Three Desserts

Put me and Ryan together and you get one deadly dessert duo.

Sweet Teeth

Date night started out innocently enough.

We headed to Park Avenue in Winter Park for dinner at 310 Park South.

Park Avenue

R + J

(Yes, I’m actually wearing shorts! Eek.)

After this morning’s crampy run, I was determined to keep myself hydrated today, and ordered water to drink immediately when we sat down.

Water with Cucumber

The addition of the cucumber slice to my ice water was so neat. Drinking a lot of water is actually pretty hard for me, but I think sprucing it up with cucumber, lemon, lime or orange slices might make it more appealing.

For my entree I ordered a vegetable sandwich with fresh mozzarella on a whole wheat kaiser roll.

My Entree

310 Park South Vegetable Sandwich

I ordered my sandwich strictly for the fresh mozzarella and it didn’t disappoint.

Ryan opted for the New York strip steak, which came with purple mashed potatoes!

Ryan's Entree

We both cleared our plates. We’re tough like that. 😉

Dessert

After dinner, our dessert extravaganza began.

At 310 Park South, we ordered Tollhouse pie, which was essentially a chocolate chip cookie pie with Haagen-Daz vanilla ice cream, whipped cream and a ribbon of fudge.

Dessert Numero Uno

I need to replicate this chocolate chip cookie pie! So good.

For dessert number two, we headed to Jeremiah’s Italian Ice.

Jeremiah's

We were both relatively full by this point, but since we were out near Jeremiah’s which is a bit of a drive from our apartment, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to stop by for a cold treat.

We shared a small cookies ‘n’ cream + scoop froggy frog (aka mint chocolate chip) gelati.

Jeremiah's Gelati

On our way back to our apartment, we saw that Raphsodic Cooperative Company, a local vegan bakery, was open.

According to their website, all of Raphsodic’s products “are rigorously researched to be guaranteed vegan and cruelty and animal testing free.”

When we stepped inside, we were greeted by friendly faces and the most amazing smell of cinnamon and freshly baked cookies. We stopped in just to check the place out and didn’t intend to buy anything, but that completely changed when we saw the “cookie sammies,” which were to cookies sandwiched together with creamy icing.

Ryan selected a kitchen sink cookie sammie for us to share.

Raphsodic Vegan Kitchen Sink Cookie

This cookie sandwich was demolished before we pulled into our driveway! 🙂

1 date night + 2 people + 3 desserts = 2 veeeery full bellies

We’re finishing up date night with a movie and cuddle time with Miss Sadie.

See ya in the morning!

A Little Crazy in Our Lives

Sometimes we all need a little crazy in our lives.

Crazy Richards Peanut Butter

Crazy Richards has been my go-to peanut butter the past few days.

I received several jars of Crazy Richards and Krema peanut butter from the company to sample (stay tuned for a giveaway soon!), and was pleased to see that the only ingredient in the peanut butter was peanuts! Ya can’t get more natural than that! 😀

At first I thought the peanut butter was really runny until I realized that refrigerating the jar made it regain the thickness I normally associate with yummy peanut butter. Once I did that, it was smooth (delicious) sailing.

Snack

My mid-morning snack was a peanut butter finger, followed by a piece of honey wheat bread topped with more Crazy Richards natural creamy peanut butter.

PB Fo' Me

With a full belly, I headed out to the pool to soak up some sun while flipping through magazines, painting my toenails and catching up with my friend Leah on the phone.

Lunch

I came home hungry for lunch.

Lunch started with a mini Mexican roll-up.

Pre-Rolled

Rollin' on a River

Along with the roll-up, I shared a big plate (seriously BIG) of rutabaga fries with Ryan.

Rutabaga Fries

Close Up

Dip-a-Dip

It’s kinda nice to eat such a ginormous portion of fries and not worry at all about the bazillions of calories, grease, trans fat and oil you’re ingesting. Rutabaga fries = awesome.

Now it’s shower time… I hope to make it to the bridal boutique before it closes at 5 p.m. to finalize my bridesmaid dresses today, but I think I may be cuttin’ it a little close on time. Hurry, hurry!!

Lesson Learned

One should not indulge in happy hour after drinking only 20 ounces of water throughout the day, the night before going for a long run in the morning.

Lesson learned.

After work yesterday I headed out to happy hour with some of my coworkers.

(For those of you who follow me on Twitter, and are wondering if I took my greaseball hair out in public, oh yes I definitely did…

Greaseball

My hair was so greasy yesterday, I swear I was a brunette.)

Annnnyway, at happy hour, I only had two drinks and was home by 9:30 p.m., but I think the alcohol coupled with the lack of water in my system left me quite dehydrated.

The Run

This morning, I leashed up Sadie to conquer a 6 mile run, the first “long run” of my half marathon training plan.

For the first mile and a half, I felt fine. Strong and solid.

Around the two mile mark, a light cramp set in. By 2.2 miles, the cramp was debilitating and I had to walk. I walked for three minutes or so before attempting to run again. Major cramp again. 😦

This pattern went on for another 10 minutes or so, before I finally threw in the towel on this run and walked home.

Here are our stats for the 6-mile run that never was:

Not Quite 6...

Crampy Camper

Boo.

I was really disappointed because I know that with the proper fuel and adequate hydration, the cramping would not have been an issue.

You live and you learn.

I am glad this happened to me right at the start of my training, because I now know how important it is to make the effort to drink a lot of water the day before a run. Noted. 😀

Breakfast

As I finished up my pseudo-run, Ryan was arriving home from the gym. We took Sadie on a quick one-mile walk before heading home for breakfast.

I made both of us egg sandwiches on honey wheat bread with spinach and roasted red pepper hummus.

Open-Faced Sandwich

Hummus

Eggs

Ryan and I both really liked the combination of flavors from the eggs and hummus. The pop of green color from the spinach made it look extra purdy, too!

Saturday Morning Breakfast

My Plate

Yum.

Giveaway Winners

Thank you so much to all of you who entered the Monterey Pasta Company giveaway yesterday!

The winners are:

• Sarah Jayne “I don’t discriminate when it comes to pasta- I chow it ALL! Except puttanesca. HATE olives!”
• Kelocity “I could seriously live off of pasta. I really love any kind of pasta in a sweet tomato sauce. With a little fresh Parmesan on top. I was in heaven when I went to Italy on vacation. It never gets old!”
• Kelly B. “I’m a simple girl and LOVE meaty marinara sauce with angel hair pasta! But, I’d have to say my all-time favorite is lasagna! My mom and grandma make the best! Now I’m hungry…”
• Gabriela “My favorite pasta dish goes way back to my childhood- Pastina with butter!!”
• Gina G. “I’m bad but I have 3 favorites… my momma’s unhealthy alfredo bowtie pasta, spinach ravioli’s in my mom’s delicious soup, and my grandma’s meat sauce pasta with meatballs and a hard boiled egg on top!”

Congratulations!!! Please email me at pbfingers@gmail.com with your mailing address so I may send you your coupon for a free Monterey Pasta Company product of your choice! 😀