Pumpkin Pie in a Glass!

I don't know about you all, but I am just loving the fall weather.  Today I took a walk by the Catawba River and the leaves are starting to turn different colors.  It was so nice just enjoying the scenery!  I am also completely loving all of the fall foods!  I plan to try spaghetti squash a new way this week and I also made a squash casserole tonight that I REALLY liked, but it needs a little tweaking. When I get it right, I will share it. 

But I do have something great to share with you tonight...

"Pumpkin Pie in a Glass" is for all you pumpkin-lovers out there.  This is a smoothie with a little fall flair!

Ingredients:
1 container of Fiber One Vanilla Yogurt
1/4 cup canned pumpkin
1 1/2 Tbsp. Pumpkin Spice Coffee Creamer (I used the Coffee Mate one)
1/2 cup skim milk
5-6 ice cubes

Directions:
Put all ingredients in a blender.  Blend until smooth!  That's it!

I am telling you... it's deeeeee-licious!  A wonderful fall treat that will fill you up and get some extra dairy into your diet!

A Tale of Two Omelettes: Two Cities, Two Restaurants, Two Ways

Rarely do I go out to breakfast two days in a row.  But that's exactly what I did this weekend!

Yesterday, of course, I was in Greenville, so we hit up an old favorite: Stax's Original.  If you are ever in the Greenville area, this place is a great breakfast spot.  It is always busy on Saturdays and Sundays.  Stax's is very casual and comfortable.  My parents eat here almost every week!

Yesterday, I opted for the Western Omelette with breakfast potatoes and coffee... Yummmmmmm... I LOVE breakfast!  It is quite possibly my favorite "go out to eat meal." 

Obviously this was not the healthiest of breakfasts...  but definitely tasty!  Warning... eating at Stax's HAS been known to cause early-afternoon drowsiness...

Now, we're back home in Rock Hill.  Sadie spent last night with her Nanny and Papa (Ryan's parents) so Ryan and I decided to have a "grown-up" breakfast out.  We headed to The Terrace Cafe in the South Park area of Charlotte.  We're so lucky to be so close to Charlotte!

The Terrace Cafe is such a nice place to eat breakfast.  First of all, the South Park area is beautiful.  The restaurant is very open and there is a huge terrace inside (hence, the name).  They have all sorts of interesting breakfast goodies, like Fried Green Tomatoes, Red Velvet Waffles, Pumpkin Pancakes... it was hard to choose!

I decided on a "Y" omelette.  They have 2 "Y Omelettes" that were designed by a nutritionist with the Charlotte Area YMCA.  My omelette was made with egg whites, spinach, turkey, tomatoes, and other veggies.  It was served with fresh fruit, whole-wheat toast, and a small salad.  And, O.M.G... it was delicious. 

Ryan went for the full breakfast: eggs, hash browns, bacon, salad, and pancakes.  Also delicious.  (I had to sample the pancakes!) 

If you are looking for a great place to eat breakfast, I would definitely give The Terrace Cafe a try.  Also, they start to get busy around 10 a.m.  We got there at 9:40 and that was PERFECT.  We walked right in.  BUT... if you visit their website, you can make reservations online!  Very convenient.

So that's my tale of two omelettes... two great cities, two great restaurants!

Now we've got to get our day started... errands to run, and we've got to go get our little munchkin!  I miss her!

Green Vegas!

So... guess where we are...

GREEN Vegas! Yesterday morning, Sadie and I got up and headed out around ten a.m.  We stopped in Gaffney and did a little shopping.  One store we had to hit was the Harry and David store, which is one of the most fun places to go at the Gaffney Outlet mall.  They have all sorts of yummy goodies.  I picked up some soup mixes and some black bean salsa, which makes a great dip when mixed with cream cheese.

Then we got here just in time to have lunch with Meredith and David, who are also in town for a wedding. 

We went to Smoke on the Water, which is in the West End.  It was a beautiful day so we opted to sit on the porch.  The weather was perfect!!! 

We started with cornbread...

And then had a wedge salad.  This wedge looked different than a wedge usually looks-- kind of spread out on the plate.  But it still tasted good.

Do you see those little fingers dipping into my bleu cheese dressing?  I didn't think Sadie would like that type of dressing, but she did!  She loved dipping the lettuce in and eating it! :)

Meredith, David, and I all had pulled pork.  They have 4 different sauces you can use.  I chose the vinegar-based sauce, which is a little spicy.  I LOVE vinegar-based barbecue.  Most people prefer the ketchup-based or mustard-based in this area.  But there's something about the vinegar sauces... they are so light and tangy!

I had squash casserole, too, which was soooooo good.  I think you can see how cheesy and gooey it was... yummmmmm.... I am going to have to think about a way to make a low fat version.  I am fairly sure that THIS version was now low-fat. 

But I didn't worry too much, because I knew I would burn some calories at the Zumba Party later...

Just as we were about to leave, we had a surprise... Leenie!  She came to join us and then Leenie, Sadie, and I walked around a little, enjoying the weather.

Then, on to the Zumba Party!

It was held in an amazing location, Grace Hall, in downtoan Greer.  There was great music, food, and of course ZUMBA!  The event was held by MUVE fitness, the studio where my friend Beth teaches.  She and her fellow instructors put on a great event!

Oh, and guess what I found there... a JOY cupcake!  Inside this pretty little cupcake was a strawberry jelly surprise!

What a fun day!

Getting my "Fur-Cation" Started!

All day long, I've been totally confused.  I keep thinking it's Friday.  Does that ever happen to you?  One of my favorite episodes of "The Office" is the one where Dwight thinks it's Friday and it's really Thursday.  But at least I have a good reason for being all mixed up.  See, tomorrow's a Fur-Cation day for me.  That means I am on furlough (a.k.a. not getting paid).  Sadie and I are taking off for a little 2-day trip to go see Leenie and Poppy in Greenville.  Poor Ryan... we're leaving him here.  (I am hoping he'll get bored enough to do all the cleaning I haven't had time to do.)

Tomorrow night, I get to see one of my REAL sisters, Meredith, and one of my sorority sisters, Beth!  My friend Beth recently received her Zumba license, too.  Her studio, MUVE Fitness, is hosting a Zumba Party tomorrow night to raise money for the Greenville Hospital System-- specifically for Breast Cancer.  I am looking forward to that!  Wow-- two Zumba parties in one week!  Awesome!

Tonight I taught Zumba at Oakland.  I am excited about debuting some new songs next week! :)

When I got home, it was one of those nights where I didn't have any meat defrosted, nothing of substance in the fridge.  It was the kind of night where you want to get take-out, but we're trying hard not to spend so much on take-out and eating out.  So I started digging in the freezer.  I had to dig past the chicken nuggets (remember, we have a two-year-old, and that's a staple for her) and I found a veggie pizza (YUM... pizza...) and some organic edamame.  This pizza (made by Palermo) was actually REALLY good.  I really love thin-crust pizzas.

So... to all of you who are working tomorrow... I am sorry... but at least you're getting paid!  Happy Friday I mean Thursday!

Zumba and a Roasted Twist on Leftovers

Today was my first Zumba class at Fascinating Rhythm!  Yay!  I had a small but wonderful class.  I really liked my playlist tonight.  I used a few new songs, like "Say Na, Say Na" (a bellydance) and "Plane to PR."  I love that song!  I have another class coming up on Thursday at Oakland Baptist Church, so now I need to build my playlist for that!

So... it can't always be glamorous.  Sometimes, yes, we do have leftovers.  The funny thing about leftovers... I always loved "Leftover Night" when I was growing up.  It was aways a lot like a pot luck dinner.  My husband... not so much.  I remember, I used to cook meals to last all week.  I'd make 2-3 huge meals, and then I would think, "This is awesome!  We can eat all week with no effort!"  The only problem was... my husband was not too fond of the leftovers.  Sometimes he would call me on his way home from work and ask what we were having for dinner.  The minute I would say "leftovers," his car would hit the drive-thru.

Well, now we are in money-saving mode and Ryan's not hitting the drive-thrus as often and I learned to cook differently.  Now I try to cook meals that aren't so huge.  I like to have maybe one day's worth of leftovers (hello lunch!) and that's it.  Then I don't end up wasting food and money.

But the way I do leftovers is add ONE new ingredient or side dish, so that it's not so boring.  Tonight it was just me because the hubs and Sadie were having dinner at the grandparents' house.  So I decided to have leftover chicken soft tacos.  But I added one new ingredient: roasted broccoli. 

I never thought about roasting broccoli.  I alway steam it.  But lately, everything I roast ends up tasting amazing.  So I thought, let's see what happens.  All I did was brush it with a tiny bit of oil and add salt and pepper.  It got a little crispy because I sort of forgot about it-- but it tasted amazing!  I can't believe I never did this before, but I will do it again.  What I am learning is that when you roast a vegetable, it just brings out the flavors even more and makes it taste that much better.

Tomorrow's "Hump Day!" 

Road Trip, Restaurant Review, and Spaghetti Squash

Today was my lucky day.  First of all... I FOUND my Macro lens!!!  I was cooking tonight and I put away the crock pot from yesterday and POOF!  It appeared on the counter.  I think it had slid under the crock pot.  It's pretty small and my crock pot sits up off the counter a tiny bit.  Anyway... YAY!!!

Another reason today was a good day: I got to travel to Columbia, SC and be with some of my favorite people... my SCRI Literacy Coach Cohort!  We always have such a fabulous time catching up, sharing resources, talking about ideas, and reflecting.  I was looking forward to this day all last week!  We broke for lunch and went to a little deli that was close by our meeting spot: New York Butcher Shoppe and Grille.  It's located inside the Lake Carolina Town Center in Columbia.

 Here's a little pic of the outside. 

 This place reminded me of Dean and Deluca in Charlotte, because of all the fun specialty items: cheeses, desserts, marinades and rubs, sauces...

 They also had a great variety of meats and other items that you can't find in your average grocery store, like Venison Sausage.  The pasta selection is awesome, too!

 They offer a variety of fresh meats, too.

 I love restaurants that allow you (the customer) to write down your order.  It gives you a chance to think about what you want.  I had a hard time deciding.  Eventually, I went with the Italian Sub.  It sounded a lot like the hoagies we would always get when we were in Philadelphia.  Yummmmm......

 The sandwich definitely lived up to my expectations.  Hoagies (or subs as we southerners call them) are famous for being so big that it's hard to take a bite, and this one was big!

 Check out those olives... you know I love them!

 They also had these cool chips that came in all kinds of fun flavors. 

Remember a couple of days ago I mentioned that I was going to cook spaghetti squash?  Well, I did it tonight and it tasted sooooo good!

There are several ways you can cook spaghetti squash.  I chose to cut mine in half and roast it, cut side down, for 30 minutes at 375 degrees.  You know it is done when you can pierce the skin with a fork.  Then, all you have to do is rake all the insides out with a fork.  I did this over a bowl and out came my "noodles!"

For my sauce, I tried something different.  The obvious and easy way to go would be a jarred spaghetti sauce, but I opted to make a cream sauce.  I didn't measure.  I just played.  I heated about a teaspoon of EVOO and butter in a skillet.  Then I added minced garlic-- about 1 clove.  I added a can of 98%Fat Free Cream of Mushroom Soup, a few dollops of light sour cream, dried parsley, and about 1/4 cup of an Italian shredded cheese blend (mozzarella, parmesan, romano). 

 This "pasta" tasted GREAT.  However, I do not like the color of the sauce with the color of the squash "noodles."  I think I may play with this a bit and see what I can come up with. 

Do any of you have great ways for cooking spaghetti squash?  I'd love to hear them.  Just leave a comment at the bottom of this post.  I think next time I'd like to toss the noodles with olive oil, salt, pepper, and grated parmesan.  That seems simple but delicious.

Oh!  And tomorrow is my FIRST...

class at Fascinating Rhythm in York!  So... if you are close by, come join me at 4:30 for class!  I've got some fun songs on my playlist!  Check back tomorrow for  details on how that went!  I am so excited!