Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome…..  Mendy!!

Mendy is our new cat!  She is about a year old (we think) and we adopted her from a rescue agency.  She arrived this evening, and we let her look around the house a little bit.  Then we shut her into the downstairs bathroom so that we can slowly introduce her to JB.

I have to admit, I’m pretty worried about this.  I really want them to like each other and to get along – and I don’t want Mendy to come in and dominate JB.  JB is a little bit neurotic to begin with, but he’s really comfortable with me and in his house.  I don’t want to bring in a stranger that invades his space and his territory, and makes him feel threatened.

We made a little bit of a mistake, I think, because I picked up JB and S picked up Mendy and we tried to introduce them to each other.

Bad move.  JB went completely nutso, hissing and scratching and growling.  Which got Mendy started doing the same things.  I tried to hold onto JB, but he went so completely crazy that he smacked me in the face and I let him go.  S grabbed him (letting go of Mendy) and held him tightly and just let him watch her.

I felt so bad for him – watching this newcomer invade his space and explore his house.  I’m really afraid that he’s going to be scared and uncomfortable in his own territory.  I’m going to do my best to get the two to get adjusted to and like eachother, but I have already made it really clear to S and the adoption agency that if it doesn’t work out, we have to take her back.  JB is absolutely my first priority.

That being said… Mendy is really freakin cute.

She is a little ball of energy, exploring everywhere and constantly wanting attention.

She kept wanting to go upstairs to find JB.

She is so beautiful, with a white coat, a few brown splotches, and a tabby tail.  And beautiful, blue eyes.

So from now on, we are taking it slow.  We are keeping Mendy in the bathroom with her litterbox, food and water, and will take it one step at a time and slowly allow them to meet and greet and get used to each other.

Back to this morning.  Breakfast was a pizza pretzel and a couple of clementines.

I actually bought the pizza pretzels for S, because he always orders them when we go to Barnes and Nobles and I found them in the freezer section of the grocery store.  But I had to try one to make sure it wasn’t poisoned before I gave them to him

Mid-morning snack was two more clementines.  I’m almost done with the bag I bought a couple of weeks ago, which is good because they are starting to get a little mushy.

Lunch was a salad with a Hebrew National hot dog and roasted squash seeds from my acorn squash.  They are delicious!

And I satisfied my sweet tooth afterwards with a VitaTop.

Then it was time to cowboy up and tame the monster butternut squash I had waiting for me.  I decided to make butternut squash fries.  I cut up the first half into fries by hand.

Then I remembered my new veggie spiral slicer, and decided to try the larger blade!

I baked them for about 40 minutes at 425 degrees.  Dinner was spiral fries with pork tenderloin, sprinkled with some parmesan cheese.

Delicious!  And dessert was some peppermint ice cream.

While waiting for Mendy to arrive in the evening, I watched an episode of Private Practice.  That show is a little too dramatic and unrealistic for me, but sometimes I watch it anyways.  You know what I like about that show?  It shows that you can have a seemingly perfect life – you can be rich, beautiful, a successful doctor… and be unhappy.

Money (and beauty) cannot buy happiness….

But maybe two cats that get along and love each other can?

Let’s hope so…

I have seen lots of blogging awards floating around recently, so I am officially giving myself an award.  Since I haven’t posted since the day before Thanksgiving, I am giving myself the World’s Worst Blogger award!  Congratulations to me.

I’m happy to say, though, it is because things have been very busy and very good.  We had a great Thanksgiving.  After my cook and bake-fests the days leading up to the holiday, we set out for Oakland at 6:30am.  We met my friend Wanda, her husband and her six-year old twins at their house in the Oakland hills, and then we all drove together to Piedmont for the Piedmont Turkey Trot!  It was a three mile run through though Piedmont.

I had never been to Piedmont before, and it is incredible.  The houses are huge, the lawns manicured… it looks like a perfect suburbia.  Everybody was beautiful and had a golden retriever – no joke.  The weather was perfect too, which made for a GORGEOUS (but very HILLY) run.

I ate a Luna bar before we started.

Here’s S before the race.

Wanda’s six-year-old daughter, Taylor, wanted to take some pictures with my camera too.  So I let her have it and try to take a few shots.  The first ones were of the ground, then she got this beauty:

Finally we got this one, not too bad!

Here’s a pic of Taylor and I.

Taylor and Isaac did the race too.  At six years old!  I guess with marathoners as parents, they started walking, running, and doing races at a very early age.  That is so awesome!

We lined up to start, the start sounded, and we were off!

We finished in almost exactly 27 minutes, which means pretty much 9-minute miles.  We stopped to walk for a couple of minutes on one of the longer hills because S was having trouble, so we actually ran somewhere in the 8:50 range.  Not bad for Thanksgiving day fun race

After finishing, we waited for Wanda to cross the finish lines with the kids.  When she came… she had Brandon (her son’s friend) on her back!!!

She alternated carrying Isaac and Brandon almost the entire race.  That girl is an all-star!

Then, after crossing the finish line with Isaac and Brandon, she backtracked to find Taylor…. and ran it in with her and Karl.

Turkey trots are so fun.  Afterwards we got our t-shirts and some snacks.

And we headed to the bouncy house they had set up for the kids.

S wanted to bounce, but they said he was too big   After the kids were all bounced out, we headed back to Wanda’s house to shower and watch football before the turkey feast.  I helped Wanda in the kitchen a little bit (and by help, I mean that I talked to her while she cooked….)

The kids table was set up on one side of the dining room:

And the adults’ table was on the other side.

Eventually the star of the night was ready.

People started arriving – there were 14 of us total – and we sat down to eat.  There was food, fun, and conversation.

Unfortunately, I was so wrapped up in all that was going on that I didn’t take a picture of my plate.  But suffice to say, it was a doozie.  I was a happy, stuffed turkey myself by the time I finished.  But I still had room for pie and ice cream.  There was two different apple pies, chocolate pie, sweet potato pie, and pumpkin pie.  And I had a little slice of each one, all were delicious.

The kids had a great time too.

The perfect Thanksgiving.

The only downside was the long drive home at the end of the night, when we were already exhausted.  But it was way worth it.

And… my BIG ANNOUNCEMENT for the day, week… month…….

We have a new family member!  Meet Mendy:

She is about a year old, and she was meant to come home with us.  We went to a couple of adoption fairs over the weekend.  We were looking for a tiny kitten to keep JB company and to be “S’s cat” since JB is “mine”.  He wanted either a black or a tabby kitten.  But when we walked into our third adoption fair, this cat was sitting up front in her cage.  I stuck my finger in the cage, and she rubbed up against my hand over and over.  We completely fell in love with her.  She is beautiful – white with a little bit of gray tabby marks and a gray tabby tail.  And beautiful blue eyes.  We took her out of the cage and she was happy as a clam in our laps – a total lap cat.  So that was that… we had to have her.

She is being delivered tonight, we can’t wait!

But while you are waiting…. check out….

• Rhodeygirl’s ‘tis the season giveaway
• Katie’s Amazing Artisana Nut Butter giveaway
• Iowa Girl’s popchips giveaway

Breakfast this morning was a handful of oatmeal banana cookies.

After breakfast, I went to Safeway at 7:30am.  I thought it would be a good idea to go early before it got crowded with the day-before-Thanksgiving-panicked crowd.  Ha.  The place was already PACKED, I couldn’t believe it!  At 7:30am!  I only got a few things, but it took me over an hour and a half because I had to dodge the people in every aisle and stand in line for a long time.

I did get some sole dover fillets on sale because it was their sell-by date.  That’s the good thing about getting to the grocery store in the morning!  I cooked them the minute I got home – drizzled a little olive oil on them, and then coated in salt, garlic, and some red pepper.  Then stuck them in the oven at 350:

I was a little nervous as I cooked it, because it smelled very fishy.  Hard to believe… fish smelling fishy.  But I have read that usually if it has a strong fishy scent, it could mean that it is old or going bad.  It looked ok, though, and didn’t smell stinky… just fishy.  I tried it when it was cooked, though, and it was delicious!

I got two meals out of it.  A fish salad for lunch:

And for the second meal, I tried my spiral slicer!  As I mentioned, the spiral slicer arrived yesterday but due to the holiday hustle and bustle, I didn’t get to try it out until today.

The tool comes with three different slicing blades – one to make really thin slices, one for thin spirals (like spaghetti), and one for thicker spirals (think curly fries.)

The back of the box showed the three different cuts and I totally got excited before I even opened it!

The front looked awesome too.

The only appropriate veggie that I had on hand to try out was zucchini.  But that was my first choice anyways, because I have seen several people making spiral zucchini on other blogs and it looked so great.

The slicer was so easy to use.  I have to admit that I was so excited, I just got started and figured it out myself because I was too impatient to read the directions.  It’s pretty self-explanatory – just stick the veggie in between the blade on one side, and on the spikes on the other side… and start turning the handle!

Within seconds, I had this:

Beautiful, spiraled zucchini.

NOM NOM NOM!  Perfect for salad topping, zucchini spaghetti, or just snacking.

It was sooo easy.  And unlike some other kitchen tools I have used in the past, the handle was so easy to turn.  That is probably partially because the zucchini was pretty soft, so I have to try out a potato or harder veggie to be sure, but I think based on the feel of the slicer that it will still be no problem whatsoever.

How do you like the funny center of the zucchini that it leaves sticking out?  It is hilarious.  And slightly… sad.

And maybe even slightly phallic.

My only complaint about the spiral slicer was that it was fairly hard to get all of the spiraled pieces to fall into a bowl properly so I made a little bit of a mess.  Next time I am going to try putting the whole thing on a place to catch the veggies as they come out!

I can’t wait to try all three blades and different types of fruits and veggies.  Thanks again, CSN Stores, for this opportunity!!!!  Everybody, please go check out CSN stores and all they have to offer.

I used my zucchini to make my second fishy meal of the day.  A snack plate with the spirals, egg whites, fish, and hummus.

Mid-afternoon, I started my cooking frenzy.  I already had completed my turkey cookies for the kids, so my next assignment was appetizers.  I decided to make a salmon ball and some cheese sticks.  First was the salmon ball prep.  My mom used to make this salmon balls for parties and events all the time when I was growing up, and everybody always raves about it.  So as soon as I heard I was in charge of appetizers, I asked her to send me the recipe.  It’s pretty simple to make:

SALMON PARTY BALL

1 can (1 lb) salmon
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons grated onion
1 teaspoon prepared horseradish
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon liquid smoke
1/2 cup chopped pecans
3 tablespoons snipped parsley

Drain and flake salmon, removing skin and bones.  Combine salmon, cream cheese, lemon juice, onion, horseradish, salt, and liquid smoke.  Mix thoroughly.  Chill overnight (I just did for a couple of hours). Combine pecans and parsley.  Shape salmon mixture into a ball.  Roll in nut mixture.  Chill well. Serve with assorted crackers.

I actually doubled the recipe because I knew I was going to be with a large crowd.  I mixed together the ingredients.  I have to admit, this is the first time I have worked with canned salmon and I didn’t find it very easy to remove the bones.  I think that most of the ones I didn’t get were so small and soft that they just got mixed in and weren’t a problem, but I was still frustrated!

After letting it chill in the fridge for a few hours, I took it out, shaped it, and rolled it in the pecan and parsley mixture.  And… ta dah!

I must admit, it looked beautiful.  Almost too beautiful to eat   I made S try it, and I knew I was good to go when he liked it even though he does not like salmon.  I bought two types of Kashi crackers to eat with it, too.

Next on to the cheese twists.  These didn’t turn out quite as beautiful… but they tasted delicious!  I actually got the recipe off of the Reader’s Digest website.  I wish mine had turned out as pretty as theirs did

Vermont Farmhouse Cheddar Cheese Straws

Makes 30 cheese straws.

1 sheet frozen puff pastry dough (from a 17.3-ounce package)
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon snipped fresh chives
1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme
3/4 teaspoon pimentón (Spanish smoked paprika)
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
All-purpose flour for dusting
1 large egg, beaten with 2 teaspoons water

Directions
1. Remove 1 pastry sheet from the package and let thaw at room temperature for 30 minutes. Tightly seal the remaining pastry and freeze for another use.

2. Position one rack in the center and a second rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat to 425°F. Have ready 2 rimmed baking sheets, preferably nonstick. For pans without a nonstick finish, line the pans with parchment paper or use Silpat mats.

3. In a small bowl, mix together the cheese, chives, thyme, pimentón, and cayenne. Set aside.

4. Unfold the pastry sheet and place it on a lightly floured cutting board. If there are any cracks in the pastry, gently pinch them closed. Using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll over the pastry gently, just enough to remove the fold marks, and then roll it out into a 10-by-15-inch rectangle. Cut in half lengthwise to form two 5-by-15-inch rectangles. Brush each piece with the egg wash. Arrange 1 piece of the dough with the long side facing you and distribute the cheese filling evenly over it. Place the second piece of dough, egg wash side down, on top of the cheese, lining up the edges evenly. Using the rolling pin, press the sheets together to secure the cheese firmly between the layers, especially at the edges.

5. Using a sharp knife or pizza wheel, cut the filled and pressed pastry crosswise into 30 strips, each 1/2 inch wide. Working with 1 strip at a time, twist 3 times and lay the cheese straw on a baking sheet, pressing down the ends firmly to keep it from untwisting during baking. Continue to twist and arrange the remaining strips, placing them 1 inch apart on the baking sheets.

6. Bake for 8 minutes, switch the position of the baking sheets, and continue to bake until the cheese straws are puffed, golden brown, and crisp, about 4 to 6 minutes longer. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool slightly. Serve warm or at room temperature.

My finished product:

As a reward after all my cooking, I broke into the sweet, cold treat that I picked up for myself on sale at Safeway…  Ben and Jerry’s Mission to Marzipan ice cream!

I have been wanting to try this for so long – combining my love of ice cream with my love of marzipan.  I am really surprised this flavor even exists, because I have had so much trouble finding marzipan candy in the US in general.  But I am not complaining!

Right out of the container (unfortunately.)

Oooh, so good.

Later on in the evening, I broke into my first Smores Clif zBar.  I have been wanting to try these for a long time, so I couldn’t wait!

And it was worth the wait.  So delicious.  It was very sweet, just how I like it.  I ate a second one later, in some cottage cheese cheesecake pudding.

Now I’m going to bed.  We are getting up bright and early to head to Oakland – an hour drive – to do the Piedmont Turkey Trot!

G’night ya’ll.

Today was a fun baking day.  One of the best things about working from home is that it makes holidays like Thanksgiving much easier.  I can pop things into the oven to bake while I work.

For breakfast, I started out with a bowl of granola.

Mid-morning was an apple snack:

For lunch, I broke out some Hebrew National hot dogs that I got at Trader Joe’s last weekend.  Those are my favorite hot dogs, sooo good.

In the afternoon it was…. baking time!  I started out with some oatmeal banana chocolate chip cookies.  Still trying to use up those brown bananas…

These were winners.

Oatmeal Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies

12 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temp
1 c. brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 1/2 c. all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 scant teaspoon salt (optional) – use only if using unsalted butter or shortening
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 3/4 c. old-fashioned oatmeal
1 c. mashed banana (about 3 old bananas)
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup toasted chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cream butter and sugar. Mix in egg. Add vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda and salt. Then mix in the oatmeal. Fold in mashed banana then stir in chocolate chips and pecans.

Drop by tablespoons onto parchment lined pans and bake for 11-13 minutes or until cookies appear set. Let cool on wire rack.

Makes about 4 dozen

Yum, yum, yummers!  Into the second freezer they go.  The ones that actually made it into the oven (there seems to be a mysterious cookie-dough monster in my house) and then made it off the cooling rack.

Next I baked a mini-apple crisp.  I used a combination of fuji and honeycrisp apples – cut them up, sprinkled them with cinnamon to prepare.

I love that mini baking dish.  It is the perfect size for making mini-bakes.  I adapted this recipe:

Apple Crisp

4 medium tart cooking apples, sliced (4 cups)
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
1/2 cup quick-cooking or old-fashioned oats
1/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Cream or Ice cream, if desired

Heat oven to 375ºF. Grease bottom and sides of 8-inch square pan with shortening. Spread apples in pan. In medium bowl, stir remaining ingredients except cream until well mixed; sprinkle over apples. Bake about 30 minutes or until topping is golden brown and apples are tender when pierced with a fork. Serve warm with cream.

I divided this recipe by 3, for my mini baking dish, and it was the perfect size.  My mid-afternoon snack was cottage cheese cheesecake pudding with apple crisp!

After my snack, I went to the gym.  I did 40 minutes on the elliptical… slow and steady.  And boooooring.  Afterwards, I ran to Target to get a few items for my final bake-fest of the day… and my favorite.

But first, I made a healthy dinner of cheesy cauliflower, edamame, and Quorn chick’n tenders:

Drumroll please…….

TURKEY COOKIES!!!

Are these not the cutest things you have ever seen?  I saw them on the Pillsbury website and couldn’t resist making them for Thanksgiving.

In case I didn’t mention before, S and I are going over to my friend Wanda’s house for Thanksgiving.  She has five-year-old twins.  There will be other people coming as well – a total of 14 people.  9 adults, 5 kids.  So I thought the kids would love these cookies.

They are really easy – I used ready-to-bake refrigerated dough so the only time-consuming bit was the decorating.

I just can’t get over how frickin cute they are.

I also can’t get over how much frosting, how many cookies, and how many candy corn pieces I ate while I was making them.  Oops.

So now I am off to bed.  On an exciting note… my spiral slicer arrived today!  I didn’t get a chance to try it, because of my baking bonanza, but I promise you that there will be a review coming very soon.

G’night, ya’ll.

This morning it was haaaaaaaaard to get out of bed.  The good news is that I didn’t have any meetings the entire day, so I didn’t have a hard start or stop to the day.  That is always nice, because then I have the flexibility to do other things at various times throughout the day.

For breakfast, I had a great bowl of pumpkin oats.

I am going to stock up on canned pumpkin before this winter is over.  I hate how it disappears off shelves for the rest of the year as soon as the fall/winter seasons are over.

Mid-morning, I snacked on this cute little box of MultiGrain Cheerios that they handed me at the gym.

They must have some sort of contract with Cheerios, because they gave me two free boxes and a coupon.  Woo hoo!  I love me my Cheerios.

Speaking of Cheerios, have you ever seen the show “Glee“?  That is my new guilty pleasure.  The cheerleading squad on Glee is called the Cheerios, and the cheerleading coach is hilarious.

For lunch, I had a salad made with the Quorn chick’n tenders.  I actually like those more and more each time that I have them.

It was romaine, zucchini, edamame, egg whites, mozzarella cheese, and the chick’n tenders.  Drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

A mid-afternoon snack was a fudgy chocolate VitaTop.

and some cereal.

I also snuck some peppermint stick ice cream out of the container (no picture, for obvious reasons.)

Then I decided to go for a run outside.  It is chilly, so I broke out the long sleeved running shirts and the capris.  I ran five miles and really tried to push it.  And push it I did… I averaged 8:21 miles!  I was so happy to see this on my Garmin:

I was completely wiped but so excited.  Check out my sweaty celebratory face.

When S got home, we did something new and fun.  Over the weekend, we went to Target and bought….  drumroll please…  TENNIS RACKETS!   We played tennis once in Switzerland and although we both sucked, it was really fun.  So ever since then, I have been wanting to play.

There is an outdoor court close to our house, so we headed there at about 6:30 because S came home from work early.  It was already dark and was pretty cold, but it was still super fun.  I forgot my camera, but this is exactly what I looked like:

Oh, and after we were done, I went home and changed into something more comfortable and I looked like this:

Don’t be jealous.

Dinner was a veggie, egg white and hummus plate,

Followed by cottage cheese cheesecake pudding with two crumbled banana muffins on top.

Now I’m off to read a little and head to bed.

Cheerio!

Last night, as I was working, I cut up some kiwis and pears for the Excalibur. When I woke up Sunday morning (promptly at 10:15 for the Steelers game) I had this waiting for me downstairs:

Woo hoo! I snacked on dried fruit and these, which I got at Trader Joe’s.

Baby kiwis! Aren’t they adorable? I had never seen them before. They were delicious – tasted just like big kiwis but a little bit sweeter and you didn’t have to worry about whether to eat the skin (as I do with regular kiwis) or peel it off (as S insists.)

Nibbling on dried and regular fruit didn’t keep me full for that long, but that was fine because it was soon lunch time.  I grumpily made a veggie-sausage salad.

I got some mad goodies at the grocery store yesterday.  Even though Trader Joe’s is really close to where I live, I haven’t been going that often for some reason.  Usually it’s just quicker and easier to head to Safeway, and I often want a few small, specific things that I can’t get at Trader Joes (particularly now that I am cooking for both S and myself.)  So I was really excited that I got to go there!

I was grumpy because once again, the game was too close for comfort.

It ended up going into overtime.  And then… we lost.  Again.  Big Ben took a blow to the head and got taken out of the game.

During the game, we chowed down on some yummy ribs from TJ’s.

While we watched, JB chilled on his new favorite spot:  On top of the freezer.  Get it?  Chilled on top of the freezer?

I think he likes it up there because it is warm.  It’s also where we keep the booze… that doesn’t hurt.

Just chillaxin.

In that one, he looks like he actually started drinking the booze.

Oh, and just in case you were wondering if we actually did need another freezer?  Please view Exhibit A:  Our less than one-week-old, 13.7 cubic foot freezer that was absolutely empty when it was delivered five days ago.

It is pretty much already completely full.  ‘Nuff said.

My dinner was the remainder of the ribs, and these:

I am so addicted to these.

Look at these beautiful sugary puffs of love.

Rachel + Vanilla meringue cookies + meeting cancelled on Sunday nights = pure dreaming bliss.

G’night, ya’ll!

First of all, today was my sister’s senior recital for university. She is a senior music major. The rest of my family (my mom, dad and his wife, and my other sister) were all there and I was sad I couldn’t be there. Yet another event (one of the many in the past few months, it seems) where the entire family has been able to be together except for me. I hate that. But anyhow, congratulations Sarah!

Last night at around 11:30pm, we heard a lot of noise outside.  Cars, sirens, people yelling.  We finally looked outside and saw this:

Our street was in chaos.  Completely closed off, with flares, police officers, and fire trucks everywhere.  People were all outside, standing on the sidewalks.  There was a helicopter circling above.  It was crazy.  And 100 yards away, there was thick smoke billowing into the air.  You could smell the burning.

It was the 7-eleven just a few doors down.  The whole thing was completely destroyed – in the morning it was gutted.  It is so sad.  That was someone’s livelihood, their business.  One second it was their life, the family that ran it, and the next it was gone.  Fire is so scary.  I wonder if they will rebuild and reopen.

This morning, we went to Barnes and Noble.  It was already around noon, so I guess it wasn’t really breakfast.  But I got a fabulous cookie:

It was great but didn’t fill me up for very long.  We went to Trader Joe’s for our weekly big grocery trip, stopped at Safeway on the way home for a few extras, and by the time we unloaded and put stuff away I was starving.  I made us some cheesy rigatoni with tomato sauce.

S and I are trying to get into college football now.  So we watched an hour of so on TV.  It’s not as exciting as the NFL, in my opinion, but that is probably because I have never really watched before and I’m not emotionally invested in any of the teams.  I’m hoping that will change as we start watching more!

For dinner, I met a friend at California Pizza Kitchen.  I love that place, it is one of my favorite places to go.   My friend Christi is from Pittsburgh, like me, and travels back there every year for a trip.  She stays for a whole month, from Thanksgiving through Christmas.  Since she is leaving on Tuesday and will be gone for such a long time, we met for one last get-together beforehand.

I didn’t really feel like pizza for some reason, so I got a shrimp caesar salad:

While I was out, I realized that it was the first time in seven months that I have gone out to eat without S.  Isn’t that absolutely crazy?

We have been talking a lot lately, and we have decided we need to do at least some things on our own.  I started it a little while ago when I began playing basketball again.  Now we are going to work on each going out with a friend or two every so often.  I think that’s really important for our relationship, especially now that we live together and are together all the time.  Sometimes I feel like I need time away from him, but then when I go out to dinner with friends or something, like I did on Saturday night for just a few hours, I miss him.

When I got home, he was starving.  Of course he couldn’t actually make dinner for himself while I was gone!  He would waste away to nothing before he actually heated up a frozen pizza for himself for dinner.  Geez.  I made him some dinner, and made myself some dessert.

Peppermint stick ice cream!  Tis the season.

Now I’m off to work.  Yes, on a Saturday night   Oh well, it only happens every once in a while.  And in this economy, I’m thankful to even have my job…..

I’m talking about bananas, all you sickos.

Friday morning started out with this:

Yes, a white-chocolate-covered christmas-tree-shaped rice krispies treat, I’m afraid.  I saw it at Target, and I succumbed.  *sigh*.

At least I balanced it out with this:

A green banana.  I have seen several people lately talking about how they like their bananas.  I like ‘em green!!!  I’m talkin kermit the frog green.  Don’t ask me why, I always have.  As soon as they turn yellow, they don’t taste as good.  And when they have… gasp… brown spots?  It’s all over.  I’m afraid at that point, banana bread is the only option.

On the exciting fruit-front… I am pleased to announce that my local Target has now started selling some fresh fruits, vegetables, meats and cheeses.  It is a very welcome change and I am really excited about it because Target is right next to my gym and I like going there.  And, this time when I went… I saw these!!

A 4lb box of honeycrisp apples for $5.99!  I paid $1.99 per pound for them, on sale, at Safeway last time.  Woo hoo!  You know I hit that up.  So a honeycrisp was my morning snack.  Unfortunately, I do not have a picture because I ate it in the car on the way home…

For lunch, I used these which I got on sale at Whole Foods:

Quorn chick’n tenders.  I had never had these before, but have loved all the other Quorn products I have tried.  The only problem is that they are usually pretty expensive.

I made a Quorn chick’n tenders salad.

The tenders didn’t taste like real chicken at all to me, but they were still delicious.  I like all different kinds of meat-substitutes, even if they don’t taste anything like meat.

In the afternoon, I went to the gym and had an awesome workout.  Since before I went to Switzerland, I have been back at level 12 on the stepmill.  I had been trying to work my way up in minutes on level 13, but had started feeling really tired and was also beginning my taper for the marathon so I went back to level 12.  The longest I had gone at level 13 was 25 minutes.  Well, Friday I decided to go big or go home.  I set the stepmill for 30 minutes at level 13.  I was dripping sweat by the time it was done, but I did it!  I was so happy.

I celebrated on the way home, because I passed Dairy Queen and this was calling my name.

A chocolate chip cookie dough blizzard.  Heaven in a cup.  I restrained myself… I got a small.  And I ate every.  single.  bite.

I was full when I got home, but was so excited when I saw the Vitalicious package on my porch.  It was the variety pack I ordered two days ago and had forgotten about already!  I was able to hold off for an hour, but finally broke out a double chocolate dream vitatop:

I love, love, love vitatops!  In my shipment, I got a variety of flavors that I haven’t tried before so I’m very excited to try them.  My order contained:

• 4 VitaBrownies
• 2 Chocolate Fig VitaTops
• 2 Banana Nut VitaTops
• 2 Double Chocolate Dream VitaTops
• 2 Deep Chocolate VitaTops
• 2 Fudgy Peanut Butter Chip VitaTops
• 2 Golden Corn VitaTops
• 2 CranBran VitaTops
• 2 AppleBerry VitaTops
• 2 MultiBran VitaTops
• 2 BlueBran Vita Tops

I am so excited to try them all.

In my continued effort to cook one dinner for S and I, I made manicotti.

I beefed mine up by having it on top of steamed broccoli and egg whites with parmesan cheese.  It was incredible.  I also had a Fage greek yogurt, for some calcium.  I am making an effort to have more dairy each day, and since I don’t like milk… yogurt is key.

Then S and I went to Borders and read some magazines and drank coffee until they closed.  I absolutely love doing that, it is one of my favorite things ever.  When we got back home, I had some vanilla ice cream with a banana muffin for dessert.

It was so good, even JB wanted some.

I can’t wait until it is the weekend, so I can catch up on sleep.  I am always happy on Thursdays, because I feel like Wednesdays (my long work days) are over so I just have to get through Thurs and Friday and it’s the weekend!

I do have to work this weekend, though.  I have a project deployment Saturday night.  Oh well…

A recap of yesterday:

For breakfast, I had an omelette with laughing cow cheese, and some yogurt with dried fruit and cereal.

That held me over until lunch, when I had a roast beef salad:

Mid-afternoon, I had some cereal.

and two of my banana nut muffins:

Dinner was spaghetti with tomato sauce and broiled shrimp.  Simple, quick, and oh-so-good.

Dessert was yogurt with strawberries, angel food cake and strawberry topping.  Strawberry shortcake!

We went to bed around 11, but got into a “heated” discussion about our working/living situation.  It’s amazing to me…  I can be completely exhausted, but once we get into a bit of a debate, my mind is swimming and too busy for me to fall asleep.  S, on the other hand, can be arguing one minute and literally snoring and completely knocked out the next.  And that’s exactly what happened last night.  While S was out like a light, I couldn’t sleep so I went downstairs to watch some TV on my laptop.  I started watching the show Glee, because a few of my friends really love it and insist it is one of the best new shows on television.  I must admit, I enjoyed it.  So much that I watched the first three episodes all in a row   It has this cute kind of sarcastic humor that I really like.

The problem is, during the week, S and I don’t have much of a life.  He works in San Francisco, so he has a 1.5 hour commute each way to work every day.  Recently things have been a little better for him, because he has been driving about 25 min to the train station, and then taking the train into the city.  So he can work on his computer, read, etc. while on the train.  However, it means that not only does he work a regular full-time job, but he also works overtime (par for the course in our line of work) and then still has another 1.5 hours after he leaves the office until he arrives home.  Sometimes more, if there is traffic or some sort of accident.

On a good night, he gets home around 7pm.  On a bad night, it can be 8 or even after.  By the time he gets home, I am exhausted (because my work days usually start at 6) and starving (because I try to wait for him to have dinner).  And on nights he has asked me to wait for him to go to the gym, I am cranky (because it is hot and crowded and I am so tired) and then I am super cranky if something holds him up and either I have to go alone at night, or we don’t get to go at all.

So I feel like during the week, we are like an old married couple.  He gets home late, I cook dinner and do the dishes and make his lunch for the next day.  We talk about our days at work, complain about how tired we are.  And then we go to bed.  The end.

Don’t get me wrong, in a way I love this routine.  I love him, and I love our life together.  I love our comfort level and how I know he will be home with me at the end of the night – talking, laughing and/or complaining about the little things that happened during the day.  I just wish it could be a little bit different.  I guess it’s just what we have to do right now.  It won’t be forever – either he will get a new job, or we could move closer to the city… or he could transfer to somewhere else within his company.  But he has only been working there for about a year, so we just have to hang tight.

Ok, enough analysis.  As you can see, my brain just goes crazy.  That’s why I need to take breaks and watch happy shows like “Glee”.

While I was watching it, I snacked on a Luna cookie:

I like theses, they are good.  But they are pretty much just a Clif Zbar in the shape of a square… in my opinion.  They look and taste exactly the same.  But since I love Clif Zbars, that is not  a problem!

On another note, my mom is coming to visit soon!  She will be arriving the first week of December.  This is the third year in a row (every row since I moved here) that she has come to visit for my birthday.  She will be meeting S for the first time, and will be the first of my family members to meet him!  I can’t believe that I have met his entire extended family and he hasn’t even met my mother yet.  I know she will love him, though.

Since my Wednesdays consist pretty much of work, work and more work, this will be a short and sweet picture post.

Breakfast:

I actually ate the muffins half frozen.  I really like pastries and sweet cakes/bars when they are frozen or really, really cold.  They always taste better to me that way, for some reason!

You can even see a little bit of frost on them.

Mid-morning snack:

Lunch:

Mid-afternoon snack  (yes, I’m sorry to say that I ate all 5 in the course of the afternoon…)

Munched on while making dinner:

And dinner.  A whole-wheat tortilla wrap with quinoa, cheese, smoked oysters, and red peppers.  Delicious!

With a pear on the side.

Dessert was yogurt with my last two “Fool Yourself” cookies.  Too bad, so sad.

I had a handful of these too:

May tomorrow be a more relaxing day.  G’night, ya’ll.