I think I am getting a cold.

It’s rare for me to be sick.  I get bronchitis maybe every five years or so for a few days, but other than that, I hardly ever get sick.  A couple days ago I could feel a tightness in my chest.  Last night my head was feeling stuffed up and I went to bed at 11:00 on a Friday night – we almost always stay up on Friday nights.  This morning my voice sounds like a man.  Dammit!  I hope I can knock it out before my trip to New York next week!

One of my blog readers Jennifer sent me an Einstein Bros. gift card that said “Biz, get some bagels and coffee on me!”  So sweet!  (Hi Jenn!).  So yesterday on my way to work I made two pit stops.  One at Starbuck’s to pick up a protein pack for my lunch (thanks to a generous gift card from Heather in Kuwait (Hi Heather!), and then to Einstein Bros. to pick up breakfast.  When I was in Texas with the Beef Counsel on our trip to a ranch we got boxed breakfasts from Einstein.   I grabbed the Southwest box described as egg whites on a thin bagel with salsa, cream cheese and turkey sausage.  It was good – but by the time we got on the bus to eat it, the bagel was pretty soggy because of the salsa, but the turkey sausage was tasty.

I ended up ordering mine on an everything bagel thin – an everything bagel is pretty much the best bagel ever invented, right after an Asiago cheese one.  She handed me the bag, and I still had about a 15 minute drive to the office.  When I got there, same thing happened, the bottom of the bagel was all damp because of the salsa, so I put the bottom side up and put it in the toaster oven for a few minutes and it crisped right up.

It was delicious.  Just spicy enough, a bit messy to eat, but in a pinch, I’d definitely buy it again.  Thanks again Jennifer!

With me feeling like I am on the verge of getting a cold, I skipped my lunch time workout.  Instead, I went to Goodwill!  You know the place Tony thinks people pee on the clothes, then die and then they donate the clothes to Goodwill?!

I was looking for a couple pairs of pants and a couple more tops to take to New York.  I did find a totally cute pair of J. Jill grey pants and a cute top.  But that was about it.  I may have to go thrifting tomorrow while Tony watches football. 

I had my protein pack for lunch, but I had a taste for soup so I went next door to Mariano’s and got a vegetarian chili.  This is really good – tons of veggies and beans and just the right amount of spice.  I think there is barley in it too.  I am going to try to recreate that this weekend for my lunches next week.  The only thing I didn’t eat on the protein pack was the peanut butter – I’ll save that for something else.

Of course I had to stop by the cheese section at Mariano’s – it’s pretty impressive!  I tried this aged goat cheese and holy balls was it good.  I don’t think I’ve ever had a hard goat cheese before, but this was delicious and I thought how good that would be on a pizza.  However, the price tag let me move on – $29 a pound!  When I win the $5,000 at the cook-off, I will definitely go back and buy some.

When I got back to my office it really started to get dark.  Tony was getting his blood work done and sent me a picture and said “yikes – nasty storm!”  Nasty hardly described it – the winds were like 70 mph, the rain was falling so fast – they said our area got an inch of rain in 20 minutes.  The power went out for a good hour.  Just as they were going to let us leave, the lights came back on – so close to leaving work at 3:30 on a Friday!  Check out this time lapse video of downtown Chicago.

By the time I left work at 4:45 to go to the post office, the rain had pretty much cleared.  It was a hot, sticky humid day up until the storm.  It dropped 20 degrees in a few hours and was 68 on my drive home.

So you all know how I love my Party Pizza Friday’s.  Tony was actually up for it, but I didn’t have all the stuff at home to make it from scratch so I cheated.  I bought a take and bake pepperoni pizza from our local grocery store and then kicked it up with Italian sausage, crimini mushrooms and a bit more cheese. 

I thought it could have used more sauce, but that’s just me.  But turns out the pepperoni was too spicy for Tony, so he ended up only eating one slice.  The crust was good.  My friend Helen did it right though.  Her husband loves pizza just as much as me.  She made from scratch a chicken, broccoli and olive pizza and a white pesto, tomato and mozzarella pizza.  If she didn’t live in Connecticut I would have walked over to her house for Party Pizza Friday!

I am going to try and meal plan mostly with what we have on hand this week.  We have plenty of food and I think it will help me be a bit more creative this week.  I think I can get away with shopping for around $40 bucks this week.  Tomorrow is the first day of football food!   Tony loved the corn fritters I made last week, so when I saw these corn dog fritters, I knew he would love them – so this recipe got a big thumbs up for Week 1 Football food:

The only thing I plan on doing differently is keeping the hot dog pieces bigger in the middle, not all chopped up.  You’ll just have to follow me on Instagram to see how they turn out tomorrow.  (my bizzy kitchen)

Have a great weekend – fingers crossed this cold goes away quick!