A Much Needed Weekend at Home

Happy weekend! It is a beautiful Sunday morning here with sunshine streaming in through all the windows. It’s supposed to be in the mid-50’s this afternoon so I’m going to take advantage of this weather and get a long(ish) run in. I’m hoping for 8-10 miles. I’m most excited about the opportunity to run in shorts!

I had the opportunity to practice ashtanga early this morning but I turned it down in favor of sleeping in and running. I haven’t woken up without an alarm in over three weeks so it was nice to sleep until 9 this morning. I woke up at 5 and 7 (two of my normal waking hours) but was able to go back to sleep both times. Sometimes it’s so nice to know there’s nowhere to go and nothing urgent to do. Ahhh….

Breakfast was coffee and a big bowl of oatmeal to fuel me for my run later.

Apple cinnamon oatmeal topped with Crofter’s and Trader Joe’s chunky salted peanut butter. My favorite peanut butter ever and it’s under $2 per jar.

Saturday was exactly the kind of day that I needed. After spending the last two weekends in yoga teacher training, things at home were feeling a little disorganized and I wanted to spend the day around the house. I did get up and meet Sarah for a 90-minute superflow class at Y2 at 7:30…because clearly I haven’t been spending enough time there lately. I have been practicing so much ashtanga lately that superflow was a treat. I loved every second of it – including the third time through the flow. It felt so good! Oh how I’ve missed half moons and standing splits!

I was home by 9:15 and ready for breakfast and lounging. Brandon made French pressed coffee for us with frothed milk.

And I made pancakes!

Blueberry buttermilk pancakes topped with almond butter, Greek yogurt and maple syrup. I used this recipe but subbed 1/3 of the flour for whole wheat and added ground flax. I must say that I enjoyed this breakfast much more than the sports drink and power bar breakfasts I’ve been having on yoga teacher training weekends.

Not only was our house was in desperate need of cleaning…so was this cute thing.

Obviously thrilled with bath time – can’t you tell? 😉

We spent most of the day in major cleaning and organizing mode. We have piles of stuff to take to Goodwill and recycling today. It feels so good to get rid of some stuff. We called it quits around 6:30 last night and got ready to go our for dinner. We purchased a Groupon for Rooster’s a couple of weeks ago and decided to use it last night. Well, so did a lot of other people in Charlotte. When we called to see if we could get in we discovered there was a two-hour wait. They were nice enough to let us put our name on the list over the phone so we headed to Zink for a drink and appetizer.

Neither of us ever ate lunch after having a late breakfast so we were starving. We saw someone else order these blue cheese chips and they looked amazing.

This is not the type of thing we usually go for but it was insanely delicious and held us over until our late dinner.

We arrived at Rooster’s shortly after nine and had a wait just a few more minutes for a table.

I love the atmosphere at Rooster’s. They have a huge open kitchen and a huge wine wall. (Read about our last trip to Rooster’s for a beer dinner here.)

We were seated in a cozy booth with bread and olive oil.

I chose seared sea scallops for dinner.

One of my very favorite things to order in restaurants! These were cooked perfectly and so buttery.

And Brandon ordered the shortrib which was amazingly tender and flavorful. He shared bites.

And collards to share.

We decided to go light on side dishes since we had the blue cheese chips earlier and our entrees were so rich. Also, we were saving room for dessert.

We took one look at the dessert menu and it was a no brainer on what to order.

A chocolate cupcake with a peanut butter filling and salted caramel gelato.

There are no words. This was incredible and definitely one of the best desserts that I’ve had in a long time. The cupcake was so good but the salted caramel gelato is what brought everything together and really put it over the edge. I have had my eye on a salted caramel ice cream recipe for a while now and I am definitely going to be making it very soon.

Another fabulous meal at Rooster’s!

And finally, I owe you a report on Friday night. Remember, we were trying to decide what movie to see? Well, we ended up choosing Black Swan after many recommendations on Twitter and wow, it was crazy. I don’t want to spoil the movie for anyone who hasn’t seen it so I will just say that it was different from what we were expecting but still very good and worth seeing. Natalie Portman is one of my favorite actresses and she was wonderful in this movie. It is clear why she is getting so much recognition for this role. All that said, it is a very strange movie with an ending that leaves you with that, “huh” feeling. (Obviously, I missed my calling as a movie critic. ;))

We cooked dinner at home before the movie.

Shrimp and grits with prosciutto. We used this recipe from Hot and Hot Fish Club in Birmingham. Somehow, we never made it to Hot and Hot while we lived in Birmingham but the chef, Chris Hastings, is extremely talented and the restaurant has received a ton of recognition.

We enjoyed this twist on shrimp and grits. The prosciutto/tomato sauce was a nice change from the traditional heavy tasso gravy.

And that’s all I’ve got for you! Off to run, grocery shop and cook. We’re having family over for the Super Bowl tonight and I have lots to do to prepare.