Spring Fever & This Year’s Garden…

Happy Weekend all!  How are you all doing?  First, I want to thank all of you for checking in on me and for all your kind messages.  Second, I have to say I am sorry to everyone for taking a longer break than I thought I was going to.  It originally started with a little bit of Spring Fever when our 80 degree weather hit and wanting to do anything outside not on the computer.  Then, my crazy busy schedule at work hit. 

This is the time of year where I do all the planning for the wines we are going to sell next year in North America (US and Canada) from all around the world.  It takes coordination of everyone around the world from Asia to New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, the UK and the USA.  It’s super fun to work with everyone, but, your day doesn’t ever really end with all our time zone differences. 

Anyway….the long and short of it, there is a lot of bean counting going on for how we will finish this year along with what we will do next year ~ it’s fun stuff, but, doesn’t always leave me with as much time as I’d like to spend here.  I am on the home stretch with two weeks to go so hopefully things will balance out soon and I’ll be back to chatting away with you all next month.

All that being said, here are a few of the fun highlights from the past few weeks!

Do you all remember last year when we Looped the Lagoon to Celebrate Live, Life, Active with our Weight Watchers group?  Yep, we did it all over again and it was a blast….

We all get together as a group and walk about 2 miles around this lake….looping it, passing the dog park, the crazy 700 foot mile long tower hill, the horses and the nature preserve where you see birds and sometimes turtles.  It’s pretty cool.

We all meet up at the finish line and “tail gate” with fresh fruit and waters.

It’s honestly one of my favorite things we do and I love chatting it up with my Weight Watchers friends making time fly by along with the miles.

We celebrated Easter by coloring eggs, just so we could have a bunch of egg-a-licious recipes!

I love his concentration!

And because we are total dorks, we took a picture with our egg coloring kit to celebrate the occasion.

For those wondering when I posted this on Facebook ~ the one with the scribbles is an “Earth” Egg he created….He also made Egg love and I am the one who created the “Eat Me” egg….but, not the way you all thought (dirty birds!)

We got our fix with Egg Salad Sandwiches all week and Deviled Eggs.

The Husband’s favorite ~ Healthy Potato Salad

Our Easter Celebration with The Husband’s family was totally California Style ~ we grilled everything!

Burgers!

Sausage, Pepper, Potato & Veggie Kabobs (Chicken Sausages from Trader Joe’s!)

Grilled Corn

I could eat these Better Than a Big Mac Burgers all the time ~ it’s my favorite way to have a healthy burger but have it feel indulgent.

We got these super cute bunnies from The Husband’s mom.

I’ve eaten a lot of delicious salads the past few weeks too.

My favorite Chinese Chicken Salad from the Napa General Store

One tasty Kale & Peanut Salad from The Rutherford Grill for my co-worker’s abandon us going away lunch (He left to go work at another winery ~ the horror!)

All was made right in the world though with this amazing Corn Bread ~ I could’ve totally stole this entire pan and not shared it with anyone.

My Whole Foods Salad Bucket ~ I topped all the veggies I can find with their cabbage crunch salad, a little wheat berry salad and yep, one French fry ~ that’s how I roll.

I ventured out at Grace’s Table from my usual Beet Salad and had their Organic Greens with Grilled Chicken.

Served up with these!!!  I honestly did not need to discover these Root Vegetable Chips.  Luckily this was a shared bowl, but, I could easily down this all by myself and possibly lick the bowl too.

My favorite “shake” of the moment is this easy Banana Shake that I crave it daily.

1 Frozen Banana with 1 cup FF Milk, 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract, 1 handful ice.

(100% Simply Filling) OR 2 points+

Favorite snack that I’ve realized you need to eat the same day for the best taste.

• 15 oz. can Organic Chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 2-3 Tbsp. Homemade Taco Seasoning
• 1 tsp. olive oil

Combine everything until the chickpeas are coated.  Spray a cookie sheet with nonstick cooking spray and pour the chickpeas on it in a single layer.  Bake at 350 for 45 minutes, shaking the tray and moving the chickpeas around every 15 minutes. Cook an additional 5 minutes at a time if you’d like them crunchier.

100% Simply Filling or 1/4 cup = 2 points+ and totally addicting.

I also made up a big batch of Homemade Lean Pork Pot Stickers that I froze to cook another time.  The recipe will be coming up soon (most likely when we gobble them up).

And tonight, we couldn’t wait to try out the Fresh Mozzarella and Tomato Panini sandwiches in this week’s Weight Watchers Weekly.

It only took The Husband reading that it was grilled to be like, we should make that!

My modifications included using White Balsamic instead of Red Wine Vinegar, adding fresh basil with organic greens and mixing crushed garlic in my sauce versus rubbing raw garlic on it after.

I doubled the recipe since we were cooking for his mom.  Brush the sour dough baguette slices with the garlic, olive oil mix.

Top with cheese (that I sprinkled with sea salt & black pepper), tomato, basil and greens.

Put their hats on and grill for about 2 minutes per side making sure you use your spatula to push them down on the grill to “press” them.

Tadahhh!  One delicious vegetarian dinner in under 30 minutes.

Believe it or not, two of these sandwiches are completely satisfying and filling.

I mixed up the salad I am addicted to for everyone.  It’s so simple.

Organic Romaine, carrots and red cabbage ~ chopped and tossed with 1/4 cup dry roasted cashews, 1 Tbsp. Red Wine Vinegar, 1/2 Tbsp. Olive Oil, sea salt and black pepper.

Yum!

I saved the best for last ~ This past weekend, we planted our garden this year.  Did you all know Home Depot now carries organic plants for the same prices as their non-organic versions? So cool.

Here is what we planted ~ let’s hope my not so green finger can make it all grow!

• Cantaloupe
• Lemon Thyme
• Strawberries (6 of them!)
• Paddy Pan Squash
• Banana Peppers
• Cilantro
• 4 Sweet 100 Cherry Tomatoes
• 2 Roma Tomatoes
• Inside the house I have Chives and a Basil plant as I find they grow best inside.  Herbs are always one thing I grow because they are so much cheaper than always buying them.

I think that sums up for the most part what I’ve been up to.  I will do my best to pop in over the next two weeks sooner rather than later, but, it all really depends on my work deadlines.

On a positive note, I have a few fun giveaways lined up for you all.  On a not so good note ~ I am also so far behind on emails, comments, etc….I hope to get caught up by next month, but, no promises on that one.

I hope you all have a fabulous Sunday and I’ll chat with you all soon!