Sunday, October 19, 2008

I had a wonderfully relaxing Sunday afternoon. I had lunch with some friends, did my weekly grocery shopping, some baking, watched a great movie, cooked a delicious meal and now I am catching up on my blogging. I love how Sundays always turn into a wrap up of the weekend where you don’t feel any rush and can just enjoy the day.

For lunch I met up with some friends at this cute little ‘interactive salad bar and deli’ called Designer Greens. Its a build your own salad/ sandwich place locally owned and operated by a UCF alumni. The place has amazingly fresh ingredients and cut everything fresh in front of you. I asked for some apple on my salad and she took out a whole apple and chopped it right in front of me! That’s what I call fresh!

I choose to order a full salad and could pick 5 ingredients to have on top. I hate being limited to how many toppings I could have. There was too many yummy choices to choose from!

I am  sooo a toppings girl, if it was up to me my salad would have included all of the above choices.

I did manage to narrow it down to Red Onions, Gala Apple, Goat Cheese, Tomatoes & Artichoke Hearts. I also had the Herb Dusted Chicken on top with the Honey Poppyseed Dressing on the side.

On Sundays they offer free mimosas for all their patrons!

I was still recovering from the night before, so I politely declined the drink. However; I will be making another trip back on a Sunday to enjoy a future Mimosa!

This place was great and I give it two big thumbs up!! I wish it was closer to my work, it’s a perfect lunch spot. If you’re from the Orlando area I highly suggest you check it out!

This afternoon I decided to break into my ohNuts delivery and took Kath’s suggestion to bake up some homemade granola with my nuts.

I followed Kath’s simple recipe for this great batch of granola. Only I halved it to make a smaller amount, subbed the pecans for the almonds, and left out the coconut.

I’ve never made homemade granola before and found the process very easy and enjoyable. I had a few sample bites and let me tell you it was yum!! I can’t wait to enjoy this in some future breakfasts this week. Thanks for the suggestions, Kath!

On my way to the grocery store I snacked on a Kashi Honey Flax Granola Bar around 3:00.

I completely ignored my grocery list and meal plan at the store and just bought what I thought looked good at the time. Luckily this didn’t throw me too much over budget at the store. I’m usually pretty good at following my list, but other things were just appealing to me at the time.

For instance: at the grocery store I worked a whole recipe in my head for an acorn squash I wanted to purchase. I got so excited that I decided to go ahead and make it for dinner tonight.

Apple & Pork Stuffed Acorn Squash

I have seen a zillion stuffed acorn squash recipes and really wanted to create my own. I was inspired by Bridget’s Acorn Recipe and just subbed a few ingredients for what I had on hand at the time.

• 1 Acorn Squah
• 1 Pork Loin Chop, cut into pieces
• 1 Small Chopped Apple
• 1/2 Small Chopped Onion
• 1/2 cup cooked Bulgar Wheat
• 1/2 cup Chopped Pecans
• 1 tablespoon Brown Sugar
• 1 tablespoon Cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons Applesauce
• Garlic
• Pepper

1. Cut the acorn squash in half and bake in the oven at 350 for 20 minutes
2. On the stove top cook onions and pork until both are cooked through
3. Add the apples to the pork mixture and heat until apples are soft
4. Add all of the other ingredients to the stove top and cook on low until the squash are done
5. Once the acorn squash are cooked, stuff them with the pork filling and return to the oven for 10 more minutes

I can understand why stuffed squash are so popular. These were great!! The sweet mixture of the filling blended perfectly with the squash. Yum! I am so glad I have another one of these to enjoy at a later date.

For dessert I had a 1/4 cup of Peanut Butter Cup Frozen Yogurt with a spoonful of my homemade granola on top.

OMG YUM!!! The granola added the perfect crunch to the FroYo! I found a new fave!

This afternoon I watched a great Lifetime movie called “Why I wore Lipstick to my Mastectomy” This was a very touching movie about a woman in her 20s who was diagnosed with breast cancer and survived. It’s an incredibly moving movie that had me in tears at times. As a 23 year old it really hit home to me how breast cancer can really strike anyone at any age. The movie is based on a true story and the real woman has a book out under the same title that I am going to order from Amazon ASAP. She also has a website that has other moving stories on it.

After watching this movie and the experience I had with my Making Strides Walk yesterday I am feeling very motivated to take an active role in spreading the word about breast cancer. The woman in the movie found her lump during an at home breast exam and her Doctor told her not to think anything of it, but she pursued it anyways. This just proves how important these monthly exams are and no matter how young we are, we are all at risk and need to know our bodies! Take some time tonight and just give a feel around to make sure everything is ok. It takes 5 minutes and you will be thankful you did it. Trust me.

Ok sorry I just had to get that off of my chest! Remember I am all about saving the TaTas!

Wow this was a very long fun filled post! I have a kitchen to clean and dishwasher to empty so I am signing off for now. Good night!

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