Life » britta//unfiltered

Single Lady Dinners

May 012013

Posted by Britta on May 1, 2013 at 11:12 pm in Food, Life 3 Responses »

SooooOoo… I didn’t post about it anywhere online because the internet is full of psychos, but Brandon was gone the past few weeks on his first trip EVER overseas. The lucky duck got to visit Hungary, Belgium and Germany for a business trip! I was over-the-top happy to have him home after two whole weeks. I was so excited the day he got home I even took a half day of work and surprised him at the airport so he didn’t have to take a cab home and we could spend the afternoon together. First time I have EVER successfully surprised him. YES!

While the dude of the house was gone, I reverted back to my college ways of veggie bowls and faux-dinners. If you have been tagging along since I started the blog way back in my last year of school, you may have noticed the shift from single-sized dinners to leftover-friendly monstrosities with more protein and usually lots-o-cheese. While I missed Brandino mucho, it was actually nice to get back to eating lighter dinners that were super quick to prepare and easy to clean up!

The slightly pathetic food diary of my 2-week bachelor pad experience with equally pathetic iPhone photos –

Whole wheat angel hair spaghetti with peas, goat cheese and sautéed mushrooms. This was cleaning out the fridge at its finest. Notice the BRAND NEW candle that Teto broke because he was angry to be left home all alone for the weekend while I was in Chicago. Won’t let my devil cat get me down, put that thing on a coffee filter and keep ‘er burning!! Trashy chic.

Tuna salad with celery and olive oil based mayo + cottage cheese with pretzel thins for dippers. I am obsessed with pretzel thins right now! The fridge got a little more bare when I scrounged some roasted carrots with sautéed mushrooms and spinach to sneak some legit nutrients into this sad excuse for a dinner.

One of my very last homemade black bean burgers atop quinoa, goat cheese, and sautéed onions and green peppers. With sriracha, naturally.

Tuna salad made with Greek yogurt, mustard and lemon pepper seasoning melted into a quesadilla with some white beans and sharp cheddar + salad with Craisins and sunflower seeds on the side. Anyone out there know if there is such a thing as unsweetened dried cranberries? There’s no way they could be as delicious as Craisins but I try to avoid the added sugar when I can!

Dinner tonight! Buttered noodles with goat cheese and spinach with another Craisin-tastic salad paired with cannellini beans – my fave bean. FYI, just in case we ever have to play the Newlywed Game together or something.

The funny thing is, Brandon is home now but has had dinners for work almost every day since he has returned. My single lady dinner bowls have lived on!

What is the weirdest thing you eat for dinner when you are on your own? I also tend to eat way later when making dinner on my own, like 9:30ish – anyone else? Courtney – if you are reading this, I need you to comment and be honest. Let’s not forget the time we stooped to my personal all-time low of noodles and ketchup as a meal…

Windy to Snowy

Apr 222013

Posted by Britta on April 22, 2013 at 11:24 pm in Life 2 Responses »

Hi Hi! This is going to be a quick little post, but I wanted to pop in and share some adventures from this past weekend. I took a half day from work flew down to Chicago on Friday to visit some college roomies. This is the first time I’ve been able to get together with this group of ladies since we all graduated a few years ago and it was SO MUCH FUN!

I especially wanted to share a few of the Chicago spots we stopped in at throughout the weekend and share some highlights. I did a poor job of taking pictures this time around but still have a few memories to share and save for later:

- Dinner friday night at Gemini Bistro was spent catching up with my friend who was my classmate, coworker AND roommate during our time at Wisconsin together. We had so much fun and saw Kristin Cavallari and Jay Cutler at the restaurant, which is my second time ever spotting a celeb so I was a little excited. FYI – K. Cav looked supa fly with the best hair and the coolest fur jacket. LAGUNA BEACH FOR LIFE!! We shared the scallops and mussels which were perfection!! The mussels came with bread to soak up the delicious broth – so so so good.

- I met Sushi, my friend’s little Shiba Inu for the first time after many months of Instagram-stalking her cute pics of the pup.

- Shopping in Old Town and Michigan Ave – only one new pair of jeans so I controlled the damage pretty well I think.

- Lunch at Ditka’s of all places with my two Bears-crazy girlfriends which I actually loved – I admit I am a bandwagon Packers fan so I can’t defend myself around these ladies at all. They already have the Bears schedule memorized and analyzed, so it was hilarious to check out the Bears memorabilia at this place with them and nod my head and smile while they chatted football. The chicken avocado sandwich was yummy comfort food on a windy chilly day, too.

- Saturday night we got our hair done at a blow dry bar (really fun because who doesn’t love someone else washing and brushing their hair? but not something I would do often I don’t think) and then dinner out at Mercadito where we had almost every taco on the menu and the most interesting and delicious tequila drinks. HIGHLY recommend!! We also had a guac trio and two kinds of ceviche, which are only a sample of the menu. Gotta love a place with an extensive guacamole menu. We capped the night with drinks out in River North.

- Sunday headache recovery took place at Prasilo – insider tip like I know what I’m talking about: my gf told me they take brunch reservations which can be a rare thing in Chicago. I had the BEST eggs benedict ever – on a pretzel croissant with Brie and spinach YUM!! and the servers were very helpful and nice.

SIGHHHH it is so sad to come home away from all my friendlies in Chicago. I always have such a fun time when I visit!!!

I returned from the Windy City to this mess:

Yeah, this is totally fine.

I spent the weekend before last in my hometown visiting my family and hanging out with my BFFs for life, drinking margaritas and… well mostly drinking margaritas –the best kind of night, really. In other news, my legs are totally effed/tight/sore/cramping so I have been foam rolling like a motha all week but no real miles to report. Next week was supposed to be a “step back”/lower mileage week in my training plan so I am taking that weekend off a little earlier and hoping to pick up where I left off next weekend.

I know I haven’t kept up my promise to check in more often. Life and work has been so busy lately and let’s face it, I suck at blogging. Hope you enjoyed this little update anyway!

New Blog is Here! BRITTA // UNFILTERED!

Mar 032013

Posted by Britta on March 3, 2013 at 9:37 pm in Goals, Life 1 Response »

Notice anything different? It’s Britta // Unfiltered (see what I did there?!)

AHHHHHHH!

The new blog format and name I have been promising for… oh over a year.. it’s finally here!

My goals in redesigning my blog were:

- get rid of the colorful background and cluttered format. My blog isn’t busy so I don’t think the layout should be, either.

- a more simple presentation will lead to a more simple approach. I look back at some of my old content and it is very navel-gazing and ME ME ME as I transitioned out of college and into a “college graduette” (the old blog name for any new joiners!)

I’m not a big Facebook user and am terrible at email updates for the fam, so I love sharing news and photos of special events and trips on the blog. That will definitely continue! And I also plan to keep posting recipes I try and love, regardless of how ugly the accompanying iPhone food photography might be.

But I’m also hoping to pop in more frequently with interesting stories, articles and ideas. I’d love to share quick updates from my life that will be laugh- or thought-provoking, but I want to move away from the novel-length posts beating myself up over STILL not working out on a regular basis (lazy.) or trying to awkwardly dispense advice.

I still have a few touch-ups to finish, but I wanted to share the good news! From here on out, I promise to be a bit more off-the-cuff and a lot more authentic, and to share my life, unfiltered. Welcome to the new blog!!

A quick peek at what’s up lately:

// make these soups:

Soup = ultimate comfort food. Spring is almost here but Minnesota is expecting some more snowy winter weather this week so I’m happy to be hunkering down with a leftover bowl of lentil soup this week!

Broccoli, Cheese & Potato Soup:

Lentil & Pasta Soup:

// pretty kitty:

Invader from space:

Brandon told Teto he needs to get a job to cover the pet rent we will have to pay if we move. Teto’s taking it kind of hard…

// highlights from recent visits & trips:

Girls’ “Ice Fishing” Weekend in the Twin Cities – sushi, dancing, so much fun:

Madison for Passion Pit – this weekend was one of the most fun post-grad visits to Madison yet!

danced so much I NEEDED Pizza di Roma.

(late night. dinner.)

// <3

A few housekeeping notes:

If you come to this site from a bookmark, CHANGE YOUR BOOKMARKS TO www.brittaunfiltered.com The collegegraduette URL will be going away within the year.
I’m not sure how Feedburner deals with URL changes, so if you subscribe to this blog via RSS or email, please use the links in the sidebar to UPDATE YOUR SUBSCRIPTION. Just go ahead and re-subscribe to be safe.
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