I had a quick breakfast of granola with a banana and skim milk.

Mid-morning I snacked on an apple; I saved my pumpkin yogurt (Stonyfield fat free plain yogurt + pumpkin puree + cinnamon) for after lunch.

I packed a stellar salad for lunch: mixed greens with 1/4 avocado, 1 orange, grape tomatoes, sesame tofu, almonds, and toasted seaweed.

Second try using a spice jar to carry my citrus salad dressing (leftover from the sushi bowl)… this time I just packed it right into my salad container.  No spillage!

After work, I met my friend Lisa for dinner at Blockheads, a Mexican(ish) restaurant that has several locations around the city.   Sorry about the dim lighting!

We started with festive drinks: she ordered their special, a frozen margarita with a tipped Corono.  It was surprisingly tasty!  I stuck to Negro Modelo, one of my favorite beers.

Blockheads steams their burritos (as opposed to frying the tortilla) and can make anything vegetarian.  They are also very accommodating about substitutions. I ordered a vegetable burrito in a whole wheat tortilla with brown rice, sautéed veggies, and plenty of hot sauce! I asked for tofu sour cream because I’d never tried it… I really liked it! I actually couldn’t tell whether it was real sour cream or not… I guess I eat a lot of ‘fu.  Lisa confirmed it was definitely not dairy.

Can you believe this was a mini burrito?! I was quite full when I finished!  It was delicious… I always forget how easy these types of dinners are to make at home.

When I got home, I had a Godiva chocolate-caramel-peanut cluster leftover from Christmas.  (A chocolate caramel sneaked out of the camera’s eye.)

My gym bag is packed, and I’m sleeping in my clothes to make sure I go to the gym tomorrow. My alarm is set for 6, and if I hustle, I’ll have enough time to get a decent workout in, shower, get to work on time, and not have to worry about it for the rest of the day.   To make that happen, my plan is to do a quick Lunar Flow and be in bed by 10:30.  It can be done!

The last two days have been a lot of fun: we’ve been catching up with people (there are between 40 and 60 here each day) we haven’t seen in a year, lounging, cooking… The way we do things here is each night, one “cooking crew” makes dinner for the rest of us.  It takes a lot of work, obviously, to plan, cook, and feed for so many people, but we always have delicious, restaurant-quality food.

The first night is more of a pot-luck, so we had a Middle Eastern platter with hummus, pita, tabouleh, baba ganoush, pita, etc.

I also had a mixed greens salad and an orzo salad with cheese, tomatoes and olives.  This is so good!

Desserts abounded, including my Aunt Mary’s famous chocolate chip cookies:

Brownies, chocolate chip blondies, and lemon squares:

There are also some 7-layer / Magic bars floating around here, but if they didn’t get caught on camera…

We found bottom-shelf vodka to make cocktails to bring to the beach to watch the fireworks:

Jenny + Marina:

We sat on the beach watching the fireworks for hours… unfortunately my camera isn’t sophisticated enough to show you how beautiful it was.

For breakfast yesterday, I had a bowl of Wheaties + Honey Nut Cheerios with 1/2 a banana and skim milk.

‘

We went upstairs to have lunch and cool off: leftover orzo (this will be the death of me, I swear!) and tuna salad.  I ate them “wrap style” by rolling the salads up in tomato slices and lettuce weaves.

I had fresh grapes and blubes from the farmers market for dessert.

My dad got quite the haul at the Market… he brought this Super Charge Me-style oatmeal cookie for our cabin.  I only had a nibble, but it was pretty delicious! I see its future as “oatmeal future” in the near future…

In the afternoon, Judy and I went for a nice run to look at the houses.  We did about 2.5 miles (my HRM was out of it’s mind, AGAIN… Polar, expect a call from me today), and although it was pretty hot outside we ran in the shade and it was just perfect.  I cranked out some 8 minute abs when I came back, then had a nice Red, White & Blue Parfait with Oikos nonfat Greek  yogurt, blueberries, raspberries and a touch of brown sugar.

After showering and making myself presentable, I stumbled upon Bere, my 12 year old cousin, cleaning a Corona bottle.  Bere took over Jenny and my job of saving all the bottles and cans and collecting them for deposit (we go through quite a few of these over the week…), but I might have to convince him that we need the money more than he does!

During the cocktail hour, I had a cheese plate with Manchego (my favorite!), Havarti, Blue, and Brie. I also had a piece of bread, a couple crackers and olives.

I also had a Shiner beer, which was very yeasty.  It’s partly my fault for not following the directions and pouring half the beer out into a glass, swirling the rest in the bottle, and pouring it into the glass… but who wants to do that when they’re just trying to chillax with a brew? Hmpf.

George was the cooking crew leader last night and prepared a Mexican meal of Roasted Chicken, Red & Black Beans, Rice, and Tomato Salad.  He was nice enough to make me a pot of vegetarian black beans, so I ate them with rice and about 20 tomatoes.

For dessert, we had vanilla ice cream and blueberries.

As I’ve said, I’m not going to be documenting everything here… I want to be able to enjoy my vacation, obviously, but I’ll also be finding a healthy balance by continuing to blog and maintain my exercise regime.

Today, July 6, is Mama Veggie Patch (MVP)’s birthday, so some festivities will ensue.

Enjoy your weeks!

A couple nights ago, I stayed up pretty late reading, so I snacked on an apple around 1:30.

The next morning, we found a great place for breakfast called Blumencafé.

Half of it cafe was a florist shop…

… and the other half was a cute little eatery!

You all would have loved it.

There was a horrible screeching sound that reverberated through the cafe.  We finally figured out it came from two giant parrots! The birds stopped yapping as soon as they were let out of their cage, and were quite spectacular to watch.

I started with a hot cup of coffee… it was quickly followed by another hot cup of coffee.

I ordered two sunny-side up eggs and made open-faced sandwiches with them using bread and the little side salad it came with.

It was a great, sunny way to start the day…

…which was, itself, pretty gray and rainy.

My friend Carlye, who studied abroad here a year ago, sent me some great suggestions for sights and eats around the city. We decided to make it a “Carlye day,” and started our tour at Mauerpark, a flea market that’s only opened on Sundays.

There were a LOT of interesting food stalls.

We picked up some fresh feta, of course! There are a lot of Turkish immigrants in Berlin, and feta is frequently featured in the German dishes here.

I’m kicking myself right now for not getting any specialty honey…

After walking around the market for a few hours (and picking up some choice fashion items ), we found an adorable cafe called Anja Gmelin.

It would have fit right in in both the East and West villages or Williamsburg.

I asked the waitress (who studied abroad in England) to surprise me with whatever flavor of tea she thought I’d like. She brought Vanilla Rooibos on this great little silver tray… this seems to be customary for hot drinks. I love it!

My dad and I shared two lunch items: a giant salad with mixed greens, sprouts, strawberries, radishes, tomatoes, sunflower seeds, wheatberries, avocado, melon and smoked trout:

We also got an order of homemade tagliatelle with pesto and parmesan. It was so, so good. Homemade pasta just can’t be beat! This also came with a side salad, but I gave that to Daddy-o.

I ate everything except the bread. Needless to say, I was pretty full…

But there is always room for gelato! There are gelaterias everywhere (this is true in a lot of other European countries I’ve been to… they’re just as prevalent as the New York City pretzel stand), but I’ve been holding out for a while.

I should have waited just a little longer… I ordered scoops of hazelnut and plum, but unfortunately I couldn’t tell which flavor was which

After breakfast, we hopped on the U-bahn (we took the U2 line!) and the S-bahn to get to the Reichstag, home of the Berliner parliament.

Until we arrived in the city, we didn’t know Berlin had canals!

We passed a lot of government buildings. Don’t they look science fiction-y?

On the top of the Reichstag is a cupola, or dome, that visitors can climb up for an extraordinary view of the city.

Winding staircases bring you to the very top… keep your eyes on the horizon outside, though, or it gets a little nauseating!

During this time, I was unfortunately hit with one of my bouts of fatigue.  I can’t really describe what it’s like when this happens, except that it’s hard for me to think about anything other than finding a place to sleep.  My brain shuts down, I move in a fog… it’s pretty unpleasant.  Even though I wasn’t hungry, I thought a snack might help boost my energy. (That, and the nap I took at the top of the dome… they have a sort of circular observation bench that you lie on to look at the sky.) I had a sesame bar that I stashed in my purse for precisely this reason.

This was sweeter and more like brittle than, say, a Bora Bora bar, but, with my mini (and public!) nap, it helped.

After soaking up some of the last rays of sunshine outside, we headed back to our neighborhood.  Another one of Carlye’s suggestions was an East African restaurant called Massai, which is conveniently only a few blocks away from our apartment.

The lighting was dim, and you really can’t get an idea of the restaurant when it’s all bleached out by the camera flash, but it was really neat.

My mom and I ordered two African beers: Banana (which Carlye had recommended) and Palm.

The banana flavor was delicious! It was sweet, without being syrupy… it could have been a dessert! The palm tasted more like a regular beer, with the exception of its 8% alcohol content. They also had mango and passion fruit flavors… we’ll just have to go back to try those!

I started out with a delicious soup called shakazulu. With a thick coconut milk base, it was made with millet, spices, and vegetables.  I’ve been looking all over for a recipe for it, but can’t find it anywhere! I’m definitely going to try to re-create this at home.

Our server brought us a mid-meal amuse- bouche: yam, jicama and carrot in a sweet mango sauce.

For my entrée, I ordered a vegetarian platter called Mama Afrika. From left to right: fufu (a starchy potato/banana dish with a polenta-like substance) cooked in mango sauce, tomato-stewed okra, spinach cooked in peanut sauce, and red lentils (one of my favorite dishes to get at Ethiopian restaurants). It also came with a small piece of injera (the Ethiopian bread you use to scoop the food) and a plantain, which was very dry and sadly had no taste. Plantain aside, everything was delicious!

I sipped on a glass of African Chenin Blanc while I ate.

When I got home, although I felt stuffed to the gills, I had a chocolate pudding.

I should have waited a few minutes, but the pudding was immediately followed by a piece of dark chocolate.

It was a fabulous day, despite the several- hour brain fog.  As you can tell, I’ve been indulging (but enjoying, most importantly) in excellent food.  I haven’t done a lick of exercise (although we’ve been walking a lot), which is entirely my fault… my dad keeps trying to get me to the gym and my mom wanted to go for a run earlier, but I was just too tired and unmotivated.  I might do a little yoga later, though.  I’m not too stressed about it, but it’s been almost a week since I’ve done any aerobic activity and it’s probably contributing to my low energy.  So… I’ll get on that!

I’m off to get a little work done… I have a lot of reading to do, but it’s very pleasant to do it while relaxing in the apartment with a cup of coffee.

REMINDER for New York readers: Ari’s band, the Upwelling, is playing at the Mercury Lounge on Wednesday, June 10, at 9:30 PM.  It’ll be a great show, so get your tickets ($10) in advance and show La Petite Tomate some love!

Hope you’re having a great day!

This morning I switched up my breakfast a little.  The smoothies have been great, but I don’t want to get sick of them!

I made a semi-standard bowl of oatmeal:

• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/2 cup skim milk
• 1/2 banana
• warmed frozen berries
• cinnamon
• nuts (hazelnuts, pecans, walnuts, cashews, 1 Brazil nut)
• brown sugar

I stopped at Coffee News and picked up a skim latte (+ Sugar in the Raw) on the way to school. It was free! Always remember your punch card…

I packed lunch to eat in the library.  Again, semi-standard (I’m getting boring in my old age, sorry about that) salad: romaine, spinach, diced apple, green bell pepper, tomato, fake turkey, hummus, feta, and Annie’s Lite Honey Mustard vinaigrette.

Also had some cottage cheese with pumpkin, cinnamon and agave:

I wasn’t sure if I was going to exercise today, but I needed a break from work so I ended up in the gym. It just happened, what can I say?

I did 20 minutes on the stairs, 20-ish minutes on the elliptical, arms and mini- abs.

Total time: 1 hour 5 minutes

Maximum heart rate: 187 (94%)

Average heart rate: 145 (73%)

Calories burned: 515

I had to rush my shower because we had a special trip planned by our local home brewing club to Summit Brewery.

Like Surly, Summit is a local brewing company here in Minnesota.

Their IPA was one of the first beers I remember buying on tap (after I turned 21, of course).

Says their website, “We only brew what we love to drink. Whatever’s leftover, we sell.” The brainchild of St. Paul beer lover Mark Stutrud, Summit Brewing Company was founded with one goal: To bring back the remarkable craft beers once brewed throughout the Upper Midwest.

Where’s Charlie Chaplin?

I started off with a Summer Scandia: “Summit Scandia is a Scandinavian interpretation of a famous Belgian ale with spice notes of cardamom, coriander, and orange. Scandia ale pours cloudy with a white head and has a refreshing and pleasing flavor profile.

I also had a Pilsener: “With perfect balance and a golden hue, Summit Pilsener blends well with just about everything. Such refreshing flavor is especially adept at bringing good friends together. Thank goodness the Czech Republic decided to share this one.”

And finally, Carlye (looking adorable as always ) is holding my Red Ale: “Think aroma. Think citrus. Think floral. Think exceptional American hops balanced with choice malts.”

I only ended up drinking about 1/4 of the Red, and gave the rest to Joe.

Have you ever noticed that chewing gum after beer tastes like root beer? It’s true!

It was a really nice time, and great to break up the workday to socialize with friends.  Thanks Summit!

Doesn’t my mama look happy with her Curried Chicken Salad?

I got something new and different: Ricotta tartines with mission figs and acacia honey. Oh my LORDY these were good.  Must re-create at home!

We split an Organic Green Tea & Pistachio “Kiss” Tea Cake, which our waiter strongly warned us about (because its vegan and sugar-free), but it was delicious! There was a very strong ginger flavor and while the taste was definitely unusual, it was really quite palatable.

LPQ is one of the restaurants that, because it’s a chain, has started posting the calories for all it’s items.  I’m a fan of this move, my mother is not (she thinks it takes all the fun out of dining). Anywho, in case you’re curious, the tartines were 390 and the tea cake was 160 (divided by two… woohoo!).

After walking around the galleries for a couple hours, my parents and I stopped at La Bergamote for treats.  It’s a classic French pastry café (or patisserie) and took all of us back to a little place (n’importe ou) in Paris.

I was feeling nostalgic (I could do my “a year ago today…” spiel, but I think you’re probably getting bored with that) so I ordered a bergamot macaroon and a lychee gum candy.

And some verveine (lemon verbena) tea:

I also greedily sampled my parents’ eats, including (but not limited to) this bowl of chocolat chaud my dad got which was pure heaven on earth.

After dessert, I met my beautiful little red-headed friend for dinner at Josie’s (it’s the logical order, don’t ya think?).

We split a bottle of 2006 Gewurztraminer from Alsace, France.

We couldn’t decide which bread we wanted so we asked the waiter if we could split all three… so he gave us each three pieces! (Josie’s staff is great, and we had the same waitress we had for the blogger meet-up… she remembered our platter of salad dressings!)  I had some of all. I’ve really got to make some of that sweet potato carrot dip…

I ordered the Seared Asian Tofu Stir-Fry:  wok sautéed Chinese string beans, broccoli florets, zucchini, cremini mushrooms, bell peppers, baby bok choy & Asian greens with organic tamari brown rice.

It was so good.  It was very light, but I was pretty full halfway through! I probably ate about 3/4.  I would have brought the rest home, but I was going out, which would have made for purse-mess which I’ve had to deal with one too many times.  Thanks but no thanks!

We went to Jacques Torres for dessert.  Although I’m normally a chocolate chip kind of girl, I was really in the mood for a brownie type thing so I had the Mudslide cookie: chocolate on chocolate with walnuts. Heaven!

Kalle had the Chocolate Chip and let me have a bite.  Obviously amazing, but if I’m in the neighborhood and in the market for a big cookie (and if it were open) I’d go to Levain. Can’t beat ‘em.

We went to the Blue Donkey for $2 Miller High Life (and some St. Patty’s day beads) because we are just as classy as they come.  I don’t think you need a picture of those… I’m sure you’ve seen High Life before and can let us bask in our shame in peace.

I went over to my friend’s house to celebrate her birthday (the big 2-2! We’re getting up there…). On the way home, as per high school (always either that, Sour Patch Kids or a McDonald’s milkshake… yep), I got  cinnamon raisin H & H bagel.

Now I know I’m going to get some backlash for being a snob, but all you non-New Yorkers have no idea what a bagel is.  There is no comparison between a frozen piece of round bread and a classic New York bagel. None!  Especially one from H&H, which is open 24 hours and almost always warm. Pure heaven. You can see why I always have to have one when I wake home in the wee hours… I did manage to make it last about 10 blocks, though.  I’ll get off my soap box now.

Time to pop an advil and get some sleep.  Hope you’ve had a lovely Saturday!