Back in Action

Geez Louise, have I been MIA or what?  My life has been busy, yet oddly boring all at the same time.  I guess because it’s the same stuff over and over again, which while keeping me tied up, doesn’t make for very interesting blog posts.  I did have some dental work done last Tuesday which made me positively miserable, but the following night all the parents on DS’s soccer team met up for a meeting with the coach which went very well!  We threw a lot of ideas around for the upcoming season, found out about some awesome tournaments they’ll be in and brainstormed fundraising ideas.  Very productive indeed.
We ended up eating out WAY more than usual the past week.  I actually talked to my hubby about it yesterday to let him know that I think we need to tone it back a bit.  I’m all for a quiet dinner out every other weekend or so, but from a financial stand point anything more than that is wasteful when we have plenty of food at home.  As well as the issue of my tummy not always appreciating restaurant food which can make me uncomfortable at best for a few days.  *ahem*  That being said, mostly everything we ate out was delish!  The one meal I did not enjoy was our lunch at Subway on Saturday after DS’s out of town hockey game.  What I wanted was an orchard chicken on WW, but they were out of all bread aside from white (and it was only 1:30pm!!) and the chicken salad was still frozen (??) so I wound up with a turkey and Swiss on white.   BLETCH!   White bread just sticks to my teeth in the nastiest way possible which ruined this whole sandwich for me!  One meal I did enjoy thoroughly happened last Saturday.  My hubby and I went out for a quiet dinner at a new to us restaurant that serves mostly Indian fare.  We started with avocado spring rolls which were to die for: They were served with a spicy dipping sauce that really took them up a notch.  For our entrees I went Greek with a grilled chicken & feta dish served over basmati rice with a side salad: My hubby went Indian all the way with a seafood dish served with naan and basmati rice: We both LOVED our meals.  Mine was so huge that it didn’t look like I even made a dent in the pile.  I took my leftovers home which took care of 3 lunches through the week!  By chance, we had parked the Jeep in front of a little café that just opened up so with full bellies we decided to go in and grab some dessert to go.  My hubby ordered an all natural mocha cupcake which he ate to fast for a picture to be taken and I went with a coconut lemon cranberry square: This was melt in your mouth amazing!  We’ll be going back to this place again soon!  Friday was a long, hard day at work so I made the executive decision to take the fam out for Thai.  The boys started with shrimp spring rolls:
DS adores spring rolls!  And the gals started with fresh shrimp rolls; No fried food for me!  DD wasn’t terribly hungry so she rolled with an appetizer for her meal; crab blossoms to be exact:
DS and I went with drunken noodles.  Mine was tofu, his shrimp.  This is a photo of mine, My hubby went with a seafood stir fry and a side of rice! FUNNY STORY ALERT!!  My hubby and I usually frequent this Thai restaurant on Friday for lunch b/c it’s close to our places of employment and is small so you’re always in and out of there quick.  The owners are the cutest pair and really make you feel at home on each visit.  More often than not my hubs will grab me a rose from the flower shop next door which “Cindy” tells him is very romantic.  When we showed up Friday evening with the kids she was shocked to see them because she thought we were dating!  We both wear our wedding bands so I think she figured we were having an affair!  LOL  I got the misconception straightened out ASAP!  LOL 
One night last week we had an appointment and when we got back home the kids had made us dinner…..and it was pretty darn good, too!  They made us yellow pepper, mushroom & asparagus panini on the George Foreman grill! It’s unfortunate that I didn’t take a photo of the whole table because they had candles going, grapes in a bowl and coffees made.  100% sweethearts, they are!!  I think they were inspired by the grilled veggie panini I had at WF a few days earlier: What do you think?  LOL
As much as we ate out, I did make some awesome meals at home, too.  One night saw bruschetta pasta which I made with EVOO, diced tomatoes, garlic, onion, parsley and some shredded rotisserie chicken from WF: There was also a mushroom, broccoli and chicken stir fry: Snacks have been plentiful and, for the most part, pretty darn healthy!   And though breakfast still consists mostly of oats, there have been a few other goodies thrown into the mix…  
Oh!  And I had this Kashi meal for lunch one day last week that I bulked up with extra broccoli:
And can you believe that this means “NF decaf pumpkin spice misto”??? Neither could I.  PHEW!  I think that’s it.  Well, most of it, anyways.  Before I leave I want to send out a HUGE thank you to everyone who took the time to comment on my hubby’s guest post.  He truly appreciated all the helpful information and has even started to incorporate some of the great ideas in his day to day life.  The blogging community is the BEST!!  :) 
Bye for now!!

All About DS

Happy beginning of the week to ya!!  Hope everyone is well.  Aside from DD coming down with a doozy of a cold, all’s good on my end.  DS’s b-day was Friday…can’t believe my baby is 9!!!
The celebration lasted for 2 days and was he ever soaking the attention up.  LOL  On Friday he had 2 school friends over for a bit after school, then we took them down to see a hockey game.  One kid had never even watched hockey on TV and was SO excited.  It was a pleasure to watch him.  He told me at one point that his “spirit was on fire”.  Love it!!  Where do kids come up with these things?  It was a good game with our team winning 6-2.  I don’t have any photos from the evening because I forgot my camera.  DOH!  Saturday morning was spent doing housework and getting the rec room ready for more company as DS had 4 of his hockey teammates over to “hang out” for a few hours.  Surprisingly, there were no fights, bruises or tears!  Boys can get pretty rough, especially when they’re used to being on the ice together, so we were pleased that there were no issues.  One of the boys has a sister DD’s age so she came over, too.  Girls always have something or other to discuss, right?!  Haha!!  After the boys left we packed up and went to see Yogi Bear 3D. 
Cute movie.  It was DS’s choice and the kids really enjoyed it.  The next stop was dinner at Einstein’s Café.  Here are few photos we took while waiting for our meals:   And here are our dinners!
Bruschetta to start.  The kids stole a few pieces before I could get the camera out! They were hungry!!  My hubby had shrimp primavera which was done with rice noodles in a light sauce.  He really enjoyed it…
I went with the special; salmon with a tomato/mango salsa and a cowl of curried zucchini soup to start:
The food was outstanding!  My salmon was cooked to (my) perfection…just like butter.  Oh, my!  My hubby helped me with the soup and we both enjoyed it as, well.  The kids both had pasta; DD’s was a pesto penne and DS’s a penne Bolognese, no photos, though.  Needless to say, we were all too full for dessert!  We ended the night in our “comfy” clothes and a Shrek movie.
Sunday held exciting plans for the adult portion of our household; a trip to Lululemon and Whole Foods which is about 1 hour away.  DD was happy to go to Lulu, not so happy about Whole Foods and DS pitched a fit about the whole deal.  Luck for him, his friend called up just as we were about to leave to see if he wanted to spend the day at his house.  Crisis averted!  LOL  I was a good girl at Lulu and only walked out with 2 pairs of undies and 1 pair of shorts.  My hubby went a little crazier, but he found pretty much what he was after so all was good.  After all, we do *try* to work so we can play!  As luck would have it we reached WF at noon.  I whipped around the store finding everything I wanted before we hit the sandwich bar for food to go.  But first, the goods: Marianne blogged about the Nature’s Path cereal and seeing as she’s never steered me wrong I picked up a box.  Divine, I tell you….and for a good cause to boot!  I just love that company!  I also bought some Tortilla chips, rainbow chard, ground bison and we ground our own peanut butter.  On to our sammies.  My hubby had a ham and grilled asparagus on a ciabatta bun:  While I devoured a buffalo mozzarella/tomato/basil beauty: DD had a turkey and brie, but as usual was too busy eating it to be bothered by a photo.  We also popped into Starbucks where I got a grande NF gingerbread misto:
I finished off the weekend by making a huge pot of split pea soup for dinner which was much appreciated seeing as the temps around here are back to ridiculously freezing! Other notable eats are as follows:
DS wanted waffles for his b-day breakfast.  These had mini caramel stuffed chocolates in them!
  We had Thai after hockey one night.  Spring rolls, Pad Thai, oh my! I’m off now to read some magazines.  They’ve accumulated like bunnies lately and I promised myself 30 minutes of reading them each night this week.  As I read them I pass them on to a girl at work.  I can’t bear to throw them out so I donate them where I can!!
Have a great night…..
Bye for now!!