oh weekend, don't leave me so soon.

it's like every weekend just keeps getting better.

friday night my previous plans fell through, so i headed to selwyn with court & her bff maudie. we ran into a bunch of their high school friends, hung out for a few hours, and headed home around midnight.

{sis}

saturday morning i woke up early, made breakfast, and got in a 5 mile run all before 10am. when i got home, i had a few errands to run. oh the way home i stopped by the farmer's market, but there was absolutely nowhere to park. so i went home and walked back. have i mentioned lately how much i love the location of our new house? 

i spent most of saturday cleaning, doing laundry, cooking, and catching up on nashville. after a quick nap and a shower, we headed out to the music factory to see NEEDTOBREATHE. we met up with leigh, derrick, leann, katie & john at vgbg before heading into the concert - what a cool bar! the concert was amazing, the weather was perfect, and the stars were out in full force. there's nothing quite as sweet as seeing one of your favorite bands play live with some of your favorite people. after the awful traffic in the parking lot, we ended up back and selwyn for a nightcap. 

{vgbg: read about the history of this "charlotte staple" sign here}

{hermana}

{needtobreathe}

{katie & i}

{selwyn}

i woke up early on sunday and rushed around getting myself together before heading to the early service at church. chris preached an amazing sermon & then i jumped on 77 south bound to columbia. 

once i arrived and realized i had my times all mixed up, i went over to kristin's for a few hours. oh how i love my sweet friend and spending time with her. i wish it happened more often, but am thankful for the time we do get! 

after a trip down memory lane through campus, i ended up at the chi omega house for ms. maggie's farewell dinner. our amazing house mom is retiring from the job after 6 years. we were her first pledge class to live in the house, and we love her so. she has been a mom, a best friend, a nurse, a life saver, a m&m giver, a sister, and a therapist to all of us girls over the years. we love you mags!

another great weekend in the books - hope yours rocked too!

recipe: homemade chocolate protein bars.

yet another delicious recipe from heandsheeatclean.com. you will find me saying that a lot lately. actually, every recipe i've made the past few weeks has been from their site!

the first time i made these, it was the 2nd day of clean eating and i thought they were terrible. a few days later (... a few more days without sugar) i thought they tasted like heaven.

ingredients: 

1 cup oat flour (this was hard to find! eventually found it at whole foods)
4 egg whites
2 scoops of vanilla whey protein powder
1/3 cup (or less) stevia
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
8 oz berry flavored baby food (this was also hard to find! apparently baby food isn't just baby food anymore...)
3 tbsp baking cocoa
4 oz water

directions:

1. turn the oven on to 350 degrees.
2. mix oat flour, protein powder, baking soda, salt, and cocoa together in a bowl.
3. mix egg whites, baby food, water, and stevia together in a separate bowl.
4. mix both together & pour into a pan. the original calls for 8x8, but i used 9x13. this just means you cook it less time & the bars are thinner. 
5. cook for 20-30 mins or until they look done/smooth. i think i ended up cooking mine for about 12 because of my pan size difference. 
6. let cool & cut into 16 squares. a serving size is 2 squares.
7. after they cool, i put 2 to a ziploc and store them in the fridge.

 ** you must keep these in the fridge because they will spoil **

{ingredients for first bowl}

{second bowl - seriously, this was the only "berry" baby food i could find at the grocery. i did find a more generic berry at target.}

thursday's thought.

 

photo via tumblr.

 

"in the end, only three things matter: how much you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you." -buddhist saying.

recipe: chocolate peanut butter protein shake.

here is yet another great recipe from heandsheeatclean.com that i currently can't stop consuming - YUM!

ingredients:

2oz. liquid egg whites
4-6oz. unsweetened almond milk
1 scoop of chocolate protein powder (i use vanilla because i don't currently have chocolate)
1 tbsp natural peanut butter
1 tbsp cocoa powder
stevia, to taste (i use probably about 1/2 tbsp)
a few ice cubes

{this is the single serve blender i use: $29.50 at target}

{i have been "eating" these shakes for breakfast or my last snack of the night.}

if you care:

calories: 261

fat: 11g

carbs: 6g

protein: 31g

a perfect sunday.

after a wonderful saturday, i knew sunday had potential to be just as amazing. i was right.

i woke up, made breakfast, and headed to church with derrick. side note: last week i counted the number of churches i pass on the way to my church: 13. but it's totally worth it. after church, i made a quick lunch and then derrick & i headed out to enjoy the day on our bikes. what started out as a ride to my mom's and back ended up as a 13 mile ride. we rode the entire greenway, rode through all our favorite parts of charlotte, and even found some new parts of the greenway we never knew existed (aka got lost in the ghetto). it was quite an adventure!

{thanks mom}

after our ride, i headed to trader joe's & target. after some cooking for the week, court and i headed over to derrick's to meet some friends for a bonfire & cookout. 

{yum}

{court would be mad if i didn't mention that she started this fire. ps. how cute is lola?}

i ended my weekend finishing up some cooking for the week & watching free willy. that movie is way more intense than i remember - i can't believe those jerks were trying to kill willy! 

i hope your weekend was as wonderful as mine!

my kind of saturday.

this morning i woke up around 8:30am with the sun shining through my windows. court & i made chocolate peanut butter protein shakes for breakfast (recipe coming soon!) and then headed out on our morning adventure. the local farmer's market opened back up for the season yesterday and is less than a mile from our house, so we strolled on down to kings drive.

the market is amazing! i ended up getting 3 lemons, 3 kiwis, 3 zucchinis, and over a pound of grapes all for $7. they have virtually every fruit & veggie you can think of, tons of flowers, herbs, local eggs, and local grass-fed beef. if you live in charlotte, don't miss out on this place!

{hours are tuesday 6am-6pm, friday 6am-8pm, saturday 6am-3pm}

{for my favorite lavender}

after we walked home with all our goodies, i cleaned up a bit and did some laundry. my mom needed help with a few things, and i needed to get in a 4 mile run, so i killed two birds with one stone and ran to her house. i got lost on the greenway on the way there (woops) but ended up running over the 277 bridge on kings - my favorite view of the city. i've never been on foot while crossing this bridge, so i had to stop and get this picture. charlotte is beautiful place!

after a few hours with mom & brian, a walk with lola, more laundry, and a little cooking, i'm watching ncis reruns and waiting to see where the night takes me. i hope your saturday was happy too!

recipe: salsa chicken.

in my latest pursuits of learning exactly what all the crap is that we put into our bodies, i stumbled across heandsheeatclean.com. this is a fabulous website for anyone interested in eating clean & they provide a lot of recipes, advice, meal plans, etc.

this salsa chicken recipe appealed to me because i love all things mexican-ish flavored & you can't really mess up a crockpot recipe. so monday after work, i headed to the store to pick up the ingredients.

ingredients:
3-4 lbs (about 5 breasts for me) of boneless, skinless, chicken breasts. i also used organic chicken.
4 large diced tomatoes (i used trader joe's organic roma tomatoes)
1.5 cups (roughly) of your favorite salsa (i used harris teeter's fresh salsa)
2 tbsp granulated garlic
2 tbsp red pepper flakes
1 tbsp black pepper
1 tsp cayenne pepper  (warning: this makes it VERY spicy)

instructions: (not that you really need them): 
measure out spices into a small bowl. wash & dry chicken. throw spices, tomatoes, salsa, & chicken into the crock pot. cook on low for 7 hours. i did this overnight which i was very stressed out about because i've never done that before! i also added a teeny bit of water because it didn't seem like there was enough liquid with the salsa. i was wrong & will be leaving out the water next time!

{got a little spice crazy at tj's}

i have been eating this for at least one meal a day all week - it is great! check out the rest of their long list of clean eating recipes here.


if you care:
serving size: 6oz
calories: 160
fat: 2g
carbs: 2g
protein: 36 g