My First Foodie Pen Pal and Weekend Recap

I’m excited about today, because it is my first Foodie Pen Pal Reveal Day!

A few weeks ago, I received my first Foodie Pen Pal box from Claire, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. She sent goodies from her local co-op grocery store, Weaver Street Market. It is located in Carrboro, a small town right in the middle of North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park. From what Claire mentioned, Weaver Street Market isn’t just a market, it has a wonderful bakery, morning hot breakfast bar and a restaurant. It definitely is a one-stop shop!

On to the goodies that were in my box: “Everything” hamburger buns, YAWP bar, sugar toasted pecans, peach, valencia orange and apricot jam, along with Burt’s Beeswax chapstick and lotion, all local from North Carolina!

My goodies that I received!

“Everything” hamburger buns: These looked SO good, but unfortunately, they didn’t stay fresh and had some mold on them. I wished I could have tried them, because they looked delicious (minus the mold) and had so many wonderful things in the ingredients, i.e. seeds, nuts and different flours!

YAWP Bar: This was good, very crunchy, like granola. I liked that it was all natural and only contained almonds, dates, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, cinnamon and salt. It was loaded with protein, so it made for a nice pre-workout snack!

Sugar Toasted Pecans: I’m a sucker for any sugar-coated or glazed nuts, so these were AMAZING! My husband and I munched on them while we were cooking dinner for one of our “at home date nights!” I could have eaten the entire bag myself!

The pecans were so good, that they were addicting!

Valencia orange, Apricot and Peach Jam: This was good and a perfect topping for almond flour pancakes! I’m not much of a jam person, but this was really tasty, not overly sweet. Keenan and my husband really enjoyed this and practically put it on everything! 🙂

Burt’s Beeswax: I never knew Burt’s Beeswax was from North Carolina! I have always loved their lip products, so it was nice to have another chapstick. This was the first time that I tried their hand lotion and it was really nice, too! I will definitely be buying their lotion again!

It was a lot of fun receiving my box and trying all of these new things, in addition to sending a box to someone else (you can check out what I sent here!). I can’t wait to do it again this month! If you are interested in joining the Foodie Pen Pal program, find out how to join here.

Since this is already getting to be a long post, I’ll try and keep our weekend recap short.

On Friday night, we we enjoyed our “at home date night,” making pizza with an almond flour flaxseed crust topped with grilled peaches, prosciutto, spinach and goat cheese. The crust was SOOOOO good! It was very flavorful and crispy like a regular pizza crust. It certainly was a pizza that you could eat with your hands (unlike the cauliflower pizza we made a couple of weeks ago). This will definitely be one of our “regulars!” As you can see from the picture below, our pizza looked amazing, but as my husband was taking it out of the oven, the parchment paper split in half (yes, it wasn’t on a pizza stone or cookie sheet) and the pizza went crashing to the floor. My husband didn’t want to take out the whole pizza stone, he thought he could just pull it out from the parchment paper. Next time, we need to get a pizza mat! Anyhow, aside from our pizza looking like slop on a crust (which is why I didn’t take a picture of the finished product), it was wonderfully delicious! I wish I could have shown you what it looked like before we took it out of the oven!

Our beautiful pizza before it went into the oven!

On Saturday, we went to our farmer’s market to stock-up on fresh produce for the week, bought Keenan some red converse that were on sale at Kohl’s and headed to the grocery store to get our groceries for the week. After lunch, my friend and I got pedicures and coffee, which was SO needed! The guys stayed home to clean the oven door from my husbands mishap, while Keenan napped. That night, we went to a gymnastics class sponsored by our gym and had a blast! It was the first time I have done a round-off back handspring since high school! I was SO close to getting my standing back tuck again, but my body was  freezing up. The next time I go, I should be able to get it again. I can’t wait! Oh, for dinner, we grilled some prosciutto wrapped zucchini (the first time we tried it) and they were really good! Since we had so much zucchini, we spiced up the rest with Costco’s all-purpose garlic no-salt seasoning, pepper, a pinch of salt and olive oil and grilled them to use for lunches!

Yummy!

SOOOO good!

Yesterday, we had a lazy morning; I made pumpkin muffins with almond flour and my husband made some scrambled eggs. The muffins were so good, that we all ate two! I am going to double the recipe next time, so I can freeze the rest for quick mornings. In the afternoon, we visited some friends, who live in the bay area, who are expecting their first child later this month. We had nice visit. Keenan was terribly shy at first, then completely warmed-up and was saying “hi” to the baby and asking when it was ready to come out and play…too cute! For dinner, we went to this wonderful Puerto Rican restaurant called, Sol Food, in San Rafael. I had the Pollo al Horno, baked chicken marinated with oregano and garlic served with black beans, rice, salad and fried plantains. It was SO delicious, my mouth is watering just thinking about it! Keenan certainly enjoyed it too, because he inhaled his black beans, my chicken and the plantains.

Today, we headed to Keenan’s music class after a quick breakfast. Keenan enjoyed the last of the pumpkin muffins and some strawberries, while I ate my “usual,” Fage Greek yogurt, strawberries, chia seeds, flaxseed and Kashi cereal, along with a latte. For lunch, I enjoyed my chicken that was leftover from last night with some grilled zucchini and a tomato over a bed of spinach drizzled with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar! It was delish! Since I was craving something sweet, I also enjoyed a pluot!

After Keenan’s nap, we are heading to CrossFit and then home for dinner. On the menu is either spicy eggplant with chicken and spinach or grilled chicken and eggplant over a bed of sauteed spinach. We need to use up our spinach and eggplant that I bought last week (both are kind of limp), and I am not quite sure how I want to prepare them. I’ll keep you posted. Also, look for the almond flour flaxseed pizza crust and pumpkin muffin recipes coming tomorrow!

Question: Any suggestions on how to cook my eggplant, spinach and chicken tonight? Since we got home late last night, I haven’t had time to put much thought into our dinner tonight and for some reason, I am just not coming up with good ideas. I want to try something different…