Nostalgic 4th of July

Hi guys!

I wasn't sure if my hotel in Bloomington, IN would have wi-fi, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that they do, and it is FREE!!

Here's a pic of the mint fudge brownies that I made for the party last night - I know I'm not being very humble now, but these brownies are just to die for. I would post the recipe but they are a Fannie May recipe and I'm not sure how it works with posting recipes that are copyrighted.... is it ok as long as I give due credit?? When I got home from my 9 miler this morning, I was craving something savory so I was happy to find some of my leftover guac from last night that Yaya had been nice enough to save in the fridge for me. I ate this with some leftover veggies - mostly broccoli and cucumbers. It hit the spot! It's just a good feeling to know that after running 9 miles I burned app. 900 calories which makes it easier to justify eating whatever I want! :)

I snacked on some blueberries which got devoured too quiclky to star in a picture, and then had these dates:

In the care on the way to B-town, Mike and I snacked on leftover veggies - we have TONS left over from the party - dipped in spinach hummus from Whole Foods (not pictured) and Naturally More almond butter. Mike was loving his first time eating almond butter!

After a long, very rainy drive to our old campus stomping grounds, we ended up at Yogi's for dinner. It wasn't by any means one of our favorite places to eat in Btown but it is kind of a college classic, and Mike really had a taste for a burger. I had some veggie chili which, despite the waiter telling me otherwise, was SO spicy that I doused it with mustard and salt and could still hardly eat it!!

I also enjoyed a nice, light veggie hummus pita sandwich. The wine alongside was my favorite wine from Bloomington Oliver Winery wine - "soft red". Mike and I used to drink the Oliver rose wine a long time, but the soft red was surprisingly just up my alley, meaning sweet and light. (As I'm typing this, as we were talking about how strawberry wine was made, Mike just teased me about how it "probably tastes so good because it is mostly processed juice made from high fructose corn syrup". What a terrible thing to say to me ;) ) I had two glasses of the soft red wine at Yogi's.

After Yogi's we had plans to go to Bear's for $5 comedy night, but they were closed for the holiday. Awww.... we were so excited for this! So instead we headed to Big Red Liquors - and felt young again as the clerk quizzed us about our driver's license info, haha - came back to the hotel, and now I am drinking my oh-so-delicious Olivery Winery strawberry wine while we are watching the IU TV channel for old times sake! We stocked up since it is nearly impossible to find Oliver Winery wine in Chicago.

Here is Mike tring to be suave drinking his rum and coke ;) Mike and I met over 5 years ago at IU and we are having a blast reliving our college memories - what are your favorite college memories??

Hope you all had a great holiday! :)

Happy 4th!

I hope you are all having a great holiday thusfar! :) I meant to post yesterday, I really did, but the day just got away from me with the craziness of planning our Big Fat Greek 3rd of July Party.

My food intake wasn't too exciting either so it's not worth uploading any pix - basically the same as the day before (meaning a Green Monster and lots of those vegan raw cookies, haha!) The only variation was that I made a really good impromptu blender soup - I threw in about 1/8 or 1/4 c. of raw cashew butter, some black beans, lemon juice, salt and pepper, and blended it with good results! As I suspected (and hoped), the cashew butter plus the lemon truly made it taste very creamy, which was soooo good. Canned beans are not considered "raw", but I'm still transitioning into this. Basically I'm trying to eat more clean food in as close to their natural state as possible, but I still have a ton of frozen and canned veggies in the house so I'm trying to use them up.

My workout wasn't anything exciting either, I did some strength training at the gym and then 30 minutes on the reclining bike in our condo gym downstairs. I was a bit short on time after going to Best Buy for what I thought was a trip to buy an iPhone.... I ended up realizing that I HATE the keypad on the iPhone!!! I have normal sized fingers, but for whatever reason I was unable to type without screwing up the letters.

So, I came to the conclusion that I would be better off getting a Blackberry, which doesn't have some of the fancy, cool apps that the iPhone has, but it DOES have a flash on the camera which I need since my camera's flash is busted, and the newest version, the Curve, even has TV capabilities! So I'm gonna wait and get it in a week when it comes out on the 12th. Is this a good choice, do you think?

Last night the big fam bash was a success! It was largely Mike's fam, both the Italian and Greek sides, plus me, my parents, and my aunt and uncle who came up from Indy. I made an abundance of guacamole - 9 avocados worth - and some ridiculously good mint fudge brownies, and guests supplied the rest. I really didn't eat a lot besides lots of guac and veggies, some olives, a small glass of wine, some dates, and some Lindt dark choc squares for dessert! I did take some pix of the party food and I will be putting those up later. I was having fun without drinking - although I was quite an anomaly for this, being surrounded by Greeks! - which made me dread my 9 miler on Saturday quite a bit less than if I had overindulged! The party was a ton of fun - thanks for everyone who came! :)

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Saturday AM my alarm went off at 5:15am, and I swear it was going off for many minutes before I realized what was going on. After doing a bit of cleaning up last night, I got to bed around 1AM and I was soooo exhausted. I dragged my feet while heading to our meet-up place for the CARA run.

However, once we got started I started to feel better! I met some nice people today and we chatted through most of the 9 miles which makes such a difference! The weather was also PERFECT today - in the 60s the entire time - with a slight breeze, which I loved!

It was a great run, and it feels so good to have completed it so successfully. I haven't run 9 miles since 2007, so I'm proud of myself. I did feel a bit of heel pain walking to the bus afterward though, so now I'm icing my heels like crazy to keep the evil plantar fasciitis away!

It's gonna be a busy couple of days over here, like I'm sure it is for all of you! Today Mike and I are headed to his parents' house for a holiday BBQ, we will come back to the city tonight, and then early tomorrow we will start our excursion to Kentucky and then to Indiana University.

Mike and I met at IU, and we havent't been back there since I graduated a few years ago. I'm soo excited to go back!! So many fun memories!!! IU is such a great college town.... It's a beautiful, sprawling campus, and there are tons of great restaurants and pubs in the area... even quite a few awesome "hippie" vegetarian joints, but I'm not betting on Mike wanted to hit those places up... I have a feeling we will end up at the old frat hangouts instead ;)

Does anyone have any advice for fun stuff to do in Bloomington besides the usual - Kilroy's, etc.? What are your plans for the holiday weekend? If I don't post back soon then I hope you all have a fabulous 4th!! :-)