The never ending salad bowl

Today was quite the day.  It started with early 9:00am haircuts for both Peyton and myself. I hadn't had my hair cut in at least 9 months, and today Peyton had her very first haircut EVER.  She hasn't wanted to cut her hair because she wanted to be like Rapunzel, and I didn't want to cut her hair because I thought she'd lose her beautiful curls.  Well, her hair is so long that her curls are basically gone, so I was ready for it to be cut.  And Peyton was ready for it to be cut because trying to brush through the rat's nest that was the bottom of her hair became very painful. I talked to her about getting her hair cut earlier this week while she was yelling at me about brushing her hair, and she surprisingly agreed that it was time.  Austin and Paul go to Great Clips. I was absolutely not taking her there for her first hair cut.  They butcher the boys' heads almost every time.  So I made us back to back appointments at the salon that my mom and I go to get our hair cut.  I was planning on leaving the house at 8:40ish, but when I came downstairs after showering at 8:30 to make my coffee and get Peyton ready to go, I couldn't find her. I asked Paul where she was and he said that she had been sitting in the car buckled since 8:25 waiting for me.  Think she was a little excited?? I asked her to come back inside for a minute so I could take a before photo of her hair and luckily she complied.

 

After the quick picture, I grabbed a travel mug of coffee and off we went.When we arrived, all the ladies were fussing over her like crazy since they all know my mom.  Peyton just smiled and smiled.  Then it was time to get down to business...

She was eating this all up. She felt like such a big shot with all the big girls.  She was smiling at the manicurists and eyeing the pedicure tubs.  I knew what she was thinking in that little head of hers; she wanted to do it all.  And you know what, if they would have had availability, I probably would have let her since she was so well behaved and was soooo excited to be there with mommy.  Instead, she just got a wash, a cut, and a blow out which created these beautiful locks...



After she got her adorable haircut, it was my turn. Neither of us did anything dramatic because I want both of our hair to be long enough to put up for the wedding.  So, we both took about three inches off. Just enough to take all the dead ends off and make it look healthy.  We ended our little morning date by walking down to Dunkin Donuts and getting her a sprinkled doughnut and two packs of Peppermint Mocha K-cups for myself, which were 2 for $20, in hopes that if my coffee is flavored I may use less cream.  I am enjoying a cup right now with a wee bit of peppermint mocha cream, and I am one happy, happy girl.

 

When we got home, Austin had decided to set up a craft stand.  My kids would craft for hours especially now since they got a ton of new craft stuff for Christmas and their birthdays.  His craft stand was quite impressive.

Peyton's job was to take the orders for the crafts. There were endless options: stamps, stickers, paint, pomp pons, tracings, drawings, or any combination of all of the above.  I was very excited and ordered a stamp/sticker combo and then was quickly told that it would cost me four cents.  Quite the little entrepreneurs I have. Good call on their part though because between Paul and I they made about fifty cents today.  They were busy little beavers hard at work for most of the morning.  It is still set up, so I am sure I will spend a pretty penny tomorrow too.

 

After lunch, we went to Paul's favorite place again and surprisingly left with only the three things we needed including the rotisserie chicken I wanted for dinner.  However, we did not escape without my children begging to eat at the food court.  Therefore, look for a extra snack listed down below as well as a confession.

 

 Enough about my day and all it's activities, this is a food blog after all.

 

Breakfast: I'm a dummy. I don't know why I would have promised egg muffins yesterday for today's breakfast when I had a 9:00am hair cut. So, sorry, but I did not follow through with that plan. In fact, I only had my one cup of coffee this morning.  I would promise to make egg muffins tomorrow except once I really read through the recipe today I realized they need to be baked in large muffin pans which I do not own.  I'm worried that if I used regular muffin pans the cook time may be off.  I plan to hit up Target and buy one tomorrow because there is also a flourless chocolate cake recipe I want to try that requires the large tin too.

 

Lunch:  I had four Boars's Head beef pastrami rolls.  I stuck a Clausen dill slice in each one with a little whole grain brown mustard.  I also had a large pear. I thoroughly enjoyed my lunch. I cannot say enough good things about Boar's Head. I'd like to note though that because there are no nitrates, the lunchmeat does not last very long.  Therefore, only buy enough for 2-3 days at a time.  You can freeze it. I have never tried it, but I know my MIL does it all the time and says it is just as good defrosted. She just leaves it on the counter or in the fridge to defrost. 

 

Dinner:  I did keep one promise from yesterday's post and made Cobb Salads with homemade balsamic vinaigrette.  It was all super easy to do, but it can be time consuming if you haven't done any of the chopping ahead of time.  It also could be very time consuming to cook the chicken which is why I almost always buy the Costco rotisserie chicken for $4.99. This is a steal!!!!  It is so good and feeds us for at least one and a half meals.  I only use the white meat and throw away the skin, so it meats the Paleo criteria. I love veggies, but I like very few veggies that typically go on a salad so mine and Paul's salads look very different. This is all we ate tonight as they were huge. Paul thought mine was growing in my bowl. It was like the never ending salad bowl, but we both polished them off. Nicole and Paul: 1 Salads:0

 







Paul's Salad: Romaine, spinach, tomatoes, cucumber, carrots, red and green peppers, egg, ham, chicken, avocado, kalamata olives and croutons. He used buffalo ranch dressing.

 

 

My Salad: Romaine, black and green olives, cucumbers, chicken, avocado, craisins, raisins and egg.  I used the homemade balsamic which was to die for!!!

 

Balsamic Dressing

3 tablespoons EVOO

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon spicy brown mustard

1 tablespoon minced fresh dill

sea salt and pepper to taste

* Whisk all ingredients together. Yields 1-2 servings

 

 

Snacks: I had my typical pack of fruit snacks after lunch, and I am enjoying a few chocolate chips now with my coffee. AND, I had a snack at Costco. Our Costco started selling BBQ beef brisket sandwiches with coleslaw about two months ago. I have been dying to try it, but we never seemed to be there at a time where a brisket sandwich sounded good to me.  Well today at 2:30  it sounded good to me.  However, it is not what you think.  This is not my confession.  It was absolutely huge, so I shared it with Paul.  I threw away the bun and ate only the brisket and the coleslaw. I couldn't tell if the coleslaw was vinegar or mayo based, but if it was mayo based it had very little in it because it did not seem creamy at all. IF it was mayo, this would be a tiny cheat and count towards my 10%. So, confession time. Peyton got a hot dog which comes with a drink for a whopping $1.50.  I got a Pepsi for Paul.  If you remember several posts back, pop is kind of my kryptonite.  I took some sips. I hated myself for doing it, but I just couldn't resist.  It tasted so good, BUT I kid you not within ten minutes I felt bloated and extremely uncomfortable. It was the worst I've felt all week.  That's all I needed to remind myself why pop is so bad for me.  I am much more confident now that I will not cheat again with any sort of pop.  I did not feel normal again until right before dinner.

 

Tomorrow we may take the kids to Go Bananas in Norridge. It is an indoor amusement park that we have been talking about going to for weeks.  Plus, we may go to Rex's Italian Foods for lunch which is about two blocks from Go Bananas. We have never been to Rex's but it was featured on DDD and going to DDD restaurants is kind of our thing. I absolutely plan to stay Paleo while dining out, but it always presents a challenge.  As for dinner, that will really depend on what time we get home from Norridge. We do have plenty of leftover chicken, so maybe I'll make some kind of soup.  Overall, today was an amazing day with my kids. I cannot wait for another fun day of activity and clean eating tomorrow!

 

XOXO