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Posted on March 12, 2012 - by Ashley Jackson

Out and About

After being in a meeting all morning on Friday, I wanted out of the office for some fresh air. I hadn’t realized until I tried to go to the c-store on Thursday (and ended up at Kerr Drug instead) that it was spring break and the c-stores were all closing early, if they were open at all. And I didn’t realize until I wanted a salad and walked into the c-store on Friday during to find that the salad side of the cooler was empty that they weren’t restocking fresh food on campus during break. Boooo.

I ended up with a giant bag of Doritos and a totally sketchy tuna salad sandwich.

It filled me up, which was all it needed to do…

After I got home, I finished off the butter cookies.

Then my fiance came over and we headed to church for the Lenten fish fry. $10 for all you can eat fried cod, boiled shrimp, fries, boiled potatoes, cole slaw, rolls, and salad? Yes, please!

Round one…ate all the fish, a bite of a roll, all the fries, and part of the slaw. Also, a side salad.

They also had lemonade, coffee, and tea available.

Round two…more fried cod and some of the boiled potatoes with butter.

The roll accidentally wound up on my plate and I didn’t eat it. But the cod was great–nice and thick–and boiled red potatoes are one of my favorite things ever.

Before we left, we stopped by a table in the corner and got a cookie each from some teens who were selling them for a mission trip.

On the way home, I realized I needed to go to Target, so we headed there next. It was a leisurely trip; we stopped in the book section and completed a Where’s Waldo? book.

After we got to my place, we put on The Princess Bride and I ate a lot of grapes.

Saturday morning I had a couple of errands I needed to run before we headed down to my parents’ house for the evening. The first thing on the list? Taking Heath to a rabies and microchip clinic held by a local cat rescue. His rabies shot “ran out” in late February and the cootie shot my fiance gave him didn’t take.

For a mere $5, we got Heath his shot, and also got to see him try to snap at the veterinarian’s assistant when he realized they were going to give him a shot. Fortunately, his Gentle Leader halter collar can double as a muzzle in a pinch. He was not happy, though; he refused to eat the treat they gave him until we were out of sight. I gave him a chicken and apple treat that I’d brought along for him, too, so he was doubly compensated for his trouble.

I spent part of the morning Googling pet-friendly restaurants in Raleigh so that the dog could come with us for lunch. We ended up at at Sonic drive-in, because it sounded good and we could eat in the car. I haven’t been to Sonic in a while, so I was unaware of this little development…

You can pay with your credit card or gift card outside! I thought this was terribly cool, but I realize that’s probably because I don’t get out much.

I knew we were having cheeseburgers for dinner, so I settled on a New York hot dog with tater tots and a Diet Coke.

Sonic tater tots are soooo gooood…

But boo for them for being out of the onions rings my fiance wanted, in the middle of a Saturday.

My hot dog was good, but I thought that between the spicy mustard, grilled onions, and sauerkraut, it would be more flavorful.

We got dessert there, too. I wanted a hot fudge sundae, but in addition to being out of onion rings, they were out of whipped cream. They also didn’t add the nuts I asked for. Oh well, still delicious.

Heath had a couple of tater tots and some water, but played it cool when I tried to take a picture of him drinking.

We decided to skip going to the pet supply store since we were on the wrong side of town and instead drove to Fuquay-Varina to donate five boxes and one bag of stuff that’s been hanging out in my den closet. I’ve been working on decluttering my apartment, and it’s bittersweet–part of me is glad that with every item I throw away, recycle, or donate, I’m freeing my apartment of some clutter, but looking at those boxes made me realize that they were full of things I never should have moved over from my old place. My philosophy now is to think hard about whether I want to keep something–when I move again later this year after we get married, is item x really something I want to take the time to pack in a box, carry out to the car, drive over to my fiance’s place, carry back in, and unpack? Or is it just going to go from being clutter at my place to being clutter at our place?

We drove to my parents’ house after we were done at the thrift store. I tried one of these lemon Twinkies immediately, even though I wasn’t really hungry. Should’ve stuck it in my purse to try later.

Lemon Twinkies? Delicious. I’m glad they’ll be around after Armageddon.

Dinner was chips, very addictive dip, baked beans, and the ginormous burgers my dad makes.

So good that I had to have mine with a bun.

After dinner, we had ice cream sundaes. This time there were walnuts and whipped cream! (And bananas!)

Sunday morning I slept in and got up too late to go to mass (it’s probably the last time I’ll be able to get away with that), but I did go to my class, and also dropped off a whole lot of plastic bags at the parish office that my fiance and I have collected. They’re going on to new/extended lives at the Catholic Parish Outreach food bank. Better there than under our cabinets!

After I left the church, I went to Fresh Market and Whole Foods. I came home $90 poorer and with more plastic and paper bags. Bah.

I decided to live dangerously and use the rotisserie chicken that I bought about a week ago in a Sunday afternoon salad.

I haven’t gotten food poisoning yet, so I think I’m in the clear.

I had a couple of grape leaves that I found at Whole Foods.

And some grapes.

Then I got in bed to read a book and ended up taking a four-hour nap. Thanks, daylight savings time!

When I woke up around 8PM, I threw together a plate of food for dinner.

Grapes, two stuffed grape leaves, grape tomatoes, carrot sticks, Cotswold cheese, smoked salmon trimmings, and some chopped liver. I never realized that chopped liver was a real thing until yesterday.

I did manage to finish my book before bed.

And I tried some of this fruit-juice-sweetened lemon-lime seltzer. It’s…interesting.

I was sitting in meetings today from 8AM to 3PM, including a lunch meeting, so the eats were pretty random. Someone left cupcakes in the break room and I snagged two, and ate an apple crumble yogurt in the morning.

I also had another apple crumble yogurt, two pieces of apple pie, a banana, a big bunch of grapes…

Came home and ate about half of the leftover almond butter cookie dough.

Tonight: adventures in cooking both spaghetti squash and pasta…

Posted on March 8, 2012 - by Ashley Jackson

Nevermind Me ‘Cause I’ve Been…

I’ve been reading The Happiness Project by Gretchin Rubin during my lunch break at work.

It’s about how she decided to spend a year improving her happiness level by focusing on one aspect of her life each month. I’ve only read the chapters where she got her apartment organized (January) and worked to improve her relationship with her husband (February) so far, but so far I’m enjoying it. Several of the things she’s working on in those two chapters are things I’m also working on.

Whenever I see the title it makes me think of Happiness by Grant Lee Buffalo, sponsors of tonight’s post title…

Yesterday was one of those workdays where I was busy all day, but at the end of the day I felt like I hadn’t done anything. It was mostly seminars and paperwork. Bah! But paperwork is important, too. I think.

I had my usual breakfast yogurt, chased by a banana and some of my almond butter cookies while I was watching aforementioned seminar.

Lunch was a big salad with tomatoes, rotisserie chicken, blue cheese dressing, and multi-seed crackers.

I’ve always liked putting crunchy things on my salads. When I was younger and we’d go to Golden Corral after church on Sunday evenings, I’d make salad(s) and put those buttery rectangular crackers that the put out for the soup on top. I’d crunch them up with they were still in their packages and then dump them on top.

My fiance and I were meeting for dinner and he got to my apartment before I did. When I walked in, he’d already taken the dog for a walk and was in the kitchen washing dishes.

No, you can’t have him. He’s mine.

We decided to take a walk to Gonza’s Tacos y Tequila, in the hopes that there wouldn’t be a huge line to get in. The first time we went we had no trouble getting seated right away and the food was so great that we were eager to go back. The second time we went, the parking lot was packed and the line was practically out the door with a thirty minute wait, so we decided to try another restaurant instead.

Fortunately, last night there was only a ten minute wait, so we stayed. After we were seated, we ordered water and a bowl of queso with jalapenos in it.

We demolished the chips and queso. Maybe it was mostly me. The queso was uncomfortably hot because I’m a huge wimp when it comes to spicy food, but it was so good that I kept eating it after I’d finished off my water and was waiting for a refill, even though my mouth was burning.

Last time I was adventurous and got the enchiladas mole, but when my fiance and I taste-tested each other’s food, I super-loved the tacos carne that he got and ended up eating a whole one. So this time, I ordered my own tacos carne.

I got them with refried beans. They came in this little tostada and I picked it up and ate it like it was some sort of bean pizza until it got too soggy. This=not primal.

The tacos carne were delicious–so simple, but so tasty. I wish I lived in a house so I could have a grill that would grill steak like this. One day…!

My fiance and I tentatively decided before we ordered that we were going to “third” our food (as opposed to splitting it). So I traded him one of my tacos for a bite of each of his Mexican flag burritos.

I ended up with most of the excellent bean one that’s in the middle, topped with crema. The red one had steak and some sort of spicy sauce on it, and the green one was filled with chicken and topped with salsa verde. All delicious, but the bean one was my favorite.

One of the reasons I like Gonza’s Tacos y Tequila: the owner, or at least the guy who I think is the owner, has come to our table both the times we’ve been there to check on the food (and last night to joke that I was a spy because he saw me taking pictures of the food ), or said goodnight to us on the way out. Excellent food+reasonable prices+good service+management on the floor interacting with the customers=big win in my book. If you’re in Raleigh, you should definitely check the place out!

We walked to the store afterwards to pick up a few things I needed, and discovered closeouts in the ice cream section. I wanted some Ben and Jerry’s but since my beloved Coffee Heath Bar Crunch is off limits til after Easter, I decided to try the Cheesecake Brownie instead.

The ice cream part of it was cheesecake flavored and was wonderful, as all things cheesecake are, but the brownie part was just meh. (Didn’t stop me from finishing the rest of the container tonight. Oops.)

Today for breakfast I had this Dreaming Cow honey pear yogurt that my fiance’s parents brought me.

Then I had some more almond butter cookies.

And this sad lunch that I tossed together on my way out the door.

I had caffeine too late in the evening the first couple days of the week and it’s thrown my sleep off for the rest of it, so I’ve been getting to work later than normal and have felt more rushed than usual on the way out. Sad, ’cause I felt like I did really well with this last week, but there’s always next week to try again.

For some reason (well, because of the salami) I was extremely thirsty and despite downing several glasses of water, I had a hankering for something to drink. So I walked over to the drugstore and milled around for a couple of minutes trying to decide what to get. My old afternoon pick-me-up was a Diet Sunkist and a medium-sized bag of peanut butter M&Ms, which ran me over $6. Since the M&Ms are out until Easter, I decided to try some of that Pirate’s Booty that everyone’s always blogging about.

Big white sticker on the front=place where the 50% off coupon was. I scored my bag of Pirate’s Booty for 44 cents, so my snack was only $2.25. Hurray.

My thoughts on Pirate’s Booty white cheddar corn and rice puffs: the flavor could’ve been stronger, but I liked them. They reminded me of the white cheddar corn puffs I used to eat when I was little.

When I got home, I ate a quarter of my leftover chicken and a huge pile of grapes. Oh, and the rest of the Cheesecake Brownie ice cream.

Got an 8AM meeting in the morning, better head to bed…

Posted on March 6, 2012 - by Ashley Jackson

Slug-a-Bath

You know a day’s going to be good when it starts out with Dunkin’ Donuts, right? I ate my last lucky mint donut in the car on the drive to work and it was just as delicious as the last two. I declare my Dunkin’ Donuts rampage over.

Upon arriving at the office, I started working before my computer had a chance to boot up. I downed a yogurt in the midst of the crazy busy-ness, then scrounged around for something to eat for lunch when noon came around. I came up with the last of the grapes, which I’d unceremoniously tossed into my purse on the way out the door, and some pistachios.

Not exactly a balanced lunch, but I worked with what I had. I also had part of the giant homemade lemon Larabar that I made a few months ago. The mother-bar has been chilling out in my freezer in my attempt to dehydrate it some, but I brought some into work Monday in case I wanted to snack on it there. There’s no picture because it’s revolting to look at it.

After getting my meeting on for the early part of the afternoon, I had a real raw food bar.

I’d been avoiding the cherry Pure bars that were in the multipack that I bought, but this one wasn’t nearly as tart as I remember them being. Not sure if they actually changed something or if it’s just my tastebuds. Either way, it was a good thing.

On the way home, I decided that I didn’t feel like cooking anything for dinner. I stopped at the store and grabbed a rotisserie chicken, some bagged salad, and some salad dressing. Add some tomatoes and cheese for the salad and the leftover parmesan asparagus from Sunday and ta-da…

Instant dinner! I bought one of the salad dressings that was chilled in the case above the lettuce, and it was so good that I wanted to go back for more salad, but I stopped myself. Why, I don’t know.

I went to take a shower and found a slug in my bathtub.

Takes me back to my college days, when my suitemates and I found a mushroom growing next to our shower. I have no idea how this little guy got into my bathtub–did the dog bring him in? did he come in under the front door?–but I helped him out of it.

And then I bleached the bejeezus out of the shower.

I resolved to be lazy this evening even though I was planning to straighten up my apartment a little bit. It’s the sort of evening that typically would involve a trip to Cook-Out for a milkshake. But since I’m off candy for Lent and can’t get my beloved Reese’s cup shake, I decided to make some gluten-free butter cookies.

The raw dough was awesome.