Too lazy to post House Party photos

Oh man, it's late and I've got some MORE house cleaning/laundry to do. It never ends. It is for this reason, I will not (yet) be posting the House Party photos from my parents' Williams-Sonoma soiree this weekend. Mine, by the way, will be held on THURSDAY!

So instead, I'm going to tell you about something new I tried today. As I mentioned in my post race post, I had my first taste of Muscle Milk yesterday. This morning I tried another 1/3 of the bottle (bananas and crème) with a banana. It was a very banana-y breakfast. I think I liked it, but I'm not 100 percent sure, I guess :)

LUNCH

Then for lunch I tried two new items: POM light hibiscus green tea and Healthy Choice's Cafe Steamers, Chicken Pesto Classico. I've had TONS of POM drinks before, as evidenced by the following glass out of which I drank my lunch beverage:

I swear POM didn't pay me to write this post :) But if you work for POM, I wouldn't mind..... I don't usually buy POM since it's pretty expensive, but they were practically buy one get one free at Safeway last night. So I also got a Bossa Nova mangosteen passionfruit beverage. I've had floral drinks before and they're hit or miss. Either they're super flowery and remind me of drinking hand lotion, or they're subtle and delicious. This one was great! If it weren't so dang expensive I'd buy it again -- though I still have the other half of the bottle waiting in the fridge for another day.

Now on to the Healthy Choice frozen meal. If I don't make an abundance of dinner the night before, I'm pretty pressed for time come lunch. Enter the frozen meals. I've done a good job at cutting these down, if not out of my life entirely. But today, couldn't refuse. I think the idea of these plates is pretty neat: separated veggies and protein from a sauce, which you mix together at the end. I think this helps vegetables from turning into that nasty gloop they usually form in the microwave. Plus, it was kinda fun to assemble:

It wasn't bad, just could have used a bit more flavor. I suppose I could have added spices, but again, pressed for time. Then I threw an afternoon snack of honey Greek yogurt and cherries in my purse and headed back to the office. After someone got his lunch, of course. Only because he begged so pitifully for mine.

RUN

When I returned from work, I threw on the new outfit I bought at REI last night; this summer-like heat is getting to be intense already in the Valley. My friend Tori has been saying we should run practically all semester, so tonight we finally hit the streets. In all it was an easy 2.33 miles at a very mild pace, just to kind of unwind after yesterday's race. It felt great!

DINNER

After the run, I found J.D. hands-deep in making dinner -- for the second-straight night :) He put to work the new Calphalon grill pan I scored at the Williams-Sonoma dinner and spice-rubbed some chicken.

He had several burners going at once with quinoa and veggies tossed with garlic salt. It was at this point, I set to work on an appetizer for him, which could be called a post-run snack for moi. It was a caprese salad-inspired toast! I cut up a French baguette and then loaded it up with tomatoes, a slice of a mozzarella basil roulade and of course, olive oil and vinegar.

See the new dryfit tank top I bought!!! I love it, so cute!

I scarfed down my dinner while we watched The Next Food Network Star. Oh man, I love watching that show!! I wish I could be on a reality star show. That would be so awesome. If only I had fun talents someone would want to mold a show around.....

When that finished, I sliced an apple and dipped it in a little bit of almond butter and a little bit of dark chocolate almond spread. Then got to work French press-ing a soy latte. While owning Jeopardy!, well, if you don't count my answer on the final.

Ok, back to some more cleaning. And hopefully we'll know if we're moving or staying put tomorrow..... I'll keep you updated!

What can I say, I'm an international girl??

Oh my GOSH, I felt so Euro tonight. Wasn't able to get to dinner until after 9 p.m., speaking of that it's almost 11.... jesus where's my day??

Oh that's right, I SPENT FIFTY SEVEN HOURS OF MY LIFE THAT I CAN'T GET BACK AT WAL-MART. FML

Honestly, J.D. and I had a light list of items we needed for the house and seeing how Wal-Mart's the cheapest and I needed an oil change, off we went. I was initially told it would take about an hour until my car could be serviced. No biggie, we could waste an hour at Wal-Mart. We ended up browsing around for 1.5 hours and then I went to check and my car and noticed only two were left ahead of me. I figured it'd probably take about 30 more minutes then we could be on our merry way. Except, 30 minutes later, I was told it'd be another hour until my oil could be changed. At this point, it was almost 8 p.m.!!!! You've GOT to be kidding me.... so I asked them to cancel my service and we went home with several bags of things I didn't need as a result of wasting time in a super store.

Let's rewind a few hours. I got my House Party Game Night package FedEx-ed to me today!!! The Newly Wives opened my eyes to this website and I got selected to host the Game Night party! My package included a generous mix of snacks and Hasboro games for our party. I'm so stoked and ready to break into all these goodies:

Now, back to 9 p.m. After my last few French meals, my lunch at B.J.'s with our new interview candidate -- yup I'm on a hiring committee -- had me wanting to order fish tacos. Except, the nutritional facts side of the menu dissuaded me from doing so. When dinner finally rolled around, I couldn't get Mexican off my mind!

So I started by marinating some chicken in chili lime sauce and seasoning

Then I chopped up my little chicken breasts (in case you're wondering, I cooked for Mr. Fox who was on his run prepping for our 5K this weekend -- we're on different training schedules so today was my rest day)

And tossed them on a plate of natural Tostito's corn chips + Mexican blend shredded cheese. Into the broiler all of it went.

Can you tell that one of us likes cheese waaaay more than I do the other does??? While that was cookin' I got to work making myself a special treat. A Patrón pomegranate margarita on the rocks ;)

It was super hot today. I deserved a treat!

When the nachos were ready, I loaded them up with some fat free refried beans then turned it all into a taco salad-nacho hybrid!

My nachos paired well with a dallop of plain Greek yogurt instead of sour cream, heirloom tomatoes, lettuce, cucumber, carrots and Pace salsa.

Someone else enjoyed his plain nachos with a side salad along with a side of refried beans. We agree to disagree on our food preparations haha, but when all was said and done we both had the same thing over the course of the meal.

Well, that's it for tonight. We're headed to my parents' house in the Bay Area tomorrow (after a half work day... I love Fridays over the summer) for my mom's Williams-Sonoma Dinner House Party and then SUNDAY'S vineyard 5K race.

Bonne nuit!! xx

Continuing the fun with French cooking

After our successful Julia Child dinner last week, J.D. and I are going to have a second round at it tonight. When I went home to feed my dog and make lunch this afternoon, I turned on the Food Network and was watching an episode on Coq au Vin that inspired tonight's menu:

I found a few recipes to make it "healthier" by using less wine (most call for more than entire bottle) and recipes that suggest merely browning the chicken and not dredging it in flour before mixing it into the sauce. Seeing as how Mr. Fox and I hate mushrooms, we're leaving that off the recipe. We also wanted to add in the carrots, celery and potatoes right into the pot with the chicken! I'm so excited to make - and eat - coq au vin. On the side, I'm going to attempt something I just kind of thought up off the top of my head (since we have lemons): lemon butter green beans.

I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow!

In the meantime, the lovely ladies at Newly Wife have brought an AMAZING website into my life. It's called House Party and you sign up to host parties while companies send you things to stock the party and test out, from food to games to drinks to baby products. Sounds awesome. And I found the one calling my name:

The 2010 French Cocktail Hour Party sponsored by French Ministry of Food, Agriculture, and Fisheries!!!!

"Attention, French food and wine aficionados: celebrate the best tastes and treats that France has to offer, at the 2010 French Cocktail Hour House Party™ — Apéritif à la française! You and your friends will travel through the delectable flavors of France, from the comfort of home. Hosts of this fabulous fête will receive special items, including great deals on signature French food and wine — now that’s what we call joie de vivre!"

Gosh, that's so me!!! Promise, people, you won't try to steal my thunder and beat me out by hosting the party!!! If I get selected, you're all invited :) It's not until June anyways! Wish me luck (or la chance).