A Celebration of Sorts

Today we are about two and a half weeks into this challenge...which means that we've made it over halfway!  I thought it only fair to give an updated tally of where we stand so far:

Chris- 3 lunches, no breakfasts bought

Kylie- 1 lunch, 1 breakfast bought

Dinner eaten out when we could have eaten in:  0!!!!!!

I'm actually REALLY proud of those stats!  Those are manageable levels...lunch or breakfast once a week is definitely not a deal-breaker.

Yesterday was class day for both of us. I thought and thought about what I wanted to have for breakfast, and the only thing that I could really think of that I wanted was...more no-bake cookie oatmeal.  I have literally had it for three days straight.  I'm going to try to go for something different tomorrow, but who knows.

Lunch yesterday was cottage cheese and nice leafy salad (spring mix and baby spinach).  I also added feta cheese, and used some  strawberry balsamic vinegar and tuscan herb olive oil for the dressing.  Remember when I talked about certain ingredients being worth it to spend a little more on?  Balsamic vinegar and olive oil definitely fall into that category for me.  When you have great ingredients, you don't need a lot of extra things on your salad to have a fantastic, tasteful meal.  Trust me.  I have both the generic kind and the good stuff in my cupboard...you're welcome to come over and taste the difference.

There's this wonderful little shop called The Tasteful Olive in Old Overland Park, KS.  The shop has all kinds of flavored olive oils and balsamic vinegars, and you can taste them before you buy them.  LOVE this place, and I highly recommend trying it out, especially if you are still getting a feel for the kinds of tastes that you like.  As an added bonus, Penzey's spice store (love, love, love) is two buildings down, so you can load up on all the good spices while you're there as well...and again, you can sample before you buy! (PS-if you do go to The Tasteful Olive, don't actually DRINK the olive oil, just taste it on your tongue.  Otherwise you may find yourself burping olive oil for the next six hours.  Right, Chris?)

For dinner last night...

Kidding, Kidding.  (well, kind of...)  I actually went out to dinner (this one was planned for, so I don't count it as impromptu dining out! ;)  My blog, my rules!  ha!) with my classmates to celebrate the fact that we made it through our accounting class!!  Whoohoo!!  This delicious beer was Young's Double Chocolate Stout.  It. Was. Delicious.  I ordered a chicken queso wrap as my meal, but it wasn't that great.  Good thing the beer was so it wasn't a total loss!

For lunch today, I had leftovers...I know, I'm proud of myself, too.  I actually took some of the jambalaya stew stuff that we had made the other night that I had frozen.  I'll admit...it wasn't too bad.

Dinner tonight was probably one of my favorite meals that we've had so far, and it was one of the simplest.  I made turkey burgers on whole wheat buns with chipotle mayo, some provolone and super-sharp cheddar cheese, grilled onions, and romaine lettuce.  We had some garlic fries that were pretty dang good, too.

Long story short?  We're still eating good.

Cheers!