Plates of Power Protein

Have you had a great weekend thus far? I surely hope so!! Mine has been busy yet filled with plenty of friends and fun times – perfect in my book!

Sunday afternoon is now here and the sun is shining. The day is truly embracing it’s name and I like it! But for now, let’s take it back a few days to the start of the weekend, which began with a simple, yet delicious breakfast. An egg and toast with apple butter.

I go through phases with eggs. I eat them regularly for a bit, stop for a while (for no particular reason), then realize I miss them and buy them again. I’m not sure what causes this, because I love their versatility and you can’t go wrong with the high protein content. We’ve got local eggs on hand right now and I’ve been enjoying them quite immensely.

Friday evening we were invited to a social networking event at a new hair salon in the area.

We got a tour of the salon and chatted with a few people, however the best part of the evening was sampling a sweet potato cheesecake pie from DownHome Restaurants.

I took a photo of the regular cheesecake, but tasted the sweet potato cheesecake pie and fell in love. The sweet potato pie / cheesecake hybrid made for such a rich, decadent treat. The pies baked by DownHome are served in some local restaurants and can be ordered directly from the company. I might have to snag one as a special treat for Isaac sometime because he couldn’t stop talking about how good it was.

Of course, there were others munchies to nibble on as well.

After networking, we met up with a friend for a drink at a new bar/restaurant then hopped over to an old favorite aka one of the best vegetarian places in Richmond.

I wasn’t really in the drinking mood but Isaac convinced me to get an Avery’s White Rascal. It’s a Belgian style wheat/white ale with hints of coriander and Curacao orange peel. Overall, a nice light beer with a good flavor. I enjoyed it but had a little help from Isaac to finish it off.

We realized that we actually never ate a “real” dinner and decided to peruse the chalkboard menu. Isaac spotted the Indian Pizza and since we weren’t starving we opted to split it.

The pizza consisted of a curried spinach sauce, cauliflower, eggplant, squash, and paneer cheese atop a piece of nan bread. It ended up being tasty, but definitely not one of my favorite dishes at Ipanema. One thing I will note is that the place is so much more enjoyable now that smoking is off-limits. It was always strange (and gross) to me that a veg friendly / “healthy” dining establishment was always billowing with smoke by 9PM. I didn’t have to go home and wash my hair before going to bed so that was nice.

Upon waking at the crack of dawn on Saturday morning (6AM!!) I started packing my things for our trip up north to the DC area and got ready for a 6 mile run with my bootcamp group by downing a glass of brown juice.

Into the juicer went some carrots, 1/2 head of romaine, 1 apple, 1 orange, and a small knob of ginger. It may not look very good but it tasted nice and sweet from the carrots and fruit. The juice gave me the energy boost I needed and the 6 mile run (in 30 degree weather!?!) went by rather quickly. Although, having a fun running partner to chat with definitely helped!

After a quick shower, I skedaddled out of the house with Isaac and we made it to our alma mater just in time to watch the last basketball game of the season. The game started at 12 and I knew I was going to be hungry for lunch so I snatched up a Power Protein Place when we stopped at Starbucks on the way out of town.

I took a few bites while on the drive but saved the rest to eat during the game.

The plate includes a mini whole wheat bagel, 3 slices of cheddar cheese, grapes, 2 apple slices, a hard boiled egg, a packet of PB, and salt and pepper. The whole platter contains 330 calories with the peanut butter, 260 without (about one-third of your daily protein intake). I’m not sure why they include the nutritional information without the PB as well. Who in their right mind is going to skip out of that? Surely, not me!!

After the traumatic events that lead to us losing the game we did a little campus exploration with Isaac’s sister (a current student) to see the new buildings and amenities that have been created since our graduating. It’s amazing all the changes that have been made in a little less than 3 years. The main dining hall is about 10,000 times better than the crappy hall we had, there’s at least 3 new on-campus housing areas, and 4 fitness facilities on campus now!! Doesn’t it stink to have to live through all the construction (detours, dust, and dirt) but graduate before the benefits can be reaped? Unfortunately, this has now happened to me both with my high school and college. :/

Once admiring how much better everything was on campus got old we left and Isaac dropped me at a friend’s place for ladies night! A bunch of girls (new and old friends) came over for a cocktail hour and then we cabbed it into Arlington for a night out. As usual we all had a blast!!

Just to put it all into perspective- my night started with a pineapple, orange martini and ended with a snuggie and an aerobed.

I didn’t want to take the new camera out on the town so I don’t have any fun photos to share, but know that we danced the night away and this girl went to bed way past her usual bedtime.

I hope you’re weekend was just as exciting and protein filled.

-Brittany

Tagged as: bootcamp, eggs, Ladie's night, Power Protein Plate