First, great ideas from the blogvine on how to “get out of my rut.”
Some of the most tangible ones were:
- Going out to lunch midweek vs eating at my desk (suggested by http://secondcityrandomness.wordpress.com/)
- Take a cooking class one night a week (suggested by Alyssa, Fashion Fitness Foodie)
- Join a book club (suggested by Beth, Embracing Twenty Something)
The other great ideas included mixing up eats and scheduling meals with friends. All WINS! 
One thing my hubby and I’ve been doing to avoid the homebody rut, is to go on midweek date nights. Last night we kept it easy, fairly light. And we managed to only go places that started with “P”. Now only if we had got some coffee at Peet’s, we’d be all set 
As with every restaurant, I scan the menu before arriving to pick out my meal. Panera also shows nutrition stats. WIN!
I was psyched to get the mediterranean veggie on a tomato basil roll:
My sandwich
Notice anything off about this? Yeah, not a tomato basil roll. They ran out (???). FAIL! So asked for honey wheat, methinks this is potato. Sigh.
To make matters worse, the hubby ordered steak and cheddar Panini and, err, well, the cheese was missing, as in nonexistent. I convinced him to say something and the replaced the sandwich. How can you forget half the ingredients? Another FAIL!
Want to know what the WIN was?
Going next door to Pinkberry.
Hers and His
This was our first time to the hotspot franchise out of LA. Since we were newbies, we got huge tastings of any flavor we wanted. We split four tastings: original (so good), mango (awesome), coconut (bland), and pomegranate (subtle and good). Finally we settled on a small each with toppings. Mine included half original / half mango with granola and pineapple. Zach’s was pomegranate with granola, kiwi, raspberries, and blueberries. You want to know what else is a ginormous WIN? A small cup is 180 calories (sans toppings). That’s amazingly nuts! 
Pinkberry is way better at making me happy
What’s your favorite mainstream “fast-food” chain? Mine would be Specialties Bakery (a Cali thing)
