Today, I got a random email from my sister.  I say random because right now she is on a vacation in Mexico with her fiance, so we didn’t expect to hear from her for another week or so.  And the gist of this email was…  she and her fiance are changing the date of their wedding from their planned date of November 2010 to OCTOBER 2009!!!

Yes… that is in one month.  And, they are going to do it in Hershey, PA on October 10th.  Which, in case you forgot, is the exact day I leave for Switzerland. Are you kidding me?  So now I have to choose between a rare overseas trip that I have had planned for months and my own sister’s wedding.  I’m not sure what I’m going to do yet, but here’s one main consideration point:  My sister changes her mind every second.  No plan is ever “solid” with her… she will literally decide to do something else 5 minutes before she is supposed to do it.  So I’m afraid that if I change my plans, if I pay a lot of money to cancel or alter my trip to Switzerland, she will then go and change her mind and not get married on the 10th or not get married in Hershey or something.  And then I will go CRAZY.

There is other drama surrounding this marriage too – suffice to say that nobody’s very excited about it at all.  In reality, it is probably better if they do have a small, simple wedding – less drama (which they don’t need), less money (which they don’t have.)  But it is kind of sad, especially for my sister who I know has always wanted a big wedding with a Cinderella dress, etc.  She is only barely 24 years old… I don’t know what the rush is.

So that’s the daily dilemma, I’m going to have to talk to the rest of my family about it (and S) and decide what to do.   And if I do change my trip to Switzerland and go a little later, S can’t change his because he has exams for school the first week we are there – he absolutely has to be there the week of the 10th.  So if I do change anything, I will be on my own.

Lunch was a turkey salad.  Hey, at least I’m consistent.

Snacks were cereal:

And a cold treat of Arctic Zero vanilla ice cream, strawberries, and a crumbled Kashi crunchy TLC bar:

The vanilla Arctic Zero is growing on me.  For some reason it tastes better to me today than it did yesterday, and it really tastes good when I add in fruit and some crunchies!  So I am happy again   I still prefer the chocolate and chocolate peanut butter, but I will manage to force the vanilla down for sure

For dinner, I made S potato salad as a side.  He has really been wanting potato salad – but it is a tough thing for me to make because I have never in my life eaten potato salad.  I know, crazy.  But I don’t like potatoes (except for sweet potatoes) and I don’t like mayonnaise… so that pretty much eliminates the two main ingredients, right?  So I was kind of making it up as I went along.  I looked at a few recipes online to get a basic concept, and then just threw things together.  I barely even tasted it to see if it was ok, because I don’t like it to begin with so it always wouldn’t really taste good to me.  S loved the final result, although he said the potatoes were usually sliced (I cut them more into cubes… that’s how I had always seen potato salad…) so I’ll try that next time.  He at half for dinner and will take the other half for lunch tomorrow:

Potato Salad a la Rachel-who-has-never-eaten-it-before

8 red potatoes

1 cup mayonnaise

4 hard boiled eggs

1 tablespoon vinegar

1 tablespoon mustard

1 teaspoon sugar

2 teaspoons paprika

sprinkle of basil

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 cup chopped celery

1/2 cup chopped onions

*I wanted to add some dill too… but didn’t have any.  So it was dill-less.

Cut the potatoes into cubes (note to self:  S likes slices better) and boiled them for about 8 minutes.  Put them aside to cool.  In another bowl, mix mayonnaise and spices.  Add chopped hard boiled eggs to the mix.  Once potatoes are cool, mix mayonnaise mixture into potatoes.  Add celery and onions and mix.  Let sit in the fridge – the longer the better.  I think this is one of those recipes that tastes good right away, but tastes better the next day…

Dinner for me was chopped veggies and hummus, grilled salmon, and egg whites with laughing cow cheese.  I made the salmon on the george foreman grill (because I was making the rest of S’s dinner in the toaster oven), and was not impressed.  It was really tough.  Does anybody have suggestions about how to make salmon taste good on the George Foreman?

And some strawberries on the side:

And dessert was some chocolate fudge brownie ice cream:

And I just had my final snack for the night – some of my Swiss chocolate stash (what you see pictured here x 2….)

Now it’s off to bed to dream of why my sister could possibly be in such a hurry to get married.  I close with a picture I just took of the two loves of my life:

Oh Cheese.  How I heart thee.  Especially when you are melted and put on top of other kinds of other splendid mouth-watering delights.  I am already excited for the insane amounts of cheese I plan to ingest when I go to Switzerland.  I am going to turn into a block of cheese, I am going to eat so much.

For anyone who started reading my blog the past few weeks, I am usually a pretty healthy eater (with a mean sweet tooth.)  But right now, with my boyfriend’s family visiting from Switzerland, I have been doing a lot of eating out, a lot of trying new things that they brought and a lot of eating fantastic Swiss meals and drinking good wine.  They are leaving this Sunday, so the party will come to an end, but for now I’m just trying to relax and enjoy it (while maintaining my healthy eating the rest of the time when I’m not with them, continuing my exercise, and trying to keep portion sizes under control.)  Things will change after Sunday.

For breakfast, I had a nectarine, green tea and my coffee.  I just wasn’t feelin breaky… had to force myself to eat something (ha, when have you ever heard me say THAT?!?!)

Lunch was my turkey salad.  Used up my edamame and olives, and not sure when I’m going to have time to go to the grocery store   So at least my salad will have some new stuff tomorrow!

Snacks were a few creamsicles and some cereal:

I went to the gym where I tried to mix things up a little by doing a new program on the stepmill.  I always do the fat burning routine, but I read on Sparkpeople the other day that those fat burning routines actually aren’t as good for you as they sound, because they are specifically designed to keep your heart rate low so your body is in “fat burning” mode.  However, in order to burn fat and the same amount of calories as high-intensity workouts, you need to go for a much longer period of time.  And I was in a bit of a rush yesterday so I tried the aerobic program for 30 minutes.  The first half was easy, I was on level 12 and wasn’t having trouble at all.  So I bumped it up to level 13… but then the hard part started (and I had just bumped the level up) so by the end I was pretty much dead.  Then I did 15 minutes on the elliptical with arms, but I can’t really remember that because I was a zombie at that point.

After the gym, I became a baking beauty.  I was going to Stephen’s house for dinner where his parents were cooking us a traditional Swiss meal, and I wanted to bring something.  So I decided to make a recipe that was given to me by my Grandmother, passed down from her mother.  It is for Mandelbroit, a Jewish almond bread that is very similar to biscotti.  I thought Stephen and his family would like that, and it was kind of a traditional Jewish recipe which would be a nice compliment to the coffee they always have after their traditional Swiss dinner.  I was a little nervous as I had only tried to make this recipe once before and had totally messed it up somehow.  The dough came out way too soft and I couldn’t even shape it to bake.  I kept adding flour until it was impossible to use, they would have been horrible.  But this time they turned out great!  First I shaped the dough into two logs, put them on the baking sheet and flattened them a little bit:

I baked them for a while, then took them out, let them cool, cut them into diagonal slices, and put them back in to bake some more (flipping them in the middle.)  They turned out great, although I was really pressed for time so didn’t allow them to cool properly afterwards before I had to bag them up and take them.

I was so proud of myself, and they were a big hit!  Here is the recipe:

Mandelbroit

24 servings (serving size: 1 bread/cookie)
Ingredients

* 1 3/4  cups  all-purpose flour (about 7 3/4 ounces)
* 1 1/2  teaspoons  baking powder
* 1/4  teaspoon  salt
* 3/4  cup  sugar
* 1/4  cup  butter, softened
* 2  large eggs
* 2  teaspoons  vanilla extract
* 1  cup  chopped almonds

Preparation

Preheat oven to 325°.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt, stirring with a whisk.

Combine sugar and butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture; beat until combined. Stir in almonds.

Shape dough into 2 (9-inch-long) rolls. Place rolls on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper; pat to 1-inch thickness. Bake at 325° for 30 minutes or until rolls are golden. Cool on baking sheet 10 minutes.

Cut each roll diagonally into 12 (1/2-inch-thick) slices. Place, cut sides down, on baking sheet. Bake at 325° for 15 minutes. Turn the cookies over, and bake an additional 10 minutes (cookies will be slightly soft in center but will harden as they cool). Remove from baking sheet; cool completely on a wire rack.

For dinner, Stephen’s parents made Raclette – a type of cheese dish featuring melted cheese from the Swiss Alps.  Stephen’s family brought the cheese with them from Switzerland.  You use this machine that kind of looks like a midevil torture device to melt the cheese right in front of you at the table (his family brought the machine with them too, but they are leaving it when they go so that Stephen and I can make raclette ourselves!!!):

image from:  http://www.kitchenemporium.com

You light the burner underneath, put the cheese on it, and wait for it to melt and bubble.  Then you take this little scraper thing, tilt it so that it is like a slide, and scrape the cheese off the end onto your plate – onto or next to whatever you want to eat it with.  You can find some more information and pictures about raclette at . We had bread, potatoes, raw vegetables, pickled vegetables… the works.  It tasted incredible, plus it was just fun because you got to make your food in front of yourself and slide the ooey gooey cheese down the cheese slide!  Woo hoo!

Oh my.  I’m stuffed completely, but my mouth is watering just putting the pictures in this post.  And for dessert, we had banana splits:

And finally, finished off the night with coffee, tea, and the mandelbroit:

But now, I’m afraid, I took a Tylenol PM for a headache. At any time now I could become unconscious at my laptop…  So I’m off to bed.  Good night!

a priest who lives in Rome but is visiting his brothers in San Mateo?  Apparently… you call him Stephen.  Yes, today I met the man that Stephen (my boyfriend Stephen) was named after.  It is the priest who married his parents 26 years ago, and also baptized Stephen when he was a baby.  That priest, as I mentioned, now lives in Rome and works closely with the Catholic church.  Coincidentally, he was in town visiting his brothers at the same time that Stephen’s parents are in town, so he invited us to a get-together at his brother’s house.  We showed up in the afternoon to their house – a cute, old house on a small street barely wide enough for two cars to drive past eachother when there were cars parked on the side of the road.  Very quaint, with the catered party in the back yard.  A well-manicured place with beautiful rose bushes and trees, complete with flowers and ivy growing up the side of the house.  It looked like a story book house.

My morning started off well.  Friday evening I slept alone at my house because Stephen stayed in SF with his family for dinner and didn’t get home until late.  We met at Barnes and Nobles this morning at 10:45 for our weekly ritual.  It wasn’t as nice waking up together and going together… wasn’t exactly our ritual, but it was still great.  And, this morning, we talked the whole time.  I didn’t even read any of my magazines.  What did we talk about?  We talked about moving in together.  Stephen’s lease is up at the end of September, and I think he is going to move into my house with me.  Is this a big step?  Yes, for me it’s huge.  Part of the problem is that I know it’s not nearly as big of a step for him.  But I have to decide to either accept that and be ok with it, or not accept it and tell him to get another apartment.  And that doesn’t really make sense when I look at our relationship and the big picture.  More on that in a bit.

For breakfast, along with my Starbucks coffee, I took some homemade protein cottage-cheese cheesecake:

I don’t think that I ever shared my recipe for this.  Here it is:

High-protein cottage cheese cheesecake:

2 cups cottage cheese (I use nonfat)

4 oz fat free cream cheese

1/4 cup eggbeaters

2 egg whites

splenda/sweetener to taste

1 tsp vanilla

1 scoop (approx 1 oz) protein powder

Blend all together in the blender until smooth.  Pour into a sprayed pan – I have used pie pans, 8×8″ square pans (if doubling the recipe), loaf pans, etc.  Bake for approximately 50 minutes at 325 degrees.  You can eat it hot or cold, I prefer cold…

I also had a Fiber One oats and peanut butter granola bar.

Then we met up with Stephen’s parents and headed up to the priest party.  The food there was catered and delicious – I had some steamed lemon asparagus, some strawberries and some sashimi tuna salad:

For dinner, I had a turkey salad and a bag of cheddar popchips.  I also had another piece of the cottage cheese cheesecake, and some cocoa almonds:

I didn’t go to the gym today – it’s the first time in a long time that I can remember not getting any exercise.  I suppose I walked and was on my feet a great deal, but it still makes me feel crappy.  Oh well, hopefully it will save up my energy for the 10-mile run tomorrow morning!  My stomach has been hurting all evening, so Stephen and I are finishing up the night with some chamomile tea (in my Steelers mug, of course!)

Today was a relaxing day.  Unfortunately, I got a very limited amount of work done.  But it was worth it.  Stephen worked from home today – my home, to be precise.  I love that feeling.  Being with someone you love, just sitting at home.  Each doing your own thing – I was doing my work, he was doing his work.  Most of the time we weren’t talking or saying a word to eachother.  But knowing that the other person is just right there.  I love, love that.  That has been the hardest part of living alone for me.  It’s not that I need constant attention or to be having conversations all the time.  It’s just that I like having someone else there.  Sure, JB helps a lot.  But he’s still not a person

That being said, as much as I enjoy Stephen’s company, I am questioning this more and more.  I don’t know if it’s just a part of the process – it’s been almost three months now, and I have had this discussion with people before.  Three months is a quarter of a year and it’s kind of like the stop and analyze point.  At that point, you feel like you pretty much have gotten to know a lot about someone, and the honeymoon period and the novelty is wearing off.  You have cried in front of them, farted in front of them, and done likewise other embarassing and/or revealing actions that you might or might not wish you could undo.  I have to say, it seems like much longer than three months for me and Stephen, because we are literally together all the time (except for the hours of the day we are each at work.)  Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing is debatable, but it is what it is.

I didn’t have breakfast, unfortunately.  Bad Rachel.  Just coffee.  For lunch it was my typical salad, with turkey as my protein.

First afternoon snack was a Fiber One bar.

Second one was an apple:

I went to the gym in the afternoon.  Amazingly, I wasn’t sore from my 9-mile run yesterday, I couldn’t believe it.  I was tired, but that was just because I didn’t get any sleep last night (as usual.)  At the gym, I did 30 minutes on the elliptical with arms.  I hate that thing.  I came home and made Stephen homemade cheeseburgers for dinner.  They were really good, here is the recipe:

Hamburger recipe:

1 lb ground beef (I used 80/20…  Stephen is skinny as a stick so doesn’t care about the fat content)

2 tbsp bread crumbs

1 egg

a pinch of paprika

a pinch of salt

a pinch of garlic powder

I mixed it all together with my hands and then molded it into patties and fried them in the pan.  And voila!  I have actually never made my own burgers before, and was really impressed with how these turned out.

For dinner I also had an apple with peanut butter and some soy chicken nuggets from Trader Joes (with honey for dipping).  And some chocolate meringue cookies for dessert:

After dinner, we went for a walk.  It was really nice, just walking and talking.  That is something that I have always envisioned doing with my husband when I got older… finishing dinner and going for a walk together in the neighborhood each night.  Just walking and talking, hand in hand, as the sun goes down.  Silly?  Maybe, but I would love it.  Maybe with a dog…

When we got home, I grabbed two chocolate covered pretzels and a Promax protein bar and headed over to Stephen’s to sleep.  Once again, I’m not going to bed until well after midnight and my first meeting is at 7am tomorrow.  I’m not sure how much more of this I can take… each day I say it is the last, but of course it never is.

Like I said, I am starting to question.  I will try to write more about it tomorrow if I have time.  Friday will be three months – the day after his parents get here.  Maybe I can just sleep through it………………

Just one more night.  Tomorrow, at this time, Boris and Natascha will be safely on their plane flying back to Switzerland.  Good riddance to bad rubbish.  So tonight I’m doing my own thing.  And I’m kinda liking it.  I went to the gym, and didn’t hurry to take a shower afterwards.  Just sat around my house, eating cherries, making rice pudding and enjoying my stink, haha.  And then when I took my shower, I didn’t have to get ready for anything afterwards.  You know what that means…  no makeup, no hair drying, and the opportunity to just walk around my house naked as I air dry.  Woo hoo!  I love living alone sometimes.

This morning, we woke up early but Stephen couldn’t get out of bed so he asked if it was ok if he took the train an hour later.  He asked because that would mean he got home an hour later… but I told him I didn’t care because he was just going home to Natascha and Boris so he could come home whenever he liked.  So we went back to sleep for another hour, that was kind of nice.  Especially considering we had gone to sleep after 1am in the freaking morning.

Work was insanely busy again today.  I love, love, love it like that!  In the morning, I had my green tea again.  That’s the third day in a row, I am on a roll!  Then for breakfast had an omelette with laughing cow cheese, cherries, and my coffee:

My salad for lunch:

And my Kashi cereal snack with a creamsicle and a fudgsicle:

I went to the gym and did a quick Target run because I had some coupons.  I was ready to stock up on my go-to, Kashi GoLean cereal, because it was on sale – but they were sold out!    So I got Kashi Honey Sunshine cereal instead.  I have been meaning to try that and never got around to it because I am so addicted to GoLean.  I also treated myself to some Lindt Lindor Stracciatella truffles – I had a coupon for $1 off, plus they were on sale, and they look incredible.  White chocolate and rich cocoa pieces surround a smooth, white chocolate center.  Like whoa.  Oh, and I got four new flavors of gum – anybody who knows me knows that I am addicted to gym.  I chew it all the time, and love trying new flavors.  Snack after the gym was some cherries, a chocolate-covered pretzel and two fudgesicles:

Then I decided to make some rice pudding to use up some rice that I cooked for dinner the other night and didn’t end up using.  I tried a new recipe that I found online, with some substitutes – I used the Almond Breeze almond milk that I had, splenda instead of sugar, and eggbeaters instead of the egg.  I used original flavor almond milk, but I also have chocolate so am going to try that next time.  Here is the recipe and some pics, it turned out delicious!  This is a good way for someone like me to get brown rice into their diet, because I am just not a fan of rice.

Rice Pudding

*  2 cups cooked brown rice
* 2 cups soymilk
* 1/3 cup sugar
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
* 1 egg

Directions
1.  In medium size sauce pan over medium-high heat combine soy milk with sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon bring to a boil while constantly stirring.
2.  In a separate bowl large enough to accommodate the hot liquid beat the egg with a whisk while slowly adding the hot liquid a little bit at a time until all of the liquid has been added to the egg.
3.  Place the 2 cups of cooked rice into the pan used to cook the soy milk mixture.
4.  Add the soy milk mixture to the rice in the pan and return heat to medium-high, stir constantly until the mixture comes to a boil then reduce heat to simmer.
5.  Simmer mixture for 15-20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes until the mixture is a creamy consistency.
6.  Remove from heat, cover top with wax paper and place in the refrigerator to cool.

I ate half, and so still have half for tomorrow.  For dinner, it was a salad, two bowls of mixed cereal (gulp) and two fudgsicles.  The new Kashi Honey Sunshine is really good!

I’m going to read my book, turn in early, and sleep with JB since he will actually get into bed with me when Stephen’s not around.  Tomorrow is Friday and this whole B&N nightmare is over.  I really need a hair cut and would like to get it dyed too… anybody know of a good place to get it done in the San Jose area?  That’s not too expensive?  Since I moved here over 3 years ago, I haven’t gotten my hair cut here once.  Each year, I have gotten it cut and highlighted (yes, once a year) when I took a trip home to Pittsburgh.  Nice, huh?  So any suggestions are welcome… I’m not picky, especially about the cut, but the color makes me a bit nervous.  I am looking to go a few shades lighter, to maybe a really light brown or dirty blonde.  Yeah, maybe I’m selling out a little.  But I do live in California…

I am flipping exhausted, and it’s only Monday.  Last night I went to bed waaaay too late – didn’t fall asleep until after one because I was all worked up over that whole “lunar landing was a hoax” documentary.  And then I got worked up over the fact that I was so worked up about it.  I don’t understand why it bothered me so much, and that bothers me.  Stephen says it’s because it goes against everything that I was taught, and maybe he’s right.  I really hate it in general when people try to stir up controversy and trouble for no reason.  It’s so unneccessary and is just negative and poisonous.  I also get defensive sometimes – I have noticed that I can get particularly defensive when Stephen says things about some aspect of my life.  For example, my job.  I know that Stephen really loves his job and thinks that it is great – and it is really good.  It has many perks and benefits and is a good job.  But my job is good too… even though I like to complain about it sometimes and things are kind of unstable right now so everybody is a little concerned about layoffs.  Even though I complain about my job and my company sometimes, I don’t want Stephen to!  It’s like… I can say bad things about my family, but nobody else better say bad things about my family!  Dem fighting words.  It’s the same thing when Stephen says something about the United States.  He loves the US (and is constantly trash-talking Switzerland) but he still thinks the US has many problems (as do I.)  But even though he is a citizen every bit as much as I am, I still think of him as a foreigner in a way so I get defensive if he says anything about the US government or way of doing things.  But I really do admire and respect a lot of things about him.  He has a scientific mind – he just questions everything and wants to really understand the reasons and proof behind everything.  Sometimes that drives me crazy, and sometimes I love it.  I do think that he often tries to be different from everybody else and he purposely goes against the grain.  I’m not sure why… I honestly think it’s just to prove that he can.  That annoys me.  But I definitely respect overall his enthusiasm for questions and learning.

So yeah, it was really tough to get out of bed this morning.  I left Stephen’s place at 7:30, and stopped by Safeway quickly on the way home to pick up some things I needed to make his dinner.  I also picked up a few things for me – some fat free cheese, some roasted turkey, some cherries (on sale, woo hoo!) and some popsicles/fudgesicles (no sugar added.)  For breaky, I had eggbeaters with laughing cow cheese, a plum, and my coffee:

Coffee!

Morning was just worky worky.  For lunch, I had my salad with a Ballpark Smoked Turkey Frank (I know… I shouldn’t eat such processed food.  Trying to cut back on that…)

More worky, and then my cereal snack followed by two popsicles and a creamsicle, and a chocolate covered banana:

Then I hit the gym.  I was exhausted, so wasn’t sure how much I would be able to do.  I managed to do 25 minutes on the stepmill (fat burning program, level 12) and 20 minutes on the recumbant bike (Random program, level 13.)  Not bad, was feeling exhausted but good afterwards.

Came home, had a shower and had a plum and some cereal for a snack:

I did some more work, and cooked Stephen’s lunch for tomorrow (whole wheat penne with homemade alfredo sauce and ground beef).  I invented a new recipe for alfredo sauce because I had to use up the sour cream we had left in the fridge before it went bad.  Here is the recipe:

Sour Cream Alfredo Sauce

1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1 egg yolk, slightly beaten
garlic powder/minced garlic to taste

Melt butter over low heat. Add sour cream, then egg yolk.  Add cheese.  Heat until hot but not boiling.  Toss with pasta.

This recipe turned out pretty good, I was impressed with my improvisation skills

Then I picked him up from the train station and brought him back to my place where I made us dinner – black bean and ground beef quesadillas with sour cream/salsa for Stephen, my big salad for me.  And vitatop and meringue cookies for dessert.  The picture only shows eight, because thats how many I set out to have, but I ended up eating eight more after that.  Oy!  I wonder why I’m not losing any weight?!?!

After that, I started trying to get the million stupid worms and trojans off my computer that have been lurking there.  It’s my own fault that I have them… from all the p2p stuff I do and downloading.  I knew it would bite me in the butt one day!  That took a long time, but I am clean now.  So off to bed… way later than I promised myself I would go.  Boo!

I had a great day today.  First of all, I didn’t wake up until 9:45 which I NEVER do.  I am almost always up at 7:30 (that is, if I don’t have to wake up earlier for work of course).  I have some kind of mental alarm clock, always have.  But last night, I’ll admit it, I took a Simply Sleep pill.  I haven’t been sleeping well at all the past week, and I knew that I didn’t have work today so I really wanted to just get a great, full night’s sleep.  I barely ever take medicine at all, but particularly sleeping pills.  Firstly because I know that they can be addictive, but moreso because I never needed them.  Falling asleep has never been my problem!  Usually, but the time I finish all that I need to do and actually get into bed, I’m so exhausted that I’m asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow.  But for some reason, this week that hasn’t been the case.  Maybe it’s because I’m not used to sleeping alone anymore.  I was actually excited to sleep alone while Stephen was gone – He is a night owl and likes to go to bed much later than I do, thus my sleeping patterns have changed drastically.  I go to bed MUCH later, but unfortunately tend to wake up at exactly the same time (damn you, mental alarm clock!)  The end result?  I barely get any sleep and seem to be perpetually tired.  So I thought that with Stephen away, I would get super sleep.  I could go to bed early and sleep through the night without being woken up by snoring or my bedmate’s night aerobics.  (No, I’m not kidding… I’ve never seen such a spastic sleeper.  He has knocked me in the face more than once… one of these days I’m going to wake up with a black eye.)  But for some reason, I haven’t been able to sleep.  Ugh.  So I did the sleeping pill thing, and man, did I sleep!  Woo hoo!

Anyhow…  I woke up and played with JB a little before leisurely making my way downstairs and making my coffee.

Then I watched some shows on my laptop (24… now I’m on season 2!!)  and had my typical salad lunch and a vitatop:

I went to the store and bought a new dress, a new shirt, and a new pair of Vera Wang sandals – all of which I love!  I will do a fashion show and post some pictures soon.  Then I came home and had some cereal and a frozen chocolate banana as a snack:

Then I went to the gym and did 1/2 hour on the elliptical and 15 minutes on the recumbant bike.  I took it easy today… my legs are sore from the run yesterday!  I came home and had strawberries for a snack, and then two Health Valley Cafe Creations Cinnamon Danish bars and another chocolate banana.  Whoops.

I also baked some cookies for my friend and for Stephen, who comes home tomorrow.  I managed to only eat a little bit of the dough and one finished cookie!  Here is the recipe, one of my favorites:

Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup softened butter

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs

1 cup chocolate chips

Combine flour, salt and baking soda in a small mixing bowl and set aside.  In a larger bowl cream together the butter, both sugars and vanilla until creamy.  Beat in one eggs one at a time until mixed through.  Add the flour mixture by hand gradually, then stir in the chocolate chips.  Bake at 375 degree temperature for 8-10 minutes.  Let cool for a bit on the cookie sheet, the move to a cooling rack.  These cookies turn out crispy on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside.  Delicious!!

Then I went to a Campbell movie outside – every Friday evening in the summer they play movies outside for free downtown.  It’s really nice and fun!  Tonight they showed American Grafitti, which I had never seen before so I met my friend there.  Richard Dreyfuss was cute when he was young!  During the movie,  I ate a bag of soy chips (unfortunately… not a single serving bag….)

Now I just ate two Skinny Cow ice cream bars, two bowls of cereal, and one of my Lindor truffles from B&N as a snack.  Too much, of course.  Back on track to healthy eating once Stephen gets back, I swear!  I am certainly an emotional eater…. but now time to read my book and go to bed.  Overall, a good “me” day!

Happy fourth of July, everyone!!  More on everything else that is going on tomorrow…