DuppenBirthday

Since the television purchase (see previous post), Don and I have committed to cutting back on a few extraneous items to try to ease the budget a bit. That includes things like eating out, soda pop, alcohol, etc. Tonight we had our first real challenge, a.k.a opportunity to put ourselves to the test. It was Chris' birthday, and well within his birthday rights, last minute plans were forged and suddenly my weekly schedule which I had so meticulously planned out was thrown off. Now instead of gaming Tuesday night we were going Go Cart racing, followed by dinner and drinks. We've recently gone to a cooking rotation for gaming night and it was our turn to cook this week so we had a whole group meal planned for dinner, but this now was postponed until Thursday.

We could have given into the last minute chaos and used the "special occasion" excuse to side track our goals, but we didn't and I'm feeling quite proud. We took a quick stock of our kitchen, managed to come up with a tip top gourmet recipe of Chicken Marsala with Braised Greens (recipe to follow). It was a bit of a dine and dash getting dinner on the table and out the door by 6:00 p.m. but with a bit of teamwork in the kitchen we made it work and it was delicious! I also had the foresight to pack a couple of protein bars in my purse knowing that there would be restaurant festivities to follow in case we were hungry and tempted. Tempted we were but the protein bars helped. Instead of spending lots of money on food and alcohol at the restaurant, we simply ordered coffee (decaf) and still were able to enjoy a great evening with friends. I'm actually glad this opportunity came up as I now have a great feeling of accomplishment that we were thrown a curve ball and able to adapt to the situation without getting off track (no pun intended).

Here are a few fun pics from the Go Kart Racing. Happy Birthday Chris!