I was a bit worried bringing breakfast parfaits for birthday treats, but they were a hit!  I brought vanilla Chobani’s, granola and I made two different compotes.  I bought two pints of strawberries the week before last.  It’s kind of ridiculous, but even though it’s just me and Tony at home, I use  two refrigerators.  I normally put “my” food in the downstairs fridge:

  • Chobani
  • fruits
  • vegetables
  • jalapenos
  • any hot shit Tony doesn’t want to accidentally touch

But I forgot about the strawberries and they had to be cooked up or I’d have to toss them.  I hate to waste food, and while I try to do a good job, sometimes things just slip through the cracks and I toss stuff out before using it.   This strawberry sauce couldn’t be easier – 2 pints of strawberries (about 2 cups) cut in quarters, 1/3 cup water and 1-2 tablespoons of sugar, depending on how tart the strawberries are.  Just cook down for 8-10 minutes on low.  At the end, mix 1 tablespoon corn starch with 1 tablespoon of water, mix well and add to the sauce to thicken.

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So good!  And this ended up not being too sweet for me so I ate the whole thing – 366 calories and a whopping 56 grams of carbs.  I gave myself what I thought was enough insulin so that my blood sugar would be in the low 200s before working out.  Breakfast parfaits usually spike my blood sugar a lot, so I was shocked when I tested it at 11:15 and it was 95.  Dangit.  So I ate a half cup of my homemade granola, and that worked. Got me up to 175 which is doable.  I had plans to swim, but the pool was crowded so I ended up doing 8 miles on the bike while watching The Chew.

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It felt great after not working out the last four days.  I was hungry though when I got back to my desk.   I had leftover beef stew – yumz!  Since Tony doesn’t eat leftovers I knew he wouldn’t mind that I took the whole container – this might be my lunch again tomorrow too.  I followed this recipe, except at the end when I scooped out all the veggies and meat, I mixed 1 tablespoon corn starch to 1 tablespoon of flour and cooked the gravy for 5 minutes on the stove, so the sauce is nice and thick.  And I used a chuck roast that I cubed myself – I think it’s a much better cut of meat than the “beef stew cubes” you find in grocery stores.  Look at all the fabulous marbling of this cut of meat.

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At the restaurant, the Chef makes a mean jambalaya.  I haven’t tasted it yet (it’s a shared entree at $44 bucks – even half price that’s a bit pricey for me!) but every time I serve it I think “I need to make that at home!”  Only I wasn’t sure Tony would be on board with it – but he said he likes it – I just can’t spice the shit out of his.  No worries – generous doses of Tabasco were added to mine after I plated his dish.  This is a combination of several recipes I saw.  I decided my proteins would be chicken breasts, shrimp and smoked sausage.

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Going to New Orleans is on my bucket list.  Tony tells me that I would die over all the spicy food they have there!  So how did this dish turn out?  Crappy.  The rice was tender, but there wasn’t enough seasoning – in my attempt to not make it too spicy for Tony, I ended up not making it spicy at all.  The shrimp and chicken had hardly any flavor.   We both felt this tasted more like spanish rice!   This dish makes 6 servings: 438 calories, 14.9 fat, 42.5 carbs, 6.2 fiber and 11.4 protein.

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You win some, you lose some – no big!

When I got home from work there was a squirrel on the deck, but we don’t think it was Kyle or Lyle – just one hungry squirrel who didn’t mind if I got too close, but was a bit skittish.  We threw out shelled peanuts to it, picked one up and was like eh?  I came back in the house and found some walnuts and tossed those out – seemed very happy about that!  I guess shelling his own nuts was too much of a chore for it??

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Once it gets really nice out we’ll have to do a major clean up of the deck – so many peanut shells!

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Alright, time to get my stuff together.  Love that it’s 35 degrees already (even if we are supposed to get more snow this week!).  Make it a great day!