Monday's Funny

We are so easily amused by our sweet little puppy!  Ellie found a makeshift bed in an old comforter last night... It was a little small.

Much better...

Happy Monday!

Happy Birthday!

Sending my mama-in-law, Karen, lots of love & very happy birthday wishes today!  I know that she's having a great time celebrating with extended family... and we can't wait to celebrate with her too!

Now on the hunt again for birthday cake ideas... I'm already debating the Smitten Kitchen Lime Cake with Blackberry Sauce that Amy suggested last time... and the Blueberry Lemon Cake that Jen recently blogged about.  Send suggestions or thoughts this way, if you have any!

Happy Birthday, Karen!!

Nice & Green

For breakfast this morning, we had his & hers Green Monsters!  We had some spinach and a few bananas that, at the end of the week, really needed to be used.  So I decided to try these out... The verdict?  Delicious!

Definitely adding to the weekly rounds after this... I never quite believed it when people said you couldn't taste the spinach, but it is so true.  I pretty much used Angela's basic recipe, with a few modifications.

His:  2 cups organic spinach, 1.5 bananas, 1 scoop protein powder (chocolate), 1 cup skim milk, few ice cubes

Hers:  2 cups organic spinach, 1 banana, little skim milk, little 0% greek yogurt, few ice cubes

Plus it was fun to wake up a little earlier than usual, and enjoy breakfast with the hubs on Friday!

Beach Breakfast Casserole

Per the too-long-for-most-people recap of our beach weekend, I was in charge of breakfast on Saturday morning.  I had a breakfast casserole recipe picked out, then forgot it on my kitchen counter in Charlotte.  So I decided to just kind of make one up as I went along... And, to my surprise, everyone seemed to really like it!

Breakfast Casserole
5 slices of bread (I used pre-made, store-bought croissants and think it gave it a nice extra crunch)
5 large eggs
2 cups of milk
2 cups of Colby Jack cheese, shredded
½ bag of frozen hash browns (the 'Potatoes O'Brien' with peppers & onions)
1 tablespoon dry mustard
Several generous shakes of hot sauce
Salt & pepper to taste

1.  Slice bread into small cubes and cover the bottom of greased baking dish (for the croissants, I also sliced them in half).
2.  Mix eggs, milk, dry mustard, hot sauce, salt & pepper well.  Pour over bread cubes in dish.
3.  Cover and refrigerate over night.
4.  In the morning, sprinkle cheese evenly over top of casserole.
5.  Top with frozen hash browns (be sure to break up any frozen chunks first).
6.  Bake (uncovered) at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until edges and top are browned.

Obviously, not part of this effort... But delicious!

If it's free...

We Whittakers love cheap things... And nothing is better than f-r-e-e. Well maybe I should amend that to say that Jeff loves free & cheap things... And I am getting there (oh so slowly and yes, sometimes painfully).

When I came home from the beach trip on Sunday night, Jeff announced that he received a free set of brown leather chairs for our house to... drum roll please!  ...Replace the dual-recliner!

Hallelujah!  I have a strong feeling that these...

Will look so much better than this...

Now & Then

Now:  This past weekend, I headed to the beach with the amazing group of girls I went to high school (and most of them, middle school) with!  I absolutely love that it felt like we hadn't missed a single day, and I love that there was no 'occassion' - just a fun-filled girls weekend at the beach!

I picked up Hannah bright & early on Friday morning, and we made it to the beach in time to enjoy lunch with Christine and Megan (in from Raleigh) and Renee (in from Atlanta).  We packed up the golf cart with chairs & our cooler and headed to the beach... until 7:30!

Keeley & Erin made it into town about the same time we were leaving the beach... and just in time for pre-dinner drinks!  We had a delicious casserole (thanks Megan!) for a late dinner, and of course spent quality time around the kitchen table chatting away.

{This may have been when we were sharing favorite middle school and high school stories of each other}

 

Saturday morning we were up for breakfast casserole (I'm planning to post the recipe later this week, since I combined a few recipes I'd used before, and I think it came out pretty well!) and an early day at the beach.

We spent all day relaxing beach-side... Even running into a friend from the afternoon before.  His name was Skippy, and I'm not sure if we loved him or his 80+ year old dad more!  His dad told us that Skippy is his 'chick magnet' and apparently Skippy works!

Saturday night was more drinks and another delicious dinner (jambalaya provided by a NOLA native, Renee!)  Not to mention the fried green tomato appetizers that Christine whipped up... amazing!  Anyone else see the weekend themes here?

 

I have to admit that Monday was a hard fall to reality after such a fun weekend!  I feel so fortunate to have friends who I've known forever and still love spending time with!  I second the idea to make this an annual trip... Sorry boys, girls-only.

Oh and, of course, in keeping with this post's title...
And Then:

Food for Thought

For those Charlotteans out there, check out this article posted today on the Charlotte Observer.

A local family is on a whole-foods diet for 100 days.  That means no fast food, no processed foods... Just fresh vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and local grass-fed meat.  I was so excited to see this article, especially since I've recently made a similar (not quite as ridged) commitment after a multi-hour discussion with Sarah.

Goodbye diet cokes & meat (for the most part), and junk food... Hello daily fruits & veggies and water (lots of it)!  Now if I could only get the family on board with this too... 

{my breakfast bowl... with fresh South Carolina peaches from this weekend}