Today flew by just as fast as my weekend! I can’t believe it is already 8:30 PM.
I will start off with the Yoplait giveaway winner! Since only 2 of you entered you had a 50/50 shot of winning.
Congrats Sydney! Please email your address to me at jessie@dont-forget-dessert.com so I can get your goodies to you.
Now I have a question for you guys. Please respond and please respond honestly. I can’t help but think I am doing something wrong by only having 2 people enter my first giveaway. I know it wasn’t spectacular, but was it a crappy giveaway? Please let me know what you think! I really need your feedback so I can make my blog better. Feel free to comment on more than just the giveaway. I am open to suggestions on my content, writing style, my photography and whatnot.
I write this blog for me and you. I like the blog as a creative outlet for myself, and I love the sense of community from the blogsphere offers, especially the healthy living and food blogging community. What do you like about the blogsphere? Either reading blog, writing a blog, or both?
Now to the food.
I did not get hungry for a snack until late in the afternoon. Knowing that I planned on eating some veggies once I got home I decided to keep it light.
So I busted out a new [to me] flavor of Glo Bar that I just got on Friday. How did I wait all weekend to try these?!
I ate 1/2 a Heaven Glo Bar. Ah-May-Zing! I can’t decide which of the three [that I have tried] that I like most.
When I got home I ate some broccoli slaw and cucumbers with olive oil vinaigrette. I forgot to take a picture. It looked something like this, without tomatoes.
Then I moved onto TJ’s popped chips.
I ate straight from the bag but managed to control myself. Woohoo!
After my snacks B and I took Piper for a walk to enjoy the beautiful weather. We spent the walk discussing our travel/vacation plans for the year. We are especially excited about a week long trip that we plan to take to Northern California to visit his sister and then to the Foodbuzz Festival. Plus a trip to Historic Banning Mills for a canopy tour in May.
Dinner was easy breezy, roasted veggies and chicken.
Chicken seasoned with garlic powder, onion powder, S&P, and dried sage. Veggies included Brussels sprouts, butternut squash, and red potatoes.
The squash was disgusting! It was freezer burned and got really mushy in the oven. I pitched it in the garbage and ate some raw broccoli with a mixture of hummus and ranch dressing. Much better. I forgot to take a picture of those too, but they looked like this.
For dessert I ate a square of Scharfen Berger chocolate, which I also did not photograph. Oopys. But it looked like this.
It looks like I won’t be making it to bed on time again. Argh.
Be sure to check out my guest post tomorrow on My Fashionable Affair.
Night!
Happy Monday!
Usually Monday’s are pretty bittersweet with the end of the weekend and all, but today has been pretty good as far as Monday go. Steady workload and beautiful weather. I think Piper has a walk in store for her when I get home!
I am happy to report that I did manage to work in some 30 Day Shred after blogging last night. I think I was motivated by the new workout pants I bought yesterday! The workout was great, but it threw me back on bedtime, which also meant that Jessie did not get up for an AM workout today.
I actually prefer and evening workout, when I can peel myself away from my laptop, because I like sleeping in the mornings. Unfortunately I let myself get distracted by my to-do list, and often working out gets pushed too low on the priority list. So from now on I am going to aim for AM and PM workouts and just see what works out. Some days I will hit one, some days both, and (hopefully) only every once in a while none. When do you prefer to workout? Why? I want to hear from you, please let me know!!!
This morning I somehow managed to start running late even with all of the snack prep work that I did yesterday. Not sure how that happened. I was sad when I realized that I was out of sweet tea and had no time to make more. I really have a hard time drinking plain water 1st thing in the AM.
No sweet tea @ home = stop by Chic Fil A on the way to work. I like the 1/2 sweet/unsweet tea when I can’t have my own.
I wasn’t planning on picking up breakfast but I couldn’t resist.
3 pack of Chickin minis.
These little guys kept me full all morning. No snack needed. Shocking, right?!
Lunch was pretty ho-hum. I had a conference call over my break (I am totally jumping on the OpenSky bandwagon!) and was distracted while preparing. It turned out very under-seasoned and flavorless.
Wilted spinach, quinoa, refried beans, salsa, plain Oikos, and jalapeno slices.
I think it was really missing a crunch or chewy factor. I totally forgot to grab a handful of tortilla chips. That what I get for cooking/eating while distracted.
After my disappointing lunch I wanted a great dessert, and decided to give chocolate Oikos another try. 
Chocolate Oikos with Bear Naked vanilla almond granola and butterscotch chips.
This was a great combo! And I liked the chocolate Oikos much better than last time.
Don’t forget to enter my Yoplait Greek Yogurt giveaway. I will be announcing the winner on tonight’s post!
Have a great afternoon!
Every Sunday night I sit in front of my computer wondering where the time went. It’s a question I can never seem to find the answer to. I feel like I am losing time, and I mean more than just the hour we lost for daylight savings time!
I meant to do some non-blog writing and never got around too it. I meant to do some cleaning and never got around to it either. I meant to do 30 Day Shred today but ended up going on 2 walks with B and Piper instead. Maybe I can still find time?
Anywho. I am excited to say the I managed to do at least a little bit of exercise every day this week. Even if some days it was only a 15 minute yoga session (Like Friday and Saturday night).
We took Piper on her first walk bright and early (instead of going to church…again). As soon as we got back I ate a bowl of cereal for breakfast. As much as I love this Nature’s Path Flax Plus red berry crunch I just wasn’t feeling the red berries today.
Fortunately lunch wasn’t far off. B and I had plans to take lunch to my Pawpaw. Pawpaw was in the mood for subs so we stopped by Jersey Mike’s to pick up some grub.
We got a giant club supreme with all the fixins, but light on the mayo.
And a giant classic Italian with all the fixins.
We each ate 2 sections and left 2 sections for Pawpaw to take home. Good stuff.
I also brought the leftover desserts from yesterday. I ate a bite or two of brownie and a nibble of macaroon. Pawpaw nibbled on the cake and I sent the rest home with him. My whole family loves this cake!
On our way home we stopped by a local Walmart. This was the most convenient location for us to go to but it is in a rough side of town so I won’t go unless B is with me.
They even have a police tower in the parking lot because of all the problems they have had with daytime muggings. It was a successful trip! I am rather small chested so quality sports bras are not particularly important to me. I have a particular style of Fruit of the Loom sports bras that come in a 3 pack that I can only seem to find at Walmart. And they are only $10! Plus I was able to find some socks on clearance. Score!
The afternoon involved a little cleaning, and other random house things. I also did a little prep work for my weekday snacks by chopping up some broccoli and cauliflower and peeling some carrots. Hopefully this will help improve my morning routine a bit and I can actually put on real shoes before walking out the door.
I pulled out my Crate & Barrel lute to put in the dishwasher. I got a mini beer glass, mini wine tumbler, tiny mixing bowl, condiment spoon, and reusable straws.
And sipped on some wine I picked up at TJ’s yesterday, in one of my new Crate & Barrel glasses (don’t worry, I hand washed it).
I snacked on sweet potato gnocchi.
And snacked some more.
These guys were another great TJ’s find. If you are a fan of PopChips you may or may not know that TJ’s also makes a popped chip.
And they have similar stats.
Plus the price is about $.80 less depending on where you buy your PopChips.
After my snacking extravaganza B and I took Pipe on another walk. Twas great. I love this weather!
Dinner time rolled around in no time and I got to cooking. B was awesome and unloaded the dishwasher while I cooked. Plus he made some guac…which I forgot to photograph. Oops.
Dinner was baked spaghetti.
I started by browning some deer sausage that I seasoned with dried oregano, dried fennel, garlic powder, and red pepper flakes. Plus I sautéed 1/2 yellow onion, some sliced mushrooms, and a grated carrot until the mushrooms were cooked down and the onion was translucent. We stirred in some pasta sauce; topped with shredded mozzarella, shredded cheddar, and grated parmesan; and popped into the oven until the cheese was melty.
Delicious.
And if that wasn’t enough I decided to finish off my goodies from Amelie’s. I really liked the coconut macaroon, although I think they have several other pastries at Amelie’s that I would rather try next time. The salted caramel brownie was good but kind of mushy. It was one of those foods that literally melted in your mouth, and did not have any of the chewiness that I love in brownies. The salted caramel topping had a fantastic flavor, but would have been so much better if it had more brownie underneath.
Don’t forget to enter my (first ever) giveaway for an opportunity to try Yoplait’s Greek Yogurt!
Time to try to fit in some Shred (or maybe yoga) and then a shower. I can’t believe bed time is just around the corner.
Goodbye weekend.
Oh my goodness, today has been such a busy day. I am exhausted.
Last night I did end up eating a snack before bed.
I managed to stay up pretty late (for me) goofing off on my computer without getting anything productive done. Oops.
B and I were up by 7:30 this morning. I wanted to have plenty of time to get ready before meeting up with Jennifer at 9 AM, and we decided to take Pipe for a quick walk since the weather was so nice. She was so excited.
Then I made my breakfast, which involved something new. Thanks to Yoplait and MyBlogSpark I got to try Yoplait’s new Greek yogurt!
They also sent over this schnazzy gift pack!
I tried the Honey Vanilla flavor.
After giving the yogurt a try plain, I added 1/2 nectarine and some Nature’s Path Hemp Plus granola.
I really liked it. It did not have as much tang as the other Greek yogurts that I have tried, but it has all of the thick, creaminess. Plus, at my local store, the price is a good $.70 cheaper per container.
Earlier this week I made plans with Jennifer to do some shopping. We made stops at EarthFare (I had a coupon for free organic potatoes), Crate & Barrel (I got some cute stuff I will show off later), and Costco with a few other stops in between.
We decided to do lunch at Big Daddy’s Burger Bar.
I got a black bean burger topped with pimento cheese, jalapeno slices, red onion, tomato, and lettuce. I also had some chili on the side to spoon on.
Amazing.
This black bean burger was so good. I did not miss the meat at all…at least on the bites with no chili. Although when I told the family about this burger no one but my Mom thought the pimento cheese sounded good. It was, trust me.
The fries were disappointing though. I only ate a few with the leftover chili. I am not sure why they made it into the Starch Madness competition for the Charlotte Observer.
Jen had the Frenchy, which was a turkey burger with bacon and brie.
I can’t wait to go back!
Even though lunch was substantial I was in the mood for cake. Since we were already in South Charlotte I wanted to take Jen to the bakery where I got my wedding cake, Edible Art.
We got double stack of almond pound cake with buttercream icing to share.
There was so much that we only ate about 1/4 of it. I will be nibbling on this for the next couple of days! Delicious as always.
I dropped Jen off at her car, which also happened to be at my house, and I checked on B. He was thoroughly entertained by basketball so I went out to do more shopping.
Why can’t I find anything I like? Or anything I like that is a price I am willing to pay? Isn’t $20 for a pair of workout shorts just too much? I think so.
I did find these stools that I love at Pier 1, but at $50 bucks each I wasn’t willing to buy them without talking to B. I am probably going to shop around and see if I can find them anywhere else for less.
The weather also got a little nuts and I was able to get a shot of the sky. It would be gorgeous in one place and gross and rainy right down the block.
While I was out I made at Trader Joe’s to pick up some wine that Kelsey recommended. I was disappointed to find out that they are out of the Vin-Koru and it was a 1 time sale and now they are out. I did get the red she recommended and am looking forward to trying it out.
After a few hours at home it was time for dinner and I was really excited! B and I had plans to check out Amelie’s French Bakery in NoDa.
Amelie’s has a great, quirky atmosphere. They were also really popular. There was a steady flow of traffic the entire time we were there. I was lucky to get a moment to snap this picture without anyone in front of the counter.
We ordered three dishes to split.
Spinach and asiago tartine, which was really good.
Croque Monsieur , which was slices of brioche dipped in egg with ham and gruyere. It was okay. I wish we had ordered the seeded roast beef sandwich instead.
And some spicy tahini and chickpea soup with a piece of bagette.
The bagette was so good that we went back for a 1/2 bagette to keep eating with our soup.
All-in-all this was a spectacular meal and for under $25! I can’t wait to go back here either. I think we may take B’s sister Leslie when she come in town next month.
Before we left we also order some sweets to bring home.
B ordered the napoleon, which tasted like a cream and waffle cone sandwich. Very good.
And I ordered a salted caramel brownie and a coconut macaroon which I have not tried yet. I have just been too stuffed! I will report back later.
All of this shopping and eating has really worn me out! I am ready to hit the sack so I can be nice and rested for whatever is in store for tomorrow.
One last thing!!!!
I am finally doing my first giveaway! Thanks to Yoplait and MyBlogSpark you have an opportunity to sample the new Yoplait Greek yogurt! I liked it, and now you can give it a try for yourself.
Just check out Yoplait website and leave a comment on the flavor that you would most like to try!
I will randomly pick a winner Monday night.
I love DVR. I am sitting here watching this past Thursday’s episode of Private Practice and getting to forwarding through the commercials. I really should be cleaning though. Oh well.
Dinner was only okay. I premade it last night so there would be no effort involved tonight.
Sauteed chard, chicken andouille and quinoa with Tony Chachere’s sprinkled on top. I have said it before and I will say it again, I am just not a fan of greens. At least it was easy.
Then I had an apple with the 2nd half of my packet of Justin’s honey PB. I would absolutely buy a whole jar is I did not already have a jar and a half of Costco PB on my pantry.
B had a softball game tonight so I made plans to go to Marshall’s. I am always on the look out for cute kitchen stuff and I wanted some new workout gear. I didn’t buy anything but I did find a few things that I liked.
I am so cheap. I hate the thought of spending $15 on a pair of shorts, especially ones that I don’t love.
I made a stop at Target too and nothing really caught my eye.
While I was out I was hit with a craving that I just could not deny so I made one last stop at Harris Teeter. Walking into HT takes a lot of self-restraint on my part so I made sure to go straight to what I wanted.
Chocolate cake!
I ate half with a giant glass of milk and saved the other half for B.
Now lets see if I can myself motivated to clean. I have plans with Jen tomorrow so I need to stop procrastinating.
Remember last night when I mentioned I had burned the dried beans I was working on? Check out my pan!
I let it soak overnight, but I have a feeling that it is going to take some major elbow grease to get that pan cleaned up!
I may have been able to use pan scrubbing as my workout but talked myself into doing 30 Day Shred. I am still on level 1 and still can’t make it through all of the arm exercises. Who knew that the push up/shoulder press combo would be so tough, or that my arm strength was so week?
After my workout I decided to make a smoothie for breakfast. I has some fruit that was due to be eaten. 
I also decided to add some Amazing Grass. Since the plain superfood flavor was too grassy for me earlier this week I decided to try the pomegranate mango infusion Amazing Meal.
Handful of spinach, handful of ice, 3/4 c milk, 1/2 mango, 1/2 nectarine, some frozen blueberries, drizzle of agave, and Amazing Meal.
Looks good, right?
It tasted really chalky. Maybe some vanilla extract would have helped? 
Per the usual I was running late and I decided on a grab and go breakfast of a smoothie (that I was nursing while getting ready), Classic Glo Bar, and Cuties.
I didn’t make it into my real shoes yet again this morning. I did put them on at lunch, but that was only because it was raining outside and I didn’t want to get my slippers dirty.
My morning snack was some raw broccoli, cauliflower and carrots with about 1.5 tbsp of ranch. 
And dried cherries. 
And a Doctor Kracker with TJ’s tahini free hummus.
Boy, I was hungry this morning!
When lunch rolled around I was having a craving for something specific. 
Salsarita!
I got a small bare veggie burrito with veggies, black beans, rice, salsa, jalapenos, olives, lettuce, tomatoes, and guac. I topped with some plain Oikos when I got home.
Not much longer until the weekend arrives. 5 PM here I come!
I blame my husband for me being such a foodie. The first time he cooked for me he made eggplant parmesan with lump crab topping. Over the past few years he has challenged me to try foods that I would have otherwise turned away from. I haven’t liked them all, but he has had more successes with me than failures.
When I got home tonight neither one of us wanted what was on the dinner plan. So of course we decided to go out to Killington’s Pub.
As soon as I saw palmetto cheese spread on the menu I knew I wanted it.
The presentation was great! 
But the execution seemed a little off. It had a bit too much mayo for my taste and their were huge chunks of cream cheese in it.
The crostini’s were really crunchy and I loved them.
Another thing I saw on the menu that I knew I had to try was the homemade chips. And we ordered a Green in the Grass sandwich to split as our entree, which is a 6 oz filet topped with sauteed spinach and provolone.
The chips were really flavorless. You had to dip them in the ranch otherwise they were blah. They did have a great crunch though!
And the sandwich was great. I wasn’t really feeling the red meat, but the steak was really well cooked and all of the flavors worked well together. 
We also had a bowl of veggies on the side but I hated them. These veggies were so mushy that a toothless baby could eat them. Ick!
Despite not being crazy about some of the food I am stuffed, and I look forward to future trips to Killington’s. They have a lot of great looking items on the menu and I would like to sample a few more, and just get a salad as my side instead.
Eek! Aargh! I just burned some beans on my stove top and now have an icky mess to clean up. You all have a great night!
Last night was one of those nights where I really bit off more than I could chew. I cooked dinner, did blog stuff, attempted homemade baked beans, and then made homemade sweet potato gnocchi a la KERF. All of that cooking also means a lot of cleaning. I had to unload and completely reload the dishwasher and still had dishes leftover. I blogged and caught up on Google Reader and Twitter. Then I insisted on doing a yoga session, which was completely worth it. Then I tore down the beds that my hubs germified earlier this week. Fortunately I had the sense to not take those any further.
Messy, messy and germy, germy. Ick!
My overly ambitious attitude carried over into this morning as well. I was woke up by our TV at 4 AM so I was feeling tired and cranky and decided to skip out on my workout. I will try to do some yoga again tonight, cuz my muscles are tight. My desk is too high for me so I sit in this awkward shrugging position all day so I can type.
I got out of bed and did the usual hygiene stuff and got my make up on. Then I proceeded to the kitchen, making a stop at the laundry room to start the first of many loads of laundry. Once in the kitchen I decided to soak some dried kidney beans for tonight’s dinner, throw my baked bean concoction into the slow cooker to cook all day, unload and reload the dishwasher, make breakfast, and pack today’s snacks. It was my ambition to do all of this in 20 minutes.
No such luck. At 20 til 8 (I am supposed to be at work at 
I still wasn’t dressed and had no idea what to wear. Eek! I managed to get some clothes on, but not shoes. I shoved my shoes in my back, slid on my slippers and ran out the door giving myself about 12 minutes to get to work. Luckily traffic was light and I walked into my office at 8:01. Whew.
This is what I managed to throw on. Not great, but could be worse. At least I didn’t show up in my yoga pants! Plus, I am still wearing my slippers.
Breakfast was couple of red berry Special K waffles with maple syrup. They were only okay. B picked these out, I prefer plain Eggo’s.
My AM snack was a salad of cucumber, grape tomatoes, and broccoli slaw. I topped with a few gorgonzola crumbles and olive oil vinaigrette. 
Lunch is always easy when I have spinach and rice in the fridge. I just have to throw them in a bowl with a few topping and I am set.
In my bowl today is raw baby spinach; leftover basmati rice medley from last Thursday; leftover bacon, andouille sausage, and tomato slices from Tuesday’s lunch; and a drizzle of Newman’s Own ranch dressing. Plus some homemade sweet potato gnocchi.
Tasty and filling. Gotta love that combo.
So far no dessert, but I have a feeling I am going to have a snack attack soon.
3.75 days down, 1.25 to go until the weekend! Soon the countdown to Good Friday will begin! See you for dinner.
Hello all! This is going to be a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants post. I want to squeeze in a yoga workout before bed.
When I got home for work I knew that if I sat down and got on my computer I wouldn’t want to get back up, so I ended up cooking all evening.
Dinner was chicken lettuce wraps. Which means I threw a bunch of stuff in a skillet and then coated with an Asian sauce. Love it.
Tonight the skillet included ground chicken, 1/2 sliced onion, 1 slice red bell pepper, 1 grated carrot, and 1/2 can chopped olives. I topped with some General Tsao’s sauce with a little drizzle Szechuan sauce for some kick.
While dinner was on I also put some dried navy beans on for a quick soak. And then after dinner I got to making homemade baked beans. They aren’t done yet, but since I couldn’t find a recipe I like I am thinking this going to be a big fat fail. I will try to remember to let you know. Do any of you have a good homemade baked bean recipe?
Next on the stove was Kath’s sweet potato gnocchi.
I made a few changes, but stuck to the recipe for the most part. I used less cinnamon and used sage instead of rosemary. I also happened to overwork the dough so they came out more dense than intended but they tasted great! You should definitely give them a try.
I am off to do some yoga. Have a great night!
I have a hump day case of the blahs! And it doesn’t help that our sunny weather is gone and now it is gloomy and cooler outside.
Last night I did not get a good nights sleep. The warmer weather outside meant a warmer temp insider meaning a 2 AM wake up because I was hot! The restless sleep also meant I was not motivated to get up for a workout. Why can’t I seem to work in a workout consistently? Working out and cleaning my house that I consistently lack discipline on. I gotta work on that.
I wasn’t feeling particularly hungry for breakfast this morning when I was leaving the house so all I grabbed was a PB cookie Larabar. Bad decision. Shortly after I got to work I was starving and cursing myself for packing something more substantial.
I also wasn’t feeling the idea of sweets, but since I was lacking any other kind of breakfast-y foods I proceeded to dig into the Larabar. All I can say in Blah. After eating about half the bar I just couldn’t eat any more. The bar was sweet and dry compared to other Larabars I have tried.
When the Larabar didn’t workout I decided I would go ahead and bust out my veggies that I had packed for a morning snack. Who cares if it is only 9 AM?
I dipped the broccoli and some of the cauliflower in the tiny bit of ranch I packed (maybe 1 tbsp, trying to exercise moderation since I could easily drench my veggies in it) and then dipped the rest in TJ’s tahini free hummus. Surprisingly, this really satisfied my taste buds and my appetite.
I tried eating the rest of the Larabar as my morning snack but still wasn’t feeling the sweetness. As much as I hate to throw out food I decided to pitch it and move onto something else.
I didn’t want to eat anything too substantial since lunch was only an hour away so I broke up a Doctor Kracker and scraped the last remnants of the hummus from my container. Perfect.
When lunch rolled around I was comfortably hungry and ready to meet Jennifer at Yoshi’s. We have missed hanging out the past few Wednesdays. I had my usual shrimp tempura roll and some zucchini and onions (and a coke, I just couldn’t resist!). No gyoza today, maybe next week.
I don’t have a good exit line….so I will be back with dinner. Have a nice afternoon!
