Pure Barre & Pure Food

Last Thursday, I went to happy hour with my friend Sarah. The HH was hosted by Andrea, one of the teachers from Pure Barre. For each drink purchased, you were entered in a giveaway to win prizes from the studio. I was lucky enough to win four free classes! (source)

Bright and early on Sunday morning (okay, 9 a.m.), I went to my first free class. This was actually my third time at Pure Barre. (Read about my first experience here.) I wish I could take each and every one of my readers to the studio. The workout is incredible! It’s one of those classes that makes me wake up the next morning saying, “I have muscles there? Ouch.” And I love it! Check out the Pure Barre site to find a location near you!

At the Mt. Pleasant location, the new client special is $99 for a month of unlimited classes. On Sunday, their facebook page announced a deal I could not pass up.

You see that word challenge? GETS ME EVERY TIME. How could I say no to that? Twenty classes in 30 days…I’ve got this, right? I am both scared and excited to see what happens to my bum. Excuse me,  my seat ;)

Speaking of all things pure in Mt. Pleasant, let’s talk about The Sprout, an organic café and juice bar. My friend Nicole and I popped in for brunch over the weekend. The first thing I noticed were all the juices. My eyes immediately darted to The Refresher: beet, apple, celery, cucumber, and carrot.

Sold. It was pink! #beetsmakeeverythingpink

We also split the Black Bean Burrito: black beans, lentils, tomatoes, greens, dairy-free cheese, and tahini dressing. The juice was great and the wrap was also tasty, but the service was beyond slow. It took over 20 minutes to get our food. Our raw food. Um, what?

Nicole also snuck in an order of two wheatgrass shots. She threw hers back like it was water. I, on the other hand, took one sip, gagged as quietly as I possibly could, and passed mine over to her. Could not handle it. They were a pretty green though, I’ll give her that.

 

Have you ever taken a class at Pure Barre? Do you think I can handle 20 classes in 29 more days?

What’s a health trend you can’t get on board with?

CSA Week #2 and THE BEST FOODIE TERM EVER

This week is the second week of my CSA with Pinckney’s Produce. In this week’s bucket I got:

• collards
• spinach
• spring and sweet onions
• turnips
• turnip greens
• a lot of strawberries

For some reason my box didn’t include the scheduled broccoli, mustard greens, or leaf lettuce. There is a “swap box” where you can swap out items with other CSA members, so I exchanged the collards for turnips. I haven’t used my collards from last week and I have a newfound love for turnips.

Tonight I decided to use the spinach and onions to make another batch of Ham and Lentil Soup. This soup and Avgolemono are my absolute favorites.

Yesterday Jamie sent me a clip from the show Parks & Recreation. It reminded her of my post on Foodie Terms That Make Me Cringe. I cannot stop watching this.

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I will forever use the term “food rakes.” :)

Check out http://tomhaverfoods.com/ for even more!

Weekend Recap, Ham and Lentil Soup

Friday:
Ladies' night! Margaret, Amanda, Mary, Mary-Grace, Meghan, Molly and I met up for dinner and drinks at O-Ku Sushi. Can you believe how many M names were in our group? Naturally Amanda was renamed Mandy and I was renamed Mina.

For dinner, Margaret and I split two rolls. I chose the Potato Wrapped Roll: shrimp tempura, avocado, shoe-string potatoes, eel sauce, and mango remoulade. Amanda and Mary raved about this roll, so I knew I had to try it. It was a really interesting combination of flavors and I loved the extra crunch from the potato.

 Margaret ordered the Harvest Roll. I can't remember exactly what was in this roll, but it was topped with fried Fuji apple! This roll was way too intense and had too much of a deep-fried flavor.

On the way to the bars after dinner, I ran into my favorite hot dog vendor men! They call me "Cookie Girl" because every time I've had too much to drink, I try to convince them to let me sell my cookies at their stand. They always tell me that cookies don't go with hot dogs, but I think they are being silly. I took a pic with them anyway.

Saturday:
I think I half died yesterday. Awful. I haven't decided if it was a 24-hour bug or from the shot of Wild Turkey, but I was yakking all day. Margaret even brought me to Chick-fil-A and I couldn't even it. That is crazy talk. These were my friends on Saturday night.

Btw, unflavored Pedialyte is NASTY. It tastes like salt water, but it works.

Sunday:

I finally felt better! I met Tyler for lunch at Mozzo, then Amanda picked me up so we could take some pictures downtown. A friend of hers that lives in North Carolina wanted us to take some pictures of a street sign that had special meaning to her fiance and her. The pics came out so pretty!

After our little photo shoot, we hit up Menchie's for some fro yo. I got the blueberry tart yogurt and topped it with cookie dough balls and heath bar bits.

For dinner tonight, I made a wonderful Ham and Lentil Soup that I found on Closet Cooking.

Ham and Lentil Soup adapted from Closet Cooking

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 carrots, thinly sliced
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup red lentils
• 2 cups ham, diced
• 1 ham bone
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 handfuls spinach
• pepper to taste

Preparation:

1. Heat oil in a large sauce pan. 

2. Add onions, carrot, and celery and saute until tender, about 10-15 minutes. 

3. Add the garlic and saute for a minute or two. 

4. Add chicken broth, lentils, ham, and ham bone. Simmer, covered, on low heat for an hour. 

5. Remove from heat and stir in spinach.

This soup is awesome. It's packed with veggies, and the lentils absorb so much of the broth that the soup actually thickens up. Next time you bake a ham, SAVE that bone and make this!