So, have you heard that it is Charlotte Restaurant week? Maybe not is you aren’t a Charlottean. It is kind of a big deal, at least in the foodie community. It is an opportunity to try 3 courses at many of Charlotte’s restaurants, 88 this time around and they are nice restaurants, for $30.

On Saturday, B and I were all set to participate. We had reservations at Fiamma and were excited to go, and then all of a sudden we just weren’t. We decided that none of the stuff in 88 different restaurants were what we wanted.

What did we want? We weren’t even sure.

After checking out a few menus online we decided on a place that I had heard about from my new friend, and blogger, Kelly. Yes, the title says it all, Fran’s Filling Station.

The decor was really cute with a southwestern-y feel.

I sat facing this door and was fascinated with the paint job.

There were so many great options on the menu that I had a hard time choosing what to eat! I hear that their deviled eggs are amazing, but I don’t really do eggs. Ick. The develied egg flavor of the day was some sort of crab stuffed flavor. It would have sounded good if I could have gotten past the egg part.

We started with pan seared shrimp. They were good, but the sauce was a little bit too buttery. Also, we ordered a small  order but were given (and charged for) a medium order. It was definitely more than the 2 of us needed as an appetizer, so we packed up 4 or so to take home.

The bread on top was OMG crusty deliciousness.

As  always, B and I had every intention of sharing our entrees so I had to grab a picture of his meal too.

He ordered the metro meatloaf with braised collard greens and mashed potatoes. All good.

I can’t believe I just said I liked restaurant meatloaf! I have always been an only like my Mom’s (and MIL’s) meatloaf kind of girl.

Side note: Every time I have typed the work “meatloaf” in this post I have accidentally typed “meatload” the first time around.

The collards had a great flavor, but I have a hard time with the texture of greens in general. Not Fran’s fault.

I, of course, had the mussels. It seems that if mussels are on a menu I must order them. These were in a beer and hot pepper broth, which totally worked for me. Especially with that amazing crusty bread! B and I were definitely fighting over the bread.

After seeing several desserts float past our table we knew we had to order one. I was all for the peach cobbler but B 86ed that idea and said that we must order the chocolate cake, our usual dessert of choice. 

This guy was supposed to have ice cream on the side but there was only a 1 or 2 tbsp serving on the very edge of the plate. The rest of that white stuff was whipped cream. Honestly, I felt a little slighted, but it was nothing to turn me off from Fran’s completely.

B and I had a really wonderful dinner together and we look forward to many more meals at Fran’s! And since we didn’t spend $30 per on dinner we had extra $$ for lunch on Sunday. Stay tuned.

I think today has been one of my busiest Saturdays in ages.

I was up early this morning because I was excited about brunch at Kath’s house. Although I almost ruined it for myself. I had in my head that brunch was at 10:30 when it was actually at 10. Good thing B looked over the email or I would have been late!

After realizing my error in timing I rushed to get a shower and get ready. I have really horrible dark circles under my eyes (I think its hereditary), so I rarely go out and meet new people without concealer under my eyes. At the beginning of January I bought a new product to try, Erase Paste by Benefit.

I finally have a camera where I can get a non-blurry close up. This is my eye before and after.

I have been really happy with the results compared to the other products I have tried, which include Bare Mineral Bisque and Bobbi Brown corrector/concealer combo.

Onto Brunch. I did not get a group picture but the group included Me, Kath (of course), Diana, Whit, Stacey, Emily, Kate, and Michelle.

Oatmeal was on the menu and we has a spread of amazing toppings.

There were several Great Harvest baked goods and some biscotti.

A large assortment of nut butters.

Agave Plus granola, TJ’s pumpkin granola, Crofter’s Superfruit spread (blueberry I think), pumpkin butter, cranberry preserves (or something like that). There were also wheatberries and fresh raspberries that I forgot to get a picture of. In my bowl was banana oats, Agave Plus granola, wheatberries, raspberries, Nutzo, and Crofter’s Superfruit Spread.

This was a fantastic bowl of oatmeal! And it came along with some great conversation. We all sat and talked for 2 hours! It was really great to meet all of these ladies.

By the time I got home I was ready for a little lunch. On the ride home I had decided on Brussels sprouts.

Sautéed Brussels sprouts, onions, and turkey bacon. This bowl was nice and light and saved room for what I had planned later.

At 3PM B and I headed to Birkdale Village to go see Avatar in Real 3D. Of course I had a big tub of popcorn planned for me and B to share!

Plus some peanut M&M’s. There may have also been some Mr. Pibb involved too. 

I liked the movie despite the similarities people have pointed out between it and Pocahontas. I liked the story and it actually held my attention for the whole 3 hours.  I really did not think the 3D was spectacular and was really excited that it didn’t make me motion sick.

And if all of that wasn’t enough food B and I still had dinner.

We decided to use leftover shrimp to top a salad of spinach, romaine, and baby bella mushrooms.

So far that’s it for so far. Time for chores since I have been out playing all day. Boo.

Tonight has been a slow night. There has been a lot of TV watching and web surfing. Brian spoiled me by cooking dinner and letting me get some stuff done online. I did help with the sauce though, I needed the practice.

Cajun Shrimp Pasta.

I don’t have any hard and fast recipe for the sauce bit it was something like this:

Melt 1 stick of butter, add 1 clove of garlic minced, and then whisk in 1/4 c of flour. Once the mixture starts to brown slowly whisk in 1.5 c milk (we used skim because its what we keep in the house). Season with spices. We used Old Bay, Tony Chacheres, cayenne pepper, and onion powder. This sauce was a little thick and then I thinned out with some chicken stock.

The sauce was a little too buttery tasting and we put way to much spicy stuff in it. My stomach is on fire. I am really happy with how well the sauce thickened up though.

I have also been meaning to share another recipe. Last night I made a batch of Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies. I was happy to get this shipped out to the highest bidder of the Bake 4 Haiti bake sale.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

1/4 c WW flour

1/3 c white flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/3 c brown sugar

1 tbsp agave nectar (you could always use a little more brown sugar instead)

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp almond extract (optional)

3/4 c oats

1/4 c applesauce

1/2 c chocolate chips

1/4 tsp cinnamon

dash salt

Bake for approximately 15 minutes at 325*

I really enjoy these because of the texture and that they are not overly sweet.

I have spent my evening online looking for freelance writing work. I need to get some sample writing together that is not first person and blog style. Plus I have to get ready for bed.

Is it bad that I am sort of hoping for icy weather tonight so I can work from home. Oh well, a girl can dream, right?

After fighting with the wireless router all afternoon I am finally able to get online to wish you all a Merry Christmas! It is hard to believe that Christmas is tomorrow. Where did the time go?

So, as you can tell, we made it to Florida safe and sound. I got hungry mid-flight and dug a Z-Bar out of my bag.

I got this on sale at Trader Joe’s for $.69! I thought it was definitely worth trying for that price. I really like the bar. It reminded me of the Quaker Oats breakfast cookies in both texture and flavor. I would definitely buy again.

Once we got to Brian’s parents house we had another meal waiting on us.

Pot roast with carrots and potatoes and some white bread. I haven’t had pot roast in forever and this was so good.

After for visiting for a while decided to head to bed. Unfortunately there was no rest for me because the dog next door was howling all night. Boo.

We started this morning by getting up and heading straight over to the condo that Brian’s parents rented for us all for Christmas. The condo is amazing! Check out some photos of it here.  

Check out our view.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

And they already had the house all decorated.

We even had our stockings waiting on us on our beds.

Shortly after arriving to the condo it was time for breakfast.

Cream of Wheat, hash browns, bacon, and biscuits. I also split an orange with Brian.

After breakfast we spent the morning running last minute Christmas errands and by the time we got back I was starving. Snack time!

Harry and David’s Pepper and Onion Relish with cream cheese.

Velveeta cheese, rotelle, and sausage.

After all of that snacking we decided to make lunch. Shrimp and oyster po boys.  I actually ate a shrimp only po boy.

And boy did the day fly by. Before I knew it we were getting ready and heading to church for a Christmas eve service.

After church we went over to one of Brian’s Aunt and Uncles houses to visit for a while. But we did not stay too long because a few of us are feeling the effects of no sleep last night. I am about to conk out myself.

After getting back to the condo we munch on crackers and nuts and sandwiches and fudge.

No that is all for my eats today. Now it is time for me to hit the sack so I can be fresh for the visitors we will have tomorrow. Goodnight and Merry Christmas!

I can’t believe it is Sunday night already! The weekend has flown by.

I started my Saturday by getting out of bed at 6 AM to head to the Give Thanks Walk. I had to be there by 7 AM to help set up before other walkers began to arrive.

I thought that the city looked so pretty as I was driving down the interstate. I tried to take a picture, and obviously that didn’t work out so well for me.

I decided to try a Clif bar for breakfast. I chose the chocolate almond fudge bar because those a flavors usually very appealing to me.

I didn’t like this at all. I ate half, just so I wouldn’t be starving over the few hours I would be at the walk. The other half went into the trash.

I wanted to take pictures of the walk, but I didn’t want to have to keep up with my camera during set up. It was cold outside and my pocket space was being used exclusively by may hands, whenever possible.

The event went great! Charlotte raised over $33K for St. Jude. I walked the whole 5K although my knee started giving me problems half way through. Going up the hills, even a small incline became pretty uncomfortable.  But I made it and I was happy to show my support, eben if I was limping part of the way.

After closing ceremonies my family decided to hit up Shoney’s for a meal. Two of my Aunts, and Uncle, my parents, and me and Brian all went together. My cuz had to head out with her boyfriend because of some family photos.

Since it was 11 and I am not really  huge breakfast person my Mom and I split  Pepper Jack Chicken Club with some fries.They totally shorted us on the fries. The sandwich was great once I peeled off the onions. Ick.

The rest of the afternoon was fairly uneventful. My stiff lower body did not want to move. My Mom and I did a little shopping.  We are looking for deals on maternity clothes for my sister in law. Sophie and my brother live in Germany and apparently maternity clothes are expensive over there. We found a few really cute things at Target, but nothing substantial enough to keep her warm through a cold German winter.

We also made a trip to The Fresh Market to pick up some stuff for dinner. We ended up buying some french bread and spinach artichoke dip. We all munch on this throughout the afternoon.

We also picked up some hot italian sausage and whole wheat gnocchi. I was feeling pretty uninspired and was having a hard time deciding on what to cook with the sausage. We decided on meatballs.

3 links of sausage made 8 meatballs. We made the meatballs using the sausage, 1 egg, and a 1/2 cup of a combo of regular and panko bread crumbs.

After boiling the gnocchi I sautéed them in butter and dried sage. I don’t like doughy gnocchi, but I love them this way. We just used some Ragu Garden Combination marinara that we had in the fridge.

Plus some green.

Drizzled with Ken’s Steak House Healthy Options Oil and Vinegar dressing. I picked around the onions.

And for dessert….

Edy’s Slow Churned Vanilla Yogurt Blends. I  made a strawberry sauce as a topping by heating up some frozen strawberries with water and about 2 tbsp of sugar on the stove top. Then I pureed with my immersion blender. Plus a few semi sweet chocolate chips. So good.

I desperately needed and wanted some sleep last night. All was well until 6 AM when Piper woke me up. She was having stomach issues again. She is so good and I hate she is having so many problems. Nobody knows what to do.

After I cleaned up a little bit of a mess and got Piper back inside and settled I got to get back into bed and stayed there until 8 when Piper heard my parents and Zeke rustling around and wanted to join them.

On a completely different note… my mom and I found some more doggie fleeces at Target for $2.50! I got Piper another one and my Mom got Zeke 2. They are adorable!

Now to breakfast. I felt all ick from my early morning wake up so I kept it simple. Toast with Nutella.

Nutella is so yummy. But I wasn’t into this and only ate about 3/4 of it.

I ended up eating some nuts once I got down to my Pawpaw’s house later in the morning. Brian had to work so I decided to go down with my parents and hang out for a while.

Not long after that we went to lunch. We went to a local mexican place. Of course there was chips and salsa.

Me and my Mom split the lunch fajita plate.

We each got 1 tortilla to stuff full of these goodies. Then we just ate the rest by itself. These fajitas had squash. I have never seen that before but I love it!

And for dessert…

My grandparents always kept a candy drawer stocked for me and my brother. There have always been goodies like fruit roll ups and milky ways stashed in there for us. I usually have at least one anytime I am down there.

My Mom and I did a little more shopping, but I was so stiff and tired I wasn’t motivated to do much. I did fund a cute Kristen Davis sweater for 10 bucks a Belk. I love a good deal!

On my way home I munched on a Kashi granola bar that I got from the walk yesterday.

I thought it was pretty bland. Way better than the Clif bar yesterday though. It just didn’t taste like anything. It wasn’t particularly sweet, salty, or nutty; but that didn’t stop me from eating the whole thing.

Brian hadn’t eaten lunch at all and was ready for a snack when I got home. I made some french bread cheese pizzas with the leftover french bread rounds from yesterday.

Supper simple and yummy.

It was time for dinner in no time. Brian let me watch this past weeks Top Chef on DVR while he cooked.

Dinner was just a random pairing of foods that we had on hand and that sounded good individually. None of them made sense together.

Boiled shrimp (they were huge!), Green Giant green bean casserole, and Betty Crocker Ranch Bacon Pasta Salad. Plus Brian made some spicy cocktail sauce.

It may have been random but it was delicious. Plus Brian cleaned up too! He is so good to me.

And for dessert…

More FroYo! It was even better tonight because the strawberry sauce was cold.

That is all for my weekend. It is time to get some rest so I can prepare myself for the 1 1/2 days that I have to work this week. See you in the morning!

We had a pretty uneventful weekend. We will be in the mountains next weekend and in Greenville for the FSU vs. Clemson game on Nov. 7th so we decided to take it easy.

On Friday night I got to have a “Girls Night In” with some of my friends. Taryn cooked us some amazing turkey burgers and we sat around the table and talked. We were supposed to watch a movie but never got around to it. All the girls have been having issues with work and it was nice to hear that I was not alone in my frustrations.

Saturday was spent spending way too much money on groceries and getting some repairs done on my car. Experimenting with cooking has come at a high price for me. The best part of the day was the fresh baked tortilla chips (I just cut some corn tortillas into quarters) and the mexican bean dip we made as a snack.

For dinner we tried making some raviolis with wontons for dinner, but it turned out really bad. We ended up eating some Papa John’s veggie pizza.

Sunday, we just enjoyed they day. We took Piper to play in the dog park, took a short nap, and went to the bookstore. I did try a few recipes too though. I got all of the receipes from KathEats one of my favorite blogs. First I made Kale chips. They were interesting. Not sure how I feel about the extra crunch and the leafiness combo. I would be willing to try them again though. I also made an attempt at Oatmeal Bars. I think they came out looking really good, but I just tried one and I think I must have put in too much salt. Ick. Maybe better luck next time.

For dinner I made a Confetti Shrimp and Grit Recipe. It was really good, except I think I put in too much celery. I also used Kale as my green, and that is a food texture I am still trying to get used to. Brian liked it though!

Tonight I am off to have dinner with my Pawpaw so no cooking for me. I am planning on making stuffed peppers and possibly working with acorn squash for the first time too.  And now that the brownies from last week are gone it may be time for some more cupcakes. We will see.