Catch-up

Yesterday morning started out with some Puffins. I realized I didn't have any regular milk so I used chocolate almond milk instead. 200 calories. I had my usual americano with some half and half and sweet and low as well. 35 calories.

Lunch was a salad with bacon, that fried egg from the day before and my low fat blue cheese. 175 calories.

After I got off work at 12 I ran around town looking for something (more on that in a second) and when I finally got home I had a teeny tiny plum. 20 calories.

Plus my cute little man in the background. :)

So what I was looking for were these...

Green curry paste and sticky rice!! I went to my local "Asian Market" and they had all kinds of interesting things. That's where I found the green curry. The market close to my house has a larger than normal "asian" section and that's where I found the sticky rice.

Sticky rice is my favorite thing ever. Possibly.

Do you ever go to the "ethnic" grocery stores? You should! They have produce MUCH cheaper than any of the standard places. At my favorite "mexican" supermarket I got all this...

For exactly $4! Cilantro, limes, avocado, beets, garlic, tomatillos and tortillas! Definitely would have cost $7-8 at Winco.

With the tomatillos, cilantro, garlic and some lime I made this salsa.

Pretty dang good! My mother in law makes a chili blend of serranos, habaneros and other hot peppers and then freezes it. She gave me some and I used it in this to give it quite a kick.

I also made sticky rice and added in 2 tbsp of lite coconut milk.

It was heavenly. 185 calories.

So that salsa? My husband was craving Chipotle and asked me to try to make their cilantro lime rice. I did and he said my version was EVEN better. He had his rice along with homemade "refried" beans, sour cream, avocado, jack cheese, the spicy salsa and roasted chicken inside of the tortillas I bought.

I had my rice with the beans, jack cheese and salsa on a bed of lettuce. Since I skipped the chicken and don't like avocado I also used some of that roasted corn I bought from Trader Joe's awhile back.

It's bomb, yo.

365 calories for dinner.

After dinner we went to Fresh & Easy because I had a coupon that was about to expire and they have the best price on boneless, skinless chicken breast I've seen in town.

They're trying to make Fresh & Easy more like Trader Joe's with various specialty products. On some stuff they have really good prices, but on some stuff they are way more expensive.

These were my finds.

Bread flour at a decent price. Dr. Pepper 10. It's 10 calories for 8 ounces and tastes SUPER CLOSE to regular Dr. Pepper. Quinoa which I haven't been able to find at Trader Joe's. Chicken sausages in 2 flavors that were $3 each. I usually buy the aidelis (spelling?) and they're like $5-6 a pop. Last, anchovy paste. I know that seems like a super random thing to buy but my husband LOVES Caesar salad and I've been wanting to make a homemade dressing for him. I've also seen anchovy paste in other recipes I wanted to attempt so I'm excited to play around with that and the capers I got a few days ago.

I also got this.

Awhile back I read about carbonated chocolate and thought it sounded interesting. So when I saw this at Fresh & Easy in the "British" section I snatched it up.

It's really good and very different from regular chocolate. It almost has a more mousse-like feel in the mouth. My small piece was 30 calories.

I closed off the night with a bag of kettle corn. 90 calories.

Putting me around 1200 for the day. No exercise because I was too sore. I rate yesterday a 7/10. Lots of refined carbs.

Now for today's eats. I had peanut butter puffins and skim milk for breakfast. Also coffee. 210 calories.

I was so busy cooking this morning that I did not have time to make lunch.

Luckily I was EXTREMELY busy at work and didn't even notice my hunger.

Once I got home I cleaned up and finished dinner.

Tonight was special. My parents, my aunt and my grandma who I haven't seen in a really long time came over!

Last night I marinated and put together these guys for my husband to grill today.

The last chicken shish kabob! He did SO good. The chicken was flavorful, moist and juicy. It was just perfect.

I also deseeded and sliced open some hot peppers my dad gave me. I stuffed them with jack cheese and my husband grilled 'em for a minute or two. Everyone who had one really liked them. They were gobbled up so no pictures.

My grandma is low-carbing it so I made this special for her.

Noodle less lasagna! It's basically regular lasagna except you layer in zucchini/squash instead of noodles. It was completely delicious but a lot of moisture came out of the squash. Next time I'll use less tomato sauce in between layers.

And for the carbivores...

Cheesy rice with zucchini. Recipe is from my cooking light book. It's completely delicious and I'll definitely make it again.

All day I was so excited to eat this...

Artichoke! (Butter, all the way. Mayonnaise with artichoke is GROSS!) Except I was SOOO full from the zucchini lasagna and rice that I barely touched mine. This is what remains that I'm planning to eat tomorrow.

I made a garlic dip... basically low fat mayonnaise with a TON of fresh garlic, pepper and then blended with some canola oil and buttermilk to take away the "mayo" taste...

It was DELICIOUS.

Especially when I put it in one of these and added chicken... Seriously heavenly.

This, by the way, is homemade Naan bread! It was easy. I'll be making my own Naan bread forever now.

Plus it impresses people when you make bread from scratch. :P

I didn't have time to make a dessert so I had my husband go down to the ol' dessert standby place... Costco! No surprise he got a pumpkin pie. (His favorite.) We served it with french pressed coffee and whipped cream.

I just had a teeny tiny 1/2 inch thick piece. I like pumpkin pie but I was so stuffed.

I think I ate about 1000 calories at dinner time. I'm not sure, I really didn't count.

I love big family dinners and I like to indulge and not worry about calories.

I did limit myself to two pieces of the bread though. Which is GREAT for me. Fresh bread is absolutely my biggest weakness.

I cannot wait to have one of those pitas with chicken and some garlic sauce tomorrow though. O.O OMG.

I guess I ate somewhere between 1200 and 1500 calories.

I give today an 8.5 out of 10. No, I didn't eat amazingly good, but I didn't go hog wild either, and I think enjoying good food with people you love is an important and lovely part of life.

I'm pooped! Time to catch up on my sleep.