Happy Friday to all! We are completing state wide testing at work this week.… not typically part of my job description but one of my schools is currently short staffed so I am helping out and BOY is it ever stressful! I remember testing at the beginning and end of the school year only when I was this age, but times have changed and our poor kids seem to be testing 5-6 times a year! Helping this week has given me a new appreciation for how trying testing can be from the teachers perspective as well, I think it is harder on them than the students! I think treating myself to a pedicure this afternoon will be the perfect reward after this long week

So remember a few weeks ago when I had Adult Spring Break 2015 (ASB2k15)? Oh how I miss it already in all it’s oat-y, egg-y, smoothie-y breakfast glory? On the final Saturday of my break I drove up to Nashville to retrieve Robert from the airport so that we could attend a wedding that evening. We stayed with our sweet friends Tyler and Meredith who graciously welcomed us into their adorable home. Living at the beach we tend to get a lot of visitors, and I like to think I’m a pretty good hostess but I think Meredith put me to shame. Check out the adorable bedside table set-up in their guest room:

 

Totally stealing this idea next time I have guests!

Tyler and Meredith were not attending the wedding so the four of us decided to catch up over lunch before it was time to get ready for the wedding. They took us to Burger Up, a trendy restaurant serving you guessed it! Burgers and beer! I have a feeling they chose this restaurant with Robert in mind since cheeseburgers are his absolute favorite. I’m not normally a burger girl but a kale salad didn’t seem like a substantial enough choice for a wedding that was sure to include drinking later that evening, so I went with the mushroom and swiss burger with truffle mayo. Wow. I haven’t yet mastered the art of photographing my food in public when anyone other than Robert is around, so there’s no photo, but I’m pretty sure this is the most delicious burger I’ve ever had in my entire life. EVER. If you are in Nashville I highly recommend this place (and the truffle mayo…nom). Not only was our food delicious, but Burger Up also supplied me with my first ever real life celebrity sighting!

 

In case you can’t tell who that tall, blurry person is (don’t quit your day job to become a paparazzo Robert) it’s Vince Vaughn!

 

We were seated right next to the hostess stand at Burger Up and I literally looked up from my delicious lunch to find he and his beautiful wife and friends standing 3 feet from our table, waiting to be seated. I have always wondered how I would react to meeting a celebrity and unfortunately, I now know just how uncool I will play it. I just stared at him with my mouth wide open, completely star struck and unable to even get a hello out…womp womp. He was extremely tall and much thinner than I would have thought, and when he saw us staring awkwardly at him notice him he walked the few feet over to our table and said hello and shook hands with Robert and Tyler. He  seemed very nice and took pictures with anyone who asked while he waited to be seated. Very gracious of him but man, can you imagine being hounded for pictures every time you step out your door, even just to get a burger? No thanks. We chose to play it cool (finally) and sneak our picture from across the restaurant as he was making his way to his seat.

The rest of our stay in Nashville, as well as the wedding we attended was absolutely lovely. We spent all of Sunday in the car and arrived back home semi ready to re-enter the real world. Since the end of ASB2k15 was a little indulgent, Robert and I both wanted to get back on track with lighter, healthier meals this week.  Since I promised to share my creamy chimi churri sauce recipe during Easter I decided to whip up a batch to go with our weekly meals.

 

I’m not sure that this is a true chimi churri but that’s what I call it and it is green and herby so we’re going with it. This sauce is very versatile and is delicious on any grilled meats or as a dipping sauce for roasted vegetables. You can also thin it out a bit and drizzle it on a salad as the dressing. The sauce keeps for about a week in the fridge but it does tend to thin out as it sits so I usually use it on meats/veggies the first night and then use up the rest as a salad dressing later in the week. I’m all about making once and eating twice when possible!

 

We typically have fish or shrimp about once a week and lately I have been loving cod. The cod at my grocery store is wild caught and a lot less expensive than wild salmon or some of the other fish varieties. Cod is a flaky white fish that is great in fish tacos, pan seared or even baked with a crunchy coating as I found out this week. I dipped my cod in egg whites, then a mixture of whole wheat and panko bread crumbs and baked it. The fish was the perfect protein atop our salads with creamy chimi churri dressing and was a great way to start the week off with a healthy, homemade meal. Hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we did! Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!

Creamy Chimi Churri Sauce

Ingredients:

1 Cup of fresh Cilantro

1/4 Cup of fresh Parsley

3 Jalapeno Peppers, seeded and stems removed (If you like it spicy you can add some of the seeds back in, I usually only add about 1/4 to 1/2 of the seeds from one pepper)

2 cloves of Garlic, minced

1/4 Cup of Light Mayo (I use the olive oil kind or make my own)

1/2 Cup plain Greek Yogurt

1 Tbsp. Olive Oil

1 Tbsp. Lime Juice

1/2 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. pepper

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients in food processor and blend until desired texture is reached. Drizzle on grilled meats, fish or vegetables and enjoy!