Discovering Acai + Recent Eats

Hello and happy holiday weekend Friday! I hope many of you have the day off and if not, I hope you have super fun plans for the 4th. Sadly, I do not have either. I am working today and have no plans for the weekend other than subbing classes because everyone else is out of town! We were hoping to get to a pool but the weather is supposed to be pretty blah so we’ll see. I am running a “Firecracker 5K” tonight at 7 p.m. I’ve never run an evening race so I’m super interested to see the difference in my body. I much prefer to work out later in the day.

I have something new to share in this week’s round up of the recent eats.

I have been seeing Acai Bowls blowing up my Instagram feed and all over blogs from my friends who live out in California and other places more trendy than North Carolina. 😉 I found these Acai Berry Superfruit Packs at Whole Foods and decided to pick some up to play around with.

We’re offering really amazing smoothies at the yoga studio in our new cafe and I decided I wanted to do some research on these Acai Bowls to see if it’s something we might want to add to the menu. They are South American berries that the latest new “superfruit.” They’re high in antioxidants and some believe they promote weight loss.

The bowls I’ve seen online have featured a base of acai with various toppings like granola, almond butter, coconut flakes, etc. I’ve played around with the texture doing everything from more of a smoothie bowl to a thicker soft serve texture.

My initial verdict is that I love it! The only downside is that the puree is pretty expensive so I’m going to have to do some research on sourcing it wholesale for the studio. I’m sure I can figure something out. I want to add these bowls to the menu along with an option to add homemade granola to any smoothie for $1. Sounds just like me, right?

Lunches have been salads and snack plates. This was a grab and go salad from the studio with arugula, beet greens, beets, hardboiled egg, avocado, feta, quinoa, walnuts and a tahini balsamic dressing.

Salad with arugula, spinach, avocado, walnuts, dried cranberries, deli turkey, beets and feta.

Snack plate with avocado rolled in turkey, gouda, crackers and grapes…with a side of skim milk. I started drinking milk when I was home visiting my parents and then picked up some from a local dairy at Whole Foods. I’ve been drinking it on the regular. No idea why it’s tasting so good lately but it is!

I made homemade tuna salad yesterday and served it with saltines, cheese and grapes. It reminded me so much of lunches with my grandmother…and made me miss her so much! I am going to try to get down there in the next couple of weeks.

I’ve been cooking up a storm over here this week! We’ve also been eating at the table, which I love. This was Island Pork Tenderloin with sauteed baby zucchini and mashed cauliflower. The cauliflower is yellow because it was an orange variety.

Baked panko and parmesan wild Alaskan salmon, tomato and mozzarella salad and toasted sourdough.

Chicken parmesan over zoodles. I need to do a chicken parmesan tutorial on the blog. I’ve been making this recipe for like 10 years now!

Last night’s dinner was summer on a plate. I made burgers using local beef from my favorite farmer at Windy Hill and topped them with aged cheddar and sauteed mushrooms. Tomato mozzarella salad on the side with an ear of corn. We “mmmm’d” our way all the way through this dinner.

Time to teach yoga! Have a wonderful and safe holiday weekend. And remember how lucky we are to be free. So many around the world don’t know what that feels like.

What are your July 4th plans?

Have you tried Acai?