A Walking Taste of Athens Tour! Athens, Georgia that is . . .

Hello friends! This weekend was such fun! My sister and I decided to take our mama on a mother/daughter trip instead of buying her a birthday gift for her last birthday. Her birthday is in September, but we just got around to the trip. It was worth the wait! We couldn't decide where to go. Our preference would be to go somewhere none of us have been before, however, that was tough to find within driving distance for a weekend. My manager let me pick a gift certificate for a two night stay somewhere from her stash that was leftover from our Christmas party. There were some good options so it was hard to decide. We settled on Athens, Georgia. We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn Athens Downtown. What a perfect location! It was walking distance to tons of shops and restaurants. My niece Lauren lives close by so my sister suggested inviting her as well. She joined us on Saturday and stayed for the weekend. We enjoyed visiting with her, and since she went to college in Athens, she was the perfect tour guide.

We packed a lot into the long weekend, but it felt like all we did was walk and eat :-). On Saturday morning we browsed in the local shops. Lauren joined us in time for lunch. We went to Last Resort Grill. I definitely recommend this jewel of a restaurant. It has fabulous desserts, and the lunch is great, too! Prices were also good at lunchtime. Four of us ate and one of us got dessert (I won't tell which one), and it was still only around $50 with tip. That afternoon we went to the State Botanical Garden of Georgia. The gardens are free they just have a recommended donation of $2/person so that was an inexpensive way to spend a little time. Since it was winter, there wasn't a ton to see, but it would be a great place for a spring wedding I am sure. That evening Lauren's dad and fiance met us for dinner at DePalma's Italian Cafe downtown. This was another great dining choice. Food was wonderful, and prices were reasonable!

Sunday morning we slept in, and then walked to the Mayflower Restaurant for a late breakfast. From there we drove to Helen, Georgia, for the day just to walk around downtown. We stayed in Helen for a few hours, and headed back to Athens in time for supper ;-)! There were so many good food options in Athens it was difficult to decide where to go. However, we knew that we all wanted dessert tonight so we were on the hunt for a light dinner. We finally decided on Pauley's Original Crepe Bar. Definitely a great choice for lighter/lunch-y type fare. They had desserts that looked great, but I didn't want a crepe for dessert and dinner. We then proceeded to walk all over downtown Athens in search of the PERFECT dessert(s). Tammy mentioned getting tiramisu each day, but she never did. I thought for sure tonight was tiramisu night for her. However, she passed up tiramisu for frozen yogurt from Yoforia. Lauren settled on Yoforia as well, but I couldn't decide. When I couldn't find the perfect dessert, and had almost given up, we happened upon New Orleans 'N Athens. Their dessert special for the evening was bananas foster beignets with icecream. Sign me up! I LOVE bananas foster so this had to be a winning combination. We actually ordered two orders to take to the hotel room. It came with 2 beignets per order so it was the perfect amount to split evenly among the four of us. We each had an icecream and bananas foster topped beignet. OH.MY.YUMMINESS! What a perfect end to our last evening in Athens.

Monday morning we decided to have an early lunch at Blue Willow Inn in Social Circle, Georgia. It was a little out of the way for us, but we wanted to give it a try as we'd heard good things. It was definitely worth the drive! A friend recommended the lemon meringue pie. I was scared I would be too full for dessert so I ate dessert first! Lemon meringue is not usually my favorite dessert, but it did not disappoint! It lived up to her compliments. Blue Willow reminded me very much of the restaurant at the Tarrer Inn in Colquitt, Georgia. Both are equally delicious. After lunch everyone headed back home after what was a very nice weekend. I was excited to make a pit stop in Cordele, Georgia, to see an amazing family! I wasn't sure if I would get to see them or not, but it turned out that I got to see the entire family. This was the icing on the cake for my weekend.

What a wonderful, fun, food-filled weekend. However, I am now home, and it is time to get back on track. No more bananas foster beignets for me for quite a while!

Veggie Day = Clean out the Fridge Day!

Yay! Wednesday is veggie day! I get yummy organic fruits and veggies from Annie's Buying Club, and I love the variety of things that show up in my box each time. However, in order to make room for an entire box of fresh produce, I must first clean out the fridge! Wow, it's amazing what I find in there on veggie day :-)!

Wednesday was a SUPER long day, but I am proud of myself because I was really productive. I got to work around 8:00 AM, and I was busy from the time I got there until I left around 5:30. I got home and walked sweet puppy girl, and then I started on project clean fridge! I haven't gotten a box from Annie's in awhile which also means I haven't cleaned the fridge in awhile! I found some items that were still good, but needed to be used or frozen ASAP so that is what I did! I had a bag of onions that was still good, but I thought it would be nice to have some already chopped and in the freezer ready for use at a moments notice. I also had some green bell peppers that were heading south quickly if not put to good use soon! In addition, I had a pound of grass fed beef that needed to be cooked or frozen. I am sure there may have been some other items, but that is what I can think of off hand. So, I diced some of the bell peppers and onions as well as some celery. I lightly sauteed each in a little olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper. I then put them in individual baggies so I will have them in the freezer when needed. I then took some of the onions and bell peppers and cut them into to strips which would be good for fajitas. I sauteed those the same way along with a couple of fresh jalapenos and they are in the freezer ready for fajitas. In my Annie's box this week we got red bell peppers and shishito peppers so I am definitely feeling some fajitas on the menu very soon! I cooked the ground beef with onions and garlic, and put it in the fridge for a quick meal later in the week. There was some turkey broth I made in the fridge, so I put it in baggies in the freezer. I also de-boned a ham. We at leftover ham for supper and the bone is in the freezer for some yummy soup or something soon. I cleaned the kitchen when I was done, and I was ready for Brad to bring the goodies. It was so nice to know there was already room for them in the fridge when they arrived! 

Did I mention that for some strange reason I love veggie day? It is fun to open up that box and see what goodies are inside. Yes, I get a list, but I forget. And, sometimes, I don't know what that stuff is even though I have a list. This week's box came with three new to me items: celery root, sunchokes and parsnips. I was aware of celery root and parsnips, but I have never cooked with them. I had no idea what sunchokes even were! I had to google them! They look strange . . . a little like ginger root. You can do substitutions with Annie's, but I don't. I like to try new stuff. However, I rarely get around to actually trying the new stuff so it is usually a waste. I am proud to report that I did put a parsnip and some celery root in my slow cooker roast that I made Thursday. I told Brad ahead of time that they were not potatoes, however, I am not sure we would have been able to tell a difference if we didn't know that they were not potatoes. Yay! I have plans to make celery root/parsnip mashed "potatoes" sometime this week to see how that turns out. I hope it turns out better than my cauliflower mash! I have no idea what to do with the sunchokes, but I will figure something out and let you know.

In addition to all the things I had going on in the kitchen, I also did a little cleaning in other parts of the house while I had stuff cooking, etc. I started working on an embroidery project although I didn't get far. I am okay with that. At least I got something accomplished. 

Whew! Wednesday wore me out! I was ready for bed early. I was so tired, that I woke up Thursday thinking it was Saturday so I went back to sleep instead of getting ready for work at my usual time. Oops. . . I was only a little late ;-)! Thankfully I have a wonderful and understanding boss.

I guess I better get to work. I just realized that I needed to have something ready to cook in the slow cooker for lunch tomorrow. Thankfully, a friend sent me this awesome link earlier this week. I have all the ingredients for this Slow Cooker Cabbage Roll recipe so I am heading to the kitchen to get everything prepared. That way I just have to pull it out of the fridge and let the Crock-Pot work its magic while we are at church tomorrow. I hope it is yummy! 

Still no "meal plan", but I have made some tasty meals!

Hello! I do apologize that I haven't done an actual meal plan. I have however, made some pretty tasty meals this week, and I wanted to share them.

Sunday night I made the chicken over warm kale asparagus salad from the Publix Apron's Simple Meals program. It was very good. I didn't add the sugar, but I pretty much followed the recipe spot on otherwise. Oh, I also was unsure as to what seasoning they were referring to, so I just used garlic and italian seasoning. It was really good!

Last night we wanted some yummy, hearty, warming soup. I have some ground beef so I thought about making chili. However, I had a lot more chicken so I decided on a version of this Chicken Chili from Paleo Prize. I didn't decide to make it ahead of time so I didn't use the slow cooker. Instead, I boiled some chicken. I used the broth from boiling the chicken as the base of my soup. I was scared Brad wouldn't be a fan of the coconut milk so I didn't add that, but I otherwise made it pretty much as suggested in the blog. I topped mine with avocado, lime juice and cilantro. I thought it was perfect. Brad thought it was bland. Maybe the slow cooker is the way to go with this soup. It may give the foods a better chance to meld together.

Tonight's meal was probably the winner of the week so far! YUM! YUM! I made this pan-seared chicken with balsamic cream recipe from Peace, Love and Low Carb. You should make it ASAP! Wow, it was delicious. It was rich and flavorful. Brad really enjoyed it, too. He told me it was good before he even sat down with his plate to actually begin eating. I served it over rice and with a side of sauteed zucchini and onions. We had a tad bit of rice and sauce from the chicken left, but that was it! I am already excited about chowing down on those leftovers at lunch tomorrow. This will make it into the dinner rotation I am pretty sure!

Tomorrow night the plan is to have leftovers or either unstuffed cabbage rolls. I haven't decided that one yet. Thursday I plan to do a roast with carrots in the Crock Pot. Brad and I are often late getting home on Thursday nights due to praise band practice so it is the perfect night for a slow cooker meal.

All of these meals are level one of the 21 Day Sugar Detox friendly or they can be easily converted to be detox friendly. I hope this helps to give you some ideas for your own meal planning! What have you cooked lately? Feel free to share you recipes! If you try any of these recipes let me know what you think!

Happy New Year!

Hello! I hope your 2014 is getting off to a great start. I am on the right track, but maybe not as successful as I have wanted to be thus far. I had a difficult time deciding exactly what I wanted to do this year to help make positive changes in my life. There were some general ideas I wanted to work on, but I have had a difficult time getting the specifics together. Typically I tend to have too many goals at the start of the year, and like the rest of the world I don't typically keep them up for very long at all.

This year is no exception, I have a lot of areas in my life that I want to work on. However, I have attempted to make my goals a little more flexible than normal. I hope this helps me stay on track. So far, I have been faithful in reading my Bible daily, and I have spent time working on sewing / embroidery projects. I haven't spent an entire 30 minutes on a project, however my crafting nook needed some cleaning/organization before I could get too involved in a project. I did complete an embroidery project last night that I have been working on since before Christmas. It should have been a simple project, but it was not. This thing did NOT want to cooperate, as I had to try on two different towels and went through three needles, but it is finally done! Yippee!

The most difficult decision I have tried to make is what exactly I wanted to do to get back on track with my eating. Brad can't seem to decide if he wants to get on board with a Paleo lifestyle, and so I just couldn't decide what to do. Part of me wanted to start a Whole 30 on January 1. However, I also had some black eyed peas I really wanted to eat on New Year's Day, which are not Paleo friendly. We also had a bit of leftovers from various meals that I didn't want to go to waste. After doing some research, I decided to give the 21 Day Sugar Detox a try. Balanced Bites does a group 21 Day Sugar Detox on the first Monday of the month. I decided this was a good option. We could eat through the "unclean" leftovers that we had on hand from the holidays and not have to worry about wasting food, etc. For those of you unfamiliar with the 21 Day Sugar Detox there are three levels. The third level is more Paleo oriented and is the strictest level. I originally decided to go with that option, however, since Brad is still on the fence I think I am going to go with level 1. It is the least strict of the three plans and so maybe it will be a better choice for us as a family. I am still not sure that Brad is going to follow this detox with me, but I will be buying and preparing foods that are detox friendly. He will not have as many "unclean" options in the house so he will probably eat healthier simply because that is what we have around.

I have been to the grocery store, and I have purchased enough food that we should be set for most of the week. I haven't made an actual meal plan yet, but I do have some meals in mind such as a slow cooker pot roast with carrots, chicken over warm kale and asparagus salad (this is a Publix Aprons meal that I am going to modify to fit the detox), and pan seared chicken with with cream sauce from the Peace + Love & Low Carb blog (which may also need some modifications to be detox compliant).

I will continue to flesh out my meal plan, and I will share it when I have it ready. Let me know if you have any EASY, healthy go to lunch and dinner options. They do not have to be detox compliant, as I don't mind tweaking them if needed.

Embroidered dish towel that DID not want to cooperate ;-)!