i'm baaaaaack

i bet a lot of people will ask me what was the first thing you ate now that lent is over.

in past years, i have been breaking the fast on easter sunday. but i was in MA yesterday for a birthday party and there was little non-meat choices for me to choose from. james' mom, who i consider to be the be all tell all of the catholic rules, and conveniently also gave up meat for lent, told me that i could eat meat on holy saturday because at that point, jesus already rose from the dead (think the story of the marys finding the stone of his tomb moved). without getting into the technicalities of catholicism, i broke down and ate meat yesterday. i had mental angst about it so next year i will go back to breaking the fast on easter sunday.

even though i DID eat meat yesterday (insignificant and not even worth mentioning), the true hurrah was today at easter sunday dinner. following suit, my parents also gave up meat, so this was a big thing for them as well. if you want to talk about meat sweats, our easter dinner was a true carnivore style meal. we had buffalo wings (at my request, no matter how random my mom still made them), spiral glazed ham, aaaaaand fillet mignon. pretty much covered all bases, except for veal, but you know how i feel about veal. maybe you don't, but that's not something i go out of my way to eat.

needless to say- it was bad a$$ people!!!!! kudos to mama Z on that one.

i'll leave it at that. and hopefully my triglyceride count will go down since it's been a carb fest for 40 days.

burn, then return- part I

most people run to stay fit and lose weight. i run so i can justify the eating to keep my food blog up and running. pun intended.

actually, that's a lie. i am an inconsistent runner, and am definitely

in taking more than i am burning (aka "burn then return" for those sharpies who couldn't figure that out). however, when i DO run, the post-race meal is so much more worthwhile, and i definitely chose it wisely.

almost all races start between the hours of 7AM-10AM (and if you do half marathons or marathons specifically, they start at some ungodly hour like 5AM). and when you finish, you are (luckily for me) just in time for breakfast or brunch.

i ALWAYS go to a restaurant post race (or get take out). it's just not the same if you eat a piece of toast, or wait for someone to cook you something fantastic. como se dice instant gratification?

since this post race eating thing has been a norm for me, i decided to solicit some other runner friends from college (who like me, like eating more than running) to start an "eating club" if you will, specifically to go to a bunch of breakfast/brunch joints around the city for me to blog about, after some races we will all be participating in central park.

the first one took place just last weekend and we went to ej's luncheonette. since this was the first post race eating club outing, i wanted to chose a place i had been to before to ensure that there would be no let downs. i went to ej's a year ago after a half marathon. when i was searching for the address, i was pleasantly surprised to find out that there was an ej's on the upper east side (the one i went to last year was on the west side). this was perfect for us since we were already on the upper east, and there was no need to cross town.

i guess i am not the only runner who frequents ej's, because 90% of the people were from the race. same thing happened last year when we went to ej's after the half marathon. so you don't have to just take my word for it, there are other numbers that can vouch.

STILL non meat-eating, its always hard to eat at breakfast joints because i love breakfast meats. but luckily this place offers a plethora of things that can more than make up for not eating meat. i went with crunchy french toast as a "starter" and a mushroom and cheddar egg white omelet. the potatoes and challah bread that come with were great. portions are big, and i didn't get to finish the come with carbs.

james went for the classic american breakfast (don't know if it's actually called that, but if it did have a name, it would be called that): eggs, potatoes, bacon, and toast. my runner foodie friend robby had the classic southern comfort meal (again, i am making up that name) with eggs, grits, biscuit, gravy, and maybe potatoes? the grits and biscuit stood out in my memory, the other stuff was just ancillary foods. both seemed pleased, as the both had clean plates.

if you are looking for a great breakfast, it's a sure thing, post race or not, no mater what side of the park you are on...