Whats on my fruit?

I work in an industrial area, with lots of different types of companies on the same street. Directly next door is a fruit company...basically they produce the fruit platters/fruit salads you can buy pre-made at grocery stores. Don't worry they all wear hair nets...we know because they always end up flying over onto our lawn...gross.

Never thought much of it, but yesterday someone came over to ask if 4 of us wouldn't mind coming over for 10min to do a taste test. I jumped all over that offer...free fruit! We walked into a room with 4 large buckets of fruit salad, and little cup servings of each like the picture (those aren't the actual fruit cups though)We were told to try #1 and #2. Then tell the guy what we taste, which one we like better...etc. Then we tried #3 and #4 and did the same thing.

Well first of all you could REALLY taste a difference in each pair. We then found out #1 and #2 both have preservatives (1 was theirs the other was a competitors) and #3 and #4 did not have preservatives (theirs and a competitors)

We all unanimously like their #1 with preservatives, and the competitors #2 without. It was kind of weird to think about. They only use preservatives for the fruit salads that are all mixed together in one container and are shipped to places who need bulk fruit salad. Still I don't like that idea. Although it does explain why some fruit I've tasted pre-cut like that has a "funny" taste. I also did not like how different the two un-preservative fruits tasted!

However we all got a fruit tray as a thank you gift...it was definitely a lot fresher than those fruit salads...yum!!

Breakfast yesterday was an attempt to re-create my pumpkin stove top oats from Saturday!
I cooked the

1/3cup oats, 1/3 c. water, 1/3 c. skim milk, salt, vanilla, and 1/2 banana for 2 min on 50% power.

Then added some pumpkin and cooked it again for 1-2 min on regular power until it gets its almost boiled over consistency :)
Then I added some ricotta and pumpkin butter, topped with granola and a spoon of White Choc. PB!

I was SO excited for my lunch...1 whole lobster worth of meat made into lobster salad with celery and a little light mayo, in a half of a pita pocket. On the side I had some carrots and celery sticks! Sorry no pictures...ate with the boys (the work boys that is...there's only 3 of us girls in the office)

Last night I had a great super sweat workout! I did 3.4 miles...mostly running, some walking, but it still felt great. My "runs" seem so little compared to most of you, but man since I am just starting out they give me the BEST workout...I am so tired and sweaty :)

When I got home, I knew I had to get to work on my Lobster Bisque. I tried cooking the stock down a little, but probably could of cooked it down more. I found the simplest recipe I could because I was tired and didn't want to cook all night.
I sauteed the onion, garlic, shallots, carrots, and celery in some butter. Then added chopped potatoes, the stock, and a little sherry. I cooked this for about 30min til the potatoes were soft, then took the hand blender to it. I then added cream, Worcestershire sauce, sherry, a shake of Tabasco, salt and pepper.Looks good right? Well it was just not flavorful enough, I'm not really sure what to do about it. I need like lobster concentrate :) Well I should go try it right now, maybe the night let the flavors meld more.

While I was making the bisque I had a piece of a choc. chip cookie from my cookie swap collectionBreakfast this morning was delicious!!! A TJ's Whole Wheat Cin. Raisin British Muffin with butter, and some TJ's Greek Yogurt with fresh fruit!
So many great flavors.

Lunch was more soup! A la WF'sI had a serving of this, along with a fresh salad... Olivias Organic baby lettuces, shredded carrots, and chopped fresh green beans!

I also made some homemade dressing... Extra Virgin Olive Oil, fresh lemon juice, red wine vinegar, honey, salt and pepper
(that's the office toaster in the back, and it wasn't really 4:53.)

I also had packed 2 delicious cookie swap cookiesOMG they are so good! The chocolate one is a piece of a chocolate almond biscotti, the other is half of a Russian tea cake...my mom makes those tea cakes and they are so so freeking delicious. Its a buttery walnut cookie coated with powdered sugar that almost melts to the cookie.

I had a really great dance class tonight too! Tomorrow night I'll be at Brian's...Christmas shopping then watching his 10PM soccer game!!! Urg...hate those late games. So I'll do some free weights at his apt.