The One Without a Cheeseburger

First up, Elizabeth opened her parcel!

Click the photo to visit her post about what I sent. :)

That was so fun, we both hope others will join in.  Anyone want to take part in the exchange of a surprise loot box?

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We were up at the ungodly hour of 6:15am this morning…blech.  Since I didn’t fall asleep until after 1am, and slept a little rough because it was FH’s first night home in a week I was exhausted.

Came home, brewed coffee, snoozed on the couch while watching PVR’d Eastwick before starting work.

The benefit of getting up that early?  Eating breakfast at a normal time…8:45. 

Whole wheat English muffin with organic peanut butter and sliced nanners…

 

And lunch by 11:45!  A bigass salad.  Craving veggies like crazy today…probably because of the lack of sleep and water. 

Romaine, tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion, avocado, finely grated old white cheddar, salsa and a swizzle of Ranch…

Oh people…then came the Trader Joe’s Peanut Butter Pretzels!!  I made a little dish of one serving, but I admit that there were a lot of broken ones that I just kept shoving in my mouth!

When they break you get a whole bunch of pieces of the peanut butter just floating around in the bag…so yum.  These have definitely met expectations.  Who knew I’d get so excited about pretzels!?  LOL.

I did have a the prettiest dish of kiwis and blackberries today too…but somehow in my tired fog I completely forgot to take pictures of it.  I had even set all of the fruit in the bowl all pretty-like just for the photo.  oh well!

<imagine brightly colored green & purple fruit here>

For dinner what I really wanted was a cheeseburger.  I fell asleep for an hour on the couch after work and you know that feeling of wanting something easy and bad-for-you when you wake up in a strange place at a strange time?  Well that was me.

But there was no way I was going out, nor was I caving in to cruddy fast food when I know damn well I would feel worse for eating it…so instead I opened up the fridge and the internet and created a concoction of my own.  Go me.

Googling ‘zucchini and black beans’ leads directly to Roni at GreenLiteBites. 

I had all of the ingredients on hand, so I followed her recipe pretty much exactly (using my own Mexican spice mix in lieu of her spice suggestions) and stirred it all together with some Smart macaroni.

Served with a simple salad of beautiful grape tomatoes tossed with EVOO and part-skim mozzarella…over baby spinach.

I added extra salsa and it filled the hungry hole.  nom nom nom.

And for dessert…cafe quality Chai!  I love Chai as an evening treat, but I never order when at Starbucks because it’s caffeinated…but I can buy the decaf Tazo Chai at the supermarket and make it at home!

Mix equal parts Chai concentrate with milk of your choice (I like skim, or for even fewer calories use unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze).  If you don’t have a steamer like I do, you can just heat on the stove or in the microwave…but I do like the pile of foam on top.  :)

Decadent treat for only 105 cals (60 cals for the Chai, and 45 for the skim milk @ 1/2 cup each).  Love it.

Busy weekend ahead.  Christmas decorating will be involved.  And baking.  There might be fondue.  And wine.  Stay tuned…