Retirement Party, Cook your Own Dinner and Spending time with Family in Santa Maria, California

     

    

    So yesterday, my sister Lisa and I were honored to attend the retirement party of our cousin Vera, short for Elvira, she was named after our grandmother and her dad and my dad are brothers. So we are sister/cousins, kind of sisters, kind of cousins. The party was held in Santa Maria, which is about 2 1/2 hours from where Lisa and I live, so we left work at noon so we could take our time getting there.

      The party was held at the Santa Maria Elks Lodge during their Friday Night "Cook Your Own". Now this is one of the most unique, scary, dangerous cookouts I've ever seen. You purchase what type of meat you want, Rib Eye ($30), New York Steak ($25), Fish ($25), Chicken ($25), Pork Ribs ($25) or you can get just the salad plate ($15), no meat. They gave us a ticket for our meal, Lisa and I both chose the New York Steak...GO BIG OR GO HOME, right?

    We had our own private party room and it was set up with a  full bar and tables just for our party. Lisa and I both had a glass of wine and enjoyed the appetizers which consisted of 7 Layer Dip with Chips, Spinach Dip with Bread and/or crackers, Chips and Salsa, and Chicken Salad. We could have been satisfied just eating that spread!

Picture of the Guest of Honor, our cousin Vera and her daughter Anna

    It was so nice to see Vera so happy to be done with the daily drudge of going to the office and having to deal with the drama and stress of a job. She's got great plans in her future to do more gardening and yardwork, to go camping with her children and grandchildren and hopefully to spend some time visiting me and Lisa!

L-R: Lisa, Me, Vera and Anna

    We met several of her coworkers and they all had wonderful things to say about her, they are truly going to miss having her around.

    Finally it was "Cook your Own" time and it was confusing but next time we will do better. First you stand in line with your ticket by the table that handles what your meal is going to be. We were having New York Steak so they had this huge tray of the most gorgeous steaks I've ever seen and you get to pick which one you want and they put it on a foam plate for you and give you a glass plate. We asked them at this table if we really and truly had to cook our own dinner and they said yes! But they gave us a tip, they said look for one of the guys in a red shirt and let them know it's your first time and they will help you.

    We found a very handsome and sweet man in a red shirt, I wish I had gotten his name but he was just the best. The photo below is of the "seasoning table". This is the first step, they have a spray bottle with brine and shakers with salt, pepper, something that just said seasoning...we added a lot of everything!

Red shirt Hero!

    Mr. Red Shirt then took us over to the grill which you can see in the background behind him. I was lucky that Lisa decided to man (woman) the grill, here's a shot of her standing there watching our steaks.

Brave Lisa standing next to that burning hot grill!

Dangerously hot! You could feel the heat!

    Since Lisa was doing such a good job at the grill, I decided to go and get her a Margarita and they had a very friendly bartender that was really sweet and gave me a free drink to try, he said he had just invented it. It was delicious with the flavors of peach, very tasty and refreshing!

Lisa's Margarita in the background and my free Peach Drink

Friendly bartender, gray haired man in the black shirt.

    On the walls they had several plaques with names on them. I'm not sure what they signified, but as I was standing there sipping my drink, I noticed the one below and had to get a picture because I follow a YouTube channel called Arne and Carlos. They are two knitting and yarn designers living in Norway, absolutely love them and how weird that the name on this sign is almost the name of their channel!

Arne and Carlos sign

    Finally our steaks were done and we made our way out of the grill room to the next station where they had several side dishes, baked potatoes, chili beans, salad, macaroni salad, French fries, garlic bread and various salsa and sauces. I loaded my plate and it was all delicious, so delicious that I didn't even think to take a picture. 

    We were stuffed and I only ate 1/3 of my steak. Luckily they give you bags to take your steak home. We continued to visit with cousins that were arriving late and finally it was 9pm and Lisa and I had planned to leave no later than 8:30 pm as it's a 2-hour drive home, but it was hard to leave as we were having a good time.

    We arrived home safely and we had a fabulous time and we wish Vera every happiness in the new chapter of her life. We love you cousin!

The Reunion - Another Grand Adventure

     It seems that lately I spend more time on the road than I do at home. I was in Lake Tahoe on October 6th, then I was at the Pomona RV Show for Lisa's birthday trip on October 13th. 

     On the weekend of October 20th I didn't stray as far but I still attended a Halloween party put on my friend Connie and her family, I haven't blogged about that one yet, but I will along with photos of my fabulous costume that I wish I could just wear every day in real life!

     But my sister Lisa and I shared another very special trip this Saturday, October 27th. We drove our mother to Santa Maria (a 2 1/2 hour car trip) to visit her sister-in-law, our Aunt Leonor. Aunt Leonor is the sister of my dad and they had not seen each other since the funeral for my dad in 2013.

Mom is the tall one with the cane (Tia Leonor won't use one!)

     Even though it had been many years, these two picked up right where they left off, talking about family and friends, sharing memories of days gone by and getting caught up on who had already passed on. 

     There was also quite a bit of conversation about whose aches and pains were worse than the others, which Lisa and I giggled about as we do the same thing. 

     It was a beautiful thing to see these two women together again. They'd been great friends for years and their husbands were always willing accomplices for their trips to the Casinos and shopping.

     Now they are both in their 80's, they've had their mishaps and falls. They have their medical issues and can't move around like they used to, but you just can't quell that fighting spirit, the will to still get out there and do some gardening or clean your windows. To take long car trips to visit each other even when you know that those car trips will leave you exhausted and trying to regain your strength in the week that follows.

     I know that there will come a time when mom can't do those long car trips any longer. We're hoping to be able to take her to Arizona next month, but we are waiting for the go-ahead from her doctor before we can make any plans.

     But for this one day, these two friends, these two sisters were able to be together and to relive happier times and I'm so happy that Lisa and I were able to do this for them.
     

How to Low Carb While Camping and Enjoying a Girl's Weekend

This weekend was a girl's camping weekend that had been planned for several months. 

I'll be honest...I had been dreading this weekend. Not because I didn't think I would have fun, oh I knew there would be lots of fun involved in a camping trip that included my sister Lisa and our friend Lupe. I was dreading trying to stick to a Low Carb/High Fat way of eating while not being at home where I have all my special foods and snacks available. 

But necessity is the mother of invention and I succeeded in making this a LCHF WOE weekend without too much of a struggle.

We left after work on Thursday evening and stopped at McDonald's before we got to the campsite. I had two McDoubles without bread or ketchup. Just the meat, cheese, pickles, onions and I added jalapeno because hot stuff is in my blood! We got to the campsite, unpacked, set up and then just talked girl talk until about 1 am.

Friday morning we awoke bright and early to the scent of the coffee my sister was brewing. Nothing better than the smell of coffee at the beach! Lupe had brought some Almond Biscotti to have with our coffee. 

I love Biscotti. Love how sweet and soft it gets when you dip it into your coffee. But just one Biscotti has 18 net carbs. I try to eat only between 20 to 24 carbs per day, so to eat one cookie that has 18 is just out of the question. Luckily the day before I had purchased a Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Quest Bar. One whole bar has 3 net carbs. The WHOLE BAR has 3 net carbs. It was so rich and delicious that I cut that bar in three pieces and enjoyed for two mornings and one evening. Was it Biscotti? No. But was it enjoyable and satisfying? YES!

We had several errands to run so we got ready and headed out. We stopped for breakfast at a cute little coffee shop called The Pantry on Park in Santa Maria. I figured I would just have a couple of eggs and bacon. Easy-peasy. But I was intrigued by the sound of a Bell Pepper, Onion, Ham and Egg Scramble. 

I asked the waitress what I could have instead of the hash browns and toast. She offered sliced tomatoes, cottage cheese or fresh fruit. I opted for the tomatoes and the fruit which consisted of sliced bananas, pineapple, cantaloupe and strawberries. I took out all the strawberries and put them on my plate (strawberries are lower in sugar) and offered the rest of the fruit to my sister Lisa and Lupe to share. It was one of the best breakfasts I've had in a long time!

For dinner that night, Lisa and Lupe decided to have the Fish and Chips dinner at the clubhouse of the RV park we were camping at (yes, we were at a fabulously comfortable RV park in a beautiful RV home; that is as "roughing it" as I get).

Breaded Fish and French Fries are definitely not a low carb option. Luckily my beautiful, loving mother had packed us some of her homemade Chile Verde. She roasts Anaheim chile's and dices them very small with some tomato and salt, at this point we call it Chile Macho. Then she takes some steak and cuts it into bite-size pieces and browns it and then adds just a spoonful of flour to thicken and adds water and the Chile Macho and it turns into beautiful, delicious Chile Verde! 

Normally I would eat this with a tortilla, but again, those days are gone as I don't eat flour or wheat products. So instead I took about two cups of raw coleslaw mix, fresh out of the package and placed it in a bowl. Then I heated up the chile verde and poured it on top. The coleslaw gets a little softer but it's still crunchy and with the chile verde it tastes like a nice little vegetable soup. It was very filling and soothing and I didn't miss the fish and chips at all, even though they looked very good.

That night we headed over to a little club downtown where they have live music and dancing. We had a great time dancing and burned a lot of calories. All three of us love to dance! So ending this day I realized I had eaten some pretty great meals and stuck within my allowable carb count...not bad and so easy.

Saturday morning we had the same ritual of having coffee and I had another piece of my Quest Bar with my coffee. We had decided that Saturday was going to be a relaxing day. No plans. We played the game Sorry, we worked on a puzzle, we walked to the beach, we read our books and we talked. When I got hungry I boiled some eggs and made some guacamole. 

Lupe and Lisa joined me in eating eggs and while they had corn tortilla chips with their guacamole I had Mac's Salsa and Limon Pork Rinds with mine. They tasted it using my pork rinds and they both agreed that it actually tasted better than using the tortilla chips! I had also taken along a jar of green olives stuffed with jalapenos...like I said, hot stuff is in my blood!

We decided to play another game called Quarters. It's a drinking game. None of us are very big drinkers, but I had taken along a bottle of tequila so we bounced quarters into a shot glass and whoever got the quarter in the glass that person would choose who would take the shot. It was fun and after we started to get too giggly we decided to stop and take a walk instead. Well Lisa and Lupe took a walk, I did my favorite thing and took a nap...a well deserved nap!

Later that evening for dinner we all just wanted salad. We went over to the local Vons store and purchased some salad in a bag and some chicken breast from the deli and made the best Asian Chicken Salad that I have ever had. Or maybe it was the rough day of camping and drinking that made us so hungry, but it was delicious!

We had just what we wanted, a day of rest, relaxation and recharging! We had coffee late in the evening while we sat outside. Lisa and Lupe had purchased some cream cheese danish at Vons and I had bought some strawberries and cream cheese. I heated about 4 ounces of cream cheese in the microwave for about 20 seconds, added cinnamon and some Splenda and used it as a dip for the strawberries with my coffee. 

Sunday we awoke bright and early. I was all out of Quest Bar so I ate the rest of the strawberries with the cream cheese dip for breakfast with my coffee, it was so good! I warmed up the dip and it was like having strawberry cream of wheat, very soothing and satisfying.

We packed up all our stuff and remarked on how is it possible that we were taking more stuff home than what we brought with us? I think that's just how camping and/or vacations are. We were starving by the time we packed all our belongings and made the beds and prepared the RV for the RV fairies to come and take it away and place it back in storage. 

By the time we did all that we were hungry and I told the girls that we should go and eat at a cute little place on the pier at Avila Beach called Fat Cats Cafe. It's a cute little restaurant where you can look out at the ocean while you eat either inside or on their patio. We ate inside.

I had a Bacon and Avocado Omelette. It was served with hash browns and toast but my waitress was awesome and recommended again either cottage cheese or tomatoes and again I had the tomatoes. My omelette was so huge that I could only eat half and brought the other half home with me.

On the drive home we stopped at a convenience store for snacks. I bought some peppered beef jerky and sunflower seeds and that is what I ate on the road trip home.

I noticed that this weekend my sister Lisa and our friend Lupe joined me in eating low carb quite a bit. Maybe I have some low carb buddies in the making.

So...a trip that I was dreading because of my new Way of Eating turned out pretty great. We had fun together and I was able to eat LCHF. It took a little planning and having the courage to ask our server for other options. 

I'm glad we went, I'm glad that my sister and Lupe encouraged and supported me on my WOE and I'm glad that I didn't look at this as an excuse to cheat or to stray from my WOE. It gives me the strength and determination to continue on! Plus I had a fabulous time with Lisa and Lupe. Let's do it again real soon ladies!