Sunny Soccer-y Saturday

Yesterday morning started with a fun new friend in my coffee.
True confession: I love a Splenda in my coffee. Love it. But I wanted to try and convert to a more natural sugar substitute and had found these Sun Crystals at Wal-Mart. They are a blend of real sugar and Stevia, and they were inexpensive (relatively), and they were in a green box (that really had nothing to do with anything….I promise….) so it seemed like I should take a chance. Verdict: wonderful! There was the perfect amount of sweetness. Hooray!

I had my coffee with a side of a CFY-in-a-carton. The same cereal mix I’ve been eating for weeks now I feel like. (It takes a while for one person to work her way through three open boxes of cereal…unfortunately, as I keep wanting to open new ones.)
Kashi Honey Sunshine, puffed wheat, All-Bran Bran Buds, topped with cantaloupe, green grapes, and a plum. [I decided I'm not a fan of cantaloupe like this...I love it plain, but not mixed in my bowl of cereal yogurt mess.]
Speaking of cantaloupe, I had one on the counter that needed to be cut. Perfectly ripe and delicious. [Does anyone else think fresh, ripe cantaloupe tastes a little like cinnamon? Is that weird?]
I also had a honeydew…melon overload up in The Smart Kitchen, I know. It is a good thing I cut into this though, as it was so ripe there was a waterfall on the counter. I was happy I was wearing my Crocs at the time.
Look at that. So ripe it fell apart into juiciness. [In a good way.]
The result of this melon mania was that I ate an incredible amount of it while cutting. An intensely incredible amount. As in, my stomach hurt for a good hour. Too much of a good thing…(and yet, I still want more)

Yeah, so I didn’t eat a real lunch. It was nibble of this and a nibble of that. A spoonful of nut butter and handfuls of baby carrots. I am setting a horrible example with my meal scheduling and assembly lately I feel like, but I’ll be back in a routine tomorrow, when I start work(!)

I met Teddy and Connie at Austin Java for dinner. I had been here only for coffee before, and did not realize how extensive their menu was! [And breakfast served all day...much to Teddy's excitement.]Luckily for me, there was a perfect choice for someone who can’t make choices*. Surprise, surprise, though, because it was the simple-sounding “Veggie Plate.” However, this was unlike any veggie plate I’ve ever seen before.

*That’d be me

You’ll see below, I was able to sample chicken tortilla soup, mashed potatoes (that tasted literally like potatoes, mashed, with nothing extra…which was awesome), plus red pepper hummus (yummy) and a slice of focaccia.
Not done yet, though! I also was served a heaping portion of the “veggie of the day” (a medley of carrots, snap peas, broccoli, and what we think was some sort of squash).
Still not finished…you will note the black bean and corn pico, and in the background there a bunch of mixed salad greens topped with a few extra roasted red peppers.
Oh yeah, and just in case that wasn’t enough, a side of tortilla chips.
I was a whole lot hungrier than I thought.
Sadly (or perhaps happily, in the long run), the bread was stale, and the chips were nothing to go crazy over.
Following dinner, we headed across the street to watch the Austin Aztex (Austin’s Division II Pro Soccer Team) play against the Tampa Bay Rowdies.
Despite the fact that the Rowdies have a cooler name and better colors, I was able to overcome the misspelling-in-devotion-to-our-state and Where’s Waldo [slash] candy-striper uniforms and fully support the Aztex(s?).
Especially because #33 was a-dor-a-ble. [He's the bearded one, from Norway, above.]
John started a trend in his strange posing, as Michael (who kindly took a picture with me so I wouldn’t feel awkward and left out) couldn’t resist. Please note Teddy in the background with an expression of “oh, kids” on her face.
After an Aztex victory, I headed over to Rebecca‘s for a laid-back gathering, which she cleverly (punnily?) titled, “Bring an App to That.”

I didn’t have too much time to think about creating miracles in an hors d’oeuvres, but luckily I had some leftover Roasted Eggplant & Garlic Hummus, which I mixed with some Kefir cheese (really thick yogurt, akin to sour cream in taste and whipped cream cheese in consistency) and spread into one of my cute, giftcard-purchased, small serving dishes.
I then topped it off with the last of my Roasted Vegetable Tapenade.
I cut up some zucchini, yellow squash, and another variety of squash that I can’t remember the name of….sorry.
My dip was good, but Miss Rebecca outdid me with her hummus creation, which she called Greek Nine-Layer Dip (or was it Nine-Layer Greek Dip?). I waited too long to take a photo, and following this image capture, proceeded to devour the rest of it….it was SO good. As Rebecca said, “I am going to make this every day.” It will be making a Smart Kitchen appearance soon, I can tell you that.
If only I could remember all of the layers…let’s see…hummus, Greek yogurt, artichokes, roasted red peppers, scallions, olives, baby spinach, feta, and tomatoes. Is that nine?*

*Who else just went back and counted? (Twice.)Aside from that dip, the other highlight of the evening was chatting with one of Rebecca’s friends who is about to open a food cart here in Austin called The Peached Tortilla, which is being (at this point) vaguely described as Mexican fusion, incorporating both Asian and (insert my squeals of excitement) Southern influences. Of course, this revelation led to my proposal of extensive menu suggestions, some of which I now think I’ll probably just make on the blog for you because they were GENIUS if I do say so myself.

However, the major issue I had was that he called himself a Southerner, and yet had never eaten pimiento cheese!* I mean, really. It IS the peanut butter and jelly of the South,** is it not? I only pretend to be raised in the South, and even I know that. Please read my detailed account of pimiento cheese and its importance to Southern food culture. There will be a quiz later.

*Case in point: literally five seconds ago, Tyler Florence spoke to me through The Best Thing I Ever Ate and said “Pimiento cheese just tastes like the South.”
**Sadly, not my metaphor.