Chipotle Opens & Itzy’s Kitchen Closes

Happy Friday! I’m super excited for the weekend- how about you? We are going to our gym supper club tonight (we have an Asian theme going, so I’m bringing hot and cold sesame noodles). Tomorrow night, we’re having dinner with friends. Otherwise? Hopefully a couple walks with Kay, Josh & Frank and a workout or two.

Kaylin had her 9 month appointment on Monday and she is doing great! Her Doctor is encouraging us to move over to more food, less bottles now. To celebrate, she tried Chobani for the first time:

Definitely a big fan!

Other exciting happenings? The first Chipotle finally opened in our area (excuse the horrible picture, I was sitting with Kaylin on my lap ):

My husband LOVES Chipotle. He already had five gift cards from friends and family before the Chipotle had even opened. The new Chipotle has been PACKED! The line was so long, I just sat outside and waited while Josh and friends ordered food. Apparently, on their first day open, getting through the line took 35 minutes!!

Josh was in heaven:

And I was in heaven! Their guacamole is awesome. Josh liked it a lot and he normally skips the guac:

The winner of the FoodTrients cookbook and apron is….Renee! Renee- please send me an email with your address (itzyskitchen at gmail dot com).

And now to the rest of the title…I have absolutely loved blogging. I’ve met awesome “blends” and have learned about cool products, foods and recipes. However, I’ve been super busy since Kay arrived and I’m afraid I just don’t have the time to do it all. I’m going to take a month vacation from blogging and see how I feel then. I may or may not be back. I will still be nosing around your blogs! For now, goodbye!

Shrimp in Tomato Sauce (Giveaway)

Happy Wednesday. Halfway there! How has your week been so far?

As I always note, I love flipping through cookbooks. Seeing new recipes always provides me with such kitchen inspiration! Recently, I was sent a copy of FoodTrients by Grace O as part of the TLC Book Tour (disclaimer: I received this book for free).

The concept of the book is very unique:

“FOODTRIENTS’ beautifully illustrated recipes incorporate all the ingredients you need to look and feel younger. The benefits of Grace O’s food combinations also include healthier, younger-looking skin, shinier hair, and the protection of cells and arteries.”

The book also has awesome pictures (which I enjoy). I decided to try the shrimp in tomato sauce first:

This recipe is aimed at body building. I added peas and corn and placed the mixture on top of rice.

The mix was tasty, but could have used a little kick (ground red pepper?). I am eager to experiment with the other recipes in the book!

Want to win a copy of FoodTrients and a FoodTrients apron? Simply leave a comment on this post telling me your current favorite cookbook. This giveaway is open to US residents only. You do not need to have a blog to enter! Contest is open until Friday 5/18 at noon!

My Mother’s Day & Carter’s Kitchen

Sunday was my first Mother’s day and it was absolutely wonderful!! My day started out with a fabulous gift…I rarely splurge on nice things. I hardly ever even really go shopping. The only thing I’d say I really splurge on is Starbucks. I have always wanted a piece from Le Creuset, but I just couldn’t imagine spending the money. As a big surprise for me for Mother’s day, my husband got me a gift certificate for a local kitchen store insisting I purchase my Le Creuset pot, and purchase I did:

Love! I cannot wait to use it! Thank you Josh (and Kaylin & Frank ).

We also went to brunch with Josh’s parents, sister & her boyfriend. We tried a new to us spot, Carter’s Kitchen.

We started with an order of their fries. Very tasty and not greasy at all:

For my breakfast, I had coffee:

and a parfait (you can see Josh’s waffle breakfast in the background):

The restaurant is very charming inside. The food at brunch was good, but nothing really knocked our socks off. Josh’s family has been for dinner and said the dinner is amazing. We will have to give it a go. My little mover made a Mother’s day picture just blurry:

I think Josh’s Mom got more clear pictures on her camera. Will share when I get ahold of them!

The rest of my day was spent baking, cooking, cleaning, teaching body pump, and doing dinner with Josh, Kay & Josh’s parents. Such a great day.

I re-tried Dawn’s coconut chocolate cookies and they turned out perfect this time! SO good!

 

Hope you’re having a good week so far!

Pre-Mama’s Day Dinner

Hope you’re having a wonderful weekend so far! My Saturday was pretty nice. On the upside, the weather was great and I was able to get out for a nice run and out for a walk with Kay and Josh. On the downside, Kay has an ear infection and pink eye. We figured this out on Friday- it came on fast and furious! Poor peanut! Luckily, her meds have worked quickly and she looks and is acting much better/happier.

Last night, we had Josh’s parents, sister and her boyfriend over for a little pre-Mama’s day dinner. Simple table setting:

I pulled out my sweet water pitcher:

I made turkey burgers (with and without cheese- Josh did the grilling). We put the burgers on top of tortillas instead of buns:

A shredded lettuce and sunflower seed salad (both Josh, his Mom & I are huge shredded lettuce fans):

I put all of the salad toppings on the side since everyone likes different toppings. Corn, peas and lima beans:

tomato, cucumber and red onion:

Plate of fruit (very necessary. Love the bottle drying rack in the background.)

10 grain chocolate chip cookies!:

And pickles and roasted green beans (un-pictured). My plate:

Yum! We also all sampled Artic Zero for the first time. Janetha turned me onto this light, protein packed ice cream. We had the coffee flavor and it was very yummy (in my opinion!!).

A happy birthday to the fabulous Ms. Julie!!! And a happy Mother’s day to all the Mom’s out there (especially my Mom and Josh’s Mom!!!!)

What are your Mother’s day plans? We’re going to brunch. Otherwise- I have cleaning plans (hot) and I am teaching Body Pump.

Thursday & Daniel Island Farmers Market

How was your Thursday? Mine went a little something like this: run, shower (summer like weather=wavy hair kind of day):

Work, snack:

Pickup Kay from daycare, head to Daniel Island farmers’ market with my Aunt & MIL:

This was my first time to this farmers’ market this year. It was small, but had awesome booths. One VERY popular booth was the cookie chick:

Seriously, this lady was selling amazing looking cookies left and right. Next time, I’m definitely getting one of those giant sugar cookies…drool:

There was a pickles booth! I got samples of both the spicy and dill. Amazing….

I purchased a pint of the dill. I’m a pickle-aholic:

More baked goods:

We stopped at the Great Harvest booth and both my MIL and Aunt purchased bread. I had a slice of the cinnamon chip while they checked out(so good!):

And of course-produce! I ended up just getting two tomatoes.

And there was a very nice lady selling plants at the end of the market. My Aunt purchased a fabulous looking jalapeno plant:

We went to Sesame for dinner afterwards and I made a black bean burger in a bowl (deliciousness):

And now its relaxing time. Tell me about your Thursday!

What are you up to this weekend? I will be celebrating my first Mother’s day! I’m also teaching a few times, going to brunch, and hopefully just spending lots of time with Josh & Kay. Clif sent me an early Mother’s day present (so sweet! Disclaimer: received these for free):

Weekend & Overnight Slow Cooker Oatmeal

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Ours was family filled again! A few highlights- lots of walks and a couple runs:

Chips and salsa on cuatro de mayo:

Baking my big oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for Josh’s brother:

Got my toes done:

Ate delicious food:

Tried the FAMOUS coconut cake from Peninsula Grill (I thought it was pretty good…but I’m not a huge cake person, others in our group thought it was truly amazing!!):

Swam:

Passed out:

And now, onto more food! Mmmm…oatmeal. So comforting in the morning. As much as I enjoy a morning bowl, sometimes I wish it was just ready when I woke up (I know…it doesn’t take that long to cook, but…)

Lucky for me, its Secret Recipe Club time again!!

As a part of the club, each month you’re assigned another Secret Recipe Club blogger to make a recipe from. If you want to join, click here to sign up.

This month, I was assigned Alli-n-Sons blog. Alli is the Mom of two boys. As she notes, she is also a “wanna-be photographer, aspiring baker of all things chocolate and creative woman, all rolled into one.” She has so many fabulous recipes on her blog, but her overnight slow cooker oatmeal called out to me right away. I followed her directions almost exactly. My only two notes is that I would NOT use more than 2 cups of oats and that my slow cooker only needed 6 hours on low to do the trick. I used a combination of multigrain and traditional oats (please excuse the photos- it was EARLY and a rainy, rainy day):

After six hours, the oatmeal was ready and smelled amazing:

The recipe makes more than enough for a family of four:

and you can top it with whatever you like:

YUMMMM! Thanks for the recipe Alli!