Real Food – Day 4

I was up late Friday working on / moving my blog, which led to sleeping in later than usual on Saturday. This also meant I got to begin my day with a lovely brunch! I got up, brewed some coffee, turned on NPR, and got to work on my meal. It was a great morning.

Veggie scramble was on the menu. I started by sauteing some finely diced peppers.

Then I added diced tomato, chopped spinach, 1 egg and 1 egg white. After the eggs were cooked, I topped it all with a bit of feta cheese.

I served it up with a toasted English muffin - half with a little butter (to be used as a vehicle for the scramble) and half with peanut butter.

With coffee!

I decided to pull a stool up to the kitchen island and eat while listening to This American Life (instead of watching TV, which is what I normally do.)

I have to say, I really enjoyed it! I'd love to have a bar to eat at in the kitchen. It'd be an option a little less casual than the couch but not as formal as the dining room table. Maybe we can knock out half a wall?

Unfortunately, I had to go into the office for a bit. We have some big deadlines coming up, and since I'll be out of town next weekend for the Healthy Living Summit, I wanted to log a few extra hours while I had the chance. But first, I got to work on stalling.

Stella has the habit of rolling in the stinkiest junk she can find. It drives me crazy. She came up to the door to ask to come in the house, and I could see that she was just covered in chunky sludge. Grrrr. Before letting her in, I filled up the sink so I could wash her ASAP. One plus of having an 8 pound dog is that you don't have to bathe them in the bathtub!

Unfortunately, Stella hates baths.

But I swaddled her like the baby that she is...

...and I think she forgave me.

All clean!

Then, while I was walking to the garage to leave for the office, I decided to stop and trim our ridiculously huge hydrangea bush.

I love hydrangeas, but I have no idea how to care for them. We've had so much rain this Summer, that the bush kind of exploded. I decided to just cut off a bunch of the stems that were least visible to the yard. Then I created 3 arrangements for the house. And by 'arrange' I mean 'stuck in a vase.'

A little one for the entry way table.

A medium one for the dining room table.

And a giant one for the bedroom. This vase is nearly 3 feet tall!

Then, I figured I better head out. I packed one of my Stonyfield Smoothies in a to-go container to drink while I was working.

When I finally made it home, I was starving! Luckily, I had a quick and filling dinner in mind. Last week I picked up this container of pre-made ratatouille from Costco. It is a mix of roasted vegetables (eggplant, tomato, peppers, onion, etc.)

I mixed it with some quinoa and topped it with a veggie burger. It was really good - tasted like a healthier spaghetti and meatballs!

I also had some cantaloupe and iced tea.

As part of our focus on eating real food, Katie and I are trying to cut out Diet Coke. Although sometimes a diet soda really hits the spot, I rarely crave it anymore. Plus, it is starting to bother me that it's basically all chemicals. Why did I never think of that before? As an easy alternative, Katie made a big container of sun tea. So good.

We attended a beer tasting party that night, which I knew meant snacking would ensue. For the first part of the evening, I stuck to popcorn and peanuts.

The beer tastes were small, but there sure were a lot of them! This was a head-to-head, bracket-style, single elimination tournament. Each person entered a beer, and there were 32 participants. I definitely took a 'sip & dump it out' approach to keep me from drinking too much.

After awhile, I realized that I probably hadn't fueled enough for the 20-mile run I had planned for the morning. Luckily, there were plenty of carbs available. I snagged some bread with bruschetta, chips with salsa and bean dip, and crackers. Plus, we were given awesome pretzel necklaces!

It got a little itchy, so I turned mine into a bracelet.

Because I had an early run and Katie had to work in the morning, we were only able to stay for the first round. I thought it would be funny to enter a non-alcoholic beer, so I brought O'Doul's Amber. To my surprise, it knocked out Katie's beer in the second round and made it all the way to the Final Four! The winner of the tournament was Blue Moon's Honey Moon Summer Ale. In my opinion, this was a vast improvement over last year's winner, Busch Light. But the point of the tournament is to just choose what you thinks tastes better - so to each their own. It was fun!