The best part about making waffles is that you can have breakfast for days.  I made another waffle breakfast sammie yesterday.  1/2 of my Bolthouse Farms Protein Waffle (3) an egg, spinach, ham (1) 1/2 once of cheese (2) sugar free pancake syrup (1) and tangerines for dessert.  

We finally had a nice day in Chicago yesterday!  When Jenn and I went on our walk it was 70 degrees and glorious.  The city comes alive when it’s nice out.  So many people on the river walk, taking boat tours – it felt almost like a summer day.

I never went grocery shopping last week since I was sick, I knew I had enough food to get my through the week, but I didn’t bring a lunch yesterday.  As we were walking back to our respective offices, I stopped at a place called Veggie Grill.  Huh.

They had something on the menu called Spicy Southern Chickin on the menu with cauli-potato mash with porchini mushroom gravy, collard greens and a bean stew.  All for $12.50.

Oh my goodness – was this amazing!  They say that the chickin is made from “a combination of veggie proteins from soy, wheat and peas.”  All I know is that it had the texture of chicken – I am not going to say it tasted like chicken, but the coating was delicious and the dipping sauce was super spicy.  I could only eat half of that plate – the whole plate is 19 points – half was 9 points – perfect for a lunch.  Hannah is going to have the leftovers today, I know she’ll love these.  

By the time I got home the temperature had dropped 20 degrees.  It’s back to winter coats today and I think we are supposed to get up to an inch of rain today.  Boo.

I came home to great mail though!  My Aunt Martha sent me a bunch of stuff – she and her boyfriend do trade shows where they sell their Whitley’s peanuts – which are amazing – I think this is stuff from the Southern Women’s Show because all the products have the Virginia’s Finest logo on them.  Thank you Aunt Martha!  I’ll call you this weekend to catch up.

And Jennie-O turkey sent me some of their new products – these are 4 points for 2.5 ounces – or 1/6 of that package.  Hannah gave these all the stink eye until I pulled the chorizo one out – she’ll try that one!  I think I’ll make meatballs with the Italian seasoning one.  Thanks Jennie-O!

I only had to work 30 minutes late last night.  Nice!  I knew I had pizza dough in my fridge, and when I was flipping through Jessica’s cookbook The Pretty Dish (I swear to God she’s not paying me to talk about this cookbook – I seriously want to make everything!) and on page 177 she had a recipe for fried margherita pizza.  Huh.  Um, turns out my deep fryer was still on my counter, so this was so quick and easy to put together.

I made Baking Steel’s “I want pizza tonight dough” last weekend, but it really gets better the longer it sits in your fridge.  The only difference I made was I subbed in self-rising flour because that’s what I had on hand.  It’s basically a point per ounce of dough after it rises.

I wasn’t sure how puffy the dough would get in the fryer.  I used 1.5 ounces of dough per mini pizza and fried them for 2 minutes a side at 350 degrees.

Then I topped with pizza sauce, 1/2 ounce of cheese, and put it under the broiler to get melty.  Then topped it with dressed chopped baby greens.

You guys . . . why have I never made fried pizza before??!!  The dough was so light and delicate.  Three points for the dough, 1 point for the pizza sauce, 2 points for the cheese, and 1 point for the dressing on the greens.   7 points for these two mini delicious pizzas!   Thanks for another amazing recipe Jessica!

 

And I know this is blurry, but had to do a Flashback Friday.  Our friend Rich teased our hair to the sky before we hit the bars.  I remember this night because we left for the bars at 10:00 p.m. and I was like “why are we going out so early?!”

Ah, how times have changed.  I am not in bed by 10:30 most nights, even on the weekends and up by 7 at the latest on the weekends.

Aqua Net hairspray was our go to spray, and I still have a can of it that is probably 30 years old and a bit rusty on the bottom, and every time Hannah cleans the cabinet under the sink she wants to throw it out, but I won’t let her.  

So excited for dinner tonight!  I am meeting a longtime blog reader and friend Julianne who is in Chicago for work from California.   I always love meeting blog friends in real life.  Can’t wait to meet you tonight!

Happy Friday my friends – make it a great day!