Good morning! This post is going up a tad late today…I had a bit of a late night/insanely busy day in general yesterday. The busy-ness started with my weekly grocery shopping/meal planning.

Produce

• potatoes
• bananas
• Ambrosia apples (local apples out of the Niagara region. They taste similar to Honeycrisps, but they’re way cheaper!)
• tomato
• spaghetti squash (I’ve never actually made spaghetti squash, so we’ll see how well this goes)
• grapes
• green beans
• an avocado
• unpictured baby carrots

Proteins/Dairy

• local old cheddar
• Whole chicken
• herb and garlic cream cheese
• cheese strings (on sale. They make an awesome snack!)
• sour cream (Yes, I eat sour cream sometimes. Full fat. It’s delicious)
• ground chicken
• lunch meat – sliced chicken
• unpictured egg whites

Frozen

• Frozen meals
• frozen stirfry veggies
• Deep ‘n Delicious vanilla cake (Going for major girlfriend points here – Eric was mentioning a few weeks ago that he loved the vanilla version of these cakes, so I’ve been keeping my eye out since but haven’t been able to find them. I finally stumbled across them yesterday, and on sale, no less! Whenever I eat these, I just scrape off the icing – the best part)

The Rest

• coffee (For Eric, clearly)
• travel sized deodorant (so I’m not as smelly after my mid-afternoon workouts )
• Frosted Flakes (all over the girlfriend points this weekend, clearly)
• taco kit (tacos are absolutely on the menu this week)
• toothpaste
• notepad (for scribbling thesis related observations/inspirations)
• printer paper

Due to a couple of extras I went a bit over budget this week, but it happens!

Meal Plan

• Saturday – out at Eric’s company Christmas party
• Sunday – out
• Monday – salmon sandwiches
• Tuesday – roast chicken and veggies
• Wednesday – chicken stirfry
• Thursday – tacos
• Friday – roast beef and mashed potatoes

Tuesday I’ll be cooking the chicken in the slow cooker…my favourite method to cook a whole chicken! It’s how my mom always made it growing up, so it definitely reminds me of home.

It’s Getting All Christmas-y up in Here

Last night, Eric and I headed out to his company holiday party. The party was held at Carmen’s in Hamilton; which part of the Best Western hotel chain. His company was nice enough to offer busing from Brantford to Hamilton, saving us from having to make the drive.

We floated around for a bit before getting seated for dinner. Carmen’s definitely knows how to decorate for Christmas!

Absolutely gorgeous.

When we walked in, the first thing I noticed was a chocolate fountain. Of course, I headed straight for it – I love those things!

So much fun – they had all the usual chocolate fountain options (fruit and marshmallows) but they also had graham crackers, biscotti and rice crispy squares. Rice crispies and marshmallows were definitely my two favourites.

This made me want to drag out my chocolate fountain, if just for my own amusement (fun fact: my parents and I each have mini chocolate fountains that we got the same Christmas – I want to get one going with dark chocolate and the other with milk or white chocolate, and have dueling fountains. Wouldn’t that be awesome?)

After socializing with and meeting Eric’s coworkers, we got seated for dinner. I was expecting buffet style, so finding out that we were going to be given a seated multi-course meal was pretty awesome.

A few glasses of wine consumed throughout the evening:

I couldn’t tell you what kind it was; I just know that it was white. And the bartender filled this glass right up to the brim – I don’t mind getting my money’s worth!

A crusty roll with butter to start:

(ignore the fact that I accidently managed to put a hole through the top with my thumb)

Followed by the first course: cheese ravioli.

Although the pasta was tasty, they were a tad scimpy on the cheese filling – I prefer a more even pasta/cheese ratio I ate about 3/4 of the plate and handed it off to Eric – I wanted to save room for the rest of the meal.

Main course: stuffed chicken with potatoes and veggies.

The chicken was absolutely delicious! It was stuffed with peppers and cheese, with some sort of sauce and a light breading (I love it when it’s actually lightly breaded – it’s annoying when lightly breaded at a restaurant = lived in the deep fryer).

Mid-meal photo op

The waiters came around with salad and roast beef, which I had a little bit of each.

I’ve determined that after a few years of eating romaine and spinach, I just don’t like iceberg lettuce anymore. It tastes like I’m chewing water!

And the dessert round.

They brought out a nice, light tiramisu. Usually I’m a huge fan, but in this version the cake in the bottom was absolutely soaked in coffee, which we all know I’m not a fan of! The whipped cream was delicious though

Following dessert, we hit the dance floor and stayed there for the large majority of the evening.

I can’t even remember the last time I went dancing…it needs to happen more often! I’m thinking I need to talk to some girlfriends and plan a club crawl soon

It was one of those “you-take-the-shoes-off” sort of nights.

Yes, those are my four-inch spiked stilettos, affectionately referred to as my “stripper shoes.” I’m 5’7 and I love those babies – clearly I have no issues being tall

It was a great night!

They bussed at back to Brantford around 12:30; I walked through my front door at 1:00 and was in bed was 1:15 – it was an exhausting night.

It’s really beginning to feel like the beginning of the holidays around here!

(PicMonkey, you are too fun).

 

<— How tall are you? Do you like to wear heels?

<—Are you as excited by chocolate fountains as I am?

<— Any suggestions for my spaghetti squash?