Flower Child

Oh man. Things took another turn south as I traveled home from Florida last Thursday. I had been fighting a runny nose for over a week but it was nothing too bad. Well, Wednesday evening it decided to go next level and the congestion got so much worse and moved into my chest. I think air travel did nothing to help all of the congestion in my sinuses and by the time I woke up Friday my head was pounding, I could barely talk and was coughing so much.

Finn’s dad picked him up around 10a and I went back to bed and slept until 5p!!! I got up for a few hours and then went back to bed and slept until the next morning. My body was exhausted due to the combination of my injury, the surgery, lack of sleep due to pain and being sick.

I’ve heard that it’s a thing to get chest congestion after surgery so I don’t know if that was the case or if I was sick. Luckily, no one in my family seems to have caught this.

Thankfully, I was back in the land of the living on Saturday. I picked Finn up for the morning and our first stop was the Matthews Community Farmers Market. I am able to hobble around short distances on my foot. It’s still bandaged up and I’m in a surgical shoe. I have to do a funky “heel walk” but the intense pain has subsided. I can feel the achiness of the break more now than the throbbing from the toenail part of the surgery. What a mess!

Since we got there right when it opened, the selection was fantastic. I was able to score two boxes of fresh figs! If you’ve been reading for a while, you know that they’re my favorite summer fruit. I kept one box in the fridge for eating and froze the other for smoothies.

I also got lots of tomatoes because farmers market tomatoes just taste so different than the store-bought kind.

Tomato sandwiches are something I look forward to every summer. They’re the best with Duke’s mayo and some sea salt. Unfortunately, the peaches were a disappointment. They are very mushy and mealy. Let me know if you have any suggestions for something I can do with them baking/cooking-wise because they’re not very good on their own.

I ventured out of the house again on Saturday evening to attend the Flower Child friends and family night with Virginia. Flower Child is a healthy food restaurant with locations across the US. They recently made their way to Charlotte and are officially opening tomorrow (Tuesday). They specialize in catering to all dietary preferences from vegan to gluten-free to dairy-free to paleo and everything in between.

Yoga mat parking should tell you a lot. 😉

I had the Mother Earth Bowl with ancient grains, sweet potato, portobello, avocado, cucumber, pistachio pesto, greens and red pepper miso vinaigrette. I added salmon on top. The flavor of my bowl was good but it was a little too salty. That’s something that can be easily remedied and I offered that feedback on the card we were given to fill out.

Virginia had the Glow Bowl with spicy sweet potato noodles, bok choy, zucchini, onion, jalapeño, shiitake mushroom, coconut milk and sunflower butter. I didn’t taste this (didn’t want to share germs) but Virginia said it was a little TOO spicy.

All in all, I loved the menu and I’ll definitely return to try some of their salads, wraps and protein + sides combos. I always expect things to be a tad bit off at preview/friends and family events as it’s an opportunity for the restaurant to tighten up in the kitchen and work out kinks with the service.

I was home on the couch in my PJs watching Big Little Lies by 8p. My kind of Saturday night. 😉

Sunday was super low-key. I slept until after 8 and then did some work before picking up Finn. We hung around the house all afternoon and then ran out to The Fresh Market to get salad greens and a rotisserie chicken.

One of the employees was smitten by Finn and telling me all about her six foot two “baby.” Haha. She insisted on going to the bakery to get a chocolate chip cookie for Finn. It was very close to dinnertime but I was not going to take this joy away from Finn. He loved it!

And our Monday is off to a slow and relaxing start. I was going to take Finn to story time at the library at 10:15a but he was ready to go down for a nap at that exact time. He’s still really needing two naps a day. We’ll do story time another day!

Since I can’t teach this week, I’m hoping to do some fun activities with Finn. We have a playdate with a neighborhood friend after he wakes up from his nap, another playdate tomorrow and I’m hoping to venture up to Huntersville to Discovery Place Kids.

Finn should be waking up any minute now so I’m signing off. I hope y’all have a great week!

Give me ideas for my mushy peaches so that they don’t go to waste! 

Have you eaten at Flower Child? Thoughts? 

Favorite summer farmers market fruit? Vegetable?