snack attack

I wonder if it's going to be a habit to update this with the previous day's edibles... hmm. We will see.

Lunch: all beef hot dog with ketchup on a smushed bun. I don't have hot dogs very often.

As a snack later on I searched through the apples and found another relatively small one. It was a beautiful day outside, so I went outside to eat it.. and found box elder bugs and spiders everywhere. So after I took the picture I went back inside.. le sigh.

more snacks... I think I thought the hot dog would fill me up more than it did. Here we have some Ritz crackers with blackberry jam! I wanted to find some locally made jam, but I think I am past prime jam season now...

More snacks... eep. Dried mango! I love this stuff. It's a little sugary, but it's really hard to find dried fruit that isn't ridiculously oversugared. This kind isn't too bad. The only brand I have found that doesn't have tons of sugar are some of the Trader Joe ones. We don't have a Trader Joes near here, though. I have five or six pieces, which is about a serving.

I am trying so hard to not to snack like crazy but I was so hungry just a little while later... the Cheez-its make a comeback. I had five of these little guys.

Finally, dinner time has arrived. I went with some of my family to the pizza place down the street. They serve peanuts! The kind that you crack 'em open and toss the shells on the ground.

My brother ordered a "double decker" pizza that was half sausage, a quarter pepperoni, and a quarter cheese. A double decker pizza is pizza dough that has all the ingredients rolled up into it. It's a bit thicker than average pizza, and the dough is nice and soft. I am not one for hard, thin pizza, so this worked out great for me.

My piece! It didn't fit on the plate... the tip was tucked under. Whenever I eat pizza, I always take a few napkins and dab off all the grease. Cause grease is just gross. :( My favorite part about this was the doughy crust!

Later that evening I really wanted a dessert snack of some sort.. but we didn't have anything that I deemed worth the calories. I got the inclination to make hot chocolate, but right next to the hot chocolate was tea. So I opted to make cinnamon apple spice tea. Added a little bit of honey, sugar, and ground cinnamon, because I'm not a fan of straight tea. I have a bit of a sweet tooth. It was good! I want to go pick up some new teas at the store now.

october picnic

I didn't get a chance to post yesterday's eatings yet, so here they are today!

Breakfast is apple cinnamon oatmeal with a bit of OJ. I really enjoyed it the day before so I wanted to have it again. Yeah cinnamon!

Lunch consisted of the leftover chicken+bacon+apple+avocado sandwich! Even reheated it was still amazing. I put a teaspoon's worth of French dressing on the plate to dip it into, because it really makes the sandwich.

Two of my best friends who are away for school were both back in town for the weekend! We met up at our usual Starbucks haunt, where we caught up and had tasty coffee. My poison for the day was a tall pumpkin spice latte. Soooo good. I love fall flavors.

We roamed around town for awhile, and due to an epic game of musical cars (my phrase for when driving somewhere is randomly ridiculously long and/or unorthodox. There was a lot of back and forth.), we ended up at one friend's house and her parents generously invited us to have dinner. Since it was such a beautiful day (80s in October?), we had a mini picnic outside. Dinner was a grilled burger with a little mustard and more liberal amounts of Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce, tostada chips, carrot sticks, a bowl of peaches, and a glass of 7Up.

After bringing everything back outside, my friend's mom suprises us with an offer for cake! I love cake.
We continued "musical cars" until we all ended up back at my other friend's house, where we looked at engagement photos, watched music videos, and snacked on wheat thins while watching the Studio Ghibli film Ponyo. Good times.

layering

It's lunchtime. The all American staple: Peanut butter and jelly. Oh, and a little apple cider. The bread is 'whole wheat white' which is slightly healthier than white bread. I personally would prefer legit whole grain bread, but I would be the only person in my house eating it, so therefore it is not bought. Sigh. But do you see that jam? That is cherry jam from Canada's, which is based in... can you guess? Canada. Formerly known as Malkin's, Canada's is some amazing jam. My family goes up north every year and we stockpile on jam. If you ever see some, get it! So good. My all time favorite is cherry, because it was such a big part of my childhood, but I also love blackberry and blueberry. Other flavors include strawberry, apricot, saskatoon, and raspberry.

Snackage time... was reading most of the day, and the gobstoppers were near me. They are nearly gone now.

Dinner was an epic adventure. I made a lasagna! This is my mom's recipe, and this was my first time making it on my own. Also, I was actually making dinner. This never happens in my house. Ever.

Well, I say I made it on my own... my mom actually made the meat sauce the day prior and refrigerated it, but in my defense I actually know how to make that sauce. I love this sauce. No straight-out-of-a-jar sauces here. (My fiancé has not accepted this yet.)

Hello in process photo.

I cooked the noodles though! ...which, of course, was far more epic than need be. When I stuck them in the pot I realized I didn't have enough water, then I cooked them for 5 minutes longer than told and they were still undercooked (I was told later this was okay, since they bake in the oven), and then I'm not... 100% I was supposed to leave them in the strainer. OH WELL.

Here we are layering on tasty mozzarella cheese!

After all the layers are on! I think I put the layers on in the right order. I didn't think anyone was going to analyze it after it was baked.

Finished lasagna! I think it came out pretty well, and my nephew assured me it tasted good. If little kids will eat it, you know you did something right. (By the way, I nearly forgot to take a photo, so I already ate like a third of this... oops.)

Afterwards, the cookies my sister-in-law made yesterday were so good, I wanted a legit ice cream sandwich. so I got two chocolate chip cookies and stuck in a little cookies n cream ice cream. Sad thing is, this was terrible. The cookies were over a week old and the ice cream had been sitting in the freezer for a few months... ick. I wish I could undo eating this. My nephew told me he felt the same way after eating one of these cookies. Sigh.

Late night snack: Ritz cracker with a bit of sharp cheddar cheese on it. I love cheese, so when I have it I try not to eat too much of it. Hence.. one cracker.

can I cook yet?

Day three and I'm still here.

I was contemplating what to have with lunch and was sorely tempted by the leftover Chinese in our fridge... but I wanted to at least try to be a little healthy. I decided to make an egg sandwich, so I know I succeeded at least in the sodium department.

I have mentioned before I have very little cooking ability. I am working on it! But the scene below illustrates this nicely. I have to toast the english muffin, scramble an egg, and cut a piece of roast beef all at once?? I was legit slightly intimidated. I mean, those eggs cook fast. Also, somehow one half of the english muffin got wedged under the wire bread normally sits on, so it was nice and stuck.

But it all worked out in the end, and I was left with a tasty roast beef+egg+cheddar sandwich! And Simply Orange orange juice, because I can't have eggs without orange juice. I'm not sure what the roast beef was leftover from (I didn't know it was roast beef until my dad said so... I have much to learn.), but it was pretty good.

Of course, then the brownie. This is like, half a brownie. They're almost gone.

Later for dinner, I went to my brother's house. For starters there was iceberg lettuce, chopped carrots, a little cheddar cheese, and just a drizzle of light Italian dressing. Just enough to kind of make everything a little moist. Sorry about the poor quality of the next photos, I left my camera at home and only had my phone.

My sister-in-law made chicken alfredo! She makes a really great marinade for chicken, which my brother grills outside. No, it is not warm outside, but he will do it anyway. That's how he rolls.

Two pieces of grilled chicken, mostacholi noodles, alfredo sauce, and a piece of garlic bread. I only eat the insides of garlic bread. Not a fan of crispy things.

My sister-in-law always makes dessert for us. Today was triple chunk chocolate chip cookies. Ooooh my gosh. Halfway through my cookie she made an ice cream sandwich out of hers with vanilla bean ice cream, so I split another cookie with my mom just so I could make a mini sandwich with two quarter pieces. Sooo good.

Evening snack. Serving size of Cheez-it crackers are 27 crackers for a 150 calorie serving. I have 7. Go ahead and count 'em. I also had another half brownie... sigh. I love chocolate, what can I say.