Guess I'll Give It a Try

Yesterday turned out to be such a great day. The weather was almost spring-like, up near 50 degrees and so sunny and with an extra hour of daylight to spare, so we took advantage of it by spending the whole afternoon at the Manasquan Reservoir.

I haven't been there since last spring when Riker was just a baby, and I forgot how much I love it there. The park is really big and has lots of biking and walking trails, water views and play areas as well as two nature centers for kids.

When we first arrived we did a couple miles on the trails enjoying the fresh air; Matt pulled Riker in the wagon while I jogged the trail up and back with Butters so we could both burn off some energy. We broke for lunch at one of the centers overlooking the water. Such a great view for a picnic lunch! We packed apples, nuts and his and hers salads, Matt's with grilled chicken and mine with tuna.

For as long as I can remember I've been a tuna fish-hater - it just does not appeal to me - but Matt's convinced me it's only because I haven't had the right kind, and in an effort to eat more protein, I agreed to give it a go yesterday. He had bought some Sustainable Seas pole-caught tuna, which he dressed up for me with a little olive oil, fresh lemon juice, salt, pepper, celery and hot peppers, and I have to say it really wasn't bad.

I got about 3/4 of the way through before I said I had enough, but I'll definitely try it again. The stuff is so good for you, I feel like I need to give it a chance.

A few hours of playing on the jungle gym and checking out the turtle tanks in the nature center, and it was time for the walk back. I felt like a new human after spending 5 hours outdoors. Heeeyy spring!

We were starving and ready for an early dinner when we arrived back home, and I had a quick dinner of Dijon salmon in mind.

I spread two salmon filets with stone ground mustard, then Matt grilled them over charcoal in the back yard. The smell of charcoal burning is probably one of the best scents in the world, especially after 4 months of winter. Now that the grill's been started, it's probably going to be used at least once a week from here on out.

We made the mistake of flipping the salmon to try to get a mustard "crust" going, which of course only tore the mustard right off. Oops. No worries, I just spread some more on once they came off the grill. I served the salmon with some steamed brussels sprouts and sautéed garlic spinach.

The evening ended with a nice hot whirlpool bath and some book-reading in bed. Daylight Savings got the best of me and I'm pretty sure it was lights out by 9:00. :-)

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Today was the start of another busy work week, and it's going to be an intense one because I actually have big travel plans next week...I'm jet setting off to Germany on Sunday! I have a new client in Munich so I'll be taking a little three day trip to go meet the team. Gotta pack a whole bunch of stuff into the next 5 days before I leave Matt and Riker for half the week. And with that, I'm back at it. Have a good night!