We had friends over for dinner last night. We’d called it a couple weeks out since getting friends together seems to take a lot of advanced planning these days with everyone’s crazy schedules (mostly ours) and busy lives. I have school Wednesday nights so I figured it’d be safe to have them over on a Friday when I’d have all Thursday night to prepare.

But then I got invited to Legally Blonde: The Musical and there went my free Thursday night!Total aside: I never saw Legally Blonde: The Movie all the way through, but I’m a musical geek and even though I knew this was going to be totally silly I was so excited to go! Plus it was opening night, I was going with a super fun friend, and tix were CHEAP! It was silly, as expected, but adorable, and I loved it! The talent was excellent and the story was cohesive (for the most part….there was at least one completely gratuitous dance number). Anyway, if you want a mindless night out, I highly recommend it!

So any plans of making something fancy for our friends were out the window. Instead, we had tortilla soup and turkey taco salads (As a true blonde, I totally forgot to take photos! Psssstt….the red is a ruse, if you didn’t know that.) We had tons of fun toppings at the table (corn, black beans, green chiles, tomatoes, guac, salsa), and we left off the cheese and sour cream cuz we’re all trying to eat healthier. Yay us!

Good food, a few laughs, some Olympics viewing (oh no Ohno!), and the night was a success!

So today we were psyched about all our Mexican leftovers, and after a long walk, when I was feeling shaky, I got into the tortilla chips and guac. Countless chips later, Farty Girl’s post was haunting me:

“….when your body craves a food, it’s often not good for you. Cravings are also signs that your body is deficient in some nutrient.”

I don’t crave them but there’s something about corn chips (to be fair, potato chips too) that once I start eating them, I cannot stop. Maybe it’s the *crunch*, maybe it’s the salt? It’s particularly bad with corn chips and that’s why even though they’re allowed on Jorge Cruise’s program, I hadn’t planned on including them. I just don’t want them in the house. I cannot think of any other food that I feel unsafe around except for corn chips, and I’m up to my eyeballs in chocolate and nut butters around here with no problemo.

Yes, they were organic and non-GMO. Huzzah! Yes, I’m grateful they weren’t Doritos, full of all sorts of preservatives and MSG. But I weighed less this morning than I have in 6 months and now I’ve probably set myself back.

Yes, I’ll live and I won’t gain 10 lbs overnight, but I don’t like that weakness. Damn you, corn chips!

Averie of Love Veggies and Yoga has a super nutty giveaway!

How nice of Naturally Nutty to let her have 3 winners!!

Could Carbzilla win her FIRST web giveaway??? Wouldn’t that be exciting?

I told Averie I wanted to try this one (despite there being 5 g of sugar per serving):Thanks, girlfriend, for a great giveaway!

Can't wait to see you in April!

…if Sunset showed a mid-life couple being chased by bees in their own backyard. I’ll make sure to post lots of those pictures this spring.

However, for Chris’ 40th birthday getaway (not to be confused with his Hawaiian birthday getaway which will take place later in the year), we will be staying here, as featured in this month’s Sunset Magazine:

Photo courtesy of http://www.rollinghuts.com/the_herd.htm

Don’t worry – there won’t be snow there when we’re going, but even if there was there’s an awesome fireplace inside.

I’ve said before that we’re island people, but we’re also small spaces people, oddly enough. It helps that neither one of us is very tall.

Chris was in HEAVEN when we drove the rented RV across country (a couple of bloggers have mentioned that dream – do comment if that was you!), while I was in agony with my herniated disc. I do like the idea of the RV in general….just not for a few more years. Let me at least pretend I have some youth left!

In the meantime, we’ll book these tiny getaways and explore!

This is where we’re spending my 40th birthday (anniversary) this year:

Thank you: http://eco-shed.ca/photo-gallery/

Looks like a Birthday Shed Showdown to me! We’ll be sure to blog all the details!

No Glump hash for me this morning. It was all about this beauty which, in our effort to “eat up” the pantry, used up the last half cup of Kodiak Pancake mix.

with pecans, almond butter, s/f syrup, half scoop Jay Robb and whipped "rice" cream. I won't even tell you how old that Rice cream was.

Then it was time to give Cady a B-A-T-H which we’ve totally made into a four letter word. Failed dog training on our part, but life is a lot easier since we moved to Seattle and decided home baths were so 2006 (the year I carried her up the stairs to the bath and herniated my disc).

Now we take her to Rub-a-Dub-Dog and speed through like we’re paying by the minute (which we’re not – it’s $20 no matter how long it takes).

Groomer extraordinaire, Chris, starts with a comb out. Can you sense how much she's enjoying this?

Time for the tub, l'il doggie!

You saw this coming, right?

She gets hand dried and blow dried. What a lucky pup!

I *may* have been accused of shirking my dog-washing duties by hiding behind the camera, but there’s not a whole lot of room for us both around there. I’m usually just popping her treats like they’re Valium and talking her down the whole time anyway. Though I do put on the rubber apron, just in case.

Once the cleanest dog in the WORLD was dropped off at home, we threw together a quick lunch (no pics) of freezer-burned Gardenburgers (Sun-dried tomato for me, double Portabello burger for Chris) on Arnold’s Sandwich Thins. To be honest, I don’t eat a lot of bread, but I’m beginning to feel like those Thins are a punishment. I’d rather just eat the burger on a salad or throw it in a 100-calorie tortilla. Sorry Arnold’s.

Then we were off to our Lawns to Lettuce class sponsored by Seattle Tilth! Our membership was a Christmas present to Chris, and I was really looking forward to taking this particular class. However, I had deluded myself into thinking that it was a walking tour of fancy yards that had been turned into vegetable gardens. Um, not quite.

The class was really great, but it was a working class….not a walking tour. My bad.

Anyway, I can fill you in on the details if you really want to know but here’s what you need to see. This plot was created in September, seeds were strewn, and then it was covered by a polyester tarp until today:

Voila! It's a salad!

Isn’t that kinda amazing? No one has touched that land since September! Crazy! So we learned to do that in our own yard, which we will do in our front yard….some day. We (meaning Chris, aka the dog washer) will get the back veg bed done first and then move on to the front.

One of the SUPER cool things we learned about was Coffee Chaff (which I didn’t get a good photo of, but you can look it up). Apparently, the cool dude at Upcycle NW is doing all sorts of awesome upcycling with coffee bits and donated some to Seattle Tilth – we used it in our mulch! I emailed him today, and he graciously offered us a tour of his plant to see how he upcycles all the coffee bean accoutrements that run aplenty here in the Pacific Northwest! You know how EXCITED I get about stuff like this (when I’m not bitching about school)!

We capped off the day with an awesome dinner of Vegan Ceasar salad and spiralized zukes in Averie’s Peanut Sauce.

Holy Smoking Yum Boats!

I adore me some Averie so you know it’s with love that I send  you into the labyrinth of Peanut Sauce recipes on her site. Just search Peanut Sauce once you get there – I can guarantee they’re ALL good. This one was Spicy Peanut Butter (oh crap, I just saw that they’re giving away a jar of The Heat is On with every $25 purchase – darnit!) with sugar-free pancake syrup, powdered ginger, sesame oil, and Bragg’s.

Chris, the dog walker/garden planter must know I love him if I’m willing to split the bowl with him. It. Was. Not. Easy.

Here’s a to a great Monday everybody!