The cooing - it will break you everytime.

I enjoyed a huge green salad for lunch. And let's face it - the greens were just a convenient vehicle for lots of the Highly Addictive Miso Dressing.

What makes this dressing even better? I huge handful of chopped green onions.

And in my never ending quest to incorporate new and healthy things into my diet, this was included in my lunch:

Fishy goodness packed with Omega-3 Fatty Acids.

Which came in a huge amount of mustard sauce.

And I will be honest, this plate sat on top of the fridge for about an hour before I got up the courage to taste it.

Well, I didn't so much 'get the courage' as I was tortured into it. 

Even though I carefully washed off a fillet and gave it to Abby (aka the fish girl) she still camped out in front of the fridge and cooed non-stop to this plate of fish that was sitting on top of the fridge.


No joke. 

She cooed like the saddest Who in Whoville.

After an hour, this cooing broke me. I broke like that cop in the torture scene in Reservoir Dogs.

As Abby watched me with feral interest, I bravely brought a forkful of the herring to my mouth.

You know what? It wasn't half bad. It was meaty like Halibut and the mustard sauce really cut the fishy smell. 

These guys were much easier for me to handle than trying to eat sardines.

I think next time I will try eating them with crackers.

And I had a big bowl of these sweet globes.

 

Imagination at work

You know what happens when you go to this store -

the day before you drop your dogs off at the dog 'hotel' and you are filled with doggie mom guilt?

You end up bringing home this:

A bulk size bag of rawhides.

My other purchases that were not bought in a guilt filled haze:

I know it is not eco-friendly to buy these. I should be filling up reusable bottles to bring my toiletries but I just love these miniature darlings. They bring back great memories of past trips.


My lunch held off hunger for quite a while so I ate dinner pretty late.


I used my imagination and put together this odd collection of characters.

Edamame, grapes,coleslaw and blueberries.

Everything got thrown into a bowl and since I am slowly working yogurt back into my diet - I stirred in some greek yogurt (I think blue cheese dressing would also work well if you want something a little sweeter).

I thought it was going to taste awful but I was surprised. I ended up eating it in stages - First, I ate all the edamame with the coleslaw first (I love edamame). Next I scooped up the grapes one by one. And lastly, the sweet blueberries.


And, it turns out that eating it in that order created a nice progression from savory to sweet/sour and finishing with crunchy sweet. Yum!

And in one of my many impulse purchases - I couldn't resist this at the store - 

 

I admit, it was the tagline that pulled me in. I am a sucker for a good tagline.

Night all!

Snack time

The dogs got very excited when I started cooking this afternoon. But the dish will take a while so I snacked on this in the meantime:

Crackers, grapes and blue cheese.

 This was another of the cheeses I picked up on the road trip.

The Cowgirl Creamery sells other Point Reyes cheeses and this one is a winner.

If you like blue cheese you will love this. 

The pungent blue cheese was a great match with the sweetness of the grapes.

The crackers? They are also something I picked up on the trip.

I will be back later with the big meal of the day!

 

The heat has it

The dogs spent the day panting - it was HOT here today!

I have been trying to eat more regular meals - so this afternoon I ate half of this bar as a snack.

I am also trying to get more protein in my diet so this bar fit the bill. It was a little chocolaty and not too sweet. Perfection.

For dinner, I raided the freezer.

Leek soup.

This soup has greatly improved in flavor the more time it spent hanging out in the freezer. Definitely a re-do.

And since this was the last of the batch - I will have to make another big pot of soup - I just have to decide what kind to make.


The coolness of my dessert was much needed today:

Red grapes.

I am excited because tomorrow I am going on a 'field trip' to a foodie place I have been longing to go to for forever.

I am not sure when I will get to post tomorrow - it will probably be on the late side - but I will have lots of great pictures!!

An eclectic collection and lightboxes

As promised - I brought out the rest of the french cheeses tonight. A friend let me borrow their light box so I got to have some fun.

Here is the picture of the ingredients pre-light box shots.

From the bottom left going clockwise: chestnuts, french port salut, french brie, french chevre, a blood orange and asparagus.

These are the shots - all fancied up - using the light box.

 

And yes, that is what I enjoyed for dinner - well, I shared the cheese :-)

To me the photos using the light box look stiff and too formal. Not representative of my personal style or attitude at all.


I like the "normal" photos I usually take.


What do the rest of you think?