Happy Friday! Similar to last week, this MIGHT be me tonight. Not sure. I love lounging on Friday nights rather than getting crazy. I also love wine. Works perfectly.
While I am feeling all lovey-dovey, I love short weeks…. four days are so much easier to get through than five, right?! Time for Anything & Everything Friday where I share with you five different topics of my choosing. Today I’m sharing with you the item I purchased shopping last weekend (hello summer shorts!), Top Golf, and the benefits of spicy foods! Here we go….
Shopping:
Last week I went shopping with my sister. I was on a mission to find shorts, a few summery tops, and sandals. I did pretty well finding all of those things, but only found ONE top that I wanted to commit to. We didn’t end up going to too many stores, but I found what I needed! I ended up finding three new pairs of shorts (these are the ones I bought), one pair of jean shorts from Express and three of the same pair in different colors from New York & Company (here are the shorts and I bought olive green, black, and khaki). Express had 40% off their jeans (which I am IN LOVE with right now), so I picked up a pair of plain dark wash skinny jeans.
I was also on the hunt for sandals, because I wear sandals all. summer. long. I tend to go through them fairly frequently because I wear them so much. I found one pair of flip flops at Express (here). I found two others at New York & Company (black, gold). I also found this cute sleeveless top at New York & Company. If you spent over $50.00 then you got a free t-shirt, so I picked out a V-neck olive green tee to wear on casual weekends.
All in all, I think it was a success! I am good to go with shorts now and should be good for a little bit in terms of sandals. Of course, if I find another cute pair of shoes then I might have to buy them! My next shoe purchase might need to be some cute wedges! Have you seen any cute wedge sandals lately?!
Top Golf:
Have you heard of Top Golf? They have one in Centennial, Colorado now. We were suppose to play in a golf tournament tomorrow morning, but it got cancelled. Not really a big deal, I mean a free Saturday?!?! I don’t know what that is. However, the sad part was that we’d asked two of our friends to play in the tournament so we could get some hang-out-time with them (and their wives). Well, since the tournament was cancelled they had no reason to come to Fort Morgan. Instead, I told Donny we should go to Top Golf! It just so happened to work for everyone so we are meeting two other couples there to play around. There is food, booze, music, and of course, GOLF. It is basically like hitting off a driving range, but there are targets and games you can play (I love a good competition). I’ve never done it, but I’m super excited about it! So many people that don’t even golf have told me how fun it is.
Travel Destinations:
Anytime I get an email that has an article about traveling I have to read it. I love to see pictures of places and mentally make a list of where I want to go. I came across this list from Self.com of 17 Travel Destinations That Will Change Your Life (And Your Instagram Feed). Now I don’t really care about changing my Instagram feed to traveling pictures, but I love that these pictures were taken from Instagram, so they are most likely not professional photos that can be misleading. Browse through them! Where do you want to travel to? Donny & I really want to take Highway 1 in California for that (extremely) scenic drive. Maybe one day. I’d also love to go to Ireland and see how green and beautiful it is there! London is on my list, because Donny LOVES that city. Argentina is another country I’d like to visit (I haven’t picked any specific cities) at some point.
Lighten a Recipe:
I don’t know if you look at recipes quite as much as I do (I’m constantly looking and reading recipes….I find it enjoyable). If you are trying eat healthy and watch what you’re eating them sometimes you want to take a delicious looking recipe and lighten it up a little bit. Sometimes lightening up a recipe changes the flavor or consistency, but not always! Sarah Haan wrote this article for SparkPeople.com with 10 Easy Ways To Lighten Up Any Recipe. Some of these tips I’ve used before in my every day eating. I use Greek yogurt (plain, by the way) instead of sour cream and I also am pretty picky about cheese. I gravitate towards more powerful tasting cheeses such as feta, parmesan, and bleu cheese. I also enjoy adding extra vegetables to recipe that may or may not have them. Vegetables take up space with very minimal calories in them so even if you make a full-fat recipe for macaroni and cheese then you can still cut a few calories per serving by adding a broccoli, cauliflower, or carrots (I’ve done all three together before) to the recipe. Extra veggies and you’ll ultimately consume less of the macaroni and cheese!
Spicy Foods:
Do you like spicy foods? I love spicy foods and turns out there are health benefits to eating them! I’m not saying that is why I put Cholula or Sriracha on everything, but apparently it’s a good thing. Melissa Rudy compiled a list for SparkPeople.com of 7 Surprising Health Benefits of Spicy Foods. Spicy foods can add flavor, but some research also says it can add a few years to your life. It helps with pain relief and can also reduce your risk of some cancers. Those are only three of the seven benefits, so click the link above to find out the others.
That’s all for today’s Anything & Everything Friday. Have a great weekend! I’ll have a recipe ready for Monday.
