Life Is Better Than Fiction: potatoes

Well, hello! Hope everyone's weekend was awesome! Some of you even had today off! First, you know I'm giving a shout out to my hubby and everyone else in the armed forces:

Payback is a bitch! Pictures, Images and Photos

Thanks for fighting for our freedom. :)

Yesterday was a beautiful day.

I was STARVING and was pretty sure I wasn't going to make it 3 hours until dinner. So I made myself a big ol' sandwich:

Turkey, pastrami (I've been on a weird pastrami kick lately), avocado, spinach and tomato on a sandwich thin.

Another reason to love fruit: it's so pretty and colorful on the counter!

I picked banana, with a few spoonfuls of Activia yogurt. It works, kids.

For dinner, I went to my friend Amy's house for a BBQ and fireworks.

I made Loaded Baked Potato Salad. Recipe courtesy of Katie at Dashing Dish.

Everyone LOVED it! I was glad I wouldn't be eating leftovers for a week.

Here's some other yumminess:

Hunter got a new toy for the occasion:

A late night snack

On a different note, I've been feeling a little lack of motivation.

(THE LIFE. I haz it.)

I haven't felt the ambition to hit the gym. I've been walking Hunter so at least that's something. I know that I'll feel more energized and accomplished, I just need to get back into the habit!

So help me out here: how do you get motivated when in a rut?

p.s. I didn't forget my friends up north, Canada Day was July 1st!

This is a bit of a long one, so get comfy!

Recently, I've seen several blogs about Trader Joe's egg white salad. Wow, that sounds great! Let me drive over to the nearest Trader Joe's to pick that up-- oh wait. There isn't one near me. :'(

So I struck out on my own to google such a recipe. This One was my main inspiration. I read through the ingredient lists of some and then examined what was available in my fridge. I combined finely chopped celery, cucumber, chives, egg whites from 12 boiled eggs, squirt of Miracle Whip, two heaping spoonfuls of Greek yogurt, salt, freshly ground pepper, onion powder and after much hesitation, a small dollop of dijon mustard (not pictured).

Then I took a potato masher and mixed/mashed the eggs and everything. Then I thought to myself: something is missing still. Then it hit me what my friend Sara says: "Everything is better with Laughing Cow" Why yes, Sara, everything IS better with Laughing Cow! I mashed in two wedges of the garlic and herb flavor.

Not going to lie here, when I mixed it all together, I looked at and thought, what have I done? I was NOT sure about how this would taste. You can't learn unless you try though, right?

So I gathered up what was left of my pride, toasted a piece of bread, added some spinach and put together the sandwich.

It was GOOD! I credit the onion powder, slight hint of dijon and of course Laughing Cow.

Breakfast the next morning was pretty red and white waffles:

Whole wheat waffles with a smear of Brummel and Brown butter, tons of sliced strawberries and a little bit of Tru Whip. I am more of a savory breakfast person, so I also had some scrambled egg whites.

I'm so classy, I wiped my strawberry hands on my t-shirt...

That night, I had a dear friend of mine over for dinner. I went for simple but delicious!

Oven Roasted Yukon Golds

Green Salad

Romaine, spinach, shredded carrot, cucumber, orange bell pepper, tomato, romano, parmesan and asiago cheese blend and freshly ground pepper.

Broiled Chicken Thighs

They're better on the BBQ, but ours isn't set up yet, and the broiler is SO underrated!

This is the simplest, most delicious marinade I know of. When my brother and I were little we were allergic to citrus fruit, peanuts, chocolate and tomatoes. We were lucky to outgrow them, but since we were allergic to tomatoes, most BBQ sauce was out of the picture. So this is how we ate "BBQ" chicken.

Soy Marinade

1/4 c. lower sodium soy sauce

2 tbs canola oil

1 1/2 tsp garlic powder

I usually just mix them right in the mixing cup with a whisk or fork and then pour them over my chicken in a dish. Marinate for 15 to 30 min then cook up! I can't stress how good this is and it's so simple you MUST try it!

Afterwards, we went to see Battle of the Titans. I loved it! We stopped by the Cheesecake factory on the way home for dessert.

Red velvet and cheesecake, rich but delicious. Here's what they boxed up, I made though maybe a third of it. It took me three sittings to finish it. I could have gobbled up the left overs the next day, but I really wanted to savor and enjoy it.

I had leftovers for lunch the next day only I added some kalamata olives and artichoke hearts to my salad.

That night Sara came over and we watched Twilight. Can you believe she hadn't seen it? We both had been wanting to try banana soft serve that we'd read about on so many blogs, but our bananas weren't quite frozen enough. It still turned out to be a tasty treat.

I added fresh strawberries, Tru Whip and Caramel syrup to mine.

In case you haven't noticed I LOVE strawberries. They are my very favorite fruit. I buy huge flats at a time from CostCo and devour them by themselves, with Tru Whip, a little white chocolate syrup, in smoothies, or on waffles. Mmmm...