Sushi, Roasted Broccoli, and Peanut Butter

i did not eat sushi, broccoli, and peanut butter together - but i wouldn't put it past me. just saying. our trip to vegas is coming up and i am stoked. we have a great hotel for our trip with the other couple that is a suite with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room, and a kitchen, so we get to save a lot of money by eating in for a lot of stuff while we are there. we have a couple of meals planned out, but the majority will be eaten in the room and packed snacks. this way our budget allows for more flexibility with other things! we are sharing the responsibility with the other couple of bringing food, and cooking a lot of stuff in advance. taco night, pasta, breakfasts, etc will be in the room. i roasted broccoli at home to bring already cooked so we a.) don't have to wait for it to cook when we are hungry; and b.) don't stink up the place. let's face it, roasted broccoli is delicious but it stinks to high heaven when it's cooked.

(dry, fresh broccoli drizzled with plenty of olive oil, and Paula Deen's house seasoning; roasted at 400 degrees and occasionally stirred around. takes about thirty minutes to get crisp and delicious. i intend to serve it with a little parmesan!)

i've still been snacking on lots of this:

glutino gluten free table crackers (saltines) with honey peanut butter.

our dogs had a training class today (they did so well! we love our trainer and are looking forward to more classes.) and mushi is a whole year old today! we can't officially call him a puppy anymore. he's a golden retriever though, so his time of acting like a puppy is far from over.

anyway, i got some not so good news from back home in texas this morning and my heart wasn't in cooking or thinking too much. puppy class was a good distraction, and planning for our trip was too, but not much else. a little blogging, a little television. so we picked up sushi to go from our favorite japanese place nearby. big bang for our buck and always top notch food and service.

we are both pretty much stuck in ruts when it comes to japanese food. don't get me wrong, i used to love the crazy rolls with all their tempuras and sauces - but that stuff is not gluten free. now i take it a little simpler, and it works out fine! i still love this stuff and can really appreciate different flavors better. today i got the philly roll (fresh salmon, cream cheese, and perfectly ripe avocado), a wakame (seaweed salad), pickled ginger, and takwan (pickled radish). i also mixed up some wasabi and gluten free tamari (soy sauce) once we got home.

skyler loves sushi, but loves big steaming bowls of udon soup even more. he got nabe udon, which is a mix of a little chicken, beef, naruto (fish cake), noodles, seaweed, and a quail egg. he always adds plenty of togarashi to make it spicy!

i have to tell you, sushi today totally hit.the.spot.

we were wondering around target yesterday picking up some food for our housesitter/petsitter and a prescription when we got to the ice cream aisle. y'all, ben and jerry's has creme brulee flavored ice cream and it is totally gluten free. pretty much one of my favorite desserts of all time in ice cream form? it was just the thing to go with my spur-of-the-moment gluten free ice cream cones from earlier this week.

(check it out - it was on clearance!) this ice cream was so good. i couldn't wait to dig in. it was very sweet, but fabulous in small amounts. plus it's ben and jerry's, so it was ultra rich. i didn't need much anyway! (besides, like most with a gluten intolerance, too much dairy bothers my tummy.) the ice cream cones were great too. they were light and crisp and not too sweet. i'm pretty sure this is my new favorite ice cream. ever.

ever.

can we just take a minute to check out my wonderful husband cuddling our cats?

makes my heart (and my ovaries) melt a little. awwwww...(by the way, he is giving me a countertop herb garden for our anniversary and i'm very excited to go pick it all out and put it together after we get back from our trip!)