Super (healthy) Bowl!

Every year, we go over to the home of one of my husband's friends to watch the Super Bowl. The guys sit around, drink beer, and watch football while the girls eat crappy food (think nachos and crockpot meatballs in goopy ketchup/grape jelly sauce, and NO, I'm NOT kidding), talk, and go back and forth to catch the commercials when they come on the tv. Not the most exciting use of a day.

My friend and I decided to have us an "alternative" Super Bowl this year. We went shopping for snacks, then headed over to her house to watch the game (okay, the commercials, who am I kidding?) and scrap! We had fresh fruit (grapes, blackberries, strawberries, and blueberries), veggies (cucumber slices and baby carrots) with hummus, multigrain crackers with assorted toppings (rosemary ham, low fat turkey kielbasa slices, and small chunks of super sharp English cheddar) and mini pizzas. Doesn't it look yummy?

All the pizzas weren't out of the oven yet. That's my scrap basket... that's right, just the SCRAPS. Sick. I didn't even take any paper, I told myself scraps only, and it really worked out well.

There's this fantastic new chain of stores popping up everywhere around here called Fresh and Easy. I'm soooo in love. They have regular food, precooked food you just need to heat up, and food that's all prepared and just needs cooking. They have a ton of items in their own brand (think Trader Joes) as well as regular national brands too. The stores are way smaller than regular grocery stores, but really, they have almost everything you need! Add to that the fact their quality is astoundingly good, and most things are made without preservatives or chemicals... well, I'm a fan.

Anywho, that's where we went shopping before the game. I found packages of whole wheat pizza dough in the refrigerated section, so I broke that up into eight equal portions, flattened them out, topped them with a spoonful of their marinara sauce, an extremely light (I'm not supposed to have ANY, oops) sprinkling of mozzarella, and three super thin slices of turkey kielbasa... holy crud it was HEAVEN, especially since I haven't really gotten to have bread in the past few weeks. I didn't put any oil, flour, or cornmeal on the pizzas, opting instead to just toss them on a Silpat to bake.

Add to all that an organic Ginger Limeade (also Fresh and Easy brand) and I didn't even feel the slightest bit deprived... it was a feast! Later that night I asked my husband what they ate (he wasn't about to come scrap with us) and sure enough... nachos, meatballs, and baby carrots with ranch. Blech.

So, what did I scrap? Well, I found this really cool weight loss card/album on Shanna Vineyard's blog, and my friend and I decided to make our own versions. That's what we worked on during the game. Here are my cards so far:



I can't believe I'm posting this... part of me is embarrassed, and part is ashamed.
I swear, I took like 5 pics of that last one, and only one of the other ones, but just couldn't get it to be clear! Dang it.

Oh, and lest I forget... we went to the mall on Saturday, and boy was it interesting. There were a couple of rappers there (Snoop Dogg and Akon, and we got a pic of Akon on my friend's cell!), Floyd (is that his name?) Merriweather, George Clooney was reportedly at the restaurant on the bottom level, among other celebrity sightings that day. People were crazy trying to get pics, and mall security definitely had their work cut out for them.

I have to say though, I have mad props for Akon, because that poor man was just mobbed, but he smiled the whole time and let folks take their pictures with him. How nice to see a big name act like a decent human being for his fans, who got him there! :)

Finally, just for fun, I got this really cool dessert stand at Target last week for only $15!!! I've been wanting something on which to display cupcakes, but I didn't like most of the cupcake holders I had seen. I love that this one doesn't have individual holders, but instead the tiers are more like trays. That means it will hold more cupcakes!!!

Someone on 2Ps posted about it, and I ran over there on my lunch break to grab one. I'm so happy I did, it's the perfect thing for that awkward corner of my countertop.