I Love Texas - Edition 1

So for my new followers, when I lived in Atlanta I had started a bloggy thing called I Love Atlanta where I would blog about the awesomely cool things to do in Atlanta.

I guess now that I'm a Texan, it's going to be I Love Texas!

Usually date night for me and Chris falls on Friday. But this Friday I have a super cool girls night out planned, so we moved date night to Thursday.

I love a mid-week date.

We decided to try out a restaurant here in Rockwall called Bin 303.

They are part of the Go Texan movement which means they try to get as much of their food as possible from places here in Texas. Their menu changes every 6 months to serve seasonal items.

 















The atmosphere was super cool. The restaurant is in an old house off of the square. Indoors was a very cool laid back atmosphere with some super cool music playin - acoustic versions of all of your favorite hits.

We started our with their garlic cheese bread. Uh, yum-o!

Then for dinner we both had burgers. Now, I have a thing for pimento cheese....especially on a burger. I love it. And while they don't have a pimento cheese burger on the menu, they do offer pimento cheese as an appetizer. So I sweetly talked them in to making me a pimento cheese burger.
Freaking amazingly delicious.
I 'm not typically a fan of ground beef...but this was soooo good.
The fries were amazing too.
And by half way through our meal we were totally stuffed but it was way too good not to finish.
So if we're already miserable, why not order dessert too?
Um....can I just say it may have been the best dessert I've ever had. It was some sort of espresso chocolate mousse. Ah-mazing. For realz.

So in between courses our pastor walks up to the table...he just so happened to be having dinner there as well. We chatted for a few minutes - it was my first time meeting him. Super nice guy.

So after dessert our waitress comes by and tells us our meal had been taken care of.
What???
In all of our years of ministry, we have never had someone, much less the pastor, randomly pay for our meal. For me it was just one more thing reassuring me we were in the right place. I don't even know how to put into words how great that felt. Amazing.

All in all, date night was a super success!
And please, do yourself a favor and have some dinner here at Bin 303. You won't be sorry.

Texas Randomness

Have you ever had Taco Bueno?
Oh my, so good. It's like Taco Bell but way better.
Equally as cheap! Definitely hit the spot.

Fat Tire beer. Yup I tried it tonight.
The jury is still out but I'm pretty sure I probably won't have it again.

My Cat From Hell.
Have you seen this on Animal Planet?
Amazing that that is the show of choice on Saturday night.

I went grocery shopping today.
I'm completely in love with the Kroger here.
All of the produce comes from local Texas farms.
Umm yes please.

Napping.
That is what our afternoon consisted of.
Could be a result of the fact that we were up for 36 hours straight.
It's like jet lag.
Chris took a nap today. 2 hours.
Then I went to wake him up so we could go to the Saturday night service.
But I laid down and immediately fell asleep waking up an hour and a half later.
So looks like we'll be doing church tomorrow.
Surely we're caught up with sleep by now.

Tomorrow I think we might do a little sight seeing.
And hopefully I can come up with a few cool places to start "I Love Dallas" since Atlanta is 750 miles away.

There is so much unpacking to be done yet I find that this random blog post is much more important.

I Love Atlanta: Food Trucks!

It's been a minute since my last "I Love Atlanta" post y'all!
But I'm sooo excited about today's post!

So, for lunch today, a few of us from work walked to the food truck. The trucks are at 12th St. and Peachtree

I ate at a truck called Happy Belly. They offer local grown organic foods - the menu looks delicious! And it's healthy! I've been hesitant to try the food trucks because I assumed they were unhealthy or they'd have nothing I would like to eat. I'm so picky.

But much to my surprise....it was delicious! I had grilled free range chicken with organic zucchini noodles tossed in a fresh basil pesto. Yuuuummmmyyyy! And completely guilt free! The chicken is grilled, but SO moist. Not dry at all! And this was my first time with zucchini noodles....um definitely hooked and will be making them at home!

There are a lot of different trucks. Next week I'm planning my cheat day around this. There are some lemon parmesan french fries that I NEED in my belly! There's also BBQ, hotdogs, tacos, gilato, cupcakes, lobster mac and cheese....I mean the list is endless!

The prices are good too. My meal was $10, but that's expected with all local and organic ingredients. But all of the trucks have inexpensive items too. You could easily eat from several trucks for under $15.

So to my Georgia friends, you HAVE to try this! It's so much fun and, well...cultured! Lol! This whole experience really excited me - probably more than it should have, but nonetheless, it was awesome!

A Night With Jesus

Have you ever heard of the band Jesus Culture?
They're based out of Bethel Church in California and they're pretty awesome.
I've been a fan for a couple of years now.

Just so happens that in February I got word that they were coming to Atlanta for one night only.
It was a no-brainer...tickets were a must.
So I bought them.
And last night, I went!



Chris was supposed to go too, but he's been sick this weekend with the flu and bronchitis (double whammy), so he was out. Instead, I had a girls night out with some pretty cool chicks!



The concert was at a venue called the Tabernacle. It's a classic venue here in the ATL.
In 1910 it was an old baptist church. A pretty big one at that.
In the picture above you can still see the organ pipes.


In 1996 it was turned into the House of Blues.
Then in 1998 it became The Tabernacle.
The venue is now owned by Live Nation, so if you're in the Atlanta area, you should check to see who's playing!
The Tabernacle is located on Luckie Street in the heart of downtown - across from Centennial Olympic Park.



Moving on.
So the whole premise of this group is to encourage this generation to rise up and be game changers.
Game changers in their workplace, their schools, their homes.
That massive change can begin with just a few.



It was truly a night about encountering God....not a flashy concert, although it was fabulous.

I Love Atlanta

I've lived in Georgia my whole entire life.
Over 28 years.
And in those 28 years, I have not even come remotely close to exploring the things my great state has to offer....especially Atlanta!
So my lovely friend Heather and I have decided that it's time we gave this great city the props it deserves!
Enter....I Love Atlanta.
We will both be posting the awesomeness of Atlanta - some together, some on our own. Either way, sharing it all for your viewing pleasure!

Here are the categories we're looking at:

Cultural

Areas of Interest
Sporting Events
Culinary
Historical
Nightlife
The Great Outdoors

Speaking of which, I went to one of my favorite Atlanta restaurants the other night.
It's called The Vortex.
There are two locations in Atlanta - Midtown and Little 5 Points.

My fave cuz from Texas was in town and that's where I took her. We went to the Little 5 location.
Little 5 is an area of town that deserves a post all on its own, so you'll just have to live in suspense on that one.

The Vortex has been featured on various food shows. They're known for their burgers, which are delicious!
They have this burger called the Double Bypass and a Tripple Bypass. These are double and tripple cheese burgers with grilled cheese sandwiches as the buns! Gross!!!
It's also one of the few cool restaurants that actually serve tater tots!

My favorites on the menu are:
Fried cheese balls - OMG these are heavenly. Little fried balls of cheese....how can that be wrong?
Fried pickles - some of the best in the city!
And the burgers of course! So many to choose from. I usually stick with a boring old cheeseburger. May be boring, but still delicious.

Their menu is hilarious. It's a fun atmosphere full of bikers, bar hoppers and foodies alike.
But beware...you have to be 18 to enter.