Day 16...Dinner With My Brother!

Today was a pretty busy day. I spent the day cleaning and preparing dinner for my brother, David, and nephew, Joey. I was so excited to have them come by for dinner. I missed my SIL, Roxy, and niece, Jackie, but I was happy to feed the boys while Roxy was out of town with Jackie.

While I was getting my chores done, one of them including studying and taking my Stage 4 test for my Animal Behavior College program, I ate some GF oatmeal that I made yesterday in the crockpot for Mackenzie.

USA lost to Belgium FIFA World Cup game while I was doing my chores, so that was sad. But, I am just glad they got as far as they did. I didn't eat lunch today, I wasn't really hungry. I was busy, so I didn't bother. I know, I know...not good, but, oh well!

In preparation for dinner I made some quinoa in the rice maker because I wanted to make a quinoa salad. I cut up some avocado,  tomatoes, red onions, cleaned some cilantro and juiced some limes. The quinoa, avocado, tomatoes, red onions were added to some garbanzo beans and mixed up. The cilantro was blended with lime juice, zest, dijon mustard, olive oil, salt, pepper, agave and cumin. I can't give you specifics because I really just added them as needed to get the flavor I was looking for. I chilled it until dinner was served. I actually think it turned out pretty good as it had lots of yummy flavor to it.

Next, I cut up potatoes and onions for my "foil" potato specialty dish. Unfortunately, I realized that I did not have enough foil to make 6 foil packs, so I foiled a tin cake pan and put all of the potatoes and onions in the pan. I added salt, paper and butter and set it in the refrigerator until it was time to put it on the BBQ.

Finally, I made some marinade for the steak I was going to BBQ. I had 7 steaks so I doubled the recipe, which I later realized that I didn't need to do. This recipe makes a great amount of marinade and it was very tasty.

A half hour before my brother arrived I put the potatoes on the BBQ. I figured it was going to need to cook for about 45 mins. My brother arrived and we had some drinks. I had some pre-made margaritas. I actually had 2 glasses. I know that it wasn't the best idea to drink, but I was having my brother over and I was excited, so I had some drinks. I'm not sorry!

I forgot to take a picture of the finished product of dinner, but it was a hit. David and Joey both loved the meal. It was so nice to feed them knowing that they were happy to eat it. Very different then the reactions that I've been getting lately with my kids.

My Brother, David and Me!

That's about all I've got for today. I feel like I did a lot of prep, but it was worth it because I was able to put the steaks on the BBQ for a very little amount of time and we were able to eat.  It was very nice to sit around the table with my family and talk and eat together.

Until tomorrow,
Angela