A Trip Home: Part 2

As I was going to sleep on Thursday night/very early Friday morning I realized I had completely forgotten to blog! I had been planning on posting my packing post that day but I completely forgot! This was a first for my blog--the first time I completely forgot to have a post ready to go on a Tuesday or Thursday (I usually try to have my posts ready by or scheduled for noon in what ever time zone I am in and I've had some "late" posts in the past). So I apologize to my readers.

The flamingos in the snow.

Friday was exciting! My mom and I headed into the City after work and met my college friends and their mother/mother-in-law at the Lincoln Park Zoo. It was warm! And by that I mean it was above freezing. The cold weather bears (like the polar bear) were inside when we arrived. You'd think the polar bear would love Chi-beria this time of year but apparently not. The flamingos were out for part of the day thought.

If you recall from my T-Give trip home, Hubs and I went to this same Zoo with the same college friends. So, I was kind of underwhelmed because I had seen the same animals a few months ago. I'm also not terribly excited by animals. But it was good to spend time with friends and we went some place I had never gone before--the Lincoln Park Conservatory. Prepare for so many pictures of plants!

My dad joined us for dinner at my friends' apartment. Their mother/mother-in-law is a wonderful cook, as is our male friend. They were in charge of dinner and it was delicious.

Saturday was a taxing. My dad owned my car.^* We were going to assign the title to me while I was home so that I would own the car and so that I could register it in Maine (my dad had forgotten to reregister the car in Illinois in 2012 and I didn't notice until I took the car in for repairs and the repair person looked at the registration). I had forgotten to record the exact milage on the car before I left it and I could not figure out how to transfer title from an Illinois resident to an out of state resident! So I was grumpy and snappy at my parents because they just wanted me to estimate the milage even thought the title assignment form required "exact milage." I gave up and let my dad take me to the currency exchange, the lady who works there is an expert on these things.

But before we did that we went to lunch at my mom's favorite hibachi restaurant, Kegon, on the way there my parents grilled me about my small business plans. They want to fund my law office. I just want to be a grown up who doesn't get hand outs and bail outs from Mom & Dad anymore. (I will totally still accept help paying off my student loans from them though since school seems like a fair thing to get help with.)

A photo of ice on the Lake to break up the text.

They also don't understand the practice of law so they suggested that I do several things that may or may not violate the rules of professional responsibility. For example, they were like "so what if you are disciplined by the board of overseers of the bar." So what? My name shows up as a disciplined attorney on their website which would likely show up if people googled my name. Would you want an attorney who was disciplined by the bar even if it was just for something kind of negligent instead of fraudulent?

I love them and I know they just want to help me but they can be so frustrating because I feel like they're ignoring what I am saying and then keep suggesting the same things that stress me out. I try to tell them clearly how I feel and how what they say makes me feel but it seems like they just keep saying the same things to me over and over again. Plus this trip was already stressful, see my previous post.

A Belated Wedding Present from my Friend who was
in Korea and couldn't make it my my wedding.

Saturday night I hung out with my high school friends. We hit Steak n Shake. I had the most delicious garlic cheese burger and their fries are delicious! I am sad there are none in Maine. We wandered around Target and then went to Menchies for froyo where wee played Uno with very dirty sticky looking Uno cards. I am so grateful to have such dependable friends. When I get together with them it's like we're in high school again, less the drama.

On Sunday, I had lunch with my high school friends at a Thai restaurant and afterwards we went to a local aquarium supply store where they had tons of fish! Including two in a small pond that would swim up to you and beg for food, hop out of the water a bit, and spit at you. I should have gotten pictures.

The Crème Brûlée!

Then I had dinner with my parents at a delightful little French restaurant in Etown, Bistro Bordeaux. My mom and I shared a cheese plate my dad doesn't eat cheese because he doesn't eat added salt and cheese is usually pretty salty. I had the Salade de Betterave, the Steak Pommes Frites Bistro Bordeaux, and the Crème Brulée du Jour. So good! I love beets! I love french fries (they severe them with mayonnaise and I ate them with a fork but no mayo)! The crème brûlée was delicious as well. So if you want to blow half of this month's food budget in one go, I'd recommend it. I hope that maybe my mom will take me there for their Sunday Brunch next time I'm home.

Monday, I was heading home. My mom and I went to Eggsperience for breakfast. I don't like it quite as much as Walker Bros. but they do eggs better which made my mom happy. After lunch we walked around the Glen because it was so warm. We hadn't changed our clocks for daylight savings time so we thought all the shops were closed. They were actually open so we could have looked for some new shoes in my favorite department store--Von Maur. We stopped at Jewel on the way home. I wanted to get some Krispy Kreme doughnuts to bring home with me as an "I'm sorry your dog died here are some doughnuts to help you forget" for Hubs and his family. There are no Krispy Kreme doughnuts in Maine and they are so good.

The mugs arrived yesterday and one was
impressed into service this morning.

My dad took me to the airport and we stopped at every Dunkin in between my house and O'Hare looking for a Chicago runs on Dunkin mug. I didn't find one. But my dad checked all the Dunkins in between O'Hare and his office and he found two on Touhy and sent them to me. (I love my parents but this is a great example of how they listen to me but don't: I said they had them on line but I didn't want to pay shipping so I said they should keep an eye out for one and leave it in my bedroom and I said Hubs didn't need one but I ended up with two delivered to my door.) I do in fact have the best parents!

My flight to Boston was uneventful but I was so fortunate! I needed to catch the bus from Logan to Maine. The bus comes pretty much every hour at 35 after the hour. We were scheduled to land at 6:35. We got in about ten minutes early. Our gate was close to the baggage claim. I busted out of the plane and the airport so fast! I got to the bus stop at 6:34 and the bus came at 6:38. I am so glad that I didn't have to wait for the 7:35 bus. It meant that I got home around 9:30, a pretty reasonable time, instead of 10:30.

That trip and the lead up to it was so incredibly exhausting! I am so happy to be back and I've almost caught up with reading other people's blogs and responding to comments on this one! I am also working on building up a reserve of draft posts so that I don't accidentally forget to blog again.



^*I'm a spoiled brat. My parents bought me a little VW Cabrio when I turned 16 so that I could drive my sisters to swim practice and take E2 to and from school with me in the mornings after I got a parking space as a senior. I took the car with me to college and E2 got a car. When I started law school my mom was so worried about me driving my tiny Cabrio on Maine highways in the snowy winter so my dad bought a AWD Ford Escape for me. I am grateful for their concern because the Escape is perfect for driving in the snow whereas the Cabrio couldn't drive up hills in the snow because it was so light it would just start sliding back down them.

A Trip Home

I hoped on the Bus tuesday morning to get to Logan to fly home! I wore my long down coat the whole way except for when I went thru security. I got great pictures of the ice on the lake. My mom got me at the airport. I got home and I chillaexed and finalized my plans with my friends. We waited forever for my dad to get home from work. And then we went to my favorite kitchy restaurant the Claim Company, the also have the best salad bar.

Ice on the Lake from the Air

My trip was going to be a challenging one. The past year has been so rough. My parents have been on and off again about getting a divorce and my dad has had his own separate apartment since last March. He bought his secretary a house. My dad is so incapable of having an affair but it looked like he was to my mom. My grandma has dementia and its keeps getting worse. My dad had tax trouble and the IRS threatened to seize the house to satisfy the tax debt, this issue has since been mostly resolved. Also my dad developed hand tremors and the brain scan suggests Parkinson's.

My mom has reacted to all this by drinking and E2, the med student, was concerned that she was either an alcoholic or about to become one. I noticed that I would talk to her and then she'd forget our whole entire conversation by the next day, presumably we talked while she was really drunk. E3 noticed some slurred words. So, when my mom asked if I'd come home for "spring break" I said yes so that E2 and I could talk with her about it. We decided on Wednesday evening.

It went better than expected. My mom knew she had a problem but thought it was a natural response to how miserable her past year has been (no argument there). She wants to sign a post-nup with my dad and knew that would be ready in the next couple of months so she said she'd start working on going back to drinking her normal amount after they signed that or after they decided that they couldn't sign that and go ahead with the divorce. So Mom knows we're worried about her and she has a plan to get better. We'll see how this goes.

I spent the evening, after the intervention, at ET's and BB's new apartment! ET is one of my oldest friends, her mom ran our girl scout troupe. JR also came! She had been teaching English in Korea forever and it's so wonderful to have her back. ET is a nutritionist so she and BB made us dinner and then we played Apples to Apples!

The Marina Towers' Parking Levels

Hubs family dog was put to sleep while I was away. She had stopped standing up on her own the weekend before I left. And on Tuesday she stopped eating. The vet came to their house on Wednesday to put her too sleep. I was so worried for Hubs.

On Thursday I woke up early and headed into the City with my dad. I do not miss the morning rush hour. I hung out in a hotel room while he attend a meeting at the hotel and then we went to his office. My Aunt F has been helping my dad get reorganized after his secretary left. My mom also thinks Aunt F is trying to set my dad up with a new girlfriend/wife but I think that's just alcohol induced paranoia so. My aunt showed me around the office and introduced me to the people there. They're all really nice the hope is that do some work remotely to help out since while my dad is brilliant he's an absent minded professor type.

Pulled Pork with Peppers, a Lovely Mango, Plantian, and Greens

I was so tired. I have trouble sleeping without Hubs especially when I am worried about him. So my aunt and I didn't do much while hanging out. We went to this wonderful Brazilian restaurant run by a woman form Brazil for lunch named Sinhá. She was wonderful she chatted with my Aunt and me and chided me for not eating my greens--I gave them a try at least. It was legit the best food I have ever had! I had pulled pork and it was so incredibly delicious and the presentation was wonderful!

Red Velvet Cheese Cake

During lunch my Aunt told me all kinds of interesting things about growing up and encouraged me to ask my dad more about his childhood. Then I got to see my Aunt's office and then since I was to tired to do anything we headed over to E2's apartment because she was back from "school." OMG E2's apartment is so messy!

They're open for Lunch now!

My aunt took us back to my dad's office and we went home, in rush hour traffic. I learned a little bit about my dad. I knew he was a trouble maker in high school but I learned that part of why he ended up going to college in the US instead of medical school in Nigeria is because he wanted to help some friends who were bad students so he let them copy his paper on an SAT like test. His results were thrown out so that changed his plans for a year, just long enough to think more about going to school in America.

My mom had got me gyros for dinner! Hard to find and incredibly delicious chicken gyros! I miss gyros so much while in Maine. I haven't been able to find real ones (sliced off a rotating spit) anywhere in Maine.

I'll continue detailing my adventures on Tuesday. I think I've shared enough text with you today. I got so behind on emails and everything when I was at my parents' house with their super slow internet!

-eHa

Meal Planning!

Maine is a frozen wasteland in between November and April. For example, after the Christmas week ice storm we had an inch of ice in the parking behind our apartment. So my usual "do something exciting outside and then blog about it posts" will be few and far between. Maybe we'll go skiing. I'd like to take up snowshoeing but haven't yet.

So until then I'd thought I'd talk about meal planning and share the spreadsheet I made to help me do it. I love meal planning since it means I can get started on dinner as soon as I get home (or Mr. H can have dinner ready for me when I get home). It also means that most weeks we only go to the grocery store once. It keeps us from wasting food since I can plan around large produce purchases like a head of cabbage. And, I think it keeps us healthy since it means most of our dinners are made from scratch from real food. Except I hate whole wheat pasta. (I'll make my own condensed soup mix for casseroles even.)

A Meal Plan for Two Weeks
Made One Week at a Time
I have trouble spelling. Please don't make fun of me.

I make a note of which days we won't need to make dinner because we have plans. I usually start meal planning when our grocery store's flyer comes out on Saturday or Sunday so I can take advantage of whatever is on sale. I also check and see what we have in the fridge and the pantry so I can make meals that use up any vegetables that may be hanging around before they start mouldering. (Potatoes are a problem for us.)

I look through my recipe cards and my binder full of recipes that I've printed out to find recipes that use what's on sale and what I have. Sometimes we've bought ingredients for a meal and then we don't have it so I just move that meal to the next week (see the lasagna in the plan below).

This one has a reminder to SOAK THE BEANS.
Also notice that in the first week we have chicken and potatoes
then use of the rest of the potatoes in the ham and potato soup.

We don't always stick to the plan. We frequently switch days because I forget to soak beans or defrost meat. Since we buy dry beans and buy bulk sizes of meat and freeze them in smaller portions. Or sometimes we're too tired even though every things ready so we have a frozen dinner or Vienna Beef Hot Dogs that I've smuggled in from Chicago. (I need to figure out how to smuggle sesame seed buns without them getting smushed in my checked luggage.) Sometimes the plan is vague and just says a type of meat so I choose what to do with it that afternoon.

There's also space to write down when we run out of things like flour, trash bags, or olive oil. Though sometimes I just use it to write down everything needed. We also use that space for things that aren't part of a meal--like fruit for snacks. We buy a gallon of milk pretty every week so that usually doesn't get added to the list. But Mr. H drinks orange juice and cranberry juice every morning with his breakfast so if that's running low I have to add that or else we forget it. We don't usually buy things for lunch since we usually eat leftovers for lunch.

Mr. H was on his own for dinner on Wednesday
because I had a Junior League meeting. I worry about
him when I'm not there to make food for him.

What I like most about making the meal plan is that it helps remind me to defrost things the night before. We'd never be able to save money by buying meat in bulk without planning ahead. Last year, we tried to keep our weekly grocery trips to $50. But our data from Mint shows that we spent about $70 a week on groceries. My trips to Trader Joe's to stock up on wine and frozen dinners were probably to blame. Ooops!

This year my goal is to keep the grocery bill at $40 each week. So far we've keep the grocery bill under $50 but it's not at $40. This year I'm trying harder to buy things in bulk if they're nonperishable or can be frozen. I hope this will help keep the our grocery bill down over all. Though now we have a 5 pound bag of macaroni in our pantry. But it's hard to keep the bill at $40 when you buy in bulk because 5 pounds of macaroni costs a lot more ($4.25) than a pound of macaroni (89¢) but in the long run it's cheaper.

If you'd like to use this meal plan yourself, I've uploaded it to google drive and I am sharing it so you can see it. What do you do to manage what you eat? Do you plan ahead or wing it?

So Excited . . . for a Cleanse?

Wish me luck! I ordered the Advocare 10 Day Herbal Cleanse last Wednesday. It was delivered last Saturday and I will start the cleanse today!

I'm really excited to give this a try. I've been feeling down about my body lately and doing something makes me feel better. I stopped exercising in August and September was so stressful. I started playing Wii Fit again on Monday in preparation for the cleanse and I am almost looking forward to avoiding added sugar for the next ten days.

Yesterday I measured out single serving sizes of unsalted cashews and sunflower seeds. I hard boiled a whole lot of eggs and I made my own carrot sticks. I'll be eating extra clean for the next ten days and I'll let you know how it went for me after it's over.

Eating Healthy

Yesterday one of my coworkers asked me where to go to get lunch. I bring leftovers almost everyday so I don't know why he asked me (I suppose I was just there). Then he said he'd want something healthy. And said he should go to the sandwich place near by. He looked at me oddly like I had said something crazy. But then I asked what he meant by that because I remember a conversation I overheard a year or two ago in in law school . . .

I was checking my email, waiting for class to begin, and eavesdropping on two men in my class. (I like eavesdropping) One was a tall, incredibly lanky guy who looked like a classic New Englander and the other was a husky frat guy from the upper midwest. And I found this conversation fascinating to over hear because I could not imagine that either of them cared about healthy food but that's what they were talking about.

They were talking about cashews (or maybe pistachios) I think and they said they weren't healthy. In my head I thought they were crazy since nuts are totally healthy, much more so than soda, oreos, or low-fat Doritos. They agreed on nuts cashews (or pistachios) being unhealthy and said it was because they had too many calories. I was thinking "no duh" that's the point of nuts they have all the nutrition needed for a little seed to start growing. But high calorie doesn't mean unhealthy. (While I am not a fan of rampant weight gain in myself.* I do not think high calorie food are unhealthy.)

Bacon is healthy!
By the why, Walker Bros

I guess I would call myself a member of the Michael Pollan school of thought regarding healthy food--traditional foods are healthy (regardless of calorie count) and mass produced industrial foods (like low fat salad dressing) are not. If you're interested in this concept I would read Pollan's In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto I read it in college and I finished it before returning it to the library.

To illustrate! To me these things are healthy: homemade fruit pies; butter, bread, fruit, vegetables, cheese, olives, avocados, bacon, ham, crispy chicken skin, &c. I think these things are unhealthy: oreos, margarine, sandwich bread from the store (one of my favorite things about college was that I could have white bread and margarine at every meal), Doritos, Diet Coke, low-fat almost anything, &c.


On some of the other blogs I read, the bloggers talk about clean eating and I believe that most of them understand it to mean something very similar to what I've described thought it seems like they always choose lower fat options than I would. I'm at a healthy body weight right now and otherwise living a high stress life so I need to have joy where I can find it--like on the outside of a roasted chicken.

I do avoid certain delicious food that are generally healthy because of my specific health concerns. (I have alluded to this in my recipes where I say butter or olive oil.) I have high cholesterol (just the bad kind) and I do not want to take medication for it since I take so much for my allergies and asthma so I avoid butter and other high cholesterol foods.  But, just because its bad for me, I don't think it's bad for everyone. And, fat itself isn't bad since you need some to insulate your neurons and held absorb vitamins.


I'm interested to hear why you guys think of as being "healthy!" It had never occurred to me that there was such a range of opinion about this before a year or so ago.



*Mr. Handsome must be the skinniest man alive and I try so hard to get him to gain some weight to no avail. I feel like Mr. and Mrs. Jack Sprat when we're out in public together.

"Healthier" Downeast Pumpkin Bread

Unfortunately it's fall now (or at least it was until is was 90º yesterday). So it's cold and I can't wear most of my Lilly shifts but every cloud has a silver lining. Now, it's time for pumpkin everything. My favorite thing to make this time of year (and any time when I have a can of pumpkin) is Downeast Pumpkin Bread. This is the reduced fat, reduced sugar version, more whole wheat version. The original recipe can be found at allrecipies.com.

Downeast Pumpkin Muffins
Makes 36 muffins

Ingredients

1-15 oz can pumpkin puree
4 eggs
1 c. unsweetened applesauce (instead of vegetable oil or melted butter)
2/3 & 1 oz water
1 c. white sugar
1 c. brown sugar*

2 c. whole wheat flour
1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 T baking soda
3/4 t salt
1 t ground cinnamon
1 t ground nutmeg
1/2 t grond cloves
1/4 t ground ginger

Directions

Preheat oven to 350ºF and grease three muffin pans. Mix the first group of ingredients (the wet ingredients and the sugar) in a large bowl. Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Pour into the muffin tins. Bake for 30 minutes. Muffins are done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. This recipe can also be used to make loafs. Bake loafs for 55 min.

*I prefer dark brown sugar since it has more molasses in it and molasses makes me think of New England

Details of the Changes to the Recipe

This recipe had more of what I want and less of what I usually don't want. I usually want less fat and less sugar (for fewer calories over all) and I want more protein and fiber. Here I got fewer calories from sugar and fat and more fiber.

Nutrient	Original Recipe	This Recipe
Calories	175	95
fat (g)	6.9	1
protein (g)	2	2
fiber (g)	0.7	2
sugar (g)	17.1	12

I accomplished this improved nutrient profile by reducing the sugar by a third, replacing half the flour with whole wheat flour (more fiber), and by using apple sauce instead of the liquid fat. When you're baking quick breads, these are always things you can do reduce the calorie count. Whole wheat flour is heavier that white flour so you may want to add in extra baking soda or powder to ensure that the bread rises.

Shopping and Eating

One of the nice things about being at home is that there are lots of places to shop. There are two fantastic malls less than a 15 minute drive (without traffic) from my parents' house. The are plenty of little shops in each suburban down town. They are also about half an hour from the largest mall in Illinois and the new Fashion Outlets of Chicago.

I loved the murals at the new fashion outlet mall.

I went home with a mission, I wanted to replace my broken watches and I wanted to check out the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale in person. I am also always on the look out for shoes that don't hurt my feet.

I managed to get a new watch that was just like my old watch, a new pair of shoes, and a dress. My mom bought me a ponte blazer from the Talbots sale and a blouse from Coldwater Creek. I guess I'm a grown up now because I think most of my new clothes come from "mom" stores.

Country Classics in a little strip mall.
A hidden gem.

My favorite place to stop in when I am home is Country Classics in Glenview. They carry almost all the brands that preppy bloggers write about except for the "Southern" ones. I tried on some new fall Lilly Pulitzer there (the Charlene dress will be mine if I find a job after my temporary position ends). And, I got an Elizabeth McKay dress in a Hydrangea print that marked down 70%. My mom was not a big fan of the dress. (I haven't worn it yet, as soon as I got home a loose button on the back fell off! So I have to fix it before I can wear it. It was 70% off.) They also have an assortment of headbands for girls and women. They have monograms! It's really my kind of place. If you're in the area and you dress like I do, you MUST stop in.

The line to get into Tory Burch.

One one of my last days at home my mom and I went to check out the new Fashion Outlets--I told my mom there was a Tory Burch outlet store there and she was good to go. It had just opened that week or the weekend before so it was pretty crowded. There were lines to get into some of the stores so we didn't go into Coach or Tory Burch even though my mom was interested. We are not queueing people, we don't have time for that especially if we're just interested in browsing.

Even though it was an outlet mall, somethings were still very expensive like the Barney's New York Warehouse. I guess when something starts off costing thousands of dollars it can only be marked down so much. I enjoyed Neiman's Last Call. I got a wonderful pair of flats for work there.

My second favorite part of the mall was the high tech parking garage! There was a light above each parking space and it turned red when someone was in the space and green when the space was available and there was a real time count of all the open spaces on each floor and in each aisle! The 21st Century has arrived!

My favorite part of going home is eating really good food. In Maine, there are no gyros to speak of. Sometimes you get lamb patties in pita bread. But no real gyros like the ones above. The Chinese food is also kind of weird--I can't really describe how it's different but it is. I ate deep dish pizza, ribs, and gyros while I was home. I brought back several pounds of Vienna Beef Hot Dogs as well. I wish I could have brought back some apple cider doughnuts from the apple orchard we used to go to when I was a little girl. Food is one of the things I miss most from home.

Into the City and Back Again

On Sunday, my parents dropped us off at our friends' apartment. They had managed to unpack everything and their apartment looked so well put together.

They took us out to dinner at Quartino, a nice Italian resturaunt with pizza and small plates about three blocks west of Michigan Avenue (the Magnificent Mile part). It was delicious and packed so if you'd like to go there I would recommend making reservations. We had delicious pizza, delicious pasta, olives (unlike the tapas place, they were not out of olives), cheese, lots and lots of wine, plus some pasta.

I wore my Lilly Pulitzer Tabitha Dress on the L.
We both survived our encounter with public transportation.

We got back to their place and challenged one another to various Sporcle quizzes then went to bed.

The next morning we woke up and hung out. We at lunch at the Five Guys (with a 100 flavor coke machine) near their apartment and spent a lot of time in at the Unabridged Bookstore. I ended up getting a book for myself and two books to give to my Dad for his birthday. I am glad that they are friends have found a new apartment near a good bookstore. AT's old apartment in Allston, MA was near a good bookstore that we used to stop by when we went to visit her.

On the L.

We headed back up to the North Shore for the evening. We had planned on going to a concert at Ravinia but one of the performers was ill and the concert was cancelled.

We spent the afternoon in my parents' sunroom. AT loved watching all the bunnies that help maintain the landscaping and I watched the birds using the pool cover as a birdbath (there are no children at home to use the pool so my mom decided not to open it up this year).

Instead I invited my high school friends over and we had Carson's. I love Carson's coleslaw and think it is the absolute best in the world. Carson's is famous for their ribs and those are phenomenal too.

It was fun for me to watch my friends from two totally different areas of my life (high school and college) interact. I thought they got along remarkably well and we had a good time.

After dinner we roasted s'mores in the fire pit in the backyard.

(I thought I took more photos but apparently I was mistaken.)