Recap and Groceries 101

I know it's been way too long! It proved to be a whirlwind end to the year with finals, end of year events, and too many friends graduating from Hopkins.Then it was off to Charlotte to spend a nice week at home and to see my younger brother graduate from high school (he's off to run at Boston College next year!).

Lol- Congrats Ev!

We love our G-Daddy

After that relaxing week of family time, I was jetting off to Aruba with my two great friends. We had such a blast--there was sun, clear blue ocean water, a lazy river, snorkeling, scuba diving, drinks, and as always..amazing food. I can't even begin to explain the plethora of fresh fish that I had at almost every meal. And to top it all off, we even managed to work out every day while there!


We were primarily doing the circuits from the first week of Kayla Itsines' 12 week training guide while there, but we also incorporated a few days of low intensity, long workouts like walking, jogging, and biking. Usually we knocked out the workouts in the morning before heading out to the pool/beach so that we wouldn't have to worry about doing it later in the day after a draining day of laying in the sun ;) I highly recommend working out in the morning while on vacation because there's nothing worse than a) thinking about it all day while you're trying to relax with a poolside cocktail and b) having to come in from the beach earlier than you wanted to because you have to get to the gym before dinner. Basically it's just sad all around so knock it out in the morning!

A few notable pics from the best/much needed vacation :)

Post-workout smoothies

Some lunch-time frozen beverages. It's vacation, so we indulged! 

My first time scuba diving! So amazing.

But enough about the vacation (although I could go on and on about it all day long)...onto the point of this post!

Grocery Shopping 101!! 

I got a few requests to do a post about what I generally buy each time I go to the grocery store and since I was long overdue for groceries post-vacation, I thought I'd document the trip to Harris Teeter (which is much like Giant, but a lot nicer and with more variety in my opinion).

My cart at the store..I clearly had a lot to stock up on

The fruit: apples (bought at farmer's market), bosc pairs, lemons, bananas, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and cantaloup. I'm a HUGE fruit person so I tend to buy a lot of it..any thing from berries for smoothies, to bananas for cereal, to cantaloup and apples for cutting up for a quick snack...i like it all

Breakfast items: Kashi Raisin Vineyard cereal (a new buy, it's pretty good and not too sweet which I like), vanilla almond milk, lots of greek yogurt, and fresh-squeezed OJ

Veggies: Sooo many veggies here...spring mix, celery, tomatoes, zucchini and squash (from farmer's market), brussels sprouts, onion, peppers, carrots, mushrooms, and "pico de guaco" (salsa+guac in one container-great for salads and wraps!)

Protein: Faux-chicken strips, tuna, chickpeas, and black beans

Grains: a lot of quinoa, crackers for snacking, and "flat out" wraps (a new try, but I definitely will be buying them again. So soft and only 100 calories..plus flax!)

Miscellaneous: Peach green tea, EVOO, edamame hummus, goat cheese, lemon herb aioli, and almond butter 

Tuna salad wrap and a pear on the side for lunch...this has been my exact lunch for a few days in a row now. 

Kashi Raisin Vineyard cereal with strawberries and a banana, mini flax waffle on ze side!

So there you have it! That's mostly the things that I buy when I go to the store...obviously not the exact same things are purchased every time, but hopefully you get the general idea of the things I tend to purchase.

Also, some of those items were used in recipes--such as the lemon herb aioli being used to make a tuna salad (recipe to come soon!)--so if they seem a bit random, that's probably why.

That's all I've got for you today, but I must say that I'm really happy to be back blogging again. It truly makes me feel so blessed when people tell me they read the blog and have missed it while I took that hiatus. Hopefully that won't have to happen again anytime soon! I'll be back tomorrow with a great circuit to try!