Stocked

Since I have a sinking feeling this week will be just as busy as last week, I wanted to plan and prepare some of my food in advance.  I got started shortly after dragging myself out of bed around 8:45 this morning.  

First step was coffee, then I started hard boiling some eggs.  I have really been enjoying these lately and ate one for breakfast.

While eggs took their hot bath, I chopped up veggies for roasting.  They filled the silver bowl to overflowing, and I tossed them with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, S & P before roasting on a cookie sheet at 400*F for 30 minutes.

Eggs were removed from boiling water, given an icy bath, labeled and put back in the fridge for use sometime this week.

I re-used the egg water to boil lasagna noodles.  The pot may have been a little small, but since the pasta would cook again in the oven, I wasn't too worried

Pause here for 10 AM Insanity.  Look how committed we are---5th day in a row!!  Today was "Pure Cardio," and it was nice to the see the people in video wimping out almost as quickly as we did.

Post workout, I guzzled some chocolate milk.  I've been told it's an excellent post-work out recovery drink, with carbohydrates, protein, and calcium.  A quick Google search confirmed this, as well as my suspicion that the studies were funded by the National Dairy Council but I will use any excuse to consume more chocolate!  It may be working though, because I have not been as sore as I thought I would be following the switch to Insanity.

While I still had energy, I constructed my lasagna.  I followed my mom's general recipe, which is less of a recipe and more layering instructions, but is nonetheless responsible for the creation of my favorite lasagna on the planet.

Sauce, noodles, cottage cheese, spinach...

...noodles, sauce, cottage cheese, roasted veggies, shredded cheese and the last "soysage" from last week.

Finished off with more spinach, the last layer of noodles, sauce and parmesean.

Baked for a while at 400*F, which may have been a tad too warm.  The top turned out a bit crispy, but hopefully a week in the fridge will soften it up again.

Dinner for the week!  Plus I still have Thai Fried Quinoa leftovers and I made a double recipe of Mexican-style rice for dinner.  Rice plus roasted veggies, tuna, cottage cheese, guacamole and hot sauce = tasty fajita bowl in a jiffy.

Fridge is set for quick, easy dinners.

Now it's back to the homework.

Teamwork

The groceries were most likely purchased on Mom's credit card, the main dish was a collaboration between Andrew and Megan, I made the fruit salad and set the table, and Dad did the dishes. Not a bad deal, if you ask me.

What is cilantro doing in the blender...

...on top of Greek yogurt, avocadoes and four jalapenos?

It's waiting to become green salsa for the fajitas.

Lots of bell peppers and onions got mixed with some turkey bacon and Andrew's secret blend of spices.

I cut up some bananas, mango, peaches and washed some grapes for the fruit salad.

Then we put it all on the table and assembled our fajitas.

Delicioso!

On the Road Again

Our second and final morning in Zion found us back in the dinning room for another breakfast. While I enjoyed the omelette the day before, I really wanted to try their pancakes, since they looked really good on other diner's tables the day before.

First, some more delicious coffee.

And now the star of breakfast, the pancakes! Light and fluffy, Keizo and I could only manage one each. So the rest got boxed up and added to our picnic stash.

The reason we could only eat one each was that we were also working on some French toast. It was good, but not as yummy as the pancakes.

Lunch was a brief stop at Subway outside of Bryce Canyon National Park followed by a drive through viewing of the red rock spires. Then it was back on the road to Page, AZ where we would spend the night.

We arrived in Page around dinner time, and after a quick scan around town for a place to eat, we settled on a Mexican restaurant that advertised the best margaritas in town.

They also had delicious veggie fajitas (probably cooked in animal lard, but whatever, they were really good!)

Keizo ordered the mole enchiladas. He knew of mole from the TV show Ugly Betty, which we have watched together, and was excited to try it. The enchiladas were also very good.

And what trip to the restaurant with the best margaritas in town would be complete without a margarita? I ordered one, and when it came out, it was about half the size of my head! They were not listed on the menu, and I thought they could probably charge about $14 for it if they wanted. But when the bill came, it only cost half of that. We're not in Vegas anymore, Toto! It's also a good thing there are no locations of this restaurant closer to Scottsdale...I might become a regular.

Following dinner, we bedded down for the night at a Best Western where the friendly clerk gave us the AARP discount rate for the room. Fabulous!

Andrew's visit

After roughly 30 hours of traveling, including a sprint through the San Francisco airport and 8 hours in Tokyo, Andrew arrived in Fukuoka to spend Christmas with me and Keizo. I had a great time while he was here, and hope that my tour guide skills were better than my photo journalist efforts, as the following photos are pretty much all I have from the week he was here. I forgot my camera a few times and the other times I felt like I already have more pictures of Japanese temples and shrines than I can ever possibly make sense of, so why bother. I do wish I had taken a few more with us in them though...oops.

After we picked him up at the airport and grabbed some lunch, we headed to the Fukuoka Aquarium, a.k.a. Marine World. Overall, it was much better than I expected. I really enjoyed the dolphin show that featured 3 dolphins and a whale that tried its best to keep up with the much quicker dolphins, and the sea lion exhibit. Of course, after visiting an aquarium, what could possibly be better to eat for dinner than seafood!

We went to a restaurant near Keizo's training ground and each got a giant tray full of tiny plates featuring everything from the standard rice and miso soup, to sashimi, tempura and best tofu Andrew had ever eaten.

The next night, Andrew brought a bit of Tucson to our kitchen with a giant batch of fajitas! Despite the slightly brown guacamole (my fault...all 5 Costco avocados decided to go bad all at once and I didn't know what else to do but mash them up and freeze them) the overall meal was delicious!

On Christmas Eve, Andrew and I set out to explore Fukuoka City. We did some light shopping, had lunch at one of my favorite pasta places, saw two art exhibits and walked what felt like miles in some brutal wind. Around 4 PM, I really wanted to warm up with a snack, so I dragged Andrew with me to Starbucks. I don't go to Starbucks much at home, but now that the closest one is an hour away, I feel like I should visit it every chance I get. It is also nice to be somewhere familiar in a strange land every once and a while. Andrew had a cookie and I ordered a hojicha latte and a holiday cake. So cute and festive, I had to take a picture.

Christmas Day was also spent in the city, where we met up with our cousins and uncle for lunch at Canal City's Ramen Stadium before heading to Keizo's rugby game. While researching where we should have lunch the night before, I discovered that my favorite ramen shop from Kurume, Tatsunoya, had an outpost in the stadium, which meant there was no doubt in my mind about where we were going to eat. Luckily the others cooperated. Andrew said it was just a good as he remembered, and I agree.

Following a rather frustrating rugby game in the cold, we all made our way back to the Fukutsu apartment to share "Christmas Dinner." The menu featured a Japanese style hot pot with beef, cabbage, mushrooms, and noodles called sukiyaki. Diners choose their favorite ingredients from the large communal pot and dip them in raw egg from their individual bowls before slurping them down. Delicious!

And for dessert, a cake from the bakery up the street. Not only was it the cutest, fashioned in the shape of a yule log, but it was also the only chocolate one. Nice. It didn't last more than 36 hours from the time we picked it up.

Before he left, Andrew also got to experience the joys of conveyor belt sushi and yakiniku with Keizo (I was there too, but grilled meat is much more their realm of expertise.) The week went by quickly and I was sad to see him leave, but I didn't have too long to mope as New Year's Eve was rapidly upon us, and the apartment was crying out for osouji.