Starting my Vacay with some Spinach and Artichoke Mac & Cheese

Hi there!

This day went by with the blink of an eye and I couldn’t have been more tickled because today was my Friday and the start of my vacation!!!

Wahooo, I am off until the 15th!!!

I had an incredibly eventful day at work, including my annual review. These are highly weighted at my job, so they can get quite involved and usually last around 2 hours! Luckily, I have wonderful supervisors and I truly love my job, so I was actually looking forward to it. And, knowing that you will be getting a raise is always a good incentive for sitting through them.

The review went so well. It’s also so affirming to be commended for your hard work, especially when work becomes crazy and you feel like the things you do go unnoticed. Well, my supervisors are great, because they do notice; they even shared specific examples of things I have done that I completely forgot about. I had no idea that some of the things were even perceived.

It was great to start my vacation on such a positive note.

I had another night to myself because Toly was going bowling with some friends from work. You can only guess what I had for dinner! Haha, I’ll get to that in a minute though.

After work, I came home and shredded with Jillian on level 3! (Or as I like to call it, the death level!) This level is definitely getting easier, but it’s still pretty intense. (I HATE mountain climbers!!!)

After my sweat fest with Jillian, I cooled down by taking Sammy on a walk and then I was more than ready for dinner by this point. So of course, since Toly wasn’t around, I made tofu. I do make it when he is around, it’s just easier to make it for myself because I end up making two completely different meals otherwise.

The meal was a complete creation from my crazy little foodie brain. I made Spinach and Artichoke Mac & Cheese Primavera with BBQ tofu. That’s a mouthful!

For the Mac and Cheese, I prepared Annie's Creamy White Cheddar Rotini Deluxe. (Probably the best kind I have had yet! Brian my dear friend, you MUST trust me on this, I think it could even surpass TJ's!) I portioned out my serving and then saved the rest for Toly (one of his favorite things on earth is leftover mac and cheese, so he will be getting this tomorrow) To my mac, I added chopped artichoke hearts, a big handful of baby spinach and a few sun dried tomatoes. The spinach wilted a bit with the hot noodles and next I added just a touch of some crumbled goat cheese to give it a little more flare. Awesome addition in mac and cheese by the way!

I roasted any and all of the veggies in my vegetable bin. (This is a fridge emptying week mind you) Let’s see, we had brussel sprouts, a little sweet potato, broccoli, zucchini, asparagus, mushrooms and tomatoes. Sprayed with some EVOO and Salt and Pepper and roasted for about 20 min.

Holy load of veggies here, guess what I will adding to my salad tomorrow?!?!

The Tofu was simply coated in a BBQ sauce and then baked for about 20 min.

I, of course, saturated my mac with ketchup and dipped my tofu in a little honey mustard. Two solid condiments that go so well with this meal. It was all magnificent.


Tomorrow, I hope to get in a long run first thing, but I hear it may rain so I’m not sure how that will turn out. I can only do 8 miles on the treadmill so that may be all I can get. Literally, I can only do 8 miles because the machine shuts off after 60 minutes! Crappy machine! I’ve tried everything to change this setting, but nothing works. No matter what I do, as soon as I hit 60 min (with a 10 min cool down) the machine says “Can not exceed 60 min” and dies. Oh well, I don’t think I really care to run longer than that on the treadmill anyways.

Then I will be cleaning, packing, shopping for food to bring, baking (maybe), and definitely getting that pedicure. It’s a must before the beach, right?

Well, hope you all had a lovely day.

PS- Today is National Frozen Yogurt Day and I hear Saturday is National Ice Cream Day! Whoever makes up these random food holidays is a genius. I think I shall make up my own sometime. How about National Oatmeal Day!

What Weird Food Holiday would you create and why??