Blank Slate

Helping my mom decorate her place has inspired me to finally do something with our front porch. Stay tuned for inspiration pics and, of course, the end product! Here's what it looks like now. I kept trying to shoo Malloy away and then I realized his presence was good for scale. Don't mind the wet spots - Malloy drools!

I'm off to Chapel Hill tomorrow for a college roomie reunion and a day of cuddling with baby Henry. Then it's some fun in the sun with Ali on Sunday. Can't wait!

Great Grouper & An Exciting Fall

Tonight's dinner was delicious grouper. Though Jimmy raved about the preparation, grouper is not his favorite fish, so I'll definitely be trying this again with another fish.

Baked Grouper Topped with Zucchini, Tomato, Dill and Feta

• 1 1/2 lbs of grouper, cut into three portions
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 large zucchini, diced
• 1/4 small sweet yellow onion, diced
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• 3-4 roma tomatoes, diced
• 1-2 tbsp fresh dill, chopped
• 4 tbsp feta cheese
• Sea salt and freshly cracked lemon pepper

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Coat a glass baking dish with cooking spray.

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion to the hot skillet and sauté for 2-3 minutes then add the zucchini, cook for an additional 2 minutes; add the minced garlic and sauté, stirring constantly for 45 seconds. Remove from heat and let cool.

Gently mix the tomato, 3 tablespoons of feta cheese, and fresh dill in a small bowl. Add the zucchini mixture and mix. Season with sea salt and freshly cracked lemon pepper, to taste.

Cut the grouper into three pieces then season with sea salt and freshly cracked lemon pepper on both sides. Place the grouper in the baking dish then spoon the tomato mixture over the top of each piece of fish. Sprinkle the last tablespoon of feta cheese equally over the fish.

Why an excited Fall? Because the world will welcome, not one, nor two, but three new babies into the world! I can't imagine how my heart can possibly swell bigger than it is now just loving Lucy and Henry, but I have no doubt it will. So excited for Kelly (due early Sept), Katie (due late Sept) and Amie (due late Nov)! I will be an auntie to all, though officially only to Kelly and Spencer's little guy.

Hope everyone has a happy little Friday tomorrow!

Easter Eats

Hope everyone had a great Easter. I spent the weekend, not surprisingly, reading on the beach. What you ask? Cutting for Stone and I'm really enjoying it.

Now for what we ate...dessert first. I got in my head at the end of last week that I really wanted to make a coconut cake for Easter. Well coconut cake we made - a 15 pounder - after 2 days of baking. Yes, that's right. It weighed 15 lbs. It's insanely rich and beyond bad for you, but delicious. I won't show you an end result picture of my cake because my layers were uneven. It was, as Jimmy called it, my leaning tower of pisa coconut cake. Anyways, if you're looking for a special occasion cake (a 10 1/2 sticks of butter cake is NOT for everyday) and you have a lot of people to feed, give this coconut cake from Peninsula Grill in Charleston, SC a try...

Rewind to dinner... I had never had lamb (or at least I couldn't remember ever having it), so we decided to do a leg of lamb with lamb gravy. To keep things simple, the sides were roasted fingerling potatoes and asparagus - both independently tossed in a little olive oil, fresh lemon juice, garlic and s&p. I know lamb is supposed to be eaten medium, but I opted for the more well done areas for my first taste of lamb.

Sorry posts have been solely about food these days. I'd share pics of me watching the tube at night or my feet in the sand on the weekend, but that would be boring.

Definitely worthy of a belated shout out though, Jimmy and I are going to have a nephew! Kelly and Spencer couldn't be more thrilled that they are having a boy! I think this little outfit supporting their alma mater is a must. What a little bruiser baby Long will be...

Simple Greek

I'm back in the blogging swing of things. Dinner tonight was what I call simple Greek. Grilled chicken and zucchini with a side of rice pilaf and tzatziki.

 

Cut chicken breasts into cubes and marinade in the juice of 4 lemons, 2 tbsp of oregano and a tbsp of olive oil for 30 mins.  Brush with a little olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper, then grill the marinaded chicken cubes and zucchini on skewers. Opa!

Now to watch The King's Speech. Happy Friday!

Spring Cleaning

For some reason I feel like when I plug personal resolutions to blog friends, I'll be more likely to follow through. It worked here. Not so much here. I will start writing soon. Promise. Starting now though, I want to kick-up our healthy habits a notch, starting with these 5 initiatives...

1. Move runs to the mornings - Jimmy and I ran before work yesterday and it was such a great start to the day. My California friends can attest, I used to be a 3x/week, 11 months/year, 6am, outdoor lap swimmer and 2x/week 5:45am spinning class attendee. I was even a AM workout person for a period of time in Wilmington. For whatever reason, my morning motivation has been low, but I'm working on it. 
2. Abs everyday - It's just too easy to accomplish to not do it. One 30 min TV show = abs for the day. Spoken like someone not in grad school and without children...
3. Plan weekly meals around what's in season - I tend to plan meals simply by what sounds good to me, regardless of what's especially great this time of year (read: lots of fruits and vegetables in the spring). Which brings me to my 4th initiative...
4. Eat more vegetarian lunches and dinners to make room in the grocery budget for local fish
5. Use my overnight oats in the morning to cram some omega-3s, antioxidants, fiber, protein and whole grains - walnuts, blueberries, chia seeds, greek yogurt, oats, etc. I am so thankful to Peanut Butter Runner for turning me on to overnight oats. 

Can't wait to sleep in a little, enjoy my morning run and do some shopping with my mom tomorrow. And then the weekend - check out the weather - it doesn't get any better than this!

Tuna Tuesday

Meatless Monday, Tuna Tuesday - I can't help myself. Anyways, the temps were in the 80s today, so I decided it was time to grill up some fish for the first time this year. I hit up a great seafood market in Wrightsville Beach during my lunch break today and picked up some beautiful yellowfin tuna. A little blackened seasoning and sesame seeds, some lemon wedges and big caesar salad and dinner was served! Here's to lots of fish this summer...

Where I've Been

HUGE apology for the lack of blogging - it's been a busy couple weeks! Let's fast forward through the boring stuff to my business trip to Baltimore at the end of last week. The conference I attended was great. I gained some very interesting inside intelligence into the lives of our target audience - nursing administrators. I had a wonderful - probably best meal of my life - dinner at Charleston in the inner harbor. The culinary tour included a delicious crispy grit cake, fois gras, turbot and veal tenderloin, not to mention some most excellent wine samples. Thank you, Chef Cindy Wolf.

Friday night I went out with Martha and Ron at a great little tapas place called Centro Tapas. Small plates are always fun and great when trying to catch up with someone. So glad they made the trek into the city to see me!

 

{too bad Ron's eyes are shut}

Saturday was an interesting day of travel with all the tornados and all. And by interesting I mean worst motion sickness provoking two flights of my life. Despite the constant swaying feeling, I rallied to spend Saturday evening with Jimmy, my mom, and long time friends, Jan and Joey, in town from Ohio.

Sunday it was a run on the beach for me, a great surf session for Jimmy, a few cold ones and then dinner at Freddie's in Kure Beach. Life is good.

Who wouldn't love this face?

Meatless Monday

If you're looking for a good, fairly healthy, vegetarian dinner, give these chipotle and tomatillo-sauced black bean enchiladas with spinach and red peppers a try. They get both mine and Jimmy's seal of approval.

{Image: Ella Says Opa}

A recap of the weekend to come tomorrow. I have a date with my Kindle and the book I'm reading, The Weird Sisters, tonight. Nighty night!