Vegetarian Tamales, At Last!

Hi, there! Yesterday morning I had a delicious Greek yogurt with Grape Nuts, strawberries, and coffee for breakfast. I really love Greek yogurt (it's strained so it's thicker and creamier), but I actually prefer the plain kind. The fruity flavors tend to be a bit too sweet for my taste, but that is what they have at Costco.

For lunch I had leftover Mexi-Mac, some cottage cheese, and celery and peppers with hummus. I have been wanting to get these tiny peppers from Costco for a while now, but just wasn't sure if we'd be able to use them up. Then a coworker recommended them to me and confirmed that they were NOT spicy. (The bag says that they are sweet, but the rule of thumb 'the smaller the pepper, the spicier it is' is ingrained in my head.) When I saw them featured on Healthy San Diego Living where they were grilled, I knew I had to try them! Next trip to Costco, I got the peppers.

After work, Katie asked me for a big favor...to go shopping with her! She never wants to go shopping with me. She either prefers that I just pick stuff out for her myself, or every once in a while she'll go by herself on one of her days off. However, she needed something new to wear to all of the weddings we have coming up (5 this summer!) and dress clothes seem to be more difficult to find. We headed out with a plan, put on our game faces, and lucked out by finding a perfectly fitting suit at the second store. Can't wait til she gets to wear it on Friday!

We decided to try a new Mexican restaurant for dinner, Zemog's (that's 'Gomez' backwards). A friend told me about this place because our former Burger King manager is the owner! (Yep, I used to work at BK...for many years, actually! I was a killer drive-thru order taker all through high school and over summer breaks during college!) It is really far from our house (109th & Q, for all you Omahans), so I'm glad we thought to try it while we were already out that way. It's a small place with about 15 tables, but I was surprised to find out they also deliver. And I was very excited to see they had vegetarian tamales on the menu! I don't usually have a problem finding something to eat at Mexican restaurants, but it's rare to find vegetarian specialty items. I ordered the tamale, which was filled with poblano peppers, corn, and queso fresca  - yum! I also had a small scoop of Katie's rice, and plenty of chips, salsa (which was perfectly spicy), and white cheese dip. At first I was disappointed that they didn't serve alcohol, but my iced tea ended up being a better choice anyway.

As Katie and I were discussing splitting a side of rice and beans, our waitress piped up. Since I had ordered the vegetarian tamale, she wanted me to know that the refried beans were not vegetarian (they had bacon grease in them) but the rice was (no chicken stock). I was SUPER impressed with this attention to detail! I know to ask about rice and beans, but the fact that the (very friendly) waitress picked up on the fact that I might be vegetarian, already knew the ingredients used, and offered up that information was really exceptional. I'd go back for that reason alone!

When we got home, we watched an episode of Intervention. I don't know why I watch that show...I always end up in tears.

Then it was time to blog about my nephew's birthday party, pack a lunch, set-up coffee for the morning, and head to bed. My, how these days just fly by!