A Food-Filled Weekend

Weekends go by way too fast. I blame it on the lack of long lectures, homework and day-to-day to-do’s that can sometimes make a weekday drag. Time truly flies when you’re having fun! (And with wonderful company! :D) This past weekend was a really good one, it was quiet and relaxing and productive. Josh had some papers to write and I had a blog to set up (this one!), so we spent most of Saturday and Sunday hunkered down in his living room with our laptops.

Another thing I love about the weekend is the good food it brings. Williamsport (where I live) has a few good food options but State College (where Josh lives) has an incredible assortment of restaurants. I consider myself to be a pretty healthy eater during the week so on the weekend I cut myself some slack and let myself indulge a little. There are so many foods to be tasted and restaurants to be explored! I consider it a personal mission to try as many as possible! 😀

I got to Josh’s Friday afternoon and arrived really hungry. I had spent the earlier part of the day baking banana bread  and hit the road without tasting a piece of the finished product or eating lunch. He was sweet enough to offer me his leftover half of an eggplant grinder from earlier in the day.

For anyone considering becoming a vegetarian but worried about having to give up hearty Italian dishes, fear not. Eggplant is your friend! It can be put in a sub, on top of pasta, or the main attraction in my personal favorite, eggplant parmesan! This sub hit the spot and filled me up for hours! I truly don’t miss chicken in an Italian dish when eggplant is involved!

The next day we took a break from working to head to Target to pick up a few odds and ends. Penn State had a home game against Alabama so we wanted to make sure we were back home and off the roads before the game ended and traffic chaos ensued. Target is right next to Wegmans, one of my favorite grocery stores, so we decided to head over after shopping to pick up a quick dinner.

Meet the burrito bowl! 😀 If you are lucky enough to live by a Wegmans and it has a burrito station (mine doesn’t :() I doubt I have to say much to describe the awesome-ness that is this bowl. Made-to-order and stuffed to the brim with rice, black beans, tofu (or your meat of choosing), corn, salsa, lettuce, guacamole, and cheese, it is a burrito beast. (And only $6!) I was pretty hungry when I sat down to eat this and only managed to eat a little more than half. This is a perfect meal to buy once, separate in half, and eat twice! The Wegmans in Williamsport is currently expanding their hot bar and if they start offering these I will be eating them all the time!

Despite just devouring a burrito bowl that left me in a mild food-coma I couldn’t leave Wegmans without picking up cannolis. Wegmans has an amazing variety of fresh-baked goods and their cannolis are out of this world.  Enjoyed later in the evening it was absolutely delicious!

Sunday morning I woke up craving eggs. Since giving up meat eggs have become a staple in my diet. They are tasty and filling and perfect for a quick-and-simple breakfast. Two scrambled eggs, one slice of cheddar cheese, and two pieces of toasted whole wheat bread makes a great breakfast sandwich. My Minnie Mouse mug was filled with some super strong coffee to get my Sunday started right as I blogged away!

Lunch time came before we knew it! Josh was still super busy editing his thesis so I wanted to make us quick and simple lunches so he could focus on writing. He introduced me to veggie burgers a few months back and I have quickly become obsessed. Before trying them I imagined them to taste like flavorless cardboard. I was so happy when he proved me wrong!

Lunch was a Morning Star Veggie cheeseburger. While not as delicious as a veggie burger from a restaurant or made from scratch, as far as frozen burgers go, its incredible. Besides introducing me to veggie burgers (for which I’m eternally grateful) he also introduced me to a secret ingredient to make them taste even more amazing:

Bruschetta! This artichoke and piquillo flavored one is so good! It was the perfect veggie burger topper!

The sun was shining for most of the day until these big storm clouds rolled in late in the afternoon. It started pouring rain and hail!

Waterfall in the courtyard?

Can you see the hail on the ground in this picture? It was making so much noise as it hit the glass window! We’ve been getting crazy storms lately. Two weekends ago was Hurricane Irene, which thankfully (mostly) missed us. Last weekend was the tropical storm from down South that caused so much flooding in my area school was closed for two days! I live on a mountain so my house was fine but it was crazy seeing bridges and highways under water!

As the lights started to flicker and the rain got heavier we wanted to make sure we weren’t in for another big storm so Josh went to go get his emergency radio. It runs on a manual crank that lets it transmit the national weather forecast and any local weather warnings even if there is a power outage. This guy is always prepared for everything! And isn’t he super cute? 😀 It turns out it was just a freak storm that ended up passing within the hour. We felt bad though because we had ordered Thai before the storm started and the poor deliveryman still braved the rain to get us our food!

Coconut milk curry with veggies for him. (Do those little baby corn weird anyone else out? Josh loves them but they freak me out. I call them creepy corn. ;p)

Tofu pad thai for me! Sorry for the messy pictures of dinner. I have come to realize that Thai food is one of the messiest foods to eat. My noodles are always falling off my fork and out of my mouth but its so delicious I don’t mind! Hopefully Josh doesn’t either! ;p

We finished the night by cuddling up on the couch and playing Little Big Planet. We accidentally discovered it a while back and it quickly became one of our favorites! Is anyone else a Little Big Planet fan? It is the cutest game!

We started breakfast off this morning with some yummy cinnamon coffee in our Mickey and Minnie mugs and a game of Kuuduk. I picked up the mugs in Disney World last year, aren’t they adorable? Kuuduk has been a morning tradition of ours for a long time. Has anyone ever played? It was another case of us accidentally stumbling upon the game and falling in love with it! We’re big on games!

Do you guys like to play games with your friends/family/girlfriend/boyfriend? Josh and I are always looking for more to try!

And just like that the weekend was over! I really hope this next one comes quickly, its my birthday weekend! 😀