Day 268 – 270: Wonderfully Productive Family & Friend Weekend + New Recipe!

Thursday was a great day! I got lots of work done, used my lunch to get more stuff done at the house and once it hit 5:30 I was back to house stuff – just SO ready to get it all done! Austin got home and we hung more lights, put together more stuff, etc. It was a busy evening to say the least! I did make a new recipe from Aggie’s Kitchen – Bourbon chicken. OMG – SO good! Here’s the recipe for two servings:

10 oz. boneless/skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
2 tsp olive oil
½ garlic clove, crushed
1/8 teaspoon ginger
3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
2 tbsp apple juice
2 tsp light brown sugar
1 tablespoon ketchup
½ tablespoon cider vinegar
¼ cup water
6 tbsp soy sauce
1.5 cups white rice

Heat oil in a large skillet. Add chicken pieces and cook until lightly browned. Remove chicken. Add remaining ingredients, heating over medium Heat until well mixed and dissolved. Add chicken and bring to a hard boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Serve over rice. We LOVED it – tasted very authentic and spicy but sweet. A new favorite fo sho. Each serving had 496 calories, 6 fat grams and 61 carbs. Clearly, a little high on carbs! But this could easily be remedied by taking it down to ½ cup rice instead of ¾ cup – and maybe add some veggies. I tried to eat the veggies but I accidentally burned them (don’t look nearly as burned in the photo!) Anyway! Hope you try and like! I ended the day at 1,692 calories, 25 fat grams and 229 carbs. Here’s what I ate. Here's the final product!

Friday was a fun day! I volunteered with the special Olympics aquatic event at Emory with my department (Marketing). We started at 8:30 a.m. Typically we divide into groups: timers, escorts and ‘fans in the stands.’ We started by giving out pom-poms and out of no where this woman stops me, introduces me to her son and basically says he’ll be sitting with us and she’ll be back at 11:30 and is OFF! OMG I was so thrown off. I ended up having a great day though getting to know 13-year-old Michael and visiting with two of my favorite co-workers. He was hilarious and cracked me up! At 12:30 I headed over to my mom’s – yes- my mom got a place in Atlanta!! I’m so happy for her and couldn’t wait to see the new place (she moved in the night before). It was adorable and gave me lots of ideas for her housewarming gift! I was only there for a minute – had to get to Ikea to return some chairs and get a few things. SIDEBAR: This guy pretended to work for Ikea and helped me load my car but when he got done he asked me for money. Yeah – total peddler. Argh. Who carries cash? He kindly reminded me there is an ATM inside. Who knows their PIN #? I haven’t used an ATM since undergrad! By this point REAL Ikea workers approached and shooed him away. Grrrrr. That’s all I have to say. I ended up spending the afternoon vacuuming, cleaning and helping Austin hang more stuff. I finally got in the shower at 6 and then we had friends over! Two of our favorite couples came over and hung out! We just drank/played drinking games and they all stayed over. It was fun! Also – one of the couple’s little boy stayed over for the first time. He is SUCH a doll and did so well. Him and Reuben had a blast together!! I ended the day at 2,160 calories, 32 fat grams and 240 carbs. Here’s what I ate.

Here's the final Room! Sorry the pictures are so low quality - eek! Bad lighting! I'll take some good ones tonight!!

Saturday I woke up too early. Way too early. Only 5 hours of sleep. But I had to go! I needed to finish mom’s present and get over to her place to meet up with her and my sister and help out! I got up and raced to Target, Wolf Camera, Forever 21, Pottery Barn and then off to Decatur to her place. We chilled for a minute then headed out, had lunch (this yummy chicken breast with sage and artichokes on foccacio sandwich!), ran to Wal-Mart, Target, Lowe’s and PetSmart, then back to her place to put together an Ikea bookshelf (OMG – never again!) and decorate. We ended up at it until 11:30 that night! Lots of good times and laughs and her place is SO close to being done – WOW! But I had to go! I got home and passed out – exhausted! I had 1,801 calories, 188 carbs and 71 fat grams – so kinda high on calories and WAY high on fat! (I blame the sweets!) Here’s what I ate. Here's the bookshelf at mom's. Again - bad photo - that's actually a really cool lamp in the top left and the bottom right cubby will hold a throw blanket!

Sunday I woke up feeling like a trainwreck. My allergies and sinuses were in fullforce battling against me. I had a sore throat, cough, itchy/red/watery eyes, and I couldn’t stop my runny nose OR sneezing. Lovely. I stayed in bed most of the day only getting up for laundry. Finally I couldn’t take it so I showered, got ready and insisted on getting out of the house, which ended up involving a trip to Kroger and Trader Joe’s – fun! We got home and I felt much more energized. We put in season 1 of Veronica Mars (love it; love Kristin Bell; love the writing; etc.) and made 4 sandwiches, cooked 8 lunches/ 4 dinners and prepared snacks for the next few day – great evening! Afterwards I passed out from my Benadryl. I ended up at 1,567 calories, 223 carbs and 31 fat grams. Here’s what I ate.

The weekend was great! I’m so glad I got to see so many of my closest friends and my family. I’m really excited about having my mom closer to home (now 30 minutes away; before 4 hours away). Quick note about weight: still between 114 and 115. I need to post May’s assessment soon – I didn’t do as well as I’d hoped. Boo. But I DID do a lot and am ready for June!! Can't wait to catch up on your blogs - plan to read this evening!!