Blogger lunch!

My day started beautifully with a small breakfast of a bowl of Optimum Slim cereal with skim milk and strawberries. Plus a spoon of PB, which makes everything better.




I also had a tiny bit of banana, mostly because I thought I was still hungry but then I realized I wasn't.



My morning was low key, mostly reading other blogs. :)

I got the privilege of meeting up with Emily from The Health Nut in Pittsburgh for lunch. We went to Sesame Inn in Station Square. Emily is such a fun young woman to talk to and hang out with! We had a great time at lunch discussing the blogging world and our blogs, music (she's a clarinetist, I'm a violinist! It's so fun to meet another food blogger who's also a musician!) and other various details about our lives! We both ordered Thai dishes despite being in a Chinese restaurant; she got Pad Thai and I got something called Gang Deng with tofu (I'm still doing Jenna's Meatless in March challenge, but do not intend on becoming vegetarian permanently!)

We started off with bowls of soup. I got egg drop and she had wonton. Here's mine:



There were huge chunks of egg and tofu in it and it was deliciously spiced! It was also a slightly viscous broth and I'm wondering if they added a lot of corn starch to it. *shrugs*

We were also served some wonton chips that we both kept picking at because we were hungry and they took forever to bring us our food!



From their menu; both our meal descriptions are on here:




I got brown rice on the side. I like brown rice so much better than white, and yes it's healthier too. But it's just so much tastier! I'm glad that most Chinese places now have that option.

Up close:



We had tea with our meal, which neither of us noticed for quite a while through lunch, but I'm glad we did because it was good.



And of course a fortune cookie for dessert, but I didn't eat mine until about 4pm.



Yay! Our blogger lunch was definitely the highlight of my day!

Afterwards, Emily had to catch the band tour bus (I TOTALLY understand!! I've been on many orchestra buses myself!) so I went to a shopping center to stop at DSW for new running shoes and Target for a sports bra (which turned into a lot more than just that one item!)

DSW purchase:



Rykas! I'm a little nervous about a change from my trusted Adidas shoes (love them!) but my roommate highly recommends them, so I'm hoping I like them as well.

At Target I suceeded in buying a sports bra but I also bought:

-Kellog's Fiber and Antioxidant bars:
(I had the dark chocolate almond flavor in Memphis at a conference and I LOVE them! Seriously, they are like a chewy brownie! There is absoutely NO "health food" taste to them and they are absolutely decadent! I can't speak highly enough of them and encourage you to try them! I looked for them at my grocery store, but could only find them today at Target so I immediately bought both the Almond flavor (which I KNEW I liked!) and the Chocolate Chip flavor, which I have now tried and it's good but not like the Dark Chocolate Almond one, which is better than just about anything I've ever eaten! I'd eat them even if they didn't have fiber/vitamins. But that's a bonus! And as another bonus, they don't upset my stomach/digestive tract like Fiber One bars do. (Sugar alcohols, I'm guessing?) OK, wow, that was long!

This is the chocolate chip flavor. I had half of it before dinner and the other 1/2 as dessert.



I also got:

-2 skinny waters (horrible name, but they were on sale for $1 each and I wanted to try them). The Acai Grape Blueberry one I drank in the car was pretty good actually. A little sweet, but no weird aftertaste. I'd drink it again.

-2 different colored eye liner pencils (gray and brown)
-3 Zone bars, also for about $1 each (I like these! and a good emergency snack!)
-impulsively bought some Special K 90 calorie cracker pouches.

I ate one on my way to the gym. It was only OK. I prefer wheat thins any day!

But I'd definitely eat these again. I'd like them to be completely whole grain and to have more fiber though.

Altogether:



Notice the I dark chocolate covered raisins (umm, can you tell I was craving chocolate?!). I had a small handful to taste. After all, we all know what *great* fuel they are for working out on! (Note the sarcasm!)



At the gym I just ran for 10 minutes (6.0 mph @ 2% incline) and then did arm weights for 20 minutes. I had to go home to teach a lesson at 6pm and then they never showed up which was really frustrating because I wanted to be at the gym for longer!! Argh!

But that's OK because I made dinner of:



It was about 3/4 of a can of this:



With a slice of toast with melted LF cheese and hummus, and tomatoes and more hummus on the side.

More tomatoes:



Then I got one more slice of Rudi's bread with hummus! So good!


I drank some tea because I was cold.


I cooked some brussel sprouts right after dinner and ate 3 to check for the done-ness of them. I will enjoy them tomorrow.



And I had some more chocolate covered raisins after dinner before going out to celebrate one of my best friend's birthday. We went to a new brewery in town that just opened. It's pretty fancy and there was a huge line just to get in! I'm surprised they let me in when I told them I was meeting a party there! Sweet!

I had an entire litre of beer! Whoops. I was surprisingly not tipsy until the very end of it. Way too many calories, but shhhh! ;-)



By the way, I Are the Food Snob (CUTE name!) is doing a flavored PB giveaway! I am SOOO there!

I've got to got to sleep! I will go to church in the morning and then I'm playing with a string trio for the Susan G. Komen breast cancer survivors' afternoon tea downtown. I'm really excited about the event and hopefully I have some pictures to put up!

Good night!