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”?
Related posts:
I love Trader Joes! I noticed that they replicate most popular items for a lower price. A.k.a the sunflower seed butter is identical to the brand in my pantry but I’m sure TJs was cheaper!
I’d be allllll over that PB icing
AHH! I need to get my butt to Trader Joe’s! That plate of dumplings + green beans looks yum! My mom has a ton of Cypriot recipes that my sister and I are attempting to learn to make..and she’s the only one that makes these almond cookies, people from our church call her to ask her to go over and make them with them so they can learn! lol
Looks like a fun weekend!! Funny that you found so much chocolate on sale all weekend!
I’ve never tried collard greens raw as a salad…I’ll have to give that a try.
Those neverending chip baskets at Mexican restaurants are deadly- soooo good
That’s great that you got to hit up Trader Joe’s- I’m having Bri bring me up some peanut butter pretzels and sea salt brownies- love ‘em!
I wish there was a Trader Joe’s in Canada! I get so envious seeing all these bloggers shop there. Same goes with Publix, although not to the same degree.
My family has a secret curry chicken recipe and a samosa recipe. So delicious!
Really about TJ pictures? Oops…I always snap away. Too bad for them!
That cupcake looks ridiculous. No family recipe here. Mom never cooked…. I’m sure my Italian grandma has some good ones up her sleeve.
Wow I can’t believe you can’t take pictures in Trader Joes…weird! I love Trader Joes but I buy a bunch of stuff without added stuff- yogurt, black beans, baked kettle chips, frozen mango, english muffins, harvest grain blend, etc- yummy stuff
Ok, Sis. I am totally jealous of the chicken and dumplings. Totally a taste of our childhood:)
I’ve been told I couldn’t take pictures at Marshalls before! haha..my friend and I were trying stuff on and taking pictures, and a lady yelled at us “No pictures in store!” I think it may be for other customers privacy incase you somehow get them in your picture, maybe? Love Trader Joes though! I highly recommend their Mandarin Orange Chicken! Its frozen yet so good!
That’s so funny about pictures inside Trader Joe’s. I wonder why they are like that!
I have never tried the sunflower seed butter. You are right though you need to read the labels on everything! Funny about the pics- I may have to bring my camera in just to see!
omg DELICIOUS DELICIOUS eats!! and i actually LOVE trader joe’s but know what you mean- hmmm wonder why no pictures?
So many amazing chocolate treats! My grandpa makes a top secret chili recipe that is TO DIE for. Rumor has it, the recipe is actually in his will…
Wow lots going on in this post!! Too much delicious looking food to comment on!! I love love love Lindt and Lindor chocolate – I’ve seen that chilli flavour Lindt about everywhere, but I was always too scared to try it in case it was horrible! I think I might now – if I can’t taste the chilli it won’t matter cos I’ll still have dark chocolate:D
maybe I’ll have to come up with one!?
My family’s secret recipe is my Gran’s christmas pudding – it just sucks that I don’t like christmas pudding
Have a great day
im sad you were disappointed by trader joes! sometimes it can be hard to navigate to all the things you want – i always wnat all the ‘healthy’ junk food!
i love their sausages though, did you enjoy them?!
as for the recipe i think the closest thing we have it meatballs or potato salad – kinda lame!
forgot to mention that im totally saving that pb icing recipe for a rainy day! yum!
so much to comment on today
do you have the best bf in the world? he was willing to do yoga with you and go to a grocery store an hour or so away with you? KEEPER!!! I’ve been approached by people at whole foods to not take pics..but I still put them up anyways!! I always say good things! They should like free advertisment!! Mmm…so much delicious homemade eats…drool
ps. i hope my chocoholic pics aren’t rubbing off on you!
I have never been to Trader Joe’s, but I am so curious about it. You are a better woman than me — I’d have posted those pix for sure.
Now you’ve got me craving Mexican! How long have you guys been doing long distance? It is killing me and I can’t wait to be with him in a mere 23 days! If someone had told me I’d move 800+ miles for a man I’d have thought they were crazy, but here I go!
Ashley-We have been long distance for about 9 months now. It’s much easier than I thought it would be. Probably because we only live 3 hours apart from each other and we spend almost every weekend together. (Waiting 23 days would be a lot harder!) Plus, we have been dating for 3 years now, and prior to me starting internship, we had both lived in the same city.
Diana-Yes, I think I might have a keeper
.
That sounds like a great weekend! And I’m about to head to Group Power. You’re right though – the music in the body training systems classes is always an odd selection. LOL
Cupcakes with peanut butter icing = love. I also love Mexican food…a vegetarian’s favorite!
Looks like a great weekend! All your meals are delicious!
I love Trader Joe’s. So much cheaper than other stores, and they have great packaged foods.
My family has a secret Italian Meatballs and Sauce recipe that I couldn’t live without. It’s unbelievable!
Great question, I love family traditions
I love Trader Joe’s! I have never bought the sunflower seed butter but all of the other nut butters are typically just nuts and then are labeled for the ones that are salted and the ones that are not. You can’t go wrong with the price either. The raw, unsalted creamy almond butter is only $4.95 where as in whole foods it is upwards of $15!
What a fun post! I loved all your eats but that vegetarian burrito stole the show! YUM!! That looked amazing!! I am also super jealous that you have TJ’s….we don’t! Bugger!
dang girl! everything looks so good! that pasta looks graet with chives in there…i LOVE chives! those chicken sausages are awesome1 too! did you buy that BIG bag of greens?! I got that yesterday and used some in my soup i made…I still have about half the bag!!
The trail mixes, nuts and dried fruit is mainly where there is a big price difference. A bag of almonds at TJs is like 5 bucks and 10 at whole foods!!
that peanut butter cupcake AHH i want a big bite!!
I’m loving all the chocolate and green in this post! I love Lindt!
And that veg burrito looks fantastic!
My mom makes a world famous chex mix recipe at Christmas, she could sell that stuff she has so many requests for it. I finally got the recipe this year so I can’t wait to make it!
I agree that the Lindt chili chocolate is not all that spicy. If you ever see the sea salt flavor – try that! It’s really good. I’ve found it at Borders bookstore in the past.
Megan-I bought that at the Lindt store! But I was kinda disappointed with it..
Maybe it was just me, but I couldn’t taste the salt!
That cupcake looks delish! An all round tasty weekend indeed! x x
Does the collard greens salad taste good? That is one green that kind of scares me, especially raw!
I want Mexican! I want Mexican! That burrito needs me badly.
Everything looks delicious! I agree, not everything at TJ’s is great, but a lot of it is! I didn’t know until recently but you can ask to try ANYTHING before you purchase it…they’ll open it up right there for you to try! Love that!
WOW! Good to know.
OMG LILY! what the heck? i swear to god i put your blog on my reader, yet somehow i haven’t been seeing ANY of your posts! i am so so sorry, i feel like i’ve missed out on so much!! eek! fixing that RIGHT NOW. wow such a fun post, love all the pics and i LOVE TJs, i’m so lucky my mom lives next door to one lol. mmm veggie burrito, and pb icing!
You might have been looking for my recipe that I used. It was from this website.
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/fluffy-peanut-butter-frosting/detail.aspx
If you are ever looking for anything that has pb and chocolate, hit me up . . . I’m ALL over it!
By the way, chicken and dumplings are definitely one of my all time faves! For family recipes, my grandma likes to spoil me with her noodles and mashed potatoes when I visit her . . . mmmmm
Ah ha!! I’d bet it was your recipe!! I wish I had made the one you posted about instead.
I love Trader Joe’s but I think if you’ve never been before, I could see how it wouldn’t live up to the hype.
Jason always talks about the Upstate and I never know what he means. My South Carolina geography is not very good.
I’m wicked jealous of every single picture on this page. The end.
I don’t really think we have any secret family recipes, unless you count those dinners where every dish on the table has “cream of something” soup in it. :/
Honestly, there is never such a thing as too much chocolate
Sad to hear that you didn’t enjoy Trader Joe’s as much as you thought you would. It’s the only place that my husband and I will do our weekly grocery shop at. It’s very cheap compared to the other stores around here.
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