Cucumber Salad and Hoisin Shrimp

Check out more blooming flowers!!!

Hooray for warmer weather and evening walks that don’t require layers.

My post-work walks with Ryan and Sadie are one of my favorite parts of the day… Second only to walking into our bedroom after bushing my teeth at bedtime and seeing Ryan and Sadie all cuddled up together. It makes me melt.

Tonight our evening walk took us around Lake Eola in downtown Orlando.

Everyone seems to be loving the more temperate weather because the path around the lake was swarming with runners, walkers, strollers and dogs.

After our walk, we headed home for dinner.

Dinner

Before we left on our walk, I prepped a cucumber salad so it had time to marinate for a bit while we were out and about.

To make the salad, I changed up the ingredients for Real Simple’s cucumber salad a bit and combined the following:

• 1 extra large cucumber, thinly sliced
• 1/2 yellow sweet onion, sliced
• 4 1/2 tbsp. rice vinegar
• 1/2 tbsp. Stevia (Sugar will also work)
• Salt, to taste
• Chia seeds, for garnish

Letting it sit for about an hour was key! This gave the cucumber and onion time to absorb the delicious flavors of the vinegar dressing. Ryan and I both agreed that this salad was so light and fresh!

It was perfect served alongside broiled hoisin shrimp that we made by following this recipe from Real Simple (subbing chia seeds for the sesame seeds).

Real Simple recipes are right up my alley. They contain ingredients I always have on hand and come together in a flash. Plus, they taste pretty darn good!

Dessert

After dinner we enjoyed a delicious dessert that Ryan has raved about for years.

When my mom sent us a Valentine’s Day care package complete with a big bag of Red Hots, Ryan said we had to make his favorite cinnamon applesauce using the candies.

When he was growing up, Ryan’s mom would simply combine applesauce with a handful of Red Hots, stir ‘em around and heat them up for about 50 seconds in the microwave.

The result is a bowl of warm applesauce with a wonderful hint of cinnamon flavor.

So quick. So easy. So tasty!

And now it’s time to chill for the rest of the night. Enjoy your evening, friends!