Non-Pregnant Weekend Activities

I admit, my blogging has turned into quite the pregnancy journal as of late.  My phases as a runner training for a marathon and food blogger are kind of distant memories right now.  It's funny, because I used to look at friends that blogged and became pregnant and wonder how their blogs went from more variety of content to strictly once a week pregnancy posts, but now that I'm here, I kind of get it.  I actually spend a few days a week working on pregnancy posts so that I can remember all the things happening that week.  It usually doesn't leave me a whole lot of time leftover to blog about anything else.  Also, many of my weekly activities involve pregnancy news- like classes, nursery projects, shopping trips to Buy Buy Baby, etc... so as you can see, pregnancy has kind of taken over my life now!

That said, I do have a life outside pregnancy.  I think I'm just too busy enjoying the moments to whip out a camera, or even remember to bring my DSLR most of the time though.  Over the weekend I did do a few fun activities and even captured them on my IPhone.  Clyde and I met Kelly and Rascal for a walk.

It was a gorgeous day and we walked in the scenic, mansion heavy South Park area.  We also had a nice lunch outside at EarthFare after where I hoovered a big salad from their salad bar and a peanut butter brownie, that yes, went un-photographed (bad blogger).

Greg and I regularly send pictures back and forth of Clyde when one of us is with him and the other is at work, so I sent him this cute shot of Clyde on Saturday afternoon...

Sunday, I took advantage of another social opportunity and got together with a fun group of girls at Diana's house for a pot luck dinner.  If you read her blog, you know that she's coordinating an eat-in month challenge, so this was a way for her to be social but not go out.  This group has been dubbed the "Epic Eaters", and they often go out or get together for fun food consuming activities.

I made Jenna's pumpkin mac and cheese, which you can see in the photo below on the right, next to Jen's awesome scones.

There was also potato salad, kale and apple salad (so good!), goat cheese and crackers, dumplings, pork and rice...

And a big dish of apple cranberry crisp that Diana made, which was good, because I NEED my dessert lately!

Also, for the ladies who could drink, our friend Dion brought the most interesting jello shot ever created!

A fish bowl!  Cute right?  Here are the girls digging in.

We had a great time eating and hanging out.  I actually ate way too much.  I'm finding that it's harder to tell when I'm full while pregnant and really have to watch how much I eat or I regret it later.  Good thing I can take Tums, because I needed them Sunday night!

Anyway, that's just a little snippet of my non-pregnant activities lately.  I'm really trying to savor these last moments before the baby comes because I know it's not going to be so easy to just up and do these kinds of things once she's here and I have other responsibilities.  

My Baby Shower

I have to say, my baby shower was a real milestone for me.  There was definitely a time when I thought that I might never get to this point- to have a party celebrating a baby growing in my belly.  The day definitely felt far in the future for a long time, like a dream or goal that I didn't know if I would ever achieve.  I've been to tons and tons and baby showers over the last couple years, and I often wondered if I would ever have one.  It's crazy to me that I did!  Having the baby shower was just another thing that made all of this feel more real.

Awesome diaper cake Kelly made me!

Kelly has been offering to throw me a baby shower since my first pregnancy.  I've often laughed at how excited she's been about it and remember many times when we'd be out to dinner or something and she would whip out her phone and show me pictures she'd pinned on Pinterest with ideas for my baby shower.  She was just slightly enthusiastic ;)  She's exactly the kind of person you want planning your baby shower though- thoughtful, organized, and creative.  She definitely nailed the theme of lambs/peach (like our nursery) and made everything delicious and gorgeous, with the help of my mom and a family friend who are also excellent cooks.

Great minds think alike- she brought a bunch of lanterns to hang that looked similar to the ones we have hanging in the nursery.

The shower was a brunch theme, which was great, because I LOVE breakfast food!  We had ham, biscuits, pimento cheese, egg bake, french toast, munchkin donuts, baked fruit, mimosas, and the cutest cupcakes ever, made my Kelly's aunt.

My plate of food looked similar to Jen's (many of these pictures are borrowed from Jen and Brittany).

We were going to play games but that fell by the wayside when present opening and nursery tours ensued.  Our baby girl is spoiled, she got some great stuff!

A lot of the gifts are now piled in my dining room as I sort through, put them away, and write thank you notes!  So many cute baby things :)

It was really fun to see all my friends.  We got a shot of a bunch of us at the end.

Also, baby girl was moving a bit and at one point I had about 5-6 hands on my belly so my friends could feel her :)

The shower was so much fun, and kind of a blur.  I wish I'd taken more pictures myself, but I was too busy socializing, eating, and enjoying the experience to go too crazy documenting it myself.  We did get a couple pictures after of me with Kelly.

Oh wait, we probably should get the belly in the shot, huh?

And my mom...

Seriously, I thought it was the most beautiful baby shower I've ever been to, and I really can't thank Kelly, my Mom, and everyone who came and celebrated the baby with me enough.  Having this shower meant the world to me and I'm so thankful to all of you that were a part of it :)

If you want to see/hear more about the baby shower, check out:

Jen's post

Kelly's post

Brittany's post

They all got some great shots and descriptions of the day!

An Evening With Chobani

Do you ever sit around thinking, "I wonder what kind of recipes I could make using Greek yogurt?"  If so, this is the post for you.  Last week I was invited to a dinner at Chobani.  The mission?  Make a full dinner using all recipes that include Greek yogurt.  I loved the concept!

My family loves Chobani yogurt.  I've gotten my husband addicted to it, and even my dog, Clyde, seems to know the difference and prefers licking the remnants of the Chobani cups over any other type of yogurt.  My personal favorite flavors are the pineapple and mango, but I'll pretty much eat any Chobani flavor :)  I do sometimes sub yogurt for butter or oil, but if you really think about it, there's a ton you can do with it in almost every recipe.  I feel like that's what the the point of this event was- to show us all the possibilities!

Chobani has a swanky high rise office in uptown Charlotte, complete with an awesome test kitchen, where we all assembled for the event.

photo credit Chobani photographer

Of course before we got into cooking, there was plenty of socializing, drinking, and nibbling on an appetizer spread that included dips made with Greek yogurt.

I was especially addicted to the guacamole, and enjoyed dipping my veggies and pita chips in that :)  Chobani yogurt gives it a nice yummy tangy taste.

I may have been slightly jealous of Brittany's glass of red wine, but my ginger ale was good too.

Introductions were made and our Chobani contact Amy filled us in on what we'd be doing.

photo credit to Chobani photographer

Then we all partnered up and got to cooking a recipe for dinner.  I ended up with Kelly and we found ourselves at the smashed potatoes with broccoli station.

Each station had all the necessary ingredients laid out for us, along with a recipe to follow.

Oh, and a cute apron and pot holder, which they let us keep.  Excellent, maybe now that I have two glove pot holders I will not burn my wrists pulling things out of the oven anymore ;)

Kelly and I got to work on our recipe.  She chopped and sauteed onions and I peeled and chopped the potatoes and broccoli and got them boiling.

Looking around the room, everyone was engrossed in cooking and chatting.  It was really fun :)

Partners!

photo credit Chobani photographer

Our recipe came together fairly easily.  I think one of the great things about the Chobani recipes is that they are not that complicated.  

photo credit Chobani photographer

I finished up our smashed potatoes by baking them with a generous layer of cheddar cheese spread over the top.  Yum!

The other dishes prepared included:  Gorgonzola crostini,

salad with honey walnut dressing, 

pumpkin risotto, holiday stuffing,

asparagus with hollandaise, 

and roasted butternut squash soup.

I gathered some of each on my plate, and it kind of reminded me of Thanksgiving!

The show stopper of the night came out in the middle of chowing down on everything else- the iced gingerbread cake.

If you make one recipe from this post, make THIS CAKE.  It's absolutely incredible.  It's moist and flavorful, and there is actually no butter in it, which is crazy!  I'm planning on making it for Christmas.

I was honored to be invited to the event since I'm not known strictly for my food blogging like many of my fellow bloggers that attended are.  I do love to cook though and am always on the look out for smart ideas in the kitchen.  Using Greek yogurt in recipes is a great idea and all of the recipes we made are on the easy side and took less than an hour to make, which are my kind of recipes.  Check out more ideas at the Chobani Kitchen.  Also look for the Twitter hashtag #justaddgood

I really had an excellent time socializing, cooking, and eating at this event.  Thank you so much for having me Chobani!

photo credit Chobani photographer