Let's Go Racin!

Last weekend we went to Darlington for the Bojangles Southern 500 Race. My parents went down earlier in the week to park the RV in the infield. The new RV is a little bit bigger than the last one, and the spaces are TIGHT so they wanted to get in there early before everyone else arrived and it was extreemly hard to park. Trey and I headed down after work on Friday and met them in there.

Friday night is the nationwide race, we got there in the middle of it but we got to watch the end, which is the best part anyways! Then we walked around the infield exploring and checking out everyone partying. Races are very interesting and full of all kinds of people. A lot of people have kareoke machines, lots of music and party late into the night!

the old school bus next to us with a full blown deck on top of it

Saturday morning we woke up to the noise of the Richard Petty experience (riding 2 laps around the track in a racecar) running around the track. We walked to the outside of the track area, where all of the vendors are and checked out the sights (the most mullets I have ever seen, girls in bikinis because 79 degrees is SO HOT, and many toothless people). Bojangles was the sponsor of the race this year so they had a little tent that you could spin the wheel and get free stuff. I won a mouse pad... seriously who uses those any more?! Trey and my dad won koozies, mom won a hat! And we all go reusable bags!

After exploring the outide we ventured back inside and lounged around for a bit until the race was about to kickoff. We watched the beginning of the race and then went back down into the RV to eat dinner in the middle of it (it's a 500 mile race... LONG!)




fly over before the race

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Warming up

cheesin

The first ~175 laps had NO CAUTIONS! It gets kind of old to just watch them go round and round without anything crazy happening. But after the cautions started coming they didn't stop. The race ended on a green-white-checker and Jimmie Johnson won. (I don't really have a preference who wins...it's just a fun experience)

a quick nap

Luckily Saturday morning by the time we headed out the people in the lot across from us had already left, so we were able to just pull through there spot to turn around and get out. Leaving the track you drive through the tunnel that goes underneath it, it's pretty cool:

heading out



into the tunnel... notice the track on top



in the tunnel

coming out of the tunnel

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week

One of my co-workers told me about this video, which is pretty hilarious:

I thought it was rather entertaining.

On a "happy" teaching note, we do have some pretty awesome groups at school that have provided us with sweet teacher appreciation goodies all week like cinnabon one morning, an ice cream social one afternoon, mountain dew in our boxes (thanking us for all we "dew"), moon pies in our boxes (because we're "out of this world"). It is always nice to feel appreciated and our PTSA and other booster groups definitely show us that.

Happy teacher appreciation week to my other teacher friends!

Turkey Stuffed Zucchini

A few nights ago I made turkey stuffed zucchini. It was pretty good, so I thought I'd share the recipe.

You'll need:
4 medium zucchinis
1 tsp butter
1/2 small onion finely diced
1 shallot minced
3 cloves garlic crushed
1 oz white wine
1 lb ground turkey
1 large egg white
1/4 cup grated parmesean cheese
1 cup fat free chicken broth
2 tbsp whole wheat seasoned bread crumbs
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp rosemary
1 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400. Cut zucchini in half lengthwise and scoop out the flesh. Arrange in a baking dish. Chop the flesh into small pieces. In a large sauté pan on medium low, melt butter and add onion, shallot and garlic. Cook 2 – 3 minutes or until onions are translucent. Add chopped zucchini and a pinch of salt, cook 2 – 3 minutes. Add wine and cook until it reduces. Add turkey and season with salt and pepper. Cook until turkey is white while breaking it up into small pieces. Add paprika, rosemary, garlic powder and basil. Mix well and cook another minute. Place turkey mixture into a large mixing bowl and set aside. When cooled, add parmesan cheese and egg white, mix well. Fill hollowed zucchinis with the mix, pressing firmly. Top with bread crumbs. Pour chicken broth in bottom of baking dish and cover tightly with foil. Bake for 35 minutes. Makes 4 servings.

You really don't need to preheat the oven right away, it took me forever to scoop out the insides of the zucchini and prep everything else. It was definitely not an incredibly fast meal, but you could do some of the prep the night before or just take your time cooking. It's super healthy though (like literally 250 calories for 1 serving - 2 zucchini halves) and then we added some fruit on the side.



Attempting to scoop out the middles... I am not very good at that!




Cooking zucchini, onions, shallots, garlic and turkey




Filled and ready to cook



Done!

Wordless Wednesday: Best Purchase Ever



Throw my frisbee, dad!



Sorry about the poor quality, it was at night and taken on my phone!

Strawberry Picking!

Last week we finally made it out to the strawberry field near our house to pick some fresh strawberries! It smelled so good out there.

I have driven by it many times in the last few weeks and people are always out there picking, so we were afraid they would be almost gone. There were still a lot of strawberries out there but they weren't huge, I kind of wonder if they were huge at the beginning and those are gone, or if they just don't have as big of strawberries?!

Growing more!

Lots of little ones

We got a bucket full and added a tomato to our purchase and it was only $7.50!

They are so fresh and sweet!!