You are here: Home / Archives for 2009

Archives for 2009

Too Much Anxiety and Too Little Sleep

October 27, 2009 by

Hello All!

How did your day go? I woke up at 3:30 AM and could NOT go back to sleep. Ugh – I hate that! I think it’s anxiety related to my trip/meeting. So, as you might have guessed, too much anxiety and too little sleep = no running this morning. The alarm went off at 6 AM and after having only 5 hours of sleep, I decided to stay in bed for an extra hour.

Breakfast was a quick cereal bowl – only Kashi Go Lean Crunch this time…

10.27 breakfast

Then I was out the door so fast I left a trail of dust behind me. 

I was busy, busy, busy all day today. I was dealing with my projects but also helping my boss with his. All in a day’s work!

Lunch was pasta and sauce leftovers….

10.27 lunch

I swear I can never get tired of this meal! It is so amazing. I only wish I had a meatball to go with it!

After work, I attempted to call Disney’s Dining reservations line to make our lunch/dinner reservations for our trip in the spring. I had to call 10 times just to get through. They had been having problems with their system all day apparently. So then I waited for 25 minutes on hold – on my cell phone no less – but there was NO chance of me hanging up for fear of not being able to get through again. It’s kind of like calling for concert or baseball tickets. After being on hold, I spent about 30 minutes making all of my reservations. Whew! That was rough. Although we had planned out where we wanted to eat, making actual reservations was a little dicey when we weren’t sure what park we wanted to visit on what day. But, after nearly an hour of cell phone minutes, I have 12 reservations to get me started!

Dinner was on my own tonight so I threw together a very yummy and flavorful grilled chicken salad…

10.27 dinner

For my salad I included

  • 3 cups of red leaf lettuce
  • Shaved carrots
  • White cheddar cheese
  • 1/2 grilled chicken breast

And I topped it all off with a little olive oil and Trader Joe’s Balsamic Vinegar. This was JUST what I needed tonight. Something light, yet pleasing to my tastebuds.

I’m off to do a little more work. I will hopefully have time to blog more and comment on all of your other blogs after next week.

Take care and have a great night!

Filed Under: Dinner Tagged With: , , ,

A Successful Shopping Trip

October 26, 2009 by

Evening everyone!

I switched my weekly day off to today because I will actually be traveling on Friday. I started off with run on the treadmill then a cereal bowl quickie…

10.26 breakfast

It was a mix of just about every cereal that is open in our house: Honeynut Cheerios, Kashi Go Lean, and Kashi Go Lean Crunch. I accidentally poured way too much Kashi Go Lean into the bowl (it comes out too fast!) so I did not end up eating all of it. After breakfast, I was out the door to run work-related errands until lunchtime. 

Thankfully, I finally had a successful shopping trip! Ironically, it was not with clothes. I needed to get a bunch of Clinique things for the trip but didn’t realize that yesterday was the last day of Macy’s “bonus” gift time. It turns out, they still had a few bonus gifts left so they gave me one anyway – yeah! Honestly, I only use 2 or 3 of the free items I get, but it’s more the excitement of getting something free that I like.

Since I was at the mall and near several good restaurants, I popped over to Corner Bakery for their new Mediterranean salad…

10.26 lunch

This salad was SO completely yummy that I ate EVERY morsel. It really was fantastic and made me wonder why it has taken Corner Bakery so long to get a full Mediterranean salad.

After lunch, I headed home and worked for about 2 hours. I still haven’t finished all of my projects so I’ll be working more tonight. 

Because I was home this afternoon, I volunteered to make turkey tacos, using Scott’s secret recipe of course – because how would I ever know how to make tacos by myself if they were not from a box – right Scott? Not to toot my own horn, but the tacos turned out amazing…

10.26 dinner

I was so happy that Scott stopped for guacamole on his way home from teaching class. I used to hate guacamole (I actually had never tried it and just thought it looked gross) but now I feel like my tacos are naked without it!

Shoe shopping (running) was on the agenda for tonight but I am very tired and can’t bring myself to go out again. I absolutely need to get new running shoes before I leave for San Diego on Friday. My Nike’s are Terrible with a capital T! Experts say you should replace your running shoes every 6-8 months, depending on how many miles you run each week. I’m probably more in the 8-month range. I can’t even remember when I bought them but I know it was over 8 months ago. 

I’m only in the office two days this week. But, those two days are going to be packed! I’m trying to get everything done by the time I leave the office on Wednesday so that Thursday can be a packing day. I guess we’ll see how productive I am!

OK, time to say good night! Have a great evening everyone!

Filed Under: Dinner Tagged With: , , , , ,

Orzo Risotto Improv

October 25, 2009 by

Hey there!

Well my headache from last night has continued through today, although I have had intermittent headache-free spells. I did take over-the-counter sinus medication last night. It really helped me sleep, despite being the daytime kind.

Getting a good night sleep really helped me with my run this morning. It was a gorgeous morning for a run as well, so I ran about 5 miles and felt GREAT! Only problem was that it has rained the past few days so when I ran through the grass, my shoes were a completely soggy mess! No worries though because tomorrow I’m heading out to buy new running shoes – yeah!

I was nearly starving when I returned from my run, so I made an awesome breakfast…

10.25 breakfast

Nothing like a huge bowl of homemade oats to curb the appetite! I added a little brown sugar, sliced almonds, and of course, all-natural creamy peanut butter. I mixed it all together which promptly turned my oatmeal into a giant gooey, but very yummy, mess in a bowl.

I ran out to Target soon after breakfast to pick up more medicine and a few essentials for my upcoming trip. Then I stopped to take a walk in the park (rather a forest preserve) which was just lovely with all of the trees at their peak color.

Lunch was similar to yesterday…a simple and fairly small salami and ham sandwich, but this time I used the three-cheese bread that we bought yesterday.

10.25 lunch

Oh my, high quality bakery bread makes all the difference in a sandwich!

I spent the afternoon doing MORE shopping for my big meeting. I still haven’t found any new clothes to my liking, but my frustration was replaced with excitement as I purchased a few new pieces of jewelry! Bling, bling!

Scott and I decided to stay in for dinner tonight. I offered to make risotto to go with the mesquite chicken he was making. Come to find out, we had no aborio rice! Ugh! But, never fear, we had orzo, so I improvised.

10.25 dinner2

I boiled the orzo according to directions but added a cube of bouillon to the water. After it was cooked, I drained it and added sauteed red peppers, onions, shaved carrots, and baby spinach. Top this with parmesan cheese and it’s good to go!

Almost forgot to mention that, while we were cooking, Scott and I polished off a box of Trader Joe’s spinach and artichoke dip…

10.25 dinner1

This is fantastic dip, as I mentioned before, and way cheaper than anything you could buy in a restaurant.

I still have a bunch of things to get done tonight so I will say my goodbyes now!

Have a great Sunday evening!

Filed Under: Dinner Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Saturday Night Headache

October 24, 2009 by

Hi Everyone,

I’m going to make this quick because I have a terrible sinus headache. Morning started very early for a Saturday. I was up around 6:30 AM – yikes – way too early! 

I was not super hungry so I made a smaller than normal breakfast…

10.24 breakfast

I mixed about 1/2 of a Trader Joe’s vanilla Greek Yogurt with about 1/4 cup of Kashi Go Lean cereal. This was just enough to get me up and going.

I had to run a bunch of errands this morning – dry cleaner, eye doctor, Target, etc. And then, it was time for lunch…

10.24 lunch2

I made a 1/2 low-fat salami and ham sandwich, with a side of carrots and a few Lays salt and pepper chips for good measure 😉 I really LOVE these chips and would probably eat the whole bag if Scott was not eating them with me. 

Scott and I popped up to our outdoor mall after lunch. It was a little chilly but very sunny. I thought it was quite the perfect autumn day. I headed off to Saturday evening mass shortly thereafter and came home to an awesome dinner…

10.24 dinner1

It started with garlic bread made from three-cheese bakery bread. OMG, this was fantastic. And, of course, I ate a few too many of these.

10.24 dinner2

Then came the fantastic main course – homemade pasta sauce and turkey meatballs, with a side of broccoli! Again, way too good and ate way too much! Can you blame me? Just look at this meatball…

10.24 dinner4

Plus, I washed it all down with a little vino…

10.24 dinner3

I can’t be certain, but this may have contributed to my headache.

At this point, my head start throbbing like crazy so I laid down for about an hour. Even after taking Excedrin and resting, my head still hurts like I have a nasty sinus infection. 

So, with that, I am signing off. See you all tomorrow, hopefully headache free.

Filed Under: Dinner Tagged With: , , ,

Costco Blowout

October 23, 2009 by

Evening everyone!

Hope you all had a great Friday. Today is my typical day off, but I found myself working on and off from home. This is how it goes every year around this time. 

After a rousing 4 mile run on the treadmill (still raining – ugh!), I enjoyed a big cereal mix…

10.23 breakfast

I had Honeynut Cheerios, with Kashi Go Lean, and Kashi Go Lean Crunch. It tasted sooo good! I miss you Kashi Go Lean Crunch – so glad that you were on sale this week 😉

Scott was home today as well and he worked ALL day on a project he has coming up. I guess it’s just work, work, work for us. We did stop for some lunch and surprise, we actually stayed home for lunch today!

10.23 lunch

We really did consider going out to eat. However, Scott made so much chicken soup yesterday that we decided to save money and just eat at home.

After lunch, I ran up to Costco to get just a few things and wound up spending nearly $200!!! Oh my gosh, how can stores like Costco and Target cause me to spend that much money in one outing??? Of course, I had to get essentials, like chicken, Italian sausage, and ground turkey. But I also bought $80 640 ct. cotton sheets, and a few Christmas presents.

Later in the afternoon, I had a little snack to take the edge off of my shopping trip…

10.23 snack

Ahh, popcorn! I just love popcorn especially when it’s only 100 calories a bag.

Dinner was another Jennifer specialty – my Italian sausage and pasta dish…

10.23 dinner

This dish is so incredibly yummy and super easy to make. It’s rather versatile too – you can change up the peppers, or add peas, mushrooms, or other veggies if you want.

After dinner, we popped out to the bookstore for a bit. I love checking out the new calendars and planners for the upcoming year. I saw at least 4 that I would love to buy. Only problem is that I’ll use them for a month and then never look at them again. Does anyone else have that problem? 

On our way back from Barnes and Noble, we stopped at the Cheesecake Factory to pick up a slice of Chocolate Black-out Cake. They actually used to sell this cake at Barnes and Noble, go figure, but in a smaller version (it was cheaper too). However, they stopped selling the cake last year and now we must go right to the source to get our fix. Mind you, we do NOT do this very often because the cake is more than $7 a slice!! But it is sooo worth every penny!

10.23 dessert1

Now, we’ve just settled down to watch Numbers on CBS. No more Psych until next year – sniff, sniff. But, very soon we will find out who killed Trudy on Monk.

Have a great Friday night!

Filed Under: Dinner Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Eating With One Foot Out The Door

October 22, 2009 by

Hey Friends! 

Yikes! This time next week I will be all packed and ready to head to sunny San Diego. Boy, this meeting sure came up quick. Even after a whole year of planning, I still feel like I need more time to prepare.

Even though I’m a little lot stressed at work and always seem behind schedule, I still find time to run – no matter what. And, believe it or now, even when I work 10-12 hour days at our big meeting, I get up at the crack of dawn, actually before the crack of dawn, and run on the treadmill in the hotel. My coworkers say I’m crazy but really, it’s one thing that keeps me sane and feeling healthy during the busy week.

This morning started with a 4-mile run on the treadmill (55 degrees, but raining outside 🙁 ) Breakfast was a bowl of Honeynut Cheerios and walnuts…

10.22 breakfast

I was practically eating this cereal with one foot out the door because I was running so late. I really do NOT like eating “on the run”. I either don’t feel satisfied or my stomach ends up hurting. But, even with my tardiness, I did manage to stop by a Starbucks for a nice mocha frap – ahh, now that was worth being an extra 7 minutes late.

I only had one meeting this morning. Thank goodness for that because I have a bunch of “little” things to take care of before I leave. All of these little things have been put to the back burner so that I could take care of the big things. But now all of the little things have piled up and have become one BIG thing. Are you confused yet?

I stepped out, in the rain no less, around 1 PM for a little soup-to-go…

10.22 lunch

I didn’t even have time to put this in a fancy smancy bowl for y’all – just ate my minestrone straight out of the paper cup!

My commute home from work was terrible, even though I left at 4:20 PM! I was so happy to be home after 45 minutes of being in the car. I was also happy because I was able to see Scott before he left to teach his class. He made homemade chicken soup for us for dinner! It was piping hot on the stove which I promptly transferred straight to my bowl…

10.22 dinner

Yes, those are homemade noodles!!! A man who makes his own noodles and is a tech guru? Can it get any better than that?

After dinner, I was so busy doing laundry and playing on the Internet that I completely forgot about the new episode of The Office! Oh, where would I be without Hulu!

But, I DID remember to eat a little dessert…

10.22 cookie

It was another Cherly & Co. cookie that I snagged from work yesterday day. This double chocolate frosted cookie was fantastic! Honestly, it really was much smaller than it looks in the photo 😉

Now I’m off to do a little shopping – online! I still need some new clothes for next week and I have T-7 days to get them.

Have a great night!

Filed Under: Dinner Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Dessert For Breakfast

October 21, 2009 by

Leave it to my office to serve dessert for breakfast. I arrived at work this morning, expecting a nice breakfast spread. So I was not surprised to see the standard bagels and lox and fresh fruit. But we also had two huge chocolate bundt cakes that were masked as coffee cakes. You’ve all heard the saying, call a spade a spade. Well, if your breakfast has chocolate, sugar, butter, flour, and frosting, just call it what it is – DESSERT!

10.21 breakfast1

You can see the cakes at the FAR back/top of the picture.

When I arrived to the buffet, I immediately skipped over the bagels/bread and moved right to the fruit. The fruit was fantastic – I haven’t tasted honeydew that good in a very long time. I really should have filled my plate up with fruit and stopped there. Next in line was a mystery dish, that a coworker told me had egg, pasta, and blueberries in it – are you serious? Ok, I had to try it just because it was so strange.

10.21 breakfast2

As for the mystery dish, after one bite, I did not care to see how that story ended. Now, onto the cake! I took a relatively small piece of the chocolate chip bundt cake. It was not as dense as I imagined it to be – kind of like a hefty croissant only shaped like a cake. Next on the breakfast menu were the obligatory cheese blintzes with blueberry and strawberry toppings. I’ve tasted these dandies before and did not care for them in the slightest, so it was bye bye blintzes.

Our kick-off meeting went very well. It even ended a tad early, which we were all grateful for. But, immediately after that meeting, I had another “meeting” to stuff welcome bags for all staff going to San Diego. We stuffed the bags with survival items like mini lint rollers, gum, hand sanitizer, granola bars, etc. In the past, our VIP’s have always received a little something when they checked into our meeting. I thought it was about time for the staff to receive a little something too. Sorry, I didn’t take a picture of the bag but I’ll try to do that in San Diego next week so I can show you all the goodies I received!

For lunch, I made a quick trip to Go Roma for one of my fave soups – chicken and wild rice!

10.21 lunch

I really should have walked the 10 minutes to the restaurant instead of driving. It was 67 degrees and B-eautiful! I was really pressed for time so driving seemed the best option. 

Well, on top of our breakfast, and all of our welcome bag treats, our organization also treated the staff to gourmet cookies for an afternoon snack…

10.21 cookies

The cookies were the prepackaged kind (which I’m not a huge fan of) from Cheryl & Co. They came in several varieties, including pumpkin with cinnamon icing, double chocolate with chocolate icing, and a sugar cookie shaped like a pumpkin with orange icing. As you can see from above, I grabbed one of each – just for taste-testing purposes of course. I had a taste of both the pumpkin and the sugar cookies – oh my, I can NOT have the cookies in the house! They were so moist, sweet, and they nearly melted in my mouth. These did not taste like the prepackaged cookies that I remember – but then again, they are gourmet.

For dinner, Scott and I warmed up some Trader Joe’s spinach and artichoke dip – hmmm, this is outstanding!! I think I have mentioned this dip before but seriously, you don’t know what you’re missing.

10.21 dinner1

We also heated up some of the homemade minestrone soup Scott made a few weeks ago. Unlike pasta sauce, this soup actually seems to lose some of its flavor after freezing. It’s still good (especially when loaded with parmesan cheese!), just not as good as the day you make it.

10.21 dinner2

After dinner, I went out shopping again for about an hour and still didn’t find anything. I keep going back to all my old favorites – JCrew, Banana Republic, Ann Taylor, etc. I have this image in my head that if I go to those stores enough the perfect piece will suddenly appear on the sale rack. Wishful thinking I’m sure.

OK, it’s getting late and I must call it a night. Have a good evening everyone!

Filed Under: Dinner Tagged With: , , , , ,

Fire Drills and Smoldering Projects

October 20, 2009 by

Hello Everyone!

I had my last training session of the year – woo hoo! I’m home free now. Well, not really, I’ll be home free as of November 6, but who’s counting, right? 

Before heading to work this morning, I did a quick 4-mile run on the treadmill- again, I needed to run way too early for me to actually run outside. Breakfast was a very fast bowl of Honeynut Cheerios with chopped walnuts…

10.20 breakfast

There’s nothing sexy or exciting about Cheerios – but, hey, they get the job done when you’re in a pinch.

Immediately when I arrived at work, I was putting out fires left and right – just call me firefighter Jen! They were not huge fires, more like smoldering projects that needed my specific attention. Good thing I planned for this and had the morning blocked off for a fire drill.

Lunch happened to be leftovers from Sunday lunch…

10.20 lunch

I had the other 1/2 of my chicken pomodoro sandwich from Go Roma. Surprisingly, this sandwich tasted better today than it did on Sunday – maybe because I put it in the toaster oven and it came out all toasty and crunchy??

The afternoon was spent preparing for the staff training session, then actually presenting the training session. All of this took about 3 hours. Training (which was all volunteer by the way) has taken up soooo much time  in the last 2 months. Plus, I’ve been doing the training on TOP of everything else I have to do to prepare for our meeting. It’s a wonder I have not gone crazy by now. But, I guess it’s good that I’m trying to expand my horizons – and my paycheck! – at least a bit.

After the training ended at 4 PM, I was super hungry and chowed on some Trader Joe’s nonfat vanilla Greek yogurt. Sorry, no picture – I ate it way too fast to even bother getting the camera out of my bag.

Dinner, like breakfast, was not very eventful, although it was rather tasty…

10.20 dinner

As tasty as whole wheat linguini with Newman’s Own Mushroom Marinara sauce can be. I’m not much for jarred sauces – probably because I was raised on Ragu. I think that really resonated with me because I can’t eat Ragu and many jarred pasta sauces to this day. However, Newman’s is the exception – it really has some decent flavors. I still prefer Scott’s homemade meat sauce to anything else in a jar or at a restaurant – yes, that’s how good it is!

Dessert was yet another chocolate chunk cookie from Costco with a side of skim milk…

10.20 dessert

I’m a not a cookie-milk dunker. I only took this milk & cookie picture so that you could see it was not the same picture as the last two nights.

Tomorrow, we have our big all-staff kick-off breakfast for our San Diego meeting that starts next week. Most people are not leaving until Thursday or Friday of next week, but tomorrow is our outgoing CEO’s final day in the office as the big chief. I am predicting that breakfast will be all of his favorites, including coffee cakes, cheese blintzes, and lox and bagels. I’ll try to take a picture so you can see that if I guessed right.

Ok fellow bloggers, time to shut down the computer and hit the sack.

Filed Under: Dinner Tagged With: , , , ,

Under New Management

October 19, 2009 by

Happy Monday everyone!

Well, we are officially under new management! Today was our first day with the new CEO. Quite honestly though, it was really no different than an ordinary day. The day included work, food, work, and more food – nothing new around the office for us! 

Prior to work, my morning started with a fast 4 mile run on the treadmill. I needed to get to work early today (gotta impress the Big Cheese ya know 😉 so I got up extra early – 5:45 AM yikes! – in order to get my run done and over with. However, getting up that early meant sacrificing an outside run for a run on the treadmill due to the utter darkness that still engulfed the morning.

Breakfast was a big bowl of peanut butter mousse…

10.19 breakfast1

…aka Trader Joe’s vanilla nonfat Greek yogurt with a dollop of all-natural creamy peanut butter. Plus, I add a few chopped walnuts to give it some CRUNCH! I haven’t had Trader Joe’s yogurt in nearly two weeks (come to think of it, it may even be longer than that).

10.19 breakfast2

I was so going through withdrawal. As you can imagine, I was super excited when Scott offered to pick up some yogurt last night when he ran out to get gas in the car. Yeah – now I’m all set with TJ’s yogurt for the week!

My morning at work consisted of finalizing a few projects for our big meeting (OMG – I can’t believe I leave next Friday for San Diego!) I also spent the day mingling with the new CEO, his wife, our president and his wife, and other staff members. It was actually quite fun because they are all very lovely people.

I know that we are working in a casual atmosphere these days because of preparing for the annual meeting. But, I am really surprised at what people at my work actually wear to the office – especially on the day that the new CEO starts!!! He’s in a suit and some of my coworkers are in sweatshirts and jeans (and worse than that too!) And frankly, I don’t know anyone who climbed the corporate ladder wearing a track suit – unless you count Richard Simmons. Pu-leeze people, think before you dress when you come to work!

I am very glad that I chose to dress up for the occasion, despite our implied casual day, because I felt so much better while I ate lunch with our new boss and his wife. I know I would have been very uncomfortable chatting with him in jeans. 

We had an all staff lunch to welcome our guests – 20 pizzas were on the menu! Now that’s a LOT of pizza! But then again, we never do anything small when it comes to food. However, I didn’t have any of the pizza – I’m just not crazy about the pizza that they buy at work. Everyone else raves about it, but I tend to just have the salad…

10.19 lunch1

Hmmm, a suspicious looking meatball also landed on my plate. I think it was a turkey meatball, but let’s just say that I can’t be sure and that I’m better off not knowing. The fruit was extra yummy…

10.19 lunch2

I have really been craving the summer fruits that are now out of season – watermelon, cantaloupe, etc – I took a couple of big spoonfuls. Don’t worry, I left plenty of fruit for all of the “dieters” in the office.

I arrived home feeling utterly exhausted after my long and eventful day. Scott managed to get home early from work and cooked up some turkey burgers for dinner. He made the burgers outside on the grill -that’s how NICE it was outside today! Too bad I didn’t see daylight from about 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM.

I did my share as far as making dinner – my job was assembling the zesty salad…

10.19 dinner

I may or may not have eaten a big old chocolate chunk cookie for dessert????

10.19 dessert

Ok, I did. But Scott commented that we needed to “get them out of the house”, so I thought I’d help make that wish come true a little faster.

Alright ladies (and gents – meaning Steve), time to call it a night. I’ve got another important day tomorrow – I’m leading another training session, this time for the executive staff so I really must be on my game tomorrow.

Have a great night!

Filed Under: Dinner Tagged With: , , , ,

40 Pounds of Pumpkin

October 18, 2009 by

Hey All!

Hope you had an awesome Sunday! It was a gorgeous day in Chicago, albeit a tad chilly when I went out for my 5 mile run. Scott and I spent quite a bit of the day doing fall-related things, but before I get into that – let’s hear it for breakfast!

Breakfast was an omelette made with 1 egg and 2 egg whites, filled with cheddar cheese, bacon, and a mess of veggies leftover from our salad last night…

10.18 breakfast1

This was super high in protein which is just what I needed after my run.

After breakfast, we headed out to the pumpkin patch. Scott immediately became enamored with the extra large pumpkins, so one 40 lb pumpkin managed to follow us home and make it to my dining room table…

10.18 pumpkin4

Yes, that really is 40 pounds of pumpkin sitting on my table. I’m glad I have a sturdy, solid wood table. I wonder how many pumpkin pies 40 pounds of pumpkin would make? Hmmm….good question – I think I’ll do a little research and let you all know!

Aside from “The Great Pumpkin”, I also picked out a few smaller pumpkins to put around the house…

10.18 pumpkin1

I really like the light orange and light green pumpkins – they are so different from the standard orange pumpkin. The patch was running low on these so I settled for a darker green one, which is still pretty cool.

Aside from pumpkins, we also bought a few apple cider donuts and promptly ate a couple right on the spot…

10.18 donut

I am NOT a donut fan but this is the one time of year where I will actually eat one without any qualms.

We spent a little more time at the pumpkin patch than we thought so it was already lunchtime when we were packing the pumpkins into the car. We headed to our favorite little Italian cafe for lunch…

10.18 lunch

I had a chicken pomodoro panini which was filled with grilled chicken, provolone cheese, basil, tomatoes, and spinach. It sounded SOO good on the menu but honestly it was just so-so. I think there was a little too much basil on it which overpowered everything else. I only ate half and took the rest home.

The afternoon was spent cleaning and carving the pumpkin, as well as preparing the seeds to make roasted pumpkin seeds. We also ended up taking a 30-minute walk which was fantastic! It was chilly, but so crisp and bright outside. I loved seeing all of the brightly colored leaves and all of the neighbors’ halloween/fall decorations. 

Dinner was my responsibility tonight so I made one of Scott’s favorites – Basil Chicken Stir-fry…

10.18 dinner

Unfortunately, as I think I have mentioned before, I can’t give out the recipe for this dish due to copyright issues. But, you can find it in the Williams Sonoma “Chicken” cook book. This can be a very spicy dish depending on how many jalapeno peppers you put in. When Scott makes it, my lips are practically burning. But when I make it, I use just enough peppers to give it a little spice without having to drink a glass of milk with each bite.

After dinner, I had a little dessert to round out my nearly perfect fall day…

10.18 dessert

A chocolate chunk cookie from Costco! We bought these cookies yesterday because they looked really good in the package – almost like homemade. Now, after having a couple, they are starting to taste like regular store-bought cookies. 

Well, I have an early morning tomorrow and a busy day planned. Our new CEO, whom I’ve never met, is starting tomorrow. We have an all-staff meeting to welcome him. And of course, there will be more food – pizza! Should be quite an interesting day!

Have a great night everyone and see you tomorrow evening!

Filed Under: Dinner Tagged With: , , , , , , ,