I just ate the best quesadilla, like, ever. It was the perfect size, the chicken was just right, the peppers and onions were in perfect balance sith the amount of cheese… oh it was so good. I ate the whole thing, even though I should have stopped about half way through. So now, I’m sitting on the couch, completely stuffed and uncomfortable and oy. Not my best moment. Which is why I’ll be googling “weight loss products” in the next few minutes. Yowza.
I admit that every year at this time, I get a craving for candy corn. It has to be Brach’s candy corn (with real honey!) and it has to be the traditional yellow and orange and white combination. It can’t be a different flavor, it can’t be the pumpkin shaped candy, it has to be the traditional kind or my craving won’t be satisfied.
And every year at this time, I purchase a bag of candy corn, and without realizing it I eat too much of it, which gives me a stomach ache and has me convinced that every dentist in the area and beyond – even a Plano dentist, I wouldn’t be surprised – will sense that I will be needing their services to fill at least three new cavities.
Oh, candy corn. I love you, but only in small doses.
This weekend, we stopped at a local pie shop – Homemade Ice Cream and Pie Kitchen, to be exact – and got some celebratory slices of pie. It was our anniversary, so consider them anniversary pie slices. What’s funny is that we went to the same exact pie shop after our courthouse wedding last year.
The pie at this place is so good that the only way it could be better is if it had could cure acne or reverse the effects of aging. It does neither of those things, but that’s OK, because it is yummy and they have so many varieties you can always get something different, depending on your mood.
Or you could be like me, and always get the blueberry. What can I say, it’s that delicious!
Or I guess I should say “Coca-Cola Cherry ZeroTM” since that’s the official name, but I think they’ll forgive me the post title since that’s awfully long and has that weird TM font that I don’t think I can code properly without the use of WYSIWYG technology. (Apparently I can’t do it even with WYSIWYG technology, as I can’t find the superscript button on Wordpress. Oh well.)
ANYWAY.
At the grocery store the other day, I realized that I can buy fridge packs of sodas since I don’t have to haul my groceries home in a backpack and up three flights of stairs like I used to in Chicago. Score! So I bought a fridge pack of Cherry Coke Zero, and I have to say it’s my go-to afternoon caffeine kick. I’m not sure why it tastes so much better than regular Diet Coke, besides the cherry flavor it’s just got some magical taste that I’m really enjoying. Maybe it’s a hidden weight loss supplements, maybe it’s just whatever sweetener their using, but I’m really digging them this week.
The sneaky people that run the cafeteria downstairs have put a small basket of Miniature Peppermint Patties right next to the chashier’s station, and they’re selling them for 10 cents each. So when you check out, it’s practically impossible to pass up grabbing one or two to eat after your lunch to, you know, freshen your breath.
I’ve been on a kick with them lately, and now my taste buds are convinced I have to have one (or two) after every lunch. What are the chances they’re laced with fat burners? Because my waistline is going to be adversely affected if I keep this habit up.
I’ve been trying to lose weight recently (again, some more, etc. etc.), but by doing simple things like moving more and eating less and drinking more fluids. I know that water is best, but it’s really hard for me to force down more than a glass of plain water. I bought a few of those Crystal Light individual packets to dump in my water bottle, and those have made all the difference.
For real, I’m drinking about 3 times as much fluid as I was a week ago. Granted, I’m making a few more trips to the ladies room than I was a week ago, too. But I have noticed that I’m feeling more energetic (a co-worker thought I was taking diet pills, because between the fluids and the sunshine I’ve been super chipper) and have been sleeping better, for the most part.
Eventually I might cut back on the Crystal Light and try plain water, but I figure if it gets me to drink more fluids? I’ll keep some handy.
You know I will always love you. You were the first super-fast, super-delicious, burritos-as-big-as-your-head type of burrito shop I ever visited, and that alone means you have a special place in my heart.
But here in Louisville, there are no Chipotles. And while I resisted as long as I could, the siren song of the fast-food burrito was too strong, and I had to feed the need for a chicken burrito.
Yes, Chipotle. I visited Qdoba. And I liked it. I even like the queso sauce on the warmed-in-the-weird-under-the-counter-drawer-thingy tortilla chips. I liked the chicken burrito, and I even liked that they had two choices of medium salsa.
Chipotle, don’t think of this as goodbye. Think of it as… a break.
Love,
Sweeter Lemon
Remember how I wrote that I’ve been taking my coffee to work more often? I still am, and I’m still loving the convenience of it. I’m still loving my fabulous travel mug (which I can’t find a version of online anywhere – if I do, I’ll definitely link to it!).
One thing I would like to point out – my fabulous awesome travel mug is leak-proof, which means it has a rubber seal to keep the contents from spilling all over the place.
Imagine my surprise when I realized I could remove the rubber ring and clean out coffee, milk and sugar that had built up underneath it. Yup. That’s an important lesson I thought I’d pass along. Yikes.
What I’m about to say isn’t news to anyone, but it’s something I had to figure out for myself.
Brewing your own coffee at home, and bringing it to work in a thermos-type coffee mug is WAY cheaper than buying coffee everyday.
I know! There is absolutely nothing extraordinary or revolutionary about that statement. It makes complete sense.
I’ve been buying my coffee every day at work from the “Starbucks” stand in the cafeteria of my building. Some days it would be a latte, some days just plain coffee. But doing that 4 to 5 times a week really adds up!
Now, I just put some coffee on to brew while I eat my cereal in the morning. Then, before I leave, I pour some in my travel mug, and head out the door. The coffee stays hot during my commute, and I’ve paid pennies on the dollar!
I feel a little foolish that it took me this long to figure this out. I was just a sucker for those white paper sippy cups, I guess. Now I’m a sucker for my silver metal sippy cup.
Continuing my theme of regional items you miss when you move:
When we lived in Chicago, Mr. Martini and I would have brunch at Orange every now and then. As the name implies, they have an orange theme underlying their menu, and even offered orange coffee.
I LOVED their orange coffee. Sometimes we would treat ourselves to a small bag of the coffee to bring home. I made sure that when we ate at Orange for the last time, that we got some of the orange coffee to bring along with us to Louisville.
As luck would have it, the last time we got the coffee was the first time we got a bag with the coffee company information on the label (maybe because every time before we got whole bean, instead of ground, who knows).
Long story short – the coffee is available online straight from the coffee company: Carrabassett Coffee in Maine. I splurged this week and bought 3 one-pound bags of their flavored coffees, and so far they are all delicious: English Toffee, Blueberry Cobbler, and (of course) the Orange coffee I love so much.
The flavored coffees are of such high quality, I’m sure that the regular coffees must be just as good (if not better). The shipping is flat rate, and can be a little pricey (super-fast, but almost as much as a pound of coffee itself) but they do offer discounts on multiple orders of one-pound bags or a huge 5-pound bag for the price of 4 pounds.
This may sound a little excessive for coffee, and I won’t be ordering it every week. But knowing that my beloved orange coffee is available outside of Chicago is a great, great thing.
