June 27, 2011- Chicken Strips and Fruit Salad

A few weeks ago I bought a new kind of chicken strip for Katie.  The strips seemed to be restaurant styled, which Katie usually likes.  The instructions said they could be baked or microwaved.  Well, each attempt to microwave them has resulted in very rubbery chicken that she hasn't eaten.  Tonight I decided to bake them for the whole family.  The chicken was much better baked than nuked.  I suppose I knew that already, but I am glad they were good baked.  

I made a fruit salad of pear, banana, raspberries, mandarin oranges, and grapes for our side dish.  Katie had oranges and grapes.  She is quite fickle about her bananas.  She has never eaten them pre-sliced. She went straight from mashed to whole.

June 13, 2011- Pizza, Chicken Strips, and Phad Thai

Tonight I got a chance to go out for a movie and dinner with my good friend Melissa.  I realized that we've known each other for 10 years now.  I can't believe it's been that long!  Katie came downtown with me and had dinner with Ben.  They went to Gordon Biersch where he had a pizza and she had chicken strips and carrots.  After dinner, they took the bus back home.  Katie had a blast on the bus!  Ben said she did great on the bus, but wanted to be a bit too independent when walking from the bus stop to the house.  He had to keep moving her back to the side of the road.  Apparently, she prefers to walk down the middle of the street. 

After watching Bridesmaids, which was hilarious, Melissa and I had dinner at Thai Ginger.  I had Phad Thai with chicken while Melissa had a curry dish.  What a fun night!

June 9, 2011- Left Overs

We ate in shifts tonight.  Katie was hungry first and had a chicken strip which she dipped in ketchup.  Ben had a long commute home, so I ate by myself after getting Katie cleaned up.  I ate left over mahi mahi from Tuesday with a salad.  Ben ate a pork chop left over from Wednesday when he got home. 

Friday, 4/22/2011

Tonight we drove to Spokane to spend Easter with my family.  Katie and I met Ben downtown for dinner before starting our drive.  In the past we have headed straight out only to have to stop for a meal an hour down the road.  It seemed, since we were not able to leave before 5pm, that having dinner first would be better for traffic and our stomachs.  We went to a Red Robin just a block away from Ben's office. 

Katie had chicken strips and fries with ranch dressing and chocolate milk.  Ben had buffalo wings and a side caesar salad.  I had a bacon cheese burger without the bun and a side salad.  I ordered the burger in a lettuce wrap.  Well, that was just way too much lettuce.  Yikes!  I ended up pulling the burger out and eating it on it's own.  I sure did miss having ketchup on it.  It is amazing how much sugar is in a tablespoon of ketchup.  Too much for maintaining a low-carb diet right now.  

Our dining and travel plans worked perfectly.  We only had one minor slow down on our way to Spokane and didn't have to stop.  We are looking forward to a lovely weekend with our family:)

Wednesday, 1/12/2011

Katie and I met Ben downtown tonight for dinner at Ivar's.  We had a great meal there last week and decided some chowder would hit the spot tonight.  Ben and I shared a caesar salad and then each had a bowl of smoked salmon chowder.  Katie did a pretty good job eating her chicken strips and fruit.  She gobbled down the grapes, slurped on the pineapple chunk, and turned her nose up at the melon offering. 

The kids menu is printed on the back of a paper diver's mask with the eyes and nose cut out.  There are rubber bands on the sides that can be slipped over your ears to hold it in place.  Katie enjoyed wearing it, but really liked to make "momma wear" it. 

Sunday, 8/15/2010

We took our time getting out of Portland today.  Katie ate breakfast twice while Ben, Spencer and I got ready, packed, and loaded the car.  Then we drove to Cadillac Cafe, near Lloyd Center on Broadway, for breakfast.  It took a while to get a table, but the food was worth the wait.  After breakfast we went to the Portland Saturday Market.  We did our best to stay in the shade, because it was HOT outside.  We perused the art booths while drinking refreshing Italian sodas.  Katie kept dumping water on herself in her stroller, so we decided to let her play in the Salmon Street Springs fountain in Waterfront Park.  I think she was a bit overwhelmed at first.  There were lots of kids running around her, kicking and splashing water and screaming with excitement.  It didn't take long for her to drop into the water and enjoy the spray.  Eventually, we had to dry her off and get on the road for home.

We stopped in Olympia for dinner at Ruby Tuesday.  Katie had a pretty good melt down while we waited for our food to come out.  I must admit that I was a bit embarrassed by her behavior.  Thankfully, she settled down pretty quickly after her food came to the table.  She had a little macaroni and cheese and a chicken strip dipped into marinara sauce.  Ben and I shared two appetizers--beef queso dip with tortilla chips and the four way sampler.  The sampler included chicken strips, fire wings, southwestern spring rolls, and fried mozzarella.  I didn't think the dip had enough beef in it, and both Ben and I expected it to have more heat.  And the sampler items were all just so-so.  Nothing stood out as exceptional with our meal, but it was good enough to finish.  Spencer had the peppercorn mushroom sirloin.  He said the sauce was good, but didn't comment on the meal overall. 

It was a wonderful weekend, and we are glad to be home:)

Sunday, 6/20/2010

Today did not turn out as we expected it to. For his birthday, I gave Ben tickets to go see the U2 concert this evening. Unfortunately, Bono had to have emergency back surgery about a month ago and the concert was delayed. So, that was the first crack in our plans.

Our back up plan to the concert was to go out for brunch at Swinery Meats. We've been reading about the Swinery's Inner Sanctum, a courtyard in which they serve deliciously prepared brunch and lunch items, on the West Seattle Blog and Facebook for weeks now. Father's Day seemed like it would be the perfect day to visit the Inner Sanctum. But no, it rained all day. We weren't thrilled with eating outside in a courtyard in the rain. Plus, Katie fell asleep in the car between church and the Swinery. Second crack!

We decided to head home so that Katie could finish napping. Ben exercised, I did finances, and Katie did not sleep in her crib. She chatted away for an hour or more. Finally, we took off for Renton to have linner (lunch/dinner) at The Rock- Wood Fired Pizza. It was super tasty. Katie enjoyed blueberries, cheese, and animal crackers while Ben and I shared Inferno Chicken Strips--boneless chicken strips, seasoned, deep fried, and tossed in hot sauce. YUM! Then we each had personalized pizzas. Ben had the "My Generation" pizza--cream sauce, peppercorn ranch dressing, tender pieces of chicken, thick bacon slices, swiss and mozzarella cheeses sprinkled with fresh parsley. I chose the "Slow Ride"--chicken, hot sausage, dry-aged pepperoni, roasted peppers and crushed garlic in a cajun cream sauce, topped with mozzarella cheese. Thankfully, no more cracks:)

I made ghirardelli dark chocolate brownies for dessert. Ben nuked them a bit, right before serving, and topped them with dark chocolate mint and vanilla ice cream.

The day didn't end up playing out the way we planned it to, but it still ended up being a good Father's Day.