The $13.35 fast food dinner

This has been another rough week exercise wise ! Between the back to school routine ( with doing things in a very different way this year) and the constant wild cards with house stuff, I feel like I am living in a blender or something, waiting for things to stop - or at least slow down enough to grab onto the walls and get my bearings ! I finally got out for a short walk this morning, and it has been the only "exercise" I have been able to get in. There has been a whole lot of movement in the form of obsessive house cleaning, but no "you are moving for a certain time simply to move so you burn calories and rev up your metabolism " kind of stuff. With good reason !

Since we made the discovery that we were dealing with ringworm that we most likely got from the hotel swimming pool, I have been a little creeped out. First about the idea that a swimming pool can have such a nasty thing in it, and second the fact that we had no idea what this was for like a month and it that time it has most likely spread to every surface of our home and gone unchecked. I am not a germaphobe, but this made me one ! My course of action was to wash and disinfect every surface, the rug, the mattresses, the shoes and more. Nick has been a huge help, and we have been working our butts off. Cleaning the carpet ( Nick and I go through here barefoot most of the time so who knows how much stuff got transferred to the rug) has occured over the last two days , and for some reason running the machine and the ten thousand bends to retrieve the fur balls it spits out everywhere kills my back. By yesterday afternoon I was wiped out and my back was too sore to make our planned meal , so I asked Bob to stop to pick up dinner. One of the chains here, Portillos, has a grilled tuna salad and fruit smoothies that we have wanted to try, so I suggested he get these. Bob is a very good shopper- he understands exactly why we buy certain things, why we avoid others and uses his head to come up with acceptable alternatives when things need to be changed. He stopped and noticed that the grilled tuna salad was a Grilled Tuna Cesar salad, and Cesar salad dressing often contains anchovies ( so does some forms of BBQ Sauce, steak sauce and a few other things). He has gotten used to the rules when I had the fish allergy and is adapting to the new fish is okay but shelfish is not rules, and the poor guy could not remeber if anchovies were fish or shellfish ! He rationalized that we wanted the fish, needed the veggies and onion rings will not count, so here is what he brought home

Grilled yellow fin tuna sandwich on a bun with lettuce and onion, side salad (HUGE) and a pina colada smoothie. I was starving, it was delicious, other than the size of the salad a darned healthy choice. But the price - GASP !!! Dinner for 3 ( we all had the same thing) was close to 40 dollars. For fast food ! I really cringed about this, but he assured me that it was fine, I was worth it and next time we will figure out a way to do things less expensive.

It makes Subway look very attractive ! I wish they had a fish option that was not tuna or moc crab in a ton of mayo sauce ! It also makes me wish that Subway would instruct their employees about the recipe for their offerings ! It drives me crazy when I go in to order a Veggie delight sub and they ask me what kind of meat I want on it ( this has happened to me at least 4 times). Perhaps it is a regional problem . Portillos has been the only fast food chain where you always get exactly what you order . Our local McDonalds seems to have a problem with complicated orders, such as ones requesting 2 cokes and a coffee. It's always like Christmas when you drive through to the window where you pick up your order. Will it be drinks ? Fries ? a Sherpa ? It all seems to depend on the person taking the order's ability to understand electronically muffled speech - a tricky thing it seems.

I really dislike fast food for these reasons. However, sometimes it is a necessary evil , and I am thankful for healthy options. Even if they wind up costing $13.35 per person !