Monday Can Be A Fun Day

Mid-morning while at work, I got a call that my glasses were in! I was so excited I almost took an early lunch get them. I’m glad I waited…Rewind to about a month ago: I found out that one of my readers, Amanda, also works at Blackbaud. She e-mailed me because she, too, had purchased the Pearle Vision coupon. We tried to coordinate our schedules to pick out glasses together, but that didn’t work. Luckily our schedules matched up today! I got a text from her saying her glasses were ready and she asked if I wanted to ride with her to pick them up. Blogger meet-up and new glasses? YAY! Her next text was “Pick you up at the front door! Valet service at Blackbaud!”

And then I jumped in the car with a stranger.

An awesome stranger! Amanda is so fun and sweet and I was glad to meet her. :)

That afternoon, my coworker and I planned a meeting to review my first 3 months of work. Her plan was to have an off-site meeting...at Menchie’s! Elizabeth got a bowl of cake batter froyo with cinnamon toast crunch cereal, and I got a bowl of cake batter and brownie batter froyo.

And here are the glasses!

After work, I went to the gym even though I felt like I had been sweating enough to skip it. It was over 100* here today. Ahh. You see why frozen yogurt was necessary? The gym was sort of miserable, but the Pandora app got me through it. I may or may not have made a couple moves on Words With Friends during my interval run…the walking part, of course.

For dinner, I made Jenna’s Roasted Beet & Goat Cheese Quinoa. Oh, hello heavenly beets and goat cheese.

This was my first time cooking quinoa, which is a shame because it’s a powerhouse food. Quinoa is fluffy, slightly crunchy, and nutty. It is high in protein and a good source of magnesium, manganese and iron. Although most people consider it to be a grain, it is actually a relative of leafy green vegetables.
Don’t forget how wonderful beets are. Check out these beet balls I saw in Whole Foods on Sunday. Wtc are beet balls? Odd, to say the least.

Sometimes I Just Want To Be Random

Like in this post!

When I got home from work today, Lucy asked me if I was going to the gym. I (too) quickly responded, “NOPE! I’m skipping it!” I said it in the voice of a 15-year-old who would rather go shopping than to class. I love the feeling that exercise gives me, but at that moment, all I wanted to do was spend some time with Lucy! She has been such a wonderful friend to me and we’ve gotten so close over the past few months. She decided to skip the gym with me and we discussed what we wanted to do for dinner.

We thought. And thought. And thought. Nothing sounded good…except frozen yogurt! Yep, not only did we skip the gym, but we jumped in her Bug with the top down and cruised straight to Menchie’s.

Unfortunately once we got there, there weren’t a ton of flavors that excited me. I got a pathetic portion of peanut butter, thin mint chocolate, and country vanilla fro yo topped with heath bar bits.

Lucy got raspberry sorbet topped with blueberry and mochi.

After our treat, we went to Whole Foods for wine. Check out this Australian bottle I found:

Now that sounds like a party in a bottle. Woop woop! Am I the only one who still says that? Probably.

I also saw a very exciting new Ben & Jerry’s flavor:

I almost peed my pants with excitement until I saw the calories per serving. Seeing as I just had froyo, I restrained myself from buying this and eating it in the parking lot. Trust me, I would have.

A couple hours later I found myself hungry for a real meal. I figured that the frozen yogurt wouldn’t actually fill me up, so I ended up swapping my dessert and dinner times. Dinner consisted of Tandoori flavored rotisserie chicken (purchased from WF), black beans, and some zucchini and squash from Tuesday’s CSA box.

Do you ever have dessert for dinner and then find yourself eating dinner anyway?

To end this post, I thought I’d share a Bits of Truth quotes that made me happy today:

Live more! Smile more! Laugh more! We are surrounded by beautiful things. Embrace them. Be kind to everyone.

Eat your damn fro yo.

XO!

Walking Pneumonia Won’t Stop This Girl.

Yes, I’ve had some sickly symptoms.

1. I’ve been drinking a lot of fluids and have felt really warm for the past couple of weeks. I just thought Blackbaud kept the temperature too high, but really I’ve been a beverage diva. (Thank you for that term, Jessica.)

2. I’ve had an obnoxious cough for almost 3 weeks. It’s been so bad that my work sidekick, Kristin, posted this on my wall:

3. I’ve produced more snot than I knew was possible. I ran into Rob & three of his friends playing foosball in the cafeteria. When he asked me how I was, I responded, “Oh, just sick. I’m a snot factory.” All four boys suddenly stopped playing and just stared at me. Did I say too much?

Kristin convinced me to go to the doctor, so I paid a visit to my old boss who works with Nancy’s mom. They listened to my chest and then let me hear it. Oh my god. My lungs sounded like a hump-back whale in migration!!! (See here.) Peggy gave me this sweet mask to wear.

And then they diagnosed me with walking pneumonia. As horror movie as that sounds, it’s really not that bad. I just have to pop a few azithromycin pills and I’ll be brand new! In the mean time, I’ve been avoiding the gym and eating as many fruits & vegetables as possible.

Later when I was making dinner, Justin told me he was stopping by. I surprised him with my mask. He told me I was ugly.

My dinner was full of the onions, broccoli, and cauliflower from my CSA box, plus carrots, garlic, and shrimp. Lots of vitamins to make me well again!

And then came an even better surprise: Santo with Menchie’s frozen yogurt!! He stopped by with a huge bowl of angel food cake froyo topped with peanut butter, blackberries, pineapple, Reese’s pb cups, cinnamon toast crunch, and Cap’n crunch. What a combo! He also made sure to bring extra spoons. :)

Thank you friends!!

Sweet & Summery Chicken Salad

Despite the fact that it’s 46* and raining here in Charleston, I was feeling Summery. Maybe because I was just at the pool last weekend? There were a bit too many Coor’s lights and Peeps this weekend so I together an easy chicken salad with some ingredients I found in my kitchen. It came together quite nicely…and Summery.

Sweet & Summery Chicken Salad, serves 2

Ingredients:

• 1 cup shredded, cooked chicken (6 oz.)
• 1/2 cup pineapple tidbits
• 1/2 cup shredded carrots
• 1/4 cup walnut pieces
• 2 tbsp. plain Greek yogurt (I love you, Fage!)
• 1 tbsp. honey
• 2 tsp. Dijon mustard
• 1/8 tsp. cinnamon
• s&p to taste

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, toss together chicken, pineapple, carrots, and walnuts.
2. Add Greek yogurt, honey, mustard, cinnamon, and salt & pepper. Mix well. Serve atop a bed of lettuce or in a pita.

The Guzzini bowl and silverware pictured above were purchases from Eataly in NYC. This is my most recent green obsession purchase. The amount of green objects I have is obnoxious.

- my laptop

-my Blackberry cover (Matt was creeping on my text messages.)

- my Camelbak

- kitchen bowls

- one of my bedroom walls

-Longchamp bag

- mittens

– blankets

- dumbbells

–kitchen utensils

- and the unnecessary collection of Menchie’s spoons

I think everyone has an affinity for a particular color, but I probably need an intervention.  Yesterday when I was at Menchie’s, I noticed they now have hot pink spoons! I immediately texted Lucy, knowing she’d be psyched. She replied, “No freaking way! Take their spoon supplies!!!!!!! It’s you and me in spoons!”

Obviously I asked the girl at the counter if I could buy some. She smiled, handed me a bowl and said “Here. Have a nice day!”

SCORE!! But now Lucy and I are wondering what the heck we’ll do with 60 pink spoons.

What is YOUR color?