The sign makes me smile. Every time I drive past the place I think about how darn cute the sign is.

The inside decor is quaint and cute as well – as you’d expect from a European Market. Alas, there much more space here than any of European Markets I’ve visited in Europe. It’s a fact, every thing is bigger in America. We may take pride in that, but it’s not always a good thing, people! In this case, the extra seating and walking room in Olio was nice – especially for meeting and greeting.

They had a nice selection of prepared foods, as well as, imported dry goods, beer and wine.

And there were plenty of cheeses for all you cheese-heads!!

I snacked on a few items that were ordered by a couple sharing bloggers. Isaac and I split a slice of (Veggie) Grazing Goat Pizza, which included fresh Chevre, roasted red peppers, garlic hummus, and fresh basil. I loved that hummus was a topping as I’ve been a fan of hummus on pizza ever since trying Mae’s Pizza Cheese Sauce. You can’t really go wrong with fresh goat cheese. And, the crust was thin, yet flavorful. Both Isaac and I really enjoyed our taste!

We also tried the lemon olive oil with white bean and tomato bruschetta, and a bite or two from ‘the Parma’ – an antipasto plate with prosciutto, fresh mozzarella, roasted tomatoes, dolce gorgonzola, assorted olives & grilled breads, drizzled with balsamic.

Seriously everything we tasted we kept saying, “Wow, this is so good!” Then the grand finale arrived, my actual order, the veggie delight sandwich served as a wrap. Garlic hummus, basil, roasted eggplant, red peppers, roasted tomatoes, artichoke hearts and greens were stuffed into a thin grilled wrap.

This wrap was the highlight of the evening for me, food wise. I love each component on its own, but when combined in this slightly warmed wrap the deliciousness was only magnified. When I return, which I’m hoping will be very soon, I’m not sure I could bring myself to order any of the other vegetarian sandwiches because this one was so good.

I had an awesome time meeting other local food bloggers and finally putting a face to blog names/online photos/charactertures, but I ended up having to leave early as last night was also the first meeting of a book club that I recently became part of.

I left Isaac with all the foodies and headed over to the house we were meeting at with some Brownie Point edgies to share.

I’d never done a book club before – besides online, so I didn’t know what to expect, but it was really fun. I’m thoroughly enjoying the book we are reading so it was nice to talk it out with others. It was also nice to hang out with some ladies my age – living in Richmond without any of my girlfriends around has been quite a challenge. Now that I’m joining some new groups – the boot camp group and this book club, I’m feeling as though I have more friends here and that’s definitely a nice feeling.

Last but not least, Fridge Finds Wednesday:

My salad from lunch that included every vegetable in the crisper drawer!!

Enjoy your Wednesday my friends.

- Brittany

Oatmeal/oatbran combination oats with slices of a ripe banana, unsweetened vanilla almond milk, and vanilla bean. Topped with banana slices, pieces of coconut roasted almonds, and a drizzle of maple syrup. Deliciousness.

The coconut roasted almonds were a fun find at Ellwoods in the bulk bin aisle, my favorite section of all health food stores. I’d never seen them before, but as I was getting a bag of raw almonds they caught my eye. I bought a small portion and now I’m wishing I had more….

I waited way too long to leave my desk and was starving by the time I got home for lunch.

i whipped up this salad in a jiffy. A pile of veggies topped with a left over spelt burger, raw slaw, and a blob of hummus.

I also had 1/2 of a Jazz apple with cinnamon, maca, and a spoonful of pb on the side.

Following my March Madness goals I ate this lovely lunch distraction free- so long as you don’t count begging dogs a distraction.

I pack this yummy, chia seed filled bar for a snack back at the office.

Twas enjoyed.

After an easy workout at the gym I came home and enjoyed dinner of baked yellowfin tuna. Isaac prepared the tuna by rubbing on a little olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and an herb rub (Napa Valley Meritage with sea salt) I got in the swag bag at Foodbuzz.

The fish was served with a 1/2 of a sweet tater topped with earth balance, cinnamon and sea salt.

I’m excited for tomorrow as I have two social events to attend – an Eatingrichmond blogger meetup and the first meeting of a new book club I am joining!! I’m pumped to have something to do in the evening other than go to the gym and eat dinner. It stinks two fun things are scheduled on the same night – it’s going to be a busy, but fun evening!

- Brittany

Want to learn more about eating local? Check out my guest post over at EatingBender.

Olive had a friend staying over for the weekend – meet Sabra, Isaac’s family’s dog. They’re a riot together – Olive’s still a pup so she pesters Sabra to play all day long. Sabra’s an old woman and just wants to sleep.

After waking at 7AM I decided to be productive and headed to the gym and grocery store. I was going to eat breakfast when I got home, but once my feet hit the floor I realized I was hungry so I had a toasted Sandwich Round with homemade apple butter. I ate that up and then headed out the door. 40 minutes on the stationary bike while reading The Help, shopping at Ellwoods and Kroger, and a little core conditioning were all done before 10AM! I had a few samples at Ellwoods and grabbed a coffee with soy milk. These tasty treats kept me full until well after 12 when I finally decided to whip up a little lunch.

An apple with cinnamon and maca powder.

And a bowl of homemade (by me!?!) yogurt topped with sliced bananas, Zaydie’s cranberry walnut granola, and a drizzle of honey.

Inspired by Andrea, I took on the challenge of using my food dehydrator to make my own yogurt. 1 tbsp. of Greek yogurt, 3 1/2 cups of milk, and 5 hours of incubation gave me a mason jar full of delicious yogurt.

It came out a bit runny so I strained it through some cheese cloth and it turned out thick and tasty. Quite successful for my first attempt! I’m already excited to make another batch. More photos next time – promise! In the meantime, if you’re interested in making your own yogurt, you should check out this website – it explains how to make regular, Greek, soy, and raw yogurt with or without a dehydrator!!

Later in the afternoon I attended a screen printing party.

The boot-camp group that I’m part is running the local 10k this month so we made t-shirts to wear!

How cute is that!

And what’s a party without some munchies?

I enjoyed some veggies, grapes, and a couple crackers while chatting it up with the ladies.

Pink camo overload!!!

After the party I hurried home so that Isaac and I could enjoy the last hour of sunshine by taking a nice little walk. We worked up quite an appetite…. which worked out perfectly because I had a delicious dinner planned.

Roasted broccoli, spelt burgers, and raw slaw.

I used Angela’s In A Jiffy Spelt Veggie Burgers recipe, but made a few changes worth noting.

Spelt Veggie Burger

Ingredients:

• 1 cup cooked chick peas
• 2 baby carrots
• 1/2 large onion, peeled and chopped up into large pieces
• 1/2 Red pepper, chopped into large pieces
• 2 rings jalapeno pepper
• 1/2 t fresh oregano
• 1/2 t dried basil
• 1/2 t cumin
• 1/4 t fine grain sea salt
• tiny dash of cayenne
• 2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
• 1/4 cup sunflower seeds
• 1 T chia seeds
• 3/4 cup spelt flour (or flour of your choice)

Directions: Preheat oven to 375F. Place all ingredients except the seeds and flour into a food processor. Process until mixture is blended well, stopping to scrape sides if necessary. Remove mixture and place into a large bowl. Add seeds and stir well. Add the spelt flour (or flour of your choice) in 1/4 cup increments, stirring well until blended. Shape patties and bake on a baking stone (or lightly greased cookie sheet) for 15 minutes at 375F, flip and bake for another 10 minutes. My batch made 6 regular sized patties and one small patty and they were FABULOUS.

And the raw slaw, inspired by Ellwoods, was also delicious!

Raw Slaw

Ingredients:

• 3 cups cabbage, chopped
• 1/4 of a large red onion, thinly sliced

Dressing:

• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar (I used Braggs)
• 1 tbsp. pure maple syrup
• 1 tbsp. poppy seeds

Directions: Mix cabbage and red onion in a large bowl. In a separate small bowl whisk the dressing ingredients and pour it over the salad. Mix well and serve.

I’m off to soak up the last few hours of the weekend. Hope you had a good one!!

- Brittany

Eating Bird Food turns 2 today! I can’t believe it! My passion for food and fitness lead me to start this blog as a way to share my story, keep track of my food and exercise habits, and share recipes – little did I know that it would turn out to be so much more than that! The journey has been a great one and the blog has brought a ton of amazing experiences my way – new adventures in the kitchen, challenging workouts, a trip to San Francisco, and the pleasure of meeting a ton of lovely bloggers, some of whom have become great friends! It’s been a learning experience and my current posts are quite different than those that I started out with. If you’re interested, you should check out my first post, interestingly enough, the title is First Post. I’ve always been so creative. Seriously though, blogging on an almost daily basis is time-consuming and it’s certainly took a lot of dedication to post consistently over the past 2 years, but it’s all been so worth it to me. I’ve learned so much about myself and gained a wealth of knowledge from both my readers and other bloggers. So, if you’re reading this today I want to say Thank You, because honestly, this blog would be nothing without you all!!

Okay, enough sappiness for one day. Let’s get to the goods.

I used the leftover tofu stir-fry to create a tofu salad for lunch on Friday.

It turned out to be quite flavorful on it’s own and didn’t need any extra dressing. Love it when that happens!

To celebrate it being the start of the weekend Isaac and I went to Five After Five, a weekly event at our local Whole Foods. Basically you pay $5 $10 (the price went up this week) to taste 5 dishes and 5 wines that are served in different sections of the store. The menu changes each week, but here’s how last night’s tasting went down:

We were traditional and went to each station as they are listed on the menu. First up, the cream of lettuce soup and Hellfrich Gewurztraminer. Now I’ve heard of cream of potato, broccoli, and mushroom, but cream of lettuce soup?!? That was a new one on me. Surprisingly, Isaac and both thought it was tasty. The consistency was very similar to a cream of broccoli soup. It was super rich and almost tasted a bit cheesy. I’m guessing the heavy cream and butter probably had a little something to do with this.

If you’re at all interested in making a creamy and delicious soup, I picked up a recipe card for this one and I’d be willing to share it with you.

Next up we enjoyed smoked salmon and herbed cream cheese in the seafood section.

The cream cheese was whipped to a creamy consistency and the salmon was moist and flavorful. This was probably one of my favorite stations of the night because the seafood chef was super friendly and chatted with us about how he created the dish.

I got lazy with the photos when we moved to the meat section – 1.) Because I wasn’t eating any 2.) I was too busy drinking my glass of Chianti. Have I mentioned that Chianti is one of the best reds out there? Ever since visiting Italy I’ve been hooked.

I didn’t get a photo of the French Onion soup either- bad food blogger.

But no worries, I DID get a photo of the best dish of the night – a Lemon Cream Vanilla Cheesecake.

THIS.WAS.DELICIOUS. The best part is that you could actually see the little specs of vanilla, which means they used fresh vanilla beans!! I’ve never purchased a pie or cake from the Whole Food’s Bakery but this little cheesecake may lead me to go there the next I need a dessert and don’t feel like baking. Me, not in a baking mood – I guess it could happen.

Overall, we had a fun time enjoying all the food and wine. The food portions were just enough to fill me up for dinner and the wine pours weren’t too shabby either. I was feeling quite nice by the end of the tour, if you know what mean. I’ll also note that it’s a great marketing idea on Whole Food’s part because as we walked from station to station we also filled our buggy full of groceries.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend. I’m off to enjoy the nice weather and watch a little b-ball!

- Brittany

I didn’t get a chance to post last night so I’m going to rewind to Thursday. The day started out on the right foot with a sweaty 6AM spin class. The best part?!? I was finally successful at coaxing Isaac out of bed for the class so today marked his first ever spin experience!

We both got in a great workout before the sun came up and I ended up feeling quite energetic all day. Coincidence, I think not! Isaac really enjoyed the class as well so I’m hoping that we can make this class a weekly thing – we shall see.

We stopped by our fav coffee shop on the drive home. I got a small plain coffee with a splash of soy milk and enjoyed it at home with a bowl of choco-protein go lean. I typically go for lattes or cappuccinos because I’m not a big plain coffee drinker but today this cup hit the spot!

Kashi go lean, 1/2 scoop chocolate protein powder, and milk = yum!

I wasn’t super hungry when lunch came around so I whipped up a small, but filling salad.

Spring mix, grapes, avocado, broccoli, and an egg. I topped it off with some sea salt, ground pepper, and Annie’s honey mustard dressing after the photo. The mixture was super tasty.

This little love muffin was eaten back at the office mid-afternoon, along with a few VA peanuts.

Still a huge fan of the Heart Thrive Bars. I love the texture of the Apple flavor – it has lots of soft, chewy, dried apple chunks.

I was pretty hungry upon coming home from work and knew exactly what I could make in a jiffy : Tofu Stir-fry!

Some local herbed tofu marinated in a little Kikkoman Ponzu, a citrus seasoned dressing and sauce sent to me through the Foodbuzz Tastemaker’s Program.

In a large skillet I stir-fried fresh cabbage, frozen Asian veggies, and the marinated tofu. Then I added a little rice vinegar, tamari, hoisin sauce, and fennel seeds.

It all came together in less than 15 minutes and ended up being delicious! I had this plate x2.

Okay, I’m off to work for the day and then headed out with Isaac for date night – yippee!

Do you have any big plans for the weekend? The weather is suppose to be rather nice here so I’m pumped.

- Brittany