TOP O’ THE MORNIN’ TO YA!

HAPPY ST. PATRICKS DAY!!!!!!

This is one of my all time favorite holidays – for a whole bunch of reasons!   First of all, I’m Irish, and damn proud of it – enough said there!  It’s also super significant to my family, it’s the anniversary of my mom beating breast cancer, and then it’s 2 of my friends birthdays!

Happy Anniversary Momma!

Happy Birthday Kristin!

Happy Birthday Connor!

Alrighty, now on to the treats! 

Since discovering my “Quick Cook Steel Cut Oats” at TJ’s – I’ve been sort of obsessed.  But I’ve only been able to make them at home, because the idea of cooking them in the microwave at work scares me.  Well – I decided I needed to do something about it, because these fill me up way more than any other type of oats – so I tried making the oats at home, and bringing them in tupperware to work.   The result:

Spicy Oat perfection – stove top taste – eaten at work!  As a matter of fact, I had the same thing this morning for lunch (and probably will have the same thing the rest of the week!)

Lunch and Dinner yesterday were spent celebrating Kristin’s Birthday!  For lunch we got pizza from this awesome place in Downtown Cleveland, called Vincenza’s! It’s NY style pizza – look at this pie!

My mouth was watering!  I planned on only having 2 pieces, and my salad…

…but somehow managed to house a 3rd before lunch was over!

Mid-day snack:

For dinner – we surprised Kristin with dinner down in the Tremont area – at Lago (which has a special “Vegetarian Monday” menu we knew would be right up her alley!)

We started off with a bottle of wine:

Mosel River Reisling:

The menu was totally impressive, and I had so much trouble deciding what to order!!  I ended up going with the Vegetarian Pizza - which had caramelized onions, olives, artichokes, roasted tomatoes and goat cheese:

I can’t even begin to describe how fabulous this way!  The nice bite of the goat cheese mixed with all the different flavors of the vegetables – A.MA.ZING!

Kristin and I traded – because she got Sweet Potato Ravioli (yeah – you heard me right!) that just looked incredibly…

…and tasted out of this world.  It was sweet and salty at the same time, and so fresh!  I could go back every Monday and it this!!! 

We got the birthday girl a dessert – Goat Cheese Creme Brulee with macerated berries:

We were all a little unsure of how this was going to taste – Goat Cheese in dessert? But it kept in line with all the other dishes – it was absolutely fantastic and gone in about 8 bites because Kristin shared with us! 

All the lovely ladies!

From left to right, Jess, Julia, Danielle, Moi, and Birthday Girl Kristin!  Thanks for a fabulous night ladies – hope you had as much fun as I did Kris!

Is it incredibly warm where you live today?  It’s supposed to be 63 today here in Cleveland, which is unseasonably warm, so while I’m way too old to do the drinking all day thing on St. Patty’s – it is sort of a bummer I’ve got to work when it’s so gorgeous out side and so many other people are playing hookie.   Do you play hookie for certain holidays???

Hi lovely bloggies!

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Mine was fantastic, but totally kept in line with how the rest of this month has been – INSANELY BUSY!

With all the stuff we have been going on, my schedule has been all out of whack (and I’ve been letting myself feel badly about my lack of running and irregularly eating habits)  Since I was sick last week, I had no idea what distance I should do for my long run this week – so I made the executive decision to take the entire week off, and start fresh next week.

Friday night Mike and I drove out to Kent to meet my in-laws for dinner for my birthday – and we went to Rockne’s, one of my most favorite restaurants EVER!  We had a such a great time visiting and catching up – we ended up being there for almost 3 hours!  I ordered the Buffalo Chicken Salad – ABSOLUTE SALAD PERFECTION!

Don’t worry – I only ate 1 of the 4 dressings they gave me!  

and they give you Andes mints with your check – ya’ll know how I love my mint/chocolate combo!

The birthday gifts keep coming (how can a girl not love that?!?!) – and all of my loved ones know me so well!  Check out the awesome running loot my in-laws got me!

Notice the pretty green flip flops in the corner too! 

Thank you so much Dan and June!  We had a wonderful time, and you spoil me rotten!!!

After dinner, the plan was to head home and hit the sack since we were both tired, but my brother Matt ended up coming home from Columbus – so we stopped at my parents to visit and have a few drinks – I stuck with some Jacob’s Creek Chardonnay.

The whole night was a great night to hang with both our families!  Saturday I had a ton of things to do, including cleaning, running errands, getting ready for company, grocery shopping, and visiting with my grandparents.  Lunch in the midst of running around was some chicken pot stickers and grapes!

We all go visit and have dinner with my grandparents the 2nd Saturday of ever month – and this month we did ruebens to keep in theme with St. Patty’s day.  I made mine with chicken – and it was quite impressive if I do say so myself!   Grandma made an awesome fruit salad too…

It was a super filling, fantastic meal!

Then we partied all night – we had our friends Brian and Stephanie (and their dog Peanut) and Caroline over to our house, and then hit up one of the local bars as well.  Here’s Lando and her doggie friend Peanut!

Both Robo-eyed, but super cute.  I had to laugh all night though, because Lando looked like a GIANT next to Peanut!

Sunday was left for laying around and recovering from the weekend, I took time away from the couch to walk Lando, and make some sweet potato fries, but that’s about it!

For a late night snack (we watched 2 movies!) – I had some chocolate mint pudding made especially for me by my super thoughtful friend, Danielle!

This stuff was SO GOOD!   I totally could have sucked down the whole bowl, but as soon as Mike saw the deliciousness – he wanted in, so I had to share!  That was my good deed for the day! 

That’s about it – the weekend flew by, but it’s another crazy week, I officially have to pass the birthday baton – and spend the week celebrating my friend Kristin’s birthday (she’s a St. Patty’s baby), and then we are heading to PA next weekend to see our two most favorite short people in the world – Cheryl and Johnny! 

HAPPY MONDAY!

TGIF kids!

Ever since being sick last week, I just can not catch up and get back in to my routine, and at this point – I think that’s how the whole month of March is going to go!!! 

I really can’t even tell ya what I ate when – I was interested to see what my camera had when I uploaded my pictures!

Lunch some day:

I came home to a package – ya’ll know my feelings on receiving packages (DANCING, SQUEALING, JIGGING ensues….)

It was my Camelbak water bottle from the fabulous Bobbi!!!!!!  (along with a sweet card!)

After I ripped apart my package - I broke into another package that I had received the day before….MY WINE FROM ALEX!!!

One sip of this stuff and I was in LOVE! It was so smooth and crisp tasting!  I have no problem with drinking 2 Buck Chuck – but I’ve totally forgotten how you can taste the quality in expensive wine!   I would totally splurge on this again in a heart beat!   Fabulous!!

Then Mike and I headed up to the local bar with some friends, and had some delicious Strongbow drafts:

Look at the fun Camel glasses!  I’m easily amused!   All in all, it was a very good day – filled with many delicious beverages! 

The next morning we had nothing in our house for breakfast, so I went to work, figuring I’d just wing it.  Turns out someone had brought in bagels.  Free bagels?  I usually do a good job passing them up, but yesterday, I just couldn’t!

Everything bagel with fat free CC – MMMMM worth ever single delicious calorie!  

Then, last night we went to visit our friend and her new baby!!   We stopped and brought over Moe’s for dinner…

I had NO IDEA that Moe’s had nachos (granted this whole plate is probably about 2,000 calories).  This was the most fabulous meal – EVER!

Look at this cute little baber:

That’s my little buddy Caeden! He was just so content the whole time we were there.  I love holding babies, they are just so sweet.  Although, at the same time, I appreciate the fact that I get to go home, and not have the responsibility of having  a child!   See – I’m the world’s greatest babysitter!  

This morning we were still hurting for breakfast at the house, so I ended up with a yogurt, an old orange, and the standard DC:

That’s it really!  Still don’t feel caught up, but hopefully we’ll get there!  Tonight we are headed to Kent to meet my in-laws for my birthday dinner – at ROCKNE’S – I love their salads!

Here’s your Friday Fix:

see more dog and puppy pictures

see more dog and puppy pictures

see more dog and puppy pictures