Raise Up

On this Sunday, I knew I would not be eating macro-friendly, so I started off the day with a brotein bar. 

I had just been at Sprouts, where I found something that I couldn't resist.

Hot & Spicy boneless chicken bites are always tempting, and these were only $3.39. That was an offer that I simply couldn't refuse. I got them home, and they were mine!

Of course I ate them with ranch, don't worry!

I also found something else interesting.

Apparently, these little bottle-shaped gummy deals are supposed to taste like cola.

Well, do they? I would say yes! I like them, but I can also understand how they could be polarizing. I can see why the avid cola drinker wouldn't be too fond of these. But since I'm not an avid cola drinker and since I like pretty much anything with sugar, I like them.

Speaking of sugar, there were some leftover cinnamon rolls when the store closed. Conveniently, there was also some leftover icing.

Oh yes. I ate this cinnamon roll with extra icing as everyone else looked on in disbelief.

Sidney and I were then preparing to meet my mom and some friends for the KU basketball game later today. We decided to eat dinner before the game, and we took this opportunity to try a place we've been wanting to try for quite a while.

After our disappointing Slim Chickens experience, my mom and I were hoping for a better effort from Raising Cane's. I mean, this place only serves chicken strips, so you would think that they would have that figured out.

I got some chicken strips (shocker) and some fries, Texas toast, a little cup of cole slaw, and some Cane's sauce. I can say that this wasn't a disappointment. This food I could actually taste. And it tasted good! I can also say that I'm glad that there is this trend of these places making their own "special" sauces. Freddy's sauce, Chick-fil-a sauce, Cane's sauce...they're all really similar, but they're also all really good!

We then headed to Allen Fieldhouse for the game.

Sidney and I went on a mission to find Dippin' Dots. Success!

I got the cookie dough kind. Worth it!

Sidney also got some sour straws candy, the consumption of which she generously let me partake.

Who says grass fed beef is bad?!

I was now at my parents' house, so I had to improvise a little for breakfast. This seems about right, right?

I also got a handful of those weaved cracker thingies.

For dinner, my parents and I decided that we wanted burgers. We contemplated going to LC's, Town Topic, Hayes...you know, the usuals. But I did a quick search and found a very highly rated burger place in Northtown that we had never tried. So we tried it.

The place is Tay's Burger Shack. Upon learning that the burgers here were made from grass fed beef, I became a little skeptical. A lot of people claim that grass fed beef doesn't taste as good as grain fed beef. But then I remembered that this place was very highly rated, and I figured that that many people couldn't be that misinformed. Surely these burgers must be good for that many people to like them.

We took a quick look at the very simple menu...

...and I knew exactly what I was going to order. Of course I ordered the Homerun Burger, which is a burger with four 3 ounce patties. I got the burger with extra cheese, carmelized onions, and bacon (obviously). I got the combo because fries.

On the tables, they had a couple of unique condiments. I approve.

They also have a decent collection of interesting decorations, my favorite being this one:

But now for the food. Oh yes, the food. Take a good look at this food.

The fries look good, don't they? Well, that's because they were! They were seasoned with some salty and wonderful seasoning, and they were just wonderful. But what about the burger?

Oh, yeah, the burger. Is this just a big pile of grass fed blandness?

Oh no, far from it my friends. Being a self-proclaimed burger connoisseur, I know what a good burger is. Was this a good burger? Let's see.

A good burger:

• is cooked on a griddle. Check.
• has plenty of American cheese. Check.
• is juicy and greasy. Check.
• is crispy around the edges. Check.
• is served on a toasted bun. Check.

This next picture really illustrates how this burger shines. You can see the ample amounts of cheese. You can see the crispy crust around the edges of the patties. You can see the glimmer of the juiciness. You can see the toastedness of the buns.

 

What I mean to say is that this was one of the best burgers I've ever had, grass fed beef and all. We may very well have just discovered a new go-to burger place. What I'll also say, though, is this. While this burger easily rivaled that of LC's, I am in no way, shape, or form ready to completely write off LC's. LC's burgers are not less tasty than these. LC's is closer. And LC's is cheaper. Sure, you don't get sriracha mayo at LC's, but is that really what matters at a burger place? No. Will I come back to Tay's? Absolutely. Will I continue to eat at LC's. Of course. It's just nice, too, to have yet another option for a good burger.

Finally, to finish off this new discovery, we ordered some sundaes.

A great discovery, for sure.

When we got back to my parents' house, I took the opportunity to marvel at my dad's whimsical pumpkin carving creation.

I don't know how he comes up with these designs, and I'm not sure he does either, but this isn't the first time he's come up with an abstract jack-o-lantern design that somehow looks good.

I finished off the day with a couple trick-or-treat leftovers.

Just Add Bacon

In preparation for my undoubtedly long chemistry lab, I again supplemented my morning brotein bar breakfast, this time with a whole bagel.

Skipping past the lab entirely, I came home to find these:

And in addition to wonderful Sidney cookies, I also found some wonderful Sidney potato soup! She had been wanting to make this for a long time, and today she was finally able to. Apparently it was pretty easy too, being made in the crock pot after all.

She did take the time to make it extra special, though, by cooking up some bacon to go with it.

Literally anything is better with bacon, because bacon.

We also had some sourdough rye bread, which looked interesting.

But can you tell which bowl of soup is mine?

I supplemented my soup with some yet leftover fried rice, because huge.

And for dessert, we had those wonderful Frankencookies, the fortunate products of unfortunate surplus.

We split each one.

And milk, because cookies.

Literally, I only eat carbs.

It was back to the old grind, brotein bar speaking. To ease the transition, I added half of a bagel to my breakfast.

For lunch, my good friend Scott decided to save my gains by donating a Quest Bar to TheAverageBro's Save-The-Gains Foundation.

This one was also a brotein fiber bar, so I was curious to see how it stacked up against the others I had recently tried.

Wait, there it is! There's that same texture that we know and love (hate). But then there was the taste. It tasted so good. This one was by far the best tasting brotein fiber bar I've ever had. The unfortunate thing is that these bars are like $2-3 per bar, which is way more than the others. So again, I'll be sticking with Old Faithful for the time being:

And that's exactly what I did for my mid-afternoon snack.

Still good!

For dinner, we had a lot of leftover fried rice, so I had some. I supplemented it with some more carbs.

Cheesy carbs...

...and salty carbs.

And for dessert, we had some more leftover rice. Enter...

...sweet carbs.

Good day.