Cooking Up a Storm

I’ve been in the kitchen quite a lot in the past several days! I can’t complain because it’s my favorite place to be. Besides the sofa, of course.

On Thursday I spent all day preparing food for a fundraiser that my old friend Julia was organizing at her medical school. She is going to Haiti with a group of students to do medical aid work, which I think is so wonderful! For those of you who don’t know, my grandmother dedicated her life to missions work in Haiti and ended up marrying a Haitian man. She built an orphanage for girls there and my mom and her siblings even spent part of their childhood living in Haiti. So needless to say, not only is Haiti a part of my heritage but it’s close to my heart.

Julia asked me to make some Haitian dishes, so I consulted with my mom and came up with a few things to donate. Haiti was a colony of France, so a lot of the cuisine is a fusion of African and French foods. I made guava filled puff pastries (pictured above), fried sweet plantains (you guys know those are my FAVORITE food in the world), and patties (essentially a savory filled puff pastry) in a vegetarian and meat filled version.

Makes me realize that I never post any Haitian food on the blog! That needs to change!

On Friday I had a girls night planned with two of my best friends! Ansley had dinner plans so I invited Emma over for dinner and we agreed to meet up with Ansley afterward. We had falafel with my homemade pita bread, hummus, and dolmas. Great meal! Everything except for the homemade pita was from Trader Joe’s. 🙂

We had an AWESOME night out dancing and then I got a little sleep and woke up early for brunch on Saturday morning with the same two girls and a bunch more of my old friends. Me and Emma (she told me that her mom reads the blog so HIII ALICE!!!):

It was a potluck brunch and we ended up with such a delicious spread!

Emma made those beautiful muffins! They were accompanied homemade strawberry jam using strawberries she had just picked! So delicious. I was supposed to make scones and a fruit salad but that late night really wiped me out so the scones didn’t happen. I made a mango salad with mangoes (shocking), pineapple, and toasted coconut. It was a great meal with beautiful company!

The weather has been so sunny and incredible lately and I’ve been in great spirits! I recently joined Tone It Up again and am participating in the 8 week Bikini Series! I made a separate Instagram account to stay accountable with my meals and workouts, so come follow me! I’m @loray_tiu

If there are any other TIU babes out there please comment below! I would LOVE to follow you on social media so we can all support each other! And if you’d like to join the Bikini Series, it’s not too late! We’re starting week 2 right now and you can join any time.

I’m currently writing this from the porch, where Cynewulf and I have spent most of the day in this glorious weather. I hope there’s beautiful sunshine wherever you live too!

-Lauren