Jerk

Dear Junkies,
I am a jerk. I am blogging from the hospital. Ryan was right.
~The PABJ

Weekend Warrioress

Dear Junkies,

I should have gone shopping on Thursday or Friday, because by Friday evening there was not meat or leafy greens in my house. You just can't do Sonoma without one or the other. Long story short I had a Sonoma in the morning and afternoon, crazy funness in the evening on Friday and Saturday.
On Friday night we went over to hotel Newsome for drinks and tv. As often happens at the hotel, we ended up drinking, ordering a midnight pizza and spending the night. SO that was fun, they have a very comfortable guest bed.
Saturday had lots of eating excitement, from gelato to softball players!
There's a great gelato place at my mall and I have heard rumors of a Cracked Black Pepper and Olive Oil flavor. So whenever I am out and about in the mall I stop by to see if they have it. Finally, last Thursday the nice man working there said, come back on Saturday and I will make it for you. This was very exciting as it is apparently a flavor everyone likes to taste and no one likes to eat. So I got a small of it and it was so good! I also got a small take home size to share with Ryan. It is my new number two favorite, Mediterranean Sea Salt and Carmel still trumps. But that was exciting.
Saturday evening we went to a fundraiser for a and 18U highly competitive, country traveling girls' softball league. It was a poker tournament with an hour of open bar, open chex mix, baked chicken fingers and meatballs (there was other stuff but this is what I ate). It was so much fun! I won a couple hands and had 3 free glasses of wine! Woot Woot. After that we went to the Nickle and I sung two Karaoke songs!
Ryan and I had Sunday off together! The special occasion was getting registered for the wedding and picking out wedding bands. This was tough work, but worked out ok once we got some good guidance. Food-wise I was pretty much Sonoma friendly. Kashi cereal and FF for milk for bfast, and 9oz sirloin with steamed veggies and two pieces of 7 grain bread with butter for dinner. Of course there was the 1/2c Pepper and olive oil gelato.
It's now Monday morning and I am planning my grocery list, hopefully I can get going quickly because Ryan is "Basically positive I have an appendicitis". Sheesh.
~The PABJ

Back up to Speed

Dear Junkies,
This week started with a big fat shopping trip and fun evening of cooking. I was just in a cooking mood, and looking forward to lunch at our place with a girlfriend. Also I finished up the Wave 2 recipes this week, which felt like an accomplishment (artificial possibly). In addition to a nice social, very long lunch I also have made some purchases that have pleased me to no end. I bought a size 8 Tahari dress from Von Maur. Not only does the size thrill me, but the price was amazing! Original price of $150, I paid $39 with tax! Yay! I got a nice work shirt from Penney's for $10 after tax and it is a SMALL. I am in disbelief and of course will buy more next time I am at work b/c it is so freaking comfortable and elegant looking. Additionally, Friday morning saw my lowest weigh in yet at 156.4! That officially in the mid- 150s! SO here's with the eating!

Monday
Kashi Go Lean and FF Milk

Spinach Salad topped with 3 c Chicken breast and leftover Vegetable Medley from the Chile Ginger Beef and Asian Vegetable Medley Night
1/2 a cucumber

Chile Mint Burger on Pita Bread-good
2 tbsp Cuke Sauce
1 squares 86% Dark Chocolate

Tuesday
FF yogurt with Blueberries and a splash of Kashi

Turkey Garbanzo Bean Soup
Spinach Salad with Red Wine Vinaigrette
Cuke Sauce with Carrots
15 Almonds

Pork Chops with Rosemary-delicious, simple
Brussel Sprouts with Prosciutto-love, love, love
2 oz of Prosciutto-you gotta eat while you cook sometimes!
2 squares 86% Dark Chocolate

This was my day off and my girlfriend Cindy came over with a bottle of wine and we ate and talked and drank and repeated.

Wednesday
Skipped bfast, bad me

1/2 serving Turkey Sausage Garbanzo Bean Soup with Pasta
1 whole wheat pita with Black Bean Dip
1 serving Greek Pizza-very good, we couldn't find the boboli crust, but I loved the whole wheat crust we did find!
1/2 bottle Chardonnay (La Crema)

1 serving Greek Pizza
1 cheese wheelette
2 servings pizza crust (the pack comes with 2! brushed with olive oil and garlic)
2 glasses Pinot Noir

Thursday
Kashi and FF Milk

Wild Rice Salad with Chicken
1/2c cherry tomatoes
1/2c baby carrots

3 slices of fancy cheese stolen from parent's refrigerator
2 small Whole Wheat Pitas
(I was absolutely starving this afternoon, so I ate, shrug, what else to do?)

Turkey Sausage Garbanzo Bean Soup with Pasta
Spinach with Standard Vinaigrette
2 cups Pinot Noir
1 cheese wheelette
1/4c quinoa
15 Almonds

Friday
Kashi and FF Milk

Wild Rice Salad with Chicken
Plum

1/2c Snow Peas
24 peanuts & 5 almonds

Dinner hasn't happened yet, but I look forward to it. My anticipation is largely because I have no idea what I will eat.

~The PABJ

Weekend of Fun

Dear Junkies,
Apologies, I understand that many of you have been seriously incapacitated due to my lack of blogging, I even hear that one of my followers has fallen ill. Here we go with Katsup!

The super fun Bridal weekend started with a record breaking weigh in! Hello 157.8 pounds! Whee heee. But it was also a bit sad since I did anticipate tipping the scales a bit as a result of the weekend's packed schedule and eating out being necessary.

The weekend was hugely successful on all fronts. Despite eating myself to discomfort twice, and drinking far more than necessary (I mean we toasted my dress 3 times) I only gained a pound! A list of accomplishments.

Went on a walk with the MIL
Ordered a small plate and split a soup at my fav restaurant (and was so stuffed)
Purchased wedding dress!!!!!
And veil!
Ordered invitations!
purchased bride's maids' dresses
Controlled myself with the chips at a Mexican restaurant.
Stayed mostly away from tempura at the Sushi place.
Did not partake in the pizza ordered to myself (there was no stopping me with the cheese sticks though)

So I was really happy with the amount of food I ate. I did not attempt to 'Sonoma Eat Out' I kinda think that's boring and not something I will ever do. It will sometimes happen, like when I go out for steak, but otherwise I think eating out just needs to be hedonistic.

~The PJBA

Week in Review

Dear Junkies,

After my marathon grocery shopping on Sunday, I was ready for an awesome Sonoma week (week = Su-Th). That's what happened! Failing to plan is planning to fail and all that jazz. Also working everyday this week in off peak season helps a ton. I even made lunch for Ryan twice this week! Other fabulous things are happening as well, Ryan is becoming more amenable to doing the dishes. The amount of nagging I have to do is decreasing, and the length of time dirty dishes sit out is shorter! Last night he even covered and put away the leftovers!

I am preparing for house guests (as you can tell by today's copious updating) and will not eat home prepared much at all this weekend. I'm not really looking forward to that, because I think it will mean me gaining some weight, and i am oh so hapy in the 150s. But Ruth will be with me, so maybe she will guide me to goodness.

Here's what I've been eating.

Tuesday

1/2c Grape Nuts + 1/2 FF Milk

Spinach Salad with 3 oz pork chop, 1 tbsp Gorgonzola and red wine vinaigrette
6 oz FF plain yogurt
1/2c blueberries

Sicilian Tuna Steak-Ryan's Wave 1 fave, revisited
1/2 c strawberries

1 glass blush wine-finally gone, also used this for the tuna (instead of a dry white), smelled awful, tasted just fine

1"x1" flat squar of 80% dark chocolate--YUMMY!

Wednesday

1/2c grape nuts 1/2c ff milk

Greens with Beans and Artichoke-very good, first time have Great Norther Beans, they were very tasty
3/4c Raspberry Mush-so I experimented with purchasing frozen raspberries. I just bought em then kept them in the fridge until I wanted them, at which point I had a water mush on my hands. I'm not one to give up at set backs, so I rinsed of the berry paste and put 3/4 c into a baggie for me and one for Ryan. It was horrid. Tart and gross and a wretched texture.

piece of string cheese-FULL FAT, it has been literally YEARS since I have had full fat string cheese, what a joy!
1c broccoli florets

Grilled Morrocan Pork Tenderloin Kabobs-I really had my shit together here people, since the recipe called for a 1-2 hour marinade, and I get home at 7:20pm I started the DAY BEFORE making and starting the marinade, then called Ryan 30 min before I left work for him to start soaking the kabob sticks! This was terrific. Ryan says possibly his new favorite
Tunisian Carrot Salad-I couldn't find Harissa Sauce and was not even considering spending an hour to make something that is a small ingredient in a side dish, I might not have a life with all the wedding planning but I do have a job and high sleep requirements! So I used hot Chile paste instead. This was good, I love carrots
Steamed Brown rice-I barely burnt the rice! It was pretty good, like Chinese Buffet at 3pm good, which is certainly a step up for me! Also I added a dab of olive oil and salt n pepper.

Shared a bottle of wine with Ryan Castle Rock Pinot Noir-we gave this to friends for their housewarming because it looked good, and I am relieved to say I was right! A bit more than my normal price point, but worth it.

Thursday

1 slice bread w 1 tbsp Peanut butter
1/2c straberries

Sonoma Express Wrap featured above
1/2 a Granny Smith apple-left over from barley night
1 string cheese-mmmmmm

Ditto on last night's dinner, pictured below!

Waste

Dear Junkies,
One of the things I was worried about when I first started my Sonoma shopping was food waste. You are eating such a variety of food, and there's a limit to what you can do in terms of buying smaller portions. Now, there is obviously a base amount of waste that is going to happen, whether it's because your cilantro gets pushed to the back corner and you think it's lost or the strawberries were riper than they looked, you just can't eat EVERYTHING you buy, especially when you are eating more fresh and less frozen.
My fears were for naught, I have been pleasantly surprised in the waste department. I think this is due to two things: I am only buying food to eat for a specific meal/snack, we are not eating meals that don't involve produce (goodbye skillet sensations, good pasta and tuna helper). For 30 days, we have thrown away 1/2 a bunch of parsley, 1/2 a cuke, a lot of anchovies, a bit of cilantro and some mushrooms. I'd say that's pretty good, because for a person that cooks for 1.5 (1 for lunch and two for dinner) how do you finish a whole bunch of parsley?

Menu Wave 2

2 eggs over easy with one piece of toast

My favorite salad! for lunch

1c broccoli florets
1 cheddar cheese wheel

Wild Mushroom Barley Risotto-to DIE for! Scratched my pasta & creaminess itch. I had no idea how to measure 3/4 oz, so I just put a bunch in. I was waaaay to excited to take a pic of this one.
Baby Greens with Apples, Walnuts and Lemon Vinaigrette-really liked this dressing

~The PABJ

Weekend (Grocery Shopping) Warrior

Dear Junkies,

Sunday morning greets me and we are at our lowest refridgerator level since Sonoma started. It used to be that every two weeks we would get down to eating really random things like me taking a packets of tuna to work with carrots and a slice of cheese. So it obviously wasn't nearly that bad. But it was a weirdo eating day. And I did my grocery shopping on a Sunday, all three places. Sometimes crowds make me hate people, even babies, especially when I am hungry (lets be honest I even hate skinny and money when I am hungry), so that was L A M E. Aldi's was terribly busy, Wal-Mart was CRAMMED with idiots who think it's necessary to bring their husband and 4-6 small children with them grocery shopping, and Hen House was empty, it usually is in my neighborhood.

Menu Wave 2

1/2c egg whites & 1 piece of toast

Leftover Asian Vegetable Medley

CiopinnoSeafood en Papilotte-this was so good, but bland. the scallops were excellent

I have been feeling that bland thing more and more lately. I am also going through my spice rack at about 20x my normal amount! It's crazy to me. So back to the bland thing, pre-sonoma Jess liked bland food & spicy food, but it was good because of the yummy butter/salt/creamy combos. Now the butter/salt/creamy is gone baby gone. So now I'm left with spicy. Which is fine, but a little limiting in terms of a YAY meal.

~The PABJ

Celebration

Dearest Junkies,
This past Saturday was time for a reward! After I did so well at the party on Friday (and received some ego boosting compliments) I was ready to eat some regular food. I had a Sonoma bfast and lunch, skipped the snacks, then we went to Spin for dinner and to watch the KU vs K State game. It was so enjoyable, and I did hold back a bit compared to how I have eaten there in the past. So, very nice.




Menu Wave 2

2 eggs over easy with 1 piece of toast (I am still trying to figure out the correct amount of food when I eat real eggs, this was too much)

Mixed Greens with Turkey & Blue Cheese-this will surely become a staple for me

6" pizza with eggplant and portobellas-definitely more grains than I needed for the night, but a very reasonable size
Tomato Basil Soup-this came with my pizza, I shared with Ryan, had about 1/4c it was good, but was blandish
1/2 carafe of wine-this is the problem with this place, a glass of wine is $5, and the carafe is $9, so it's fiscally irresponsible NOT to get the carafe, luckily we were there for about 4 hours, so it really spread out the consumption

What I didn't get-gelato (ryan did) and the awesome pita and hummus appetizer we usually eat

KU won in overtime by one point.

~The PABJ