The sun finally came out . . .

So, along with everyone else in the NY metropolitan area, I hit the streets and the park to celebrate

Saturday started with a lovely walk with A-bomb, and a yogurt bowl with bran flakes, apple, sunflower seed butter, and a little hempseed. I have to admit, as much as I love the park in the springtime, it was almost overwhelmingly crowded with people, joggers, bikers, and performers!!!

Around 10:45, I headed into the city for a much-anticipated lunch date with Sarah and Danielle!

PB & Co.!

The PB Sampler!!! (creamy, crunchy, chocolate, white chocolate, cinnamon raisin, honey, maple, and spicy flavors!!!)

I’m proud to say I didn’t eat ALL that peanut butter . . . and happy that the three of us walked downtown from Penn Station before lunch!

After we finished eating, we made a bubble tea stop (for me and Sarah) and a Tasti-D-Lite stop (for Danielle).

The bubbles. The fourth time I've had them, and the third time I've liked them

Danielle eats Tasti-D-Lite for the first time

Sarah drinks milky bubble tea. Sarah, how many bubbles would you reckon you've had in your NY years?

Bloggers on Bleecker Street

Next, we hit up the Union Square Greenmarket. Oh, the produce! Oh, the samples!

I took home a nice bag of apples

It was crowded!!

I skipped the flowers but did buy basil and parsley plants for my little fire escape garden

See Sarah and Danielle’s blogs for their recaps. I had such a nice day with them! Danielle, come back to the city soon!

I had a couple hours off before the next adventure, so I went home, put away some laundry, got more potting soil for my new plants , had some of my leftover pb from lunch (i.e. the YUMMY lunch/snack featured in my last post!), got dressed, and hit the subway with Sonny to his Anzac Day show on the Frying Pan in the Hudson River. Any Aussies out there? I’d never heard of Anzac Day until Sonny’s band (which has an Australian lead singer) started playing this yearly festival.

The Frying Pan

View of Jersey from the top deck at sunset (hi Danielle!)

Skyline view

It was a good time. The view was amazing!

Sonny and his drums

Aussies on stage singing "Waltzing Matilda"

I had around 1 Corona and a shot of Jack Daniels (courtesy of one of the many drunk attendees—I think his name was Smiley). “Dinner” was 1.5 Pure bars, which I brought along in my purse (and I’m SO glad I did; the only vegan fare on the boat = french fries, which were probably fried in the same vat as the meat pies!).

We left the boat around midnight and headed to the Black Sheep, a Park Slope bar with a foosball table! I had half a VERY strong Old Fashioned. It was fun (though you wouldn’t know it from this pic . . .)

Somehow that Corona bucket made it home with us . . . I think we're going to plant basil in it.

I think we finally got home around 2.

Needless to say, Sunday started on the later side!! Sonny decided we needed something spicy for brunch. I agreed (especially because he offered to shop for the few missing ingredients).

Taco Salad! 2 taco shells (broken up), plus a few tortilla chips; salad greens; brown rice; a mix of morningstar veggie crumbles and chipotle beans; spicy salsa

Our fire escape, where we enjoyed our TexMex fiesta in the 75-degree weather!!

I also had a Coronita (cute 7-oz. Corona!!) just like this one:

And, for not-falling-asleep-in-my-taco-salad purposes:

Dessert: a homemade iced mocha! (iced coffee + a little hershey's chocolate syrup + a spoonful of Ghirardelli hot cocoa mix + a splash of soymilk)

After lunch, we watched Marley and Me. TEARJERKER!!!

I didn’t feel like regular meals for the rest of the day, so I stuck to fun snacks.

Snack inspiration: Newman's Own dried apricots + alphabet grahams!

Snack 1 (dried apricots, alphabet grahams, sunflower seed butter)

Snack 2 (more cinnamon grahams, a large sliced carrot, and another spoonful of SB)

After these snacks, I took Arthur for  a lovely hour-long walk in Prospect Park. Then I came home and had another snack:

Snack 3 (bran cereal + soymilk, in my musical mug)

Then I took him for another hour-long walk. I LOVE SUNDAYS. And I found this table on the walk home! My strength training for the weekend was carrying that sucker home by myself.

The final snack of the day was the last of my Apple/Strawberry sauce (LOVE IT) and the last of my bran flakes with my last tiny banana, 1 tbsp. hempseed, and soymilk. I seem to crave veggies some days, fruits on others (like yesterday!), and grains on others. Some days, I don’t eat a single grain all day, and some days (like today) I feel like I eat mostly grains. It’s nice to see the pattern and try to honor it!

I’m going to miss the fun people, food, and sunshine when I’m back in the office tomorrow!

What was the yummiest thing you ate this weekend?