More Posts to Come!

I apologize for not posting the past few days, but mom and dad have been in town. Luckily we ate at a lot of great restaurants so I have tons of stuff to post this upcoming week! The site usually gets less traffic on the weekends anyway, so I most likely will update tomorrow night or Monday morning. I also want to thank everyone that reads my blog regularly. I recently got my first payment from google adsense and it was very exciting! I have been working on this blog for 6 months now!

Cancun Roll

Last night I decided to get a Cancun roll from Thaicoon.

Atlanta Cupcake Factory

Saturday was the first time I had gone to the Atlanta Cupcake Factory this summer. I was excited to try their summer flavors. I got key lime, red velved, pink lemonade, strawberry, and creamsicle cupcakes. Most exciting was the fact that they are now selling what they call truffles- but they are actually CAKE BALLS just like Meredith makes! They just dust the outside with sugar instead of dipping it in melted chocolate. So exciting! They had them in about 8 flavors (similar to the cupcake flavors) and they are .75 cents a piece. I didn't realize they were going to be delicious so I only got two. I ended up having to give away 2 of my cupcakes because I got sick of them, but the cake balls were AMAZING. I wish I had bought 1 cupcake and 10 cake balls.

Murphy's Lobster Cobb Salad and Banana Cream Pie

Saturday night Catherine and I used the 50% coupon I had and ate dinner at Murphys. http://www.murphysvh.com/aboutvh.htm. I had the lobster cobb salad and a bad choice of banana cream pie at the end. Both were delicious but I was soooo full. I had to scrape off most of the whipped cream from the pie because it was just too much. I like banana flavored things way more than whipped cream anyway.

I was impressed with the salad. It had everything I love on it, tomato, avocado, bacon, lobster, a creamy sauce. My only disappointment was how hard it was to chop everything up and mix it together. The presentation was nice, but I really couldn't eat it the way it was served.

Park's Edge Chilaquiles and Fried Egg

http://www.parksedgeatl.com/
I had lots of good food over the weekend that I need to update with! Sunday morning for brunch I went to Park's Edge with a few friends. I ordered Chilaquiles with Fried Egg. It tasted delicious. I loved the cheese on top, it tasted authentically Mexican. I think they could have used better quality chicken but other than that I really liked the sauce and it wasn't too spicy.



I have also never had a fried egg before! When she asked me how I wanted my egg fried I didn't even know how to respond. She asked if I liked the middle runny and I said no...but it was runny anyway. I ended up liking it so that's a plus, I tried something new!

chocolate cake

Last time I got cake from Kroger it was a little thin slice for $1.99. This time it was practically a fourth of the whole cake for the same price! Then I realized it's probably because the icing tastes a little burnt or off somehow.

Buitoni Shrimp and Lobster Ravioli

My dinner last night. It was pretty good. I liked the inside filling more than the sauce. Although I didn't taste any lobster, only shrimp. I think the sauce may have been trying to give a lobstery flavor. I also realized I like my salads best with just vinegar and pepper, no olive oil. Healthier that way too.

Kid Cuisine Magical Cheese Stuffed Crust Pizza

Today I felt like being a kid again. So for lunch I am having Magical Cheese Stuffed Crust Pizza with corn, and vanilla pudding with magical chocolate flavor and color changing sprinkle packet. So that means the pudding looks vanilla, but then I mix a powder in it full of sand looking grit and stars - and VOILA, it turns to chocolate pudding.

McDonalds Smoothie- Wildberry

I enjoyed my smoothie yesterday so I got another this morning. Today I had the Wildberry flavor in a medium instead of a small. I think the strawberry banana is better. The Wildberry tastes a lot like frozen juicy juice and I always hated juicy juice. At $2.79 the medium is a good deal for a real fruit smoothie. I don't know how true their "real fruit" claims are, but it tastes authentic.

McDonalds Fruit Smoothie

I saw the commercial last night for the new fruit smoothies at McDonalds. So this morning when I forgot my breakfast I decided to get one on the way to work. I had strawberry banana and it was really good.

Atkins Park

Friday night I went out to dinner with some friends at Akins Park in the highlands. http://www.atkinspark.com/ . I had the southern burger which has a fried green tomato and homemade pimiento cheese on top. It was REALLY good. I didn't feel like having a real burger so I had the house made blackbean burger. It was gigantic, but a little bland. It probably would have been even more excellent if I got a beef burger. For my side I had fried pickles. They were not the best I've ever had. I always think I'm going to like them and then remember I don't like many things that are breaded and fried. Also the ranch dipping sauce was too thick and had dill in it. If I come back, I'll order a regular burger and the pasta salad. It was good though. I'll definitely go back.

Gelato

After dinner friday night (I'll make another post for that) Cassandra and I decided to get gelato. It was all because I saw their HUGE poster on the side of the building in Virginia Highlands and really wanted a sprinkle cone. I got dulce de leche. It was amazing.

Starkist Tuna Salad Lunch To go!

DELICIOUS! This little pouch comes with crackers, tuna mixed with water chesnuts and a little bit of relish, spoon, paper towel and a mint! It is so good. I haven't had tuna in a really long time. It reminds me of being little. Now that I know once you open up the lunch to go it's really just a packet of the sandwich ready albacore tuna- I think I'll just get that individually from now on. Then I can use my own crackers because I really would have liked more and I won't be wasting the extra packaging/disposable spoon.

Red Velvet Cake Yoplait Light

Yum.

Tonight was the last night of the Turk'y burgers. 4 yummily delicious nights in a row and atlast I have run out. :( It has also been a record 11 days since I have eaten any meal from a restaurant. Since I've bought some new things at the grocery store it hasn't been that bad.

Speaking of that, today I tried the Weight Watchers cakes. I should have known anything weight watchers was going to be not exactly delish. They tasted like dry twinkies with not enough filling. And half the size of real twinkies. In my opinion you might as well have a real twinkie. You could eat a whole box of these and not be satified.

Kid Cuisine Krazy Combo

Yes I am eating a Kid Cuisine Krazy Combo with Limited Monsters & Medieval Mac 'n Cheese. It comes complete with knight, horse, castle, and crown shaped macaroni and cheese, corn, and MONSTER shaped fruit snacks for dessert. I remember eating these on very rare occasions when I was little and getting the chicken nuggets that came with the square brownie. I wish I had that little square brownie in this monster meal. It also comes with 25% of my saturated fat intake for the day. Yum yum, now I must go eat before it gets cold.

King's Hawaiian Sweet Bread

The best part about having turk'y burgers for dinner 3 nights in a row is that I get to eat my King's Hawaiian Sweet Bread Sandwich Rolls! They taste just as good as the regular rolls but are sliced and in bun style..mmmmm....

Yoplait Delights

Today I tried the lemon parfait Yoplait Delight. When I was shopping I debated between buying the caramel and the lemon, but went with lemon since that was what was in the magazine. I think I should have stuck with my first choice. The lemon wasn't bad. But it is still yogurt and not as tangy as a lemon dessert should be. I am sure the caramel is much more delicious and I'll get it next time.

Quorn Meatless Turk'y Burger

AMAZING! I had a real turkey burger for the first time recently, so I decided to try these fake ones, 1 because I don't have a grill and also because I don't like cooking meat. I have had them the past two nights in a row and they are sooo filling and good. Meredith made fun of me for eating fake flavored filled patties instead of real turkey but I don't care! I'm too picky to cook real meat.

I ate my meal with sweet potato fries and broccoli salad. I topped the burger with feta cheese, lettuce, sprouts, and honey barbecue sauce.

(The actual burger is kind of hidden by my huge pieces of lettuce..)

30 Best Snacks under 200 Calories!

Today while grocery shopping I picked up some snacks from the July issue of Shape Magazine's 30 best new snacks under 200 calories list.



My first try was the Planters NUT-rition Omega-3 mix. The mix of walnuts, cranberries, and chocolate covered soynuts is amazing. I love that it is sodium free as well. I usually don't like salt on mixed nuts and this has absolutely none. I can't wait to try the rest of the snacks throughout the week because this was a hit. I will post as I try!


I skipped over a few of the items that I wanted to try simply because they were $6 each or I couldn't find them in the correct flavor. I want to mention them though incase I get them at a later time. They sounded worth trying:
1) Amy's Gluten Free & Non-Dairy Cake in Chocolate
2) Quaker True Delights Rice Snacks in Sea Sald and Cracked Black Pepper
3) Gardein Seven Grain Crispy Tenders (meatless) ---I had these in the cart as well as the cake and forced myself to put them back. vegetarian food is $$$$!

Egg Salad Sandwiches

One of my favorite meals to make when I don't know what to fix is an egg salad sandwich. I had several eggs I needed to use and I'm trying to be more frugal so I had scrambled eggs for breakfast and then an egg salad sandwich for lunch/dinner (It was like 4:30pm so I don't really know which one it counts as).

Here's an old picture of a sandwich from a place that makes the best egg salad ever, Heidis. Mine was not as good, but I tried. I originally thought this picture was of egg salad, but I think it's from the time I got the veggie sandwich.

Donate Blood

This is not food related, but it's my blog so I can do what I want.

Even if its forcing you to read about blood right after you read about my tasty nachos.

I attempted to donate blood today but my iron was too low. I've been taking pills because of my low meat diet, but apparently not enough! Anyways, I am a big advocate of donating blood so try to go and do it if you get a chance. It definitely is worth it for the help that you can give someone in need.

And here are my two t-shirts. I had to wait a long time because their printer broke, so I got free things even though I didn't actually donate. The lady was insistent that I needed a size XL...I asked for a small and she told me that they "run very small" and that it was "like a child's small". Well it looks the same as any other small I've ever worn, but thanks to that lady I now have a size small and XL.

Oh and I lied, this is food related because look at all the goodies I snatched from the free food table.

Nachos

My dinner last night. I used unsalted blue corn tortilla chips, monterey jack cheese, spicy black bean dip, salsa verde, fresh tomatoes and avocado.

Sandwiches

I've been in a sandwich kind of mood lately. My favorite has dijon or honey mustard, mayonnaise, avocado, tomato, sprouts or lettuce, & provolone/mozzerella/or muenster cheese.

Nanie's Vegetables

At the beach everyone else ate a chicken plate from the church, but I don't like chicken. So I ate tons of vegetables. It was good. I had never had rutabaga before (it's the orange part in the middle). I think the corn was my favorite part. I only like it off of the cob because otherwise I hate the way it gets all stuck in my teeth.

Dekalb Farmer's Market

I shopped at the Dekalb Farmer's Market yesterday for the first time and got some cool stuff! For dinner I made salad with California Red lettuce, baby tomatoes that Pa sent with me from the beach, focaccia, and butternut squash lasagna. I was disappointed with the lasgana. It had some sort of basil or weird green thing on top that I did NOT like.

Some more highlights of my shopping trip:

Honey BBQ Smart Wings

Sprouts (Cassandra has made me scared of these with all her food borne illness talk, but I like them anyways)

Water crackers

Blackberries

Cherry & Honey greek yogurt

Bread that tastes kind of like like granmommy's homemade bread

Butternut Squash soup

Macaroni and Cheese

Butternut Squash Lasagna

Edamame

Apple Cider

Blue Tortilla Chips (unsalted)

Black Bean Dip

Salsa Verde

Sliced fresh mozzerella

Sliced monterey jack

3 homemade soups (mushroom, thai shrimp, and I forget the third haha)

Fresh lettuce, tomato, avocado, and asparagus

Just incase you were wondering about the way I grocery shop! No meat and lots of veggies & carbs... I didn't let myself buy any of the delicious looking desserts. They had whole fruit tarts and HUGE half mango/vanilla cakes with buttercream frosting for $6.99. Maybe next time.....

Bob's Dogs

Sunday while I was down on the beach, Mom, Dad, and Pa drove down and got me a hot dog! Actually mine is a chili dog without the hot dog part because I don't like it. It was perfect 4th of July beach food. I wish I had one right now. Actually I wish I had eaten at Trolley Stop and gotten a veggie dog THE BEST HOT DOG EVER! 1 Carolina style and 1 Wrightsville style...although I guess if I had bought one in Southport I would have had to edit the Wrightsville part of that order.

Indochine (Wilmington, NC)

On my way to Oak Island Saturday I met Leah for lunch in Wilmington. We ate at a place off of Market Street called Indochine. They had REALLY pretty outside seating and the weather was perfect - but they didn't serve lunch outside. I had a rough start because they didn't have what I ordered from the lunch menu (the vegetatian bento box), but the waitress recommended the tomato stew and I was pleasantly surprised. They shouldn't advertise it as a stew because it was really more like a stir fry. I ate every single bit. I also got a salad because Leah got one with her meal, but I think they ended up not charging me for mine. Oh well, their mistake. I also got a Thai Iced tea. I've been ordering them everytime I go to a Thai place ever since someone introduced me to them at Thaicoon here in Atlanta. Leah and I had a wonderful lunch. It was so good to catch up!

I just want to add that I had a wonderful week at home and am safely back in Atlanta! Back to work tomorrow.

Mr. P's Bistro

Last night mom, dad, pa, nanie and I ate at Mr. P's Bistro in Southport, NC. We were out to celebrate mom's birthday again. The 4th of July celebration was going on in Southport so we walked to the waterfront and listened to some live music before dinner. Mr. P's was a cute little restaurant that was a short walk away from the water. I had a caesar salad and soup that had a REALLY long name. I can't even remember it now but it was some sort of seafood okra gumbo. Now that I write that I don't remember seeing any okra in it. The caesar salad was very good, but the soup was advertised as spicy and it ended up being pretty bland and wasn't served hot. Pa and Nanie got prime rib and mom and dad shared a seafood platter. Maybe I should have stuck with ordering something the restaurant is known for like seafood or steak. After dinner we walked down the street and ordered icecream. Mine was vanilla with a butter pecan swirl.

Tomorrow is the Southport 4th of July parade, which is the largest military parade in the state for the 4th of July. I want to go, but will be driving back to Atlanta tomorrow. I'm having a great time at the beach and spent all day down on the beach. The weather was unseasonably cool yesterday but back to being hot today. I am not looking forward to leaving tomorrow!

Solas

Our dinner at Solas for mom's birthday!
http://www.solasraleigh.com
Glenwood Ave. Downtown Raleigh, NC

We came here for Meredith's Bachelorette party and I wanted to try the restaurant so I suggested it as somewhere to go for mom's birthday. She picked it and we had a great dinner!


Rooftop Bar

Kobe Beef Sliders

Razberri Pomegranate Martini

Mom's salad

Mom's Hot Rock

Addison's lamb

My PLT (portobello, lettuce, tomato)

Dad's picture got deleted accidently! :( But he had the braised short ribs and said they were amazing.


My She Crab Soup (Best thing!)

Mom's carrot cake

Happy 50th Birthday Mom!