Good Eats and Good Workouts

My sister Megan and her boyfriend, R.J., came to WA for a visit this last week. They live in Fairbanks, Alaska but R.J.'s in the Army and was just in the states for a 2 week R&R from Iraq. He's since gone back, but only for 3 more months! Megan is still here for 2 more days before she has to fly back to frigid Fairbanks. During their time here Phil and I have been working our normal schedule, so the only time during the week we've had to spend with them is dinner time! Since we live in Everett and they were staying with my parents in Federal Way, it made the most sense to meet up in Seattle. As such, we've been able to enjoy a few restaurants:

Mexico - This is a Veracruzan-style Mexican restaurant on the top floor of Pacific Place in downtown Seattle. The menu is awesome...lots of unique choices you won't get at your typical mexican restaurant, but also most of the traditional items you can't go wrong with (like one of my favorites, the chimichanga!) My family LOVED it here and we'll definitely go back some time.

The Pink Door - This is a quirkly little Italian restaurant in Post Alley near the Pike Place Market. They have a burlesque show on the weekend and live entertainment of some kind on week nights. We went on a Thursday before the show started, but the food was so delicious it made up for the lack of entertainment. Phil and I had been before so I recommended what I had the first time to my parents - I forget what its called but its white and green fettucine noodles (really FRESH noodles) with a wild mushroom and truffle cream sauce. So delicious! I had something kinda boring (pasta con broccoli) because I was trying to "be good", but everyone elses was quite awesome (lasagna, pasta bolognese, risotto). We had to try some of the desserts too...the creme brulee was fantastic! If you go, be sure to make a reservation a couple days ahead of time.

Here's a picture of all of us at The Pink Door:

This last weekend we went to Marie Callender's for lunch and tried their salad bar. Not the most exciting salad bar I've ever had, but if you're in Federal Way and are looking for a healthy and reasonably priced lunch, it's a good choice.

Tomorrow we're going to P.F. Changs downtown. Phil and I (and my Dad) have all been here before and enjoyed it. It's definitely not authentic Chinese food (as Phil pointed out the first time we went, not a single waiter/waitress was Chinese), but it's very good food and I'm looking forward to it!

So, with all this eating out, I've had to really made smart diet and exercise decisions. As most of you know, I joined Weight Watchers 2 years ago and lost 25 lbs, which I have kept off by changing my lifestyle and holding myself accountable with a once a month WW meeting. I won't get on my soapbox about how AWESOME Weight Watchers is (at least not on this post), but I will say that one of my favorite things about it is that I don't have to deprive myself of the foods I love and I don't have to feel guilty when I go out to eat...I just have to account for everything and make smart choices most the time so I can make naughty choices other times :)

Part of being a lifetime weight watcher is exercising....something I've gotten into off and on but never really been consistent with. I was doing pretty well about a year ago -- I attended a "Step n' Sculpt" class at the Boeing gym on a pretty regular basis. Then my condo opened up a fitness room and I figured I'd quit paying $25 a month at the Boeing gym and just work out for free at my condo. That worked ok for a while, but I eventually admitted to myself that I worked out much harder and more often at the gym and in classes, so I rejoined about a month ago. I started going to a Conditioning class which I fell in love with, and I was lucky enough to get into a special 8 week program the instructor was offering. It's kind of like she's my personal trainer, but she's training 20 people at the same time in a class format. I'm starting week 3 and I LOVE it! I'll post before and after pictures at the end of 8 weeks.

Anyhoo, that's about all for now. Nothing too mind-bloggling lately, but Spring quarter is about to start at school, so maybe I'll learn some really interesting things about financial analysis and project management that I'll be eager to share with you :P

Banana Cream Awesomeness - Mind Bloggling!

So what I'll try to do on this blog is mix it up between general updates on what's going on in my life and random things that boggle my mind.

For my first mind-bloggling post, a new recipe I just made up that is so tasty (especially considering how healthy it is) that it truly boggles my mind. I have named my new creation "Banana Cream Awesomeness" and here it is:

Take some reduced fat 'Nilla wafers and use them to line the bottom of a glass baking dish or glass casserole. Make one small box of sugar free/fat free banana pudding, and one small box of sugar free/fat free cheesecake pudding (you can mix them all together with 4 cups of cold fat free milk...very easy). Pour in dish or casserole on top of the wafers. Now what happened with mine was unplanned, but quite cool...the wafers on the outer edges floated up the sides of the bowl, but still clung to the sides, so it looked kinda fancy. The ones in the middle stayed on the bottom though, which was the point as they're supposed to be the crust (like banana cream PIE). If you find that they all float to the top, I think a solution would be to mix the pudding first, and then use small dabs of it on the underside of the wafers to get them to stick to the bowl, then pour the rest in. To finish it, slice up a banana and arrange the slices on the top of the pudding. Chill for 30 minutes or so and then serve with a dollop of fat free cool whip. DELICIOUS! I was quite impressed with myself ;) And the best part...a serving (3/4 c. or so) is only about 3 Weight Watchers points!