The deadline completion celebration continued tonight with martinis and dinner at one of our favorite Charlottesville restaurants.  I know I say that a lot (favorite C'ville restaurants) but we have a LOT of fantastic food joints in this little town.  :)  Martini Night actually used to be a weekly event with some friends of ours, but when the holidays hit we fell out of the routine a bit.  We got back into it tonight with our good friend Virginia at Bang!, an Asian-inspired tapas restaurant with awesome food and killer martinis.   But, before I get ahead of myself, lets talk about food that I prepared today.  I woke up thinking about yesterday's breakfast and decided to go for a repeat.  I'm sorry I'm boring, but it was that good.   Breakfast:  toasted ezekiel, 1-1/2 tbsp dark chocolate dreams pb, 1 cup strawberries [336 cal] Lunch today involved another of my new purchases...Arnold's Sandwich Thins!  I could say that I wanted to truly experience the flavor of the Thin by not mucking it up with lots of filling, but in truth I was just running short on time.  :) Lunch:  arnold's sandwich thin with TJ's natural, crunchy PB and sour cherry preserves.  Also, a salad. [428 cal] My salad contained:

• baby greens
• cucumber
• orange bell pepper
• the last of my roasted garlic hummus, about 1 tbsp
• hearts of palm
• dried cranberries
• TJ's fat free balsamic vinaigrette

For a snack I packed another repeat, 1 orange, 5 strawberries and 1/4 cup Fage 0%. And then, tragedy struck.  I went to the fridge for my fruity yogurt bowl at about 3:30, enough time to digest my snack before my run at 5:15.  When I got to the fridge, I couldn't find my bowl!  I quickly returned to my office and my tote bag, where I discovered my bowl.  Warm as could be.  I did some research about how long yogurt could remain at room temperature before the threat of bacteria struck and concluded that it wouldn't be a smart idea to eat it.  Apparently, if the container is sealed, yogurt can last up to 8 hours at room temperature (according to some sources...but eat at your own risk!).  However, if the yogurt is open and exposed to the air, I couldn't find any site that thought it was ok to eat after 2 hours without refrigeration.  I can't tell you how sad I was to have to throw this beautiful bowl away.  SO sad.   Instead, I had an apple and 1/2 a Clif Chocolate Chip bar.  This Clif flavor was good, but I actually prefer the flavor and calorie count of the Clif chocolate chip ZBar more. Snack:  1 apple and 1/2 Clif chocolate chip bar. [200 cal] I left work a little early and went for a run with my friend Kelly.  We did just 3 miles and it was so laborious for me tonight.  I'm always amazed at how different a run can be from day to day.  This was the same route we did last week, I just cut it a little short because we had dinner plans.  Tonight my legs were heavy and my stomach was crampy.  I blame the first ailment on my two consecutive days of intense yoga...I was so sore today!  And I blame the second ailment on my apple.  Apples just don't agree with me as pre-run snacks.  I've tried it before and I always get crampy.  I thought today that I had plenty of time before my run, but apparently not.  From now on, apples are off-limits after lunch on running days. Exercise:  3 mile run [-318 cal] Dinner was sooo tasty.  I LOVE Bang!  We ordered an assortment of tapas to share amongst the three of us.  There were wild mushroom dumplings, crab pot stickers, edamame, coconut rice, veggie curry, and other dishes that involved either beef or shrimp, none of which I ate because I'm not a fan of either.  There were also delightful little slaws and salads that come alongside the main dishes.  These may be my favorite part of the meal, and have inspired me to make more Asian-inspired slaws in my own kitchen.   I also had the Bang! Lemon Drop Martini.  This martini is perfect.  Its the martini that I strive to make at home but just haven't perfected yet. I've tried, trust me, I've tried.  It has something to do with the specific sour they use, or the lemongrass infused simple syrup (I'm just not that ambitious).  But it is GOOD, and I enjoyed every sip.   The food portions are tiny, so we left still slightly hungry but with much lighter wallets.  I'm thinking there is some sort of pre-bed snack in my future... G'night!