My Baby Is Going to College!

Seriously, where did the time go?  I distinctly remember me and my sister looking at Hannah sleeping in her crib when she was about six weeks old.  We were still living together when I had Hannah at the age of 23.  We had every intention of continuing to live together until I lost my job the day I got back from maternity leave!  Luckily we hadn’t renewed our lease on our apartment yet and my one year of moving back home turned into five years. 

But I digress!  I remember us wondering what Hannah was going to be like when she was three.  You can have conversations with three year olds, and we just wondered what kind of person she would become.  Well, tonight we went to the open house at our local community college.  The first 250 applicants did not have to pay a registration fee (we were 10th in line!).  They currently have a grant going on as long as you maintain a 2.0 GPA and agree to do 16 hours of community service a semester, your tuition if free for two years!

Since she’s not exactly sure what she wants to do yet, its a great way to get all her core classes out of the way.  We got to walk around the school – they had tons of tables about activities, math department, music department, etc.  You can bet my first choice was to see the culinary table!  They had beef tenderloin with a horseradish sauce, pork wrapped in bacon with sage and dijon mustard, pan fried shrimp and a boat load of desserts!  I had to be discreet with the camera so as not to embarrass her too much! 😀

So she’s all set.  They’ll send out more information in the spring for her to pick her curriculum, but she plans on taking at least 12 hours. 😀

But let’s talk about breakfast!  2 ounce french bread, 1 ounce deli ham, 1 pam fried egg and 1/2 ounce swiss cheese with raspberry applesauce – I loved the applesauce!  It was no sugar added and just slightly sweet – yum!

The other day when I was at The Fresh Market buying the shrimp for our shrimp cocktail and buying escargot, I saw this really white fish and noticed it was Chilean Sea Bass.  In the course of over 14 months of blogging, I believe you have seen fish about 5 times!  I don’t like tilapia because it has a weird after taste.  I don’t like salmon.  When I asked the lady at the counter if the sea bass was “fishy” she said no.  So I asked for the smallest fillet – which happened to be 4 ounces.  I wasn’t even paying attention to the price until I got up to the register – the sea bass was selling for $24 a pound!  I silently hoped I liked this so I didn’t throw six dollars down the drain!

I ended up marinating it in 1 tsp. Thai peanut sauce and a splash of soy sauce and I planned on having stir-fry veggies and yaki soba noodles on the side.  This is one of the reasons I love having a full kitchen at work!  I heated up my pan with about 1 tsp. smart balance oil until it was really hot.  I then put the fish in, put a top on until the bottom got nice and crispy and cooked half way through.  I flipped it and cooked it about another 4 minutes – removed to a plate and made my veggies and noodles.

My friend Kim who likes this fish was in the kitchen with me – I had to ask her how to cook it!  She said “make sure its white in the middle” and it was so I was good to go.  OMG, it was SO GOOD!  Not fishy at all and almost had a meaty feel to it.  And it was flakey at the same time!  Wouldn’t you know I would find the most expensive fish to like!

I found a new stir-fry sauce too!  Panda Express Kung Pao Chicken – look at the stats!

Since I didn’t know how long Hannah and I were going to be at school I had nothing planned for dinner.  And you know what happens then – fast food!  I thought I made an okay choice – we went to Arby’s and I got their turkey bacon sandwich with extra lettuce and no mayo and a small curly fries.  Heaven help me those are the best fries ever – crunchy on the outside = tender on the inside.

Imagine my surprise when I entered it into www.sparkpeople.com and my dinner came in at 788 calories, 88 carbs and 28 grams of fat! :(  And the sandwich wasn’t even that great!

After dinner Hannah and I went to the library – for days I could not find a book I checked out and was searching high and low.  Until I moved a stack of papers on my computer desk, the one I sit at EVERY night and there it was!  I was reading some food blog the other day (can’t remember which one now) and she was talking about The Joy of Cooking.  This is a cookbook I have never even opened!  They had the 75th anniversary version so I checked it out.

And I think some of my friends at work (thanks Cassie and Kim!) know my addiction to magazines and both supplied my habit greatly the past couple days!

And thanks to my MIL for her homemade banana chips!  She sent a whole container to Tony today – these bananas are from her back yard in Florida!  They are sweet and wonderful!  Knowing Tony these won’t last long in the house – he loves them.  Thanks Bonnie!

Stats for the Day

• 1516 calories
• 48 fat
• 164 carbs
• 102 protein
• 11 fiber
• no exercise 😦

Off to watch Modern Family – have you seen that show yet??  It’s our new favorite! :D  See you tomorrow night!