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Showing posts from August 14, 2017

First Drive-On Beach Experience

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Have I mentioned that  we’re never leaving the South Shore ? The longer I live here, the more I love it. Sunday was an awesome day – easily one of the best of the summer. We spent all day (10 hours) at the beach with friends and, my gosh, we had a great time. It was our first experience driving onto Duxbury Beach and now we know why everyone raves about the experience so much. The actual drive to the beach was breathtaking (I felt like we were on the California coast) and the ease of driving all of your stuff right onto the sand was the best thing ever. I’m not sure I’ll ever look at a trip to the beach the same way again! Once we parked and unpacked, sun protection was our first matter of business. Putting sunscreen on Quinn used to be the biggest fight, but now he loves applying his “ kid’s sunblock ” and insists on doing it himself. Then, breakfast was our next matter of business. Our friends brought ingredients to make breakfast sandwiches and home fries, which, of cour

How to Use Up All Your Height-of-Summer Produce

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The garden is exploding, your CSA is at its peak, and you can’t seem to help yourself from stopping at the local farmers market. It’s the best time of year to be a local food junkie! Here are some tips and recipes to help use up your seasonal bounty. Cucumber Low-calorie cukes are easy to munch and have an irresistibly fresh aroma. They also have a high water content, which means they will help keep you hydrated.   Recipes to try: Cubed Watermelon, Cucumber and Feta Salad  (pictured above) Cucumber Mint Iced Tea Cucumber Salad Make Your Own Pickles Herbs Use herbs as an ingredient, not a garnish. Fresh herbs play a starring role in recipes for chimichurri, salad dressing and pesto (which can be frozen and enjoyed for months). Instead of lettuce, use combo of various fresh herbs and arugula in salad.   Recipes to try: Chimichurri Sauce Pesto  Herb Salad Tomatoes Nothing says summer like a colorful, sweet and juicy tomato. Use copious amounts in recipes like salads and

Mini Ghostbusters

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Saturday morning started with a fun partner workout. I teamed up with Marisa and whizzed right through it. It wasn’t a hard workout with regard to the weight, but, holy cow, it was a grip-smoker. I actually had to put the bar down on the hold during the Hang Cleans. Ouch! After CrossFit, Qman and I arrived home. I had half of an iced coffee (French Toast + SFH vanilla ) in the fridge from the day before, so I grabbed that while we played outside. A little while later, we headed inside for lunch. I made Banza pasta  (high-protein) and then mixed it with a jar of bruschetta and grated Parmesan cheese. Lunch came together in a matter of minutes and, my goodness, it was delicious! After lunch, Qman went down for his afternoon nap. I cleaned up around the house and started some laundry. Quinn usually rips off a 3 or 4 hour nap when he’s at home, but he was awake after 1.5 hours. (He’s definitely going through some sort of developmental thing – his sleep has been so usual lately.)

Dear Mark: Why are Male Fertility and Testosterone Levels so Low?

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For today’s edition of Dear Mark , I’m answering just one question. But it’s a good (well, maybe not good, but certainly important) one: Why is male fertility on the rise and testosterone on the wane? The popular notion is that women flushing birth control pills and peeing estrogen-rich urine into the public water supply are the primary reasons for the sex hormone issues facing men, but I’m not so sure. Let’s explore what else might be causing the problem. In the comments from last week, tribal wrote: I also heard about a report that indicated that our water supply is also contains more and more estrogen, primarily due to the increased use of birth control tablets, which find their way into the water supply – I need to research the truth to this report. testosterone levels have halved for men in the last 20 years, and at this rate will will end up self-destructing. The main thrust of your assertion is true. The water supply is full of estrogenic compounds. Male sex hormones hav

Bar Hoppin’

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Good morning! To date, I have written and published 5,291 posts on Carrots ‘N’ Cake. Isn’t that nuts? Along with these blog posts, I’ve come up with 5,291 titles – some good and some, well, not so good. Usually, I have a title in mind when I’m writing a post, but, sometimes, I need to write the whole post before something comes to mind. I came up with “Bar Hoppin” for today’s blog post title and kind of laughed to myself. I went to two bars on Friday night, which, I guess, technically, is bar hopping, but not like I used to do back in the day. I used to play this game call “ Pub Golf ” with my friends, where you drank a beer at NINE different bars – and your goal was to drink the beer in as few sips as possible, like strokes in golf. Oy. Apparently, my idea of “bar hopping” has changed quite a bit over the years. Haha! Anyway, let’s recap Friday! Our morning started with the usual CrossFit + Coffee Shack combo. The workout was a spicy one – I used #75 pounds for the OHS and it real