Rockin out to some Wake Me Up (Before You Go-Go) and some Tom Jones while swigging not-so-cheap boxed wine (it was a lot cheaper before it became "trendy") and creating a culinary masterpiece.
Do you ever bite down in something soft and feel something hard and wonder what it is? I've been doing that a lot lately and it happened again tonight. I had the sense to grab the hard object out of my mouth and I'd SWEAR it's part of a tooth - it's white and really hard and a little shiny on the outside. I didn't eat anything that was hard and white today, so I don't think it's food. The funny thing is, none of my teeth hurt and I can't feel where any of them have broken off. Odd.
I tried eggs for the second time this year when I made 2 egg whites as part of breakfast. Not so bad with some Texas Pete and ketchup. Not bad at all. Good progress.
Last night I took a relatively unnecessary trip to Trash Mart. Sure, I needed to get some things, but I really didn't need to spend $50. On the other hand, they had some kind of milk that I had never seen before. It's skim milk but it supposedly doesn't taste like skim (and it's not "Super Skim" or "Ultra Skim"). I bought a regular carton and a chocolate carton since it sounded good. I had the chocolate this morning and while it doesn't taste as watery as regular skim, it tasted oddly almost like 8th continent lite chocolate soy milk (though the ingredients said that it was not soy milk). It was kind of weird. Not bad, necessarily, but not quite what I expected.
I'm also super excited because I bought something I've never bought before: seeds! Not the kind you eat, but the kind you plant! I bought 4 packets - butter lettuce, scallions, baby carrots (they're cute - they only grow to about 4 inches!), and broccoli. I always look forward to spring, but now I'm REALLY excited because I'll get to plant something. I have no idea where I'm going to put my little garden, but I'm psyched nonetheless. :)
Before I headed to the gym today, I decided to head over to Bed Bath & Beyond, followed by Half Price Books. At BB&B I used some new-homeowner gift cards to purchase The Biggest Loser food scale (which I totally played around with tonight), and at HPB I purchased a few magazines for $1.50 and 2 books that I've heard a lot about but never thought I'd want to read: Eat, Pray, Love (only $1) and The Memory Keeper's Daughter (only $2). Unfortunately, they didn't have the magazines and books that I really wanted - I've had my eye on possibly getting a Women's Health subscription (I found them online for $9.95/year) and the second book of the Shopaholic series (Shopaholic Takes Manhattan). I'm not normally much of a "fluff" reader and in the past I've really kind of hated "girly" books, but I want to see the movie and I always like to try reading the books before the movies whenever possible (and my mom gave me her copy on the cruise since she didn't like it). Well, I really liked it (and sadly, I identified with it a LOT), and after only a few days, I finished it last night. That's fast for me, considering I usually only read a chapter or two a night. Anyways, hopefully my new purchases will keep me entertained until the library comes through with the Shopaholic books.
Oh, and apparently I'm bringin sexy back, roadside. Last night on the way home from Trash Mart, I was stopped at a stop light on Ardmore and this car full of guys pulled up beside me and started honking the horn. I looked over and they were all looking at me, smiling and nodding their heads (what IS that?! is that some new flirting technique?). When I got home, I checked my car in case something was on it, or if maybe my trunk was open, but nope. They apparently were honking at me... and then coming home from the gym today, in broad daylight, 3 guys in a Penske truck did the same thing. THE SAME EXACT THING. I don't know if they were the same guys (though that'd be quite a weird coincidence) or if I'm just oozing hotness in my Trash Mart gear and post-workout messiness. I'm gonna go with the option that says I'm awesome.
So on to the events of this evening! I had planned to make homemade split pea soup and I totally pulled through. Here you can see the ingredients that went into my fabu-stew:
Soaked split peas (duh)...
TJ's crushed garlic (I'm lazy when it comes to garlic), black pepper, bay leaves, Mrs. Dash Southwest Chipotle (for some extra flav-a), carrots, fresh parsley, celery, diced ham, and chopped onions. I split my finger pretty deep while I was trying to cut the carrots. Ouch.
Here it is as it's cooking, pre-blending:
And finally, after I blended (erm, "liquefied") about half of it to make it thicker:
As I was cooking, I sipped on this:
(see, I started out with a glass...)
Since I let my soup cook for a long time, I got kinda hungry (all that crazy kitchen dancing will do that to ya!), so I ate part one of dinner - part 2 was a pretty big bowl of my awesome creation.
Above is a slice of Japaleno Cheddar bread from Trash Mart (half-off bakery goods are the greatest things ever!) dipped in tomato basil spaghetti sauce. Mmm!
Followed soon after by...
Believe it or not, this is just one sweet potato sliced into sticks and baked (yummy homemade sweet potato fries!)... it seemed to make a LOT of fries, but I totally scarfed them down. In fact, I tried them in a new combination:
Yup, I went there. I dipped my sweet potato fries in greek yogurt. And you know what? It really wasn't too scary. In fact, it was kinda good. I think I made my fries a little too spicy (too much Mrs. Dash. She's a wicked one.), so the yogurt was a nice complement to the spiciness. I was pretty proud of myself for branching out a bit!
As for my homemade split pea soup, yeah, it was pretty awesome - as expected. Next time I make it, I might omit sea salt since there's ham in it. I mean, this batch is just about incredible, but it might have just a weeeee bit too much salt. Still, yum!
My parents are potentially coming to visit tomorrow, so yay! Free dinner! Also, I'm pretty stoked to have my mom try my soup - she's never tried split pea before. My dad's a lost cause; he'll say it's disgusting because it's almost all veggies. But I'm totally making my mom try it, whether she wants to or not. Yep, I'm gonna force-feed. :)
It's about time for bed (I can't believe I've been writing this for an hour!)... peace.
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