Easy breakfast

I worked 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. after having 4 days off... I'm trying to eat cleaner after falling into bad habits (using all of my calories left for the day to eat food that doesn't exactly have nutritional vale-- like a beer or a chocolate or salty snacks).

I wanted to eat something before I got locked away in my little room... (Cash office at Target). 

So I toasted half an English muffin, spread less than a tablespoon of cream cheese on it, sprinkled on a little Bulgarian feta and topped it with a sliced medjool date.

Rhubarb!

My friend Gayle just sent me the link for a cool food blog and it has a recipe for rhubarb cobbler AND Gayle offered me rhubarb if I want to try it. Um, yeah! This blog has a really witty voice and I look forward to checking it out more...

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/06/rhubarb-cobbler/

And look at her take on cinnamon toast! It's too much and too delicious!

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/04/the-right-way-and-the-wrong-way-to-make-cinnamon-toast/

Summer café

We have officially opened our summer breakfast café-- our little table by the front door.

Daughter had eaten breakfast with husband, zucchini bread from the freezer that I purchased at the library bake sale and canned tropical fruit salad she shared with the tortoise.

For "second breakfast," I made my rose tea and four slices of last week's hearty rye bread, toasted, two with margarine, one with cheddar and one with peanut butter and local raw honey. Cheddar for me. Peanut butter for child.

Magic Toast

I have said before that the multigrain sandwich bread from Giant makes the best toast in the world... I had a slice for breakfast with imported French butter.

Veggie Patch Apple 'Sausages'

For breakfast, we had toast.
Then my daughter had a bowl of Greek yogurt with Count Chocula on it (we ran out of milk.)
For lunch, my husband and daughter had "bug sandwiches," peanut butter on Ritz crackers with raisins surrounding all the edges.
For dinner, we had Veggie Patch vegetarian apple sausage with mixed vegetables and cheese sauce rolled up (i.e. overstuffed) in a tortilla shell.

Weekend laziness

Yesterday was my last official day at the YWCA and, as such, I ended up in the office for about 10 hours. It's scary when you have one day to finish everything unresolved. Unlike when you quit a job, my "seasonal" position will resume in August and I will have to finish what I started then. So, if I make a mess, I'll be the one cleaning it.

So I called my husband at 5 p.m. to tell him I hadn't left the office yet and he asked if he should start dinner and I said sure. He made fried egg sandwiches on bagels.

Then after our daughter went to bed, we each had a glass of Veuve Clicquot (from a small $25 bottle I bought for my birthday) to celebrate my summer vacation. We spiked it with Chambord (kir royale, anyone?) because oddly, these last two bottles of champagne had tasted more like sweet beer. Blasphemy, I know.

This morning, my husband made us each "magic toast." (See the last grocery entry involving the Giant...) And for lunch we'll have the leftover bag of Dole salad, with something to make it an entrée. (I so wish we had sunflower seeds.) For dinner, we have friends coming over that offered to buy pizza while we watch the first season of LOST...

Groceries

It's the 27th. Yesterday's take out probably pushed us to $310 for dining out and groceries for the month of May. Just a couple more days and we have a new month... a clean slate... but I caved, and sent my husband to the store for peanut butter and salad. He spent close to $45.

Have you noticed my nasty habit? Once I break the budget I do so repeatedly, that's why I fight so hard that first time. I know myself.

We had ice cream for dinner, at our favorite creamery, because the owner there asked us to stop by... And our daughter tends to have the run of the place. It's the Purple Cow in downtown Easton and their ice cream is heavenly. Today I had a strawberry sundae with tiramisu ice cream. The fruit made it dinner.

But I remained very aware that my daughter had a grilled cheese for lunch and I needed to get some vegetable matter into her, hence the salad. Which got eaten very reluctantly. My daughter and her daddy went to the store for salad and as she has been on a peanut butter and jelly kick lately, I suggested a splurge for store-bought bread.

My husband picked up Giant's bakery multigrain sandwich bread, which I adore but will not buy because it's up to $4.29 a loaf (I swear a few months ago it was $4.59). It makes the most perfect toast. I could literally eat it every morning for the rest of my life. We call it magic bread.

My husband put the magic bread in the basket and my daughter grabbed a baguette, shook it, and yelled, "No, Daddy. Mommy said buy bread."

Well, when they got home, my husband augmented a Dole salad in the bag with some extra stuff and served with bread. He apologized, because he bought two bags when it always turns out that we only need one... But the bread was delicious. At the same time, it seemed weird. Then I noticed he used Smart Balance and not butter. I choked up the different to that.

But I looked at the baguette and it looked soft. I turned it over, to read the label, wondering if it was indeed a French-style baguette or something else. It was a Nature's Promise loaf, no preservatives, made with unbleached flour.

Then I noticed it: "Finish baking at home. 5-10 minutes at 375 degrees." A-ha! That explains it...