Weekend Splurges

I love Sunday mornings. The windows are open, the sun is shining and I’m catching up on the blog world while drinking coffee. I woke up around 8:30 this morning and immediately put on my running shoes. Sullie and I knocked out an easy 3.5 miles and came home to coffee and oats.

This mornings oats featured rolled oats, Bob’s Red Mill 10 Grain Hot Cereal, water, milk, half apple – diced, cinnamon, raisins, apple butter, pinch salt and topped with almond butter and Crofter’s.

Backtrack to the rest of the weekend. Brandon, Sullie and I went for a quick 3 mile run after work Friday. You’ll quickly notice that Brandon doesn’t run with me often. He has knee issues that prevent him from running pain-free. It was great to have his company and we chatted the whole time. That night we decided to head to Brixx for pizza. They have a great patio and we had a buy one/get one pizza coupon. Brandon kept it traditional with the Americo pizza – mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, mushrooms with tomato sauce base. I went with the Artichoke pizza – herb-marinated artichokes, roasted red peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, basil pesto and mozzarella and opted for whole wheat crust.

My pizza was awesome. Loaded with artichokes – yum! I ate about two-thirds of it. I boxed up my leftovers but forgot them. 🙁 Bummer.

I was ready to head home after pizza but Brandon convinced me to go to Ed’s Tavern for a post-dinner drink.

We grabbed a seat at the bar and checked out their great draft list. The bartender was super knowledgeable and into beer so he let us taste a few things. We decided to keep it local with the Olde Mecklenburg Fruh Bock (if you live in Charlotte you must check this brewery out – love these guys!).

Saturday morning featured oats and a Power Mixed yoga class with Grace at Charlotte Yoga.

The oats were the same combo as above and so delicious. I love adding fresh diced apples to my oatmeal. Yoga was awesome – the perfect balance of challenging and restorative. Grace is an amazing teacher and I loved the message she had to share with us yesterday about managing stress in our daily lives.

After yoga, a green monster was calling my name.

This smoothie featured lowfat vanilla yogurt, milk, ice, half of a frozen banana, ground flax, a couple handfuls of spinach and about 3/4 a scoop of chocolate protein powder.Enjoyed from Brandon’s ice cold Stone Brewery pint glass from the freezer! 🙂 These smoothies are filling and refreshing. A great option for post workout when you want to pack in the nutrients but can’t stomach a real meal. And I promise you cannot taste the spinach – at all!

Saturday afternoon we took Sullie to check out the backyard in our soon to be new house. She romped all around and checked everything out. She will be so happy to give up apartment living!

Saturday evening my brother in law was having a cookout/yard games party. I already had dinner plans but couldn’t resist stopping by to say hello to everyone and visit with my cute nieces!

I left Brandon at the party and headed over to Big Daddy’s Burger Bar to meet some girls for dinner. Some other bloggers among those in attendance – Sarah, Katherine and Amy. I had the Cantina Burger – black bean burger topped with green chilies, cheddar, monterey jack, avocado and chipotle ranch. Couldn’t resist a side of tots.

I ate about three-fourths of my burger and half of my tots. Big Daddy’s is the kind of place where you just have to splurge!

We didn’t get around to packing yesterday. We MUST get started today – I think that’s always the hardest part. Where do we even begin?

How was your weekend? Did you have any food splurges? Get in any great workouts in this gorgeous weather?