So after yesterday’s frustration, I had to visit my happy place–Wegmans! Ah, it makes everything better.  We stocked up on groceries for the week (not hard to do, given the lack of a fridge).  I bought a bunch of veggies and am trying to incorporate more into my lunches this week.

Lunch today was a huge salad with Sabra hummus and Wegmans’ mini pitas on the side.

In the salad:

- Baby spinach
- Carrots
- Celery
- Green beans
- Wegmans’ Organic balsamic vinegrette

These pitas are like little fluffy pillows! So soft and delicious…especially with Sabra.  This is the new(ish) lemon flavor.  I mixed a little into the salad too, and it was delicious.

We’re off to the movies to finally see Avatar (in 3D, but not Imax–sadly, we missed the boat on that one!).  Until next time…not sure when that will be exactly, but hopefully sooner rather than later!

Last night we went to a friend of Spike’s house for a party, and I brought my usual party dish: taco dip!  I can’t call it 7-layer dip because I don’t think I have all 7 layers accounted for in my version, but it’s yummy just the same.  We got lots of compliments on it last night!

I start with a layer of spicy fat free refried beans

I mix together a packet of Ortega hot and spicy taco seasoning and a container of fat free sour cream, then layer on about a third to a half of this mixture.

Next comes a layer of shredded Mexican cheese (a handful or two, a little less than half a bag), followed by diced tomatoes with green chilies (sometimes I use salsa here, but I usually favor the canned tomatoes).

Then another layer of the sour cream mixture, another layer of cheese, and topped with sliced black olives and scallions.

Delicious! And sloppy. And not all that bad for you!  We brought a bag of jalapeno Scoops and another kind of tortilla chips, but ended up leaving both because there were already tons of chip options for dipping. I had a few chips’ full of this dip, some Sabra hummus (my favorite), a sample of homemade guacamole, a chocolate chip cookie and a few handfuls of cashews.  And a few sips of Spike’s beer!

Do you have a standby recipe that you always make for parties?

Enjoy the rest of the weekend! Until next time…

Breakfast this morning was my new favorite cereal (as of yesterday)–Wegmans maple pecan crunch.  And it was every bit as good today!

Tonight for dinner we had to be somewhere at 6, so we ran over to Baja Fresh and had about 15 minutes to eat.  I’m so glad we did! I LOVED it.  I’ve never been before and had no idea that it wasn’t just another Chipotle or Qdoba.  I had really delicious blackened mahi mahi tacos.

I love fish tacos and get them a lot, and these rank pretty high–especially considering they’re “fast food.”  I brought half home because of the time constraints but will definitely enjoy the rest later this weekend.

Spike got the blackened shrimp tacos, which he also enjoyed.  He said the shrimp was perfectly cooked.

We also shared the chips that came with our meals, and tried 3 of the salsas from the bar–the spicy roja, the salsa verde, and one more mystery kind.  My favorite was the roja–very smokey with decent heat.

I brought the leftover chips home and ate a few tonight as a post-dinner snack.

Time for bed! Gotta rest up for our busy day tomorrow.

Breakfast this morning was a new kind of cereal–Wegmans’ brand maple pecan crunch. 

Oh. My. Gosh.  So good!! It was like eating a bowl of Christmas cookies.  This may be my new favorite cereal.  And yes, I added just enough milk again this morning to wet it a little.

I saved the green banana and instead allowed it to make a guest appearance at lunchtime, along with a Luna Bar.  Lunas are my favorite of all the bars–at least of the ones I’ve tried. 

This one was iced oatmeal raisin, which–like my cereal–tasted like a cookie.  Hmm…I’m off to a good start today.

We’re finally out of leftovers for dinner, so we treated ourselves to Five Guys tonight!  Sometimes you just need a good burger and fries, you know? 

I got a small burger (i.e. one patty–I made the mistake the first time I visited of ordering a regular one, which comes with TWO patties) with A-1 sauce, mushrooms and pickles.  I love Five Guys because you can totally customize and get whatever toppings you want on your burger.

Spike went really healthy on this one…a double with cheese and bacon. Yikes.  I did have a bite though, and it was delicious.  Seriously.

How did I not know about this place before we moved down here?  I guess they have them all over the Boston area now, but I never visited one up there.

Burger heaven! Enough said.

Huge bummer at lunch today…Pot Belly never showed with our sandwiches! So the meeting organizers ran downstairs to our (gross) cafeteria and picked up lunch for everyone…which meant I was stuck with a ‘pizzeria uno’ personal cheese pizza that I could only manage to eat 2 pieces of.

That’s one strike against Pot Belly in the sandwich catering war with Jimmy John’s!  To make up for it, I had a little afternoon snack at my desk.

Hershey’s is sponsoring an event at work, so they sent over box after box of free candy.  Total sugar hazard at work every day.  There’s a virtually bottomless bowl of sweets!  I loved the Valentine’s themed York peppermint patty–it was pink on the inside! Very cute.

Dinner was more reheated leftovers from the freezer.  This was the last one!

This is a simple pasta bake with Wegmans’ diavolo sauce and mushrooms, green peppers and chicken sausage.  It looked better the first few times we ate it.  Love the chicken sausage!

This Wegmans’ sauce is probably the best jarred tomato sauce I’ve ever had.  Slightly spicy with a tomato flavor that doesn’t taste artificial. 

Good night!

Breakfast this morning was another green banana, plus Wegmans’ berry granola cereal…with milk!

Yes, I had milk on my cereal this morning which is very unlike me.  Not a lot, mind you…probably only a couple tablespoons.  Just enough to soften the granola a little.  Baby steps! It works really well with the vanilla berry flavor of the cereal.

I have to add this cereal to my list of milk exceptions (including Kashi Go Lean and Grape Nuts).

Have a great day!

Breakfast today was peanut butter toast (burned, of course, just the way I like it!) and a green banana.

I had another weird lunch today at work, due to a combination of being too busy and not very hungry.  Tomorrow will be better though, because I have a lunch meeting with Pot Belly catering! Definitely looking forward to that.

We’re trying to clean the freezer out of all of our leftovers before this weekend, so tonight was re-heated turkey chili.  (Check out this post for Spike’s semi-recipe.)  Chili is one of those things that tastes just as good out of the freezer as it does the night you make it.

On the side were more crackers and bread…gotta get my carbs in!

I can’t wait to be fully moved into the new place next week, so we can go back to cooking (and posting) more interesting things.

I’ve avoided my duties for long enough, and LOST is on soon…so…Good night!

For breakfast this morning I had another cottage double (peach this time, my second favorite) along with a Jimmy Dean D’Lite breakfast sandwich.

I’ve wanted to try these for a while–a whole grain english muffin, turkey sausage, egg whites and reduced fat cheese.  It was pretty good, though not something I’d want to eat more than once a week.  It’s nice if you’re on the go and only have two minutes to heat something up…and it’s certainly healthier than grabbing a fast food breakfast sandwich.  Next time maybe I’d punch it up with some spinach or other fresh veggies.

I had a weird non-appetite today, so lunch (not pictured) was a hot chocolate around 1:00, and a Luna Bar around 2:00 when I gave up waiting for my stomach to come around and figured I should just eat something regardless.  Usually I’m hungry for lunch at 11:00 and again around 3:00 or 4:00.  Weird!

Last night in the grocery store we were strategizing for the week ahead and trying to incorporate some of our old “staples.”  We decided on pesto, but–being short on time this week with all the packing–decided to pick up pre-made pesto.

5 minutes later (most of which was waiting for the water to boil) and voila! 

I loved the texture of the fettuccine–I don’t eat this shape nearly enough, probably because it’s usually covered in alfredo sauce which I am NOT a fan of.  But with pesto, it was great.  The sauce was OK…not as good as homemade, but good enough for 30 seconds in the microwave.

Spike had class tonight, so I ate dinner by myself.  For entertainment, I watched a little bit of Armageddon (is it just me, or is this movie on all the time?!).  I’ve seen it a million times but can’t resist…And of course it was the part when Bruce Willis says goodbye to his daughter before he blows himself and the asteroid up and saves the world, so of course I got all teary.  While eating my pesto.  Doh!

Good night!

Breakfast this morning was on the go–a Breakstone cottage double.  I can’t seem to find my favorite flavor (raspberry) anywhere down here.  This one is blueberry, which is also good, but I wish I could find a store that carries the other one.  Maybe they discontinued it?  Hm…

We broke for lunch around 2:00.  Sick of eating out, I thought ahead and packed us sandwiches.

Hers…

and his!

Spike and I have been having a heated debate since he’s started eating sandwiches like this.  Is this a triple decker sandwich, or a double decker?  I say triple, he says double.

We came back to the apartment for dinner–thawed homemade tomato bisque with some fun sides. 

Our guests last week brought us some horseradish cheese spread from Saratoga Springs, so we tried that on some reduced fat triscuits.  Yum!  And of course, some bread for dipping.

Back to work tomorrow.  Hope you enjoyed the weekend more than we did!

The other night we grabbed a quick dinner at Noodles and Company — it’s up the street from our new place, and I think we’ll be going there a lot.  We both got the meal combos.  Spike had tomato bisque and penne with parmesan chicken.

I had the Chinese chop salad and japanese udon noodles with tofu.

I love the texture of udon noodles.  The black sesame seeds were really nice in both as well.  I really like having a variety of foods at dinner (as opposed to just one thing, which usually leaves me bored and wanting to snack later), so this was perfect.

We spent ALL DAY today painting the new place.  One room needed the ceiling painted, so I twisted and turned and stretched in all kinds of ways trying to reach into all the corners…it felt like I was doing Pilates!  I’m totally sore now, and we have another full day of painting tomorrow.

We grabbed a quick dinner again tonight, this time from Jimmy John’s.  On Shannon’s recommendation, I got my favorite (the beach club, no mayo) on the wheat bread this time!  It was awesome.  I’m definitely a convert. 

We ate dinner at our new dining room table!  Very classy setup, complete with paper towels and napkins to keep anything from spilling.

Enjoy the weekend!