Saturday was MADNESS, but I was so excited! Our house warming party was finally here! I feel like hubby and I have been waiting for so long to have friends over for our house to be ready and now it finally is! Here’s to many more parties!

From the moment I woke up, it was time to get going and get ready for our house warming!

Luckily mom sent sis with sustenance this weekend. I enjoyed some of her homemade banana nut muffins for breakfast with some nice hot coffee.

While I enjoyed breakfast, sis and I strategized. We made a list of what we needed to do when.

The game plan:

• 9-10am – breakfast/strategize
• 10-11am – farmers market/groceries
• 11-12pm – pick up rolls from Great Harvest and being early food prep
• 12-1pm – eat lunch or use to make up for lost time
• 1-2pm – clean bathrooms, etc. and get ready
• 2-3pm – clean sunroom/vacuum
• 3-4pm – begin late food prep
• 4-5pm – food prep / get forgotten ingredients
• 5-midnight – PARTY!

A treat for Bailey later and sis and I were off running grabbing stuff for the housewarming.

Places to visit:

• Party City
• Farmers Market
• Trader Joes

We tackled food prep in 2 sections:

• Early Food Prep (stuff that could/needed to be made early)
• Late Food Prep (stuff that needed to be made just before people ate it)

Early Prep:

Tropical Chia Seed Popsicles (made from scratch)

Sangria pitcher #1.

No pudge brownies.

Plus marinating BBQ Chicken skewers (not pictured).

Plus I made simple syrups and teas for our Elixir Bar (for our non-alcohol drinkers). More on this later…

WOW did the time fly by or WHAT?! Sis and I were making food, hubby was with his brother and friends watching the soccer game…Next thing I know people are showing up! I was running around like a madwoman!

Megan came early to help prep…thank goodness! (she’s caramelizing onions here!)

After a frenzy of finishing prepping food (late prep: flatbread, beef sliders, turkey sliders, veggie sliders, toppings, mas sangria)

My signature touch of the evening (and hopefully for all future Chic house parties):

An Elixir Bar!

We had cups, ice, lemons, limes…

Antioxidant juice: Pom Wonderful (*), Berry Bonanza (TJs) plus pelligrino, plum wine, strawberry kiwi juice, chardonnay.

And…simple syrup, and two teas: Rooibos Tropica + Jasmine Dragon Pearls, Matevana + Rooibos Macadamia

The ingredients to make a fabulous and healthful antioxidant drink! I thought this would be fun for my healthful friends and those who don’t drink alcohol (non-drinkers should have fun drinks too!)

Floral decor – scored these at the farmer’s market.

Kat, moi, Megan

Hanging out at the app/dessert bar.

I thought I got better photos of the apps, but I guess I didn’t! Oopsie! lol

Megan was a doll and wrote out little namecards for me for each of the food items. I thought it would be nice to label the food and so we used wedding placeholders to help tell people what was what.

Megan and Bailey had matching leis!

I was running around almost too much to get food! I missed out on most of the apps and finally slowed down enough to eat two sliders and a fabulous Kate-salad!:

I had an Oh She Glows In a Jiffy Spelt Burger (click for recipe) and one of our beef sliders with tomato and caramelized onions.

We seasoned the beef sliders with Chef of the Future Cajun seasoning (which you can buy in my OpenSky shop – it’s great for summer cook-outs!), which was a nice touch to give flavor without overwhelming, so people were free to use different toppings.

Ooh and I had Great Harvest special make me some Dakota in ROLL form! So neat! They were perfect for sliders! We also used honey whole wheat and Virginia rolls.

Later in the night, cornhole ensued and people started moving outside. I was SOOOOO thankful it didn’t rain because the weather forecast was not looking so hot!

Our devoured main course/sides table.

And lookie who I found in the basement! Thank goodness it didn’t look like this any more!

My bloggie friends! It’s Kath + Matt, Katie + her SO (I forgot his name! ), Emily + Casey, Michelle + Ben, and Jessie + her SO (wow I’m bad at names!)

Seeing my healthy foodie friends reminded me I had a healthy foodie dessert in the freezer! Pina Colada Chia Popsicles! (homemade…oh yea!)

They were fabulous! Nice and not too sweet! I’ll be posting a recipe soon (and yes, this makes 4 recipes I owe you! Marinated kale, kale chips, those new vegan tarts and now…pina colada chia pops…gah! )

Friends relaxing on my duvet cover turned picnic blanket.

Chatting.

Beer pong!

And of course every night has to end with dessert! I had some wonderful cheesecake and some of our family’s Filipino sweet rice! Yuuummmm!

Phew, what a full but fun day! I wish I would have taken more photos, but hey…I was busy trying to make sure people were having a good time and I think they did!

I’m feeling so thankful for such great friends, family, and for our fabulous house! We spent a long 4-ish years looking but we’re so happy with the one we finally settled on! Yay housewarming! And congrats to all the other new homeowners out there!

Sorry I’m getting a couple days behind now but WOW are house warming parties a lot of work or what!

Here are some highlights from Friday:

I tried to make hubby breakfast in bed but he woke up early.

I got more Vega Health Optimizer…scored it on sale (like under $60) on Amazon.com…hazzah!

Even Bailey likes the Vega.

And check out what POM Wonderful sent me!

A box of POM Wonderful samples! Deelish. I know because….

…I promptly made a delicious mocktail.

On the agenda the rest of the day – prep house for housewarming!

To-Do (for Friday – we had more for Saturday):

• Clean Fridge
• Pick up around house
• Clear out basement
• Install pendant lights (ok, our contractor was up for this one …lol…we’re not so handy)

Hubby picked up snacks from Great Harvest for sustenance. My sister requested a coffeecake scuffin and would you believe it…they had one left from the previous day so we put a hold on it! I was willing to get anything for my sister’s help! lol

I cleared out and cleaned the fridge.

Pendant lights!

And eventually…we cleared out the basement. Yay! Thanks friends! I couldn’t have done it without Megan and Erica who stopped by Friday night to help me with my craft-storage project.

We rewarded ourselves with blueberry cream cheese bread! Yum!

FUN photos from our housewarming! Can’t wait to share! It’s almost 2am though, so…I should probably hit the sack. G’night!

Looks like hair pulled back is the most popular for hair styes whilst working out. Sometimes when I zumba I like to have my hair in my face so I can throw in some hair flips to get it out of the way.

Also, slight correction to the slider from the other night. The chef sent me this far-more detailed description:

First we start off with the bowl, then 2.8 lbs of lean burger meat from costco. Olive oil, about 10 pinches of salt, lots of pepper, sauteed mushrooms and (preferred) vidalia onions, then a large amount of Hawaiian BBQ sauce and grated pepper jack cheese. Now that is all inside the burger. Then sliced up tomato and a few washed baby spinach leaves on a little roll and then you have an Awesome Slider!

Thanks chef!

***

On to today!

Have I mentioned I’m now addicted to my (vegan/GF) breakfast crisps. I mean…it’s like eating dessert but for BREAKFAST! Amazing!

This morning I used a combination of farmers market peaches and blueberries – so fresh and so clean-clean!

I added more chia seeds today, too.

Ready for topping!

Even hubby wanted in on today’s breakfast!

Besides being a delicious breakfast, this may be one of my fave ways to squeeze in a fruit serving!

Anywho, I actually took today off to try to get ready for the house warming on Saturday. Unfortunately, I slept in (good for me, bad for house-organizing) and the cabinets are still not done, so I couldn’t put anything away!

I managed to get some of this put up, but most importantly, I strategized on how to find a place for everything. A place for everything and everything in its place, right? I think so. When I have a specific place to put something, I’m pretty good about putting it back there. It’s having that SPACE without any freakin FURNITURE! Grr. Anywho, I also managed to pick up some more bins from Target (made 2 trips there today…eek!), so I should be ready to go whenever those cabinets are finally done. Man, I really think I could take a month off work to just go through my stuff and get it organized like I want. A non-budget (as in endless funds) would be fab, too if we’re thinking big here. lol

Hubby and I also had a nice date lunch since I was actually home and not on a phone conference.

Plus, we picked out some beautiful plants for the planters in front of the house! One of the main things I wanted in front of our house were 2 standing planters to greet our guests with friendly plants. Well, after working on hubby for the last couple months, we finally got some! And now, we even have plants in them!

***

Had another fabulous night of zumba! Tonight I led another slew of songs:

• Work
• Chaiyya Chaiyya
• Elevator
• Tik Tok
• Valio la Pena

Plus I got to make class introductions and closing announcements – scary! Did I mention I have stage fright! I get nervous talking in front of a lot of people! I think I did ok tonight, though!

***

Post-class, I took my second Target trip, picked up stuff to cook and headed home. First thing…while there was a glimmer of light outside, I planted the plants from earlier (heard you should plant at the end of the day, not beginning).

Dinner: TJ’s breaded halibut, Annie’s mac and cheese (scored this for $2 for the creamy kind at target!), steamed broccoli.

This is one of my fave easy-peesy meals to make. Though, hubby actually did most of the cooking tonight!

Post work cereal for dessert: multigrain flakes, honey drizzle, skim milk, chia seeds – b/c zumba works up an appetite for me!

What is your favorite easy/fast meal on your busy weeknights when you still want to cook but are short on time? (feel free to leave a couple!)

Gosh I’m tired after dancing all night last night!

Luckily hubby let me sleep in. As a thank you I whipped up some fried, local, cage-free eggs.

Hubby had some of that yummy cinnamon swirl bread with his egg and I had another fabulous blueberry oat bran muffin. I’m going to have to invent a recipe to mimic these because…d*mn…they are that good.

Hubby ended up having friends over around lunch time for beer brewing.

It’s Matt! And our friend Derrick stopped by too.

The boys watched soccer, brewed beer and eventually ate a fabulous lunch prepared by moi.

We had 2 grilled chicken breasts leftover from last night’s dinner. I wondered how to stretch 2 chicken breasts to feed 4 people?!

Chicken sandwiches!!!

I whipped up a quick barbeque chicken lunch using an Ellie Krieger recipe from her So Easy cook book. Click here for the recipe.

Plus we had some fabulous rolls that Matt brought over! Nice and seedy!

Add in a farmers market squash and…

TA DA! Lunch for 4!

I had mine with a bottled real coke. Every once in awhile the craving catches me for coke and I especially love it in bottled form.

Lunch was awesome! I loved the smokey-sweet chicken with the crunchy rolls and crispy romaine and the sauteed veggies were a nice side.

We also broke into another Food Should Taste Good flavor of chips – Sweet Potato!

The chips were nice. I couldn’t really taste the sweet potato but sweet potato has a pretty subtle flavor anyways. I thought they were really good – just like most of the other flavors. This was nice change of pace from your typical tortilla chip!

I used a water/ice bath to keep my drink cool (and to chill it from room temp originally).

The boys broke from brewing to play with Bailey.

Which made him a happy pup!

***

Later in the day hubby and I tried to clean up for our house warming party (coming up this weekend…eek!)

The basement is still a wreck.

And why did we think re-painting the downstairs cabinets was a good idea….eek! Why?!

Gosh I may need to take a day off from work for this!

Can I mention these shoes are my new faves?!

And they do this cool flip-down thing.

Bailey loves them, too!

I’m never taking them off!

Have you ever loved wearing something so much you never wanted to take it off?

We had plans to work on our garden today, but other things kept coming up!

I woke up a little late and made a rushed breakfast of Power Toast and hot tea.

LOVE the amber color! In the mix: mate vana and rooibos macadamia – from Teavana.

Spelt Power Toast with Barney Butter, chia seeds and sesame seeds.

Then, I went to church solo. Hubby was out fishing with a friend.

Post church snack – Galaxy Granola (*) with vanilla almond milk.

Then, I went on a massive grocery re-stocking trip to Earthfare.

But first I hit up the cafe area for lunch. I got a nice sized salad with baby spinach, romaine, cucumber, grape tomatoes, sprouts, celery, purple cabbage, carrots, and some macaroni salad on the side. I topped the salad with a raspberry chipotle dressing. I thought I read the bottle wrong but it definitely tasted like smoky, spicy raspberries. Very interesting.

I also got some vegan veggie soup.

Plus a yerba mate lemon tea to drink.

I ate my lunch in full sun on the patio and it was wonderous!

As for the groceries, I didn’t feel like taking pictures of everything, but here are some notable purchases:

Old-fashioned butter from Homestead Creamery.

Organic minneolas. I was going to pick up some conventional clementines but these were cheaper, organic, and (per the produce guy) more in season. Score!

A trial size box of Green Genius biodegradable plastic kitchen bags.

Earth Friendly Products Wave Auto Dishwasher Gel.

Citradish Mango Tangerine Natural Dish Soap.

Clearbrook Farms bitter-sweet orange marmalade.

Amaranth (ok, I bought this from the bulk bins a week or so ago but I forgot to show you!)

Hempmilk in Vanilla. I’m working my way through all the non-dairy milks and I’ve been wanting to try hemp milk for awhile. Today it was on sale, so I decided to give it a go. Can’t wait to try it!

Coconut water – only $0.98 each. I swear these are more like $2 at other stores. I’ve been working on getting “things” from more natural sources, whether the “things” I’m looking for are vitamins, protein, etc. I bought the coconut water for the natural electrolytes.

While I was grocery shopping, hubby was furniture shopping. We found some stuff to buy on Craigslist and had it delivered today!

We got this vintage buffet – built in the 1940s.

A leather sectional for the basement.

And, my favorite purchase….

…a PATIO TABLE! I think we will be using this piece of furniture veeery soon.

While hubby was moving stuff, I also worked on a dessert for later.

Mini fruit tarts! These are vegan and gluten free and perfect for spring/summer! Recipe to be posted later. Recipe up – click to view!

I made the tarts for a little get together for our friends Justin + Amanda, aka the Hungry Wanderers, who are moving to Las Vegas.

There were tons of great eats.

Veggie and bean salad and quinoa.

Roasted broccoli and green beans.

Salad.

Beef brisket.

I got a little bit of everything. Literally!

Plus water to drink. Love these cups!

There were plenty of sweets, too!

Two layer chocolate-chocolate birthday cake.

Oatmeal raisin cookies.

My mini fruit tarts.

Serving the cake.

Just like dinner…I had a little bit of everything.

Justin and Amanda recently went to Australia and they brought back a little taste of their adventure – the infamous Vegemite. My sister, who did an exchange to Australia, said she didn’t care for the vegemite and I’ve heard from most Americans that it’s not very good.

I was a little nervous to try it, but too curious to say no.

I picked a little corner, plus another fruit tart to chase the vegemite.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. It was pretty good and good for you with lots of B vitamins (which can be difficult for most vegetarians and vegans to get). The flavor had a lot more bite than I expected, but it was tolerable. I can see why people really like it.

Next, we got to try something else really cool.

Homemade root beer! I’m a big root beer fan, so I was really excited about this.

It was really awesome. Maybe the best root beer I’ve ever had – nice and not too sweet. It would make the perfect root beer float.

A wise friend once told me “Later” means I’ll see you again, but “Goodbye” is forever.

See you later Amanda + Justin! We’re going to miss you guys! Best of luck in Vegas. We’ll have to visit sometime soon!