Oh hello!

Yesterday was a long day.  One of the secretaries was out at the law firm, and I was steady busy all day long.  It was a creepy drive into work – very foggy!

I ended up planning my food for the day – first time in a while!  Breakfast was an egg white zucchini omelet, with about 1/2 an ounce of mozzarella in the middle, 4 ounces of leftover steak and blackberries on the side.

That whole plate comes in at 374 calories and a whopping 41 grams of protein.  This plate took a long time to eat AND it stuck with me for a long time!

My plan was to hit up the pool at lunch – just an all body workout to get me back in the game.  When I pulled into the parking lot I thought “score – hardly any cars!”  Wouldn’t you know that every lane was filled and homey don’t share a swimming lane if she doesn’t have to.  So Plan B.  Treadmill while watching The Chew.  I ended up running/walking for 30 minutes, 2.2 miles, then cool down of 5 minutes and stretching for 5 minutes.

Lunch was a taco salad – chopped romaine, carrots, celery, 4 ounces of cooked taco ground beef, light ranch and lots of hot sauce.  Yum!

I had planned on eating some of my buffalo chicken chili for “dinner” since I was bringing it to work for the chef to try, but it was busy right off the bat.  I had a cup of chicken noodle soup and that had to hold me for a while.   My brother and his family, my Mom and Tony came to the restaurant for dinner last night!  It was kind of weird because in all my years of working in the restaurant/bar industry, I am not sure I’ve served my family for a whole dinner!   One of the specials we had on the menu last night was a 16 ounce Porterhouse pork chop – holy cow, did that look delicious!  I love thick cut pork chops but Tony isn’t much of a fan.  I may just have to buy that meal for 50% off – it was only $18!  I wish I had a picture of it, but this is similar.

So we have runners who bring the food out – so each seat at a table has a “number” so that the food runner doesn’t have to come to the table and ask “who ordered the gnocci?”  My Mom was in the #1 spot, and when I got to my niece, she said that she and her Mom were going to split the pork chop special.  I was thinking in my head “I wonder where the bone is and if they can split that into two plates?”  I was concentrating on that so that by the time I got to my brother, I just walked away from the table.  As soon as I started punching in all the orders to send to the kitchen, I thought “I never got my brother’s order!”  Having my family there just threw me off my game, but luckily they know me!   This is again a picture off of google images, but he ordered the meatballs over creamy polenta with marinara sauce – the meatballs are stuffed with proscuitto, mozzarella, and basil.

And then just as my family table was finishing up, I got to work a party of 15 people with another server.  Super nice people, easy going, but they didn’t sit down until nearly 8:30 and then the Chef came out and talked to them for a while, brought out an assortment of appetizers, and chopped salads.  I didn’t get home until after midnight, but it was worth it – even after tipping out I brought home $170.  Not too shabby!  And for the record, we declare our tips – cash or not.   Next week I found out that I am working the bar area for New Year’s Eve – should be fun!

But after working all day and being on my feet for 7+ hours, I was beat this morning.  Tony and I slept in, watched t.v.  I didn’t even get out of bed until noon other than to make coffee!   My brother and his family are going to see The Hobbit today – they saw Walter Mitty yesterday because of the time it was playing before dinner last night.  So I am going over to my Mom’s tomorrow for the day to have lunch with everyone – my sister and her kids are coming over too.  I told my brother that I would bring over my buffalo chicken chili for chili mac for lunch – he said that he might make a batch of Texas chili – which is said has no beans.  I said “that’s like Cincinnati chili” and he said “no, that’s Texas chili!”  When I asked if he used brisket he said just ground beef and no beans.  I am sure I will win!

So by the time the chili was heated up, there was only a handful of people left, so they heated up just one of the containers I brought.  They all loved it!  And the Chef said that he loved that it was a “light” chili – which it is – there’s no fat, all fresh ground chicken breast, and veggies.  Yum!  I was cleaning tables when it came out and by the time I went back it was all gone.  I ended up bringing the second container home and had a cup with a small glass of wine before hitting the sack.

I hope to catch up on some computer work today – turns out if you work 16 hours in a day you don’t get a lot of time to check out Facebook, check email or even read comments on your own blog!

Stats for the Day:

• 1313 calories, 57 fat, 117 carbs, 82 protein, 36 fiber
• 39% of calories from fat, 35% from carbs and 25% from protein
• 2.2 mile walk/run in 30 minutes
• average blood sugar 102 – nice!

Enjoy your weekend – its 45 degrees here today and everything is melting – love it!  After Christmas, I am totally over snow.  But I still love my snowmen!  Big shout out to blog reader and friend Laura (docklady!) who sent some gifts through my Mom.  Love them – thank you!!!

It turns all different colors when you turn it on!  And then she got me a snowman mug, hand towel and holiday spoon from Pampered Chef – so cute!