Bites of My Life

One of my favorite weekends of the year…check! I grew up heading to Dallas for OU/Texas weekend, obviously attended in college and now love the reunion with friends year after year. But, getting to host this year took the cake. Now I’m finishing up this post from my parents house for a quick trip back to OKC for work, then a chill weekend ahead.

-Easiest go-to meal = spaghetti squash, marinara with wilted spinach and call it a day. Serve your kombucha out of a wine glass and suddenly Monday isn’t so hard!
-When your juice matches your skirt >
-Kicked off the big weekend with my guy Robert Earl Keen Thursday night benefiting the Rise School of Dallas. This marks #6 seeing REK!
-Mom and dad in town for OU/Texas so we indulged in fried shrimp and gumbo at S&D to celebrate.
-Really love getting to play hostess. My little 1 bedroom became a 5 bed bunkhouse for the weekend and I wouldn’t want it any other way.
-THE best part of OU/Texas weekend is the reunion. One weekend we can always count on to get everyone in the same place.
-Retweet the sentiments from above.
-Hotel Annie had an early morning check-out. After cleaning up the place, I had breakfast on my couch and proceeded to stay there for the following 3 hours.
-Had no choice but to be outside Sunday afternoon. Dallas welcomes you fall with open arms.

Annie

Verde Turkey Chili (updated) and Pumpkin Pecan White Chocolate Cookies hit the blog last week. Two recipes about to fall into serious rotation this season.

Bites of My Life

Came back from Colorado with a cold, but kid of “took advantage” of the time to lay low and rest. I worked from home most days, drank copious amounts of tea, ate soup and kept my workouts very low maintenance, some days skipping them all together. I started to feel more myself just in time for the weekend and had a really great weekend in my city. Now the countdown is on until my apartment is full of my best friends and everyone is reunited in Dallas for OU/Texas!

-Monday meal prep after the bachelorette weekend. Kept things simple with Crock-Pot chicken and seasonal roasted veggies.
-Return of golden milk this week. Perfect for fall but also perfect for the cold I was battling last week.
-Last week’s recipe post including bulletproof coffee and a Whole30 recap.
-Woke up Saturday craving fried eggs. I normally cook scrambled at home, but two crispy eggs cooked in lots of ghee, really hit the spot.
-Being extra festive at the Farmer’s Market. The Dallas Farmer’s market is a favorite weekend activity for me.
-Harvest Pumpkin loaf from Central Market was obviously a must.
-Post-whole30 l i v i n g at my favorite restaurant in Dallas. Proof that I love this hole-in-the-wall seen in my 3 Months in D post!
-Leftovers repurposed for Sunday lunch. A sweet potatoes filled with Crock-Pot chicken and roasted carrots from my meal prep.
-Since it’s October and still in the 90’s I made my Pumpkin Green Smoothie into a bowl for dinner. Fall-ish but make it weather approp.

Annie

Bites of My Life

Home from the most amazing bachelorette party in Vail, CO. Unfortunately I brought a cold home with me. Here’s a quick recap of my last full week of Whole 30, mountain time and the start of October!

-Tahini Chicken Salad hit the blog and my lunch last week. This no-mayo Whole 30 chicken salad recipe was a hit with more than just me. Y’all were loving it, and I love that.
-Currently still eating this Thai Pumpkin Soup because it made so much. Not mad about coming home from my trip with a meal already made for the week. I froze half this batch and thawed it over low heat.
-Going on a bachelorette trip while on Whole30 isn’t ideal, but the trip > w30. My plan of attack was to order best I could while out to eat, pack plenty of approved snacks, and indulge where I wanted. Here is a glimpse of my travel snack pack (which are all things I take even off W30): RXbars, pre-portioned bags of mixed nuts and plantain chips, Chomp sticks, almond butter packs, loose packets of tea and a few apples.
-Perks of accidentally booking your flight a day early, equals more time in Vail and a seriously good dinner at La Bottega.
-Followed by the famous hot chocolate at the Four Seasons. It was incredible, but so rich and TMI sent my weak stomach straight to the bathroom…This was not necessarily the first thing to dive into off Whole 30.
-The trees changing in Colorado this time of year was insane.
-Après naps (lol) cheeseboard time.
-Hiking aka trail walking in gorgeous Vail.
-Homemade za by moi for Saturday night in, in Vail. With tips I know from What’s Gaby Cooking, these supreme pizzas turned our perfect in the oven.

Annie

Bites of My Life

Finishing up this post while watching the Emmy’s. Anyone else watch? It’s official I must start watching Marvelous Mrs. Maisel immediately. It was a busy, but long week. The days were back but I pretty much spent the whole week thinking it was Thursday. Can you imagine my feelings when it was only Tuesday?? Made it to the weekend to enjoy a relatively tame few days. I’m off at the end of this week to head to Vail for a bachelorette. So it’s head down and powering through another busy week before I get to enjoy mountain air and 35 degree temps!!

-My friend Meagan, The Baker Mama wrote her first cookbook Beautiful Boards. And it’s truly beautiful! It comes out on Tuesday, but she gifted me a copy pre-release. It’s such a great book full of so many ideas. I read it cover to cover and loved reading the BTS in her recent post. Order your copy here!
-LOVED this “harvest hash” I made for lunches last week. Wondering if my fam would let me slide it in for a Thanksgiving side dish?
-Topo, tacos on a Tuesday at Gardenuity with my “co-workers” from The Slate. Gardenuity is a modern garden project based in Dallas. Their main product is their garden box that gets shipped straight to your door, but they host events at their studio where you can build your own modern garden to take home. We built a “taco toppings” garden, so I know have tomatoes, parsley, chives and oregano growing out my back door.
-Again my “co-workers” as I like to call them think it’s hilarious to tempt me with carbs at our co-working space.
-Discovered the turmeric latte at Royal Blue this week and it’s a big reason RB made it on my faves list!
-On that bulletproof grind! Found these ghee + MCT combo packs at Sprouts that will be perfect while traveling this weekend.
-Extremely fun dinner at a new Dallas spot with the most fun group of Dallas KKGs!
-Hi it’s me! And I’ve lived in Dallas for 3 months. Shared my 6 favorite spots in last week’s post!
-Week 2 of church and a Whole 30 approved brunch with my girl Caroline!

Annie

Bites of My Life

Just when you think summer is busy, fall reminds you it’s no calmer. Work has really picked up, weekends are full with football games, events, errands what have you and my week nights are finding ways to go from 5pm to 9pm in lightening speed. All this to be said it was a relatively low key weekend which was a much needed change of pace.

-Monday blues on blues on blues.
-Last week on W30 had me craving all the chips and snack foods. While these sweet potato chip ingredients are approved, downing them in almost one sitting probably was not…
-Breakfast for dinner just always wins: no sugar added chicken sausage, 2 pasture-raised eggs, tomato, and figs.
-I finished Where the Crawdads Sing last week. It definitely lived up to the hype, buuut it is slow to the start, keep chugging along if you are stuck in the beginning.
-With the influence of my friend Elyse, I got back on the bulletproof coffee train last week and only a few days in and I legit go to bed craving it for the next morning. I saved the recipe in my Whole 30 highlights.
-Wine (topo chico) Wednesday with friends who made sure the cheese board had Whole 30 approved snacks on it! PSA the verde salsa from Central Market is fire with plantain chips.
-A very chill Friday that included the Whole 30 bowl from Chipotle, a face mask and in bed by 9pm.
-Who else raided the Target 20th-anniversary designer collab early Saturday morning? More on this below.
-A W30 brunch date with my Whole 30 partner, Caroline, at Origin Kitchen. We both got the sweet potato bowl and I’m itching to recreate it.
-Boomer in Dallas cheering on our boys in LA!
-PUMPkin up the fall vibes.
-SO excited for this week’s lunch meal prep. The combination of spices and “autumnal” (cough Kathleen cough) ingredients in this recipe made my kitchen smell like it was straight-up middle of November.

Annie

Target bite: I had to elaborate more on Target Anniversary collection. I have shopped almost every collection since they started this at Target. Kathleen and I would wake up bright and early to shop the limited time collabs. You can read an old post here on TAB and here on Kathleen’s blog from back in the day about our shopping experiences for Philip Lim and Missoni.

Target didn’t come out with any new designs. They simply reproduced items from the original collaborations. I spotted a few John Derian platters my mom still owns, an Anna Sui dress I wore the heck out of, two Philip Lim bags I wore my entire junior year of college and so. much. Missoni. The knit midi skirt brought back all the flashbacks.

Kathleen took to our old Target collab shopping ways and got there right at 8 AM. She started sending me pictures and I quickly got in my car. I walked away with this and this from John Derian and this blouse from Rodarte. Any other Target crazies out there? I’ll leave you with this quote from a lady in the parking lot shoving bag after bag into her tiny car trunk…“I really didn’t think I was going to buy this much!” Same girl, same.