Weekend Wrap up

I laughed out loud in the middle of the salon when I saw this.  = me.

Because I'm lazy, busy, no time, etc (excuses are my specialty) I haven't posted since last week. Oops...but I have enough from the weekend to write about as I was a busy bee!


Friday night, was my typical work night, but before I left I made a giant pot of spaghetti and roast sweet potatoes. It was the first thing that I have made that Mike doesn't like, but I had a feeling he wouldn't. The pasta was whole wheat linguine, feta, spinach, balsamic, and capers (which I personally love and knew he probably wouldn't like). You either seem to love capers or you don't.


Caper and Spinach pasta

• 1 box of whole wheat linguine
• 1 bottle of Capers
• 1/2 bag of fresh spinach
• feta cheese (to taste)
• 3 cloves of garlic chopped
• 2 lemons
• splash of balsamic vingegar
• splash of evoo

Bring a large pot of water to boil and put a little evoo and salt into the water. This helps the pasta to not stick together. Cook the pasta until al dente (about 7-10 minutes). I always do the cabinet test (don't tell Mike), and if you don't know what that is, I tried to find a youtube video of it with no avail, simply toss a piece of pasta onto the face of a cabinet and if it sticks, it's done. Or you can just try a piece to your liking,if you don't like cleaning your cabinet. I think I saw Rachel Ray or Emril do this, so it stuck in my head.

While the pasta is cooking, in a large skillet - sautee the garlic until browned, add spinach, lemon juice, and capers. Cook on medium until spinach is wilted. Drain your pasta and put back into the pot, add your contents from the skillet into the pasta noodles. Toss with a little evoo and balsamic and sprinkle with feta.

I took some of this and some of the roasted sweet potatoes to work in a to-go container. It was a delicious dinner.










I added a touch more cayenne to the roast sweet potatoes this go round. Even tastier!

This recipe yields enough for about 6, or leftovers for 3-4 days.





Proud to report I finally finished book 2 in the Hunger Games trilogy. I was surprised by the end and kind of mad. I really need to get into the third book asap!

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After getting home from work super late  (12:30am), getting to bed, the 5:30am wake up came WAY too early!!!  Saturday morning breakfast consisted of this delicious creation. I had a 5k to run!

I signed up to run the Lions Eye Institute 5k in Ybor City with my friend Jon to help support him in his running and weight loss journey and Mike also joined in last minute.

The course was mostly flat with a slight incline for the last mile. Not a whole lot to look at as it ran down a street with a few empty office buildings, a hotel, and along side the underside of the expressway. Not terrible views, but nothing exciting. I don't carry my phone while running so I don't have any pics. 

I was super impressed. The event was very well organized. A pretty good turnout. a little over 400 ran in the 5k. Post race snacks and food were great! There was water, red bull, and 5 hr energy for free, also bananas, rice and beans, and blueberry crepes were being served.










As for my run, it was ok. I definitely PR'd!

Chip time was 25:57

An improvement over my 29:38 from 4 months ago, but I was hoping for a slightly faster time (as in 58 seconds faster). I won second in my age group and received a super awesome award.

I'm not sure why i'm clutching it to my chest like a life vest...

Coconut banana bread

After the race there was even a little market that sets up every Saturday morning in Ybor Centennial Park. I was sucked in. I love flea markets and farmers markets and the like. I bought a Coconut Banana Banana bread literally 3 minutes after I finished the race.
And also a bottle of Miguel Colina's all natural homemade hot sauce. I didn't go for the hottest one, but naturally I did sample it! It was a Habanero sauce - not so hot it'd make me tear up, but at this point, I don't think much does. I purchased a lime and jalapeno sauce which was delicious! It will be a great addition to my hot sauce arsenal.

Antenna head?

I suck at taking self pictures with a cell phone.

I went to the salon on Saturday after the race to get my mop taken care of. Just a cut and some highlights/low lights.

The rest of Saturday was spent shopping and hanging out with my friend down in Ellenton. I love a good shopping trip.











We had dinner at a little place called Gio's Pizzeria and Martini Bar.

It was very quaint, kitschy little place. The food was pretty good. But not mind blowing good. We had a martini, we shared a spinach and
ricotta pizza (I was good and only ate two pieces), and a portabello salad. Overall, although pretty satisfying, I wouldn't go there again unless I was in a bind and at the Ellenton Outlets and starving.





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Sunday morning I headed down to Little Harbor Resort in Ruskin with Mike and the gang for lunch. If you are looking to have a quiet get away for the weekend, this place is a great option. It's close to Tampa and over looks the bay - you can see St Pete, but has a secluded feel. There is a little beach, but the water isn't great. I wouldn't get in it to swim, especially since the pier fishers were chumming for shark, but to kayak or to relax on the sand and have a lot of delicious beverages is a great idea! Mike wanted me to go because he knows I love food and knows I love good fancy food even more. Their sunset grill is ahhhmazing.

I had a lobster and shrimp quesadilla for my entree -it came filled with spinach, cheeses, shrimp, and lobster meat. It was tasty. They serve it with a mini taco salad with a chipotle sour cream, guacamole, shredded lettuce, and pico.


After hanging out for a few, I drove back in to Tampa to meet up with the Tampa Bay Lady Bloggers at The Lime in South Tampa. I was pretty nervous to meet everyone since I'm always a weirdo when it comes to meeting new people. Guess that's the tiny bit of shyness still coming out! I got lost, which is typical for me, and was a few minutes late. But when I got there and sat down with the ladies, it was nice and comfortable. I felt as though I already knew them all after reading their blogs daily/frequently!


The Lime was very accommodating to our ten person table. Since I had just eaten lunch, I snacked on the chips. I loved the seasoning on them. The decor of the restaurant was hip and modern with lots of bright colors. The walls were decorated with murals of the dia de los muertos, which Mike and I were for halloween this past year!

Overall, a great experience and I can't wait to hang out with these ladies more often.



I headed back down to Little Harbor (whew a lot of driving today!) to spend the rest of the afternoon/evening with Mike. We walked on the little beach near sunset and then came home and crashed.

Not a whole lot of working out, but overall, an excellent weekend.

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On other notes...




I signed up for the 8 week Tone It up! Bikini Series program. It is FREE! I just received my first challenge last night. I'm excited to do this, since I've never participated in anything like it before and hope to get great results... I know. It depends on ME more than anything!

You can find more about this program here. :)

This morning's breakfast was tasty. A serving of cottage cheese sprinkled with pumkpin pie spice, a cut up pear, and a small handful of granola.


Cruise countdown: 14 DAYS!