It's a Pahhhhhty!

Last night was my first time hosting my book club meeting at my house. I was nervous to say the least. I spent a lot of the weekend cleaning my house and even recruited the boy to do some last minute touch ups before all my guests arrived. I'm a freak about having a clean house. And I like people to feel comfortable in my home, so I tend to go a little overboard with the party prep.

I also went a little overboard with the food.

Cherry White Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies (homemade):

Mozzarella stuffed arancini (Trader Joe's):

Vegetable Plate (home cut, so much cheaper that way):

Pigs in a Blanket (Trader Joe's):

Unpictured were pita chips, along with all of the food my fellow book clubbers brought (a few trays of brownies, another batch of cookies, cheese and crackers, some pineapple salsa, etc.) We don't mess around. And there was also some wine, though I didn't have any, being a school night and all.

I love me a party! Our book this time was Both Ways is the Way I Want It by Maile Malloy.

It's a collection of short stories. As far as short stories go, the book was good, but short stories really are not my thing so I didn't love it. I did love the character development and the varied approach the author took in similar stories.

If you're a reader, what is your favorite genre? If you're not a reader, what is your favorite party food?

Impulse Buys

Hey lovelies! So the weekend is over and another week begins. The circle of life kind of sucks doesn't it?

First, a little self promotion :)

Check out my guest post that I did for Lisa at I'm an Okie on Saturday.

I was also the Friday Foodie Feature on Travel Eat Love.

Now onto my weekend! Friday night was spent at my friend Meg's watching Charlie Sheen on Dateline (he really is a trainwreck but it's ok, I love trainwrecks) and renting Conviction...which was amazing.

Saturday I woke up bright and early (well kind of) at 8am and got my ass to the gym to do a little speedwork. It felt so good to get my run out of the way early. After the gym I headed up to NH to see my bestie Briar for a little lunch, gabbing (about my boy drama of course), and a movie. We went to see Take Me Home Tonight, which was a cute movie. I have sort of a soft spot for Topher Grace just because he went to high school in my hometown (not my high school, he went to the private school).

When I got home, I had a package from Amazon waiting for me! I've been addicted to Amazon lately and have been impulse buying things like crazy. Amazon will make me go BROKE I swear. One of the purchases was a Misto...which was totally something I didn't need, but just had to have. I may have a shopping problem.

It's an empty spray can that you can fill with your oil of choice. Of course I filled it with olive oil. It's really easy to fill and it works great! I would definitely recommend buying one of these if you use nonstick spray at all. It only costs $9.99 (which totally meant that I had to buy $15.01 more on Amazon to get the free shipping...I had no problem doing that).

Yesterday was my long run. My original plan was to head out to the Waltham Bike Path...but alas, it is still covered with ice and snow. I got a half mile into my run and had to turn around because the trail wasn't passable. I have zero desire to get injured. So with a mile under my belt when I got back to the car, I decided to just do the 2 mile loop around my house twice to complete my 5 miles. So it was a little broken up, but I got it done. It was pretty nice outside temperature wise, but would've been better if the sun had been out.

After my run I made a smoothie. A fudgsicle smoothie to be exact. It wasn't exactly the taste I was going for, but that's exactly how it turned out. In the mix:

1 banana
2 big scoops of silken tofu
1 cup spinach
3 tbsps cocoa powder
1 tbsp instant coffee
1 tbsp agave nectar
10 ice cubes

Into my smoothie cup...yes I have a specifically designated "smoothie" cup that I use ONLY for smoothies. I actually got it at the National Zoo in DC and it's the perfect size for smoothies.

After cleaning up the house and running errands, it was time for dinner. I was originally going to make eggplant manicotti, but during my perusing of Trader Joe's, I found these:

Another impulse buy. I was intrigued, so I abandoned my plan and decided to cook up one of these. I have to say, the flavor was good, but the burger itself is way too big for a regular sized bun (I ended up cutting off some of the edges and giving it to Bailey) and it was super salty. It was ok, but I wouldn't buy them again. Not everything Trader Joe's makes is a win. I added avocado to my burger and had green beans and strawberries on the side to round out my meal.

Oh and by the way - I have 2 more packages arriving from Amazon this week (one was an item I preordered a while ago). I need a support group!


Have you bought any new kitchen gadgets lately? Do you ever impulse buy at the supermarket?

Snow Day!

Hey hey.

I hope everyone has managed to shovel themselves out this morning. I know I had a hell of a time yesterday. Luckily my upstairs neighbor plows our driveway so I'm lucky in that respect, but a plow can only do so much and get so close to my car, so it took a good chunk of time trying to get the very heavy snow away from my tires enough to get the car out.

These were the scenes out my front door yesterday morning when I finally got out of bed at 10am. What good is a snow day if you can't sleep in???

When all was said and done we got about 16-18 inches of snow. After finally getting my car out and taking a nice long hot shower to get the cold out of my bones, it was time for lunch!

Lunch was the lunch of champions. An egg and cheese sandwich on a whole wheat english muffins with a side of sauteed brussel sprouts.

Dinner was pork tenderloin from Trader Joe's. The pork comes preseasoned, all that has to be done is to sear it and bake it in the oven for 20 minutes at 350.

I know I've said this before, but it bears repeating...Trader Joe's is literally the best store on earth. They make a ton of convenience foods that make my life a thousand times easier. On the side of this delicious pork tenderloin, I made smashed red potatoes (with butter and cream because I was feeling a little naughty, wink wink) and steamed up some broccoli and cauliflower for both of us.

A quick simple easy meal. I actually felt a bit guilty because I had all day to whip up a gourmet culinary masterpiece since I was off, but the laziness won out and I spent the day on the couch catching up on my DVR and cuddling with this girl.

How much snow did you get? Did you have a snow day?