Homemade BBQ Take 1

Oh Saturdays, how I love you!

Friday nights are seriously our laziest nights of the week. We usually get home and then realize we don't have the food, so we go to the store. At said store, we usually buy just about anything that looks good, and my dinner plans promptly fly out the window. Last night was, by that definition, a typical Friday night :)

After the store visit we made margarita-daquiri things:

And while we waited for the bbq sauce finish, we made another round of bruschetta. I loved the recipe so much last time, and we had a ton of leftover tomatoes!

I used the two ends of the bread loaf to make little bruschetta pockets for myself...so cute, and I loved biting into the pocket-o-goodness!

Nate went out and fired up the grill to cook some turkey smoked sausage. Once that was done, we cut the links in half and used them on our sandwiches with the homemade bbq sauce:

BBQ Sauce Take 1 recipe (based on Neely's BBQ Sauce):

• 1 cup ketchup
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 Tbsp brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp white sugar
• 1/2 Tbsp ground black pepper
• 1 Tbsp ground mustard
• 1 Tbsp dried minced onions
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp Worchestershire sauce

Just mix it all together, bring to a simmer, then reduce the heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes (or until desired thickness is achieved). It's SO GOOD, and I'm very excited about making variations of this in the future!

You might now be asking yourself (if you read my post from yesterday afternoon), "What happened to the oven fries and the spaghetti squash salad?" Yeah, well, after our long visit to the store that just didn't happen. Oh well! I did end up baking the squash to be used for lunch today though!

We decided at the store (because that's where all truly enlightened decisions are made) to get some ice cream for dessert. The winner? This Haagen-Dazs 5 Ingredient Coffee delight!

I mean, the ingredient list is 5 ingredients long!! It's not like I even had a choice, you know? PLUS, the milk that was used was skim - even better! I served them up in our miniature Anthropologie bowls, and it was the creamiest, most amazing ice cream!

While we were out we rented Duplicity, but as soon as we put it in the DVD player and sat on the couch, we fell asleep and missed the entire thing. OOPS. So, there will be another Duplicity viewing at our house later today...hehe :)

Fast forward to this morning, I threw together a huge dish of the spaghetti squash (which I mixed with a packet of Italian dressing seasoning) and marinara for lunch today:

It's likely I'll eat this entire thing for lunch by myself. I mean, it's squash and marinara! That's healthy, right?

And Nate made us breakfast smoothies (~16 oz or so) with frozen strawberries, a sliced banana, 1/2 cup vanilla nonfat yogurt, and 1/3 cup nonfat milk. SO GOOD! It tasted like ice cream :)

Since we were working this morning, we brought some cinnamon rolls to share. I might have eaten 2.75 of these. I mean, it's Saturday! I thought it would be slightly appropriate :)

So, turns out we're not working as long as I thought, but it also turns out that we likely won't go hiking as I had hoped. The snow's been melting all week, and hiking in mud isn't as fun as hiking on dry ground. So sad :( I love that Colorado has definitive seasons, but winter isn't nearly as short as I'd like! I'm definitely a spring + fall kinda gal :)

What's your favorite season? Why?