Farewell Baltimore...for now

As my trip went on I found I was cramming a lot of things into one day and then at night I was having a hard time sleeping since I wanted to stay on top of my work for Kaplan. So I decided to have a late night snack to keep me going. My aunt gave me these for the train ride home and I never ate them, so they seemed like the perfect snack. Boy did they taste good.

My sister and I took our grandmother out to Mr. Chan which is a Chinese restaurant near my mom's house. I couldn't believe they had a meatless wonton soup.
My sister had ginger mushroom soup.
For my entree I had veggie nuggets with mixed veggies...
served with a spring roll...
and brown rice.

My sister had steamed yuba with veggies and brown rice.
After lunch we did some running around. Literally! We bought running shoes. Then, and I hate to admit it, we went back to Trader Joe's (different location) for some more shopping. Thanks mom for buying us some delicious treats. Yes, I have now had to ship a second box back home.

My step-sister Carla was coming home for a short break from grad school, so we met up for a drink. We decided to go to The Dizz which is right in my sister's (Rachel's) neighborhood. None of us had dinner so we were thankful they were still serving food.

I was thrilled to see they had a powerhouse sandwich on the menu. If you do not know what a powerhouse is or have not had one, you are really missing out. Traditionally this is a multigrain bread or sunflower seed, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, sprouts, muenster cheese and mustard. The sandwhich was great even though we made some minor substitutions. Unfortunately they ran out of sprouts, but that did not deter them from coming up with some additions, including adding carrots to the sandwich.
Who can resist sweet potato fries?
After a good nights sleep I headed out to Goldberg's Bagels in Pikesville, Maryland. Delicious bagels. I was so excited to find out they ship now, too bad I moved overseas! I bought 1-1/2 dozen bagels to bring back and freeze. They are really good, so if you do not have good bagels near you check out their website (click above) and have some delivered.
While I was waiting for my bagel order to be filled I had to get my favorite bagel dish for breakfast. This is an eggel on a poppy bagel. For those of you who do not speak bagel shop, this is an egg and cheese sandwich on a poppy seed bagel.

Rachel and I did some major shopping once I was fueled by my tasty breakfast. Here are some of the goods from our adventure at the mall. We bought some treats from Harry and David's. Really nice gourmet foods there. This popcorn sampler looked like too much fun to pass on, so we each got one.

These are the most colorful Farfalline I have ever seen (well the most colorful pasta in general). I bought them because they were so vibrant in color and I think will be fun to prepare.

I don't know why, but dip mix sounded really good. I went with the sampler box.

Some shower gels to go with the loofahs I bought the other day. I love when Bath and Body Works has the buy 3 get 3 free special. My sister and I always go half and half on this.

Lastly, I bought this in Sephora so we will see how it goes. My mom saw this in an article in the paper and so I decided to give it a try.

Then we went to Linner, which is a combination of lunch and dinner since it was right in the middle of the two meals. We were nearby Zia's and thought that would be a great option. They serve vegetarian, vegan and free range items here.

They had an awesome display case to choose from.

I went with the powerhouse again because they had sprouts and having one the night before reminded me how much I love this sandwich.

Doesn't that look delish?

Wheat grass shot anyone?

Looks like one wheat grass shot for Rachel (my sis)!

Rachel had a pizza on spelt crust. Spelt is a subspecies of wheat and is similar in nutrition to oats. It has a heartier husk than wheat. It has a higher protein content and this protein is easier to digest than wheat so it may be tolerated more in people with wheat allergy. It is not OK for individuals with celiac sprue.

This pizza had spinach, red peppers and I think some mushrooms (if I am wrong I am sure Rachel will make a comment!).

We just couldn't pass on trying out these vegan raw desserts.

This was amazing, and I don't really like walnuts, but this I enjoyed.

Chai is not my favorite, but I did taste this and it was good, but I liked the other dessert better.

Wow, I can't believe how fast 2 weeks went in the States. I had so much fun with family and friends. I can't believe I fit in everything that I did while I was there. I am back now on the island enjoying a quiet day with my husband Ryan and my dog Ginger and cat Midnight.

QUESTION: What is your favorite late night snack if you need some extra energy just to stay up a few more hours?