Rooftop cookout

Today, my work organized a cookout, which is always a treat.

Ours are unique because they take place on a rooftop balcony, overlooking a busy intersection of Downtown Milwaukee.

A few years back, the BoDeans played a concert on this same space.

Coworkers bring their dogs to work, and they were out in full cuteness today.

A couple fire trucks went past with their sirens on, and this one started to howl along.

While mingling with my coworkers, I had a veggie burger and a few chips.

These happened to be Frito Lay sour cream & onion chips, and when I checked the bag's code, I found they were indeed made at the Beloit Facility! I just toured that location last week as part of the Healthy Living Summit. It was pretty neat to know that the chips were likely made with Wisconsin-grown potatoes. My coworkers probably thought I was nerdy for mentioning that fact, but they think I'm nerdy anyhow :-)

After the cookout, I was still a little hungry so went for some Smartfood popcorn clusters (from my HLS swag bag). The cranberry almond flavor is pretty good!

Dinner tonight was simple, but packed a nutritional punch.

Whole grain pasta with marinara sauce, steamed broccoli, a Laughing Cow light cheese wedge.

Question of the Day: How do you deal with dietary preferences / restrictions at cookouts? Typically, if I have plans ahead of time I'll bring a dish to share that I know suits my needs. Today the cookout was announced mid-morning, however I was able to request some veggie burgers from the coworker picking up the grillables.

Have you heard... the bird's the word?

What a weekend! It feels like Friday and that hectic workday were a long time ago. It's back to the grind tomorrow, ugh. 

Zak and I are relaxing and watching Family Guy - yep, the one with 'Surfin' Bird'. Hilarious.

Friday evening was great... the movie event that my work produced was awesome! Tons of people came out and the movie area was packed. I had to coordinate some stuff until about 9PM, after which I promptly tore into my organic yogurt / blueberries / Alterra granola combo snack I had been looking forward to. It was icy cold from being in a cooler all afternoon / evening, delicious and very satisfying. After this, Zak and I headed to Tracy Chapman @ the Pabst, then stopped at Blackbird bar in Bay View before calling it a night. Quick thanks to Yvonne, Melissa, Raul, Marcus, Tim, Kyle, Dori & Milan for hanging out.

Saturday was very busy! We started with a cookout at my coworker Matt's house, for his fiancee Sara's birthday. I had some chips, guac and black bean salsa... but the highlight for me was Sara's awesome Key Lime cupcakes. 

Soooooo good. The frosting was perfection.

After the cookout, I headed to a picnic at a park for my friend Sarah's bachelorette party! Here I am with Sarah, and my friend Erica (maid of honor). These two are dear friends of mine and together we caused lots of trouble in High School ;-)

Didn't photograph my food, but I brought a Boca burger and enjoyed it with a slice of Pepperjack Sargento cheese. There were other great picnic eats: pasta salad, vinegar potato salad, taco dips and tortilla chips, brownies. After this, us gals headed to Downtown Milwaukee to Victor's, a fun nightclub. Sarah wanted to keep her bachelorette low-key, she didn't want a party veil or any "flair." We shrieked when the DJ announced "Congrats to SARAH!" and burned up the dance floor. A great time! 

Sunday = a great food day. I started off with an egg and veggie scramble, homemade hash browns and toast a la Zak...

Later, more of that great Alterra granola and organic Stonyfield yogurt with watermelon chunks...

Zak and I headed to Woodman's for some grocery shopping. We stocked up on the basics and I purchased some new Larabars to try out... Key Lime Pie and Cashew Cookie. While shopping, I saw some cremini mushrooms and some Rocky Rococo's sauce and got inspired for dinner... His and Hers pizzas!

My pizza had spinach, red peppers, broccoli, black olives, lots of sauteed mushrooms and 1/2 feta cheese, 1/2 soy mozzarella. I had 1/4 of my pizza, it was really good.

I opened up some Charles Shaw Shiraz... classy ;-) I enjoyed one glass.

About an hour later I tapped into some dairy-free ice cream! I tried out some Soy Delicious Purely Decadent dessert in Mocha Almond Fudge. It was divine!

Creamy, with a great mocha flavor and little pieces of almonds. The fudge sauce tasted a bit artificial, but I got over that pretty quickly. I just checked out the Soy Delicious website and it looks like they have some coupons available! Sweet. 

What's your favorite frozen dessert? I LOVE Tofutti's "Cuties" treats and love me some Skinny Cow cones as well.

I'm off to prepare some work and get my takealong food set for tomorrow. Goodnight!

What's your favorite type of meal to bring to the office?