A very domestic Sunday

I woke up this morning and I wanted to be both lazy and productive at the same time... so after sleeping in for a long while, I decided to tackle my day and get some ordinary, real-person things done like do my laundry, clean my apartment, go grocery shopping, cook a nice meal, pack some of my lunch for tomorrow and figure out my schedule for the week. It was a very domestic Sunday, one of the first of its kind, and it really made me feel like an adult. 

This is my first real month with a stove, since it took forever for the propane to be installed... this opens up a whole new world of cooking possibilities. I remembered this when I was making my grocery list, and decided to try something exciting. I took to Pinterest for some inspiration and found an easy homemade pesto recipe, along with other meals to make with pesto. I could not wait to try it out. 

You can find the recipe at this link. Making fresh pesto was a lot easier than I had ever imagined, which is great because I LOVE pesto. The recipe calls for Parmesan, lots of fresh basil, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper, and pine nuts... but I will admit to skipping out on the pine nuts because I am just a poor college graduate who refuses to spend $9 on such things. The pesto turned out to be delicious without them and I made enough to fill a little jar up with it to use up for the rest of the week... It has officially been declared pesto week in Angela's kitchen, since pesto is simply the besto. 

I started pesto week off with a modified version of this orzo recipe and it turned out to be great. I just wish I had made more orzo. I already have plans to make pesto pizza, grilled cheese with pesto, pesto quinoa-pasta and other pesto-filled yumminess throughout this week! I am pretty sure that I will never get sick of pesto.

 I also was able to stop by a local orchard with a market and I found some locally grown blueberries which were beautiful. Recently, since I am usually only buying food for one or two, I have started to freeze half of the fruit that I buy, like strawberries or blueberries, to use in smoothies. I am always afraid that what I buy will go bad before I can get around to eating it all.

One new thing that I have started to do, in addition to drinking more kale and fruit smoothies than I have ever done before, is put some strawberry slices in ice cubes. I usually fill up my watercup with the berried-cubes before I go to work, and they make for a refreshing and exciting drink throughout the day. It also encourages me to stay hydrated (even more than usual) and gives me an afternoon snack... though I have gotten some stares from trying to fish out my water-logged strawberries out of the bottom of my watercup with my straw.

Since I spent my Saturday along the Chesapeake Bay in Annapolis, Maryland, and purchased some Peach on the Beach black tea from The Spice and Tea Exchange shop near the harbor, I decided to brew a huge batch of it and iced it to keep in my fridge for when I need it most. I definitely admit to drinking 3+ glasses of it today while I cleaned my apartment!

Although this Sunday may have seemed pretty ordinary, it was exciting and relaxing for me. I am finally settling into my post-grad life at a real job with a real apartment and real responsibilities. It is a lot to handle sometimes, but days like today make me feel like I am heading in the right direction and that I have everything under control.

How did you spend your Sunday?