2010 March 21

It’s close to 9:00 pm and another day has gotten away from me. I’m sad to say today wasn’t as ‘fun’ as yesterday, but at least I was able to get a lot accomplished.

I passed out almost immediately after walking in the door last night and slept like a rock. A good night of sleep was needed to power me through my 14 mile run this morning.

Before I headed out the door I had a bagel thin with almond butter and strawberry preserves.

I was not looking forward to the 14 miles on the schedule for this morning. After training for so many races in a row, I am starting to feel a little burnt out on long runs. After my 50k in a couple of weeks I am ready to take a little break from long runs for a couple of months.

Mentally I may not have been ready for the 14 miles, but physically my body was on autopilot. I had almost talked myself into turning around at 6.5 instead of 7, but my legs never got the message and kept chugging along.

I felt strong and relieved when I made it back to my car. Nothing is ever more beautiful as the site of the trailhead parking lot at the end of a long run.

Thoughts of waffles, pancakes, muffins, etc. filled my head throughout the duration of my run. My body was cravings Carbs, Carbs, Carbs!!

In the end I decided french toast was the way to go and this loaf of challah bread was calling my name in the bakery section of Publix.

Mmmmmm… challah french toast. Now, that’s what I’m talking about!

I dipped the slices of challah bread in a mix of egg, milk, cinnamon, vanilla extract, and agave nectar then pan fried in a skillet on the stove top.

I topped my 2.5 slices of challah french toast with caramelized some pear slices, strawberries, plain yogurt, and some agave nectar.

This was a perfect long run recovery breakfast. It filled me up and made my tastebuds very, very happy.

The rest of my morning was spent cleaning, blogging and being lazy – the way all Sunday mornings should be spent. Sadly, the weather wasn’t as beautiful as yesterday, so I wasn’t tempted to got outside at all.

Eventually lunch time came around and I was ready to eat again.

I took advantage of the growing amount of leftovers in my fridge and made a wonderful wrap using the bbq tofu and acorn squash from Thursday night.

With a serving of cabbage and potato stew from Wednesday.

An Adora Dark Chocolate Calcium Disc for dessert.

I’m usually one of those people who files my taxes the day I get my W-2, but with all of the blog stuff this past year I have been a little scared to file them. Once upon a time my grandmother was an accountant and knows a thing or two about taxes. I finally found the time this afternoon to drive to my grandmother’s house to have her help me sort through the mess I had created for myself.

I was pretty much expecting to have to pay the government some serious $$ this year, but my grandmother worked her magic. Turns out the government actually owes me a little refund this year.

Thank you Grandma!

I showed up at my Grandma’s house this afternoon more than prepared for a long session of form filling and calculating with a snack bag of good eats.

I made a yogurt mess with chobani, strawberries, and a piece of pumpkin chocolate chip bread.

What kind of daughter would I be if I drove all the way to my parents’ neck of the woods and not invite myself over to dinner?

I love going home and cooking with my Dad! He was the one that taught me everything that I know and still continues to teach me today. When I was growing up I used to spend hours in the kitchen every week helping him prepare all of our meals. I believe he loves food as much as I do and has always been my inspiration behind trying new and interesting foods.

He’s also the one that taught me to love Publix. Most of the people in the Publix back home know my Dad by name. I think he is there at least three to four times a week! We went there tonight looking for inspiration for tonight’s dinner and discovered Mahi Mahi fillets one sale.

After a quick google search I discovered a recipe Mahi Mahi with Pineapple Salsa that was worth trying.

AS the top taste tester, I was hard at work making sure the pineapple was up to my high standards.

My parents’ have been digging their new mandolin for potatoes.

The final plate

Mahi Mahi

Roasted Asparagus & Green Beans

Mandolin Potatoes with Ketchup

For dessert my Daddy made a round os strawberry shortcakes before I hit the road.

I am pooped.

What an exhausting weekend.

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Yesterday was a LONG day. Trust me, it was a fun day, but definitely a long one.

My little brother and his girlfriend, Ashley, headed to Orlando for the day and joined Derek and I for some fun adventures in the Chevy Traverse.

Aren’t they cute?

Our first adventure involved a trip to the Winter Park Art Festival in downtown Winter Park.

The Winter Park Art Festival is a HUGE event where they shut down Park Ave. and have hundreds of local artists from around Florida come and display all of their beautiful artwork.

We saw paintings, photography, sculptures, jewelry, crafts, and just about every other form of art you can think of.

I LOVED these paintings of food. Too bad they were asking more than a couple months worth of rent for each of them.

We put our name in for a table at one of the restaurants with outdoor seating and decided to hit up our favorite wine bar down the road for pre-lunch drink.

The WIne Bar off of Park Ave allows you to load up a card with a pre-set amount and gives you the option to select which wine you would like to try and use the card to pay by the ounce.

I had an ounce of Shiraz and sipped it slowly while chatting and exploring.

On the way out of the wine bar I grabbed a sample of toffee trail mix and shared with the group.

When we got the call our table was ready we headed to Bosphorous Lounge for lunch.

The weather was just too perfect to eat inside. The 40 minute wait for a table on the sidewalk was 100% worth it!

You can not go to Bosphorus without ordering Lavas (hollow bread)!

The four of us split the lavas and the babaganoush.

I love their babaganoush. You can tell it’s made fresh because the eggplant is still stringy and chewy. Love it!

My little brother was in Germany last summer and had his fair share of Turkish food after nights full of drinking a bars. When he saw Doner Lamb on the menu a big smile spread on his face. He could not stop talking about how great it was when he was in Germany and I think he was impressed with the version he ordered for lunch.

I had a bite and it was very tasty.

I knew I would be filling up on bread, so I ordered the house salad as my main meal.

It was quite possible one of the prettiest house salads I have ever ordered.

The salad was packed in that bowl. I ate all of the yummy toppings, but there was so much lettuce that by the time I was stuffed it looked like I had barely touched it!

Before I was too full, I did manage of few bites from Ashley’s chicken. It was very flavorful and moist. Yum.

After lunch we headed back to Traverse and headed off to Adventure #2 all the way across town.

Menchie’s!

My little brother and his girlfriend had yet to experience the phenomenon known as self serve frozen yogurt. I was happy to introduce them to the concept.

I think they were impressed!

I had a little bit of everything and loaded up with fruit for my toppings.

We still had one more mission up our sleeves!

Mission # 3 = Universal!!

Derek and I ALWAYS forget where we park our cars in theme park parking lots. Ashley thought of this brillant idea to take a photo of the location of our car.

Genius! We were able to find our car with out a problem when we made it back to the garage later that night. I always knew this girl was a keeper!

Islands of Adventure in Universal is just a month away from unveiling the new Harry Potter themed portion of the park. They recently removed all the construction scaffolding from the area and were able to get a sneak peak.

For the duration of March and April, Universal Studios is celebrating Mardi Gras every Saturday night. The park has been transformed to represent New Orleans and there are plenty of fun characters roaming the streets and creating a fun, festive mood.

Derek and I had fun prepping for own trip to New Orleans in just a couple of weeks.

One of the main draws for the Mardi Gras Celebration is the concert series that is included with admission to the park (or in our case is included with the annual pass).

I am a BIG fan of Miranda Lambert was excited to see her on the schedule for tonight!!

We enjoyed the rest of our day in the park by taking in some rides and the sights. We did a make a detour so the boys could get a beer.

I had a few sips of Derek’s Shock Top, but was perfectly satisfied with the water I had been guzzling all day.

For dinner were all decided to taste test the Cajun food Universal has set up in honor of Mardi Gras.

I ate the $8.00 Jamalaya and was disappointed but how small the serving was.

I should have took a photo of my hand next to the serving. I think my hand was larger. It was tasty, just not very filling.

After dinner we headed to the Mardi Gras parade and fought over all the beads.

Apparently I am an awful bead catcher. The only ones I were able to claim were the ones that fell on the floor. I’m going to blame my inability to catch beads on a mix of my lack of height and how forceful and bead crazy everyone around me was.

At 8:30 Miranda Lambert took the stage just as the parade ended.

The set up for the concert was very well organized. We were able to find a decent spot in the back and never had to worry about anyone squishing us into the crowd.

Miranda Lamber is an awesome live performer. She is cute, always had a story to tell, and can really belt it out! It was a great concert to end our day with.