Tervis, Tastes, TV

Today was a perfect day with the husband and dog!  Especially the walk we took around a new block (as in new to us) this morning, pictures to come tomorrow.  I did not do any school work though I did deal with the laundry and eat some veggies.

I even got some veggies into my breakfast, via pumpkin hot chocolate!

To back up, here is the Tervis tumbler I received via the Foodbuzz Tastemakers Program.

I grew up with glasses from Tervis and when Adam and I started living together they were one thing I was sure I wanted and was willing to spend money on.

Even though I’ve used them forever and know how great they are at keeping drinks cold and not sweating all over the table, until I received my letter with the package I’d never thought about putting anything hot into a Tervis.  Thankfully I had a fantastic recipe to try out.

Pumpkin Hot Chocolate, serves 1

  • 1 cup skim milk
  • 2 Tbsp milk chocolate chips
  • 1/4 cup canned pumpkin
  • 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Heat milk to simmering in a small pot.  Whisk in chocolate chips until smooth.  Whisk in pumpkin and spice and continue to simmer 1-2 minutes.  Serve, preferably topped with whipped cream!

It was a lazy sort of day and somehow Adam and I made it until 2:30 without eating anything outside of hot chocolate (he doesn’t like pumpkin so I made his with booze!).  We were running errands by the time that we realized we were long overdue for a meal.

So we went to India Gate and had the best meal we’ve eaten yet in Buffalo!

The service was great, the food was healthy and packed with flavor, and the location was footsteps from our apartment; we’ll be back!

We started by splitting a mango lassi.

It was pretty good, but the last (first) time I went to India Gate I had a fig lassi and there was just no beating that!

Adam and I wanted to try several flavors so we made sure to both order things the other would enjoy.

Chicken Makhani – boneless, skinless tandori chicken breast prepared in tomato, butter and cream sauce and garnished with cashews and raisins – for Adam,

and Bhartha Paneer – fresh eggplant cooked with home-made cheese and special house sauce – for me.

Plus rice.

Here was plate #1 –

Adam’s sauce was so rich and creamy!  And my eggplant had the perfect amount of spice.  The homemade cheese was pretty fantastic as well, Adam actually thought it was tofu the first few bites!

And plate number 2 –

Another scoop of Bhartha Paneer plus a bite of rice with Makhani sauce on top.  The husband and I were practically swooning by the time we finished!  Everything was so rich without being too heavy and it was tons of fun trying a few new things.

We also tried a handful of this spiced lentil mix (I think?!) on the way out.

The only meh.  All this did was make it essential for me to buy Good & Plentys at the store.

Speaking of sweet, after we dropped off the groceries and picked up the dog we headed out for this –

I had Coldstone’s pumpkin ice cream in my head all afternoon and was thrilled to see that they had caramel frozen yogurt to mix it with!  Plus graham cracker and caramel sauce.

It was wonderful.  And the price was wonderful too; Adam and I both ordered kid’s sizes and we ended up only paying $3.20 total.

We are finishing our wonderful day by cuddling on the couch and catching up on TV.  Note – major props to “Modern Family” for the funniest (and most tasteful) gay joke I’ve ever seen on tv!

Since our 3pm lunch was also basically breakfast and dinner – minus dessert! – I’m going to grab something else to eat but I’m done blogging for the day so I can cuddle.  Either an English muffin, a cookie, or both.  Happy cuddling, readers!

What’s your favorite Indian dish to order?

The Circle Of Life

“From the day we arrive on the planet

And, blinking step into the sun

There’s more to see than can ever be seen

More to do than can ever be done

There’s far too much to take in here

More to find than can ever be found

But the sun rolling high

Through the sapphire sky

Keeps great and small on the endless round

It’s the Circle of Life”

I just can’t stop singing!  It’s possible I’ve hummed straight through my day.  Other than “Aladdin,” “The Lion King” was the Disney movie with my favorite music.

Backing up to where we left off yesterday, I spent some time (not enough) with these –

I popcorned while I studied.

I hated it.

Plus 100 calories worth of Ghirardelli Midnight Reverie 86% chocolate topped with a smear of Biscoff spread.

Adam was in surgery until late so the meet-up plan involved friends picking me up and all of us getting together with Adam whenever he could make it.  The husband had told me to be ready at 5:45 so a bit after 4 I took Webster out on a long walk.  We were heading home around 5 when I got a call from our friend Patrick – “Eithan said to tell you he’s running late, they’ll probably get you around 5:30.”  5:30 you say?  Whoops! 

Thankfully I’d already showered in the morning so I didn’t take all that long to gussy.  I even managed heels and mascara.

Ready on time, we set off to Pearl Street Grill and Brewery for dinner before the show.  Thankfully, Adam got out early enough to meet us for dinner so we did a little sharing.  I ordered the Gobbler (turkey burger) with a side salad subbed instead of fries for veg.

I was not expecting such a large plate of greens though!  In the end I ate ~ 1/3 of the husband’s chicken fingers and fries,

all of the salad (with brown sugar rum vinaigrette!),

and 2-3 bites of the turkey burger.

Adam was more than happy to take care of the rest for me.  We were with a great group of friends – 2 couples of regulars plus another 2 couples who were friends of friends – so even dinner was fun.

Getting to the theatre was a bit of an ordeal – it’s possible all of the girls had to sprint 2 blocks in high heels! – but all that really matters is we made it.  This was my first time seeing “The Lion King” and I thought it was great.  Knowing the music from the movie and being able to sing along (silently!) definitely helped to keep me engaged.  My favorite part of the show was actually the visual appeal; the costumes for the elephants and giraffes were truly breathtaking.  I’m so glad we had the opportunity to go.  Though now Adam and I are desperate to see the movie to hear the songs again!

It wasn’t the earliest bedtime and my 6am alarm felt a little … rough.  Thankfully I thought ahead so all I had to do was put on shoes, grab my bags, hop in the car, and stumble to the gym.  My notecards and I spent some time on the treadmill, more for a wake up and study review than workout purposes.  2 miles walked, 35 minutes.  A quick change and face wipe bath later and I was ready for my exam.

Before the test I ate this White Chocolate Macadamia Chewy Nut Bar Odwalla sent me to sample.

This was sweet, but not too sweet, and a little bit nutty.  I couldn’t savor it the way I would have liked because our test was about to begin, but it did hold me over well through the morning.  210 calories and 2 grams of saturated fat for 25% each daily value of calcium and folate (<– important for baby making).  The white chocolate macadamia flavor will be hitting stores this month; look for it!

My test went alright, not great but not terribly either.  The subjects covered included the clear liquid diet, parenteral feeding, and Latin roots for medical terms, among other things, so no matter how the test went I know it’s all material I will be seeing again. 

I had time for a quick break and then it was on to class #2 and a group presentation.  Our non-nutritive sweeteners group had to present our findings from the last test lab as well as information on the options available to our future clients.  We were the very first group to go which was a little nerve-wracking but the TA said we did a good job.  We also did our 2nd set of sampling today, this time with commercially made products. 

The class had to analyze original and sugar-free versions of cola, yogurt, ice-cream, jell-o, and chocolate syrup.  Normally we can just take small tastes in lab but since I’ll have to write up a report for this one I needed to take really good notes which meant eating all of the samples, even the nasty ones.  And most of them were nasty.  <– Word to the wise – don’t even waste your time with Hershey’s sugar-free chocolate syrup, yuck city. 

Since I didn’t have time to photograph everything I ate (which ended up having to be a lot) I gave myself the afternoon off from blogging as well.  I will note though, that lunch included many handfuls of salty nuts and a big bag of chips to help balance out all that sweet!  And other than eating and dog walking I didn’t accomplish a blessed thing.  We have two huge exams and a paper due next week and I needed some time for tv watching before my long-weekend study session begins.

Dinner was similarly low-key.

The Tandoor Chef veggie Pad Thai is seriously better than most of the Thai available in Buffalo.

Yums.

On my extra-sweet day, check out what arrived in the mail –

Adam’s mom sent us a haul of cookies!  It’s taking a lot of self-control but we are going to wait until the coffee caramel is finished before having at them.  And on that note, we are off to have sundaes!

Which sugar-free products do you use?  Do you prefer the taste or are you diabetic/looking to cut calories?

The Pumking and I

Has October become synonymous with winter in your neck of the woods too?  It’s so freaking cold here I’m actually blogging in bed!  We aren’t planning on switching our summer for winter wardrobes until next weekend and I’m not quite sure how we’ll get through to then.  I’m keeping this post quick before my laptop dies.

I did not get near enough schoolwork done this afternoon.  I did drink some milky tea,

and get in a session at the gym.  30 minutes on the elliptical, random level 6.  I started to read The Help while I ellipticized.  I’m only 5 pages in but I’m already loving it.  I’m not loving that it’s 500+ pages long; normally that would thrill me but I have to finish it by next Friday for book club!

For weekend fun, we met up with two other couples at The King and I for dinner.  People have praised The King and I as the best Thai in Buffalo for years; I’m so glad we finally got a chance to go.  And the food was pretty dang delicious.

I stole several bites of Adam’s Tom Yum soup.  The famous Thai soup, slightly sour and spicy with fresh mushrooms, tomato, chili, lemongrass, galangal, and lemon juice with cilantro, scallions, and chicken.

I loved how tangy this was, totally umami.

My tactic to trying out a new Thai spot is to order either the Pad See Eiw (my favorite meal on Earth) or an extra spicy dish (to gauge what they deem “spicy”).  Tonight I went the spicy route.  I ordered the vegetarian Pud Met Ma Muang.  Steamed tofu sautéed with cashew nuts, mushroom, bamboo shoot, bell pepper, onion, broccoli, baby carrots, and Thai basil leaves in a hot chili sauce.  I ordered 5-star spicy and extra veggies so they added chili, Napa cabbage, and zucchini.

Loved it!

I would only call this 3-star spicy but I’m rating the dish 5-stars for satisfaction since the veggies were so good.  Other Thai places in Buffalo load up their dishes with onions, it was great to have an actual plate of vegetables!  Plus everything, tofu included, was cooked perfectly.

I basically licked my plate clean, plus several scoops from the communal rice bowl.

We will definitely be coming back soon.

None of the couples were ready for the night to be over so we all headed to Dolci for gelato.

The worker graciously let me taste several flavors (including Sriracha-coconut!!) until I came upon two that made my heart sing.

Burnt caramel and Pumking Ale.  The burnt caramel was obviously the best because you just can’t top that flavor but the Pumking Ale was amazing as well, and the combo was divine.  The Pumking had just hints of booze and pumpkin and it was almost fizzy!  I totally confirmed my suspicion that I can’t make it through this October without some Southern Tier.

What’s the strangest flavor of ice cream you’ve ever tasted?

Wegman’s Jackpot

We didn’t get in bed until past 11pm and the dog snuggled me awake 10 different times during the night but somehow I did manage to get in a 6am gym session.  Woo-hoo!  30 minutes on the elliptical at level 5.  My feet kill and I was moving pretty slowly, but I got some movement in and spent some time reviewing my notecards.

When I got home I grabbed a coffee for the road but didn’t bother taking a picture because the dog ate my camera cord.  Coffee, English Toffee syrup, Silk Plain Almond Milk.  I think y’all know what that looks likes.  Instead, here is a picture of Webster the Destructor –

I had a nice break between class 1 and 2 because my test only took half of the alloted time.  The test went well, probably not an A but definitely not an F.  We’ve had mostly multiple choice questions for the past year so I need to get used to the short answer, matching, etc. format.

I ate my breakfast on the break (I uploaded my photos after I packed lunch last night).  Mini box of raisins,

serving of Love Grown Granola (HLS swag),

and a Trader Joe’s applesauce packet.

I ended up going ahead and eating my lunch during the same break (phone pic).  I packed a frozen serving of leftover kale and beans which I plated and stuck in the campus bookstore microwave. 

There was a bit of tofurkey sausage and parmesan on the bottom too.  Even frozen and defrosted the bbq kale and beans were still delicious!  I’m sad this is all gone and plan to make another batch soon.

Eating lunch at 10am left me pretty hungry come my second break but I distracted myself with some computer time.  <– I even started writing this post!

After school I had to run to Bagel Jays to pick up some halvah for a school presentation later this week.  They were all out, but the cashier did have a suggestion of where I could find more.  And an epic journey to the Wegmans 25-minutes away with an international section ensued.  In the end that hour was completely worth it though; I ended up finding all sorts of goodies that I haven’t spotted elsewhere in Buffalo!

Adam and I have been searching for everything matzoh every since we left Miami!  And I was excited to eat a snack find right away.

Pizza flavored snacks (chips? crackers?) from Bissli.

Adam and I split the package and we both loved them.  The flavor was pretty mild but the texture was unlike any snack I’ve ever had, very hard and crunchy!  When I turn my epic Wegman’s journey into a monthly event I will definitly be buying more Bissli products.

I also drank a Wegman’s diet root beer and pretty much died and went to heaven.

Sidenote -I don’t show you all of the diet soda I drink (I’d never get off the computer!), just the interesting ones.  Diet cola is my favorite thing on Earth but other sugar-free sodas tend to make me gag.  I’d sooner dehydrate than put Diet Sprite in my mouth.  But this root beer was amazing; perfect balance of sweet and spice, no aftertaste.  This actually was the best root beer I’ve ever had, diet or regular, period.

We ate our snacks on the road because we were out searching for a camera cord replacement.  Many (many) stops later we finally had success.  By the time I had the ability to photograph dinner Adam and I were completely demoralized.  He actually called my mom and begged to charge dinner!  She’s the best lady ever, so out we went.  And wouldn’t you know it, we wandered into restaurant week.

How serendipitous!

My pictures of dinner are all terrible.  I’m hoping it was the lighting because if I need to buy a new camera right after I sprang for a new cord I might just cry.

Course 1 was soup;

a jalapeno cheddar corn potato chowder.

This had a nice spice to it but was too rich for my taste.

For my entrée I ordered the tortellini ratatouille.

That’s not it.  I was two bites in I was complaining about the lack of veggies when I came to a startling realization – this was the tortellini Bolognese.  Pros – my entire pre fixe meal was comped.  Cons – I ate a cow!!?!

Our waiter was apologetic about the mishap and soon enough I had my ratatouille.

Much better, this had tons of veggies.  I ate 2/3 of my meal and brought the leftovers home for a happy husband.  He ordered steak with a Stilton crust and was thrilled.

For dessert I ordered peach cobbler with Grand Marnier and chantilly cream.

I never really consider the cobbler but this was a lot of fun to eat.  I finished all of the peaches and cream and 3/4 of the cobbler.

Not so fun is the fact that my stomach started hurting halfway through dinner.  It was bad enough that the pain was making me sweat (though not bad enough that I’ll skip dessert, apparently!).  The issue was probably the creamy soup, but I’m going to blame the beef!

Are there any foods you don’t eat?  When was the last time one slipped into your meal?  Veggies – how do you react when you accidentally consume some flesh?

Blood From A Stone

I stayed up until past 1:30 last night!  I didn’t really get much work done but I did have fun eavesdropping on the boys’ funny poker smack talk.  I planned on staying in bed for 8 hours but the husband got up with the dog and lured me from under the covers with farmers’ market trips and coffee.

He made me a warm to-go mug with Silk Almond Milk and English Toffee Syrup.

We bought a few things at the market but we did some giving too.  Adam gives blood regularly and when he spotted the donation truck we popped in.  I’ve never been able to give blood because my veins are tiny and wimpy – the last two times I’ve had to have blood taken for blood panels I had veins in both arms popped!  One time I tried to give in college and the man meanly told me he wouldn’t be able to do it without a children’s needle and that I should work out more!  But guess what I did today –

Booyah, I’m finally a blood donor!  They had to (carefully) use a vein in a sort of odd placement – Adam said it was probably a branch of the cephalic vein – but I managed to produce a full pint!  I think being a donor is really important, I’d also like to donate marrow in the future, and I am so excited to finally join the ranks of big kids who give blood.

When we got home I made a fantabulously tasty cereal bowl.

A serving of Barbara’s Vanilla Almond Shredded Wheat topped with a sliced plum, a sliced plucot, and more almond milk.

This combination of flavors and textures may actually be my favorite thing ever; the types of sweetness play off of each other so well.

I did a tiny bit of work in the morning and then Adam and I had errands to run.  Our fridge was basically empty, which lead me to one of my more “creative” concoctions.

The last Tbsp of light sour cream with the last Tbsp of blue cheese crumbles, a few capers, and a dash of A-1 Steak Sauce.  Spread on top of a Bagel Thin.

I actually thought the end result wasn’t bad, but Adam was in love with it so I ended up sharing most of the bagel with him.

I also ate this big bunch of grapes.

And this 2 oz mix of yogurt covered raisins, peanuts, and pretzels.

I needed more of a lunch though because I thought I was going to pass out from hunger by the time we got home. Thankfully we had 7pm plans so there was an excuse to have an early bird’s 5 o’clock dinner.

I am pretty much done with Saigon Cafe because their “Thai spicy” is apparently my mild and bland, but we had a Groupon so I gave it one last shot.  Crisp tofu to start.

Deep fried tofu with peanut sauce, it’s hard to go wrong.

I ate four pieces of tofu with sauce.

For my meal I ordered the tofu tamarind, Thai spicy, with extra veggies.

What exactly would this dish have looked like without the extra veggies?!?

And, I’m done. Saigon Cafe does ok noodles dishes but their meals are always disappointing. I ate about half of my dish with two bites of rice and two stolen bites of Adam’s Pad Thai.

It was a double Groupon night and our main activity was Art By You.

They provide the materials and a quick lesson and you provide the talent, or not.

I went from this,

to this,

to this.

Let’s just say I’m artistically challenged! I had a great time though!

Adam thought it was fun too, and it was great to do something artsy with him.

We weren’t ready for the fun to end so now we’re cuddling on the couch and watching “That ’70’s Show.”  I’ve been hungry all day so I did dinner take 2 from Moe’s.

That’s a kid’s quesadilla with corn salsa, plus chips with queso dip.  I also snagged most of the husband’s chips too.

I’d like to say that I’m done but Adam put a frozen pizza in the oven and I’m pretty sure I’ll end up having some.  I’m putting away the camera for now though.  I’ll end with my favorite shot of the day.  Whenever we leave him alone too long Webster gets into our reusable bags like an asshole.  When we got home this evening he was stuck in one of them and wearing it like a cape.

I thought Adam and I were going to die laughing!

Have you ever donated blood?

More Sleep More Hunger

Apparently my body didn’t get enough sleep or food the other day because it demanded more of both in large quantities.  Good thing it’s the weekend and I had time to indulge in both.

Adam and I actually got out of bed at 8 am this morning but when the dog got back into bed we thought we’d cuddle with him, just for a minute.  4 hours later it was noon and we were waking up for lunch.

Adam made chicken salad my favorite way; shredded chicken with grapes, walnuts, and Miracle Whip.

Grapes totally make chicken salad.  But apparently this didn’t fuel us that well because we totally went back to sleep until 2:30!

When we got up and set out on errands I was starving.  We stopped at Tim Hortons on the way to Goodwill for a caramel apple cider.  On Friday I was bemoaning the pumpkin options I can’t try until Pumpkin Month (aka October) and my friend Kim convinced me that September should be all about apples.  Another theme?  I’ll take that challenge!

That happy face was before I actually tasted the cider sadly, yuck city.  It tasted like it was made with fake apple flavoring.

I chucked my cider after 1 sip but I did eat 2/3 of this filled maple doughnut.

This was a very out-of-character thing for me to eat but I was low on options and we were running late for our afternoon activity.

The Bison Ballpark Brew Bash is a craft beer tasting event whose proceeds benefit Cystic Fibrosis research.

We got our tickets 50% off with Groupon so it wasn’t a big deal that I didn’t end up drinking that much.  I ended up taking a few sips of a few things and calling it a day.

Buffalo Brew Pub’s Oktoberfest.

I don’t really remember this one; not bad but not my style.  I drank ~1oz.

Ithica Beer Co’s Smoked Porter.

Eek, not my thing at all; one sip was enough for me!  The smoked flavor was almost meaty, I imagine drinking a full one of these would feel like eating a meal.

Rohrbach’s Brewing Company’s Vanilla Porter.

For a porter the flavor was nice and light and I liked the vanilla scent.  ~1.5oz.

Post Road’s Pumpkin Ale.

Ewwww.  The smell of this was good but it was way too sour for me, I was sad that I even took one sip.

Six Point Brewery’s Sweet Action Cream Ale.

Yum!  This had a great light fizz and almost orange-y undertones.  I drank 95% of my pour happily.

Shipyard Pumpkinhead Ale.

Now this is what pumpkin brews should taste like!  The smell was pumpkin pie and the taste was pure pumpkin.  I am definitely going to be on the lookout for a bottle of this before October Pumpkin Month.

I ended the day with Heineken Light.

I know most people who drink craft beer would call this a low note, but don’t hate, I love Heineken Light.  The flavor is mild enough that it’s sort of like drinking water, but the brewery is quality enough that it’s not like drinking dirty water (my thoughts on Bud, Miller, and Blue Lights).

The most exciting taste of the day was this soft pretzel – covered with mustard – that I split with the husband.

We took the train to the event but ended up walking back to our car in Allentown afterwards.  When we lived in Allentown I used to walk down to The Spot all the time and it was great to do some Delaware ambling again.

Adam and I were both still starving when we got home and we weren’t quite sure what to do with our evening.  Thankfully our friends Patrick and Michelle had just headed to dinner and invited us to come along.  We ended up at Gin Gin for Chinese food.  They had bobba!

I got a taro milk tea with tapioca.

I got the chicken and eggplant in garlic sauce with rice.

I also took several bites of the table’s order of bok choy.

The food was good but my meal was pretty heavy so I started feeling sick before I felt full.  I ate about half of my food and boxed the rest up for Adam’s lunch this week.

Finishing out my day with dessert, I split these Panda Yummies with Adam,

and ate a mini sundae whilst watching “That ’70’s Show” and blogging.

Today’s been fun, hopefully tomorrow will be productive!

Fillo Me Up

When Adam got home at 3 o’clock (two hours late, I might add) we realized that neither of us and had eaten all day and we were both starving.  Waiting for dinner wasn’t an option because of our stomachs, eating at home wasn’t at options because of our pantry, and grabbing food close by wasn’t an option because we’re growing tired of Elmwood take-out.  To the internets!

I found a Groupon for Mississippi Mudds that we could buy and use this afternoon so we headed out.

The food was cheap and sounded good so we were excited to try something new.

Adam and I got a spread to share and headed to the roof for a meal with a view.

Problem # 1 – The complete and total bee infestation at Mississippi Mudds scared us back inside in a matter of minutes.  Problem # 2 – The food was freaking bad.

I ordered the seafood salad sandwich.

I knew that there was a chance of the fake crab mix but this was basically egg salad!  I ate about 1/3 before giving up.  Plus, even with my small serving I was left completely nauseous which means I’m probably sensitive to one of the preservatives in the fake crab mixture.  <– yet another reason it’s better to eat whole foods

Adam and I also split the sweet potato fries with honey and butter (on the side).

I imagine it’s hard to produce a product that is both undercooked and burnt but they managed.  The fries were cold too, which was pretty much the final straw for us.  We’d give Mississippi Mudds a 1.5/10; the only positive was that we used a Groupon so we only had to pay 50%.

So in spite of our efforts to branch out, the bulk of lunch ended up coming from our old standby.  Wegman’s hot bar can basically do no wrong.  I got a broccoli mixture and a cauliflower mixture, plus some apple cider sweet and sour chicken.

Still cheap, but now healthy and delicious!

I have a less busy weekend with time for school work so I spent my afternoon watching tv instead of studying.  I’m typically not an emotional eater (I eat junk because it makes me happy, not because I’m sad) but I will admit that the full glass of Arnold Palmer the dog spilled on the couch did push me towards the this mint chocolate chip swirl cupcake.

I ate the top half of the cake with icing, because that’s the good part anyways.

The husband and I weren’t hungry again for dinner until pretty late in the evening so we wanted something quick.  Thank you HLS swag bag, for the mini fillo shells.

Our final meal was “Strawberry Fields” themed.

We baked the mini fillo shells with chunky peanut butter, diced strawberries, and a sprinkle of brown sugar.

I ate 6 (technically two servings for 90 calories total) and the pb&j feel was perfect.

On the side we had salads with leftover diced strawberries.

Also romaine lettuce, roasted buckwheat groats, crumbled blue cheese, and Newman’s Own Light Caesar Dressing.

Cheese plus fruit (particularly blue or goat cheese with any type of berry) is a combo that never fails.

Fellow HLS attendees; what did you do with your fillo shells?

Uncomfortably Full

I love long weekends! And long weekends with trips are especially fun. It was great to visit with my grandparents, I don’t get to see them as often as I’d like.

Before we hit the road this morning we ate a final fancy breakfast.

Chicken sausage,

egg casserole leftovers, which I ate cold to my husband and grandma’s duress,

and a banana.

We were not as well provisioned for this trip as we were on Saturday. I did the best I could but still arrived home hungry. A low-fat string cheese,

and a Muscle Milk Light bar.

Yeeetch! I took two bites and decided I’d rather go hungry. At least with the dog we stop more often and I grabbed what I really wanted a bit later, candy.

I’ve been badly wanting Twizzlers for a few weeks and after a serving that craving was satisfied.

Webster slept most of our journey which meant I had time to finish the book I started on the drive over.

Hands of My Father is a memoir about a hearing boy’s childhood with two deaf parents. New addition to my top list of book favorites! I had to hold my breath to keep from crying at least once a chapter and I laughed just as often. The setting of a Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn post Depression lent itself to some good stories.

When we did get home I spent my evening making chili.  And weighing chili, and pricing servings…

This was for a class assignment, and it was beef to boot so I couldn’t even taste it!  Instead Adam and I got take out for dinner.

Tuna melt on sourdough (no butter on the bread) with cheddar cheese and a side of fries.

Plus a slice of carrot cake.

Umm, plus the last two chocolates.

Can we so uncomfortably full?