I know that I should be grateful for having a three-day weekend but I can’t help but wish it would last a little longer! After a long day at the beach, my fastest 10-mile run of the summer, and my first trip to Dairy Queen in almost a year, I got to catch up with one of my closest friends from high school Danielle!

Should have saved this for #transformationtuesday!

We met in our freshman theater class and immediately bonded over an assignment involving lip syncing and Spice Girls. 7 years later and the shenanigans keep going! Today we hung out at a local downtown coffee shop and escaped the blazing heat by exploring a 4-story antique shop (that is a lot of old junk treasures.)

Life-long friends for sure :)

On to an amazing recipe….

This one gets an A+ for presentation!

Ever since high school when my family took an interest in healthy eating and cooking, we love to try new dishes and recreate restaurant favorites (with our healthy modifications.) And I always get a kick when they come out with restaurant-quality presentation.

This dish was inspired by an incredible dinner at Delta in Manhattan a couple months ago. The New Orleans style restuarant had a pineapple stir fry on the vegetarian menu and I was intrigued. It was delicious but a little too saucy/salty and needed some brown rice/carbs in my opinion.

To start: chop and dice yellow & green zucchini, broccoli, celery, carrots, and onion. Prepare water chestnuts, bean sprouts and nuts (pictured are peanuts, but we replaced them with raw cashews before cooking.)

Chop off the top of the pineapple and slice in half. Carefully cut out the “meat” of the pineapple and save for later. Your boat is now ready :)

While brown rice is cooking, sautee your vegetables and nuts in light olive or peanut oil. We also used a couple tablespoons of a light orange sauce.

Fill the pineapple halves with rice, veggies, and don’t forget your pineapple chunks!

(Fresh pineapple >>>> Canned pineapple) How cute is that?!

Well friends, it’s time to face the Monday!