Exploring: Greenville, South Carolina

Favorite Sushi Place: Sushi Koji

Authentic, Japanese sushi and cuisine, Sushi Koji also serves some of the freshest tasting sushi I've ever had. The atmosphere is amazing as well. You can sit at the sushi bar (pictured above) or they have booths lining the wall with windows looking onto the street. 

My favorite sushi roll to get here is the "Hot Tonight" (spicy salmon, cream cheese, jalepeno and deep-fried spicy tuna on top)

Favorite Restaurant: Lazy Goat

This is mine and Charles' all-time favorite place to eat. The food is delicious, decently priced and the view can't be beat from the patio or from indoors. 

This is our favorite appetizer there: Pimento Spread with grilled Ciabatta bread for only $4 at lunch. I usually get the grilled veggie wrap for $5 to go along with it.

Favorite Activity: Walking downtown

Ask anyone who used to live in Greenville what they miss the most, and they will tell you that it's downtown.

Most of the restaurants off the sidewalk have alfresco dining and on nice evenings (especially weekends) every table is filled.

It's such a beautiful downtown and a lot of late weekend nights they actually close off main street to cars and post a couple police cars and officers down the length of main street to keep everyone safe and secure. They have live concerts on Friday nights and a huge Farmer's Market on Saturday mornings.

Favorite Store: Belk's

It might seem weird to have a department store as my favorite store, but they always clearance their last season's name brand shoes at 70% off so I'm always excited to find great deals there...like this pair of Madden Girl pumps for $15!

If you are from Greenville and have never tried any of these places, I highly recommend you do. If you are not, and are looking for a quiet place to go on vacation and relax...I can't think of a better town to visit.

House Plans: Exterior

I'm trying not to turn this blog into a house building blog, I'd really like to see it remain more of a recipe/food blog, but I know that a lot of my friends love decorating as much as I do and this is such a huge part of my life right now that it's hard not to blog about it.

If you are like me, you always want to be able to visualize something. If I get an idea, I can see it in my head and usually I don't want to deviate that much from that picture (which usually ends up frustrating Charles since I can't always explain the picture in my head that well).

Since you have seen the colors and finishes for our exterior here is a little something to help you visualize what the exterior of the house will look like in the end.

I never thought I would be so excited to have a basement, but after living in South Carolina for 3 years, where basements are basically non-existent, I put having a full walkout basement on the top of my list for this home.

We have a meeting at the end of this month to pick out all the interior finishes so I'll post those plans for that blog =)

I'm so glad it's Friday, and I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter weekend! In a weekend filled with peeps, plastic eggs, and chocolate bunnies it's amazing to remember that we are celebrating the very event that our entire faith is hinged upon, the reason we have hope for a life everlasting.

"Above all powers, above all kings
Above all nature and all created things
Above all wisdom and all the ways of man
You were here before the world began
Above all kingdoms, above all thrones
Above all wonders the world has ever known
Above all wealth and treasures of the earth
There's no way to measure what you're worth


Crucified, Laid behind a stone
You lived to die, Rejected and alone
Like a rose, Trampled on the ground
You took the fall, And thought of me
Above all


Above all powers, above all kings
Above all nature and all created things
Above all wisdom and all the ways of man
You were here before the world began
Above all kingdoms, above all thrones
Above all wonders the world has ever known
Above all wealth and treasures of the earth
There's no way to measure what you're worth

Crucified, Laid behind a stone

You lived to die, Rejected and alone

Like a rose, Trampled on the ground

You took the fall, And thought of me

Above all"

And the winner is.....

GRAY!! with blue accents. I had made my mind up to go with brown, but when we got to the builder's office and started looking through the options I just didn't like any of the browns, so I peeked at the grays. Charles saw me and said "Who cares about the neighbors house? Let's just do gray" I looked at him and said "You're right, this is our dream house and a once in a life time thing for us, so let's do it. Plus 90% of the houses in our development are brown anyways, and the other neighbor is beige so what's the big deal with we do a similar color the other neighbor?" Plus we are doing cooler colors inside so I didn't really want warm colors on the exterior.

Once we decided to go with gray, everything else was super easy to pick. The accent will be the smoky dark blue, the trim will be white and so will the garage doors.

The gray siding looks a little brown in this picture, but it IS gray. =)

I've always heard building a house is stressful....and maybe it will be once the house starts to go up, but right now I'm having so much fun picking out exactly what I want, well for the most part. HGTV has kind of given me expensive taste, but if you can get your style and budget to meet then it's loads of fun. I'm also lucky to have a husband who shares the same taste in style as me. If we would have tried to build a house when we were first married it would have caused a lot of fighting. I loved a minimalism and very contemporary design like this bedroom:

And Charles loved antiques:

But now my tastes in style has changed to a more "homey" feel, and I love mixing the formal with hints of antiquity.

What about you? Do you struggle because you and your spouse have different tastes in style? Have you "melded" together over the years? What is your favorite decorating style and how has it changed over the years?

Plant Based Diet: Lentil Veggie Soup

It's been awhile since I made soup. It's hard for me to get in the mood for soup during the summer but it's been a little cooler the past couple mornings, and I miss making soup...and I miss the low calorie meal option it provides, so I threw a pot on today. My friend Jennifer sent me a recipe for some lentil soup that she actually pureed for her son to eat, and he loved it! This recipe has to be a winner to pass that kind of critique. Plus I am falling in love with lentils! I add them to my chili all the time and keep increasing the amount I add because I can't get enough of them, so when I saw this recipe I was super excited to try it.

I modified the recipe to keep with my plant based lifestyle, my effort to cut oil out of my diet as much as possible, and based on what was readily available in my fridge and pantry.

Ingredients:
1/8 c vegetable broth
1/2 c sweet onion, chopped
1 c carrots, peeled and chopped
1 potato, peeled and diced
1/2 c turnip, peeled and diced
1 garlic clove, minced (or 1tsp minced canned/frozen garlic)
1 t crushed/minced fresh/frozen/canned ginger
1 c dried lentils (I used red lentils)
1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes (do not drain)
1 quart vegetable broth
1 t dried oregano
1 t dried thyme
2 t cider vinegar


Method:

• Saute vegetables in 1/8 c vegetable broth 6-8 minutes, until onion is translucent, stirring frequently (add more vegetable broth if needed to prevent vegetables from sticking and burning, but avoid adding too much or your veggies will become soggy)
• Add garlic and lentils and cook for 2 more minutes, stirring constantly
• Add broth, tomatoes, herbs and vinegar, and bring to a boil
• Reduce heat, cover and simmer 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally, until lentils are tender
• Garnish with fresh herbs

Note: You may want to leave out herbs and vinegar until the end if you want to puree some for a baby. I always let my daughter eat food that had herbs in it, but you may find your baby doesn't like them or their stomach can't handle it

Thanks so much Jennifer for sharing this amazing recipe with me!

What to Do? What to Do?

Last week we met with the builder and staked out where our house is going on the lot. Tomorrow night we are meeting with him again to pick out all the exterior colors and finishes. HELP! I have to decide by tomorrow what color my house will be forever?! Originally this was not supposed to be an issue. I wanted a light gray house, with white trim, and dark blue accents....however, our soon-to-be next door neighbors have those exact colors, so obviously I can't copy them. I also liked light blue...but that might be a lot for an entire house...and I would probably get sick of that color in about 5 years.

And so, the dilemma has begun. I have narrowed my choices down to earth tones: either a light brown with a dark brown accent or a light green with a dark green accent.

Any suggestions? What color would you choose if you could redo your house?