Adam and I went lighting shopping today. Um yeah, it is the most boring thing EVER. And stressful. Lighting is not fun at all. The woman at the store quoted us $2,500 for the track lights we wanted (tiny little things; seriously nothing fancy. I just didn’t feel like throwing up after looking at them). I felt like someone punched me in the stomach after hearing that quote. NOT fun. In fact, lighting is so not fun, I actually got excited looking at bathroom vanities. This, my friends, is how you know you’re getting old. Bathroom vanities seemed excited. Yup. Sad day 
What wasn’t sad was today’s food. I started the morning with a quick trip to the grocery store for some oikos for some muffins. By the way, have you ever been to a grocery store on Saturday morning? It is awesome! I felt like I had the whole store to myself. 
Anyways, back to the muffins… I followed Kelly’s recipe for blueberry peach muffins, subbing raspberries for blueberries (that’s what I found at the farmers market), nonfat plain oikos for sour cream and used 1/2 whole wheat pastry flour and 1/2 cake flour instead of all-purpose. They came out delicious! This was probably the last baking project with local berries. Seriously, where did the summer go? 
Breakfast: 1 raspberry peach muffin + oikos with raspberries and peaches + coffee
I love this picture. Looks like the muffin is eating a piece of the peach
Each muffin with my modifications is 220 calories, by the way. I counted because I really had no idea how many calories it was and wanted to know if it was an acceptable snack in the future. It is. Sweet! 
Then we were off to the lighting store. After a few hours, we stopped by one of my favorite pizza joints in the greater Boston area – Pizzapalooza for some lunch. Their pizzas are really great, but I actually decided to get my favorite panini from there – panino tuna putanesca – thin-sliced crusty Italian ciabatta bread, grilled with fresh vine tomato, fresh mozzarella, sliced basil, EVOO, graded Pecorino Romano cheese, Italian style tuna, black olives, capers, sliced tomato, and oregano.
So many fresh flavors. The sandwich was gigantic but I had a hard time stopping. It was just perfection in a sandwich. I probably ate 75% and gave the rest to Adam 
The sandwich was good shopping fuel because it held me over very well until dinner time. Even then I only started cooking because Adam was hungry. Good job, tuna panini! For dinner I made something I’ve been meaning to make forever – Ellie Krieger’s zucchini ribbon pasta. I was hoping to have had a mandoline by the time I make this but I got impatient, so this was quite a bit of knife work. All worth it, though. This was spectacular!!!! The garlic and EVOO really infused the zucchini and pasta and the parmesan cheese put it over the top. I used 2 oz of pasta/serving, and this was still a giant portion… actually what you see here (and what I ate) was possibly even less than 1/4 of what I made.
Caitlin, I bet you can like veggies in this form!
A bit after dinner I met up with my best friend Katy and a few of her other friends at Clery’s. Clery’s was hopping!
I had some Magners. You know I can drink Magners like it’s my job, but tonight I had less than this bottle (I think it was 21 oz) given my 11 miler planned for tomorrow morning. I had to behave 
Speaking of the 11 miler… I better get to bed. See you tomorrow with the promised recap of our Friday night and Sunday’s eats and words of wisdom. Ha, words of wisdom. I’m funny.
You’re not old; I prefer to call it “sophisticated.”
Dinner looks good!
Ok, I am totally making that pasta sometime soon. I think I would like it a lot more than 100% zucchini pasta. Your photo of it has convinced me to try it
I agree, you’re not old, just an official grown up
mmm man! i remember pizza palooza. we used to go there on our lunch breaks remember? meeemorieeesssss
!yum!
That pasta looks AMAZING- hope the run goes well this morning!
1.) That sandwich looks ridiculous. I might have to go get one tomorrow because…
2.) I work one block away from Pizzapalooza, which sometimes can suck because….
3.) My bathroom lightening just highlights that fact all the more so…
Clery’s is a lot of fun, but only if you’re there early enough to snag a table. I was really surprised at how packed it gets.
And look at you, Ms. Go-getter: 11 miles would kick my wimpy butt!
My husband found some lights on the Internet. He gets excited about buying boring things if he finds a good deal.
Sorry about your earring. I thought I’d lost an expensive necklace we bought on our honeymoon one time. I couldn’t find it for a few months. Luckily it turned up in my backpack where I’d put it going to the gym. Maybe you’ll get lucky with your earring. But I know how awful it is to lose things. It feels like a personal failing…even though it happens to everyone.
Eew, lighting sounds SO boring. That muffin looks fabulous, though. Yum! So does that delish sammie. Hope the run went well!
Angie – I like that… sophisticated
Lara – I think you’ll really like it. The zucchini is not meant to replace the pasta – it’s just a fun veggie that’s part of the dish.
Innz – I was totally reminiscing about the past while eating that sammie (I know it used to be your favorite!)… not that I prefer working at LNT over what I do now. Haha.
Tiffany – you should go to Pizzapalooza. I love that place! Oh and don’t worry – 11 miles whipped my butt too
Alison – haha. I think I’m at a point where I get excited about good deals like that too. I’m going to go with Angie’s suggestion and say I’m sophisticated like that.
Glad you found your necklace after all! 
[...] We have light in our living room now, and for a little over $200. Go Home Depot! Forget you, lady from the ghetto looking lighting store who quoted us $2,500 for lights. [...]