Writing a quick post from the Ramada at the Mall of America...in beautiful, sunny Minneapolis, MN. Which, you might notice, is not our destination. That would be beautiful, sunny Fort Collins, CO. Yep, our connecting flight was cancelled this afternoon. And all other flights to Denver were overbooked, overly stood-by, not gonna happen. So! We get a night at the Ramada and leave in the very early hours of the AM for Denver.
Not such a bad deal - we decided to take the train into the city and walk around downtown and have dinner down there. In order to do so, we had to walk through the Mall of America to get to the train. I could write an entire blog post about the Mall of America. Let's just say it would be an excellent place to do Patrick's homework re: people's body types and what food they're buying - instead of groceries, it's EVERY kind of fast food plus supposedly "healthier" mall choices like Au Bon Pain, etc. But, I digress. What I do want to blog about is what kind of food I found to eat today after my last home-prepared PCP meal was consumed (which was lunch).
So I was starving, middle of the afternoon, wishing I had my plain yogurt for afternoon "tea". Instead, I walked into the Mall of America and saw Freshens - frozen yogurt. On a big sign, they were advertising "tart" yogurt which was fat free, made from acidophilus cultures, "all natural", topped with fruit. I asked for the smallest kid-size available - just the yogurt, no fruit. The guy showed me their small cup - ha! It could have held at least 2 cups (sorry for you metric kids - still can't eyeball in grams). I asked him to put just a little bit in there (only supposed to have 80 grams). Had a bite, realized it was seriously delicious - flavor of plain yogurt, only frozen, creamy and refreshing - but also probably loaded with sugar, as it was just too good. I had a little off the top...mmm, maybe more than a little (ok, probably more than 80 grams) and threw the rest away.
For dinner, I scored! Two words: nicoise salad. Fresh greens, green beans, potatoes, tomatoes, capers, a hard boiled egg, with a nice piece of grilled salmon. Dressing on the side. Oh, the other bonus is that I had my little mini kitchen scale in my backpack, so I very surreptitiously weighed my dinner! It was a busy restaurant, and we were sitting outside, so I think I got away with it. I left the capers alone - too salty. Third score of the night was that I remembered to bring the hard boiled egg back to the hotel so I can have that for part of my breakfast tomorrow. I never dreamed I'd find such a PCP friendly dinner/breakfast option. Nicoise salad FTW!
Right now, the kids are having a blast in their adjoining hotel room (courtesy of Delta Airlines), dancing to the music on their borrowed ipods, and making "muscles" in the mirror. Wonder where they learned to do that??? I'm about to improvise the rest of my workout that I didn't have time to do before we left this morning - did the jumps and lunges. Only - my resistance band is in the suitcase which is at the airport, patiently waiting for our connecting flight in the AM. So, push-ups, leg-ups, dips, here I come.
More from the road in a few days.
This is what the PCP is all about. Getting creative and rolling with the punches of life.
ReplyDeleteHaha! Snuck your scale into the restaurant! Awesome.
ReplyDeleteI totally brought my owned steamed veggies to a authentic Mexican restaurant/grocery to eat with my order of steak tacos for lunch yesterday.