Green Mountain Coffee K-Cup Ambassador Program

Earlier this year, I was invited to be part of the Green Mountain Coffee K-Cup Ambassador program. As part of the program, I received an awesome Keurig Special Edition Brewing System.

This machine makes mornings seamless. I just pop in a K-cup, press the brew button, and within a minute I have a mug of coffee. There are great features on the Special Edition System:

• Programmable
• Choice of 3 cup sizes (6 oz., 8 oz. and 10 oz.)
• Removable 60 oz. water reservoir
• It’s quiet!
• Energy Savings Mode – Auto On/Off

Each month, I receive a monthly mailer of K-Cups and goodies. This has been so much fun.

August – Green Mountain Naturals

• Lemonade K-cups
• Hot Apple Cider K-cups
• Lunchbox with thermos

September -

• Wild Mountain Blueberry K-Cups
• Blueberry Sour Cream Scone Mix
• Lemon Curd

October -  National Fair Trade Month

• Colombian Fair Trade Select
• Fair Trade Sumatran Reserve
• Pumpkin Spice
• Michael Franti’s CD
• Grace Potter & The Nocturnals CD
• Notebook
• Tote

November – Café Escapes

• Café Escapes®K-Cup® packs, including Café Caramel, Café Vanilla, Mocha, Milk Hot Chocolate, Milk Dark Chocolate and Chai Latte

I also wanted to provide you with this month’s promotional code for 15% off all Café Escapes^®products: ESCAPE8168.  The code will be valid through 12/4/2012 @ 11:59 pm EST on GreenMountainCoffee.com.

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What I’m Loving Wednesday

1. I introduced Danielle to Mi Xao on Monday. We split the London Broil pho…

…and the Lemongrass Chicken Stir Fry. We enjoyed both, but the London Broil was the clear winner. I squirted about half a cup of Sriracha in it (no joke) and I left with clear sinuses and a warm tummy.

2. Are you one of those people who very regularly gets their hair cut? I am. After 6-8 weeks I start to freak out a little because my hair is so thick and heavy. As we’re nearing winter, I want to embrace my naturally dark golden blonde hair. Don’t worry, the bob isn’t going anywhere, just getting a little longer.

Cut:

Color:

3. I love these wine bags from World Market.

                            

4. I want to make this button craft I saw on Pinterest.

5. The last time I went to Starbucks, a Christmas miracle happened. They correctly spelled my name.

Christina is not hard to spell, but trust me, people mess it up. Or they just write Christie or Kristina. I’ll just tell them Xtina from now on. Imagine the spellings they’ll come up with for that…

6. Town Centre does a wonderful job of decorating for the holidays, and damn they started early this year. I love this blanket of lights!

7. So many of you have signed up for the Ornament Swap I’m hosting!! There’s still time to sign up! If you’re interested, please send me an email by tonight. Thanks!

Who’s ready for Thanksgiving?! What are you guys making?

The Weekend Update

Hi friends! Here are some highlights from the past few days.

We celebrated my cousin Gabrielle’s twelfth birthday. This sweet girl is 12 going on 22; she’s almost as tall as me and probably smarter and more mature. And quite the beauty!

She’s into the mustache trend, so one of my presents to her was this pair of gloves.

Thursday night, Amanda and I went to the early showing of Breaking Dawn Part 2. I mentioned this on Friday, but let me say it again: the movie is so good! It is definitely my favorite of the saga. I want to know what you all think!

This past weekend I went to my grandparents’ house in North Carolina. It’s always so nice to visit them. Our weekend was full of shopping, wine and eats. Their house is in a really pretty neighborhood on a mountain and driving up always freaks me out. The curves and bends, yikes!

When I got there, I found some presents on my bed: a chocolate advent calendar, a Chick-fil-A cow from a race my grandfather had run, socks my grandma made, and a recipe they thought I’d like. Bonus: a crossword puzzle book, not shown.

Onto the eats! On Saturday, we went to 131 Main while we were out shopping at Biltmore Park Town Square. Sarah insisted I go there for the beet burger that she always gets. Right up my alley!

Look at how red it is. You’d almost think it was meat, right? Ha. It was really, really good and I’ve got to remake this at home. Sarah, let’s do this!

Saturday night, we made Ina Garten’s recipe for Roasted Shrimp with Feta. Changes we made: we nixed the Pernod and used artichokes instead of fennel.

We wanted to make spanakopita (inspired by you, Sierra!) but the phyllo dough we bought had dried out. We improvised by placing the spinach mixture in a baking dish and making a crustless pie. This was originally another Ina Garten recipe too.

On Sunday morning, we made a frittata with red pepper, spinach, onion, and basil. This would be great to make for a week long of breakfasts. Just grab a slice, reheat, and go! I don’t have the recipe right now, but if you’re interested, shoot me an email and I’ll find it.

My 4-hour drive back was a bit slower than my ride up. On the way there, as soon as I hit North Carolina, I got pulled for speeding. Boo!! The way back I watched my heavy foot, listened to the Breaking Dawn 2 soundtrack, and fueled with coffee and candy.

What was the best thing you ate all weekend?

What are your road trip essentials?

What I’m Loving Wednesday 10.24.12

1. I ate at Purée four times this weekend: Friday dinner, Saturday brunch, a juice, and Sunday lunch. What is wrong with me? Nothing.

Friday: I had the Asian Bowl: pan fried tofu in a chili garlic sauce w/ brown rice over a bed of greens, shaved cucumbers, carrots, ginger.

Boding had the Pad Thai: rice noodles with crushed peanuts, red pepper, snap peas, coriander, lime.

Saturday:  Danielle and I split two wraps: Grilled Chimichurri Seitan Wrap (protein marinated in homemade herb cilantro lime dressing then grilled) and Mo Mo’s Homemade Rosemary BBQ Wrap.

2. I’m not the most organized person when it comes to my belongings. My shoes are all over my apartment and my purse is always a mess. I’ve learned to embrace it and work well amidst the chaos. Check out my k-cup madness. What’s your favorite k-cup flavor?

3. On Sunday evening, Boding and I went to Trader Joe’s for dinner stuff. There was one pumpkin Greek yogurt left. Obviously I grabbed it out of principle.

I was just there for the bare essentials: Greek yogurt and wine.

4. I enjoyed said wine in my favorite Pier 1 chalk note wine glass and pajamas. Christmas pajamas…two months early.

5. Speaking of Christmas, the seasonal Clif bars are back! Peppermint Stick is the real winner of this trio. What do you think of them?

6. Now rewind back. Halloween is my favorite holiday and I’m excited for this weekend’s festivities. I went from wanting to be Cat Woman, to a cat, to something very different than either of those animals. Here’s one hint :I will be carrying these around all evening.  (Annabel/Hannah/Amanda --  shhh!)

7. Amanda and I are still on a running kick. We never plan how far we’ll run and kind of just see how we’re feeling at each mile. On Monday’s run, at 7 miles in we felt great so we continued. At 8 we still felt good. Neither of us wanted to stop at 9 because, well, why would you when 10 is right around the corner? ;)

Nope, we’re not training for anything…other than world domination.

The Friday Five

1. What I’m Reading: I’ve been reading like a crazy person, going through at least a book a week! Don’t stop me now! Earlier this week I picked up a book my coworker is reading with her book club: In the Garden of Beasts. It’s taking me a while to get into it because, aside from being an actual story, it’s very factual. I have faith that it will be good!

2. What I’m Listening to: I love love love Sia!

3. What I’m Eating Drinking: I’m done with coffee now that I’ve had a love affair with an Americano: espresso + hot water in “true European style.” Here’s a handy guide on espresso drinks:

And on that note, PLEASE OBEY THIS!!

4. What I’m Pinning:

5. What I’m Planning: I leave for NYC TODAY!!! So far we have plans to go ice skating, visit the Museum of Sex (what!), eat pickles, and stop by the NYU Chick-fil-A. Eeeeeeeh! Maybe this time it won’t be closed like it was in August!

HAPPY WEEKEND! Please pray that I don’t freeze in NY!

Learning to Love Mondays

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I now work from home on Mondays. Right when I woke up I headed to the kitchen for some breakfast and realized, “Oh crap. I don’t have coffee.” Now a normal person would either a)suck it up or b)head to Starbucks. I am not normal. I drove across the street to Chick-fil-A. They have coffee and I’ll take advantage of any reason to go there. Loser.

I think Starbucks is kind of silly, plus their coffee makes me want to jump out of my skin. Apparently I can’t handle that much caffeine. Once back home, I sipped on this while I ate my breakfast of plain Greek yogurt topped with fiber cereal, a sliced banana, and honey. This kept me full until lunch time which was…

Mozzo with Rick! I hadn’t been in a while, so I was excited when he asked if I wanted to meet there for lunch. I had one of my favorite sandwiches, The Roma: prosciutto, ham, provolone, tomato, and balsamic vinegar on a ciabatta roll. Hellooooooo Italy!

While in line, Rick asked me, “You don’t eat chips right?” I responded, “I do if they’re pickle chips.” Right then I noticed these babies right below me:

Let me tell you, they are good. I was expecting much more of a vinegar taste, but dill was the most prevalent flavor. Grab some if you see them! What’s your favorite chip flavor? Anything weird?

A while back, Rick, some friends, and I entered a Homage t-shirt contest. We didn’t win, but we did score some t-shirts. Rick brought my prize to lunch:

Good thing I really like beans. And Boston, obviously.

Once I had finished work and was about to head to the gym, I remembered (for the 209862986th time) that I needed new sneakers. I refused to leave the house without ordering a new pair. I hopped on Zappo’s and found the newer version of my current sneaker. Asics Gel-1160:

They were on sale and I had an online coupon, so I snagged these for only $58! And they’re in my 2 favorite colors: lime green and purple. I’m now on my third pair of Asics, and I definitely prefer them over other brands. What’s your preferred sneaker brand?

****

I’d like to apologize if I seemed insensitive when I called Irene a “myth.” I understand that it affected millions of people, all of whom are in my prayers. I only meant to joke that my city made a huge deal out of it (cancelling school and government offices) when all we got was a little rain and wind. So, please accept my apologies!

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Did you sign up for your free breakfast entrée at Chick-fil-A yet? Sign up now and then send me pictures next week!

http://chick-fil-aforbreakfast.com

XX!

Trader Joe’s Makes Dreams Come True

I know it isn’t nice to say this, but…

Oh.

My.

God.

My friends, this is a Sugar, Chocolate, & Coffee Bean Grinder.

I had seen this gem on both Laura’s and Katie’s blog and was immediately intrigued. As soon as I left the gym today, I paid my fourth visit (in a week) to trader Joe’s for it. Once home, I got to grindin’ on some Greek yogurt.

The verdict? Sweet. So sweet. As much as I loved it atop the yogurt, I had to taste it on its own. I then got my grind on in my mouth. Yep, I held it over my mouth and gave it a few twists. It’s fine!

In case you’re wondering, here is the ingredient list: brown candy sugar, white candy sugar, chocolate flakes (sugar, cocoa powder, cocoa mass, cocoa butter, glucose syrup [wheat, corn]), coffee beans.

Naturally, I felt inclined to unscrew the top and pour out some of the crystals. I would not suggest doing this as you may begin eating them by the tablespoon rather than the recommended 1/4 tsp.

Yes, I am guilty of doing that. What?!?!

Don’t you dare judge me – you would totally do it too. I’m thinking about topping some frozen yogurt with this!

In physical fitness news, when I walked into the gym this evening, one of the trainers, J.D., asked where I had been. My response? Twilight. I have been neglecting the gym because of this book.  I went on Saturday, ran the bridge with Matt on Monday, and hadn’t gone back to the gym until today. That is very unlike me.

For extra motivation, J.D. and I set up a free consultation and personal training session. I think this is just what I need! Included in the consultation is a body fat analysis – YIKES. Although it is not 100% accurate, we will use the body fat calipers to measure my body fat percentage.

 

Sooooooo this weekend I might want to keep the sugar grinder out of my mouth! Oh, and the booze.

Have you ever used any method to find out your body fat percentage?

What should I use my sugar, chocolate, & coffee been grinder for!? Ideas, please!