Pinkberry on the Pacific

Hey there! 

I’m writing to you from sunny San Diego – well actually, it’s dark now, but it was definitely sunny earlier! I arrived in San Diego about 11 AM local time. But before I get into that, let’s start from the day’s beginning…

Very early this morning I had a dream that I woke up late and the car service guy was knocking at my door to pick me up – yikes! I woke up in a sweat and realized that it was only 5:00 AM, about an hour before I really intended to get up. Well after that dream, I couldn’t really sleep so I got out of bed to get ready and finalize my packing.

I arrived at the airport sans drama and had a pretty calm 3 1/2 hour flight. During the ride, I snacked on one of my all-time favorite airport snacks/breakfast…

10.30 breakfast

You can’t go wrong with vanilla yogurt with fresh fruit and granola, although I still prefer Greek yogurt.

When I arrived in San Diego it was about 70 degrees and amazingly bright here immediately when we landed – how perfect – did they order this weather just for me, or do they do this for everyone? 😉 I would take this weather any day over the cold/rainy weather I left in Chi-town.

After checking into our very fancy hotel, my colleagues and I lunched at Harbor House, a seafood restaurant located in a cute little shopping district on the water.

10.30 lunch

The yogurt was filling but man was I starving by the time I ate lunch. I ate about 3/4 of my chicken salad wrap and most of the french fries as well (I know I’ve been so bad lately with the fries 🙁 )

After lunch, my colleagues and I had to tend to a few work-related duties, then we took a walk to a very close-by Pinkberry yogurt!! When we work our annual event, we rarely have time to do anything else but work, eat, and sleep. So today was a special treat to be able to walk around the city a little. And of course, Pinkberry was top on my list to try in my limited free time. Yes – this was my first ever Pinkberry yogurt EVER…

10.30 pinkberry

How cute is that! I had the small original flavor topped with chocolate chips, mixed nuts, and strawberries. It was amazing! I think I may have to venture there late in the week to get another fix before I return to Chicago.

When I arrived at my room a small package had been delivered to me…

10.30 goodie bag

It was the “welcome bag” that my training team and I made last week. It has all sorts of goodies in it like gum, a lint brush, a plastic hand clapper, and hand sanitizer. What a nice touch!

In the evening, all staff were asked to attend a special wine/cheese reception with some of our members. It was actually quite fun because I was able to see many of our VIP members who I adore and hadn’t seen since last year. 

After some polite chit chat, my brother and his wife Liz picked me up at the hotel to take me to dinner in Del Mar. We ate at a charming bistro called Sbicca, which was again, on the water (or close enough to it!). Unless you’re really far inland, it seems that everything in San Diego is “on the water”.

At Sbicca’s, I started with a mixed green salad with tomatoes, feta cheese, and lemon pepper dressing.

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Quite good, but then again, what salad isn’t good with feta?

For dinner, my sister-in-law and I split the garlic chicken with mashed potatoes and feta cheese…

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This dish was fantastic! It has a ton of flavor and the presentation was equally as good. Thankfully I split this dish because I know I could not have eaten all of it.

Plus, I wanted to save room for dessert….

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Pecan bread pudding in a caramel sauce topped with caramel gelato. Oh my, this was way too good to be true! Luckily, this was another split dish because, as you know, 1/2 the food = 1/2 the calories. Besides, i was too full to eat a full dessert by myself.

Ok, I’m starting to fall asleep. It’s now 11 PM Pacific, but really 1 AM my time, which is way too late for this chica to be up and blogging. 

But, before I go, I will leave you with a view from my hotel room…10.30 Harbor view

Ahh, I love where i work!

Have a great night!

A Successful Shopping Trip

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!

Eating With One Foot Out The Door

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!

Dessert For Breakfast

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!

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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.

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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.

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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!

40 Pounds of Pumpkin

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…

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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…

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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!

Homemade Salad Bar

Hi All! 

What a day! It was a busy, busy Saturday for me. It started with a hearty bowl of cereal….

10.17 breakfast

Honeynut Cheerios topped with walnuts and fresh strawberries. Yes, that is my hand that you can barely see in the photo above. With it being so cold outside, I’ve been having to hold my food out our French doors because I’m too much of a marshmallow to take the picture outside! So, you may see part of my hand in pictures throughout the winter ;-).

Next on the agenda was a little lot of shopping  –  nearly 3 hours worth! Scott is such a trooper when it comes to shopping. He actually is a very keen shopper and is more than willing to spend money on clothes for himself and me. Well, after 3 hours of shopping – Jcrew, Ann Taylor, etc – I still could NOT find anything that I remotely liked – ugh!! Why is it that when you really need to buy something you can’t find a damn thing, but when you’re just browsing for the heck of it, you can buy out the store? On the other hand, Scott happened to find an awesome, “they call me Professor Scott”, brown blazer – and a sweater vest from JCrew. Hey, we’re shopping for me here!! 

Lunch was at Chili’s – mostly out of convenience. With all of the times I’ve been to Chili’s, you would think that I’ve tried just about everything on the menu. But today, I actually ordered something brand spankin new – the black bean burger…

10.17 lunch

I don’t recall EVER having a black bean burger in my life. This one was good, but a bit soggy after a few minutes. It was also kind of freaky to see the actual black beans in the burger after I cut it in half. After one bite, little black beans were actually falling out of the burger. Not sure if that’s normal or not. Anyway, I only ended up eating 1/2 the burger but I had also filled up on chips and salsa ahead of time.

The afternoon included a fun trip to Costco – when is going to Costco not fun or expensive? We went there for water and other necessities but ended up looking at a bunch of holiday things. I don’t normally care to look at holiday items/decorations prior to Thanksgiving. But Costco puts out its decorations in JULY so it’s hard to avoid them. 

Dinner was an awesome and healthy treat…

10.17 dinner1

A Super Salad Bar right in our very own home! This was all Scott’s idea and preparation. He even suggested I take a picture of all of the ingredients…

  • Red leaf lettuce
  • Broccoli
  • Carrots
  • Green onion
  • Red and green bell peppers
  • Red onion
  • Cucumbers
  • Bacon (nitrate-free)
  • Salami
  • Cheddar cheese

And all of these goodies topped with Scott’s homemade balsamic dressing.

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And I almost forgot, the salad also included grilled asparagus!

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And here is the main course….

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We also enjoyed some fresh bakery bread dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinegar – so yum!

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Such a fancy smancy dinner calls for a fancy drink…

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OK, it’s diet coke, but it’s in a real crystal wine glass 😉

Now I am finally watching the “wedding” episode of The Office and laughing out loud – Michael Scott is too funny!

I have another busy day planned for tomorrow so Good Night everyone!

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Evening everyone!

Well, it was rainy and cold again today, for like the 20th day in a row. I don’t really mind the rain, but it’s been so rainy and gloomy lately that I’m ready for a change. However, things may be turning up for Chicago, at least for a day or so. Tom Skilling – the famous Chicago meteorologist – is predicting high 60s/low 70s for Monday. If you are from Chicago, you know that good old Tommy Skilling is nearly always right, which is quite uncharacteristic of most meteorologists. I guess that’s why he’s famous.

I was so happy that I was able to get out for a run before the rain started this morning. Four and five-mile runs seem to go by so much faster when you’re actually looking at scenery and not staring at the television or the clock from the moveable perch of a treadmill.

Breakfast ended up being a huge (double my normal size) bowl of homemade oatmeal….

10.16 breakfast2

…made from whole oats and skim milk, mixed with all-natural creamy peanut butter and walnuts, then topped with fresh strawberries. My eyes were bigger than my stomach (I’m so becoming my mother by using that phrase) because this turned out to be way too much food for my stomach to handle.10.16 breakfast1

After browsing on the Internet and working a little, lunch was another super convenient meal…

10.16 lunch

…defrosted turkey chili over elbow noodles, topped with sharp cheddar cheese, plus a side of carrots.

This afternoon was spent running errands, including a stop at the doctor, and Starbucks – woo hoo! It was just the pick-me-up I needed on this grey day.

Tonight, Scott and I headed to the mall to do a little suit and shoe shopping. Actually, I did the shopping while Scott browsed his iphone. With my big meeting less than 2 weeks again, there are still a bunch of things I need to get in order to be ready for all of my events and receptions. Unfortunately, I didn’t find anything to my liking tonight – not even at Nordstrom which usually has great shoes. Although my shopping efforts came up short, we did manage to have a nice dinner at The Cheesecake Factory..

10.16 dinner

I really wasn’t that hungry so we ended up splitting the chicken tacos. Although they were quite good, I could barely eat one whole taco – I’m just not having a good stomach day. We left with no cheesecake and no dessert of any kind. Some people ask how we can go to the Cheesecake Factory and not get cheesecake. Easy – neither of us cares for cheesecake so it’s never an issue with us.

I’m am barely awake as I write this, so I guess that’s a sign I need to get to bed. I am predicting that shopping will be on the agenda for tomorrow. I’m hoping to get an early start to beat the crowds.

See you all on the flip slide!

A Soup-er Wednesday Day

Yes, it was a super, soup-er day, and you’ll see why in a minute. It was a no-run Wednesday for me today which means I was able to sleep in for a whole extra 20 minutes – whoopie!

Then, it was time for breakfast…

10.14 breakfast2

A cereal mix of Honey Nut Cheerios and Kashi Go Lean, topped with walnuts and banana slices – hmm!

10.14 breakfast1

It was another day and another birthday at work. This time, someone supplied the whole office with birthday bagels. Luckily I stopped eating bagels circa 2000. I seriously can’t even look at a bagel without feeling bloated.

The morning flew by and I was able to get a ton done – so much in fact that I had a little extra time at lunch. So, I met Scott at Go Roma. Enter soup #1…

10.14 lunch

A cup of hearty minestrone with a dollop of basil pesto on top. This soup is so rich and filling – it’s hard to believe that it’s low in calories – but it is thank goodness! This soup actually kept me fairly full all the way until dinner – minus a few Halloween-shaped pretzels I had 😉

Enter soup #2….Potato and cheese!

10.14 dinner

Scott made this soup on Monday and now, after sitting for two days, this soup tastes 10 times better! It really thickened up and all the flavors finally came out to say “hello!” I had the soup with a few pieces of whole-garlic infused bakery bread – the perfect thickness for dipping in hot soup!

Now, it’s time for dessert – a little chocolate peanut butter ice cream from a huge Chicago favorite – Oberweis!

10.14 dessert2

We used to buy single scoops of ice cream at Oberweis for about $3 a scoop. But now, we’ve wised up a little and just buy the pre-packed quart of chocolate peanut butter for $6. It makes like 10 scoops which is waaaay cheaper!

Now that I’m all souped and ice creamed out, I’m going to read a little of my new Real Simple magazine – yeah! I love the Holiday issues!

Only 15 more days until the BIG meeting in San Diego!!

Have a great night all!

New Day, New Camera

A food/health blogger without her camera is like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, without the peanut butter. Well, as you all know, my husband lost our camera yesterday somewhere in the woods. We actually went back to the forest preserve this morning to look for it and inquire at the Visitor’s Center, but no luck.

So, my husband did what any awesome husband would do and he promptly went out and bought me a brand new camera!! But before I get to those details, let’s see how my day went without the camera….

Prior to our excursion to the forest preserve, I ran 4 miles on the treadmill. It was only about 28 degrees outside this morning and I’ve become such a marshmallow that it’s hard for me to run outside when it’s below 30 degrees. Running on the treadmill was VERY hard this morning. Even though I got about 8 hours sleep, I felt so sluggish. I even tried watching the Chicago Marathon, thinking that might help, but I still felt weak. I’m guessing it was my camera dilemma that zapped the energy from me.

For breakfast, I had a bowl of homemade oatmeal…

10.11 breakfast

Please keep in mind that this photo was taken with Scott’s iphone, prior to him buying the new camera. My oatmeal was made with plain oatmeal, doctored up with some brown sugar and a bunch of walnuts – super yummy! I would have added peanut butter, but we are completely OUT! Imagine that, a peanut butter-loving gal OUT of peanut butter. We are were also out of cheese, which is again so unlike us.

After our fruitless effort in the forest, we headed to Red Robin for lunch. We tried to save money and calories by splitting a crispy chicken sandwich…

10.11 Lunch

But then we went and ordered TWO chocolate shakes!! I needed to wallow somehow and having a chocolate shake was the perfect way to drown my camera sorrow.

But then….enter the new Camera!!! My new Canon SD 980 IS is very similar to my old Canon SD 870 powershot, only an upgraded model with more features and a touch screen. So cool!! We’re going to at least try it out for a month to see if we like it and then take it back before our 90-day trial period if we don’t.

I was so excited when he gave it to me that I promptly started taking pictures of everything just to play around…

10.11 fruit

As you can see, I had zero natural light because it was nearly dinnertime when he came home with the camera, but that didn’t matter to me! 

I also tested the new cam out on dinner….

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We started with a little lot of aged white cheddar cheese and whole wheat crackers, both purchased today from Fresh Market. We haven’t had high quality cheddar like this in a while so we ate way more than we should have – practically the whole block. But we were also celebrating our new gadget!!

Dinner was lemon-herb rotisserie chicken from Fresh Market with a side of homemade mashed potatoes and steamed carrots…

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We topped this all with my husband’s homemade chicken gravy – oh my, this was good!

Now, we’re about to watch a few episodes of The Office on Hulu – I missed Jim and Pam’s wedding 🙁 – and dig into our celebratory dessert, a raspberry white chocolate layer cake…

10.11 dessert

One word to describe this – SWEET!!

Ok, enough for today. I’m outta here!

Have a great night everyone!

It's 3 AM, But I'm Not Lonely

Happy Friday everyone!

I’m watching Psych right now and loving it! I really should go to bed since I only got about 4 1/2 hours of sleep last night. I woke up at 3 AM and just couldn’t go to back to sleep. I actually started thinking of that song by Matchbox 20 – It’s 3 AM. But, I wasn’t lonely just anxiety-ridden.

I got up around 4 AM and actually worked for a few hours. How dedicated is that? Breakfast was another cereal bowl, but this time with a new cereal…

10.9 breakfast

I received a free sample of Total blueberry pomegranate in the mail so I threw that into the mix with Cheerios multi-grain and Kashi Go Lean. I topped the cereal with a bunch of walnuts for some extra MUFA and crunch. The Total cereal sure smelled good when I poured it into the bowl – very fruity. It added a little bit more sweetness to my normal cereal mix, which was surely welcome. But I really don’t think it was anything extraordinary, but then again, I’ve never been a big Total fan.

Scott and I opted for lunch at Portillos today – a Chicago hot dog/Italian beef favorite. I ordered the all-beef hot dog with everything…10.9 lunch

Really messy, but awesome! I did NOT eat the pickle right on the hot dog, but I left it on for the picture to give you the full effect. If you ever want to see a crazy place at lunchtime, just go to Portillos – it’s nuts! There were so many people in the restaurant that we almost didn’t find a seat.

Dinner was leftover soup…

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With a side of Mac and cheese…

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Now, I really need to get to bed, as I’m sure you can all understand. I hope I will be able to finally get some sleep and shake this headache that I’ve head all day.

Night everyone!