The GREAT: that’s one of my oldest, dearest friends in the new Volkswagon commercial where she’s playing “Punch Buggy” with the VW salesman. It’s playing throughout the Olympics, and I’m super excited for her! Anyway, back to our regular blah blah programming….

There’s no doubt I’m a Coupon Queen so I was super-psyched to get my free Eggland’s Best coupon for a dozen eggs from FoodBuzz. Blogging has its privileges.

(Don’t make me get all disclaimer on your firm behind – I got free eggs but was in no way obligated to write a stunning review.)

No lie, Eggland’s Best has always been our eggs of choice unless we’re at our fancy pants grocery store that carries local eggs (at least they say they’re local. Frankly, I haven’t done my research). I’ve just been an Eggland’s fan right out of the gate – probably because their packaging is informational, not some mysterious blank slate of cardboard. Good work, Eggland’s Best!

Of course, you know taste keeps me coming back.

So here’s my breakfast pre – Eggland’s:

Arnold's Whole Wheat Sandwich Thin, Sabra Hummus, PepperJack cheese.

And here we are…..Reunited and it feels so good…….GREAT breakfast:

That's a breakfast sammie!

You all know I am madly in love with my breakfast smoothie, but I’m trying to mix it up a bit and the Breakfast Sammie still allows me to have one hand free. I’m a multi-tasker, what can I say?

The GOOD:

Hello, Spring? Is that you?

It was a Bluebird Day as they keep saying about Vancouver…..whatever the heck that means; it was 60 degrees and not a cloud in the sky today here in Seattle. Last night I walked Greenlake after work (2.8 miles) because the weather was just too good to miss.

That was the first time I’ve walked the lake alone with only my IPod to keep me company. Oh yeah, there was a guy rollerblading in a full skunk costume too, so I wasn’t totally alone (and there were “normal” people too, but the skunk guy really made an impression). I’m trying out walking right after work and letting the dog “hang out” a little while longer (we used to have a dog walker….that’s a long story I’ll tell another time). Not that I don’t love my lake walker friends but there’s something to be said for just “getting ‘er done.”

I’ve been eating differently for a couple of weeks without making any huge changes in my exercise, and I have to say that the shape of my legs is changing. I haven’t seen a whole lot of movement on the scale, but I really think my pants are bigger (i.e. my legs have gotten smaller). I guess this is where a tape measure would come in handy, hunh?

Anyhoo…..thigh circumference not withstanding…my biggest challenge of late is to eat through our food collection. It’s kinda fun since I know there’s nothing BAD in there….just more of a question of does anything actually go together?

(If you get queasy easily, you may want to stop reading now)

So last night, I threw together three on-the-brink-of-slimy-but-still-edible Portabello mushrooms, a pretty old tube of refrigerated polenta, and the rest of the Aidells chicken and apple sausages.

Yeah, that’s not really gonna work.

Before he left for his run, Chris jokingly mentioned adding some Portabella soup we had in the cupboard. I decided I’d add the soup, a little bit of Xanthan Gum, and a packet of Lawry’s Stroganoff mix that I brought with me from New York 3 years ago. Is it kinda a miracle we’re not both in the hospital right now?

Behold the UGLY, which we’ve decided to call Glump:

It actually tasted better than it looked.

The GOOD news is that we’ll never have to eat that again! I could have eaten any two of the ingredients together but that third wheel, whichever one you want to pick, just made it a confusing mess. But, hey, that’s three less ingredients in the fridge!

By the looks of the fridge above….and the pantry below….

and the snack bin …

How many people would you guess live in this house? Two adults and four ravenous teenagers? A town full of bloodthirsty vampires? The entire US Snowboard Cross team?

(Not shown – outside fridge and TWO freezers)

Not counting the pets (because I’m too embarrassed to show you their snack bin), there are only TWO of us eating from this plethora of food options. Seems a bit out of control if you ask me, and it’s ME we’re talking about!

I love having a variety of choices…but the whole issue came up this weekend when I had to throw out a brand new package of whole wheat pitas that had gotten moldy before I was able to make pizzas with them. Then I had to throw out salad greens this morning. The waste is killing me!

I pack lunch every day for work, and we eat breakfast at home every morning. I eat dinner at home almost every night, and Chris may eat an odd combination of this and that usually after I’ve gone to bed.

Apparently, we are over-shopping.

The new plan is to not go to the store except for fruit and veggies (and beer and wine, says Chris) for the rest of the month. We’ll see what meal combinations we can come up with from all this ….

Okay, yesterday I was going to run off with Eric Bana, but today is Valentine’s Day and, as usual, I woke up with my real life husband who’s pretty hot in his own right. Though we said we weren’t going to exchange gifts, he surprised me with a very sweet card, Obama-famous Fran’s dark chocolate grey salt caramels, and – how have I lived this long without them – a pair of Squirrel Underpants.

Alright, I guess I’ll keep him.

PS. I bought him the self-charging flashlight at the Vashon Country Store and Gardens that he wanted yesterday…um, I’m not getting any Wife of the Year awards anytime soon, am I?

We only had one thing on the agenda today: We were going to help a friend’s mom remove rhubarb plants from her Pea Patch over in Bellevue. Helen, is an amazing woman in her early 80′s, and I’ve known her daughter since high school. Helen had just gotten back from a week of cross-country skiing in Eastern Washington, but even she admitted that maintaining a Pea Patch, miles from home, was more than she could handle these days.

I had the easy job - photographer and cheerleader.

I actually learned a LOT about rhubarb today. One: it grows out of a bright red-orange balloon-like bubble….

What? Me make phallic vegetable jokes? Never!

See the leaves emerging on the right? Weird, right?

Two: the roots conspire underneath the ground and create a large stump instead of long, singular carrot-like roots like I would have imagined. Thus *maybe* just possibly resulting in this:

Oopsie. Good thing someone got a Lowe's gift certificate for Christmas!

We gathered all the rhubarb we could, as well as what might be green onions and/or leeks. We would have done it for nothing, but, of course, she sent us home with quite a bounty.Though we couldn’t stay for her generous invitation of lunch, you know we’ll be back when it’s time for pie! Helen’s such an inspiration – I can only hope I have her spirit and energy in my 80′s.

Our big plans for V-Day dinner were to roast a chicken, but there wasn’t a single roaster to be found at our local grocery store so chicken strips (with whole wheat panko) it was. Seksi.

Tomorrow we’re going outlet shopping and then to a late showing of Avatar. I didn’t have the day off but took it off anyway because someone didn’t want to spend a holiday alone. Hint: it wasn’t Eric Bana.

It is not unusual for us to put the dog in the car…Drive an hour or two…And hop on a ferry bound for somewhere we haven’t been. This Saturday was no different. In my combined 12 years of living in Seattle (9 growing up here and 3 being back), I have never been to Vashon Island so today we remedied that.

We are island people – not in a Jamaican sense – but in a “We like to be surrounded by water” sense. One day we’d like to have a tiny cabin by the water…or something like this:

This house photographed more shacky than eco-modern but trust me on this one.

Vashon is pretty and has the advantage of being super close to Seattle, unlike the San Juan Islands which are a little more of a trek. People actually commute from Vashon to Seattle. We got super lucky with the ferry and got there in a little over an hour from our door.

We're diggin' the whole rocks in a wire fence thing.

Unfortunately, the weather did not want to cooperate and the rain got worse and worse. We drove around for a while, stopped into a nursery, ate roasted chickpea snacks (YUM), and called it a day.

Once home, I decided to celebrate Valentine’s Day early with a treat to myself inspired by Averie:

Oh yes I did!

In case you can’t read the ingredients on the sugar-free Vosges Bar, they are Mexican ancho & chipotle chilies + Ceylon cinnamon + dark chocolate. I didn’t even know Vosges made sugar-free chocolate! (Chris bought himself the Bacon Bar – we were feeling rich at PCC. What can I say?)

Feast your eyes, spicy fans:

Bwahm bwahm, chucka chuck-ahhhhh!

OH. MY. GOD. This is clearly why I don’t make candy in my own home (and even this time I made ONE). As much as I love Averie, all of her deliciousness would be huge trigger foods for me (same with Katie’s Fudge Babies), so I only admire them from afar. Except for on rare occasions such as this, when I happen to have two ingredients that just HAVE to go together.

And it’s Valentine’s Day, people!

I did share it with Chris. He wasn’t that interested and said the flavors were too intense. Wha???

Maybe I should have married this guy instead:

Equally hot and drool-worthy.

Even though I have a thousand things to do (school, cleaning, etc.), I capped off my Spicy Peanut Butter Cup eating with a private viewing of The Time Traveler’s Wife and cried my eyes out. The movie didn’t actually suck as much as I feared it would, but I think it helped that it was one of the few books I’ve read twice and LOVED from the very core of my being. I could go into more analysis of the adaptation, but I won’t bore you. I thought they made some interesting, but logical choices.

And, seriously, I could watch a half-naked Bana alllllll day long. You could make a movie of him at a laundromat doing whites, and I’d be glued.

“What, Chris? Oh nothing….just working on my blog. I’ll be right down!”

PS. I could also have seen Justin Theroux as Henry. Just thought I’d throw that out there. I’ll let it go now.