house salad

Typically Mondays aren’t too exciting, but today ended up being great!

I went to the gym before work and since I was running a little short on time I decided to bring a packet of Kashi Truly Vanilla Oats to the office for breakfast. I used to buy Kashi Instant oats all the time so this morning’s breakfast was quite the blast from the past.

Only that wasn’t the only blasting going on- the oats decided to explode in the office microwave leaving me with a big mess to clean up and only half the packet of oats. This scenario reminded me why I love stovetop oats so much, not only are they better tasting, more voluminous, and less processed, but they never explode on me.

So, although the day started out kind of crazy things got better….

First, it was Marketing Team Monday- which means that the marketing department goes out to lunch. We have a new Marketing Director joining our team in February so she came over and we all walked to Amici, a local Italian restaurant that I’ve blogged about before.

Both times I have eaten at this restaurant I have been with work for lunch and both times I’ve enjoyed my meal immensely so I probably need to try it out for dinner sometime.

I hadn’t even looked over the menu completely but when the server mentioned that the soup of the day was butternut squash soup I knew exactly what I was getting.

say b-nut and I’m sold!

I also ordered a house salad for good measure.

Twas a nice little lunch outing with the marketing crew!

After work I headed directly to Whole Foods for the Holiday Cooking Demo. It was great because I was able to sit with Stephanie and her mom for the class. We had a blast watching Jesse, the chef, prepare and explain all the dishes. And, of course, tasting them was fun too! The only part that stinks is that we weren’t able to take photos of the food (food bloggers worst nightmare!)- it was such a shame because the dishes were definitely worth sharing.

Here’s what was on the menu:

Potato Cake served with apple sauce

A.K.A potato latkes

Zuni

A traditional Japanese New Year’s Soup similar to miso soup but with brown rice mochi and daikon.

Goat cheese and asparagus roll

Herbed goat cheese, roasted asparagus, and roasted red pepper were all rolled inside a piece of lavash bread. It was simple to prepare but looked quite gourmet all wrapped up. And, the color presentation (red, green and white) would make it a festive appetizer for a holiday party!

Black eyed peas with tomatoes and greens

This one had the red, green, and white color scheme going on as well, and it was my favorite!! Right after the demo I did a little shopping and ended up buying all the ingredients to make this recipe so you’ll be “seeing” it again very soon.

Eggnog Bread Pudding

Panettone bread pudding with eggnog and a dollop of brown sugar whipped cream. A reduced calorie and fat-free dessert.

It was a fun way to spend my Monday evening- I was able to pick up some unique recipe ideas and eat some delicious food- all for FREE. I’ll definitely be signing up for another demo in the near future!! I’m not sure how other Whole Foods work however I’m assuming they might have similar cooking demos. If you live nearby a WF, I’d recommend checking out the monthly calendar. One word of advice- sign up early, because as I found out, the classes fill up quickly!

-Brittany

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I woke up super early this morning to hit the trail (aka I-95) back to Richmond. This time the drive was faster, about 2 hours instead of 3.5 and I was able to stop by my house for a minute before heading to the office. This was good because my plants were in dire need of some water and looking rather pitiful – espcially my beloved basil.

Once at work I realized my company had planned a lunch outing today to celebrate two office birthdays. I’m always up for lunch outings because there are so many great restuatants around our office. The birthday boys choose to eat at Amici Ristorante in Carytown. I’d never been there before but I will definitely be going back, as I was super impressed. We (all 15 of us) LOVED our meals and the chef even came out to say hello!

I ordered the house salad as a starter with the house dressing on the side:

Such a gorgeous presentation for a house salad. I totally want to recreate something similar sometime.

I had such a hard time choosing what to order because there were so many delicious sounding things on the menu but I finally decided on the lump crab meat with avocado, red pepper, and grape tomatoes

I was glad I went with this dish. The crab was fresh and you can never go wrong with avocados. Oh, and those little pink things are locally grown micro greens. YUM!!!