La Vida Fresca

I just love cooking for people. Don’t you?

The best for me is baking for someone special.  I just had one two of these white chocolate-cranberry-macadamia nut cookies straight from the oven. All in the name of testing.

Naturally, I didn’t sit at home eating cookies all day though :-)

We had a whirlwind day but it started with sleeping in. It took a while to get going today but once I did (after much coffee) my first official task was doing a quick 30 minutes in the gym pool. I think only four people saw my hideous front crawl. Zero would be better, but four isn’t too bad :-)

Then it was time for lunch.

Firsts and seconds from the Ruby Tuesday salad bar. Basically this was a little of everything, or at least a little of a lot of it. Those grapes look good, don’t they? I thought so too. Look closer.

If you can’t tell from the photo, that’s mush and mold right there. And this wasn’t the only one. Ewww. I hate wasting food and I really wanted some fresh fruit but it grossed me out and I only ate a few of the good ones.

Mmmm. This speaks for itself. Today I got cream and sugar. Usually all my hot coffee and iced coffee is unsweetened but I asked for sugar today. At first the syrupy taste was overpowering but I got used to it :-)

Dinners #1 and #2 (at 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.) were spaghetti and a turkey meatball (I cooked the meatballs in sauce in the slow cooker today — that’s my preferred meatball cooking method). This is the first time I’ve ever used ground turkey but they came out good.

Spaghetti is one of my most favorite of favorite foods. I could eat it every day and be happy I think. I used Barilla Plus pasta which is awesome and has 10 grams of protein per 2-ounce serving. I don’t know about y’all but I do not eat 2-ounce servings of pasta. It’s just not possible for me. Let’s just say I got in plenty of protein today. Another thing I really like about Barilla Plus is the texture. Usually I buy whole wheat pasta because it’s cheaper but if the prices are close I prefer Barilla Plus. It has a softer, smoother texture, tastes great, and doesn’t break as easily as whole wheat.

Dinner #1 also included some accidentally overcooked broccoli. Jack Lalanne would not approve (”Undercook your vegetables, students!”).

Well that’s enough for one day. Since it’s after 1 a.m. now, I may as well go ahead and say happy Sunday!

I did some baking late this afternoon–  cherry flax muffins (had three of these). And some dates with almond butter (not shown). Dangerous combo.

Earlier I had this baby container of mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Time to prep food, etc. for tomorrow and hit the sack. Night!