I feel like I should add something to that title…  “Back with a Vengeance” perhaps?  Oookkk, crazy, let’s get down to business…

So now we’re at this morning — Sunday.  (Look at us almost up to date with the blogging!  Exciting.)  This morning was a little rough for some of us… (I’m not gonna name names, KC.  Errr, maybe I am.)  Anyway, after moving a little slowly, we finally made it out of bed and got this show on the road.

Kashi for breakfast:

Post-breakfast activities were super blog-worthy (getting dressed, sorting laundry, loading up my tiny car with said laundry, me arguing with KC about him playing his new 25¢ CDs in my tiny car…  Yes, this is the stuff of legends.)

Ok, so then we drove to Walnut Creek, as we do almost every weekend because KC’s parents are nice enough to let us do laundry at their house for free.  (No laundromat?  I’m in.)

After throwing in a load of towels, we headed off to Crepes Ooh La La for lunch.  I love crepes.  KC and I have been frequenting this place since it was Crepes A Go Go and it was over on North Main.

I had a savory crepe: tomatoes, avocado, turkey, and cheddar:

Ahhhh yum!  I almost finished this…  I try so hard, but I can never seem to finish one of these.  I have dreams where I finish this and then have room for a sweet crepe… Oh strawberry and Nutella crepe, where have you been all my life??  Sadly, today was not the day.  (Note to self: if you ever decide to get knocked up… as in many, many years from now… remember to make daily trips to the crepe place.)

After crepes, there was switching of laundry and then we jetted off to Costco.  Oh Costco… You never cease to amaze me with the aisles and shelves full of things I never knew I needed (in such giant quantities).  We made it out of Costco with organic chicken breasts, some farmed (because there was no wild fish!  What the heck Costco??) steelhead trout, Cheerios (well hello, addiction), organic farro (so excited to make this!), a Camelback (KC says we’ll use it for hiking — yay!), and some real-sugar Coca Cola (KC’s special treat).  What did we not get?  Q-tips!  Where the heck were the Q-tips today Costco???  I searched high and low, and nothing.  Disappointing.

After Costco, there was more dealing with the laundry (clothes: when will you learn to clean yourselves?) then we headed out to Yogurt Park (or YoPa, as I call it) for a mid-afternoon snack:

That’s KC holding my mini chocolate/vanilla with Reese’s Pieces.  KC had chocolate and Irish mint:

So I have a little confession to make: I’m really not that big on ice cream, but I love frozen yogurt.  I could probably eat frozen yogurt almost daily (but I won’t… I prefer to save my sugar for dark chocolate.)

I almost finished my fro-yo.  Again, I can pretty much never finish one of these.  I always think, “It’s so tiny!  I’m gonna OWN this.”  Defeat.  Humiliation.  Ok, well, not humiliation… but you get the picture.

A word about this: I didn’t grow up in a household where I had to finish what was on my plate.  I understand that some people have some weird feelings going back to childhood about having to finish what’s in front of them; but learn to get over this, if you can.  You don’t have to finish anything you don’t want to.  (And considering the portion sizes of most restaurants, you shouldn’t finish what’s in front of you most of the time.)  Learn to eat more slowly and thoughtfully — listen to your body, it will tell you when it’s full.  People always make comments to me: “You never finish!”  “Did you even eat anything?”; but truth be told, I’ve just learned to listen to my body (for the most part) and I stop a little before getting full (because it takes about 10 minutes for your stomach to catch up with your brain — thus, why when you stop when you’re already full, you often end up feeling overly-stuffed).

Back to today: After yogurt, more laundry, then KC and I headed back downtown to enjoy the beautiful sunshine.  We walked around a bit.  Most stores were closed (hello 6:30pm on Sunday, you’re boring), but we did walk through Barnes and Noble where I marveled at the fact that there’s a magazine called “Modern Dog” (as opposed to “Old-fashioned Dog”?  I’d prefer my dog to be old-fashioned, frankly.  Maybe a 1920’s rebel who sets up a speakeasy to fight Prohibition…)

I digress…  After a million hours our laundry was finally done (I dream of the day when KC and I have an in-unit washer/dryer…) and we headed back to Oakland.

This is where things get exciting: I made chipotle fish tacos for dinner!

I adapted the recipe from a… Bon Appetit?  Food and Wine? (one of those…) recipe.  The original recipe calls for salmon, but seeing has Costco had no wild salmon, and Steelhead trout is cheaper (and very similar to salmon), I used that.  (You could probably use just about any fish for this recipe, or even steak, shrimp, chicken, or tofu.)

Starting with the fish: I used 1 lb. of fish, cut into 4 pieces.  On this I rubbed a mixture of 2 tsp. sugar, 2 tsp. chipotle chili powder, and 2 tsp. orange zest (basically, zest of 1 orange).  This then sat while I prepared the rest of the “accessories.”

Chopped cabbage.  I don’t need to explain this, do I?

2 tbsp. mayonnaise + juice of 1/2 a lime to go on top on the fish.

One mashed avocado.

Apple cucumber salsa: 1 peeled granny smith apple, 1/2 a cucumber (I like English cucumbers because they don’t need to be peeled/seeded), 1/2 a red bell pepper, 1/2 a small red onion — all this was diced and tossed with 1 1/2 tsp. sugar, 1 1/2 tbsp. white wine vinegar, and salt.  Easy peasy.

I then grilled the fish on high until it was just about cooked through (3-5 min per side, depending on how thick your fish is).  Note about this step: maybe it’s just me, but this basically turned my kitchen into Iceland (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, you should really read or watch the news more).  Chipotle + grill pan apparently equals crazy smoke.  (KC thought I was dying while I was making this.  I may have emphysema as a result of making these tacos.)  Luckily, the end result was totally worth the smoke inhalation:

Serious deliciousness people!  I had two tacos…

Can I just say I love Mexican food, especially with a cold beer?  And, if it’s healthy like this — BONUS!  I put together the tacos like this: corn tortilla (I bought organic hand-made ones at Berkeley Bowl), some smashed avocado, 1/2 a piece of fish, little bit of lime mayo, shredded cabbage, apple cucumber salsa, and some Sriracha to top it all off.  Fresh, crunchy, spicy, creamy, and that insane combo of warm fish and cold salsa…  YUM.

I definitely recommend this recipe.  Perhaps a good plan for Cinco de Mayo?  Maybe you’d like to invite your friend Chelsea?  How nice of you!  Anyway, you can definitely wow a crowd with this one.  There’s sort of a lot of sides, but it’s all really easy to make (and you could definitely do most of the prep work earlier in the day, or probably even the day before.)

Ok, I’ve been blogging forever now and KC is wondering what the heck I’m doing and if I’m ever going to hang out with him again, so I’d better wrap this up.  Again, sorry for the late posts, but I hope your weekend was just as fun and eventful as mine!

Also, Happy Birthday April!  We had a great time yesterday!  🙂