Turtle Crossing

Before setting out on my 14 mile bicycle ride on Thursday night, I fueled up with a bowl of cereal with blackberries and a blob of peanut butter on top.

I had a smoothie in a bowl after I got back from my ride.

On Friday night, we made an easy dinner. We had herb chicken tortellini, steamed broccoli, and baked beans.

Then we went bowling!  We each have a pair of our own awesome bowling shoes.

We played two rounds of games.  Austin won - but I did at least score over 100 on both games!

On Saturday morning, I tried a new twist on breakfast.  I made fruit omelettes.

Each fruit omelette included sliced strawberries, pineapple, and blackberries, with cinnamon, powdered sugar, and coconut sprinkled on top.  Served with fresh squeezed orange juice.

This was an interesting recipe.  Neither of us could quite get used to the combination of fruit and eggs.  It was different, but good!

For dinner we tried a new Vietnamese restaurant.  The first thing I spotted on the menu was tapioca smoothies!  We shared a blueberry tapioca smoothie, and it was delicious!

For our entree, we ordered pho with lean beef and veggie spring rolls. 

The veggie spring rolls were made with fried tofu!

After dinner, we watched Bride Wars.

This was a 2009 release starring Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway.  It was a silly movie, but I was in the mood for something low-key. My plot summary: two best friends fighting and competing with each other because their weddings occur on the same day.  The thing that bothered me in this movie was Kate Hudson's haircut.  Her bangs looked ridiculous!  Did anyone else notice that?

This morning, Austin and I got up and went on a 13 mile bicycle ride.

As we were riding, we came across a turtle crossing the road!

We have a special affinity for turtles!  Austin decided to help him across the road into the grass on the other side.  When he picked him up, a liquid started streaming out of his shell.  We didn't know if he was peeing or if the water was just collected on the inside his shell? 

We continued on our way, stopping a few times to check out the scenery.

We rode by a gorgeous lake, but unfortunately access was restricted to members only.

After our ride, we packed up a picnic and ate lunch by the swimming pool.

Our sandwiches were made with three seed bread, turkey, mustard, tomatoes, lettuce, pickles, and avocado.

My favorite way to spend a Sunday afternoon is relaxing outside by the pool!

Do types of wildlife do usually find in your neighborhood?

We typically see squirrels, deer, birds and frogs, but not many turtles!

Amazing Asian Food

The dinner I made last night deserves a post all for itself.  So I'm giving it one.  This stir fry is hands-down the best Asian food I've ever made.

Sweet & Sour Chicken Stir Fry

Cut boneless, skinless chicken breasts into bitesize chunks.  Dip chicken in egg and then in mixture of salt, pepper and cornstarch.  Pan fry in oil until crispy and golden brown. Place in a single layer in a baking dish.

Mix together sauce ingredients: 3/4 cup sugar, 3 tbsp ketchup, 1/2 cup cider vinegar, 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp garlic powder.  Pour sauce over chicken and bake at 350 for 60 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, it's time to sautee the veggies.  I used mushrooms, snow peas, cabbage, onion, and garlic.

On the side, I prepared a package of chow mein noodles. To give the noodles a bit more flavor, I made a peanut sauce with 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp sesame oil, 2 tbsp peanut butter, 1 tbsp rice vinegar.

My nose was in heaven with all of these delicious foods cooking in my kitchen!

Dozer's nose must have picked up the scent too, as he was really begging for a taste.

I heaped the noodles, veggies and chicken on my plate until it was overflowing.  Then I sprinkled a few peanuts on top for an extra crunch, and dug in!  It was delicious!

If you like Asian food, I definitely recommend that you try this!

In other news, I am offering the opportunity for my fellow bloggers to submit a guest post to be published in the beginning of June.  If you're interested, e-mail me and let me know what topic you're interested in writing about.  This is a great chance for publicity for your blog!

What's your favorite Asian dish?

I can't choose just one!  My favorite chinese food as a kid was beef & broccoli.  Lately I've discovered a love for sushi, miso soup, and Vietnamese pho!

Chick-Fil-A Concert

My new fruit love? Blueberries!  They're great in cereal, smoothies, or by the handful!

I almost added blueberries to my salad for lunch, but I decided to save them for another day.  Instead, my salad included raisins, grilled chicken, peanuts, cheese, spinach and romaine lettuce.

Last night, I went to a free concert at Chick-Fil-A.  The concert was hosted by my favorite Houston radio station, 89.3 KSBJ.  I love this radio station - they always play the most upbeat, heatfelt Christian music.

I wasn't very familiar with the artist, Kari Jobe, but I had heard several of her songs on the radio.

She led a great worship service and I was truly impressed with her performance!

I was surprised by the audience turn-out for a concert on a Tuesday night!  The Chick-Fil-A parking lot was packed with people.

It was a perfect evening to enjoy some tunes under the bright blue sky.

I am truly amazed at how many charitable events Chick-Fil-A participates in.  Not only is their food delicious, the entire corporation is led by very sincere Christians.  The community truly benefits from these restaurants!

Fun fact:  At every new Chick-Fil-A's grand opening, the first 100 customers win free Chick-Fil-A for a year!

In college, I camped out with a couple of friends in a Chick-Fil-A parking lot overnight so that I could be one of the first 100!  We each won 52 coupons for free Chick-Fil-A sandwiches or nuggets (once a week for a year)!

As a college student, I was really thankful for the free meal every week!  Surprisingly, I never got tired of eating Chick-Fil-A!

Have you ever camped out overnight for anything (tickets/free food)?

I've only camped out overnight that one time for free Chick-Fil-A.  A lot of my friends used to camp out for college football or basketball tickets - I never cared enough about the games to do that, though!

Endangered Chocolate

Prepare yourself for lots of pictures - we ate a ton of delicious food this weekend, and I couldn't help but include it all in the photographs!

Let's start with breakfast.

Fresh-squeezed OJ, eggs, turkey bacon and toast with jelly.

My secret to sweet fresh-squeezed OJ is a packet of NuStevia.  It adds more sweetness than sugar!

Continuing on with other breakfasts:  Austin whipped up a couple of breakfast burritos with egg, cheese and turkey bacon in a whole wheat torilla.

I also made a new breakfast creation that came to me in my dreams on Saturday night: Lemon Poppyseed Pancakes.

I ate mine with raspberries and powdered sugar.

And this morning I had them again, with blackberries, syrup and flaxseed.

Moving on to other eats - for lunch on Saturday, I made fried eggplant with a homemade marinara sauce.

For the sauce, I chopped up three tomatoes and let them simmer in a sacepan with garlic and olive oil.  I spiced it up with fresh basil from our garden.

I peeled and sliced the eggplant and dipped it in bread crumbs.

Dozie was being a good kitchen helper, so he received an eggplant peel-hat on his head.

I fried the eggplant in a thin layer of olive oil for a couple minutes on each side.

It turned out perfectly golden brown and delicious.

Austin executed his mastered grilling skills with the chicken.

And I threw together a couple of salads for some green veggies on the side.

All together, this was a fantastic meal.

On Saturday night, we headed downtown for another Astros game.  Since we had a bad experience with raw chicken tenders at the last game we went to, we made sure to eat a snack before the game this time!

I made a Chocolate Cherry Smoothie that consisted of Amazing Grass Chocolate drink powder, a banana, frozen cherries, spinach, milk and ice cubes.

We had fun watching the Astros, even though they're having a rough season.

It was a beautiful evening at Minute Maid Park.

On Sunday, we went to the movies while our lunch marinated in the fridge.  In the mix: steak, onions, himalayan peppers, mushrooms, red potatoes, and a Garlic & Molasses marinade.

The movie of choice was Robin Hood, starring Russell Crowe.  Is it just me or is he seriously Gerald Butler's twin?  It was fun to learn the story behind the legend.  I also enjoyed the scenery of the movie.  Overall, I give this action flick a thumbs-up!  However, at 140 minutes of screen-time, I did feel like it dragged a bit at times.

Ok, you want the truth? I was in a hurry to get home to these kabobs!

Austin grilled some shrimp and scallop kabobs for himself.  I wasn't too jealous, though, because the beef was amazing!

I even had enough leftover for a salad at lunch today.  Bonus!

I'll leave you with a piece of dessert: dark chocolate and raisins.  I've been eating this Endangered Species Chocolate as if the chocolate itself is going extinct!

What do you like to pair with chocolate?

Duh...my mouth!  Haha :) I like to pair chocolate with raisins, nuts, peanut butter, or ice cream!