Cabin Fever Feast

KERF Meal Plan: Day 2 Kind of

Today was Day 2 following Kath’s sample meal plan from my nutritional consultation.  As I alluded to yesterday, today was made a tad more complicated by my schedule for the day.

All started out well…

I woke up at 5am to work out with Jillian, but as soon as I climbed out of bed, I knew I needed a rest day.  My back, arms and butt were SO sore!  A thunderstorm had rolled in, so I climbed back in bed until 6am.

BREAKFAST

After making a French press pot of coffee, I made my Kath approved breakfast burrito.

Sorry for the picture.  First of all, you can’t see the beautiful filling goodness.  I should have done live action shots, but really I was just trying to get breakfast made and eaten before the boy woke up!  Secondly, the lighting stunk because it was 6:30 and still dark outside due to the storm.

Whole wheat tortilla warmed in the microwave a few seconds and filled with:

• 1 slice smoked and peppered bacon
• 1 scrambled egg (I cooked it in a skillet sprayed with a little olive oil and added salt, pepper and powdered garlic)
• 1 tbsp shredded cheddar cheese
• .5 tbsp of salsa

Coffee with 2 tbsp soy creamer and .5 tbsp of honey.

YUM. 

AM SNACK

Smoothie!

• 1/2 cup of soy milk
• 1 scoop of Amazing Grass Chocolate Infusion Amazing Meal
• 1 tbsp of ground flaxseed
• 1 cup baby spinach
• 1 small banana

I ended up adding a tad bit more milk because the Amazing Meal was a bit gritty.

I really think I like having smoothies as snacks instead of trying to have them as meals.  I miss the chewing action or something and I always feel a little sad with just a cup of liquid to drink. 

My Mom asked me to take her to Hot Springs today.  Before we left, we stopped at our chiropractor’s office for adjustments.  My shoulder tension has been through the roof lately and I knew I had to get treatment because I was losing range of motion in my neck (not able to turn my head very far).  The doc worked on me and then sent me to massage therapy.  I already feel tons better and I am promising myself to keep up with maintenance appointments!

LUNCH

Once we got to Hot Springs, we didn’t have a lot of time for lunch so we ended up at San Francisco Bread Company, thinking it would be a healthy fast option.

Kath’s planned lunch was a Mexican Bean Salad with Tortilla Chips, so I tried to choose the closest thing on the menu to it.

Chinese Chicken Salad (Lettuce, mandarin oranges, chicken, chow mein noodles, almonds, tomatoes, and oriental dressing on the side).  I remembered last time I ordered this that it was just okay.  I appreciate the green lettuce, but the chicken was bland and the dressing was too sweet.  I ate probably 1/3 of it and I took a few bites of my Mom’s Mediterranean Chicken sandwich.

Do you spy the cookie and Lay’s chips in the back?  These came on Noah’s kids PB&J sandwich plate and I snatched them off really quick before he focused all attention on them instead of his sandwich.

PM SNACK

Meal plan:  2 tbsp of hummus and 18 Kashi crackers

I stuck a Kashi granola bar in my purse (pumpkin pie flavor…Hello, Fall!), but I didn’t end up needing it.  We did our regular drive through at Starbucks on the way out of town and I got a tall soy cafe au lait.

DINNER

Meal plan:  Chicken Sausage Dogs and Grilled Asparagus

I was all ready to make this dinner, when I got a call from Billy that he was meeting after work with my Dad.  It ended up turning into a dinner meeting at Trio’s.  This is my life…fun but a little bit like a whirlwind!

When Mom, Noah and I arrived, the guys had ordered a bottle of Pinot for the table as well as hummus and pita.

I started out my meal with a green house salad, creamy vinaigrette on the side.

Then my Dad and I split an order of salmon with the sauce on the side.

Green beans, a new potato and ancho peppers on the side.

It was a perfect portion size.  The salmon was a little overcooked and the green beans were a little squeaky (I need my green beans cooked until they don’t squeak on my teeth!), so I left a little of both.

OTHER

UPS delivered a new gasket and screen for our Bialetti stovetop espresso maker.  Ours has been down and out ever since “someone” forgot to put water in it while brewing coffee one morning!  :)

We’ve been using our French Press, but it hasn’t been the same.  Oh, sweet espresso pot, I have missed you!

Needless to say, when we got home from dinner, I had to fire it up!

If you’ve never had or heard of stovetop espresso, Bialetti pots can be found in most every Italian kitchen as the daily coffee maker. 

I decided to take a few photos to show you my coffee making process.

First, I fill the water reservoir with cold water.

Then I grind 3 scoops of whole bean coffee on a very fine grind setting and add it to the filter.

Set it on the reservoir and make sure there’s no grounds on the edges:

Firmly twist on the top of the espresso maker:

Here’s a bottom view of the top part showing the brand new rubber gasket and screen:

Set the pot on the stove with a medium-low setting (keep the flames under the pot and don’t let it hit the sides):

As it’s heated, the water is forced up through the filter of coffee grounds and the upper chamber is filled with the most beautiful finished coffee!

It’s a very quick process and my stainless steel pot is a 10 tasse size pot that makes 2 mugs of espresso-ish coffee. 

If I need to store one mug, I pour it into the thermos you see in the background here.

And that’s it…perfection in a cup!

The coffee I used tonight was a discovery we made during our trip to Tampa.  While we were wandering around Ybor City near the Columbia Restaurant, we kept smelling roasting coffee.  Turns out it was coming from the Naviera Coffee Mill, which has been roasting coffee in Ybor since 1921.

Tonight I used their Cafe con Leche blend roast. Mmmmmm.

My thoughts on today’s food intake:  I loved breakfast and snack and I think I did fairly well on my food choices for the remainder of the day.  I did have wine again.  I did drink more coffee than I really needed to. 

Now let’s see if I can go to sleep after my caffeine jolt! 

See you tomorrow as we get packed up and ready to head out west to New Mexico and Colorado.  DURANGO, HERE I COME!!!

Angel Babies and Real Food Consultations

Happy Monday!  I had a wonderful day today.

First of all, I got up at 5am when my alarm went off and did Jillian Michael’s Shred Level 2.  Let me just tell you now, my back and shoulders are KILLING!  I like it because just like sweat, it lets me know that it’s for sure working! 

Big news on the food front today.  A while back, when Kath at Kath Eats Real Food announced that she was partnering with Nutrition Specialists to provide online nutrition consultations, I jumped all over it!

I completed a comprehensive questionnaire and a 3 day food diary, which she reviewed.  She then made dietary recommendations tailored to my specific goals (eat healthy, proper fitness fuel, lose weight) and gave me a 3 day meal plan.

In one sentence, I am consuming too many calories for my mostly sedentary daytime computer work for the office.  And my wine intake is adding an additional 1000 calories weekly.  This wino needs to change her ways??  Ah that stabs me in the heart (this heart made healthy by my daily glass of red wine, right?)!  :-)

As you guys have seen, I’ve really made more of a commitment to work out on a regular basis.  I’m attempting to be really aware of what’s working (alarm in the bathroom with work out clothes laid out; exercise tv workout videos on Comcast On Demand) and what’s not (staying up until 11pm; not having a weekend work out plan; trying to work out in the afternoon).

Today began Day One of my 3 Day Sample Meal Plan designed by Kath! 

BREAKFAST

8 grain toast (Kath suggested 1 slice, but our loaf was a locally baked rustic version that was smaller than the normal commercial loaf of bread), 1 tbsp of peanut butter, 4 walnut halves, 1 banana.  Coffee with 2 tbsp soy creamer and 1 tbsp honey.

AM SNACK

1/2 cup dry cereal (Kashi Heart to Heart and Go Lean mixed).  Kath suggested a cup of tea with soy milk.  I was rushing to finish a fax broadcast for work and I just poured another cup of coffee (handy in a thermos) with 1 tbsp soy creamer and .5 tbsp of honey.

LUNCH

Avocado Cheese Melt:  1/4 of a red bell pepper, 1/4 of an avocado, 1 oz of cheese (smoked jalapeno cheddar).  I baked this in the oven until the tortillas was just a tad crispy and the cheese was melted.  Apple on the side.

PM SNACK

Kath suggested 12 tortilla chips and 5 tbsps of salsa, which I was pumped about.

However, I made a run out to visit my best friend and her new baby this afternoon.  I felt weird about packing my snack, so I drove through Starbucks on the way and got a Tall Soy Misto (70 calories).

By the time I left her house, I was starving, but I didn’t eat anything besides one Kashi cracker because I knew dinner was coming soon.

Me and the baby (beautiful blonde angel baby, Dane):

DINNER

Pistachio and Goat Cheese Chicken:  Chicken breast seasoned with salt and pepper, brushed with spicy mustard, topped with 2 tbsp of goat cheese and 1 tbsp crushed pistachios.  Served on top of quinoa (love this stuff soooo much) with sautéed spinach (sautéed in a teeny bit of olive oil with garlic and crushed red pepper).

I loved this meal!  Actually, I couldn’t even finish it all.  Rather, I paid attention and I QUIT eating when I felt satisfied.  I chose not to “clean my plate”.

Billy’s remarks:  “I didn’t like the mustardy taste.”  NOTE:  Kath suggested honey mustard, of which I am not a fan so I used my beloved spicy mustard instead.  Clearly it was wasted on Billy.  He is no longer “spicy mustard worthy.”  That’s a classic Seinfeld reference to Elaine and the men she had to deem “sponge worthy” or not.  Me=A big ole nerd.

You know why I think Kath is DIVINE?  She gave me dessert today!  Not just dessert, but dark chocolate!!

Sorry for the shiny palm.  I swear it’s not sweaty.  It’s Skin Food from Weleda!  I’m always in search of the perfect hand lotion for my dragon skin.

CONFESSION TIME:  Kath, I confess.  It’s been 1.5 hours since my last glass of wine.  Wine was not on the menu today, but Billy offered me a glass while I was cooking and I accepted.  I love cooking with a glass of wine.

Now I’m drinking water and keeping my eye on the clock. I have a few things to do tonight and I have to hurry before my 10pm bed time!

See you tomorrow for Day Two, which already has an off schedule twist…

Happy Birthday to my Mom!

The best Mom ever!!!

Today was a busy and productive day.

I accomplished the following:

• Took the dog out
• Fed and watered the dog
• Fed and watered the boy and myself
• Picked up the house
• Vacuumed the whole house
• Worked out (Jillian Michaels Shred Level 1)
• Did 3 loads of laundry
• Scrubbed off the daily system calendar and menu planner and filled in this month’s activities/appointments, etc and this week’s menu plan.
• Assembled my Mom’s gift (a gift certificate and goodies from a local spa in our neighborhood)
• Played with the boy
• Fed and watered the boy and myself again
• Did a giddy happy dance when Billy arrived home from drill weekend! 

I really didn’t want him to come home to a dirty house and the house status was approaching ICKY…dishes stacked in the sink, toys everywhere, tumbleweeds of white Shiloh hair floating by…not good!

Noah was a great help.  He loves the vacuum and he followed me EVERYWHERE.  It made it easier because I didn’t have to keep checking where he was at and what he was doing!

I had a banana this morning for breakfast right after working out, no picture.

For lunch, I warmed up a can of Mushroom Barley Soup No Salt Added from Health Valley. 

I had half of the can and guess what?  It needed salt!  Ha.  I added some Tony Chachere’s Cajun seasoning and a dash of Cavender’s Greek seasoning.

About an hour later, I grabbed a Wasa sourdough crispbread from the pantry before zooming off again.   No pic!  I was on the GO!!

After we put Noah down for his afternoon nap, I warmed up the remainder of the can of soup for a snack.

It’s a Dakota, the elusive cat sighting!!!  He actually hangs out with me all day, but whenever anyone else is around (including Billy), he’s nowhere to be found. 

My thoughts on this soup:  it was much better when I added the seasoning to it.  Without it, it was really bland.  The mushrooms imparted a bit of a sweet taste to the soup, which I wasn’t really fond of.  I liked the barley and wished there had been more!  I had to balance the spoon just so in this photo to get any shot of the barley.  Buy again?  No thanks.

After Noah got up from his nap, we loaded up and headed to Benihana for Mom’s birthday dinner!

We had coupons from today’s paper for buy one Hibachi Chicken, Steak or Shrimp dinner and get one free, so Billy and I both got Hibachi Chicken dinners.

We started with a bottle of Black Opal Cabernet Sauvignon (only $19.75!).

The Hibachi dinners come with onion soup, ginger salad, a 3 shrimp appetizer, fried or steamed rice, your entree with veggies and orange sherbet for dessert.

Onion soup (almost gone…whoops!):

Salad with ginger dressing:

Poppy getting Noah to try the onion soup:

Our very funny hibachi chef:

I wish it wasn’t blurry, but I was laughing and shaking the camera too much!

My Mom, Dad and Noah enjoying the show:

Steamed rice with soy sauce and my shrimp appetizer:

My chicken dinner with sautéed zucchini and onions:

Don’t be fooled into thinking that Hibachi is a healthy way to eat out.  The chicken was cooked in oil, but the veggies are sautéed in a big glob of butter.  And if you get fried rice, more butter.  And if you get seafood (shrimp, lobster, scallops), MORE butter.

And the quantities served are HUGE.

I think I did fairly well by choosing the chicken and steamed rice. 

Here’s the birthday girl getting the Benihana birthday treatment:

I think Noah’s trying to grab the hat off her head!

We had a great time and Noah really loved the hibachi entertainment (and the steam rising from the grill and the fish tanks and drumming with the chopsticks! ).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!  We love you so much!

Tortilla Madness

I just realized that I had a tortilla at every meal today.  I am such a Mexican food junkie.

It’s been a busy few days.  Billy’s has National Guard drill this weekend.

We went to Brave New Restaurant last night for dinner and I was so exhausted afterwards.  After putting Noah to bed, I collapsed on the couch and Shiloh, the dream dog, woke me up with a cold nose to the face around 9:45.

I seriously need to concentrate on going to bed earlier.  I can’t keep up a schedule of going to bed at 11pm and getting up at 5am.  I have to admit that I need more sleep than that!

Noah and I had a great day today even though we both miss Billy.

I woke up just before 7am and had enough time to take care of the dog, make coffee and Noah’s breakfast just before he woke up.

Once he ate, I ate a banana and set him up with Elmo in Grouchland while I showered and got dressed.

After his morning nap (which he didn’t take), my Mom came over and we headed to Milford Track in our old office building in west Little Rock for lunch.

I had one of Kay’s famous breakfast burritos.

Eggs, a huge assortment of veggies and a little cheese with salsa on the side.  I ended up pulling off the tortilla half way through.

I also helped Noah with a little pre-meal snack, another one of my MT favorites….a Tollhouse muffin. 

It’s a sweet yellow cake like muffin with a chocolate chip cookie in the bottom.  It’s probably a good thing that we moved out of this office building!  They make these every Friday and I was so addicted!

Noah had a great time…

Notice him pulling his Nonni’s hand to his mouth.  She couldn’t feed him fast enough!

Then Poppy showed up from the 9/12 rally at the State Capitol with a surprise for him.

And he got to play the jukebox…

See the black thing on my Dad’s back?  It’s a SPIDER!!!!!  Someone behind them knocked it off, so I didn’t have to get involved.  Whew.

After lunch Noah was ready for his afternoon nap.  And Nonni was ready for hers too!  Dad and I spent an hour or so in Whole Foods and I spent too much money, as usual.

We had a quick fix dinner at Mom and Dad’s house with some chicken fajita meat and black beans that Dad scored from the hot case at Whole Foods.

Whole wheat tortilla with chicken, onions and peppers.  I added avocado, a little shredded cheese and salsa.  Black beans and corn on the side with tortilla chips, hummus and fruit.

And a glass of wine (I forgot to look at the bottle).

Now I’m back home with Noah tucked into bed and the dream dog by my side.  She’s ready for bed too.  One more might make three!!

Happy TuWedThursday!

Hola, amigos!

How’s your week going?  I am so confused about what day it is due to our Monday holiday this week!  It’s Tuesday, no it’s Thursday!  Acckk…it’s Wednesday!

Work has been so busy this week trying to get back on top of things.  Last night, I spent the “Noah is in bed” evening hours booking travel arrangements for a last minute business and anniversary trip for my parents and us.  More details to come!

I desperately need to go grocery shopping, but I can’t seem to get there.  Last night was the business stuff and tonight we wanted to watch the President speak about health care (since it’s our industry and all that).  Tomorrow Billy has a business meeting in Joplin, Missouri, so he probably won’t be home until 9pm or so.  Business is definitely keeping us busy.

Let’s catch up on the exercise and food for the past few days…

TUESDAY

Exercise:  I was FINALLY able to do the entire Banish Fat, Boost Metabolism workout with Jillian Michaels.  It is a major butt kicker!!  When it was over, I was DONE.  I was trying to put the kettle on for coffee and Billy was seriously worried about my abilities to function because I was hanging on to the countertop for dear life!  :-)

Breakfast was my standard steel cut oats cooked in water with a splash of soy milk, sliced banana and a tablespoon of creamy peanut butter.

See my meal planning madness?  I LOVE IT.

Lunch was a quick fix of leftovers.

Turkey burger with smoked Colby, white onion, tomato and spicy mustard on a homemade bun.  Grapes, Kashi crackers and…A HUMMUS FACE OFF!

This is funny…as you know, I declared that Tuesday would be Hummus Day after making and then forgetting about my homemade hummus on Monday.

My Mom came over for her Tuesday with Noah and brought a tub of hummus to share with us! 

So I brought mine out and we staged a little hummus taste test.

On the plate above, mine is on the left and the Greek Gourmet hummus is on the right.

Mom immediately said mine was better and I had to agree.  The homemade version was thicker (you can see that in the picture) and the flavors were more vibrant.  The Greek Gourmet hummus was okay, but it was pretty creamy and I think it was missing a little garlic kick.

Yay for homemade…tastes better, made from whole ingredients and is CHEAPER!!

Dinner was scheduled to be tilapia, but we really didn’t have a plan.  Then I remembered a tilapia recipe from the latest issue of Cooking Light, Blackened Cumin-Cayenne tilapia!

We needed a vegetable and a grain.  I had some fresh broccoli that needed to be used and ran across a Rachael Ray recipe for Broccoli Rice.

The fish was cooked perfectly (way to go, Billy), but it was a little TOO spicy for my delicate palate.  Haha.  Billy does a very nice homemade Cajun seasoning and I wish I had let him just do that.

The rice was fairly good, but needed a little jazzing up.  It’s a nice base recipe though.

TODAY

I stayed up too late last night and when my alarm went off, I went into the bathroom, brushed my teeth and then promptly climbed back into bed.  WHAT???  yeah.  I don’t know.

Moving on to breakfast…

Why, hello, same breakfast as yesterday!!  :) 

I had a huge craving today for a turkey sandwich from Boulevard Bread Company.

Smoked turkey, jalapeno cheddar cheese, tomato, spring mix, avocado on fresh made baguette.  I had them hold the mayo.  Mmmm.

Lookie, lookie!  I got a loaf of 8 grain bread too!!!  I can’t wait for toast tomorrow morning!!!!

I also had a couple of Kashi crackers with hummus.

I had a cup of coffee and a square of 60% dark chocolate later in the afternoon.

Billy brought home our favorite carry out meal from Canon Grill….CHICKEN FAJITAS!

I had two fajitas like this one.  Flour tortilla with guacamole, chicken, onions, peppers, tomatoes, salsa and a little cheese.

And a lovely glass of wine:

Fabulous!

I have to close this down now so I can get to bed and not do crazy things after the alarm goes off in the morning.  After all, tomorrow is Friday!

NO, IT’S NOT!!!!!  :)

Labor Day Grilling

Is really the last day of our extended holiday weekend??  Say it’s not true!!

Although I need to get back into my routine because I’ve fallen off the exercise wagon.  I feel the need for Jillian to kick my booty again!

This morning, we weren’t sure what to do for breakfast, but we knew that Noah would need something quickly.  I ended up baking some oatmeal muffins.

I won’t share the recipe with you because I was frankly unimpressed.  I wasn’t able to taste the oatmeal at all and they were just kind of bland.  Spear of pineapple on the side.

At lunch after Noah woke up from his morning nap, we ran out to Bosco’s brew pub because I was craving a beer sampler.

My favorite:  Downtown Brown-a smooth nutbrown ale that was just perfection today!  My least favorite:  3rd from the right-Hook Slide Ale-a typical Lite beer clone, which I HATE.  Bleh.

I almost got a blackened grouper sandwich, but at the last minute went for a black bean tamale with goat cheese (hold the sour cream).

Served on a plantain leaf.  I ate about 3/4 of this.  It was really good and very filling.

Afterwards, we did a little Labor Day shopping.  Actually, we made it to ONE store before it was time for Noah’s afternoon nap.

While he was napping, Billy went out on more errands and I made hummus.

I sometimes forget how easy it is to make hummus.  You only need these ingredients:

NOTE:  I only used one can of chick peas today.  Here’s how I made mine:

• 1 can chick peas, drained and rinsed
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup tahini
• 4 really teeny garlic cloves (probably 2 normal sized cloves)
• juice of one lemon
• 1 TBSP of olive oil

Throw it all in a food processor and blend until chunky smooth (really just find the texture you like).

Voila!

I added a little sprinkle of paprika and a pour of olive oil for flair.  Yummy and I saved myself $4 by making my own!

Billy made turkey burgers on the grill tonight for dinner.  Labor Day grilling and all that…

I made the buns from scratch by kinda following this recipe.  Kinda because I ran out of whole wheat flour this weekend and ended up using part all purpose and part bread flour.  Even then, I didn’t have enough and the whole thing was really gooey.  I wasn’t sure it was going to work at all, but it did!  They weren’t gorgeous, but they tasted nice and that’s what counts, right???

Turkey burger, homemade bun, white onion, smoked Colby cheese, baby spinach (on it’s last legs), fresh from the garden tomato and spicy mustard (in the kitchen with a knife…remember??).

On the side was oven roasted okra (sprayed with olive oil spray and tossed with salt, pepper, Cavender’s and Tony Chachere’s seasonings, then baked at 375 degrees for 15 minutes).

GUESS WHAT? 

I forgot about the freaking hummus!

Insert sheepish laugh here.

Oh well.  I chased Billy around after dinner and forced him to try it.  I did the same to Noah but he said, “Noooooooo” and ran the other way.

I hereby declare Tuesday as HUMMUS DAY!  :-)

Hope you guys had a great holiday weekend.

Billy brought home the latest Clean Eating Magazine (whatta guy!), so I’m off to brusha-brusha and hop in the sack with a flashlight under the covers! 

Good night!

Freezer Cooking, Cookie Eating and Caterpillar Crawlings

Happy long holiday weekend!  Is this fabulous or what??

We’ve had a great time this weekend.  It hasn’t been the weekend of household projects and organizing that I planned, but we are spending lots of time together as a family so that’s great.

Today was exceptionally eventful.  I spent quite a lot of time in the kitchen today!  As a gift to my best friend and her husband who are about to have their first child, I am giving them a week’s worth of meals to keep in the freezer after the baby’s born.  They’ll be in the freezer, so they can defrost them and have a quick meal at hand. 

Once a month cooking (really twice a month for my preferences) used to be a regular part of my routine.  I loved taking one day, devoting it to cooking and then having a fully stocked freezer full of food to last for the next few weeks.  I’m not not nearly so organized any more, but I do try to make double batches of meals that I know are okay for freezer storage.  It a great frugal tip that helps cut down on the old “no food in the house, so let’s go out” scenario.

First, let’s start with breakfast.  Billy made banana pancakes for us (really Noah since it’s one of the few foods he’ll eat). 

You can see that Noah already ate part of one of my pancakes.  He was a hungry boy this morning and Billy couldn’t cook them fast enough!  I ended up not being really hungry.  I ate 2 pancakes total with a little drizzle of maple syrup.

Then I got to work on cooking…

My computer with the recipes, my recipe list of meals to make and my Sharpies to mark each freezer bag with the dish name and heating instructions.

I also started playing a live stream from iheartradio.com, where I alternated between Christina Aguilera radio and Rock Nation.  Great music makes everything better, doesn’t it? 

Around noon, I started feeling faint and broke into a quick snack.

I picked up a So Delicious coconut milk yogurt in Strawberry Banana flavor to try out.  I topped it with 2 TBSP of Kashi Go Lean crunch for texture.  I think I prefer plain yogurt and then adding my own fruit.  It just seems more REAL and I’m not a huge fan of added sugar.  The yogurt was good, but very sweet.

After cooking FOUR dinners, I wrapped it up and fixed myself a leftover plate of spaghetti and turkey meatballs that Billy cooked up the other night for dinner.  With all the wonderful cooking smells, I was famished!

You can see Shiloh, the dream dog, in the picture.  No dogs or babies or husbands allowed in the kitchen while I was cooking!!

Noah kept pulling up the baby gate on his Tonka truck,calling my name, jibber jabbering at me and then vrooming away!  So cute.

After cleaning up the kitchen, I took a little break and went outside to roam around the square foot garden and check out some thunder clouds that were moving in.  Here are few updated pics of the garden:

That’s an orange bell pepper at the front right!  Yum.  As much as they charge you at the store for the colorful varieties, I really wanted to grow my own this season.  Success!!  Here’s all three boxes.

Roma tomatoes and beans are going crazy right now.

Then I found the most beautiful caterpillar crawling along our rock wall:

Anyone know what this is???  I haven’t been able to identify it yet. 

We’ve had tomato plants sprouting up in unusual places.  Billy keeps trying to thin them out, but then he feels guilty and he plants them in random places like this pot next to the deck:

I was sitting outside on the deck listening for thunder, when I heard Noah hollering my name all the way inside at the baby gate again.  A mother’s hearing, I guess???  :)

He had found some stuff from Billy’s new phone documents to show me…I think it was a twist tie and a warranty card.  Speaking of Billy’s new phone:

Blackberry Storm.  He got it yesterday and now he’s hot stuff.  Oh yeah.

Back to today….time for an Anzac Biscuit!

Hey, doesn’t that look like a cookie???

It is!  It’s an Australian cookie made with oats and coconut.  And it’s amazingly delicious.  I won these babies in Natalie’s online bake sale to raise money for the Dana-Farber Cancer Research Institute.

This afternoon we ran some errands around town until Noah got HUNGRY (grumpy) and then we had to think of where to go for dinner in a freaking hurry.

We were down the street from a Macaroni Grill, so my mind thought “bread” for Noah and “wine” for Mom!  :)

Bread, dipping oil and a glass of house Chianti (yucky).

House salad with balsamic vinaigrette on the side (only $1.99 to add to your entree order). 

Not impressive…iceberg lettuce.  I ate about half.

For my entree, I ordered the Simple Salmon and asked them to make sure they didn’t put butter on anything.

I took a bazillion photos and this was the best I could do with the light on my side of the table.  There are tomatoes on top of the fish and the fish is sitting on asparagus and broccoli, both of which were completely unseasoned.  When I said no butter, I didn’t mean NO TASTE.  It really was a bland hospital like meal.  I ate maybe half of it.

Billy ordered a steak:

It wasn’t very good either.

This is probably the last visit to MG that we’ll make for a long while.  We wished we had just eaten at home and saved that money.  Bah.

Noah and Dad having fun:

Now back at home with Noah tucked into bed.  Billy poured me a glass of Cellar 8 Cabernet to make up for the not so good Chianti at dinner.

He’s obsessively playing football on the Xbox again, so I think I may retire to my room with a good book. 

Good night!!

Business Meetings and Buffalo Burgers

Happy Thursday on a Friday…we have the day off tomorrow because we have the best bosses ever!!

First thing this morning, I jumped back into my Jillian Michaels workout from yesterday.  Unfortunately, I have to try again tomorrow because I forgot that this workout is an hour long.  I got about 30 minutes in and then the dream dog had to go out and then I decided that Noah needed whole wheat pancakes for breakfast, so time ran out on me.

Billy and I discussed the fact that we’d both been craving eggs all week.  Cooler temps to blame? 

1 whole wheat banana pancake, 1 pineapple spear, 2 scrambled eggs with baby spinach, 1 TBSP cheddar cheese and salsa.

When I finished eating, I still felt like I was starving, but I knew I had eaten enough to fill me up, so I walked away.  Sure enough, once I gave it a few minutes, my tummy realized it had all the food it needed!

Lunch was a hurried bowl of leftover lentil soup with dumplings.  I forgot to take a picture, so here’s one of the soup pot in the fridge:

Noah was helping, of course!

I also had a few grapes.

We had a team meeting in the office today, so at 2:45pm, Noah and I loaded up and headed in.  After work, we went to my parents house for dinner.  My grandmother is in town for the weekend and my Dad grilled buffalo burgers.

We started with guac, salsa and 3 different kinds of tortilla chips and a glass of wine.

Buffalo burger with spicy mustard, baby spinach, tomato, guac, onion and cheese on a sesame Ezekiel bun.  Guac and chips and black beans on the side.

After putting Noah to bed, I had a little dessert and gift from my Dad, straight from their trip to San Francisco.

A San Francisco treat indeed!  I had two squares.

Part of me feels like I should stay up late since it’s our start of the weekend, but another LARGE part of me wants to go directly to bed!  :)  I’ll let you know tomorrow what I decided to do!

Workout Injuries and Comfort Food

Last night, bill paying won out over blogging.  I’ve been using You Need a Budget to create a budget.  I am BUDGET CRAZY.  I used to have this archaic tablet spreadsheet on graph paper if you can believe it.  Sometimes I secretly miss my paper scribblings!

Anyway, I have been sucking at budgeting since having the kid.  I try to keep caught up, but days slip past and I haven’t entered in our cash outflows.  I just keep trying!

Here’s yesterdays meals…

BREAKFAST

I have been craving eggs lately, so I did a quick scramble with red bell pepper (from our garden), baby spinach, dried chopped onion and powdered garlic with 2 eggs.  Topped with a tablespoon of shredded cheddar cheese and salsa. 

One piece of Arkansas bacon (89 calories) on the side.

Great breakfast.

LUNCH

Billy brought home Mexican Salad from Satellite Cafe.

 

Chicken breast on lettuce with black beans, salsa and guacamole.  I asked them to hold the cheese and sour cream.  However, I did eat 3 homemade tortilla chips as pictured on the left.  I should have told them to hold those too because once I saw them, I had to eat them.

DINNER

Billy made the meal tonight.  BBQ Chicken with pan sautéed squash and zucchini and a baked sweet potato.

If you are like me and lived on microwaved sweet potatoes your whole life, do yourself a favor and bake or grill one.  Try it.  !!!!!  It is so amazingly delicious.  The slow baking releases the sweet caramelized flavors.  It is unreal how much better it is.

Oven directions:  400 degrees for 20-30 minutes. 

Exercise for Monday:  I did Jillian Michaels Level 1 Shred

Today my butt hurts.

This morning I got up and did Jillian Michaels Banish Fat Boost Metabolism.  She is such a sporty fitness bitch and I love her!  I was doing great until she had me doing this jump 180 degrees thing and I fell from the living room into the sunroom and twisted my ankle.

I decided to finish the workout after work, but now my ankle is still a little sore, so I’m taking it easy.  Hopefully all is well in the morning.

Today was just an off day all around.  I got really sick to my stomach after breakfast.

Steel cut oats with a splash of light plain soymilk, 1/2 chopped apple and creamy peanut butter.  MMMMmmm.

I was shaking by the time I ate this and got sick to my stomach after eating it.

Today was a Hot Springs Wednesday…the day Noah and I take my Mom to Hot Springs to get her toes and fingernails done.  Unfortunately, Noah chose today to be a real grump.  He was so grumpy that I tried to put him down for a nap at 8:45am.  He played in his crib, but didn’t settle down.  Meanwhile, I felt like crap so I tried to snuggle down in my bed for a little siesta before our travels.  Since he was so active in his bed (playing and talking), I never went to sleep, but it was good to rest for a few minutes.

My Mom showed up just in time for me to get sick to my stomach again.  Then we hit the road and I hoped for the best.

Fortunately,  I didn’t get sick again although I felt weak and puny.

LUNCH

We took Noah to Cracker Barrel in Hot Springs because we wanted him to be as happy as possible and guess what helps that??  PANCAKES!!

Noah’s cakes:

I almost ordered Chicken Noodle soup, but decided on heartier comfort food….Meat Biscuit with Hashbrowns.  Turkey sausage, 1 biscuit, plain hashbrowns (props to CB for offering plain instead of only hashbrown casserole with cheese and onions!) and a small side of gravy.

Love the ketchup on the hashbrowns. Love it.  This makes for a cheap and filling meal at the CB.  No veggies, no fruits.  But I always worry about the CB veggies anyway.  I think they soak them in ham and butter.

How cute is this?

Snack today was a tall soy Misto from Starbucks.

DINNER

I didn’t set any meat out for dinner, so I raided the pantry for meatless options and came up with Lentil and Vegetable Soup and Dumplings. 

Easy, filling and delicious. 

I had two glasses of 7 Deadly Zins. I only meant to have one, but Billy convinced me otherwise.  :-)

We have Friday off this week due to the Labor Day holiday.  I plan on working up a meal plan and doing some grocery shopping.  I also need to do some freezer cooking for my best friend, Michaela, who’s baby is due any second now!!  I’ve got all the ingredients, but I’ve not assembled it all yet!!

Night everyone!

Tampa Weekend Getaway

Hello, friends!

We’ve returned home from fun and frivolity in Tampa, Florida!  It was our first weekend away from the boy, who stayed with  my parents (and had a blast!).

We had tickets to CrueFest 2 at the Ford Amphitheatre in Tampa on Friday evening.  Billy is a HUGE Motley Crue fan and they weren’t bringing the show to Arkansas, so we decided to follow them.  I had wanted to take Billy to Tampa for several years and when I found reasonable Southwest airfare there, I snapped at the chance!

I had intended to blog before and during the trip, but things got harried while he was traveling on business and I was trying to hold the fort down and plan for the weekend.  Then the hotel’s internet was abso-freaking-lutely horribly slow and spotty.  I nearly lost it just trying to check my email. 

Let’s do a recap!!

Billy got home from San Francisco on Thursday and we took Noah over to my parents’ house to spend the night because we had a 7:10am flight the next morning.  Mom and Dad had the pack ‘n’ play set up in the guest room and we tucked Noah in like normal and he went right to sleep.  Hooray!  I don’t know what I would have done if he was upset!!  I started tearing up just kissing him goodbye.

We went home and I did laundry and stayed up too late packing and planning as usual.  Billy’s alarm went off at 4:45 in the morning and I JUMPED out of bed!

We hustled around and decided to get breakfast and coffee at the airport.  Once past security, we stopped in at the Great American Bagel Company, where I got a multi-grain bagel.  I was shocked to find out that they didn’t have any peanut butter, only butter or cream cheese (???!!!).  I got mine dry and then headed to Starbucks a few doors down in hopes of scoring a Justin’s nut butter squeeze pack, but no luck there.  They didn’t sell bagels or oatmeal and they looked at me like I was from mars when I asked for it.  I ended up getting a banana, a bottle of water and a tall soy misto instead.

Not a bad spread for an airplane ride, huh?  I don’t eat well when I travel so I had about a 1/4 of the bagel and then coffee and then ate another 1/4 and the banana as a snack later.

Here are the snacks that we got from Southwest:  plane graham cookies; honey roasted peanuts; and pretzels.

I had two cookies before reading about the partially hydrogenated oil on the ingredient list.  Then I had two peanuts, but I don’t like peanuts unless it’s peanut butter or sauce.  I skipped the pretzels due to the same hydrogenated oil ingredient as the cookies.  No thanks.

I wasn’t quite sure what to do with myself not having Noah around to fuss over, but I eventually got my iPod out and chilled out.

We got into town around 1pm, got our rental car and immediately headed to our hotel, the Holiday Inn Express directly across from the entrance to the amphitheatre.  We were starving by then and the front desk suggested a Wing House next to the hotel or a row of chain restaurants down the street.  We headed down the street to see what we could find.  It wasn’t looking too promising until I saw a Macaroni Grill.  We pulled in and then I saw a sign pointing to a Cheesecake Factory.  Billy had never been to one, so I thought it would be fun to mix things up a bit.  He was very reluctant as he was thinking it was a dainty sandwich or quiche shop, but I convinced him to try it and we saddled up the bar.

Sam Adams Lager.  Bread while we waited:

We knew it would probably be our last meal of the evening because the concert started at 5pm, so we ordered hearty fare.

I got the Baja Chicken Tacos, three Soft Corn Tortillas Filled with Spicy Chicken, Onions, Cheese, Avocado Cream, Tomato and Cilantro. Served with Black Beans, Rice and Guacamole.  I asked them to hold the avocado cream and put the cheese on the side. 

See some creamy stuff on my tacos?  The bartender told me it was chipotle sauce.  I was annoyed, but thought I had just missed it on the menu.  Only later I discovered that they just decided since I didn’t want avocado cream, I must want this stuff instead. 

I ate two of the tacos and about half of the beans and rice.  It was really good and filling, exactly what I needed!

Billy got a Factory Burger on wheat, which was served on on this hoagie type loaf:

After lunch, we didn’t have much time to get ready for the concert.  The gates opened at 4pm and we had lawn seats, so we wanted to stake out our grassy territory as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, cameras weren’t allowed, but I did manage a few shots with my phone before it got dark.

We had the best time just watching people walk down the promenade in front of our seats.  Freaks, old rockers, skaters, everything.  It was fabulous.

Oh and the music wasn’t bad either. 

I shall not admit how many Sierra Nevada Pale Ales that I drank that evening.  Quite a lot.  I got really familiar with the path to the women’s bathroom.  And then I made the mistake of mentioning whiskey and Billy shows up with a double whiskey and coke in his hands.

Oh well.  It was a good time and we deliberately chose a hotel within walking distance!  The music was great and Vince Neill is skinny again.  The big screens were disappointing.  The bands’ screens didn’t show live shots of the band too much and the amphitheatre’s screen at lawn level was grainy and awful.  A drunk guy invaded our space in an attempt to get a little too close to some girls in front of us and we had security make him move.  Then a drunk girl rolled (yes, rolled) into the couple next to us and almost created a scene.  The lawn is definitely where the action is at!

The next morning, we slept in obviously.  We woke up just in time to grab breakfast from the hotel’s offerings. 

Awful coffee, cinnamon raisin bagel with peanut butter and a banana.  I wouldn’t call it delicious but it got the job done.  Then we were off for a day in historic cigar capital of the world, Ybor City.  My cousin, Kim, brought me here a few years ago and I’ve been dying to bring Billy ever since.  It’s beautiful, historic and you can always find the smell of a nice cigar wafting out from somewhere. 

We started at the Ybor City Museum, where we got a semi-private tour of one the casitas, houses built for the factory cigar workers by the factory owners.  With Tampa being a really swampy, humid environment, it was interesting to see how the houses were built (circa 1905) with lifted foundations to allow for airflow, windows to catch crosswinds and tall ceilings to allow the heat to rise.  The mosquitoes were (and are) a major a problem and the residents apparently used cheesecloth and/or mesh netting on the windows as primitive screens.

We started sweating as soon as we stepped outside of the museum, so props go out to the original residents and their hardiness.

After the tour, we wanted to head next door to the Museum store and to the Saturday town market, but we were starving.  Our stomachs lead our feet directly to the famous Columbia Restaurant for delicious cuban food.

Mojito….made from scratch and simply amazing.

Cuban bread served wrapped in paper:

I had a bowl of black bean soup with rice and topped it with onions.

Next time I’ll remember how big these portions are!  I didn’t even eat half because I was trying to save room for a 1905 salad, which was suggested to me by a local.

They make it tableside, so I tried to go with the flow.  But look at it all shimmery…you guys know I don’t use a lot of dressing and it’s always on the side!  It was too much for me and I ended up just picking at it a little.

Billy got a cuban sandwich, which was huge.

I think the soup got the best of us both!

After lunch, we wandered around the restaurant (it has 16 different dining rooms and is Florida’s oldest and the world’s largest Spanish restaurant) and then strolled around town checking everything out.

We headed back to the Museum store only to find that they had shortened their hours and we missed them by about 30 minutes! 

Then we strolled back down to the restaurant row area to King Coron Cigar Bar and Cafe.  Billy found a couple of cigars, a cigar smoking hat and I found a nice place to settle down and have a double espresso.

Mmmmm.

Billy in his element:

 

Me, secretly lusting after his new hat:

We had big plans to have dinner at Bern’s Steakhouse, a Tampa institution.  Unfortunately, they were booked up and I didn’t bother to make alternate plans.  Billy suggested going to see a movie, which we don’t get to do very often anymore.  After walking around Ybor all day on already blister-worn feet, I was more than happy with that plan.  We found Harry Potter playing at the Imax in 3-D.  woot!  Woot! 

In actuality, only the first 12 minutes of the movie are in 3-D.  We did have fun with the majorly geeky 3-D glasses though.

And yes, they serve wine at the theater.  Take some lessons, ARKANSAS.

Billy looks way cooler than me.

The movie started at 6pm and was way longer than we anticipated.  We had some suggestions of food in town that we were aiming to check out, so we walked past some great looking food options and plugged addresses into our rental car’s GPS.  This turned out to be a mistake.  The GPS was not able to accurately guide us around downtown Tampa and with so many dark, one way streets, we wasted a lot of time circling around trying to find places.  We ended up going to a different part of town only to find that parking cost $10 and we had spent our cash on beer the night before.  Whoops.

It turned out to be a frustrating mess and we decided to give it up once the clock struck 10pm.  We headed for the Wing House next to the hotel.  Uhh…yuck.  Apparently Wing House is a cheap rip off of Hooters.  It’s full of rednecks and the wings were definitely nothing like Wing Stop’s. 

I started with an Amber Bock (the best they had to offer) and salsa and chips.

The salsa was very generic, so we didn’t eat very much of this.

Then I ordered 10 naked (skinless, not fried) wings with BBQ sauce.

Every once in a while, I would get a weird twang, which was freaking me out.  I had visions of food poisoning and not being able to get home the next day, so I ended up only eating 5 or so.

Billy got french fries and I ate six of them:

Best thing on the table by far.

We witnessed two near bar fights and then got the heck out and turned in for the night.

We headed to the airport early the next morning and scoped out our breakfast options.  The Tampa airport has an adjoining Marriott and we headed to their restaurant, Elise Cafe, for a hot sit down meal.

I got the Fast Break, which was scrambled eggs with diced ham, hash browns and whole wheat toast.

Billy gave me a strip of his bacon and I took one bite and gave it back.  Thin and tasteless.  Note the shiny on the toast…slathered with butter!  I ate one slice until I realized I just wanted the butter.

After wandering around the airport for a while, we finally headed through security and to our gate after hitting Starbucks and the newsstand.

Great magazine!  There are a lot of meals that I want to try in there.

We had a lengthy lunch time layover at Houston Hobby airport.  We scoped out the whole airport and settled on Pappadeaux’s as our healthiest option. Other choices:  standard airport sports bar, fast food court or a Buffalo Wild Wings.

I ordered salmon with dirty rice and asked for the sauce on the side.

See that yellow bowl full of stuff?  THAT’S THE SAUCE!   I dug a few pieces of crab out and said a prayer of thanks that I had asked for them to hold it.  As someone with a dairy allergy, that cream sauce would have put me DOWN.  And added 5 lbs on me in the meantime.  I ate most of the salmon and a few bites of rice. 

Glass of Yalumba cabernet:

Then we roamed around the airport some more and ended up at the sports bar (too much time on our hands) for more wine. 

When we arrived home, we picked up a veggie pizza and salad for dinner, cuddled and tucked our boy in at home and then we settled in to enjoy the latest episodes of TrueBlood and Hung on HBO.

We had a wonderful getaway weekend, but it was so nice to be back home with Noah.  And now I’m flushing the wine and beer out with WATER WATER WATER!