Holding Out For a Gyro Til The End Of The Night

I went to the Yiasou Greek Festival on Saturday night.

This is an annual festival here in Charlotte that is supposed to be one of the best in the country and I never miss it. It’s only $2 admission, they have great food with lines that move fast (they also have wine and beer-along with Greek beer and American), tours of the church, entertainment such as traditional Greek dancing along with little stands of jewelry, art and little trinkets. If you don’t feel like fighting the masses, you can drive up and get a meat-o-licious gyro to go or other goodies such as baklava, spanokopita and more. I have to get a gyro each time I go and get my gyro I did.

 I was going to try the Greek beer but after Friday night’s events, I wasn’t up to drinking. Their pastries looked amazing as well but nothing was really singing to me. Then I saw the Loukoumades stand.

$3 for a small order? Bring it. I was done after a few of these but I enjoyed every last bite that I could handle. I added some powdered sugar and cinnamon to mine to make them extra sweet along with the touch of honey in them. Sadness that I couldn’t finish them all but I didn’t want to carry the box around toting only three.

I felt back to my old self on Sunday and got a little kettlebell/weight session in

Kettlebell-20 lbs

Halos (13 reps, 2 sets)

Shrugs (13 reps, 2 sets)

Squats (15 reps, 2 sets)

Pliq Squats  (15 reps, 2 sets)

Upright Deltoid Row (13 reps, 2 sets)

Swings (13 reps, 3 sets)

Side Bends (20 reps, 3 sets)

Dumbbell-15 lbs

Curls (13 reps, 2 sets)

Concentration Curls (13 reps, 2 sets)

Shoulder Press (13 reps, 2 sets)

Dumbbell -10 lbs

Tricep Extension (13 reps, 2 sets)

Tricep Kickback (13 reps, 2 sets)

Afterwards, I made a ham and cheese sandwich with a bowl of kiwi. I’ll be sad to see you go, summer fruits

 I went to Harris Teeter and found a bag of four bell peppers for $2 since they would be going bad soon. I had no clue what I was going to make with them but when I got home thought of Stuffed Peppers I put a bag of boil a bag brown rice to cooking and while that was going on, I took a can of black beans and rinsed them.

I chopped up ½ white onion and chopped about ¼ cup of jalapenos and ½ cup shredded cheese and mixed together. I added chile powder, garlic and black pepper and El Pato salsa for flavor.

I cleaned and gutted the peppers once that was set and saved the tops. I chopped up so I can add to a meal this wk. Once the rice was done, I added that to my mixture.  I stuffed the four bell peppers with the mixture then let cook for 30 mins at 400 degrees and voila-a filling meal in a pepper.

 You can’t beat nature’s dishware.

 I have a confession—I’m addicted to the Yelp. I go on there all the time to read reviews of places I want to check out and love the lists that different users create. I’ve been writing some of my own reviews for the past few months and recently got invited to join their Elite squad for this year.

On Sunday night, I took a break from football and attended an event sponsored by Yelp Elite via Yelp.com at the Custom Shop . 

There was free beer from Olde Mecklenberg Brewery and wine courtesy of Planeta Wines along with an array of appetizers—even vegetarian ones!

 I would be lying if I said I remembered what everything was but it was all F—fantastic, fresh and flavorful. I want to go have a real meal here soon! And they even gave us some swag

Since everything was free, I felt compelled to try every drink available-beer or wine. I am 30 years old and should really know not to mix my liquors. Suffice to say, I was feeling ill today.

 Some of you all were asking for my turkey burger recipe—I didn’t measure anything but I would say it was about ½ lb ground turkey, 1/4 cup breadcrumbs, one egg, chopped jalapenos (I like my stuff spicy so I loaded them on) and about ¼ chopped onion with pepper, garlic and chile powder and formed into patties. They were breaking about while they were cooking so I would add more breadcrumbs next time around but I let them cook on the stovetop until cooked well throughout the pattie. I added Laughing Cow cheese on top of mine right when they were done so it would spread easily and added salsa. Another easy one and two thumbs up. The nice thing is that you vary this up quite a bit with making them Mexican style how I did or even Italian style with oregano, garlic, red pepper flakes and marinara.Ohhhhh or do an Asian influence and add soy or wasabi to it on a bed of slaw with vinaigrette.

On a final note (because I am Jerry Springer) thanks all for understanding my lack of blogging, I’m happy to hear that there are others that can sympathize. I’m still around…..even if I’m not saying much, I’m still here and reading your blogs 🙂

And today is my 30th and 3/4 birthday-wtf? Where did time go? How the hell am I going to be 31 in three months? When did that happen?

So many questions…..

PS—-Check out April’s blog for a wonderful giveaway-you can win a Healthy Food Snacker!