Restaurants, Travel

Italian take #2

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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!

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Restaurants, Travel

Last night I ate like a queen

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For dinner last night, Jarrod and I headed to Coco Osteria.  We found this restaurant last time we were in Charlotte and loved it not only for the food but also the location and lovely outside patio right in the heart of uptown Charlotte.

First thing first, we ordered a bottle of wine:

Though we love wine, Jarrod and I are not wine experts.  We usually order wine based on which name sounds the most appealing.   This wine was fantastic!

We ordered some bruschetta to split:

I think bruschetta is our #1 favorite pick for appetizers.  We get it pretty much everywhere we go, and it is ALWAYS amazing.  I love balsamic.. and tomatoes… and basil… and bread… 😀

We also had some of the house beans and bread, which was so simple and so tasty:

When we go out to eat, Jarrod and I often split an appetizer and dinner.  That way we get to try lots of things without overeating (at least not TOO much).  We split the bucatini with grilled chicken for our main entre.  This consisted of hollow spaghetti, caramelized onions, smoked pancetta, tomato sauce & shaved pecorino cheese plus the grilled chicken we requested:

A fabulous first night of food on vacation!

Coco Osteria on Urbanspoon

Interval Training:  Day #1, Week #5

This morning, I woke up around 6:30am to get my run in for the day before the streets of Charlotte got too busy.  I am now at 3 intervals of 3 minutes walking and 7 minutes running.  I was a little nervous about the jump in running time from 5 minutes to 7, but I think being in a different city really energized me.  I had to do most of my running on the sidewalk, which made me worry about my knee.  So I tried to “think light” as I was running and put as little impact as possible on my legs.

I really didn’t have a route in mind, I just kind of set out and turned whenever I came across a red light:

There are so many beautiful buildings in Charlotte, and also very many beautiful restaurants I’d like to try 😉

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Travel

The Voyage

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We left for Charlotte bright and early this morning, and by bright an early I mean 8am.  One of the voyagers isn’t exactly an early riser… I’ll let you guess who that might be 😉

For breakfast, I cooked us up some jumbo eggin sandwiches.  These eggins consisted of:

  • 7 egg whites
  • 1 egg
  • Some franks red hot, S&P, Red Pepper Flakes
  • 1 linked Jennie O Hot Turkey sausage (already cooked)

This mix made 3 jumbo eggins (I used a jumbo muffin tin), and I cooked them in at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes.

Sandwiched each eggin between a Thomas’ Multi-Grain English muffin.  I added ketchup to mine, and more Frank’s to Jarrod’s.

 Road shot:

For a midmorning snack I had a Dannon blueberry Greek yogurt with some Peanut Butter Puffins.  It took a lot of skill to eat this while driving.  Lucky for me, my dad is a NASCAR fan so amazing maneuverability skills just run in the family 🙂

For lunch, I packed us some grilled chicken breast sandwiches, with Trader Joe’s Cilantro Jalapeno Hummus, Spinach, Tomato, and Onion and Pepperidge Farm 7 grain deli flats.

I also snacked on some sliced green pepper, baby carrots, grapes, and a tootsie pop for good measure.

I love this diet iced tea:

It’s got really good flavor and none of that artificial sweetener funk taste to it. 

Delicious chocolates jarrod brought back from belgium:

 This one makes me laugh:

Being the budget travelista I am, I booked our hotel in Charlotte on Priceline.  We ended up with the Aloft hotel at Epicenter for only $50 a night!!!  The hotel room market price is $180+.  Boo.Ya.

Check out our swanky digs:

 

Just because I find this utterly ridiculous, I’d like to document (for the record) what I packed food wise (for two people):

  • 1 bag granny smith apples
  • 1 pound red seedless grapes
  • 1 peach
  • 3 sliced green peppers
  • 2 pounds baby carrots
  • 2 dannon greek yogurts
  • 1 GIANT pickle
  • Trader Joes Cilantro Hummus
  • Athenos Garlic Hummus
  • 1 serving of my healthified buffalo chicken
  • JIF Peanut butter
  • Thomas Multi-grain English muffins
  • Aladdins whole wheat pitas
  • Pepperidge Farms 7 grain deli flats
  • 4 sliced roma tomatoes
  • 1 sliced red onion
  • 1 bag spinach
  • 2 pounds grilled chicken
  • 1 piece of leftover Gionino’s pizza
  • 10 random protein/granola bars
  • 1 chocolate bar
  • .25 lbs mixed bulk candy
  • 1 bag caramel rice cakes
  • 1 bag Wheat Thin Multi-grain toasted chips
  • 1 bottle franks red hot
  • 1 round laughing cow cheese
  • 2 cases of bottled water
  • 3 bottles of wine
  • 1 bottle of Makers Mark
  • 1 bag of almonds
  • Peanut butter puffins
  • 2 boxes Crystal lite

On that note… Off to dinner! 😀

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What I ate

Tuesday GFNBW, OO, BCW!

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After my big b-day dinner last night, it felt especially good to get my run in this morning.  Today marks the completion of week #4 of my interval training plan!  I can’t believe I’ve made it this far, and still no knee pain.  I’m really looking forward to signing up for some races once I’m back to running a 100% of the time!

Here are my Runkeeper Pro stats for the interval:

3.04 miles in 32 minutes.  Not too shabby, given that I was power walking for 12 of the 32 minutes.  Next, I’ll be doing 3 10-minute intervals of 7 minutes running and 3 minutes walking.  Part of me is excited for this bump in run time, and part of me is nervous!

I’m not sure how they calculate the calories burned in this app since it never asked me to input my height, weight, or sex.  Pretty sure it’s not accurate, but at least the GPS function works!  Can’t really complain since it was free 🙂

Breakfast #1:  GFNBW

Grilled Fruit and Nut Butter Wrap!  These always make me smile 🙂

Today I spread 1 tbsp Trader Joe’s Crunchy Almond butter atop a Mama Lupe’s Low Carb tortilla along with some sliced strawberries and blueberries.

Then I grilled the wrap on the George Foreman grill, wrapped in foil, and enjoyed the deliciousness at my desk at work:

Stats on B#1:  193 calories, 18g carbs, 12g fat, 9g protein, 8g fiber 

Breakfast #2:  OO

For my midmorning breakfast I had… surprise surprise – overnight oats!  I switched up my usual mix by adding blueberries.  I know, really pushing the boundaries here.

I swear I’m going to get more adventurous with my overnight oats! I’m going to miss these creamy morning treats on vacation:

Stats on B#2:  208 calories, 38g carbs, 5g fat, 6g protein, 6g fiber

Lunch:  BCW

I had planned on making a new dish using the leftover crabmeat from  my birthday dinner, but I was short on time this morning so I quickly grabbed the fixin’s for a buffalo chicken wrap.

That consisted of:

  • 1 Mama Lupe’s Low Carb Tortilla
  • 3 ounces shredded chicken
  • 2 tbsp plain Dannon Greek Yogurt
  • 1 tbsp Franks Red Hot
  • Sprinkling of Black Pepper & Garlic Salt

I had the wrap cold this time, and it was DELICIOUS.  Reminded me of the buffalo chicken dip Jarrod and I always make for get togethers, only about three thousand times healthier!

Stats on Lunch:  166 calories, 8g carbs, 4g fat, 28g protein, 4g fiber

Tonight

The Man Candy comes home tonight!  His flight is only three hours delayed…  Oh well.  Tomorrow we’re heading southward to Charlotte, NC!   Roadtrip! 😀

Last night, Jarrod finally got in a Belgium Waffle:

That is RIDICULOUS.  I’m jealous!

Speaking of the man candy, you may be wondering why on earth I call the BF that.  Early on in our dating, we were out at a local bar and my dad happened to show up!  I was unsure whether or not Jarrod would be comfortable with me calling him my boyfriend, so I introduced him to my dad as my “man candy” (i.e., manly eye candy)…  Totally less awkward than calling him my boyfriend, right?!   Hahaha… well the nickname just sorta stuck.  My family still refers to him as my man candy.  He is pretty easy on the eyes afterall 😉

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What I ate

Birthday Recap!

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Today I had a lovely lunch with my mom, sister, and nephew at Einstein’s bros bagels.  Einstein’s carries bagel thins now!  So I had a turkey sandwich on a wheat bagel thin with some delicious jalapeno chips.

After lunch,  I headed to Crooked River Salon to get my FIRST EVER pedicure!  I’ve never had a pedicure before simply because it didn’t seem like it would be worth the money (I’ve actually never had a massage either for these same reason).  But, Crooked River has ½ price manicures/pedicures on Mondays and since my birthday happened to fall on a Monday I thought I’d give it a shot. 

Overall, it was a very relaxing experience!  I got to read magazines, drink about 3 cups of coffee, and just kind of hang out while I was pampered.  No complaints here!

I swung by Macy’s to pick myself up a little birthday present:

Clearance rack + $10 off coupon + Macy’s rewards = 😀

Didn’t get to wear these lovelies tonight though, since my toes were still drying! 

For dinner, I met some friends at the Olde Harbor Inn, which is THE place to go for your birthday in my hometown (especially because you get your birthday dinner free 😉 )

I was in the mood to try something adventurous… but took some time pondering the menu before deciding.

My friend Tim went with the Big Island Salmon, which is char grilled and topped with Hawaiian sesame BBQ glaze and fresh pineapple mango salsa:

Allison went with the warm goat cheese salad, which has mixed greens, pine nuts, dried cherries, strawberries, goat cheese, and maple-peppercorn balsamic dressing:

I decided to go all-out and get the Split King Crab Legs!  I’ve never tried them before, and I thought it would be a nice step in the right direction on my long-term journey to liking seafood.

I was a little hesitant at first, but I was given a thorough crab-leg-eatin training session by the bar tender.

My first bite:

Guess what?  I loved them!!!

Of course I made a huge mess:

I had quite a bit of crab meat left over, so I brought it home to use for my lunch tomorrow.  I’ll have to do a little researching tonight to come up with something tasty!

Even thought the BF is in Belgium, his mom and sis stopped by!

They came bearing gifts:

I have a slight obsession with lawn gnomes… Iknow they are borderline creepy.. But I still <3 them!

I was also SUPER excited because I got a free T-shirt for my b-day:

You can always gauge how happy I am by the number of fully exposed teeth you can see in a photo.. hahahahah 😀

After dinner, we HAD to make a stop at Pav’s Creamery, which is THE BEST ice cream stand in our area (or the best in the world, depending on who you ask 😉 )

SOOOOO Many choices!!!!

I went with my old standby:  1 scoop vanilla with peanut butter, hot fudge, and whip cream:

 

Allison got a scoop of the Nuts over Cocounut:

And Tim got the banana yogurt with peanut butter sauce:

 

Fervently happy:

Birthday = Success!  Looking forward to my raincheck bday with the BF 😀

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