BeautiFULL Day

Friday, March 18, 2011

[SOURCE]

Spring is almost here!! Can you believe it?? Today was absolutely BREATHTAKINGLY beautiful! We had all the windows open and the air just felt marvelous. I'm so glad because I was like, "enough with the snow already!!"

Not long after Aidan left for school and Jon left for work, Dylan and I had a nice mid-morning snack...

Kashi Heart to Heart cereal (Honey Toasted Oat), 1/2 of a grapefruit, and hot Darjeeling tea for me

Kashi Heart to Heart cereal (Honey Toasted Oat) and a Granny Smith apple for Dylan

The mail arrived and guess what showed up...the book I won last month! Huzzah!! (Many thanks to the peeps at Random House for sending this my way.) Can't wait to get started!

ARC copy of All the Time in the World by E.L. Doctorow

I had just finished doing cartwheels over my new book that came in the mail when I checked my email and discovered I won another book through Goodreads!! YOWZA! I'm on fiyah!

Win number 20 (and counting??) is the book The Silent Land by Graham Joyce.

I know little to nothing about the author, but the book description is extremely intriguing. So excited for it to arrive!!

This windfall of books is reminding me how backed up I'm getting on my reading. Eep! I have to get cracking this week or Jon someone is going to put the kibosh on bringing new books into the house. Can't have that, can we?


Jon decided he was going to come home a little early so we could all watch the Ohio State bball game. I decided to be a nice wifey and make up one of Jon's favorite snacks...pita chips.

Pita Bread...of course

I sliced the pitas in half since Jon likes the chips to be thin and crispy

Then, I lightly brushed the pita with olive oil and sprinkled with a pinch of sea salt

I cut the pitas into small pieces and placed them in a single layer onto two baking sheets lined with aluminum foil sprayed with olive oil cooking spray. Then, I seasoned each batch.

One batch had garlic powder. The other batch was supposed to have paprika and cumin, but I noticed the cumin had not been added to the batch until AFTER it had already come out of the oven. *facepalm* Yeah, that batch was a little bland.

I baked them at 375°F for about 7-12 minutes, keeping an eye on them the whole time for fear they would be on the burnt side of crispy. However, despite a little seasoning issue with batch 2, they came out great!

Sea salt and garlic powder pita chips

Sea salt and paprika and cumin pita chips

Pita chips ready for Jon to devour!

After that, I knew I had better make up some lunch for myself or I'd be diving into those pita chips and there would be nothing left for Jon but crumbs in plastic baggies.

I whipped up a little salad of red leaf lettuce, baby spinach, onion, cucumber, grated carrot, some everyday seasoning, and a leftover salmon patty, all mixed with a red wine & olive oil vinaigrette.

The salad was super yummy, but I really wish I had soaked the onions in some water before I put them in the salad. They had way too much bite and overpowered the whole salad, so I ended up having to scrape several to the side.

Once Aidan came home from school and Jon came home from work, we decided to take a pre-game family walk around the neighborhood. It was sooooo beautiful today! We just had to get out there and take advantage of the warm temp.

SOMEHOW we ended up stopping at the co-op again for a few more goodies. (Funny how that happens...)

Lacinato Kale, Acorn Squash (that I eyed yesterday and had to go back for), Natural Peanut Butter (a huge jar marked down to $4!), more Bananas, D'Anjou Pears, Red Pear, 2 pkg. Luna Burger Veggie Burgers (Farmhouse Chili flavor), 1 pkg. Luna Burger Kick Start Veggie Breakfast Patties, Ghirardelli Chocolate Chips, and French Vanilla & Almond Granola. MOUTHWATERING!!


We fixed the boys a snack and settled in to watch some OSU bball...

Dylan channeling his inner Ralph Macchio??

During halftime, I went into the kitchen to get dinner prepped. On the menu...Veggie Pizza!

Rolled out some whole wheat pizza dough

Lightly brushed with olive oil, sprinkled with garlic powder and oregano, and pre-baked the dough at 375°F for 8 minutes

Topped with some pesto that I whipped up yesterday

Plus red and green bell peppers and red onion

And fresh shredded Pepper Jack and crumbled Feta

Assembled and ready to bake...how pretty!

Fresh from the oven 8 minutes later...*drool*

We opted to pair the veggie pizza with some butternut squash soup from TJ's. All four of us agreed this was NOT a great flavor combination. The soup left a lot to be desired. We normally love butternut squash soup, but I guess you just can't beat homemade. The pizza, however, received rave reviews. As if I expected less??

For dessert, I took 4 bananas that I had frozen yesterday (now you know why I bought more bananas), broke them into chunks, and added them to my food processor.

 
Then, I blended them up until they were smooth and creamy.

 

Then, I split the mixture between 4 bowls, topped with some blueberries, and served!

 

This was AWESOME! It tasted like banana gelato, no joke. Our one criticism was that it was a little one note. We ended up having to also add some granola to the top to give it some texture. 

That being said, we thought up an amazing idea for this summer: blended frozen bananas topped with fresh strawberries, melted chocolate chips, chopped nuts, fresh whipped cream, and a cherry. An alternative banana split! Sounds good, right? I'm so excited to try this!!


The kids curled up on the couch to eat the organic suckers they scored at the co-op and watch a little more basketball with Jon before bedtime.

We got the kids off to bed, then it was time to break out our the other purchase we made when we were out and about...my favorite beer!

Great Lakes Brewing Co. - Dortmunder Gold

Such a full, rich day, don't ya think?