The Friday Five 9.28.12

1. What I’m Reading: After waiting what seemed like forever, the library finally emailed me about this book I had on hold. It was worth the wait. Expect a recipe or two soon.

2. What I’m Buying:  This girl refuses to overload her closet with greys, blacks, and neutrals for winter. Bring on the color! This week I bought some obnoxiously bright jeans from Gap,

and a pair of saucy red corduroys from ON. They’re $19 right now. Pennies. Okay, dollars. But still! Get some.

I also bought this pretty bracelet from Piperlime.

3. Recipes I’m Bookmarking:  Beet Salad. Thanks Danielle!

Butternut Beet Soup.

4. What I’m Listening To: Two Hearts by Keegan DeWitt.

5. GIFs I’m Loving: Boding made me GIFs!

FLIRTING WITH A GUY AFTER 1 DRINK:

FLIRTING WITH A GUY AFTER 6 DRINKS:

I hope you all have a wonderful, blessed weekend! 

Thoughts On Thursday

1. I picked up my second box of the Fall CSA with Gruber Farm. This box had more Summer vegetables than I expected. I guess because the weather is cooling down (low 80s, ha), I feel like I should be eating Fall veggies.

In the box:

• potatoes
• radishes
• eggplant
• onion
• cucumber
• arugula
• tomatoes
• watermelon
• cantaloupe

2. Before leaving for the beach house last weekend, Amanda and I stopped by the liquor store for tequila. While checking out, I spotted this pickle flavored vodka. Can you imagine? I’d love to try it, but buy a whole bottle? I will not.

Once at the beach house, Amanda whipped up some tasty drinks with muddled strawberries, lime, vodka, and a splash of champagne. Party we did.

3. My aunt told me I needed to ask Siri to tell me a knock knock joke. I did, and her response was kind of rude.

4. To make things better, I set myself a happy wake up alarm. Starting the day on a positive note or being narcissistic? Don’t answer that.

5. As I was walking out to work this morning, I noticed two leaves in the shape of a heart. Is the universe trying to tell me to fall in love? EEEEK!

6. Though we don’t have an actual Fall, Charleston really is gorgeous this time of year. The humidity said sayonara, which makes for perfect running temps. Amanda and I are soaking up as much of this weather as we can and running outdoors a lot.

7. Try not to laugh at this.

WHEN MY BEST FRIEND AND I ARE TRYING NOT TO CRACK UP

Tomorrow is Friday! Yippee!!

What I’m Loving Wednesday 9.26.12

I love a lot of things this week! Weeeee!

1. I’m terrible at home decorating. This is the one Cancer trait I don’t possess. Out of curiosity, I took this style quiz to see what my home design personality was. I was not at all surprised by the results.

2. Amanda and I both had last Friday off, so we went to Black Bean Co. and split two wraps. On left: South West Chicken wrap (chicken, black beans, jasmine rice, sweet corn, roasted tomatoes, chipotle sauce, carrots, parmesan cheese, mixed greens). On right: Almost Summer wrap (chicken, mandarin oranges, goat cheese, candied almonds, rice noodles, arugula, raspberry citrus vinaigrette). The Almost Summer is a new fave!

3.  Have you ever noticed that Publix puts the most random assortment of goods on sale? I couldn’t help but make a comical display out of a few of them.

Then I thought, what the heck? I guess I should try making matzo ball soup if this mix is on sale. Into the basket it went! #Jewstina

4. Eating at Ali Baba on Sundays has become a ritual for Boding and me. Before he got to my apartment last Sunday, I posted a sign on my door, proposing our dinner plans.

As the picture shows below, he said yes. I wish Ali Baba was a real person so I could date the heck out of him.

5. Amanda and I have always run a couple times a week, but after 3ish miles, we’re like “Where’s the food?” Suddenly, we’re addicted. We ran 4 miles on Saturday, 5 miles on Sunday, and then Tuesday evening we just kept going…until we hit 6.5 miles.

We were kind of delirious after, unsure if we were hungry, dizzy, going to vom, laugh, cry, or pass out. We were both so excited though. Runner’s high is a real thing y’all. Here we are after our run on Sunday, playing tourists at Waterfront Park.

6. Last but not least, I bought the iPhone 5 on Friday and I love it like my first born (that I don’t even have). I love Siri and telling her what to do, like call me Xteeny because Christina is just too formal for this kind of love.

I’ve downloaded a silly amount of apps already.

 

Take the decorating style quiz, send me a matzo ball soup recipe, and tell me your favorite iPhone apps. Please! :)

Wine Awesomeness School and Club Awesomeness

Last week, my good friend Logan and the crew behind Wine Awesomeness had their second Wine School event.

Wine Awesomeness, whose tagline is “WINE IS BOLD. WINE IS SEXY. WINE IS DELICIOUS” is an ecommerce wine site that features unique, hand-selected wines from artisanal producers. Read more on their manifesto.

Aside from the ability to purchase bottles directly from the site, you can sign up for Club Awesomeness. Members of the club receive a monthly delivery of three bottles of wine, “something cool,” recipe pairings, and a music playlist – perfect for playing while you cook and sip wine. The “something cool” changes per month; you may open your box and fine a beach ball or purple teeth cleaner to remove the wine stains off your pretty smile. There are three wine club options:

At the event, about 20 of us gathered together to learn about the Club Awesomeness and sample some of the wines. In the mix for the evening were:

• Trevisol, Prosecco

• Borgo 'M' Friulano, 2010

• Valle Dell' Acate, Il Moro, Nero d’Avola, 2005

• Caruso & Minini, Nero d'Avola, 2009

While Logan filled up our glasses, Brad taught us about each wine.

We shared our opinions and talked about food pairings. I knew that we’d be drinking a couple reds, so I brought along a basket of Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies.

They were a hit.Who knew that cookies would pair well with wine? Oh, I did. Obviously.

Bonus to attending Wine Awesomeness events? You get to mingle with lots of cute boys.

So LISTEN! I know you’re already interested in joining Club Awesomeness. Lucky for you, those cuties let me give you a discount code for 10% off your orders. Enter hungrymeetshealthy at checkout and you’re on your way to AWESOMENESS.

What else would you want to be?

PS: Wine Awesomeness and I will be hosting another event around mid-October. The event will be limited, so if you’d like to hang with us, please shoot me an email to christinaorso@gmail.com.

Müller Yogurt Review & Giveaway!

As you may know, Müller Quaker Dairy, a joint venture between PepsiCo, Inc. and the Theo Müller Group, is bringing Europe’s beloved Müller™ yogurt to the U.S! Müller yogurt is made from reduced-fat, Grade A milk and is a good source of calcium and protein. It’s a delicious way to add delight to your day, with the nutritional benefits of yogurt.  

As a part of the DailyBuzz Food Tastemaker program, Müller™ provided me with a stipend and product for sampling. Thoughts and opinions are my own.

Müller Corner Open Pour Shots – creamy low-fat yogurt paired with delicious fruit toppings as well as crunchy cereal mix-ins. Available in Strawberry, Greek Caramelized Almond, Greek Blackberry Raspberry, Greek Strawberry.

Müller Corner – with add-ins that you can flip, stir or dip into the creamy yogurt. Available in Blueberry, Choco Balls, Choco Flakes, Crispy Crunch, Granola, Strawberry.

Müller Greek Corner – low-fat, Greek-style yogurt with delicious fruit or nut mix-ins. Available in Caramelized Almonds, Blackberry Raspberry, Honeyed Apricot, Strawberry.

Müller Fruit Up – low-fat yogurt on the bottom with a vibrant layer of fruit
mousse on top. Available in Blueberry Bliss, Luscious Lemon, Peach Passion, Radiant Raspberry, Splendid Strawberry, Very Cherry.

I was recently sent a shipment of the different yogurts for review. After trying them all, I have to say that I’m a huge fan. My favorite, by far, was the Greek yogurt with caramelized almonds. I also really loved the Greek blueberry and Greek honeyed apricot. I highly recommend you try these!

For more information, check out their:

• facebook
• twitter

Want to win some Müller yogurt? Two of you will win five coupons for a free yogurt.

To enter: Tell me your favorite kind of yogurt! Giveaway ends Friday, September 28th.

The winners of  the Muller Yogurt Giveaway are: Cassandra Padgett and Vaughn. Please email your shipping information to me at christinaorso@gmail.com. : )

The Friday Five 9.21.12

1. What I’m Reading: As I mentioned yesterday, I’m loving a ton of recipes in this book. Seriously, all the recipes are right up my alley. Check it out at your local ‘brary this weekend.

2. What I’m Eating: I’m really enjoying the new Muller yogurts that FoodBuzz sent me. I’ll have a full review up next week. I felt like a six year old eating the choco balls yogurt, but damn, it felt good.

3. What I’m Listening to:  Mumford & Sons – After the Storm. I feel like this is a good post break up song. Sorry to be depressing on a Friday.

4. Recipes I’m Bookmarking:  Homemade Clif Bars.

5. GIFs I’m Loving:

HOW I FEEL ABOUT POLITICAL POSTS ON FACEBOOK

MY BEST FRIEND AND ME

WHEN SOMEONE SAYS THEY LOVE EATING HEALTHY

I hope you all have a wonderful, blessed weekend! 

And that you eat lots of candy.

Tons.

xo.