I had a dream (I’m not being cute here) last night that just wouldn’t quit! The same tense dream all night long that woke me up at least six times. I blame watching Tru Calling with the husband just before bed.
When I finally did get myself out of bed this morning, I started my day with a big mug of cocoa.
Mini marshmallows totally cancel out bad dreams.
I’ve tried four times to upload the same photo. Four times, same photo; arrrrrrr. Since doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity, I’m giving up. I’m giving the internet the night off and watching Tru Calling (on dvd) with the husband.
Want to know what you missed? Lunch = a slice of buffalo chicken pizza; dinner = a bowl of popcorn. So clearly, you’ve missed a lot 😉 Oh yeah, also a caramel filled Cadbury egg. Every year I wait until it’s actually Easter to go for the egg candy and every year the stores are back to Christmas by that point. Opportunity jumped on.
What kind of Cadbury egg are you, caramel or cream?
In order to tell today’s tale I have to start with last night’s. Adam went out to play poker with the boys until all hours of the night and I stayed at home and watched the first half of several tv shows (seriously, how can “Chuck” be so bad?!?). I sent him with cookies and everyone raved about them, by the way.
Around 1 o’clock in the morning I sidled up to another bowl of pasta, with some chopped up sharp cheddar and turkey pepperoni added into the mix.
Delicious, and serendipitous because we woke up too late for breakfast. A middle of the night meal can count as the morning’s breakfast, can it not?
Today, in the day time, I did make myself an orange julius, but other than that I wasn’t quite able to get a handle on at home food.
Tangy and creamy all at once makes me a happy sipper.
Around 3 we headed to the mall on a whim, and took in a showing of “The Dilemma.” Not ground-breaking, but certainly a cute movie. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t more jazzed about my movie snack than the actual picture though.
A glorious mix of gummi cola bottles, sour gummi cola bottles, and cherry sour gummi cola bottles. The gummi cola bottle genre is my very favorite kind of candy; probably why I was able to take down a 1/2 pound’s worth 😉
While we were out we called some friends on another whim, and ended up with a big group dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. It was great to catch up with people, particularly since I haven’t really been leaving the house the last week!
I had a slice of sourdough. (Why is CF always so darn dark?)
And my favorite salad of all time for dinner.
The fresh vegetable salad – asparagus, green beans, tomato, cucumber, roasted beets, apple, edamame, radicchio, romaine, and white cheddar – with a side of spicy peanut vinaigrette.
It’s insane to me that this monster is an appetizer salad, I’ve got more than half of it left, sitting in the fridge for tomorrow! I did help myself to many (unphotographed) bites of the husbands spicy cashew chicken as well.
Ok movie, good food, great friends; what more could a girl want?
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Updated to add – yeah, I totally finished off that salad!
So my baking project this afternoon was Jenna’s recipe for perfect chocolate chip cookies.
You know, the one with a whopping 14 Tablespoons of (browned!) butter. No big.
I actually wasn’t sure I did everything right at first, because the dough was very strange and sticky. I was so worried about them that I made a few less cookies than the recipe called for and tried my hand at some cookie muffins instead.
The cookies turned out fine fantastic, but the “muffins” were still a damn good idea.
I found the smallest muffin and cookie in the batch, and scarfed one of each before dinner.
Queasy tummy, happy tummy. Adam says they’re the best chocolate chip cookies he’s ever had.
Rounding out my fun-to-do’s from yesterday, I also made a banging dinner.
Dinner’s inspiration was these snowman pasta my aunt sent us for Hanukkah.
I cooked the pasta, following package directions, stirring in ~1cup of frozen peas towards the end of cooking time. I also sautéed some chopped baby mushrooms in 1T of butter. <– Best taste ever! Finally, I whipped up a batch of this Lemon Cream Sauce from Cooking Light. (Note – I only made the sauce, not the rest of the recipe, and I substituted in light cream.) The end result was fantastic.
I loved how firm the pasta stayed and the sauce added a great fresh flavor without being too heavy.
We also ate some roasted green beans on the side.
Sort of a perfect dinner.
And now I’m about to tuck in to the perfect dessert; a final cookie with a glass of skim milk. Good night!
Some parts of this afternoon were more successful than others. For example, I did not realize that the gym was already closed for MLK weekend. And since I wasn’t gyming it, I had a hard time convincing myself to go to school just for my errands. Tuesday? Seriously though, I know that not working out the last two weeks was a terrible idea, and my goal for the weekend is to jump back into strength-training.
Lunch was neutral, leaning toward successful.
Lean Cuisine Roasted Garlic Chicken, with sliced cucumber on the side.
This frozen meal had a disturbing amount of saturated fat for only 170calories, but also an impressive amount of protein and potassium.
Typically I would supplement a 170calorie lunch with more than cucumber. But typically I don’t have this for dessert.
I haven’t tasted the finished product yet, but I’m hoping this baking project sets the bar for success this evening.
Ugh; last night was not pretty! I don’t know what my problem was, but I just could not go to sleep. And by ‘I don’t know what my problem was’ I mean there were so many problems – the dishwasher was running extra loudly, I didn’t leave the house all day, I was riled up from fighting with the husband, the husband sometimes snores like a water buffalo – that I’m not sure which one to blame. It wasn’t pretty.
You know what was pretty? Breakfast.
Gorgeous in fact. Ok, so it’s more of an inner beauty situation.
I toasted a Van’s Berry Waffle, topped it with a banana mashed with cinnamon sugar, followed by some reduced fat sharp cheddar, sandwiched, and gave it a quick spin in the oven.
If you are still scared of the banana + cheese combo, don’t be!
Today’s agenda includes errands at school, a long overdue trip to the gym, and the baking and cooking from yesterday.
Have you tried the banana + cheese combo yet? Where’s the strangest place you put banana?
Let’s go back and look at that agenda.
Stack of magazines, cookbook reading, crafting, home cooked dinner, baking.
Check, check, check. Three out of five isn’t so bad.
Now the highlights.
My whilst-cookbook-reading snack was pretty great.
I toasted up a serving of Van’s Mini Waffles, topped with marinara, 50% reduced sharp cheddar, and turkey pepperoni, then baked at 400* until melty and crunchy.
My reading was pretty great too.
Baked is a fantasmic shop in Red Hook, Brooklyn. The first time we trekked there was right after I finished reading Black, White, and Jewish, and the whole trip felt magical. My mom gave me the cookbook for Christmas and I can’t wait to recreate the Baked brownies.
Dinner was not so great. We should have stuck with the plan. Instead we strayed from the agenda and had big heaping plates of Screaming At Each Other Like Crazy People. Too spicy and wholly unsatisfying.
Three out of five isn’t so bad.
P.S. We’ve since made up. And the husband delivered me a glass of skim milk with a chocolate milk straw.
2011 is going to be my year, but so far it has not been my January. Something about having nothing pressing to do means I’ve done absolutely nothing. Days on the couch would be exciting, if I hadn’t just come off a year of unemployment. Plus, even though nothing is urgent, I have tons of crafts I was exciting about pursuing.
I’ve decided the remedy is to make today a day of nothing …. nothing but fun activities. I’ve got tomorrow to run my upcoming school errands and finally go to the gym. Today’s agenda includes
When I rolled over and saw that I was still in bed at 10:40, I knew that breakfast brunch would have to be something special to ensure I didn’t get into a slump.
Done and done. A creamy, perfect bowl of stove top oats topped with excitement.
The oats included 1/2cup each skim milk and water, 1tsp vanilla, a pinch of salt, 1/3cup oats, and 1 extra ripe banana. Then came the toppings.
A smidge of coconut oil.
Found, finally, way on sale in the “ethnic” aisle of the grocery store.
Candied walnuts.
I know I can’t resist these so I made a single serving batch – 15grams chopped walnuts, 1tsp real maple syrup, and a pinch of salt; in the 400* oven for 5minutes.
The finished bowl ended up being so satisfying.
Every time I eat stove top oats I’m reminded of how I should make them more often. I’m not 100% on the coconut oil, it’s very reminiscent of candle wax, but I’m excited to try it again.
Off to tackle my day of nothing!
Have you tried coconut oil before? What is your favorite use for it?
Eating Chalk 