Homebody Weekend

Well, my birthday weekend didn’t turn out as we hoped! In Friday’s post I mentioned I was sick; fortunately I was feeling much better by that evening and it turned out to be a quick one day thing. But by late on Friday Matt was starting to feel a bit off, and by Saturday morning, my birthday, he was officially sick! Bummer timing, right?! Poor guy. 

We cancelled all our plans and decided we will have a birthday re-do next weekend. Oh well! 

I was feeling well enough to do some cooking on Friday night, so we had a cozy night in and an early bedtime for all. I made a variation of my Butternut Squash + Turkey Chili recipe but minus the rice, with sweet potato instead of the butternut squash, and with different beans. 

It came out quite yummy despite this photo not looking super appetizing. 😉

Saturday morning, upon discovering Matt was sick, he got sent back to bed and Riese and I came downstairs and had some oatmeal. I made it on the stovetop and followed my high protein oatmeal recipe with chia seeds + almond butter added. 

Sidenote – I just bought these cool silicone stretch lids on Amazon (affiliate link) last week and they are awesome… wanted to recommend!

I bought them for some tupperware/glass food containers we have that we lost the lids for, but I discovered they are a great alternative to tin foil or plastic wrap for regular bowls of leftovers (like oatmeal), too. Stretchy and they make a really tight seal! 

Riese, Freyja the dog, and I headed out after breakfast for a walk. It was a super nice morning… I was sad Matt couldn’t join us! 

We dropped Freyja back at the house after a bit and then Riese and I continued on for coffee, the farmer’s market, and the playground before coming home for lunch. 

Lunch was some rotisserie chicken, greens, 90 second plain brown rice, feta, and vinaigrette. (Riese had rice, one bite of chicken, and some cheese and fruit.)

If you want more rotisserie chicken ideas, check out this blog post: 11 Things to Do with Rotisserie Chicken.

We all rested while Riese was resting, and then we spent the afternoon and evening hanging around the house.

Canned soup for dinner, and, once Riese and Matt were both asleep, I made some popcorn and binge watched “Younger” (sooo good). 

We were hoping Matt would be feeling better by Sunday morning since my sickness was a one day and done deal, but unfortunately he was still super sick – boo!

So, Riese and I did our same routine from the previous morning, and then we came back and had more soup with Matt for lunch before all taking naps again.

Matt was feeling better by the afternoon, so he encouraged me to stick with my evening plan, which was dinner out with friends! My college friends Sarah, Kathleen, and I hadn’t gotten together in FOREVER – it was such a treat to catch up with these two. 

We went to Birch + Barley in DC; I’ve been there before but it had been a really long time so I was excited to be back! It’s a cool space and atmosphere, and the menu is great, too. 

I started with some Cava and then moved on to a sour beer. Yum!

For dinner, we shared a whole slew of small plates, plus one entree – the scallops. Everything was great, but a few standouts were the brussels sprout leaves salad + the watermelon salad… and the mushroom toast and scallops! 

We planned the dinner as a normal dinner date, not associated with my birthday, but since it was so close to my birthday this dessert with a candle appeared. So sweet! 

Highly recommend Birch + Barley if you’re looking for a cool spot in DC.

It was a great end to the weekend… and I’m looking forward to my belated birthday celebrations with Matt next weekend. 🙂 

What’s your most memorable birthday? My favorite was definitely my 30th, because I ran the Clarendon Day 10k (and set a new PR) in the morning, and then the rest of the day was a combined bachelorette wine tour party followed by a 30th birthday after-party with guys included! It was soooo fun. The next day was not so fun, as you can imagine, but it was worth it. 😉