Last Day

So today was my last day at work and it turned out to be a busy day at the restaurant. Luckily, I got to say goodbye to most of my favorites. Also, it's better to be one of the first to leave than it is to be one of the last. "Quit while you're ahead". I guess that quotation works in this situation :/. Anyways, I just packed an apple as a snack for work today, so I ended up not eating lunch until around 4. My meal ended up being pretty randomly paired together. I snacked on some fruit with greek yogurt while I waited for my sweet potato half to cook. Afterwards I cut up some watermelon, but ended up eating a lot of it. I always lose my self control around watermelon. My parents went to a football fundraiser tonight for my brother, so I am alone for the evening. I've just been doing laundry, packing, and I walked the dog. I made dinner at around 9:30, but wasn't really in the mood for anything in particular. (except cereal, I could eat cereal for every meal). I ended up making some scrambled Egg Beaters with zucchini, tomatoes, broccoli, and peppers. I normally include banana peppers from the jar, but we were out of them tonight. Overall, it was okay but not the tastiest I've ever had.

Tomorrow's dinner will be much better since it will be my last night home. Let's hope I finish all of my packing in time! Tomorrow is dedicated purely to running and packing. Can't believe I'm moving on Monday!

Fun at Work

We had so much fun today at work! The restaurant turned out fairly busy for most of the day, but we managed to find time to play some fun games and joke around. I still can't believe tomorrow is my last day. :( I'm going to miss everyone so much! On the way home from work I stopped by my high school english teacher's house to drop something off and to pick some figs off of her fig tree. They're small, but oh so good! I've really only had figs once before and they weren't very sweet. But these figs were awesome. They had so much more flavor than the other ones I tried.
At home the temperature was way too hot to cook, so I put together another antipasto type platter. I made more roasted red pepper hummus using the same recipe from earlier in the week. I served carrots and celery sticks alongside for dipping.


The platter contained pretty much the same things as last time except I added the figs this time. It was delicious. I'm not a big pork fan though, so I just stuck to two chicken slices and the fruit and veggies. Light dinners and summer go so well together.

Tonight I need to go to bed early because I have the early shift at work tomorrow. My last day :( Good night!

Sore Legs

Hopefully this post will end up being short because I'm excited to get to bed tonight. Today started out with a 7 mile at 7:20 this morning. I got started later than I planned, but at least I still completed the goal. I think it's the longest distance I've ever run before. As soon as I came home I ate my usual breakfast of Cheerios and Special K with strawberries and bananas with grapes on the side. Afterwards, I showered and my mom took me to run some errands for various things I need for school. We ran by the post office, then searched for some storage containers for my closet at school. I found some cute and pretty inexpensive brown basket-type bins at Home Goods that I ended up purchasing. Shopping kept us pretty distracted I guess because all of the sudden we both were starving for lunch. Once we got home I made myself some sweet potato fries that I ate with some strawberries and cottage cheese mixed with cinnamon and topped with a little bit of Special K.
Then I plopped down on the couch to watch a little Samantha Brown and Julia Child. Before I knew it, I fell asleep! I never nap! That run really wore me out I guess. After vegging out a bit my mom and I took our grocery to the store to fill up the pantry and fridge.
At around 7 I began making a delicious taco salad dinner. First I made a salsa with 3 tomatoes, a banana pepper, a little onion, 2 ears of corn, a can of black beans (rinsed), basil, oregano, parsley, pepper, red wine vinegar, and some hot sauce. It was delicious! I used romaine as the salad's base then topped it with a few cucumber slices, roasted green pepper (from our garden), and an onion that I sliced and wrapped in foil to cook over the grill. The onions carmelize when you grill them for a long time, so by the time I put them on the salad they were sweet and very mild. We grilled some chicken to slice up on top of the salad, then topped it off with the salsa. For dressing I spooned a little salsa around the salad and topped it off with some balsamic vinegar. Delicious!


Time to catch up on some blogs then catch some ZZZZZs!

Table for eight?

Happy Wednesday! Last night I got a great night's sleep, which made the day start off wonderfully. I woke up at around 7:50, ate a breakfast of Cheerios and Strawberry Special K topped with fresh bananas and strawberries. I had a small bowl of grapes on the side. Luckily, I found some extra time before work, so I did the ab Beach Body DVD. I rushed through my shower and made a delicious salad for lunch right before leaving for work at 10:30. Darn, the restaurant was busy today! We had so many people come. At one point our estimated wait time was 3 hours! Because we were so busy, the day flew by. My shift ended at 6, so I took the time to buy some jewelry for some sorority stuff coming up, then I looked at Macy's for a black dress that I need. After finding nothing really exciting, I made the decision to use a dress that I already have. It's a bit formal for the occasion, but it should work fine. On the way home from the mall I stopped by the grocery store to pick up some ingredients for dinner.
Once home, I started dinner by making the flatbread first. I took the pizza dough (I made it earlier in the week) out of the fridge and rolled out a small portion of it until it was almost paper thin. Then I topped the dough with about two spoonfuls of plain tomato sauce. Next I sliced three tomatoes from the garden and placed them all over the top of the pizza. To keep the pizza lower in calories I simply grated a small amount of asiago cheese over the top for just a hint of cheesy flavor. Lastly, I sprinkled the top with chopped basil and dried oregano and left it out on the counter until my dad arrived home. With the spare time in between the pizza and my dad's arrival, I made a large salad of romaine lettuce, tomatoes, roasted red peppers, hearts of palm, and cucumbers.

My dad came home shortly, so I baked the flatbread in the oven on the hottest temperature (500) until the crust became crispy. It made the house smell divine!


Here's my plate:

Now I'm watching Pursuit of Happyness with my parents and sipping on vanilla sleepytime tea. Good night!

Home Depot= Coffee

Today got off to an early start (6:30 am) because I woke up feeling sick once again. I wish my stomach would just return back to normal. Anyways, I had a doctor appointment this morning so I immediately showered and ate breakfast to be sure that I had enough time to get to the appointment. I actually had some spare time, so I walked a quick mile on the treadmill to get some exercise in. After my appointment, which went well, I arrived home at around 11:15. I gathered some things to bring to school, then made myself a lunch of the leftover spaghetti from dinner, some carrots, two slices of deli chicken, a little cottage cheese mixed with yogurt, and an apple. It was small, but it kept me full through most of my workday (12:30- 7). Once I arrived home from work the sight of my dad finishing up dinner was quite welcome. He made a sort of stir fry of chicken breast, roasted red pepper, green bell pepper(from the garden), hearts of palm, and mustard greens(from the neighbors). My mom prepared a baked rice dish with arborio rice, green olives, and a can of garlic and herb diced tomatoes. I sliced up a tomato from the garden to go with my dinner because I'm not a big rice fan. Dinner sure was delicious!
After dinner my dad had to run to Home Depot and invited me to come, so I took him up on the offer. To me Home Depot is like coffee. I don't like it, but I love the smell of it. Odd analogy, but so true. Quickly, we gathered the things he needed then looked around for some storage units for my closet at school. We ended up just buying his items, but we stopped by Menchie's on the way home. Such a cool place! We each made a frozen yogurt for ourselves and then made one for my mom. My dad stayed simple with a trio of tart green apple, vanilla, and peach.

My dad made my mom's, so I'm not sure exactly what's in it. I believe he used chocolate, peach, and vanilla as the base for mini turtles, dark chocolate pieces, M&Ms, and brownie pieces.

For my yogurt I combined a taste of cake batter, original tart, peach, and vanilla. I topped it with some almonds, walnuts, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, mango, and a few peanut butter chips.

Surprisingly, the yogurt made my stomach feel better! Yay! Now I'm watching The Office reruns on TBS while catching up on some blogs. So cozy! What a great way to end the day! :)

Wacky Jacks

Got off work almost an hour and a half early today, which left me with some unexpected time to be productive. First I attempted to get an appointment with the doctor at my mom's office, but after driving all the way there the schedule was too busy. Luckily, the trip wasn't completely unproductive because I stopped by the bank on the way home to make a deposit. Once I got home I snacked on an apple, some baby carrots, and some of the roasted edamame. So good! Afterwards, I did a Beach Body workout DVD. Today I did the ab workout. I prefer running, but it was waaaayyyy too hot outside this afternoon. I have to run super early or else I might melt. After the Beach Body I got busy in the kitchen making pizza dough for later in the week and prepping for dinner. First, I made some dips I've been wanting to try: baba ganoush (sp?) and roasted red pepper hummus. The hummus definitely tasted the best! And it was super healthy. I simply poured a can of garbanzo beans(rinsed), a good amount of roasted red peppers, a little basil, and water into the food processor and blended until it was smooth. Then I stirred in oregano and red wine vinegar and topped it with some sesame seeds.

For the other dip I roasted an eggplant until the skin was charred, then I scooped out the "meat" and mixed it with some pepper, paprika, lemon juice, and a few other random things from the spice cabinet. Honestly, I will probably not make this dip again for a while.

The leftover spaghetti squash served as the star of the show tonight. I mixed the squash in a medium bowl with a large chopped tomato from the garden, roasted red peppers, hearts of palm, basil, oregano, pepper, and some balsamic vinegar. Spaghetti squash is the best because it resembles pasta, yet its texture still has a crisp bite to it. The combinations are endless.


Lastly, I rounded out the meal with a tomato salad using some tomatoes from the garden. Made with tomatoes, basil, oregano, pepper, and balsamic vinegar.

Such a good meal!

Dinner Al Fresco

I love my job! I can't say where I work, but I will say that it's a bunch of fun. Where else do you see banana splits like this everyday? Pretty much nowhere. On another note, throughout the past few days I slacked off a bit with my blogging. So to catch up slightly I'll recap a new breakfast I tried the other day. It's called "overnight oats" because you simply mix oats, yogurt, and milk then let it marinate in the fridge while you sleep. In the morning it turns out thick, creamy, and delicious! For my recipe I used a little plain Greek yogurt, some light peach yogurt, and skim milk. When I took it out of the fridge in the morning the consistency was a bit thick, so I added some extra milk and stirred it up.

Next I topped it with chunks of strawberries, bananas, and some strawberry Special K. I rounded out my new meal with a peach. What a great start to the day!


Now back to today. I got home from work a little bit before dinner, so I had a small snack of Jello sugar free dark chocolate pudding and some carrots. It was enough to keep me satisfied until dinner was ready. Originally, we planned to have spaghetti squash with grilled chicken, but it was just too darn hot to cook. We put the squash in the oven to roast, but made the decision to create more of an antipasto platter instead. So my dad and I ran to the store to purchase the needed ingredients. Once we returned home the meal took only minutes to prepare. In no time we were enjoying our delicious antipasto outside on our deck as the temperature finally began decreasing with the receding sun.




On another note, my stomach acted up all last night and all day today, so let's hope that it returns to normal very soon. In fact, all I ended up eating today was a little cereal for breakfast and the antipasto for dinner. I never skip lunch. Trust me, I never miss the opportunity for a good meal. I even made myself a delicious salad this morning. Oh well, at least lunch for tomorrow is ready. Good night and have a pleasant tomorrow! :)