This weekend, I sent Brian to the grocery store with a carefully thought out list.  Grocery items on one side and meal plan on the other.  The problem with handing over the list, was I never conveyed to him I needed the list back.  As soon as the list switched hands, all recollection of the meals I painstakingly planned out (not really painstakingly, but took at least 5 minutes) went out the window.  Sayonara!  I do remember Wednesday was taco night, except I didn’t really put on the list for making tacos.  Except tortillas.  We have tortillas.

Tuesday was supposed to be leftovers, but I couldn’t remember what was for dinner on Monday.  How are you supposed to have leftovers with… well… nothing?  Luckily, we have been able to improvise without making another trip to the grocery store.  I’m trying to wean us off eating out so often and taking the easy, more expensive way out.  I’d like to make going out to eat more of a date-night affair, and less “Hey, can you pick up my favorite dish at that one restaurant we used to actually go inside and eat at?”

So tonight I worked with what we had, and it turned out pretty good.

I started with some quinoa in the rice cooker. 

While that did the work for me, I did some other prep work.

• Dice an onion
• Chop 3 cloves of garlic
• Chop a bunch of cilantro (BTW, way easier to wash the cilantro before you cut off the stems… way easier)
• Crush about a tsp of cumin seeds.  Why cumin seeds?  Amy, wouldn’t already ground cumin be easier? Why yes dear reader, if I hadn’t used the rest of the cumin in the chili I made a week or so ago.  You make due people, you find solutions.  Even it takes an extra 10 minutes to finely chop up the cumin seeds into a powder with a knife.

I mushed everything together with some black beans and corn and dinner was served.

Hmmm…. something’s missing

Cheese and salsa! Now its a party.

The quinoa and black bean salad was good, but it needed a little oomph.  A little zing, a little zahhh.  Maybe some lime juice next time?

I also added a Morningstar black bean burger on the side.  Black beans everywhere! And I feel grrrrrreat!

I motivated tonight and did my last day of Fitnessista’s Winter Shape Up.  I’m excited to start on Week 2 and even though its a track workout, I can adapt it to our elliptical machine.  Looking forward to doing walking lunges down the hallway. 

Brian brought a little surprise dessert home tonight, and after the workout, I dug right in.  I can’t even tell you the last time I had Yogurt land.

Perfection in a cup. 

The rest of eats today were the exact same as yesterday.  Repetitive, yes.  But easy prep work in the morning.

Now I get to sit back, relax, and watch episode after episode of Arrested Development.  And snuggle with this mug

Even if her puppy feet smell like corn chips.  No, for reals, her paws smell like stinky human feet.  Its unreal.  And don’t get me started on the gas.  Its a good thing she’s cute.