It’s My Last One!

Friday the kidults didn’t have to work, and it was my day off so we decided to go out to lunch.  We had the place picked out – the Tracks in our downtown.  They have outdoor seating which we thought would be nice because it was gorgeous, but turns out everyone else in our town had the same idea, so the wait was 30 minutes.  I had already decided that I was going to get the ahi tuna salad, but when we went to Plan B, my mind quickly went to a burger because they have amazing burgers at this place.

Yep, that’s their bruschetta burger on a brioche bun.  It’s cooked medium rare, so juicy with some char to it.  I ate 3/4 of it and a few of the fries and called it an 18 point lunch.  The old me would have thought “you blew it!” and eaten like crap the rest of the day, or the rest of the weekend (or month, or year – whatever!).  But later in the afternoon I went to the gym and did a 5k hill climb on the treadmill and swam for 25 minutes.

Realizing I only had 4 points left for the day, I decided to ditch Party Pizza Friday and see if I could come up with a low point dinner.  Shrimp is always a good idea.  I defrosted some shrimp from the freezer.  8 shrimp was 1 smart point.  I marinated the shrimp in 1 teaspoon grapeseed oil, chopped parsley, salt, pepper and crushed red pepper.  Then I grilled sliced zucchini and drizzled a bit of balsamic glaze over the top and paired it with blueberries and watermelon for dessert.

It was delicious and filling, and I ended up with 28 points that day.  #winning!

I worked over the weekend, and lucked out that the rain didn’t hit until we finished packing up on Saturday.  I bought a new lunch bag at Bed Bath & Beyond.  You put the whole thing in the freezer and the fill it in the morning.  It said it keeps things cold for 10 hours, and I’d have to say it did a pretty good job.  Both days I brought:

• watermelon (0)
• grapes (0)
• low carb roast beef wrap with romaine and mustard (4)
• babybel light cheese (1)
• rice crackers (4)
• hard boiled egg (2)
• banana (0)
• 4 bottles of water

I typically would eat the hard boiled egg and banana on the drive to work.  Then throughout the morning would eat the rest of the food in my bag. 

It’s surprising how thirsty I get at the markets.  I bought a 30 pack of water to keep in my downstairs refrigerator for $2.99 at Aldi.  My co-worker however, spent $10 on a bottle of watermelon juice at the market on Saturday – crazy!

When I got home Hannah had her cleaning pants on and organized my spice jar and my lazy susan cabinet.  I love how I can see everything now and I hope to keep it organized!

Sunday I had to be at the market at 5:30.  As I was grabbing my charged phone, I found this note from Hannah – so cute!

I got to the shop and no one was there.  Okay, maybe they were a bit late.  There are only two markets on Sunday that they do.  6:00 came and went.  I texted the owner – no response.  Finally at 6:20 he called and said they overslept and would be right over.  They finally got there at 6:45.  Gah.   Luckily our market didn’t start until 9, and that’s when he told me that he forgot to change the time on the schedule and I didn’t have to be there until 6:30.  That extra hour of sleep would have been nice!

The weather was perfect yesterday.  We did so well that I was sold out of everything at 12:30.  We had no more veggie burgers to sell, or to make as wraps or salads.  The market goes until 2:00, so most people make us their last stop because the burgers are frozen and were so disappointed that we were sold out.  I did have three different cakes left though – our signature carrot cake, a vegan chocolate cake and a vanilla bean cheesecake.  With our tables bare, I declared “this is my last carrot cake – who wants it?!” and it’s amazing what the power of suggestion is – when they think it’s the last one, I had people nearly fighting over who was going to get it.  We did $1750 in sales in 3 1/2 hours, and I could have sold at least another $500 if I had any product left that last hour and a half.   And the time flew by!

And since I didn’t have party pizza Friday I decided to make a pizza last night.  I’d only had 11 points going into dinner, so I ate half this pizza and called it 30 points for the day.  Dietz and Watson makes an amazing stick pepperoni that’s delicious sliced on pizza.  I used a combo of mozzarella and feta cheese on this one.  So good!  Then added fresh basil from my potted plant and a drizzle of walnut pear balsamic glaze.

I love having the Timehop app on my phone.  It’s funny what you forget, or when you see a memory think “I can’t believe that was X years ago!”

June 4 was the anniversary of my first date with Tony.  And I didn’t remember it until Timehop showed me this:

SIXTEEN years ago was our first date.  So weird, it seems so long ago, and like yesterday at the same time.  New readers can read about how we met here.   And it was a date that Tony actually remembered, which is especially sweet! 

And Karli, two years ago we were together in Texas!

Now she’s about to be a first time Momma – so happy for you!  You’ll be a great Mom.

So I have the next couple days off, then Wednesday I’ll be back in Grayslake – Thursday I’ll be in Logan’s Square, then back to Evanston on Saturday and Frankfort on Sunday.   It’s basically a 40 hour work week in 4 days, but I don’t mind.  The time does go by so fast, and you know I love talking to people about food – even though at times I wish I worked at the pork tent that was next to us yesterday!

I am about to meal plan for the week and grocery shop.  I’ll be grilling up something – just don’t know what yet.  Even though Hannah is vegetarian most of the time, she’ll eat smoked sausage on the grill – as long as I nearly burn it

Hope you had a great weekend – make it a great day!