Best Mac and Cheese Ever. Period.

Warning: the beginning of this post contains food that is not that healthy! Just a heads up…

Yesterday, Chris and I went out to lunch at the Albany Pump Station! Its a pretty nice restaurant as well as a brewery, which is pretty cool. I really don’t know much about beer but Chris does, thankfully! I didn’t know which beer to order so I went with the Sampler.

The first and second ones were pretty good, but unfortunately I can’t remember the name of all of them! I know the first one in line was a Quackenbush Blonde (which is empty in this pic!), and I really liked it! It was kind of citrusy. The third one I didn’t like too much. I also liked a couple of the darker beers…the Oatmeal Stout and Porter. I think I liked the porter better. I think my overall favorite was the Blonde though.  I need to work on my beer knowledge! I’m more of a wine girl myself. 😉

We ordered the Mediterranean appetizer to start, which came with two pieces of falafel, tabouli, hummus, olives, feta and tomatoes. It was pretty tasty, but I was saving room for my meal. I had been debating on whether or not to go all out and order the famous lobster and shrimp mac and cheese that won the Mac & Cheese Bowl back in March that we attended…or order something healthy. The mac and cheese won!

Yes, I am aware this is NOT the healthiest thing on the menu that I could have chosen, but I rarely order pasta out at restaurants, let alone mac and cheese. This was my reward for finishing the race on Thursday, and for running yet another race tomorrow. Plus, I wanted to fit in some carbs before then. 🙂 I will tell you it was worth every calorie! I think this might be the most decadent mac and cheese I have ever eaten, and it is no surprise that it won best mac and cheese at the Bowl! I actually only ate about 3/4 of it, but I probably could have eaten the whole thing, but I stopped myself. I will dream of this mac and cheese until next time I get to eat it. Which hopefully won’t be for a really long time…

The guilt started to set in when I got home…so I went for a 2.25 mile run. I actually had been wanting to run a little bit before my race on Sunday, just to get some extra miles in. I didn’t want to take two complete days off of running between races. My legs felt kind of tired, and it was still really hot yesterday afternoon. But I’m glad I squeezed in that quick run. It felt good.

So today’s adventures included a trip to the Troy Farmer’s Market with Marcie on the Riverfront! It was pretty neat.

We wandered around for a little bit and sampled a few things. I didn’t buy that much. Just some arugula, maple peanut butter and herb goat cheese.

Marcie and I decided to make lunch with our market findings! We made some pita pizzas!

Our mini pizzas were:

• Joseph’s whole wheat and flax pitas
• Tomato sauce with no salt added
• Mozzarella cheese made with goat’s milk
• Arugula
• Tomatoes
• Garlic Powder

They came out really good! It was my first time having arugula and goat’s milk mozzarella. The arugula was really good! Kind of like a spicy spinach! And the cheese was excellent, very light tasting. Yum! Such a nice fresh lunch made with mostly local ingredients. 🙂

I had a pretty good day so far! Now I just have to get all of my gear together for tomorrow’s 5K. I’m super excited about it because it goes through the SPAC grounds in Saratoga and there are going to be bands playing all throughout the race! It should be fun. See you tomorrow!