Happy and free

This chocolate came from my boss on Friday- an appreciation gift for all of my hard work this week. Feels so good.

I ate lunch at Gravy and didn't need or even desire dinner. I had Eggplant Rollatini. It's basically a rolled eggplant with tons of melted mozzarella cheese and marinara sauce. So bad. So unhealthy. So delicious.

Friday was beautiful and everything fell into place so nicely. I even had time to relax before going to my part-time job hangout. I opened the patio door and let the Spring-time breeze dance around my apartment. Ebi and I talked about our days and he told me he was sorry for eating the heart-charm I made but clay and glitter combines to make such an enticing treat.


I ate a piece of special chocolate, put my flowers outside for some real light, and enjoyed the gorgeous afternoon.

Valentine's Day Eve

Durham is pretty freaking awesome. Technically speaking, I am probably the most Durhamite-est of the Durhamites. When I was younger my mother worked downtown and during the summers I would go to her office with her quite a bit. When I wasn't cutting up the National Geographic and making collages of the pictures, I was walking down to Brightleaf Square, buying myself a frozen coffee from the vendor on the side of the street (I still remember the taste and have never had a frozen coffee beverage as good as those), and roaming around the bookstores, music shops, art galleries, and soap shops that were there during that time. AND I can get myself from one area of town to another but cannot give strangers adequate directions because I don't know street names (I do believe that is an unofficial requirement).

Anyway, there are new restaurants popping up all over the place! I have been chasing dreams of eating brunch at Watt's Grocery for weeks. We tried to visit last week but there was a 90 minute wait for the BAR. This week we got there at opening and the Hostess said the wait was 30 minutes. Just enough time to visit Joe Van Gogh for the best Latte of my life.


I've never had heart-shaped froth! Or anything-shaped froth! It was delicious/pretty and I will treat myself to that heart-frothed $4 latte again. I mean it was even the perfect temperature at the first sip. The really do know "the art of the bean".

It looked like this inside..


And there were lots of people wearing those outfits that look like they picked various articles that under no circumstances match one or any of the other items in the mix. Example: Black leggings + brown hiking boots + purple lace tiered skirt + green down vest + red flannel shirt. True story.

I went all out at Watts Grocery. I got Benedict with crawfish tail hollandaise and andouille sausage.


I abandonned the grits because they were plain and next time I will get the hashbrowns. I could only eat half of the benedict entree pile of cream. It was delicious and the kind of rich that makes you feel full after 3 bites.

What I appreciated most about this restaurant was the fact that they could totally get away with charging more for their food but don't. There were whole blueberries in the jelly and everything was wonderfully fresh. I want to go back for lunch and dinner and brunch again!


Happy Valentine's Day from me and the cute turquoise charm I made to wear today!

Okay, so...

I'm going to start telling you about some of the foods I eat. The good, the bad, and the pretty. I'm on a pretty serious mission to eat healthily so it's mostly good/pretty/colorful. But there are bad times too.. like tomorrow night's homemade nachos for the Duke/Carolina game. Tomorrow night I will be an emotional eater. Bad. Bad. Bad.

Last Thursday I had a single wisdom tooth pulled and by Saturday I had graduated to foods of texture. Craving something sweet, I made this delicious little snack. I considered this a splurge because of the peanut butter..


This is one slice of Nature's Own Honey Wheat Bread Light (just 35 calories), one Tbsp of JIF Reduced Fat Peanut Butter, One-half a banana, and a little honey drizzled for sweetness. Heating this on the oven for a few minutes to toast the bread and warm the peanut butter-honey-banana mixture makes this a tasty, indulgent little snack for right around 200 calories (I'm not sure about honey-depends on how much)

I like shrimp because it's low fat/high protein. I don't know how bad this buffalo sauce is. It's probably a little Carby.


We get frozen uncooked shrimp from Harris Teeter when it goes on sale for either 1/2-0ff or Buy 2-Get 3 Free. It's so easy to store and prepare like that and you can get a TON for around $25 which is a sweet, sweet deal.


Buffalo Shrimp and Cilantro Lime Rice Dinner. The rice is Jasmine rice with lime juice and chopped cilantro for added flavor.


Shrimp and Broccoli Lunch. This is one of my favorite lunches to take because it's healthy, easy, and colorful. Shrimp was boiled on Sunday and refrigerated for use over the following couple of days. Broccoli is the frozen kind and I heard that frozen vegetables are actually better for you during their off-season because they were prepared and packaged during their peak- Not sure how true that is? All sprinkled with lemon pepper seasoning for flavor.


This was another shrimp lunch. Shrimp and green beans with egg noddles tossed with a little olive oil, and sprinkled with paprika and parsley flakes for flavor. These seasonings - Lemon Pepper, Paprika, Parsley, Dill.. I like them because they add flavor without adding fat.

This weeekend I found this frozen Joe's Crab Shack dinner. This version- Mahi Mahi with Tropical Salsa and sides Coconut Rice and Sugar Snap Peas. Just 350 calories. This is made all in the microwave and was about $6.50 for the bag.


There's just enough work involved in preparing this to make you feel like you did something without really doing anything. The salsa is delicious. So easy for busy week nights and it looks like I made something special. I'll get this time and time again.


My breakfast today was borederline-bad.


Everything bagel thin with 2 eggs and a slice of Muenster cheese. It's a tasty & filling 350 calories but tomorrow I will opt for one egg instead of 2 and 1/2 a slice of cheese. If I'm still hungry I'll eat a piece of fruit. I need to make this good, though, and just eat the whites and no cheese.