Had family over last night to celebrate John’s birthday a few days early (it’s on Tuesday). We decided on a cheese sampling with crackers, fruit, hummus, salsa, plus cake and ice cream! We were going to do pizza and cake, but thought it might be fun to do something different and it is what J wanted to do!
The table set up buffet style:
The 4 cheeses:
Brie, goat cheese, smoked gouda,Irish cheddar.
Hummus platter with pita points and various crackers.
Dark chocolate cake with butter cream icing. Was going to do a nut butter spread in between the layers, but I burned the walnuts…. ooops!
I proceeded to face plant into all the food. It was all good, though! What’s that word again? Moderation? Hmmmm… missing yesterday from my vocabulary.
This morning, we decided to bike to bagels to atone for some of yesterday. Sunday is normally a rest day for me, but I had a rest day on Friday to prep for the race. 16 miles round trip.
Blueberry bagel!
One of the lovely things about being a landlord. This is what my rental house looked like:
The tenants own a St Bernard and decided it was a good idea to tie him to the column on the porch. Idiots. The dog ran after another one and yanked the column right out. After having a come-to-Jesus talk with the tenant today, all should be fixed and paid for in a few days or they have to face the wrath of Lori. Anyone want to buy a rental property??
We had grapes in the house and grilled chicken, so I made one of my favorite lunches! Curry chicken salad:
- 10 grapes (I had black seedless)
- 1/3 of an apple
- 3 ounces of chicken breast
- 1 tablespoon light mayo
- curry powder.
Chop all ingredients into small bits and mix with the mayo and curry powder. Enjoy! It’s so easy when you have cooked chicken in the house (as I love to say). Served with some leftover pita points from last night.
I have found that I have been doing some stress eating the last few days, which is a little unusual for me. Normally I overeat just out of love for food, but there are those times when multiple stressors happen at the same time and I find myself reaching for the comfort of food.
I’ll post some tips from the Beck Diet book tomorrow on dealing with stress eating, which I am going to try and employ for this week coming up.
Question: Have any of you thought about being (or are) income property owners?
Sweetie, thanks so much for the delicious cake and for setting up my party! Sorry to tempt you with all that food (most of which is still in the house — your relatives can’t eat like they used to 🙂 Can’t wait til our dinner Tuesday.
😀
Happy Birthday to John.
That cake looks yummy. I’ve been suffering from snack attacks recently as well. I took myself to the gym this afternoon just to sit on a recumbent bike and read. I needed to get the hell out of the house. Grr.
And yes, I have “property” except that it doesn’t produce any income. Very interesting timing in that my Mom called me this afternoon to tell me that the AC had gone out in my house. My Mom and sister live in my house, so unfortunately there is no income to offset the expenses. My Mom and I own rental property out-of-state – now that’s a headache!
I mean I actually rode the bike. I didn’t just sit there. That would be silly. But I was reading while pedaling.
LOL! I assumed you rode it!
Sorry about your tenant, but I just had to say I laughed out loud when you said you had a “come to jesus” conversation with them. That’s probably one of my favorite phrases!
Ohmygoodness, I would have face planted in that buffet too. Fancy cheese AND hummus? My faves! Looks a lot better than regular old pizza any day 🙂
I’ve always been a rentor, but sometimes I don’t know how landlords do it. I live in a university town, and I bet the landlords around here put up with a lot of crap from the rowdy students.
Happy early b-day to John!! 😀
How funny, I wrote about stress eating tonight as well!
I could never own rental property – although my husband thinks he wants to try it, I know the headaches involved would make me crazy.
That chocolate cake looks divine! Hope John has a happy birthday!
Chicken Salad looks good. I baked a 4 pound bag of chicken breast tenders last week and have made much chicken salad myself this past week!
I see brie and I must get some in my life soon. 🙂 Yum.
stress eating: I married into a family who are stress NONEATERS.
they cant eat a bite when they are fretting.
I do not get these people 🙂
That looked like such a nice, healthy array of food! I love chicken salad with grapes.
My parents owned rental property, and it was the biggest headache. They stuck with it a long time though.
I’ve been a renter almost all my life and while I’m a good tenant, I’d never want to be the landlord. Oh the things/people I’ve seen! LOL
Remember how I said you should be a food photographer? Add caterer to your list of careers, too 🙂
I so envy ‘stress noneater’! I’am definately a stress eater.One of the things i would love to change about myself.
No we don’t own rental property. Just buying our own house. My inlaws owned rental property at one time and it was such a headache! You never know what kind of people your getting no matter how much you try to check them out.
Happy Bday to John. Everything looked really yummy. All my splurge desires feel under control at the moment. So going to work really hard to take advantage of that. I really like the idea that you ask a question at the end of your blog entries. I may try that if you don’t mind. Gets people talking doesn’t it? 🙂 Have a great week! Jinx!
that’s one nifty idea. makes a birthday extra memorable. it’s also great that you still had cake for tradition.
I LOVE chicken salad. I have never tried it with grapes though. Sounds and looks good. I stress eat all the time and it seems as if I have been stressed for weeks now. Need to just win the lottery!!! LOL.
Let’s share that lottery!! 😀
That spread looks fantastic! I want to come over the next time you’re having a party 😀
Happy Birthday to John!
The birthday spread looks delicious. I remember something about moderation – haven’t seen it in a while. Stress gets me every time too.
We had a rental property in NH where landlords have no rights and tenants can live in and destroy property without paying rent. We had horrible experiences with numerous tenants. It was probably worse because we were absentee landlords only there on the weekends. We did a happy dance the day we sold it.