June Birthdays, Part I

I ended up not having time to go to the store yesterday to re-up my brotein bar supply, so this morning I was left with yet again little choice. I opted for a tasty one. 

I had about a serving and a half of peanut butter. Every time I eat plain peanut butter I ask myself why I don't do so more often. It's just so good!!! Here's a closer up picture, just because.

Mmmmmm, looks yummy! But you know what would make it even more yummy?? A chocolate covered peanut!

Or a cashew!

I then went to class, and then later I went to the gym. I had a scoop of brotein before I lifted, and then I had 2 more scoops plus some BCAAs afterward.

And since today was Sidney's dad's birthday, I went home and helped Sidney prepare a nice dinner for him. My main job was to assume my place on the throne of Grill Master. I kind of cheated by using a cast iron skillet, but meh. I still win. Today, it was bacon wrapped filets.

There were also some garlic and onion mashed potatoes, buttery peas, and a nice salad.

Oh, and Sidney picked up some amazing sourdough bread from WheatFields.

All put together, it was a thing of beauty.

The salad again consisted of lettuce, cucumbers, and carrots. This time I added some creamy Italian dressing, some croutons (because more carbs), and some shredded cheddar.

The main plate was also quite a looker. With two slices of amply-buttered sourdough, a modest portion of mashed potatoes, and a generous serving of peas, my medium-rare filet felt right at home.

But the feast was not over. Oh no, not by a long shot. Being a special occasion (not that we need one), Sidney prepared our signature dessert.

Crème brûlée is just one of those desserts that really is perfect.

1. It's hard to mess up, and even if you do, it still tastes great. 
2. It tastes great. 
3. There is more than one egg per serving (read: brotein!).
4. And you get to do this:

They all look so pretty!

I swear, the caramelized top layer is just so amazing, and the creamy custard below is also just so amazing. Seriously, this is one of my favorite desserts, and it's one that Sidney and I make!

After all the torching and ramekin licking was over, there was just one more thing that was left. This was more for Sidney than for anything else, but we all enjoy a nice, fresh watermelon.

My sweet Sidney loves watermelon so much. It's her favorite fruit, and she will stop at nothing to enjoy every last bit of it.

Even the water from the watermelon will not be wasted!

She's so cute!

Picking Up Rocks

Today was one of those days where I just didn't find the time to eat. I know that I probably lost all of my muscle today, but I also think that I ate enough food on Sunday to hold me over for a few days.

I had my last brotein bar for breakfast.

I then headed in to the bookstore to get my books for my summer classes. I then went to the computer lab and did some homework for my Western Civilization class. Then I started attempting to backup my photos from an old phone. It turns out that there were a whole heck of a lot of photos, so it took awhile. All this time, I hadn't really planned anything else. So I had no food.

On my way home, I was again enlisted to do some manual labor. With the "sticks" adventure still fresh in my mind, I didn't make the same mistake of not eating anything that I did last time. So, before I left, I had some quick energy.

Then I was off, with Sidney joining me, to pick up rocks. Now, based on my last experience with picking stuff up in a field, "rocks" could mean almost anything. Heck, for all I knew, I could find Mercedes-Benz G63 AMG 6x6-sized boulders waiting for me.

Surprisingly, though, when we got to the field, this is the type of rock that I first encountered.

It's even in a heart shape to commemorate this wonderful experience. Most of the rocks were this size, although there were some larger and some smaller. We combed the field, picking up these rocks and throwing them into the bucket of a tractor.

I know what you may be thinking, but there are actually quite a bit more rocks in there than it looks like. The bucket on this tractor is actually pretty big; I don't care what anybody says.

And all the while I had another country song stuck in my head. This time, though, it was Jason Aldean's "Amarillo Sky." I just kept repeating the phrase, "...he just takes the tractor another round," most likely inspired by the fact that Sidney's dad was planting in the same field in which we were picking up rocks in.

Eventually, after we had picked up two bucketfuls of rocks, we had pretty much cleared the field of the biggest and the baddest of the rocks. Then it was time to head home and change.

Sidney and I were then about to leave to go to Worlds of Fun. I wanted some kind of brotein snack, but since I had eaten my last brotein bar earlier, I had to improvise.

I had a big ol' spoonful of peanut butter, and then we were off.

Seeing as how the Mamba was closed last time we were here, that's the first place we went when we got there.

Then Sidney decided to spare all of humanity by ordering a pretzel with cheese.

Oh, and a cherry Coke.

She so graciously allowed me to take a small bite.

With all systems now go, we headed of to various other merriment-inducing rides. One of them was the Zulu.

After a few more rides, Sidney spotted someone with a strawberry shortcake-inspired funnel cake. She then wanted one, so she got one!

It was made fresh, it was thick, and I'll admit that I ate about half. But with the amount of food I'd eaten today, I've still got to be under my calorie limit. But I'm sure I'm also way under my brotein goal too. Oh well, hopefully I didn't get too tiny.

But even if I did, it was worth it. After going for a night ride on the Mamba, and with only 10 minutes remaining until the park closed, we headed for the exit. We decided to pass by Sea Dragon to see if it was still running. It was, and we ended up getting our own private ride. We were the only two on the entire ride, and it was nice and peaceful.

After this final ride, the park closed, and we left. We got to ride a lot of rides this time, and we left feeling satisfied. It was a good visit to Worlds of Fun, and today was a good day overall.

A Little Less Food

After a cheat day of yesterday's caliber, I felt the need to go extra light today. I had my breakfast brotein bar.

But that was it for most of the day. I just didn't really feel like eating. It wasn't until probably almost 1600 that I ate another brotein bar.

For dinner, Sidney wanted pesto pasta with chicken. She told me that she threw the chicken in there specifically for me. Isn't she so sweet?! And as such, she bought about 2.6 pounds of boneless skinless chicken breast. I promptly chopped it up and threw it in my trusty grill pan.

She threw a couple garlic loaves under the broiler.

Once the pasta was cooked, pesto and herbs added, in went the chicken.

Sidney and her mom made a fresh salad with cucumber, carrots, and fresh cilantro as the highlights.

I tried to limit my portion sizes in order to stay way under my calories for the day.

I added some Parmesan cheese to my salad, along with some light Caesar dressing.

And with that, I had eaten all that I would for the day. I then started on some dishes, and I reminisced about my brown recluse helper that I encountered close to 10 months ago. Not more than 10 seconds later, this little guy lept from under the clean dishes drying innocently in the drying rack.

This time, my little helper became ensnared in some water on the counter. But I really did appreciate the help. It made the whole dish washing experience all the more exhilarating!

Family, Friends, Food, and Ferrari

Today was a cheat day. I'll just say it. But I knew it would be, and I planned for it. This morning, I had a brotein bar, not out of necessity, but more so out of convenience.

I woke up, ate a brotein bar, and got to pickin'! I along with Sidney and her mom, sister, and aunt picked a bunch of Montmorency cherries. These were to be used in cherry pies, of course!

After a while of picking, Scott drove out to Sidney's house and he, Sidney, and I drove to and met my mom at Zona Rosa for Festa Italiana, the annual Italian-themed festival of food, entertainment, and Italian motorsport.

In all honesty, most of the Italian cars were indeed Ferraris, with most belonging to members of the Ferrari Club. There were, however, quite a few Fiat 500 Abarths, as well as some Alfa Romeo Spiders. There were also, to my surprise and delight, two De Tomaso Panteras.

After gawking at the cars for a while, we headed over to where most of the food was.

Sidney and my mom spotted a few people with delicious-looking meatball sandwiches, which is what they, too eventually found and ordered. I, however, decided to try an Italian steak sandwich with gorgonzola chips from Johnny Vivace's.

It was as good as it looks. And even though I'm not much one for blue cheese, these were very good!

Next, I stayed true on my vow to get a funnel cake at every event that offers one.

This one was made fresh, and with plenty of powdered sugar. There were also particularly thick parts in this funnel cake, and those were ahhhhh-mazing!!

With this, I concluded my culinary experience at Festa Italiana. I had more Italian food in store for later!

We then walked back by the cars, then went to Michaels. Sidney, Scott, and myself then tried to figure out what to do, since we didn't want to eat dinner so early. We were still pretty satiated from the food we had just eaten, too. So I started driving. I then mentioned to Scott that there was an amazing burger place (LC's) just down the road. I was simply telling him this for future reference, but he then suggested that we get burgers. Sidney perked up when she thought of getting a malt. So we drove to LC's, but only to find that they're closed on Sundays. So what were we to do? We drove to the next best option: Town Topic! Sidney loves the malts at Town Topic, and I think the burgers are some of the best. When we got there, Sidney ordered her malt, and Scott and I each ordered a doubled cheeseburger and a shake. The shakes came out first, and mine was chocolate.

The shakes are nearly as thick as the malts, and just as good, too. Next, my double cheeseburger, with bacon and onions, was done.

It was just as good as I remember. Every time I eat these burgers, I end up wanting to eat like 30 of them. And I could, too. Seriously.

After this semi-impromptu burger stop, we drove around the Plaza area attempting to do some car spotting. There wasn't really anything good, so we moved on. I then took Scott on a tour of the mansions of Mission Hills, hoping to see some good cars along the way. Disappointed in people's propensity for Jeeps and Mercedes C-classes, we moved on to some newer developments. The farther south into Johnson County we got, the better the cars got. Eventually, we ended up seeing several Maserati Gran Tursimos, some antique Mercedes sports cars, and about 65 BMW 7-Series sedans. We also saw several nice Audis, including an RS7. But in a last-ditch effort to spot something really nice and more exotic, I took Scott to a neighborhood where I know there to be a Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradale. Unfortunately, this car was nowhere to be found, but, as we were leaving, I spotted a couple peekers under a mostly-closed garage door.

It may be difficult to tell in this stalker-ish picture, but there is a Ferrari 360 and a Ferrari 458 backed in behind that garage door. We called this a success and proceeded to drive back up north to eat dinner.

But not just any dinner.

Pizza.

But not just any pizza.

Leo's Pizza!!

Apparently, I'm the only one besides my parents that actually thinks Leo's pizza is any good. It's St. Louis-style pizza, meaning it's got a thin cracker crust and provel cheese. The cheese is a process cheese combination of provolone, Swiss, and white cheddar. They even put it on their salads.

Sidney, claiming she strongly dislikes this cheese, gave me hers from her salad. Oh well, more for me!

We ordered a large pizza, with half just cheese and half with everything.

I could literally eat an entire large pizza's worth of just the cheese pizza. That's how much I like it. As I've explained to people before, this particular pizza isn't just my favorite pizza ever, it's one of my favorite foods ever. If someone asked me what my favorite thing was that I'd ever eaten, one of the first things that would come to mind would be Leo's cheese pizza.

And Sidney, with her iron-clad will against provel, only took one bite of pizza. So Scott, who actually did like the pizza a lot, helped me eat the whole thing. And eat the whole thing we did. I was reasonably full afterward, but by no means was a stuffed to the point of wanting to stop eating this unbelievably great pizza. Like I said, I could eat an entire large Leo's cheese pizza. And, you know, I just might do that sometime. Be on the look out for that sometime in the future.

But as we finished our pizza, Scott reminded me that proper cheat day is complete without dessert. I confessed that I had thought very little of possible dessert options, so I asked him what he had in mind. He said that his favorite dessert is milk and cookies, so we headed back to the Mecca of cookies: Sidney's kitchen.

A short time later, after showing Scott how to properly mix up a proper batch of chocolate chip cookies, and after Sidney had expertly baked them, we had:

But this was a special occasion, as all cheat days are. This is precisely why Scott and I picked up some ice cream for...

...ice cream cookie sandwiches!!!

The ice cream we chose was:

Yes, you read that right. What Jimmy Fallon's beaming mug so proudly represents is both caramel ice cream and chocolate ice cream with chocolate cookie swirls and "gobs" of cookie dough (both chocolate chip and peanut butter). So, pretty much, warm cookies with slightly colder cookies in the middle.

Sidney's cookies weren't out of the over for than 5 minutes when we dug in. Two warm and soft cookies with a bunch of delicious ice cream in the middle is, I agree with Scott, one of the best desserts imaginable. But I'll qualify this by saying that they must be Sidney's cookies. This was so good, even with the ridiculous mess I was making of myself, that I had another. So, in total, I had 4 cookies and however much ice cream made for an adequate ice cream sandwich. I also had a glass of milk to wash it all down.

All in all, I'd call this a Cheat Day success story. Tons of good food, some cool cars, and some quality time with family and friends is what life is all about, or should be, anyway!!

Like seriously, family, friends, cars, food. What more could anyone possibly want?!?!?

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