Hi friends! I hope you’ve had a great week. Mine has been filled with lots of baby adventures because our nanny was on vacation! It’s always such a treat to get extra time with my little one. 🙂 My father-in-law came back with us from the beach; he’s been working on some big projects around the house and also helping out with the babe so I could have some AnneTheRD client meetings here and there and get some time-sensitive writing done. Grateful to have his help!
We’ve also had some really good dinners this week because my father-in-law loves cooking! I know, we were super spoiled. 🙂
Have you guys heard of the sous vide cooking method before? It means “under vacuum” in French, and refers to the process of vacuum-sealing food in a bag, then cooking it to a very precise temperature in a water bath. Pretty cool! My father-in-law has this sous vide cooker and brought it with him to play around with for some of our dinners this week.
One night we had a really good sous vide pork that you see pictured above. My father-in-law seasoned it with salt and pepper, olive oil, shallots, garlic, and rosemary before putting it into a bag and then into the pot of water to do the sous vide cooking. When it was fully cooked, Matt seared it quickly on the grill to finish it off. We enjoyed it with some lemony arugula with shaved parmesan, sauteed rainbow chard (with olive oil, garlic, and shallots) and baked sweet potatoes. So good! Tip for the chard: the stems are also edible! Just chop them up and saute them first so they get soft before you add in the leaves.
Our other sous vide dinner this week was salmon! It was like poached salmon in texture – it got really soft and buttery. Delicious! It went into the bag with some olive oil and fresh dill from our little garden boxes.
Served with boiled, buttery corn on the cob (x2), a refreshing tomato, mozzarella, and basil salad, and zucchini sauteed in olive oil and garlic and topped with parmesan. Such a summery and fresh meal!
As for fitness this week, I was in the mood for some more movement after keeping things low key at the beach last week! On Monday, Matt took the day off to work on some projects around the house with his dad, so we took advantage of the childcare and had a morning run date just the two of us. A nice treat!
We ran 3.5 hilly miles. I was tired when we were done but it felt good to move!
On Tuesday morning, I had another run date – had to take advantage of the lower humidity and slightly cooler temps! Plus, I hadn’t seen my buddy Sokphal in wayyy too long. We met up for an early morning jaunt along the monuments – always so fun to start the day with these views.
Great to catch up with Sokphal, too! She had just done a long run the night before, which was perfect because she was on board for a jog/walk situation for our run date. 😉 We probably covered about 3.5 miles total and ran half of it, which felt perfect since I had just run the morning before and my body felt a bit worn out.
My next workout was yesterday, when Riese and I went to a stroller workout group! I didn’t get a photo but this was the first time I’ve tried one of the boot camp stroller groups with her in the actual stroller vs. in the carseat, and she enjoyed it! I think her being able to see the action made a HUGE difference. It will be fun to go to the groups more often on my days off now because both of us get a little cranky if we just stay home by ourselves all day. Plus as she gets bigger I know she’ll enjoy playing with the other kids after the class is over! I’m also hoping I can get to know some more moms who are around during the day… I have been feeling a bit lonely on my solo days with Riese because I don’t know many stay at home or other fellow part time working moms in the area. Anyway… we hung out at the park nearby after class and I put her in the swing for a bit – she was cautiously into it. My big girl! (cue freak out over her growing up too fast)
My final workout for the week was a yoga date early this morning with my girls Chelsea and Kathleen! We hadn’t done a group workout in a few weeks because of travel schedules, so it was nice to see them again. Yoga felt amazing, too – my body really needed a nice calming stretch.
I’m off to enjoy the rest of the day with my little one. Have a great weekend and I’ll see you guys back here on Monday!
