Silly messages cause (delicious) cravings

On Tuesday morning I woke up to five text messages from my best friend, M, to her fiancé pleading for a big bowl of mac & cheese as she was getting off an all night flight from Londontown.

It gave me a good chuckle to wake up to but it got me thinking about mac&cheese. One of those cravings that you can't help but think about ALL DAY. The worst thing about this craving is, I dislike pasta and thus, it can never fully be satisfied.

Yes I said it, I don't like pasta. Let's move on.

What is a girl to do? Well if you are a girl like me, you start with whole wheat penne pasta, roast up lots of fresh vegetables, coat it in panko, and bake it in the oven. This is how you make Mac&Cheese healthy enough to enjoy it.


Roasted Vegetable Mac & Cheese

Chop up vegetables that you enjoy - I used broccoli, zucchini, carrots, and portabella mushrooms.

Toss in salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, olive oil

  Roast at 400 about 20 minutes or until your vegetables are soft.

While roasting, make pasta as directed. I used an 8 ounce box of whole wheat penne pasta. I like my pasta al dente and with baking after done, do not allow to get too soft.

Coat with cheese(I used cheddar for this step) and a touch of milk.

 

Add the roasted vegetables. At this point I also added fresh tomatoes from the garden and roasted red peppers that I already had canned early in the season.

 

Transfer to an 8X10 glass baking dish. Top with Mozzarella, panko, and bake at 350 until all melted and crispy on top.

Craving satisfied!

This post is dedicated to Mr. C for that fateful night last summer when he went to buy me a hot dog at Turner Field and came back with a bowl of mac&cheese. 

I don't think we're in Kansas anymore...

No, wait. We ARE in Kansas!

I went to Kansas this weekend. Yes, I REALLY went to Kansas this weekend and yes, it was on purpose. I actually flew into Missouri but spent the weekend on both sides of the river to check both of those states off of my #bucketlist, never to be added again.

Why you ask? Well, it is because I have a travel addiction and every Friday afternoon I end up parking at the Marta station and riding to the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. Sometimes you will find me riding the train, making a few frantic calls to friends around the country hoping for an open couch for the weekend.

Here we go again...





Other times, I get to fly to Kansas City, Missouri and celebrate my best friend's #quarterlifecrisis birthday bash with a trip to a water park in the Kansas heartland.

She grabbed me from the airport and took me directly to see her city and enjoy happy hour. There is a reason we get along so well! She lives in the Zona Rosa area of town which has a great outdoor mall/entertainment plaza with bars, shopping, movie theaters, and restaurants.



We roamed around Zona and many of her friends came to meet us. We had a Mexican feast and then went to see Brad Williams, a stand-up comic at the Kansas City IMPROV. Who was hilarious by the way!



Atlanta has the Punchline, I know everyone loves it but it is just so dark/dingy/tight/etc. and I haven't had the best experiences there. This place was completely different, a real IMPROV theatre - the brick walls and small tables lining the club. We had an awesome time!



The next day we woke up early and had a leisurely morning - well only Tank may have.

we busied ourselves cooking a big breakfast for everyone to come and enjoy before heading to the water park. We whipped up the works - pancakes, eggs, bacon, and lots of mimosas.

And finally were off to the park.



It had miles of lazy rivers cutting through the Kansas heartland, with tidal waves, rapids, slides, and  swim up bars.

Don't round up to thirty just yet, as we decided to revert back to the tender age of twelve for this birthday party. Besides the cocktails - always round up for those.

Water slides and cocktails may be the best combination. Good job Schlitterbahn.

I'll admit it, good job Kansas. I MAY be back!

Happy Birthday JFogg! 

Backstage (NO)Passes

Last Friday I spent happy hour in my very favorite place, watching planes coming and going at the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta.

Well, it is my second favorite. The first being anywhere in the sky at 32,000 feet. Due to flight delays we spent a quick 32 hours in Chicago, Illinois but it helped us enjoy every. last. SECOND.

Which we did.

We stayed with our good friends, B+A from our days in Athens and forced them out to do all the touristy activities we could squeeze in. We started at "The Bean" in Cloudgate Park. It is located off of S. Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago, and next to an outdoor amphitheater along the water.

We took all the necessary "selfies" in the Bean. Ya'll know how much we love selfies, so there is a lot more like this - trust me!

We walked to Sears Tower (now called Willis Tower) to peer off the Sky Deck and stand on one of the tallest buildings in the world. It is the EIGHTH tallest and the sky deck on the top is a clear square that makes you dizzy and scared to look down.

Or so I have heard. Unfortunately, the line was 2+ hours long and we just don't have time for it during our crash course of Chicago. We walked in the lobby so I could tentatively check it off the #bucketlist. I guess I have a reason to go back now!

We had to hurry our little feet because we had LOLLAPALOOZA to attend. Lolla is an annual music festival in Grant Park and hosts some 120,000+ people between the Chicago skyline and shores of Lake Michigan.

We had a pretty great crew to celebrate the weekend, so many wonderful faces that live much too far from me.

I have been to many music festivals - most of the big ones in the U.S., and Grant Park is my new favorite venue for a festival. We played in the park all afternoon and late into the night- enjoying the scenery and cooler Chicago weather. 

 

It was a perfect day of smiles,

the best of friends (I wish you could see my flower headband better in this photo)

and bands! We saw Mumford+Sons, Lumineers, The National, Local Natives, Charles Bradley, Ben Howard, St. Lucia, Family of the Year, and Eric Church.

Let me rephrase that - I saw Eric Church from ON stage.

As in, K and I stood next to Eric Church's wife in the sound booth to enjoy the show.

We knew the drummer and decided to see how far we could get backstage before being stopped. Just so you know, THIS is how far we got.

He's a pretty good looking man, no?! 

We enjoyed the perks of backstage - not being packed in this sea of people, jealousy from all our friends, a humble brag post on Facebook (I just had to)

 

and of course shots with ERIC CHURCH and his band before a successful show!

It is amazing what you can get away with when you are pretending you know what you are doing. 

Advice from this post: Go on that trip even if your plane is delayed, even if you will only be there for 32 hours, even if you are exhausted Monday at work because you never know when you will end up on stage with Eric Church.

And you just don't get two opportunities to do that!

Baked Avocados from the Salad Bowl of the World

There is a little town in California right on the coast between Monterrey and Piedras Blancas with vegetables as far as your eye can see. The sign that welcomes you to the town reads, "Welcome to the Salad Bowl of the World" and the vegetables grow right up to the roadside.

In the fields of greens between the pickers working in the California sun and the beautiful Californian coast sit roadside stands of fresh picked vegetables that nearly grow into their bins ready to be purchased.

If the location was not enough to beckon you in - the deals at the stands made it impossible not to stop and we filled our buggies with more vegetables than we could carry.

Avocados, artichokes, and grapefruits - my favorite foods on the planet were 10 for $1. Really. I almost caused a wreck pulling over as quick as I could.

As usual my eyes were bigger than my recipe book and although I love my avocados I am guacemole'd out! Thankfully, I discovered you can BAKE an avocado!

Baked Avocados.

Cut one avocado in half and play on small baking pan.  Discard the pit and preheat oven to 450F.

  In bowl, combine tomatoes, garlic, Parmesan cheese, lime juice, pepper, and basil. Spoon ingredients into halved avocado, top with bread crumbs (I used panko) and bake for FIVE minutes.

This meal is wonderful and fast. It is healthy and hearty and will definitely fill you up. The creamy texture of the warm avocado melts in your mouth as if it was warmed all day by the sunshine.

These are definitely a fun (and SO EASY) treat and I can't wait to try new ingredients for the toppings. Oh, so many possibilities. Your belly will be happy you tried these!  

#TBT Travel Stories

Today at work between meetings and entertaining drug reps we got onto the topic of most embarrassing events and stories in our life.

I have only been here two weeks - these people have no idea what they are in for with me!

Embarrassing is hard for me. DUMB moments? Now I can think of plenty of those! So in honor of #tbt, I am going to reminise about the DUMBEST travel decision I ever made.

I'll be honest, there are a few of those as well. The time I booked my trip backwards with the departure city as my arrival and visa versa (ok, that happened more than once..) the time I was pick pocketed within an hour of arriving in Spain, and the time I still SWEAR I bought a train to Slovakia but it ended up in Slovenia. Rookie mistakes.

A few years ago I went to Costa Rica - a short trip we were only there for a few weeks and bumming around the country on public transportation. Drinking and speaking Spanglish on a public bus bouncing around to different surf spots, from Manuel Antonio to Monteverde and back was one of the most fun trips I have planned.

When this is the view from your public transit, you know you have done something right. 

 

During our stay in Arenal we were jam packed with activities - we bungee jumped in the rainforest, zip-lined, rappelled down waterfalls, and hiked volcanoes. I am an adrenaline junkie and LOVED every minute of it. If you are not an adrenaline junkie you will still love every minute of it. Probably even more.

After spending the afternoon in the rainforest, rappelling down waterfalls and running through the jungle with the biggest grins on our faces, our four tour guides invited us to experience the "real" Costa Rica. Away from the resorts (or in our case the hostels) and go out with them to downtown La Fortuna. Ready to experience the local life, and spend more time with our attractive guides, we jumped at the chance.This is how you go out for a night on the town in the rainforest. 

Dresses+Patagonia forever.

It is there that the story starts like any other - a few too many Imperials, a boy, and a motorcycle. Deciding I had to go for a ride on his motorcycle right NOW, the boy obliged and drunkenly we set off. This is where it goes horribly wrong.

Let's forget for a moment that I am on the back of a motorcycle of a drunk stranger and on a volcano in the Costa Rican jungle because it was one of those moments you know you are going to remember forever as a snapshot in your mind.

We rode up the Arenal volcano and down backroads littered with small shacks that were the real life of a Costa Rican family. We sped down hidden trails without a soul in sight while a full moon as big as the volcano it sat next to shone brightly on me. It is one the best traveling moments I have experienced and I happily sat behind him and fell in love with traveling all over again (and again, and again, and again...)

At this point he began to slow down in order to stop on a small road and I panicked a bit, ready to fight my way out of the situation. I contemplated pushing him off the motorcycle - but realizing I would most likely go down with it, began formulating Plan B. As he came to a stop I noticed two cabs pulling off and the last of our friends jumping into the thick jungle along the roadside. I smiled, my girlfriends were here!

The best natural hot spring in the area has been built into a fancy resort, you can't get to the hot spring without staying at the resort. Which is a bit of a bother really.

Luckily, our new friends knew a back way into the resort so we trudged through the jungle, tredding through warm rivers that were fed from the hot spring, and finally shimmied through a drainage pipe to emerge into the resort.

There's no turning back after shimming through a drain pipe. 

The rest of the night was spent racking up a pretty steep bar bill that we felt guilty about leaving to our hosts, swimming in the waters with steam pipping out into the night, and having a beautiful night in the Costa Rican jungle. 

It was magical. Alot of things could have gone very wrong with the decisions I made but sometimes the dumbest choices make the best memories.

But what are we here for except to make amazing memories and experience this beautiful LIFE.