Food For La

Hi everyone,

If you’ve stopped by Food For La any time in the past month you’ve noticed my lack of posting. I won’t be updating again until after May 15th.

In the past month, lots of changes have been happening around here:

1. I got a fantastic offer to attend Clemson University for my MA in English and I’ve accepted. Roman now lovingly refers to me as Tiger Paw.

2. Roman and I were up there (it’s 5 hours from where we live on the coast) a couple of weeks ago and found a sweet house to rent.

3. The condo is a disaster as we’ve been packing up our stuff little by little, plus searching for and tracking down furniture on craigslist. It’s been a major success and we now have a dining room table with six chairs, coffee table, queen bedroom set, wing back chair, and linens chest hanging out in our living/dining room so it’s a bit of a mess.

4. My job as a consultant for a non-profit housing rehabilitation organization has continued to put more and more work on me. I’m developing a database that will allow all three of our locations to connect to access client records, funding sources, construction information, etc. In addition, one of our affiliate partners hired me as a freelance grant writer so I’ve essentially been working two jobs this past month.

Sorry for my absence although I have been eating all sorts of yummy things and have been working on and tweaking a polenta pizza recipe that I swear tastes exactly little Sicilian pizza. It needs a bit more work, but it’s almost there. For all of you gluten-free folks, be prepared for some serious yumminess when this is up. I also made homemade strawberry basil sorbet that was lovely.

Oh, and back to May 15th—that’s when we’re moving! Three weeks from today, so shortly thereafter I will be back in full force with recipes and pictures of my new home.

Hope you all are enjoying spring and don’t forget to check back next month

This was a great weekend. I got so much done around the house, caught up on emails, went shopping, cooked, watched movies, and spent some time at the beach. Spring is definitely coming–my parent’s daffodils are looking great already.

Friday night I made a fantastic salad…really surprisingly good. I eat so many salads that I need to vary the flavor components to keep it fresh. This one started with a bed of organic spinach, strawberries, blue cheese, and cooked fingerling potatoes that I coated with a bit of olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. The blue cheese and potatoes were perfection together and the strawberries added a nice sweetness.

Friday night we watched Gosford Park, which Roman and I thought was kind of hard to follow. I think a lot of it had to do with the accents + the whispering voices. Great cast though.

Saturday morning I went for a walk along the beach since it was so warm and bright out. I came back home and made a breakfast burrito (using corn tortillas–naturally gluten free!) with 2 egg whites, 1 egg, spinach, cheddar cheese, and a pinch of pepper. Delish

I ate this on my way out the door heading to the mall. I got two fantastic sweaters from GAP, a few cloth napkins, six towels which I got a ridiculously good deal on, and a dress for my sister-in-laws wedding in June. Overall, a very successful shopping trip. I love shopping by myself, it really is therapeutic to browse and go at my own pace. I always find amazing deals when I’m alone too.

Lunch was lentil soup Roman made the day before. I LOVE this lentil soup. The recipe is super easy and is adapted from here. I like dipping some Food Should Taste Good chippies in for some crunch.

I headed to the beach afterwards to get a little sun on my legs–they are so white! It was 74* and gorgeous.

And then it happened—I had pancakes! This might not seem like a big deal, but it’d been two years since I’ve had the warm fluffiness that is a pancake. Living gluten-free has changed my life for the better I believe, however, there are those days that I would sacrifice a small dog for a slice of pizza, warm bread, or a stack of pancakes.

I picked these up two weeks ago in Charlotte and I was thinking, why get dressed up and go out when you can stay home and eat gluten-free pancakes in your pj’s while watching an emotionally draining motion picture (The Boys are Back with Clive Owen)? Clearly I was game.

The original plan was for Roman and I both to eat these for dinner. I oohed and aahed as I took the first bite, and Roman, well he thought there was something wrong with them. Needless to say, he ended up eating this for dinner-

This morning I had a cup of tea and an omelet with one egg white, one egg, spinach, and cheddar cheese. This guy held me over for almost four hours!

Afterwards we did errands–taking the recycling to the center, Walgreens, grocery shopping, and then going for a walk around the neighborhood.

Roman and I have both been craving curry so we put it on the menu tonight. Roman went to India in November 2009 with a good friend while we were living in Thailand. He went to New Delhi for a few days (and bought me a kurta from the same shop Gandhi got his!), but spent most of his time in Kerala, the southern region known for its spices. While there, he bought Kerala pepper, cardamom, turmeric, chili powder, all spice, vanilla beans, garam masala, cloves, nutmeg, and saffron. I did a taste test tonight and McCormick’s turmeric has got nothing on this stuff.

Ingredients for Indian-Inspired Shrimp Curry:

• -1 onion, chopped
• -4 cloves of garlic, minced
• -1 pound of potatoes, diced
• -1/3 head of cauliflower
• -1 cup of frozen green beans
• -2 tablespoons turmeric
• -2 tablespoons chili powder
• -6 cups chicken stock
• -1/2 pound shrimp

1. Saute onion until translucent.  Add garlic and potatoes and mix in turmeric and chili powder.

2. Add cauliflower and chicken stock to the pan and simmer for two hours (this starts to smell amazing).

3. Cook rice 30 minutes before serving. At the same time add frozen green beans to the onion, potato, and cauliflower mixture.

4. 10 minutes before cooking, marinate the shrimp in olive oil, garlic powder, s & p, and a bit of pineapple juice. Cook for three minutes.

5. Assemble dish by starting with a rice base, add curry, and top with shrimp and pineapple.

This was HOT, so if you’re not big on spice reduce the chili powder to 1 tablespoon.

If you want this to taste like authentic Indian curry, I would omit the pineapple. I needed to cut the heat with something sweet so this did in a pinch, but I did like the flavor profile of the dish better without it.

My stomach was burning from this so I settled it with some vanilla ice cream and chocolate peanut butter. That’s reason enough, right?

I love this stuff–

Off to read a bit and then to bed. I’ve switched from contemporary reads to classics for now and am currently reading The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. It’s very good.

Hope you have a relaxing end to the weekend. G’nite!

Hello again.

I’ve taken a bit of a blogging sabbatical to spend lots of time with family (between Roman’s and my family, we’ve had 13 family dinners in the past 17 days…whew) and enjoy some down time. I continued to take pictures here and there, but didn’t put any pressure on myself to capture everything. It seems when I’m in the mindset that a particular meal or trip is going to be featured, I become somewhat removed from the actual experience itself because I’m thinking about lighting and angles for the photographs, plus descriptions and angles for the text.

Does anyone else feel this way? I’m curious about the full-time bloggers like Kath, Tina, Caitlin, and Meghann (my favs) and how they balance living in the moment while still pausing the moment to capture photos and and document their eats, lives, etc. I suppose it becomes ingrained after some time.

It was cool to go back through all of the photos over the past two weeks and see what I’ve been eating. I’m definitely consistent when it comes to my food, however, I realize I really need to start switching it up a bit more. Let’s check it out.

Salads

Lettuce, avocado, and almonds in a tahini dressing

Spinach, zucchini, red onion, and red bell pepper with some fresh lemon juice

Greek salad

Spinach salad with salmon, wild rice, and red bell pepper with fresh lemon juice

Avocado salad (or dip) mixed with tomatoes, red onion, s & p, red pepper flakes and lime juice

Greek salad

Can you tell which two salads I ate at restaurants? Leave a comment below and there’s a prize for the winner!

Omelets

This was stuffed with sauteed onions and bell peppers + cheddar cheese (I’m finally making good lookin’ omelets!)

This was stuffed with sauteed onion, bell pepper, spinach and cheddar cheese

Peanut butter and banana chocolate rice cakes

(Eaten at my desk at work—do you like my Ziploc  plate?!)

Smoothie Shakes

This was 1/2 frozen banana, 1/2 cup Greek yogurt, 1 T peanut butter, glug of skim milk, and ice blended together.

This was 1/2 frozen banana, 1/2 cup Greek yogurt, 5 strawberries, handful of blueberries, glug of skim milk, and ice blended together.

Rita’s Water Ice

Rita’s gelati is my favorite treat ever, but sadly we don’t have any here. However, when I recently visited Charlotte and Charleston I was delighted to find out that both of them have Rita’s! I got the same thing in both cities–mango ice with vanilla custard. YUM!

Animals

No! I didn’t eat any—still going strong on Operation No Meat—although I am eating fish/shrimp. Natalie (my sister’s dog) came to visit + my parent’s dog Izzie.

And some random ducks that were at an outdoor restaurant Roman and I went to last week.

Roman and I took a lovely trip to Charleston last Sunday. We walked around, did some shopping, took a break for cocktails, and had a great dinner.

We dined at Tsunami–our favorite sushi place in Charleston.

It’s been a fun two weeks. In good news, I managed to make it to the gym 4x last week and am working on that this week

I’ll leave you with my favorite pictures–here’s my sister Judi (visiting from Charlotte) with little Izzie.

I’m heading outside to play since it’s 71*. Hope it’s warm where you are….have a great weekend

Happy Friday, ya’ll!

The sun is shining, I’m done with work, and the weekend has begun. I’ve been away the past couple of days since I’ve been working late and my mother and father-in-law are in town, so we’ve been having long suppers and catching up. Right now, I’m in Barnes & Noble drinking an English Breakfast tea with half water/half steamed soy milk along with a Pomegranate Chobani I picked up at the Piggly Wiggly–topped with homemade granola.

We had an incredibly huge supper last night and I am still SO full, but I knew I needed to eat something to get the metabolism going. Yesterday, I got to work early and ate breakfast at my desk–two chocolate rice cakes (gluten-free) topped with natural peanut butter and banana. I really like this combo and eat it for breakfast or as a snack. I discovered those Arnold Thins when I first got back from Thailand and really loved those, but had to stop eating them once I found out I couldn’t digest gluten, and these rice cakes are not a bad alternative.

Lunch was leftover Warm Quinoa and Succotash Salad I had for dinner a few nights ago. This was super easy to make and really yummy. Ingredients for the Succotash:

• -1 onion, chopped
• -3 cloves of garlic, minced
• -1 cup of frozen corn
• -1 cup of frozen lima beans
• -1 zucchini, diced
• -1/2 red bell pepper, diced
• -1 tablespoons butter
• -salt and pepper
• -paprika

Directions

1. Saute the onion in a bit of olive oil. Once nearly translucent, add garlic and saute for another two minutes.

2. Add corn, lima beans, zucchini, red bell pepper, and butter and cook on low for 15 minutes. Add salt, pepper, and a few shakes of paprika to taste.

3. Cook quinoa according to package directions and then add to the succotash pan and mix together.

I was really lazy that night and didn’t take any pics of the final product, so all I have is the salad in my tupperware, which isn’t the prettiest. Most succotashes I’ve had use a lot more butter than 1 tablespoon, however, I found this was enough for me. Some fresh mint would have been a nice punch of flavor for this also, but overall this is a great combo of protein, fiber, and veg with a little fat from the butter and olive oil.

After work I headed to the gym and did 32 minutes on the treadmill alternating between 7-9% incline. Next up was 10 minutes of weights and 10 minutes on the bike reading a Vanity Fair article.

And then there was dinner……

I totally overdid it. I was starving so I dug right in to everything. Granted, most of it was healthy, but I just ate too much. I hate that stuffed to the gills feeling.

I started with some edamame, yellow bell pepper slices, and nuts. And a glass of Chardonnay, of course.

Dinner included:

• -salmon
• -mashed potatoes
• -wild rice
• -carrots
• -green beans
• -asparagus
• -salad

And I ate it all!

I went back for more mashed potatoes and vegetables, and then had Peanut Butter Cup ice cream when we got home while watching The Office (yay Pam and Jim!) even though I knew I didn’t need it and was too full to eat more. I went to bed with a gurgly tummy, but it was a great meal

In other news, we’ve been home from Thailand for a year now (as of March 3rd) and I just can’t believe it.

Our year there passed by so fast and now our year home has passed by so fast. Where does the time go? Do you remember as a kid it seemed to take forever for Christmas and summer vacation to come? And now…the holidays and birthdays seem to be whizzing by. I definitely need to relish these times as my twenties seem to be going by pretty quickly.

My Mom and I are off to Charlotte for the weekend to visit my sisters Jessica and Judi. Should be lots of wine, shopping, and eating. Can’t wait

Have a great Friday!

Another great Sunday  Roman and I met Mimi for brunch at her Club and had a lovely meal. I woke up at 7:30 and half an hour later I was starving so I made a small bowl of oats to tide me over. Worked like a charm. I was super hungry again when we met up at 11:00 and I dug right in starting with some tea and lemon and then scoping out the options.

The omelet station looked great so I had one with onions, tomatoes, red bell pepper, and cheddar cheese.

I was really hoping for some roasted potatoes or hash browns, but came across horseradish mashed potatoes instead, which for a potato lover like myself, worked just as well. I also loaded my plate with a scoopful of spinach gratin.

And onto the fruits and greens–I made a salad with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, pineapple, grapes, plus some blueberries I took from the waffle station. Topped with a bit of balsamic vinaigrette.

I ate all of my salad, all of my omelet and potatoes, and took two bites of the spinach gratin. <—–This was more like creamed spinach, which I’m not the biggest fan of. Roman happily finished it for me.

After we digested a bit, I took some pictures of the lovely grounds.

These are 300 year-old Oak trees and I think they are so incredible. Imagine what these trees have witnessed from sapling to the aging arthritic presence they are today–the Revolution, Civil War, Industrialization, Commercialization, Plantation to Golf Course. Even more incredible is all of the people, past and present, that have walked past or sat beneath these beauties.

After brunch, Roman and I took care of errands and then came home to watch the USA vs. Canada GOLD medal game. And what a friggin’ game! I was definitely yelling at the TV and even though USA lost in overtime, they did a great job scoring that last goal 30 seconds before the end of the third period. Way to go USA!

We had plans to go out to dinner tonight to celebrate our half-anniversary (although not technically…we were married August 29th, 2008, and since there is no February 29th this year it’s kind of a draw between 2/28 and 3/1), but our restaurant was closed. Boo! We’ve decided to celebrate on Tuesday instead, which worked out great because I wasn’t really that hungry from brunch. We had a little Happy Hour and I munched on Food Should Taste Good chippies with some salsa and a glass of wine.

Just had a handful of nuts and Craisins and I’m going to call that dinner for the night. Heading to bed to read for a bit and then back to the grind. I’m heading to Charleston tomorrow for work so it’s bright n early for me, but I’ve got a great and easy breakfast planned.

Have a good night

This has been a great weekend so far—food, exercise, cleaning, and shopping—doesn’t get much better than that (yes, I like to clean). Last night Roman and I took his grandmother, Mimi, out for supper. She’s never tried sushi so we went to our favorite restaurant, Salt Creek, to give her a taste. Grabbed a handful of cashews and snapped a pic of Harry the Cat before heading out.

When we got there it was packed so we waited in the bar for 20 minutes. I started with a Mark West Pinot Noir.

Salt Creek just recently started serving sushi–they’re more of a sandwich, salad, fried seafood kind of place. I love it there because they serve $3 Bloody Mary’s, Mimosas, Rum and Cokes, and Mojitos all of the time. It doesn’t get better than that. A woman at the bar was eating fried shrimp and oysters that looked incredible and sweet potato fries, and I knew I at least had to have the fries.

We got two side order of the fries to split between the three of us and ordered five sushi rolls: eel and avocado, spicy tuna, spicy salmon, Salt Creek krabstick, and California. Mimi had a few of the tuna and salmon and left the rest to Roman and I, so they also shared a chicken and spinach pizza in a garlic white wine sauce. It smelled incredible. I need some good gluten-free pizza in my life.

I dominated the eel and avocado and the Salt Creek krabstick roll. Delish Also had a second glass of wine.

This morning I cleaned and then Roman and I went for an afternoon walk. It was about 50* today so not terrible, but still chilly. I love our walks because we catch up on a lot of stuff, plan the week, and get our heart rates up a bit jogging every once in awhile. We popped over to the marsh, which is 4 minutes from the condo and took it in. We’re waiting for the crabs to come back so we can catch them again and make crab cakes, crab omelets, etc.

We decided to head over to the Salvation Army afterwards to check it out. I’ve lived here for two years and have taken things over to donate, but have never looked around. I’m SO glad that I did! While we were walking Roman and I talked about what we’ll need for our house when we move, and I mentioned a food processor since the one I use now belongs to Roman’s Mom. As soon we we walked in we saw a Hamilton Beach one for $4.99. No joke! I grabbed it with a quickness It’s a little old school, but I think it’s great.

We then went up the road to a semi-upscale consignment store called Take Two. I found an Ann Taylor LOFT skirt for $4.50. I tried it on and it fits perfect. The photos don’t do it justice–it’s really cute. This is such an easy way to practice green living–someone’s trash became my treasure and I saved a boatload of bucks. It’s amazing how many plates, cups, and other home goods are at these stores, most of them gently used and waiting for a new home.

We came home and I rushed to make dinner since I was starving. I munched here and there for lunch, but didn’t have anything too substantial. Dinner was a big salad with organic mixed greens, English cucumber, an entire avocado, salt, pepper, and lemon juice + a baked potato with BBQ sauce. <—–This is my new favorite combination, it is so so good.

Not the prettiest dinner, but damn it was good. Roman and I were dreaming of Rita’s Italian Water Ice Gelatos tonight and craving the frozen yogurt/water ice deliciousness.  We don’t have any near us so we attempted to make our own. They’re supposed to look like this:

(I took this off of Google so not sure who’s picture this is….)

But ours looked like this:

I put our new food processor to the test and dumped in two lemon ices mixed with a scoop of the frozen yogurt to make it creamier. This thing is a champ.

While it was no Rita’s, it was still a yummy after dinner treat. Netflix are in so we’re going to watch Nurse Jackie since it came recommended. Tomorrow we’re meeting Mimi for brunch at her Club.

Hope you’re all having a great weekend

Good Morning,

Hope you’re having a wonderful Wednesday so far. It’s 7:30 and already 45* so I think spring is coming soon. February is usually our worst month here, and it really hasn’t been too brutal. We’ve had a few 40* days (plus some snow), but besides that it’s been in the 50’s and even a few days in the 60’s. Roman and I are really looking forward to warm spring days so we can resume our nightly walks. It’s just too unappealing to bundle up when it’s nice and toasty inside

Dinner last night returned us to our Asian flavors. Since I’ve been working late a few days, Roman has taken over on cooking dinner a few nights a week. Last night’s meal was delicious: rice noodle (gluten free) stir-fry with red bell peppers, onion, carrots, celery, garlic, cabbage, parsley, green onions, and a bit of soy sauce. Super light and yummy.

While shopping around Mount Pleasant (right outside of Charleston) on Sunday we popped into Whole Foods for lunch and I picked up some molasses and ginger gluten-free cookies. These things are to die for! I don’t remember the last time I had a cookie. Soft, spicy, moist, sugary—it’s all there. At 160 calories each, though, you can’t eat too many, however, I did go back for a second one because they were just  that amazing.

Rewinding a bit–Roman and I had friends over for dinner on Friday night. Since we were both busy, we wanted to serve something super easy. Also, Roman’s brother, Trevor, was coming into town from USC with his friend for the weekend, so we also wanted something to serve a crowd. I made two pans of enchiladas: one with chicken, beans, and veggies and one just with beans and veggies. Served with avocado.

If you’d like the recipe for these check out this post for (En)Lightened Enchiladas.  I also made a white bean dip as an appetizer served with Food Should Taste Good chippies. The white bean dip was super easy, simply combine:

• -8 oz. of cooked Great Northern Beans (or any white bean)
• -3 cloves of garlic
• -1 lemon, juiced
• -handful of parsley
• -1/4 cup of olive oil
• -salt and pepper, to taste

Everything goes into the food processor and is pulsed until desired consistency. I did stream the olive oil in and I took the lid off a couple of times to scrape the sides. The raw garlic gives this a really nice punch and the color is pretty from the parsley. I’ll be making this again.

Roman and I decided to do a wine tasting before dinner. For whites my favorite is Sauvignon Blanc and for reds it’s Pinot Noir. When Roman and I first started dating he bought a case of Cambria Pinot Noir, which we both loved and consider it “our” wine. We drink a bottle on our anniversaries and besides that just every once in awhile.

The two contendors were the California Cambria and a French varietal.

Hands down the Cambria won. Our guests agreed that it is a lovely wine and I think it’s bold yet fruity blend sets it apart. The French Pinot Noir was too thin if that makes any sense. I love how rich the Cambria is.

Our guests also brought a lovely bottle of wine we finished later in the week.

For dessert I picked up SO Dairy Free Mint Marble Fudge “ice cream.” This was my first time having dairy free ice cream and it was good. I still prefer regular ice cream, but this is not a bad substitute. The only thing I found a little off about this is that it has a savory taste at the end, which is weird to me for a sweet dessert.

Saturday was spent with my good friend Brooke. She invited me to a brunch and then we went shopping at TJMaxx where I found some cute red sandals. The breakfast was a buffet so I had scrambled eggs, potatoes, grapes, strawberries, grapefruit, and warm apples.

To be honest, I was so full from dinner that I had trouble finishing this. I definitely overdid it on the white bean dip, enchiladas, and wine. Blah.

Sunday Roman and I went out with my parents to do some shopping. The highlight of the day was stopping by Whole Foods for lunch and to pick up some items. I hit up the hot bar and loaded my plate with quinoa salad, succotash, broccoli, sweet potatoes (these tasted like marshmallow pillows!), a piece of curried eggplant, and roasted potatoes. So so good. I had a vanilla tea on the side.

It was a great weekend and the early part of this week has been work, work, work. Many of the projects I’m working on are coming together and in the next few weeks I think there’ll be a lot of progress, which I’m excited to make happen. Since Thursday is my Friday (I only work 4 days a week) the weekend will be here before I know it!

Have a great day

Hello one and all!

Again, it’s Thursday. Already.

1. I don’t know where the week went

and

2. How do people work and work out?

I’m really struggling to find the energy to do both and am thinking I may need to go back to working out early in the morning. Years ago when I was in school, my friend Brooke and I would get to the gym by 5:30, do weights for 30 mins., then take the 6am yoga class, then do 25 mins. on the treadmill. Hardcore! I was 17% body fat then and don’t want to think about what I am now. But then again, you don’t get results just thinking about it, or as Jillian Michael’s says, “You can’t get this for free.” Hmmphh.

The past few days have been busy and great with work. Everything was new last week, but now that I’m a bit more seasoned I’m able to really dive in and get started on projects. On my agenda: website launch, fundraising, partner-wide accessible database, etc. It’s fun to use different skills to get the job done.

Onto the eats:

Earlier in the week I made a Greek pasta salad that I’ve been munching on for lunch and dinners. This recipe was inspired by the Greek pasta salad my sister Judi made on Christmas Eve.

Ingredients:

• -8 oz. of gluten-free brown rice pasta
• -1/2 of an English cucumber, diced
• -can of artichoke hearts, sliced
• -handful of capers
• -1/2 of a red bell pepper, sliced
• -a few generous handfuls of feta cheese
• -olive oil
• -garlic salt
• -pepper
• -fresh lemon juice

So easy to make–just boil the pasta and throw all of the other ingredients together. I put this on top of organic mixed greens for some more veg. I’ve had this 3x so far this week so I’m a little over it, but I’m thinking of throwing some pesto in there and heating it up in a skillet to bring out some other flavors. I hate to waste food.

Two nights ago my grandmother-in-law, Mimi, came over for supper. I had quinoa and bean burgers on the menu, but when I took out my gluten-free bread (that granted, has been in the fridge for awhile) it had mold all over it, and I needed to put it in a food processor to make bread crumbs. That went out of the window, so what do you have when you need to whip up something quick? Omelets!

I am not a morning egg person, but I LOVE eggs for supper. It seems so French to have an omelet, roasted potatoes, salad, and white wine so that’s what we did.

I dressed my omelet up with salsa and green onions and my potatoes with ketchup. The salad had organic mixed greens, goat cheese, Craisins, and walnuts.

My omelet consisted of Eggland’s Best Eggs and I used one egg, one egg white, broccoli, and cheddar cheese. Delish!

I had a quick lunch date with Brooke the other day. I love her kitchen because she gets such great natural light. When we buy a house it will be a must to have large windows everywhere–it makes such a difference in the photos. For lunch I had a Honey Oikos (love) with homemade granola. I made the recipe from Carrots ‘n’ Cake which suggested to bake for 15-18 minutes. At 15 minutes the granola was fairly burned, but I think it’s because I used a dark baking sheet. I made this before on a lighter sheet and it was fine, so just adjust the time if you’re using a dark baking sheet. I still loved it though! The whole almonds and coconut really make it.

+ half of a grapefruit

Tonight I really didn’t feel like cooking so I had a bowl of cereal–Rice Chex with a banana and soy milk. I love that the Chex line is gluten-free. It was nice to curl up on the couch and veg out with no dishes to do.

I’m off to watch Grey’s Anatomy and finish reading this month’s Real Simple. One cool tip I came across is Web2PDF, which is a website where you copy any URL and it will convert the web page into a PDF. Pretty cool.

We’re heading to Charleston to play this weekend and I’ve applied with FoodBuzz as a Foodie Correspondent to cover the Charleston Food & Wine Festival March 4-7th. Keeping my fingers crossed that they can dig up some media passes for me!

Have a great night

Okay, I was totally and completely wrong about the snow! Friday night we got about 5 inches—pretty unbelievable. Roman and I made Friday night our Valentine’s Date and went to Roz’s Rice Mill Cafe for a great dinner. It started to snow on our way there and didn’t stop for 12 hours. Check it out!

This was my second time to Roz’s and they do soup and salad really well. We started off with clam chowder which was amazingly flour and bacon-free. Really nice flavor. For my entree, I had an asparagus and shrimp salad over mixed greens  with red onions, pine nuts, goat cheese, and a tomato compote of sorts. Roman had a low country- style meal of pan fried flounder, grits, and black eyes peas in collards. With a Chardonnay or two. Dee-lish

We played in the snow when we got back and woke up to a nice blanket of white!

Saturday was a TOTAL bum day and today I did a bunch of errands plus went to see Valentine’s Day! It was just fun. I went to the noon show and took my lunch in with me: baby carrots, sliced red pepper, and hummus with paprika. I also had an un-pictured banana.

The snow melted pretty quickly, so this guy is all that’s left.

After running around all afternoon I came home and made a quick and easy supper. I cut up two zucchini and sauteed them for a bit and topped it with homemade tomato sauce I made two weeks ago, I think.

Semi watching Wolverine with Roman while I blog. Going to get some chocolate pudding, take a bath, and read before bed. Second week of back to work! Happy Valentine’s Day <3

(This is my V-Day card from Roman)

Well, hellllloooooo!

I have no clue where this week went! It has been a whirlwind for sure. I started my *new* job on Tuesday and have been pretty occupied with that. I’ve been hired as a consultant for a non-profit focusing on housing rehabilitations and have so much lingo and procedures to learn. I’ll be doing organizational and fundraising stuff. I worked for a non-profit a few years ago, the Horry County Literacy Council, and really loved working with adults to increase their reading level and that’s also where I got my start teaching ESL (English as a Second Language), which inspired me to pursue Princeton in Asia to teach in Thailand (p.s. new pics from my Thailand journal are going up all of the time, so check it out!).

In other news, Operation No Meat is going very well, except for the chicken stock I used for two homemade soups b/c I didn’t have time to make veggie stock. I had shrimp earlier in the week, but besides that it was all fruits and veggies, and I feel great. I don’t feel like this was a huge adjustment to make since I was only eating chicken/turkey once a week anyway.  And the good thing is it’s forcing me to get more creative with food, however, the bad thing is now that I’m back to work I’m tired when I get home at 6! I definitely chowed down on a lot of julienned cucumbers, carrots, and peppers with hummus for lunch/dinner.

Here’s a recap of some of my eats this week:

I used two leftover corn tortillas (gluten free!) to make a quesadilla. Why didn’t I think of this earlier?? It’s been so long since I’ve had the cheesy goodness of a quesadilla. This one had asparagus, artichoke hearts, sliced pepper, and cheese.

I just put a skillet on top of the quesadilla and pushed down.

I made my butternut squash soup again, and it was as delish as last time. Check out the recipe here. Again, so easy with frozen squash and it’s done from start to finish in 30 minutes. Try it!

I had this soup and salad combo with an organic mixed greens salad topped with sliced strawberries and avocado.  I make my own dressing by combining:

• -2 cloves of garlic, minced
• -2 tablespoons of olive oil
• -2 teaspoons of red wine vinegar
• -1/4 teaspoon salt
• -1/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• -pepper to taste

I was craving tacos the other night so I made red and black bean tacos. I soaked the beans and cooked them for an hour and added a packet of taco seasoning. Topped with lettuce, cheese, and salsa.

Roman and I had supper at my parent’s house the other night. I got there early, opened a bottle of wine, and did most of the cooking.  It was fun to see Izzie. She’s been groomed so she doesn’t look so ratty any more Dinner was shrimp, steak (for my Dad and Roman), spinach with golden raisins, roasted potatoes, sauteed sweet peppers, and fresh avocado. It was delish. With loads of Chardonnay, of course.

(I realized just now that there was a smudge on my lens. Boo!)

Last night’s dinner was a mishmash of whatever veggies were in the house for a quick soup. I sauteed an onion, 2 carrots, and 2 celery stalks until tender. Then I added 3 cups of chicken stock, 2 cups of water, 1/4 of a cabbage shredded, 1 cup of frozen lima beans, 1 cup of quick-cooking brown rice, loads of pepper, a pinch of salt, and a bay leaf. I let this simmer for 15 minutes and then topped with green onions. Veggie-rific

And finally Friday has arrived. My work schedule is just Monday-Thursday, so it looks like Fridays will be catch up days. I did some grocery shopping, laundry, emails, etc. so far today. They’re calling for some snow here, which I find unbelievable. In the seven years I’ve lived here (South Carolina) it’s flurried twice, for maybe 10 minutes…we’ll see. The grocery store was packed though in anticipation.

Breakfast was a big bowl of oats with toasted coconut and strawberries.

Roman and I are having a date tonight–we’re thinking sushi–and maybe he’ll let me drag him to see Valentine’s Day. It looks fun I also want to see Crazy Heart, has anyone seen it yet?

I’m going to really try posting more often so these posts aren’t so massive. Sorry! Kudos to you if you made it to the end of this. Have a fabulous Friday night and fun-filled weekend. Ciao!