Father Knows Best

Breakfast was an egg in a basket, and coffee. I wanted grapefruit, but I'm saving it for tomorrow. We made our way over to my parents house for Sunday lunch. While preparing the feast we drank wine and ate apples, cheese, and crackers.My dad did the bulk of the cooking today. Here he is putting twice baked potatoes in the oven while we sat around and drank wine.They came out of the oven perfect. They're stuffed with onions, bell pepper, cheese, and bacon.Also on the menu, salad my mother made:
Steaks grilled to perfection on the George Foreman
And we moved on to Chimay for lunch.My plate:

After this, we had coffee and I shared a cookie with my mother. I think I had most of it though.
I drove home very sleepily and collapsed. After I awoke I had a leftover enchilada (expect to see this for lunch tomorrow too). I love that green sauce! I'm drinking a mocktail of cranberry-grape juice and club soda.
"I'll have another cointreau and sody."
Has anyone seen "The Big Picture"? Not a great movie, but a few funny lines.

Medrool Dates

As usual, I was in a rush this morning, but still had time to make Cream of Wheat. I did not have time to photograph it, so this picture is from Sunday. Sorry. It was really tasty, but didn't hold me over very well.
I started snacking pretty early on a medjool date, a fresh gala apple and babybel cheese.
Around 11:30 I went to the gym and did 20 minutes on the elliptical and 15 on the bicycle. Not bad for a lunch hour.
Lunch was one of the last (large) squares of lasagna, all chopped up. This helps with microwaving, I find.
I was doing fine until a little while after lunch when I wanted something sweet. I remembered that I had a little peanut butter, and a few dates. I've seen this combo on other blogs, but I've never tried it.
Delicious! I had unpitted medjool dates, so I split them open and removed the stone, this left a little pocket to distribute a teaspoon or so of peanut butter.
The O Organics was pretty good peanut butter, although it did need stirring quite often, and there were hard dry spots throughout. I'm willing to call that "user error" and give them a thumbs up. It was tasty and inexpensive.
After this high calorie snack, I proceeded to eat some Puffins, probably out of boredom.
I was so full that I wasn't hungry until I started driving home, and this is probably Pavlovian.
Once home we decided upon omelets for dinner. I made mine with onions, shrooms, unsalted butter, amish swiss, one egg + one egg white, and 1/3 cup of black beans. On the side I had a yellow bell pepper wedge and a few grape tomatoes. I've decided due to this picture that I need a few white plates. (*I do have 2 large white plates, but don't use them often.*)
Oh, I almost forgot since it didn't get plated - a slice of Canadian bacon and mug of coffee. The bacon was one of those things we needed to "get rid of" or it would go bad soon. Good excuse, huh?

Here's the Canadian bacon cooking. Fascinating, I know.

Cheese - It's What's For Dinner

Upon awaking, we made apple, orange, carrot, pear, grapefruit juice. Quite a treat.
Also for breakfast? Cream of Wheat. I like mine savory with only salt and milk, Mr. Greens likes it with honey.
Today was a big day over at the parents'. It is my dad's birthday week.On the menu: veggie tray, cheese, olives, and crackers.
Clockwise from top left: Wensleydale with cranberries, Chimay Grand Cru, Mimolette 12 month, Dill Chevre Goat Cheese, St. Andre, Double cream Gouda, and Gruyere Reserve Cheese.

Served with one of the best wines ever: Groth Cabernet Sauvignon
We ate outside and enjoyed the sub 80 degree weather.My plate, one of many:
We all had a hard time choosing our favorite cheese. My tentative top three would be:

The Gruyere - I love little salty, hard bits in cheese.
The Mimolette - sharp, sweet, and surprisingly creamy for a hard cheese.
And the Gouda. That was a tough choice, but I love gouda!
They were all wonderful. Thanks to my mother for picking out such winners. She's a smart lady.
After we gorged on cheese we cracked open another bottle of Groth wine. This time a light Sauvignon Blanc.
Then we ate birthday brownies and drank coffee.
My mom and dad have a tradition of doing "birthday week" which is a week of smaller presents leading up to your birthday. I've always wanted a birthday week, but have never successfully implemented it with the mister. Anyway, today I brought my dad presents for his birthday, which I think he liked. First of all is a really girly wine bag. We thought this was funny. Inside was the requisite scotch and cigar. I buy him the same thing every year. (I do mix up the brands.) You can't go wrong with a sure thing, right?Whole Foods chocolate!
He and the boyfriend smoked their cigars and had a little scotch after lunch.

Happy Birthday Dad!

In Which I Burn Some Brussels

Yesterday I forgot my camera at home so I didn't get a picture of most of my eats! When I got home last night I made zucchini bread.
A friend gave me a Make Your Own Vanilla Extract kit last Christmas, which I used for the first time on this recipe. In the kit you get a bottle, and several nice vanilla beans. Split the beans lengthwise, place them in the bottle and fill with vodka, bourbon, or rum. It has to sit for a few months before use. You can refill several times using the same liquor. I used Vodka.
Moving on to today.
It has been one of those days. I woke up late, dreaming about work. Someone forgot to set the alarm (me)! Usually my cat comes in and screams at me to wake up and feed her. She was nowhere to be found this morning. I was planning a bigger breakfast, and more of a lunch, but that didn't happen. Also, my eyes are bloodshot and really dry today.
So breakfast was Oikos yogurt and honey, and no I didn't use that much honey! I recently bought a little jug of local honey, and it poured out quite quickly.Work coffee (I buy cheaper stuff for work than home - does anyone else do this?) and Zucchini Bread!
Around 10:30 I had a granny smith apple and an ounce of cheddar
This cheese is not very good. It is supposed to be a sharp cheddar, and instead it tastes like butter. Ugh. Of course I'm eating it anyway.
Lunch was a disaster. When I was running out the door this morning I grabbed a box of soup thinking I had enough at work to feed me. Well, turns out it was expired! After emailing a few loved ones on whether I should eat it or not, I decided not to.
I do have a really strong stomach, but the fact that it was Friday and the chance that food poisoning could ruin my weekend made me not eat it.
So instead I had a Campbell's Soup to Go - Chicken Noodleand half a pita.
Talk about disappointing. I bought these Campbell's soups on sale a while ago, but they are just not tasty when you're used to homemade or more premium soups. Plus their ingredient list was very long.
Oh well, bottom's upLater in the day I had some Peanut Butter Puffins to appease my hungry stomach.
And no, I did not just have 4 squares. These are the ones that escaped my mouth.
Dinner:
When I got home from a long hard day of work, I opened one of these:Meh. It was either their Brown Ale or the Pale Ale that I like better. [Word to the wise, if you visit their website, don't have your volume all the way up like me.] I only drank half, and moved on to water and kettle chips.For dinner, I decided on roasted potatoes, brussels sprouts, and a Morning Star Mushroom Lovers Burger.
The potato was just cut in pieces, tossed in olive oil and salt and pepper. Brussels are done a particular way. Cut them in half after washing.Dry or spin them.
Toss in olive oil (or spray) and one clove of minced garlic. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Garnish with a tablespoon of pine nuts (or less)Sometimes I add the pine nuts in the middle of cooking so that they're less burnt. About 20-40 minutes later they're done.
The potatoesAnd Mushroom Burger with a square of feta to the left.
I had an Octoberfest with dinner. Yum!