Warning: May induce craving for Italian food

Playing Super Mario Bros for the wii may be hazardous to your appetite!!!

After playing this with Ryan for a few hours on Saturday and a few more on Sunday, we had a serious craving for Italian food.  No joke, he was thinking garlic bread and I could not get pasta out of my mind.

So our solution was a trip to Buzios, a fairly American type of Italian restaurant.  I think every employee speaks English and most people in there are Americans.  So far the meals have been great and last night's meal did not disappoint.  As usual, we started with some olives, very garlic-y.

Followed by some more garlic, with the garlic bread that Ryan was craving.

Although I did not have a drink (other than water of course), I did love this Heineken mini fridge fully stocked.

Ryan and I split a Greek salad.  Why is it that whenever I get Italian food, I find myself enjoying a Greek salad?

The were offering eggplant parm as a special and since it was served with a little pasta, I decided to order this.  The game must have been giving off subliminal messages because Ryan was feeling the same thing and so we both enjoyed this fab dish.

No dessert for us this time, but they do an amazing looking bananas foster, flambeed table side served over ice cream.  trust me, I am going back for that in the near future.  Instead we just had some coffee beverages to end the meal.  So European!  And this is my fave kind of coffee too.

So, unless you are really in the mood for Italian food, play Super Mario Bros very carefully and set a limit or I swear you will be heading for some good Italian eats!

Ryan and I did have a lot of fun playing the 2 player version as it required a lot of team work.  Good thing we make a great team. 

I am off work this week, but Ryan works today through Wednesday, so I had a nice quite breakfast to myself.  I am still enjoying my nice Nature's Path cereals.  This was my selection this morning.

Very tasty.  I was lucky to have Ryan come home for lunch.  I finished the eggplant parm and he had a bagel with cream cheese.  He wasn't too hungry, but I was and I knew I had to load up on something to give me fuel for my 30 day shred video workout.  So far I am lovin it.  Now I have taken a shower and I am just starting on a paper for my next grad class, which is an intro course for human relations.  So I must get back to work.

QUESTION: Have you ever been playing a game or watching TV/DVD and it made you get a craving for something?  If so, what was it?  Any crazy subliminal messages you think you have been exposed to, whether they were real or not?

Cereal Invasion

When I picked up these two packages at the post office it was just like winning the lottery.  Thanks so much to my mom for forwarding those blog giveaway wins.

First score of the day was the PB, from Lucky Taste Buds.  I did win 4 jars, but since they went to my mom's first I offered them a jar.  The took on of the chunky jars and said it was very good.  My sister even got to try some.

The second box was filled with the remaining cereals I won from Julie Golean.  So glad all the boxes finally made it.  I had been holding off on buying cereal since I knew they would be here soon.  Now I am fully stocked with yummy cereal treats.

So here are some close ups of all the awesome flavors.  Sorry for the blurriness.  I swear I did get a new camera and I AM using it, but these are the final shots off my old camera.

I have only tried this straberry and yougurt cereal so far and it is AWESOME!  Detailed pics to come.

Another jackpot I hit in the food world was finding this locally made, very fresh yogurt.  This is from the food festival we went to last weekend.

All I can say is...YUM, this is what yogurt should taste like.

The other night Ryan and I went to Modelo for some cleaning products for our new cleaning lady (apparently many Americans here hire someone to clean their home and it is cheap, and the next door neighbor's sister used to clean our home and kept offering, so we took her up on it).  Anywho, while at Modelo Ryan was shopping and I was browing the holiday selection of alcohol and candy.  I thought their displays of candy were crazy so I took some shots.  This is a table with some interesting gift boxes of wines and liquors.

Here are some of the chocolates and candies out for the holidays.

I love going to Modelo and looking around at all teh different food products.  Then we came home and continues with the menorah lighting and the gift giving.  Here are some accessories Ryan bought me for my new camera.  All the essentials.  I am glad he bought me some screen protectors since the screen gets smudged so easily.

Since I keep making bread, he also bought me this handy dandy bread slicer.  Now I can have straight and even slices of bread.

And a holiday just isn;t a holiday if you don't treat yourself to something nice too.  I bought this for myself a few weeks ago and it arrived, but I just need to transfer everything from my current wallet and purse over into this new Vera Bradley wallet and purse.  I am totally a Coach girl, but this Vera was too cute to pass up.

I can't believe it is almost Friday.  I am subbing a half day tomorrow as they have some teachers leaving early since it is the last day before winter break.  I know the kids will be crazy, but it should be fun.

QUESTION: What's your favorite cereal?  Do you ever eat cereal dry as a snack?