Completely OUT of vegetables on Sunday I played Supermarket Sweep in the produce section last night and spent about an hour prepping vegetables today. I see… I see… a GIANT salad in my future… yes, yes, a salad for sure.

First my gorgeous watermelon:

That should be enough to last a few days, wouldn’t you say? And that wasn’t even all of it, Ava and I each had a serving that I didn’t put away!

Then I attacked the produce drawer.

A lot of work but totally worth it, and it saves so much time, money and calories in the long run. A few days ago my sweet friend Jennifer asked if I had any tips for keeping veggies fresh, and it occurred to me today that THIS is my tip! If I take the time to prep everything and have it and ready to go, I’m much more likely to use it, instead of by-passing it in the fridge for something else if I’m in a hurry. And if I’m short on time to make something before we run out the door for in impromptu play date or picnic lunch, it’s easy peasy to throw a quick salad or veggie snack pack together. I don’t always have time to do it like this, but when I do, I’m always so glad I did.

Move along, blondie.

Ready to go!

My mom came over tonight to watch the girls while Zak and I went out to dinner by ourselves for our 8th wedding anniversary. We rarely go out to eat because I feel it’s too expensive. I’d rather spend the money on organic produce and jars of almond butter. I also feel like I can make it better and healthier for less money at home. Despite all that, it was nice to get out by ourselves and let someone else do the cooking and cleaning up. Apparently I’m not yet a hard core food blogger because I could not bring myself to whip out my camera at the restaurant.

I will say that tonight was an experiment. I kept a bunch of “healthy dining out tips” in mind as we perused the menu at the Italian restaurant. When Zak said he wanted the eggplant parm, and I had been thinking the same thing… I suggested we get one entree and split it, knowing they would bring us a HUGE portion, much more than we needed. Zak was game. We also ordered the artichoke spinach dip as an appetizer to share, plus salad and bread (that I passed on). Tomatoes, eggplant, artichokes, spinach, salad…. a nice selection of vegetables if I do say so myself. At the end of our meal we both agreed that we were completely satisfied but not stuffed, and we still had a nice selection of things to eat. He also said that he was full but if there was more food sitting in front of him right now he would have eaten it. Old Me would have too, so I was glad to have the portion control built right in to this meal.

With one appetizer, one entree and two drinks, our bill came to $6 thanks to our gift certificate! I was totally pleased with our dining experience and experiment!

We passed on dessert, thinking we would stop somewhere on the way home. After some stops at a few stores we realized it was getting late and we should probably be getting home to relieve my mom from her child watching duties. I wasn’t feeling like I needed dessert at that point anyway, so I was even more glad we decided to pass on something sweet at the restaurant after dinner.

Life is sweet enough without it.