Where's my KEYS!!!???

OH WHAT A DAY! I got up early making a Sweet Cream Cheese with Strawberry Slices and Blueberries and fresh, raspberry jam, waffled or pressed in a waffle maker til warmed and toasted. A messy look but I love the cool checker look the waffle maker makes on the bread. The berries were tangy yum.

Then I got ready because we we're planning on going out to get a few more things..purse, make-up, etc. So I'm ready. I get Amerie a piece of waffled toast, some sweet cream cheese dip and mixed berries and I make my hubby his Brown Sugar and Cinnamon bagels. Well, my Tita invited us down at 12 for lunch so we figured we'd go out, stop by, and then go shopping. We get to the car...I can't find my keys. I figured they were in my room somewhere...I recalled taking them from Amerie once as she was walking out the room, keys in hand waving and saying "Bye, Bye Momma..Bye, Bye Dadda". So I knew they had to be in the room or in my bags. It was 11:30 Am. when we were ready to leave....an hour and half later I was frustrated, tired, hungry and at near tears. I looked high and low, every where!! I couldn't find them...it was 1 o'clock and I was starving and I wanted peanut butter and bananas but had no bananas so Tim went to get me some bananas to make me feel better and I made lunch for Amerie, kaya and I. I made a crunchy peanut butter, banana and strawa2Qberry jam wrap grilled in the skillet and a Bud Light beer (I needed it!). As for Amerie and Kaya I made them a peanut butter roll up with grape jam to dip, veggie crisps with ketchup and some cashews, raisins and chocolate chip mix. We all sat and ate and I savored and devoured every single delicious, peanut buttery banana bite. It was sooooo good! I want another! After Lunch I cleaned them up....

It was around 2:30 and I began looking again...where could they be??? Then I saw the box. In Amerie's room is a big cardboard box that i store most of her toys in. Every Monday we switch out toys so they stay fresh and "new" to her and it keeps the room organized and clean. Well, there wasn't much of an opening so I didn't think much of looking, plus I thought I had them last; not her. Well low and behold there they were dangling off one of her push toys! I yelled out her name in relief to finding them and realized she did have them and she hid them and we asked her over and over where they were at and all she said was "Don't know". That little booger!! I can't believe it! Thank goodness! Let's go! So we head out and go shopping!

Well, of course, it wasn't too long until dinner time hit so we went to Pollo Campero...a Latino Fried Chicken Joint...wasn't much for me but Tim got a 3 piece frie chicken meal and ordered yuca fries and fried bananas for me to try while Amerie got a kids grilled chicken strip with black beans and rice for me to try as well and I got a maranon juice which is a fruit from the cashew tree I believe..it was so mildy sweet and delicious that I drank it like water. It wasn't sugary or anything..you could tell it was fresh juice with no additives..I loved it but Amerie loved it more and ended up drinking most of it. The yuca fries were really oily. I don't know if they weren't cooked in hot enough grease or what but they were really soft on the inside with a light, golden crisp on the outside..they fell apart as you picked them up. I mean don't, get me wrong they were really good, but just too soft and greasy for me. If ima eat fries, I like them to stay intact and be slightly more firm and crispy. As for the fried plantains...they were greasy too...What am i to expect.. but they were delicious because they were just that..fried plantains. No sugary or battered coating...just a natural coating from natural sugars of the plantains caramalizing, creating a nice sweet coating and they were firm not mushy..I loved them. I could've eaten more but thank goodness they only gave us 4 small slices. And the black beans and rice were simple and perfectly seasoned with cumin and other spices. They were yummo....and everything was reassured vegan! No pork, no dairy, fried seperately...the upside..it was reasonably priced...all for only $15...but the downside and the worse part of all this was the fact that my fetish for trying new foods led me to down almost over 700 calories! Yep..I said 700! And it was mostly grease and sugar too!! What a meal..this is why I eating out is unhealthy! But if you're a serious foodie...a lover of food and flavor...a freak in trying new things..then you just have to suck it up and enjoy! What kind of life would you live if you didn't indulge NOW and THEN.

The rest of the evening we finished most of our shopping...including a stop by Border's..our FAVORITE Place..all three of us LOOOOVVVEEE books and all three of us got to choose a book or two or three. Tim got his books on assassination and history, Amerie got a good deal on a set of three My First books and..me VEGAN LUNCHBOX by Jennifer McCann!!! A book to make my life a little easier in finding good healthy vegan meals to pack instead of me trying to rack my brain on what to pack for lunch...teh author puts it all on paper with tons and tons of recipes! Peefecto! Now all I have to think about is Dinner and Tim's lunch. I can't wait to read it!!!!

AHH a stressful day, that ended in a sweet note with a brand new book for each of us to relax and read after such a hard day! As for my keys, I'm getting and alarm or something for those things!

Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency. Nothing is that important.
Natalie Goldberg