Frugal Friday: A coupon a day

So, I used to have this little feature called Frugal Friday. I would post every Friday about the deals I found along with some tips but then it kinda slowed down. With all the traveling and packing I’ve been doing, I’ve been a little behind on posting. But not because I’ve stopped saving money,  I’ve actually been saving money in a big way. Mostly because I’m going through every coupon I have available to me and using them before I leave. No way I am letting my Groupons, Living Social and other deals go to waste!

*Bath & Body Works.

When I was in Commerce, GA last weekend, our hotel was located right next to the Tanger Outlet shops. I drove through there and didn’t see any stores that stood out to me and then I saw Bath and Body Works. I don’t need to accumulate stuff since I’m trying to get rid of items for the move but I saw their semi annual sale going on with 75% off and I knew I had to clean house.

I stocked up on lotions, body wash, hand soap, sanitizer and body spray. I was surprised to see they had Coco Cabana which used to be the scent I wore in college! Oh memories of summer time, ladies night free drinks and pizza at 2am!

Nine items for $21? Don’t mind if I do! I would be a fool to pass on a deal like this.

*Pedicure @ Nails of America

I bought a Groupon awhile ago for a pedicure but forgot that it was up in Mooresville, about 25 minutes north of Charlotte. I tend to stay in my neighborhood and in the Uptown area so going somewhere that far meant it was going to be a day trip for me. I stopped at a friends place in the area, got my pedicure and ran some errands. Always read the fine print with Groupons since this one had to be used with an appointment.

I always get pink or red on my toes and wanted to mix it up. I went with “Orange You Glad It’s Summer” by OPI

*Chick Fil A

I snagged a Free Chicken Mini coupon awhile back at Bark for Cancer. I completely forgot about it until I found it while cleaning the other week.

I got a soda along with that and brought my computer since they have free wifi. Never would I have thought Chick Fil A would offer wifi but they do and it’s quick. What makes it even better is that the employees will come up to your table and get refills on your drink for you. This may be better than Starbucks since there was only one other table in the place! Keep an eye out for businesses that have signs offering free wifi, this was better to go to for the the quiet and lack of people there factors.

*Café Monte

French stuff intimidates me—Chanel, Bastille Day, their food, wine, accents and the list goes on. 
Ask me what french food is and I will be either reply fries or croissants since it all seems too fancy schmancy for me.  As I vowed not to buy any more Grupons, I saw this one for Café Monte and toyed with the idea of getting it for a few hours. I decided to suck I up and buy it. I’ve heard about this place from many people in the past five years and wanted to see if it lived up to the hype.

My friend went on Monday morning right when they opened and there was only one other table in the restaurant. I absolutely loved the pale yellow walls but it wasn’t what I was expecting. I was expecting black and white walls in cramped quarters so seeing it’s spacious inside adorned with mirrors, images of France and natural light.

Even though there was only one other table in there, the service was lagging. Our server would come over and barely check back on us. This is not ideal when it’s morning and I’m having coffee since anyone who knows me knows I don’t do just one cup of coffee. To save some sough (and calories) we split the Eggs Benedict. They even brought out the half portions for us already split.

Quite tasty. They had other breakfast items such as the standard eggs, sausage, toast along with Belgian waffles, crepes and quiche. I wouldn’t go back because most of the breakfast items were $10 or more and that’s just too high for my wallet at this time. If I am going to drop some money on a meal, I would rather spend it on lunch or dinner. Add the whole service kind of sucking thing and yeah, I would rather go somewhere else. But then again, I think it comes down to

*Dunkin Donuts

America runs on Dunkin and so do I! I always go through my junk mail since they send out pages of coupons in the mail. The only downside to it is that they are only specific in the region you’re in so you can’t use them if you’re traveling.

What deals have you found this week? Do you have outlet malls in your area and if so, do you shop at them?

Whipping it out

Coming back from being out of town sucks. It sucks normally but sucks even more when you only have three weeks left in your home. I’ve been trying to separate things to give to charity and pack the rest of my stuff up but it’s hard. I will look at a piece of clothing I haven’t worn in awhile and remember the day I bought it or first wore it and have a hard time parting from it. So my new rule is that if I haven’t worn it in the past year, it’s going to the thrift store (old college shirts don’t apply to this rule as one of these days I’m going to get a quilt made out of them)

Along with that comes going through my kitchen, trying to use as much as I can without throwing it out before moving day.

So until my lease runs out, I’m trying not to buy anything except for produce, milk and yogurt.  I bought a bunch of produce on Monday and it should be enough to get me through the week.

However, going through all the food in my cupboard sometimes leads to mundane meals such as breakfast on Tuesday.

I know you all haven’t seen a bowl of oats in a long time. Mostly because I find it so drab that I don’t feel the need to post the oats I eat since they never look magical. Besides, who wants to stare at pictures of oats? Actually, scratch that. This bowl was quite tasty and it was my first time adding chia seeds to oatmeal. I added it with the oats and water when it was in the microwave instead of soaking them in water like I normally do. Banana and agave nectar were the other add ins for a simple, filling breakfast.

I met up with friends for lunch at Savor Café on Tuesday afternoon. I’ve only been to Savor once before for lunch and was quite pleased so I was stoked to check it out again.  I love going out to eat and trying different places but don’t have many places I frequent all the time so when I find one I dig, I go with it.

Let’s talk weird/annoying stuff.

This table.

Ok, I don’t like posting pictures of strangers on the Internet b/c I wouldn’t want someone to do that of me. But this table was driving me bananas-they all sat down, whipped out their phones, looked at the menu, whipped out their phones, the guy in the black ordered a salad, got the salad and yep, you guessed it, whipped out his phone while eating the salad!! I could not stop staring at them because what is the point of going out with others if you’re going to be staring at your phone the entire time? I will break out my phone when I’m with others but not the entire time or even a majority unless someone is going to be meeting us and I need my phone or  am expecting a call/text/email that I need to take.

I’ve even had friends who would text me when we were out….right across the table from each other. For real? Drives me bananas. I know I would not do well without my cell phone but sometimes I need a break from it and turn it out. I don’t like being connected all the time. Don’t even get me started on when a guy pulls out his cell phone on a date…..

I finally peeled my eyes off of the iPhone table and saw that my friend had a gift for Linky!

He is going to be bling blinging all over Charlotte! Bitches will definitely be up on his sack….if he had one.

I ordered the Farmers Market sandwich

I love that they allow you to order any side item you want with a sandwich. They have the standard fries, cold slaw, pasta salad, fruit and side salad and they also have a casserole of the day. The one for Tuesday was cauliflower casserole which sounded delicious but I wasn’t in the mood for anything too heavy. The side salad is the perfect portion and it’s loaded with toppings. Hooray for garbanzo beans!

The salad was good but the sandwich? HEAVENLY! I can’t remember the last time I ordered a tomato/mozzarella/basil concoction. Maybe because I don’t think I ever have? It just never appealed to me but it was so hot out and sounded fresh, light and zesty. The combination along with the balsamic vinegar hit the spot but the superstar of the sandwich was the bread. Look at how fluffy it is! And the grated cheese, good lord, the grated cheese.

We went to Central Coffee afterwards and chatted outside. In the shade and with an iced coffee in hand, it wasn’t too bad out but I can tell this summer is going to be a scorcher.

Lincoln was feeling a little neglected when I got home

But neglect soon turned into love when I whipped out part of my friends leftover turkey burger she gave me to give to Lincoln

Where do you stand on the cell phone issue?

Whipping the phone out at the dinner table or out with friends: Yay or nay?

Pancakes, stank and parfaits

Some of you commented on my last post that my sister and I look alike which I find hilarious since everyone says that but I just don’t see it! Oh well, she is cute, so I will take that as a compliment My second day on the west coast of Florida was a much needed beach day.  Before that, my sister made breakfast-chocolate chip pancakes! Now that’s what I’m talking about. The fact that they were Mickey Mouse shaped made it even better.

We left the dogs to their sunbathing to do some of our own.

We made our way over to Manasota Key to rest, relax and get some sun. However before any of that, the first mission was to find coffee. My sister and her boyfriend don’t drink coffee, which is a completely foreign concept to me. They had soda at their house but soda just doesn’t give me the same jump as coffee does. Seeing that on a normal day I have two to three cups in the morning, no coffee in my system is not a good thing nor does it make me a happy camper. My sister went to Places on her phone to see where we could get some java goodness and soon found a Dunkin Donuts and all was right in the world.

I almost made her stop at this shopping center when I saw the sign

 

Then we arrived at the beach, it was serene and had a good number of people but it didn’t seem crowded at all. And what the hell is up with the creepers on the west coast of FL?As my sister and I were getting our stuff out of the car, this old man walked past us and said “Hope you girls brought your bikinis’” We just smiled and did a nervous laugh but I really wanted to say “No, creeper, I didn’t bring my bikini. I think I’m being nice by not doing so because the amount of cellulite on my ass would give you a heart attack!” In the first ten minutes we were there, we saw a group of people crowding around watching the water. At first I thought it was a situation like on Seinfeld where the whale washes up on shore with a golf ball stuck in its blow hole but no go. We soon found out that a dolphin was swimming near the shore—it was so cool to see one up close!

The water was more shallow and calmer that on the East Coast of Florida not to mention cooler. It wasn’t blistering hot yet, which made for an enjoyable day at the beach. After that, we went to The White Elephant Pub.

My other sister has been here before and said the food was good but the atmosphere was gritty. I said hakuna matata for I love bar food. But bar food  in a beach atmosphere? It’s go time! We walked through the indoor portion of the restaurant and found a table on the patio. But that I found out what my sister meant by gritty—- it smelled like some concoction of hot trash, bad cheese and homeless. Yes, all three co-mingled together in a funky harmony. No matter what I didn’t I couldn’t escape the smell and it just reeked.
As unpleasant as the odor was, the food was great! They had a sweet selection of seafood baskets and entrees, burgers and appetizers. I got the fried grouper finger basket which came with a generous portion of crinkle cut fries and cold slaw.

White Elephant is not all about saving the earth as they don’t have condiment bottles at the table–just packets.My sister and I went to town on them!

And if you don’t think I swiped any, you would be wrong. The food plus the view we had definitely outweighed the negative of the stink in the air. Peep the gorgeous view we had from our table!

By the time we left, it was really starting to get hot out. I told my sister I wouldn’t be opposed to stopping by a Dairy Queen for a cool refreshment. Sadly, the Dairy Queen went out of business but we found something even better—a locally owned establishment called Swirls-N-Curls Ice Cream!

They had pretty much everything any other chain place can offer such as ice cream, soft serve, their version of the blizzard, shakes, parfaits, etc. I got the strawberry parfait and it hit the spot! Seriously, how delicious does this look?

I kept digging into it and it seemed endless and then bam-it was done. Sadface. Parfaits make everything right in the world and anyone who doesn’t like parfaits is a communist in my book. They have a cute little patio area with chairs, tables, games with oldies music playing in the background. The fact that they are doggie friendly and serve doggie ice cream treats made it all the better.

 

The rest of the day was very relaxing-I took my obligatory nap after being in the sun, had dinner then hung out and watched tv. You would think that after a day of being in the sun, I was tired but nope, Lincoln appeared to be even more tired than I was by practically perching himself on my shoulder.

 

 

Right before I went to bed, I found a plain, gold band sitting on the kitchen counter. I know they are planning a wedding but I thought it was weird to see one sitting out in plain sight. So I did what any 31 year old single girl would do and tried it on.

Felt very constricting, hmmmmm…..

What’s your favorite summer time treat?

Beach: Love it or hate it?

Lovely

The past two days have been absolutely lovely.

I haven’t been sleeping in or taking naps like I thought I would. Quite the contrary, I’ve been really productive!

On Tuesday morning, I went to FABO (Fabulous Art Buying Opportunity) for a cup of coffee after seeing they were giving away 12 oz coffees all day on Tuesday.

I love FABO because not only is it a coffee house, it’s also an art gallery! They have art displayed all throughout the place—paintings, jewelry, furniture, edible art and more.

Their Wi-Fi wasn’t working which bummed me out a bit so I came home and one of my friends called to see if I wanted to do an impromptu lunch at Savor Café. Savor is a newer restaurant and is very funky, lovely and eclectic. When I walked in, I should have been overwhelmed by the abundance of colors, exposed brick walls and cute art but I felt totally at home!

I’ve heard only good things about Savor so I was excited to see if it would live up to it’s hype or not.

I had the Pesto Chicken Salad Sandwich with a side of fruit—look at me being all good with not getting fries!

I am in love with their pesto chicken salad sandwich! It wasn’t drenched in mayo which was a welcome change and the pesto flavor wasn’t too overpowering. It was just perfect. The fruit is cut fresh each morning and I wanted another bowl of it. Even though, I got the fruit what did we have after?

Thank you savor for the artwork that was out dessert. We split a piece of Betty Lou’s Coca-Cola Chocolate Cake. I’m not a huge chocolate cake girl but if it has Cocoa Cola in the name, I must try it!

Looks amazing right? Not so much, it tasted very processed and was too rich for me. We couldn’t even finish the second piece and neither of us wanted to take it home.

I went to the gym shortly after and did 35 minutes on the elliptical then worked on my upper body. I hung out in the sauna for 20 minutes afterward. It was so nice to take my time with everything and unwind. Plus no fighting or waiting for a machine, woo hoo!

I went to a BBQ on Tuesday night for one of my sorority sisters birthdays. She is a nurse and works the night shift so Tuesday was really the only day where her and her fiancée would both be there to celebrate with everything.Totally ok with me since I have nothing else to do! I got to see two other of my sorority sisters as well. We all live in Charlotte but I rarely get to see them since they have kids and their schedules are way busier than mine. It was a lovely evening and great to see them before I leave Charlotte for good!

I’ve also been getting some major quality time in with Lincoln. He is such a cuddle bug and happy that I’ve been waking up around the same time I used to wake up. We’ve been going for 20 minute walks in the morning then I will do some work on my laptop after breakfast and he is so snuggly!

Can someone tell me why he likes to sleep under the pillow? Such a wacky dog.

Today hasn’t been too exciting but it was lovely to go to the gym for two hours, enjoying all of the amenities. I did 17 minutes on the treadmill walking at an incline ranging from 4 to 7 and was rockin it out! My heart rate was up, music was jammin and sweating out everything in my body! Then, I swung my arm and pulled the string to the stop button and halt, I was done. Why is that stupid stop button right there in the front? I always have to watch my arms with not touching it and the second I don’t think about it, I hit it. I was annoyed by that point so I went over to the Precor crossramp and did 17 minutes. I had some lovely entertainment: Millionaire Matchmaker and big daddy in front of me.

OMG, this man? Gorgeous but not in a pretty boy way. He had piercing and tats out the wazoo and I just sat there licking my lips watching him on the AMT. He was just too hot, even if he was covered in freckles (I’ve never been attracted to freckle covered men)

Anyways, back to the workout: I did lower body strength training afterwards :

*leg press (240 lbs 13 reps x 3 sets)

*hamstring curls (65 lbs 13 reps x 3 sets)

*leg extensions (80 lbs 13 reps x 4 sets)

*calf press (120 lbs 13 reps x 3 sets)

*hip adductors ( 95 lbx 15 reps x 2 sets)

*hip abductors (115 lbx 15 reps x 2 sets)

Killer workout!

Afterwards, I rested in the sauna then the jacuzzi. It felt so good to soak my knee since I no longer have a bathtub at home. I will definitely be using the jacuzzi more often.

I went to DD after the gym to get some java in my system

There’s nothing in the world an iced coconut coffee can’t cure.

But while I was paying, I saw something magical.

A picture of their ice cream cake bites.

I stared it at with my mouth agape and asked the cashier if they were amazing. He said they were pretty great and asked if I wanted one. I told him no but then came around and said one can’t hurt so and I quote…..”bring it on, badboy” I got one mint chocolate ice cream cake bite.

I now present……the cake bite!

I let it thaw for 10 minutes and it was still a bit rough to cut into but I finally sawed off a piece.

A little messy as you can see. But worth the mess…..it was absolutely lovely!!! Mint chocolate chip is my favorite flavor of ice cream so this was such a wonderful treat. I sliced off a little piece and saved the rest for later.

Who am I kidding?

The cake bite is gone!

What’s your favorite ice cream flavor?

Are there hotties at your gym?

The little Frugal Friday that could

Not gonna lie, this edition of Frugal Friday almost didn’t make it. I tend to put together Frugal Friday posts ahead of time and the fact that I wasn’t feeling too hot this week didn’t help. I woke up this morning at 5A. Naturally, I woke up this early since I planned on going to work a little later than normal. I was going to write it then but wasn’t too coherent and the coffee was taking its sweet time kicking into my system.

So without further ado…..Frugal Friday!

1) Coffee to go

When I was at Panera on Sunday, I got my coffee for free thanks to My Panera rewards. So I got my fill and had about two cups while there and then took a coffee to go. It’s free and you can use it the next day for iced coffee at home!

Soon after that, I had to say goodbye to my Dunkin Donuts plastic cup since I had been using it for a week or two. I don’t know what it about their plastic cups but I love them. I wonder if I could buy in bulk from their wholesale distributor?

2) Free Bagels!

I signed up for Bruegger’s Bagels email list some time ago and got this email last week. Three bagels for free–no purchase, catch or anything? Sign me up. Even if I didn’t feel like having bagels in the days after that, I could always freeze them and that’s what I ended up doing. Click here to sign up–if you do, you’ll also get a free bagel and cream cheese just for signing up!

3) Taco Tuesdays!

Lately, Qdoba has been offering $1 tacos on Tuesdays. They are located in my building so it’s very convenient and not to mention- cheap for me. Plus one of the guys who works there is way cute in a wrong side of the tracks kind of way—I represent corporate America and he looks like a burnout so at first glance we wouldn’t be a likely match. He is my forbidden fruit. Why do I love burnouts and bad boys so much? I guess that is a different post for another time.

 Back to the point, yeah, I like going to Qdoba. And I love Mexican food on the cheap so when I heard about $1 tacos I was there in a heartbeat.  I bring my lunch to work most of the time in an effort to save money but you really can’t beat $3.24 for three tacos. Just be sure not to get guacamole or a drink, that’s where they get you price wise!

4) Athenos Greek Yogurt

BOGO free Athenos greek yogurt coupons–woohoo! I can’t wait to use this!  I kinda want to scour my neighbor’s trash just to see if they got this coupon but threw it away.  I have lots of soap and a hot shower, I don’t mind dumpster diving for coupons. I’m sure you don’t read that alot from sorority girls. Always on a quest to be different, I am. And apparently, I like to talk backwards like the Yoda….even though I’ve never seen Star Wars somehow I know that.

5) Harris Teeter deals

I found some pretty sweet deals at Harris Teeter this week via their cart sales and advertised sales

Tomato soup for $.62/can

VITA TOPS!!! I feel like I’m the last blogger to these since I am always reading rave reviews about these things on the blogs. I’ve wanted to try them but thought you could only get them in select stores or online and i wasn’t wanting to try them enough to pay for shipping. These babies were BOGO so I got two boxes for $5.19–not too shabby. Reviews to come soon!

4 cans of Progresso soup for $4.58. I saw that they were BOGO plus I had a $1 off coupon so I stocked up. I like how none of the labels are the same. Whatever happened to just a selection of labels instead of label over load–what does “Now even better!” mean and how does “Traditional” soup fare against “Non traditional” soup? So many questions.

Perhaps, I shall call Progresso and I can be in a commercial……except in a smaller kitchen…..and not in a purple satin robe.

Kashi Island Vanilla cereal for $2.19. Ok, it is expired and can either be really good or really bad but I’m willing to try it.

Can we just talk about how Friday was the day of Lincoln? He was featured not once but TWICE in the blogosphere! Check out Katie’s post featuring me and Lincoln for her new Feature Friday series…..think #FF (Follow Friday) but blog-style! Then he was featured on Tina’s Blog Dogs series today! If you’re having a bad day, check out the Blog Dogs series, if it doesn’t bring a smile to your face something is majorly wrong with you…..unless you hate dogs and had a really traumatic experience. If that’s the case, don’t look!

Do you bring your lunch to work or eat out?

What were some fabulous deals you found this week?

What I got

So I am sure everyone and their mom is sick of the trite “these are my goals for the year” but I finally figured out what I’m gonna do this year. Feel free to read on or feel free to click away, it’s up to you!

*Pay off one credit card by 2/15/11.  I will be so happy when that one will be done with. I also need to work on my other high balance credit card that’s currently enjoying a 0% interest rate until July. I get offers all the time for 0% balance transfers so whenever this one runs its course, I’ll just transfer it again. Ideally, I wanted to pay the high balance one off by 11/30/11 but I’m going to……..

*Quit my job. Wow, writing that out as a goal is a bit scary. I’ve thought long and hard about this and it’s what I have to do in attempt to be a happier me. I would love to put in my two weeks notice tomorrow but I need to take care of some doctors appointments first, save up some extra cash, etc. Target date is going to be late March/ early April. This will give me some time to take a road trip (with or without Lincoln–we will see!), figure things out and end my lease.

*Check out cities that could potentially be my new home. This August will be my fifth year in Charlotte and I am just not diggin it. Ideally, it seemed like a nice place to live since it’s a growing city but it’s too conservative, preppy, vanilla and southern for me. I’ve made friends but friends alone can’t keep me in one spot and alot of people look like cookie cutter versions of J Crew catalogues. If you dig that, fine, but I need some diversity and not a city full of the same people. Also, the dating here has kinda sucked. I would like to meet a normal man but all of the guys here seem to be on one each of the spectrum: young John Edwards-esque prepsters who were pastels (um, no), Croakies who can only hold conversations about golfing, the NRA or their MBA or country boys who are looking for a redneck princess. Just not what I’m looking for in a dude.

For those of you who don’t know what Croakies are:

*Pay a little more on my car payment each month so I can pay it off quicker

*Cut down on Starbucks and eating out. This pains me but I spend way too much money on my coffee each week when I have a perfectly good coffee maker at home to make coffee with. Starbucks used to be an indulgence for me but now it seems to be an every day thing, even if I do just get their drip coffee. I eat about two or three times a week and try to use a coupon every time I do so I will either cut down on that or nix the hooch when I do go out.

*No new clothes until March. I have a lot of clothes, even after donating a bunch to the Salvation Army last week. So to cut down on the crap in my closet that I may wear a few times, no new clothes until March. This means no Ross, Marshalls, JCP, etc. I will still buy cheap threads at the thrift store but want to see if I can go two months without buying new digs.

*Plan a stay-cation instead of jetsetting all around the country. A majority of my disposable money goes to traveling. I love to see my friends and visit different places but if I cut down on this each year, I could save thousands of money. I only have one trip planned this year for my best friends 30th birthday in Phoenix and that’s it. I need to keep it to a minimum for once.

*Sell what I don’t need. I used to be the ebay queen and miss the extra cash it brought me! It started in college when my boyfriend broke up with me so being the vindictive, bitter girl I once was, I listed all of his crap he wouldn’t pick up from my place on ebay with low starting prices (like cents not dollars low). To be even extra evil, I sent him a link of all of his stuff online. My motto-break my heart, I sell your stuff.

*Try out new ethnic recipes. I seem to stick to Mexican, Italian and Chinese when cooking at home so I want to step out of my comfort zone and starting making dishes I’ve never attempted before.

*Be more consistent with taking my vitamins. I have a bottle of vitamins at both work and home but rarely seem to take them. I am going to be aware of taking them and try to take one every day after lunch.

*Cut down on my meat intake. If you’ve noticed a theme in the past week, it’s been a lot less meat than I normally eat. I don’t think I will every go full on vegetarian but I can definitely cut down on my chicken, pork and red meat consumption.

*Use skim milk or almond milk in my coffee instead of half and half.

So, more goals to come I am sure but that’s all I got for right now. I started off this morning anything but perky. That Craigslist Killer movie freaked me out! Plus being the true crime buff I am, I stayed up until midnight watching the behind the mind of the craigslist killer segment with the cops who caught him and an interview with one of the chicks he assaulted. Pair that up with three cups of coffee earlier in the day and sleep was not coming easy to me. I had leftover coffee from yesterday so I wouldn’t have to worry about making coffee this morning and made an older but goodie-iced coffee!

If you haven’t heard, Starbucks is offering $2 Artisan breakfast sandwiches with any drink purchase this week!

I got the turkey bacon, egg white and cheese sandwich.

Mmmmm, hello gooey cheese, I am going to eat you. $3.50 for coffee and a savory sandwich, not too shabby.

Dinner wise, I was planning on leftovers but two enchiladas weren’t going to hold me over so I made a salad out of the veggies in my fridge: red and orange peppers, celery, broccoli and green onions. I threw the veggies in my magic bullet and poured in a little dressing along with them to soften them up.

I did that while heating up my enchiladas. They were looking a bit measly so I poured some extra El Pato sauce on them and sprinkled with more cheese. A vegan, I shall never be.

A perfect, random meal. Love.

So yeah, that’s all I got. Hope everyone is having a lovely Tuesday!!

Out and About

Happy Friday the 13th!! This is four months until my birthday so in a weird way, I’ve been in a great mood all day b/c I feel like it’s celebration time for my big da. Which kinda baffles me b/c it’s not like I’m getting younger but birthdays still excite me. I am loving 30 but the time seems to be flying even faster than I thought it was in my late 20’s.

The last few days haven’t been anything too exciting….well food wise. I feel like I’ve been on the go non stop from working to doing stuff at night.  I really haven’t had any time to cook in the past few days which is depressing. I really haven’t time to do much of anything now that I think about it. I’ve been waking up, going to work, coming home, having a quick bite then going to whatever I’ve had planned at night, come home, cuddle with Lincoln and do it over again. I love how my social life is picking up and all and this is how it should be but I need to adjust to it. I love that I am meeting more people, doing my stuff, etc. it’s a complete 180 from when I was living in my old apartment in the boonies and just sitting at home.

Lincoln is not digging all this stuff taking me away from him (look at how he’s glaring at me!)

Thursday night was the most eventful, I met up with some friends at the US National Whitewater Center  and had some drinks at the River’s Edge Bar and Grill.

Source

 They have a solid selection of beer including ones with a higher alcohol content than normal, I started out with the Olde Mecklenberg Brewery Mecklenberger then made a mistake and got the King Coconut Porter-blech. All I saw was coconut and was sold but this was a rich, dark beer that was too heavy for me.

My friends got the Big Boss Hell’s Bell which was 7.0% so they were feeling pretty good after one of those bad boys. Big Boss is a local brewing company in Raleigh and I would love to go check out their brewery but I don’t think the girls want to after last night! Oddly enough when we got there, our waiter was pretty nice and then as the night progressed I think he lost his patience with us.

We kept looking over the menu and decided to order three dishes and share

Tidal Wave Tuna-Ahi tuna atop fried wontons on a bed of lettuce topped with guacamole

River’s Edge Chips with Cheese

 Potstickers.

All of it was good grub but the tuna was my favorite by far!

Some other food from the past few days……

 

 

On the other hand dinner tonight was outstanding! I carried out Caribbean food from Austin’s Caribbean Cuisine, a little take out  joint near my place. I didn’t feel like cooking tonight and wanted something different. I drove around for a little while trying to figure out what I was hungry for and see this place going home every day so I dropped in and ordered. I got the jerk chicken plate with red beans, rice and cabbage

This was great! The chicken was succulent, spicy and fell right off the bone. I’ll need to see what else they have next time I go since I didn’t get a good look when I was ordering. I love locally owned places but I find a lot of them don’t have websites and I like to know what I’m walking into before I go and order from somewhere. They didn’t have any paper menus or anything (they are being green is how I look at that?) and everything was written on a chalk board. Old school is good though.

 I also need to fit some time in this weekend to catch up on reading. Unfortunately, no fun reading like the books I picked up this week

 

but for the North Carolina Driver’s License test. I’ve been here four years so I guess I should finally suck it up and take the test right? I’ve heard it’s really hard and I suck at tests anyways so I am going to start on that and when I have a good hair day (which won’t be any day soon with this damn humidity), go and take that test.

Off to catch up on my Netflix, email and blogs. I love Friday nights 🙂

Thanks to Jackie’s Workout Plan

Happy Saturday? Did you know today was National Dance Day? I totally need to celebrate. And how is July already over with? I really don’t like how fast time goes by when you are older but I remember when I was younger time just seemed to drag on.

My latest addiction has been crackers and Laughing Cow Cheese. I get Garlic and Herb most of the time but took a chance on French Onion this last time and absolutely love it!

I’m not really a cereal person unless it is mixed with greek yogurt or on top of fro yo but for some reason this morning was all about a big, cold bowl of cereal with almond milk. I had Kashi Go Lean Crunch Toasted Berry Crumble with bananas

I have to go into work tomorrow so planned on running of my errands this morning,a breve iced coffee is a must on my weekends. I like to think of it as an indulgence since I usually have mine either fat-free half and half or soy milk during the week.

I tried a new workout DVD this morning–Jackie Warners Workout One on One Training. I am not into workout DVDs as I get bored really easily and just quit in the middle most of the time. I’ve had this sitting around the past few weeks from Netflix and finally decided to give it a try. It has three different 20 minute segments and you can pre-set it on your dvd player to include which ones you want to do. There is one for upper body, lower body and core/abs. I did the upper and lower body segments and I only have two words—-HOLY CRAP! It was an amazing workout and my body is not happy with me right now. Both the upper and lower body workouts were great and worked me out but the lower was my favorite since it had different variations of squats and lunges that I’ve never done before.  And it wasn’t a class setting per se, she would have her crew warm up altogether but then when doing each exercise, have just one person doing it so it was a bit more focused.

I didn’t get the calorie burn or heart rate I was looking for but I really enjoyed the DVD and felt like I got a good workout. Two thumbs up!

I was famished after that and it conveniently was lunch time. I had leftover pork from the other night with cole slaw and tomato wedges.

I picked up some new protein powders this afternoon. I’ve tried Spiru-Tein’s Cookies & Cream before and loved it (it tasted like a milkshake!) but unfortunately, I can’t find it in a tub anywhere. I looked on their website and you can’t even order it off there-wtf? They have a tub of the Blueberries & Cream though so I thought it would be smart to try it out beforehand.

Dinner was home-made veggie pizza using Trader Joe’s Whole Wheat Pizza Dough. I cooked up some artichokes, eggplant, sweet peppers and onions on the stove top with extra virgin olive oil, garlic and oregano while the oven was pre-heating.

Delicious! I made the crust a little thicker than I normally do and used more sauce (despite not digging alot of sauce) and I really enjoyed this.

I am supposed to go out tonight and meet a friend up for drinks but it will not stop coming down outside. Rain is a justifiable reason not to go outside right?

The Week That Was

Packing, moving, working, stressing, living-oi! It has been a pretty hectic week with all of that going on. Tomorrow is the big day for my move, I got my keys earlier this week but all the furniture and endless number of boxes are being hauled over there tomorrow. I feel like all I have been doing is packing, bubble wrapping, taping, cleaning, making sure I have everything and tossing stuff I don’t need.

The fridge is officially empty except for a cooler with essentials I refuse to throw away—-spray butter, sweet tea vodka, Wholly Guacamole, frozen pineapple and pizza dough. My power is being turned off tomorrow which is worrying me a bit–will it be turned off at midnight or just some random time tomorrow? My bed has been broken down so I am sleeping on the couch but little did I know that is where Lincoln runs off to in the middle of the night. Also, I did not know that an eight and a half pound dog could stretch to ridiculous lengths and crush me in the middle of the night. I woke up this morning smelling Frito’s but none were there, it was just his paw in my face. Anyone else notice their dogs paws smell like Frito’s? Seriously, smell them-they do. A dude mentioned that to me once and I thought he was nuts but he was right……and I hate admitting I am wrong about something.

So, tonight is the last night in my apartment. I’ve lived here three years, which is a record in my book. I haven’t lived anywhere this long except for the house I grew up in in Florida so this was major for me. I move around a lot whether it be to different apartments, cities, etc. so I guess I’m like a gypsy. This apartment holds a lot of memories for me—-rough times for me with personal and family issues, a few boys here and there…..from ex-convicts to ghanja toting boy with a normal one or two thrown in there, friends who are still in my life and some that are not and oh yeah, the whole being a dog momma thing.

 I just can’t believe I stayed in one place this long–I love this apartment so much but the quality of people has just gone downhill. I heard that our complex isn’t even doing credit or background checks like they were doing when I moved in and it is more of a college, white trash and Russian mafia mix now which I am really not digging seeing that I am, sigh, 30 yrs old. I am so excited to move to my new neighborhood since it is closer to the city and within walking distance to bars, restaurants and eeeeeeek—four coffee places!

Wow, I guess I had a lot to get out—-if you’re still ready this, thanks for not clicking away 🙂

Let’s talk food! I’ve been eating out waaaaaaaay more than usual this week due to moving, not having food, throwing stuff out and such. My waistline and my wallet are not happy about this so I am excited to get into my new place and buy some groceries and get to cooking again! I now present the random goodness (and not so much) that I had this week.

Trader Joe’s Whole Wheat Pizza Dough topped with TJ’s Spinach and Artichoke Dip with sautéed spinach and roasted tomato

6 inch Chicken Tender Sub with White America, tomato, banana peppers and Chipotle Mayo from Harris Teeter

Cucumbers with Trader Joe’s Kalamata Olive Hummus

Sausage, egg and cheese wrap from Just Fresh

Baked chicken pieces with ranch and tabasco dipping sauce and an Arnold Whole Wheat Sandwich Thin topped with honey. This was the worst meal of the week, in my opinion, however Lincoln was on it like white on rice.

Amy’s Breakfast Burrito

Cookies N Cream and Plain Fro Yo topped with Fruity Pebbles, Strawberries, Mango and gummy bears. Random yet fabulous

Huevos Wrap from Just Fresh

Chicken Finger Salad from Chick-Fil-A with Fat Free Honey Mustard—-anyone dress up like a cow today for a free meal? I tried to sweet talk my way into a meal since I was wearing a black top with white polka dots but they weren’t having that.

It’s weird how so much has gone on in this apartment yet I remember the first meal I had—chicken pesto pizza from Fresh Market, the memory is a funny thing I tell you. I can’t remember where one of my six pairs of scissors is but I remember a meal three years ago.

Turtle Brownie Bar from Hearth Strings Foods. I emailed them last week to see if they have nutrional values for their bars and granola and sadly they don’t, boo.

So, that’s it. I won’t even begin to talk about what a hellacious week at work this has been but when I blog next (hopefully tomorrow if Time Warner is on time?) I will be in my new pad!

Stay cool everyone—it’s stifling out!

Start spreading the news

I’m leaving super early tomorrow! My flight is at 6A so I will have to be up at 3A since I am checking a bag. But I am flying on Jet Blue so there is no fee and I’ve heard great things about them so I am anxious to see what makes them supposedly stand out.

Thank you sleep gods, I got 8.5 hours of sleep last night and felt fabulous rolling out of bed. If I didn’t drink so much water at night, I could have slept longer but my rule is if it’s a reasonable hour and I get out of bed, there is no reason for me to go back. That being said since I was lounging in bed, Lincoln got extended cuddle time since he was being boarded today.

It seems like some of you don’t know of other bloggers in your area—you should throw it out sometime on your blog. I had absolutely no clue there were others in Charlotte til I saw Lauren post something about having an area meet up—-you never know who is reading and could be interested!

I ran a bunch of errands this morning and got fueled at Starbucks: Grande Iced Coffee with Skim Milk and one pump Raspberry Syrup and a spinach/feta/eggwhite wrap

This was my first time trying the wrap and it was great! Rarely do I get food at Starbucks but I will be trying this again if I am in need of breakfast. I went to Ross, Kohls and Target and then got back to hang with Lincoln and get some packing in

Look at this cute oils and vinegar variety pack I picked up at Ross courtesy of the clearance aisle–$3.49

For lunch, it was breakfast time again. I made an egg white omelet topped with Trader Joe’s Cuban Style Black Beans, spinach and sun-dried tomatoes with a whole wheat sandwich thin with spray butter and cinnamon sprinkled atop

A green purple monster with Almond Milk, Baby Spinach, McDonalds Parfait and blueberries topped with granola

This was a super meal! I loved the combination of the black beans, spinach and sun-dried tomatoes as random as it was. The purple monster was fabulous as well, I think mostly because of the McDonalds Parfait. Meals like this make me happy I am cleaning out my cabinets and making random concoctions 🙂

I took Lincoln to the boarding place and I didn’t cry or anything! That’s a complete lie. I was fine until she took me back there into where he would be staying and I was in sensory overload with all the puppies barking and licking me, Lincoln grasping onto me for dear life and the whole experience of him not staying with someone I know. I started bawling, kissed him goodbye and left. I get too emotional when it comes to that dog!

I went to the pool for a fews and got some reading in. I saw some people playing pool volleyball and they were short one person so I joined in for an hour. I miss playing volleyball so much! I used to play alot but pool volleyball is definitely my favorite since I am not a beach volleyball person (hate the sand)

Dinner was Ziti from the Olive Garden —I snagged some yesterday in a to go container before it was all gone so I would have something other than breakfast foods to eat today.

I took some Tylenol PM and waiting for it to kick in soon! I need to get as much sleep as possible now since I know I won’t be getting a lot this wknd. Will I be blogging? You’ll have to stop by and see! I’m really not trying to be a tease, I just really have no clue 🙂 I will have gazillions of pictures when I get back though-that I know for sure!

Til the next time……