Hi there blog readers. I had a lovely weekend – I hope you had the same. The weekend was full of cold, New Englandy winter weather, some of my favorite people, a good run and really good food. I could not ask for more.

I went out to dinner and frozen yogurt on Friday night with my best friend. The food was great – I had a cobb salad (sans blue cheese of course) with dressing on the side, a couple of pieces of bread, and a glass of pinot noir for dinner. After dinner and talking, we decided to head down the road to Froyo World for some delectable frozen yogurt. I had the cake batter and salted caramel pretzel flavors. Amazing!

I stayed up late on Friday watching a Netflix movie. I slept in a little bit on Saturday – waking up at 9:15 in the morning. It was lovely to wake up feeling well rested. I lazed around the house for a bit, and eventually got myself motivated for a visit to the gym. Before I left for my run, I fixed up a graham cracker with a small spread of Nutella. It was a great snack to get me through a casual 3.2 mile run. After the run, I went to Starbucks where I enjoyed a skim latte and did work for a while.

After coffee and work, I went over to Whole Foods to pick up ingredients for dinner. I was really excited for the dinner I had planned. Chicken tortilla soup a la Pioneer Woman. This recipe is definitely a new favorite in my house!

The soup took a little while to put together, and definitely cooked for a while – but the wait was well worth it. For garnish I added cilantro, scallions and WF Monterey jack cheese. Oh – and of course a garnish with blue tortilla chips!

I just love this soup (and the garnishes really make it even more special) and I highly recommend this recipe. Click here to find the recipe at the Pioneer Woman’s blog. The soup really hit the spot. For dessert I baked a batch of blondies, which were also a big hit.

On Sunday morning I woke up again right at 9:15 – my body must have an internal weekend only alarm clock? I had a great cup of coffee and I cooked up a batch of Kodiak Cakes. This morning I added bananas and blueberries to the pancakes and topped them with some more of both:

Sunday afternoon was spent at REI where someone picked up a good amount of clothes – and I was thankful for not having quite as much luck. I did pick up one light tech long sleeved shirt which I think will be a good one for the half marathon I have coming up in March. After REI, we went to Target where I had to pick up a lot of household things (paper towels, dish soap, laundry detergent, floss, Listerine – what fun!) I also picked up some Kashi granola bars and Chobani greek yogurts for the week.

While I was at Target picking up ‘essentials’ I got to thinking about my meal plan for the week. I am really hoping that I can get through the rest of the week without going to the market again. I have a good amount of food and I have two dinners out scheduled. So hopefully I will be able to eat all of the food I have on hand, and can save some money by not buying what I do not need. While I was thinking about this, I was reminded about the family who every year tries to get through the month of February without buying groceries. I’m not quite sure I could do that – but I love the idea.

I’m signing off for now – it’s time to prep for the work week and get ready for bed. See you tomorrow!