Since I have been such a busy bee, I will begin with the end of the week !

Busy Bee Cafe for  Lunch
I was quite excited to try Busy Bee Cafe since hearing good things from a professor about their use of local and seasonal foods. We have gone to “The Hive” before, which is their late night bar, but had yet to eat at the cafe. After meeting Andrea, I ordered “The Arugula Salad” which said it had “arugula, dried cherries, goat cheese with a citrus vinaigrette” for $8. I added Ahi Tuna for $4, but was clearly disappointed when I was given this small bowl containing only arugula and a dusting of white ( cheese?). The portion is deceiving in this photo below. That bowl was just higher than but about the same size as a regular cereal type bowl. The tuna was approximately 2 oz.

Thank goodness Andrea had ordered Fried Green Tomatoes for an appetizer! I ended up eating plenty of these to fill me up.

It was great to see Andrea and catch up but I will definitely rethink eating at Busy Bee again. The “salad” if you could call it that was merely a serving of lettuce, fresh and tasty, but just plain old arugula. I think it was ridiculous to pay $8 for lettuce! It was quite odd too because Andrea’s enjoyed her veggie sandwich with a side salad, which was rather colorful and large at $7. 

I came home after spending $20 on lunch really hungry! Jeff made me a fantastic (big) dinner of Spare Ribs, Baked Beans and Grilled Asparagus

The portion here is deceiving here as well so I thought I would mention that I do trim the fat and there is quite a bit of it to trim on each.  There is quite a bit of lean meat as well, so my intake of actual meat was probably about 4 oz. after trimming and sharing with Jeff.

Some other eats of the weekend include:
A huge peach and big bowl of Cinnamon Puffins

Smoked Salmon “Pizza” wrap

I threw some reduced fat cheese, steamed local kale, smoked salmon, and organic tomatoes onto a whole wheat wrap and toasted it for dinner! It was quick and rather tasty! The smoked salmon is from Trader Joes and from a new vendor, it was $1.99 for 2 servings. I really enjoyed it compared to the last time I tried a smoked salmon from TJ, which ended up being way to salty. This was just right!

Jeff is such a great fiance! He grabbed me lunch from William’s Gourmet Kitchen but I will do a separate post for that!

Dinner last night was also courtesy of the Super Future Hubster, Jeff.  He did the dishes as well! That was so nice to come home late to dinner done, ready, and a clean kitchen! Thanks babe!

BBQ chicken breasts, roasted corn and beans with extra veggies and garbanzos! Lots of antioxidants, fiber and protein – my three favorite (food) things.

Body:
3 mile run! I haven’t run since the beach that first week of August so it felt great to get going again. I am still hoping to train for a marathon this year but realize I may not have time to get up to 26.2 after this break from my wisdom teeth. They throb every time I exercise, which is more annoying than painful though.

I am taking it really easy, seeing how much I can train and feel like I could at least do the half in November maybe a full by January.

Yoga! I did my own mix of moves to stretch out after and it felt fantastic!

Elliptical on Saturday, plus some upper body strength moves including planks, tricep extensions, and walking push ups.

Mind:

Homework! We had two problems for Food Service class which were using The Factor Method to re-calculate recipes for Carrot Cake and Pepper Steak. It was busy work, appropriate for a busy bee kinda day.

Other mental tasks this weekend included finding and reading an article on the DASH diet plan for Lifecycles Class ( Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension), working, and reading for Medical Nutrition Therapy.
 
I also managed to finish the first chapter in End of Food by Paul Roberts. So far it is a very interesting book and making me want to head in the direction of Nutritional Anthropology! It discusses how we began as meat eaters, our digestive system adapted to meat only. As plants ( and we) flourished, we soon evolved into eating fruits, seeds, legumes, nuts and still meat when available. It was not until many years later that grains were farmed by man, much like cows for dairy. The lactose intolerant population does not have the enzyme to digest dairy. I found it interesting that we might not have developed the enzyme to digest gluten, due to the later development of grain products.  Has anyone read End of Food?

Soul:
Andrea is moving to California and I just don’t know what I will do without her here! My friend left for law school, another friend went to France for the semester, and now Andrea is leaving. I am excited for her new adventure but hope she returns soon!

It was great to celebrate Nate’s birthday ( Andrea’s husband) this weekend AND I made decent money for my past few shifts at work!!! $$$$$$$$$$ I hate to say it, but it feels great to start getting some cash in the bank.

How was your weekend?