Not So Laborious

Labor Day hasn’t been too laborious, which is a very good thing. 😀

I ran to the mall to do some returns before meeting up with my friend Laurel to lay by the pool for an hour or so. When I arrived home, I found Ryan sitting at the kitchen table hard at work stuffing our remaining wedding invitations. What a guy!

I sat down to join him after making us banana vanilla protein shakes.

The shake included:

• 1 frozen banana
• 1/2 c. vanilla bean frozen yogurt
• 3/4 c. milk
• 1 scoop vanilla protein powder

My “J” cup was in the dishwasher from yesterday’s mocha green monster, so Ryan kindly let me use his initial cup.

We ran out of stamps for our RSVP card envelopes, so we couldn’t completely finish stuffing our wedding invitations, bu t we only have 10 left. That’s nuffin!

Dinner

Though we had some snapper waiting to be prepared for dinner in the fridge, Ryan had the idea of serving the fish with a fresh arugula salad, so we headed to the grocery store to pick up the necessary goods.

While I prepared the fish and a side of Kraft grilled cheese explosion macaroni and cheese, Ryan prepped the salads with sliced zucchini, freshly squeezed lemon juice and grated lemon, salt, pepper and a bit of olive oil.

I broiled the snapper, topped with salt, pepper and several lemon slices, for approximately 10 minutes.

We enjoyed our fish on top of the arugula salad with a side of mac and cheese.

(My salad bowl looks like a super tiny plate, but it’s actually a deep bowl. Lots more veggies that ya think!)

Ryan picked up a box of this new flavor of Kraft mac and cheese saying we just had to try it. I’m not gonna lie, it was pretty fantastic, though I think we’ll be sticking to mac and cheese varieties with a more understandable ingredient list.

Tasty, tasty!

I gotta run… We’re in the middle of Jeopardy and celebrities are on this week which means the trivia is easy-peasy. I gotta go win a million dollars! 😉

Question of the Evening

Do you enjoy trivia?

Bachelorette Party Reflections

Sometimes the fresh ingredients make the salad.

So Fresh and So Clean, Clean

Sometimes it’s the dressing that makes all the difference in the world.

Kraft Light Asian Toasted Sesame

Today’s salad was fresh and tasty, and while the veggies were perfectly crisp, the dressing stole the show.

Ryan and I both adore Kraft Asian Toasted Sesame salad dressing and have to turn a blind eye to the inclusion of high fructose corn syrup in the ingredient list because it really is that good.

My salad today included:

• Baby greens
• Shredded carrots
• Radishes
• 1/2 c. Seapoint Farms edamame
• Green pepper

The Goods

All Together

I often find that when I eat salads, I enjoy certain bites more than others. Typically the bites with the good stuff like feta cheese or somethin’ with a little extra flavor reign supreme.

Well, the good thing about using this salad dressing on my salad today is that I enjoyed every bite equally because this dressing is so dang good. My friend Caitlin brought this dressing to a girls’ night potluck dinner a couple of years ago and I’ve been a sucker for it ever since.

Bachelorette Party Reflections

Now that both of my amazing bachelorette parties are behind me, I wanted to type up a little post about my post-party thoughts.

I felt so, so loved and blessed during both wonderful parties and have received some emails from readers asking me to detail what I loved the most, as it seems many of you guys are planning parties of your own!

While I absolutely loved everything my friends did for me, here are some of the stand-outs that I think would make nearly any bride-to-be happy:

• Planning: I was absolutely floored by all the planning and preparation my friends put into both of my bachelorette parties. They all took the time to plan out the weekends’ activities so we were never left awkwardly wondering, “Okay, what now?”

Ready to Hit the Town!

• Decorations: I didn’t anticipate any decorations, but arriving at a party completely decorated in bachelorette party-wear made me feel special and like my friends were genuinely excited to celebrate my upcoming wedding. I also appreciated how my friends stuck to a pink theme rather than a phallic theme. 🙂

Pretty Glasses

Gorgeous Table Spread

Decorations!

• Homemade Touch: Both groups of friends put a lot of time into creating crafty goodies for the festivities. I received homemade itineraries, a scrapbook, cards, decorated drink glasses, pins, customized tank tops and more. The time and effort my friends put into making these things themselves meant the world.

Homemade Scrapbook

• Get Into It: I felt like every single one of my friends really wanted to party it up and have a great time. Everyone was all about sportin’ fun accessories like jumbo-sized rings, pins declaring that they were bridesmaids, etc. Their energy was contagious and we had a great time wherever we went.

Woop, Woop!

My Girl Likes to Party All the Time!

Dance Party

Let's Get Crazy!!!

• Thoughtfulness: The thoughtfulness of my friends was truly astounding. They planned activities, meals and nights out that they knew I would enjoy. We went to bars rather than clubs, ate sushi and homemade meals prepared by their families and played games to get the party started… all things I absolutely love.

Sushi Night

• Unique Games: Though games might not be fore everyone, I had the best time playing bachelorette-themed games. The Q&A/Jello shot game was so entertaining and the paper ring dare game was a riot!

Of course none of these things are necessary for a wonderful bachelorette party, but I must say that I felt like I had two of the best bachelorette parties in the entire world thanks to the time, effort and love of my friends.

They made me feel so special and I cannot thank them enough for two of the best weekends of my life!

Question of the Afternoon

• What is one thing you think is an important component of a good bachelorette party?
  

I’ll Trade You Dinner for Lunch

My camera battery died. Oh dear.

I’ll make a deal with you… since my lunch today is a repeat from yesterday’s seafood salad pita pocket, I’m going to bypass that recipe repeat in favor of pictures from last night’s dinner. Sound good? Good!

Just in case you missed my seafood salad pita pocket post, here’s a recap via one picture:

Yum, Yum

As for dinner last night… enter Kraft white cheddar organic macaroni and cheese.

Kraft Organic White Cheeddar Macaroni and Cheese

(Please note the glowing Christmas tree in the background for some holiday flava.)

I made this noodle delight since Ryan and I were feelin’ a quick and easy dinner. I added 2 percent milk to the cheese sauce, but omitted the butter. Neither of us missed it at all!

Bowl o' Mac

The white cheddar flavor is great! We both preferred it to Kraft’s original organic macaroni and cheese. This actually tasted a lot like Annie’s organic white cheddar mac and cheese that Ryan and I tried two months ago.

I love that this carb-heavy meal also contains 10 grams of protein per serving.

Delicious

Posting about this makes me want another bowl! What a comforting childhood meal. The organic variety is great because the super-scary ingredient list on the normal mac and cheese boxes is condensed dramatically. Gotta love it!

Were you a macaroni and cheese kid growing up?

I’ve always loved mac and cheese and used to get so excited when my mom would buy the boxes of pasta with the noodles shaped like my favorite cartoon characters. I would always ask my mom if I could add the cheese to the noodles. It made me feel helpful and important. 🙂

A Wedding Venue is Set

Today we get to cross several major decisions off the wedding-planning to do list!

• Select ceremony site – check!
• Select reception location – check!
• Select caterer – check!

All these decisions became quite easy after we went over some financial details and met once more last night with Jennifer from the Renaissance Vinoy Resort and Golf Club since the ceremony, reception, food and alcohol would all be provided by the facility.

Numbers were crunched, budgets were adjusted and various dates were discussed, but eventually we all agreed that the Vinoy would be the perfect place for our upcoming wedding. It’s honestly the location of my dreams! I can’t wait and am so excited that several BIG decisions are finalized.

Lunch

Ryan and I drove back to Orlando early this morning because he had a soccer game. Post-win (yay!), we cooked up some Kraft organic macaroni and cheese for lunch.

It's the Cheesiest!

I love mac and cheese from the trusty ol’ blue box, but the never-ending list of ingredients deter me a bit. The organic option has a much shorter ingredient list and the sauce has a less-intense unnatural orange hue. Much better!

I actually don’t add any butter or milk to the mix. After draining the noodles I just stir in the sauce powder and it’s still delicious.

Cheesy Noodles

What a yummy childhood throwback meal!

Sunday To Do’s

Ryan and I are now off to run some Sunday errands. Target, Best Buy and the grocery store are on our list of stops. Our apartment is also looking pretty horrific, so cleaning is in my future.

Also, Ryan has already pre-warned me that he’s in the mood “to eat some crap” tonight, so I’m not sure what deliciously-greasy junk food will be on the menu. I think our pizza date last Sunday put him in greasy Sunday night date mode. 🙂