Last night was one of those quintessential summer nights.
A simple dinner, an evening swim in the lake (that included my best attempt at the mermaid hair flip) and his and her milkshakes!
Dinner
Dinner was inspired by my friend Cara. She posted a picture of her dinner on Instagram the other night and was kind enough to email me the recipe when I commented on how delicious it looked! It was a Blue Apron recipe, but I revamped it a little bit so I could use ingredients we already had on hand.
I didn’t measure anything, but combined the following in a baking dish:
- 1 onion, sliced
- 1 bulb fennel, sliced
- Two large handfuls of cherry tomatoes
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- Garlic salt
- Olive oil
- Fresh thyme
- Ground pepper
- 2 large chicken breasts
I tossed the veggies and spices in olive oil before placing the chicken breasts on top. I then drizzled olive oil on top of the chicken breasts and sprinkled them with additional fresh thyme, garlic salt and pepper. I covered the dish and baked it at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.
I thought it was decent, but Ryan loved it! Usually I am the tomato lover in our family, but he raved about the sweet cherry tomatoes in this dish.
Since the above recipe didn’t make that much food, I was still a little hungry after I cleared my plate and ate a mug of granola with almond milk as well.
Much better!
Evening Lake Swim
After dinner, we saw that the rain clouds outside were slowly dissipating, so we decided to take Sadie out to the Latta Plantation Nature Preserve for some evening hiking and swimming!
I’m assuming the rain scared most people away because we had the entire nature preserve to ourselves. It was pretty cool!
(Sadie enthusiastically jumping up and pawing my white tank top with her muddy paws right after this picture was taken was not so cool. You would think I would know better than to wear white on a hike!)
Sadie ran along the bank of Lake Norman, pausing only to freak out about a large stick in the water.
Of course that was the stick she wanted to use to play fetch. Not happening, crazy lady.
We hiked for about 30 minutes or so before the lake called to us.
The water was like glass and we had such a wonderful time swimming around, calling Sadie out to us and soaking up the warm summer evening.
It was one of my favorite nights in our new hometown so far!
On our way home, Ryan suggested milkshakes, so we picked up small watermelon and peach cobbler shakes to sip on during the drive back to our apartment. We finished them up while watching the end of So You Think You Can Dance before bed.
It was a great night all around!
Question of the Morning
- Share something fun that you’ve done on a summer weeknight this year!
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You guys should check out the Davidson area! There is a cool farmers market every weekend over the summer, and the Abersham Dr/Fisher Farm Park area would be awesome for a fall walk with Sadie.
Thanks for the recommendation! We ate at Restaurant X when we first visited and loved it! I definitely need to get over that way again.
Looks like a very fun summer night 🙂 All my best summer memories have been out on a lake. Being in Michigan, we definitely have plenty of them!
I’ve done plenty of evening lake swims – they are some of the best swims! I’ve also been enjoying evenings working in the garden, or relaxing on the back deck:)
Hope you got your milkshakes at Cookout! They are so, so good!
That seriously sounds like one of the best nights. Dinner, exercise, swimming, and dessert! You just brought summer smack dab into our homes. I loooooooooooooove that kind of night! And for some reason, they happen spontaneously a lot of the time. Some of my best nights with my husband were totally unexpected. Fun! And now I really need to make my own watermelon milkshake.