Friday Faves

Hi friends! It has been ages since I did a “Friday Faves” style blog post, so I figured it was time to bring it back! 

Here are some things I’ve been loving lately. Feel free to play along in the comments!

1) Sunrises and sunsets!

In my unscientific opinion, late August and September seem to have particularly awesome sunrises and sunsets for some reason.

Here’s one from last week, when I was out early for a run. It was so beautiful – I haven’t been doing super early runs lately and to be honest it’s been really nice to get the extra sleep, but these sunrises do make me tempted to get back on the earlier morning run train!

Does anyone else feel like late summer has the best sunrises/sunsets, or is it just me? 😉 

2) Beefshi! (Thank you to The North American Meat Institute (NAMI), a contractor to the Beef Checkoff, for sponsoring this section of the blog post.)

Have you guys heard of Beefshi before?!

I thought it was such a fun idea when I heard of it – it’s an innovative new sushi-style concept that pairs convenient prepared beef products (like roast beef, which I’ve used here!) in rolls with rice and vegetables.

It looks just like regular sushi, but you don’t have to deal with raw fish. Even Riese liked it!

Fun fact: contrary to popular belief, sushi does not mean raw seafood; the term actually refers to the vinegared rice that can be paired with many ingredients including fish, vegetables or meat.

When I first heard from my friends at NAMI about trying Beefshi, I was excited that the timing worked out that we’d be up in Pittsburgh when I made it because I knew my father-in-law, who is a big foodie and a very creative cook, would love to get involved!

Sure enough, we had a blast experimenting with the ingredients and learning how to make and roll our own Beefshi!

There are a ton of fun recipe ideas on the Beefshi website (I want to try the BLT and Reuben Rolls next), but for this round my father-in-law and I decided to experiment with the Beefy Cali Roll.

We came up with quite the delicious variation! Our nori-wrapped roll included:

• Brown sushi rice (the heartier texture and taste held up well with the beef, and I liked the added nutrition bonus)
• Roast beef
• Avocado
• Cucumber
• Red pepper
• Smoked sharp cheddar cheese
• Scallion

Plus a yummy dipping sauce that we made by combining yellow mustard with a splash of soy sauce! We spread a little of it inside the roll, too.

It was so good we ended up having it for dinner with some salad, but it would of course make an awesome appetizer or portable lunch, too!

Let me know if you try it – I’d love to know what combinations you come up with! We still have a lot of sushi rice and nori leftover, plus the sushi rolling mats, so I’m definitely going to experiment with it again soon. 🙂

3) Outdoor yoga classes. 

My yoga practice has basically been nonexistent since March – I’ve done some at-home yoga here and there but it hasn’t been very consistent, and I have a hard time focusing.

At-home yoga just doesn’t give me quite that same “zen” as I get from an in-person class, and my mental health really benefits from a consistent yoga practice, which is why I’ve started going to socially distanced outdoor classes hosted by a local studio. 

I’ve really missed yoga and I’m glad it’s back in my life! I have a hard time stopping and slowing down and yoga is a really great way to basically force me to chill out.

I’m aiming to go once per week, every week, to get some consistency going again.

Hot tip for anyone doing an outdoor workout or yoga class: bring a towel to put under your mat so that it stays clean and dry because the grass is usually wet, especially first thing in the morning. My towel usually ends up almost soaked!

4) Juicy summer fruit. 

I’m super into cantaloupe right now – we got some really good cantaloupe from the farmers’ market last weekend and I’m definitely going to pick up some more this weekend! 

I love having it with plain whole milk Greek yogurt – the tangy yogurt goes really well with the super sweet, juicy fruit.

We’ve been eating a lot of watermelon, too – always a win, especially after sweaty/hot walks or workouts because it’s so hydrating.

Riese and I have been enjoying watermelon a lot as a snack with some nuts, or as a side for a main meal – earlier this week I had some for breakfast with an English muffin topped with tzatziki and some capers, tomato, and diced hard boiled egg. It was a good combo!

5) This toddler faucet extender.

This one is kind of random, but I figured it could be useful to some of you. I bought Riese this cute faucet extender (affiliate link) recently and it has been perfect for her to be able to reach the water to wash her hands without our help!

Even with a stool in front of the sink she was still a little too short, and since she always wants to do everything “by self” this has been a nice solution. 

Can you guys believe it’s almost September?

This summer has gone by really quickly in some ways and really slowly in others. I’m definitely looking forward to cooler weather on the way soon… I miss being able to take walks and play outside with Riese without drowning in sweat!

Have a nice weekend and I’ll see you guys back here on Monday with a weekend recap.