I didn’t want to have to do this…

HELLO HELLO! HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!!!

You have until Wednesday to enter my Swanson Vitamin Giveaway!!!

I hope you had a wonderful weekend-and spent Sunday with yo Mama’s! Unfortunately I was not able to because I had to work, but I went to see my mom Friday night and spent Saturday with her. It was quite lovely.

However Friday I was chillin’, running errands, getting my nails/hair did, and I got a phone call telling me I had to come into work! So I didn’t really have a full weekend to play, but you gotta do what you gotta do. :-/

My weekend is always Friday and Saturday, and the weekend started out extremely early on Friday morning with another Physical Therapy appointment. I’m starting to really like PT. I basically get my foot massaged for 45 minutes, and work on exercises for 15 min. Who wouldn’t want that?

After PT I went to get my hair/nails done and was starving for some breakfast. I usually bring something with me, but as usual I was running late to get out the door because my PT appt was at 7:30am, so I just stopped at Dunkin’ Donuts and got an egg white veggie flatbread sandwich.

I forgot it came with cheese so I took that piece off and ate the egg with the bottom piece of bread. And sipped on delicious Dunkin’ coffee of course. The stats for this sandwich aren’t as bad as you might think. Although a little high in sodium, it only has 290 calories, and has 11g of protein, and 3g of fiber. I rarely EVER go to DD, but I really like their new DD Smart menu, and you can check all the nutrition facts online.

After my errands I got the call that I needed to come into work. Since I was planning on meeting my Pop Pop for lunch, I didn’t have anything packed, and so I stopped at Whole Foods Paycheck to get a very large salad to take to work. This salad had every veggie in the bar.

Field Greens, spinach, celery, bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, carrots, radishes, cabbage, steamed broccoli, jicama, cucumbers, black beans, walnuts, beets, and watercress.

I topped my lovely salad with Annie’s Natural Green Goddess dressing. It was wonderful! Later I snack on a few pieces of a french baguette, a little cheese, and some olive oil. I knew I would be going out to dinner so I didn’t want to overdo it, but I needed something else later in the afternoon.

After work I rushed to meet my parents at a nearby (to them) restaurant called Real Seafood.

They live SUPER close to this restaurant, and it is brand new so we couldn’t wait to try it out. It looks gorgeous from the outside, and the inside is very peaceful and serene. It makes you feel like you are in an aquarium. Everything is blue, and it has a cool calming feeling. The menu looked incredible, and I couldn’t wait to try out the food.

However-much to my dismay, the food was awful. I didn’t want to have to write a bad restaurant review, but I was so unhappy with my meal that I just had to. Let me first say, the wait staff is very friendly, accommodating, and did a great job, so that was not the problem at all.

First, we started with the Honig Sauvignon Blanc. This is one of my favorite Sauvignon Blancs because I think it is the perfect balance of acidity and fruit. It is not too grapefruity or grassy, but has a wonderful juicy fruit middle with a very crisp, dry finish.

The bread that came out was greasy, buttery, and just looked gross. Luckily I had a few pieces of the baguette before so I didn’t want any of this very greasy bread. My dad and I ordered appetizers. He ordered a volcano roll, and I ordered the salt and pepper tuna.

The tuna was supposed to be seared tuna seared rare, served with sticky rice,wasabi and spicy ponzu sauce, but it didn’t taste fresh at all and was covered in this sweet sticky sauce. The rice and the fruit salsa was ok, but the tuna itself was gross. And my dads Volcano roll was definitely not as good tasting as it sounded. For my entree I chose the grilled fresh swordfish with steamed veggies, and the Mediterranean salsa.

Looks ok… right? Well don’t let looks full you. I didn’t even think the presentation was that great for the price of this dish. What I got was a piece of fish that was so salty I couldn’t even swallow it. Even with out the salsa it was covered in salt and butter. You couldn’t even taste the fish itself. And the veggies were far from steamed. They were drenched in butter and salt as well. The butter was actually oozing down my plate. I politely asked for a side of steamed veggies, and they politely brought me some. But I just could not eat this fish. It was WAY over seasoned. So I told the waiter, and instead I ordered a Rock N Roll.

My dad said his paella was too salty for him, and my mom thought her sushi was ok, but we’ve had better. My Rock N Roll was nothing to write home about, and I probably didn’t even need it after having a bite of both my parent’s dishes. We still had a wonderful time chatting and being together because after all it’s not always about the food, and we were celebrating my wonderful mother for Mother’s Day.

Luckily the manager came to our table (with out us even complaining) and he apologized, and they actually didn’t even put my swordfish OR my Rock N Roll on the bill. So that is a plus I guess. I was really hoping for a better experience here because it looked and sounded SO nice, but that was not the case, and I don’t think we will be going back anytime soon.

On Saturday I started with an Arnold Thin smothered in Sunland peanut and almond butter with a side of fresh strawberries and blackberries.

My mom and I were out all day so I only had time for a quick lunch. But sometimes I love lunches like these. 2 Tbs hummus mixed with spicy salsa with carrots and crackers to dip.

For dinner I wanted something light, but had tons of veggies to use up. I have had a hankering for roasted veggie salad lately, and I decided to just roll with it. I cut up 2 HUGE organic beets, 3 turnips, and 1 fennel bulb, tossed in olive oil, salt, and pepper, and roasted them in a 375* oven for about 30 minutes or until soft.

I chopped up some organic romaine and made a mini salad bar for Chris and me. This way we could add whatever we wanted to our salads (since he is not a big fan of the root veggies). I made him some sausage as well, but I just wanted the veggies.

All the flavors together were fantastic! My salad had a little lot of everything as usual.

Romaine, roasted beets, turnips, fennel, chick peas, steamed broccoli, toasted walnuts, fat free feta, organic dried berries, and dressing

Mine ended up to be HUGE!!!!!!!!! My eyes are always bigger than my stomach. I drizzled my salad with a homemade vinaigrette of just olive oil, balsamic, mustard, salt, and pepper that I mixed in the bullet.

We devoured our salads while watching Nine-which I really enjoyed! We loved the movie almost as much as these salads. I couldn’t get over how everything went so well together. Each bite was better than the last. The beets were so sweet, and fresh!

Today was just filled with lots of leftovers, which I figured I would spare you all.

Happy Mothers Day to all those Mom’s out there. Especially Happy Mothers Day to my mom. She has been there for me through EVERYTHING, and I wouldn’t be who I am today with out her. I love you mom!

Don’t forget to enter my Swanson Vitamin Giveaway. I’m giving away TWO $25 gift certificates to use on the Swanson Vitamins site! ENTER HERE!!!

Have a great Sunday night!!!!

Question: What did YOU do for Mother’s Day?

Tagged as: hummus, Real Seafood, Roasted Veggie Salad, seared tuna, sunland peanut butter, swordfish, Whold Foods