Weekend Highlights + Monday 8 November

Weekend Highlights

I enjoyed the weekend quite a lot.  It started with lunch with some coworkers on Friday, in which we discovered a wonderful Mediterranean deli and grocery.  Everything was so tasty, but I fell in love with their baba ganoush.  It's like hummus, but made with eggplant instead of chickpeas, and theirs was wonderful:  slightly lemony, smoky, creamy goodness.  I've never had anything quite like it.  One of my coworkers ordered a dish and shared it, so I ended up getting a container to go (and some oregano pita chips).  Mr. Handsome-and-Handy tried it, and he had sort of an uncertain look on his face.

"Well?" I prompted.  "Is it good, or is it just more 'weird shit the wife likes?'"

Not so sad to say it was the latter, because all the more for me!  

Saturday was gorgeous!  I played a little baseball in the front yard with the kids.  After awhile, they were on to other things, so I got to sneak off for an hour of exercise before taking Thing 2 to a birthday party.  I checked out a new-to-me trail: Pillar Point Bluff.  

One of the trail heads is right behind the local airport.  It begins with a very steep hike up the bluff, then the rest is gently rolling trail.  

Here's the view from the first leg, you can sort of see the harbor.  My cell phone camera does not do it justice.

And here's the view from the other side of the bluff.  The famed surf spot, Maverick's, is a half mile from shore, off of the point shown here (Pillar Point).

Sadly, not much time to sit and enjoy the view today.

I hike/jogged a little over 3.5 miles on my outing, across the bluffs, through a neighborhood, and to the southern entrance to the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve.  

Imagine my surprise when I found a new staircase had been built at the trail head!  This is the "Seal Cove Stairway," and it goes to a very pretty beach.  A divergence for another day!

Sunday, on the other hand, was rainy all day.  Thing 2 and I decided it would be fun to make messes in the kitchen, so I was on my feet much of the day.  I made my recipe for "BSI chiles," and we made Georgie's protein brownies.  I was surprised at how wet they were inside when we pulled them out of the oven, but I let them cool in the pan and the got a little more solid.  (They still have more of a fudgy texture than a cakey one.  I'm wondering if that's from using oat flour instead of oatmeal?)  If you're looking for the traditional brownie, you might be disappointed; but I found them appealing.  They definitely have a protein bar taste, but I liked the chocolate flavor and the tartness added by the yogurt.  There's a bitterness to them, and I'm trying to figure out of the bitterness is from Splenda or if it's something else...maybe the flax?  I might try again with another type of sweetener.  Also, I think they're better eaten cold.  Mr. Handsome-and-Handy liked them, but the kids did not.  Oh well.

Thing 2 wanted to make chocolate chip cookies, too, so we did.  (And after eating a few too many, they're "hidden" on top of the bread box, on top of the fridge.  Putting things out of sight and just slightly out of convenient reach sometimes works for me.)

I also tried Biz's trick of making scallops in a cast-iron pan on the BBQ.  That worked great!

Monday 8 November

So the scale this morning was .2 pounds from my "red line" weight.  It had drifted up a couple of pounds over the past couple of weeks, but this really made me freak out a bit.  I started thinking of all the drastic stuff I could do...then--coincidence?  I think not!--I read Debby's post, "Maintenance-A Confession."  What a breath of sanity.  You'd think that after 2 years in the same 5-pound weight range I'd have a little more trust in the habits.

Breakfast:  It's the usual (cheddar-tomato omelette, flax toast, sugar-free jam and butter/canola spread), with 2 mugs of coffee.  I broke back out the measuring scoop and measured out my half-and-half and almond milk, because I know I'd gotten out of the habit of going lighter on the half-and-half.  I also decided to scale back a bit on the coffee and drink more tea.

At work:  Here's what's left of my tea and scoop of chia seeds.

Pre-workout snack:  Here's a serving of Kettle Chips.  This is the rest of that little bag I opened last week.

Yeah, baby!  I did a walking warm-up, some 4 mph/5mph intervals, and a walking cool-down.

Lunch:  Here's one of the protein brownies!

And the rest of the grilled salsa soup!  It looks horrid, but it was really tasty.  The tomatillos add a really bright flavor to the soup.

And an apple!

May the Force be with you!  (Or at least the orange no-sugar-added popsicle...)  We are having a ping-pong tournament at work this week, and I decided to play.  I really suck at ping-pong, mainly because I just don't play very often.  I thought I'd be playing one round and get eliminated, but no, I ended up playing everyone!  I lost most of my games, but I did win a couple later in the match, which surprised everyone (self included) and delighted me.

Before the drive:  I got a request to run some errands, and it had been awhile since I'd eaten that popsicle, so I decided to have a ginger chew to tide me over until dinner.

Dinner:  Whoops!  You didn't miss much, only one of the chicken legs and the bowl of string beans with olive oil, lemon pepper, and garlic powder.

I also had these pita chips.  They tasted very good dipped in hot wing sauce!  (Oh, yes, the baba ganoush was long gone!)

I also made some hot tea with the green bean cooking water.  I know that's kind of weird, but if the nutrients cook out, they'd probably be in there, wouldn't they?

What I didn't eat at night but could have, because heaven knows there was enough stress stuff going on:  closing paper signing on the refi (at 8 p.m.!), preparation for the window replacement tomorrow (finally going double-paned!), kids and their homework, and thinking too much about how ill-prepared I am for the half marathon and for going to Vegas in general.  (That last one is a biggie.)

• Chocolate chip cookies
• Nuts (peanuts, cashews, mixed nuts on sale that I found during my errand)
• Little meaty sticks (you know, they do kind of look like dog snacks, don't they?)
• More pita chips
• No-sugar-added ice cream stuff
• Halloween candy

So I'm calling today a success.