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I think I ate my weight in spinach and artichoke dip over the course of this last weekend so it’s safe to say it’s a good one. Especially since dip usually means get togethers! 🙂

We had a wild start to the weekend. Tanner suggested going out to dinner on Friday night but we ended up staying in, cooking dinner and playing Scrabble. (He beat me…badly!) We went upstairs to head to bed and found Sullie like this. She had taken over my spot! I finished Before We Were Yours. Such a wonderful book.

Namastay Kitchen Beet Burger

I met up with a few ladies from my online group to run on Saturday morning. I ran 3 with them and then Virginia and I tacked on 3 more. After the run I taught hot yoga at 11:15 and then had lunch with Tanner at Namastay. Of course I had the beet burger on a salad. I think it had been a few weeks since I’d had it and I was in withdrawals.

Namastay Kitchen Fried Oysters

We also shared an order of fried oysters and they were SO GOOD!

Julia's Cafe Charlotte

We went to Home Depot after lunch to get some things for the house. I am on a major plant kick so we’ve added a few indoor plants to our home and of course we had to do the fall mum thing!

We parted ways after Home Depot and I spent the next hour wandering around Julia’s looking for new (used) books. I ended up with six books including Falling Together, Leaving Time, Broken for You, Shanghai Girls, Dreams of Joy and And Then I Found You. It was a hot day so I picked up a strawberry lemonade popsicle at checkout.

Not sure about some of these titles but we shall see. I’m starting with Leaving Time because I’ve heard great things.

trader joe's fall shopping

Next stop was Trader Joe’s where I bought lots of things!

trader joe's haul

Here’s the rest of it.

trader joe's pumpkin spiced pumpkin seeds

I had a get together with girlfriends on Saturday night that I wanted to bring a salad to. These pumpkin spiced pumpkin seeds are one of my favorite fall seasonal items at Trader Joe’s.

Fall salad with beets, butternut squash, pumpkin seeds and a date vinaigrette

Here’s what went into the salad…

  • Trader Joe’s cruciferous crunch (I massaged this with olive oil, lemon juice and sea salt to break it down)
  • Roasted beets
  • Roasted butternut squash
  • Pumpkin seeds
  • Dried cranberries
  • The balsamic date dressing from this salad
Fall salad with beets, butternut squash, pumpkin seeds and a date vinaigrette

All mixed up!

A group of about eight teachers got together on Saturday night for a special evening of letting go and moving on as we enter a new season. We began and ended the night with lots of snacks though!

letting go bonfire

The main event was building a fire. We spent some time writing things we were ready to let go of and had a long and deep discussion about all sorts of things before we took turns burning our sheets of paper. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried this but it’s an extremely powerful exercise.

Post-fire chocolate + fruit. It was such a wonderful evening.

apple pie bars

I spent most of Sunday being productive around the house and taught a yoga class at 4. After class we headed over to Tanner’s mom’s place for dinner along with his step-father, brother, SIL and niece. I baked these apple pie bars to share for dessert. They were heavenly.

When we arrived we snacked on these dips. They were both delicious but the spinach and artichoke his mom made was out of this world!

white creamy chicken enchiladas

She prepared creamy chicken enchiladas for dinner and they were amazing! I brought the leftover salad from Saturday night + another chopped salad to share as well.

apple pie bars with ice cream

A sweet end to a sweet weekend! 🙂

What’s your #1 favorite type of dip or dip recipe? (Links welcome if you have a good one!)

Found anything new or interesting at Trader Joe’s lately? 

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