My way back home-

It is so nice to come home to a clean house greeted by my Ella boo face! The weather here is crazy cold and I actually needed to turn on the heater! A first this winter. So my day consisted mostly of driving back from Sonoma so my food was not my usual 3 meals. I started it off well with oats like yesterdays at my sisters early this morning. 1/2 cup oats, 1/2 cup reduced fat milk, 1/2 cup water, and a spoon full of peanut butter and a sprinkle of cinnamon with coffee, and I also had an orange.Then Sean and I hit the road to head home. I made some ham sandwiches with WW 7 grain bread, a slice of Munster cheese, Dijon Mustard and left over Honey baked Ham-yummmmm! And I had some emergency snacks left over from the drive up so I snacked on those a bit before and a bit after the sandwich. I ended up eating the sandwich in 2 sessions because I was really hungry around 10:30 and didn't want to snack too much so I got a head start on lunch and finished the other half around 12:30.

I forgot to rate these Mini rye toasts so I'll let you all know now that they are scrumptious! If you like rye toast with butter as much as I do then you will surely enjoy these little morsels of goodness! They taste just like the real thing! Also in the pictures above are my road trip essentials: my camera (taking this picture), Ipod (this one is Sean's, mine is a nano and is in a pink case:)), and my blackberry also in a pink case! yes I do!
Not much snow on the way back :( but it was very windy!

I tried the Larabar Jam Frakas bar and my opinion is this: good, not great, a bit too sweet with a funny texture. I'm not sure if the texture thing was from having it sit in the cold car for 3 days or if that is how they come, but it was very hard. I would probably get them again for a small snack pre exercise but in a different flavor and they didn't hold me as long as the reg Larabars.

Do two apples a day keep the doctors EXTRA away?!?
When we arrived in the city we stopped to get some essentials for the week and dinner because our fridge was EMPTY man! I can't wait for these:

I haven't had Kefir in a while, since my Greek yogurt kick, and I forgot how good this stuff is!

Haven't had this flavor I usually drink unsweetened soy or almond milk but his was just so festive and on sale!

After settling in I started on dinner with my "chef juice" as my dad calls it. The menu tonight was simple and very satisfying! Annie's WW shells with a salad made with romain, 1 orange, 1 tomato, 1/2 can drained black beans, 1/2 cup sweet yellow corn and a red wine vinaigrette topped with BBQ chicken. I find that the sweetness of the orange and the tangy BBQ sauce melds so well together!

Here is the recipe for Oven Baked BBQ Chicken:

-1.5-2 pounds of boneless skinless chicken breast cut into strips or just buy the tenders

- 1/2 cup ketchup

- 1/2 cup salsa or add 1 tbs to 1/2 cup canned diced tomatoes

- 1/4 cup honey

- 1 tbs Dijon mustard

- 1/2 tbs chili powder

- 1/2 tbs ground cumin

- 1/2 tsp worcshitster sauce

preheat oven to 400 degrees. add ingredients to big zip lock bag, add chicken pieces close bag and shake and mix until chicken is all coated. lay coated chicken in one layer in a Pyrex pan and bake for 30 min turning once. remove from oven and enjoy hot or cold!

Dessert tonight was Marzapan- a treat I brought back from Spain! I just love it!

I went back for more dessert- 2 dates, also from Spain

So that's my day! I am now going to watch Dexter with Sean we are behind on our Net flicks! GNight Everyone!

C

My lovely time in Spain!

Hello again all!

Boy have I missed everyone, I just got back yesterday and I am so excited to share my treats and sites with you all!

Let me start by saying I had an amazing time! I went to Madrid, Spain with my boyfriend and mom and dad. We stayed with a family friend in his Piso (which means apt or flat in Spanish) in an area called Lavapies, which was once the working class, Jewish part of town is now the hip place for bars and artsy people (I fit right in:)). The piso was on the 5th floor so we had a nice bit of exercise going up and down the stairs. Spain was cold but not too bad, I definitely packed right for the weather with a big coat, hats, scarves and gloves! We saw many museums (my favorite part of traveling!) and many Churches. We took a day trip to Toledo, the second largest oldest city after Rome. But mostly we were there to soak up the cultures food and way of life. We did not wake up once before 9am and didn't go to bed before 2am!!! What a life!

Well now onto the food.... I must say it was not what I had expected. There was a lot of olive oil on EVERYTHING and not many spices in the food. I did my best to eat 3 meals a day but it was hard when they eat on a completely different schedule. They eat like this; wake up have a cup of coffee and a pastry, have lunch between 1pm and 3pm (this is their biggest meal of the day and when I say big I mean BIG, always 3 courses and dessert and wine!!!) then it's siesta for the local shops and everything closes until 8pm then its time for Tapas, which was a variety of fried foods, bread and olives and more wine. Then around 10pm it's time for dinner, which could be lite or just as heavy as lunch, with more wine!!!

This may seem like a lot of food but we were walking at least 8 hours a day so we were burning lots of energy.

So for my blog have decided to post a bit of my trip each day, rather than one BIG post ( I have almost 700 pics:)) that way I won't exhaust you with a 10 page blog and I can also savor my trip for a few more days!

So to start here is my bfast from today; Multi grain oats with 1 banana, a sprinkle of Cinnamon, yogurt and coffee.

And now for some Spain pics, I have chosen to show you today my 1st day of pictures:

Above is a yummy Lentil soup from the Daily Grill in the airport at LAX international Bradley.

The beautiful Madrid Airport.
My parents on the metro heading to our piso!

When we arrived at the piso our friends had made us a wonderful meal full of Spanish treats, olives, these huge beans (I have never seen them in the States) with onions and soup with pork, wine, chips, orange juice....

This lovely salad with balsamic dressing and olives and tomatoes...

This is my dad, mom, boyfriend at the table of goodies and our friend Grace in the kitchen cooking up a storm!
Some cooking sherry and fresh fruits and veggiesLater that night we went out for Tapas of course and I had a fried anchovy, a ring of giant calamari, a piece of bread and a fried Green chili.

This was my view from my seat!

We all shared a plate of chorizo and patatas which is fried potatoes.

Then we went to go see Flamenco!! So good! The ladies feet move like firecrackers!

And ended our first night right with hot chocolate and churros!! Their hot chocolate is more like melted chocolate, so thick and rich, yummmmmm!

Well enough for this mornings post, I'll be back later with more from my trip to Spain and my lunch!

C