Spring Break Recap

Sorry I've been away for a few days.  We took an unplanned "vacation" for spring break where we took the kids on a series of day trips.  Here's a recap:

Day One - Hunting Ghosts!
We spent the first day in San Antonio and the main event was a Ghost Tour.  This was an evening tour where we walked around to some historical sights and heard ghostly stories.  It was fun, interesting, and most of all the kids dug it!  They gave us "ghost detecting tools" to carry around with us to measure the change in temperatures around you.  We didn't encounter any ghostly beings (which was a big disappointment to the kids), but we did learn a bit about San Antonio history and it was a beautiful night to be able to walk around the downtown area.  I didn't see anything suspicious in my photos, but I did get a good picture of the Alamo! ;)

Day Two - Ice Cream?

Our second adventure was to tour the Blue Bell ice cream factory in Brenham, TX.  During spring break they offer more tours than normal, starting every 10 minutes from 8am to 3pm.   

It took us 2 hours to get there and we were so excited to tour the factory and get a free scoop of ice cream!  When we finally pulled up to the building we couldn't believe what we saw.

I had NO idea there would be so many people there.  Seriously, a tour every 10 minutes for 7 hours and they're full by NOON???  I couldn't believe it!  Luckily, we still got to enjoy a scoop of ice cream for $1 and browse through their gift shop.  Oh well...

Since we were already there, we tried to find something else we could do nearby.  We settled on the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum in College Station, TX.  I have never been to a Presidential Library before, so this was a first for me and the kids.  Matt has been to the Ronald Reagan Library and he was excited to check this one out.  

Afterward, we stopped in College Station for a burger and fries and the Koppe Bridge Bar and Grill. 

Day Three - Enchanted Rock?

I'm sensing a theme here...yes, ANOTHER 2 hour drive to find that the park is at capacity and has closed.  Plan B was a walk around Fredericksburg, TX and a visit to the butterfly house at Wildseed Farms just outside of town.  The butterfly house was totally cool!  They gave us "nectar sticks" that we could use to pick up the butterflies.  This one was my favorite - I think it's called a Mexican Paintbrush, it's fairly rare for this region and there were only two of these in the butterfly house so we were happy to catch him for a few seconds!

Salsa Fresca

I think I have introduced you to Roger before...well, this is him begging for a banana while I prepared my oatmeal for breakfast:

Roger LOVES bananas!  They are probably his favorite food and I think he loves them even more than popcorn.  I don't know how he does it, but he can be in a totally different room (even upstairs) and if we break open the peel of a banana he comes running! 

I'm really, really trying to fight this cold and I feel like I may be losing.  Today my sore throat was mostly gone but it was replaced by a stuffy nose and headache and then general body aches by late afternoon.  I needed to take it easy tonight so this cold doesn't turn into something more.  We have some spring break plans for the kids later this week so I can't get sick!  Motivation will have to go on hold for a while as I rest...

But before I can rest...there is dinner to be made.  Obviously I didn't want to spend too much time in the kitchen so I threw together some tacos.  You won't believe how simple they were and how AWESOME they tasted!  Tortillas, jack cheese, hamburger, but the star of the show was the salsa fresca.

Grape tomatoes, red onion, cilantro, corn, avocado, lime, and salt.

This stuff was OFF THE HOOK!  It really made the tacos fabulous!  Here was the soft taco I made with a whole wheat tortilla:

I piled on the salsa fresca, right?  Well, I went back TWO times to get more!  I will be making this one again. 

I'm Back!

This weekend was kind of rough for me - I had that sore-throat-achy feeling off and on all weekend.  Needless to say, absolutely NO painting got done - zip...zilch...nada!  That's about the same amount of running I did over the weekend too.   I'm not sure I'm totally over the "crud", but I was well enough to go to work this morning and I'm going to keep fighting it! 

So I came home from work today and went for a short run.

I've decided that I'm satisfied with these short runs (i.e. less than 3 miles) during the week.  I put so much pressure on myself to always do more, and I got the idea in my head that doing less than 3 miles at a time was not acceptable.  What the hell?!  For now I will focus on speed during the week and save the longer runs for the weekend ("speed" for me means less than 10 minute miles).  This is so much more motivating!  I obviously didn't make it today, but I was close! 

I made some Israeli couscous for dinner tonight.  We've never tried it before, but every time I see it in the bulk section of the grocery store I'm intrigued.  What I had in mind was a side dish of Israeli couscous with roasted veggies.  I roasted broccoli, asparagus, tomatoes, red pepper, and mushrooms at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes.

When I stuck this in the oven, the cookie sheet was covered with veggies.  It's amazing how much they shrunk.  They tasted awesome though! 

I threw some steaks on the grill and then started cooking the couscous.  First, I toasted it in some EVOO and then added beef broth and simmered for about 12 minutes.  

Once the couscous was done I mixed it with the veggies.  

It was good and it was a winner with the family.  We all agreed, however, that the roasted veggies were better by themselves.  When I added them in with the couscous they lost their crispiness.  Next time, I'll serve them separately.

Catching Up

I came home last night and totally crashed!  I wonder if I'm getting sick because I've had a mild sore throat all day today.  I will try my best to fight that off!

Rewind to Friday...

I forgot to make my oatmeal before going to bed, so I had to come up with a breakfast alternative that would keep me satisfied until lunch.  I fried an egg, over easy, and made some awesome toast with some thinly sliced french bread so it was really crispy...yum!

As usual, I was so famished in the morning that I didn't remember until halfway through my meal that I needed to snap a picture...sorry!  

We had a colleague come in town from one of our other offices, so you know what that means...FREE LUNCH!!  Not the place I would have chosen, but beggars can't be choosers.  The place definitely has atmosphere and the barbecue isn't bad, but I think they're overpriced and choices are limited.  It's an Austin establishment so it's almost taboo to say out loud that it's not your favorite, so I didn't.

I had the port loin, cole slaw, and the cream corn.  Their cream corn IS fabulous - best I've had anywhere!  I made a sandwich with my pork loin, but left it open for the picture so you could see in between the slices of bread.  With all of my co-workers around me, I chose to sneak a picture with my iPhone rather than giving an explanation since this is my extra-curricular activity!

I decided to grab a snack in the afternoon because my daughter had a team practice that evening and I knew it would be late before we would eat dinner.  I started with this new kind of yogurt I picked up at the store last week.  It sounded interesting and the flavor, Orange and Ginger, sucked me in!

I'm sure there's someone out there who likes this stuff, but I couldn't handle more than two bites!  I took the second bite only because I thought maybe the flavor was on the bottom and I should stir it up.  YUCK!!  This one went in the trash.  Luckily I had more yogurt in the fridge at work, so I tried this one:

MUCH better!  The fruit flavor was great - not too sweet or overpowering.  The texture of the coconut milk yogurt is different than I expected.  It was kind of slimy, for lack of a better word, but I got used to it.  I kept wondering as I ate it if this would be more like a gelato if frozen.  I'll have to try that!

After my daughter's practice, we talked ourselves into eating out since it was a Friday night and too late for cooking.  We stopped in at a California Pizza Kitchen where the wait was a surprisingly short 10-15 minutes!  A Mojito is the first thing I ordered.

The CPK Mojito was good because it wasn't too sweet and there was plenty of lime and mint!  My second course was a cup of chicken tortilla soup.  I won't be getting this again. It was really thick and had a very concentrated flavor - too much like a Cream of Chicken Tortilla soup.  Yuck!

That's all I ate.  About half a cup of that and I was done.  On to the main course - Cabo Crab Cakes - an appetizer that we get every time we visit the CPK.  This time I decided to make it my meal because I always love it so much.  Not so much this time...

I guess I was really on a roll with my food choices!  They were just okay.  The black bean and roasted corn relish wasn't as fresh, the dipping sauce wasn't as thick and creamy, and I kept getting pieces of crab shell in the cakes.  Boo!

I was so ready to get home.  The kids wanted ice cream for dessert, so since I had the ice cream out I made a blackberry shake for myself.  It was yummy and it was the most intense PURPLE!

Vanilla ice cream, milk, fresh blackberries, vanilla extract, and a few ice cubes.

On Saturday, I woke up early because I had a meeting and some work to get done.  After that, we lounged around and finally made breakfast around 10:30!  I was craving eggs again, but this time I remembered to snap the picture before digging in!

The funny thing about this breakfast for me is that I really don't like eggs.  Maybe I just need some protein, hence the craving, or maybe they are just growing on me.  I haven't decided yet, but just looking at this picture now makes me want to go cook another egg!  :)

We had some errands to run today and we saw the neatest chair in a department store.  It is made of woven wire.  Not comfortable AT ALL, but would make a great conversation piece!

It was a beautiful summer day so I wanted to run, but I just couldn't do it.  I started feeling worn out right before dinner and that sore throat was getting worse.  So much for motivation!  I took a nap instead, hopefully just what my body needed!

Dinner was really good tonight.  I made chicken piccata with tiny potatoes that I roasted in butter and a little bit of chicken broth and roasted asparagus (and no paper plates tonight - yay!).

Chile With Beans

I was in a hurry this morning.  I had my coffee (almost never miss that), but had to run out the door without breakfast (almost never miss breakfast either!).  Luckily, someone brought donuts to work so I snagged one of those to satisfy me until lunch.

One of our VP's was in the office today and I had meetings with him that pretty much took up my whole lunch hour, so I resorted to my stockpile of Lean Cuisines again.  I chose some kind of flatbread sandwich and it was DISGUSTING!  I choked about half of it down and then remembered I had thrown a multigrain bagel and some almond butter in my bag yesterday, and I always keep some honey at my desk.  Woo hoo!  I tossed the rest of the nasty flatbread and enjoyed every bite of my bagel!

I also had a greek yogurt later in the afternoon.  I was planning to run after work, so I figured I would need a little afternoon snack.  When I left work, however, it looked like it might rain.  This provided an easy excuse for me to bag the run for today.  As I got closer to home, the skies looked clearer and seeing all of the people out walking, running, and biking made me feel really guilty.  I decided I should at least go for a short run.  As usual, I was so glad I did!  It was a good run and I was able to stay under a 10 minute pace (barely, but it counts!)!  Having that new pace goal gave me the extra challenge and motivation I needed to make it through the run.

Here was the prize waiting for me after the run:

This is a Pinot Grigio from Chile.  I drank about half of this glass. This is the third "half glass" I've wasted from this same bottle.  I've tried several wines from Chile, and I have never found one that I liked. 

While I sipped on the mediocre wine, I started making dinner.  I tried a bean salad recipe tonight that was really good.  I had several veggies that I just needed to finish off before they go bad.  Here's my salad:

Black beans, pinto beans, red bell pepper, corn, red onion, cilantro, cucumber, grape tomatoes.  

I mixed up a vinaigrette dressing with evoo, cider vinegar, dijon mustard, cumin, salt and pepper.  Here's the recipe - the only things I changed was to use pintos instead of lentils and I added cucumber.  It was so fresh and good!  We also had grilled hamburgers.

I'm really tired and ready to go to bed!  Sorry it wasn't a very exciting day, but tomorrow is Friday and I expect things will be hoppin'!  :)