When we were driving Maxi to the aiport, she said “I feel so weird, I am not sure if I am happy to be going home or sad to be going home!”  We met the other exchange students at the airport, and one by one they checked in, showed their passports and got their plane tickets.  They were flying into Paris, then taking another plane to Stuttgart, where their relatives would pick them up and travel by car the rest of the way home.  Right now it’s 7:00 a.m. and she has another 5 hours before she lands in Stuttgart!

So then its time to say goodbye, and Hannah and Maxi hug and start crying.  Then I start crying.  Shit, I cry at Hallmark commercials!!  She gave me a hug, told me she would miss me and then off she went.  She wrote us a note, not to be read until after she left.  It was so sweet, and in one part she said “And to Biz, thank you for all your delicious food, especially the spaetzle, and for being my Mum while I was here.”  And to Tony: “thank you for all your jokes and of course, I love you the most!”  Luckily she caught on to Tony’s sense of humor really quickly!

And to Hannah: “Thank you for letting me stay in your room, driving us everywhere and picking up everyone and doing everything I wanted!  I love you!”  Hannah will see her again in a mere 60 days, which will probably go by just as fast as these last three weeks went!

Since I knew it was her last breakfast here, and she loves all things cinnamon, I decided to make apple cinnamon pancakes.

Apple Cinnamon Pancakes Recipe (printable version here)

Makes 14 servings (each pancake:  106 calories, 3 fat, 16.6 carbs, .7 fiber and 3.1 protein)

This recipe makes 14 pancakes, so I decided to do the stats for one pancake and you can add up how many you eat – delicious!
Ingredients

1 cup flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
12 ounces milk
1/4 cup water
1 large egg
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 cup apples

Directions

Mix dry ingredients in one bowl. Mix wet ingredients in another. Mix until well combined. Let batter sit a minimum of 15 minutes. Pan fry in Pam.

dry ingredients
can you see the bubbles from the baking powder working?

Tony’s plate with syrup:

Maxi actually ate hers with butter, sugar and cinnamon mixture and honey!  She definitely likes things sweet!  I realized I had my sugar free syrup at work, so I topped mine with 1/4 cup Vanilla yogurt.

252 calories, 41 carbs, 8.7 protein, 6 fat and 1.4 fiber

I asked Hannah to pick up some snacks on the way home for Maxi to take on the plane.  When I looked at this package, Hannah said she didn’t realize they were spicy – so they quickly became mine! 😀

I decided to make a grilled cheese lunch: 2 ounces of sourdough bread, 1 slice 2% pepper jack cheese, 2 slices deli ham and 1/2 ounce of the fiery chips – they are hot and delicious!

this cheese gets really melty 😀
442 calories, 45 carbs, 19.4 protein, 11.7 fat and 2.7 fiber

After I got home, I knew I needed to fit in a quick workout before dinner.  My gym has new treadmills that now have individual t.v.’s and super cool programs!  We belong to Cardinal Fitness – so cheap – for all 4 of us it’s only $45 a month!

You can even download your stats to a USB port!  My stats (with walking warm up and cool down:

And I may have watched FoodTV while I worked out 😀

Since I still haven’t gone to the grocery store, I did stop to pick up some shrimp for dinner.  I decided to do a quick shrimp and pasta dish with spinach and mozzarella cheese.

I grilled 4 shrimp in a touch of olive oil on high heat
then I removed the shrimp and added 1.25 cups of penne pasta, 1 handful of spinach, about 1/2 cup of my marinara sauce and an ounce of mozzarella and stirred until combined and hot
442 calires, 63 carbs, 32 protein, 6.7 fat and 13.1 fiber

It was delicious.  I was full and satisfied.  Until I started to sweat.  Dammit!  I gave myself too much insulin!

I don’t know how many of you have ever suffered with low blood sugar, but when it’s this low, my tongue feels numb, I am sweaty, and my only thought is to get that number up, and as quickly as possible.  So un-photographed snacks ensued:  10 peanut m&m’s, 1 ounce of kettle chips, and 2 ounces of Trader Joe’s sesame pretzels.  All told:  467 calories, 34 carbs, 16.5 protein, 31 fat and 3.9 fiber. 🙁

Stats for Thursday:

  • 44 minute walk/jog on treadmill
  • average blood sugar: 76
  • 1,521 calories, 183 carbs, 77 protein, 55 fat and 21 fiber

I took a picture of my grilled cheese and left my camera on the counter when we left for the airport.  No worries – Hannah had hers.  We were waiting for the tram to the International terminal when I took a picture of Hannah and Maxi, only to have her battery die after that – so the last picture of Hannah and Maxi!

Alright – I am off to figure out what is breakfast and lunch today – Happy Friday!! 😀

Oops!  I almost forgot!  I am entering my spaetzle maker post in Christina’s Friday Firsts! 😀