Last night’s dinner was proof that if you meal plan and have ingredients on hand you are much more likely to eat at home and make smart food choices (check out my “How to Menu Plan” post). I didn’t get home from yoga until 8:45 and some friend’s stopped by for a beer on their way back from our neighborhood association summer party. It was 9:15 before Brandon had a chance to even light the grill. But the chicken was in the fridge, I’d made a pot of pole beans before yoga and Brandon had boiled potatoes while I was at yoga for our blue cheese mashed potatoes. There were no excuses for not following through with our planned dinner even though we were so hungry and didn’t really want to wait for the grill.

Brandon grilled our organic chicken breasts on the Big Green Egg with a Dizzy Pig Rub. We also had sliced heirloom tomatoes in addition to the sides you see. We might not have eaten until 10 p.m. but was so delicious!

I am happy to report that I managed to drag myself out of bed this morning for a run with Sullie. We took it easy – no Garmin – just us and the road. It was extremely humid but we got a nice run in.

Fast forward to lunch today. My sweet husband was working from home today and offered to cook some bacon for BLTs. We had beautiful heirloom tomatoes and Great Harvest Honey Whole Wheat so I couldn’t resist that offer.

I whipped up some herb mayo with fresh herbs from our garden and it really added a punch of flavor to the sandwiches. Such a tasty quintessential summer lunch.

I had plans for blogger yoga + dinner after work today. I booked it out of work and somehow made it to the yoga studio, into my clothes and onto my mat in record time. I honestly don’t love 5:30 classes because I always feel so stressed about getting there. And that’s just not how you want to feel before yoga. We did a hot vinyasa class tonight with an instructor whose class I’d never taken. Oh my god, long holds. I am much more into flowing from one pose to another and kind of freak out when I have to hold something for longer than 30 seconds. It took all of my willpower to stay in some of the poses tonight.

After yoga we headed over to The Counter for dinner. In attendance…Jen, Katy, Brittney, Jessie and myself (duh). We started out with a round of waters (oh yes, so fun! hydration!) and an order of sweet potato fries.

And then we got to work on our meals. The fun thing about The Counter is that you can build your own creation. Here’s what I went with…

And here’s how it came out.

Love salads topped with veggie burgers.

I am chilling on the couch with So You Think You Can Dance and a glass of red wine. Getting my mind ready for another ashtanga practice with Sarah in the morning. I told her, “my body resists the intense twist/binding that early in the morning.” To which she replied, “Oh it’s sooo good for you, tell your body to cut it out.” I predict fun times ahead at 6 a.m. tomorrow. 😉