Thursday's Thoughts

And I am back from a whirlwind trip to Atlanta. As soon as I finished my 5K, I scarfed down some black bean burger leftovers and hit the road. When I road trip solo, I basically have a concert in the car. I may not be the world's best singer but I sure do have fun. This was a Taylor Swift themed trip in honor of her concert on Sunday night (that deserves it's own separate blog post).

The trip to ATL flew by.. some of the highlights include: shopping, dinner at Matt's (spaghetti and meatballs and some delectable mushroom puff pastry appetizers), out at Twisted Taco, naptime, getting ready for Taylor Swift, Taco Mac for beer, food, and waiting for Taylor Swift, and the Taylor Swift concert. That was just the weekend - then I had a very full three days of work.

Enough of that nonsense.. I am just thankful tomorrow is Friday (and next week, I am on vacation on Friday). I have never been more excited to have no weekend plans. Lately, I have been falling off the food bandwagon every weekend and gaining what I have lost during the week (not. healthy.) I am looking forward to staying on track this weekend and getting back in to my workout routine.

Tonight I made what I like to refer to as 'Po' Gal's Soup.' I am not a huge fan of chicken, but I had a shredded rotisserie chicken and fresh corn in the freezer - so I decided to make some homemade Chicken Noodle Soup. I happened to stop by the Dekalb Farmers Market in Atlanta (one of the best places in the world) and stocked up on some fresh homemade pasta. If you have not been there and are anywhere near Atlanta, you should check it out. Everything is super cheap and there is an amazing selection of fruits, vegetables, and so much more.

The whole pot of 'Po' Gal's Soup' cost me about $10 to make and I will get about 8 meals out of it. The best part is you can throw almost anything in the mix! You could make with pasta, or rice, any kind of vegetable or meat you wanted to and I believe it would still be delicious with the chicken broth and thyme base.

In this pot:
Fresh Pasta ($2)
Chicken ($3)
Canned Okra, Corn, and Tomato ($1)
Canned Garbanzo Beans ($1.50)
Canned Green Beans ($.50)
Box of chicken broth ($2)
Fresh corn (frozen from fresh - free, thanks mom and dad!)
Fresh thyme (free - from my probably dying herb garden)
On another note, I would like to give a big shout out to Calphalon. I love their Unison line of pots and pans - non stick and dishwasher safe. While the pots and pans are pricey, the investment is worth it. In fact, I just got my Unison grill pan in the mail today. I am looking forward to cooking something on it this weekend. I am thinking black bean burgers, peppers, and chipotle ranch! I will probably be eating that and chicken soup all weekend and well in to next week. With the farmshare that we get each week, I am really trying to cut back on my grocery bills and focusing on eating out of the fridge/freezer/pantry, and have been pretty successful and resourceful so far!

If you made it all the way to the end, thanks for reading a super exciting post. Be on the lookout for a concert update. The Taylor Swift concert was certainly an adventure.. and one of the most fun nights of my life!