spinach and Feta

Ingredients

tilapia - fillets	4
salt	1 tsp
black pepper	1/2 tsp
olive oil	2 Tbsps
garlic clove	2	minced
spinach	6 cups	washed well and stems removed
feta cheese	2 Tbsps
unsalted butter	2 Tbsps
toothpicks	8

Directions

1. Salt and pepper the tilapia fillets and refrigerate for at least a 1/2 hour.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
3. Heat the olive oil in a sauté over medium heat.
4. Add the minced garlic cloves and spinach. Sauté for 2 to 3 minutes until the spinach has wilted. Remove from the heat.
5. Add the feta cheese and mix well.
6. Place the tip of the tilapia fillet in front of you. Spoon a tablespoon of the spinach feta cheese filling on the tip. Roll away from you and secure with toothpicks. Repeat.
7. Place the rolled tilapia fillets seam down in a baking dish. In the middle of the dish place the unsalted butter.
8. Place in the pre-heated oven for 15 minutes. Remove the toothpicks, drizzle with the melted butter, and serve.

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

A few weeks ago, our pastor was talking about looking forward to going home to fresh baked chocolate chip, walnut, banana bread. Well of course this stuck in my head. We had the inevitable 2 bananas that were past their prime so I originally thought that peanut butter, chocolate chip banana bread sounded good (LOVE LOVE LOVE Peanut butter!), but then I decided that I wanted my husband to actually eat some of the bread, so I found a chocolate chip, banana bread recipe instead (we didn't have any walnuts).

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
from Rachel Ray
Ingredients

• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 3 bananas, mashed (1 cup mashed banana)
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Directions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350°F .

2. Grease and flour a 8 1/2-inch x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan (or use baking spray, such as Baker's Joy brand).

3. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, sugar, baking soda and salt. Mix in the oil, bananas and eggs. Stir in the chocolate chips (do not overmix!) and pour into the prepared pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 70-80 minutes. Cool the loaf in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out and cool completely, right side up.

Make your own Playdough

I remember making this play dough with my mom when we were little. The great thing is that you can pick the color, it smells great and it makes a ton of play dough. Erin and I made this last week and of course made it purple because that is her favorite color. If I had planned better, we would have also added glitter, because what girl doesn't like glitter!?

Kool-Aid Play dough

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup salt
• 2 (4 g) packages unsweetened Kool-Aid powdered drink mix
• 2 cups boiling water
• 3 tablespoons oil

Directions

1. Mix flour, salt, Kool-Aid until blended.
2. Add oil to boiling water, mix with spoon until cool enough to knead.
3. Continue kneading until color is blended.
4. Store in air tight bag or container in the refrigerator.

Galveston Round 2

My family always meets up for at least a long weekend each summer. We found a great "resort" in Galveston last summer called Pointe West (it's far enough outside of Galveston to avoid the crowds), so we returned to it this year.
On Friday my mom, dad, Erin and I headed down to Kemah. We had bought a groupon back in the spring for a spa day at Kemah Bella Spa for massages, facials, manis and pedis. It was amazing! The spa is in this little old house just a few blocks from from the Kemah Boardwalk. I had not had a massage in forever and a facial ever, so it was a wonderfully, relaxing experience.

our pretty toes, freshly pedicured

Kemah Bella Spa

Then we met dad, EG, Brad, Jen and Alex at this Greek place right across the street called Bakkhus. I'm on a big Greek food kick. They had wonderful flavored, homemade hummus and I had a grilled chicken pita. A great find!

After lunch we headed to Galveston for a little beach time before it got too dark. Cody joined us that night.
The next day we spent relaxing at the beach and pool




before heading to the Moody Gardens Aquarium (where they had all sorts of beautiful sea creates and even had penguins, but they were asleep for the night..).

For dinner we went to Fisherman's Wharf which was casual, but had great seafood.
Sunday we spent more beach/pool time before Cody and I had to head back to Houston for the work week.

Cody and EG racing to the beach

Brad and EG flying kites

Of course I had to get her a princess kite

Play date

One of the joys of having time off in the summer is having more time for family. Mom and I already got to spend a few days together earlier in the summer. My sweet niece is 3 which is SUCH a fun age! So I managed to finalge her away from her parents for a few days. I went the other day to Waco to pick her up and got to stop by my sweet Mamaw's house for an afternoon of lunch and chatting. I LOVE getting to see that lady : )
Since Erin's been here we have:
Visited the Houston Zoo



Had a picnic by the lake in Herman Park (I had no idea how great Herman Park was!)


Rode the Herman Park train (which I think was her favorite thing)

Played in the dirt (we've just moved one of the flower beds in our backyard)

Played in the sprinklers (to get rid of the dirt)

Made our own playdough ("recipe" to come)
I've had a blast with her and can't wait until she gets to come to stay again!

Prayer Request

The Sikes family received devastating news yesterday. Kara and I were Zetas together at Baylor. She and her husband have a baby boy who had a brain tumor removed 2 weeks ago. Unfortunately in the past two weeks the brain tumor has not only grown back, but has spread. They now have to decide whether to start an aggressive treatment or to bring him home and make him comfortable. The doctors are very skeptical about the treatment. Please pour your prayers over this family for guidance in their decision, peace, and comfort. I can only imagine what a difficult time this is for them right now. You can read about James' story on their blog.