Girl’s Weekend Begins

My mom and sister arrived in Orlando at the exact same time that I was walking up to our apartment after work. Talk about good timing!

I loved seeing their smiling faces. What a great way to start the weekend!

After bringing their bags into my apartment and catching up for an hour or so, we headed out to dinner at Taste, a local tapas restaurant located in College Park.

The minute we saw sangria on the drink menu we each ordered a glass.

Sangria

Ladies + Drinks

Sangria is one of my favorite drinks. I love the fruity flavor.

I think our glasses of sangria made us all giggly because we were laughing up a storm by the time our tapas were served.

While we ordered, we enjoyed a platter of herbed goat cheese with some fried crispies.

Goat Cheese Appetizer

The goat cheese appetizer was good, but I think we were all hoping for a warm goat cheese spread. It was a little hard to dip the little fried crispies into the hard block of goat cheese.

Luckily, our next tapas were more to our liking.

Menu Selection

We each selected an mini plate to share. I chose the seared deep sea scallops which were wonderful.

Seared Scallops

I ate two and my mom and sister each enjoyed one.

We also shared steak skewers and asparagus tossed in olive oil and served with a creamy lemon sauce.

Steak Skewers

Asparagus

We all loved the asparagus, but agreed that the steak skewers could’ve been better. We like our meat medium rare and the skewers were cooked a little much for our liking. That didn’t stop us from clearing our plates though!

After finishing our tapas, we were still feeling a little hungry and decided to order a large entrée to share.

My mom selected the cranberry chipotle sticky pork ribs with crispy onions and homemade mashed potatoes.

Sticky Pork Ribs

Great choice, Mama! I dominated the crispy onions and mashed potatoes and ate one of the ribs.

The meat was moist and practically fell off the bone while the potatoes were oh-so-creamy.

Naturally we all had room for dessert and opted for the Over the Top Chocolate Bread Pudding. It was served warm and bathed in a vanilla bean sauce.

Chocolate Bread Pudding

All I can say is wow-zaa! The bread pudding tasted a lot more like molten chocolate lava cake than bread pudding which was fine by me! Oh how I love dessert.

Birthday Celebration

When we arrived home after dinner, it was time to enjoy angel food cupcakes in honor of my mom’s birthday. Her birthday was on July 20, but we’re celebrating this weekend since my sister and I were not able to be home on her actual day.

Birthday Decor

Birthday Girl

Happy birthday, Mama!

Now we’re hanging out and talking about all things wedding! We started making a to-do list of little things we can do within the next couple weeks and it kept growing and growing and growing… Lots to do!

I hope to hop in bed soon because we have a fun and busy day ahead of us tomorrow.

Nighty night!

Macaroni Grill Frozen Meal Giveaway Winner

Congratulations to…

Charlotte C.: “I would love to try the Roasted Garlic Shrimp Scampi Anything with garlic is always good!”

Please email me at pbfingers@gmail.com with your mailing address so you may receive your yummy meal! 🙂

Everybody’s Working for the Weekend

I really try to enjoy the workweek and make an effort not to wish weekdays away. I don’t want to wish five days of my life away each week, but sometimes I just can’t help hoping  for Friday to arrive a little faster than usual. 🙂

This week was one of those weeks because I have a super fun weekend ahead of me. My mom and sister are coming in town for a girl’s weekend to celebrate my mom’s birthday (which was back in July). Since my dad has a scuba trip planned this weekend and Ryan is off on his bachelor cruise, this seemed like a great weekend for some girly fun!

Just the Girls

The agenda for our girl’s weekend includes:

• Dinner at a tapas restaurant
• Cupcakes and presents
• Wine tasting
• Tea at the Ritz Carlton (Faaancy!)
• Veil shopping
• Church
• Farmers’ Market

Woohoo! Let’s get this party started!

Lunch

When lunchtime rolled around I was a happy camper for two reasons:

1. I love to eat.
2. It meant the workday was half-way over!

My yummy lunch featured a noodle bowl made with Carba Nada egg fettuccine pasta, Parmesan cheese, one Laughing Cow light original Swiss cheese wedge and fresh arugula and spinach leaves.

Yummy Bowl

Close Up of the Cheesiness

On the side I enjoyed a cup of Mott’s natural applesauce for a little sweetness.

Mott's Natural Applesauce

The Spread

As Tony the Tiger would say, this lunch was grrrrreat!

Good news: Only a couple more hours until the weekend officially begins.

Can I get a yahoooooooo??? 😀

Question of the Afternoon

What is your favorite activity to do on a girls-only weekend?

I’m a simpleton and my favorite thing about girls-only weekends is lounging around in my pajamas just chattin’ with my favorite ladies.

Jelly Belly

I eat peanut butter and peanut butter sandwiches an awful lot, but I typically use fresh fruit in place of jelly when I’m cravin’ a pb & j.

Today was a different story. I wanted jelly. Real jelly!

Blueberry Jelly

Though I prefer strawberries and strawberry-flavored treats to grapes and grape-flavored goodies, I’ve always been a grape jelly kind of girl.

When our friend Ross came into town Wednesday night, he brought a jar of Polaner all fruit with fiber blueberry jelly with him. Though I think the company technically calls the jelly “spreadable fruit,” let’s be real and call it what it is. 😉

The blueberry goodness looked an awful lot like grape jelly which immediately intrigued me. Plus, I liked how the label said it was “sweetened only with fruit juice.”

Polaner Blueberry Spreadable Fruit + Fiber

After spreading one half of an Arnold sandwich thin with the blueberry spread and the other half with a heaping spoonful of peanut butter, I was ready to dig in!

Close Me Up & Eat Me You Crazy Girl!

Possibly the Greatest Combination in the World

Since a lil’ pb & j wouldn’t be enough to tide me over, I used a big spoonful of the blueberry jelly to sweeten up a cup of Chobani Greek yogurt to enjoy on the side.

Yog + Jelly

Togetha

I also enjoyed a tumbler full of free Barnie’s French vanilla coffee that I snagged from my gym this morning.

Me + Joe (Cup of Joe???)

I love  the slight hint of caramel in Barnie’s French vanilla coffee. It adds a hint of sweetness that I just adore.

Workout

This breakfast was a great way to refuel after a decent workout!

Today I took my usual Friday morning BodyPump class. We did an older release that included the song “Meet Her at the Love Parade” by DJ Aligator.  I was really feelin’ that song!  My shoulders were burnin’ while the music was blasting and I loved it!

I really do like strength training a lot more than cardio. I often find cardio monotonous and enjoy the muscle burn and the variety that comes with strength training. My former cardio queen self would be shocked by this statement! 🙂

Alright, kiddos, it’s time to work! See ya fo’ lunch!

Question of  the Morning

Strawberry jelly or grape jelly… or a different kind altogether?

For me it’s grape all the way… though I was a total freak growing up and loved mint jelly on my pb & js. 🙂