Oh Drear, Oh Drear!

Dreary, rainy, cool, crappy day today. To prove just how crappy the day has been so far, I finally put away my golf shorts nice & neat. Usually I just fold them, then pile them up after washing, after all I'm just going to put them on again and get them dirty in another day or two. :) I organized our closet while I was at it, as well. I think my topper will be digging into the smelly laundry next. Well, for goodness sake, who doesn't just love sorting one's workout clothing and getting it ready to wash. It is certainly a highlight of my week. Even tho' I have virtually no sense of smell, the workout clothing (both mine & Hubby Dearest's) seem to sneak through the one olfactory nerve that works. Tells ya something, doesn't it? One small bright spot....when I went into the jeans drawer, my old jeans are a bit looser than last year. My small NSV for the day. :)

I continue to work on my tailgate recipes. Several hours and several cookbooks later, I find myself wandering around Barnes and Noble. Four new cookbooks and another book later, I find myself at home, formulating my plans. I have actually gotten out an old notebook, made copies of recipes I'm going to use and divided them up according to the game day I'm going to use them. My organizational skills often amaze me, particularly when you remember that I have the attention span of a gnat. Must be where The Perfect Child gets it...organizational skills, that is. :) As a "for instance"....one game I'm doing Hawaiian Meatballs for myself. Four meatballs are 115 calories. Along with that I'll have some Chicken Schwarma. One serving of that is 300 calories. I'll use a low fat/low cal pita to accompany that. Both should be filling and delicious. I will also have almonds available for my "munchies" instead of the M & M's, Skittles, Combos, Peanuts and Popcorn. Those will all be there, I just won't be diving in head first this time. I might throw in a 100 calorie pack of Cheetos, and I mean ONLY one pack. If I take only one with me, I won't be tempted to eat the entire box!!! AND, in keeping with my plan, I will faithfully report just exactly how I did in regard to this new plan. No "fudging", no shading the truth, I'll give you the straight stuff. Promise.

Tomorrow is our team's week off because we play next Thurs. night. So instead of tailgating, I'll have a time off to cook and prepare for Oct. 17's game. This also gives me a little "lead time" in getting myself on the right track. I am actually quite happy about that, even tho' I miss seeing our team play. This weekend's events will kickoff with a trip to the Farmers' Market. A much healthier beginning to my Saturday, I'm happy to report.

I found an interesting website in one of the magazines I was perusing yesterday. It was an older issue of Taste of Home. It is a Belgian website, complete with blog, that has wonderful, if sometimes odd, combinations and pairings of foods. For instance, tonight I have chicken set out for dinner. Who knew that fresh cut grass goes well with chicken???? Well, this website told me it was so. :( Other combinations make much more sense, but I found many of the pairings interesting and unusual. I'm definitely going to try some of the suggestions. They put the pairings together according to main ingredient, the do kind of a "spokes of a wheel" chart of things that work well together. It's kinda fun to look at. I would use the fresh cut grass tonight, but it's too wet to mow, so I'll have to settle for a more mundane rendition of a chicken dish. Maybe next week, if the weather improves. I'll keep you posted. :)