Lemme See That {Sushi} Roll

Hey friends! How was your weekend? Mine was pretty laid back since I worked yesterday and the weather was pretty crappy!

However, I did go out with my friend Julia who was home for the last couple of weeks before going back to grad school… 😔

We went to one of my favorite places for dinner–Ichiban Steakhouse. I normally roll with the steakhouse dinner, but instead we rolled with some sushi! 😉

I started with the seaweed salad…holy yum. I didn’t know what to expect with the taste, but it was so good. I will be having this again.

As for our rolls, we decided on American Dream roll, Beauty and the Beast, and the Panda roll…

I think my favorite was the American Dream…can’t wait to try some more.

Afterwards we went to a semi new bar close to my house called Bonnie & Clyde’s…it was a cool place, even though the creepers were out in full force. 😉

I am sad that Julia is going back to school so soon, can’t wait to see her again!!

Xo.

What is your favorite sushi?

Also, don’t forget about Katie’s challenge… #teatime12

I made some ginger iced tea…sweetened with a little bit of vanilla stevia…delicious and refreshing!

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Blend-y Lunch… A day late

Hey everyone! How are you doing?

I am loving this beautiful weather! 🙂 Yesterday I had the chance to see my best blend! For those of you not in the blog word blog + friend = blend! 😉

We went to a newer place called First Watch, which is only open for breakfast and lunch–and has a huge menu of fresh and healthy dishes! Muy bueno!

Stole this picture from Katie!

We always have a good time…girl talk, fitmixer, cliquey girls, ya know.

I rolled with the Market hash–and chose the poached eggs. It was yummy!

Afterwards we took advantage of the sunshine and walked around the shops…and we made the sad mistake of venturing into ULTA. I obviously did not walk away empty-handed:

This stuff smells sooooo good. It is a leave-in conditioner/detangling spray. I can sense an addiction coming on…

Then today I went out for dinner and drinks with one of my dearest friends, Lindsay, who I worked with at the humane society. Here was the outfit of the day:

Top: Banana Republic

Bottoms: Gap

Bracelet: New York & Co.

Shoes: Target

We enjoyed food our on the patio–gosh, I love summer!!  What do like most about the weather warming up?

Also a few random things:

How can you not love this song? Oh 90’s music–you get me every time.

Have a good night!

xo.

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Pat, Geno & The Big Apple

Happy hump day! Hope everyone is having a fantastic week! Mine has seemed to be super long–why does that always happen after a brief vacation??

As you may know, over the weekend I headed out to Philly to see one of my very best friends (and my sorority Big), Lauren :). Most of the weekend was spent catching up and reminiscing about our college days! But I figured I would give you a brief photo tour of the weekend.

Friday was spent wandering around Philly–we were lucky to have really nice weather, and then sun even came out in the afternoon:

After spending the day working up an appetite and breezing through touristy things, we decided we better refuel with some snacks and martinis.

I got the chance to go back to Reading Terminal Market and visit the Flying Monkey which my eyes were drooling over at the HLS cocktail party!

I got a banana creme whoopie pie, and it was to die for! 🙂  We wandered around for a while more and ended up grabbing a drink (it was called a Hawaii 5-0–very tasty) and some hummus at Continental Martini Bar. It was a cute little place, which is apparently well known!

Later in the night we of course had to have our real dinner…a showdown between Geno’s and Pat’s!  They are feuding cheesesteak  diners that offer speedy service and are located right across the street from each other. We ordered one from each location and split them. My vote…

…Pat’s wins! I liked the flavor of their steak better, and the owner offered to cut the sandwich for us. 🙂 We decided that was enough excitement for the day because we wanted to be well rested for our long day of walking in NYC!

We started off with a short drive to Jersey to take a train to the city. I have never been on a train before, so that was pretty exciting!

As soon as we got to NYC we immediately warmed up with some coffee at Starbucks…I think I lost count of how many there was after about 26. More than one on every corner! 🙂 We wandered around the whole day visiting places in Times Square, Rockefeller Center, Central Park, Brooklyn, SOHO, and Chinatown…we must have walked 8 miles or so.

As far as food, we weren’t too worried about where we would eat because we just wanted to see as much of the city as we could…but of course we had to stop at Magnolia Bakery. And it was delicious! Though if we are being honest…I had to waste some of the frosting because I was on sugar overload! 🙂

I loved seeing all of the expensive stores (a girl can dream?!) and sights of the city. I also got to ride “On the 6″…I channeled my inner J-Lo. Obviously.

Haha!! Overall, it was a very fun weekend! I hope to go back to NYC again and see some more things. I would love to go when they are filming the Today Show! 🙂

What is your favorite thing about NYC? Have you taken any weekend trips lately?

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Meet-up and new buys!

Hey everyone!

Anyone else have a serious case of the Monday’s?! I did. Always a bummer after a fun weekend! I met up with some lovelies from the blog world! I met Claire and Beth for the first time, and got to see Katie again! I haven’t seen her since we met at HLS–but now she lives close! I can’t wait to meet up again. Anyone else in the Pittsburgh area? We would love for you to join us next time!

I was a little nervous at first–I have never had a meet up! But every one was so nice, we chatted all through lunch and then did some shopping! I had the hummus and a caesar salad at Houlihan’s. I love their hummus–they make it to order!

{Stolen from Katie’s blog 😉 }

Then this happened:

I had some good finds at Forever 21!! And I didn’t realize how much Chi Omega is really happening here! Love it! Cardinal and Straw must be on my mind… 🙂

Also…I am getting better at remembering to wear accessories with my outfits–my first experience wearing bangles:

I got a big set of them I mixed and matched from New York & Company–love that store!

And then topped the night off with my Mom making one of my favorite meals:

Shrimp pasta with salad and white zin! Yum!

What are some of your favorite comfort foods?

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New {keeper} Recipes

Hey all!

So I have a couple of new recipes that I have tried recently that are worthy of sharing!

First up is from Real Simple (if you have not checked out this website or flipped through the magazine, I HIGHLY reccomend it!):

Cheesy Baked Shells and Broccoli

This dish was so quick and easy to make!  I used more cheese than what they called for–and I was glad I did! 🙂 Can never have too much cheese in my book!

Also, when I reheated the dish for leftovers–I added crumbled bacon and red pepper flakes–and it was even better!

There are so many things you could do to change the dish too. Add chicken or sausages, and substitute peas instead of broccoli. I will definitely be trying this again!

The other recipe that I tried was totally on a whim! I was sitting on the couch Sunday morning feeling lazy and not wanting to make anything for breakfast, but then this popped up on my Facebook:

I think they were reading my mind. 😉

Best pancakes I have had in a while–and not from a box!

SO good. You have to try them!

Have you tried and good recipes lately? Any misses?

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Race to the finish…

So I was doing my normal Thursday morning blog surfing, and I was leaving a comment…which lead me to a revelation…

…this problem doesn’t happen only with books.

At first I thought I was just being silly, then I realized that this happens all the time!  Reading, cooking, eating mindfully, exercising, in my love life…

Hmm.

…so now to brainstorm ways to follow through.

Two helpful tools just came in the mail from my Amazon cart:

 

These two things can help me out on some things…but what about others?

I need to think more about the bigger picture. Why am I not following through? How can I change my mind set?

…to be continued…

What do you do to stay focused? How do you follow through?

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What was in my grocery bag

Morning all! Hope you are all having a wonderful day!

I woke up this morning with a great post idea, but it didn’t quite go as planned. But, stay tuned because I still have hope that it may work out! 🙂 I changed up the idea a bit and came up with the “grocery” post!

Breakfast:

I enjoyed a whole wheat bagel thin with cream cheese and some strawberries while I was writing out my grocery list. And as no surprise, I was enjoying my coffee love. I just can’t handle the fact that it going to leave me when summer is over!

I was super excited about my new shopping buddy:

I bought this baby at Marshall’s for around 3 bucks! It has a notepad, pen holder, and holds coupons! Not to mention it is pretty! [notice Garrett is not as excited as I am].

I didn’t feel like dealing with the construction over at Giant Eagle, so I decided to visit one of my favorite local stores!

Soergel’s started as a small local produce market and has expanded into so much more! Their parking lot is always full, and they have a ton of community events for the whole family. All of the workers are always so friendly and helpful–and someone always says “Hi” when you walk in.

I got all of my produce and breads in the main market (where the bakery kindly sliced my bread for me!)–and then bounced over to my favorite branch of the market:

I think the sign speaks for itself. Lurve.

I got all of my other goodies here, and once again–then staff is super-friendly! If they don’t have something that you are looking for, they will get it for you! How awesome.

So here are my purchases today:

Homegrown peaches and watermelon, romaine, dates, bananas (plus some extra for freezing), and 8 grain bread.

Chobani (all my favorites were in stock and Strawberry Banana was on special–bonus!), Amy’s burrito, hummus (which was a bit pricey-but you can’t always win), cottage cheese, Earth Balance, nutritional yeast (which I am totally stoked to try), Sweet potato chips, coconut water (and what I intend to use it for).

If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen my tweet about slowly making the change to natural beauty products. I wanted to find some shampoo, but they didn’t have any that I would want to try, so I just rolled with some mouthwash.

When I got home–it was still a little too early for lunch. So I had a little something to hold me over:

 Sorry about the blurry pic–clearly I was too busy savoring the taste! 😉

Well I am off to do some laundry and what not before work tonight. Hope you all have a good day!

Do you use natural beauty products? What is a must try?

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