I Walk In This World

Saturday was a GREAT day in my city (Philly).  I know I say it all the time, but I miss it there so much.  I really do hope to return one day.

Din last night….salad, bread, white wine.

Followed by watching Miss Potter, the story of Beatrix Potter’s quest to become a children’s book author in Victorian England.  I LOVED it!  Hubz was away visiting his bro, so I got some much-loved alone time.  I chose to watch this movie (which I think he woulda liked) and indulge in a movie snack!

Yum, yum yum!

The Fam and I ate lunch in the city at Ted’s Montana Grill, which I’ve been wanting to try for a year or so! 

Views of City Hall

We parked here and walked to lunch on Broad St.

Some candid pics of my Fam!

Yeah, Philly, you be GREEN!

Obligatory Erin in the City shot.

And this is why I’ve been wanting to eat here.  Talk about Ethical Eating!  This place is ALL OVER it!

Started things out with this guy and some gahlicky pickles.

I enjoyed 2 slices of these dogs pre-lunch.

And I got the Daily Special, Bison Meatloaf on ciabatta bread, that was to DIE for!  OMG, this was totally comfort food at it’s city-finest!

I ate half and about 1/3 of those delicious hand cut fries.

This is MY City!   

To get to my sista’s spot, I always avoid the uber crowded Schuylkill Expressway by taking the Ben Franklin Parkway and Kelly Drive.  Any Philly readers on today?

The Art Museum!

Famous Boat House Row on Kelly Drive (named after the family of Grace Kelly…originally from Philly).

The Schuylkill River.

East Falls neigborhood.  That’s Johnny Manana’s on the right.  Great little Mexican spot.

Going up past some of my very favorite (and uber pricey) East Falls townhomes.

Sista’s spot!

After our fabulous lunch, we went back to her apt and did wedding stuff for much of the afternoon.  It was fun and I hated leaving.  Per usual.

But at the end of the day…

 Good morning blog friends!

I’ve got an enormously busy day today and a super SUPER fun surprise I hope to get to share with you guys in the next few days.  It has to do with my work and it may or may not involve a helicopter!!

Sunday was a Funday in the IWITW (um, that’s the acronym for my blog name apparently) household.  Hubz and I bid my sista farewell and then got some cleaning and paperwork done.  Did a big grocery shop (but still stayed under $100) and then spent the afternoon with Hubz’ brother Darren.  And of course I didn’t snap any pics.  Stupid Erin.  I won’t get started on how much I hate Sunday nights, but the day was fun.

We did share some fun Sunday night brick oven pizza.  The boys ate pizza.  I ate a ginorm salad with a side of pizza.  I ate this, plus 1 more slice and was very content to stop there.  And a glass or 2 of a pleasant New Zealand sauvignon blanc. 

• spinach and green leaf salad
• shredded carrot
• chopped cherry maters
• cuke
• shredded lf cheddar
• 3 hummus flava’d Dr. Krackers crackers
• tossed with my new fabulous homemade honey dijon dressing!

There may have been some camera shy Ben and Jerry’s Coffee Heath bar  to round out the evening while we watched West Wing (thebestshowever) on DVD. 

I spent mucho of the afternoon reading your blogs and enjoying the weather.  So even if I didn’t comment, I promise I did read!

There may have been a solid 40mins where I could have been found at the pool, solo, with my book and the sunshine.     Pure alone time heaven!

Lunch.

•  crockpot cauliflower and white bean poblano corn soup with HOT sauce
• carrot sticks
• toasty piece of whole grain panini with buttah

I swear.  The teeniest smidge of butter on toasty whole grain bread is one of my absolute favorite things to eat.  Real butter makes all the difference.  And just a smidge is all I need.  Yumz.

I made egg sams for Breks for Hubz and Sis before she had to jet back to Philly.

• half an egg fried in canola with mixed peppers, onions, and mushrooms
• whole wheat english muffin smeared with LC cheese
• HOT sauce
• COFFEE! 

OK, Erin has NO time to dilly dally…work demands my focus.

Ciao!

Saturday my sista and I spent the day together doing all kinds of fun wedding stuff!  We got the bridesmaids dresses for her wedding and they are beautiful.  Obviously the dress hasn’t been altered yet, but it looks like I won’t need very much done to it!

We also did some updating to her registry and then swung by Michaels.  Their $1 bins kickass.  We had a lot of fun together!

Din last night was quickie grab bag from an Italian place nearby.

• eggplant roll (eggplant mixed with mozz and a light marinara stuffed in this dough roll)
• homemade salad tossed with homemade honey dijon

This roll totally was fabulous and a complete surprise for the little strip mall Italian spot.  I had obvi incorrectly judged it by it’s looks.  We shall def visit again!

While the sis and I were having a girl’s day together, the Hubz spent the evening watching Rambo 2 or some other stupid bullshit macho movie.

And look at the end result…

She’s ready for her machine gun now.

Lunch was my leftover Chipotle stuffed into a TJs whole wheat tortilla.

• leftover Chipotle in a ww wrap
• last remains of our cherries and blueberries
• a few cherry semolina crackers

It’s confirmed, leftover Chipotle is JUST as good the 2nd day.

This is a shortie post b/c I have mucho blogs to catch up on AND  I need to enjoy the rest of this fantab day!

Ciao.

Erin

Happy Saturday blog friends!

I’m eating Breks as we speak and waiting for the sista to arrive.  Today we’re going to pick up our bridesmaids gowns for her wedding!!!  I’ll try to post pics tomorrow.

Friday was chock full of fun messy food!

But first, my Breks today…

• one of my whole wheat blueberry muffins with a little yogurt butter
• handful o cherries (time to restock!)
• coffee a plenty

These muffins are SO good!  I linked over to the recipe in this post.

After a giant night of sleep (hello 8.5 hours) I feel bright and and refreshed!  Last night Hubz and I watched Religulous with Bill Maher.  It was good and raised a lot of solid questions for the religious community.  Has anyone seen it?

Din on Friday was takeout from my second husband…Chipotle. 

•  Chipotle’s Burrito bowl with the spicy beef barbacoa, black beans, lettuce, cheese, GUAC, and fresh tomato salsa
• I ate about 6-7 of those amazing chips + more guac

Here’s what the bowl SHOULD look like once you dig in!

I ate about half, total.  Their food is just SO so dang delicious.

If you’re not familiar with Chipotle, you SHOULD be.  For ethical meat eaters like Hubz and I, Chipotle is an amazingly aware, ethical, and sustainable chain restaurant.

From their website:

Since 2001, all of the pork served in our restaurants has been from pigs raised in this humane, ecologically sustainable way. In addition to all of our pork and all of our chicken in the US, more than 50 percent of our beef is naturally raised. And we’ll continue until all of our meats in all of our restaurants meet this standard.

And what’s cool is that you can click on a map of the US and see how your state offers each type of meat in their restaurant.

My pre-din Friday night drink.

• Magic Hat Brewing Company’s Lucky Kat IPA

Friday’s exercise was a 30-minute run on the treadmill followed by extensive stretching for my ankle and shins.  And so far, my shin splints have not returned, thankyouverymuch.

Lunch at work also ended up messy, which was fun.

• I treated myself to a salad bar salad loaded with veg and protein, topped with my homemade honey dijon dressing
• POPCHIPS!
• bowl of cherries

My work friends and I sat outside and enjoyed nice convos and the beautiful weather.

Friday Breks was my standard smoothie.

• Banana, mango, raspberry smoothie ala television.

Ok, I gotta jet and go do wedding stuff with the sista!