Avocado

This fruit is something that I had to acquire a taste for. I went from hating it to finding it acceptable in some forms, to seeking it out in some forms, to just straight up liking it.

Over the weekend, I bought a couple of avocados and I’ve already used one to make my own guacamole. It was so good that I ate the whole bowl in two sittings.

Want the recipe? Well…I didn’t use exact measurements…

I’ve taken to eyeballing spices, which I should probably stop doing if I plan on sharing it with you.

If you’re alright with winging a recipe, you’ll need one ripe avocado, salt, pepper, garlic powder, a fork, a sharp knife, and a bowl. And also this video that teaches you how to get into the flesh of the avocado.

Cutting into an avocado for the first time can be fairly daunting, but it really isn’t that difficult. Use a sharp knife to cut it in half length wise, you’ll be able to tell when you hit the seed. Then, twist the avocado to separate the two halves. In the video, there’s a nifty to way to remove the seed and make pretty avocado slices. I just scarped it out with my fork into the prep bowl, including the half with the seed.

Once you have your avocado flesh in your bowl, mash it up with your fork. Then, add your seasonings. I suggest you start out with a little, maybe a teaspoon of each? After you’ve stirred those spices in, taste it and see if you need more spices.

If you want a more precise recipe, here’s classic Mexican guacamole from Avocados of Mexico.

Give the avocado another try, or a first try. And tell me how you prepare it!

Something else that I’ve made with avocados in the past–it been a while so I’ll have to make it again before I can share how I make it–is egg salad. Avocado is a great replacement for the mayo that typically goes in egg salad.

(I like my egg salad best when it’s fresh and warm and I put it on tortillas instead of bread).

Here’s a recipe that I might use next week minus the onions.

I want to make some more guacamole this week too and I might even give avocado toast another try as I mentioned before.

It’s Just a Number

Remember when I said that I’ve been sick? I finally broke down and went to the doctor on Wednesday afternoon when I suddenly felt worse than I had pretty much the whole time.

The nurse took my vitals before I saw the doctor and started with having me step on the scale. I jokingly told her I didn’t want to, but I was being serious. It said 180 and I had to control my inward downward spiral.

I actually work in a building that holds an amazing group of doctors. So outwardly freaking out wasn’t really in the cards for me.

It’s just a number.

And usually I weigh in on Saturday mornings before I eat.

And I haven’t been exercising because I haven’t felt good and because of the new tattoo.

But wow did that number hurt…

I know that my worth isn’t measured by a set of numbers or the places that my flesh collects. But I don’t like what I see in the mirror.

My goal isn’t to be skinny, and that isn’t saying anything bad about skinny people, I simply don’t think I have the body for it. I just want to be healthy so I can stick around for a while. I want to be able to fit in some of my old clothes and get to my desk on the third floor without gasping for air at the top of the stairs.

I want this for me and it’s not about the number.

I do have a goal number–140 pounds. But that’s just a way to measure healthiness based on the body mass index scale.

So let’s do this. I had my granola bar with coffee for breakfast, I’m bringing leftover butter chicken for lunch, I’m going to make blackened tilapia for dinner, and I already have my foods tracked for the day. And I’m going to try not to snack. Snacks are my weakness.

 

Breakfast

The most important meal of the day?

I think it is for some people, but whether or not you eat breakfast all depends on how you feel about it.

For me, it sets the tone of the whole day as far as food goes. Right now, I’m eating a Nature Valley granola bar (they really have improved their crunch, by the way) with my coffee. By starting out the day with something small and relatively healthy, I’m more likely to make better choices throughout the day.

But breakfast is also dangerous for me because I adore breakfasty foods. They’re my favorite. I could eat some variety of “traditional” breakfast food three meals a day and be happy.

I am honestly enjoying my granola bar, but part of me would rather have some bacon with eggs fried in the bacon grease…

Or a fried egg over rice…

Or an egg fried in a piece of bread…

Or a stack of pancakes with tons of butter and syrup…

Or…or…or…

Breakfast is a tasty tasty danger zone for me! So I find good, healthy to semi-healthy breakfast options to start my day out right. But there are days that I splurge, particularly on the weekends.

I go through phases with these and my current favorites are the afore mentioned granola bar and smoothies.

The inspiration for these smoothies comes from Sally’s Baking Addiction. She taught me that the key to a deliciously creamy smoothie is frozen banana slices and that you can pack a ton of protein into a simple breakfast drink.

I’ll have more on my new smoothie obsession another day, back to healthy breakfast basics…

Sometimes, I’ll just eat a Greek yogurt or a couple of hard-boiled eggs.

I also really like taking those two hard boiled eggs, mashing them up with some mayo, mustard, and salt and pepper, and eating them on a tortilla. Warm egg salad makes me happy.

I haven’t quite gotten the hang of it, but egg salad can also be made with an avocado in place of the mayo.

There’s also this magical thing known as avocado toast. It’s apparently a thing. I tried it once and didn’t really care for it, but I think I’ll give it another try and will report back with results.

Sometimes I even get on a frozen breakfast kick, but I’ve really been trying to stay away from frozen, prepared foods.

What are your go-to healthy breakfasts?

Reasoning…

It gets pretty easy to tell yourself “I’m going to eat this chocolate cake because I had a bad day” or “I’m going to skip the gym because it’s cold outside” or “if they get a cheeseburger, why shouldn’t I?”

My reasoning for the past week has been that I’m sick and therefore deserve delicious foods. Makes sense to me…it also means that I’m lucky I had to work on Saturday and couldn’t make it to WW to weigh in this week.

I have the sinus/sore throat crud that’s being rather persistent. On top of that, I’ve been in pain this weekend from my first tattoo Friday.

By the way, Topper’s is amazing!

I’m still sick, but I need to suck it up and reenter adulting mode. Anyone want to do the dishes for me? Just kidding! I love dishes. (Not really…)

This morning, the hubby and I both had smoothies for breakfast. His consists solely of banana, strawberry, and milk. Exciting? Not really, but he likes it. My smoothie, on the other hand, has a banana, some strawberries, some chunks of mango, Greek yogurt, powdered peanut butter, and almond milk. Healthy and delicious! It’s protein packed too so it should last me until lunch.

I started making smoothies like this after seeing the recipe for Peanut Butter & Jelly Protein Smoothie on Sally’s Baking Addiction. If you haven’t checked out her blog yet, you need to! She has a ton of healthy and not so healthy delicious recipes on her blog.

Also, I just pulled some Gorton’s Smart and Crunchy Fish Sticks out of the oven to have for lunch. Haven’t decided what I’m going to have on the side yet though. Maybe some pretzel sticks?

I’m trying to start the week off right. Besides these healthy choices, I’ve also gone ahead and tracked all of my food for today. I’m thinking about making butter chicken for dinner.

Here’s to a great Monday leading to a great week!

PS if you want to see pictures of what I’m eating, of what my cat is doing, and of random things I’m doing in my life, follow me on Instagram.

Some Familiar Places in Charleston

While on vacation, we enjoyed each other’s company, time with my hubby’s family, the beach, the history, and the food.

I love trying new places, especially when it pertains to food, but there were a few places that we can technically get in BG that we had while in South Carolina. For some reason, I didn’t get any pictures at these three places. I guess I figured you wouldn’t want pictures of what you could see here?

Krispy Kreme

The night before we were going to attempt to venture downtown by ourselves, I was playing on my phone, looking for somewhere that we could stop for breakfast on our way there. For some reason, I thought of Krispy Kreme.

It was out of the way, but we decided to go there for breakfast anyways.

I had a chocolate cake donut and a frozen mocha while Kevin had several original glazed donuts and a bottle of orange juice. The donuts were excellent–they were cooked well, exactly what you’d hope for out of a fried sugar bomb of deliciousness.

My coffee was good too. It was strong, but sweet and creamy.

What’s ironic about our visit to this donut place is that we have yet to eat at the one in BG. It’s been open since late last year and we haven’t eaten at it. But we’ll drive a little ways out of the way to eat at one in SC…

We had several plans in mind for our jaunt downtown, but the a sudden rain storm meant that we were only able to get the first, and main, adventure done–The Aquarium.

As you can see on the left, Kevin did not prevent me from getting eaten by a shark…

Panda Express

When we left the fishes, we were torn about where to have lunch. Should we try to find somewhere downtown or wait and see what there was in North Charleston, which is where our hotel was. We decided on the later.

As Kevin was driving in the pouring rain and the two fo us were pointing out different restaurants in the area near our hotel, I suddenly made it very clear that I wanted to eat at Panda Express by freaking out a little about it. Just a little bit.

We both had their famous orange chicken and fried rice. There was enough chicken left on the line that one of us could’ve eaten before the fresh chicken was done, but we both opted to wait for new chicken. And it was well worth the wait.

The chicken is cooked perfectly with a crispy fried breading drenched in a luscious spicy sauce. Yes, friends, I am rather in love with this chicken.

A little irony here: I was the only one who was hungry. Kevin was going to wait until we had dinner to eat, but once we stepped inside Panda Express, he had to get some orange chicken for himself as well!

Sadly, the only one in BG is on Western Kentucky University’s campus.

While I love this place and it would be a joy to see many of the staff in Garrett along with my professors from Cherry Hall, parking is a nightmare. Which leads us into another restaurant on WKU’s campus that we never frequent.

Popeyes

I can’t remember the first time that we experienced Popeyes; maybe in Nashville or Gatlinburg?

Anyways, we both felt that this was a necessary stop during our vacation and made sure to go there one day after having seen a movie.

We both had spicy chicken tenders, cajun fries, and a biscuit. And it was fabulous.

The chicken had a fiery spice to it that built the more you ate it with crunchy breading and the perfect amount of chicken in each bite. I tore of buttery, flaky chunks of biscuit while eating in an attempt to calm down some of that delicious spice. The cajun fries were cooked wonderfully with their own kick to add to the chicken’s game of fire.

Despite very much enjoying this meal, I was quickly reminded of the fact that I can’t handle spice quite the way that I used to. I love it, but my body doesn’t.

Starbucks S’More’s Frappuccino

When I heard that Starbucks had a new s’more’s frappuccino, I knew I had to try one. Add to that the rumor that they were giving away free cookie straws for a limited time, I had to go there soon.

My mom was kind enough to indulge me so we went last Saturday. I had the bacon and gouda breakfast sandwich and a s’more’s frappuccino while Mom had a slow-roasted ham and swiss breakfast sandwich and a caramel ribbon crunch frappuccino.

I’m not sure if I’ve tried any of the other breakfast sandwiches that Starbucks has to offer because I enjoy the bacon and gouda one so much. I talked about it before last year. There’s just something about how fluffy their eggs always, the crispy bacon, and the plentiful flavorful cheese…

Mom said that she really enjoyed the ham and swiss sandwich she had. She offered me a bite, but I’ve never been a fan of swiss cheese. I did, however, try a drink of her frap (from an extra straw because I don’t want her getting my cold). It was really good–sweet and rich with the right amount of caramel. I enjoyed the caramel sauce and crunchies on top. I think it would be even better if they made some sort of salted caramel frap. Hint hint, Starbucks…

The s’more’s frap that I had might just be my favorite that I’ve tried and I’m really hoping that it’s one that they keep around all year. They layer marshmallow whipped cream and chocolate sauce on the bottom, top that with graham cracker flavored frap, and then top that off with more marshmallow whipped cream and graham crackers crumbs.

It was marvelous! It might be something that some would consider too sweet, but those layers worked so well together and separately. I think it’s the perfect summertime coffee drink that needs to be enjoyed all the time to bring on those memories.

As for the cookie straw, I saw a canister of them at the register for less than a dollar. But, in the hopes that the free promotion was still going on, I didn’t purchase one. Alas, it was still not going on…

I will for sure be getting as many s’more’s fraps as I can get my hands on and I will try to remember to buy a cookie straw next time.

Bob Evan’s Frozen Original Biscuits and Gravy

For the past week or so, I’ve been wanting some biscuits and gravy. But I haven’t wanted to open an entire cane of gravy and cook up an entire tray of biscuits just for me. And I haven’t been to a breakfast place that has biscuits and gravy for a few weeks.

So when I spotted this product in the freezer section at Meijers, I was both excited and a little concerned.

Excited because this answered my dilemma, concerned because I didn’t know how well Bob Evan’s biscuits and gravy translated into frozen form.

I was so excited that I had it for breakfast the next day. And…they did a fabulous job!

In the box, there is a microwave bowl of gravy and two biscuits wrapped separately in plastic. After four minutes, I had a bubbling bowl of rich, creamy, flavorful gravy. After an additional minute, I had to fluffy, tender, and flaky biscuits to go with it.

I was really impressed with this. Instead of putting everything on a plate, I tore up the biscuits and plunked them into the gravy to scoop out with a fork. It was soooo good. There were plenty of chunks of sausage throughout the gravy and the biscuits held up, not getting soggy despite their gravy soaking.

There was enough food that someone with my limited appetite wouldn’t be able to finish it. I did make a good dent in it though!

Corner Bakery Cafe

As you know, Bowling Green has 100s of restaurants to choose from and bakeries are becoming one of the more frequent finds. Corner Bakery Cafe opened up this year, taking over the lot of the late Beijing Chinese buffet that was once shaped like a boat.

This restaurant, which features breakfast, pasta, soup, salad, sandwiches, and baked goods, was founded in 1991 (the year I was born). Their BG location is currently their only KY location.

A couple of weeks after it opened, Mom and I decided to check it out for breakfast one Saturday.

It was crowded when we got there, making it hard to find a table, but there were only a couple of people in front of us at the register. We beat the 9am BG breakfast rush.

After we both ordered and squeezed into tables, we set our sticks with numbers on said table and waited for our food. The staff works very efficiently at Corner Bakery, finding most tables with ease and constantly moving about to see that tables stayed clean.

We were both excited when our food arrived.

I picked the Smoked Bacon and Cheddar Panini with a side of breakfast potatoes. Mine was really simple–bacon and cheese on sourdough bread hot and fresh off the grill. The eggs were the perfect fluffy texture while the bacon was good and crisp, but not over cooked. The cheese and crunchy on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside, bread tied it all together. And the potatoes…they just might have been my favorite part about the whole meal!

Mom got the Anaheim Scramble with harvest toast and breakfast potatoes; she agreed with me about the potatoes being fabulous. We both also really liked her toast, which was a great multigrain with a nutty depth of flavor. She also really enjoyed her scrambled eggs (and she’s picky about her eggs) that came mixed with bacon, tomatoes, green onions, cheddar cheese, and avocado.

Since I had already had coffee that morning, I resisted the temptation to intake more sugar and caffeine and stuck with a glass of water. Mom ordered tea and was disappointed when they delivered a hot cup of water and a tea bag; she’d been expecting something made in house.

I see a return trip in our future, especially since I still need to try something from that tantalizing bakery case! We did buy Grandma a blueberry muffin and my husband a ginormous cinnamon roll, but I didn’t get the chance to try either of these. I really want one of their peanut butter whoopie pies.

But I don’t see this becoming a weekly breakfast place for us. The only reason I say that is because they are a bit pricy. But they have excellent food and it’s a wonderful splurge.

 

Cracker Barrel

I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this before, but breakfast is my favorite! Most days, I could be happy having breakfast three meals a day. Mom and I go out for breakfast every Saturday after our Weight Watchers meeting, but otherwise I’m eating breakfast at home.

Last Monday, I woke up with the stomach bug, so my relationship with food wasn’t normal. I went back to work on Tuesday, but I didn’t consider my belly “normal” until Thursday.

When we went out Wednesday night, Mom thought that breakfast food might be a little gentler on my stomach than the butter chicken she had previously planned on making. We decided on Cracker Barrel because we haven’t been there for a long time since it’s on the other end of town.

Now, Cracker Barrel does have non-breakfast food options, but when I go to a restaurant that specializes in breakfast, you can pretty much guarantee that that’s what I’m having.

There’s something specific that I get practically every single time that I go there, but I always peruse their menu and I have tried a couple of other things. Part of me really wants to try their chicken and dumplings and their eggs-in-the-basket, but I know I’d miss my usual.

My usual being a country ham and cheddar omelet with hashbrown casserole.

I know that’s something really simple and that omelets aren’t even on the menu, but they make them just right! You can choose from country or honey ham and I’ve always preferred the salty kind (because I love my arteries…). The eggs are thin and cooked just right and they stuff it full of chunks of ham and melty cheese!

And the hashbrown casserole…I could eat a giant bowl of that and be happy! I love hash browns in most forms, but there’s something about they way they make–chewy and tender and crunchy with so much flavor.

Mom decided to pick something off of the non-breakfast menu and went with meatloaf. She had hashbrown casserole, fried okra, and fried apples as her sides. She shared everything but the fried okra because I don’t like okra. The meatloaf was great–wonderful flavor and texture and how can you go wrong with something like fried apples?

If you haven’t tried this casserole, you’re missing out. If you follow the link attached to the picture of casserole, it’ll take you to a page with a recipe of their version of this dish.

And don’t forget to check out their store and the rocking chairs outside!

Eggo Breakfast Sandwiches

Breakfast is my absolute favorite type of food. I could eat it three times a day most of my life and be content. I need things like pizza and Japenese food occasionally, but otherwise I’d be good.

Most mornings, particularly during the week, I want something fast, simple, and tasty. This usually involves the microwave. And it is also going to more than likely come in the form of a sandwich. Because who doesn’t love sandwiches?

Well, I discovered this new creation of Eggo‘s a couple of weeks ago and had to try the Bacon, Egg & Cheese version. There are also Egg & Cheese and Sausage, Egg & Cheese versions of this product.

But I can’t cheat on bacon.

When I first opened the box and freed a sandwich from its plastic imprisonment, I was a little confused. It was slightly smaller than what I had been expecting and the breading didn’t really look like waffles. If you look at the picture on the box, which is also in this post, you’ll note that it does not look like the waffles you would usually buy. I hadn’t noticed this in the store when I purchased them.

I pushed aside my concerns and nuked the sandwich, barely waiting enough time for it to cool (as usual) only to discover that it was delicious!

While the bread isn’t actually composed of two “normal” Eggo waffles, it’s waffle like enough with its tasty little pockets of syrup and waffle-y texture. The bacon on this sandwich was magically crisp, which is something you don’t typically find in microwaved, once frozen bacon; the cheese was a great, sharp cheddar; and the egg was fluffy and juicy, tying it all together.

This is a great option for breakfast with the surprise benefit of only being 210 calories with an add-in of 2 grams of fiber. It is rather high in sodium though. Just a heads up if you’re counting these things.