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September 3, 2016

Life Lately

Good morning friends!

I’ll be heading to Atlanta shortly, but I wanted to pop in and catch the blog up on some things going on lately since I haven’t been around much. I’m so excited about my trip to Atlanta – I’ll see my precious cousin and her little ones, my grandmother, some aunts and uncles, and friends on this trip while also taking a class for the Series 7 Exam. So what’s been going on?

I bought a house!

Crazy, I know. I had a great experience buying a house and would love to recap that at some point. I have a few projects on the horizon, so there will definitely be some before/after posts coming soon.

I’m getting fairly settled in, but it’s been crazy busy in my neck of the woods and things are coming together a lot more slowly than I initially anticipated. The kitchen is organized though and I have my coffee pot brewing coffee, so that is the biggest start to making a house feel like home in my opinion. This has been such a fun and exciting experience for me and I’m so thrilled to have my sister living with me during this time!

Street Vegan and other Vegan Cookbooks

I’ve been waiting to have my own kitchen back for 3 years now. Over the past 3 years, I have collected a multitude of vegan cookbooks. One of which was recently given to me by some friends. My birthday is in April, but I didn’t get this gift until last week, which turned out to be perfect timing with buying a house. This cookbook looks so unique and fun! I’m also looking forward to cooking from Raw. Vegan. Not Gross. and Vegan Cooking for Carnivores.

Book Club is Back!!

This is very very exciting, y’all! We took a little book club hiatus and kept talking and talking about getting it back together…. well, we finally took the plunge!! We started off with a night at Katy’s picking books and hostesses. Katy provided tiny home-made pizza’s that we could personalize. It was so much fun, we always have a great time getting together! It’s wonderful to love who you work with and I certainly do.

Then Chris made the cutest bookmarks to let us know when/where/which book we’ll be reading! The first book club was at Chris’ house and she made some delicious bruschetta.

The host always provides the dinner and then you bring your own choice of beverage, usually wine.

My best friend is back

Back in July, I got a text message from my friend Lacy (who I met as a VISTA and who was currently working and living in South Carolina) that said she was applying to Law School at Mississippi College in Jackson, MS. I was thrilled to say the least, but honestly didn’t believe it would actually happen. I knew she’d get in and I knew she’d get the scholarship she wanted because she’s brilliant, but I wasn’t sure if she would actually take the plunge and move here. Her boyfriend is still in South Carolina and I didn’t really think she’d be too excited about moving back to Mississippi. She got accepted, got the scholarship, and decided to accept! She’ll be here for three years and we have so many memories to make! The very first memory made was with Sweet Tea, of course.

Well, that highlights a little about what’s been going on. I’m off to finish laundry & packing, but I’m hoping to be back more frequently these days. I have internet at my new house now, I have inspirational places to blog, and I have lots to blog about!

What’s been going on in your life lately?
Have you bought a house, what was your experience?
What do you think makes a house feel more like a home?

January 22, 2015

Charleston, SC [Part 1]

Good morning y’all! I am so excited for today and tomorrow because I get to relive this past weekend and it was entirely worth reliving!

**A few warnings**

1. Before I get started, I want to point out one more time that I realize nothing I ate on this trip was Engine 2 Diet approved. I’m back to my regular diet now and eating within the realms of the challenge.

2. Both of my re-cap posts will be quite lengthy and full of pictures!

Back in September, Nick and I were going to go up North for Meg’s wedding and I was REALLY looking forward to it! Unfortunately that was around the time that Nick’s dad ended up in the hospital for open heart surgery so our plans got derailed unexpectedly that week. Ever since we missed that trip, I knew I wanted to visit Meg as soon as possible! We decided that Martin Luther King weekend worked with everyone’s schedule so we made the plans! To help break up the trip though, we decided to stop in Atlanta for the night on Friday. When we arrived to Atlanta, Joel and his girlfriend, Charlotte, had started prepping sushi for us to make together. I made my own sushi back in August when I went to a free Sushi Class at Whole Foods so I was very excited to give it another try! They really pulled out all the stops – tons of veggies, tempura fried shrimp & asparagus, real crab meat, the legit sushi rice & seaweed – so many different options for your sushi and it was wonderful!

I don’t like big bites of sushi, so I cut mine twice as small as the others. I really want to learn how to make the rice so I can try this at home for myself!

I finished my sushi off with panko bread crumbs and eel sauce drizzled over top. It was absolutely delicious and we thoroughly enjoyed catching up with some good friends! They kept asking us when we’re moving to Atlanta haha, honestly – I would LOVE that, but we’ll see what happens when Nick finishes grad school.

We woke up super early Saturday morning to finish our drive to Charleston and we arrived just in time for lunch! First on the agenda was a cute place called Five Loaves. They had a really great menu and it was easy to determine what was vegetarian (which is always appreciated!) I decided on the Mediterranean Garden Burger on a baguette with a cup of Potato Broccoli Soup. Everything about this meal was wonderful and the soup was the most flavorful soup I’ve ever tasted!

After lunch we headed over to Charleston donuts for individually crafted donuts where we chose the icing & topping we wanted. I could have come up with a million different combinations and I’m determined to try chocolate w/ fruity pebbles next time!

Mine: Caramel Icing w/ Oreo Topping

Nick: Maple Icing w/ bacon topping

Meg: Smore’s – Chocolate Icing w/ graham cracker crumb & marshmallow topping

Mike: Banana Icing with no topping (I was shocked too!)

Once we polished off our donuts, it was time to head out to the driving range for a little lesson! I will be the first to tell you that I have NO idea what I’m doing when it comes to golf. Meg & Mike on the other hand – PROS! Seriously, their form was really beautiful. It looked like it was an art to them and I really enjoyed watching from the sidelines. Nick did a really great job too! I think the golf clubs were a little smaller than Nick was used to because he didn’t seem as comfortable with them as what I’ve seen the last few times we’ve gone to the driving range, but Meg & Mike provided him with a few tips and I think he especially enjoyed that part of the trip!

After the driving range, we chilled at the apartment for a few hours before heading out to dinner. On the menu Saturday night was Desano Pizza! Nick and I each picked our own pizza and then I gave Nick the leftovers. of course. I ordered the Verdura pizza with broccoli rabe, mushroom, cherry tomato, garlic, and buffalo mozzarella. I also got a grapefruit beer which was absolutely fantastic!

The dining area was right next to the open kitchen where we could watch them prep the pizzas and put the pizzas in the oven. It was a really cool experience!

Once we finished dinner, we headed out to the pier, but unfortunately it was closed, so we walked to a local bar and had a beer with some live music in the background. We firmly believe the place started hopping because of us. There were only 2 people when we arrived, and a few minutes later a group of like 20 showed up!

We finally decided it was time to get comfortable and headed back to the apartment, had some wine, and played some games! Nick and I learned how to play a new card game that I cannot remember the name of now.. oh well! The most important thing to note though is how interested Shadow was in taking pictures with me! I know… you can totally tell, right?!

That about sums up our Friday & Saturday last weekend! Man I really miss them already… thank goodness for snap chat and texting and face book (and of course blogging!) to keep us all connected. I’m so glad that Nick hit it off with Meg & Mike too, I think we all really enjoyed each others company and had a fantastic time together. There is plenty more to still share though, so I’ll be back tomorrow for the rest of the recap!

I hope you all have a wonderful day and just remember, one more day to go until the weekend!

Have you eaten at Five Loaves or Desano in Charleston?
If you could pick any icing & topping flavor on your donut, what would you choose!?
Do you make sushi at home? What do you typically put in it?

January 21, 2015

Favorite Things #2

Happy Wednesday to you! It doesn’t quite feel like Wednesday because of the holiday on Monday and luckily that means the weekend is closer than it appears! yippee!! I just got back into town late Monday night, so I didn’t have much time to meal prep and get ready for the week. Yesterday for lunch I grabbed something from Whole Foods and then ate something light for dinner before going grocery shopping.

[[ Quinoa Stir Fry, Pasta, Spicy Tofu, Fruit, Cucumbers, Black Beans, & Fire Roasted Corn ]]

I have some full re-caps for y’all about my trip to Charleston, SC to visit Meg this past weekend, but first we need to dive into my second Favorite Things post of the year! So far my New Year’s Resolutions are shaping out pretty well and what I loved about creating some specific blog goals was being able to go back and view them yesterday so I could see where I’m slacking and plan my posts for the rest of the month accordingly!

Charleston, SC

I can’t help but mention that Charleston, SC is now one of my favorite places! I still feel like there is so much to do and see and eat there, but I got a pretty great taste of it this past weekend! Not to mention, my long time blog friend Meg now resides there and is only a whopping 9.5 hours away from me! I know that probably seems like a long road trip to most of you, but when she was a good 18 hours away before, the 9 hour drive now doesn’t seem so bad! I have so much good food to share with y’all (which btw, was NOT part of my Engine 2 Diet Challenge – I already knew I was making this exception when I left town). I was excited for her to finally meet Nick and I was looking forward to getting to know Mike better! Luckily the weekend wasn’t filled with awkward silence like you might imagine with half the people who had only met once their entire life and the other half who had never met before.

Engine 2 Approved, Health Starts Here Approved Dressing

I’ve been head over heels in love with this no oil dressing! My favorite so far is the Tangerine Vinaigrette, but I have my eyes on the Avocado Vinaigrette for a meal this week! There are so many things to love about this dressing – It’s healthy, It’s super tasty, It’s light on your stomach, and it has no added oils! My only regret is that I didn’t know this dressing existed when I did the Health Starts Here Challenge last August!

King Street Cookies & Others…

This was a difficult one to decide on, but I went with King Street Cookies. I promise, you’ll hear about a thousand other things that also topped my favorite list, but if I let all the good stuff out on this post, then I wouldn’t have a recap to write. King Street Cookies was one of the many places Meg & Mike took us this past weekend! Nick and I splurged and got the 1/2 dozen which gives you one free, so we got 7 cookies total. Each cookie was absolutely delicious and when we polished them off the very next day, they were just as soft as when we first ordered them! I’ll dive into which ones we specifically got on my recap post, but I was very impressed with King Street Cookies!

Menu Planner

When I got home from Charleston, I had one last Christmas present waiting for me. My aunt, uncle, & cousins all came down to Mississippi while I was gone (they planned their trip after I planned mine so we ended up missing each other). They made me the cutest customizable menu planner! I immediately made out my weekly menu for the rest of this week! I’m excited to try some new recipes!! Nick will be coming into town this weekend, so anything I can’t finish off or end up not liking, I’ll just pass it on to him! I have one more except
ion in my diet coming up this weekend and that’s for our Annual Awards Banquet because they’ll be providing a free meal & drinks. I plan on sticking to the diet completely the last 2 weeks though.

Grapefruit Beer

Oh my goodness, this stuff is AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously, it’s one of my new favorite beers! Meg introduced me to this beer at a local pizza place this weekend and I couldn’t resist ordering it. I’m so glad I did because I think mixing tangerine with beer was a genius move. It has the perfect tangy flavor and it doesn’t feel heavy on your stomach like regular beer does. It was also a refreshing beer to drink since it had that fruit flavor. I’m on the hunt for a tangerine beer that I can buy in Mississippi now! I have no clue if this one even exists in Mississippi, but I’ll be on the hunt for it or something similar!

I think it’s safe to say that we had an amazing time in Charleston and I am so excited to recap our entire trip so you can see what we did and what we ate! It’s going to be legen— wait for it — dary! I’m so thankful for this little ole’ blog that brought me friendships I’d drive 9 hours to see!

What’s on your favorite things list today?
Any idea where I can get some grapefruit beer?

Life Lately

Charleston, SC [Part 1]

Favorite Things #2

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