I’m SO Excited…

…and I just can’t hide it! :mrgreen:

I feel like The Pointer Sisters:

That video made my morning so much better.

But seriously, I can’t get over the positive response I’ve gotten in calling for guest bloggers. It’s something I should have done a long time ago! Every blogger who emailed me had such great ideas for posts. No more lonely blog around here! I’m excited to keep content fresh thanks to all of you.

I’ve been slowly but surely responding to emails and if you haven’t heard from me yet, please know that I will be sending out an email to everyone this weekend with more information. If you’re still interested and want to send me an email, feel free! It’s eatingbender@gmail.com. SO EXCITED!

***

I’m also excited to share a quick recap of my girl’s weekend! Last Friday, one of my best friends — and maid of honor! — came into town to visit me and my other best friend from college. It was the first time we had all three been together since graduation. We had a great time!

On Friday night, we went to pick up my friend and had a low key night in. Saturday morning, we thought there would be nothing better than a trip to good ol’ Walker Bros. You may know that this is an absolute favorite breakfast place of mine. Everything on the menu is delicious and fresh.

I started off with a fresh cup of coffee.

For breakfast, I ordered the Greek baked omelette, which actually goes into the oven to create a puffy sensation of flavors that include spinach, tomato, kalamata olives and feta cheese.

It’s a generous serving size but surprisingly, I’m always able to eat the whole thing šŸ˜‰ I also had some whole wheat toast, which comes with fresh jam and butter. I love jam!

We had a fabulous time. Here’s a photo of the three amigas:

I’m the one in the back still bundled up in a coat and scarf šŸ˜‰ If you’ve ever met me in person during the winter, you will know that I do not take off my coat! Something about being all bundled up…

On Saturday night, my friend Sam and I came back to downtown Chicago and had a girl’s night that included organic wine from Whole Foods — Pacific Rim Riesling, which was on sale!

We enjoyed the wine while watching The Pregnancy Pact on Lifetime. Did anyone else see this movie? It was based roughly on a true story. Interesting stuff.

When the movie was finished, we popped in the complete opposite end of the movie spectrum: Sex & The City. [I just realized how vastly different these two are…wow.] Anyway, I had never seen it before and thought it was a good movie!

While we watched, we enjoyed small fruit tarts that we picked up from the Whole Foods bakery. The custard, pastry and fruit topping were SO good. I would love to try to recreate this one at home.

We chatted all night — not counting the part where Sam fell asleep during the second movie šŸ˜‰

On Sunday, our friend Lauren met up with us again to head into the heart of downtown and every shopper’s paradise: Michigan Avenue. We did a lot of window shopping and stopped by Ghirardelli to pick up some of their amazingly rich and decadent hot chocolate.

We couldn’t help ourselves…

Did I mention the hot chocolate was delicious?

For dinner, we stopped by The SoupBox, which I’ve visited before with Lo and Val!

This time around, I tried the Tomato Tortellini soup, a vegetarian option made with a tomato broth and filled with tortellini shells. It hit the spot on a cold day, especially when served with doughy whole wheat bread, which they make fresh every morning.

As you can tell, we had a busy weekend! It was so much fun to catch up with Sam and hang out with her and Lauren again. It made me miss the college days, but hopefully we can do it again soon!

***

Can you believe Friday is here again? I feel that this week went by super fast!

Here’s the weekend agenda:

  • Sleep
  • Go to the dentist
  • Sleep
  • Catch up on emails and with friends on the phone (yay!)
  • Sleep
  • Catch up with bloggers and what’s new in their lives (double yay!)
  • Sleep
  • Figure out the guest posting schedule
  • SLEEP!

Sounds like a plan to me! What are you up to this last weekend of January?

Abrazos,

30 Comments

  1. Your weekend plans sound fabulous! Mine will probably include being snowed in – which means lots of napping and eating! šŸ™‚

    If you still want/need a guest post and have some ideas of what you want, let me know!

  2. So glad you’ve gotten a positive guest blogger response šŸ™‚ Fabulous- if you need more, let me know! You know I’d be honored! Your girls weekend looks like so much fun! Love all of the delicious foods. My favorite are your omelet and that hot chocolate (oh my goodness!). Great friends are hard to find :). Enjoy your weekend. I have to go to the dentist too blahhhhhhh and hope to get lots of sleep in. PLUS – we’re celebrating Frank’s Birthday

  3. Why have a I never thought of putting olives in Omelets? I think it would be great!

    I’ve eaten at the Soup Box and enjoyed it. Might just have to make a repeat visit soon.

  4. personally I think you’re the only person on earffff who can rock a mustache and still look ridiculously gorgeous.. you so fly!

    sounds like a lovely meal šŸ™‚ happy weekend sweet thing!

  5. I’d love to do a guess post too, seems like you have enough interest already though šŸ™‚

  6. Spending time with girlfriends is seriously the best. It looks as though you and the ladies had a lovely time together. Wine/shopping/movies/food- my kind of weekend!

    Riesling is one of my favorite white wines- I’m a sucker for the sweetness. I’ll have to look for Pacific Rim at WF.

    Can’t wait to catch up with you soon!!

  7. Ahh, I love that you guys went to Walker Bros!!! Makes me think of our old 3-Blue trips. šŸ™‚ Miss you all!

  8. randomly im working one day this weekend ( im not sure whats up with all these half work weekends, but whatever…)
    and i have a dentist appt next week too! finally crossing some things off my to-do list…

    btw, i never take off my coat either!!! its hard to eat sometimes, but im always cold šŸ™

  9. I only wish I could get that much sleep into my schedule this weekend. Alas, I will be studying biochemistry for my midterm on Monday, plus I have to work an 8 hour shift. Booo.

  10. Goodness Walker Brothers is TOTALLY one of my favorite places too. TOO bad it’s so far away!!! I’ve never had the Greek omelete, but it looks fabulous!!! I always get sweet things there, like their pancakes. mmmm dutch baby…..

    I’m loving those “god cream” mustaches! hahahah SO CUTE!! šŸ™‚ I’m glad you had so much fun!!! Chicago can be pretty awesome sometimes…when it isn’t freakin’ freezing!!! like now i guess. Keep catching up on sleep my dear!!

  11. Dude, I am so glad I read your blog before posting mine! I had the same title!haha. Great minds think alike! Have a great weekend! I’ll be catching up on sleep too!

  12. Ugh… the pregnancy pact…. i swear not everyone in Massachusetts is that stupid. so depressing. What IS stupid is that WF isn’t allowed to sell alcohol. But the WF bakery is dangerous, I just bought the chocolate ganache cake from there, it was heaven.

  13. Love how you do not take your coat off. I do the same thing. Mainly because I am always cold šŸ™‚ Looks like you had a great time with friends šŸ˜‰ The sis and I need to get some guest bloggers on our site as well, excited for you šŸ™‚

  14. yay for catching up and sleepingggggggggggg!

    can’t wait to talk to you this weekend!!!

  15. That Greek omelette looks HEAVENLY!

    As far as our weekend goes, we were invited to a dinner party tomorrow night. My husband is sick so we’ll see if he’s up to going. If not we’ll cancel. The rest of the weekend is just R&R. Wow, I’m boring. lol

  16. so glad you had a great time with your girls! mm those fruit tarts sound/look amazing! your weekend lineup is pretty awesome (minus the dentist!)

  17. Your weekend sounds and looks like a BLAST Jenn! So glad you had a good time. I need to be sure to hit up Soup Box while I’m in Chicago!

    I’d totally be interested in a guest post if the offer still stands–maybe we can chat about it over dinner in the near future?

    Have a relaxing and enjoyable weekend! šŸ˜‰

  18. Your weekend looks like so much fun! Excellent food, options! Everything looks soo tasty. The bakery at Whole Foods is to die for. Probably a good thing I live 75 miles from the closet one LOL.

    Jenn

  19. Looking forward to seeing the guest posts! And it looks like you had an awesome girls’ weekend! How fun šŸ™‚

    I’ve seen that Pacific Rim wine before, now I’ll have to try it!

    Pregnancy Pact was INSANE. I cannot believe it! Hope you’re having a good weekend Jenn! I’m relaxing, doing homework and preppin’ for another week of school!

  20. I LOVE baked omelettes! And I’m the same way- I don’t need it, but I can always polish off an omelette with no problem. A girl’s gotta get her protein, right? šŸ˜‰

  21. I can’t believe you hadn’t seen the Sex and the City movie until now!!! I may have seen it opening night and am a bit obsessed with the SATC ladiess!! Haha šŸ™‚ Love the hot cocoa mustache!!! That actually sounds REALLY amazing right about now…but I am drinking a pretty delish coffee latte at the moment, so it’s all good!

    Have a great weekend Jenn, glad you had fun with your friends! XOXO

  22. LOVE the girls weekend, sounds like you had a blast. And I’m so excited to be a future guest blogger, I gotta think up a goody. šŸ™‚ PS. I actually grew up in the town where “The Pregancy Pact” took place in real life. I avoided watching the movie because I knew it would probably be full of stereotypes and such…the whole thing was crazy (the actual Pact, that is)…still can’t believe they made a movie out of it!

  23. Mmmm BREAKFAST! Jenn, I definitely think we share a love of breakfast. šŸ™‚ You always get something I would order!

    Anything callled the Soup Box is bound to be good right?!

    šŸ™‚ Sounds like you’re doing great!

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