Food Archives - Page 2 of 24 -

June 10, 2015

Seed

Hello there friends! How is your week going so far? Mine has been pretty good, busy, but good! I’ve started walking with a friend on Monday’s & Wednesday’s so Nick and I end up spending our evenings there for the most part. Nick has been working out with her husband almost every day of the week, so it’s pretty convenient! Last night I had a Discover Arbonne event that I went to, I always enjoy going to those because they’re very encouraging and always informative! I’m hoping I’ll find some people to bring with me at some point, but for now it’s just me, myself, and I. I’m so lucky to have found some sweet friends in this business already! I definitely look forward to every Arbonne event I attend.

Me, Noelle, & Lacy at Disney Wine & Dine

I promised that I would recap my super quick, but super worth while trip to New Orleans last week. Now, I’m honestly not a fan of NOLA – it’s gross, smelly, ugly, and just not up my alley, but my wonderful friend Lacy was there for a conference and 3 hours
is much closer than 20 something hours so I knew I had to drive down, even if it was for a quick dinner and a short nap.

I got off work at 3:30pm on Thursday so I could make the 3 hour drive down. We decided it would be best to park my car in the parking garage and to walk or use uber the rest of the night. I was really craving a unique restaurant that was vegan. We don’t have any vegan restaurants in Jackson, but I assumed NOLA had to have something good in that department and boy was I right! I wasn’t really sure what we were getting into, but I found a decent vegan restaurant that was only a mile from her hotel, so we started our walk towards dinner. We had planned to walk back, but as we neared the restaurant, there was a small section that didn’t feel very safe, so we ended up using uber for our trip back to the hotel.

SEED

The area was quaint and as soon as we saw the restaurant, we could feel that this was going to be a wonderful experience! We felt pretty hipster too. It was a completely garden based restaurant and had a lot of southern favorites – fried “chicken” nuggets, gumbo, chili cheese fries and so much more! I absolutely love a good fried tofu nugget, so I was especially excited to see that on the menu!

We both raved about the appetizers. I think I enjoyed the chili cheese fries a little more than Lacy did, while she enjoyed the hummus more than I did, but overall they were both excellent! The chili cheese fries seemed bottomless because we barely made a dent in them!

I could not say enough good things about my chicken fried tofu. The crispiness was absolutely perfect and I chose the agave mustard dipping sauce which was amazing! Lacy ended up not liking her gumbo so much. I thought it was great and ended up eating it for lunch the next day, but I’m in no way a gumbo expert, where as Lacy loved gumbo before she went vegetarian and so she has more room to be critical! I don’t think she thought it was spicy enough or the taste wasn’t on point, but I really couldn’t tell a difference – again, I think it’s because I really don’t have an expectation of what gumbo should taste like.

We ended our meal with a chocolate chip cookie that was divine. I was thoroughly impressed with this restaurant and I told Nick that we would have to go here if we came to New Orleans. He of course said that’s a big IF because we really are not fans of New Orleans, but I know I’ll be down there in July when I fly out for my companies annual meeting – so I may have to indulge at Seed again, whether or not others want to join me!

Later that night, we thought it would be a good idea to walk down to this arts festival, but that was more trouble than it was worth and absolutely smelly and gross the whole way there – again, not a huge fans of New Orleans. We finally made our way back to the room so we could have girl chat and drift to sleep before I had a 5:00 am wake up call to drive back to Jackson for work on Friday.

May 18, 2015

Which Wich

Good Morning! I can’t believe it’s already Monday. Why have we not invented a 5 day weekend and a 2 day work week yet? That just makes a lot more sense in my opinion.

I was pretty exhausted from the week, so I had really been looking forward to the weekend! Between blogging, work, Girls on the Run, and Arbonne, I stayed on the go Monday thru Friday! When 4:30pm on Friday hit, I was out of there and was so thankful for the weekend. Friday night was pretty low-key for us, we went to Whole Foods for dinner because we were both craving something healthy. I got the four for four, which I didn’t realize was still an option until the other day. You get four Health Starts Here approved options for four dollars. It’s such a great deal in my opinion. We then went to Walmart to pick up snacks for Saturday. Ice cream wasn’t on our list, but it made it’s way in the buggy, so we enjoyed Bunny Tracks before I headed home for the evening to get some much needed rest.

Saturday morning, we were up bright and early for the Dragon Boat Regatta. My office had a team of rowers and the event turned out to be a whole lot of fun! We rowed twice and were scheduled to row a third time, but the weather went from amazing to awful in a flat two seconds! They called off the rest of the event due to the weather. Luckily everyone made it back in safely, but there was a race going on right as the winds hit.

We came in third for the first race, but first on the second race. Our friends Danny & Shaina came out to help us row, although Danny has pretty much promised he’ll never come again haha. It’s a lot of hard work and a super early morning, that’s for sure! I think deep down he enjoyed being there though. Shaina left early because we didn’t need her to row and she offered to have dinner ready for us after the races. She made a delicious Tomato Pie, which I’m sure sounds as crazy to you as it does to me! She subbed in Greek Yogurt for part of the mayo it calls for to make it a little healthier. It’s basically pie crust with half mayo, half greek yogurt, sliced tomatoes, spices, and cheese on top. I was a little skeptical, but it turned out delicious! She had a side of guac just in case we didn’t like the tomato pie. We spent the rest of the evening watching tv and relaxing. I was craving some cookies, so Danny made a famous batch of his delicious cookies – seriously, these things are amazing! I don’t even want to guess how many cookies I ate, because it’d be embarrassing.

Sunday turned out to be another relaxing day, thank goodness. Nick and I did some stuff at his house, I got some work done, we went to Whole Foods again for lunch and looked at DSW because I have a coupon I can use right now. I found some cute sandals that I’m going back for later today. I do believe the highlight of our day was finding the most amazing place to eat – Which Wich. Have you ever eaten here?! As a vegetarian, finding a sandwich shop that doesn’t just put a few pathetic veggies on a slice of bread with a piece of cheese is quite difficult. I would have never in my life thought about it if I wasn’t a vegetarian. I was a little nervous giving it a try, but Nick and I have both suggested it at one point or another and just never went. I figured I’d get the tuna. I still eat fish on occasion and when we go to places like Subway, that’s what I’m basically required to get because there is no way I’m spending $5 on the ridiculous thing they call a veggie sandwich. We walked in and they have a place for you to create your own order, I wish I had taken a picture of it, but there is a menu on the wall and numbered sandwich bags depending on which section you’re ordering from. I looked at the vegetarian section and there were FIVE options, one of which was a BLACK BEAN PATTY!!! Seriously, I was ecstatic. You then select all the toppings and cheese you want. I went with a black bean patty on wheat, with pepper jack cheese, buffalo sauce, ranch sauce, crunchy onion straws, lettuce, tomato, pickle, salt, and pepper.

Before we even got our food, we were already raving about the place, but then we thought… maybe we should actually get our food and taste it before speaking too soon. Then I saw a sign with the owner quoting that if you’re not 100% satisfied with your sandwich, they’ll either make a new one, refund you, or both! So I knew at that moment, it just has to be good! Sure enough, we were not disappointed. Nick also got the black bean burger because he likes having a healthy option and knows my struggle with sandwich places. He got a whole lot more toppings on his.

I finished off the entire sandwich with no trouble at all. We decided that it’s not even worth eating at other places in the Dogwood Shopping area when we can get a wide variety here and we can choose to be healthy. I could have gone full blown vegan or even Engine 2/Health Starts Here approved! It’s nice to know that I have those options when I’m eating out and I’m doing one of those challenges. You can choose to do a lettuce wrap and even a bowl, so the healthy options are there! We continued to rave about our dinner to each other the rest of the night because we were so pleasantly surprised.

Now I’m off to work for another week. I’m getting brackets put on this morning, so I’m a little nervous, but the process of braces is officially underway! Yippee! Hope you have a wonderful week!

Have you ever eaten Which Wich?
What’s your favorite sandwich from there?
Have you ever done a Dragon Boat race?
Did you have a good weekend? What did you do?

May 14, 2015

Pineapple Lettuce Wraps and Renting a Netflix

Happy Thursday everyone! It has been one slammed week for me, but I love keeping busy, so it’s been great. Tonight is my Arbonne “launch” party so I’m excited and nervous about getting this started. I know I’ll have at least a few people in attendance! I pretty much have something every single night this week and because of mine and Nick’s work schedules, we will never get the chance to have lunch together this summer. Since I had a free night last night, I suggested that we rent a redbox (I actually said rent a Netflix and Nick got a kick out of that) and cook dinner together. I thought that the Pineapple Water chestnut lettuce wraps would be good and refreshing now that it’s heated up in Mississippi. I remember being surprised at how much I liked them when Mary Lindsey served them at our Health Starts Here graduation.

Yummy pineapple lettuce wraps for dinner with @ncu2 It reminds me of my first #healthstartshere graduation at @wfmjacksonms with @thereal_ml_jackson #healthyeating #healthyliving #wholefoods #plantstrong

A photo posted by Heather Black (@hblack79) on May 13, 2015 at 5:28pm PDT

They definitely turned out to be delicious, but they weren’t very filling so I’m glad Nick had already prepared some lentils as a side. He just cooked the lentils normal and then when we were ready to eat a bowl, we seasoned it a bit with cumin, paprika, and red pepper flakes. They turned out a lot more delicious than I expected. Nick has been raving about lentils ever since the Engine 2 challenge and has been telling me that I really need to incorporate them into my diet, especially since I’m a vegetarian, but I just never took the time to cook or taste them. I’m a fan though!

GIRLS ON THE RUN

I never knew there was an actual thing called May Day until this year. My sweet GOTR cuties have been talking about May Day literally all.season.long! I loved hearing their enthusiasm and watching them act out some of their performance before GOTR practice every day. Finally the week came and they were all giddy with excitement, so I mentioned that I might come watch and I got some basic information from one of the parents. Well when I said that, a few of them just got over the moon excited, so I knew I absolutely had to be there now!

Each grade goes through and performs their skit for the audience. When 4th grade comes to perform, they wrap the May Day pole. It’s really pretty and the parents get all teary-eyed. It meant a lot to me that I could be there to see some of my girls perform. They all did such a great job! I was only able to locate one of my girls the entire time and had pretty much given up on finding any others. I was about to leave, but they suggested I stick around and have some food before taking off, so I did to be polite. I’m so glad that I did because that one girl had found 2 others, so I was able to see 3/8 of my girls there! I wish I could have seen them all, but it was chaotic with all the families and children running around and having picnics.

I cannot even express how wonderful Girls on the Run has been this season and how blessed I am by every single one of the girls I have the privilege of working with. I’ll be sure to do a full re-cap of GOTR and hopefully answer any questions you may have. If you have a GOTR in your area, please do yourself a favor and volunteer your time to this wonderful organization!

Yesterday was my last day with Girls on the Run and they were absolutely precious. We do this ‘go bananas’ cheer at the end of every practice, I was surprised at how much they all loved it throughout the season (because you act a little silly and I surely thought they may be too cool for that! haha) We accidentally kept saying that we would do the LAST ‘go bananas’ cheer before we all left for the day. They would flip out and say, “no! it’s not our last cheer. Just say we’re doing the ‘go bananas’ cheer. Nothing else. We don’t want it to be our last.” They also asked if we could be their coaches next year and if we would all be together again. We asked them what they liked or disliked about GOTR this season and one girl said everything and nothing! Basically they all stole my heart and I didn’t realize I could like kids this much because I haven’t been a huge fan the past few years. I think it’s because I burnt myself out on volunteering for Sunday School at church many many years ago when my mom was Preschool & Children’s minister. Now I think it’s safe to say… I love kids. Especially the 3rd-5th grade. They totally think I’m cool and I love it. We kept our practice very low-key yesterday and I think it was the best thing we could have done. We spent 30 minutes chatting about the season and getting some input, then we spent another 30 minutes playing games – freeze tag, simon says, and mother may I. The coaches played along with them and these girls wore me slap out from freeze tag. They are fast! The last 15 minutes we handed out their end of season gifts – picture frame that held our group picture from the 5k race, purple nail polish, GOTR headband, breath mints, and a personalized note. We all hugged before leaving and I didn’t shed a single tear, which I’m super proud of. They kept telling me not to cry, so I listened. Luckily, we still have to finalize our community service project, so I look forward to seeing them all again in a few weeks!

Time for me to get ready for work, then after work, I’ll be hosting my “launch” party! If you’re interested in contributing an order to Arbonne for my party, you can do so by clicking this link! Like I’ve said time and time again, their protein powder is legit. So if you run or workout and like a post-run smoothie or protein shake, you will not be disappointed, but they have plenty of other great products that are worth the investment!

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