Friday eats

Posted on February 4, 2011 by Fervent Foodie

Sooooooo… it has been FOR-EV-ER since I last posted about workday breakfast-breakfast-lunch. I guess I just got bored posting about the same things over and over again. But today, I figured what the heck. It’s Friday. Let’s do this.

Breakfast #1

Mary’s oh-so-special eggs!

I absolutely adore this B#1 every day! Sausage, eggs, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, spinach, and garlic? Come on!

Don’t forget the dollop of ketchup of course

Stats on 1 Servings of my Special Eggs (sans ketchup): 189 Calories, 9g carbs, 9g fat, 23g protein, 1g fiber

Breakfast #2

Oatmeal!

I was in the grocery store the other day and ALMOST bought some strawberries so I could make overnight oats… But it’s so stinkin cold outside that I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Man I miss them So for today, it was standard microwaved quick oats with cinnamon and brown sugar… maybe my OO’s will make a return next week!

Stats on 1 Servings of oats: 165 Calories, 31g carbs, 3g fat, 5g protein, 4g fiber

Lunch

And that brings us to LUNCH. Mini cheesy meat loaf and a yumlicious side salad with Newman’s Light balsamic dressing:

Maybe it’s a midwest thing….. but I seriously adore meatloaf.

It’s comforting.

It’s meaty.

It brings me unfettered joy.

Yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss.

Stats on 1 mini cheesy meatloaf: 350 calories, 19g carbs, 17g fat (red meat, folks), 29g protein, 1g fiber

So what’s on everyone’s agenda this weekend? Here’s what I’ll be up to:

Eyebrow wax this evening (fun Friday night activity, no?)
Clean.my.house. Seriously. I’m living in filth.
Work.
Get some of my friends and family tax returns done… oh the joys of being a tax accountant
Buy the BF a bday present… I’m thinking outlet mall!
Possibly venturing out on a Luna Bar quest. Must find the new flavors STAT!
Super Bowl of course! Bring on the cheese!

A Foodie Gift

Posted on January 1, 2011 by Fervent Foodie

In my opinion, nothing is better than the gift of food! For Christmas this year, I decided to make up some cookie jars using one of my favorite cookie recipes – the Nestle Tollhouse Recipe for Oatmeal Scotchies (oh-so-conveniently located on the back of the butterscotch chips bag).

These gifts are so easy, and with a little elbow grease and creative flair they really turn out beautifully!

First step is to mix the following in a bowl:

.5 cup + 2 tbsp Flour
.5 tsp Baking Soda
.25 tsp Ground Cinnamon
.25 tsp Salt

Dump this into a 1 quart jar, then layer on:

1.5 cups quick oats
half a bag of butterscotch chips

In another bowl mix together:

.25 cup + 2 tbsp White Sugar
.25 cup + 2 tbsp Brown Sugar

Toss the sugar mix into a ziploc baggie and tuck inside the glass jar (on top of the chips).

Next up, write out a note with the following instructions:

Then it’s time get your creative flair on!

Last but not least, I baked up a batch of the Oatmeal Scotchies and included a half dozen wrapped in a cellophane bag along with each gift jar.

YUM!

Cookies.. the gift that keeps on giving Winking smile

A sandwich BUILT for Hummus

Posted on August 26, 2010 by Fervent Foodie

It’s Thursday, and I am one happy lady. Thank you to those of you who commented on yesterday’s tell me something happy post. Each one of your comments resulted in a big smile on my face, and I thank you again and again for sharing your happy thoughts with me!

Breakfast #1

Today I planned on eating the last of the scrambled eggs I cooked up on Sunday, but I was in the mood for something a little different. Something with a little kick. And when I’m in such a mood, I turn to my friend Frank. Frank’s Red Hot that is

Come to think of it, I can’t leave out my good friends George and Mama Lupe either! Frank, George, and Mama Lupe all contributed to my yummy breakfast wrap.

Leftover scrambled eggs + several shakes of Franks atop a Mama Lupe low carb tortilla:

Then I wrapped it up burrito-style and grilled on the George for about 5 minutes, until the eggs were hot and the tortilla was crispy.

I also heated up the broccoli in the microwave… Unfortunately my microwave doesn’t have a human name… Frank, George, Mama Lupe, and Emerson (I guess Emerson could be a last name).

I swear the George Foreman grill is one of the most amazing kitchen gadgets on earth–or at least the most amazing one in my kitchen!

Stats on B#1: 208 Calories, 15 g carbs, 8g fat, 24g protein, 6g fiber

Breakfast #2

Overnight oaty goodness:

It’s getting cold in the mornings now… I have a feeling pretty soon I’ll be saying farewell to cold oats and heading back to the warmth the traditional hot oats. *Sigh*

Stats on B#2: 233 calories, 44g carbs, 5g fat, 6g protein, 7g fiber

Lunch

Ive blabbed my Trader Joe’s sob story on this blog many a time.. Sooooo far to drive (~1 hr away) to the nearest TJ’s… So sad. Luckily, my mom picked me up some Trader Joe’s Hummus on her last trip to TJ’s! WOOOOOOT!

The hummus was not an afterthought for today’s sandwich, not a mere condiment to go on the bun. No. Today’s sandwich was BUILT specifically for Trader Joe’s Cilantro Jalapeno Hummus.

This sandwich consisted of a Pepperidge Farm 7 grain deli flat & a four ounce grilled chicken breast:

That I topped off with sliced tomato, onion, and the STAR of the show: Trader Joe’s Cilantro Jalapeno Hummus

Then I added some fresh spinach and some sprouts. Excessive veggies? Perhaps.

Check out the height on this sucker:

I also had some leftover roasted cauliflower on the side. Cauliflower might looking boring, but trust me. It was fab.

Layers of FLAVOR.

Stats on Lunch: 364 calories, 35g carbs, 5g fat, 46g protein, 11g fiber

QUESTION: What did YOU have for lunch today? I’m always looking for ways to shake up my lunch routine!

Overnight Oats for Dummies

Posted on August 24, 2010 by Fervent Foodie

Overnight oats are cold, creamy, and absolutely friggin delicious, especially in the summer time. I get more questions on overnight oats than on any other topic/food/recipe on this blog. I attribute this to the exquisite palates of my readers. Given the confusion, I thought I’d do an “overnight oats for dummies” post.. not implying that any of you are dummies, just that a dummy would be able to follow these extremely thorough instructions.

First up, the oats.

You can use any oats that you like. My preference is for quick oats because they turn out with a fabulous creamy consistency, but I’ve also enjoyed rolled oats and muesli. I usually go with 1/2 a cup of oats, but you can use more or less depending on your liking.

KEY TO SUCCESS #1: These oats are uncooked, straight from the container.

Oaty goodness:

Options for Oats: Quick Oats, Rolled Oats, Muesli, Steel Cut Oats, etc.

Second, the liquid.

I favor Almond Breeze Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk.

I tend to use equal parts of liquid to oats (typically 1/2 a cup of each).

KEY TO SUCCESS #2: The more liquid you use, the runnier your oats will be, conversely the less liquid you use the thicker your oats will be. Thank you freshman year physics class.

Options for liquid: regular cow milk (MOO!), yogurt, etc.

Third, sweetener if you so choose.

I like to add a tsp of brown sugar to my oats.

Options for sweetener: a packet of Truvia, Jam or Preserves, Honey, etc.

KEY TO SUCCESS #3: Keep your eye on the prize and don’t get overly excited and accidently spill valuable OO goodness as I did. Don’t worry. I licked it all up

Fourth, overnight mixins.

My standard oats only have 1 overnight mixin: CINNAMON

Just because I’m boring, doesn’t mean you have to be. The options are ENDLESS. Here are some ideas: Nut butter, chia seeds, granola, chocolate chips, protein powder, PB2, yogurt, nuts, raisins, fresh or frozen fruits – think berries, melons, cherries, bananas, etc.

Fifth, quality time with the fridge.

I’ve said it many a time on the blog: overnight oats are like a gift to yourself. You prep this little bundle of joy the night before, and it’s just ready and waiting for you in the morning… Like a sweet little puppy… That you eat.

Moving on…

KEY TO SUCCESS #4: Be a good little girl and don’t eat your oats for a midnight snack.

Sixth, fresh mixins.

The next morning, the oats will be nice and thick and creamy:

I had to crop this photo because just looking at these oats made me drool all over my desk.

You can mix in ANYTHING ya want to these oats! See the list of ideas under the overnight mixins for inspiration. Other ideas include cereal (add this in the AM so it doesn’t get soggy) and cookies (if you have a ramped sweet tooth like me).

My preference is to add some fresh fruit:

Sometimes I go with fresh strawberries:

Let’s be honest, I ALWAYS go with fresh strawberries…

Sometimes I go for the fresh blueberries:

And if I’m feeling spunky, I go for both:

Apparently I feel spunky 97% of the time

Whatever mixins you choose, give it a good mix:

Then, put you face super close to the bowl and admire the overnight oats in all their glory:

The overnight oats are eaten COLD… so all that’s left to do is eat your little heart out!

I’d like to end this tutorial with a photo montage of some of my favorite OO’s.

Please close your eyes and imagine sappy graduation music playing (for your completion of the tutorial, of course), then proceed.

Overnight Oats—YOU… COMPLETE ME. <3 <3 <3

I hope you feel OO inspired

BTW – I updated my About Me page. Constructive feedback is welcome and appreciated! FerventFoodie@gmail.com.

Starting the week on a roll… a jelly roll that is

Posted on August 9, 2010 by Fervent Foodie

Sometime last week I accidentally downloaded the $10 Runkeeper pro ap on my iPhone… I was kind of annoyed because the free Runkeeper pro app I had was working just fine… but apparently my right thumb decided I needed to go the extra mile (no pun intended) and buy the pricey app.

I’ve played around with the full Runkeeper Pro ap a little bit, and wasn’t too impressed until I logged onto the website and saw all the cool information that my phone automatically transmits. As you may recall, I’ve been working on interval training (since my right knee is opposed to me doing a 5k). So in the past, it’s been hard for me to tell how fast I was running and how fast I was walking during my intervals.

Enter the fancy schmancy Runkeeper Pro ap for the low-low price of $9.99! When I logged onto the website I was VERY happy to see that I can get a breakout by interval. Here’s the stats from my interval this morning which consisted of 5 intervals of 3 minutes walking and 3 minutes running:

Not too shabby on the run times. Now I can actually work on improving my pace AND my knee strength. I guess this was a happy $10 accident

Breakfast #1

I was planning to have eggs for breakfast, but time was not on my side this morning. Instead I grabbed an Earth Grains 100% whole wheat deli flat and topped it with 1 tbsp Trader Joe’s Crunchy Salted Almond Butter:

My friends Tim and Jaci hooked me up with some Smucker’s reduced sugar red raspberry preserves to try, and I thought this combo would be fantastic:

AB & J:

I was right, it was fan-friggin-tastic!! I love these reduced sugar preserves just as much as I love the regular blackberry preserves! Smucker’s preserves are perfection.

Stats on B#1: 225 calories, 30g carbs, 11g fat, 9g protein, 6g fiber

Breakfasts #2

My usual overnight oats with strawberries and blueberries:

OO love

Stats on B#1: 229 calories, 42g carbs, 5g fat, 6g protein, 7g fiber

Lunch

When I was making yesterday’s garbanzo bean salad, I saved some of the veggies for my lunch. CHOP ONCE, EAT TWICE my friends

Mixins:

I also added 2 ounces grilled chicken, half a bag of romaine lettuce, and 2 tbsp Ken’s Lite Northern Italian with Basil and Romano dressing:

Whole lot o veg:

Stats on B#1: 309 calories, 36g carbs, 7g fat, 25g protein, 10g fiber

Question for ya’ll: What are your favorite things to pack for lunch? I tend to get super bored with my lunches and would LOVE new ideas!

Oats worth waking up for

Posted on August 1, 2010 by Fervent Foodie

Yesterday was a fully-loaded Saturday. I had a wedding shower and a housewarming party to go to, and I felt a tinge of tiredness all throughout the day. So when I got home around 11pm I was really looking forward to hitting the hay. I layed down, closed my eyes, deep breath in, deep breath out…. Deep breath in, deep breath out…. and then my eyes opened and I laid on my back looking up at the ceiling. I was wide awake. Completely, 100%, ready-to-go awake.

I contemplated watching TV at first, but then decided to put my newly found energy into getting some work cranked out. So I sat typing away on my laptop until 3:30am when I decided it was time to pull the plug.

Needless to say, I was less than enthusiastic about waking up this morning. 9:30 am rolled around (which is about 2-3 hours later than I usually sleep on weekends)… and suddenly a glimmer of excitement washed over me. I remembered the amazing overnight oats I had prepared the night before. Now I was more than amped to get up and tackle my interval training. All I had to do was keep visualizing the cool creamy oats….

Check this out:

These are not your ordinary overnight oats. This jar of JIF had about 2 tbsp of peanut butter left in it, so I mixed up my usual overnight oats in the jar and left them to hang out in the fridge overnight. This morning, I topped the oats off with some blueberries and strawberries:

I COULD NOT WAIT to dive in to these:

Jealous??

Worth waking up for:

Short and sweet

Posted on July 25, 2010 by Fervent Foodie

Breakfast #1

First thing first, as soon as I opened my eyes this morning it was all about EGGS. I cooked up a 3 egg white scramble with S&P and Frank’s Red Hot, 1/2 cup oven baked potatoes, 1/2 of a Thomas’ multi-grain English muffin, and a dollop of ketchup (of course!):

Stats of B#1: 168 calories, 31g carbs, 1g fat, 16g protein, 5g fiber

Breakfast #2

A couple hours later, I eagerly dug into my overnight oats. I made the usual version, but subbed in blueberries for strawberries and added a tablespoon Bear Naked Maple Pecan Granola:

Creamy deliciousness:

Stats of B#2: 259 calories, 49g carbs, 6g fat, 8g protein, 8g fiber

The BF’s Breakfast #1

When we were on vacation in Charleston, we had breakfast at Hominy Grill twice and it was DELICIOUS. Both times, we considered ordering their fruit and granola parfait, but opted for pancakes and omelets instead. Ever since then, the BF has been craving the parfait, so being the nice lady I am, I made him one for breakfast this morning:

This parfait consisted of 1 container Dannon Vanilla Greek Yogurt, 1/4 cup Bear Naked Maple Pecan Granola, and 1 sliced banana:

Jarrod said he REALLY like the parfait. Only change we’ll make for next time is to use strawberry yogurt instead. YUM!

Stats on the parfait: 345 calories, 66g carbs, 5g fat, 17g protein, 5g fiber

Lunch

Lunch was 2 ounces of leftover chicken from last night’s Cajun pasta atop a Light Flat-out Italian wrap with spinach, tomato, onion, and a few drizzles of fat-free Italian dressing:

I wrapped everything up burrito-style, then cooked on the george foreman grill for about 5 minutes until it was heated through and the wrap was crispy:

YUM!

Stats on the wrap: 220 calories, 28g carbs, 4g fat, 28g protein, 12g fiber

And with that, it’s off to make some dinner!

Saturday eggs, smoothies, & tuna salad

Posted on July 24, 2010 by Fervent Foodie

This morning I woke up bright and early to try and pick up on my interval running (even though I had already decided to take a week off of high-impact excercise)… I was able to get 1.5 intervals in before my knee started hurting Looks like I’m going to be in the walking group at the Healthy Living Summit.

Breakfast of champions

After my disappointing run, I wanted a delicious breakfast to perk me up. I cooked up 1 egg sunny side up, and had a piece of Country Hearth 12 Grain bread with sunflowers and a half a cup of oven baked potatoes:

Why are egg yolks SOOOO delicious tasting? I find them oddly decadent!

Stats: 250 calories, 37g carbs, 7g fat, 12g protein, 2g fiber

Soon after downing this delicious breakfast, I was already feeling hungry and decided to make a fruit smoothie.

I threw the following into the blender:

1 container Yoplait Strawberry Greek Yogurt
1/2 cup Almond Breeze unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk
1/4 cup fresh blueberries
6 medium strawberries
1 cup fresh spinach
1/2 cup ice

This puppy definitely filled my belly up!

Stats on my smoothie: 199 calories, 32g carbs, 2g fat, 14g protein, 4g fiber

After watching me down my smoothie, Jarrod got jealous and decided he wanted a smoothie too. So we threw the following into the blender:

1 scoop optimum nutrition whey chocolate protein
1/2 cup frozen sliced bananas
1 tbsp JIF peanut butter
1/4 cup ground-up quick oats
1/2 cup Almond Breeze unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk
1/2 cup ice

This doesn’t look like much, but I tried a sip and it was AMAZING:

Tasted like a shake you’d get at a hamburger stand. I’m going to try and make a lower-calorie version sometime!

Stats on Jarrod’s chocolate peanut butter banana smoothie: 377 calories, 39g carbs, 12g fat, 33g protein, 6g fiber

Lunch

A little before lunch, I headed over to my mom’s house for some quality time with the fam. Just as I was about to leave, I locked my keys in my trunk… 8-O What am I, 16 again? When I was younger, I had the joy of consistently locking my keys in my car. Actually, the day I first got my license I locked my keys in my trunk and had to have my dad come rescue me…. Oh joy….

Once I got the key situation all worked out, I headed home to make a tuna wrap for lunch. Here’s what went into the tuna salad:

1 can chunk light tuna in water, drained
1/4 cup red onion
1/2 a chopped roma tomato
1 tbsp Ken’s Steakhouse Lite Creamy Ceaser Dressing
S&P

Then I added a few slices of a ginormous banana pepper I grew in my backyard garden:

I put the tuna salad atop a Light Flat-out Italian wrap with 1 cup of spinach:

Then I wrapped everything up burrito-style and grilled on the george foreman grill for about 5 minutes:

DELICIOUS.

Stats on the tuna wrap: 282 calories, 28g carbs, 9g fat, 32g protein, 12g fiber

I’m hoping to try out a new recipe for dinner tonight.. I have a few ideas in mind. Maybe a nap will help things come to fruition

A whole day of FOOD

Posted on July 22, 2010 by Fervent Foodie

Guess who forgot her camera cord at home today??? That’s right, one fervent-frazzled-foodie

That’s ok, now I get to take my time with this lovely Thursday post, rather than rushing through a lunch-time blog session!

Today should have marked Day #1, Week #6 of my interval training plan… But unfortunately during my run in Charlotte Tuesday morning I started to have some knee pain

I haven’t had any problems throughout my entire interval plan. I think the pain was probably caused by having to run on the sidewalks in the city in combination with the TON of walking we did on vacation.

When I woke up this morning, I was still feeling a little pain in my knee. I think I’m going to forgo running outside for a week before attempting to pick up on my intervals again. Hopefully that will be sufficient time for me to get right back on track. Until then, I’ll stick to the low-impact elliptical.

Can’t believe tomorrow is Friday already! Love short workweeks–even if it has been a hectic one. You can always gauge my level of overwhelmsion at work by the cleanliness of my desk. Case in point, today my desk looked like it might try to swallow me whole at any moment:

Breakfast #1

Leftover’s from the scramble I made Tuesday night:

This was tasty, but I was really craving some eggins with turkey sausage. Think I’ll have to pull some of my Jennie O’s out of the freezer tonight!

Stats on B#1: 141 calories, 13g carbs, 1g fat, 19g protein, 3g fiber

Breakfast #2

Long-awaited return of OVERNIGHT OATS! Missed these guys so much on vacation! I actually contemplated packing OO supplies to take on my vacation, but once I saw the exorbitant amount of food I packed I decided against it. I also nixed bringing the immersion blender and almond milk to make smoothies… haha

Last night, I mixed up:

1/2 cup uncooked quick oats
1/2 cup Almond Breeze Unsweetened Almond Milk
1 tsp brown sugar
sprinkling of cinnamon

This morning, I topped the overnight oats with fresh strawberries and blueberries:

GLORIOUS!

Speaking of overnight oats, I get a whole lot of questions on how to make these. If you’re intrigued, check out my Overnight Oats Addition to the Foodie Q&A Page. Also check out the recipe page for some ideas on what to put in your overnight oats!

Stats on B#2: 200 calories, 36g carbs, 5g fat, 6g protein, 6g fiber

Lunch

While making last night’s dinner, I threw and extra chicken breast on the grill for my lunch today. I was feeling a little saucy so I decided to make up some healthified buffalo chicken.

This time, I used the following:

4 ounces grilled chicken with Montreal Chicken Seasoning
S&P, Garlic Powder
1/4 cup Stonyfield Farms fat-free plain yogurt
1/4 cup Frank’s red hot

Lucky for me, this mixture made enough for 2 wraps so I saved the other half for tomorrow. I put the buffalo chicken on a Mama Lupe’s low carb tortilla:

Then topped with some tomato and onion:

I was super excited for lunch ALL day today… couldn’t wait to devour this spicy treat.

Last time I made this buffalo chicken salad, I used a lot less sauce. I think I prefer it extra saucy

On the side, I had a jumbo salad with romaine, tomato, onion, banana pepper, green pepper, and 2 tbsp Ken’s Steakhouse lite Italian Romano dressing:

Stats on Wrap & Salad: 302 calories, 34g carbs, 9g fat, 28g protein, 10g fiber

Dinner

While trying to decide what to make for dinner, I came across a bag of calabacita veggies in the freezer:

This reminded me of my shrimp quesadillas, which sounded likes a fabulous idea for dinner.

Here’s what went into the quesadillas:

First I carefully sliced a Joseph’s low-carb tortilla in half, then I topped it with a quarter of the bag of steamed calabacita veggies, a thinly sliced light mini baybel cheese round, and three large grilled shrimp that I had seasoned with lime juice, S&P, garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, and red pepper flakes:

I put the other half of the pita on top of my masterpiece and grilled on the george foreman for 4 minutes until the cheese was melty and the pita was crispy. Then I topped with 2 tbsp Breakstone’s Fat Free sour cream, 1/2 a plum tomato, 1/4 cup red onion, and some banana peppers:

I love it when a meal is healthy and tastes AMAZING like this one did. Look how yummy:

On the side, I had 1 cup each of roasted broccoli and cauliflower:

These veggies were seasoned with Black pepper, garlic salt, and onion powder. I placed them on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray and gave them a good toss before roasting in a 415 degree oven for 15 minutes. Y-U-M.

Next time I make quesadillas I think I’ll sub in some pinto beans for the shrimp and make a vegetarian quesadilla with TONS and TONS of veggies…. mmm can’t wait!

Stats on the quesadilla & fixins: 296 calories, 34g carbs, 6g fat, 24g protein, 69g fiber

Stats on the roasted veggies: 55 calories, 11g carbs, 0g fat, 4g protein, 5g fiber

All together now: 351 calories, 45g carbs, 6g fat, 30g protein, 11g fiber

Late-Night Snack

Post-dinner snack tonight was a delicious fruit smoothie. I put the following into the blender:

1/4 cup plain Stonyfield Farms Fat-Free Yogurt
1/4 cup Almond Breeze Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk
1 packet truvia
1/2 cup fresh blueberries
1 cup spinach
1/4 cup frozen blackberries
1/2 cup ice cubes

Blueberry bliss:

How can healthy foods taste so darn good?? Still baffles me!

All together now: 101 calories, 23g carbs, 1g fat, 6g protein, 5g fiber

Special Surprise

As you may recall, the BF was out of the country for work on my birthday, and the day after he returned, we headed to Charlotte/Charleston. On vacation, he told me my present was “too big” to bring to Charleston, so I’d have to wait til we got home. He also expressed some worries that I wasn’t going to like the gift… Uh oh…

All I really wanted for my birthday was a night out in Charleston and a cupcake — (which I got several times over on vaca!), so I wasn’t too worried about the gift.

Last night was THE NIGHT. I sat down with two nicely wrapped presents. I was super excited to open them, albeit slightly apprehensive.

Here’s what was in the packages:

If you are like me, you’re probably wondering what the heck I’d use two travel guides to New Orleans for. Maybe you are quicker at gathering the facts than me…. but for those who aren’t: WE’RE GOING TO NEW ORLEANS IN OCTOBER!!!! How awesome is that?!?!? Flights and hotel are already booked! Now all I have to do is research all the best places to eat

QUESTION: What’s the best surprise and/or birthday present you have ever received?

Italian take #2

Posted on July 16, 2010 by Fervent Foodie

Yesterday afternoon, we arrived in Charleston. In an effort to save $$$, I booked us a studio apartment rather than staying in a hotel in the historic district. This saved us about $400, but we are about 1-2 miles out from most of the restaurants and sightseeing we want to do. I think the savings offsets the distance, plus with all the eating we’re doing the more walking the better!

We have a full kitchen, washer dryer, and nice dining area too:

While Jarrod was in Belgium he said all he wanted was some decent Italian food, and there was none to be found near his worksite. So, I grudgingly complied with his request to get Italian for the second night in a row…. Just kidding–Italian is my fav too!

After some googling, we decided to go to Bocci’s in Historic Charleston because their menu had a lot of different dishes we had never tried.

Typically, when I go to the store to buy wine I end up with Cabernet about 90% of the time. So in an effort to keep trying new things we went with Bocci’s special wine of the night:

This wine was FANTASTIC! I’m so glad the waitress recommended it. It was full bodied and had a great spice to it.

For the appetizer, we really REALLY wanted to order the bruschetta…. But we decided to push ourselves outside our tomato-basil-cheesy-bread-goodness comfort zone and instead ordered the Arancini. The arancini is an arborio rice ball made with sausage, parmesan, ricotta and roasted red peppers, fried to golden brown and served with marinara sauce:

And it was absolutely delicious!

The ambiance of the restaurant was fantastic. It was low lit, and had a series of small rooms with sporadic tables of all shapes and sizes. It reminded me of restaurants I visited in Europe back in college, especially with the huge doors that opened up to the outdoors.

For our main entre, we went with the Chicken Conchiglia: Large pasta shells stuffed with chicken, three cheese mix, and herbs, topped with tomato basil sauce and baked:

These were so tasty — and super filling! We ended up brining 3 of the 5 shells home with us. I think we might make them into sandwiches later today

Charleston has so much character (and so much humidity ).

Since I’ve been gone, two of my friends from home have decided to try out overnight oats (and send me pictures)! I think they miss me

Tim tried oats + almond milk + cinnamon + brown sugar + banana + peanut butter:

In his words they were: “mmmm OMG perfect!”

Jessie decided to try oats + almond milk + peanut butter + cinnamon + brown sugar + strawberries + blueberries:

In her words: “OMGGGGG. These rocks my socksssss”
So if you haven’t tried them based on my raving, now you have two additional ravers to back up my love for overnight oats! I think that’s the first thing I’m going to eat when I get home!