A Trip to Charlotte

You will not hear much about trips to Charlotte from me. I do not mind going to visit my daughter, but Nick is uncomfortable with me driving there alone yet he hates driving in Charlotte unless he really has to. Most of the time, our daughter will just come home to visit. She doesn't mind the drive. She likes the quietness and "her room" here at home. 
The last time she was here, she noticed birds singing, crickets chirping and squirrels running around. She said "Mom, I don't get to see any of that where I live".  Funny how we do not notice things around us until they are gone. 

Saturday after we had our breakfast and coffee we jumped in the car and drove to Charlotte to visit her. We delivered a bistro table we had that was worn and never used. Ash and her roomate wanted it for their covered patio.

 

We thought it might look a little wierd but ya know young people now days. 
We got the table set in place and she asked her dad to hang a piece of art on the patio next to the table. Task complete.
Not sure about those pillows but, whatever.

 

It was lunch time, the weather was beautiful, breezy and warm. She wanted to treat us to lunch and mentioned a nice place about a mile down the road that served healthy vegan foods. Ok, first, none of us are vegan but have been eating more healthy. Unless its a salad, I want to see meat or cheese on my plate. We agreed to lunch.

Fortunatly, her apartments is right next to the light rail trail. Its a walking trial that run along side of the light rail train that runs from one end of town to the other. Being only a mile to the eating spot, we wanted to walk there. 

 

Its was a great little one mile walk as we explored things around the city. She would name stores, resteraunts, art galleries and more as we walked. 

The restaurant we was an old mill turned into a unique place to eat with indoor and outdoor seating. The name was Lunas Kitchen. The menu offered healthy salads, desserts and of course smoothies. 

I ordered something called falafel  

 

Falafel is made with chickpeas and other healthys things with a side of creamy stuff. No dairy involved. The white creamy stuff was made with some kind of almond milk. Sorry, I'm not health food educated. 

Ashley ordered bbq sliders.

 

I kept eyeing her plate trying to figure out how they got veggies to look like bbq. She said "mom, the meat is actually mushrooms!" Nick got a kale salad. After one bite of my turd balls, I traded Nick for the salad. We were all happy. 

It was a fun day. 

Mountain Dew Soda Cake

Holy snackaroni! I just made cupcakes muffins using only two ingredients. 
I had no frosting, therfore they are muffins.

 

Googling around on the internet I seen "Soda Cake". It only called for two ingredients. 

 

1-Box Cake mix
1-12 oz can of soda.
Thats it! Zip! Bam! 

The only soda I had in the house was Diet Moutain Dew (diet because I'm on a diet, haha). 
I mixed it with a box of cake mix and the magic (not Jacks magic) appeared right before my eyes. 
The cake mix got all bubbly, fizzy and foamy until it was mixed well. 

Poured into a muffin pan and baked according to the directions on the box, I had the fluffiest most moistest cupcakes muffins ever! 

 

They were quiet delicious as I ate three of them. I'll regret it during the night. 

No worries on the calories (unless you devour them like I did).
Recipe makes 24 muffins.
Since there is no milk, oil or eggs, this recipes is light on the calories.
While the regular recipe bakes up each cupcake at about 120 calories each, this soda recipe falls at around only 70 calories each. 
Of course I used "diet soda" . 
Win!

Want more ideas on flavors? There are many other soda / cakemix combinations. 

 
                                         (Source)

Enjoy.