Caroline Dines

Today was just one of those days. Not one of those bad days, but instead one of the best days I have had in awhile! It started off on the right food with a healthy, filling and mouth satisfying breakfast. In the past few weeks I have been experimenting with Green Monsters and while I love the taste and the way they make me feel, I haven’t had much luck with the color looking particularly green. This is probably because I am adding Amazing Grass Chocolate Powder and most of the time frozen berries. This tends to create a somewhat muddy greenish color, not that appealing but they do taste “amazing”. Anyway, today I felt inspired to blog so I tried a new recipe.

This particular combo created a gorgeous shade of green and a knock-out flavor! In my blender I put a huge handful of baby spinach, a handful of frozen mango chunks (TJ’s), 1 cup of unsweetened Almond milk, and 1 small ripe banana. Yum. It even matched my Haley House t-shirt I had on. Pardon the hair, I literally JUST rolled out of bed.

Since I like a little something extra with my shake in the morning, and because I had plans for a run with Meg C. later on, I made some peanut butter toast.

This bread was recommended to me by my cousin and I have to agree it’s the best I’ve tasted in awhile. It’s from TJ’s surprise surprise, and it only has 80 calories per slice and 4 grams of fiber! It’s called Soft Multigrain Rustico Bread. Look for it. Perfectly toasted, with a smear of peanut butter and a sprinkling of craisins and golden raisins, this breakfast was again, the best I’ve had in awhile.

After my amazing breakfast, I did some homework, tidied the apartment and finally got geared up for my run. Meg met me at my apartment around 11 and we hit the trail from there. She’s training for a half Marathon in May and this was one of the days she had scheduled to run between 4-5 miles. I had done a little calculating ahead of time and planned out one of my favorite routes that took us along the Riverway to Leverett Pond and finally to Jamaica Pond. We ran a hard 4.5 miles which is why I don’t have any pictures to show you from the actual run. However, here is the proof on Meg’s fancy Garmin that we actually ran it. Hint…hint…anyone who wants to buy me a stellar birthday present, I would be more than happy with one of these babies (Darin!).

Our run just happened to end at one of my favorite markets ever, City Feed. After perusing the store, we realized we weren’t in the mood for any of their sandwiches and would rather piece together a meal to share on our picnic. At that point I was really craving nothing more than a coconut water. I miss these and decided to treat myself to one.

Meg had the same idea about getting a “fun drink” and grabbed a Honest Tea.

Perhaps the best find of the day though, in my opinion, came from this aisle.

Tortilla chips are one of those foods that I absolutely love but tend to overeat and because the good tasting ones usually have 6 or 7 grams of fat and around 150 calories per serving, this isn’t a great thing. This is why I was so pumped when I found this bag!

These Garden of Eatin’ chips only have 120 calories, 2 grams of fat and 3 grams of fiber per serving! The even better part is that they don’t taste like they have such awesome stats;  they’re full of flavor, nice and salty and are miles beyond the old “Baked Tostitos” I used to eat all the time. We paired the chips with a Mediterranean Lentil Salad and some super creamy lemon hummus.

Here’s our view and picnic spread.

THE BEST BITE!

With the bright sun beating down on us we rested and refueled. We then walked about two miles back to my apartment, changed, and headed out to do a little shopping. We ended up not buying much of anything but it was still fun to look. After an afternoon snack stop at Berry Freeze (forgot my camera for the shopping trip!) we parted ways and I got myself ready for work. Honestly, it was a fabulous way to spend a gorgeous wednesday and I feel lucky to have a friend that has random days off during the week! I am thinking there will be many more runs/picnics/beach outings this summer. I can’t wait. Oh and since I owe you a dessert picture for spacing it on my Berry Freeze, how bout I share my newest love from TJ’s?

This is a picture of my dessert from yesterday. The ingredient list is crazy on these, and by that I mean crazy short. 6 ingredients (one of which is Beet Sugar!) and all recognizeable. At 30 calories per stick, I don’t think I have found anything that can even compare calorie wise but in the taste department these feel super indulgent and buttery even though they’re dairy free! How DO they do it?

Even though we are still technically two days away from “Spring”, I am pretty sure it has arrived! The weather here has been absolutely fantastic (ever since the monsoon last weekend) and with temps in the 70’s and bright sunny skies, I really couldn’t ask for any more.  While at Trader Joe’s earlier this week, I noticed a small bunch of daffodils that had not bloomed yet. They were selling for $1.49 at the register and I couldn’t help myself. Here’s the cute little label they came with.

How can you say “no” to that!? The cashier said that they would bloom in a matter of hours. I was rather curious to see exactly how long mine would take so I decided to document the progress. Here they are day one, not much to write home about.

I nipped the ends off and placed them in a small vase I had on hand and by the next morning here’s what I saw.

While they were definitely making progress, I was hoping for full bloom by the morning! However, by the afternoon I was looking at this beautiful sight!

And then finally, this morning, they popped! Daffodils really say spring don’t they? I never buy flowers for myself but this little treat was totally worth the $1.49!

Since yesterday was St. Patrick’s Day, and I have a good bit of Irish blood in me, I convinced my co-worker (who is also Irish!) that we needed to represent our heritage with a proper feast for the families here at the house. You may be thinking that we went completely traditional with a corned beef and cabbage dinner but since we wanted to appeal to everyone, we went a bit simpler. Here’s our menu for the night:

And here’s a shot of it all done! It took a lot of work and hours to get to this point, let’s rewind a bit, shall we?

I began cooking the stew around 1:00 p.m. Having never made it before, I really had no idea what I was in for. It’s not that it was a complicated recipe or particularly hard to do, it’s just that peeling 6 lbs. of potatoes takes a long time!

Add to that, peeling and chopping carrots, onions, garlic, beef, you get the idea, it was labor intensive making a meal for 25 people!

It was so worth it in the end though! I used a recipe that I found on SimplyRecipes.com which called for Guinness and Wine. I think those two ingredients really made the stew. I have never cooked with Guinness before but figured what better night than St. Patrick’s day to start! Sadly, since I was working, I wasn’t able to drink a beverage but cooking with them made up for that!

Here’s a shot of the recipe I used.

And for dessert, I just had to try these Chocolate Stout Cupcakes. I found Dave Lieberman’s Recipe on Food Network and if any of you have a bottle of Guinness on hand and were looking for a delicious chocolate cupcake, try these tonight! While they’re not particularly healthy, you could play around with the ingredients to cut down on the calories a bit or boost the nutrition. I used light sour cream and light cream cheese in mine, but I kind of don’t think that matters due to all the other ingredients! Oh well, one or two of these isn’t going to kill anyone!

My co-worker’s Irish Soda Bread was absolutely delicious! I didn’t realize how much I loved Carraway seeds! And of course raisins in bread is my idea of heaven. A slice of this loaf, warm from the oven was the perfect addition to our Irish Feast!

After spending all day in the kitchen yesterday, I was ready to get out and enjoy some of the sunshine today. I packed up my “book bag” and walked down to a nearby park bench. It was so warm! Me + Sunshine = Happiness!

I was supposed to be reading this for my midterm next week.

But, what I ended up reading was these two treats that came in the mail: new Runner’s World and the new Signature L.L. Bean Catalog.

I finally got up and walked the path with my flashcards. I think walking and reading helps me retain the information better. Then before I knew it, lunch time had come and went and I was in need of fuel! I wasn’t going to picture this since it looked kind of ugly, but after taking a few bites I realized how amazing it tasted and I just knew that you guys would want to know about my random lunch combination! 

I used one whole wheat flat bread from TJ’s, one Dr. Praegger’s veggie burger, a scoop of creamy roasted red pepper hummus (TJ’s) and about 6 Bread and Butter pickles (TJ’s). Holy Yum!

…I just haven’t been documenting as much! With Christmas fast approaching, work and personal business have been taking priority over my daily posts. I have been working extra hours so that I can take a nice long break beginning Christmas Eve all the way through the New Year! I am so excited since I will be heading home to Maine to be with my family and Darin’s family and will be cross country skiing (my favorite form of exercise!), sledding, skating, maybe even snowboarding. So as I said, you can rest assured that I have still been consuming food, (probably too much with all the sweets around here!) but with holiday parties that don’t allow for paparazzi shots I am feeling like quite the neglectful blogger. Either way here are some of my highlights for the past few days.

Breakfast on Wednesday was a lovely Multi-Grain Bruegger’s Bagel which was “scored” from the Community Social at the house which took place on Wednesday instead of it’s normal Tuesday this week. I added Light Herb and Garlic cream cheese to my hollowed out vessel.

After breakfast I hustled off to the Haley House which turned into a very rewarding shift. I had quite a few customers and also some individuals who stopped by to just get warm (I actually gave one a free cup of coffee). Since the Haley House is not JUST a bakery and it’s primary goal is to provide community to individuals in the South End who may not have a home to call their own, I felt really pleased that the regulars were starting to become familiar with my face and felt comfortable talking to me. I put out our fabulous cupcakes as free sample; partly because I wanted to try a bite and also because I knew they would draw people in!

The rest of Wednesday was spent working and saying goodbye to a co-worker who is moving to Denver and will be dearly missed. We went out to a local bar called The Mission which had delicious bar food in my opinion. Sadly I have no pictures from the evening but I am sure you can picture in your mind such dishes as Sweet Potato Skins, Mussels, Bruschetta, and a killer Nacho plate. I had a Magner’s Cider with my appetizers which was such a treat since I was actually “working”. The next morning I was craving some fruit and “carby” goodness so I dug into my last ruby red and prepared a peanut butter toast to eat with it. The flavors here weren’t exactly complimentary but it hit my cravings perfectly and provided adequate nutrition I believe.

I’ve been hitting yoga hard this week and after my session on Thursday I came home ravenous. Lucky for me I had a fresh bag of TJ’s Salsa chips and a tub of Sabra Hummus.

I don’t think I have ever tried these chips before but let me just tell you if you have any love for Doritos and just can’t justify eating them anymore, try these! They are not as heavily doused in seasoning but have a great taste which allows the chip to stand alone fine or pair with salsa, hummus or any other dip you can think of.

This morning I woke up thinking about breakfast. This hasn’t happened in awhile (maybe I have been too full from the night before?) so I decided to resurrect an old classic: GREEK YOGURT MESS! This one contained one little tub of Strawberry Oikos, a sprinkle of blueberry muesli, some walnuts, and unsweetened coconut. SOO good and even though it’s not very seasonal the coconut looked like snow so that has to count for something right?

Yoga was another awesome sweat sesh and I came home ravenous. I actually dreamed this sandwich up on my frigid walk home and it came out better than I had expected.

I toasted two slices of my low carb When Pigs Fly bread, smeared one slice with Sabra hummus and the other with TJ’s roasted red pepper spread. Then I cut two slices of cheddar cheese and topped it off with two Claussen sandwich stackers.  Such an awesome sandwich! A good cheese sandwich is sometimes so satisfying in my opinion.

It was “oh so photogenic” too, don’t you think?

And I would be remiss if I didn’t include the dessert from last night since a bite or two of it did make it’s way past my lips today. I had a full “tree” last night and was able to photograph them without many questions since I just said in front of the families that they were too cute not to picture. After all they ARE too cute! They are a brownie base with green colored frosting, m+m’s for decoration and a candy cane trunk., They’re supposed to be Christmas Trees if you couldn’t tell!

After a long week I am so ready to be done with work related stuff. Luckily I have plans to meet up with Meg C. for a vegan dinner at Veggie Planet in Harvard Square and hopefully some drinks afterwards. Happy Friday everyone!

So I am assuming you all guessed by the picture that our last little stop in Bethel was to purchase this years Christmas tree? We didn’t waste any time setting it up (it went up Saturday night) and have both been enjoying the comforting glow ever since. Christmas trees are very personal in my opinion. Everyone has their own taste and opinions about lights, garland, tinsel, ornaments etc. Growing up my family always had the BIG colored lights because that’s what my parents grew up with. While most people frown on these lights since they could be considered a fire hazard (whatever!) and are generally accepted as “tacky”, I still love them. I consider myself especially fortunate to have a boyfriend who feels the same way I do about Christmas lights.  Big colored lights all the way (and a few strands of tinsel for good measure!).

Now that you have seen our little tree in all it’s nightime glory, let’s rewind to talk about the delicious food for today. With no food in the house, breakfast was kind of decided for me. It was an o.k. meal but I am kind of getting sick of these muffins and the little yogurt cups from last week.

It was enough to get me through a SUPER intense yoga sessino though so I can’t complain that much. I started up with Baptiste Power Yoga again yesterday. I took the month of November off due to sickness and injury but am completely committed (financially and mentally) for the month of December. It feels great to be back in the 96 degree studio even if I was dying today after what seemed like the 98th Chaturanga Dandasana (low plank). After yoga, I made my to Stop and Shop to pick up some things that I find hard to get at TJ’s. I got myself home as quickly as possible since it was raining and I had a heavy load (I always buy too much on foot!). I was also starving by the time I arrived back (close to 1p.m.) and made myself exactly what I was craving.

I drank an entire bottle of Poland Spring Seltzer while devouring this salad plate. It consisted of the following: regular spinach, hummus, sliced Boar’s Head turkey (I hadn’t had my fill from T-Giving), organic baby carrots, feta, and balsamic vinegar. This has got to me one of my favorite lunches of all time. The way that the balsamic mixes with the hummus? I am truly salivating right now and I just ate dinner!

The perfect ending was this delightful clementine that I bought on sale today. There was a whole bunch of them in the “reduced” produce section and I scored about 15 of these little guys for $1.69!!! It’s citrus season!

After lunch I just “bummed” around the apartment. I had every intention of cleaning up a little bit but somehow I ended up on the couch watching a movie! I think yoga wiped me out. I got myself up and showered just before work (sometimes it’s really nice living where you work). I grabbed a handful of these before heading into the office.

Work was particularly busy tonight so I didn’t get to eat until around 8:00 p.m.! Luckily I had pulled out two containers of Chili and two pieces of cornbread from last month’s Recipe Night for Darin and myself. Nothing better than an already made meal on a night when you have no time to even eat. This chili tasted exactly the same as it did a few weeks ago, if not better.

I added shredded cheese and crumbled the cornbread right over the top so that it soaked up all the flavor. Chili is my ultimate comfort food I do believe, chili and cornbread that is!  Every bite was a blend of veggies, ground beef, beans, cheese and corn bread. I love mixing the textures and flavors.

And since I had a somewhat “light” day of eating I decided to go for a petite vanilla scone which were donated by Starbucks.

A rainy Saturday is actually the most comforting of days in my opinion. I don’t feel the pressure to get out do something and it’s totally acceptable to stay in your pajamas ALL day. Darin and I have been “holed” up here in the apartment all day. He’s sick and we’re both pretty content to not have to go anywhere. This morning I had another bowl of cereal with a mug of tea.

Lunch was very small since I wasn’t that hungry and wanted to use my small plate again! It contained an array of roasted veggies, creamy hummus, crackers and baby spinach.

The afternoon was scattered with naps, reading, blogging, and eating. I munched on some peanut butter filled pretzels and washed them down with a diet root beer! Yes, I drank a diet soda this afternoon and it tasted so velvety smooth that I wondered why I have eliminated them from my diet. Oh yea, artificial sweeteners aren’t that great for you. At least this one didn’t contain aspartame. Is Splenda any better?

I was trying my hardest to get us motivated to leave the apartment for dinner but after making my case I realized it just isn’t that nice out there! It has been POURING all day long. Why bother? We’ll get out tomorrow I am sure and tonight take out was just too enticing to pass up. We ordered off of Foodler.com which is really great in my opinion since it has lots of options organized by type of food. We were craving Indian and went with Gourmet Curry House in Coolidge Corner. We ordered the following: Bhel Poori, Chicken Korma, Saag Paneer, and of course Nan. All three of the dishes were delightfully pungent but a little heavy (the cream in the korma hit me hard!). The good news is that the portions were small and we don’t have tons of left overs. I am sure Darin will eat them all anyway

Dessert was a repeat of last night. I think the extra 24 hours in the fridge really made the difference.  The tartness of the cranberries was perfectly subdued by the sweet vanilla cream.

Happy Friday All! As you can see in the pic below, I made it out of the house for the first time in two days! Despite the cloudy skies and windy conditions it felt AMAZING (and my ankle felt great too!) I had my trusty ankle sleeve on and tied my shoes nice and tight. I took it really really slow too. I would have worn my air cast but you simply can’t put a shoe over that!

Before my walk I had a bowl of what else, Barbara’s Shredded spoonfuls. I couldn’t bear to take another picture of it so I didn’t. My appetite has been weird again today (probably just getting over the cold and not exercising) so I didn’t eat again til around 2:00 p.m. when I got home from my walk. I did a little window shopping and some actual shopping in Coolidge Corner. It was fun to look around and get some ideas for Christmas but I made a promise to myself that I wasn’t going to buy a bunch of stuff that I didn’t need. I actually stuck to it and found three awesome deals: a shirt from gap for $2.97, a plate from Pier 1 for $2.00 and a place mat from Pier 1 for .98 cents! This was 6 dollars well spent in my opinion. I didn’t waste any time using my new purchases.

I have never owned a square plate before and was so excited to use it! The food I put on it wasn’t half bad either It was only the sweetest carrot, the creamiest hummus, and some extra crispy reduced fat wheat thins (TJ’s). This snack totally hit the spot when everything else I thought of kind of made my stomach turn.

My cousin Meg decided to stop by tonight since her plans changed for the weekend (feel better J!). I was psyched to hear she was free since Darin had plans of his own and I was looking for company. We got busy prepping our desserts when she arrived. I mixed up 1 box of Trader Joe’s vanilla pudding with 2 cups of cold skim milk. I have had this pudding on hand for awhile now, just waiting for the perfect excuse to make it up. Do you remember the cranberry sauce from yesterday? Well with only 1 tablespoon (roughly) of agave added to the whole bag, let’s just say it came out rather tart! I wanted to find a way to sweeten it up with out adding a bunch of sugar…and then it hit me!

Cranberry Vanilla Parfaits! I made up 4 ramekins for the week and then artfully prepared these two goblets for Meg and myself to enjoy later on.

Dinner HAD to focus on the amazing “roast up” and there was no better way to serve them then on a bed of fresh baby spinach. I added a drizzle of balsamic to awaken the flavors. I heated the veggies before adding them to the spinach which actually served as a nice way to wilt the spinach ever so slightly. Who needs to go out to dinner anyway

Meg had some left over curry from Thai Night and I scored a bit of her sauce to add to my salad.

After dinner (I know we were a little backwards tonight), we made ourselves a POM cocktail. We kind of didn’t have as much alcohol as we expected (probably a good thing) but they were tasty none-the-less.

Annnnd the pre-made dessert did not disappoint.  Mmmmm….the perfectly balanced spoonful

This afternoon I went for an almost 6 mile run. The total distance was close to 5.8 miles and there was a pit stop at Best Buy to replace some headphones (Darin’s) that I accidentally washed and dryed this morning…ooops). The run felt good. Rolling before and after definitely loosened me up a bit. I wouldn’t say that all my pain is gone but it’s manageable where before I felt like I couldn’t sit down without pain. I was pretty hungry by the time I returned home (2:30 ish!) and made myself a bowl of leftover goodness from the other night. I could have eaten the whole portion but I wanted to save some for tomorrow since it was good enough to want to savor. I heated the whole mess up and then drizzled balsamic over the top. I then sprinkled some pumpkin seeds and dried cranberries for added crunch and sweetness. I really couldn’t get enough of the hummus today so I added a plop of that as well. Why are roasted veggies soooo much better as left overs!?

 Dinner was one of those “we have no food!” meals. I called Darin from work to find out where he was in hopes that he would stop at TJ’s and pick something up. Instead he talked me out of buying more food and just focusing on what we already had in the fridge. This was a smart idea because we had enough to make something decent and delicious as it turns out.

Behold. A turkey bologna, havarti cheese quesadilla with honey mustard! Carrot fries were served on the side of course. I find this is the best way to eat carrots that have somewhat gone soft if you know what I mean. It’s strange. I buy carrots from the Farmer’s market and they get soft after 5 days or so. I would think they would stay fresher longer since they are just that, fresh. When I used to buy baby carrots (which really don’t taste like carrots to me anymore) they would keep forever! What gives?

 Anyway. The quesadillas were to die for. I mean anything with melty cheese and honey mustard is good in my book. The Turkey Bologna was thrown in to use it up before it went off but it did add an interesting flavor.

Dessert was similar to last nights. Actually it was exactly the same and it was just as delicious. Just to point out the museli is completely unsweetened. This is no honey sweetened crunchy delicious granola. If it were I might not be twitching as much as I am thinking about the candy corn out on the kitchen counter. Breaking the habit is hard!

Normally I spend my Tuesday mornings at the Farm but since the season is officially over, I had the morning to myself and I totally took advantage. It was perfect timing because I wasn’t feeling all that energetic this morning (blame it on the weather?). I did feel a momentary burst of excitement though when I remembered that my oats were already made and waiting for me in the fridge! I decided to add some of my Mom’s homemade apple butter to the mix this morning and may or may not have taken a few spoons right out of the jar. So yummy.

Pumpkin oats (re-heated), a scoop of apple butter and a spoonful of peanut butter. The perfect bowl in my opinion.

Let’s shine a little light on the subject. I say a little because it’s a pretty gray day outside. Oh well, it’s a good day to get caught up around the apartment with laundry, bills etc.

I want to show you all my beloved foam roller. This little gem has been my best friend since I picked it up yesterday at City Sports. I think it was the best 20.00 I have spent in awhile. If you are a runner and have tightness in your hip, butt, or thigh (or anywhere): try this! I promise you will not be disappointed.

I got the half sized one, since it’s really all I needed. It comes with a list of stretches and moves that you can do on it but I find that it’s better just to start rolling around and go with what feels good. At first you may be a bit surprised because it is an intense feeling but a good intensity, a reaaaal stretch. It’s almost like paying a masseuse to personally massage out your knots but instead it’s a blue piece of foam. Here’s an action shot

After I was done rolling around I got the two loads of laundry going and relaxed a bit with some Dexter episodes (it’s getting so good, I am addicted!) and a little bit of a snack. I haven’t had a real craving for lunch yet but did have some smooth and creamy hummus with some whole wheat pretzels (both from TJ’s). I love love love this hummus. It’s just the original flavor but it’s so much better than any other original I have tried. Right now I am contemplating a run. It’s supposed to rain at some point today but I am hoping I can beat it.

P.S. I want to thank you all for the kind comments last night about my test of will power. It helps SO much to know that you guys go through similar struggles and that we’re all on this healthy quest together.

So I am feeling like a real part of the Food Blogging community now. Stephanie from Cookin’ Fanatic was kind enough to call my blog:

It may sound dorky but as I was reading her post and saw my name I got really excited! The best part is that I get to pass it along to other Food Bloggers that I feel are “Over the Top!”

I chose Anna from Blue Plate Special. I met Anna and her sister Meg (who guest posts from time to time and who I ran the Tufts 10k with!) at the Healthy Living Summit this past August and have been really enjoying her exotic posts while she is studying abroad in Africa.

And because I think I am allowed to choose more than one, I want to give a special shout out to one of my best friends from college, Kristy from A Smart Cookie Company! Kristy started this company while studying to get her Masters in Art Therapy and has recently added a blog component to chronicle her new love: baking. She is actually going to be attending Pastry School soon and is on a mission to raise her tuition money through her baking.

So I expect to see this list completed by both Anna (I realize you have limited internet in Kenya so if it takes you awhile I understand ) and Kristy!

Apparently these questions need to be answered in one word only, much harder than it sounds.

1. Where is your cell phone? Table
2. Your hair? Soft
3. Your mother? Fun
4. Your father? Dependable
5. Your favorite food? Cheese
6. Your dream last night? Blank
7. Your favorite drink? Tea
8. Your dream/goal? Travel
9. What room are you in? Living
10. Your hobby? Blogging
11. Your fear? Failing
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Settled
13. Where were you last night? Work
14. Something you aren’t? Tall
15. Muffins? Homemade
16. Wish list item? Computer
17. Where did you grow up? Maine
18. Last thing you did? Eat
19. What are you wearing? Lululemon
20. Your TV? Free
21. Your pets? Soon
22. Your friends? California
23. Your life? Lucky
24. Your mood? Content
25. Missing someone? Friends
26. Vehicle? Feet
27. Something you’re not wearing? Socks
28. Your favorite store? TJ’s
29. Your favorite color? Green
30. When was the last time you laughed? Earlier
31. Last time you cried? Monday
32. Your best friend? Darin
33. One place that I go over and over? Beach
34. One person who emails me regularly? Wordpress
35. Favorite place to eat? Christopher’s

Well that was fun. And since I am on here I’ll share what I am munching on/drinking right now.

A pomegranate vodka tonic (light on the vodka, pom juice and mixed with diet tonic water)

As I sip, I am keeping my teeth entertained with some crunchy carrots straight from the farm and dipped into TJ’s newest offering the “smooth and creamy” hummus.

Dinner is going to be late tonight, we might go out and we might stay in. I am not super hungry because I had a late lunch (exactly the same as yesterday). I am catching up on some Thursday night T.V. that I wasn’t able to watch live. 

I’d like to skip right to the dessert since that was the BEST part of dinner tonight but I have to show you that I did eat something healthy this evening!

Slightly boring but easy. Left over salad from earlier today with pita, hummus and a Dr. Praeger’s veggie burger (only about 1/3 of one since I had to share with Darin). The hummus was worth writing about though. Since eating out at Sabra last week with Kristine, I had wanted to buy some since it is locally made and had a fresh taste! I found it today on my walk back from the farm when I stopped into the Harvest Co-op. They had lots to choose from including baba ganoush, tabouli, and lentil salad. I stuck with the basic, original hummus, and was not disappointed. I love supporting local businesses so I think this may be my new go-to hummus even though it is a bit pricier than Trader Joe’s.

And now I bring to you the best Boston Cream Pie I have tasted! We are very fortunate here at the house to have a talented volunteer who bakes a dessert every Tuesday night for us. She delivers it in the afternoon so I had been eyeying this piece of heaven all afternoon. The cream filling was super light and creamy and the cake layers moist as could be. The chocolate glaze was just right. It barely touched the bottom of the cake which made the creme inside really stand out and come through as the primary flavor.  Yes I threw a little whipped cream on the side just for fun. This sugar kick of mine has to calm down at some point but how do you say no when there are tasty treats outside your door!?