Just Checking To See If You’re Still Reading

Warning: This post contains about a billion Prince pictures. If you don’t like cute, fluffy-faced dogs, please don’t read any further.

Oh, hi guys! I’m pretty sure I failed my goal of blogging more consistently after disappearing for almost the past month. Sorry about that. Truth is, things have gotten pretty crazy in the world of MFP and unfortunately, blogging just wasn’t able to take a priority in my life. I have an exciting announcement coming up soon, but I’m afraid you’re going to have to wait another week to hear it. But once you do, hopefully all this cryptic talk will make more sense.

Moving on…

Two weeks ago, I had the honor of my friend Jenny coming to visit me all the way from Colorado!

Jenny actually moved to Seattle and started work at the same company right around the same time as I did. We became fast friends and started volunteering with the same high school group and even adopted our dogs around the same time. Ever since she moved to Colorado about a year ago, both Prince and I have really missed her company, so it was fun having her around for a couple of days.

While she was here, we indulged in things like sushi and maple flavored ice cream.

We also partied it up at a Girl Talk concert with friends. This was my first  encounter with Girl Talk and all I can is that it’s… different, but in a very fun way. For those not familiar with Girl Talk, it’s basically a guy who does mash-ups using very short clips of a wide variety of songs. Because the clips are so short, in a way, he turns them into an entirely new song.

But don’t think that Jenny’s visit was all fun and games. Since Jenny was prepping for a half marathon in a few days, I joined her on one of her short, tapered runs. She was nice and let me set the pace and let me take all the walking breaks that I needed.

We also polished off several containers of Chobani and quite a few black bean burgers like it was our job. It was nice to have a houseguest that shared my interest in healthy living and who didn’t balk at the idea of trying a Green Monster smoothie.

Thankfully the sun peaked through the clouds for a few hours on Jenny’s last day here – just long enough to spend some time at Alki Beach.

Prince had a grand ol’ time. Coincidentally, this was his first encounter with salt water. I don’t think he’s a fan.

Between a combination of being busy and being lazy, some of my recent eats, have been incredibly basic and easy:

Whole Wheat English Muffin topped with Peach Butter

The spicier one of my favorite breakfast sandwiches (minus the salsa)

A black bean burger (can you tell that I’m obsessed?) topped with a sweet potato, salsa, and a dollop of plain Greek yogurt (<—AMAZING combination)

CPK’s BBQ Chicken Pizza… hey, every girl needs a little frozen pizza in her life.

Grilled breakfast sandwiches

And soup! My latest obsession is Progresso’s High Fiber Minestrone soup. I seriously need to try making this on my own – anyone want to suggest any recipes?

Naturally this soup pairs well grilled cheese!

Perfect for the rainy day.

And some of Prince’s recent eats:

Peanut Butter…

and yogurt…

Also consuming some (er, most) of my time this past week has been The Pillars of the Earth.

I picked this book up a few years ago from Barnes & Nobles, but could just never get into it and have left it to collect dust on my bookshelf ever since. Well, I found out last Friday night that after you make it through the first 50 pages, it’s highly addictive. I found myself struggling to stay up until the wee hours of the morning just because I refused to put the book down. It was honestly that good.

For those who are curious, the book is set in England during the 1100’s. The story follows the lives of five major characters across a span of forty years as a small village sets out to construct a new church that is plagued by corruption, greed, and political unrest. If you liked movies such as Robin Hood and Ever After, I think you’ll really enjoy The Pillars of the Earth.

And with that, I’ll leave you with this view out of my bedroom window this evening:

Has anyone else read The Pillars of the Earth? Any book recommendations for me?