Category Archives: food

Digesting My Weekend.

And I mean that both literally and figuratively.

My weekend was spent being completely immersed in NASCAR and eating.

While I’m still sorting through everything I learned I will say this: after this weekend I have a much greater appreciation for NASCAR as a sport, and of course Toyota is continuing to impress me.

So while I collect my thoughts and upload my pictures, I thought I’d leave you with this…a glimpse of my weekend by way of food.

Yesterday when I got home I started showing Rylee the pictures on my phone. As she was scrolling through them she looked up at me and said, “wow Mommy! You ate a lot of food!”

And oh was she right…

Not pictured: salads, sandwiches, pulled pork, hashbrown casserole, chicken enchilada casserole with jalapeño mayo and various snack type items.

The fake cheese nachos were just icing on the NASCAR cake. I’ve made it a rule over the years that if I’m at a sporting event and they have those nachos, I get them. Whether I’m hungry or not.

The In-N-Out was in San Fran during my layover. It was a first for me. Not gonna lie…I wasn’t overly impressed.

I was a little disappointed I didn’t get the opportunity to try any grits, but I did get some real deal fried chicken, I tried some fried okra, got to eat at Bo Jangles and there was plenty of opportunity to eat Mac n cheese.

Now…what was I saying last week about joining a gym?

Disclosure: I was selected for participation in the TWIN community through a program with Clever Girls Collective. I did not receive any compensation for writing this post, or payment in exchange for participating. The opinions expressed herein are mine, and do not reflect the views of the Toyota.

Extended Weekend? Sort of.

I work and I cook and it’s NBD.

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Today I’m over on Liberating Working Moms sharing some of my tips & tricks for “Working Mom Meals Made Easy”…

If there’s one thing with this whole working mom gig I feel like I’ve got a pretty good handle on, it’s dinner time. In a given month, we eat out maybe one time.

Yep, you read that right, that means I cook pretty much every single day of the month. And it’s not just hot dogs & mac-n-cheese and quesadillas every night either. It’s things like steak, mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli…pork chops, rice and green beans…empanadas, spanish rice and beans.

All in all it’s easy, really. If you ask me, it’s just as quick and easy as going out to a restaurant, going out to bring something home or waiting for dinner to be delivered. Of course, my biased could also come from us not really having the luxury of option thanks to budgets.

If cooking more more meals at home is something you’ve wanted to start doing but didn’t know where to start, I promise you it’s not as intimidating as it sounds!

Here’s some of my best tips & tricks I’ve learned over the years…

Go check it out!

Steppin’ Out {#ToyotaWomen Style}

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This week I headed down to LA to meet with Toyota USA and some of the other women that have been selected to be a part of TWIN (Toyota Women’s Influencer Network). After a full day of learning about Toyota as a company, their brand, their passion, driving their cars and touring their campus we headed out to dinner.

Between the end our our day and dinner we had about 30 minutes to get ready. Since I had been up since 3 AM {long story, for another post} my hair was up in a sorta messy bun thing. To try and fix my hair in less than 30 minutes or not…that was the question. Since I’ve been using some new sulfate-free shampoo & conditioner I figured I’d give it a go and if my hair looked like ass I’d just pull it back.

Turns out that new shampoo & conditioner is even better than I had originally anticipated. I call this my “I’ve been up since 3 AM and I just had 20 minutes to get ready” look. Not bad, right!?

Dress: Trulli / Sweater: AT LOFT / Shoes: Moda {borrowed from my seester}

We stepped out to a restaurant called the Depot in Torrance, CA. Their bread basket was amazing. And, even though their menu had TONS of amazing fresh fish options, apparently I was craving something more…red. I ordered a filet mignon. And mashed potatoes. Bacon cheddar mashed potatoes to be exact. They were amazing. After realizing I was sitting at a table with 3, maybe 4 vegetarians, I felt bad for a split second. Then my food showed up. And I didn’t care anymore.

After dinner came dessert…of course! Our server brought our table 4 different desserts to share. Again, amazing. Creme Brulee, Fresh Apple Crisp, Banana Cream Pie and some fantastic looking chocolate-blueberry ice cream thing.

And of course, when you’re eating dinner with a bunch of bloggers, you see a lot of this.

Dinner, dessert and the company I shared it with was amazing. Such a fun way to step out for an evening.

I’ll write more about my time with Toyota later this week. Until then, happy Sunday! And also? A little shot of the bump for you. {Seriously, if I hear one more person tell me “You don’t even look pregnant!” I might snap.} Double also? Holy crap 20 weeks tomorrow!!

I’m linking up with Mandy at The Haps for Stepping Out Saturday!

The Latelies this Week & a Friday Funny

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Rylee is going to be at school on Valentine’s Day this year…I am ridiculously excited to go buy some Valentine’s this weekend and write them out with her.
Rylee was about in tears last night at dinner because apparently when we told her one day she’ll grow up and move out it hurt her feelings. And she never wants to move out. It was the sweetest, saddest thing ever.
Wednesday night I made one of the top 3 worst dinners I have EVER made! I had a partial container of ricotta cheese, so I found this recipe on Kraft Foods. It had absolutely no flavor. And on top of that instead of fettuccine noodles, for novelty sake, I used some alphabet noodles. They were gross. And tiny. And the whole thing looked kind of like white throw up. Needless to say, we ate a lot of bread that night. And then threw out all the leftovers.
On the flip side, Monday night’s dinner was freaking fantastic and I will be sharing it on Sunday!
Today is payday and I’m using the fact that I “HAVE” to deposit my check in the bank as the perfect excuse swing into the Taco Bell that happens to be right next door. {I’m really excited for lunch}
Thank you guys so, so much for your support on the posts I wrote earlier this week…seriously I was about in tears reading some of the comments. You are awesome.
I just got word that I may be going down to Cali later this month to the Toyota Headquarters as part of my TWIN deal! You have NO idea how stoked I am for the opportunity! I’ll share more details when I know more myself.
It’s really, really hard for me to believe that four days from now we will be finding out if this little baby in my belly is a boy or a girl. It seems so soon! And no, I have no idea or predictions one way or the other. Do you?
Oh and on Monday I’m having a lunch date with my very best friend that consists of tuna fish sandwiches on toasted bread just like we always used to eat. It’s been far too long since we’ve had one of these lunches.
And now, I shall leave you with this. I saw this earlier and I couldn’t help but laugh a little, because holy cow can I relate…

Source: nickmom.com via Katherine on Pinterest

P.S. I just realized how much of this post had to do with food. Wow…hungry much? Haha.

Happy Friday!

Somewhere In The Middle

Mostly Average Accounts of the World's Okayest Mom.