BenSpark Family Adventures

 Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02421 Today Allison took our giant zucchini and made two loaves of zucchini bread. One was regular with one half covered in pecans and the other is chocolate zucchini bread. I had a small slice of the chocolate one and it was really good. I know it is not on my Virta plan but it did not raise my blood sugar that much more than regular dinner. It was worth it to have some of this since I haven't had zucchini bread in forever.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02411 I took andy to Rock Spot today so that they could do some climbing. I knew that I had a couple of passes left so that andy could climb for free. Turns out that Andy also had their own couple of passes. Andy climbed about 15 runs before we headed home. Andy does seem interested in starting classes back up after the Fall. I think that will work out okay. Let's get the Fall going with all the new things that Andy will be doing and then try to get back to climbing if Andy still wants to do so. Tonight we took andy to Morin's for dinner. Thursdays are hometown hero nights and that meant that Allison's meal would be 20% off. We had a great meal and are glad that Morin's is back open.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02407 Tonight was the last Food Truck night of 2025. For some reason I must have hit the portrait mode and it auto focused on me. Sadly everyone else is out of focus. Whoops.  Tonight I got the Lobster Street Corn Nachos. This is the first cheat meal that I've had since being on Virta. I wanted to see how it would affect my blood sugar. I did not eat the whole thing but had a pretty good amount. About two hours later my blood sugar was at 255, that is the most it has been in months. It did come back down pretty quickly, too.  I figure if I am going to cheat I am going to need to pick something that I really enjoy to make it worth it. It won't be often but I will occasionally and in moderation pick something that is not Virta approved. 

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02400 We went to Spumoni's tonight for dinner. Had a great time, very good food. Great waiter, too. Andy especially loved the giant cheese pull that they got from the French Onion Soup that they had.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02396 On the way back from our walk today I took a photo of the Hydrangea by the fence. It is nearing the end of the season and this particular plant is starting to wilt. Why does it look so vibrant? Well, I have been playing with the effects on my phone’s camera app. So, I am editing this on my phone to make the image much more striking. You can see the wilting, though. Tonight Eva was back at Folk dancing and she even jumped off the drawbridge twice. She had a great time. Before Allison and Eva went off for their trip to Folk Dancing we had ribs for dinner. I had gotten a rub at Eugene Henry’s the other day and in the morning I took the ribs out of the fridge and let them thaw. Once they were thawed I rubbed the ribs with brown sugar and the rub that I had gotten. Then I put them in the oven for 2 1/2 hours. Finishing everything on the grill afterwards.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02395 On our second day at the Cape this week Eva spent the entire day at Science School and then had a fun night with friends at Folk Singing and then they had twice baked potatoes together. She’s had some great times with friends this Summer. It has been an awesome experience for her. Tonight Allison, Andy and I went to Anejo for dinner with my friend Stephanie and her son and boyfriend. It was our first meeting of her boyfriend and her son. Stephanie worked with me several years ago and we’ve kept in touch ever since. We had a great dinner together and enjoyed our time with Stephanie, Josh and Julian. Andy even got to hold Julian and Andy looked so happy. The kid loves babies and dogs. Andy is very gentle with both. I did not get any photos at dinner but Stephanie did and shared them with me. They are of Andy and the baby but I’m not posting them. So, I have a photo of the tomatoes in my Dad’s garden. He’s got a ton of plants and lots and lots of tomatoes.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02394 We are down the Cape this week for the last week of Eva’s job at the Children’s School of Science. While she was at work we went to Main Street in Falmouth and visited Eugene Henry’s. There Andy got a few things including a tropical soda to use to make a tropical soda float. We enjoyed some time on the porch and Andy enjoyed their float. It had a very strong coconut scent.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02393 We spent the day in New Hampshire celebrating Dan and MArcia’s 50th Wedding Anniversary. In the morning I took the family over to the Golden Egg for breakfast. We enjoyed a nice breakfast together and then went back to the hotel to get ready for the day. We met up with Uncle Tom who performed a private Mass for us in his room. Then we headed over to Nate’s house again before heading to our lunch venue at Wentworth By The Sea. We enjoyed a meal at Salt and got to use their wine room. It was a nice room with a very large table. We had an excellent meal and bottles of wine. After our meal we went down to Dan and Marcia’s suite to enjoy a cake that we had brought. We got the cake from Awesome Sweets. Awesome Sweets is a bakery that my friend Sue runs. A great place with very good baked goods. I’d love it if Andy interned there some day. After our celebration we took a bunch of photos around the grounds and also on the porch of their suite. We headed to the Cape after...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02391 Today was Andy’s last day of Teens culinary camp at Johnson and Wales. The last day of the camp week is always a day when parents can come and see, and taste test all the wonderful things that the kids made during the week. There were many tasty treats. I’ll have to take Andy and Allison’s word for it since I only had a small piece of a snickerdoodle cookie. I had to try something and since I was only trying one thing I made sure it was one of my favorites.I do love a good snickerdoodle cookie after all. During the week Andy also decorated a cake. The cakes are all Styrofoam and have fondant covering the cake. From there Andy designed the rest of the cake in fondant. Andy decided upon a whale and did an amazing job making it. They said that it is based on the Whale emoji. I didn’t know that there was a whale emoji. After picking Andy up I drove down to the Cape to pick up Eva. We're all heading to New Hampshire tomorrow so we had to get her and bring her ho...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02389 Since we have one week with just Andy at home we figured we’d do something nice and take them out for dinner. We should have thought that trough better because this week Andy has been at cooking camp at Johnson and Wales and Andy has been having lots of food each day. So, the last thing they really want to do is eat when they get home. Next year we’ll make sure to just take Andy for dessert since there is always room for that. Campfire was excellent. I had wings and a Caesar salad. I asked for no croutons but got them anyway. I picked out about two slices of bread worth of croutons but that’s fine. Someone who enjoys croutons and can eat them would absolutely love the place. The wings were very good. I like getting a cajun dry rub on the wings and then asking for buffalo sauce on the side so I can dip into the sauce and then into the blue cheese. The cajun with the buffalo works well. Andy got the Whiskey burger but only ate a few bites. I finished that off...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02387 Andy is back at Johnson and Wales University for the Summer Teens cooking program. This is Andy’s first year doing the teens track and their fourth year cooking at Johnson and Wales. Andy was pretty excited when I picked them up from classes today. Andy and the team made pesto sauce for Italian day. They also made a couple of baked goods and they all got to fill cannolis for a treat at the end of the day. This week Andy will be learning dishes that are Italian, Greek, Korean and American and on Friday they get a secret basket of ingredients like the cooking shop, Chopped. Andy is most looking forward to basket day. Prior to today Andy was most looking forward to Italian day an well, that was today. Andy definitely at their fill because they were not that hungry for dinner tonight. Part of dinner tonight was some fresh zucchini from our garden. Our first zucchini so far. When Andy an I got home we were looking at the garden and were surprised to discover the...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02384 Today Allison and I went off to Aldi to do some grocery shopping. While there I looked for items that would work with my new Virta dietary plan. Cheese and meat are two things that work for me. I have been adding cheese to my omelets and that seems to fry up in the frying pan pretty well. I did try to take these mozzarella and pepperoni spirals and fry them up to make the edges crispy but I either didn’t do it long enough or they won’t work that way because they simply got melty. I’ll try again when I am not rushing to get back up to me desk for work. They do taste great, though, like a piece of pepperoni pizza.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02380 Tonight we went over to The Meadows for some of their frozen custard. I saw that this place was opening soon when we were driving by on the way to my manager’s pool party on Saturday. Today I noticed that Chartley Country Store mentioned on their social media that their entire staff went over to the opening day to get some frozen custard. I figured that I’d take Allison and andy over to try it out. Andy got a Gelatti which is italian ice mixed with frozen custard. Andy got mango italian ice and vanilla custard. They seemed to enjoy it very much. Allison picked the turtle sundae and commented multiple times how many pecans were included in the sundae. She really enjoyed her treat. I did not try any, I wanted to but came home and had some of my Rebel ice cream instead. It is very tasty and doesn’t knock my sugar out of whack.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02379 I may be working with a whole new set of dietary restrictions but I had to find a way to still celebrate National Ice Cream Day. I searched for some sugar free ice cream options and discovered Rebel ice cream. The ice cream ranges from 0g to 3g of sugar. I picked up a pint of chocolate peanut butter. Th ice cream is on sale now but I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy it or if it would affect my sugar. I tried it tonight and it was very good. I also noticed no significant change in my blood sugar so I think we may have a winner and I might finally have ice cream back as an option for a treat.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02372 Tonight was another picnic in the park with food trucks at Capron park. We walked over early and then went off to get our own food and then gathered back up to enjoy our meal. I picked up some brisket birria tacos. Allison got a shredded brisket sandwich. Andy opted for some loaded mac and cheese fries and some chicken parm. Eva was happy because she could have Friskies Fries. She gets the General’s chicken fries. After dinner Andy got some chocolate covered strawberries and Allison got a churro and ice cream. I had one of the strawberries and a bite of the churro. That spiked my sugar up a bit. Not too crazy but a bit. It came back down pretty easily, too.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02357 Looking for high protein, low carb snacks I’ve been eating a lot of almonds and also pickles. They are also good for sodium as part of Virta. I’m at home so I have a few choices because we brought a lot of food to the Cape.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02349 I found a recipe online for cheesy onion rings. I picked up two silicon donut pans in order to make these. You put shredded cheese on the bottom and then add in onions, bacon and you can also add jalapenos. Then you bake for 20 minutes at 375 degrees. What happens is that you get these crispy “onion rings” that I can eat. when I make these again I’ll be sure to add less cheese to make them thinner and crispier. I’d also like to actually use rings of onion instead of chopped onions. Maybe add some pickles as well. Some crispy fresh bacon would be excellent as well.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02348 A little late celebration for Father’s day. Allison had asked me what I wanted and I wanted some lobster. So I went to chartley and got the kids some burgers and over to Portside to pick up some swordfish tips and lobster. Lobster is crazy expensive right now but I was able to get a half pound that was enough for both Allison and I plus more for lunch the next day. It was a nice meal. The swordfish was much more reasonable. 1 pound of tips for $13 plus they were deliciously seasoned.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02336 We needed some concessions for Sly Fox and the kids were amazing and helped me out by making chocolate chip cookies and cupcakes. Andy used their amazing decorating skills to make the cutest little Fox themed cupcakes as well as some gold cupcakes. I picked up gold sprinkles and some gold drizzle. These cupcakes were great for the theme of the play. Tonight was the opening night of Sly Fox and it went very well. Andy came along with me and they helped out at the concession stand. I had so many people compliment me on Andy. They found andy to be thoughtful and he helped out a lot. Afterwards Andy volunteered to do the rest of the weekend. Andy was very happy to help.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02335 One of the things that I can have plenty of on this Virta eating plan is cheese. I’ve been making crackers from cheese but I also discovered grilling cheese. You can take grilling cheese and put it in a frying pan to brown up each side. This stuff tastes amazing. It is like a mozzarella stick without the breading.