I made some serious blog progress this morning. I created three new pages that will be posted once I have drop down menus in place on the blog!
This may seem like nothin’, but I assure it’s no small feat when you’re making a page that requires finding a bazillion old posts on your blog. It’s a lot of sifting and searching. I wish I would’ve been more organized when I started blogging. If you’re a new blogger, please utilize tags on your pages. (You may see all of my tag categories in the right-hand column of my blog under “PBF by Category.”) Tags make it so much easier to find posts that belong together. I only wish I would’ve used them sooner!
Break for Errands
Eventually my eyes started to cross from staring at the computer screen for so long that I decided to take a breather and get out of the house to run some errands, including getting my bridesmaid dress altered for my friend Leah’s wedding next Saturday. Once I left the alterations shop, I headed to Whole Foods thinking I would buy all of the necessary ingredients to make the homemade pesto sauce Jenna posted earlier this week.
As I started gathering the ingredients, I began mentally calculating the total cost of making the pesto. Since I didn’t have any of the ingredients at home already, I was buying everything that the recipe called for and that made the price creep up to more than $15 ($8 fresh parmesan cheese, $6 white miso, $3 panko breadcrumbs, etc.). I abandoned my pesto plans and left with two $1 packs of seaweed snacks and some nutritional yeast from the bulk bins. (Seriously, what do you do with nutritional yeast? I remembered seeing it on blogs before and figured I would buy a little and figure it out later.)
After my Whole Foods adventures, I drove home and made a pit stop at Barnes & Nobel to pick up a book Ryan and I are planning to start reading together. (Yes, we read together. We’re funky.)
While there, I got sidetracked by some puppy books near the checkout counter.
Whenever I see dog books, I have a habit of flipping through them to see if they have a section dedicated to vizslas.
I’d say about 20 percent of dog books actually mention Sadie’s breed (usually only the dog encyclopedias or complete guide to dog breeds books do), so I wasn’t surprised when this particular book neglected vizslas as well.
At least they included another one of my loves:
Don’t you think Sadie and a little French bulldog would make the most adorable duo?
While in the check out line, I also saw this book that I think would make my mom cry:
Did anyone else read Pat the Bunny when they were little? Such a sweet and innocent book! Not sure how I feel about Pat the Zombie. (Not good.)
Lunch
When I arrived back at home, it was lunchtime, though I wasn’t particularly starving. My afternoon snack did a good job of fending off my hunger, I guess.
I worked for a little bit before eventually throwing together a yummy lunch using leftovers from earlier this week.
I used leftover pulled buffalo chicken to make chicken salad by combining the chicken, light Miracle Whip and sweet corn. I placed the chicken salad on top of a hot dog bun and served it with a side of the seaweed snacks I purchased at Whole Foods and some Babybel cheese.
Not a bad little lunch!
Off to wrap things up for the week on the work front. Hooray for Fourth of July weekend!!! And Happy Canada Day!
![\"Quantcast\"/](\"//pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-1e3-7hOJ_U8Bg.gif\")
nutritional yeast is amazing sprinkled over salads, on pasta… rice and beans… basically anything savory! i also like mixing a few spoonfuls w. unsweetened almond milk, it makes a great dressing. 🙂
i loooove bulldogs!!
I do the same – I sprinkle nutritional (or brewers) yeast on everything!!
Julie – I know you are from Chicago, so you might be familiar with Mark Buehrle – pitcher for the White Sox.
I saw a commercial of him and his wife last night…and I instantly thought of you! Ya know why…vizslas!!
See YouTube link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZL9Yz34z6E.
Enjoy and Happy 4th!
oh my gosh! i LOVE this! i can’t believe they have three. they must have a mad house!
Something tells me those lucky pups probably get their own WING at their house!! 😉
veeeery true. or a puppy wrangler dedicated solely to their care.
Those dogs live better than we do!!!
Puppy books are like crack!
Most importantly- what book are you guys going to be reading?? ; )
divergent by veronica roth
Mmmm looks like a delicious lunch! I think if we didn’t get Zeke, we would have liked a French Bulldog. But now that we have a large dog, I think we’re large dog enthusiasts! 😉
I haven’t been able to get into nutritional yeast yet…it just kind of grosses me out. Good luck…curious to see what you do with it!
I am so stoked you gave us Canadians a shout-out!
What book are you planning to read?
Happy Friday! 🙂
we’re going to read divergent by veronica roth! i heard that if you like the hunger games, you’ll love it, so i have high hopes.
Oh my goodness, how I love nutritional yeast. I sprinkle it on everything. One thing it is really great on is popcorn! I do the same thing with dog books, always looking for a section on the breed my dog is – a Basenji. They are not very common so I get excited to see anything about them.
aw! we looked at basenjis when we were deciding what kind of dog we wanted!
Mama Pea has a recipe called Mmmm Sauce that uses nutritional yeast. I really like it and even my four year old loves it.
I swear you can’t go in Whole Foods without spending less than $20! I love nutritional yeast… it’s a great source of B12 and folic acid. I put a little bit on salads, pasta, etc. You can really use it on just about any dish!! Glad you decided to try it out.
That lunch looks really tasty! I love when leftovers can be used for lunch. 🙂
I always stop to look in the dog section too. I’m obsessed with our family dog who is a bichon frise 🙂
Eewwww Pat the Zombie is gross! I don’t like it.
And I made Jenna’s pesto the other day.. it was soo good! I did have all but one of the ingredients on hand, which made me happpy! I put nutritonal yeast on everything – I sprinkle it on salads, steamed veggies, rice and beans, pasta – like everything.
Your lunch looks delicous! 🙂 Seaweed snacks are gorgeous – so salty and tasty. I am completely horrified about pat the zombie…oh my goshh! :-O I would never ever read that myself, let along read it to my child, lol! It looks scary! 😛 xyx
Awww puppies! I love “Puppies Falling Asleep.” I always flip through it at Barnes n Noble!
I’ve quickly learned that tabs are ESSENTIAL on my blog! It makes organizing so, so much easier.
ohh I love the chicken and sweet corn combo! 🙂
Hope you have a wonderful holiday weekend! 🙂
I just had to say that Brandon and I read together, too! It’s one of my favorite things that we do together. We actually read several Christian-based books on marriage before we got married and I’m so glad that we did! 🙂 I’m actually in the middle of a blog post that discussing something similar (regarding us reading while we were dating), so it’s funny that I saw this!
French bulldogs are so adorable, but my sister has an English bulldog and I think those are my favorite!
I love nutritional yeast on popcorn for a movie night or late night snack! Pop a bag of plain popcorn in the microwave (I do it the easy way), heat up some olive oil on the stove to drizzle over the popcorn and toss with nutritional yeast and some salt (I use a ton of the yeast). So tasty! It was a flavor that took me a couple bites to get used to though, but I’ve got my husband hooked now. Enjoy!
yay!! you guys should definitely get a Frenchie for your next pup, our 8 month old Frenchie Ernie is just too cute. It’s funny because after reading your blog for a year, I want a visla!
I honestly had no idea that Vizlas was a dog breed until I started reading your blog! My brother and his fiance mentioned getting one (they have a pugle and they want a bigger dog) recently and I was all excited. They looked at me like I was crazy when I said “one of the bloggers I read has a vizlas!”
If you are reading Divergent you should join me in my virtual book club. It’s our July book. I started a few nights ago – and it’s REALLY good. And the author is only 22!
So Vizslas are everywhere in SF! Honestly a while ago I thought they were just a lab hybrid but the more I see them, the more I love them!
Thanks so much for the categories and tags tip – as a rookie blogger trying to figure out all this tech stuff, it definitely gets confusing – I’m going to utilize that!
Wanted to ask you- how to you link back to previous posts? Whenever I do, it added a comment by me in the comment section with a “ping back”. We’ll just chalk it up to me being the most non techy savvy person on the planet.
On book 3 of the Hunger Games – I started them after hearing you mention them on the blog – addicted!
I ditto everyone who mentioned nutritional yeast on popcorn. I personally like to take plain popcorn, spritz it with Bragg’s Liquid Aminos, then sprinkle with nutritional yeast. Delish! It’s also great on toast or in soups.
Also, thanks for the book update; if its anything like the HG, I’m sure I’ll love it. The Hunger Games trilogy were the best books I have read in years. Although I have decided that I will not be seeing the movies. Why ruin the pictures I created in my head?!? I mean, seriously–Lenny Kravitz as Cinna??
Um, so funny story, actually, with respect to “Pat the Bunny”…
Not to sound conceited (which totally makes me sound conceited), but I’ve always been known to be pretty smart. I graduated in the top 10% of my huge high school class, etc. So, on Christmas break my freshman year of college, my also very smart, AP-class type friends and I were hanging out at Barnes and Noble one night. They had a whole children’s book display set up, and everyone was reminiscing about their favorite books, etc. As they moved on to the adult books, I just stood there in the aisle with a distraught look on my face. My friend, Andrew, saw me and asked what was wrong, and I busted out with this gem:
“…. the bunny’s name isn’t Pat, is it?…..”
Yes, I had spent my entire life thinking that the bunny in the title of the book was named Pat. Pat the Bunny. And to this day, my friends, family, boyfriend and assorted acquaintances will look at me whenever I say something stupid and remark, “Pat the Bunny?”. And then I die a little bit inside.
I just started reading a fictional dog book- it’s written through the dog’s eyes. You might enjoy it! It’s called A Dog’s Purpose 🙂
I made pesto the other day and not only is it super easy and relatively cheap, but it’s also pretty healthy. It’s not traditional though, it’s a pea pesto!
Basically get either a pound of fresh or frozen shelled peas. Cook them up, put into food processor. Toast a handful or two of pine nuts (about a quarter of a cup), put in food processor. Peel and smash a clove or two of garlic, put in food processor. Run the processor until everything looks pretty well chopped up and smooth. Then start streaming in olive oil until it turns into a loose paste. Add in some salt and pepper to taste. Use a little pasta cooking water to loosen it up when mixing it with the pasta!
I love pesto!! So fresh & flavorful…but it definitely is expensive to make from scratch!
Umm…that Pat the Zombie book looks like it would give me nightmares…haha! BUT I have heard really good things about Divergent! Let us know how it is!
I love dogs! We have two an american shepard (white german shepard) and a maltese mix! I like cats too but the hubs is allergic! poo.
I like nutritional yeast in salad dressing, on popcorn, and especially vegan mac & ‘cheese’ yum
Did your pesto recipe call for pIne nuts? I’m seriously amazed how expensive those little babies can be! I’m such a frugal grocery shopper tho. I often opt for the pesto packet thingy’s they have by the salad dressings… cheap skate!
My hubby and I totally read together sometimes too… 🙂 And I’m in love with Whole Foods!
We have a Frenchie and just love him. His little face and big ears! A Frenchie and Sadie would be so cute together! I want to get a big dog also
Love nutritional yeast on omlets! It makes them taste cheesier
Wow you are really making so many great additions to your blog since ending your job!
I actually made pesto today (and yesterday it was so good, I ate it two days in a row) with nutritional yeast! I also used sliced almonds instead of pine nuts because that is what I had in my pantry. Fortunately, we planted a garden this year and I have basil in my backyard. I added a little oil in the mix and it turned out excellent. I’m intolerant to dairy and gluten and this is the first pesto that I have had in a while. It may not be traditional, but it sure was tasty!
So true about pesto! We had it as part of our wedding meal and found out that making it is SO EXPENSIVE. We ended up cheating and getting it at Sam’s Club. We got so many compliments, so hey, it worked! 🙂
I use nutritional yeast instead of parmesan cheese in my pesto all the time! You can hardly taste a difference and it is so much cheaper
I love nutritional yeast 🙂 It is yummy on salads, on pizza, on kale chips, and on eggs.
ENjoy! Oh and I love pesto…super good bought from Costco too….
I just bought nutritional yeast the other day too! My first test was on kale chips today….amazing! It makes them taste cheesy! I can’t wait to try it on pizza 🙂
Just have to say again how much I love your blog. I love all of the different menus you already have in place. Everything you do makes all of your posts so easy to access!
I love Frenchies too! I think a Frenchie and Sadie would be adorable. I’m looking into adopting another dog when I move back home to the States, and I think I’m going to look into adopting from a Boston Terrier rescue organization. They’re similar to Frenchies, and I just love Bostons. 🙂
I’ve been using nutritional yeast in salad dressings. nooch, olive oil, mustard, apple cider vinegar + salt/pepper= awesome combo
A book like that….. Nooooooo! I am such a softie, seeing that in line would have made me shudder.
My husband and I read at the same time, just not the same book, that is probably best for the both of us 😉
Sandwich looks good! I always see nutritional yeast on blogs too, but I’m still not too sure what the use is. Can’t wait to see how you decide to use it!
Your pulled pork and chicken lunches always look good–and I finally had something like it the other day 😛 Well, it was more Mexican but similar! 🙂 And I’ve never heard of French bulldogs but they are sooo cute!!!
I put nooch on everything!!!! Pizza, pasta, salads, eggs, veggie bakes, casseroles, etc..! Use it as you would cheese! I love that Pat the Zombie book! You should look into:
“In Me Own Words: The Autobiography of Bigfoot” –> IT’S FREAKING HILARIOUS!
Please let me know how you use the nutritional yeast! I’ve seen it on a few blogs recently as well and am interested to try it! That book is so sad looking.. It reminds me of the Suicide Bunnies.. Awful!! Haha
I loved Pat the Bunny when I was a kid! Love that you found Pat the Zombie! I showed my hubby your pic and he laughed.
I was going to make Jenna’s pesto too, but have none of those ingredients on hand. Glad to know that you already figured out that it was a costly recipe. Guess I’ll find another one now.
Hey Julie!! Love your blog…I’m trying to enter the blogging world myself. How do you do tags??
…and as for the nutritional yeast? I have no idea what to do with the stuff either, but ever since I was little my mom always put it on popcorn and its DELISH.
Here’s a Food Network recipe for fresh basil pesto: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/basil-pesto-recipe2/index.html
You can sub cashews for pine nuts to cut down on cost!
Do you have Trader Joe’s in FL? If so, they have an AMAZING basil pesto in the refrigerated section- probably much cheaper and easier than making it yourself. And really really tasty!
Those seaweed snacks are the bomb.com! They tastes like crisps so I love to stuff them in sandwiches for an added crunch !
Such cute puppies!
What are the seaweed snacks like Julie?