Weekly Eats {Week of Salads & First Birthday Present}

Posted on August 29, 2013 by Achieve with Athena

Hey, hey, hey.

Last week I opened my first birthday present! It was from Dawn at work, and it was food related. Clearly it needed to make it into my Weekly Eats post.

Organic Spanish red wine (can’t wait to drink this), organic blue agave from Trader Joe’s (can’t wait to bake with this), and Dawn’s homemade trail mix (~~can’t wait~~ ate this already). Thank you, Dawn, for my fun treats!

We nicknamed the rest of last week “The Week of Salads.” That probably sounds super boring, but hey, not every week can be super exciting. Plus there were a couple of new recipes in the mix. I can’t remember the exact days of when we ate what, but here was our line up:

Grilled shrimp “nicoise” salad…

Grilled eggplant and tomato salad with feta…

Tuna salad…

Whole Foods salad buckets made it into the lineup too. Does anyone else feel like when they go to the Whole Foods salad bar they end up with the most random stuff just thrown together? That’s why I call them buckets.

Anyways, one of the salads was from a dinner date with some of the gym gals after last week’s free CrossFit class. The other is from when I went back on Friday before going out with my home friends. Normally I don’t buy so much food out during the week, but unfortunately our planned chicken meal for the end of the week didn’t end up happening because our chicken went bad. And we just didn’t feel like heading out to get more.

The chicken going bad also spurred a spontaneous dinner date at Fiorella’s on Thursday night. Fiorella’s caprese salad, how I love you. (Jess Dock! I always think of you when I eat this.)

I also ordered lemon chicken that night, but didn’t snap a pic. That’s about it for noteworthy eats last week!

This week our meal plan is looking something like this:

Dinners

Sunday – Farro stuffed patty pan squash
Monday – Repeat of the grilled shrimp nicoise salad
Tuesday – Leftover shrimp salad
Wednesday – White eggplant over wheat pasta with tomato sauce
Thursday – Out to dinner with Slesh
Friday – Either quinoa or dinner somewhere before birthday outing with friends
Saturday – Birthday dinner with Tim

Lunches

Sunday – SOWA Open Market deliciousness
Monday – Random salad with leftover ingredients from the fridge
Tuesday – Leftover farro and veggies from Monday’s patty pan squash
Wednesday – Southwestern sweet potato salad
Thursday – Leftover sweet potato salad
Friday – have the day off, TBD
Saturday – birthday TBD

Can’t wait to recap our experience at SOWA Open Market for you guys!

What’s the best salad you’ve eaten lately? Any Whole Foods salad bar junkies out there? Anything exciting on your meal plan this week?

Atlanta Eats

Posted on March 29, 2013 by Achieve with Athena

One thing is for certain in Atlanta. There is certainly not a shortage of good food! I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how awesome all of my Buckhead meals have been this week. I don’t normally blog everything I eat (snooze alert), but I thought since this was a travel week it would be fun to keep track of.

Here’s a little peek at what I’ve eaten while on the road:

Breakfasts

Monday: Multi-grain toast with almond butter and sliced banana at home before my flight
Tuesday: Oatmeal at the restaurant in the hotel, with raspberry yogurt, walnuts, and raisins mixed in. Does anyone else love hotel oatmeal or is it just me?
Wednesday: Vanilla bean Greek yogurt from Trader Joe’s, with sliced banana. I met Sheila downstairs for breakfast, only to find her eating the exact same thing. I had to snap a picture.

Thursday: Wasn’t very hungry first thing in the morning, just ate a mango yogurt from Trader Joe’s.
Friday: Another bowl of oatmeal this morning!

Lunches

This was the week of the turkey sandwich! Monday was an airport day, so I grabbed a turkey & swiss whole wheat wrap from Gourmet On the Go. I anticipate doing the same later today for the flight home. Tuesday and Thursday I enjoyed the most amazing California Turkey sandwich from a gourmet sandwich shop called Rising Roll. It had provolone, lettuce, tomato and guacamole on a multi-grain bulkie roll and I’m still thinking about it. Since I didn’t eat a huge breakfast on Thursday, I also got a cup of white bean chicken chili to go with my sandwich. Wednesday we tried a different sandwich shop nearby, and it was actually disgusting. I will pay the extra $3 any day for better turkey.

Snacks

On Monday we stopped in at Trader Joe’s to pick up some extras for the week. I love stocking up on healthy snacks!

Dinners

The fun part! I’m just realizing I ordered seafood all week. I just love it so much.

Monday
Everyone in my group had been RAVING about Seasons 52, and it did not disappoint. A fresh grill and wine bar, everything on the menu is seasonally inspired and under 475 calories. Love, love, love! Sheila and I split the ripe plum tomato flat bread with fresh basil, roasted garlic essence and melted Parmesan cheese to start. We both ordered the cedar plank roasted salmon with fingerling potatoes, vegetables, and fresh dill sauce. For dessert I ate a little fruit cup. The best part? I read online there is one opening in Chestnut Hill in fall of this year.

Tuesday
Mexican at Tin Lizzy’s Cantina, another group favorite. I splurged a bit on chips and salsa and raspberry margaritas. How could I not? I must say that Sheila and I did a good job limiting our chip intake though – and these were some good chips! For my salad, I built my own and loaded it right up with mixed greens, corn, black beans, diced red peppers, pumpkin seeds, tortilla strips, grilled shrimp, avocado, tomatoes, and feta.

Wednesday
We checked out The Atlantic Fish Market. I couldn’t decide whether to try a fish I had never tried before, or go with a tried and true. I decided on tried and true! Sheila and I split a jumbo crab cake for an appetizer, and for my entrée I went with the broiled sea scallops with a fresh veggie medley and whipped sweet potatoes.

Thursday
Finally, last night we decided to try a new place that the others in the group hadn’t mentioned before. On our drive to work every day, we passed a Tuscan Grille called Brio so we looked up the menu and decided it looked awesome. Awesome it was! Since I worked out every day Sunday – Thursday, I decided that I deserved this awesome glass of white peach sangria and some of that amazing looking bread. Also ate lots of feta! I got the Shrimp Mediterranean which was grilled jumbo shrimp on a bed of orzo and farro pilaf, broccoli, asparagus, tomatoes, spinach, feta and pesto vinaigrette. And a side salad.

I better start planning some awesome meals for when I’m back home next week so I don’t go into withdrawals!

Have you ever traveled to a place where you enjoyed mostly every single meal you had?

If you are celebrating Easter this weekend, and need an idea for a recipe, check out my Birds Nest Cupcakes. They are so cute and perfect for an Easter dessert!

Things I’m Loving Lately: February 2013 Edition

Posted on February 28, 2013 by Achieve with Athena

How’s everyone’s Thursday going? I had another busy day at work today, but I started the day off right by teaching my 6am class. I probably sound like a broken record with this, but I just love that class and everyone in it. The dedication is just contagious! I taught another Best Body Bootcamp workout, and this one had a lower body focus that left me sweaty and shaky.

Speaking of Best Body Bootcamp, Tina (the mastermind behind BBB) started a new series on her blog called “Bootcamper of the Week.” And guess who was featured as this week’s bootcamper?! That’s right! Make sure to click on over and check it out. I had a lot of fun sharing my story there. Thanks for featuring me, Tina!

I wanted to wrap up my February blog posts by sharing some things I’ve been loving this month. Here goes!

Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Covered Almonds
I would say I shop at Trader Joe’s about once a month. I absolutely love it there, but I can’t shop there weekly because there are just too many random “cool looking foods” that I would walk out of the store with and end up spending more money than really necessary. The main things I buy at Trader Joe’s are almond butter, quinoa, Luna/Clif bars, and a few other staples. One of my favorite treats to get there; however, are these dark chocolate almond bites. Tim stopped by Trader Joe’s recently to pick up some quinoa for us, and he brought these home. Way to my heart, boyfriend, way to my heart.

My New Soda Stream
More props for Tim! For Valentine’s Day, he bought me a Soda Stream. First of all, I am just so psyched to have seltzer at my disposal at any moment I want it. Second of all, have you guys ever used one of these before? It makes the most hilarious duck-like quacking sound to let you know the water has carbonated. I giggle like a little kid every single time it quacks. I love this thing!

Sunday Food Prep
I’ve always been pretty good about prepping food ahead of time, but this month I have totally been rocking my Sunday food preparation. And I must say, it’s really helping with my time management. It does take an hour or two on Sunday nights, but it’s so worth it to have those extra hours of downtime during the week.

This Workout Playlist
These jams have proooooobably been overplayed for a few too many weeks in my classes now, but I really just love this playlist. I did a home workout the other week, and my warmup was literally dancing around my house to the New Kids song. For all 3 minutes and 17 seconds. Tim barely even had a reaction. Whatever. Y class members, I promise to switch up my music next week. I swear. Maybe.

New Contacts
A little random, but at the beginning of the year my eye doctor (my Uncle Chris!) switched up my contacts. I used to have a prescription that required me to wear my contacts for 2-3 weeks at a time, and I found that my eyes were always dry, irritated, or I’d have some random awkward eye ailment happen to me. Now I’m wearing these dailies (1-Day Acuvue Moist), and my eyes can definitely feel the difference. Or maybe I should say not feel? No more irritation and eye rubbing, and I get to just throw them away every night! Amazing.