Wedding Weekend and Atlanta

Hey everyone! I had a really fun weekend and past couple of days. On Friday afternoon, I left for Oneonta, AL to kick off the wedding festivities. The rehearsal dinner was really sentimental and heartfelt, I loved getting to be a part of the wedding, and I had a blast at the reception.

Rehearsal Dinner:

Brunch at the Ruby Radish:

It was an adorable old Southern home and even cuter on the inside!

Coffeeeeee. I roughly had about five refills.

Fruit with some kind of yogurt cream sauce topped with granola. It was so good. I could've eaten about three more of them.

Egg casserole with praline crusted bacon, a biscuit, and some kind of pancake/french toast thing (love how descriptive that was). The eggs and pancake/french toast thing were my favorite part!

Wedding Day:

All dolled up. I even got my hair did! 

I LOVED the bouquet. It was beautiful!

Before:

After:

Isn't she the most beautiful bride ever?

AXO's at the reception.

After I got back from the wedding, my mom and I went on an impromptu trip to Hotlanta.

Dinner at P.F. Chang'sssss:

We split the Spring Rolls to start.

And then split the Almond & Cashew Chicken, stir fried with bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, celery, bamboo shoots, and water chestnuts in garlic soy sauce. We also added broccoli and got brown rice on the side.

We had a celeb sighting at the Buckhead Diner:

I ordered one of the daily specials, the Mahi Mahi BLT. I didn't really want bacon, but I didn't feel like being all complicated and asking for a BLT without bacon, so I just took it off the sandwich when it got there. It came with a lemon dill caper sauce on the side, salad, and homemade potato chips.

Guess who was lurking on the other side of the restaurant?

Robert Duvall!!! 

As we were leaving, our waiter came by our table and asked us if we'd seen Robert Duvall. He said was just on the other side of the restaurant sitting at the head of a long table with a large party. My mom and I were very discreet and did the whole "you get up first and pretend you're going to the bathroom thing." I didn't want to be all creepy and take a picture, but we did both get to see him!

I introduced my mom to Pinkberry for the first time:

After a long day of shopping, I couldn't resist a trip to Pinkberry. My mom had never been before, so clearly, it was a must.

I got a mix of salted caramel and watermelon topped with watermelon, blueberries, toasted almonds, and mochi.

That may sound like a weird combination, but I assure you, it was delicious.

Other Things:

Are you getting sick of this yet? I'm not.

Awesome leftover veggies! Dr. Praeger's Veggie Burger smothered with onions, peppers, mushrooms, and tomatoes (I promise it's under there somewhere!) with brussels and roasted potatoes.

Whole Foods salad bar, I love you. Maybe a little too much.

Have a great day!

Good Food

Um, can we just talk about how much deliciousness is on this plate?

Italian grilled chicken, grilled okra, roasted potatoes, brussels sprouts, and sautéed onion, green bell pepper, mushrooms, and tomato. 

The chicken and okra came compliments of my brother, the grill master.

Holy yum! The chicken was great and seasoned really well, but I could've just eaten an entire plate of the veggies. Obviously, I went back for thirds seconds. 

Veggies are delicious. Go eat some now. You can always take after me and eat an entire day's worth of produce in one sitting.

I also ate a really good spinach and tomato veggie panini when I went out to a celebratory lunch with my mom at Olexa's.

Spinach, roma tomato, red onion, artichoke, and goat cheese (!) on focaccia bread with mixed greens on the side.

And then this happened:

In case you didn't know, Olexa is kind of famous for her wedding cake, so my mom and I split a slice of the warm vanilla buttercream. So what if I licked all the remaining icing off the plate?

Leftovers are a beautiful thing.

Especially when they're your mom's leftover couscous filled with yummy things like asparagus, peas, and mushrooms.

Yogurt and blueberries make for an excellent snack.

My love for oatmeal will never go away. Ever.

Oats, almond milk, banana, Justin's Maple Almond Butter. It just doesn't get much better than that. Confession: I've been using instant oats lately, and I secretly kind of love how it all clumps together and the artificial sweetness from the maple and brown sugar flavor. Does that make me totally unclassy?

I also really like breakfast dates with Laura. We went to Panera yesterday, and chatted for about two hours. I got a whole grain bagel per usual, but I didn't take a picture of it, so you'll just have to use your imagination. MyPanera reward cards are also really useful. I have two free pastries waiting for me! Helloooo, pumpkin muffies!

Well, that was officially the most disorganized post I've ever written.

And the takeaway lessons are:
1) Stuff your face with veggies! Why not? You can eat a lot of them for not a lot of calories, they're filling, and they taste delicious. It's a win-win situation!
2) If you go to Panera as much as I do, then you'll start to get free things, which is cool.
3) Life's too short to not eat good food/what you're craving. So go splurge on that cupcake you've been eyeing every time you walk by the bakery but have felt too guilty about letting yourself have until now. Or how about those cookies that seem to be screaming "Eat me!", every time you walk into Whole Foods with the intention of only getting the nice healthy salad bar. It's okay every once in awhile. You deserve it!

Life Lately

Other then studying like crazy woman, here's a little glimpse of this past week.

Let's see...

My lunches pretty much looked like this every single day:

And I never got sick of it. I'm going to be the mom who packs PB&J's for her kids and herself. Sorry I'm not sorry.

I didn't cook at all. I let my mom do all the work, and she did a great job!

These are my mom's famous turkey meatballs, and they are so freakin' delicious! Seriously, they're the best. We also had sweet potato rounds, brussels sprouts, and sautéed mushrooms.

Couscous topped with green peas, asparagus, mushrooms, onion, bell pepper, cashews, and goat cheese (duh). It.Was.Amazing! I need to post the recipe on here!

Chicken divan with cucumber and tomato salad and a wheat roll. Mmmm. Cheesy-casseroley goodness! Nothing says comfort like mom's casseroles.

Obviously, I still went to Whole Foods.

Veggie heaven:)

And still ate Mediterranean salads from Taziki's because I'm obsessed with them.

I decided to add shrimp this time instead of tilapia. It's delicious either way!

And rewarded myself for studying with frozen yogurt. It's such a great incentive.

A mix of Mounds chocolate coconut and vanilla yogurt topped with coconut, mochi, and Reese's. Chocolate + coconut=oh so good.

Publix Moose Tracks!

Clearly, this was the healthiest choice to make, while studying for a nutrition exam.

I met up with some of my sorority sisters at my friend Regan's house.

Birmingham girls.

Regan cooked a fabulous meal as always!

Baked chicken stuffed with sun dried tomatoes and feta with spinach salad and squash and zucchini on the side.

We had cupcakes from Dreamcakes for dessert! I sampled a few different kinds.

I also went to my first Bachelorette party and had a great time!

She's getting marriedddd!!!

My college roomie is all grown up!

We looked very fun and festive with our crowns and caused quite the scene. I was surprised by how many people asked, "Uhhhh, is this a birthday party?" 

We took a dance break to pose for a picture.

We pretty much devoured this once we got back to the apartment.

This picture just kind of makes me happy. If you can't tell from the picture, it's the Dos Equis man. We may or may not have tried to carry him out of a Mexican restaurant to join in on our fun but were ultimately unsuccessful. Dang locked door! We sadly had to wave goodbye to the Most Interesting Man in the World.

Have a good one!

Kristen, RD

Hey blog world-I'm back!

And I'm coming back as a Registered Dietitian!!!!

I took the test yesterday, and it was really hard. I was a nervous wreck beforehand, which I'm sure didn't help my test taking skills. I was not calm, cool, and collected. While I was taking the test, I had no idea if I was getting the questions right or not. It's one of those tests where you can get it narrowed down to two choices and they can both be correct, but you have to choose the best answer. Most of the questions I had were really random, and I had a few questions about topics I wasn't familiar with and had never heard of before.

I ate Zoe's Spinach Roll Ups with grilled chicken + fruit for brain food.

I studied all summer, and I really don't think studying more would have helped at all. For example: one of the questions that threw me for a loop was about Class K fires. Class K??? I know about Classes A, B, & C, but where did that come from? That was nowhere to be found in my study materials, and that's not just the kind of thing I know off the top of my head. I still got it right though by a total guess! It's a fire that's caused by cooking oils.

I tried to think through things logically, but it's hard to do that when you're under so much pressure. After I had answered all the questions, I had to fill out a short survey before I got my score back. My heart was racing. I couldn't think straight. I felt like I was going to throw up. It was the worst 5 minutes of my life. While I was taking the survey, I almost started to cry because I thought I'd failed. I started thinking, "This is going to be so embarrassing when I have to tell everyone that I"m the first person to fail this test so far." "Am I seriously going to have to pay $200 to take this test again"? "I don't wanna study anymoreeeee."

But then my scores flashed up and something magical happened-I passed!

I couldn't believe it! I stared at the screen for like 5 minutes, just to make sure I had read it correctly. It was seriously a miracle.

I was so frazzled at this point that I pretty much stumbled out of the room completely disoriented. When the guy at the desk handed me my scores, I immediately bolted out of the room. I wanted to get as far away from there as possible. But then he called after me, "Ma'am, don't you want to get your purse"? Oh, yeah.

I rewarded myself with a hair cut and dinner at Chuy's with my other dietitian friends, Callie, Amie, and Lorianne. It ended up being a good day after all!

I got veggie enchiladas.

I'll leave you with a picture from Katie's Bachelorette party:

Me and Rebekah at dinner.

More pictures to come later!