Happy Valentine's Day!

So for those of you who don't know, I have, as of today, officially started working from home full time! This week has been kind of crazy with the transition, and I have not been able to use my +Vitamix as much as I would have liked to so far this week, but I did today! One thing I am really looking forward to about working from home is being able to make all of my food. I don't have to worry about attempting to pack healthy meals and snacks, and I would really like to avoid eating a frozen meal for the rest of my life! Another plus, or drawback depending on how you look at, it is I will not be surrounded by the candy, cookies, and whatever else generous coworkers bring to the office.

I started off this morning by making some oatmeal. It was just Quaker oatmeal, but I need to use what we have before I buy something new. I would really like to try steel cut oats! Today I just used the quick oats and cooked them with milk, a banana, coconut, and cinnamon. It was really good! Suggestions on what to put in oatmeal are welcome because I think I should start eating more of it!

For lunch, I decided to make potato soup! One thing I love about the Vitamix is that you can put in cold ingredients and make HOT soup that is ready to eat right then. In this soup, I put in 1 russet potato, 2 cups of milk, 1/4 of an onion (sauteed), 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp rosemary, and 1/3 cup of shredded cheddar into the Vitamix, and let run on high for about 6 minutes. It was steaming hot! Then I reduced the speed, added another potato and some turkey bacon just for long enough to chop it into chunks. And boom! Hot homemade soup in about 10 minutes including sauteing the onions. [Note: The potatoes had been baked previously as the recipe calls for them to already be baked. I baked them on Tuesday and threw them in the fridge until it was time to use them. They probably would have been better if used right away, but they were fine, and since they were cold, I just peeled them instead of scooping out the potato.]

The soup was pretty good, and I'll make it again. You should know that it doesn't taste as good as potato soup from a restaurant, but I'm going to assume that is because mine does not have heavy cream and all of that fat! I knew exactly what was going into my body, and I loved it. Plus, it made a good amount of soup! At least 3 if not 4 big bowls full. Can't wait to make other soups!

Because I was originally supposed to start working from home tomorrow, Jimmy and I planned to celebrate Valentine's Day yesterday, Wednesday, so that we could pack up my office to bring home and to avoid the crazy Valentine's Day Crowd. Tonight we are just picking up a pizza and having some wine at home. I'm really looking forward to a low key night! But last night, we chose to have dinner at Maggiano's at the Domain.

So, Italian food is not my favorite. I like it, but it is rare that I eat some kind of pasta and think it is amazing.  For an appetizer, we got Pepperoni Fondue. That was amazing! There were 4 different kinds of cheeses and pepperoni, and scoop it up and put it on small pieces of bread. Healthy? I'm sure it isn't, but delicious, it was! I meant to take a picture, but I think we got too excited.. So..

The food at Maggiano's was pretty good, but I'm more excited about the great deal we got! I LOVE being thrifty. Being thrifty is cool, being cheap is not. Maggiano's offers a deal where you get 2 of their classic pastas for $13. One for today, one for tomorrow like Olive Garden. So I got Ziti for last night and Lasagna for later. +Jimmy Ho got Eggplant Parm last night with Ziti for later. 

I was so full after the appetizer, that I took about 3 bites of my Ziti. Because I didn't really eat my dinner, instead of 4 meals for $26, we have 5! Our total bill was $38 and some change. Jimmy also had a coupon for $10 off of $30, so our total with tip was $35 for an appetizer and practically 5 meals. It was kind of insane and awesome.

I thought maybe the second meal may be smaller than the portion you receive at the restaurant. I was wrong! They give you full size meals to take home as well. Clearly what I ate was not healthy, but it was an amazing deal. We will go there sparingly!!!

I hope you all have a great Valentine's Day no matter what you're doing!