Easter And Exhaustion

Hello dear ones.. it's Tuesday and I seemed to have missed my usual Saturday and Monday post. I am so sorry! I've been a little "unplugged" from the world lately. I'm just really tired all of a sudden! Bed time is creeping in earlier and earlier- which might not be a bad thing! But who knows why...

So Easter weekend you say? What did we do? Well, alot happened! First of all on Saturday, the Peanut got to go to the zoo with her Aunties and my nephew Caiden! Lucky!!!! She had a blast and didn't come home until about 8 that night. Party ANIMAL! What did I do while she was gone? I went to a salsa workshop with my dance class in Cranston. As you remember last week we had the "Historic Flooding" here in Rhode Island and the dance studio we went to was literally a stone's throw away from the Pawtuxet river. Brilliant! I got a couple of good pics of the roaring river.. Still going strong!


This place caught my eye though... soft serve!!!!! Yummy!

The class was absolutely AMAZING! Well worth the extra money to go and spend a beautiful afternoon inside for! I loved it and learned A LOT! I also appreciated how confident my dance teacher is in my dance skills- I'm only in the second level for dance class now and when it came time to split up into "beginner/intermediate" (my level) and "intermediate/advanced" (ummmm not me!) he made me go into the advanced class. Ego boost! It was a little harder, but I worked my tail off and did it. Good stuff you know?
So I don't know if you guys may know, but the last couple of weeks have been rough food-wise for me. I've had to talk myself into eating a lot of times and working out like a looney some days. Not cool. I'm a work in progress though I think and some days are better than others. Well anyway- I considered Saturday after class a success because I managed to talk myself INTO (and not out of) having soft serve frozen yogurt. With chocolate sprinkles. All while day-dreaming by the Pawtuxet. It is a small success, but because I can't remember the last time I let myself indulge like that- it's a good one. Baby steps my friends.. I told my C about it, who said I needed to have six more. He thinks I'm too skinny.. lol

So Easter came and so did the Easter bunny! I forgot to take a picture of what he brought the Peanut, but he brought me Starburst jelly beans! I love those things! Oh "Easter bunny" knows me so well!
But here we are in all our fancy dolled up glory! (please ignore my extreme whiteness- mama needs to lay out!!!)

It was the usual routine for Easter- church, food, egg hunt.. and nap time!
I made a lovely lovely dish that I borrowed from Christina (thanks girl!)- a polenta lasagna. I made mine with ground chicken, polenta rounds, Muir Glen marinara sauce, and "rice mozzarella cheese". I sprinkled nutritional yeast over the top of it and baked away. This is pretty simple to make I gotta tell ya! On Saturday I sauteed the polenta rounds and browned the chicken and set it aside. Then on Sunday I layered the ingredients. And baked it. Wow. So intensely hard!!!! Ha!
Here is a picture of it uncooked. I forgot to take a picture of it cooked!

EVERYONE loved it! I was as surprised as my mother was! I think the key thing was, I didn't mention the fact that the cheese was not "real" cheese. :) No one noticed. Shhhhhhh!!!! I thought it was amazing! The "cheese" melted like it was supposed to and did not taste fake at all. GOOD DEAL! Adding this one to my permanent recipe book in my head!
I did have to buy that cheese at Whole Foods though (argh- so expensive!) I also bought some Amazing Grass products to try at the same time.. only becuase I came across a blog post of Christina's (girl I blogger-creeped you this weekend..) where she mentions that Amazing Grass has all but rid her of chronic headaches. If you know me, I always have a freakin' head ache. So I got some to sample see if I liked it enough to buy it on a regular basis.


I tried this bar yesterday afternoon. Despite its questionable looks and odd taste at times, it was quite delicious. And the best part was it kept me full for hours- which is completely weird. I eat like a cat- only a little bit at a time and I eat something almost every couple of hours. I think my metabolism is all out of whack though because no matter what kind of meal I eat, I'm hungry again three hours later- whether it's a huge burger and fries or it's a yogurt sprinkled with granola. Strange! But anyway- although the taste was a bit weird for me- I kinda liked it! It wasn't too bad! I have some of the chocolate "amazing meal" stuff so I'll give that a whirl sometime this week as well.

Well anyway, I have to get back to work. You know, so I can do. Work. *gasp*

I'll be catching up on your blogs soooooooooon. Tomorrow night probably- I have dance class TONIGHT! Whoooooo!