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Hi everyone!

I got to Tampa around 10:00 and then Ryan came over to my parent’s house and we took their dog for a long walk (about 40 minutes) on a scenic bay-side street. It was so nice! Then…..we went out to lunch and I ate one of my guilty (well its not all that bad for you) pleasures…a cuban sandwich! I love love LOVE cuban food—mainly because I love black beans and rice and I love hot sauce! Well, lucky for me, Tampa is known for having a ton of great Cuban restaurants and the good thing about it is that they are all pretty cheap. We went to a total hole-in-the-wall restaurant for lunch and our total bill for the two of us was only 12 bucks. I’m not kidding! We were the only ones that spoke English at this little diner! That was the good part though because in places like that,where the locals come, you know the food is awesome….and it was! I had a cup of Cuban black bean soup, a “small” Cuban sandwich and a cafe con leche—my favorite! The sandwich was HUGE for a small…probably about a foot long! And only three dollars! Wow! Needless to say, it was amazing but I could only finish half of it. I took a couple little bites off of the second half then put it down because I was so full. It was so good though—toasty Cuban bread, melty swiss cheese, ham, pork loin…..not my typical foods, but on occasion I do love these! I ate all of my soup, which was probably about a cup’s worth. I also drank all of my cafe con leche, which really hopped me up on my daily caffeine because it was quite strong!

After lunch, I forced Ryan to stop at this little organic farmer’s market that I saw while we were driving to lunch. It was so great—they have been there 23 years and I have never known; I have no idea how THAT happened! I bought some leeks, cheese and ground my own honey roasted organic peanut butter since I am out. I can never find the honey roasted kind anymore so when I see it, I grab it! It’s AMAZING in oatmeal. The best thing ever, seriously.

We decided no beach today but we are going to lay out by the pool. Like I said before we are going to a BBQ tonight so I will have to eat like the normal American and probably just eat a burger because I’m sure the options will be limited to that or hotdogs. I probably only eat hamburgers like once every 6 months or so, so it’s not a big deal that I have one tonight. I think my last one was at the beginning of last summer before I went to France. On occasion I rather like them…if they are grilled properly! Okay, gotta head out to the pool (rough life, I know)…have a wonderful saturday!

I may be overestimating the calories in this lunch, but I’m guessing at around 600-621. Pretty high because of the cafe con leche, which I didn’t even bother asking for skim milk because I already knew they wouldn’t have it so I just drank it like they gave it to me….I’m sure it was whole milk. The good thing is that I’m sure I will be full for awhile so my snack this afternoon will probably be lighter than usual!

Ryan wanted me to share with everyone HIS lunch for a change…he had roasted pork, rice and beans with hot sauce and some toasted cuban bread. Oh, and the rest of the sandwich that I didn’t finish!

Oh, and this morning on my drive over to Tampa I ate an apple for a little snack. Yum 🙂