Cleaning to Deal with Chaos + Recent Eats + The Rising Popularity of Brussels Sprouts

My mom called last night to check on me. She said I hadn’t updated my blog in several days so she was worried. Ha!

No reason to worry…I usually carve out time to blog no matter what but I just couldn’t make it happen. My week passed in a haze of coffee, spreadsheets, muddy golden retrievers and teaching.

It was gray and damp here Monday-Thursday. I can’t tell you how many hours I’ve spent cleaning behind the girls after they track in dirt and mud. The house is a mess!

Lucky for them they are so cute that I don’t mind it! 🙂

I mean, seriously. Look at that fluff!

The puppy craziness wasn’t the real issue this week…it was administrative stuff that was due for my book. I spent 12 hours on Wednesday working on a spreadsheet and renaming images. And then I found out on Thursday morning that I have to do it all over again. So in the short window of time I had open to blog, I organized my closet instead. It was a productive and therapeutic way for me to channel my despair over the redo. Totally reasonable, right?

Let’s catch up. Here’s what the week looked like in food.

Hot oatmeal for 20 degree mornings! Apple cinnamon oatmeal with egg whites stirred in at the end. Topped with Wild Friends Sesame Cranberry Peanut Butter and Trader Joe’s Fig Butter.

My go-to smoothie combo this week has been a little different. Spinach, cherries, bananas, blueberries, plain greek yogurt, a date, almond butter, cinnamon and almond coconut milk blend.

I made a big pot of Carrot and Butternut Squash Ginger Soup to eat all week for lunches. You simmer all the veggies with broth and ginger before pureeing it in the blender. I had this weird virus thing on Monday that came on really suddenly. I was terrified it was going to turn into the flu but after four hours on the couch with chills, body aches and fever followed by 10 hours of sleep, I woke up Tuesday morning feeling like a new person. This soup, crackers and toast was the only thing I really felt like eating on Tuesday.

Homemade soup and salad. Salad combo was spinach, avocado, strawberries, feta, dried cranberries, almonds and Simply Dressed Ginger Sesame dressing. (Love this stuff.)

The BEST salad! Baby romain, sauteed butternut squash, walnuts, dried cranberries, goat cheese, pears, chick peas and a maple dijon balsamic vinaigrette.

It took cheese and carbs to get me through my 12-hour Wednesday. I spent five hours with my butt planted in a chair at Sunflour. I ordered this egg and cheese croissant for lunch. The croissant was so buttery and flaky.

I made enchiladas with the leftover pot roast. I reheated the pot roast and added a little cheese and cilantro. I rolled it up in corn tortillas and then topped it with red enchilada sauce and a little more cheese.

They were totally delicious. I topped them with a green tomatillo avocado salsa, sour cream and cilantro.

I had plans with girlfriends this week…which is always such a nice and refreshing break. I met one friend at The Summit Room. We shared a few things including these maple bacon brussels sprouts and a barbecue chicken flatbread. I feel like every restaurant in Charlotte has some sort of brussels sprouts on the menu (not to mention the cult love for them in the blog world). They have definitely skyrocketed in popularity over the last couple of years. They kind of went from being one of the most hated to most loved foods.

Back to the restaurant…this was my second time at The Summit Room. The first was back in June shortly after they opened so I was excited to give it another shot. The verdict? The food was great but the portions are pretty small for the price. The wine is reasonably priced and the atmosphere is cool so I would go back.

I met other friends at Foxcroft Wine Co. for wine and dinner. It’s our go-to meeting spot. I absolutely love that you can pick a bottle from the retail section and drink it with your dinner and their food is unexpectedly creative and awesome. I ordered the warm winter panzanella with salmon. The panzanella featured homemade croutons, roasted potatoes, mushrooms, peppers and more. It was fabulous.

So now we’re all caught up! My Friday is looking pretty nice. I didn’t have any early clients (for the first time in MONTHS!) so I slept until 7:45 a.m. I have a couple training clients later, one class to teach and a couple of brainstorming/networking meetings. The best news is that the sun is finally shining for the first time all week!

Happy Friday and happy weekend!

What was the best thing you ate all week? 

Do you also agree that there has been a brussels sprouts phenomenon over the last couple of years? 

Does anyone else clean to deal with stress? It’s one of my default ways to feel like things are calm, collected and under control when life gets a little crazy. I actually have a hard time sitting down to work every day (when I work from home) without straightening up the house first. It helps me feel focused.