Weekend Recap

Happy Monday morning to you all, hope you had a great weekend!  I called off work on Saturday morning to give my ankle some rest (I figured 8 hours of waiting tables would be pushing it), but still managed to have a pretty productive weekend.  Still no working out… I might try spin class this evening.  I’m still having some pain when I walk, but I just can’t wait any longer.

Friday night I made the fiance’ and I two socca flatbreads.  I told him I was making “pizza”, and he thought that was a bit of a stretch.  But he’s a champ and ate 3/4 of the Mexican version and I ate 3/4 of the spinach and artichoke one.  I had some fantastic onion dip left over that I didn’t want to go to waste.

Socca with carmelized onion spread, marinated artichokes, spinach, and parmesan

Socca with crumbled black bean patty, green onion, sauteed green, yellow, and red bell peppers, and Mexican shredded cheese

I read on another blog about how fantastic this coffee was… and I’m a sucker for flavored coffee (no added calories like a flavored coffee “drink”).  I drank it with just milk Saturday morning and wasn’t impressed, but with a little added artificial sweetener and made in the coffee press yesterday it was delicious.

I currently live about 20 minutes from Trader Joe’s so I took advantage of my Saturday morning and made the trip right after they opened.  Although I didn’t buy too much, I enjoyed having the time to browse instead of rushing in and rushing out.  When I was checking their website to figure out how early they opened, I saw that they’ll soon be opening a new location about 5 miles from where the fiance’ and I will be living after the wedding.  Score!

Tofu, edamame, goat cheese, red pepper hummus, herbed pizza dough, and white cheddar corn puffs

The best part of TJ’s is their prices – I got goat cheese and hummus for about 1/3 of what I’d pay at Giant Eagle (sorry GE).  It was worth the trip!

For the items that I needed but didn’t buy at TJ’s, I headed to the regular supermarket and found the following product which I was dying to try:

Plain – 50 calories per serving

It was marked down to $2.99 and I had a $1.00 off coupon, so I figured it was worth a shot.  Honestly, the stuff tastes like water, and has 5g fat and 1g protein per serving.  I’ll stick with my natural skim milk or chocolate Silk when I purchase a lactose free.

On my way home from the other end of town I drove through Oakland, where the University of Pittsburgh is located and where I lived for my 6 years of college and grad school.  It was lunch time by this point so I stopped at one of my favorite spots, Red Oak Cafe’.  They use a lot of organic and local ingredients in their foods, and have a ton of wonderful vegetarian options (including the BEST vegetarian chili I’ve ever had).  It’s like a Panera (as far as offering sandwiches, soups, and breakfast items), but so much better.  I stuck with my favorite hot wrap:

Roasted veggies, red pepper hummus, gouda cheese

The interesting thing about this sandwich is that the roasted veggies always change – this time it included carrots, which I thought was strange but ended up being delicious.  Sorry I didn’t take a second photo, I was too excited to start munching!  When I unwrapped my wrap at home, I found a terrible thing:

Aahhh!

I absolutely can’t STAND pickles.  I hate sweet pickles, dill pickles, baby pickles, pickle spears…. all pickles.  I hate when they touch my sandwich.  I hate when their juice gets on my potato chips.  Luckily, the lovely folks at Red Oak wrapped my to-go lunch properly and it didn’t infiltrate my yummy wrap.

Yesterday my wonderful uncle threw an engagement party/brunch for my fiance’ and I.  There were around 40 of our closest family and friends and we had a fabulous time.  We decided that we’d “cheat” on our Lenten sacrifice and indulge in some sugar (sorry, no photos) – my aunt made cake pops that were to die for and guests brought fabulous pastries and cakes from local bakeries.  I knew I’d be eating poorly for the party so I started my day off right :

Carrot cake “cookie” with cream cheese “frosting” (cream cheese, coconut milk, and vanilla flavoring)

Some Catholics say it’s okay to “cheat” on Sundays and I usually don’t, but really enjoyed the party and having some indulgent desserts; however, I felt awful by the end of the day.  I ate too much, drank too much, and just knew that my body wasn’t happy.  I still need to learn to enjoy things in moderation, and to decide on one sweet or dessert instead of sampling them all!

 

I want to know…

– what food do you absolutely dislike, in all shapes and sizes?

– what sweets do you find it hard to say “no” to?

 

xox

C