Hello my friends! I hope you all had great weekends – and for my American readers, great long weekends for the 4th of July holiday! (Also – how about that Women’s World Cup?! 🙂 ) We watched the fireworks from a friend’s roof deck in Adams Morgan this year. Beautiful as always – my camera phone didn’t do it justice.
As for the rest of the long weekend, Matt and I spent it socializing, which is always my favorite way to spend a weekend. 🙂 I had a ton of friends in town because on Friday my good friend Lara from high school got married!
Loved seeing my girls again! The wedding was gorgeous and so was the bride, and it was wonderful to be a part of their special day. <3 I was too busy dancing and celebrating to get any photos – thank you to my friend Melissa for sharing these!
On the fitness front over the long weekend, I was feeling in need of a break so I kept things pretty low key and enjoyed sleeping in/the holiday festivities! I took Saturday completely off and on Sunday afternoon Matt and I just did a short HIIT workout with weights in our basement. On Friday, though, we got in a nice run together! I had taken Thursday off, too, so I was feeling strong and energized.
3.25 speedy, hilly miles. Felt good!
As for some food highlights for the weekend, the folks at Tessemae’s All Natural sent me some of their salad dressing to sample for a sponsored review, so we had fun testing them out. On the 4th, Matt and I went over to my parent’s place for lunch and brought them along for a little taste test.
I normally steer clear of bottled salad dressings because the ingredient lists are a hot mess (full of additives, things I can’t pronounce, sugar, cheap oils, etc.), but I was intrigued when Tessemae’s reached out because their products are not the norm. Tessemae’s dressings are all real food – no weird additives on their ingredient lists at all – and they are gluten-free, sugar free (as in no added sugar – not any weird fake sugars), vegan, and non-GMO, too. I also like that they weren’t packed with salt – just enough for flavor.
They sent me 4 dressings (which also work as marinades) to sample – Green Goddess (an olive oil based vinaigrette), Soy Ginger, and Ranch and Caesar, which are two of their newest dressings. I was surprised to find they are vegan and made with coconut milk – how creative! Just an FYI that they are meant to be kept in the fridge but will harden a bit, so you’ll want to pop them in a warm water bath for a couple minutes to soften them up again quickly while you’re making your salad. 🙂
Matt loves the Green Goddess dressing, my mom’s favorite was the Ranch (she said “I will totally buy this”), and my favorite is the Caesar! Delicious – and I really like that it’s not something I’d normally throw together myself at home. I enjoyed some of the Caesar on my salad along with one of my mom’s delicious ham and cheese omelettes – and some unpictured fruit.
I’ve been rocking the dressings for my salads at home a lot lately, too. Yum. The ranch and caesar are both really good with kale, in case you were curious. 🙂
As for the soy ginger, Matt and I thought it would make a good marinade, so we marinated some chicken in it on Saturday before throwing it on the grill.
So good! This would make an awesome sauce on an Asian dish or stir fry, too.
Tessemae’s made an appearance at a BBQ we went to last night at our friends Tom and Janice’s place as well! We brought a big salad with the Green Goddess dressing for everyone to enjoy with it.
Delicious spread! I love summer. 🙂
Anyway, final verdict, in case you couldn’t tell, is clearly two thumbs up! I will absolutely continue to buy Tessemae’s dressings now that I know they are awesome. I still love my homemade vinaigrettes, but for the Caesar and Ranch options and for bringing to friend’s places/parties, these are perfect! Thank you again to Tessemae’s for the opportunity to try them out for this sponsored review. They have a TON of dressings beyond the four we were sent to try, which you can see (along with their ingredient lists) on their website. They are available online as well as at Whole Foods, Kroger, Safeway, The Fresh Market, and Costco. I’m looking forward to trying some of the other products soon!
Have a great day, my friends! Which city’s fireworks did you watch? 🙂
