To Grandmother’s house I went (epic recap ahead)

Hi all! I’ve been gone to my Mam-ma’s house since Monday, and I’ve just caught up with my blog-reading. Who knows how this recap will work, since I’ve got 5 days’ worth to catch up on…

Monday

On the way there (the drive is only about 1hr, 20 min), I had a low-sodium V8 and half a pumpkin muffin. Brunch of champions.

The drive up was soooo icky and rainy…it’s my favorite kind of day for being inside! I don’t mind driving in the rain, but a couple of times on the interstate, it got really heavy and I had to slow down a lot. Here’s a picture (taken while driving…please don’t tell my Mom. I was only going like 40mph) of Lake Murray from the dam not too far from my house:

Snuggle-up-and-watch-movies weather, right?

There’s a Subway a couple miles from Mam-ma’s house, so I stopped and got us lunch. Mine was a veggie sandwich on honey oat bread with Sunchips and a Coke/Diet Coke mishmash on the side. I’ve started doing this – I’ll fill up my cup with like 1/5th real Coke and the rest with diet…it takes the edge off that weird diet aftertaste.

We sat around watching TV and I took The Epic Nap…I slept for like 3 hours. In my defense, I only got like 5 hours of sleep the night before due to something beyond my control. Grr. When I FINALLY woke up, I needed something to stay awake – I had some vanilla black tea while we made dinner. Jarred tomato sauce and spaghetti with a salad on the side. Perfecto!

I brought a few of my pumpkin pie bites to share, so we had one for dessert – she had canned whipped topping…perfect for these little things!

Then we popped in a movie – Ernest Scared Stupid…ha! – and I worked on some more engagement photos and a bowl of popcorn.

Tuesday

I started the morning with two waffles (which I burned…boo), one topped with cream cheese and apricot jam, the other with PB&J (couldn’t find the syrup and Mam-ma was gone to a church meeting).

For lunch we went to the New Moon Cafe, a cute hippie-ish cafe in downtown Aiken. I had the Fiona – a veggie sandwich listed under the paninis, but a panini it wasn’t. I was really disappointed…I wanted something gooey slapped between two pieces of bread. This was a raw salad in a wrap. I’ve gotten this before but obviously forgot it wasn’t what the menu says it is.

We got coffee to go (pumpkin latte for me!!) and came home. I went back out to the grocery store later to get stuff to make veggie pizza!!! Check out the Simpsons-esque clouds on my way out of the neighborhood:

When I came home from the store, I was good and went for a 30-minute walk. The only physical activity I've gotten all week.... The salad sandwich from lunch didn’t stick with me very long, so I had an apple and cheese snack in the late afternoon before I made our pizza (with bake-it-yourself dough from the Publix bakery!)….

Usually on these pizzas I put about 2 cups of cheese, but I accidentally grabbed a 3-cup bag in the store, so all of it went on the pizza. I’m not ashamed.

Wednesday

I made one of my Aunt Allie’s oatmeal-banana cakes for us to share and had it alongside a couple of biscuits (with the apple and pumpkin butter I gifted Mam-ma!).

A few hours later, my stomach was mad at me...I told Mam-ma, "since I ate all those simple carbs at breakfast, I'm really hungry already." Her genius response? "That's what carbs do, honey, they turn to sugar and then they let you down." So funny, and so true!! Lunch was at Atlanta Bread Company where I had the veggie panini I was cheated out of the day before…LORDY it was good!!

And French Onion soup, because y’all know I’m flippin’ obsessed. For dinner I made herbed tomato soup (from a carton, shhh) and grilled cheese sandwiches. I burned mine.

And some candy corn for dessert (far more than the two measly pieces here, I just snarfed them before I remembered to take pics!)

We ended up looking at old pictures that night because my aunt and I are trying to get some good ones of Mam-ma for her 80th birthday next month.

Picture-of-a-picture yields terrible quality, but wasn’t my grandfather a hunk?? And here’s my beautiful mommy:

Dessert:

Thursday

For breakfast I had two biscuits – one with egg and cheese, and the other with apple and pumpkin butters.

That egg biscuit was IN-SAAAAAYNE.

Lunch was a salad. Meh. I tried a pickled beet for the first time in my life. It tasted like those little mini corns you find in stir-fry. I like those corn thingies ok, but beets were not for me. Sadly, I’ll never become Mrs. Dwight Schrute.

Dessert was a caramel apple!!

I packed up and hit the road…and stopped by Atlanta Bread Co. for a cookie and coffee.

I got the house latte which was pretty good, but it tasted like it was half-honey. It kinda hurt my throat, there was so much honey in it.

Rainy Lake Murray again.

I was so happy to go home and be able to cook in my own kitchen and not feel weird about leaving dishes where they shouldn’t be (not that I got fussed at, but it’s weird being in someone else’s kitchen and not knowing what the status quo is).

I made an amazing dinner – sweet potato fries, green beans, and a Quorn cutlet with cranberry and goat cheese inside.

Brooks was jealous.

Dessert was pumpkin pie!!

Friday

It’s almost 1pm and so far I’ve only had pumpkin oats. I was kicking myself because I forgot the almond butter! This was a packet of cinnamon oatmeal, a packet of maple and brown sugar oatmeal, about a half cup of pumpkin, a pumpkin-SF syrup sauce I made for our pancakes the other day, and flax.

I’d love to lay around and watch movies all day (it’s still cold and dreary here – yay!), but I’ve got stuff to do. Booooo.