a cake that is also a cookie

Last night's surprise dinner was absolutely fabulous. Mike took all of the things that I love, and created a wonderful meal. I was stuffed by the end, but made sure to save room for the dessert that I brought home.

To say Mike has an obsession with cookie cake is a severe under statement. The boy is a freak about them. Anytime he sees one in a store, or someone gets one for a special occasion, he raves about it for a week. "What a great idea, a huge cookie? Who doesn't love a huge cookie?" When I offered to handle dessert for our valentine's dinner, I knew exactly what to get.

When I arrived home, all of our furniture was moved since we got our carpets cleaned. I was so excited to get home and see how they looked, which they looked way better than before. We have such a small area of carpet in the downstairs, it just gets so dirty in the common walk ways.

The table was set and Mike was busy getting our first course ready. Spinach and apple salad, with a crab cake and balsamic vinaigrette. Yum! The crab cake was delicious and spinach is my favorite salad green.

Our main course, was goat cheese and herb stuffed chicken breast with creamy risotto and steamed brussel sprouts. Could this meal be any more me? Absolutely perfect.

I ate all of the brussel sprouts, half of the chicken and half of the risotto, the rest is waiting for me for lunch. The chicken was pretty amazing. It was so tender and juicy with just the right amount of goat cheese stuffing. Here is a better look at the stuffed side.

Mike is supposed to do a guest post with the recipe for this, since he made it up on his own. I will have to keep reminding him...

I had stopped to get some wine for our meal and was really looking forward to this bottle I found. After taking a few sips, I decided I either didn't like it, or just wasn't in the mood for wine. Either way, Mike really enjoyed my choice. I usually love 14 Hands wine, so I think I just wasn't in the mood. There were also cards and gifts to exchange.

I got Mike an iTunes gift card and printed out a list of the songs from the movie 50/50. He loved all the music in that movie so I thought it would be a fun gift to get the soundtrack for him. Did you know they don't sell soundtracks anymore? If they do, I couldn't find it... not even online.

Mike's gift to me was a little confusing. I am excited about it, but I am not really sure I understand what it is. I told him when he does his guest post, he will have to explain better, but he is planning on getting my first 100 blog posts bound in a book for me. Sounds cool, I am just not really sure how that works. I guess I will just have to wait and see. This is post #86, so I have a few weeks until then. The dinner itself was gift enough, so I was a happy camper last night. :)

We spent the rest of the evening on the couch with our true valentines - our little demon pups, catching up on the DVR. We also enjoyed our dessert from this spot and it was really delicious.

So that was our night. Perfectly simple.

I am off to polish off that stuffed chicken and risotto. I am getting pretty hungry over here!

Gym Update
So when I thought my arms would be sore from chest compressions on Monday, I had NO IDEA! holy crap, they feel bruised almost! I did a good chest work out yesterday, so my arms are officially useless today. I decided today would be a good leg day to give my upper body a little rest. I did a pretty intense lower body work out with a few abs thrown in. 

Yesterday's Stats - NOT GOOD!
Calories (+) 900 (!)
Sodium (+) 512
Protein (+) 31

InStylin' Taco Party

It was so wonderful to get together with my friends last night. We had so much fun catching up, drinking wine, stuffing our faces, and opening presents. I meant for us to take a picture together, but we got distracted taking pictures of this little guy...

Baby P

He is sooo cute! And, he has changed so much in the last few weeks! He is starting to get a little chub on his cheeks!

Here is a photo from my wedding of the 4 of us, since I didn't get one last night.

Jenn, Me, Jes, CJ

I got several great gifts from everyone including a scarf, picture frame, shirt, an adorable apron, and an InStyler. I have been wanting an InStyler for years but it is just one of those things that I would never actually buy for myself. So, it has just remained on my Christmas list for the past few years. I was so excited to get it last night. I couldn't wait to use it today.

Before

After

I really love it. It took half the time to straighten my hair and it adds a lot more volume than my straightener does. There are lots of different ways to use it, and it comes with a DVD and instruction booklet for doing different styles. I know that once I figure out the soft curl technique, that will become my go-to.

My hair is super long, wavy, and thick, and it takes forever to do. I love my hair long, but it is such a pain in the butt. Normally for work, I just throw it in a low, messy bun and go. Hopefully now I can actually do some different things to it. I am so pumped about this gift!

For dinner, Mike and I made chicken and beef tacos. We set up a build your own assembly line for the tacos and it went really well. Tacos are just so easy when feeding a crowd. It is easy to please everyone and doesn't cost too much or take too much time.

We had chicken, beef and black beans as options using homemade taco seasoning. (We haven't bought taco seasoning in years so that we can control what goes into it and reduce the sodium a bunch.) Then we set up some toppings along the counter for everyone to enjoy. I took these pictures after everyone started digging in, so it is pretty messy looking.

I forgot to take a picture of my plate, but I had 1 big chicken soft taco with tomato, cheese, sour cream and black beans. It was the perfect amount of food.
Jessica brought some cookies over and we set out some of our cookies for dessert. I actually think we all forgot about them, because no one really ate any sweets.

I spent most of the evening doing this:

I just love him!


Food Stuff

Today I rolled with a simple breakfast-on-the-go of toast with cinnamon crunch cashew butter since today I will be eating a bad lunch. My company is buying us Smithfield's BBQ with all the fixings. It is going to be delicious, but my poor sodium intake is going to rocket to an all time high. :( I just have to keep telling myself - "everything in moderation!" I am really looking forward to having some NC BBQ though. :)

We have no groceries in our house.. besides what we made last night for dinner. We purposely did that, since we will be leaving for a week and figured we would "clean out the pantry" for lunches and dinners. But, we really have nothing to make for lunches. So, yesterday, I had to go out for lunch. I went to a place nearby called William's Gourmet Kitchen. They serve sandwiches, soups, wraps and salads and everything is really good.  When I walked in the door and saw they had butternut squash soup on the board, my decision was made. Usually, when they have it as a special, it is sold out by the time I get there. But, not this time!

I got a side order of sweet potato fries because I can't ever go to William's without getting their sweet potato fries. They serve them with cinnamon butter on the side and they are just delicious.

Road Trip Munchies
I am going to do some research today to come up with some healthy alternatives for our road trip on Saturday. We have a 10 hour car ride ahead of us and I do not want to stop for fast food. Also, we want to get up there as soon as possible, so we need to avoid sit down restaurants as well. Mike actually came up with  the idea to pack some sandwiches and snacks so we can just stop to stretch and let Deluca out every once in a while. Luckily, Mike's sister Haylie, is riding with us and also does not like fast food. So we are going to come up with a plan that will be perfect for the drive. I'll let you know what I find out and how it works out on the road trip.

Happy Wednesday!

Yesterday's Stats:
Calories (-) 147
Sodium (+) 853
Protein (-) 21