Features

Eat local at Atherton Mill & Market — Charlotte, NC

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Atherton Mill MarketLiving in a city has its perks, and one of my favorite things about Charlotte is our local markets.  During the week, I often stop into the 7th Street Public Market for lunch at Pure Pizza and to wander around the vendor booths (and drool over the wares).  Another gem in Charlotte is Atherton Mill and Market, which is just outside of uptown in South End.  This week, I stopped in for a visit and spent some time chatting with the folks at Atherton.  Every time I visit the market, I’m surprised by just  how much it has to offer–it’s so much more than fresh produce.  It’s local foods, local farms, and local artisans.  Where else can you find nuts roasted that very morning and bread made with local brewery starters?

Atherton Mill and Market

2104 South Blvd

Hours:  Tuesday  10am-7pm, Wednesday – Friday:  10am-2pm, Saturday:  9am-2pm

 

Just for fun, here’s a list of 9 awesome things I found at the market:

#1 Simply Local – a retail grocery within Atherton Market that offers goods from local producers and farmers.  This is where I nabbed the Big Spoon Roasters Peanut Pecan nut butter for my foodie penpal!

Atherton Mill Market (2 of 27)

#2  Pickleville – kosher style pickles plus fresh salsa and Cajun creole food.  My favorite is the HOT GARLIC pickle.

Atherton Mill Market (14 of 27)

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Ramblings

July 12th

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Happy day of birth to me!

Today’s morning started off with:

That’s a card from dad and a card from mom 🙂

Last night, I cooked up some of my low-carb waffles.  I’ve been tweaking the recipe little by little, and each attempt gets better and better!

This time I mixed the dry ingredients in one bowl:

  • 1/4 Bob’s Red Mill Low-Carb Baking Mix
  • 1/8 tsp baking powder
  • 1/8 tsp cream of tartar
  • 1/8 tsp cinnamon

In another bowl, I whipped an egg white light and frothy.  Next, I added 1/4 cup of Almond Breeze Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk and whipped the two of them together. 

Then I slowly and gently mixed in the dry ingredients and added another tsp of almond milk, and cooked them up on the waffle iron for 10 minutes.

At work this morning, I popped the waffles in the toaster then topped them off with some fresh frozen strawberries and blueberries that I heated up in the microwave and some Smucker’s Sugar free syrup.

 

These waffles just keep getting better!  They were definitely fluffier.  Definitely tasty.

Good news/bad news: 

Good news is it’s birthday and vacation time!  Bad news is, I’ll be doing little-to-no cooking over the next week or so :-/

I’m going to keep my blog updated with all the delicious foods and restaurants I get to try, and also my attempts to eat healthy while out of town!

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What I ate

Tuesday Tastes Good

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Today marks Day #3, week #3 of my interval training plan!  I am just flying right along….. Which does make me a little nervous.  I keep waiting for another knee injury to surface… Hopefully with good stretching and elevation while at work I can continue to work my way back up to running the entire time.

I’m really hoping to be able to participate in the Healthy Living Summit group run in August too…  We shall see 🙂

Breakfast #1:  Just-sayin-no to muffin(tops)

I had a breakfast meeting at Panera this morning for the Knowledgeable Network of Women in Akron.  In a previous life, I would have been PUMPED for a muffie and/or bagel from Panera…  Coffee cake?  Bring-it-on.  Nowadays I just stare longingly at these delicious treats through the glass case and drool…. 

BUT there is good news!  Panera carries Stonyfield Farms yogurt!  So, I ordered up some of that with fruit (no granola though) and a TALLLLLL coffee 🙂

Breakfast #2:  Giving low-carb waffles a second go

I made low-carb waffles for the first time last week, and I was really excited to try them again.  There’s lots of things I’d like to play around with, but for the sake of determining what works and what doesn’t I only changed a few minor things this time around.

Last night I cooked up the waffle batter below for 10 minutes on the waffle iron:

This morning, I popped the waffles into the toaster, then topped ’em off with some fresh/frozen strawberries/bananas/blackberries that I heated up in the microwave along with some PB2 (added extra H20 fo’ the drizzle).

YUMMMMMM…..  So tasty, even though the texture is not quite what I want.  Guess I’ll just have to keep on experimenting.  No complaints here!

Stats on waffles with fixins:  206 calories, 31g carbs, 4g fat, 21g protein, 8g fiber

Lunch

Lately, I’m pretty much obsessed with hummus and spinach sandwiches of any variety.  It’s not just me either.  I made a wrap with hummus on it for the BF over the weekend, and he seconded my desire to rub it all over my face and marinate in its deliciousness.  Hahahah… 😉

Today’s wrap consisted of:

Heavenly 🙂

Stats on wrap & sliced yellow pepper:  295 calories, 23g carbs, 10g fat, 24g protein, 8g fiber

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Recipes, What I ate

Something old, something new x2

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Breakfast #1

For breakfast this morning I was craving one of my standards:  dippy eggs and potatoes.  So, I cooked up 1 egg over easy, heated up some of Jarrod’s special cajun oven potatoes, and a Thomas’ multi-grain english muffin. 

Served up with a dollop of ketchup, of course! 😉

Delicious as always!  Sometimes you just gotta go with the tried and true.

Stats on breakfast #1:  219 calories, 39g carbs, 6g fat, 12g protein, 9g fiber

 

Breakfast #2 = Healthified Low-Carb Waffles

I recently picked up some Bob’s Red Mill Low-Carb baking mix, so I decided to try and make some low-carb waffles this morning.

I mixed up:

  • 1/4 cup Bob’s Red Mill Low-Carb baking mix
  • 1/4 cup + 1 tsp Almond Breeze unsweetened almond milk
  • 1 egg white
  • Sprinkling of cinnamon

Poured the mix onto the waffle iron, and let it cook for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, I mixed up half a serving of PB2 and made it a little on the runny side (for drizzling!).  I also microwaved 1/4 of fresh frozen strawberries.  Once nice and hot, I added a sprinkling of Truvia to sweeten them up and a drizzle of Smuckers sugar free syrup.

All together:

This was a good first stab at low-carb waffles!  Next time, I think I’ll add half a packet of the truvia to the actual waffle batter and also 1/8 tsp of baking powder to help the waffles perk up a bit.  Definitely gonna play with this idea some more!

Stats on just the waffles:  126 calories, 12g carbs, 3g fat, 18g protein, 5g fiber

Stats on waffles with all the fixins:  170 calories, 21g carbs, 4g fat, 21g protein, 6g fiber

 

Larabar success!!

Yesterday, I was feeling adventurous (albeit hesitant) and decided to try the Peanut butter & Jelly Larabar that I’ve been neglecting for the past week due to Larabar Fail #1 and Fail #2. 

Every other larabar I’ve tried to date, I’ve taken 1 bite and tossed the rest.  I actually enjoyed this one!  Wow!  I’m so surprised!  And I LOVE the simple ingredients:  Dates, Peanuts, Unsweetened Cherries, and Salt.  Still keeping an eye out there for the coconut and key lime flavors…

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Ramblings

Eggplant makes me ralph

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So I woke up this morning and was absolutely sick to my stomach.  Ralphing was involved.   

While laying on couch trying to fall back asleep, it dawned on me that my body was rejecting the eggplant I ate yesterday!!!  Even typing the word makes me queasy.  🙁  

For you purple veggie lovers out there, definitely give yesterday’s recipe a try.  For all you sane people out there, such as myself, try the recipe again using lasagna noodles.  

I don’t know about you, but when I’m feeling sick I crave processed carbohydrates.  Pizza, mac and cheese, PB&J… mmmmmm……  

So when I finally felt stable enough to try and eat something, I decided to make some healthified bisquick waffles.  I mixed up the following:  

  • 1/3 cup bisquick
  • 1/2 cup almond breeze unsweetened vanilla almond milk
  • 1 egg white

I poured the batter onto my little waffle maker ($8 at Target, boo ya).  The waffles seemed to take longer to crisp up than normal unhealthified waffles.  I topped them off with 1/8 cup sugar free smucker’s syrup and some strawberries I had sliced up yesterday.  

waffle love

 

It was d-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s.  And it seems to be agreeing with my belly, so I’m heading into work shortly.  Not sure what to do about lunch.  Seriously contemplating a stop at Wendy’s…..  Hopefully my brain wins this war over my belly!  

Stats on the waffles:  216 calories, 35g carbs, 6g fat, 7g protein, 2g fiber

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