Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Posted on September 28, 2009 - by Ashley Jackson

That didn’t work too well…

Check out this delicious sammich I made for a bedtime snack last night…

…yeah, the one with too much Penzey’s Sandwich Sprinkle. I just dusted it off a little and it was good as new. That reminds me, though, I need to order from Penzey’s soon..

Speaking of being reminded of things, I was in such a haste to get out the door this morning with my breakfast, snack, lunch, ID badge, etc., that I forgot my camera! Epic fail. As I recall, I had a homemade cranberry-orange muffin from my freezer for breakfast, and banana for snack (which I ate while taking a walk to the mailbox to drop off my NetFlixes), and then, after my lunchtime walk, I ate a salad of Romaine, blue cheese, bacon, and Greek Feta dressing for lunch, along with a strawberry Chobani 0% Greek Yogurt.

And then, around 2:30PM, I started getting hungry and realized I hadn’t packed an afternoon snack and my cabinet was devoid of snack bars since I took them all home before my trip. Gaaah. In retrospect, I could’ve broken out that Trader Joe’s mac  and cheese, but I wasn’t thinking straight.

After I got home, I noshed on the last of my maple fudge while dinner was cooking.

And I tormented the dog some. If he sees me with the camera, he either runs and hides or he drops to the floor and rolls on his back.

Rawr, so scary…also, I need to vacuum my floor again. Sigh.

Oh, did I say I did this while dinner was cooking? I meant to say I did this while dinner was inadvertently broiling. See, I threw the oven on broil instead of bake, and you’d think at 450 degrees that wouldn’t make so much of a difference……and yet, I’ve never had my steak turn out cup-shaped before. Huh. Well, it was good anyway–little crunchy on the top and underdone on the bottom–and the roasted potatoes, carrots, and onions were magnificent, ’cause really, how could they not be.

The night ended with the simplicity of a Tofutti Cutie, since you can’t mess that up.

The good news is that tomorrow I can’t accidentally leave my camera at home when I go to work, because I’ll be working from home as part of a pandemic preparedness drill. I’m already plotting to make chicken on the George Foreman for lunch…

Posted on September 27, 2009 - by Ashley Jackson

Goodbye, extremely long weekend…

It’s weird to think that I haven’t been at work for nine days…this is the longest I’ve been away from work since I started my job! I needed a break, though, and now I’m eager to go back in the morning. And a little anxious, too–I’m worried that I’ll either have a ton of work waiting for me in my inbox, or none at all. We’ll find out in the morning…

Last night my parents had hamburgers, fried potatoes, and pinto beans. I would’ve settled for just the fried potatoes and pinto beans, but alas, all I have is dry pinto beans, and fried potatoes just aren’t the same without beans. Instead, I had a bunch of grapes…

…that are kind of weird-tasting. Grapes are so hit and miss. I also decided I wanted another salad, so I made the same salad I’d had for lunch–Romaine, Greek Feta dressing, bacon, tomatoes, and the addition of some blue cheese–and topped it with the leftover grilled red peppers, onions, and mushrooms from lunch.

And I had a piece of sourdough bread on the side. I’m determined to eat an entire loaf of fresh-baked bread before it goes bad!

After I ate, I settled down to watch the first disc of Season 2 of The Big Bang Theory. I live under a rock and have no TiVo, so I haven’t been watching this completely awesome show since House got moved to the same time. I’d seen all the episodes on the first disc, but they were all still funny.

I had the rest of my Heath toffee fudge while I was watching.

Later in the evening, I needed a quick snack, so I had some croutons.

After I took the picture, I went back and got some Greek Feta dressing to dip them in.

Today, I’ve been a lazy slug. I could be unpacking or cleaning or something, but instead I spent most of the day lazing in bed with my dog. My pulled muscle still hurts and my face is covered in these mysterious red dots, and really, I just wanted a day to do nothing.

I haven’t really been that hungry today, but I knew if I didn’t eat something I was going to end up sick. So I had a peanut butter cookie LaraBar.

[The doggy on my mousepad there is not puppy Heath--'tis a trick of the eye! It's actually my family's husky, Mysti, when she was a baby (with very sharp teeth).]

I proceeded to do nothing all day, not even eat, until after 6PM. I just wasn’t hungry. But when I finally did get the urge to eat, I knew what I wanted to do–make my entire meal in my food steamer!

I pulled out a piece of frozen salmon, some frozen baby lima beans, and some fresh broccoli, threw it in the steamer, set the timer for 22 minutes, and bing…

…out came deliciousness. I did add some pepper to the salmon, some blue cheese to the broccoli, and some kosher salt all around. Otherwise, all this awesomeness came straight from the steamer. I love steamed salmon–it always stays moist inside, something that’s sometimes difficult to achieve with broiling or grilling (my other two favorite salmon-preparation methods).

After dinner, I settled down to watch Breakfast at Tiffany’s, because I’d had it out from NetFlix for five weeks. No late fees, ha ha…just didn’t feel like watching it until now. Midway through I made myself a little desert.

A Tofutti Cutie broken up into quarters and topped with chocolate-covered sunflower seeds, some mini peanut butter cups, and a broken up chocolate-drizzled lemon cookie.

And I just had my pre-bedtime snack while I was writing this–a piece of sourdough bread topped with Asiago cheese, tomato, lettuce, and a bit more Penzey’s Sandwich Sprinkle than I intended. Oh well, still good…

Off to bed–gotta get up in the morning and go to work!

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.