End of the Year Catch Up

It’s the last day of 2015 and I have a lot to catch you up on before we move to a new year!

I’m thinking we’re going to have to start riding around in boats instead of cars over here. The rain has been crazy! My thoughts are with all of those who are experiencing flooding right now. Stay safe and dry.

Okay, let’s get started with the photos. The holidays have me so far behind on all things recent eats and life lately so settle in, grab a cup of coffee (or a glass of bubbly!) and here we go.

Banana egg white oatmeal made with almond nog and topped with cranberry sauce and Wild Friends Pumpkin Spice Peanut Butter.

We have this new beet burger at Y2 and it’s amazing. I had it in a wrap with hummus and avocados and it was the lunch of my dreams.

Spinach salad topped with goat cheese, salmon, pine nuts, roasted butternut squash and dried cranberries with a sesame ginger dressing.

Open faced sandwich with cranberry sauce, avocado, deli chicken and provolone on sourdough with homemade tomato soup on the side.

Kale cobb at Y2. Almost as good as the beet burger. It comes with a homemade vegan ranch made with coconut milk that is so good!

Lunch out at CO. My first time at this new Asian fusion spot. I had the Miso Ramen with chicken wontons, tofu, wakame and baby bok choy.

Grilled cheese and tomato soup. I kicked the grilled cheese up a notch by adding cranberry sauce, avocado, brie and sharp white cheddar. On sourdough with salted butter. It may be 70 degrees in Charlotte but I’m pretending like it’s winter inside. Luckily, rainy days make good grilled cheese days. What am I even talking about? Every day is a good day for grilled cheese, right?

Chicken breast (get my cooking method in this post) seasoned with a Dizzy Pig rub and served with roasted acorn squash and broccoli.

Grass-fed filet simply seasoned with salt and pepper and Dizzy Pig Cowlick Steak Rub with rosemary roasted red potatoes and roasted broccoli and mushrooms.

Massaged kale salad (obsessed with this recipe, obsessed!) topped with roasted butternut squash, dried cranberries, pine nuts and parmesan.

I made this simple sriracha/lime/soy salmon on Sunday with roasted butternut squash and peas and we ended up getting three meals out of it! This dinner, the kale salad above and the spinach salad a few photos up. I love roasting a huge pan of butternut squash and having it for the week. So good on salads!

Most fun meal of the week goes to dinner at Stagioni. It’s one of our favorite restaurants so we went for a night before New Year’s Eve anniversary dinner. I started with this baby romaine ceasar salad. The dressing was incredible.

The boy had the duck breast.

Once I read “brussels sprouts pizza” my blinders were on and it was all I could think about. It had been over a year since I had this pizza and it was time to get it back into my life. I got some questions on social media about what else was on it and the menu says hand-made mozzarella, smoked pancetta, pickled onoins and parmesan garlic cream sauce. Whatever it is, it’s a highly addictive combination of delicious things.

The best part is that they serve it with scissors and you cut your own slices. My fiance tried to take the last slice and I looked at him like he was crazy. I said, “I’ll cut it in half.” I thought that was kind. What’s yours is mine and what’s mine is mine, right? I learned that from Zoey.

This is the constant state of things in my house. Zoey trying to take whatever Sullie has…even if she already has her own. She’s such a stinker!

And I’ll leave you with a little piece of food trivia. Did you know that there is now such a thing as small, personal avocados? I read it in a magazine and then saw them in Whole Foods when I was holiday food shopping. Apparently, the intent is to eat the whole thing so that you don’t have leftovers that go brown.

That wraps it up! Happy New Year’s Eve friends!

What are your NYE plans? Going out or staying in?

Most creative pizza toppings you’ve ever had?

How’s the weather in your part of the world?