Tomato Monday

I loved winters light for taking photos. Now there are leaves on the trees, flowers blooming, and warm weather, but the lighting is terrible. It wasn't that great to begin with. I thought it would be better when summer came. I know there's probably some adjustment I can make to the camera, but I am new at it, so for now I have these. If you care to share a tip, it is more than welcome.

My breakfast. I decided to give the parfait another go. I really need better glasses. I mean that in so many ways. I like these glasses, but they are actually Christmas glasses. I keep them out all year long, because I like the way they are made. They would be even better if they were just a little bigger. My parfait is sort of undefined and sloppy looking, but it tasted just fine.

 

What's in the glass

Vanilla Yogurt

Ground Flax

Crunchy Banana Nut Multigrain Flakes

Delmonte Very Cherry Fruit Cocktail

There wasn't room for more and as I mentioned, my parfait skills are lacking.

 

I had some sort of snack mix to munch on between breakfast and lunch. I am not sure what it's called. It didn't have a label, but it is sort of like the Salsa Trail Mix from Yoder's. I still have a little of it and it has different stuff in it. I kept craving something sweet, but surprisingly this hit the spot.

 

I had my leftover spinach ravioli and salad from Romano's. I added some spring mix lettuce to the salad. The leftover salad was looking sort of pitiful, but still edible, just not very photo worthy. The spring mix did a great job covering it up. I topped the salad with a little light Caesar dressing. The ravioli was good, but I think there was more cheese than ravioli. The sauce was also very good. 

 

Underneath all that cheese is 2 ravioli. 

After lunch I had a date with a dog.....for a bath, not me, him. He wasn't thrilled, but he smelled and felt a lot better afterwards. Since I did such a good job giving Buddha a bath, I decided to reward myself, lol, so, I had the last piece of the apple cake. It was sweet, moist, and buttery with lots of apples and walnuts. I love fruit and I love fruity desserts, oh heck, I love desserts period.  

 I completely forgot to get photos of the new plants in the garden today. I usually go down to the garden in the late afternoon, but we had to make a trip to town and so it was too late when we got back. 

I picked up some more salad and a few Roma tomatoes to go with dinner. I had some of Panera's Creamy Tomato Basil soup. You can get it at the Target deli or you can have someone serve it to you at Panera's with their Mediterranean veggie sandwich. I made a piece of toasted garlic Parmesan bread and added some broccoli to the salad and along with a few slices of Roma tomato which I topped with a little Italian dressing. Dinner was served.

It was yummy.

Although it wasn't very exciting, that was my day. Do you have any questions for me? I got sidetracked this evening looking for recipes. I am craving something with coffee in it. Do you have a good recipe you'd like to share? 

Mother's Day Dinner At Romano's

This morning since it was Mother's Day and I am a mother, my gift to me was this yummilicious banana pudding smoothie. It's my current favorite, so why not. I've only had bunches of these and they haven't gotten old yet.

 

We were headed over to Mom's today with plans to join everyone for dinner at Romano's. As you can probably tell already, they have yummy Italian food, in a home style atmosphere. We stormed the place, with 9 adults and 2 children. Actually we called to make sure there were tables available. There were 2 other large groups there as well, not mention a few couple here and there. I bet the staff sleeps well tonight. We had them hoppin'. 

 As we walked in the door, we were greeted by the littlest chef. Lexi schmoozed him, so that we were seated quickly and at a nice table, several actually.

Here's Mom who was the main focus of today's dinner enjoying her one Sunday of no cooking, no serving, and no clean up afterwards.

Here for our dinner entertainment is Lexi modeling Romano's latest pizza dough sample, which comes in 2 styles, under the nose or......

 

.....over the nose.

 

We did get a couple of partial shots of the dinner party. The other end of the table remains anonymous.

 

I think they thought that if nobody was looking, there wouldn't be any pictures, lol. I manage to escape being photographed, ha, ha, only because Mom forgot her camera.

I almost ate my salad before getting a shot of it. I almost always do that. I did realize it after taking just one bite. You'd think I would be getting the routine down by now. I ate half of my salad with Romano's ranch dressing and saved the rest to take home.

 

I ordered the Spinach Ravioli with marinara sauce and cheese on top. It was very good and I think I liked it better than the baked ziti I had last time I was there. I ate about half of the ravioli as well along with a piece of garlic bread and most of that was before getting a photo, lol. I still managed to wind up very full. 

 

The kids were very good. Mary really enjoyed her spaghetti.

She was also a little camera ham today.

 

Stealing the show with her smile.

 

 

Before leaving the waitress brought all of us ladies each a beautiful carnation for Mother's Day. It was very nice.

 

Mine had a little heart in the middle.

 

After dinner at Romano's we headed back to Mom's for dessert and coffee. She and my Aunt Lynda had 5 flavor pound cake and apple cake. I didn't get pictures of them. Sorry. I barely escaped with a piece of each to take home. Both were yummy. Hopefully, I'll get pictures of those later before they're eaten.

When I got home, I went outside and cut a little grass and then down to the garden to plant a few more plants, which Dale got this morning from the flea market. I will tell you about those tomorrow, since it was getting too dark for photos. 

When I came in I decided to eat some macaroni salad that Mom gave me, along with some fresh broccoli, carrot, and Fiesta Ranch dip. I think I was still too full from dinner and cake. I didn't finish these and I'm still filling stuffed.

 I hope you enjoyed Mother's Day. I know I did, a little too much. Leave a comment, let me know how you spent the day. What was the best thing you ate this weekend? I'm torn between my banana smoothie and the apple cake.