Father's Day Weekend in Greenwood

Matt and I headed to Greenwood to visit my family for Father's Day. We had such a great time! We went down on Saturday morning and came back Sunday after lunch. It took us a little under 4 hours each way.  We were able to eat lunch at my brother's restaurant, see my parent's best friends from Charleston, watch the new super man movie at the  Drive In and celebrate Father's Day with my Daddy! It was great! A couple of quick highlights:

 

1. A couple got engaged at the drive in on Saturday night!! It was so sweet! They were from Simpsonville and it was where they went on their first date. Matt and I helped out by videoing the proposal for the them. It was so cute!

 

2. The drive in was packed! I am so proud of my parents for reviving this drive in and being successful at it! Everyone loves it. The crazy part is that most people aren't from  Greenwood! They drive from all over to come!

 

3. My family is so much fun. I am pretty sure we laughed the entire time!

 

4. Matt and I went shopping with Mom on Saturday afternoon. We had to pick up some last minute Father's Day items. Most importantly, I got a new Clemson paw sticker for my car...Gotta represent Clemson here in Rocky Top!

5. Sunday was perfect. It started out with coffee on the front porch- Mom, Dad, Matt and I (and Toby -my Dad's dog). Then we went to Aunt Paula's for Sunday lunch where we got to see my entire family on my Dad's side. The food was AMAZING and the company was even better! The next time we go home will hopefully to see my cousin's new baby! There are lots of babies in the McCutcheon family...

 

6. Most importantly, my dad told us this was his favorite Father's Day! It was so great to see my parents and extended family! I am so glad that he had a great day! Dad loved his gift! It was Tennessee themed: Jack Daniels Tennessee Honey and chocolate covered peanuts that are made on Market Square (just a block away)!

 

Unfortunately, I left my iPhone in Knoxville so I didn't get to take any pictures! However, I thought I would share some sweet pictures of my Dad from our wedding! (I am getting the most of these wedding pics!)

I love these pictures of me and my parents before we got married. This is when my Dad first saw me:

Walking me down the aisle.

 
This is my favorite photo of all us...everyone has such a great smile!

Dancing with my Daddy...he is always making me laugh!

Happy Father's Day Dad! You're such a great dad and role model- you're just too stubborn to ever give up...so am I!

 

xoxo

Fran

 

 

Father's Day Celebration

I think that the hardest part about getting married is splitting up holidays. It just isn't fun. I wish we could all be together...but that isn't the case. Matt and I try to spend every other holiday with each family. Since we spent Mother's Day with Matt's family, we are headed to Greenwood this weekend to celebrate Father's Day with my Dad and his side of our family. We are really looking forward to it since we haven't been to Greenwood since March! My parent's own a drive in movie theater in Greenwood. It is so much fun to go and they are showing the new Superman movie this weekend. We are looking forward to it!!!

 

We celebrated Father's Day with Matt's dad on Monday night. He and Morgan (Patti is at the beach) came downtown to go out to dinner and have dessert. It was such a fun night! We met at the Crown and Goose for fish and chips. They are sooo delicious! Then everyone came back to our house for Whopper Ice Cream Pie! Gary LOVES whoppers! I was so excited to make this for him. I think he loved it!

 

Us at dinner

 

Whopper Ice Cream Pie!

 

Gary and I (Matt took this picture...I wish he would have checked to see if our eyes were open UGH)

 

 

 

I absolutely adore Gary! He is the BEST father in law. We have so much fun together and is so sweet to Matt and I. Plus, Doo Jr just LOVES him! It is ridiculous!  Thanks for being such a great Daddy to my wonderful husband and making him who he is today!

 
I think that this is a great opportunity to share some pictures of us from our wedding:

Matt and his Dad

 

I love these pictures of us dancing!

 

 

 

Watching Matt dance with his Momma at our wedding reception. Isn't he a cutie!

 

 

xoxo,

Fran

 

 

What do you do all day???

Do you get bored? What do you do all day? Now that I am working part time (while I look for a job here), I get asked these questions all the time. Well let me tell you something....I am so busy!!! I think that part of it is the move and part of it is I can actually do things that I have wanted to do... For instance, instead of running errands after work and on the weekends, I actually get to  workout, hang out with Matt, cook dinner together, and watch TV (shocking, I know!). 

 

My Monday has taken on a new meaning for me. It is the day when I run the majority of my errands/get lost in Knoxville. I can't wait to see what I stumble upon today!

 

Doo Jr loves that I am home... we play fishy every morning! Fishy=fetch with the fish! (How can I resist these eyes...)

 

Little weekend recap...

This weekend was different for us because Matt worked on Saturday. We want to go to the beach for July 4th and with our trip to California occurring right after Matt started work, he has negative vacation. Therefore, he bit the bullet and worked on Saturday so he could take July 5th off. Thanks Matt!!! Even with Matt working we had time to enjoy Knoxville.

 

Thursday night we got to see Kevin James at the Tennessee Theater. Not only was he hilarious, but the theater is GORGEOUS! I loved the entire experience! It was my first comedy show too!

 

Matt and I have been talking about our honeymoon a lot lately which has made me crave Gazpacho. I pretty much ate gazpacho and seared tuna for lunch everyday at Grand Velas. (I should do a separate post about how fabulous that place is in case any of you are interested!). Needless to say, the Martha Stewart in me became inspired to make it and I did! Thanks to Ina Garten for the recipe (below). It was AMAZING! I highly recommend it and since it is just veggies, it is very low calorie.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/gazpacho-recipe/index.html 

(Note- only use 1/2 cup of Vidalia onion and instead of white vinegar, I used white balsamic).
 

 This is what mine looked like...it was pretty chunky!

 

Saturday, I went to Barre 3 and Matt went to work. I took him lunch and it was so much fun. I swung by Krispy Kreme and picked up maple frosted donuts. These are his fav and apparently you can only get them in Knoxville.  That night we went to Mass, saw Matt's favorite priest from growing up, and went to Littons. It is famous for their burgers and desserts...it was so good!! I wish I would have take a picture..

 

 

Sunday we ran 6 miles (had to burn off that burger!) and just hung out around the house. I tried out my new IT band strap on our run today and it worked pretty well. When we got home,  I was inspired to make biscuits. They were delish except oddly shaped...I greased the pan and shouldn't have...so they spread out real wide...whoops!  We had dinner with Matt's family at Surin. It was great to see them and such a treat to have sushi!

 

xoxo

Fran

 

Skinny foods

I don't know about you, but I LOVE FOOD! Seriously. This makes staying in shape super challenging! My philosophy is that anything is ok in moderation, so if I know that I am  going eat something super delicious for dinner, I make sure I eat healthy for the rest of the day. I think that this goes back to my weight watchers days! Count those points baby!

 

Before we left Charlotte, I was talking to my girlfriends about our secrets to staying slim. I thought that I would share them with you all today...my version of super foods!

 

 

First off, I don't know what I would do without Almond Milk. This stuff is delicious and has only 30 calories a cup! In comparison, skim milk has 80 calories in half a cup!  I get the unsweetened vanilla milk. It is a little thick and takes some getting use to, but I love it! An extra plus is that it has more calcium than normal milk.

 

 

Snacks- These waffles are legit! 70 calories and 6 grams of fiber per waffle! I top them with some Better Than Peanut Butter- see below. So good and such a great snack or breakfast!  

 

 

 

My favorite food is peanut butter...hands down. Normal peanut butter has about 200 calories and 16g fat. Better Than Peanut Butter has 100 cal and 2g of fat!!! WHOA BABY! The reason it is so much better for you is because it is made with peanut flour. The down size is that it only comes in creamy....but since you can eat it guilt free, I don't mind! You can find it at some grocery stores but Trader Joes has it the cheapest.

 

 

 

I am a big believer in eating oatmeal for breakfast. I think that it keeps you full and is healthy. However, one pack of flavored oatmeal is TINY and I am hungry! So, here is what I do. I take one pack of low sugar oatmeal and add 3 spoonful's of old fashioned oats (you can't substitute quick oats). Then I add a lot of water-so much that the oatmeal is drowning! Microwave it for a minute and half and watch it grow! The old fashioned oats get HUGE! After that minute and half, I stir the oatmeal, add some fresh fruit (blueberries, strawberries) and zap it again for 30 seconds. It is amazing and keeps me full!

 



 

There are some great resources on the web too:

 

I get great recipes from Skinnytaste. Check out her blog: http://www.skinnytaste.com/

I love her peanut butter pie recipe.

 

Hungry Girl is amazing too- I really like her cookbooks. http://www.hungry-girl.com/ She introduced me to VitaTops. These are essentially 100 calorie, OMG delicious, muffin tops! You can get them in the freezer section at the grocery store. Here are some details on them:

http://www.vitalicious.com/allnachvi1.html

 

 

I will share more delicious foods and tips as I think of them.

 

xoxo

Fran

 

PS- Matt thinks my posts are way toooo girly...he is going to start posting soon... HAHA

 

Lemon Iced Cookies

Knoxville has a fabulous secret ... and it involves lots of butter, sugar, and lemon... Ham and Goody's Lemon Iced Cookies! They are AMAZING! They melt in your mouth....all that lemony, sugary, buttery goodness. They are Matt's favorite dessert. So much so, that instead of a Groom's cake, we served lemon iced cookies at our wedding reception! 12 dozen were gone in minutes. I am not sure why we even had a wedding cake...

 

 

This weekend we celebrated the wedding of our great friends, Christina and Clark. I brought some lemon iced cookies to the bridal suite for all the girls to eat while getting ready. They were a huge hit!

 

 

 

The wedding was beautiful. It was in the mountains, a little north of  Greenville. The weather was spectacular (thank goodness it didn't rain like it has the past few weekends!) Christina looked amazing! They are wonderful couple and we are so happy for them!

 

We were able to see my Aunt Paula and Aunt Kathy which was an unexpected treat. We are looking forward to going home for Father's Day and seeing all our family in  Greenwood. I plan on bringing two dozen lemon iced cookie as our contribution to Sunday lunch! 

 

Sunday was rainy so pretty lazy for us!  It was definitely needed after a long day on Saturday. Now back to the work week grind!

 

 

Memorial Day Week Recap

We had a great Memorial Day Weekend! It was so nice to have Monday off and play with Matt. The weather was beautiful!

 

Saturday and Sunday morning we went running along Cherokee Boulevard. Matt and I run here every week. The Boulevard is 5.2 miles long but the hills are killer (something we were not use to in our old neighborhood).  We told ourselves that we would run the entire Boulevard by the end of May and we did it!! We ran 4.5 on Saturday and the entire thing on Sunday! Matt ran it in 8:50 min/mile and I ran it in 9:40 min/mile. We were so proud of ourselves. Our next goal is to run 8.2 miles by the end of June!

 

Matt's parents went to their beach house in Gulf Shores for the week so we stayed at their house with Morgan (Matt's 17 year old little brother) and Wilson (their dog) from Sunday to Thursday. It was the least we could do since they watch Doo Jr for us all the time. We really enjoyed staying out there! We laid out by the pool and took the boat out for a couple rides. It was so much fun!

 

  

 

Doo Jr. trying out his new life jacket!

 

 

 

 Fun on the lake- Doo loves the boat! 

  

 My handsome hubby!

 

 

I am pretty sure this is going to be my favorite picture from the summer... look how handsome my men are! Doo Jr saw this cute little lab on another boat and Matt had to make sure he didn't jump in after her.

 

 

 

Chilling out by the pool- this pup has the best life!

 

Matt took us out for a sunset cruise after work on Wednesday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Doo Jr turns 2!

As you all know, Doo Jr is our child, my super sweet puppy! Doo Jr turned 2 on Saturday, May 25th, so of course we had to have a birthday party!

 

Since it was Memorial Day weekend, we had celebrated on Friday night so his best friends, Katie, Max and of course, Uncle Wilson could be there. Katie and Max are two super sweet dogs that live with Sally, Ted, Madison and Mackenzie, next door to Matt's parents. Wilson is Matt's parents dog. The party started at 6:30 and the menu featured: hot dogs (of course!), deviled eggs (it isn't a party without them), baked beans, chips, fruit salad and a great greek dip that Patti made. Doo Jr and friends had a puppy cake (see pictures and recipe below) and us parents had Oreo Ice Cream cake!  It was a wonderful evening celebrating our baby's birthday!

Doo Jr got lots of great gifts as well. Matt's parents got him a rain jacket, a HUGE raw hide bone and a retractable leash. Sally and Co got him lots of yummy treats! Matt and I got him a life jacket for the boat. Yes, labs are great swimmers, but getting a soaking wet 73 pound lab back in the boat is a different story. This life jacket has a handle on his back so Matt can lift him in. We also love the rain jacket. Doo gets so wet in the rain so this will at least keep all but his legs from getting soaked!

 

 

 

 

 
Sally and me. I just love her!

 
The pups loved the birthday cake!

 

 

 

 

I wasn't sure how to make a puppy cake but I found this great recipe and the pups loved it! The best part was that you most likely have all these ingredients in your house.

 

Peanut Butter Carrot Doggy Cake

Yield: 1 doggie cake

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

 
Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ cup natural peanut butter
¼ cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup honey
1 cup shredded carrots
1 egg

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8" round cake pan or an 8x4-inch loaf pan.

2. Whisk together the flour and baking soda. Add the rest of the ingredients and, using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, mix until thoroughly combined. Pour batter into pan and bake for about 30 minutes, or until a knife inserted in center comes out clean.