At Home Italian Dinner

I love Italian food but man oh man is it a lot of points.  My favorites are lasagna, chicken parmesan, and fettucine. 

I spotted some breaded chicken patties in the freezer section at Walmart and was pleasantly surprised when I used the barcode scanner in my WW app one patty was just 3 points on my Personalized Points plan.  What was even better is that it was a nice sized patty for 3 points.  I knew instantly I could make it into chicken parmesan at-home.

 

Since I love fettuccini too, I also picked up a WW frozen meal that was 7 points to go along with my chicken parmesan rounding out a delicious Italian dinner with a fraction of the points. 

 

I have made this twice so far and really enjoyed every bite.  The entire plate is just 10 points on my plan which doesn’t break the bank.

 

Enjoy.

 

 

 

New Downtown Experiences

A new whiskey bar opened in Boise and we met up with Phoenix and Stacey for a date night before Valentine’s Day weekend to check it out.

 

The James Whiskey & Cocktails is an indoor/outdoor establishment that will be great place to visit during the warmer temps with the open garage doors and rooftop outdoor seating.  It is small with limited seating and an even smaller parking lot.  We were able to find street parking and snagged the last table for four.  We also made it in time for happy hour which meant good pricing for food.  As a Beer Buddies member, we get happy hour pricing on drinks all day as The James is the newest Beer Buddy Hub.

 

I tried one of the happy hour drinks, The Cobbler’s Mule, and Stacey tired the other, The James.  This allowed us to at least try them both in one visit.  While the others aren’t discounted on happy hour the entire drink menu looked amazing.  We will have to come back.  We shared the meatballs and the burger, both $8 on happy hour about half off the regular price.  Both were exceptional and you can’t beat that price.

 

Since I had a random Friday night off and we had a DD (thanks Kenyon) we attempted to visit the new Mother Earth Brewing downtown location but it was packed with no parking so we continued to The Handlebar, another Beer Buddy Hub.  This was a really fun bar with a great atmosphere.  There is pool table, bike races, popcorn, and THE BEST pizza that delivers inside the bar.  YES!

 

With a hop, skip, and a jump we were at our third Beer Buddies Hub for the night, Hops & Bottles.  This is always a fun place with great atmosphere.  The only downside is they allow dogs.  No Thank You.

 

We decided to venture back to Meridian and found our first two stops packed with absolutely no seating.  We found a table at Pauly’s but since the food was limited, we had our one drink and moved on.  The final stop was Firehouse Pub & Grill, which I have not been to.  We ordered some food and one more drink and then headed home.

 

What an epic night but oh man…I am not as young as I once was and all the fried food at the end of the night tore me up.  Oh well, we had fun.

Is There Such A Thing As CA: Cruisers Anonymous?

I had no intention of abandoning you for so many days.  It was my last three-day weekend off from work and the next few weeks…er…from now until April 1^st as basically life is going to be packed and so very busy.  In turn, I appeared to have turned in to slug on my days off.  Oh, and I stand corrected.  I had to work four hours of overtime on Thursday but not too bad.

So, what have I been up to lately?  Not much!  I cancelled social plans Wednesday night partly due to wanting to stay committed to my WW plan and eat at home.  I had such a great weight loss last week that I didn’t want to mess it up.  We also had planned to maybe celebrate a belated Valentine’s Day but again, opted to eat at home as Kenyon has also been noticing a positive effect on the scale for him too. 

Since I knew I would be working on Thursday, we ran errands and had a belated V-Day lunch at Tucanos.  Oh so delicious.  With plans to meet my gal pals for lunch on Saturday, I opted for a home dinner on Thursday.  Friday was also in check and much to my surprise and pre-planning, I navigated my lunch out with my friends still earning a blue dot for the day.  WIN:WIN

 

I’ve been watching a lot of cruise videos on You Tube.  I tell ya, I am addicted.

 

On the same day I celebrated 365 days until my next cruise, we made an impromptu decision to book an Alaska cruise in May.  WhoooHoooo!

 

We are only 11 points away from earning Platinum status with Norwegian Cruise Line and the currently Latitude Rewards for booking certain cruises is double points plus you already get one point per night which works out to triple the points.  A five day cruise would be enough to earn Platinum status and Alaska is one of the offerings.  The only bummer is the ship stops in just two ports, Ketchikan and Victoria, BC.  I am looking forward to visiting Victoria again.  We also had to book an inside room as Alaska prices are ridiculously expensive.  In the meantime, prices dropped allowing us to upgrade to a balcony which is even better.  Oh boy are we are looking forward to this next cruise.  We also love flying to Seattle because we can book first class through Alaska Air and the flight is non-stop.  We decided this trip we won’t spend extra time in Seattle pre or post cruise but do plan to book a return trip for just Seattle at some point.

 

So…to recap…Hi my name is Lindsay and I am a cruising fanatic that probably needs an intervention.  If you need me, I’ll be watching more cruising videos on You Tube.