…is a Steelers stud!!!

Steelers vs Bears…4:15pm.  Hillary knows who she’s rooting for!!

Last night we went to my friend’s housewarming party.  Holy wow is her house gorg!  I didn’t take pictures b/c I like to keep some friend/family stuff a bit blog private.  But kids, her new place is fabulous! 

A brief recap of my eats:

• toasted italian bread with homemade pesto
• thai basil curry shrimp (homemade and SO good)
• 4 pieces of assorted cheeses
• 2 Philly pretzel sticks with cheese
• veggies and dip
• large helping of penne ala vodka
• and for dessert….the chocolate dipped oreo balls I made (OMG heaven)

Great food.  LOTS of merlot.  Dice games, beer pong, flip cup, cards.   HEAPS of laughs. 

Today we have some errands to run and then football.  Clearly.

Go Steelers!

Good Saturday morning blog friends!

Today Hubz went to breks with a friend at the local diner, and I chose to stay home and chillax in bed.  After some stretches and doggie snuggles, I popped up and took Hillster out for a rainy morning walk.

On the walk I decided if Hubz was getting yummy diner Breks, I needed to make something similar.  I am guilty of food jealousy.  Srsly.  You can ask my family.

So I whipped up some french toast!  I used whole wheat bread dipped in eggwhites, skim milk, cinnamon and a splash of vanilla.  Once dipped, I cooked the toast on a hot buttered griddle.  Never afraid to use a little butter, am I?!

Topped with farmers market peach and VT real maple syrup.  The in-laws are visiting again this weekend, and since their garden is da bomb, they brought us some goodies!  See that dish of black raspberries?  That’s from their garden.  Delish. 

• french toast with peach slices and maple syrup
• fresh black rapsberries
• coffee

Was this as good as gooey (fattening) diner breakfast french toast?  No.  Was this amazing for healthy + homemade + hitting many of my daily nutritional goals?  Absotutely!!

And now I’m blogging and relaxing.  I have a party to go to tonight (fun!) and plan to not do too much between now and then.  Maybe a little exercise…but that’s it.  Sounds delish, right?!

Last night I watched SATC and sipped on some camera-shy Sierra Nevada Pale Ales while Hubz was out playing volleyball.  August has been such a crazy month with parties, family, friends, etc that I couldn’t have been happier to chill at home last night.

We made Friday night (whole wheat) pizzas for Din.

• pesto + fresh tomato + Italian blend cheese + Applegate Farms chicken sausage

The other one I forgot to photo, but it was a standard mushies + peppers + onions.

My plate…

• 3 slices of pizza
• tossed spinach salad with homemade garlic dijon vinaigrette
• glass of TJs sauv blanc

I got a lot done at work yesterday, which is funny cuz it was Friday.  I guess I like to clear a lotta things off my plate so that Mondays (which I hate) are a little easier.

I did our grocery shopping over my lunch break (holla for $50 for the entire week!) and treated myself to a salad bar salad for lunch.

• spring mix lettuce
• carrot
• cukes
• red onion
• broccoli
• cherry tomato
• peas
• celery
• mushrooms
• pickled beets
• pickles
• 1 hb egg
• 1-2 T of seafood salad
• 1 tsp of spinach pasta salad
• topped with my homemade garlic dijon vinaigrette
• side dish of watermelon

How come salad bar salads are always so amazeballs?  I could never recreate this beaut at home.  And for $3.96 I think it was pretty dang great.

So.  What’s everyone up to today?

Wednesday eats paled in comparison to the happiness I was feeling.  It was just a good day.  I’ve mentioned before that IWITW is dealing with some personal stuff.  Well.  Wednesday was a great day.  Just sunshine-y great.  So…yay.

Din!

Kinda a repeat of yesterday…

• creamy salsa bison + beans + peppers + onion + mushies + HOT sauce
• brown rice
• tossed spinach salad with cuke, carrot, maters, croutons, pecans in homemade garlic dijon
• glass of cab sav

This was mucho delicioso!  We ate it and watched a DVR’d epi of Law and Order CI.  I really like the addition of Jeff Goldblum to this show!

Exercse.  I kickedass yesterday kids.  I did the easiest 30minute run ever.  I felt like I coulda kept going.  That’s never happened to me before!  Followed it up with 150+ different ab crunches.

Work is the same…busy busy trying to get a zillion documents reviewed before the end of the month.  At least it’s all eco-related and stuff this treehugger likes.

Lunch!

• leftover broccoli in garlic sauce mixed with quinoa
• watermelon
• 1 piece of Dove dark chocolate
• a beautifully ripe nectarine eaten 2 hours later.

For you Chinese food fans…try subbing quinoa for rice next time you get take-out.  Obvi make the quinoa at home (microwave…holla).  But it fills the same space and is SO much healthier than white rice.

And since my Breks pics get monotonous, I really shook things up yesterday with some snaps of the blender BEFORE the smoothie was poured into the cup.  I am a wild woman.

Who needs some Hillary-bean lovin??

Aw…she ♥s you guys.

A question for you guys.

There’s been debate going on about food blogs lately, in terms of when posts are authentic vs. driven by free product vs. driven by ad sponsors.

I write IWITW for my enjoyment, which has also pleasantly resulted in some free food samples along the way.  Thus, I think about this a lot.

So I’m curious to know what your goal is, when reading a food blog…

1. Do you read food blogs just for the pleasure of reading about food?
2. Do you read food blogs to get meal inspiration?
3. Do you read food blogs to get product reviews and learn about specific food companies?

Let me know your thoughts, so I can digest and be sure I’m delivering the kind of blog that resonates best with me AND with y’all.

Tuesday Din!

• creamy salsa bison + black beans + peppers + onions + mushrooms
• smashed around with a hefty spoonful of quinoa and a heaping dose of hot sauce
• side of green beans
• camera shy slow-churn PB ice cream later on

I’m definitely going thru a bad nighttime snacking phase right now.  Boo. 

Had a little QT at the gym….all by myself, which is a rare treat at my gym!  I did 20 mins level 10 on the elliptical +15 mins of arm weights.

For everyone who guessed yesterday, the answer to what that bug was….CICADA!  Good guesses guys, I’m impressed.

Cube farm lunch.

• leftover wedding shower veggie quiche
• small salad with croutons, pecans, carrot, , homemade garlic dijon dressing
• bowl of  chunks
• camera shy handful of salsa-flava’d soy nuts

Honestly, I was not a super huge fan of this quiche reheated.  It was great the 1st time around.  Only average this time.  Sad.

Back to normal Breks!

• smoothie ala almond milk +  + strawberry yogurt + ice + mango

Hope y’all have great evenings!