I didn't think it was possible to be so tired, but after averaging about three hours of sleep per night from Thursday to Tuesday, all I want to do is sleep! And eat. Since I got home, my eating has changed dramatically. No fried food, no alcohol, nothing that hasn't been homemade. To my body, this is culture shock. After almost a week of solely processed food, I crave salt. It's awful! It takes a few days to get back to normal. Your body can be trained not to crave really salty and sweet foods, but it can be broken just as easily. Since I've been home, I've tried to be good about limiting my salt intake but I can't stop thinking about it! It's horrible. Anyway, I haven't taken too many pictures lately because I haven't eaten anything too extravagant. Dinner on night one was chili. Breakfast on day two was Organic Flax Waffles (generic because the grocery stores are out of everything!) with Vanilla Greek Yogurt, a whole banana and sugar free syrup. This breakfast hit the spot in a major way. To have control over my choices was a great feeling. This sounds a little crazy but it gives me much comfort to know exactly what I'm eating. I didn't get a picture of lunch but I had another boca with two clementines. We had the best oranges in New Orleans! It was unreal. I guess it's because nothing is dying in the freezing winter down there.

My snack yesterday was black beans and cheese. Random, I know. Not even worth taking a picture of!!!

Nothing like a hot cup of coffee to warm up after shoveling snow. My car was the cleanest in the neighborhood. This was my excuse not to work out yesterday! That, and the fact my knees still hurt from long hours full of dancing and walking on vacation.

Dinner was one of my favorites. Per request of one of my friends, I'll include the recipe. This is so simple, but it tastes decadent.

Spicy Scampi:
3 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 lb small fresh shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
8 oz any pasta (We used whole wheat angel hair)

In a large skillet over medium heat, melt the butter with the oil. (We use both because it combines the flavor of butter with the high burning temperature of olive oil). Add shrimp, parsley, salt and red pepper. Cook until shrimp turn pink, about 3 minutes, while stirring frequently. Meanwhile, cook the pasta in a separate pot, and drain. Toss the pasta and sauce together. This is supposed to be a 4 serving recipe, but we split it between 3. I would maybe cut it down to 2 Tbsp both butter and olive oil, but have yet to try that.

We served it along side broccoli and Pilsbury crescent rolls. Those are never served in my house! But, they were delightful.

I finally got my ice cream kick... how I missed it. But now, we're out. Back to boring dark chocolate! ...or hot chocolate... hmm..

Anyway, that's all for now!

We went from the sun and breeze in New Orleans to the bitter cold blizzard in Virginia. Unreal! Like I said, to be honest, not all the food we had was creole and delicious. We tried to get as much authentic cuisine as much as possible but day three of red rice and beans with gumbo/jambalaya was enough. I'll try to give you a small breakdown but apologize my pictures are out of order. The best meal we had (up until the last night) was in the airport! Isn't that pathetic? Ha. Julia and I both got Bourbon chicken with salad and pesto pasta. For airport food, this was surprisingly really tasty. It was funny though... Julia packed her own lunch and it was almost exactly like the lunches I eat every day. She had the arnold sandwich thins with greek yogurt and a pair. Then later, when I busted out a Hershey Dark Chocolate Bliss square, she busted out a Dove Chocolate herself. It's funny to think of how we both have the same habits now. You should have seen the way we ate as teenagers. Rice a roni, cheetos, mini cupcakes. Those were probably the three main staples of our diets. We've come a long way, Jules! Anyway... here is suome of the stuff I actually got pictures of.


This gumbo was unfortunately little more than chicken broth with rice, chicken, shrimp and sausage. It lacked spices and flavor and the big build up was just a major let down. So sad. I think I'm going to try to make some on my own.

This is the five star airport meal. Delicious. Who would have thought this would be the best food? We did get it in Houston though. Everything is bigger (and better?) in Texas. I know from Daus though... Houston ain't where it's at!!

These are just some delicious brownies I made when I got home and I'm posting because they are cute. I only ate the pieces that couldn't fit in the cut outs.

Tasty airplane breakfast? Actually... after all the indulging we did this weekend, I was more than happy to see this plate.

This was by far the best thing we ate all weekend. I don't always trust raw sushi but this smoked salmon surrounded an inside of cucumber, crab, and cream cheese. Ohh it was so good!!

This wakame salad, which is made of seaweed and sesame seeds, was actually really tasty. I would have never ordered it but now I will always look for it on Japanese menus! It's really light but has a good flavor.

Amy convinced (not tricky) to order fried pickles. These things were awesome. Want to make something better? Fry it? Want to make it way worse for you? Fry it.

This was a California roll from the same restaurant the other sushi was from. This wasn't as extravagant but I wasn't feeling as adventurous for lunch. Sushi is a perfect light lunch, as long as you don't drown it in soy sauce... like I may/may not have!

This crab and avocado platter was described as a salad. I thought lettuce salad. They meant full of mayonnaise salad. Oops. Still tasty, but really the avocado was way more appetizing than the crab.

Last but not least, this was a beignet from the famous Cafe du Monde. Delicious. I don't really eat things like this often and I don't think I'd always eat it but with the cafe au lait I ordered, it was a slightly sweet delight.

Anyway, things will become very boring in the food world for me as I try to get back on track. There's nothing like a good splurge but I feel way out of whack. It's hard to stay good on vaca, but I suppose we could have been worse. Time to get back to shoveling! Bye bye

I've been stuck in New Orleans so forgive my delayed posts! I'll catch you up asap. Sorry to report the Cajun/Creole food wasn't as good as I suspected. I'll blame this on strange eating hours and hunger overtaking the need for quality choices! Talk to you all soon!

Sorry I didn't get a chance to post yesterday. Things are busy getting ready to go to the big NOLA this weekend so I haven't had a chance to catch you up. Pity for you, I've been eating super exciting things. Orr... not. Breakfast both yesterday and today was the same-- Special K, Fiber One Honey Clusters, blueberries/bananas, and milk.


Lunch yesterday was one of my favorites... BOCA burger! So many people have a disgust of this soy burger but really... it's quite good! I mean, obviously it's not a beef burger but it's a good change from your everyday turkey on whole wheat, right?

Lunch today however was a high fiber wrap with bananas and peanut butter. As you'll see, I've had a big sweet tooth today. You'll be able to tell by my dinner choice.

Snack yesterday was a Kashi chocolate almond bar with a coffee.

I tried not to nibble too much as I chopped, diced and sauteed for our chili dinner last night. I got the recipe from the Wegmans magazine and although it was supposed to be a turkey chili recipe, I made it with ground beef which I drained the fat. This was probably not as healthy but still good. Nothing like the smell of chili simmering away. While I prepped my ingredients yesterday (which, by the way, is half the battle of chili) I discovered I love the aroma of cumin! Who knew. It has this spicy but mild flavor that reminds me of good Mexican cooking. Yum. So, the prep took about 20 minutes to chop, measure etc, but the actual cooking process is as easy as stirring every few minutes. Yum. Yum. I wish we had extra because I would have eaten it with lunch today. There are different variations of chili. Some call for noodles or tortilla chips but we served it with multi grain rolls we got at the farmers market. They didn't exactly go hand in hand with the chili but it was still good. We also had some green beans. As you can tell... in coordination of my new title, the can of diced tomatoes exploded on me last night. Awesome





Unfortunately, my cravings got the better of me last night and I had too many sweets right before bedtime (think Hershey Bliss chocolate squares, pretzels and two mini muffins with a glass of milk...GRRRRRRR)

That kept me up late, meaning I've been tired all day. Funny how food can affect so much. Plus, tomorrow is an early morning... which will turn into a late night (because of flights)..so basically I won't sleep until next week!!! AHHH!!!!

Snacks today included a Fiber One chocolate pop tart (good, but would have been better in a toaster!) and some Entertaining Quartet crackers with Laughing Cow cheese.


I have an activia in the fridge but I'm holding out for dinner. Drum roll please.... PANCAKES!! Yes, since my parents are going out to dinner I'm making breakfast. They are the whole grain Quaker kind and I'm serving them with vanilla Greek yogurt, sliced bananas and syrup. Maybe some chocolate chips... we'll see how devilish I'm feeling. If I knew how to make bananas foster I would, but unfortunately, no dice. Alright, time to close down the job site!! Ta ta!!

Is it still Monday? Do I say this every Monday? I think so. I'm full, happy and sleepy, which is a great combination. Today, although I was supposed to be reading all day, I ended up revamping my food blog and baking and taking pictures of my meals. This made for a lovely day.. oops, sorry school!

I'm not even going to include my breakfast picture because it's so boring compared to everything else and it doesn't even look like what it is-- you've all seen it before, fear not: a whole wheat tortilla with peanut butter and banana with a side of coffee. I did my boot camp class today but it was such a small class that it wasn't too much fun. After work I did my own work out on the elliptical and lifted, blah blah no one cares about that! Well, I'd rather show you my food. It's prettier.

I made birthday muffins for someone today. The recipe called for 18 regular sized muffins but I ended up making 48 mini muffins. It's only 73 calories a muffin, nice. On half of the batch, however, since it was a birthday gift I decided to make a glaze for it. This genius idea was completely negated by the fact I accidentally used peppermint extract instead of rum extract and I thought I completely ruined the batch. Luckily, the sweet blueberries drowned out the taste of the mint completely, so the glaze was okay. Aren't they cute?!

Lunch was tasty, too. I saved some peppers from last nights fajitas and heated them up with chicken sausage, marinara and some italian cheese. I grilled the whole wrap on the stove top and the crispy consistency made the wrap tastier than it would have been cold. I had an apple, too.
A small snack later in the day was a bowl of Special K with blueberries, sugar and some milk. I'd be lying if I didn't mention my second cup of coffee... oopsies.

Dinner was fantastic.... we made the Ellie Krieger shrimp with tomatoes and feta recipe and served it atop of whole grain cous cous and a greek salad. The salad had olives (ew.), tomato, feta, cucumbers and stuffed grape leaves--yum. I topped it with a Greek yogurt dressing.



I think I'll have a couple muffins for dessert...since we have no more ice cream.. grr

Planning on making a new blueberry muffin recipe today... check back for how it goes...

This will be my new site. The name is much more appropriate.. if you've ever seen the kitchen after I've taken to it, you'll understand. Plus, notice the clever play on words spelling messie like Jessie? Geez, I'm a regular Einstein.