Mini Falafel

This is going to be a very disjointed post, so just be prepared

I am blogging late because I slept in until the last dog was hung before having to get my ass out of bed to Weight Watchers, which I haven’t been to in the last three weeks.  My eats and schedule have been all over the map, and I am realizing that I really have to plan my food a lot better than I have been doing.  Oh, and maybe ditching the wine and extra licks and tastes at work.  I gained 2.8 these last three weeks, which puts me 1.6 above where I started back in April – but still, I consider basically maintaining a victory in and of itself, so it’s all good.

Yesterday was on the cool side, a bit over cast and I got my stuff together to meal plan, grocery shop and just map out my week.

I love my Cabot Cheese coffee mug – the handle and size of the mug is perfect.   As I was sitting outside doing my healthy meal plan, the mail came and my Aunt Cele sent me this magazine:

A good friend of hers in South Carolina’s sister writes for the publication.  Her name is Terri Milligan and you have to check out some of her recipes here.   Lynne, Mel and Jessica I thought of you guys because she does cooking demonstrations all around Wisconsin, even in Door County and Louise, she even has a cooking class coming up in Appleton!

I am making braised carrots from that magazine later this week, I’ve never cooked carrots like that before (and they have a recipe for carrot top pesto which I am going to try too).  But what I really want to do is make that cherry apple pie on the cover!  Even after smelling and tasting pies at Apple Fest this last weekend, I still could eat pie.

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I had my 30th high school reunion on Saturday night.  My twin sister didn’t go because it was her daughters first high school homecoming, so the question of the night was “where is your sister?!” 

I spent the night at my Mom’s house because I had to be back to work at the Apple Fest early the next night.  Before I left I got the lecture “don’t drink too much, drive safe and do you have a key to the house?”  Unbeknownst to me though, was that while my Mom left the back porch light on for me, I didn’t realize that I should have turned it off when I got home at 11:15.  She woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and saw the light was on and thought I was still out!  Well, maybe there was precedent there, because that’s something I would have done 25 years ago!

My outfit?  $9 at my local thrift store, including the shoes.   Andrea, I thought you’d be impressed with my thrift store score (but I really could have used your styling skills!)  I was actually belting out I am Beautiful by Christina Agulera when my Mom took this picture – it cracks me up every time I look at it!

The man standing on the bar doing an OPRF cheer is Spe, our class President.  He has a ten year old son who is so cute.  The top right picture?  That’s John, and I’ve known him since I was 4.  Middle picture is my friend Beth (who just moved back to the area – once you get settled I am coming over to make pizza!) and my friend Ellyn.  Bottom picture is my buddy Franck who I was in homeroom with.   It was great catching up with people, although with the advent of Facebook and all the other social media, there really weren’t any surprises.  My only complaint was that the music was really loud and it made having conversations a bit tough – I had a scratchy voice the next day do to all the loud talking I did the night before.  Is that a sign that I am getting old, that I am complaining about the loud music?!

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Last week when my friend Jacky told me I should have gotten the falafel at the Merchandise Mart before work last week, I’ve been having a jones for it ever since.  When my Mom and I were downtown last week to have her birthday lunch, I picked up some pita bread at Naf Naf Grill.  Holy balls is it fluffy and delicious!  Only one tiny problem – one pita bread after I weighed it was just under 8 smart points.   So I decided to make mini falafel bites and place them on sliced cucumber, and cut half of the pita in half and toasted it to make a more point friendly lunch.  The recipe below is for the falafel – you can accessorize with store bought hummus, tzatziki or olives.

These were so delicious!  Crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside and I opened up each pita, stuffed the cucumber and falafel into each triangle of the pita and had mini falafel bites.  I will definitely make this again.  And soon!

This is the spice packet I used from The Spice & Tea Exchange for the pepper in the recipe – I’d substitute 1/2 a teaspoon of crushed red pepper in it’s place if you don’t have it. 

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Hannah and I hung outside late yesterday afternoon and decided to burn down our fire pit since we haven’t had a fire since early spring.   The luxury of living in an unincorporated area, we can pretty much burn anything we want.  The only problem is that once we let the pit go, all the vegetation grows around it, so I feel like I am burning nature and wood at the same time

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I was supposed to work today, but got called off because of low attendance for the class I was going to work.  And I was already scheduled off tomorrow, so my next work day isn’t until Thursday.  I am taking advantage of the time off and spending time organizing my basement more before garbage day on Friday.  I also need to get a filing cabinet to put important stuff in that’s off the floor in case of water in my basement that happens from time to time.  Hannah and I are going to get our eyebrows threaded at Wal-mart this afternoon and I’ll checkout the Goodwill there to see if I can find some organizational stuff. 

Let me know if you make the falafel – I’d love to hear what you think of it!  Make it a great day!