Case of the Mondays

Peter: Let me ask you something. When you come in on Monday, and you're not feelin' real well, does anyone ever say to you, 'Sounds like someone has a case of the Mondays'?

Lawrence: No. No, man. ... I believe you'd get your ass kicked sayin' something like that, man.

Talk about a case of the Mondays for me.  Phew.  I am GLAD that this one is over.  I've been struggling with balance in my life lately, and today, I finally had an epiphany...it's time to let some things go.  I can't do everything.  I know, I know, sounds pretty cryptic, right?  I don't even know for sure what it is that I am going to let go of, but I do know that it's definitely time to re-prioritize.


One of the shocking things about this particular challenge for me though, is that while this would SEEM like it's adding one more thing to my life, in actuality it's forcing me to make time for myself, everyday, to do something that I love to do.  While I am cooking dinner, I can actually feel stress leaving my body. It's therapeutic, in that cooking forces me to NOT think about the rest of the day...and when I can look back on the day, after I've had that step away, the things that I thought were so pressing seem less important.  The little faces and hands that helped me make the dinner come back into the forefront, where they are supposed to be.

When my husband, kids, family, and friends enjoy eating what I've prepared, I feel proud, and accomplished.  I can't tell you how good it makes me feel to KNOW what my kids are eating, but to see them getting involved too.  Since I've started this, we've tried lots of different recipes, and they've tried every single one of them like little troopers.  Not only are we becoming more well-rounded and focused on what we are eating, they are as well.  We constantly talk about what food is healthy, and what kinds of foods are okay to eat only in little amounts. 

Then there are my friends that read this everyday, and post words of encouragement, or send me emails, or stop me in the halls at work or in the grocery store and tell me that I've inspired them.  Wow.  That's an incredible compliment, and it means so much to me that you are willing to give a small portion of your day to read about how mine went.  I now have people sending me recipes to try, as well!!  Believe me, I will be trying them, and taking pictures of them, and giving you props!   (PS- I totally have eight official followers of my blog.  You guys rock.)

Holy cow that was some serious stuff.  Heavy, man.  While I joke around and do my best to spread my narcissism and sarcasm as far as it will go (which is pretty damn far), this challenge really has changed a lot of things in my world, so I thought it only fair to share as much.

On to the main events...today's meals!!  I received an email last night from my friend Nicole with another suggestion for me on how to eat oatmeal, and I have to say, I was instantly intrigued.  I actually wanted to go to the kitchen right after I read her email and make this for myself, but I refrained so that I could have the tasty treat in the morning as breakfast.  Do you like No-Bake Cookies?  They are one of my faves...and if you like them, you will LOVE this:

That's right.  No-Bake Cookie Oatmeal.  Boom.  How, you ask?  SO EASY!!  I still used my Trader Joe's steel cut oats (still got the texture complex), but per Nicole's recipe, I added a packet of Sugar Free Hot Chocolate Mix, and a tablespoon of peanut butter (hooray for extra protein!).  AAAAAHHHHHHHHH! (This is my equivalent of the heavens opening up, God coming down and placing my breakfast plate in front of me, and telling me "Yes, Kylie, you may eat cookies every day for breakfast for the rest of your life and you will never gain weight from them again.")  Nicole, I owe you big time for this one.  I can't wait to let my kids try this!

I didn't actually eat lunch today, as some of the earlier musings from the blog weighed pretty heavily on my mind...but by three I was ready to start thinking about dinner!!  I wanted something a little lighter.  I remembered a recipe that I had seen on SkinnyTaste.com for a lighter Chicken Parmesan, so I used that as my inspiration as to what to have for dinner, even thought I didn't actually follow the recipe very well.  Here is my adaptation. (Instead of typing all my recipes on here for you to have to read through, I started a little side blog just to post my own recipes I make up, or recipes that I've used from others that I can't find an electronic link to post.)

This was REALLY good, and REALLY healthy as well.  Another score for a full day of healthy meals!  Tayler started to get excited as it was cooking, because she thought it smelled like pizza.  She told me tonight that anything that had red sauce on it like pizza was just "so delicious".  Totally agree, kid. 

So, that's the day.  Not a bad one by any means, but definitely one that got me thinking, and left me grateful.  Tomorrow night is class night, so I guess I had better go and see what I can whip up! Until tomorrow night...

Cheers!




 

A New Week, A Better Plan

I said it last night, but I will say it again.  I seriously can't believe that the weekend goes by so incredibly fast.  Today was another busy day filled with family and friends.  Church this morning, followed by a baby shower this afternoon for Shelley, one of my friends from high school.  She's having twin girls, and she looks so adorable!!  I also got to see several other friends at the shower today, so it was a good afternoon. Chris's parents came up to see us today as well, and we spent the evening hanging out, cooking, and laughing.

Chris and I decided to approach this week with a better game plan, so that we're not (for lack of a better completely accurate sentiment) completely pissed every morning as we try to gather our lunches for the day or incredibly perturbed at having to figure out what we are making for dinner every night.  We've made a meal plan.  (yes, duh, I realize NOW that we should have been doing this all along.  Getting the ingredients for twelve recipes just seemed like enough.  I didn't realize scheduling when to actually make them would make that much difference.)

So, tonight we tried two new recipes that were outstanding.  Again, we pulled them from the Guy Fieri cookbook I mentioned a couple of posts again.  If there is one thing that Fieri does, it's infuse A LOT of flavor into his dishes. We made two different kinds of sandwiches for dinner with his folks, but we also doubled the recipes so we could freeze some and take some for lunches this week, too.

First up was a Jambalaya Sandwich.  CAUTION:  IF YOU ARE A VEGETARIAN DO NOT CLICK ON THE PRIOR LINK!!! (I'm sure by now I would have scared any of them off anyway with as much meat as this family eats.  That being said...) I don't know that I have EVER in my LIFE put this much meat into one meal.

This. Is. Amazing.   The recipe has some outstanding spiciness to it.  I did add some cornstarch when the cooking time was up to thicken the sauce a bit, which the recipe does not call for, but makes the sauce even better, if that's possible.  Not only was this DELICIOUS as a sandwich, but I think it will be amazing on top of rice too.  (also, a side note.  If you decide to double this recipe, please be prepared to spend at least an arm, if not a leg as well, buying the meat for this.  I will be watching sale ads even more closely now so that I can afford to make this again! ha!)

For our second sandwich option of the night, we made Saigon Pork Subs.  We were not disappointed with these, either.  Very nice spiciness, and the pork was SO tender.  This dish does take a little longer to cook though, so if you decide to make this one, make sure to plan ahead time-wise.  At least I didn't start it at 8pm as I have some other slow cooked pork recipes in the past. The cucumbers are marinated, so they lost some of their fresh cucumbery taste, which is good for me since normally I can't stand them.  They work well with this sandwich, though. 

Sheri, my mother-in-law, makes out of this world pie from scratch, and she brought us a coconut cream pie today that she had made.  SO GOOD.  This was our dessert for the night.  It was honestly a perfect end to a great meal.  Thanks Sheri!!

So, tomorrow we start with the new game plan.  Hopefully this week finds us less harried.  We may even sit around in a circle and sing Kumbaya since we will be so organized and harmonious with this new meal plan.  I'll be sure to keep you posted.

Cheers!

Strong Start and Finish

It's the weekend!!  Whoohoo!!  Well, technically now it is over halfway through the weekend.  Funny how these two day go SO fast, but the rest of the week seems to take so long!

I've been remiss in posting the last several days, and I will try to get back on the blogging bandwagon every night.  Last night was not so much that I didn't want to post, but that I was disappointed in the days results.  Let me start from the beginning...

I started off incredibly strong yesterday morning.  I decided I would make a breakfast casserole to take to work, since I do have some pretty fantastic co-workers, and they have been pretty great about keeping me motivated.  Back before Christmas, I had found a recipe from one of my Pampered Chef cookbooks for a breakfast braid that I had made for my family (Doobs and Pops included) and they LOVED it.  I made it when my sister came back for Christmas too, and then again for our church men one Saturday morning for a Men in Mission meeting.  I've altered the recipe, since I'm not a huge fan of asparagus.  I add more eggs, browned sausage, green peppers, and mushrooms.  You can really add or delete any veggie/meat you want, which makes this nice.  So, this is what my braid looked like yesterday morning:

And a cross-section view:

Things went downhill rapidly from here, though.  In my focus on getting my breakfast to work, I left my lunch in the refrigerator at home.  As a result, I bought my lunch yesterday.  I didn't feel horrible about it, though. After all, it was Friday, I struggled through a whole week of crappy lunches, and I had just made an amazing breakfast. One lunch is not the end of the challenge.  It's not winning the challenge by any means, but it's not the end of the challenge...

Then I went home and made frozen pizzas for dinner.  Friday=1, Ericson=0.

Thank goodness for a new day.

Saturday morning was breakfast on the go for the kids in the form of the ultra nutritious Pop Tart.  (please reread last line with intended sarcasm.)  Of course we were running late for our hair appointments in Topeka, so of course I didn't have time to make breakfast.  That would require planning ahead, which I am obviously not doing well.

Saturday morning hair appointments have actually become a monthly outing for myself, Doobs (my mom), and my kids.  We go get our hair cut, have lunch, and do a little light shopping.  Its a day I look forward to every month.   Today Pops got to go with us, and they bought mine and my kids lunch at Red Lobster.  Thanks you guys!  Love you! :)

Tonight, Aaron and Brooke, some of our best friends, came over with their kids to spend the evening with us.

Aren't they adorable?  They are our dinner theater partners, too.  We're going to try to get together more often, and take turns hosting  "night ins".  Plus, they are board game nerds like us so that's an added bonus, as well.  Especially when we play really nerdy games from 1990 like we did tonight.

So, jumping back on the bandwagon and finishing the night out strong, I made a Broccoli/Cauliflower/Brussels Sprouts Au Gratin side dish (seriously, you want this recipe...obviously I added the broccoli to it as well), some fried red potatoes, and some pork chops marinated in a little olive oil and soy sauce.  Chris also de-glazed the pan with some red wine and made a FANTASTIC reduction to use as a sauce to the chops.

Since I was now back on my super fab cooking vibe, I decided I would try my first ever Bundt cake. (totally bought a new Bundt pan today that I found today on sale, so that's where the inspiration came from).  I searched and searched for a recipe that sounded both: a.) delicious and b.) only contained the ingredients I had in the house.  This recipe fit the bill.  I also used this super easy recipe for a chocolate ganache that I poured over the top.  The cake was SO rich...and SO tasty!  I will definitely make this again!

I claim today as a success. Ericson=1, Saturday=One fantastic day.  Let's hope tomorrow brings as much success, as well as some great planning for the week ahead!

Ahh, the pressure, the pressure!!

First off, my apologies for not posting last night.  After dinner, we tidied up the house a little, then sat down on the couch to unwind for a bit...and the next thing I knew it was one in the morning. We had both fallen asleep in pretty much the same positions we had sat down to relax in.

So, I have to admit, since starting this blog, I have kind of felt pressure to make something awesome for every single meal...because I think to myself a.) if I don't make something great, I'm not going to stick to this.  b.) I actually have gotten a lot of emails from people saying that they like my blog, my recipes look great, etc, and I don't want to disappoint them with sandwiches all the time.  c.) I've always made things WAY harder than they need to be.

Whew, okay.  Glad that's off my chest.  Let me point out why A is really my biggest concern:

That?  Right There?  Is my lunch from yesterday.  A bean and cheese burrito, and chicken fried rice.  No, it's not because I was wanting both Mexican and Chinese food.  It's because I didn't plan ahead, and so Wednesday morning, in an effort to just stick to the freaking plan already, I grabbed whatever I could find from the freezer.  This?  Is why I buy my lunch everyday.  However, I persevered.  (PS-I think my rice may have been freezer burnt, too.  Super added bonus.) Really, it's been lunch that's been my biggest struggle.  I'm not a huge fan of leftovers, so it's really hard for me to bring the same thing to lunch that I had the night before. 

My breakfasts this week have been pretty simple, which I am more than okay with, but I did get an added bonus yesterday.  Normally, when we buy yogurt in our house, it disappears within hours, it seems.  It's like a yogurt loving ghost comes and raids our refrigerator while we sleep, and even though I swear I bought like a dozen of them the day before, there are never any to be found in the fridge when I want one.  However, in my crazed wild woman scavenge through the contents of my fridge yesterday morning on the search for lunch and breakfast, I found two GLORIOUS containers of blueberry yogurt.  Granted, it wasn't the Greek yogurt that I had bought specifically for me that I ate none of, but still.  It was yogurt.  And it was mine.  I took them both to work with me, and yesterday and today, my breakfast looked like this:

A Fuji Apple, Blueberry Yogurt, and a little Kashi GoLean Crunch.  MMmmmm.  I could eat this everyday.  If I could get to the dang yogurt fast enough.

 
Last night, Chris made dinner again.  As I've mentioned numerous times in the past, we're both pretty passionate about making sure that our food has TONS of flavor.  One of our favorite cookbooks right now is Guy Fieri's Cookin' It, Livin' It, Lovin' It.  Chris decided to make the Penne with Cajun Hot Links and Chipotle Shrimp,  Instead of the Hot Links, though, we used andouille sausage.

The shrimp in this was AMAZING.  I would eat a whole meal out of just that.  I really liked the different taste of the sauce, too...it's not your typical pasta dish.  Our kids absolutely loved it, and completely cleaned their plate.  Apparently a little andouille sausage and Cajun shrimp aren't too much spice for them to handle.  Two cheers for the Ericson kids!  One disclaimer on this dish, though...it was not very good for lunch today.  If you're going to make it, I would make enough for just one night, because the next day, you will be disappointed with it.  The sauce kind of separates when you warm it up again, and the shrimp gets a little rubbery...this is definitely not a dish that gets better the second day (see???  I try to bring the previous nights dinner in for lunch, and this is what happens!).

On to dinner tonight.  I had planned on making some chicken sandwiches, but forgot to put the chicken in the marinade last night.  (oops).   So, today on my lunch break, I found an awesome app on my phone called BigOven.  There are thousand of recipes, but what I really liked about it was the ability to input any leftovers you have in your fridge, and it will show recipes that you can make from them.  I planned and mapped out what I had.  Chris called right as I was leaving work and said he was starving and so were the kids, so he pulled some of the Pork Chili Verde out of the freezer and made some Chimichangas tonight.  A little Spanish rice, a spinach salad, and we called it a good.

Long story short?  I have got to come up with some lunch ideas, and I need to plan ahead on them.  Horribly planned lunches like yesterdays frozen burrito/freezer burnt rice and today's dinner gone horribly wrong lunch leftovers leave me teetering on the edge.  Not planning ahead is why C above is a problem, because I am making this WAY harder than it needs to be (which is pretty much par for the course for me, anyway!).

As for B, though...it's actually really amazing to me that people want to read this, and I sincerely appreciate all the comments, emails, and "atta girl" support while starting this endeavor.  The object of this is to make us think more about what we are eating, and how we are spending our money on food.  While it's designed to be a thirty day challenge, I really do want to incorporate this into our lives.  I want dining out to be the exception, not the norm.  So, we will keep trying to make new and exciting dishes, mostly because we like new and exciting things, but also to inspire others to get in the kitchen and make something new, too (and if you do, please invite us over to eat, so I don't have to cook and then it's not technically dining out.  Okay?  Thanks!!) 

Talk to you tomorrow night!!

Tuesday's Gone

What a day.  G-man wasn't feeling well, so I stayed home a half a day this morning to give him some extra cuddle time and help him feel a little better...there's nothing a little snuggle with mom and a nebulizer won't fix, right?  He was feeling a little better when I went to work at noon, and Chris said that the kids were fighting by 4, which is a good sign that things are on the upswing.

Chris and I both had class tonight.  I'm in Accounting for Business right now.   Try to contain your jealousy, since it's just as much fun as it sounds.  As I said last week, Tuesday's are going to be pretty easy days, at least meal wise, since we aren't really here to cook anything.  

Breakfast started out with some oatmeal.  Normally, I am not a huge fan of cooked oatmeal.  Something about it's weird, gloppy, gelatinous texture squigs me out.  However, thanks to a recommendation from my friend CJ, I tried some quick cook steel cut oatmeal from Trader Joe's, and for the first time in my life, I can actually say that I would eat oatmeal for breakfast.  There's two great things about this oatmeal: 1.) it's actually good, and 2.)  it's available both in a dry quick cook form AND in a frozen pre-made package (my personal favorite).

Now is where we start to get a little technical with details, though.  There are some things that I absolutely believe that taste-wise, should not be skimped on.  Don't get me wrong.  I'm all for generic noodles, flour, and a lot of basic ingredients.  However, spices and herbs and sauces add SO much to dishes, and I've found that most of the generic forms of these don't do the flavors justice.  I will try to post links to the products I've found specifically that I like, and I think that if you try some of them, you will like them.  If not, well, damn the luck.  :)

Back to oatmeal.  I added a teaspoon of organic brown sugar from Trader Joe's (SO good!  Only 15 calories and 4 carbs, too!!), sprinkled my favorite cinnamon (you can literally eat this cinnamon out of the bag), and topped with some dried berries (again from Trader Joe's).  I usually go pretty light on the berries, since calorically, they are pretty dense.   ( I realize I just made huge plugs for Trader Joe's.  I seriously heart that place.  If you've been, you understand why.  If you haven't, it's like organic Aldi's.  It is truly a foodie's paradise.)  Without further ado, I give you my breakfast (and, let's see who else can write three full paragraphs about a bowl of instant oats.) 

For lunch, I've been craving a big green leafy salad, so that's what I made.  I used a Spring Mix lettuce and Baby Spinach. I added some Chili-Lime chicken that we had frozen, and some three alarm cheese (I get this at Sam's Club.  If you like spice, and you like cheese, you should get some too.) I made my own dressing, so that it had more of a southwest flavor.  I mixed a little sour cream, fiesta ranch seasoning, and taco sauce together.  Delish.  I added some cottage cheese for a little extra protein, and because I really just like cottage cheese.

Next came dinner for class.  Convenience is of the up most importance, since I have to take it to work with me first and then to class, so sandwiches are generally going to be the go to of choice.  This time, I went a little crazy and instead used a whole-wheat lavish wrap.  (whoa, I know.) A little chipotle mayo (mayo mixed with chipotles in adobe sauce), some more three alarm cheese, Party Time Ham (this is about the only kind of ham that I will eat, but more on that later), and more fresh baby spinach all rolled up in a neat little package.  Yum.

All in all, a healthy day.  Oh, I forgot to mention a little trick I've learned with blocks of cheese.  A vegetable peeler works GREAT in getting really thin slices to use for sandwiches, etc.  Plus, you end up using a lot less cheese since it is sliced so thin, but still get the flavor over the whole area.  All the flavor, less fat.  Sounds like a good deal to me!

I just want to say again that I really do appreciate all the emails and words of encouragement as we tackle this project.  I told my friend Kim today that this may very well be my personal Armageddon, but at least if it is, I will go out doing something I truly love doing.

Cheers, my friends!

It's good to be back!!

What a weekend!!  I am so glad to be back home, and getting back to making good food!!  Most of my meals for this weekend consisted of convention center venues (you know, chicken in some kind of mystery sauce, over-done potatoes, etc).   You know you're jealous.

Saturday night was a different story.  My niece turned five (Happy Birthday Kailyn!  I love you!), and my sister-in-law wanted us to all go ice skating as a family at Crown Center.  We went, we skated (read:  they skated).  Chris and I had decided to make a weekend of the outing, and booked a hotel room (which we paid for with the money we saved eating at home last week!!  Score one for homecooking!).  Before we headed out of Crown Center, though, we took the kids to Fritz Railroad Restaurant.  My kids, along with my nieces and nephews, love this place because it's not a person that delivers the food, but a train.  Its standard hamburgers and fries fare.  There's nothing really special about it, except that it amazes the kids.  Our order took over 40 minutes to get to us...in fact, everyone on our side of the room got their order, even those that came in after us.  Chris went up and asked how much longer it would be, and evidently, they had forgotten our order.  The manager came over, and instead of apologizing, just said "Give me your ticket", and took off for the back.  Finally, a nice waitress came back and said they were going to send it out, and that she was really sorry.  Another five minutes or so passed, and finally, the train delivered our food to our table, and we ate our crappy hamburgers and left an hour and a half after we first got there.  UGH.  Just another example of why we are refocusing again this week.  That $30 meal was definitely NOT worth it!

Last night after we got home, I decided I would make a Chile Verde recipe I had been wanting to try for awhile (well, and I had a whole bag full of tomatillos that would go bad if I didn't make it, so there's that, too) that we could have for dinner tonight.  I cut up a pork butt,  seasoned it, and browned the sides, and then made the verde sauce.  Once the pork is browned, you add the sauce to the pan, and then simmer it for several hours until it's tender.  It's really easy to make, but it takes a lot of time (PS-this means don't start it at 8pm.  Trust me on that one), which is why Pork Chile Verde doesn't get made that often in our house!

However, it was worth EVERY SINGLE MINUTE of time that it took on the stove.  Chris again made the pinto beans (because they are SO delicious), and then a little Spanish rice concoction in our microwave rice cooker.  Easy peasy. 

Tomorrow goes back to all meals being brought from home.  I can't wait!  :)

And they ate happily ever after...

I was 14 when I started my first food blog.  I thought about this on my way home, and had to laugh.  Of course, at the time, I had no idea that I was actually writing a food blog.  I was supposed to be chronicling our family vacation to Washington, DC; the sights, the LONG drive, the attractions, etc.  While I may have mentioned in a line or two each day where we went or what we did, I gave very detailed explanations of every meal we ate.  Apparently, I've been a foodie my whole life.

Like any relationship, food and I have had our ups, and we've had our downs...but we've arrived at a very healthy place that I like to call moderation. It's taken me a long time to understand that nearly all things are okay as long as they are taken in moderation. Throughout the last couple of years, our family has undergone some major lifestyle changes, so while we may make the occasional heart-attack burger or fried mozzarella stick (ahem, Chris, ahem!  haha!) we try hard to modify the recipes we make so they are at least partially healthy for our family. 

Case in point is breakfast this morning.  I seriously love breakfast sandwiches.  I got inspired from a recipe I saw a while back, and I decided to make pancake sandwiches.  I used a third of whole wheat flour in place of white flour for the pancakes, turkey sausage, scrambled eggs, and half a slice of cheese.  They are SO good!!

For lunch, I took some frozen chili we had in the freezer.  I didn't know if I could survive another attack from the burger that was last nights dinner, so I decided to play it safe.

For dinner, I thought pizza sounded really good.  I had found a recipe on skinnytaste.com for a quick marinara sauce that I really wanted to try, so I made that to use on the pizzas, and it only took about twenty minutes.  The last time we went grocery shopping, I had bought some pre-made thin and crispy crusts.  I know, I know, homemade crust is probably better, but on a weeknight, I don't have time to let dough proof.  (Besides, making homemade dough means measuring ingredients.  I measured enough ingredients for pancakes.) For the kids, some pizza blend cheese, pepperoni, and this Parmesan sprinkle finished theirs off.  For Chris and I, fresh mushrooms, red onions, fresh baby spinach, a teaspoon of pesto, and fresh mozzarella gave us an amazing veggie pizza.  So. Good.

 

As you can see, the kids and Chris got to the pepperoni pizza before I had a chance to take a picture...grr.  

I will be gone tomorrow night and Saturday night, so there will probably not be any updates from the home front until Sunday.  Until then, take care, and thanks for taking the time to read and follow our little challenge!

Oh Holy Hamburgers

It's hump day!!  Hooray!!  Tomorrow is actually my Friday, since I will be gone all weekend at my regional rally (again, this blog was not timed incredibly well).  I'm going to try to talk Chris into posting what he makes for dinner the next couple of nights, but I don't hold out high hopes for that. 

Today I used my last free $2 snack card at my work's cafeteria, which means, starting tomorrow, I need to bring my own breakfast and make my own tea, too.  Geesh.  What in the world was I thinking?!?!  It's worth it....It's worth it....It's worth it....I'm going to keep repeating this like a mantra.

On to lunch today.  I had some frozen bean burritos that we made a couple of weeks ago, so I decided I would take one of them, when I suddenly had a brilliant idea.  I still had some of my leftover Peruvian chicken, cilantro and lime rice, and aji verde sauce.  Sounds like the makings for a great burrito, right?  It was fantastic!!  In fact, next time, I am going to make extra chicken and rice just so I can make some of these up and freeze them.

So, it was a nice, tasty, and very healthy lunch!!  Thank goodness it was healthy, because Chris decided he wanted hamburgers tonight, and that he was going to make dinner.  Oh my.  When we go out for burgers, Chris always like to get the ones that have everything but the kitchen sink on them, so since that's what he was craving, that's what he made...

Luckily (or unluckily?), he piled so much on this burger that we each only ate half.  There's a hamburger patty, three alarm cheese, ham, an egg, a slice of bacon, baby spinach (a veggie!!  saving grace, right??) chipotle mayo, and bun.  Yikes.  He also made some homemade sweet potato fries that he baked.  It was absolutely delicious...good thing tonight is workout video night!

Tuesday Nights = Little Kitchen Time

In retrospect, I probably should have started my blog tomorrow night, since Chris and I both have class on Tuesday nights.  Tuesdays mean leftovers, or sandwiches, or whatever else we can scrounge up...but I did pack a pretty fantastic sandwich last night to take to class tonight.  It's roasted turkey breast, pepper jack cheese, whole grain wheat bread, fresh baby spinach, and a chipotle mayo that Chris and I make.  Yeah, yeah, I know.  It's a sandwich.  But it was a damn good one.  :)



One of Tayler's favorite things to eat when we do dine out is mozzarella sticks (I mean, who doesn't like fried cheese?)  No, they obviously aren't the healthiest thing ever, but it's also not like she eats them everyday (insert guilty parent complex here).  Today, Chris decided to have a little experiment of his own before dropping her off at my parents tonight and going to class.  Home-made mozzarella sticks?  Raging success. Ten sticks for about $1.50...not bad!  He's still not so into the whole "taking pictures of the food I make" thing, but at least he took one for me.



I promise that tomorrow night will have more entertaining food.  For all of our sakes.  :)