Input this

So if I thought my temp job last week was boring, I was sorely mistaken.

This one is the mother of all boring jobs and it’s all due to two works:

Data entry

Blah.

Sure, I can type and have input data before but I never knew how redundant it can be. Also, I didn’t know how lazy teenagers are these days. I am inputting information from seminars held for high school students who are interested in going into the legal profession. They fill out surveys at the end of their visit and reading their handwriting is impossible and some of their answers, well, how about I just show you.

Exhibit A:

When I first read this, I thought maybe the girl was just being cute.I mean, she interested in being a lawyer so she can’t be serious, right?

But then I read on

Oi vey but props to her for saying she wants better food especially since I could sympathize with her since this was my lunch

Exhibit B:

What’s up with these kids not wanting to walk anywhere? They were on a gorgeous Ivy League campus and a majority of the answers are them complaining about them having to walk everywhere. Really? Killing me softly I tell you. At least some of their answers are entertaining-one of the boys left his twitter name on his survey and I so wanted to log on and follow him but I resisted temptation. Another boy was talking about how he was bummed that he couldn’t get into the girls dorms after 10pm—bad boy there. Other answers were quite heart warming, 99% of the surveys talked about how the best part of the seminar was making new friends from across the country who they would have never met other wise.

I was supposed to work 10 to 5pm but the power went out at 1pm so the other temp and I sat around in the dark with the rest of the office since we didn’t know what to do. Everyone is friendly enough but not going out of their way to be nice and they aren’t too chatty so starting a conversation with them was out of the question. Personally, I wanted to start singing kumbaya but I didn’t want to show off in front of strangers. Plus why not just sit there and play on my phone? I’m getting paid for it right? So that’s what we did until our supervisor told us we might as well go home since the didn’t know when the power would be back on. I got four hours of pay for three hours of work so I really can’t complain.

So I went home and I was completely beat….just after four hours…what is wrong with me?? I came home to a nice surprise though, some Warrior Crunch that I won over on Meals and Moves!

I made pizza last night with the last of my Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Pizza Crust Mix and leftover sausage and peppers.

I decided to spice it up by adding Trader Joe’s Roasted Red Pepper Spread instead of pizza sauce

 

What a great pizza! I still have a good portion of the spread left and I know what I will be using it for next.

You all remember when I tried Gardein’s Beefless Tips and they were horrid? Apparently, I didn’t learn my lesson because I had this tonight for dinner

Moo Moo’s Vegetarian Cuisine Poblano Chick (Pea) Patties. Once again, I got bit by the curiosity bug when I saw this on sale at Winn Dixie. I’ve had chickpeas in the past whether it be in salads, burgers and falafel and love all things hummus so I thought these would be delicious. Plus I loved the irony of the company’s name. You can heat these up in the oven or microwave and being famished from a long day of data entry, microwave it was.

The moment of truth came and I should have known how it was going to pan out by the smell of it. It smelled exactly like a Lean Cuisine entrée, which to me, is one of the most disgusting smells. It reminds me of plastic veggies sprinkled with potpourri for some reason. But I took it out of the microwave and carried it on and placed it on my plate

 

It didn’t look anything like the picture (shocker) It reminded me of an undercooked, over sized snicker doodle covered in corn chunks. Need I say more? Two bites in, I slide it off my plate and even the dogs didn’t want anything to do with it.

That’s when you know it’s bad. No more vegetarian friendly dishes for me, unless, it’s Morningstar of course but Morningstar never disappoints. I have no real reason to buy these since clearly I am a carnivore but I love all the creative things that companies have in place of meat dishes. I’m a sucker for creativity I tell you.

Thank God my dad made shrimp and scallops.

Whatcha gonna do with all that junk?

Happy hump day humpers! This week has flown by, with packing, tying up loose ends and getting together with friends. I say this every single time that I move, this will be my last move. And it never is and I have a feeling it’s not going to stop anytime soon so I better get used to the smell of boxes and moving tape.

And can I just say you all rock? Thanks for all the words of encouragement and support on my last post, it is much appreciated and each comment made me smile and reminded me why I love the blogging community. Teardrop.

On Monday, I had a bunch of errands to do before meeting a friend for lunch. But before I left, I set an easy meal in the crock pot. It only had four ingredients:

Along with half a chopped onion. I set at low and let cook for eight hours

However I forgot that I was going for Mexican food for lunch so it was going to be Mexican food twice in one day. Awesome way to start the week if you ask me! I met my friend at this restaurant called Casa Grande in a sketchy strip mall, like the kind that has a laundromat and check cashing. Thank God we went for lunch because god only knows what it would have been like during night time. Casa Grande was authentic, like menus all in spanish with no english whatsoever and no pictures authentic. I took four years of spanish and grew up in South Florida so I like to think I can get by with my espanol skills. I can understand it somewhat and read but speaking spanish doesn’t work with me. For those who know me or have talked with me, you know I talk fast so it seems like it would be a match made in heaven. I think the problem is the language is too fast for me. But not too furious.

They have specials of the day and I saw pollo y arroz so I had a semi understanding of what lunch would consist of. But peep this-all this food for only $6!

The chicken was delicious and anytime I can get a serving of potatoes and rice, I’m a happy gal. I finished half of the plate and took the rest to go so really it’s two meals for $6, my kind of place!

I stopped to get a new leash for Lincoln since he broke it on Sunday. I went to two different Ross’ and nothing. I always go there for dog accessories and toys and was disappointed they didn’t have them in stock. Disappointed not only because it was a waste of time but because when I bought Lincoln’s leash there, it was only $7 or $8. Petco doesn’t roll like that. I stopped there and got a cute, lime green leash for Lincoln for 22 bones. Ugh.

At least he will walk in style.

The chicken turned out wonderful and the chicken melted off the bone. I topped with cheese and served with leftover spaghetti and veggies.

On Tuesday, I went to Dilworth Coffee to get my wi fi on. I was sitting there, working on internship stuff, catching up on blogs when suddenly, I heard The Strokes first  cd “Is This It?”  The Strokes are my favorite band and I get giddy whenever I hear their music in public or hear people talking about them.

(Source)

I told the barista he made my day by playing that. We started talking Strokes but he seemed taken aback that I liked them. Maybe it was the Vera Bradley headband or Life is Good t shirt I had on that had my looking like a yuppie who likes Colbie Caillat?

Gah, I love that headband and so. And love that I got it for free at the thrift store since the cashier was too lazy to look up the price and didn’t know who Vera Bradley is.

Anyways, back to the Strokes. I asked him if he heard the new cd and he said he hadn’t had a chance to listen yet so I went to my car and they played it-score!

Afterwards, I dined al fresco since it was a gorgeous day out and I needed to work on my tan. I made two chicken, hummus and hot sauce wraps with sliced apple

and Lincoln did as well

And catch up with Jen Lancaster

I wasn’t feeling the book at first because it’s her first fiction piece of work and it’s based off of her life as are the two main characters, Mia and Mac. Which is weird that I say that because she is my favorite author but I guess I was expecting something different from her normal work. I just have to embrace the whole notion of write what you know, even if it does apply to fiction.  A few chapters in, I couldn’t put it down and can’t wait to finish it!

The rest of the afternoon was spent packing, cleaning and cleaning out purses.

I don’t know how I have so much random crap in my purses, I’m talking random like soy sauce, chopsticks, pens, splendas, Yelp swag, aspirin, lip gloss, maracas and more.

When I cleaned out a majority of my purses that I’m giving away to the thrift store, it was enough to fill up two purses, wtf?

Do you use one purse or switch it up all the time? If you do switch it up, do you clean them out often?  As you can see, I definitely need to start cleaning them out more. I’m a hoarder when it comes to the contents of my purse.

PS–If you haven’t entered my giveaway, it ends tomorrow night!

Great Day

Before 1pm today I accomplished quite a bit and had some random musings (mostly with help of my dear friend, Mr. Insomnia who wouldn’t let me sleep past 530am):

*Took Lincoln for a mile and a half walk

*Packed a bunch of stuff up that I am giving to charity

*Re-listed a bunch of stuff on craigslist and starting gathering clothes and purses to sell on Ebay

*Had breakfast

*Went through my mail and found that not only did I get a free drink from Starbucks but my parents sent me one as well.

*Realized I have no clue who Terri Ewing is and now curious as to how they got the free drink card to send to me.

*Start to think of crazy stories of how they know Terri Ewing, My favorite one being they knew Terri and killed him or her for a free drink coupon so they could make me happy.

*Wonder if Terri is a man or woman

*Realize it’s spelled with an “I” so most likely a woman.

*Thought about how much I hate unisex names 

*Thought of names for the made for tv movie about the murder and liked “Will Kill For Starbucks: All She Wanted Was Java” the best.

*Start singing “All That She Wants Is Another Java” to the tune of “All That She Wants” by Ace of Base

*Laugh about the notion of this whole idea that someone would kill another for a Starbucks drink

*Stop laughing since I’m sure people out there think that I would kill for Starbucks

*Think that I can ponder about Terri Ewing all day so I better go to the gym

*Had an awesome workout of 30 minutes on the Precor AMT along with upper body strength training

*Come home and attempt to run to shower first thing since I am literally a hot mess.

*Am stopped by Lincoln because he wants to lick the sweat off my face

*Wonder why dogs are so loyal and like gross things

*Finally get in shower

*Portion trail mix into single servings so I don’t go buckwild and eat the entire bag in two sittings

*Flip though Michael Chiarello’s book “Bottega” that I won over at All Kinds of Hungry

*Think that asking for a man who can cook, has a nice smile, straight, gainfully employed with no mommy issues shouldn’t be too hard to find.

*But then come to the conclusion it is

*Get sad about that

*Am hungry from flipping through Bottega

*Make a random lunch

*Wonder what was up with my intense protein craving for lunch

Indeed Paul.

How’s your Monday going?

What’s your story of how my parents got Terri Ewing’s free drink card?

Thr3e Wise Men Brewing Company

I love my nieces, I really do. And you know there is a but or a however coming……I am a girl who lives alone with a semi quiet eight pound poohuahua. I’m not used to a lot of noise or constantly around little ones. So when my sister told me she booked a babysitter for Sunday night- I was ecstatic.  We took advantage and went to check out Thr3e Wise Men Brewing Company in Broad Ripple section of Indianapolis. Thr3e Wise Men is relatively new, it opened earlier this year and I am always game to try a new brewery.

Despite it being Race Day, it was hopping for a Sunday night. They have an open seating area inside with regular tables and longer picnic like tables that you share with others along with outdoor seating facing Broad Ripple Ave. They provide popcorn and have a limited menu with goodies such as hot sandwiches, pizza, calzones and traditional appetizers.

They have a sampler that offers 3 – 6 oz. samples  for only $5. I hate commitment and beer commitment is horrible if you don’t know what they have. This was a great way to try their beers.

From left to right :

Two Lucy’s Blackberry Wheat

Snow Bunny Blonde

Black IPA (special of the day)

Our server suggested I drink in order from left to right and that was definitely the way to go. The Blackberry Wheat was my favorite mostly because of the color, duh and it was quite refreshing for a warm evening and not too hoppy. I liked the Snow Bunny Blonde but the taste was strong and think I would only be able to have one or two in an evening. The Black IPA was delicious and ideal for an after dinner drink-hello chocolatey hints!

We started off with an order of fried pickles with horseradish sauce, which was new to me because I always have them with ranch. It was fantastic and I can say with confidence I am finally starting to dig the horseradish. I hated it when I was younger but I guess I have a more refined palate now. I never tried fried pickles before living in Charlotte so I had no clue that they were on menus all over the country. I still fear one of these days I’m going to run into fried pickle spears again—blech! Our dinner came out shortly after downing the pickles. I wanted something with substance but also light so I went with the hummus pizza

MMMMMMMM! A perfect, light meal. The chunks of goat cheese were the winner of this pizza but also the hummus-it was roasted red pepper as opposed to plain hummus. I wasn’t a huge fan of the cucumbers on the pizza though (it reminded me of the seinfeld episode where Kramer wants to open up a make-your-own-pie restaurant place and he gets in an argument with Poppi over putting cucumbers on the pizza) Even so, it was still a terrific meal. The table next to us had their regular pizza and it looks wonderful as well with pleasing sizes.

Since I like to support local businesses, I got a growler of their Blackberry Wheat to go. My very first growler, I felt like a real adult when it was placed in front of me. Awwww.

They told me this will be good for two to three weeks  so it will be perfect for me to take home to Charlotte! Nothing like some ready to go booze when I get home. Right after I got it, I remembered I live alone so the night I drink this will be a fun one!

All in all, a solid brew pub to try if in Indianapolis. I love their selection of beers and I heard they are one of the only places around that you can buy beer (their growlers) on Sundays since I don’t think you can buy beer on Sundays in Indy.

What’s your favorite brewery? Favorite beer? I was a Natty Light girl forever (blame it on going to college in WV) but am starting to develop a palate for trippels and IPA’s. In the summertime, I love fruity beers and Abita Purple Haze and Sweetwater Blue are my two favorites.

The long drive home

Driving 11 hours sucks. Driving 11 hours alone sucks even more. No matter how hard I try, I get anxious the night before leaving for a long trip and end up getting almost no sleep which makes for a cranky beginning to the day. Lincoln and I packed up early on Friday morning and started out with a light breakfast of a banana and Nature’s Path Lotta Apricotta granola bar

Boy, that bar was sweet. Like almost too sweet to eat and I love me some sweets. It took a good 15 minutes for me to down. I think it would be really good cut up and sprinkled in greek yogurt though to even out the taste. While at the gas station (which we won’t even begin my rant on gas prices), I found this Seattle’s Best Iced Latte

I love Seattle’s Best but rarely see it anywhere so I was stoked about this. It was like any other iced latte out there but I didn’t find it to be too strong.

I had to go through Gainesville, home of University of Florida, on my way back and it was around lunch time. I was in need of something hearty and Lincoln was practically dying in the car from the sun beating on him

I did a quick search to find dog friendly restaurants in the area and found The Book Lover’s Café, located in Books Inc, a used bookstore a few blocks away from the campus.

They serve lunch items, coffee and tea but what I really liked about it was that their menu consists of vegan and vegetarian treats. I am neither however when you’re on the road, it’s difficult to eat healthy. I try to back food and snacks and sometimes want to sit down and eat but most of the selection seems to be fast food. I ordered and looked around the store for any books that might have been of interest to me. Can we say score?

Only $3.99! Perfect since I just finished The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. I can’t wait to start this one. I got Lincoln and we sat on their patio and waited for the food to come. They brought him a water bowl and we just enjoyed the day and the freaks walking by. It’s a college town so you are going to have some weird people there and I saw a few people walking by singing and one guy (yes, guy) dressed like Rainbow Brite) it was very funkalicious.

I ordered the Hummus wrap and you can either get a side salad or soup with it-I got the salad with was hopping with veggies-just like the wrap

  

The hummus wasn’t flavored, it was just regular hummus and tasted homemade. It was flavorful but gritty in texture.  All of this for only $7! Plus I get a majority of my veggie servings in for the day while supporting a local business-win win!All in all, a great place to stop, relax, peruse the book selection and hang out. Even though we were in the shade, Lincoln was still panting like a whore in church

I think it’s sweating like a whore in church but I like panting like a whore in church much better-hello saucy!

The rest of the drive through Florida was boring. I took a less traveled state road back to Jacksonville so I could hop on I-95. While on the road, I kept seeing these billboards which was a bit disturbing

I guess Florida is trying to get rid of over population? I must have seen this billboard at least seven times.

And can someone tell me what this is? I despise personalized license plates and despise ones that I can’t figure out even more.

Of course, I pronounce OCRACOK as Okra Cock. Maybe he did have one? I don’t feel bad about saying this since he was the slowest driver ever.

And I finally figured out my cruise control after a year and a half of owning this car—clicks to that!

Lincoln was absolutely pooped by the time we got to South Carolina. So much that he felt the need to jump in my lap and rest while I was driving. Thank God I was just going straight.

While fueling up in South Carolina, I found a new goodie that is going to be on my next shopping list

Hooray for Skinny Cow candy! I love Skinny Cow products so much so this had to be tasty. There were only six clusters in the package and they were quite small but it was a nice, little treat to indulge in.

As soon as I knew it, I was back in Charlotte.

Yay. Can you read the sarcasm?

I came home to a couple of surprises though……

a bunch of mail

Then a couple of packages….hmmmm….what could be in them? Happiness! Well happiness to me because there was food and a book.

First was Lance Cracker Creations that I won over at The Food Snob

Oh Monique, your note made me smile, much needed at the end of the day

The second thing was Jen Lancaster’s newest book, If You Were Here. It’s different from her books since it’s a novel as opposed to her memoirs she writes so I’m very interested to read it and see how it compares. One of my sorority sisters went to the book signing in DC and got a copy signed for me since she wasn’t coming to Charlotte this year. Oh well, at least I got to meet her last year.

What’s your favorite part about getting home from a long trip? Mine is my bed and clean clothes!

Greetings from Florida!

Hello everyone—hope everyone is having a great week so far!!

All I need is to insert a postcard here and I will be all set.

(source)

Sigh, I long for the days when stamps were $.37.

But for now, I will just show this gorgeous picture of sunset Sunday night (please disregard the dead flies on my windshield)

We left early on Sunday after a good nights rest. I started with my regular pre trip breakfast of Dunkin Donuts. Their egg white flatbread rocks my world and you can’t go wrong with their iced coconut coffee.

It was a gorgeous day for a drive, thank God we didn’t have any horrible weather or traffic.

I wish I had some good stories from the road but unfortunately I don’t. I just jammed out, stayed alert and watched Lincoln.

He slept through SC…..

through GA….

Woke up to help me drive in FL….

To save money, I brought some snacks for the road. I hate how much gas stations and rest stops charge for food plus you don’t find the healthiest selection of stuff. Plus when making an 11 hour drive, I wanted to fill my body with good stuff as opposed to crap.

Which I ended up getting the hummus on my pants so it looked like a funky, yellow stain near my girly bits. Good times.

Dannon Greek Yogurt-Honey. Wanna know my thoughts on this?

Save your money, it was disgusting!

I ended up stopping for linner since I wasn’t sure what was going to be on the agenda for dinner. I saw a billboard for Daytona Pig Stand BBQ and knew I had to have it.

They had a spacious patio are that was pet friendly! The server ever brought out some water for Lincoln.

I went in to order and when I ordered the pulled pork sandwich, they asked if I wanted it ON garlic toast or a regular roll. A sandwich on garlic toast?? I’ve never heard of such thing so yes, Pig Stand, I would like my sandwich on garlic toast.

It was fantastic! The pork was served without bbq sauce and you can add the original or hot bbq sauce. I wasn’t too impressed with the original but the hot bbq sauce had some heat and was tangy.

There was so much meat on there, Lincoln got to have a little treat o’ pig!

But he did not get one ounce of that mac n cheese since I was licking the bowl for the last remnants of cheese. This was a great spot to stop at and relax for a little while. Plus any place that is dog friendly gets two thumbs up in my book.

I rolled into my city and talked with my parents. They were still on the road from visiting my sister on the other coast of Florida and would be home soon. I said “Ok, I will just let myself in” thinking that they left a key for me since who wouldn’t leave a key for their daughter who had been driving 11 hours with her dog right? No. So I sat in the parking lot of Whole Foods and waited for them to get home. I was starving at that point and wanted nothing more than to go in and get some grub but I was all grody from driving all day. I swear, the second I got into FL my skin and hair were on red alert because both went from normal to greasy and frizzy.

My plans were to sleep in on Monday but it was so hot in our house, I couldn’t. I felt like Elaine on Seinfeld when she goes down to FL with Jerry and stays the night on the fold out couch and can’t sleep because it’s so hot. I almost had a freak out session because of the humidity….almost.

I woke up at 630am and was on a mission to find coffee, food and free Wi Fi. I ended up at Sequella Café in Boca after reading reviews on Yelp.

I ordered a small latte and contemplated getting breakfast but the items were pricier than I wanted to pay. Plus, when I got online, the connection was terrible slow. As much as I enjoyed the atmosphere and Beatles playing, I was ready to get out and find another spot.  When I went up to pay, I learned you had to spend at least $5 if you wanted to use your check card. I was a couple of dollar short so I got two raspberry rugaleh to go and headed out.

After that, I headed to Starbucks where I was greeted with normal prices, comfy chairs and speedy Wi Fi….and hot men! Each time I looked up, it seemed like another hot guy was walking into the place and I was diggin! Until I saw the popped collars that is. I saw two guys with popped collars within 20 minutes. Ugh.

I went to the beach for about an hour and a half around lunch time. I wanted to stay longer but I forgot how expensive parking gets there you only get 10 minutes for $.25 and I had $1.50 in quarters. Next time I go, I will go back to being 15 and have my mom drop me off and pick me up.

And the beach? Holy men in speedos Batman! And I’m not talking sex pot, Greek god body like Daniel Craig in a Speedo

(source)

I’m talking men who look like Celine Dion’s husband and are too furry to not shave (and this coming from a girl who likes fury men) Thanks everyone for your input on which one to read—I still can’t decide!! Next time I go to the beach this week, I will start on one of them!

Well, my time at Starbucks is up—I can’t wait until I can get back to using Internet access in my own home where I can get stuff done when I want. I have blogs to catch up on among others things! Til next time……

Do you pack snacks when traveling or stop off at different spots?

What’s the best beach you’ve ever been to?

What I’m Loving

After seeing “What I’m Loving” posts on Soak and Simmer and Big City Baby Carrots, I started to think about what loving this week….

*Color coordinated meals

I took this hummus (which I thought would be spicier,  it was very bland for chipotle pepper but I guess I should have noticed the mild part on the lid?) and mixed with chopped onions and crock pot chicken from Saturday to make a different kind of chicken salad and had sweet potato fries on the side

I loved this protein pack wrap! 

*New Trader Joe’s finds

I added half a can of tuna to it to give it a little protein umph

This was a huge portion and quite tasty for a frozen meal, I will definitely be buying this again!

I’ve never tried lentils before but read about them all on the time on Ashleigh’s Slice of Life so I was intrigued when I saw this. Add to the fact that I’m trying to add more ethnic cuisine to my line up, I had to try this.

Ok, so it kinda looks like poo but besides that it was very good. I was expecting more flavor but it reminded me of a vegetarian chili. I wish I would’ve had some naan to dip into it with!

*Old school jams

 Thanks Melissa for bringing this song up!

*$1 Taco Tuesdays!

I got to indulge in this yummy goodness from Qdoba for $3.24 plus I got to see my burnout cutie. I think my co-workers could tell I was checking him out while we were in line. I was just staring at him and licking my lips all LL Cool J style but then again, maybe they just thought I was really hungry?

Speaking of LL, he is someone I would buy a workout DVD from—I mean, cmon, DAYUM!

*Random searches they bring people to my blog

• has anyone bought ocean ritz resort unit 401 off craigslist
• fun clothes for the rocker chique girl on a budget
• “tuna the wonderfish” commercial actress

Sorry I couldn’t help any of you there!

*That I don’t read Us Weekly religiously anymore

Ali whateverherfaceis from the Bachelor is one of the Top Transformations by losing 10 lbs. Really?

*Mint.com

As you all know, I am forever on a quest to save money and Mint.com is the perfect tool to do so plus keep my money and budgets in check!  It is similar to Quicken from what I hear and you can import your checking and savings accounts along with credit cards, student loans, car loans, investment accounts, 401K’s etc. You can create budgets for different things such as food, entertainment, healthcare, transportation and they will email you reminders of when your bills are do. I just discovered it this weekend and want to curl up with Mint.com at night because I love it so. Plus it’s free, how could you not dig that?

What are you loving this week?

Can You Dig It?

Nothing too exciting going on around these parts.  I could talk about

-Lincoln  (I could talk about him all day but I am trying to expand my horizons)

-Food (which sadly hasn’t been too exciting since I’ve been feasting on leftovers)

-Work (when is that ever exciting??)

So I present:

 What I’m diggin!

1) Mail

To be more specific…..

When companies take your opinion into account when you’ve had a bad experience

Even if that means, I am addressed as “Valued Guest”

 2) Bloggie Love

Erica from Fashion Meets Food sent me these awesome smoothies coupons after I responded to a post of hers on the FB offering them out. 

Has anyone tried them before? Good, bad?

 Thanks Erica for sending these to me 🙂

Is anyone else participating in Tina’s Blogger Gift Exchange? I got the name of the person I am buying for and too excited! I’ve never done one before I want to go all out but have to remember there is a $$$ limit. Dear blogger who I got–from reading your blog, I think you will be happy with your gift!

3) New flavors that make my mouth do a happy dance!

4) Cold Weather

Cold chills invigorate me. I don’t know why but I am happier when it’s cold out and love layering up and getting out there.  I just wish it would be cooler longer. I do more when it’s cold out and oddly enough, lose more weight in the winter. When it’s warm out, I get super lazy. I don’t want to go outside to do anything and just want to be in the A/C or outside on a patio enjoying a cold one or four. When it’s cold, I can sport all of my winter accessories like hats, scarves, gloves and dress my dog up in sweaters. Can you say win-win? That being said…..

5) Caribou Coffee’s Hot Apple Blast

Source

i.e. Heaven in a cup. I’ve had four in the past week and at $4 a pop for the smallest size, this habit needs to come to a halt asap. But it’s just so yummy……

6) Christmas Songs

`I love Christmas songs. I am going to share my favorite but with that I am sharing my most loathed…..

Favorite:

Even though Im Italian, I got introduced to this song by an ex-boyfriend in college. PIcture it: Morgantown, WV 2002. Said ex boyfriend made me a mix cd for Christmas. Youngins, this is what peeps did before MP3 players. It was cheap but sweet and as much as I don’t want to admit, am a pretty sentimental person. He made me this cd because I was making an 18 hour drive to Florida alone for Christmas to see the parentals. I thought this was a very sweet gesture…..until I heard the first song….”Hoochie Mama”. Umm, excuse me? Homeboy slice couldnt even make a move on me however the first line of the first song on my cd is “Big booty hoes — up wit it!”??? Say what? Luckily for him, I am a South Florida girl raised on 2 Live Crew (which explains so many things). But still, it threw me off a bit. Then I heard Domenic The Donkey and fell in love with it…… yet unfortunately did not fall in love with him. I would go around the sorority house singing and braying over and over again like a mad woman. Ahhh memories. Lately, I’ve been singing and braying to Lincoln and I think he is realizing that  I’m not all there.

Least Favorite:

Cannot. Stand. This. Song. One of my sorority sisters in turn would sing this song in an even-more-voice than the girl in the song. And why would one want a hippopatmus for Christmas? Can’t we think of something more festive like a reindeer or a clydesdale?

7) Aaron Hernandez and his tats!

‘Nuff said

So, a little giveaway action for those still reading since this post was all over the place:

Two coupons for a free bagel at Einstein’s. They expire 12.31.10 and I’m not going to use them by then so thought I would share the love.

Love the circular carbs and want to enter?

Leave a comment with your favorite or least favorite Christmas  holiday song. Couldn’t be easier. I’ll pick a winner at random and announce in my next post.

Loaf. hummus. wine

I was in a baking mood last night. On a never-ending quest to have my co-workers adore me, I planned on making Peppermint Puffs. I love anything that involves peppermint and white chocolate but had a feeling these would be dangerous so would bring the majority of the batch into work. Sadly, I bought the wrong kind of candy canes. I don’t know how I picked up fruity candy canes, which by the way, just sounds disgusting . They look like normal candy canes and would’ve thought the fruity ones would’ve had different tropical colored stripes but I thought wrong. I wanted to bake something though and decided to tweak this Pineapple Coconut Loaf Cake recipe by Martha Stewart I made before.

Substitutions I made

*Added mini chocolate morsels (about 1/4 of the bag) and chopped walnuts (1 cup) to the mix (instead of pineapples)

*Subbed apple sauce (1 cup) for the sour cream

*Used 3/4 sugar instead of the called for one cup

*Used 1 cup whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup all-purpose flour instead of the 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

The mix

With that Chocolate Walnut Coconut Loaf Cake…..

It was delicious, the apple sauce gave it a moist texture but it still held together and it was sweet but not overly sweet. Speaking of not overly sweet, I forgot to mention an interesting remark towards me at Autozone yesterday. I went there before going to Value Village to pick up an air filter and an elderly papi chulo named Pedro was helping me. When I scanned my credit card, I grabbed a pen to sign the receipt but he told me that I had to sign on the machine. I would usually due that but I wasn’t quite awake yet and jokingly said “Oh sorry, I can’t function yet because I didn’t have my coffee” Then Mr. Pedro patted my hand and said “Maybe you don’t need coffee, maybe you need some love in your life.

W

T

F????

I’m sorry but how does that come into play? Is it that apparent that I am single or high-strung? Right there, I wanted to give him my mother’s phone number so they could discuss my love life. On a related note, I’ve been singing Bieber’s “Somebody to Love” all day long. I think Lincoln is starting to tire of it though since I’ve been singing to him and giving him kisses. Maybe Mr. Pedro was right? Sigh.

Going back to work today was rough. There was no traffic going in and I got to work in record time. There really wasn’t much to do today so we sat around schmoozing for a few hours and did some busy work in between. We decided to go out for lunch instead of dining in the break room and went to The King’s Kitchen. This is a newer restaurant in Uptown Charlotte  that’s a not for profit restaurant serving up southern cuisine. Their employees are people who are formerly homeless trying to get back on their feet, people in recovery and at risk teens. Plus they do a lot of giving back to the community so I feel warm and fuzzy about patronizing The Kings Kitchen. Their Country Fried Steak was the special of the day and nothing else was really singing to me.

Another thing I like about it is that although it is heavy, comfort food they don’t give you an insane amount of food. When I worked at Cracker Barrel (you can stop laughing, I worked there for four years), the country fried steak portion was absolutely ridiculous and easily two times the size of this one. It was just enough and I got mashed sweet potatoes, cole slaw and wilted spinach on the side and I received my card to the clean plate club in turn. The sweet potato mash was some of the best I’ve ever had and wish I would have gotten double of it. Needless to say, I was in a food coma afterwards and didn’t want to work the rest of the afternoon.

I went on another shopping spree after work….to Trader Joe’s! I don’t visit the location closest to me that much because I hate the parking scheme. It has a parking garage only and with having watching too many thrillers in my day, parking garages freak me out. Apparently, my inner wino was telling me to buy some wine so that I did

And my wine rack no longer looks pathetic with one bottle of wine sitting in it

I also remembered to pick up some hummus when I was there, it’s been waaaaay too long since I’ve been without

Which then turned into dinner out of pure laziness. I was going to have leftovers and cook up a side dish but I just wanted to put on my fleece pj pants and sit down. And I’m fine with that, I’m an adult so I can eat whatever I would like for dinner.

I was a huge fan of TJ’s Three Layer Dip when I tried it earlier this year, especially the cilantro hummus portion. But this time around, I really wasn’t feeling the cilantro. I think it was a bit too much for me so I stuck to noshing on the original and red pepper portion instead.

And with that, I want to go to bed. Just being back at work for one has left me mentally exhausted. Is it sad if it’s 7P and I want to go to bed?

I’m happy to see that you all approved of my ugly sweater. I think I am going to doll it up with lights and possibly jingle bells. I can’t wait to see everyone elses! Be sure to check out The Fitness Dish for my Friday 5 Websites I Visit When I Need a Laugh!

I Like It

Happy Saturday! I had a fabulous Friday and a little something something to look forward to.  Diana was in town from Texas visiting her boyfriend who is doing a month-long rotation here at the hospital and we had plans to meet up. Lily was also in town and was staying with Diana overnight so they could wake up and do the Rock and Read 5K in the morning to support our local library system. Thanks out of towners for supporting our public library!!

We had plans to go to Soul Gastrolounge for drinks and sushi but when we got there, saw it was packed with over an hour wait. No thank you. One of the beautiful things about Plaza Midwood is you can walk to different shops, restaurants and bars so walking we went. We decided to try out Dish (mostly b/c Diana wanted me to decide and once I told her it was on Food Network, she was sold)

Ok so it looks a little hood but it’s a great place……really.

We started off with the black eyed pea hummus with a tangy chutney on top (excuse the back and forth pictures with flash and no flash). I thought it was fabulous–I’ve  had black bean hummus but never black eyed pea hummus and I loved it!

Once again, I was flip flopping on what to order, they offer southern dishes but surprisingly offer quite a bit of vegetarian dishes as well such as veggie burgers, veggie plates and more. I couldn’t decide on something so I decided to go with the old standby of a cheeseburger but jazzed it up by getting a Pimento Cheeseburger with mashed sweet potatoes

Great burger all in all but it could’ve used a bun the size of the patty and you can’t go wrong with mashed sweet potatoes.

 Diana was talking about ordered dessert  and while I love me some dessert, I never really order it. I told her that if she ordered something I would definitely have a bite or four. She ordered the Chocolate Pecan Pie and we all split it.  From the picture, I think you can tell it was absolute delicious.

Lily, me, Diana

Ugh, I feel like my belt was going to pop off from all that food.

All in all, a fabulous evening. It was so great to meet this ladies and enjoy a nice meal on a beautiful night! I’ve been reading Diana’s blog for a while so it was nice to see her face to face and see what she was like. She is leaving on Sunday though which sucks b/c I would have loved to hang out with her some more!

I started the morning off with a green monster with almond milk, banana, spinach and vanilla protein powder

So fresh and so green green!

Let’s talk about the deals I got this morning

All of this? $25! Harris Teeter had double coupons up to $1.98 so I went through their circular to see what was on sale then went through my coupons that are over $1. I got quite a number of this stuff for free such as the Activia Yogurt, Kool Aid Mix and Pillsbury Pizza Dough. I got the 2 Best Life Butter products for $.17 each and Food Should Taste Good Chips, Terra Chips, Ritz Munchables and Lactaid Cottage Cheese were all $1 each. I stocked up on beans and soup since they all came to under $.60 each as well. My total was $60 but with the coupons and specials brought it down to $25–holla!

So…….the Ritz Munchables. I’m a bit perplexed by the box and stared at it for a few minutes in the kitchen today. What does the picture of the two dudes grabbing hands have to do with the munchables? Are they enjoying them but just not pictured and somewhat implied? Is the unity of the two different skin colors similar to the combination of pretzels and Ritz crackers? Confused.

I went to Ulta after Harris Teeter and got a concealer, lip liner and nail polish for $7

All that shopping made my hungry! I got home just in time to watch football and made a turkey pepperoni and artichoke pizza on Trader Joe’s Whole Wheat Pizza Dough.

Nom nom.