Category Archives: Life

Farmer’s Market

Yesterday I checked out two farmer’s markets in Charlotte. A couple of my coworkers recommended Kings Street market and the Charlotte Regional Farmer’s market, so I made the trip to both. The Charlotte Regional market was huge, and had a much greater variety of North Carolina produce than the King’s Street Market.  However both had great selections, and I have really enjoyed the produce so far.

Before we get to the pictures, I will say that the markets were packed with people and it was difficult to take decent pictures. Every time I slowed down or knelt to get a shot, I blocked people trying to pass through. I also felt a little awkward photographing produce without buying anything, especially when the farmers stood three feet away watching my antics (tilting, turning baskets, trying not to get my shadow in the shot). As a last resort, I tried to take some covert walking-while-snapping pictures, but none of them looked all that interesting.

Oh the trials of being a blogger ;) Despite all of the mishaps, I managed to select some shots that are reflective of the markets and their produce.

Between the two markets I ended up with five tomatoes, four cucumbers, a bunch of basil, a pint of cherries (which I inhaled in under two hours), a pint of peaches, two jalapenos, and several ounces of a locally made dill cheese.

Look forward to lots of exciting vegetable based recipes this next week!

Strawberry Parfaits and Starting Work

So apparently today is National Strawberry Parfait Day!

I decided to participate by making this beauty

Strawberries, Greek yogurt, oats, honey, repeat. I topped it with chia seeds for some Omega 3s.

Also today is my first day of work, so I am heading out early to make sure I don’t get lost (even though I practiced my route a couple times over the weekend-I just can’t trust my shaky sense of direction).

Ready to go!

Wish me luck :)

Moving Weekend

It has been a long couple of days! On Wednesday I moved into my new apartment in the Charlotte area. Thursday was spent unpacking and reassembling all of my Ikea furniture. I also christened the kitchen by baking up a batch of kale chips.

I love how crunchy and light these get, but I wish I had some humidity proof storage. After only a couple hours, the chips go from crispy to a chewy :/ For now, I’ll just make small enough batches for myself.

On Friday, Perry came down to visit and help me install some of the finishing touches. He helped put up two shelves and a mirror.

There was a bit of trouble with finding wall studs and him not reading directions lack of proper tools, but we managed to get everything up on the walls. ;)

On Saturday, we went out to see the new Steve Carell movie, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World.

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Perry and I both like Steve Carell, and I was excited for a fun romantic comedy. I had not seen any trailers, or even talked to someone who had seen the movie, but I assumed the tone would be in line with his usual films. Unfortunately, I was totally wrong about the mood of the movie. It did have a sweet romantic storyline, but it was more of a romantic tragedy than a romantic comedy! I thought it was a good movie, but since I tend to cry easily during movies, I ended up sobbing during the last scenes….Needless to say, the movie did not make for a lighthearted date night!

Tomorrow is my first day of “real” work, so I’m going to prep food for the week and pick out my outfit!

I’m Off!

The bags are packed and we are ready to hit the road for our 10 hour drive down to Florida and then we will be cruisin on Sunday!

We are going to Haiti, Jamaica, Mexico and Grand Cayman. I am so excited to see beautiful beaches and swim in the gorgeous water.

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While I am gone, Perry is going to be running the blog for me and I will be featuring several guest bloggers as well as some sweet summery recipes. Thanks for bearing with me during these next couple of days. I’ll be sure to take lots of pictures of all the food I will be gorging myself with eating on and off the boat.

I hope you all enjoy the week :)

Dreaming of Vacation

Things have been kind of slow around here, and the weather is so dreary now that I cannot help but daydream about our cruise leaving on Sunday.

As a graduation present for my sister (Claire graduated high school) and I, my parents are taking us on a family cruise. Our ports include Labadee, Haiti; Falmouth, Jamiaca; and Cozumel, Mexico.

I think one of these long zipline rides would be so fun!

I have not been to any of these islands, and am looking forward to experiencing the gorgeous beaches. I also am excited about returning to Mexico.

My study abroad sophomore year was a joint program in which we were in Tanzania for 8 weeks and Mexico for 8 weeks. I loved living in the colonial city of Oaxaca for two months. The area is famous for their mole, a pepper based sauce that generally goes over chicken and rice. It can be black, red, yellow, and green depending on the peppers used.

a big pot of poblano mole our host family cooked

I also really enjoying learning about the culture and history of the country.

dancing with a skeleton during Day of the Dead celebrations

In front of a pyramid ruin

One thing I am really looking forward to on this vacation is the food! I loved our (non-stop) cruise food over spring break, and I am ready for more extravagant four course meals. Of course the local cuisine can be just as mouth watering! [I am thinking about my fried fish in the Bahamas]. In order to balance all this eating out, I will have to do more swimming and walking than laying in the sun, but it will be totally worth it :)

I guess it’s not too early to start packing…

Day at the Beach

Yesterday Perry and I headed out to Topsail Island, NC to enjoy a day at the beach.

We left around 7:30, so I packed some smoothies for the road.

Along with some grapefruit

We spent much of the three hour drive listening to the 3 beach CD’s that Perry had burned (since my car ipod player is less than reliable)

It included some of our favorite artists: John Mayer, Damien Rice, Lisa Hannigan, Sara Bareilles, John Legend, Adele and other random artists

These CDs took compromise out of the music choice, since I am more of a Top 40 girl and Perry prefers southern rock and classic rock. But we do both really enjoy all of the above artists, so no one had to suffer through less than ideal music…although I did sneak in some Pit Bull and Mika when I took a turn driving ;) .

When we arrived at the beach, we decided to take a walk before lunch.

Lunch was a delicious seafood feast!

Most of the fish was fried, but I loved it all the same!

After that huge lunch, we returned to the beach to lay out and swim and build sand sculptures :)

I want to go back already!

Now the family is off to Claire’s baccalaureate for her high school graduation.

Hope you are having a great weekend as well :)

Does anyone else have different music tastes than your significant other?

Any strategies for keeping you both happy?

 

Foodie Pen Pals: May

My trip to Charlotte yesterday was very successful. I met with my future boss and coworkers AND signed my lease for my new apartment. It still feels like I am playing dress-up when I put on professional clothes, but soon I think the reality will sink in (I start work in mid June, so maybe by July?). On the downside, my company has a fairly strict dress code and does not allow open toe shoes, which is sad because I love wedge sandals. Also it is just so hard to find comfortable pumps!

It’s time for another Foodie Pen Pals post!

Lindsay at The Lean Green Bean organizes this every month, and I just keep coming back for more :) . Check out her blog for more information on how to sign up for June-it is open for both bloggers and readers!. Here are the links to my posts from March and April.

One of the best thins about this program is getting to try different healthy treats that I might never buy for myself. Brittany from beermeamartini sent me a crazy delicious package filled with cool foods that were mostly new to me. I love trying new things, so I was really excited to break open her package!

The whole spread

As you know from my need to organize tea bags, I love tea! So I am so excited to add peppermint to my collection. I have heard some people drink a glass at night to combat the urge to snack, which is something I definitely need to try. The granola was super crunchy and chock full of chocolate :) definitely a win.

Other treats included:

These Good Bean granola bars were actually quite delicious! I don’t think I would have ever ventured to try them on my own.

These raw lemon cookies were a great find as well! The cookies were super crisp and just sweet enough.

I also devoured the toffee chocolate bar. yum :)

You can check out the treats I sent Anna this month

Key Lime Pie Smoothie

Happy Memorial Day!

I hope most people are able to take a little break and catch some rays today :)

I just got back from a short run, and will hopefully be spending the rest of the day chilling by the pool with Perry and his family. it’s rare for Perry to have a holiday off, so we are going to enjoy this extra time together before he goes back to school.

Before I head out, I am going to sipping on a Key Lime Pie Smoothie to fulfill my morning protein needs. It is so light and fresh, with the smooth creaminess of key lime pie. The lime juice and sweet whey powder create the perfect tart balance. I love that the oats mimic the crust and provide some extra fiber. You could also throw in a handful of spinach to get a bright green color, and some added nutrients!

KEY LIME PIE SMOOTHIE

Ingredients

1 cup almond milk

1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt

1 frozen banana

2 Tbsp instant oats

1 scant Tbsp Lime juice

1 scoop vanilla protein powder (whey gives the sweetest creamy taste)

Directions: Add the oats to the almond milk and let sit in the blender for a few minutes. Then add the rest of the ingredients and blend until smooth.

Also, chicken coop update:

The boyfriends (Perry and David) helped us tremendously (in part because they are both over 6 feet tall) in constructing the chicken pen yesterday.

Perry helping put on the wire roof

David holding up the roof beam

Claire and my dad put the finishing touches and screen door on this morning.

Now we just have some little touch ups to do before it is totally completed!

Weekend Warriors

Instead of heading to the beach, my family decided to use this Memorial day weekend to get some work done on building a new chicken pen.

I started off the day with my favorite three ingredient crepes topped with apple chunks and dried cherries.

I promise there are crepes under all of the toppings…

Then we got to work on the new pen. Perry and one of Claire’s friends came over to help the work go faster. The  pen we currently have is mostly just chicken wire draped around some poles, topped with netting. It is very cumbersome to open and taller people have to crouch down once inside because of the height of the netting.

Perry and my dad teamed up to saw wood pieces

and dig post holes

The chickens were very curious about what was going on outside of their pen

Inside the garage, the girls worked on staining the boards.

At the end of our work day, the pen had not changed much-but a lot of work had been done!

Today we are working on it some more and hopefully will have more visible changes to report :)

Tea Bag Organization

This past week I have been unpacking, purging, shopping, and repacking. It’s amazing how much stuff I have accumulated in only four years of living in dorms and apartments. There are several items that I have WAY too many of because I love/use them so much that I’ll pick up more without even thinking whether I actually need more. Including:

sticky notes/note pads in general

Scotch tape (and it’s generic counterpart)

travel size toothpaste

and tea!

Instead of packing up the 7 or so half filled boxes of tea, I searched around the internet to find a storage solution. Apparently The Container Store sells a specially designed Tea Bag Storage Container! I guess I am not alone in my teas storage woes. However, I was not quite willing to pay $12 for a plastic box so I got creative and repurposed a large tupperware container.

Ta-Daahh!

I can fit about 75 tea bags in the container. Sadly, it does not fit everything; but the box eliminated about five tea boxes. I love that I can see all of the bags and they are easily accessible.

I deem it an overall success!