Just before doing my grocery shopping, I hit up Barnes + Nobles. This is normally a lovely afternoon splendor of Starbucks coffee sipping and magazine browsing. However, since I'm in the first week of Eat in Month, I had to skip the coffee. As if!
If I had thought it through better, I may have brought a thermos of hot tea with me to sip on whilst magazine browsing. Alas, I didn't, so I just made a quick trip of it, only browsing a couple mags and heading to the Gardening section for one book in particular.
That's right! I got All New Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew. I can't wait to start reading and planning my future herb + veggie garden. Something tells me I need to start on the prep work soon!
I also picked up this Best of Better Homes and Gardens 100 decorating ideas - Big Style for small rooms. I loved almost every room and set up in this book! I thought I may be able to remember the ideas without having to buy the magazine, but I've decided to keep it for reference. Can I use dark curtain rods if the decor in the room is overall light? I dunno...but let's consult one of my mags to see what they did. I like to have concrete examples whilst brainstorming room decorations.
Normally, I would have picked up a soup at Earthfare whilst grocery shopping, but thanks to Eat in Month, I headed home for something more cost-effective.
Lunch was again kind of weak, but after my big breakfast earlier, I really wasn't that hungry and didn't want to spoil my appetite for dinner (had something special planned).
Great Harvest Flax Oat Bran toast with Barney Butter and chia seeds. I also had a couple apple wedges but put most back in the fridge since I was still feeling the sweetness from breakfast.
Post lunch, I had blogging and errands to do. Before I knew it, it was time for dinner!
Since I had mascarpone on hand, I decided to try out a recipe I've been wanting to do for awhile - Giada's Chicken with Mustard Mascarpone Marsala Sauce.
I don't know why I've waited so long to make this. I guess buying all the ingredients seemed on the expensive side - mascarpone and marsala. I guess I just think mascarpone is expensive, but it wasn't too bad this time since I used it for two recipes. It was worth it! Both this one and that one were fab!
I used the rest of the fresh pasta from yesterday (I stored the 1/2 lb uncooked in the fridge till today) and also served dinner with steamed broccoli with a drizzle of real butter. I left the butter off the pasta as recommended in the original recipe. I decided the sauce would have enough flavor.
So yum! I think I am in love with all marsala-wine-based pasta dishes.
For dessert, I re-heated a tiny piece of leftover Cinnamon Chip French Toast Casserole and added a wee bit of maple syrup and a couple mini semi-sweet chocolate chips. As small as this was, I didn't quite finish it. I was pretty full from dinner!
After my lovely staycation, it's back to work for me tomorrow! Any one else headed to work after vacay?
PS I'm not looking forward to giving up my Starbucks Mondays or Bagel Day Fridays, but...in the name of Eat in Month, I'll do it! I'm only missing out on 4 coffees and 5 bagels. I will save roughly $30-40! Yay!