Six months ago, I made my big announcement that I was moving from Harrisburg PA to Charlotte NC.  Today, I am announcing that my husband & my doggy have finally made the move too!!  I was so happy to welcome Matt & Sadie to Charlotte over the weekend. 

We had a super busy weekend of moving.  It started on Thursday night, when I took a flight from Charlotte to go help with packing in Pennsylvania.  Luckily, Mark & Claudia (Matt's dad & stepmom) were able to join us in Pennsylvania on Friday to help with packing- and the four of us got to work.  After a full day of loading the truck, cleaning the condo, running some errands, and visiting my grandma, we were completely exhausted. 

Sadie is adorable, but definitely not a good mover.  Here she is getting in our way as we were trying to move the box spring of the bed.  

The chaos continued as we woke up bright & early on Saturday, and then spent the day driving from Harrisburg to Charlotte.  Eight hours later - we arrived!  Our family came to the rescue again; my sister and brother-in-law (and their dog Skittles) met us at our Charlotte apartment to help us unload the truck.  

This weekend solidified one of the main reasons I wanted to move down south - it was absolutely gorgeous weather. Sunny, in the low 70's, perfect.  We have eaten all of our meals outside on our balcony the past few days because it has been so nice out  Well, and the dining room is a complete disaster and we have nowhere to sit inside.  Good times.   

So a huge THANK YOU to our family members who helped us move.  We would probably still be in Pennsylvania trying to load up the truck if we had to do everything alone.  

Now that Matt & Sadie are here, I feel more like I have officially relocated.  It will be nice to have Matt here so we can explore our new city together.  I can't wait to write about all the restaurants we try!!  So exciting.   

Don't Sadie & Skittles look excited?  Haha.  

Have a great week everyone!  I am looking forward to spending some more time outdoors, getting a good yoga class in, and cooking some healthy meals.

Anyone have any unpacking tips??  

OK, I know that this is a blog about food & healthy living.  But I had to share my situation since I'm positive this happens to women everywhere:  the unsatisfactory hair dye job.  Ugh!!  

Here is the back story:  a few years ago, I started getting some noticeable gray hair.  I was living in Pennsylvania and going to an awesome stylist, Lindsay, and totally trusted her.  When she said that she could brush some color over my grays, I was definitely on board.  The hair color looked super natural.  For comparison purposes,  here I am a few years ago with my natural hair color:  

And here is my color with Lindsay's color job:    

So similar, right?  Then, when I moved to Charlotte, I needed to get my hair colored again.  Not knowing much about hair color, I thought it was perfectly fine that the new hair guy I tried started putting the dye all over my hair.  I was wondering why he did this, when Lindsay only put the dye over my roots/greys, but I am no expert so I didn't question it.  The result?  Super, duper dark hair.  After doing a little research, I found out that putting hair color over existing hair color makes the hair really dark.  I hated it.  I felt like I looked "goth," which would have been fine if I was still a teenager in the 90's, but not so fine as a 32 year old professional adult.  

As a result, I have tried a home experiment I read about on this website, which states that a mixture of crushed up vitamin C tablets and Head & Shoulders can lighten hair dye.  

Here are the steps I took:  

 1) Crush up a handful of vitamin C tablets in a zipper bag, I used a potato masher to smash them up.  

2) Combine the vitamin C powder with a few big squeezes of Head & Shoulders, then apply to damp hair.  

3) Cover hair with a shower cap to prevent a big mess, then leave on for about an hour.  

4) Rinse off, and make sure to condition hair well.  

I did this treatment two times, here are the results:

My opinion is that I noticed a slight difference after the first treatment, but don't notice a difference between the second two treatments.  So definitely worth trying, since I got a subtle result and it was an inexpensive at home attempt.   

What do you guys think?  

Does anyone else have a natural at-home hair lightening method I should try?  

After {another} week of traveling for work, I was definitely ready to eat a home cooked meal.  Of course, I found myself once again barely having any food in the fridge, but I did manage to throw together something really yummy this morning - Peanut Butter Berry French Toast!  I'll bet most of us already have the ingredients on hand to make this.  

I started my week by making something new and creative:  Crispy Breaded Tofu Strips!!  These were yummy, and a great alternative to your average tofu dish.  I have been obsessed lately with recipes from the blog Oh She Glows.      

And for the un-creative, a few of my usuals.  Pacific Low Sodium Tomato Roasted Red Pepper Soup, and a grilled cheese.  

Happy Saturday!  Yesterday, after being snowed in for 3 days, I was finally able to venture outside of my apartment and go into the office in the afternoon.  I have never been so happy to see my cubicle!  

When I was doing meal planning for this past week, I only planned through Wednesday because I thought I was going out of town for work.  I ended up being stuck in the house, so I needed to figure out some meals with the few grocery items I had on hand.  

Throwing together meals is not new to me - meal planning can sometimes be overwhelming, so I usually find that I only plan meal from Sunday - Thursday.  I figure that on Friday, I'll have leftovers and randomness to pull something together.  Over time, I have come to enjoy being creative and consider it a challenge to cook a "scrounge meal."  Plus, I can guarantee that any scrounge meal I throw together at home is healthier than stopping off for takeout. 

Here are a few of the meals I threw together during my snow entrapment:   

Oh Charlotte, how did you go from being 60 degrees over the weekend, to this?  9:30 AM:    

And 2:00 PM:  

When I was a kid, I used to LOVE fettuccine alfredo.  Creamy, cheesy, rich & delicious, I know that a ton of people love this decadent dish.  When I was in my late teens and started having symptoms of IBS, I knew that I could never eat fettuccine alfredo again.  

A couple weeks ago, I saw a recipe for alfredo sauce that is made with cauliflower instead of heavy cream & cheese, and I knew I had to try it.  I adapted my dish from the version on Oh She Glows, a vegan blogger who always posts yummy looking recipes.

For the past few months, I have been obsessed with the idea of trying a bunch of restaurants from the Charlotte Magazine 25 Best Restaurant List.  Since I know that I am going to be traveling for work a lot this year, I decided that Matt & I should commit to eating at five of these restaurants throughout the course of 2014.  And then, once Charlotte Magazine publishes the new list in December, we can spend 2015 visiting the restaurants on the new list.  Sounds like a great plan, right?  

The first restaurant I decided to try from the list was Halcyon- Flavors from the Earth.  It's located in Uptown inside the Mint Museum.  It would be super fun to visit in the warmer weather, they had a nice balcony outside with tables.  When Matt & I visited last Saturday the weather was decent, but not quite warm enough for outdoor dining.    

Happy Saturday!  I have a fantastic weekend ahead of me- my family is here to visit.  I miss Sadie so much. And my husband too of course.  :)   

The great news is that after living apart for 5 months, Sadie and Matt will finally be joining me here in Charlotte in early March.  Yes!!  Since I am here by myself, and don't have most of my furniture or my family here yet, I sometimes get the sense that I am just here temporarily, and there will be a time when I need to go back to Pennsylvania.  I know, it doesn't make sense, but I think it still seems surreal to me that I am actually living in the city that I love.  

The other thing that seems surreal is how mild the winter has been!  SO much better than the PA winters.  I spent a few days in Detroit for work this week, and realized how much I don't miss the months of frigid cold. But check out my rental car I had in Detroit you guys- it was super awesome.  I remember as a teenager thinking how cool it would be to have a Mustang, and 15 years later I finally get to drive one, haha.   

Confession: I have not been doing what I always talk about on this blog- planning meals and being prepared.  I have found myself "grabbing" lunch or dinner in way too many situations.  Living alone and cooking meals for myself has not gone as well as I had hoped.  This weekend, my parents were here in Charlotte to visit, and unfortunately my fridge was in its usual state of emptiness.    

My strategy, as always, was to to make the healthiest choices possible, but still including wiggle room to have a few treats.  On Friday night, we enjoyed a casual dinner at Jason's Deli.  I ordered half a Zucchini Grillini sandwich, which is a yummy combo of veggies, cheese, & hummus.  On the side, I had a cup of Southwest Chicken Chili, and some fruit.