I was mucho excited for last weekend to arrive. It was Stephen’s turn to make the drive to the Upstate, since I had gone to Charleston 2 weekends in a row.
Friday
First on our weekend agenda? Eat Mexican! We went to a local restaurant that just opened a few months ago. The first time we ate there, we were really impressed. And this trip left us feeling no different.
We started off by eating waaaaaaaaaaaay too many chips. Somehow we demolished one basket and then half of another. The salsa on the left was just so good, I couldn’t stop reaching for the chips!
For my entree, I got the vegetarian burrito. At first I wasn’t sure if my order had been a good choice, but once I took a bite…
I knew I had chosen correctly.
Check out Stephen’s plate. I can’t even remember what all is on there. However, I do recall that the crispy taco things on the right were delicious!
At the end of the meal, our palates were cleansed by an apple cinnamon chip topped with whipped cream and strawberry sauce.
After eating, we ran a few errands. While shopping at Rite Aid, we came across a chocolate sale. I got these bars for $1 each!
I’d been wanting to try the Lindt Dark Chocolate Chili bar for some time, and I was fairly disappointed. I can hardly taste the chili in it. Basically, it’s just a dark chocolate bar.
Saturday
I scored a free guest pass to my gym, and somehow I convinced Stephen to join me Saturday a.m. We attended Group Power and Group Centergy. Stephen had been to neither, and I was excited for him to tag along and experience two classes that I attend regularly.
He was a good sport, but I don’t think he was in love with either of them. 
The Centergy instructor did tell him he had a knack for yoga though!
After hitting the gym, we had thrilling plans for our Saturday!
We took a road trip to the Trader Joe’s in Charlotte, North Carolina.
After seeing Trader Joe’s products all over the blogs, I was pumped to do some shopping!
I took lots of pictures of the inside. However, at the end of my trip, an employee approached and informed me that pictures are not allowed inside Trader Joe’s.
Does anyone know why this is? I’ve decided to leave them off the blog, but I wonder if I that is truly necessary.
My thoughts on Trader Joe’s:
1) The staff is unbelievably helpful and friendly.
2) They have a lot of interesting items, for fairly low prices.
3) But, I didn’t think the prices were astonishingly low when you take into consideration the quality of the products. To clarify, their stuff is certainly not poor quality. I was just a bit bummed that almost all of the products had added salt and/or sugar. For example, the sunflower seed butter I purchased contained both.
It tasted really good though!
All in all, Stephen and I had a fun time browsing. And of course I picked up some interesting finds.
After grocery shopping, we decided we had better do something else in Charlotte, since it’s not necessarily a short drive away.
We hit up the mall. Where, what did we find? MORE chocolate!
I bought 3 more chocolate bars! Plus this truffle.
Looks good.
But it was kind of a disappointment. The flavor seemed really off and kind of stale.
After the mall, we were beat. So we headed back to South Carolina.
When we arrived home, I put two of my Trader Joe’s purchases to good use.
This spinach and chive pasta paired quite well with sweet basil pesto chicken/turkey sausage. The pasta was $2.00 for 4 servings and the sausage was $5.00 for 4 servings.
Served with the last of my walnut oil pesto.
And a collard green salad.
Obviously, I wasn’t too creative with my meal’s color…
Plus, I made some cupcakes with Bob’s Red Mill Chocolate cake mix. (Think I had enough chocolate this weekend?)
I transformed this…
Into this…
On top is a peanut butter icing that I whipped up. Speaking of, which blogger posted their peanut butter icing recipe about a week ago??? That recipe is what I really wanted to make, but I forgot to bookmark it. 
Thankfully, Sophia came to the rescue by leading me to another pb icing recipe. I changed it up based on the ingredients I had on hand.
Peanut Butter Icing
Ingredients 2 (5.3 oz) containers Oikos Vanilla Greek Yogurt 10.6 oz. plain Stonyfield yogurt
1 Tbsp honey agave nectar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
3/4 cup powdered sugar
The icing was actually a really good accompaniment to the chocolate cupcakes. I was surprised…I definitely didn’t have high hopes after I sampled the icing on its own.
Sunday
Sundays in the Upstate typically means a family lunch is in order. This week my mom outdid herself by making chicken and dumplings. These are my Grandma Mildred’s secret recipe.
After lunch, my family gathered ‘round the television to watch the USA vs. Canada hockey game. I hadn’t watched a hockey match in awhile, and this one was certainly a nail biter!
Oh well, silver ain’t bad, United States!
I am currently in a post Olympics funk. But once I press post, I’m going to wallow my sorrows in a yummy dinner that is TBD. Pretty sure I’ll be adding some LOST and Glee to the mix as well!
Question: Does your family have a “secret recipe”?
George, I’ve never had Thai tea. Sorry!