Spice’s Bites – Jan. 16, 2010

How’s everybody’s weekend going so far?   Other than the rain, mine’s going pretty well.

I started off my 3-day weekend by sleeping in until almost 10!  Upon awakening, I promptly fumbled for my iPhone and began playing “Unblock Me,” this game my friend Lopa got me hooked on.   It’s a series of little puzzles where you have blocks going vertically or horizontally and you have to maneuver them to free one of the blocks.  Last night I was playing it for the first time and just couldn’t figure it out, but somehow this morning it all clicked.

Anyway, she called to let me know that there was a Waldenbooks closing at a mall near her and that all books were on huge clearance, like 60-80% off.  Now I love books and love buying them.  When they are on sale I have a hard time saying no.  And I did consider it very seriously, but in the end I resisted.  I had a hair appointment in a couple hours and just wasn’t sure I’d have time to get up there, take full advantage of the sale and get back in time.  Plus we’re trying not to spend so much money (which is ironic considering what we did later today).

Having exercised financial willpower, I was determined to do the same with my food intake.

My appointment was at 1 and I didn’t end up eating until almost noon because I dawdle so much.  I knew I probably wouldn’t eat for a few more hours so wanted to make sure I got something filling, which means lots of protein.

I made a quick fried egg sandwich — an egg fried in cooking spray, and then the usual accoutrements of my breakfast sandwiches (Kraft 2% pepperjack, Taco Bell hot sauce, light bread).  I heated up an Amy-Lu chicken andouille sausage on the side.  I love these sausages.  We get them at Costco and they are so versatile and they are only 100 calories each!

Next up was my hair appointment, which was desperately needed.  My hair had grown so much since my last haircut in August, and was starting to get too long and straggly.  I decided to steal my sister’s haircut and ended up getting quite a bit of my hair chopped off.

Here’s a before and after:

Before:  This was taken around Thanksgiving, but my hair had probably grown a little longer since then.

After:  Where did all my hair go??  🙂

And another view from the side so you can see the layering.  So there’s lots of layering in the back, and the front is longer than the back, although you can’t tell so much since my hair started flipping every which way.  Oh and there are sideswept bangs.   I can’t wait to style it straight so I can see how it compares to my sister’s haircut.  🙂

Okay, enough self-vanity.  I don’t plan on posting too many pics of myself on here, although a lot of you know me in person!

So after I got back, I was starving. Once Mr. Spice got over the shock of seeing me with my hair considerably shorter, he decided he was hungry too.  We were being lazy so we just heated up some frozen meals for ourselves.

Publix and Kroger have been having sales on Lean Cuisines, Smart Ones, etc.  so I decided to stock up on some for situations like today when we’re lazy and want other options other than fast food or going out to eat.

Mine was okay.  I added some extra spinach to mine and had to really spike it so it wasn’t bland.  I wasn’t crazy about the rice part of it, but the fish part was fine.  I probably won’t buy this one again.

We decided we needed to get out of the house for a bit, but the plans were up in the air.  We had originally planned to go out to dinner to celebrate me going permanent at my job, but the weather is yucky and I felt guilty about spending the money (again, ironic considering what we did later).  Since I have books piling up everywhere, we decided we needed to buy some shelves and decided to hit up IKEA.

But first some chocolate.

I love these chocolates.  I saw them on someone’s blog a while back and found them at Costco and decided it was a healthy food since dark chocolate and pomegranates are good for you!   I had a couple more handfuls after I took that pic.

IKEA was crowded as usual.  I found the shelves I wanted, but they were a bit pricey — almost $70 for one and I needed more than one.  We found some table lamps instead for the bedroom.  Now we just have to put the nightstands together that we bought the last time we were there . . .

As you know, when you walk into IKEA, the scent of cinnamon rolls accosts you the minute you enter.  It was almost dinner time so we were being ruled by our tummies and noses and decided splitting a roll sounded good.  Too bad they had just run out and it was going to be 15 minutes until the next batch.  Screw that.  I did pick up some other goodies for later though.

I love love love European chocolate.  It just tastes richer, and I know someone explained the difference to me once.

Anyway, since we came out shelf-less, we decided to hit up Target since I knew we could find shelves there for cheaper.  While we were there we just decided to pick up some frozen pizza for dinner.

We actually bought 2 kinds and decided to heat up both.  They were thin-crust, which Mr. Spice claims doesn’t fill him up as much as the regular kind.  We got an Archer Farms Roasted Garlic Chicken pizza and a DiGiorno Tuscan-Style Chicken Crispy Flatbread Pizza (which we had tried earlier this week and liked).

I took pieces from both kinds.  The one with the tomatoes is the DiGiorno and the other one is the Target one.  I added spinach to my half of the Target pizza.  Yes, I should have only had 2 pieces and salad, but oh well.

I’m off to digest my dinner and watch some LOST.  Target had seasons 1-4 on sale for 16.99 each and season 5 for 22.99 this week, so I used a giftcard earlier this week to get seasons 2,3, and 5.  Thanks, Mom and Dad!  🙂

Good night!