Posted on September 27, 2009 - by Ashley Jackson

Getting Back on Track

After one last donut at the beach and a stop to fuel up (and grab a Diet Sunkist and a giant Nutty Bar), I arrived home at about 12:30 on Friday. I was going to wait to go to the vet and pick up Heath, but it looked like it was going to rain, and I missed my puppy. So I picked him up and we had a happy reunion in the Dogs Only waiting room at the vet.

I made a big fuss over how cute he looks in the bandanna he got after his bath, gave him a few treats from Bone Appetit, and then gave him his new toy.

I’m happy he likes it so much! Both of the rope arms are untied now, but apparently that just makes it more fun to fling around.

By now it was almost 3PM and I was starving, but the pickings at my apartment were slim. I nibbled on some fudge I’d brought back from Riverstreet Sweets while I contemplated lunch.

Maple fudge….

Mint chocolate fudge…

And Heath toffee fudge. The mint is my favorite of the three–the flavors in the others are a little too subtle.

I contemplated getting one of the new Mediterranean Veggie sandwiches from Domino’s, but instead I made some vegetable fried rice from Trader Joe’s…

And ate it while I was cooking some chuck steak with Chicago Steak seasoning from Penzey’s.

And then I slept for a while. When I got up I was hungry and again contemplated ordering from Domino’s, but I talked myself out of it and instead heated up some sausage, egg, and cheese Hot Pockets.

I (used to) love these things, but the last few times I’ve made them, they have not heated properly. I’ve had this problem in more than one microwave. And there is nothing more revolting than biting into a Hot Pocket that is cold in the middle. I don’t know if it was the Hot Pockets or just a combination of everything weird I’d eaten during the day, but I was up sick half the night. A wonderful way to spend my first night back at home…

I woke up late the next morning and had a strawberry Chobani 0% Greek Yogurt.

And after contemplating ordering Domino’s some more, and getting pretty hungry, I finally just went to Harris Teeter to get some food. I was very proud of myself–the vast majority of my order was fresh food. Fruits and veggies, bread from the bakery…and aside from that, I bought a big bag of brown rice, a bag of croutons, two jugs of drinking water, a bottle of HT Trader’s Greek Feta dressing, a package of bacon crumbles (can’t be without bacon for long!), a package of chicken thighs, and a package of small steaks. Honestly, I get a little thrill out of going to the grocery store and seeing that my cart is filled with healthier stuff than the person checking out in front of me (even though this time the person in front of me had a ton of organic food!). And yes, this even after I ate all those donuts this week…I’ll confess to being a hypocrite in this regard.

For my late lunch, I decided that I was going to make a grilled veggie sandwich, like the one I’d been wanting from Domino’s (only better). So I threw this big portabella mushroom cap on the George Foreman grill.

That thing is as big as my entire hand, but according to the package it was only 20 calories! Crazy! I ended up only eating half of it on my sandwich–ran out of room with the grilled onions, red peppers, tomatoes, and Asiago cheese that I piled on there…

I was craving a salad, too, so I made one with Romaine, garlic croutons, tomatoes, bacon crumbles, and Greek Feta dressing.

I ate it with my veggie sammich, which was on fresh-baked sourdough bread.

Later I was getting peckish and had some lemon cookies. These things are so battered after their trip to the beach…

And then I had a Kind bar–the “Fruit & Nuts in Yogurt”  variety.

It was okay, but honestly, I prefer the other the food bars that don’t have things like “yogurt compound” in them.