Weekends don't get much better!

Well one thing is for sure, I am bad about writing daily during the weekends. But yet again another great weekend with friends. I feel like I am getting repetitive! So I will try to focus on some newer topics. 

Friday, I had an indoor workout planned with the girls, but we decided to take advantage of the sunshine and do a run outside first. I am thankful for sunshine!! Friday was one of those "glorious" spring days! Weather was up to 45, sun was shining! It was a great change to the cold cloudy days we have had so much of. (Personally I love winter, but I won't complain about warmer weather either!)

Saturday, after a tough swim practice, I headed to a new brunch place. I am thankful for where I live. I absolutely love living on the west side of Cleveland. There is always stuff going on (saw the irish band Gaelic storm later that night) and there are endless options for GREAT food! This brunch took us to the new "jack flaps" which as the name may suggest, specializes in pancakes (and wonderful waffles). I am lucky enough to have great friends who share their food so we all got to sample a little of each other's choices! So good!!

Today was a swim meet and house stuff. Meet went well, got to travel there with the same girls I spent all weekend with, and we cheered each other on. We all did respectably and were super supportive of each other no matter whether the race was a personal best or not! Came home to relax and meal plan for the week. 

Today I am thankful for my new kitchen gadgets from pampered chef! From the party I hosted 2 weeks ago, I scored some great stuff, and got to use it for the first time tonight. Loving my deep covered baker and garlic press!! Can't wait to make some awesome meals! 

This week is promising to be busy, but hopefully rewarding!

Post Dinner party

Well, my Pampered Chef party went off just as well as I was hoping!! Everyone seemed to have a good time, and my consultant made some sales. The whole thing went so well that I collapsed into bed after doing a little cleaning up! I am thankful for my friends, yet again. They were such wonderful company. It was also fun to bring together some different groups of people. My consultant and one friend are Teachers with me, then I had two of my swimming/triathlon friends, then mixed in many of my sailing friends. Couldn't ask for more!
I am also pretty happy that my black bean chocolate cookies went over fairly well. I wasn't 100% sure about them, but people seemed to like them!!

Pre Dinner Party Excitement

My mom was someone who could be quiet, or the most social person you can imagine. She truly loved having a good time. That included going out to a regatta party, having a few friends over, throwing a holiday dinner, or hosting the annual "onion soup" party at Put in Bay. I like to believe I am pretty similar to her!! So tomorrow, I am hosting a pampered chef party. And what I am excited about most is having people over for a dinner party!! I know part of the deal is the consultant will make a dish, and so I made some apps and a dessert, and am supplying drinks. But as I am getting ready, I realized how happy it is making me to have friends over  for a little party! I am busting out the good china (since I try not to use disposable plates if i can help it) and maybe even the good silver.
Tonight my final thought before heading to bed is maybe I should throw dinner parties more often!! (and we will see if I still feel this way tomorrow at this time! 

The places you'll go...online!

I am fortunate (and realistic enough to realize) that I live in the age of the internet as far as knowledge and resources go. Yea I will admit the abundance of false stuff out there is unfortunate, but I love that I can look up just about anything I need. I can purchase items after sitting on my couch and researching the best price, I can constantly have thousands of recipes at my fingertips, I can lay out basic plans about a trip I'm going to take in a few months and research travel and lodging! And yes, I did each one of these today. Thank you hotels.com, amazon.com and my favorite food blog "budget bytes!" 

When I started writing tonight's post, I planned on it being about how I am thankful for the budget bytes blog because of the easy, affordable and healthy recipes on it. I have started to make most of our meals based on the recipes found there. But as I started typing I noticed that really my thankfulness extends so far past just one blog! So I guess I will stick with I am thankful for the internet! (This post is purposely ignoring all of the bad that comes with the internet, so just be optimistic with me!!)

Bananas and chocolate

I love bananas. I eat them every day, and feel very weird when I don't have one! That being said, tonight I made a great milkshake that for sure will be repeated. I meant to take pictures, but finished it too fast!!

2 bananas, 1tb dark cocoa powder (unsweetened), 1 tb peanut butter, a generous squeeze of honey, some milk and ice cubes. SO GOOD!! And pretty healthy! I use 1% organic milk but I'm sure any milk substitute would work!

So tonight I am thankful for chocolate and bananas!

Homemade, and naps

Took snow day # 6 in a pretty relaxing fashion!! Hung out in bed, read quite a bit, made some homemade yogurt, dinner, nap... nothing spectacular! The good news, I stayed warm all day, and read on Facebook how cold it was outside.
Have to admit, there isn't much better than making products from scratch, in tuesdays case, yogurt! and then some dinner, and some dessert in a mug. It's been a long time since I've made yogurt, definitely looking forward to enjoying it.

One more snow day, then hopefully back to work.

Excited about cooking

Earlier this week I was excited about getting back into making my own yogurt, then Thursday and Friday I started thinking about the possibility of making my own bread. The bread idea got even more exciting when I realized my dad has a bread maker sitting unused in storage!! To continue the homemade trend,  Friday night my friend gives me a easy DIY pizza crust recipe.

Today I got to take all this excitement and plans to a Pampered Chef party and try not to spend too much money!! Luckily I have enough sense to not go crazy, but of course since my wish list was getting longer I decided to host a party to get some good deals!!

I thought back to my parents house and realized how much pampered chef stuff we had that was used regularly! I am looking forward to cooking and making more homemade stuff. Now if only I had more of a green thumb and could contribute to growing some of our own produce!! Hah! 

Instead I spent a little time this afternoon scouting out discount shopping near home. Checked out Aldis and GFS. have to admit got a little more excited about the bulk frozen fruit and beans that I can get at GFS! Looks like I know where I'll be buying that stuff now! :-)

Fresh Lake Erie Perch... doesn't get much better!

This past weekend Corey headed up to the bay to ice fish all weekend. Everyone he was with had a successful weekend, so in turn he came home with a few walleye and several perch. So tonight we fried up the perch for an easy dinner. Honestly, had more than we could eat in one sitting, but it was certainly good! Meant to take a picture, but then again, I am one of those people that feel like we see too many pictures of peoples meals on social media. So, use your imagination... imagine about 12 perch lightly fried up with just some flour and pepper, sitting on a plate! There ya go!
Finished the night off with a ride on the bike trainer for an hour. Loving this app i found last year that sets me up with intervals and beeps at me when its time to change gears so I don't have to do any thinking!

Thankful for the fresh fish, and looking forward to the Walleye dinner tomorrow night! 

Thankful for lazy Saturdays

It's not very often that I have a low key weekend. Usually there is lots planned and just a little time here or there to myself. But I'm very happy that today (and this whole weekend) was relaxed. I was able to go see my students basketball game (which we won by a landslide!) and got to eat my 2nd favorite ice cream. Sadly my very favorite ice cream was discontinued. So some Ben and Jerry's will have to do for now!