1. You probably won’t believe me when I tell you this, but this past weekend, I had my very first experience with self-serve frozen yogurt. I know – I’m 27 years old and never been to places like Red Mango or Cherry Berry before – I’m sheltered. Anyway, that’s beside the point. I went to a local fro-yo shop called Free Style and absolutely looooved it! There were about a dozen different flavors to choose from, and don’t even get me started on the gazillion different toppings they had! I think one of my favorites was the cake battered one. Yep, we found our new favorite after-dinner dessert joint.

2. Remember a few posts back I mentioned about the different items different McDonald’s around the world has on their menu? (the post can be read here) Well, apparently not only Canadian McDonald’s has the iced chai frappe, they also have the McLobster! Has anyone had them before? What did you think of it?

(photo source)

3. A few days ago I discovered our local Caribou Coffee came out with their pumpkin drinks already…. whaaaat?! It’s still August. August means summer, NOT fall. Pumpkins are for the fall, and therefore should not be allowed when it’s still 100 degrees and sunny outside. It’s like a competition between all the large chain coffee shops to see who can bring out their fall drinks out first. Don’t get me wrong – I like my pumpkin coffee, but I’m not ready for fall yet! I’m still clinging on to every moment of summer.

Well, since the drinks are out, I couldn’t say no to $2.50/large drink promotion they had going on today. Even though I wasn’t happy that it’s a sign that summer’s winding down, I unwillingly dragged myself there and they had to twist my hand to make me order a pumpkin spiced iced chai. Ha! Who am I kidding – I ran there as fast as I could after I got back from class :)

4. Our equine class got a special behind-the-scenes tour at our local horse racing track this morning! I’ve never been to a horse race before, but it was cool getting to see the trainers and jockeys with their horses doing a bunch of different training exercises. My favorite part was seeing the horses in the training/rehab pool! Definitely a cool experience considering these parts aren’t open to the public to tour.

5. About 3.5 months ago, I was diagnosed with de Quervain’s tendinitis in my wrist that I sustained from repetitive motions from work. I had to wear a wrist brace this summer for 3 months, had hand therapy sessions, tried iontophoresis, and ended up with a cortisone injection which promptly resolved the issue three days later. You really don’t realize how important your opposable thumb is until you can’t use it anymore. It was painful to hold a pen to write, to put my hair up, to button up pants, to hold a knife, to wash my back, and to do little everyday things. I had to modify how I did a lot of things because of it. Now that I’m finally pain-free after 3.5 months, I’m finding myself trying to adjust to the thumb I can finally now use. I still find myself still holding the steering wheel how I did 3 months ago, and just the other day, I texted with two thumbs for the first time in 3.5 months – it felt weird and unnatural.

Moral of the story: keep your body healthy and don’t take anything for granted.

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1. Last week I discovered the greatness of this:

If you haven’t tried this and it sounds like something you might like, I highly recommend you go get a bottle and try it out. You won’t be disappointed – I used mine as a dipping sauce for some chicken nuggets and they were delicious!

2. While we’re on the topic of chicken nuggets: we made some last week with some fries, and it looked like Bentley was all about being patient and looking cute, hoping I’d give him and share my nuggets with him…

3. Have you ever been to an alpaca farm? I got up close and personal with a whole herd of 9 alpacas yesterday! We went on a field trip to a local alpaca farm for our productions class, where we learned how to restrain, give vaccinations, and perform physical exams on them. I must say, as weird as they look, they are pretty cute!

The cria (baby alpaca) was especially cute with with her little fuzzy face…

4. Earlier last week, I decided it would be a good idea to create some business cards for Simple Everyday Food. It’s been about 6 months since I’ve started this, and I’ve really enjoyed watching it grow! I’ve had a lot of people from work and school that have asked me about it, and I figured it’d be a good way to spread the word…. On Monday, they came in the mail! I’ve gotta say, I’m pretty happy about how they turned out!

5. This has got to be the coolest, most awesomest (yes, I just made that word up) mug I currently own in my collection. The moment I saw it, I knew I just had to get it!

Have a good rest of the week, guys! The Minnesota State Fair starts tomorrow! WOO HOO!

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1. In case you missed it, this past Saturday was National S’mores Day! I celebrated this “holiday” by making peanut butter s’mores cookies. These turned out to be a huge hit! Everyone who was fortunate enough to try a bite became instant fans. As I was shooting photos for that post, Brian was able to get an “action shot”:

I’m not sure if Bentley wanted to be part of the picture, or if he was just waiting for the opportune moment to steal some peanut butter cookies…..

And to round out the day, we stopped by Dairy Queen for the first time this summer (I know! Crazy, right?) after dinner and I just had to order their S’mores Blizzard.

Best. Blizzard. EVER! Let me just say that it was about 32498714 times better than what I thought it was going to be. It definitely exceeded all my expectations and then some. Definitely wasn’t disappointed.

2. The sitcom FRIENDS is perhaps one of my favorite shows ever. I’ve probably watched every episode at least 5 times (that’s a conservative estimate), and I can tell you exactly which episode it is by watching the first 30 seconds of a clip. I can also recite many parts of the show word for word, in the character’s exact same tone of voice.

….as if you didn’t know I was a nerd already……..

My best friend Nicky (Hi Nicky!) who was my maid of honor knew I loved the series so much that she got us the entire season as a wedding gift.

Here are 25 facts that you probably didn’t know about FRIENDS. Did you know Ross’ middle name is Eustace? And that during its run, the show actually released 2 soundtracks?

3. I knew from a long time ago, McDonald’s around the world tend to cater their menu to the palates of the country’s population. When we went to Hawaii, their McD’s had menu items involving Spam. In Taiwan, they have shrimp burgers, rice burgers, and some sort of a grilled salmon burger on their menu too. But did you know about these other food items offered at different international McDonald’s????

• Bulgogi Burger (South Korea) – yes, I’d like to try that.
• Spinach and Parmesan cheese chicken nuggets (Italy) – uh, gross.
• Singapore Curry, Korean Chili, and Sesame Miso dipping sauces for chicken nuggets (Hong Kong) – yes please!
• Vanilla chai tea iced frappe (Canada) – these should be sold at every McDonald’s in the US.
• Toblerone McFlurry (Turkey) – as if those chocolates aren’t good enough by itself…

Maybe next time I travel out of the country, it will be my mission to try something different from their McDonald’s.

4. Has anyone read the book Orange Is The New Black? I’ve been seeing the name brought it in various social medias, and was wondering if it’s worth reading or not.

5. Most of these pictures made me smile and feel warm and fuzzy inside. Some of them brought tears to my eyes. It just shows that as cruel as the world may seem sometimes, true love and devotion still exist.

© Simple Everyday Food. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use any of my images without prior permission.

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