This weekend, the weather was perfect, so we spent a lot of time outside.

Friday, I found a little bit of purple peaking out from underneath the leaves.

And I made chocolate chip protein cookies. (Recipe coming this week.)

We had portobello burgers for dinner. I marinated the portobellos in balsamic and garlic, and used a garlic spread on the burgers. They were delicious.

Saturday morning I had a mint chocolate chip protein smoothie. The beautiful color comes from an avocado.

After breakfast, I was searching online for information about getting our heating system upgraded. I found information from Met Ed about rebates for new appliances and it turns out that our new (in Nov) washing machine qualifies for a $50 rebate. I dug out the receipt and submitted the application and we should have a check in 6-8 weeks. How awesome!

We raked a lot of leaves…

This isn’t even most of them…we still have piles throughout the yard just waiting to get blown away. We didn’t mean to let them pile up until spring…it just sort of snowed before we got to them all. But I will say I enjoy raking a lot more in the spring than in the fall. It feels nice to get outside, instead of like a chore.

I found this neat, futuristic emblem on one of our doors and looked up what it meant to be a Gold Medallion Home. As outdated as our house is today, it was definitely top of the line when the previous owners lived in it. If/when we replace the door that this is on, I want to keep it and frame it or something cool with it.

Since we spent so long working outside, I decided we earned some cheddar bay biscuits. I don’t make these very often because I have no self control and eat all of them at once. Occasionally, I share.

After dinner, I looked around for Fox since I hadn’t seen him in a while and he was sitting outside while we worked. He always stays right by the door the few times he’s gone outside, but we couldn’t find him anywhere. Finally we heard a scratching noise… in the pellet stove. He crawled in a hole in the back/underneath it and got stuck. He must’ve been in there for maybe 2 hours, and it took us a while to figure out how to take it apart enough to get him out. Luckily the side cover plate was easy to take off, but it was scary to see him trapped like that.

Sunday morning I made chocolate black cherry protein shakes.

I also tested the blueberry ginger kombucha I had fermenting, and it was delicious.

Instead of going grocery shopping (which I refuse to do on Sundays anyway), I decided to try out the Giant online shopping. The closest store is about a half an hour away…actually at the Giant that we used to live next to, but I figure the benefits of just driving up and having them put it in my cart will save time shopping. Will report back after tomorrow!

What did you do this weekend? Were you sensible enough to get all your leaves raked before it snowed?