Fabulous Saturday

What a lovely day we had yesterday. It had all the fabulous features a Saturday should have: a sweaty yoga class, a little grocery shopping, a run, some down time, dinner with friends and of course, good food. It all started with a bowl of Trader Joe’s High Fiber cereal mixed with Quaker Oat Squares. I topped it off with ground flax seed and dried blueberries. I’ve almost polished off my Costco size bag of dried blueberries and I can’t wait to dip into the mixed dried berries next!

After breakfast and blogging, I went to my yoga class with Doroda. Unlike last time she taught the class, this class was full of sun salutations, vinyasas, challenging poses and sweat. We never made it into shoulder stand but we did give wheel another try. This time we used blocks up against a wall and I actually made it up for a few seconds! I have faith that with more practice, I will be up into it in a few weeks.

Yoga was followed by a quick trip to the grocery store to pick up the ingredients for my entry into this weeks BSI contest. I was oh so excited to make my entry, I started on it as soon as I crossed the threshold of home. I made a spinach and crab quiche that I am going to call crabcake quiche because that is exactly what it tasted like.

Crabcake Quiche

9 inch whole wheat frozen pie crust

3 eggs, divided

1/2 cup mayonnaise

2 tbsp white wheat flour

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

2.5 oz pepper jack cheese, shredded

3 dashes nutmeg

1/2 cup green onions, chopped

1 cup fresh spinach, chopped

8 oz jumbo lump crabmeat, cooked and picked over for shells

salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350*. Lightly beat one egg white and brush the pie crust with it. In a large bowl, beat the remaining eggs,  leftover egg white and leftover yolk.  Add in the milk, mayonnaise, flour, nutmeg, salt and pepper and beat until smooth. Add in remaining ingredients except crab and mix well. Finally, add in the crab being careful not to break it up too much. Pour into the prepared pie shell and bake for 45 minutes until it is slightly golden brown and the middle is set.  Serve warm, room temp or cold for breakfast lunch or dinner.

Let me tell you people, this thing was so good. So good in fact that I felt like I could eat the whole thing and savory dishes rarely make me feel that way 😉 I had my slice with a little pile of rooster sauce to give it some serious heat

and to keep from eating the whole thing, I had some carrot sticks and almond butter.

Then for lunch dessert, I had three chocolate covered almonds.

Once we ate lunch, we watched some of the DVR and then headed out for a run in the beautiful sunshine. It went much better than the last time I attempted running outdoors. The weather was much warmer so my lungs did not hurt as much but the hills still proved to be a big challenge. The dear husband was patient and walked with me each time I need to take a walk break. When all was said and done, we covered two miles and it felt good to be in the great outdoors. For an after run snack, I had a small bowl of greek yogurt topped with peaches and creamed honey. If you have never had creamed honey, my suggestion would to be to stop reading this and go buy some NOW.  Well, you can wait until you have finished reading but really, you should get some ASAP 😀 As the name suggests, it is much creamier than regular honey and it leaves my mouth really happy.

Once we were done with snack time and showers, we headed out to Costco to purchase a few items and then headed to dinner at our friends, Sarah and FJ’s, house. Sarah had prepared quite the spread. We started out with mozzarella wrapped in roasted vegetables and perfectly salty black olives.

For the main course, we started with warm yeast rolls topped with rosemary and sea salt

followed by lasagna rolls with pine nuts

white beans with caramelized onions and walnuts

and THE BEST spinach I have ever eaten. In the spinach was basil, garlic and red pepper. I had never thought to add basil to fresh cooked spinach but I will from here on out.

All of the food was fantastic, my friend Sarah likes to spend crazy amounts of hours in the kitchen and her passion for cooking really shines in everything she makes. For dessert, she made poached pears topped with vanilla ice cream and candied pecans. This was my first time having poached pears and I must say, I really liked them. I was nervous that they would taste like the red wine they were poached in but to my delight, they didn’t. They were perfectly sweet with a hint of spice from the cinnamon and nutmeg. yum!

I can’t wait until we are invited over again 🙂

Question: What is your idea of the perfect way to spend a day?

Feeling Good

Yesterday, I woke up at 5 am again but this time without the help of an alarm! I started the day by hitting the treadmill for a sex and the city episode (30 mins).  I really would like to do this more often because I feel so much better during the day and sleep much better at night when I do this. We will see how it goes, you know me, I am not making any exercise promises.

Though I hate to bore you, I had yet another bowl of shredded wheat n bran for breakfast. I had it with milk, bananas walnuts and lots of cinnamon. As always, it was pretty tasty. I think on my next round, I am going to try a little nutmeg.

I had really been off track with my mini mealing but today I was back on the wagon. Around 9:30, I had a really large apple with a heaping portion of sabra spicy hummus. I loved this combo because the apple was really crisp and sweet which paired nicely with the smooth and spicy hummus.

Around 12:30, I discovered that my bread had mold on it so I had to rely on the kitchen. I was WAY past staff lunch so I asked for a bowl of broccoli and cheese soup and a grilled cheese on wheat. The soup was not even close to that one day so I only ate a few bites. The grilled cheese was fabulous so I ate all of that 🙂

In the late afternoon, I had a greek yogurt with a crumbled honest foods choco p’nut butter bar. It was good but not as good as I remember it. Hate it when that happens.

For dinner, we had Italian as the dear husband wanted to carb load for his 18 miler and who am I to refuse proper fuel? We ended up doing take out because it was pouring rain and he picked it up 🙂 This time, I got beef ravioli and a salad. I actually think the to go portions are a little smaller, which is a good thing. I still only ate about a 1/3 of my portion.

For dessert, we had more of the oat bars from Thursday. We both liked them better cold than warm, so much so that the dear husband polished off most of what was left.

Thought Provoker: Do you believe that you have a healthy relationship with food? In what ways would you like your relationship with food to change.

For me, I believe that I am on my way to a healthy realtionship with food. I still suffer from guilt sometimes if I eat something that I didn’t really enjoy. Even though I don’t count calories, it makes me feel like I have wasted the calories. I also still do not allow nutella in my house, I am afraid old habits might start to surface. I keep saying I am going to just buy 12 jars for the pantry and see what happens.

Fast Oats!

I started the day yesterday with a bowl of oats, depsite running late. I’m not sure why I hadn’t thought of it in a while but instead of the long process of using the stovetop, I used the microwave. No babysitting, to constant checking, I just popped in it, stirred it once and five minutes later I had a bowl of creamy oats. I used 1/4 cup oats, 1/2 cup milk, a mashed banana and a pinch of salt. I topped it with a heaping spoon of almond butter. Pretty good for a fast breakfast but I do have to say that a whole banana is such a small portion was too banana-y.

Work started out crazy but ended up being a quiet pleasant day. For my mid morning meal, I had chicken salad in half of a whole wheat pita. I made a whole lot of the chicken salad so plan to see it a few more times this week. For lunch I had a warm bowl of 17 been soup topped with parmesan cheese and a side of grapes. I just love how soup gets better after sitting in the fridge for a couple of days.

I left work early for an appointment and when I got home, I had a delicious mini meal. I mixed greek yogurt with lemon curd and topped it with granola. It was like lemon pie!

After my “lemon pie”, I read a little and then headed out for a walk. I did one loop around the neighborhood in 30 minutes! It normally takes the dear husband and I about 45, clearly, we walk at a much slower pace when we are together. Once home, I started on dinner. I didn’t really have a plan except that I wanted to use the chicken, spinach and feta sausages from TJ’s that I had taken out of the freezer. From there, a great meal ensued. I sliced the sausages in olive oil, once they were browned, I tossed in a jar of drained artichoke hearts and a can of diced tomatoes. To thicken it up a bit, I sprinkled in some parmesan cheese then added in a little dried basil. I served this impromtu sauce on top of whole wheat pasta and topped the whole thing off with goat cheese. Delightful!

After dinner, we watched some television and read for a bit. I went to bed early as I was feeling super tired.

QOTD: How many hours of sleep do you get per night? How many hours do you feel best?

Retail Therapy

I took the day off from work yesterday, so I let myself wake up naturally which was around 6:30. I spent some time blogging and chatting with a couple of friends before making breakfast. My the time I realized I needed to eat, I was already in low blood sugar mode so something quick was on the menu. I made a large bowl of greek yogurt with granola and honey.

On the side, I had a bowl of scuppernong grapes. They were actually already gone bad so I only had a couple.

After breakfast, I caught up on more blogs and then did the 60 minute Jennifer Tipton vinyasa flow yoga dvd. I really enjoyed this one and I can see putting into regular rotation. The menu has a matrix on it that for some reason my dvd player wouldn’t work with so I just hit play and did whatever that was. My guess is that it was the practice with minimal instruction because I was thinking the whole time there was no way it could be for a beginner. It is sold as beginner/intermediate but what I was doing had no instruction just basically either the sanskrit or the american name for the pose. Even in the vinyasas, the only instruction was to flow through a vinyasa rather than the actual poses in a vinyasa (sun salutation). All of this was fine with me of course since I am pretty familiar at this point. I rarely had to look at the screen which was refreshing for me. Some DVDs have tons of poses I have never heard of so I have to look too much and that really takes away from the focus of the practice.

During the practice, I only faltered in Half Moon which I think it pretty good. In my days of taking 3 classes a week and practicing at home, I could easily do it. For now, I have lots of strength and balance to gain before being about to fully get it again.  The good news is that during half moon, I didn’t beat myself up about not being about to get it. I stayed focused on the moment and just kept trying. I guess this is why I like practicing at home, my ego, that I wrote about in this post, doesn’t get in the way. I hope to one day be able to practice at home without the use of a DVD or book.

After yoga, I got ready and met the dear husband for lunch. We met at the Central Park Deli which is one of our favorite local places. I ordered a cup of broccoli and cheese soup to start. It was warm and comforting.

Then I ordered a turkey Reuben. It was seriously not even close to being a real Reuben. But the real truth is that I really wanted the chef salad because I was really craving veggies. The turkey Reuben caught my eye and I decided to go for it. Next time, I will do one of two things. One, if I am in the mood for salad, I will order salad and two, if I am in the mood for Reuben, I will order the real thing.

After lunch, I headed out for some retail therapy. With Fall coming, I needed some new things to get me through the season. I have never been what anyone would call a fashionista but lately, I have really taken a liking to making sure that I dress well. I have been working on my own Fat Acceptance and have come to find that a cute outfit and shoes sure do go a long way in the self esteem department. So, I bought a few things that I loved and had a wonderful day shopping.

By the time I got home and put my fashionable loot away, it was time to make dinner. I had planned a dinner that required more time but I was running short on that so a quick dinner it was. First, I discovered that our salad mix had gone bad so I made a salad of all the other stuff. Orange and red cherry tomatoes, cukes and grapes dressed with salt, pepper, basil, a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Very tasty!

I also made spaghetti and meatballs. I used whole wheat pasta and topped it with frozen turkey meatballs from Whole Foods and marinara sauce. A sprinkle of parmesan cheese and I called it dinner. It was very good and I could not tell that the meatballs or the sauce was of the pre-made variety. Yum!

For dessert, we shared a little reese’s extravaganza ice cream from the local ice cream shop. Yes, right out of the carton but this time, I was emotionally stable and only had about a serving worth.

To relax, we watched the movie Coco Chanel on the DVR. It was three hours long so I, as per usual, fell asleep and missed the last hour or so. I plan to watch it later today. My day was splendid, filled with the things I love in life, yoga, shopping, good food and a little extra time with my dear husband.

QOTD: How do you spend the day when you are able to do whatever YOU want to do?

Thank You

Before I get into the food, I would just like to say that I have awesome readers. In the midst of my emotional meltdown, I felt that I had landed myself into a community of perfect eaters. I thought that no one understood the pain that is so tightly tied to food in my life. But alas, I was wrong and I am thankful. You are a wonderful group of people and I appreciate your support more than I could ever express in words. So, as my title says, Thank You.  And thank you,  Jordan, for reminding me that I am not a Robot 😉

Yesterday started out pretty rough. I was exhausted, hungry and my eyes were puffy. I thought of calling in sick and then it dawned on me that if I did, I would probably just wallow in my own self pity all day. So, I got out of bed and started my day. For breakfast, I had a bowl of live active harvest nut cereal topped with oat milk and a very rip banana. And I know I have said this two or three times by now, but wow, I really like oat milk. How will I ever decide which non dairy milk I like best?

When I got to work, everyone was looking at me funny and asking me what was wrong. I’m sure my puffy eyes were giving away my secret of a bad night. I stood as tall as my  five foot two body could and pasted a smile on my face and kept going. By the time lunch arrived at my desk, I was knee deep in work and have a billion things to do. I am not really sure what to call today’s “chef” salad. It had all sorts of veggies and chopped ahi tuna and a dressing that I couldn’t peg. It was good but with my constant interruptions, I didn’t really have time to enjoy it.

A couple of hours later, my stomach started to growl and I knew I wanted to eat them because I wanted to be hungry for my shopping trip to whole foods. I know that sounds strange but today I read a post on one of my favorite blogs about really being hungry and what it really means. He had a guest writer and she said that you should shop hungry because you will buy real food, not a bunch of crap. So, I wanted to put the theory to the test. But more about that in a moment, for now, I had a cashew cookie larabar which was fantastic.

As planned, I went to Whole Foods after work to pick up the things needed for next weeks menu. Sadly, my larabar kept me feeling satisfied so I wasn’t actually hungry when I went into the store. To be honest, I am really not sure why I wasn’t hungry, but I wasn’t. In the store, I was picking up some fage and two ladies stopped me to inquire about it. We had a nice long chat about how to eat and eating healthy in general. I felt proud at how knowledgeable I really am about food.

After my shopping, I headed home. I talked to the dear husband and discovered that I had accidently frozen dinner. So, we came up with a differnt plan but it ended up working out just as well. I made the fresh whole wheat roasted vegetable ravioli’s from Whole Food and topped them with marinara sauce made with this weeks secret ingredient. Now, my way of using the secret ingredient was by opening a jar of whole foods brand marinara sauce but there really was a recipe I made with tomatoes, I just froze it by accident. But I digress. The raviolis were really good and will make it back into my shopping basket many times in the future.

On the side, we shared a slice of toasted local  whole grain bread. We halved the loaf to freeze it and the piece in the middle tore, so I knew it wanted to be eaten right away. I spread a little smart balance on it and it was heavan on earth. I now officially know the value of local bread. I have been really getting into buying local when I can but have always passed up the bread because of the price. But now, I don’t know if I will ever buy another kind. It was truly amazing.

After dinner, we kind of just lounged around and had a quiet evening.

A Rainy Thursday

I started yesterday in a rush again, so it was cold cereal for breakfast. I mixed some clifford crunch with the last of the dorset cereal. I topped it with some almonds, a banana and vanilla hemp milk. It was a nice combo but most importantly, it was fast!

breakfast

Things were busy already when I got to work, it was every ones first day back from the aerification so everyone was geared up. The bad news was that we were having torrential down pours so the superintendent closed the course. I thought it was ironic that it had been closed for 10 days and the day we were supposed to re-open the skies opened up instead. It rained and poured most of the day, I guess hurricane Fay finally made her way to VA which is good because we really need the rain.

Around 11:30 I was hungry and the staff lunch wasn’t to my liking so I rummaged my little “pantry” and the mini fridge and came up with a nice little lunch. I had some white chocolate dreams PB and a little honey on a whole wheat wrap along side some edamame and a juicy peach. I only finished about half of the edamame you see because I was getting filled up and I really wanted to eat the peach!

lunch

I stayed very busy during the afternoon and it flew by. Before I knew it, I was rushing out of the door to make it to my hair appointment on time. While I was in the car, I realized my stomach was growling so I ate a cherry pie larabar that was in my purse. I saved the wrapper and took the pic once I was parked at the hair salon 😉

snack

After my hair cut, I headed home and made a quick dinner. I had already taken out some turkey pasta sauce from the freezer so all there was to do was cook the whole wheat pasta and heat up the sauce. And as usual, the dear husband made a small salad with lettuce, tomato and cukes topped with oil and vinegar. Once we started dinner, I realized that I wasn’t actually that hungry so I ate very little but the dear husband polished it off for me with no problem.

dinner

For my 15 clean-up, I worked on cleaning out the freezer. After all of that, I was really tired and ready to rest. I settled in with my book and called it a night.

QOTD: How do you unwind after a long busy day?

A Good Day for Napping

Again, I slept in until 7 and the first thing I did was chat with my mom on the phone. Once the dear husband woke up, I made us some 7 grain cereal that we bought at the creamery on Friday. I cooked it with soymilk, vanilla bean paste and mashed banana. Once it was done, I topped it with some homemade trail mix. I really liked the banana being cooked into the cereal instead of just being cut onto the top. The banana was warm, sweet and creamy; it was delicious.

mmmm...breakfast

After breakfast, we headed to Bedford, VA. We spent most of the morning walking around the center-town area where there were loads of antique shops.  I had a peanut butter and jelly mojo bar as a snack along the way, I really liked it and it will make it’s way into my usual bar rotation.

my mojo

Around 12:30, we decided to eat lunch at a Mexican grill that was close by. We started with chips and salsa and for lunch I had mixed fajitas. This plate of food could have fed a family of 4! I filled two of the flour tortillas with the mixture of peppers, onions, steak, chicken and shrimp topped with some of the rice and beans and I still only finished about a quarter of what I was served.

fajitas

Once our bellies were filled, we went to the D-Day Memorial. It was a very interesting place and we both learned a lot about that day in history. After the tour, we were both wiped out and decided that a nap was next up on our agenda. We made our way back to the condo and slept for about an hour and a half. I woke up from my nap really hungry and ready to make dinner even though it was only about 5:00.

I made some of the homemade whole wheat pasta from our adventures on Friday and topped with with italian sausage meat sauce. On the side we had salads with salad mix, grapes and mixed peppers topped with oil and vinegar. My eyes must have WAY bigger than my stomach because I was only able to eat about a third of my pasta though I really enjoyed it. It was very flavorful and had a nice hearty texture.

pasta

After dinner, we hung around the condo reading and watching the tv. The dear husbands foot was swollen for some reason so we decided against doing much else. It was a nice and relaxing evening. For dessert, I made some famous popcorn and shortly after, we were off to bed. Our last full day awaits us!

QOTD: Do you like to have an action packed vacation or on full of rest? I think I like a little of both.

I just love Sundays

Sundays are by far my favorite day of the week. Especially when they are slow and easy with nothing but relaxing to do. I started the day with a big glass of chocolate milk to tide me over while making breakfast. My camera batteries died so I don’t have a picture of the milk but it really just looked the same as the milk from Saturday 🙂 For breakfast, I made some blueberry oat muffins. I used whole wheat flour, oat flour and rolled oats. I was a little nervous about mixing up the flours but they turned out great. I had two of them with a little light smart balance. It was my first time using smart balance and I have to say that I liked it. It was smooth and buttery tasting without all the saturated fat of regular butter and without the trans fats of margarine. A nice compromise, I think.

blueberry oat muffins

After the muffins, we packed up a backpack and headed for a short hike. We went to Point of Rocks park which is about 10 miles from home. It has a nice marsh walk and a few miles of trails. The morning was cool so it made for great hiking weather. I’m not exactly sure how far we went because the gps kept losing it’s signal but we were out there for about an hour. If I had to guess, I would say it must have been about 2.5 miles. Here are some nice pictures we took along the way.

the marsh walk

pretty

what a view

After hiking, we headed home for some lunch. I made buffalo sliders; they were tasty! I made two little mini burgers on 100% whole wheat Hawaiian rolls. I topped each with a little lettuce, local tomatoes, pickles, ketchup and mustard. On the side we had some green grapes. It was a satisfying lunch after being in the wilderness 🙂

buffalo soldier...i mean slider

grapes

The afternoon was lovely, we read, watched tv, did some laundry and of course took a nap. When I woke up from my nap, I felt ravenous. I made a small bowl of fage with raspberries and honey. For some reason, the yogurt was very tart so I ended up only eating the berries and the honey. The same thing happened last week and I thought it was the blueberries but now I am thinking something was wrong with that batch of yogurt. Oh well, I have new containers waiting for me in the week ahead.

greek yogurt with raspberries

For dinner, I made tofu parmesan. I drained some of the local tofu I bought on Saturday, sliced it into four slices and then coated it in panko mixed with parmesan, then egg wash and then panko again. I baked the tofu for about 45 minutes so that it was nice and crispy on the outside. I served the tofu over whole wheat angel hair pasta and then topped it with mozzarella cheese and marinara sauce. Alond side the pasta, we had a green salad with oil and vinegar. I think it was the best dinner I had eaten in a long time. It was also the best “oven fried” results I had ever achieved.

tofu parmesan

A couple of hours after dinner, I had a raging sweet tooth. I finally decided to have a small bowl of cocoa bumpers to wipe it out. After my dessert, I was off to dreamland. It had been a perfect Sunday.

cocoa bumpers

QOTD: Do you have a sweet tooth? What do you do when you aren’t hungry but are really craving something sweet?

I am allergic to my job

Yesterday started out as a pretty typical day, rushed with a million things to do. I started out with some of the cereal that I made into muesli with no success. But, as a cereal, it rocks! So, as promised the brand name is Dorset Cereals and I had the supercranberry flavor.  It is loaded up with grains, fruits and nuts and is really satisfying. I had some with milk and didn’t even think about food until 4 hours later.

mmmm...new cereal

Once I got to work, the world turned upside down and I wasn’t able to get one thing of my “normal” job done. The club was recently stricken with more sad news and everyone was in panic mode about how to respond. The Pro’s father died after a long battle with cancer and we wanted to be respectful but some of the club founding members wanted to cross the line into being tacky. All morning long, I sat in T’s office or she was in mine discussing the matter. And to makes matter worse, we fired our off site IT dude and I had to handle all that comes with that. By 11:00, I was ready for a snack so I had a banana and then I found out a new IT dude was coming and I had to show him around and tell him all of our problems so I decided to order some lunch.

Staff lunch wasn’t up to my liking today so I had the chef whip me up something nice. He knows what I like, so I can generally trust him with this request and yesterday was no different. He made me a greek salad with spring mix, chicken, tomatoes, olives and feta and of course a slice of whole wheat toast on the side. We recently switched to Rudi’s organic which I like but I really miss that other bread. The salad was killer. Too bad I only got in a couple bites before IT dude arrived.  About an hour later, he was all set up and to a point that he didn’t need me anymore and was able to get back to my salad.

greek salad

After I finished, I had to spend the rest of the afternoon giving the grand tour and discussing all of our IT issues. We have alot, our last guy wasn’t really up to par. No pun intended. By the time I was finished, it was time for me to head out. I had a much anticipated doctor appointment. I have been having terrible headaches, ear aches and jaw pain for quite some time. I have also been getting sinus infection after sinus infection. Come to find out, I have occupational Rhinitis. Yep, I am allergic to my job. Well, grass actually. The doc thinks that with all of the special grasses here there is just something that doesn’t mix well with me. And since the grass is cut everyday here and I come into contact with it everyday, there isn’t a really stellar solution. He gave me a very strong antibiotic and a steroid shot to make my nasal passages stonger and to ease some of the inflammation in my ears, jaws and sinuses. I also have to start taking yet another med everyday for allergies after I finish the anitbiotic. Fun stuff.

After I got that great news, I headed to the grocery store and then home. Once home, I made pesto with whole wheat raviolis, this was at the dear husband’s request. I also made small salads with lettuce mix, local tomatoes and goat cheese, I skipped the oil this time and just had some rice vinegar. It turned out to be a wonderful meal. How can you go wrong with all that cheese?

goat cheese

pesto rocks

After dinner, I took the new antibiotic and it made me very ill. I was on the verge of vomiting most of the night and had some dizziness and vertigo. All normal side effects as this baby is super strong. Thank goodness I only have to take it for five days! I trotted off to bed soon because those gross feelings were just getting to me. I needed the rest, I suppose.

 OK, and here is a new feature I would like to start. A QOTD (question of the day): Are you a natural exerciser or is it something you have to make yourself do? If it doesn’t come naturally to you, how do you just get it done?

Goodbye Callie

I tell you, sometimes I wonder why life throws so many curve balls all at one time. Yesterday was a really hard day emotionally. I started out with a heavy heart about how work would feel. I didn’t want to get out of bed and I wondered how many days in row I could call in sick without being fired. I did finally get up and get ready to go. For breakfast I had my typical, hot grain cereal with wheatberries, oats and bulgur topped with almond butter and a banana. One the side I had a glass of milk.

breakfast

Once at work, the emotions really started flying. The Pro and I had a really long talk about Paul’s death and the unfortunate circumstances behind it. Though the club was closed, a few employees rambled in throughout the day to find out any updates about the arrangements for him. Once T got to work, the mood lightenend a bit as she is a laugher and her laugh is infectous. It was a nice change from the somber mood of the early morning.

Around 10:30, The Pro said he would go out to Firebird’s and pick up some lunch. Since I knew that meant it would be late before lunch arrived, I had a stoneyfield farms low fat strawberry yogurt. It really hit the spot and held me over until the lunch came.

this should hold me over

I ordered the same thing I always order from Firebird’s, a grilled salmon salad. The salad has roasted pecans, tomatoes and jicama and it comes with a cilantro lime vinaigrette. It is so tasty and even without any whole grains, it is really filling. The Pro also “surprised” us with lattes so right after lunch I had most of a grande soy latte from Starbucks. I had a raging headache and that really helped ease it up some.

lunch

latte

 

The afternoon flew by and before I knew it, it was time to go. By the time I left, I had an outrageous headache again and was really ready to be home. When I got home, I made spinach salads and whole wheat mini shells with turkey tomato sauce. I had the sauce in the freezer so this meal went together in less than 15 minutes.

quick dinner

After dinner, we went out to run some errands and came home to some disappointing news. There were signs all over the neighborhood indicating someone had lost a pregnant calico cat with a distinctive stripe down her nose. We knew right away that the missing cat was our Callie. We had adopted her just a week prior and at the time felt sure she was a stray. She did not have a collar and she hung around for months. Once we decided that she was a stray, we started feeding her and she, of course, started to hang around more. She was in our yard constantly and we didn’t want her to be homeless anymore. So, we took her to the vet and brought her in to join our other two precious kitties.

We called the number on the flyer and got a voicemail and left a message letting them know we had her. The whole evening was so sad. I made some popcorn hoping to find some comfort, I know food wasn’t the answer but I was so tired of crying.

comfort food?

Around 9:30, we went to bed only to be woken at 10:30 by the ringing phone. Dear husband answered, it was Callie’s “owner”. Within a few minutes, the doorbell rang. I answered the door because I wanted answers. I wanted to know why she was always so hungry and if they intended to give her an actual home. Sadly, the man was very confrontational and he had two dirty crying children with him. He approached me as if he wanted to fight a couple of times, I threatened to call the police but he wasn’t backing down. He and I clearly have different positions on proper animal care. He was aware that she was pregnant and that she didn’t have a collar. He also admitted that “everyone” in the neighborhood feeds her. They had gone on vacation and when they returned she was missing. In the end, I gave him the cat as he was threatening me and I was very scared, he was only feet from my face and I didn’t know what else to do.

Once Callie left, I was angry and sad. I am so worried about the fate of her and her little babies. I don’t know if I have any rights at all. Though I did tell him if she comes back, I do plan to take her in again. I cried alot and finally fell asleep around 2 am. I didn’t see her this morning, I hope she is OK.