• Went to the lake apparently in Oklahoma about an hour away from Dallas. Brought a picnic of foods for lunch! Carrot sticks, crackers, cheese, salami, fresh fruit, kombucha. Can it get any more summer than that?? 

• Won a couple more escape rooms, which made it three in the span of one week! Including one for my friends' combined bachelor bachelorette party.
• Joined in on the fun with my first Fab Finds Friday post! 
• Took a walk with a view of the summer sky whilst listening to a Modern Love podcast episode.
• Got my car cleaned and polished as well as my nails!

• Went to Dallas' Restaurant Week and dined on some delicious seafood dishes.
• Made these salted brown butter dark chocolate coconut cookies from Half Baked Harvest... 

• ..as well as this date sweetened ice cream after a headache of a process. After I opened it for the first time, I unfortunately discovered that the ice cream attachment doesn't fit my mini kitchenmaid mixer. Luckily, it fit my mom's older model and we were still able to enjoy homemade ice cream. Consistency is a little off but flavor is a 10/10. Not bad for a first attempt if I do say so my self. 
• Got a hair cut! 
• Attended the final musical of our summer season passes, School of Rock!! 
• Went to the wedding of aforementioned friend. AKA my 2nd wedding ever (the first being when I was a flower girl 15 years ago) and 1st adult wedding.

• Finally, just this past Saturday didn't totally suck at mini golf-ing. 

Based on how often I actually end up sharing these must-reads posts, I've decided to shift gears and change the name to monthly reads as opposed to weekly. Also linking up with Cora and Nicole for my first Fab Finds Friday!



In case you haven't heard already, JOMO is the new FOMO

How do you treat your body with appreciation rather than hatred? c/o Immaeatthat

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Body positivity advice from Emily and crew of Cupcakes and Cashmere and Lily of Kale and Caramel

Robyn's letting go of the thin ideal in your intuitive eating journey

"Accepting that no matter your body size, you are still you and you still have to deal with the mental and emotional problems in your life no matter what your body size can be really hard. But letting go of these things allows you to actually begin living your life. It allows you to begin showing up for yourself."

Easy, quick and affordable ways for self-love for the body, home, soul and well...self.

Beautifully written essay on the power of food amidst a difficult diagnosis. Also inspiring me to make my own birthday cake this year!

Naomi's reminder that sometimes we just need to let go of control over our lives

"Not having everything figured out–not having the answers, the 360 degree view of the outcome–doesn’t equal the inability to move in the right direction.  Instead of focusing so much on the results, focus on the process. Instead of making decisions with the aim to micromanage the outcomes, do what’s right, right now."

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In terms of kitchen inspiration, looking at making either of these no bake date and oat chocolate cookies at some point this weekend! Hope you find some sweetness in your weekend too.

Questions:
Have you ever made yourself a birthday cake? 
What are your plans for this weekend?

• Continued to clean and packed everything then brought one last car full of stuff to my parents', my home for the next month. 
• Turned in my keys at my apartment 🙁 Feels weird to be leaving the place I've been in for 2 years and moving away from campus.  

all moved out

• Made brunch one morning gluten free apple cinnamon pancakes with Siggi's vanilla yogurt (the best flavor out there IMO) and finished up the remaining frozen blueberries I had.
• Finished another season of The Office. Three down, six to go! 
• Picked up some work at my parents' school working at the reception desk. Sucks to have been spending a lot money when nothing is coming in so it's nice to have worked a little. 

• Finished that puzzle mentioned in last week's review in much less time than expected. 
• Posted some of my favorite July eats on Saturday. Check it out for Italian food galore!

• Made gluten-free oatmeal raisin cookies then turned them into ice cream sandwiches because Texas evenings are hooooot.
• Whipped up two types of nut butters: a toasted walnut one as well as a cardamom cashew butter (based off of Broma Bakery's here).
• Sat poolside reading August's book club read, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, before getting a swim in.

• Watched Like Father on Netflix with my parentals. Semi-unrelated but still adjusting to this whole living with them thing. I'm trying to see the bright side and stay grateful; this will likely be the last time I'll be living with them so might as well enjoy it even the times we'll for sure butt heads. 
• Went to and won (!!!) a Western-themed escape room with under 5 minutes to space. Tons of fun! If you ever get a chance to go and have one in your area, it's a must! 

The first of three courses my mom and I split for our one super fancy meal. You may or may not know the Italian meal structure; not exactly sure how often this is truly followed but we decided to get an antipasto, primo and secondo alongside a glass of wine. To start was a sweet potato puree with anchovies. So much better than I make it sound.



Throughout my trip I was torn between trying my favorite dishes (carbonara, pesto, gelato) to authenticate the versions I've had in the past and tasting atypical Italian cuisine, dishes that I hadn't heard of previously.

Here are a couple of the latter:

Literally meaning pig in bread, maiale en pane was one of the dishes we made at the cooking class we took in Florence. It's essentially a herb crusted pork cooked in a loaf of  crusty bread. My friend reminded me that it is essentially a fancy pig in a blanket/kolache.

On the right, a lampredotto (tripe!) sandwich messily eaten while wandering the shops of Mercato Centrale again in Florence.


There was a couple of times that my hanger shown through. One night we ended up having dinner pretty late and I just couldn't decide what to get. Honestly, I was almost resigned to skipping dinner altogether. Instead, I go gelato for dinner. Can't hate that. Giant schools of yogurt and strawberry flavors this time around.

On the go on the streets of Venice my second time around, grabbed a vegetarian slice of pizza.  Honestly didn't have as much pizza as I thought we would, which surprisingly I'm okay with. There was plenty of other deliciousness to keep me more than happy.