back to the grind!

Baby Girl started her last year of pre-school today.   Unlike last year when I almost cried when dropping her off,  this year was just another day.   My Little Guy was hell bent on destroying her classroom so I really just wanted to get out of there and go food shopping.   She was fine,  gave me a big hug, and off I went.

So much more attitude in the 2013 pictures!

Things are not progressing too well on the half marathon training front.   Yesterday I was supposed to do 10 miles and I did 9.75 miles.... not too bad, but I was hoping to be a little stronger with the mileage by now.   I really don't think there's any way I can finish in 2 hours and 30 minutes at this point.   But I will finish and get my lobster roll and beer!!  On a side note,  my heart rate monitor chest strap is digging into my sides and rubbing the skin raw.  I tried to tape up my sides so it wouldn't irritate the skin,  but that didn't work.   I'm going to be bummed if I can't wear it next weekend when I do my 11 mile run,  I LOVE seeing my calorie count go up and up and up...  I burned 1400 calories this week!  That's double what I eat in a day!   Of course eating those calories back in the form of fried mozzarella and subs doesn't really lend itself to healthy eating and losing weight,  but damn did it taste good.   Food always tastes better after a run! 

I go back and forth on coughing up the money on Shakeology...  what say you healthy people?  Waste of money or no?

bacon!

The first Sunday after football season ends can be sad, cold, desolate, depressing, and boring.  Especially if your season ends before the Super Bowl (tear).   This year Andrew and I came up with a consolation prize for Sundays After Football - bacon!

We never cook bacon at home, despite the fact that we both love it.   Well, that's kind of a silly thing to say, I mean who DOESN'T love bacon?  So we decided that Sunday mornings in the winter after football ended we would treat ourselves to a nice Sunday breakfast, complete with 3 bacon pieces each.   Sometimes I even make myself an egg sandwich WITH THE YOLK, which after a week of egg white omelets is a big treat. 

Our bacon Sundays are winding down,  we gave ourselves until May for bacon Sundays to help us get through the long cold winter and soul crushing freezing spring.    Two more Sundays to go!   I'll never look forward to the football season ending, but it's not a bacon Sundays should help ease the pain next year.

mmmm.......  bacon.....


Speaking of food,  we are in the biggest rut right now.   Haven't made a real recipe in weeks,  haven't tried anything new since the Great Introduction of Spaghetti Squash 2013, and just been very blah about food in general.   It's hard trying to eat healthy and still do new things.  So I asked around for some recipes and today we're making pulled pork in the crockpot.

OH MY GOD, GAG ME WITH A SPOON - PULLED PORK.

Sorry, I just had to get that out, pork is not my favorite meat.   But if I have to eat chicken breast, pork chops (again, gag),  or turkey stir fry one.more.time,  Imma lose my shiz.   So I picked up BBQ sauce, root beer (had NO idea you could make pulled pork with root beer), and a pork but (butt?) on Friday and it's currently crock potting away.    We'll be making sliders with sweet potato fries tonight.   While I still don't like pulled pork,  I'm exited for something new.   It definitely won't be on the regular rotation - because hi, EW, pork is gross) but it should be good today.

Hmmm....  lots of pig being consumed today.   And on that note,  what is the difference between ham and pork?  Why is ham so good and pork so not good?   I know the ham is cured,  but do they come from different parts of the pig?  Pigs aren't that big,  how many different parts are there?  You know what part of the big should be bigger?  The bacon part.

Aaaaaaannd.... thanks Google:

Huh.   I forgot about ribs.   Guess what.   I don't like ribs either. 

So the ham comes from the pig's hind quarters, but the butt doesn't.   Odd, no?

Consider yourself schooled on the ways of the pig and its yummy delicious bacon and no so yummy delicious pork.

big doings

After hearing about the fabulousness of spaghetti squash for a long time and having tried it a few times, I finally bought one.  

Well before I got to the purchasing step I had to figure out what they looked like so I could find it at the store.   They are right next to butternut squash.  WHO KNEW ALL THE SQUASH WAS TOGETHER? So I have a butternut squash (because I couldn't resist it) and a spaghetti squash ready to go.

In case anyone else is as ignorant as I am when it comes to spaghetti squash,  this is what it looks like:

(image comes from this blog, which is also the recipe I will be following tonight)

Kind of looks like a summer squash (or yellow zucchini, however you roll) on steroids.  But feels more like a butternut squash. 

Never say this blog isn't full of riveting information.

Anyway, back to the point.  Tonight I will be cooking spaghetti squash for the first time.   I really hope its good, because we will most likely be eating it for the next few nights.  I may have bought one that could easily feed a family of 8 and we are only a family of 3.5 and Baby Girl will eat approximately 2 bites.

It wasn't until I was married that I learned that I liked vegetables.   My entire life I thought I wasn't a veggie fan until I realized that it wasn't the vegetable that I didn't like, but the way my mother cooked them.  She and I have a difference of opinion as to whether or not canned French cut green beans are one step above torture.  Canned vegetables are NEVER OKAY.  NEVER.   Fresh or frozen.  That's the only acceptable method of buying/purchasing/eating vegetables.   She also cooks the hell out of her vegetables - as in boils them until all color/taste/nutritional benefits are long gone.   Gag.   Vomit.  

I'll usually roast my veggies so they still have flavor.  And crispness.  And nutrition in them.  Sometimes I will steam broccoli or asparagus,  but it's not my preferred method.   Actually I love my broccoli blanched and then sauteed but that's a lot of work and sometimes it's just easier to steam them.  I still make gagging noises while I eat it even though I'm the one that made it.   It doesn't annoy Andrew at all.  Really. 

It took me probably 27 years to learn it,  but I do like vegetables.   Oh, I still prefer them raw dipped in copious amounts of ranch dressing - but I'm willing to eat a cooked one now and then as long as my mother hasn't been in the kitchen.

I will say vegetables aside, my mother is a good cook.  She cooks her vegetables the way she likes to eat them.  It's just that she just likes vegetables that taste disgusting.  Who knows, maybe in 25 years my kids will lament about how they never got canned vegetables growing up.

I highly doubt it.

falling

Today was a very New England fall day.   Bright blue sky with big fluffy clouds,  temperatures in the mid 70's, FINALLY the humidity has gone, the Patriots won,  the GODDAM PATRIOTS LOST TO THE CARDINALS....

Ahem.

Sorry,  I'm still mad about that. 

Anyway,  today was gorgeous.   We took the kiddos apple picking.  My Little Man was quite bored with the whole thing, but my Baby Girl had a blast. 

She loved when her Daddy would lift her all the up to the tops of the trees!  I'm glad she had fun, but I am less happy about spending $22 on a ridiculous amount of apples that will never be eaten!  I made applesauce with some of them, but Andrew and I have differing opinions on what homemade applesauce should be like.  I swear, he'd be happy if I strained it through a fine mesh strainer.  Me, I like entire apple chunks to be in it.  What is the point of home made applesauce that tastes like Motts?  I will buy him the 6 pack of Motts if that's what he wants!   But I think I achieved a compromise consistency that we can both tolerate - no strainers, but nary a chunk of apple to be found.

Marriage = compromising about homemade applesauce.

My loves

I don't often eat my Favorite Sandwich in the World, mainly because it requires a specific type of bread that isn't exactly healthy.   This is the nutritional info for one piece.   Clearly this is not bread that we buy often in the Casa De O'G.   We prefer to consume our calories in wine vegetables (obvi).


But Andrew went to Shaw's by himself on Wednesday... sending Andrew into a grocery store alone is never a good thing.   I didn't use worry about what the results would be when he did the food shopping,  but recently I've learned the man cannot stick to a list.  I can send him in with a specific list and he will come out with 5 additional things,  5 things that are somewhat what I wanted but never happen to be the exact or sale items and he'll just not bother to get the other items we needed.   In other words,  it's better if I do it myself,  as I've put us on a pretty strict grocery shopping list.  


BUT, as previously mentioned,  he went to Shaw's on Wednesday for a few specific things and he walked back in the door with Canadian White Bread.


Let's all take a moment to savor the wonderfulness that is Canadian White,  shall we?

 

Is there a better bread?  (the answer is no).   If you've never had it - run, don't walk, to your nearest food store and buy a loaf.   Try not to eat it all in one or two sittings, because I am not lying to you when I say it is NOT HEALTHY.   (FYI,  french toast with Canadian White is amazing.  Life altering.  To this day, I only like french toast with stale Canadian White)

Getting back to My favorite Sandwich in the World.  It's peanut butter, mayonnaise, and banana.  Don't knock it until you've tried it.  And if you've had peanut butter and banana and you're wondering what all the fuss is about - add mayo and Canadian White and you'll experience a little slice of heaven right there in your kitchen. 

I made Andrew and Baby Girl chicken and vegetables for dinner.  I made myself a sandwich (what, I'm pregnant, I can do these kinds of things).   

The preparation:

 The outcome.  (Don't I just kick ass at Instagram?  I should totally be a fauxtagrapher and start a business.  Isn't the way everything is blurry except the one bite which is in focus so artistic?  I AM SO TALENTED)

 

I may not have another sandwich for years to come.  I think the last one I had was before Baby Girl was born.  I'm not lying when I say I NEVER buy Canadian White, but gawd, those few times that a loaf makes it into the house....

Also good on Canadian White - cream cheese and jelly.  Super. Yum. 

I can't find my marbles

We're getting ready for a Life Changing Event here at Casa de O'G,  mainly the addition of the 4th member of our little family.   Part of the preparation is living on Andrew's salary as much as we can (another part is me drooling over the Beco Gemini.  drool.  want.) in order to boost up our savings.   He does earn a liveable wage,  but we are used to having two incomes and we're quite spoiled.  I don't want to tell you the amount of money we have spent on take-out over the course of our marriage.   Living on one salary has had its share of challenges,  mainly accepting the fact that we can't go out to dinner once a week and I can't drown my work sorrows in Italian subs and wine anymore.   I've been more stressed out and full of rageful hate at work because of this unfortunate turn of events.

We don't have any ink in our printer, and I'm still not convinced that using a coupon to buy something I wouldn't have bought in the first place will save me money so I'm not couponing (yet.... once I get some ink and someone explains to me how spending more money saves me money, I'm sure I'll join in on the fun).   I am, however, watching sales quite closely.    I have two main spreadsheets,  one to track the weekly specials at my local grocery stores (of which there are only 3.   Sad... No Market Basket,  Trader Joes, or  Price Chopper near me!) and the other to track what we are spending on a particular item over the long term.   I live for Thursday when Shaw's and Stop & Shop release their weekly flier.   Hannaford and Target don't release theirs until Friday and Saturday respectively.    Every Thursday and Friday night I can be found sitting at the computer going over the fliers (does anyone actually use the paper ones anymore?  what a sad waste of a tree) and updating my spreadsheets.   I'm sure you are very jealous of my super cool life.

It may not be the most fun way to spend 25 minutes on Thursday and Friday nights,  but I have cut our weekly grocery bill from $100-$120 per week to around $75-$80.   If I can sustain that saving and keep the grocery bill to the $75-$80 range,  I can save in the ballpark of $1500 PER YEAR.   That's a lot of money that I didn't need to be spending before. 

That's like 190 Italian subs.

getting there...

We went down the cape today, just for something to do. It felt so nice just to be down there and see the water and drive by the beach. We're almost there; it's almost summer time!

I haven't been on my A game today. I went to go food shopping, got all the way to Stop & Shop, and realized I didn't have my pocketbook. Then I drove all the way home and got my pocketbook and decided I didn't want to go back to S&S, so to Shaw's I went.

Apparently Shaw's doesn't carry blueberries. Or sliced mushrooms. Or organic meat. To say that I had a shopping fail is an understatement. And yet I still spent $130.

But on a good note, my Tupperware came in! I'm extremely excited about that :)

one of those days

My shopping trip this morning was an epic fail.

Here was my dilemma - Baby Girl cannot be riding in a car after 11:30 in the morning, because she will fall asleep. And if she falls asleep in the car, she will not nap. And if she doesn't nap, she makes life awful after 3pm. Andrew isn't here today to help, so I really wanted her to nap. But I needed to go to Target, Stop and Shop, and Stride Rite. Stride Rite is in the opposite direction of Target and Stop and Shop, by about 25 minutes. I didn't want her in the car all morning either, because she gets really restless, and I can't blame her. I thought and thought and thought and it finally came to me: Stride Rite may not be near Stop and Shop, but it is near Whole Foods! I can just run into Whole Foods and get what we absolutely need (my 2nd mortgage hasn't been approved so I can't afford a full shop at Whole Foods) and then run into Stride Rite and take advantage of the their BOGO sale! Wooo! Mama is so smart!

We went into Whole Foods and did our thing - I got about half of what I needed because that store makes no sense and I can't find anything. Then we strolled down to Stride Rite. Jokes on me, it doesn't open till 11 and it was only 10:30. It was also about 30 degrees, so I couldn't even walk around Legacy Place window shopping and passing the time. So to au bon pan I went. Baby Girl and I split a blueberry muffin (read: I ate an entire blueberry muffin) and she watched You Tube videos of Elmo and Beaker. We finally go down to Stride Rite, I get her back out of the stroller, and we measure her foot.

It's the SAME size that's she's wearing now.

AAARRRGGHHHHH!!!

We bought those shoes in November! According to "them", her foot is supposed to go up a size every 3 month! She's gone up one full size since last August. She "should" be up 2.5 sizes.

I could have to gone to Stop and Shop and actually went food shopping! Instead I went out of my way to get to Stride Rite since I figured she's been wearing the same shoe for 4 months, she's got to need new ones.

Of course her feet will grow next month when Stride Rite isn't having a sale. And I still haven't gone to Stop and Shop or Target.

I am woe.

le sigh

I wish I was pregnant, only because when I was pregnant my headaches went away. I have had annoying headaches at least once a week for as long as I can remember. Plus the occasional caffeine headache... my poor head. For some reason, pregnancy was the cure for them.

Oh well. Maybe someday.

By the way, my child is sneaky. We had pork chops, spinach, and mashed potatoes for dinner. Baby Girl LOVES mashed potatoes (who doesn't?). Unfortunately, that was all she would eat tonight. So I even tried to show her how to put the potatoes on her pork and spinach so she could get those last few bites of potato. The little sneak put the piece of pork in her mouth, sucked off all the potato, and then spit the pork back out.


She is my daughter after all.

lists

things I don't like:

1. eating healthy
2. not eating fried food
3. bringing my lunch from home and eating it
4. not talking Andrew into getting take out
5. getting up at 5am to go to the gym
6. working out at the gym at the crack of dawn (literally - I get there before the sun comes up)
7. getting up every 5 minutes to use the loo because I'm constantly drinking water
8. getting massive headaches on the daily because my bodily is withdrawing from carbs and sugar
9. not being able to snack on anything I want whenever I want
10. having to care about things like "fat content" and "carbohydrates" and "protein"

things I do like

1. not feeling bloated all the time
2. eating a lot of fruit (I love fuit, but I generally don't buy it in the winter because of the astronomical prices... I've learned to watch for sales!)
3. saving money by not buying my lunch at work (can we say new dress for my 5th anniversary/30th birthday weekend??)
4. Not feeling like I'm going to be sick after eating an Italian sub
5. Getting home from work knowing I don't have to think about working out, because I already did
6. going to bed early because I got up so early! (I love going to bed!)
7. my skin is looking better (more even skin tone) because of all the water I've been drinking
8. weaning my body from its sugar and carb addiction - life is so much easier when you don't need carbs with every meal
9. not constantly having the feeling of being stuffed
10. how easy tracking my food is with a smart phone!

jail time

Andrew and I used to eat a lot of organic food. Then we had a baby and organics had to go, we just couldn't afford it anymore. Though I do still try to buy organic meat when I can, most of our food is... well... not organic. (if you've ever seen Food Inc, you understand - we're basically eating corn in different forms).

We buy Baby Girl organic milk because the hormones in the processed milk is thought to be linked to early puberty in girls. I'm all set with my 8 year old going through puberty.

But then I realized that her apple juice (not that she drinks more than a sip or two per day... but that's a different issue) is not organic. Do you know how much pesticide is in commericially grown apples? You may as well much on DDT. Okay, maybe not DDT since it's not 1972 but whatever they use these days isn't much better.

Side bar - did you know that orchards are completely against nature? I did not know this till recently. You would never see fruit trees growing in bunches in nature. At least not the same tree. They can't survive that close together.

So now not only do we have to buy organic milk (which, btw, is ridiculously expensive and only BG gets it. Andrew and I drink the milkpoison) but now we need to start buying organic apple juice. And those chicken nuggets that we give her? Yeah... the parent police may arrest us for that one.

Time to rob a bank to do our shopping at Whole Foods!

mmmm... fries and ranch....

I'm not a foodie. I'd like to be, in theory. I'd like to eat lots of good food. But I live in the 'burbs, and there aren't a whole lot of good restaurants around me. There are okay ones where you can get a good sandwich or maybe some chicken, and that's really all we've got. Although there is a Bar Louie at Patriot's Place which is close enough to me and has really great food. I love Bar Louie. Although, sa a rule I try to avoid chain restaurants and that is a chain.... but it's not a cheesy chain like Friday's or Uno's or something, so I allow it.

I like making up my own rules and then bending them

This whole post is coming from the fact that we had ham sandwiches for dinner. I wish that had not happened. I feel like I got cheated out of dinner. Maybe if I was some sort of foodie, I wouldn't have had to have ham sandwiches for dinner. I can't really explain how one would lead to the other, but I really believe my chances of having a better dinner tonight would have risen, had I been a foodie.

num num num

Time. I don't have a lot of it, especially during the week. This leads to complete chaos when it comes to dinner in our house. Both Andrew and I are really tired when we have finally get home, after our commutes and retrieving the baby from daycare. And because Baby Girl has a 7:00 bedtime, we don't have a tremendous amount of time to get things done. Sometimes dinner falls to the wayside, and at 7:15 when the baby is finally asleep we throw something together. It's usually not healthy.

Though it's a steep uphill battle, we do try to plan our meals and have family mealtime. Invariably something comes up during the week that makes us skip one of our planned meals, delay our dinner till after bedtime eliminating family dinner time, or one of us (me) sulks about what's for dinner (chicken) and refusing to eat it (blech). In a perfect world we would have more time to plan and make dinners (also, Gilmore Girls would still be on TV),

During the winter we do try to make some meals on Sunday that can be frozen, but in the warmer months, there's just too much else to do on a Sunday afternoon. But we've planned our meals for the week, placed our order with Peapod, and the meals have been planned. Very boring meals: chicken and summer squash & zucchini; ham and frozen veggies, fish (whatever is on sale at Shaw's this week) and summer squash & zucchini; quesadillas (NUMMY!); and leftover ham (all chopped up in sandwiches.... so goooood).

So now the question is.... will we stick to our planned meals, or will be fail at life and resort to grabbing what we can find after the baby is in bed?

sun!

I worked from home today and spent my lunch hour outside in the sun. mmm.... sunshine! It's days like these that make me search real estate listing anywhere that the average temperature in winter doesn't go below 60. In reality, we wouldn't move away from our families unless an unbelievably good job opportunity came up. Taking the baby away from her grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and our close friends would be a huge loss for her. And I don't know what I would do without that support. However, a girl can dream that one day I may be able to sit outside and eat lunch in November! Or March! What a concept!

I had a really good sandwich today. I'm slightly obsessed with sandwiches. Lunch is my favorite meal and a really good sandwich is a huge part of that. A good sandwich can turn my whole day around! Yup... that's how special I am.

Manic Monday

Working makes me hate every day just a little bit more than the day before. Sad, really. But on the positive note, I have Thursday off and this weekend should be fun. If I can get through the 3 more workdays I have to get through.

Sometimes I dream about working someplace else. Some other industry. Anything but what I do. What I really want to do is work for a non-profit group environmental group. I don't know what exactly I want to do for them, but I want to be involved with something that doesn't make me hate my life. Any ideas? anyone? no? damn.

I have no school tomorrow night and I'm making one of my Make and Take dinners, which means more time to sit around and do nothing! whoo hoo! I'll probably go for a walk after work. Then I'll mosey around, cook my Make and Take meal, and perhaps watch some mindless television. Sounds divine. The one sad part of that is I have no more Sex and The City to watch. I've been watching them On Demand since January, but now I've seen them all, plus the movie. I'll have to find something else to watch.

So what, you ask, is the Make and Take Kitchen? Only the greatest idea since sliced bread! You sign up before you go for either 3, 6, 9, or 12 meals (I make half orders, they feed 2-3 people). You can choose from a bunch of different meals and when you get there on your selected date and time, they have everything you need to make your meal set up for you. Everything is chopped, peeled, sliced, diced, you name it. All you have to do is put everything together in whatever container they tell you to put it in. Even the meat is already portioned out for you. And it is all fresh food. If you don't like onions - don't put them in! Love garlic? Double what it calls for! (actually never double a garlic amount, but you get the point). You don't have to worry about prep, cleaning, making sure you have all the ingredients, and you make it with fresh food. Pop it in the freezer when you get home and all you have to do when you want to eat it is follow the fool proof cooking directions on your container. Honestly, it's a lifesaver. And I don't even have kids! I know of one mother of 3 who makes 12 full meals every month (and gets a 13th meal free). It's really awesome; you go out to eat less, you eat less frozen pre-prepared meals full of sodium, and you can actually have a real meal in about 20 minutes. I love it. I wish I had come up with the idea. See paragraphs 1 & 2

27 down...

Aside from having 8 hours of training to sit through on my birthday, it was a pretty good day. Intrigue was really nice and the weather was so warm that even I was able to sit outside and not be cold. Unfortunately, we got a square table which meant only one of us was able to look at the haahbah. They try to squish in a lot of tables which means that almost have the diners have to stare at the restaurant. Considering you are paying for the view, it's kind of cheap of them that they don't arrange the tables better. The food was good - nothing terribly special, but good enough that you almost don't mind the prices. I got ravioli and Andrew got a grilled pizza. Neither one of us had any complaints. The drinks were good too - way to expensive, but you know that going in - anything at the Boston Harbor Hotel is going to be overpriced. However, they didn't water them down and then charge $10 for a drink so all in all, it's a pretty good price. In the end, we didn't pay as much as we thought we would (though we also got the 2 cheapest items on the menu) and the view for me was fantastic.

I guess if you must turn 27 it wasn't a bad way to go.

Last one

I started my last summer semester of school. I can now officially start countdowns. One year from tomorrow I will graduate. Actually, one year from tomorrow I will be 2 years older than I am today. BECAUSE TOMORROW IS MY BIRTHDAY!!!

Sorry, I had to get that out.

Anyway, I will never have a first day of a summer semester again. And I am giddy about it. I'm not sure how I am going to get through the next 12 months, but I've already done about 31 months of it, so I am sure I will make it through. I can almost taste my freedom. And it tastes goood.

Speaking of tasting good, I made reservations for me and Andrew tomorrow at Intrigue. I wanted to go to Meritage, but let's face it, I am not made out of money. As it is, we are going to have to be somewhat cheap at Intrigue. But I love playing with Yelp and Open Table way too much so I couldn't not do some reservation somewhere.

It's also Andrew's last day of working in town, so I guess it's fitting that we meet in there after work one more time. It might actually be easier for us to go into town after work, we can hop on the train together instead of having to meet up in Back Bay.

I'll do a mini review of Intrigue tomorrow and let y'all know how it is. And how fabulous my birthday was :)