On Saturday evening, Susan took me out for a fantastic dinner. It was a sort of a farewell/thank you for babysitting/we really gotta stay in touch despite not babysitting anymore dinner. It was a bittersweet ending. I have been babysitting Bob and Toby for a year and in that time I feel as though they have really accepted me into their family. It seems odd that after spending a whole year in someone else's home, that it should all end so abruptly.
Of course I know that I am always welcome there, and I hope to babysit a few times over the next couple months, and hopefully sporadically next year. Susan and I were also workout buddies and friends before this job, and I really want that to continue.
So to kick off this new change to our relationship we enjoyed dinner at Flatiron Kitchen in Davidson. I have eaten at this restaurant once before and really loved my experience so I was excited to go back.
Per usual, I just ordered the chef's vegan special (aka, whatever the chef can create that will suit my diet). I tend to have much more luck ordering like this rather than trying to veganize a menu item. It allows the chef to use his/her creativity. I also ordered a salad to start my meal.
The salad was served with an orange basil vinaigrette that was superb! It was also came with golden beets that I loved.
My meal was served and I couldn't be more pleased. Three grilled portabella mushrooms were stacked on a bed of roasted potatoes and grilled asparagus topped off the meal. It was so much food! Typically I could eat one mushroom with those potatoes and asparagus, so naturally I had plenty of leftovers.
This weekend I discovered a new snack and have since fallen in love. I have had this for dessert each night this weekend.
The dark picture is such a shame...maybe this one will give you a better idea:
It may not look amazing, but I reassure you that it is worthy of 3 nights in a row! What is it? I topped a rice cake with carob chips and vegan marshmallows and popped it under the broiler for about 4 minutes. This is a "healthy" version of a s'more and it hit the spot!
While even vegan marshmallows are full of sugar, I balanced it by only topping each rice cake with half of a serving size. The carob chips have no added sugar and are grain sweetened and the rice cakes are just too healthy to even speak of.
While I'm not a calorie-counter, sometimes when I find a fun snack that I know I'm going to want over and over, I calculate the caloric intake to make sure I am not overdoing it. This s'more clocks in right over 200 calories if you use half of a serving of marshmallows (5 small), one rice cake and 2 tbsp carob chips. When it comes to food, I like larger quantities for lesser calories. I want to feel full and satisfied but also feel like I have eaten plenty. Typically I won't eat a dessert if it is tiny, even if it is only 200 calories. I will always be left feeling like I want more. This dessert is perfect, then. It is large and full of rich and sweet flavor.
These s'mores helped me get through an otherwise tough weekend without Forbes. Have you missed him on the blog these last few days? He was in Milwaukee celebrating at a Bachelor party with friends. He is en route home now. He was supposed to arrive last night but opted to give up his seat to an overbooked flight for $400 in flight vouchers and a direct flight home this morning. Do you know what that means? I will be flying to Philadelphia in August for the Healthy Living Summit for FREE! Thank you Forbes for sacrificing your seat so I could go to this conference for cheap, cheap, cheap!
I am not sure I mentioned I was attending HLS yet. Probably because I am too excited to even utter the words. When I first started writing about food and healthy living last year, I began finding all sorts of other blogs about food and healthy living. It was right around this time that the 2nd Annual Healthy Living Summit was happening and I was jealous of all my new "blends" (or at least bloggers that I wanted to be my blends). I wanted to meet these amazing women, share in the swag, and learn all about blogging and healthy living! I was sad I hadn't found this Healthy Living World sooner so I could have planned to attend!
Naturally when the tickets went on sale this year I was first in line to snag mine (online). Kelly recruited me to be a fourth roommate and now my plane tickets are all settled. I absolutely can't wait for this experience. Plus, it will motivate me to come home from Africa. I may just want to stay there after all!
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