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!

Raw Chicken & Baseball

On Thursday night we had tickets to go see the Houston Astros vs Arizona Diamondbacks.  The weather was beautiful - sunny with a light breeze.

We arrived at Minute Maid Park and found our box seats just in time for the first pitch.

Within two minutes of the game beginning, a ball was hit into the stands by the Diamondbacks.  Nice way to start the game (for their team anyways).

Check out the scoreboard, the Astros are already losing in the first inning!

Luckily, I wasn't too concerned about which team won because I was enjoying the company I was with! Austin, his dad, and a friend came along for the game.  They drank some beers and we shared some popcorn.

Austin and I didn't have time to eat before the game, so we decided to explore the ballpark food options.

First, we ate a beef sausage that cost a whopping $6.75. 

It was good, but instead of satisfying our hunger, it only intensified it. So we proceeded to buy a basket of chicken tenders with fries.

Big mistake.  I ate about half of a chicken tender before I bit into something incredibly soft.  Not what you're looking for in a piece of chicken.  At first, I thought it was a mass of fat, which would have been disturbing enough in and of itself, but no - it gets better.

A few seconds later, Austin threw down the chicken he was eating and exclaimed, "I knew there was something wrong with this chicken!"

Sure enough, the chicken was raw. I immediately took it back to the food stand and asked for a refund.  The lady said, "Oh, you're the second person to say it was raw."

Wow.  That makes me feel better...not!  She proceeded to tell me that she couldn't refund my money, but she could offer me a new basket of chicken tenders.

Really, you think you could convince me to eat some more of your chicken tenders right now?! Instead, I asked to speak to the manager and got my money back.

Fortunately, I'm not experiencing any signs of salmonella poisoning today.  That could be due to the fact that my body is practically immune from being fed undercooked chicken twice already this year!

We managed to enjoy the rest of the game without any further disturbances, but next time I think we'll plan on skipping the stadium food.

Do you ever eat stadium food?
I usually get at least one thing to eat or drink while I'm at the stadium.  That's part of the fun!