Friends make everything better

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, once again I want to thank you all for your wonderfully supportive comments on my last post. I will admit, though, that the morning was rough and that I felt like a bit of a hypocrite reading about how “great my attitude was.” I felt sick and I knew I did this to myself.

No worries, though, because I feel fantastic today!!!! Weeeee I’m going to thank you and a few friends I was able to meet up during the day that just made yesterday a really great day despite a slow start. As planned, during lunch I met up with Shannon for a long walk. It was exactly what I needed. We just walked briskly, sweating and catching up on all things non-food related and then I dove into it and just spilled everything I’ve had on my mind recently – all the conflicting thoughts, all the behaviors I’m ashamed of. She had no “answers” (she often goes through the same struggles) but it was just really good to get it all out of my system. Go to Shannon’s blog and thank her for the little therapy session we had, otherwise I would have written novels and novels here. Haha. Seriously, it’s amazing how a brisk walk with a friend really clears your head. You guys should try it sometime!

BREAKFAST

So I wasn’t hungry in the morning but I knew I needed to eat. The perfect solution – SIAB (smoothie in a bowl).

This guy contained: 1/2 cup skim milk, 1/2 water, 1/2 frozen banana, frozen mango chunks, frozen organic strawberries, frozen spinach, almond butter, 1/4t xantham gum, 1/8t guar gum

It tasted like a refreshing sorbet!!! I added some Kashi GoLean cereal on top, mostly for esthetics but actually ended up enjoying the crunch. Awesome, awesome breakfast!!!

LUNCH

After a long walk, my hunger finally came back. I was super happy about that because this lunch was amazing and I didn’t want to just eat it like a robot.

Leftover spinach, artichoke, chickpea and tomato frittata

I know the pictures don’t make it look like anything special, but please trust me – this is a fantastic dish! Make it and you won’t regret it!!!!!

For lunch dessert, I had an orange.

MID-AFTERNOON SNACKS

Needed a sugar fix…

And then some more food to tie me over until a 7pm dinner – 1/2 FFL english muffin with 1T Barney Butter and 1/2 banana + tea

I forgot how much I love this snack – it’s so comforting. You will likely see it again tomorrow.

DINNER WITH FRIENDS

So we had some fun dinner plans as well. Adam and I met up with Melissa (@mgonyeo – she’s a twitter goddess!!) and husband Josh at American Craft for dinner + drinks. Josh writes a beer blog so we wanted to make sure he could try some fun new beers. I knew the beer menu would be fantastic, but I’m always nervous about eating at a bar. Food just always seems secondary and for me that’s just not good enough.

I started the evening with Ommegang Hennepin as per Adam’s suggestion

I loved this beer!! It’s a saison, which I usually like. Has a very full body and a very smooth taste. Later Adam told me it had 9% alcohol. Well, I couldn’t tell from the taste! Good thing I have high tolerance, though, huh? Jeez

For my meal, I decided to get a burger. American Craft offers a “make your own burger” with a natural beef, turkey or veggie base, then lots of creative toppings. I ordered a veggie burger with cheddar, garlicky greens and mushrooms + mixed greens.

The veggie burger was homemade at the restaurant and as per the waitress, was their take on falafel. This was my very first time having a veggie burger at a restaurant because they usually have onions (this one only had onion powder, which went undetected by me). You guys, this was the best veggie burger I’ve ever had!!!!!!!

It was soft and slightly chewy + super flavorful and all the toppings of my choosing were great as well. The garlicky greens were VERY garlicky and I love me some garlic. Hopefully I wasn’t breathing it onto everyone. The challah bun was also out of this world amazing. I originally planned on only having half of this, but there was no way I could stop myself at just that. It was seriously amazing. The mixed greens instead of fries also insured that I wasn’t in a food coma for the rest of the night. I did steal a few fries from Adam.

So after some food (everyone liked their meals, btw – we’ll definitely be back. I will be craving that burger without a doubt!!), we decided to try our luck at getting a table at the Publick House. The Publick House is very famous around these parts but this also means that there is always a wait… as we found out, even on a Tuesday. It’s ok, we waited patiently, with a few drinks in our hands.

I got a pint of the Original Sin hard cider. Creepsville (haha, Adam – just for you!)

About half an hour later, we finally got a table. Hi, Josh and Melissa!

Josh was a smart man and ordered a cheese plate – gruyere on the left, chimay on the right

I had 2 toasts with both cheeses and a bit of the whole grain mustard (which btw tasted like nothing). I believe the bread had some cheese baked into it – it was excellent. Both cheeses were great too – I surprisingly preferred the creamier chimay (usually I’m a hard cheese kinda girl). It tasted like a harder and slightly stronger brie. Yum!

We all stayed past our bedtime, leaving the restaurant at 10:15. It was just so much fun. Thanks, Melissa and Josh, for driving all the way to Brookline to meet with us. I think a day spent with friends is what the doctor prescribed for me. Oh, and I just have to say this….. 2 more days until Aruba! Yay!!!!

If you’d like to guest post on Healthy and Sane while I’m away, please send your posts to elina@healthyandsane.com by tonight (Wednesday) or the latest tomorrow morning. Thanks so much! K, back to the grind….