The Weekend.

Since Thursday, Amanda and I were housesitting at her parents’ house. We cooked a ton of good food (lots of recipes coming!), ate a bunch of desserts, went out with friends, and enjoyed the glorious 80-degree weather.

Friday - Dinner at Next Door in Mt. Pleasant, then drinks downtown at The Macintosh and Hall’s.

Saturday - Healthy cookie baking…which ended up being our dinner. Twice.

More upper King bar hopping with friends.

Tree hugging. Kaye and I doing our usual tree pose in which she’s always in disco ball attire and I’m embracing the pastels. NYC fashion vs. CHS fashion. It’s quite different!

Sunday - Breakfast sandwiches: English  muffins, fried egg, pepper jack cheese, avocado, sriracha. Our mouths were on fire!

Tutti Frutti froyo! Cookies & Cream, White Chocolate, and Peanut Butter with M&Ms, Heath bar, and cookie dough bits.

Sunshine and sunset on the water.

Coming up this week:

• a Spicy White Bean & Chicken Chili recipe
• a  healthy chocolate chip cookie recipe (using chickpeas!)
• review of Next Door
• Clif MOJO bar giveaway!  

CSA Week 9 / Fun With Melons…and Salsa!

You know the drill. Gruber Farm CSA time!! As each week goes by, I become more and more obsessed with having a weekly box of produce. The convenience. The variety. The freshness. Need I say more?

Week 9 contents:

• jalapeno peppers
• tomatoes
• green peppers
• green beans
• corn
• mini watermelons!!

How cute are the watermelons? Boding and I couldn’t get over them.

We kissed them.

We loved on them.

We cradled them like babies.

Then we tossed them up in the air with joy. (I’m not ready for children.)

And then we put them away so we could use the other goodies to make SALSA!

Xtina’s Sweet & Spicy Salsa

Ingredients:

• 3 medium tomatoes, chopped
• 1/2 medium onion, chopped
• 2 small jalapeno peppers, diced
• 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
• 1 tbsp. honey (secret ingredient!)
• 1 tsp. salt
• juice of 1 lime

Preparation:

Place all ingredients in food processor or blender. Pulse until desired consistency is reached.

When I finished making the salsa, I had my roommate do a blind test with my salsa versus Publix’s salsa. She preferred mine! I was so excited. I felt like a younger, prettier, less pretentious Martha Stewart.

After our silliness with the watermelon and salsa, we made a seriously simple dinner:

Cumin-roasted chicken topped with salsa and sliced avocado, corn on the cob, and Trader Joe's spicy soy & flaxseed tortilla chips.

These chips have 6 grams of protein, 4 grams of fiber, and 500 mg of omega 3’s per serving. They’re definitely a better alternative – no perservatives either!

How do you like your salsa?

Chunky? Pureed well? Spicy? Fruity?

Cilantro: love it or leave it?

Citrus Walnut Beet Dip and Bad Xbox Dancing

Let’s face it. Beets are a weird vegetable. They grow in the ground, which makes them taste like dirt, and when you cut into them they bleed all over you. What other vegetable does that?

AND THEY MAKE YOUR PEE PINK.

Well, some of you. According to World’s Healthiest Foods, “an estimated 10-15% of all U.S. adults experience beeturia (a reddening of the urine) after consumption of beets.”

Are you one of the 10-15%? I am and I don’t mind it. I also don’t mind sharing that fact with you. Sorry!

Over the weekend, I furthered my love for this creepy vegetable by making a dip.

Citrus Beet Dip

Ingredients:

• 1 15 oz can beets
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 clove garlic
• ¼ cup  plain Greek yogurt
• 2 tbsp. orange juice
• 1 tbsp. honey
• 1 tsp. coriander

Preparation:

Place all ingredients into a food processer and puree until smooth. Enjoy the pink stuff!

Three of my favorite things: wine, beets, and blogging!

My poor friend Robert was hanging out with me on Saturday when I decided to make this and boy, did he think I was disgusting. I guess it was payback for when I (briefly!) made him carry my purse at Target. He didn’t seem to mind much, but what did bother him was my extreme case of a.d.d. while in the store.

You see, we went for gum. Just gum. That is all.

We left with:

• a jewelry organizer
• two pairs of green socks (I love socks!)
• more spandex pants
• wine
• huge box of clif bars
• popchips
• and the gum

$64 and an hour later, I couldn’t tell if he was annoyed or entertained by my ability to destroy Target. He said I was going to be an expensive wife. I think that’s a compliment.

Later that evening, I spent, oh, maybe 6 hours playing Just Dance. My calves were so sore on Sunday morning. In case you ever doubted my hyperactivity, feel free to watch this clip (of a clip) of when I was dancing. Maybe one day I will show you the full footage.

“My watch is weighing me down.”

Who wants to come over and dance?!

2012 Is the Year I…

…run a half marathon. I mean why not? I may have short legs, but they are strong and will take me far. Hopefully 13.1 miles.

….read at least 12 books. One per month is not asking a lot. Why I still haven’t started this book, I’m not sure.

…use my camera more! And I don’t mean this one.

…have less stuff. Clutter drives me crazy and as mentally unstable as I am, I think less tangible goods will make life easier. I just called myself mentally unstable. Do you still love me?

…date more nerdy guys. I mean there is no way any not nerdy person can handle me so…ok, bring on the geeks. #geekchic

…be a better listener. I like, no love, giving advice, but should hone my listening skills. I want to start a column called Ask Xtina. But that sounds semi inappropriate, so let’s go with Ask Christina.

…eat less crap. I consume wayyyyyy too much sugar for my own good. Candy is fun but my teeth and waistline don’t appreciate it as much as my brain does.

…compliment people more. If I have a nice thought about a person, I’m just going to go all word vomit on them.

…be a better blogger! I love you guys. I do! So much. I’d marry my blog and all of you followers if that was legal.

…eat more pickles. Duh.

Sorry I’m Not Sorry…

…that I haven’t blogged in days. Tis the season! To be a lazy blogger? Sure!

…that 2 of my favorite gifts this year wers a Chick-fil-A gift card and a foam roller.

The best part was that when I originally asked my aunt for the foam roller, she confused it with a sex toy. Hmm.

…that my grandparents know how accident prone I am and got me a gift certificate to get a RoadID. This little bracelet will have my name, emergency contact #, allergies (NKA baby!) and blood type. I also got to put a quote on there. Sorry I’m not sorry that instead of something inspirational, I put “Run for more cookies!”

It’s true. I run for more cookies.

…that on Christmas, my family and I got really weird. Wine may have been to blame, but honestly, we’re a strange group sober. My cousin Gabrielle jokingly handcuffed me so I couldn’t drink more wine.

And when I snapped out of the cuffs, she slapped on some duct tape. Fancy duct tape, if I do say so myself.

Did you guys know you can make crafts with duct tape? Gabrielle made me some bows. If you’re wondering why my eyes look possessed, it’s because I am.

…that clearly huge possessed eyes run in the family. Hi Zachary.

…that on Friday I bought an Xbox + a kinect. What! I bought it for one main reason: to dance. Jason and I may or may not have stayed up until almost 5 a.m. dancing. It sure does beat Trio’s 1:45 a.m. closing time.

I have danced to Party Rock Anthem like 45 times in the last 2 days. I also bought Your Shape.

…that all these Xbox workouts are being refueled with peppermint Hershey Kisses.

…that this post was really random and weird. What else would you expect from me?

Talk to me, people! I miss you! I love you!

Well, This IS Weird

Yeah, I know, I do a lot of weird things. I don’t care. My life is fun and interesting and I’m keeping it that way. After lunch and shopping with Amanda on Saturday, I met up with Ashley at Barnes & Noble. Knowing that we’d be there for quite a bit and that it’s always super chilly in the store, I made a pit stop at Palmetto Moon for a snuggie:Don’t be fooled. That is not me and I did not get extensions. Funny thing is, Ashley spent the entire afternoon wearing it and she hates football. Turns out she’s the hypothermic one in our relationship.

Now here is where things get strange. I’m sure all of you girls had a favorite Disney movie growing up? Right? Ok, well mine was by far The Little Mermaid. I wanted to be a mermaid SO bad that when I swam in the pool, I’d cross my ankles and pretend I had a tail. True story. I also thought that Eric was the hottest cartoon character I had ever seen.

Ashley and I decided we wanted to stay in and watch movies so we stopped by Blockbuster on the way home. We perused the aisles in search of a comedy. This was found. It may or may not be my biography.

Flatter myself? Don’t mind if I do. And I am serious about the crazy part. After nixing this movie and discovering The Little Mermaid in the next aisle, I demonstrated to Ashley how I used to swim in the pool.

Yeah, 0% normal right there. So, we watched The Little Mermaid on a Saturday night with a bottle of red wine. NOT SORRY.

No hangover in sight on Sunday morning, Rachel and I decided to go for a run on the beach. The weather was glorious: sunny and in the 70s. Can’t beat that at the end of November.

We walked/ran about 6 1/4 miles. It was so nice to be outside. Better running on the beach than getting lost in the currents…

Favorite Disney movie?

Do you like running on the beach?

Last Weekend of August

What the! Where did August go?

Friday: Oh, hurricane Irene. She was a myth, I think. Regardless, Matt, Mariah and I decided to have a hurricane party. Hurricane party = me cooking while the 3 of us got our drink on.

It was a bit breezy out (ha), so soup sounded perfect. I used Jenna’s recipe for Chicken Tortilla Soup. Don’t let this photo of the ingredients fool you – the wine was for drinking, not the soup.

While the soup was cooking, I played with these fabulous slippers that Mariah found under her bed right before she came over. SWIFFER SLIPPERS!! How amazing are these. (Click to zoom.) I swept my floor AND cooked. Multi-tasking like a pro.

We also played with this giant sugar cane that Matt and I bought at WF. We didn’t really know why we bought this, other than to use as a weapon of sorts. We also gnawed on it. It wasn’t sweet, but it was taller than me. #shorty

After I pretty much smoked the house out because I wasn’t paying attention to the pepper I was roasting, the soup was done! We topped it with lime juice, plain Greek yogurt, and cheese. Delicious!

Saturday, the calm after the “storm”: Thanks for leaving with us a beautiful Saturday, Irene. It was absolutely gorgeous out. Amanda, Kira, and I laid out at Amanda’s friend’s pool that just happened to be on the water. Ahhh.We walked down the dock and laid out down by the water for a while too.

It was windy, but that didn’t stop us from making more friendship bracelets! Here’s my newest bracelet, in anticipation for Clemson football starting next weekend. Anyone want me to make them a bracelet? Let me know and I’ll send you one!

That evening, I met up with my friend Puja for dinner at the new Basil in Mt. Pleasant. We shared the Pad Thai and the Green Curry. I almost always order Pad Thai, but I really enjoyed her Green Curry. I might order that next time.

Sunday: Matt and I went to church and I was delighted to hear the preacher mention Chick-fil-A. He was joking about his inexpensive shirt being “worth only enough to feed a family at Chick-fil-A…with coupons.” I secretly wanted to jump out of my seat and high-five him for the restaurant name drop. Alas, I stayed put. I was in church after all.

That afternoon, Mariah and I ran some errands at my two most favorite places: Trader Joe’s and Target. As I had just gone to TJ’s on Friday, I was mostly along for the ride. I did pick up a bar of oatmeal exfoliant soap per Joanna’s recommendation. This ginger almond scented bar smells so good!

At target, I picked up laundry detergent (blah), dishwasher detergent (blah) and chocolate (YEAH!):

Have yall had these? Oooooh, they are good. I’m currently watching the VMAs and had to throw the bag under my bed so I wouldn’t eat them all at once!

Speaking of the VMAs, I almost peed my gym shorts (bummin’ it) at these tweets by Betty White. Goodness gracious, I love her.

Whose win were you most excited about? I loved the Britney tribute and was so happy for her!

What was the highlight of your weekend? Lots of friend time and oatmeal soap for me!

PS: I’m working from home on Mondays from now on, so if anyone wants to do lunch dates, let me know!!  

xx!

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