Garden of Olives

Venetian Apricot Chicken

Grilled chicken breasts in an apricot citrus sauce. Served with broccoli, asparagus and diced tomatoes.
$12.95

This is a new menu item at Ol.ive Garden. It is considered heart healthy or something. I even ordered it the week before I started my diet in anticipation of my diet.

The problem is that the photo didn't accompany the description and the description was incomplete. I thought the sweet sauce would essentially be a glaze on the chicken, not that it would cover the whole plate and saturate the veggies in a sticky, gooey, overwhelming mess.

I expressed my opinion to the waiter and he said I could have ordered it "light," meaning with just a little sauce. Of course, there was no way I could have known.

With it being a new dish, I figured that the great Ol.ive Garden in the sky might like the feedback, so I filled out their form online, saying the sauce was good, just overdone. Imagine my surprise when an email arrived saying I would be receiving a gift card. It arrived last week to the tune of $25! The dish only cost $13. That's handsome.

We went to the restaurant again on Monday. J got ziti this time instead of buttered ravioli. (He didn't pronouced it zee tee, but more like zitty, as if full of zits. Ha!) I got the mixed grill, which had good things on my diet: steak, chicken, roasted potatoes, and zucchini. When I offered a roasted potato to J, he took a bite and said it tasted exactly like KFC. Then he looked embarrassed and said, "I doubt if the chef would like hearing that. His potatoes taste like KFC."

I didn't know he'd know what a chef would care about. Hurrah for Ratatouille. And hurrah for gift cards.

PS - As of yesterday, I'd gained a pound from the week before, although during the week I'd lost. Go figure. It's something physiological, like hormones or salt, so I'm not going to sweat it too much. I behaved well all week except for three potato chips Sunday.

ETA: I weighed myself today and I was back down 1.5lbs to what my low point was last week. This is crazy.

PPS - ex still doesn't have his orders, so he's stuck with a crowd of guys not doing anything since last Friday in a typical Army hurry up and wait. He thinks he'll be going to the post where his specialty's school is for a three week catch up course. It is located where we used to live and where he used to work, only a few hours from here. He'll probably be able to come home on the weekends.

I think he's waiting for J to get some separation anxiety, but it isn't happening. J just lets it all roll off. I guess I need to throw ex a bone, although I don't want to seem like an incompetent mom in the process. I told ex that J watched almost all the Super Bowl with me and ex was quite jealous, saying he'd been trying to get J to watch any football with him. Again, I guess I need to throw ex a bone.

PPPS - I think J's report card will be coming home. I am expecting all As, except maybe math in which he failed the first test of the quarter. He told me yesterday that a kid in his math class who was moving was saying his goodbyes and called J "The Brain." It really seemed to shock J, but it made him proud, too.

I think J is like Eli Manning personality-wise. He's kind of quiet and bumbling, but still confident. He's not a public speaker. He goes about his work and bad stuff slides off. Maybe I have realized the basis of my fascination with Eli. As my mother said of J, "He's a lover not a fighter."