Chickens, Tuna (not so) Surprise, and Blueberry Spice Muffies

On the plate:  Tuna Surprise (I added artichoke hearts to it as well) and Blueberry Spice Muffins.

Soundtrack to cook to:  ...Featuring Norah Jones CD

Every Thursday, Alexander goes to daycare to be with his buddies from 8-12.  This has allowed me to continue my physical therapy weight training (I have patellofemoral syndrome) which unfortunately has been taking longer than I would have liked.  I can't even use the elliptical for more than 10 minutes without being in excruciating pain...I feel like an old lady.  So basically, I've been doing some weight training to build up the muscles around my knees to hopefully alleviate the stress against my knees.

After the gym, I got caught up on my Rachael Ray on the DVR.  I love her recipes!  Yes, I know she can be a little obnoxious at times, but she knows her way around the kitchen.  I got inspired by her recipe from today where she made a jazzed up version of tuna surprise.  I thought I'd add some artichoke hearts to it to put my little spin on it.  I attempted to take some pictures of it, but they didn't really turn out great.  Here's the result if you see what I mean:

Tuna (not so) Surprise(d) - It looked really pretty but just tasted
"OK."  I'd say it was a 3 out of 5 in my book.

After tackling this disappointment, Alexander woke up from his nap.  Since he woke up a little bit earlier than normal, I decided that I'd take him to the zoo.  He's currently focused on identifying animals by the sounds that they make, and he gets excited when he sees any type of animal.

I got him ready, and we left around 3:15 p.m.  I talked to him about all of the animals that he was going to see and he got pretty excited.  He even said, "Yaaaay!!!"  Thus, you can experience my heartbreak as well when we got to the zoo at 3:34 p.m. and discovered that they have their last entry to the zoo at 3:30 p.m.  I felt absolutely awful, and Alexander began crying in his stroller when I told him that the zoo was closed.  In a desperate attempt to show him ANY type of animal, I racked my brain and remembered that Allandale Farm was just down the road....we were on our way instantaneously.

On the car ride to the farm, I told Alexander that we were going to see chickens!  (Hey, it's as close as I could get to any type of exotic animal other than a dog or a cat...I was desperate.)  We went and saw the chickens and here's the result of our visit:

The pond at Allandale Farm - I love the lilypads!

Lil' Monk Monk at the farm

Thankfully, we also saw a duck at the pond!  Alexander looooves ducks.  Whenever he sees one, he literally shouts, "DUUUHHHH!!!"  (He doesn't make the "ck" sound at the end...but I still think it's cute.)  I think that satiated Alexander's desire to see animals...mommy was off the hook. *Phew!*

After a humdrum dinner, and missing out on the zoo as well, I felt that I needed to redeem myself.  I found a recipe for blueberry spice muffins and couldn't resist.  Joseph loves muffies from Panera Bread, so I got some muffin tins that produce just the muffin tops, a.k.a. muffies.

Blueberry spice muffies - I love how the blueberries pop and ooze
their yumminess throughout the muffies.

The muffies turned out great!  The house smelled delicious sweet and spicy because of the cinnamon and nutmeg in the muffies.  I love it when I can make the house smell nice without having to burn a candle.

All in all, it was a beautiful fall day, and much was accomplished.  Until next time...

Love and kisses,

Nikki