I'm baaaack! Massachusetts Goodies and Mosaic Blogger Meet Up

I'm back in the dirty South! I had so much fun visiting my family and can't wait to go back again. While I was there, I found a bunch of new fun foods. The very first day I found the Peanut Butter & Co. Mighty Maple peanut butter at Hannaford for only $3.89. Another place I wanted to pick up nut butter was at Trader Joe's!  My aunt Jennifer brought me to their location in Acton, where I grew up.

We found lots of goodies and had fun checking out their products. Jennifer wanted to buy this just for the name:

After a week's worth of random food and souvenir shopping, my suitcase became so full I had to sit on it to zip it shut. No big deal, right? Well, when I got to the airport, it was 10 lbs over the limit! I opened up my suitcase to put stuff in my carry-on and because it was so packed, it popped open and bras and underwear went flying all over...oh, and peanut butter jars and brownie mixes, too. Oh, the life of a foodie. Here are all the goodies I brought home:

• Peanut Butter & Co. Mighty Maple peanut butter 
• Peanut Butter & Co. Rip-Roaring Raspberry jelly
• No Pudge! Fudge Brownie Mix, Cappuccino
• Trader Joe's Reduced Guilt Brownie Mix
• Trader Joe's Sesame Honey Almonds
• Trader Joe's Almond Butter with Flax Seeds
• Maine Blueberry Honey (can't wait for this on my Blueberry Ricotta pancakes!! 

I was so excited to take home all these goodies, even if it meant that 50% of my souvenirs from Massachusetts/Maine were FOOD items! When I got home Tuesday night, I had a package waiting for me. I recently became facebook friends with the manager of one of our local Chick-fil-As. For being such a "raving fan", he sent me some gifts:

In the box were 2 stuffed cows, 2 football-shaped koozies, a pencil sharpener, a Pez dispenser, a towel, and lotssssss of coupons! Thank you to Rick & Debbie Blind of the Centre Pointe location! :)

Yesterday was my first day back to work, yuck, but I had a blogger meet up to look forward to. For dinner, Erica, Lindsay, Blair, Amelia, Kerr, Katie, and  I met up at Mosaic Cafe in Mt. Pleasant. Mosaic Cafe is an adorable restaurant that strives to use local ingredients and focuses on seasonal cuisine. The menu is full of soups, sandwiches, and salads. I chose the Oriental Chicken Salad: chicken breast salad (sesame seeds, snow peas, scallions & walnuts), carrots, sprouts, crunchy noodles, grape tomatoes, with a sesame-ginger vinaigrette for $10.95. 

It was pretty good, but not fantastic. I'm not sure if it was from the chicken or the dressing, but it was extremely salty. And my salad didn't have any snow peas, scallions, or walnuts on it. Hmmm. I still had a great time catching up with all the ladies and meeting Katie and Kerr for the first time. :) Here we are inside the restaurant. 

From left, Blair, Erica, Kerr, Katie, Lindsay, Amelia, me:

 

And another pic from outside. I purposely wore flats so I would be as short as Erica. She ended up wearing heels and we were still the same height! :)

Remember my 3-week Abstinence from Alcohol challenge? It's almost over!! The time is length is random, I know, but we decided to do it on the 10th, and just wanted to do it until the end of the month. On Saturday, I'll be celebrating the fact that I have been able to go without a sip of alcohol for 3 whole weeks -- even while on vacation! I'm a little afraid that a couple sips of wine will have me falling out of my chair. I better surround myself with good company!

One more thing: I added a new tab a couple weeks ago: Foodie Goodies. It's a page dedicated to my absolute favorite food products. Check it out and let me know what your favorites are! I'm always looking for new items to add!