I can’t believe I am this behind. I am just now blogging about the amazing dinner that I had on my birthday, which was September 27. It took me a whole month to get around to it.

Way back when, months and months ago, I bought a Living Social Coupon for Zebra. I think I paid $35 for a $75 gift certificate.  I have been saving this coupon for a special occasion. Originally thought we might use it for our anniversary but we ended up doing our big weekend uptown instead. Lucky me that B decided my birthday would be the perfect occasion for this fancy meal.

Zebra offers a grand tasting menu that had definitely peeked my interest.

I was also excited to learn that they incorporate locally and regionally grown ingredients into their dishes and that that they support sustainable agriculture and farming practices.

I am never good at selecting wines so we told the server that we wanted a white wine and let him pick one for us. He selected this Heartland pinot grigio that was delicious. I was very pleased.

It was a refreshing change from the usual to go out for a special dinner and wine on a Monday night.

Dinner started with an amuse-bouche of a red grape, covered in chevre cheese, dusted with pistachio powder, and served over a bed of micro-greens.

Although we tend to split appetizers and entrees when we go out for fancy meals, because of price and portions, we decided to bring our appetites and go all out for this meal.  For appetizers we ordered the organic beet salad with Roquefort and some kind of ravioli. Never in a million years would I have thought that I would order beets,but I am a sucker for roquefort and I just couldn’t pass this salad up. Good thing I didn’t! The salad was definitely a palette pleaser.

We also ordered the truffled mushroom goie gras soup. All I can say is mmmm. There has been several discussions of going back to Zebra just for another bowl of soup. It was creamy and had a rich flavor that was satisfying but not overwhelming.

There was rolls with pretty, piped herb butter.

We also had some mussels. I guess these were an appetizer too. The server insisted that if we were mussels lover that we hard to at least order a half portion of these mussels; He claimed they were the best in town. The mussels were served in a Thai red coconut curry and lime broth. I wouldn’t say that were the best mussels that I have had in town, mainly because I like a simple garlic-y wine sauce with my mussels; however they were very good and were definitely worth trying.

If all of that was not enough food we still had our entrees to try!

Our entrees included Zebra’s signature angel hair basket (which is angel hair noodles that are boiled just long enough to be flexible, formed into a basket, and then fried) filled with Beef Tenderloin, Lobster, Shrimp, Scallops, and veggies on top of a bed of mashed potatoes.

As well as the evening special.

If memory serves me correctly it was a red grouper and crab and potato stuffed puff pastry. I honestly don’t remember the kind of sauce but it was all delicious.

Yes, there was most definitely dessert.

B and I both love souffle but not many restaurant seem to serve them. As soon as we heard there was souffle on the dessert menu we knew that we would have to order it.

Raspberry souffle with a dark chocolate sauce. Bliss in a ramekin.

Our dinner was spectacular (minus a little incident with our Living Social coupon, that was completely resolved by the owner!) and really put some pizazz into my otherwise blah birthday (thanks to a minor emotional breakdown).

B and I have been on a huge eating out kick lately. We have food at home, we want to cook, but we make up all sorts of excuses not to. Mainly, work has been killer. Not so much in the number of hours worked, it has just had some special kind of mind numbing effect that makes me want to do nothing else once I leave. I feel fortunate that I am able to drive home and make it in one piece. It is a miracle.

Anyways, on one such day when I am lucky to get home let alone contemplate preparing any sort of edible meal for my husband and myself we decided to head over to Amelies for dinner.

Obviously we were very hungry that night because we ordered a ton of food!

The first items to be delivered to our table were a turkey and cheddar croissant sandwich and the asparagus-leek soup. The sandwich was okay, but the croissant seemed a little overcooked. We ended up just pulling out the turkey, cheese, and soft bread-y insides.

The soup though was amazing. I was really hesitant to order this soup because I am not much of an asparagus fan, but was completely surprised by the delicious flavor. The, as icing on the cake, I discovered that the soup had potatoes. So good. In fact, we liked it so much that we went back the following week just for the soup. Warm, creamy, comforting.

After we sat down and our meal started arriving at the table B realized that Amelie’s has spreads. B being a huge fans of spreads, sauces and dips it was decided that we had to order a spread with a 1/4 baguette. We didn’t need more food but it was a good call. We ordered the bourbon blue cheese dip and devoured it. You would have never know that we had just eaten a croissant sandwich and a bowl of soup.

And as you can see there was more….

The croque monsieur, which is pretty much a savory french toast sandwich with ham and Gruyere cheese in the middle. The sandwich is tasty but a bit much for my egg avoiding palette.  That’s okay though because that means I have more room for soup, or dessert….no, soup.

When I was younger my family rarely went out to eat. I remember as a teen a trip to Olive Garden was such a treat. Oh how times have changed. Over the past several years I have been spoiled by some fantastic restaurant meals and Olive Garden has been knocked down a few notched….at least for dinner time.

Trying to be a somewhat conscientious spender I try to pack my lunch as much as possible so a lunch out is a special treat no matter where I go.

A coworker who shares my foodie fascinations decided to give me a break from my ho-hum (only ho-hum because I have been too lazy to put much effort into putting together my lunch bag) packed lunches and offered to treat me to a lunch of soup salad and breadsticks.

The breadsticks were warm, soft, and garlic-y and the highlight of the meal.  Although I am now accustomed to crispy romaine lettuce or other greens in my salads I found something comforting about the iceburg only salad that used to be my preference.

Minestrone was my soup du jour and was chunky and warm but somehow still missing  something for me.  The entire lunch, food, company, and conversation were all a welcome diversion from my norm. Thanks Sal!

Today was a busy day at work again. I am loving the heavier work load but it is leaving me with less to talk about. How can I possibly be any more boring?

My lunch meeting today went well. Now that I have decided what direction I want my career to take I a ready to take action. Patience is not my strong point, but I have to be smart about the decisions I make. I want to start taking steps to a career in the non-profit industry but I don’t want to be rash and damage relationships with my current employer. Today’s meeting gave me some pointers on networking and let me know about some potential opportunities that may become available this fall, if I can wait that long.

Honestly, I have held out for nearly 3 months just waiting on this meeting. Now I have to decide is I want to wait another 7-8 months. I don’t know if I have that much patience. And although the meeting answer some questions and made me feel good about some things I am still feeling lost.

I feel like I need a change, but can’t figure out what that change is. I have started blogging, eating better, and exercising. I need to get back into church, but other than that I don’t know what other changes to make in my personal like which leads me to believe that I need to make a professional change. How long can I wait and keep my sanity? I am trying to think things through and be an adult about this rather than acting on impulse.

So enough of all of that. Thanks for reading.

No pictures of lunch because that would not have left the most professional impression. Once I got back to the office I munched on a couple cupcakes.

My afternoon was so busy there was no snacking.

B and I were both hungry when I got home from work. I was also craving some more guacamole so I went back out to get some more avacados, and B whipped it right up.

I also steamed some rice and topped it with some leftover Turkey Tortilla soup that I made after Thanksgiving and froze.

We ate at our usual location on the couch and I couldn’t be bothered with the pit stop at the table for my photoshoot.

It was really nice to have something so quick and simple for dinner. Now I am all caught up on Monday night TV!

Dessert will more than likely be a clementine (or 2) and a piece of chocolate.

Time to do a little [web] surfing before bed (and before my battery dies).

Night!

Today feels like it has been one of the longest days in the history of the world, and I have had the worst overwhelmed, unsettled feeling all day. I am ready to get off of work and hide under the covers.

This morning even started out off. After my alarm went off I laid there trying to talk myself into getting out of bed and I just couldn’t do it. Plus Piper is being more high maintenance than usual because she was to go outside to run and play but it is just too darn muddy! I see doggie daycare in her future tomorrow.

For breakfast I got to try the long awaited PB&J Larabar thanks to Katie.

I loved it! It is amazing how similarly this tastes to a real PB&J sandwich with such a short list of ingredients.

I may even have to hide these from my husband.

It was so nice to have something do convenient on hand because this morning was one of those mornings that I just couldn’t get myself together.

It is amazing how long this bar held me over. I did, however, get hungry for a morning snack.

Rosemary and Garlic Triscuits and a wedge of Laughing Cow. I am not usually a fan of Triscuits but these guys taste amazing. You can tell I was so excited about the that I dug right in without taking a picture.

I probably had 7 or 8 of these.

Because of my snack I was not terribly hungry for lunch so I decided on soup, which does not usually do a very good job of holding me over. I added some extra brown rice that I had in the fridge plus some shredded cheddar and a dollop of Oikos plain Greek yogurt.

I may have also crumbled in a few tortilla chips post-picture.

I finished things off with about a tbsp of mini dark chocolate chips.

Now it time to bide my time until 5 PM. I think a wine tasting at Corkscrew this evening may be just what I need to make this day all better.

I just got done watching The Hangover. And I really don’t think the movie lived up to all of the hype.

At least dinner was good. I made slow cooker potato soup inspired by IowaGirlEats.

It could have used a little more salt but overall I was really happy with how it came out.

I am trying to get a head start on my 2010 Resolutions so I m trying to start my cleaning regime today. And now that I have wasted my evening on a stupid movie I have to get cracking on cleaning, tonight is the master bath. I would do our bedroom too but it is a lost cause with our suitcases sitting out, and I doubt I am getting to that tonight. I was planning on walking Piper when I got home but Brian let me off the hook on that one because he took her before I got home.

Time to get to scrubbing. Night!

** Somehow I lost all of my pictures from Thanksgiving 2009 until December 22, 2009. Ack! **
I feel like the weekend is never going to start. I was hopeful when the morning zoomed by, but this afternoon has been dragging.

As usual I was excited to head to lunch. But when I got home I had no idea what I wanted to eat. So soup it was!

I made a hummus, laughing cow, and red bell pepper sandwich to go with it.

There was so much food I almost couldn’t finish it all. Almost.

My afternoon has been hectic and I had been stressing about time until now. Now I am not sure what to do with myself for the next 30 minutes.

I have also been munch on the rest of my KitKat from earlier in the week.

I just couldn’t let it sit in my desk over the weekend.

Does anyone have any fun plans for the weekend?

I don’t. Just going to rest and relax….and maybe bake. We’ll see.

** Somehow I lost all of my pictures from Thanksgiving 2009 until December 22, 2009. Ack! **p>I feel frazzled with a capital F-R-A-Z-Z-L-E-D. I have been so stressed out this afternoon that my stomach had felt queasy, my chest has hurt, and I have had a hard time breathing. I can’t wait to get home.

Before the frazzledness happened I went home and had a peaceful lunch.

Left over eggplant parm.

I was so excited to have these leftovers for lunch.

Unfortunately it was not nearly as good the 2nd time around. The crab tasted really strong and I kept crunching on crab shell. Ick. I ended up throwing it out.

2nd try. I warmed up some Turkey Noodle Soup.

Much better!

Once I returned to the office it did not take long for the frazzledness to set it in.

I tried eating some more KitKat to calm my nerves.

My nerve calming was unsuccessful and escalated further as the afternoon progressed. At least the KitKat tasted yummy!

Hopefully the evening will be better. I think I am going to push my first cooking experience with tofu to another night though.

5 o clock when will you get here?

** Somehow I lost all of my pictures from Thanksgiving 2009 until December 22, 2009. Ack! **

My day is moving by so quick. I spent the morning doing the last of my catch up work from my vacation, and this afternoon I have been working on my first of the month junk. Hopefully I will get it done tomorrow.

I am so disappointed. We were supposed to find out the gender of my brother and sister-in-law’s baby-in-the-making today but the umbilical cord got in the way! Now they are not scheduled to go back until the beginning of January. Boo. I am so ready to know!

Now to lunch.

I had soup. Turkey Tortilla today.

I topped with shredded sharp cheddar, sour cream, and dice jalepenos. And as you can see I have some tortilla chips on the side.

The toast I had yesterday with this was yummy, but not nearly as yummy as these chips. This soup was made for tortilla chips!

And for dessert…

My coworker Sal regularly surprises me with sweet treats. Usually in the form of a Kit Kat bar. He just gave me this one yesterday and I couldn’t wait to dig in!

It seems like a lot of people are in a giving mood. Check out all of these giveaways!

- RhodeyGirl is doing a Regional’s Best giveaway.

- Angela at Oh She Glows is doing an Aurorae Yoga Mat giveaway.

- Tina at Carrots N Cake has started her 12 Days of Giveaway with a Scharffen Berger giveaway.

- Katie at Chocolate-Covered Katie is doing an Artisana Nut Butter giveaway.

- IowaGirlEats is doing a Popchips giveaway.

Whew, that is quite a list!

I have been busy all day catching up from my vacation. I should be completely caught up by lunch tomorrow, but then I get to start something new. Eek!

I was so excited to get home for lunch! I couldn’t wait to dig into the soups I made last night. Yes, the “s” on the end of “soups” up there is right. I ate both. I started out with the Turkey Noodle. One big heaping ladle full.

I washed out my bowl and then had some of the Turkey Tortilla soup. I strategically ate them in this order so the bowl would be easier to clean between soup 1 and soup 2. Clever me!

I also toasted the 2nd to last piece of Great Harvest bread and added a dollop of sour cream. I had dessert after I got back to the office.Yummy Reese’s cup! The wrapper kind of blended in with my desk.

That’s better!

I have been hustling all afternoon and I am tired. I am also looking forward to dinner since I haven’t had a snack all afternoon.

Check these out…

- Danica is doing a Soda Stream giveaway. I want on so bad!

- Morgan is doing a Dr. McDougall’s soup giveaway. Looks yummy!

- In finally joined Twitter! My username is JLW2621. I am still trying to figure it out though. Am I behind the times?