Sunday Soul Food

Happy Easter! I hope you all had a wonderful day and had a chance to enjoy some time with your family and friends.

“Unless there is a Good Friday in your life, there can be no Easter Sunday.” ― Fulton J. Sheen

I started my day, by making a smoothie. Let’s just call it the Energizer Bunny.

1 packet of Aloha (Chocolate)
4 dates
1 cup unsweetened Vanilla almond milk
1 cup carrots
1 banana
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tbsp shredded unsweetened coconut
1 cup spinach

Then it was off to Pure Barre to take Julie’s 8am class and then teach the 9:15am. After leaving the studio, I headed to the store to put together an Easter basket. Talk about waiting until the last minute.

You’re never too old for an Easter basket.

Complete with some of his essentials – Cadbury Eggs, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites, Vanilla Creme Egg, Butterfinger Eggs, Reese’s Eggs, Nerds Rope, Bubble Gum, Peeps, Red Bull Cherry, Orange and Tropical.

I got home made a rather late breakfast, showered and then got ready to meet my parents for lunch. We decided to try out The Liberty.  I’ve been there twice before – once for lunch and once for dinner, but no one else had been there before. They were doing a special menu for Easter Brunch…and it wasn’t a buffet, which was a GREAT thing for us 😉

Brunch started with Buttermilk Biscuits for the table. There were four different options for the first course and I chose ‘The Gatherer’ – Tega Hill’s Tender Greens, Avocado, Roasted Beets, Toasted Pecans, Bosc Farm’s Goat Cheese, Radish and Herb Vinaigrette. It was good – nothing out of this world. Randall and my Dad both opted for the ‘Southern Pickled Shrimp’ – Belgian Endive, Watercress, Spring Onions and Champagne Vinaigrette.  They both ate it all and said it was pretty good. Mom had ‘Peas & Carrots’ – Salt-Baked Heirloom Carrots, English Peas, Bacon-Onion Jam, Pea Tendrils, Baby Arugula and Buttermilk Dressing.  There was no Bacon-Onion Jam on the salad, which is really sad – because bacon makes everything better! Boo. My Dad had originally ordered the She Crab Soup and was pretty bummed when they came back to let them know they were out of it.

For the Main Course we all got the ’24 Hour Slow Roasted Southern Ham’ – Southern Collard Greens, Baby Green Beans, Smoked Gouda Macaroni & Cheese, Apple-Cinnamon Chutney & Ham Hock Glaze. Everyone liked it – my favorite was the mac and cheese. No surprise there.

For dessert, I had the ‘Warm Chocolate Cake’ – French Merinque, Chocolate Sauce and Strawberries. As I type this, I just realized there was no strawberries on it, which isn’t a huge deal because I really just care about chocolate. ❤ My Mom had the ‘Salted Caramel Budino’ – Cookie Crust, Butterscotch Pudding and Whipped Cream. I tried a bite of it – it was good, but I liked mine better. Dad and Randall had the Bourbon Pecan Pie with Vanilla Ice Cream.

It was basically Chocolate Lava Cake. Delightful decadence. 

My favorite part was the dessert and the mac n cheese. Honestly, I like my Mom’s home cooked Easter cuisine better.

After I rolled myself out of there we took a few pictures before heading home for a breather.

#1 Easter Bunny.

Making Roy G. Biv proud.

Late last night I posted the below picture with the caption, “I hope the Easter bunny comes tonight and brings me Play-Doh, bubbles, stuffed animals and candy like the good ole days.”

And I left brunch with this:

The Easter Bunny is real, y’all.

The Easter Bunny is so attentive and thoughtful!

Before we got too comfortable on the couch, we grabbed a bottle of champagne, kumquats and headed over to our friend’s house to enjoy the rest of our afternoon / evening.  I came across kumquats the other day at Trader Joe’s. One of the many things I love about TJ’s are the notes under every product that either give you a tip or more info about the product. The note under kumquats suggested adding to cocktails. Perfect. It’s basically a mini orange.

I may have had more fruit in my flute than champagne.

There was way too much delicious food and treats, but isn’t that always the case?! Let’s just say I’m looking forward to a green smoothie first thing tomorrow and making sure I load up on veggies!  I know I mentioned this yesterday, but I need to get back on track – I was feeling so so good with our new way of eating and want to feel that way again.

“If an egg is broken by an outside force, life ends. If broken by an inside force, life begins. Great things always begin from the inside.” – Jim Kwik

On Holidays, I always like to take some time to reflect on what that day is in celebration or remembrance of. If I’m not sure, I like to do my homework and fill myself in. I also like to think back over the years and remember all of the great times I had with my family and friends. There’s always certain things that stand out to me and often times leave me feeling very nostalgic as I day dream about all the bittersweet memories. Those memories give me motivation and inspiration to spend my time with those that I love to add more pages to the Book of Life (Danielle Cote Edition).

“Spend time with those you love. One of these days you will say either, ‘I wish I had’ or ‘I’m glad I did.'” – Zig Ziglar