Tervis, Tastes, TV

by Emily

Today was a perfect day with the husband and dog! Especially the walk we took around a new block (as in new to us) this morning, pictures to come tomorrow. I did not do any school work though I did deal with the laundry and eat some veggies.

I even got some veggies into my breakfast, via pumpkin hot chocolate!

To back up, here is the Tervis tumbler I received via the Foodbuzz Tastemakers Program.

I grew up with glasses from Tervis and when Adam and I started living together they were one thing I was sure I wanted and was willing to spend money on.

Even though I’ve used them forever and know how great they are at keeping drinks cold and not sweating all over the table, until I received my letter with the package I’d never thought about putting anything hot into a Tervis. Thankfully I had a fantastic recipe to try out.

Pumpkin Hot Chocolate, serves 1

1 cup skim milk
2 Tbsp milk chocolate chips
1/4 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Heat milk to simmering in a small pot. Whisk in chocolate chips until smooth. Whisk in pumpkin and spice and continue to simmer 1-2 minutes. Serve, preferably topped with whipped cream!

It was a lazy sort of day and somehow Adam and I made it until 2:30 without eating anything outside of hot chocolate (he doesn’t like pumpkin so I made his with booze!). We were running errands by the time that we realized we were long overdue for a meal.

So we went to India Gate and had the best meal we’ve eaten yet in Buffalo!

The service was great, the food was healthy and packed with flavor, and the location was footsteps from our apartment; we’ll be back!

We started by splitting a mango lassi.

It was pretty good, but the last (first) time I went to India Gate I had a fig lassi and there was just no beating that!

Adam and I wanted to try several flavors so we made sure to both order things the other would enjoy.

Chicken Makhani – boneless, skinless tandori chicken breast prepared in tomato, butter and cream sauce and garnished with cashews and raisins – for Adam,

and Bhartha Paneer – fresh eggplant cooked with home-made cheese and special house sauce – for me.

Plus rice.

Here was plate #1 –

Adam’s sauce was so rich and creamy! And my eggplant had the perfect amount of spice. The homemade cheese was pretty fantastic as well, Adam actually thought it was tofu the first few bites!

And plate number 2 –

Another scoop of Bhartha Paneer plus a bite of rice with Makhani sauce on top. The husband and I were practically swooning by the time we finished! Everything was so rich without being too heavy and it was tons of fun trying a few new things.

We also tried a handful of this spiced lentil mix (I think?!) on the way out.

The only meh. All this did was make it essential for me to buy Good & Plentys at the store.

Speaking of sweet, after we dropped off the groceries and picked up the dog we headed out for this –

I had Coldstone’s pumpkin ice cream in my head all afternoon and was thrilled to see that they had caramel frozen yogurt to mix it with! Plus graham cracker and caramel sauce.

It was wonderful. And the price was wonderful too; Adam and I both ordered kid’s sizes and we ended up only paying $3.20 total.

We are finishing our wonderful day by cuddling on the couch and catching up on TV. Note – major props to “Modern Family” for the funniest (and most tasteful) gay joke I’ve ever seen on tv!

Since our 3pm lunch was also basically breakfast and dinner – minus dessert! – I’m going to grab something else to eat but I’m done blogging for the day so I can cuddle. Either an English muffin, a cookie, or both. Happy cuddling, readers!

What’s your favorite Indian dish to order?

4Oct2011

Red Fish, Blue Fish, Green Dog?

by Emily

If I start this post by saying I haven’t been very productive today, will that be too predictable?! I’m in a cold-weather/program-frustration/lack-of-exercise induced rut! But I’m making a commitment to going to bed early and pushing my way out of it tomorrow.

At least all of my eats today were tasty. Like my in-class breakfast trio.

Wegman’s Plain 0% Greek Yogurt (which is quite good and can hold its own against the big brands; though it is more similar to Chobani than Fage as it is less thick),

Fiber One Honey Squares Cereal sample (this had a gross fake-sweetener aftertaste – Sucralose was on the ingredient list – but was very filling for 80 calories),

and a honey stick.

Since my trio only had about 200 calories or so, I supplemented breakfast with a Banana Nut Bar that Odwalla generously sent me to try out.

Love! I actually tried this in college (the first time!) and loved it then too. 220 calories, .5 grams of saturated fat, 5 grams of fiber and 4 grams of protein. Plus it packs good amounts of many vitamins, including 25% daily value each of calcium and folate and 50% vitamin e. The bar is chewy and a bit crumbly, just like banana bread! I shared bites with two classmates who agreed that this was the best fake (<– aka not literally just a banana) banana flavor ever.

My breakfasts held me over nicely too; I had to run several errands after class and I didn’t get to eat lunch until close to 2:30. Actually, my breakfasts held me over well until around 1, and then I was cranky. I went frozen meal quick for lunch.

Another Lean Cuisine win, Chicken Enchilada Suiza.

I supplemented this meal with popcorn.

There’s always room for ~~Jell-O~~ popcorn.

I took the doggy on a long walk this afternoon (that’s productive!) and before I knew it the husband was home and it was time for dinner.

No matter what little tweaks you make to the ingredients, turkey Reubens are always good!

This guy was GH sourdough bread, 1000 island dressing, sauerkraut 2 slices of Applegate Farms Honey and Maple Turkey, and 2 slices of 2% Swiss. I ate at least another slice worth’s of bread in nibbles, Great Harvest is seriously the best.

With roasted green beans on the side.

A winner of a dinner.

Blue Fish, Red Fish, Green Dog?

Calling all pet owners, we could use some advice. How do you clean up after your dog while staying green?

Adam and I pride ourselves on being pretty environmentally friendly but Webster seems to have doubled our plastic and paper consumption. Since he is home by himself for long stretches of time (and since he is a small dog with a small bladder in a third floor apartment) he has to do about 50% of his “business” inside the apartment. When he’s not out on a walk, he “goes” on pee pads.

I don’t feel bad about using these because they are basically unavoidable and we have him reuse each one two or three times. However, being the asshole that he is, only about 2/3 of his going takes place on the pee pads. The rest of his business goes on the floor. Number 2 requires a baggie and Clorox wipe (don’t worry, we use a different brand without harsh chemicals, I’m just too lazy to look up the name of them) and number 1 requires several paper towels and wipe. I’ve thought about using paper towels for pick-up at home (wasting more paper but conserving plastic), but on walks we have to use a baggie.

For the past few months we’ve been leaving our reusable bags at home and reusing the plastic bags we take home from the grocery. This is the cheapest solution but Adam and I both felt badly about how wasteful it was. When we ran out of baggies and were forced into purchasing some I think we both were a little relieved (and we’ll go back to reusable bags for groceries). In fact, one of my errands today was purchasing these –

These Green Bone bags are biodegradable and made from cornstarch.

So that’s an improvement but I’m still hoping to find a better solution.

Pet owners, how do you take good care of your furry friends while still taking care of the planet?

1Oct2011

The Pumking and I

by Emily

Has October become synonymous with winter in your neck of the woods too? It’s so freaking cold here I’m actually blogging in bed! We aren’t planning on switching our summer for winter wardrobes until next weekend and I’m not quite sure how we’ll get through to then. I’m keeping this post quick before my laptop dies.

I did not get near enough schoolwork done this afternoon. I did drink some milky tea,

and get in a session at the gym. 30 minutes on the elliptical, random level 6. I started to read The Help while I ellipticized. I’m only 5 pages in but I’m already loving it. I’m not loving that it’s 500+ pages long; normally that would thrill me but I have to finish it by next Friday for book club!

For weekend fun, we met up with two other couples at The King and I for dinner. People have praised The King and I as the best Thai in Buffalo for years; I’m so glad we finally got a chance to go. And the food was pretty dang delicious.

I stole several bites of Adam’s Tom Yum soup. The famous Thai soup, slightly sour and spicy with fresh mushrooms, tomato, chili, lemongrass, galangal, and lemon juice with cilantro, scallions, and chicken.

I loved how tangy this was, totally umami.

My tactic to trying out a new Thai spot is to order either the Pad See Eiw (my favorite meal on Earth) or an extra spicy dish (to gauge what they deem “spicy”). Tonight I went the spicy route. I ordered the vegetarian Pud Met Ma Muang. Steamed tofu sautéed with cashew nuts, mushroom, bamboo shoot, bell pepper, onion, broccoli, baby carrots, and Thai basil leaves in a hot chili sauce. I ordered 5-star spicy and extra veggies so they added chili, Napa cabbage, and zucchini.

Loved it!

I would only call this 3-star spicy but I’m rating the dish 5-stars for satisfaction since the veggies were so good. Other Thai places in Buffalo load up their dishes with onions, it was great to have an actual plate of vegetables! Plus everything, tofu included, was cooked perfectly.

I basically licked my plate clean, plus several scoops from the communal rice bowl.

We will definitely be coming back soon.

None of the couples were ready for the night to be over so we all headed to Dolci for gelato.

The worker graciously let me taste several flavors (including Sriracha-coconut!!) until I came upon two that made my heart sing.

Burnt caramel and Pumking Ale. The burnt caramel was obviously the best because you just can’t top that flavor but the Pumking Ale was amazing as well, and the combo was divine. The Pumking had just hints of booze and pumpkin and it was almost fizzy! I totally confirmed my suspicion that I can’t make it through this October without some Southern Tier.

What’s the strangest flavor of ice cream you’ve ever tasted?

16Sep2011

We Didn’t Have To Make Dinner

by Emily

Can I just confess that I’m actually not thank goodnessing for Friday? I’m not ready for the weekend yet. I really wish it was Wednesday and I could relive Thursday but chose to do some freaking work instead of being a lazy. Ce la vie.

For breakfast I brought the last 1/3 serving or so of leftovers from last night (pasta with peas, spinach, and nutritional yeast).

This was very pleasing to eat cold for some reason.

Plus the very last serving of dried hibiscus.

So sad, I’d give anything to live near a Trader Joe’s!

I also got to supplement with coffee; my first class teacher was an hour late this morning (flat tire) and I had time to go with a friend to the bookstore coffee shop.

With skim milk. I post coffee pics because of the milk (I post everything with calories minus my vitamins and random nibbles…and days I don’t post at all!) but I realize that these mug shots are less interesting than the traditional kind. I probably should have just skipped mentioning this one all together because I didn’t get to finish it before I went to the Dietetics computer lab and I threw half of it away. Usually I eat and drink in the lab like a rebel but they mentioned it in the meeting yesterday and I was so so glad that I’d thrown mine out when a professor came in and yelled at a few classmates.

We were in the computer lab for my 2nd class but I ended up staying late and finishing an entire assignment that isn’t due for another 2 weeks!!! I was so proud of myself. And so glad that the husband nicely waited to pick me up. <– he drove me to and fro today because I’m wearing a backless top in spite of the 45* morning <– it is September and I will wear my September clothes, damnit!

Adam took the dog to the vet before he picked me up; someone is so excited about being cone and stitch-free!

That’s Webster sticking his whole head under the crack in the bathroom door!

I didn’t get home until past 3pm and I was more than ready for lunch. Green grapes.

Plus leftover vegan Philly filling topped with a dollop of light sour cream and tons of Sriracha.

Meh. Even with the sriracha this was bland and the texture just wasn’t right. I ate about half before moving on to other leftovers; 2oz of bread (also from the Phillys) microwaved with Smart Balance Light.

Chewy bread makes me happy; Adam and I have both been craving pizza with good crusts all week.

We made plans with friends to come over for dinner last week, but Adam told me at 5 o’clock that the boys were also coming over for poker later so we had to do an emergency run to the store. I was getting pretty hungry so I was thrilled to be handed a Wegman’s sushi sample.

I also snagged cookies; a whole wheat butterscotch drop and a cinnamon nut rugelach.

This was actually my first time trying rugelach and now I’m smitten; it was so chewy!

Patrick and Michelle came over this evening but THEY cooked for US! They brought over supplies and equipment; it was so much fun to watch some legit steaming take place in my kitchen.

They ended up putting together a great meal.

Sticky rice,

steamed shrimp and some stir-fried veggies,

and steamed tilapia with a spicy black bean sauce.

The fish was like butter; so creamy and good. Thank you so much guys!

My only contribution to the meal was dessert,

but Patrick ate at least 3 S’more Oat Balls so I think I did good. I stuck to one but I will note that I brought some in to my school friends this morning and they all gave good reviews as well.

The boys are (loudly) playing poker in the living room so I’m going to stay up and try to get some work done before my busy weekend begins. I just spent 45 minutes catching up on the phone with my parents too. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

11Sep2011

More Sleep More Hunger

by Emily

Apparently my body didn’t get enough sleep or food the other day because it demanded more of both in large quantities. Good thing it’s the weekend and I had time to indulge in both.

Adam and I actually got out of bed at 8 am this morning but when the dog got back into bed we thought we’d cuddle with him, just for a minute. 4 hours later it was noon and we were waking up for lunch.

Adam made chicken salad my favorite way; shredded chicken with grapes, walnuts, and Miracle Whip.

Grapes totally make chicken salad. But apparently this didn’t fuel us that well because we totally went back to sleep until 2:30!

When we got up and set out on errands I was starving. We stopped at Tim Hortons on the way to Goodwill for a caramel apple cider. On Friday I was bemoaning the pumpkin options I can’t try until Pumpkin Month (aka October) and my friend Kim convinced me that September should be all about apples. Another theme? I’ll take that challenge!

That happy face was before I actually tasted the cider sadly, yuck city. It tasted like it was made with fake apple flavoring.

I chucked my cider after 1 sip but I did eat 2/3 of this filled maple doughnut.

This was a very out-of-character thing for me to eat but I was low on options and we were running late for our afternoon activity.

The Bison Ballpark Brew Bash is a craft beer tasting event whose proceeds benefit Cystic Fibrosis research.

We got our tickets 50% off with Groupon so it wasn’t a big deal that I didn’t end up drinking that much. I ended up taking a few sips of a few things and calling it a day.

Buffalo Brew Pub’s Oktoberfest.

I don’t really remember this one; not bad but not my style. I drank ~1oz.

Ithica Beer Co’s Smoked Porter.

Eek, not my thing at all; one sip was enough for me! The smoked flavor was almost meaty, I imagine drinking a full one of these would feel like eating a meal.

Rohrbach’s Brewing Company’s Vanilla Porter.

For a porter the flavor was nice and light and I liked the vanilla scent. ~1.5oz.

Post Road’s Pumpkin Ale.

Ewwww. The smell of this was good but it was way too sour for me, I was sad that I even took one sip.

Six Point Brewery’s Sweet Action Cream Ale.

Yum! This had a great light fizz and almost orange-y undertones. I drank 95% of my pour happily.

Shipyard Pumpkinhead Ale.

Now this is what pumpkin brews should taste like! The smell was pumpkin pie and the taste was pure pumpkin. I am definitely going to be on the lookout for a bottle of this before ~~October~~ Pumpkin Month.

I ended the day with Heineken Light.

I know most people who drink craft beer would call this a low note, but don’t hate, I love Heineken Light. The flavor is mild enough that it’s sort of like drinking water, but the brewery is quality enough that it’s not like drinking dirty water (my thoughts on Bud, Miller, and Blue Lights).

The most exciting taste of the day was this soft pretzel – covered with mustard – that I split with the husband.

We took the train to the event but ended up walking back to our car in Allentown afterwards. When we lived in Allentown I used to walk down to The Spot all the time and it was great to do some Delaware ambling again.

Adam and I were both still starving when we got home and we weren’t quite sure what to do with our evening. Thankfully our friends Patrick and Michelle had just headed to dinner and invited us to come along. We ended up at Gin Gin for Chinese food. They had bobba!

I got a taro milk tea with tapioca.

I got the chicken and eggplant in garlic sauce with rice.

I also took several bites of the table’s order of bok choy.

The food was good but my meal was pretty heavy so I started feeling sick before I felt full. I ate about half of my food and boxed the rest up for Adam’s lunch this week.

Finishing out my day with dessert, I split these Panda Yummies with Adam,

and ate a mini sundae whilst watching “That ’70’s Show” and blogging.

Today’s been fun, hopefully tomorrow will be productive!

7Sep2011

Bombay To Book Club

by Emily

So this last week has sort of been a healthy living fail. I haven’t worked out since Sunday, I’ve been eating a fair amount of junk, and I clearly haven’t been hitting my bedtime goals. I am 100% determined to get in a longer run tomorrow though, which is all the more reason to keep this post short and sweet.

Liquid breakfast consumed in class 1.

An Americano with skim milk and a lavender mint Herbal Water.

I bought this Turkey Pepperoni and Cheese GoPicnic snack back from the bookstore on our break.

The pepperoni was crumbly and weird but the crackers reminded me of Mary’s Gone Crackers which was nice. I ate all of the cheese and crackers, half the pepperoni, and the candy (duh).

For lunch lunch a friend and I decided to check out the new Indian place that popped up in the food court.

Healthy, real food at Buffalo State? What, what! I ordered a channa masala with rice,

topped with tamarind chutney and tons of spicy pickled mangos.

Yum! I never see tamarind in the states (I used to eat them straight from the pod growing up in St. Thomas) so that was fun. I ended up using two portions of spicy mangos which may have been a mistake as my mouth was on fire and my stomach hurt all afternoon.

My meal also came with a Naan bread but that was the only part of the dish that wasn’t great so I left it uneaten.

Healthy, spicy, veggies for lunch are totally worth a tummy ache.

After classes 2 and 3 had wrapped I headed back to my house for a quick cupcake frosting session. Janessa actually stopped by to drop off goodies early this morning because we were heading to Kim’s house for…. book club!

Side note – I’ve always wanted to be part of a book club but when I thought about suggesting the idea to my group of friends I felt a little lame. I sucked it up and you know what? They were just as excited about the idea as I was! Lesson learned when in doubt, if you are excited about something your friends probably will be too. Don’t be so afraid of sounding silly that you miss out on a fun opportunity.

We already chose our first book (The Help) but haven’t gotten to read yet so tonight’s meeting was more of a drinks/snacks/silly YouTube videos party. We had a nice foodie spread for sure. Kim made spinach and artichoke dip with fresh spinach and white beans,

Hillary made taco dip,

and crescent rolls with pizza filling.

And Anna brought booze but since I was the designated driver I sat that out.

Here were my bites.

Plus dessert! Janessa made Oreo cheesecake balls with Biscoff!

This idea was so good I sort of can’t even describe it without drooling but it sparked an even better idea that I’ll share later.

And I made Mint Chocolate Chip Swirl Cupcakes.

Recipe to come tomorrow.

And I shall see you all tomorrow too; if I don’t get to bed soon my long run will turn into a short shuffle!

3Sep2011

Serendipitous Stop

by Emily

Hello from Ohio! I’m so glad we had this long weekend so I had the chance to get over to visit my grandparents. My grandpa is in the hospital at the moment unfortunately, but we’ll get to visit a bit and we’re hanging out with my grandma until Monday.

I went to bed at 3am ~~last night~~ this morning and my alarm went off at 7am so you know I turned to coffee.

Adam and I shared this cup, with a small splash of English Toffee syrup and a big splash of skim milk.

Webster had an appointment to get his booster shots so we headed to the vet’s office on the way out of town. Adam took him alone for the first visit while I was at HLS and I was so impressed today with how brave he was.

He was a total champ on the car road too. Most of the trip was spent like this,

or like this.

And he drank water out of a glass in the cup holder like a little traveler!

When we weren’t fawning over how cute the dog is, we were eating. I didn’t get a chance to pack lunch for myself and I got very lucky with a serendipitous stop. I was hungry and thirsty when I spotted a Chipotle so I asked Adam to pull over,

and then we realized that we were only 2 miles from froyo!

Booyah! You’ve seen my froyo face, but here is my “froyo and Chipotle?!?” face –

self taken in the bathroom mirror because even I have a little shame.

We actually ate our froyo first.

I stuck with a theme and got a small cup of low-fat mint froyo topped with snowcaps, crumbled Andes, Oreos, and fudge sauce.

Swoon.

Then I ate my Chipotle rice bowl in the car.

They let me do a small scoop of rice topped with black beans, fajita veggies, corn salsa, mild salsa, and a tiny sprinkle of cheese.

I topped the whole thing off myself with TONS of green Tabasco. Double swoon.

Other snacks included part of this apple which got warm and gross,

and this baggie of snacks (yogurt pretzels!) from my grandparents’ house.

We made it to Ohio in pretty good time and got to spend an hour visiting with my grandpa before coming home to a gourmet dinner.

I swear eating with my grandma makes you feel like you’re at a hotel!

Homemade cole slaw,

a slice of foccacia,

roasted asparagus,

and enchilada casserole.

I only left a bite or two on my plate but I definitely made room for dessert.

Homemade chocolate pie. I scraped my crust off for Adam (crust is to filling like cake is to icing) but practically licked the rest of my plate clean.

The filling of this was like chewable pudding, so good!

I am stuffed, exhausted, and ready for bed.

22Aug2011

Healthy Living Summit 2011 Mega Recap

by Emily

This post is going to be huge, so there are a few facts I want to establish before I begin –

* The Healthy Living Summit (HLS) was fabulous and I had a wonderfully fun time. However, since I didn’t have internet all weekend this is going to be a monster post and I’m not going to include as many details as I’d like.

* I met and hung out with some amazing people. So many, in fact, that I think it makes the most sense for me not to link back to anyone.

* I snapped a photo of every piece of food that went into my mouth but I wasn’t so good on people or places; I was too busy enjoying those things to photograph them.

Okey doke, let’s start from the beginning…

So, this happened exactly halfway between Buffalo and Philly –

Usually a picture of a flat tire would be followed by many four letter words but the only one I could think of was l-u-c-k. My trip to Philly was greasy, two hours longer than planned and completely exhausting, but I actually started crying because I felt so grateful. The things I am thankful for –

It rained 70% of my trip but not a drop fell during the two hours I was standing on the side of the road changing my tire.
My tire blew on a small side road and not when I was going 70 mph on the highway.
I was able to take off the nuts and jack up the car all by myself, and if the tire hadn’t been completely rusted to the axle I probably could have done the entire thing myself like a total badass.
The nicest man on earth not only stopped to help me out, but drove back to his house for the sledgehammer it took to get my tire off.
The nice man gave me directions to his nice friends’ body shop, where they replaced my tire and fixed me up for only $20.

Isn’t the world amazing? Before the whole debacle I drank a guava Rockstar for breakfast,

and afterwards I shakily ate the half turkey sandwich with cheese and cranberry mayo that I packed from the Co-op.

And I made it (with aching forearms) to Philly with time to shower and change before the HLS cocktail party.

The drinks, provided by Drink Chia, were super tasty.

This cocktail was a mix (I believe) of Drink Chia, strawberries, and vodka. It tasted sort of like a bubble tea with mini bobba!

The food was pretty good as well.

I had a corn and crab fritter, a piece of pretzel crusted chicken, a few small bites, plus another piece of the chicken.

Everything was tasty but there wasn’t quite enough sustenance for dinner so a few of us ended up in the hotel restaurant for a late night snack.

I went with the s’mores mousse shooter.

Plus I scarfed up one of the Lindt truffles they brought with the bill.

It was a sweet end to the first day.

The next morning (Saturday) we were up bright and early for breakfast. Cereal with skim milk,

an Oikos drinkable yogurt with a juicy plum – sidenote, I feel like I had food dripping down my face this whole weekend! –

and a much-needed coffee.

Around this point I realized I probably should be snapping more pictures like a good blogger.

Though I did snag a shot of me with two of my roomies.

I didn’t love the Quaker Smashbar provided on the snack break so I only ate half of it.

But I did love the RD Quaker provided as the key-note speaker. She wrote a book on being a flexatarian and I loved her points about embracing plants more than avoiding meats. In fact, all of the sessions were pretty darn informative and inspirational.

Before I knew it, it was time for lunch.

Side salad for greens,

quinoa salad, which had some sort of acid component that took it over the top,

and half a tofu sandwich on Great Harvest bread, squeal!

For dessert I grabbed a milk chocolate crunch Attune probiotic bar.

I had no idea these would be so delicious! I was very excited to see some coupons in my swag bag.

After the sessions we went to do some city exploring.

Here are all my roomates,

and here is the Liberty Bell.

I’m glad we sight-saw in the way that we did, because our travels took us to Farmacia for dinner.

Yum, seriously just yum x 1000. The wait staff was so sweet and accommodating of our 12-person party, the space was adorable, and the food was delicious.

I was ravenous and I think my heart actually skipped a beat when this bread and herbed butter were brought to the table.

I ate this slice times two.

Since it was a vacation I went with a John Daly to drink.

Sweet tea vodka and fresh squeezed lemonade, yes please! A few people sipped my drink and we all agreed it was the best Arnold Palmer ever.

And then came the food. Which was basically ridiculous.

I ordered the sweet corn and risotto croquettes. Which came with garden veggie ratatouille,

and sautéed spinach that blew my mind. It must have been the butter sauce that was floating on my plate.

The spinach was the best thing I ate all weekend, but the croquettes were perfect too; crunchy and creamy all at the same time. I ate 1.5 croquettes and all of my veggies and was basically in heaven.

You know I have to get self-serve froyo if I’m in a new city.

I got peanut butter, cream cheese (!!), and tart, topped with all the berries, caramel sauce, and sprinkles.

Fueled by sugar, a group of us stayed up until practically 3am! Normally a 3 am bedtime and 8 am Sunday workout would feel brutal, but I think I was too excited to be tired. I don’t have any pictures, but I did participate in the HLS 5k. A huge group walked/ran around the city including the Rocky steps.

When we got back it was time for oatmeal.