I went to two Whole Foods events this past week – A smoothie tasting & their Whole Planet Foundation Kick-Off.  I’m not gonna lie, I was pretty disappointed.  Of course, I love Whole Foods, but their “events” calendar hasn’t been as exciting as I expected.

On Thursday, I attended the “Smoothie Tasting”.  In my mind, I pictured a couple of different smoothies to test out and/or smoothie tasting spots throughout the store while you shop.  Nope, there was ONE place to try smoothies and there was only ONE smoothie.  Don’t get me wrong – the smoothie was delicious and completely worth the taste and I look forward to trying the recipe, but I expected more.  I enjoyed chatting with the Healthy Eating Expert though and she was so excited to hear that I’m a blogger!

Here’s the recipe in case you’re interested – seriously, this was a delicious smoothie and it had 2 cups of spinach in it!  You couldn’t even taste the spinach.

1/2 cup coconut water or regular water
1 cup green grapes
1 cup frozen pineapple chunks
1/2 ripe banana, peeled
2 cups fresh spinach, picked

On Thursday night, I went to a new Biblestudy group and it turned out great – I look forward to getting more involved with the group and getting to know the girls.  They’re a few years older than me, but we’re studying James and I really enjoyed the conversation.

My sister came to town this weekend and I had to show her around Whole Foods for the first time!  I promised her a treat just like I did when I took Nick for the first time.  She picked a chocolate chip cookie.  This was also the day of another Whole Foods event – Whole Planet Foundation Kick-Off.  I expected some kind of speakers throughout the store or a section to celebrate the event, but honestly, I’m not sure what made that day anything extra special.  Again, disappointed.  We enjoyed our cookies though!

On Saturday night, I joined Collette (Nick’s sister) for a great night of watching Friends, making hot chocolate and cookies, and laughing til our bellies hurt!  It was perfect.  I was suppose to wake up for church the next morning – we were going to go to her Methodist church and then breakfast and then my church, but overnight I ended up getting sick.  I’ve been in bed all of Sunday trying to get better.  I’m getting caught up on some blogging though, so that’s a positive.

Overall, it’s been a good couple of days.  I am looking forward to next weekend when I finally make the trip back to Starkville.  It’s been over a month and I’m excited about seeing Nick and seeing my friends from there!

How was your weekend?  Do anything exciting or laid back?
Do you attend the events at your local Whole Foods?  Are they similar to my experiences so far or can you actually tell that there is an “event” going on that day?

As a vegetarian, I love a good grilled cheese.  It’s always been one of my favorite comfort foods and I enjoyed it from my meat-eating days into my vegetarian days.  My mind is more conscious about getting the nutrients it needs though since I don’t eat meat and so when I went to make a grilled cheese one day, I thought…. “Maybe I should try to add some veggies”

Well, that created this delicious concoction and I’m excited to share it with you!

For me, I eat alone most of the time because my parents don’t eat what I eat and Nick isn’t around all the time to eat my leftovers or for me to cook an actual sized meal.  I came up with a way to re-use my leftovers quickly though, so that makes this entire recipe perfect!

Ingredients:
Choice of Bread
Choice of Sliced Cheese (I use Velveeta)
Bell Pepper
Avocado
Tomato
*You can use any veggies you like!  I plan on adding mushroom next time for added health benefit.

Directions:
This may be self explanatory, but I found it worked best to do bread, cheese, all veggies, cheese, then bread.  I tried one where I went bread, cheese, tomatoes, cheese, bell peppers, cheese, avocado, cheese, bread and it didn’t turn out as well.  Just FYI.  Then just grill it to your personal preference!

My favorite thing about this veggie grilled cheese is that it’s all about what YOU want!  If you don’t like something I put on mine, it doesn’t mean you have to add the same thing.  It can be made differently for different people.

I paired mine with some tomato soup.  Nothing special – Campbell’s.  It turned out a lot better than I expected, honestly!  Even though it was a grilled cheese, I still felt like I was getting additional nutrients I wouldn’t have gotten otherwise.  It’s a somewhat healthy spin on a staple comfort food.  Of course, you can make it more or less healthy too!  And I use the term “healthy” very loosely (I don’t want any health nuts going on a rant about my healthy grilled cheese haha) As a vegetarian, I’m trying to sneak in my veggies any way I can – and this was one of those great ideas I had.

But wait.

Say you’re cooking for one (like me) and you have left over veggies.  Just save them and make an omelet the next morning.  Of course, it might help to be good at making omelets… I am not.  This omelet did not turn out so great.  Nick, on the other hand, is excellent at making omelets!  Next time, I’ll leave that to him or maybe take a few lessons!

Would you consider adding veggies to your grilled cheese?
Do you make any “adult” grilled cheese pairings that I should know about?
Do you use leftovers of one meal to contribute to a future meal?

Have a wonderful weekend sweet friends!

I personally love this time of month when Nick takes over the blog for a split second.  He doesn’t get quite as excited… in fact, he mostly wonders why he has to waste time to answer these questions, but this month I gave him a few good reasons – one of them being…. a $30 Amazon gift-card.  So yeah, he decided to participate!  He loves Amazon.  He loves free stuff.  I love him answering these questions.  WIN-WIN.

I know that’s a repeat picture, I just love it! – The Disney, the sunshine, the Nick, the girly pig-tails.  Love it all.

If you could live anywhere, where would you live? Melbourne, Australia or Stuttgart, Germany.
Sand or Snow?  Definitely Snow.
What winter Olympic sport would you rock? Speed Skating.
You’re cooking a romantic dinner – what’s your go to dish? Pasta.
This year I gave my girlfriend ____ for Valentine’s Day.  A Dozen Roses Delivered to her work.

Well Nick’s about out of time, so y’all have a great Thursday!

In case you missed it:
I shared my personal perks of having a real job
I was interviewed on You Tube