A Little (too much) Indulgence

So last night, I witnessed something both horrifying and amazing. While at Chipotle, my brother finished off not one, but two whole burritos. With guacamole. And hot sauce.

What’s even more impressive is that those represented his 3rd and 4th burritos in 3 days. Just for one day, I would love to have the metabolism of an 18 year old boy.

My meal wasn’t nearly as exciting, but it was delicious. I love the salads at Chipotle (no matter how much fun my brothers make of me for getting a salad at a burrito place!) and I happily got a salad with chicken, tomato salsa and black beans.

Today was a rest day (hooray!) so I slept in until around 8:30. I woke up starving, also, so I turned to one of my filling favorites for breakfast – a bagel (French Meadow!) with peanut butter (Crazy Richard’s!) and banana (Chiquita? probably not ;)

For lunch, I met one of my friends at what has become probably my favorite restaurant on the Main Line (suburbs of Philly), TJ’s Everyday Restaurant and Drinkery. I just discovered it this summer, but I wish I had found it sooner! It received the honor of having the Best Burger on the Main Line from Main Line Today Magazine. I’ve actually never had the burger there – I get the same thing every time I go, because it’s so delicious!

Those are sweet potato fries, and have been on special every time I go there. They’re served with a Cajun Ranch dip, which is (I think) sour cream based, and is so. good. I might have finished off most of the basket by myself…

For lunch I ordered the Bacon Apple Panini, which is served with a salad with a Hoegaarden vinaigrette. I think this might be one of my favorite sandwiches ever – the bread is phenomenal, and the bacon/apple/cheddar combo is one of my favorites. One thing I really like about TJ’s is the fact that all of the bread they serve is from local bakeries. It’s little things like that that I really appreciate in restaurants – supporting other local businesses not only is great for the local economy, but it usually tastes better too!

Beyond their burgers, they feature ~24 beers on tap, and over 200 bottles! I love any restaurant with a good beer list (I became somewhat of a beer snob while living in Germany), and it’s even better when the restaurant can deliver delicious food to go with it! TJ’s gives a beer recommendation for every food item on their menu, even their desserts! Unfortunately, the beer I got today, the Flying Dog Old Scratch Amber Lager wasn’t very good – I didn’t even finish it!

But beyond that, lunch was wonderful, as usual. If you’re ever in the Philadelphia area, I can’t recommend TJ’s Everyday enough.

On a more personal note though, I’ve noticed a slightly distressing pattern in my eating lately. I don’t know; I hate the word “excuse”, but I feel I should at least provide some sort of reasoning for the way I’ve been eating lately.

• Pure laziness – I know I’m not going to be here that much longer, so I haven’t been cooking as much food for myself, as I like to make food to freeze or to keep for later.
• Leaving Philly – I’m leaving Philly “for good”, at least for the time being, and I’m trying to visit as many different places / eat my favorite local favorites before I go.
• Living at home is hard! – Especially with four younger brothers who have vastly different eating habits than I do. When there’s cake and snacks around, or when people are always eating around you, it’s difficult to resist (at least for me!)…
• A “Foodie’s” Blog – I love food. Obviously, or I wouldn’t have created a blog centered on it! I don’t tend to waste money on a lot of things besides food (or cooking related items). When I go out with friends (as I’ve been doing a lot as my leaving date draws near), I tend to want to do things that are food centered.
• PMS – Enough said :)

I really hope to be “back on track” (ie, eating at home a lot more, eating a lot less sweets and such) once I move and am settled in. Until then, I guess forgive snacks such as this?

My friend had never had an Ikea Cinnamon Bun before, so I was more than happy to split one with her :) Along with some Lingonberry drink (also from Ikea), and a Peanut Butter Mousse cookie from Cookies by Diane. Cookies by Diane is a local cookie shop which was recently featured in Philadelphia Magazine’s Best of Philadelphia issue for having the best cookies in Philadelphia (I may or may not have made it a personal goal to visit as many “best of” places in Philly I could this summer. I did pretty well…). So obviously, I needed to check it out :) I’m happy to report that the cookie was fantastic – it’s peanut butter cream sandwiched between two soft peanut butter cookies, which is then dipped in chocolate and peanut pieces. Oh my gosh, so good. Of course, I love all things peanut butter, so for me, it was hard to go wrong.

For dinner I debated making waffles or something of the like, but I decided to just have my leftover kale salad and my leftover sandwich from lunch.

Dessert was pretty simple and delicious too, if a little more extravagant than I probably should have had, knowing all that I indulged in earlier in the day.

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But see what I mean? When a cheesecake is just sitting out on the counter, waiting to be eaten, what is a girl supposed to do??

Oh well. Soon enough, I’ll have only myself to blame for my eating choices… ;)

But for now, it’s the Phillies and a little stretching, perhaps. Night!

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