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Over the weekend, Mike was flipping through the Publix Grape magazine and came across a really yummy looking recipe. It's basically several of my favorite foods all mixed into one dish. Last night, he made it for dinner (I'm so lucky to have a talented cook in the house!) and it was super yummy.  I of course, Instagrammed my dinner and someone asked for the recipe. After a quick search, I realized it wasn't online anywhere. This recipe is just too good to not share, so I wanted to post it here for you! While I included the whole recipe, but Mike used store-bought gnocchi instead of making it from scratch. (If he makes this again--fingers crossed!--I'll update this with better photos.) Prep: 1 hour Bake: 45 to 60 minutes at 425º Ingredients: 2 pounds russet potatoes 2 egg yolks 1/2 teaspoon salt, divided 3/4 to 1 cup all-purpose flour 2 slices bacon, cut into 1/4-inch pieces 1 large sweet potato, peeled and coarsely chopped 1/4 teaspoon gr...

We did not eat healthy on vacation. Nope. Not one little bit. Buttermilk pancakes with tiny jars of syrup, black angus burgers (and fries!), oven baked oysters with smoked bacon, spinach and béarnaise, hush puppies that tasted like cake, and fried calamari. Ended the day with a Starbuck's hot chocolate. When I wasn't eating, I was reading the "Eat" section of "Eat Pray Love." So, you know, lots of eating and thinking about eating.

I hope you're ready to be inundated with even more photos. I took a TON of photos on our little Babymoon (maybe I was self-consciously making up for my lack of picture-taking at Twinfest 2013 ). Let me start by saying, Mike and I timed this vacation perfectly. We left the day after Labor Day and stayed for three nights. We had a long weekend, a nice vacation, and a full weekend once we got back home. Ideal. We had a super lazy Tuesday morning and left for vacay around lunch. First stop was to drop Bella off at the vet. She had never been boarded before, but everything was great. We also had to make a pit-stop for a frozen treat. We usually get McDonald's ice cream cones, but, like I said in my bumpdate , I'm avoiding soft-serve. Hardee's hand-scooped milkshakes were AMAZING! We turned off the main road toward the Westin, and suddenly everything was oak trees, spanish moss, and romantic. I had planned on asking for an upgrade. We were...

Have you tried those banana oat cookies yet? I found them last week  on Pinterest and was so excited to try them out. I mean, we've got a LOT of oats (understatement of the year) and, recently, we've had a steady stream of bananas that need immediate eating because they're going bad. I had just made banana bread and didn't feel like making more. And these seemed soooo simple! And they totally are. Two bananas + 1 cup oats + 350º + 15 minutes = healthy, yummy cookies!  Well, um, no. While these are not terrible, they are definitely not yummy cookies. It tasted exactly like what you think mashed up bananas and rolled oats mixed together would taste like. So, after a little bit of online research, I decided to try again. After mashing up the bananas, my first step towards improvement was putting the rolled oats in the food processor. You don't need to do this if you are using instant oats, but it helps if you are using rolled oats. I think...

Yesterday, I treated my sweet friend Nicole to a belated birthday lunch. She didn't have a particular place in mind, so at my husband's enthusiastic review, I decided we should check out Green Lettuce . He said it was healthy and delicious, the salads were huge, and that I'd love it. Oh, and that it was a Middle Eastern place. Yum! Unfortunately, I happened to pick a day during which there was a lunch-time baseball game going on. Greenville Drive games always mean that West End parking is a huge hassle. Fortunately, both Nicole and I managed to get lucky and find parking spots right away. WIN. I decided to be all bloggy because I felt like my blog was getting all boring with the pregnancy talk and I wanted something else to share. Delicious food is always a pretty good blog topic, right? However, I decided this after I left the house, so all I had was my phone. So please excuse the poor photo quality!  While they had tabbouleh, hummus, dolma, etc, I...

So, I wasn't sure why this was included in the Beauty VoxBox but Influenster says it's because you can "perfect treat for your taste buds without comprising your beach body you worked all year long for." Though, if I was on a diet and I wanted a treat, I probably wouldn't go for this. Gimme something chocolate...or greek yogurt. Anyway... I wasn't too excited about trying this bar, but I decided to bring it to work with me for a morning snack. I liked the texture. It was a nice mix of chewy and crispy. I wasn't too crazy about the flavor, but then again, banana nut bread isn't my favorite. I really liked the texture, especially the crispy rice. The almonds were tasty too. I ate half of it at room temperature and then headed up the 2nd half. Much yummier when headed up! The first 10 ingredients: whole grain rolled oats, soy crisp rice, brown sugar, invert sugar , oligofructose , almonds, water, polydextrose , vegetable shorteni...

One of my co-workers brought in a bunch of fancy cupcakes to work today. This was the death by chocolate one. Well, that wasn't it's actual name, but close enough. There was also lemon, red velvet, peanut butter, burbon. I dunno what else. This was a LOT of chocolate. A LOT of sugar. Did I mention that I had had a mountain dew right before that? I didn't know there'd be cupcakes when I made that decision. I usually scrape off the frosting, but this time, I ate about 2/3 of the frosting. Thus leading me to what I shall call the SUGAR HIGH of 2012. Craziest sugar high ever. I'm pretty sure I could feel my blood coursing through my veins. Total spaz.

  Mike and I have been meaning to try the Owl for a while, but he's been wanting to wait until the switched over from their winter menu to their spring one. I couldn't describe the Owl better than the owners themselves, so I stole this from their description from The Owl's Facebook page: Opened in early 2012 by husband and wife team Aaron and Justi Manter, along with Joey Fazio. It's the restaurant/bar we wish existed, so we didn't have to make it ourselves.  Modern progressive dining. A little science here, a little craziness there.  We look to the future for flavor and find inspiration in the unorthodox. Fiercely independent.  Take fine dining out of the hands of the wealthy.  Mike and I had dinner at the Owl tonight. He had the duck and I had the lamb (pictured below). We also had the cheese appetizer and some yummy cheesecake for dessert. I'm no food critic, so I can't wax eloquently about my meal. Basically, it was wonderful. And, i...