Breakfast with Chobani & Pizza Dinner

How was your Friday? Mine was a bit crazy, but in a good way! I started off my day by going food shopping with Kay. For the first time, she sat in the cart and did really well. She loved looking at everything:

After, Amy (and her son, Ryan), Brittany, Kay & I met  Lindsay from Chobani at Charleston’s Café for breakfast. Lindsay is in town for the Bridge Run and Bridge Run expo. It was great to meet her and Brittany for the first time. We chatted about yogurt (duh), the kiddos, life in Charleston & NYC. Such a good time! Oh! And there was coffee and food:

All of us- Kay, me, Lindsay, Amy, Ryan & Brittany (please ignore my slumping down- I’m small, but not that small ):

After breakfast, Kay and I did a five miler outside and then I did work and housework. Josh got home early and watched Kaylin while I go my toes done. Wonderful.

For dinner, we had Bryan and Mandi over and did make your own pizza (on the grill) and salads. Proteins:

Salad greens:

Vegetables:

Fun salad toppers (almonds & pepitas):

Make your own action:

Grill action:

A great, relaxing dinner! What did you do on your Friday?

Coffee with Chocolate & Carrots!!

How has your weekend been so far? Have you entered my coffee giveaway yet? If not, you have until Sunday at noon! Our weekend has been wonderful. Josh’s birthday is on Sunday, and we’ve already started celebrating. We went out to dinner on Friday with friends and family and have a lot more planned.

This morning, I started my day with Caroline from Chocolate & Carrots at Troubadours:

Troubadours is a relatively new spot and I really liked it. They have coffee, espresso, tea, hot and cold drinks and food. They even had samples at the counter:

I ordered a soy café au lait. It was delivered in an adorable mug and was maybe the best café au lait I’ve ever had!

Aside from a great beverage, I really enjoyed meeting and chatting with Caroline. She is 24 weeks pregnant and looks absolutely adorable.

After coffee, Kay and I went for a four miler. She slept the whole time :

Now, I have errands to run and a few things to do around the house. Tonight, we’re going to dinner at one of Josh’s favorite spots!

What are you up to?

The Main Squeeze

Happy Friday! How has your day been so far? What are you up to this weekend? I’ve gotten a number of things done around the house today and I went food shopping. One of my favorite things about working part time is having Fridays off to prepare for the weekend.

This morning, I also met Amy (in person) for the first time. Amy writes an awesome blog called Sixth of April (her sons birth date). Amy and I had been chatting via comments, email, and instagram (@itzyskitchen) for a while, and it was about time we finally met in person!  We decided to meet at a new juice and smoothie bar in Mount Pleasant called The Main Squeeze (such a great name):

The shop is super clean and colorful inside. Their menu offers everything from fresh fruit juice to smoothies. They even have a kids size (which I know Kaylin will love one day).

Christie Romine is the owner of The Main Squeeze. She is a Mount Pleasant local and is incredibly nice. I asked her what their best seller was and she said the Tropical Superfood. I ordered a 16 oz with protein:

You can see Amy’s Georgia on my Mind in the background:

This smoothie was seriously delicious! The pineapple flavor dominates- so good! I will definitely be back. Josh is going to be a big fan of their Hawaiian Honeymoon (named after Christie & her husband’s honeymoon in Hawaii and containing everything in the Tropical Superfood minus the spinach).

Here is a picture of Amy, her adorable son Ryan, Me & Kay, and Amy’s sweet neighbor Heather & her cutie pie son:

Seriously…how adorable is Ryan?

Such a fun meet up! If you live in the Charleston area- check out The Main Squeeze!!

On tap for this weekend? Teaching Body Attack, going out to eat, seeing my parents and ??

E: Blogger Brunch- Honeycomb Cafe

My Sunday was filled with a little of this and a little of that. It started off with a great brunch with Mandi & Bryan and Amelia & Kevin. Amelia is an incredible pastry chef and is in school in Colorado to become a Registered Dietitian. She is also super sweet. She was back in South Carolina visiting and I was so glad I was able to meet up with her and her husband! We all headed out to the Honeycomb Cafe for some good eats. Josh got the whole grain pancakes:

Although he enjoyed them, he said they failed in comparison to Charleston’s Cafe’s pancakes. I got an order of oatmeal and a side of fruit:

 

The ladies (Amelia, Mandi, Me):

 

Amelia brought Josh and I the most amazing cookies (filled with chunks of chocolate and peanuts):

 

She also brought Josh his favorite dessert ever…key lime pie! And she got the baby this adorable onesie from the USA Olympics training center:

 

Thank you so much for all the goodies Amelia!!!

After brunch, I cleaned the house, went to do more baby registering, baked, cooked dinner and then finally relaxed! It was a great day :) What was your Sunday like??

I’m off to teach Pump & work. Enjoy your day!!

E: White Bean & Spinach Crock Pot Soup & Blogger Meet up

Normally, I would be sad that it is Monday “already”….but I’m so excited for our doctors appointment later this week…that there are no complaints from over here today! I’m thinking about doing a guess the babies sex giveaway. The prize would be a homemade baked good (your choice: vegan almond butter chocolate chunk cookies, vegan chocolate, chocolate chip pumpkin muffins or peanut butter flour chocolate chip cookies)- would y’all be interested? If I get a good response, I will put the giveaway up on Wednesday!! Two things I want to share with you:

1) Blogger brunch at Charleston’s Cafe.

I had been looking forward to this get together for quite some time! Unfortunately, a few people couldn’t make it last minute, but a great time was had by all who made it out. The cafe already had a longgg line at 9:30:

I started my meal with a great cup of decaf:

 

And ordered oatmeal with strawberries and skim for breakfast:

 

All the ladies!! Me (+bump), Blair, Lindsay and Mandi:

2) I made a very tasty & healthy soup the other night that I must share! I found this crock pot/slow cooker white bean & spinach soup recipe through FitnessMagazine.com. The soup does not contain a lot of ingredients but packs great flavor! I followed the directions almost exactly. I did use a TJs rice mixture instead of just brown rice and I added in 1/8 teaspoon of ground red pepper (for just a tiny bit of kick- I’m a red pepper addict ;)). The outcome:

Not gorgeous- but so good! Josh loved it too. Along side our soup, we each had fruit (peaches for Josh, cantaloupe for me) & a baked tortilla (cut into “chips). Josh also had a string cheese and two peanut butter flour chocolate chip cookies:

  

A wonderful meal! We had this for dinner on Friday and enjoyed leftovers on Sunday. I’m off to teach Body Pump. Enjoy the last day of February!

E: Weekend & Pregnancy Update

I always consider the weekend to unofficially start on Thursday afternoon :). Thursday, I met up with Lindsay to walk the bridge.  It was SO much fun to catch up with her. The walk started off sunny and ended with rain!! It was actually quite comical. It was raining so hard by the time we got back to our cars, we didn’t even grab a picture. Here is a soaking me:

Thursday night, we had breakfast for dinner. I had scrambled eggs in a tortilla (needed more protein for the baby) and made a batch of Beth’s Peanut Butter Flour pancakes for Josh. He said they were yummy (I had a little nibble and concur!):

Friday was the usual: gym, work, food store, errands & time with Josh! Fabulous :)

Saturday, Mandi, Bryan, Josh, myself & friends headed to Brewvival (aka Beer Fest). We all went to Brewvival last year and had a blast.  This year, I was obviously DD, but still enjoyed the bands and beautiful weather. Pictures from the event: It was crowded right from the start:

They had tons more vendors this year and fun food, including two food trucks:

 

The weather was perfect (sunny and almost 70 degrees) and everyone enjoyed the beer (while I enjoyed my water ;)):

Adorable Mandi and her beer can necklace:

Me & Mandi:

 

Mandi & Bryan:

Josh & I:

I snuck a few snacks into the festival including these EatStrong products (disclaimer: we received these samples for free):

 

I love that they’re “made from all natural, rich and nourishing ingredients(from the EatStrong website).” The consistency of the bar is very interesting and melts in your mouth. The snack mix is a fun combination of nuts, seeds and chocolate drops. They were perfect for the festival.

After the festival, we went out to dinner at Mellow Mushroom and then called it a night.

Today, we have a blogger meet up at our favorite spot, Charleston’s Cafe!! I’m excited to see all of the ladies. More information to come tomorrow!

Pregnancy Update:  Week 18

 

I find myself starting to spill things on my stomach more often these days :) I forget its there sometimes ;). We get to find out the sex of the baby this upcoming week and we CAN’T wait. Whether pink or blue, we’re super excited- but the more details we find out about this little guy/girl, the more excited we get! Things that have surprised me: Random bouts of hunger.

Tell me about your weekend!

E: Toast & Tons of Baking

Unlike my lazyyyy Saturday, my Sunday was super productive! I got up and went for a nice long walk and then headed to a blogger brunch at Toast.

Although their breakfast menu is a little limited, the food was good and the service was EXCELLENT.

Mandi ordered up an omelet and coffee:

And I ordered up their oatmeal. Their oatmeal comes with tons of side offerings. I went with frothed skim milk, raisins, banana and wheat toast:

 

It was super tasty! Although we had plans for a larger meet up, it ended up just being Katie, Kerr, Mandi & I. BUT we had a blast chatting it up. Katie & Kerr:

Me & Mandi:

Thanks for the good time ladies!

When I got home, I got down to business. Lots of cleaning and TONS of baking. I had to bake up some treats to send out with our Christmas gifts, as well as to send to my secret blogger.  First up, my big oatmeal chocolate chip cookies:

 

I also used Andes chips:

To make Double Chocolate Mint Chip cookies:

And last but not least, I baked up granola:

 

I hope my blogger likes her treats :). Once I was done with my baking, I ran out to get a flu shot. Did y’all get one yet?

Josh had his friend Jeremy over for football time, so I made them up at big batch of pulled pork:

 

While I had a big brinner bowl (eggs, peppers, onion, sweet potato and a side of fruit). Breakfast twice in one day? Perfect :)

What are you looking forward to this week?