Uptown girl

“Uptown girl… Shes been living in her uptown world. I bet she never had a back street guy. I bet her mama never told her why…..” lol, that is all I can think about whenever I call the city centrum of Charlotte “uptown”. I have always called the city downtown. Before I moved to Charlotte I thought there was an uptown and a downtown because I kept seeing both but I guess they call it uptown here? Ahh who knows. Anyway, why all this uptown talk in the first place? Well, it’s how we spent our Saturday!!! We had never actually been uptown yet, so we drove there and walked around for a little over 2 hours. It was so much fun! Uptown is beautiful and I love it because you can walk everywhere like in Sweden! I am hoping after our apartment lease is up to move uptown. 🙂

So, let’s get to Saturday’s eats! For breakfast, I had the normal bowl of oats.

1/2 cup oats, 1/2 banana, cinnamon, 1 tsp brown sugar, some soy milk and a spoonful of Barney Butter: Barney Butter is definitely growing on me. I am starting to enjoy it more every time I eat it!!

After breakfast, we headed uptown!! I can’t wait for this!! Ahh, I went to see Wicked in NYC and I fell in love with broadway after that. I haven’t seen the musical in 2 years so I can’t wait to see it again.

Here is another photo of Uptown:

We stopped at Pita Pit for lunch!! Yum, I adore Pita Pit! Absolutely delicious… and healthy, of course! I had a whole wheat pita with hummus, lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, pickles, black olives, sprouts, a sprinkle of feta and hot sauce.

Afternoon snack was a fuji apple.

And dinner was just lazy. I went to the supermarket and picked up a smoked salmon salad roll. It was okay. I hate cucumbers and there were a ton of them inside the roll so I had to pick them all out and it kind of fell apart. However, there was avocados in the roll so that made up for the yucky cucumbers. The roll came with a sauce on the side and it stole the show, it paired well with the avocado and salmon.

Now, moving on to Sunday!! Happy Easter!! Did every one have a nice Easter? Our Easter was alright given the circumstances. We know no one in Charlotte and we have no family here so we were on our own.

For brunch I made some pancakes. I used 1/3 cup of whole wheat buttermilk pancake mix, some soy milk and 1 egg white. They turned out great, fluffy and soft. I topped my pancakes with a thin layer of Barney Butter, some maple syrup and a banana. Perfect Easter brunch!!! After brunch we went out to one of Charlotte’s greenways for a nice 3 mile walk. The weather was perfect for Easter! Sunny and 70 degrees, my kinda afternoon.. for sure! After our walk, I was naughty and had a Diet Coke. Hey, my body wants.. I listen, lol. I have a diet coke about once a month and I thoroughly enjoy it every time.

Diet Coke:

For Easter, linner…? haha, we ate around 3 so whatever meal that is. I prepared a honey ham, my mom’s broccoli rice casserole and mashed sweet potatos. I never make more than 1 side dish and a salad for dinner so I was proud of myself for preparing TWO side dishes 🙂 My mom’s broccoli rice casserole is seriously the best thing known to comfort food. I eat it about 3 times a year, thanksgiving, christmas and easter so you can imagine my happiness when I got to make it for the first time! It wasn’t quite as good as when my mom makes it, a bit too runny, but it was fabulous nonetheless!

Hans picked out the wine this time, he chose a Merlot:

My Easter plate was mashed sweet potatoes made with real butter, mom’s broccoli rice casserole, and 2 slices of honey ham:

For Easter dessert, I filled a coffee mug full of peanut butter puffins and chocolate. Perfect dessert, perfect pair, perfect…. My coffee mug full of treats took me about 3 hours to enjoy while we were being lazy and watching movies on the couch.

I definitely enjoyed all of my favorite foods on Easter without overdoing it. However, I hardly ate any veggies yesterday and probably had too much chocolate but that is okay because it was Easter and I know that I will get back to normal eating the next day.

However, I have decided to ‘eat clean’ or ‘crap free’ or whatever you wanna call it for the next few weeks leading up to my 4 week trip to Germany. This is going to be my take on ‘crap free’. Mostly, I am going to avoid processed foods, and focus on fruits, veggies, and whole foods. My goals are:

1. I want to feel good about trying all the delicious German food, even if it is not healthy.
2. It keeps my mind at peace knowing that I am sort of preparing myself for my trip.
3. I want to cut down on my sugar/dessert intake.
4. Go to 1 cup of coffee a day, oh my.. that’s going to be hard. I will definitely be taking this one slow. Right now I am at 4 cups a day so tomorrow I will try 3.
5. Limit higher calorie foods.
5. And I have other goals too, as I think of them, I will write about them 🙂

Hope every one had a fabulous Easter weekend!