Hi there!

Yesterday’s half day of school was just fabulous. Despite being super sleepy, I spent the afternoon with my momma at our favorite Japanese restaurant, a local bakery, and Marshall’s. Food and shopping— how could you go wrong?

My usual: tuna and eel avocado rolls

We weren’t planning on going to the bakery, but here’s how that happened: I brought our county magazine that had just come in the mail to lunch to check out some of the restaurants and shops featured in it since it was the special “Food Lover’s Guide” edition. That headline obviously spoke to me. I came across a page with a picture of beautiful, freshly baked breads from a bakery that was pretty close by called The Kneaded Bread, so my mom and I decided to take a spontaneous trip there! Boy, was it worth it.

The smell of a bakery is one of my favorite things ever. It’s so homey and comforting, and it makes you want to eat, even if you just ate. We decided to get a bunch of different loaves to try, especially since we wanted to save some for Thanksgiving h’or d’oeuvres. We walked outta there with a sunflower seed loaf, pumpkin bread with raisins, potato rosemary loaf (super excited for that!), and cinnamon swirl raisin loaf. Just call us carb masters. For a little extra treat to enjoy as lunch dessert, we got two honey raisin scones. We had been craaaaving scones, and these were just perfect!

A little piece of scone in the car (can you spot the magazine on my lap?)

These are SO BIG! I had half of this as a delicious afternoon treat 🙂 

After shopping at Marshall’s, we came home to more goodies from Naturally Nutty! We put in a huge order of nut/seed butters to give away as gifts (and for us to eat) at the beginning of the week using a code they emailed to us (as past customers), and the package arrived yesterday. Some of the new-to-us flavors:

Cherry butter toffee peanut butter(!) and pepita sun oatmeal seed butter

White chocolate coconut peanut butter and chocolate sunflower seed butter

You can also call us nut butter hoarders….We also ordered lots of regular pepita sun seed butter since that’s our favorite and we wanted to give some away to our friends and family for the holidays.

Mom had the best of the bakery and the nut butter:

Her snack was toasted cinnamon raisin swirl with chocolate sunflower seed butter! The smell of it was SO tantalizing.

Now that I have you salivating, it’s time for some Fascinating Friday Links! (Those two things have nothing to do with each other…Guatever) Enjoy!

Health and Fitness

[Great info and fun visuals] Interesting (Health) Infographics via Life’s A Bowl

[Helpful] Five ways to deal with anxiety via Mrs. Murphy’s Law of Fitness

[Work those backsides!] Exercise Alternatives to the Deadlift via Your Trainer Paige

[Love these] 5 Fitness Myths via Lindsay’s List and That’s What Domi Said

[Sign up for some fun! I did!] Elf for Health 2013 via The Lean Green Bean

[Always love their quick workouts] 16 minute interval workout with kettlebells via Purely Twins

[Great tips for optimizing your fitness] What’s in the way of your goals? via The Fitnessista

Food for Thought

[Be generous with your dream] One Way to Be Sure Your Dream Is Too Small via Goins Writer

[Check this out] 18 Things Everyone Should Start Making Time For Again via Thought Catalog

[It’s real] Blog World Bullying via A Big Man’s World

Food for Belly

[Holy moly] Sweet Potato & Gruyere Mac ‘n’ Cheese via Yeah…Imma Eat That

[I love things in cake form] Cheesy Apple Farro Cakes via Spoon Fork Bacon

[Convenient and delicious] Crock-Pot Fajita Tacos via Fit Foodie Finds

[Want] Sweet Potato Cornbread Cupcakes with Whipped Cream via Family Fresh Cooking

[This looks sinful] Peanut Butter Speculoos S’mores Skinnier Hot Cocoa via Steph’s Bite by Bite

[Perfect healthy Thanksgiving dish] The Ultimate Fall Wheatberry Salad via Kath Eats Real Food

More Super Awesome Stuff

[Super heroes can be tiny too] Everything You Need to Know About Make-A-Wish Foundation’s Adorable, Crime-Fighting Kids via BuzzFeed

[Two amazing women and their marathon experiences] I finished! (Richmond marathon recap) via The Real Life RD + Boston Qualifier via Nut Butter Runner

[This is awesome!] How to Create the Perfect Thanksgiving Menu Infographic via Savvy Eats

[Can I have this dog? So cute.] Boston terrier dog likes his belly tickled! via RockinRobinzo’s Youtube

Happy Friday!

So tell me: When was your last spontaneous outing? What do you like to buy at a bakery? What are you doing this weekend?