Sweet Summer Vacation

va·ca·tion

/vāˈkāSHən/

Noun An extended period of recreation, esp. one spent away from home or in traveling.

Verb Take a vacation: "I was vacationing in Europe with my family".

Synonyms noun. holiday - recess - leave - holidays verb. holiday

Hello, sweet summer vacation, I missed you.Of course it's not a traditional teacher vacation because I'm teaching summer school, but anyone who knows me knows that this is a good thing. I'm not a good relaxer for long periods of time. After a week or two I become extremely bored and an alcoholic (of course I use that term loosely... well, sorta). Let's be real, it only takes about two full days before I start to spiral out of control.

Anyway, I've decided to share with you my favorite summer time foods. Get excited.

Homemade Almost Pickles

Ingredients
1-2 cucumbers
3-5 onion slices
1 cubed or sliced tomato
1/2 cup of vinegar (last time I used apple cider, but I have used white and red wine)
3/4 cup of water
Salt
Pepper
Fresh dill (I only add this if I have some leftover from another recipe)

Directions
1. Slice vegetables to your desired thickness. I usually like mine about half an inch thick..
2. Place vegetables in a glass container or bowl (with lid)
3. Pour vinegar into the dish and add water. At this point you can decide how sour you like your not pickles. I personally like a lot of vinegar.
4. Place in fridge for a few hours
5. Enjoy as a snack

Iced Coffee

Ingredients
Dunkin' Donuts or Trader Joe's coffee
Unsweetened almond milk
Honey/agave
Vanilla extract
Ice cubes

Directions
1. Brew coffee (I usually make an entire pot and then keep it in a thermos in the fridge)
2. Place in refrigerator over night
3. Pour desired about of coffee into a cup
4. Add honey/agave, vanilla, almond milk
5. Pour over ice cubes (I add the ice cubes last because the sweetener doesn't dissolve as much when the coffee is ice could. Something about the solubility of the coffee at a colder temperature, right?

Sun Tea (I haven't made this since I was a kid, but it is one of my all-time fav summer drinks)

Ingredients
Gallon of water
Glass water container
Several Tea Bags
Honey/agave

Directions
1. Fill container with water and add several tea bags
2. Place outside in the sun for the day
3. Refrigerate overnight
4. Add sweetener and enjoy


I swear I had more amazing recipes to share with you, but they've since slipped my mind. Once I remember I'll totally share.

Oh, after several weeks I'm finally back to completing normal WOD's without any back/butt pain. I'm such a happier person when I work out, so this is a very good thing.

Here's James dominating Burpee Madness. I'm off to his very far right trying not to die at this point because this Yankee is not used to working out during Houston's summer months. It was bad. 

Here is the break down in case you ever want to experience this Thai Delight (this is how they posted it on the site so that people would still come. Sneaky, sneaky.)

Minute one: 10 Burpees Minute two: 20 Burpees Minute three: 5 Burpees Minute four: 11 Burpees Minute five: 2 Burpees Minute six: 18 Burpees Minute seven: 6 Burpees Minute eight: 15 Burpees Minute nine: 4 Burpees Minute ten: 8 Burpees Minute eleven: 17 Burpees Minute twelve: 3 Burpees Minute thirteen: 13 Burpees Minute fourteen: 9 Burpees Minute fifteen: 12 Burpees Minute sixteen: 14 Burpees Minute seventeen: 16 Burpees Minute eighteen: 7 Burpees Minute nineteen: 19 Burpees Minute twenty: 1 Burpee

If for any reason that you don't hit the specified # of burpees in the minute you must finish the remaining burpees on the next minute but you can not move on to the next set of burpees, you must wait until the next minute.