This week has been such a whirlwind but in a totally awesome way, of course! I think I averaged coming home Tuesday – Thursday after 10 pm each night! Phew! That’s right…I left my house around 8:30 am…and got home nearly 14 hours later. Busy means good, though. I have lots of fun stuff ahead.

And as for the fun this past week, here’s what you missed…

I taught Zumba three days in a row this week! I subbed a class for another instructor who is on vacay. That’s a whole-lotta-Zumba, peeps! It was so fun, though. I had special guests show up to my Thursday class – my very first participants. As in, they were there the very first time I taught a whole class by myself. They were regulars for awhile but have had some personal stuff keeping them from class. I was SO excited to see them again, though! They made my day!

(photo credit – Healthy Tipping Point)

After Zumba on Wednesday, fellow instructor Sarah and I met up with bloggie friends Katy and Caitlin for froyo!

(photo credit – Healthy Tipping Point)

And then on Thursday, after Zumba, I ran into Caitlin again (along with two of my fabulous new participants – hello Carmen and Katie!) at the Ben Does Life event. I also had the pleasure of meeting the very cool Ben of Ben Does Life.

If you haven’t seen his inspirational video (about his 120 lb weight loss), here it is:

This is a MUST watch!

And since I haven’t shared any grocery shopping photos in awhile…here’s what I got at Trader Joe’s yesterday: yerba mate tea, Larabars, Soy corn dogs, feta cheese, vegetable broth, vanilla soy milk, cannellini beans, garbanzo beans, honey and a special ingredient – chocolate cookies!

I have a bunch of cookies and cream themed recipes in mind…be on the look out for those!

I also got spinach, Canadian bacon, raspberries, organic hot dogs, baking chocolate, chocolate chips, yogurt, and brussels sprouts.

And in the eating arena, here’s what I had Friday night: a new recipe to hide vegetable servings – Potato-Cauliflower mash with fresh herbs. (nom!)

Salad

Tri-tip with a new dry rub recipe (perfect for when you have steak but nothing to go with it, sauce/toppings-wise).

And have you seen one of Bailey’s best begging tricks? It’s hard to not give him a bite of steak when he looks this cute.

When I was in my early twenties, Saturday morning often meant a groggy morning after a long night out with friends. Even if I didn’t drink very much, I still stayed up too late and didn’t get enough sleep. Nowadays, I still don’t get as much sleep as I want, but I love that my Saturday mornings are now so peaceful and start earlier.

(note: most photos on this post taken with my iPhone, since I kept forgetting my DSLR at home! Whoops!)

Gone are hours wasted in front of the TV “waking up”. Instead, I wake up eagerly looking forward to our weekly trip to the farmer’s market.

Sometimes I’m so excited, I even dress up a little.

Our Saturday morning farmers market habit has grown with us. At first just hubby and I went. Then, we started taking Bailey. Now, I’m even making friends with some of the people at the market and look forward to a casual conversation with them every week.

And another tasty tradition is enjoying the eats at the market. Roots food truck always has something yummy ready for breakfast. On Saturday, we enjoyed an egg sammie with pickled cabbage and an egg/potato hash. Yum!

I found something new this week – locally grown rice! I didn’t know any markets around carried the stuff, but here it is. I got some of the brown after chatting with the lady working the booth (I think she’s the owner?).

From the same vendor, I purchased one life-saving strawberries and mint “lollies”, made with strawberries from the creator’s garden! So cool, right? Mostly, I wanted the treat for the coolness factor since it was a hot-hot day!

I returned home with quite the stash: cabbage, kale, blueberries, brown rice, and 25 year balsamic vinegar. This is the nicest bottle of balsamic we’ve ever purchased, so I’m really looking forward to enjoying the higher quality…and therefore better flavor. Perhaps it’s time to make more focaccia?

After dropping Bailey off, we headed out to run more errands.

We stopped at Zoe’s Kitchen for lunch. I was really impressed with their menu and tasteful vegetarian selections. Although I’m not vegetarian, it tells me that they’re really thinking about the quality and content of their meals, which I appreciate.

Although it was hot outside, we ate al fresco to enjoy the fresh air.

I got 2 (maybe 3?!) vegetable servings with lunch between the cabbage slaw on my grilled chicken pita and the roasted veggies. Again…impressive, right? This is a great spot for Project Veg-Up participants needing eats on the go!

Hubby got the chicken kabob plate.

I noticed this Fine Cooking magazine while I was out running errands. Look familiar?

And as the day came to a close, we had a few more fun activities in store. We saw the Hangover 2 (funny, but not as funny as the first)…

…and then a late outing to Barnes and Noble. I just can’t spend too much time here browsing books and magazines and finding new reading material to take home. I got 3 magazines, and I’m hoping to try out some yummy new recipes this summer with them!

Just like my Saturday mornings, the evenings are a lot different from those spent in my early twenties, too. If I wasn’t working in a restaurant, I was probably staying out too late with friends. And while those were fun days, and I’m glad I had them, I’m also glad to be enjoying more low-key times nowadays. I like to think of it as trading up my Saturdays.

How have your weekends changed over the years?

Saturday was a fabulous day!

We started at one of my favorite places – the farmer’s market.

Bailey was as social as ever.

Hubby and I found lots of fresh veg to buy.

We got some organic kale, bok choy, power lettuce mix, and snap peas.

Then, I managed to talk (my meat-eating) hubby into getting a late breakfast at Luna’s Living Kitchen. I’ve been wanting to come to this place for forever! I used to frequent it back when it was called Real Food Charlotte, and I’m so glad it’s re-opened.

I enjoyed lunch al fresco with my two favorite boys – hubby

and Bailey.

Hubby got the parfait with coconut yogurt, hemp granola, blueberries, and goji berries.

I got the buckwheat blaster

“This meal is the brother of the Swiss Alps creation (Bircher Muesli). It is the perfect game of the buckwheat, dates, apple, coconut, and nutmeg.”

I was reminded how much I like this place by the yummy food. I also found out the restaurant is now open for dinner Monday – Thursday. Woohoo!

Next up – a shopping trip at Crate & Barrel! Photos of my goodies next time.

And since we were in the area, we hit up The Cowfish!

It was hubby’s suggestion, too!

I got to pick the entree, so he picked the appetizer.

Crab Rangoon dip.

For the entree, we got one of their specialty rolls. I forgot the name, and it doesn’t appear to be on their online menu.

Basically, it had shrimp tempura (with coconut flakes), kani, cucumber, with avocado and papaya and coconut flakes on top.

The roll was some sort of specialty today and by purchasing it, they donated 20% to Loaves & Fishes.

It was a good excuse to try a new roll that sounded really tasty.

Next up – a makeover! I got a mini facial at Origins. I’ve been a die-hard Bobbi Brown fan for the last 10+ years, but recently, I’ve been thinking of switching to more natural skin care. Since my mom started using Origins, I decided to check it out.

They did a scrub, a serum, a moisturizer, eye cream…plus a mineral powder, concealer, lip gloss, eye makeup, and mascara! Fun!

Ta-daaaaa! I thought it looked pretty good, but I don’t wear much face makeup day to day and probably won’t be buying the make-up products. As for the skin care, I’m a firm believer in testing before you buy. So, I got enough samples of the scrub, moisturizer, and serum to last about a week. We’ll see how my skin looks then.

The fun just kept going…next up we saw Bridesmaids. There were some graphic scenes I could have done without, but overall, I really enjoyed the movie and thought it was really funny. There were some parts I wish they would have tied up better, but it was worth watching.

And finally, we ended the day with a pizza dinner in and watching some TV at home and just relaxing. I’m feeling much better, but still dealing with some residual fatigue from being sick last week, so I didn’t really want to do anything too crazy.

Have you seen any good movies lately? What did you see and do you recommend them?

You know the old saying “Life is a journey, not a destination?” I think the same holds true for healthy eating. Hubby has asked me in the past why I’ve changed so much how I eat over the years. Is it because I’m ADD? No, I just constantly learn about healthy eating – what works for me and what doesn’t.

What makes me feel like my diet is restricted and what makes my diet feel like it’s free. What keeps me satisfied and what doesn’t. I learn and I adapt and I repeat the process. I am far from the best example of a healthy eater, but when I think about how much my eating has changed over the years, it makes me really happy.

I’d consider myself a pretty average American, so I ate all the usual suspects as far as less-than-stellar food choices. But, here are some things I’ve just outgrown in recent years:

• Fast food (McDonald’s, Chick-Fil-A, etc.)
• Candy (the junk food kind – it tastes like plastic to me now – give me dark chocolate!)
• Heavily processed foods (anything with an ingredient list that reads like a novel – it tastes fake)
• Stuff you eat out of a vending machine (Oh I ate a honey bun in my day, but now it seems so gross)
• Fake pancake syrup (I used to like the buttery flavor, but it tastes like plastic now to me – I prefer real maple syrup)

My taste buds have changed! I really think it’s true that the better you eat, the more you grow to like the lighter and healthier foods and the more you outgrow the unhealthy ones.

I still eat sweets, but I prefer to get them made from scratch at local bakeries – or to bake my own from scratch using healthier ingredients.

And I still eat some processed foods, but I try to limit them and choose the versions that are as close to natural as possible. I look for short ingredient lists that I can read and understand. Food Rules anyone?

As I mentioned earlier…one thing I constantly try to do is learn. Learn about new ingredients that are more healthful than others I’m more familiar with. I love browsing a health food store, finding something I’ve never heard of before and figuring out how to use it. I try to move not-as-good ingredients out of my life and these new finds in. For example, I find myself baking much more with sucanat than granulated sugar. And I now use unbleached flour instead of traditional AP flour…though I usually try to use whole grain versions (yay spelt!) whenever possible.

I hit up one of my local natural grocery stores yesterday and stocked up on some of my fave ingredients and a couple new ones.

From the bulk bins:

• coarse salt
• kamut berries
• sucanat

Other buys:

• Organic raw cacao powder
• teff flour
• amaranth flour
• vital wheat gluten

I’m really excited about this amaranth flour. I’ve been wanting to try this stuff for about a year now, but it’s so darn expensive. I haven’t been able to force myself to buy it.

And this was something I’ve been looking for but haven’t seen around town yet – organic raw cacao powder. I’m really looking forward to finding some fun ways to utilize this. It reminds me of that fabulous lunch I had at Cafe Gratitude in November .

I know I’ve asked about foods that make you say, “I can’t believe I used to eat that!“, but without it having to be shocking, what are some not-so-healthy foods that you’ve just grown out of over the years?

Greetings friends!

I had a lovely morning of sleeping in followed by a trip to the local farmers market.

Almost as soon as I walked in, I noticed a new vendor.

I’m a sucker for carbs, and I have a real weakness for challah. That golden top. That buttery interior. That sweet flavor. Nommm…

After sampling a small piece, I knew that a loaf, by Crust & Crumb Rustique, was coming home with me.

We were in a bit of a rush to get to the market and hit the grocery store (lots of party preparing later!), so I looked for breakfast at the market.

I found it in the form of granola bar with whole wheat, flax seed, cranberries, and sweetened with honey.

And on the way out I totally fell for a sampling – local honey over steel cut oats. The Cloister honey was selling steel cut oats in bags, so they had samples of both the oats and their fabulous honey.

I ended up bringing a bottle home. Can’t wait to share what I got!

Once home, I knew I had to dig straight into that challah.

Yum!

I had the challah straight-up with some tomato-basil soup from Earthfare.

So simple, so good.

And then I headed out for a fundraising zumbathon. I didn’t co-lead any songs since I wasn’t helping coordinate this one. I just went for support.

Next up on TCL – this deliciousness! Details soon!

On Friday night…

The sky was was beautiful, clear, and had clouds of cotton candy floating around.

Meanwhile, I was in the kitchen doing more of this…

…plus note-taking…

…waiting…

…and taste-testing.

More on the taste-testing next time.

On to Saturday!

Hubby and I hit up the farmers market for the first time in a long time.

First up, we visited the Monk’s Groovy Beans table for hot coffee (we were totally out!) plus beans to brew more later.

I loved the peace signs all over their table.

And having locally roasted, tasty, hot coffee to sip on whilst shopping for fresh veg was pretty awesome, too.

I visited my fave veggie vendor and found some awesome looking bok choy. Guess it’s stir fry for us later. We also came home with local eggs and a turnip! Eeks…hope I come up with something awesome for that. I’m thinking mashed potatoes with turnip mashed in…or possibly roasted root veggies. Yeaaaaaa.

And we even swung by Great Harvest so I could get a pumpkin chocolate chip muffin for breakfast.

I brewed up some Cocoa Chai Tea I recently got at the store, which paired perfectly.

Hubby and I picked up a puppy-petit-four, which we called “birthday cake” for Bailey to celebrate his 3 years living with us.

(Btw, if you have a pet, I’d love to feature their photo on The Chic Life. Please check out my Facebook page for details – click)

He was really excited about it.

And he dove right into it when we gave him the word. I think he swallowed it in one gulp.

Mas treats?

No, pups.

Hubby and I had lunch al fresco at a local sandwich shop – Bedder Bedder and Moore.

We started with artichoke and mushroom bisque.

And I got the egg salad sammie.

Btw, I’ve been rocking out my Uggs quite a bit. They are just way too easy, comfortable, and warm to not throw on.

I also wore my HLS shirt (so soft!).

Plus, I found new long-sleeve tops on the cheap for layering under sweaters this fall/winter. They were a steal at Target for only $10. Too bad they were out of my size in white and black.

We also hit up several consignment and furniture shops around town but just haven’t been having much luck furniture-wise. Guess most of our rooms will have to remain empty for awhile.

***

Then it was time for some chillaxin at the hizzy before getting gussied up for a fancy dinner out.

This dinner brought to you thanks to a Groupon I purchased.

We hit up a restaurant I’ve always wanted to visit – Bonterra. I think this place is really cool because it exists in what used to be a church!

Hubby and I started with wine flights. I got the Foley flight.

And we had white and wheat bread with olive/herb butter.

Hubby and I split a salad with warm goat cheese (I’m working on liking it…not over the tang yet, but when it’s baked and breaded it seems more enjoyable for whatever reason).

I loved how the Bonterra on the plate was turned to face us each time. Nice little touch.

I also liked their simple glasses.

And tiny salt-shakers (though we didn’t even need ours).

Hubby decided to order what I almost got – the WIld Boar. I’ve never even seen that on a menu anywhere else, so it sounded interesting. I also liked that it was served with sweet potatoes and broccolini.

For moi, I ordered the scallops with butternut squash risotto and salad with preserved lemon vinaigrette.

Loved the seared outsides.

For dessert, hubby and I split the pumpkin souffle. I’ve never really ordered a souffle whilst out to eat before, but after seeing a lot of fuss about it on a recent cooking show, I had to give it a try.

The souffle was cooked perfectly, towering high above the baking dish it was served it. The server even cut out the top and dropped some cinnamon ice cream into the center to melt.

The souffle was delicious! Not too pumpkiny. Just right. I think I may try making a souffle at home now that I’ve seen it done successfully. It seems like that could be a fun baking project one day.

***

Phew! We had a busy Saturday…what did you do this weekend?

(and remember, if you have a pet, I’d love to feature their photo on The Chic Life. Please check out my Facebook page for details – click)

By Thursday, I was pretty much caught up on sleep, but still happy to have the day off from work for Veteran’s Day.

I’ve been traveling so much and working so hard that all I really wanted to do all day was relax.

So, my plans were pretty simple:

• Re-create the tea soup from San Francisco
• Work on my chocolate chip dough ball recipe
• Bake something cool…like an apple crostata
• Do something nice for my 80-ish veteran neighbor
• Teach Zumba

A day of baking and cooking wouldn’t be complete without a trip to the grocery store. I had a groupon for $30 worth of groceries (for $15), so I stocked up on splurge items I have been too cheap to buy till now:

• Tahini (in a glass jar because aluminum is starting to weird me out with all the BPA claims, etc.)
• Carob Powder (wish I had found roasted, but this will do)
• Garam Masala
• Grain sweetened chocolate chips
• Dulse

Pretty sweet, huh?

I’ve been trying to avoid all purpose flour as of late just because it seems like whole grains are so much better, but there are some things that just need to be made with all purpose flour still. I found a compromise flour at the store – unbleached all purpose flour. Nice.

I don’t know why I’ve never tried making a crostata before. I guess, in general, baking intimidates me. I don’t really know much about baking and I don’t typically feel comfortable playing around with recipes. But, I’ve been trying to get myself to experiment more.

So on my free day of the week, I decided to try the apple crostada recipe by Giada DeLaurentis that I’ve been eying for awhile now.

The recipe was actually much easier than I thought it would be. Dare I say it was easy?

The dough whipped up in no time and the hardest part about the filling was the peeling, coring, and slicing of the apples. That’s my kind of baking recipe.

While my crostata dough rested in the fridge, I created my delicious Green Tea Soup.

It was the perfect cold-weather-day meal. I’ll definitely be making this one again soon. Hopefully, with some fun variations on bowl ingredients.

By the time I was done with the soup, it was time to move on to the next step of the crostata. Roll out the dough and fill.

I was a little surprised at how high the apples piled up on the crostata dough. I could blame my unusually large apples, but who knows. Maybe it was supposed to be this full.

I went with it and folded the dough up the sides and hoped for the best.

38 minutes later, I removed this golden-piece of awesomeness from the oven. Oh yea!

Unfortunately, I’d have to wait a few hours before I got to reap the reward of my hard work. I still had to teach Zumba!

I saw my doctor again earlier this week and he cleared me for working out. My neck/shoulder/back hasn’t been bothering me during the day, but I’ve been waking up in quite a bit of pain. My doctor didn’t seem to think it was anything too serious, which was great. Plus, he gave me the ok to workout, which was even better.

I don’t know if you’ve ever had an injury that prevented you from working out, but I did last year and it was a mentally brutal period of time where I envied every person I saw running down the street or walking around with their gym bag. It wasn’t so much that I felt obligated to workout or that I was worried I’d gain weight if I didn’t work out…I just genuinely missed it.

Not gonna lie, though…I wasn’t looking forward to class on Thursday. Missing your regular work-outs for so long can easily throw you into a workout rut. You get comfortable not working out. You like having your free time back. You become lackadaisical about the whole workout idea. Not to mention for me… It had been two full weeks since I’d worked out at all, let alone teach Zumba. I was nervous about teaching. What if I’d lost my stamina over the last two weeks and realized half way through class I couldn’t finish (embarrassing!)? What if I’d forgotten the moves to all the songs I was planning to do and had to make up something on the spot with the eyes of an entire class watching? I had a lot of what-ifs running through my head as the class started up.

But…the show had to go on.

And on it went…nearly without a hitch. Hazzah! It was actually a really good class and my neck/shoulder/back felt fine the whole time. I was so relieved!

As I left class, I suddenly remembered what it was like to be in a work out rut. I remembered when I had no drive to workout, just a couple years ago. Hubby would gently encourage me to go to Zumba, reminding how happy I always was when I’d come home after class. I remember how every week, I’d look at him skeptically and force myself begrudgingly to go to class and how every week, I’d come home with the biggest grin on my face and feeling like a million bucks.

On Thursday it was deja vu. I forced myself to go to class, but I came home so happy. It was like it was a few years ago except…things were a bit different this time. This time, I was already snapped out of the rut. This time, I was already excitely planning the next time I could go to class.

Hubby had dinner waiting when I got home. But first, we visited our veteran neighbor to drop off half of the apple crostata for Veteran’s Day. I was a little worried about the crostata tasting ok, since neither hubby nor I tasted it before wrapping it up for delivery. But, I figured that the ingredient list was pretty simple so unless I accidentally used salt instead of sugar, it should be at least decent.

For dinner, hubby grilled up rib eye steaks and cooked micro-baked potatoes and steamed broccoli. The steak had a really nice flavor, but reminded me of why I’m falling out of love with meat. It was a bit fatty and I felt like I was dissecting the steak instead of enjoying it. I really didn’t want to disappoint hubby with not liking it since he worked so hard to cook it, but it wasn’t meshing well with me.

By the time dinner was over, I was extra-excited about tasting my first ever apple crostata. It looked pretty good, but I wasn’t sure how it would taste.

The verdict…

Nomalicious! It was fabulous and so simple. I will definitely be making this again and am already thinking of new filling ideas for future crostatas – both sweet and savory.

Have you been in a workout rut before? What did you do to get out of it?

Happy weekend friends!

Hubby and I took care of business this morning by making a trip to Great Harvest for bread and breakfast.

I couldn’t resist digging into the Virginia rolls we purchased today…

…before getting started on my pumpkin chocolate chip. Nom!

We took Bails to the farmer’s market.

Since my swiss chard is so eaten up, I ended up buying some. I think the market is in a bit of a transition state with the fall veggies probably not quite being ready to harvest. There were lots of veggies in the market, but I saw a lot of stuff I don’t eat frequently (radishes, turnips, etc.). The chard was the only thing I really wanted to bring home.

Clean eating goodness!

Did I mention the weather was just gorgeous today?! It was an easy-breezy Saturday!

Hubby made us an early lunch. We basically scrounged for leftovers – a hot dog, frozen broccoli and a Virginia roll. Hot dogs are not my favorite, but hubby eats stuff for me that he doesn’t like, so I figured I could do the same. He at least got kosher ones.

I was reminded today of why I don’t like to eat frozen broccoli straight up. I think it has it’s purpose, but for me, I like frozen broccoli in things that are re-baked: casseroles, quiches, TCL Breakfast Cups, etc. But just cooking in the microwave…it’s not my thing. I much prefer fresh broccoli gently steamed.

Another Virginia Roll…yes…they’re addicting!

OJ to drink.

I went to a zumba workshop this afternoon, which was lots of FUN!

And after the workshop, I hit up The Common Market.

I love this place because their sandwiches are awesome, the prices are really good, they have great vegetarian and vegan options (even vegan cupcakes!), plus a wonderful selection of beers. Oh and the people working there are really friendly and welcoming, too.

DId I mention you can bring your dog inside? Yes, we’re definitely coming back with Bailey some time.

It was an extremely late Lunch #2 I was having, so I went light with 1/2 of their famous chicken salad on a hoagie, plus healthy “Cheetos” and an almond cookie (because I’m celebrating my b-day today and dessert twice is totally expected).

The weather was so nice, I took my lunch home to soak up the fresh air.

I normally try to eat things that have a purpose because I generally look at food as fuel, but sometimes you just want what you want and today I wanted Cheetos.

And these “Cheetos” are amazing! I must admit, I actually almost bought real Cheetos…till I read the back of the ingredient list and it freaked me out. Aren’t the yellows 5 and 6 supposed to be really bad for you or something? I can’t remember, but the overall list was too strange-sounding to me to enjoy. I was glad I found this replacement, which is just as crunchy and cheesy, just not nuclear orange in color.

These are Barbara’s Original Cheese Puffs.

I split the cookie with hubby. It was really yummy and tender and full of great almond flavor. Yum!

I’m going to have to head back to The Common Market soon on the lookout for their famous pumpkin roll! I had that a long time ago and would to enjoy it again.

Here’s a sign of things to come. We’re celebrating my birthday tonight!

Any guesses what the above photo indicates?

Morning friends!

Ahhhhhh the weekend is here. I typically use the weekends to catch up on lost sleep from the work week, but this morning, around 8:30am, I was awoken to the cold nose of Bailey nudging my arm. He’s so cute though, you can’t be mad. lol

Groggy as I was, coffee was very appreciated!

And I had a little yogi cereal with organic milk for a quick breakfast (I have yummy brunch plans later, so I’m not trying to fill up too much!)

Hubby and I headed out for a quick trip to the grocery store and the farmer’s market. I brought some water and my ED&BV book so I could look up inspiration for something to bring to brunch.

At first I was thinking hummus, but then I got a better idea…to revisit a personal FAVE! You’ll seeeeeeeeee…..

Anywho…

Here are some photos from the market today:

Hubby spotted something in the bread table…

Pickled jalapeno foccacia! These were made with pickled jalapenos from another vendor at the same market.

We also got:

• gala apples
• zucchini
• figs (just 2)
• purple bell pepper
• green bell peppers

We’re home now and I’m trying to bake off my brunch item! Eeks…running late!

Btw, hubby has already devoured about half of that bread! lol Guess it’s a winner!

See you after brunch!

What are you buying today (farmers market or otherwise)?

Before I get started on today’s morning post, I should mention that I’m so ecstatic that you guys are interested in my posts on kicking your “bad” eating habits (click for details)! I can’t wait to get started writing them! May-haps I’ll do a little challenge to help encourage you guys?

On to today!

***

After sleeping in a bit this morning, my sis whipped up a fantastic breakfast.

Whole wheat pancakes, scrambled eggs and pan seared sausage.

Plus some fruit smoothies.

Thanks sis!

A trip to visit my parents is always made extra yummy with a trip to Henry’s Smokehouse. Not the healthiest stuff in the world, but boy does it taste good! This place has my all-time favorit-est BBQ in the world!

I got some of their yummy sweet tea.

and my usual…a tender BBQ sandwich with creamy cole slaw and hot, crispy french fries.

The not-too-sweet sauce really makes the tender BBQ pop!

I barely finished half my plate, but luckily hubby usually sweeps in to save the day.

and my sis shared a bite of her banana pudding…nommmmm!

Post lunch, we headed to my parents rental house so I could take some photos to help them get it rented. My dad has been working on the thing forever so whoever rents it is going to be one lucky duck!

Next we hit up Costco. I’ve been trying to talk hubby into a membership for a couple years now but today we just visited with my dad and sis.

Want. Want! WANT!

Maybe one day?

Best find – coconut water – 12 pack for only $14.69!!!!

The biggest POM I’ve ever seen.

And I even got to meet Don Pablo himself of Cafe Don Pablo. He’s going to do a giveaway for The Chic Life readers so stay tuned coffee fanatics. I got a sample of the coffee and thought it was really nice and smooth, so hubby and I bought a bag to enjoy over breakfast.

Other fabulous find – Clean Eating mag – only $4ish! It’s normally $5.99. Score!

I really need to just bite the bullet and sign up for a subscription to this.

***

You guys know me…I’m such a dreamer! I have a bunch of mini projects in the works. Well, technically I have more ideas than time to try to make them all happen, but I’m just starting one I’ve had in my mind for the last yearish. No time like the present, right?! Aaaannddddd….we’re off!

***

Do you shop at bulk retailers like Costco or Sams? Which one do you prefer and why?