Unexpected Mini Vacation

My husband's best friend lives in Washington State, about 4 hours drive away.  Due to a variety of reasons, we have only seen him once in the last year, and it's been a year and a half since we last went to his house.  He has recently experienced some potentially serious health issues and my husband decided at the spur of the moment that we were going to drop everything and go for a visit.  You just never know what can happen, and you don't ever want to have regrets because "life" got in the way.

We left Saturday afternoon (after my 13 mile run) and came home very early Monday morning.

Here's us on the ferry on the way over.

These people are absolutely genuine, hearts of gold, good people.  I completely adore them - the whole family.

My husband met his friend about 10 yrs ago at a 4x4 diesel truck show.  They talked on the phone for months and then he came up and stayed with us for the weekend (pitched a tent on our lawn).  After that the kids came up with him for many weekends and eventually we went down to his place and met his ex wife (they have an amazing situation, they're divorced, but share a house and essentially live like a family, but yet there is no "relationship" between them).  It was the strangest thing for me ever to let a complete stranger stay at my home, which he admitted was one of the strangest things he'd ever done too ... but looking back I can't imagine our lives without this family in it and I'm so glad we did this.

The only problem I have staying with them is they are the most amazing hosts!  And food temptations are everywhere.  Not only are there all kinds of nummy treats around (chips, cookies, nuts, pretzels....) but my husband's friend is an incredible cook.  With him there is no such thing as low-fat, fat-free, or reasonable portions.  Everything is done on a grand scale.

Sunday morning we were treated to french toast with nothing spared.  Pork sausage, fruit, syrup, icing sugar, fresh juice.  I managed to stick to two small pieces of toast and some fruit. 

Then, because his son's birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks, they decided to break out the special occassion meal they were planning for that and had it while we were there.

Dinner was rib eye steaks (almost the size of a dinner plate and 1 1/2" thick - 1 per person), the biggest lobster tails I've EVER seen (8" long x 4" wide x 2" thick - again, 1 per person), two loaves of the most delicious homemade garlic bread and a few vegetables (I think mostly to appease me).

I had 1/4 of a steak, half of a lobster tail with lemon (no butter sauce), 1 slice garlic bread and some veggies.  I was COMPLETELY stuffed!  I actually felt guilty because I knew they had gone to alot of trouble (and expense) on this dinner and it was just WAY too much food for me.

I wish I had taken some pics ... but I'm pretty sure I would have gotten some strange looks.  They already don't quite understand our (my) eating habits, and I think they might think I'm a bit obsessed already.  When we left they told me not to lose any more weight - haha.

I think I'm still full from the meal!

We made a quick grocery stop on the way home (the US has so many more options than we have in Canada, plus certains things are WAY cheaper down there).

I picked up two frozen meals for lunches this week.  These were $1.80 down there and for a similar item here (you can't get these particular one's in Canada though) they would be closer to $4.

Yesterday for lunch I had a Lean Cuisine Vegetable Eggroll (310 calories, 5g fat)

Very good!  Really it's all about portion control.  I could probably put together something like this pre-made at home for about the same calories.

Today I had a Smart Ones Chicken Enchiladas Suiza (290 calories, 5gt fat)

I wasn't sure if I'd like this.  I love chicken enchiladas, but I wasn't sure about the sour cream sauce.  I'm not a big fan of sour cream.  But it was VERY good!

Normally I don't like to eat many frozen meals.  They are typically loaded with sodium and all kinds of ingredients that I have no idea how to pronounce.  But they were kind of fun for a little change.  I think if I were single, and lived in the states, I'd probably eat this a lot more often than I should.  So cheap, they taste good, and portion control is done.

I also picked up a few packs of Flat Out Wraps.

Tomorrow I plan to make myself a yummy wrap for lunch.  Lots of veggies.  YUM!  These things are HUGE for 100 calories.

4 more days until my first half marathon race!!!!

Hope you are having a great day!

Heidi

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