Today is my MIL’s birthday!  Hope you have a great day Bonnie!  

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While she is in sunny Florida, um, let’s just say that I am not a fan of seeing this temperature in October:

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I usually never wear a coat to work until at least December, but I had to put a sweater on yesterday – there was frost on the ground too.

While I could have eaten another naan breakfast pizza, I decided to make egg white, spinach and cheese tostadas with my salsa verde.  I am pretty sure you could put that salsa on anything and I’d eat it!

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The morning dragged at work, so I couldn’t wait to get to the gym.  After strength, I decided to run/walk for 2.5 miles.  Although someone was on MY treadmill.  I don’t know what it is, but there are probably 20 treadmills to choose from, but I always use the same one.  Except someone was on mine yesterday, so I had to use one of the newer ones – I adapted though while watching The Chew!

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The shows theme was “Thrifty Thursday” which you know I am all about saving money on food.  But one of the dishes was a black eyed pea and kale salad.  Can’t get around that recipe!  Every New Years Eve or New Years Day, my Mom would give each of us ONE black eyed pea for good luck and it would take us about three glasses of milk to swallow that one pea!  Still haven’t been a fan of black eyed peas since.

I used more of my leftover rotisserie chicken to make a bbq chicken panini at work.  My co-worker brought in this habanero Cabot cheese, and on tasting it by itself, it literally was too hot for me.  But, put on the sandwich balanced with the sweetness of the bbq sauce, it totally worked.

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I’ve had a craving for red meat all week.  Last week at the store, I scored and got two 7 oz. steaks for 75% off because that was the last day of the sell by date.  I brought them home, salt and peppered them, and individually froze them.  I defrosted one yesterday when I was at work.  Tony opted for a skinny burger and some of my pomme frites.  Just something about the combination of steak and pomme frites makes me feel like I am eating at a fancy French bistro!

The trick with the frites is to fry them twice.  Cut your potato in matchsticks, then heat your fryer to 350 degrees.  I only cut up one potato, but I had to fry them in three batches so they didn’t overcrowd the basket.  Cook until slightly browned, then drain on a paper towel.  Once all the batches are done, turn the fryer up to 375, then finish them off until medium brown and they are nice and crispy.  I fried a stalk of rosemary too, then chopped the rosemary and sprinkled the fries with salt and the chopped rosemary.  I love our cast iron grill pan, even though it smokes up the whole house!

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I did my customary 2x2x2x2 method – cooking each side of the steak for 2 minutes exactly in one direction, then flipping and cooking 2 minutes on each side in the opposite direction – I am all about the grill marks!

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And I always put a pat of butter on my steak while it rests.  Damn that was good if I do say so myself!

So here is one of my pet peeves at work.  People eating my food.  Specifically, my boss.  I brought in probably a 3/4 bag of tortilla chips earlier in the week.  I was sharing my salsa verde with one of my co-workers who loves that shit.  I usually keep my chips on, in or around my desk, but my boss just helps herself.  All the time.  So I hid them in a cabinet in the kitchen.  Yesterday when I was pulling out my tostada shells for breakfast out of this same cabinet, I moved the bag of chips out of the way and noticed that it was super light.  Huh.

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Work food thieves have been present in pretty much every job I’ve had, and I will never understand it.  I’ve had sandwiches missing, whole lunch bags that had my name clearly written on it.  It’s just so insensitive!  Have you ever had food go “missing” at work before?

For some reason I can’t sync up my Fitbit, but I got in 11,646 steps yesterday.  Bam!

And today I have Bahn Mi Pork Meatball to make a Bahn Mi sandwich.  I pickled carrots and daikon radishes too last night.  I love Thursday night football night – let’s me spend more time in the kitchen! 

Make it a great day – Happy Friday!

Oh, and please vote for my recipe!  I realized that you can vote once every 24 hours, so if you voted the first time at 4 in the afternoon, you have to wait until 4 in the afternoon the next day.  I appreciate your votes – you can click on this link to get there.  Hugs!