Breakfast for all!

Yesterday I was in charge of making Friday breakfast for the office. Totally a voluntary thing...I neeeeded to use my kitchen skills!

As usual, I browsed FoodGawker all week for inspiration and decided I was going to make a couple dishes and supplement with fruit, yogurt and granola. On the menu: Sweet Potato Breakfast Taquitos and Mini Fritattas

Well, the mini part didn't work out so it turned into a big omelet haha.

I stumbled upon a post for a sweet potato breakfast burrito, but there were some ingredients I wasn't really into. Honestly, I was really looking for something that would work with my Cilantro Lime Avocado Sauce (aka Crack Sauce). Plus, one of my coworkers is allergic to wheat so I wanted to use corn tortillas.

Sweet Potato Hash Taquitos

2 medium sweet potatoes, finely diced

1 large shallot, diced

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 tbsp cumin

1/4 tsp Adobo seasoning

1/2 tbsp chili powder

2 tbsps butter

1 package Morningstar Farms Maple Flavored Veggie Sausage Patties

3/4 c egg whites

1/4 c egg substitute

1 tbsp cilantro, chopped

1/4 c arugula or spinach, chopped

15-20 corn tortillas

cooking spray or an olive oil mister

salt & pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425 degrees and line a baking sheet with foil. Toss sweet potatoes, cumin, Adobo seasoning, 1 tbsp olive oil and chili powder in a bowl until thoroughly coated; spread out on baking sheet. Bake for 20-25 minutes and let cool.

Microwave veggie patties for about 1 minute or until defrosted. Chop coarsely and combine with sweet potatoes in a bowl. You can stop here if preparing dish in advance and chill overnight.

Heat 1 tbsp butter in a large frying pan and saute shallot until softened. Add sweet potato and sausage and cook for 3-5 minutes (closer to 5 minutes if you've chilled the mixture overnight). Stir in cilantro and arugula and cook until just wilted. Empty mixture into a bowl.

Combine egg whites and egg substitute and season with salt and pepper. Heat remaining tbsp butter in the same frying pan and scramble egg mixture, making sure to keep the eggs slightly under cooked. Take pan off heat, add potato mixture and stir to combine.

Heat oven to 450 and spray a lined baking sheet with PAM or olive oil. Warm 2 corn tortillas (I found two was the most I could do at once) and put 1 heaping tablespoon (more or less depending how thick you want the rolls to be) of mixture in the middle. Roll up and place on baking sheet seam side down. Spray with PAM or olive oil to prevent cracking. Repeat until all the mixture is used.

Bake for 10-15 minutes or until the tortillas start to brown. Cut in half and serve with Cilantro Lime Avocado Sauce.

Taquitos were a hit! I'm not a big corn tortilla fan, so next time I'm going to try these out with flour tortillas. I really liked the combination of the starchiness and sweetness of the potato and 'sausage' with the savory spices and onions.

The mini fritattas didn't get as big of a reaction as the taquitos, but I think they turned out ok...I mean, aside from not looking the way I wanted them to :)

Mini Fritattas

1 1/2 c egg whites

1 1/2 c egg substitute

1 tsp herbes de provence

1/4 tsp garlic powder

pinch salt

pepper

1 tbsp butter

1/3 c pepperjack cheese, shredded

1/2 c turkey bacon, browned and minced

1 green pepper, diced

1/2 small red onion, diced

1/3 c mushrooms, diced

Heat butter in a frying pan and saute onion until softened. Add pepper and mushrooms and cook for 3 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in bacon.

Spray muffin tin with cooking spray and sprinkle about 1/2 - 1 tbsp of the pepper mixture into each cup and set aside.

Whisk together eggs, herbes de provence, garlic powder, salt, pepper and cheese. Fill muffin cups about 3/4 full with the egg mixture. Gently shake muffin tin and bake for 10-12 minutes or until fritattas begin to puff out of the cups.

I love using herbes de provence in my eggs. I'm usually not a big lavender fan (not going to lie, I think it makes things taste like soap), but combined with all the other dried herbs, a little salt, some garlic - egg perfection!

MCM Weekend is heeeeere!!

And I'm more anxious/nervous/excited/crazy than when I ran my first marathon! I think I'm just a bit jittery since this is my first marathon at home and the first time I'll have more than a one person cheering section (thanks, Selin ;p).

Went to the expo around 11:30 this morning and there were a lot more people than I expected to see at that hour on a Friday. It was pretty well organized, with the exception of the shirt area. I'm used to having my shirt size printed out on one of the taggy things off my bib and getting whatever shirt size I originally marked off. This was pretty much a free for all. The shirt people were just like 'So, what size do you want?' Not bad for people that got there early, but I'm thinking the late comers (translation: anyone who gets there tomorrow afternoon) will get stuck with bad sizes. Bummer.

The first shopping area you walk into sells all the Brooks Official MCM gear. I must say, I wasn't too thrilled with the selection, but I guess I was a little spoiled. I was really impressed with the selection at the Chicago Marathon Expo last year and it made the MCM Expo look itty bitty. I did manage to walk away with a fleece...because I'm a fleece whore and I can't say no to them.
I had some time to kill before I had to be at work (going home seemed like a silly option) so I metroed over to Dupont for some Chop't! I grabbed the San Antonio Cheesesteak Salad (o yes, SOOOO healthy ;p), sat on a stool by the window and prepared to browse some goody bag reading material. All of a sudden I hear "pour the dressing on the salad already!" I look up and it's one of my old roommates. Hooray!

Even though Jamie and I now live one building over from him, we rarely see each other so it was a fun surprise. Conveniently, Susan works a few blocks over so I messaged her to come meet up for lunch and then the next thing you know it's an impromptu roomie reunion! Woohoo! Yeah, I'm a bit too enthusiastic about everything right now.

No photos of the salad - didn't expect to pick up some food, so no camera. I will say it was pretty good and hit the spot considering I was craving red meat. However, I found it to be a little to rich for me about 1/4 of the way through. I'm one of those people that dips into salad dressing instead of pouring it in and this salad really didn't need any dressing. They went a little overboard with the pepperjack...blech.

For dinner, we planned on making a Tortilla Espanola but my pan wasn't cooperating and it ended up sticking so instead we had scrambled eggs with potatoes and tomatoes...not quite the same :(
Whatevs. Better luck next time...or perhaps a better pan. Hm...

Now on to the fun stuff...RACE DAY ATTIRE AND PLANS! I'm writing this now like a huge nerd because my parents will be in town tomorrow and we'll be running around (sadly, probably doing errandy sorts of things because I think the fun of 'visiting' DC has worn off after 9 years. HA).

Because I know you all care about what I will be wearing from head to toe ;p

V and I got these matching bright orange tanks from Under Armour:
I was going to iron on our names, but um, yeah...failed to notice that you can't iron these shirts. Now I'm stuck with 2 packs of iron on letters. Oh, did I mention that we drove all the way to Rockville last night to get them at Michael's? I mean, that's not all we got and we did get some sushi at Hinode for dinner (and who am I to turn down sushi) but still...what to do??

Underneath I will have my absolute favorite sports bra EVER. I have it in maybe 4 different colors and I HIGHLY recommend it :) Why yes, it is also orange!

I'll also be rocking those Nike capris I mentioned the other day
My precious Mizuno Wave Riders, shut up, I don't care if pink doesn't go with orange ;p
My Amphipod for good measure
To block the sun and tame my hair that keeps growing and I'm too lazy/poor to get it cut, one of my favorite race goodies (it was free too!):
Yeah, HI JERSEY! In case you happen to get stuck behind my run/walking ass :p
I'll probably throw this on for the first half of the race:
This was my 'souvenir' from my first marathon expo that I never really wore until this year. I love it now...it's that perfect not quite fleece thickness, plus it's SO SOFT!!

And my gels because I just don't leave for a long run without them!
I might grab a Blueberry Pomegranate Roctane as well...maybe another mocha...we'll see how I'm feelin'.

AAAND the most important part:
I found temporary tattoo paper and I've decided to turn my happiest looking bean from my header into a tattoo for race day! Absolutely ridiculous, but I figured hey, at least it'll wash off and maybe people will recognize it?? Meh? So if you see a crazy lady with capris and a fairly large bean on her calf, be sure to say hi!! :)

Agh! It's already 11pm!!! I need to send out emails to my prospective cheerleaders to let them know where to meet up AND sort of clean for the folks.

If I don't get a chance to jump on here again before Sunday, good luck to everyone running the marathon and 10k this weekend!! See you on the road!!

Defeat.

Man o man. Not a fun morning at all! Last night the fire alarm in our building went off around 11 just as I was getting into a deeeep sleep. We walked out and after 20 minutes or so of standing around, the fire department let us all go back inside. About 30 minutes later, the alarm went off again. Um, not going outside. It then proceeded to go off every few minutes until 2:45AM!

Jamie gave up and went to his mom's house because he couldn't stand it anymore. I, on the other hand, can sleep through pretty much anything so I stayed. I also shoved these in my ears:
Nooo, not mini foam rollers ;p

But of course, as soon as Jamie was out the door, the alarm stopped going off. We got a notice under our door this morning saying that it was a faulty smoke alarm that is located near a bunch of hot things (like in the mechanical room...near things that get all hot and I guess smokey all the time. wtf) and that they apologize for the disturbance. Um, I'm just glad I didn't have to go to work this morning.

So instead of my planned 8am wake up and treadmill adventure, I woke up around 9 and slowly got myself ready for the run. I had been waiting for this ALL week and the whole lack of sleep thing totally threw my excitement off! Laced up the sneaks, stood up and no. No No. Immediate irritation in the Achilles...like something was seriously pushing me. Not cool.

I looked to my growing pile of sneakers in the closet and realized, o crap. I don't have any other shoes to run in!
Since I was just planning on doing an easy 2 mile treadmill run, I figured eh, maybe I can make the trusty ol' Inspires work. They definitely didn't bother my Achilles when I laced them up - Inspires - 1; Elites - 0.

Got down to the gym and eased into a jog and man, it was very apparent that the cushioning was dead in these sneakers. The balls of my feet were feeling it after barely .5 miles! Defeated. Lesson to all you newbie runners out there...if your shoes look anything like this:
*note the vertical lines that aren't part of the shoe

It's beyond time for new sneakers. A lot of people immediately look at the outsole (the black part on the bottom) to decide whether or not it's time for a new pair. They really should be looking at the midsole (the white part) - the outsole is meant to last a crazy long time since that's the part that touches the ground. Here's a good explanation I found online because my brain is too mushy right now to put things into words ;p

So yeah, I called it quits after a mere 1/2 mile. I'm going to attempt that 20 tomorrow and see how it goes...and yes, I may just pick up a new pair of sneakers at work...this is becoming an expensive hobby.

Since I was up, I threw a load of laundry in (hooray no waiting for washing machines!) and made myself a PB&J with some Nature's Pride 12 Grain Bread
I don't really know what the 12 grains are, but they sure do provide some good texture!
Seeds!

I spread some peanut butter and guava jelly on and then popped it on the Foreman
At some point in my life, I started spreading peanut butter on both sides and throwing the jelly in the middle. How do you pb&j??

After a few minutes, my pb&j was golden and toasty! However, I forgot that everything gets all melty and falls out when you cut into it. Oops!
But it sure did taste good :)

Jamie got home shortly after I finished eating and put in a request for an egg in the hole so I whipped out the loaf of 12 Grain bread again, made a hole
What do you think - too big??

Plopped an egg in and 3 minutes later, we've got Jamie breakfast!
Hell yes that's a sriracha happy face!

Ok, I'm off to shower and brave the Army Ten Miler Expo to pick up my race packet. Yes, I'm stubborn, but at least I get a fun long sleeve t-shirt out of it ;p

Redemption

After last night's stop/start 7 miler (have I developed a hate for city running?), I needed to redeem myself with a quick 3 mile run on the treadmill. Why 3 miles? Why the treadmill? Aren't those two of your least favorite things?? They are, but I knew if I ran on the treadmill there wouldn't be any stop lights and I could maintain a steady pace. Plus I needed a cushy ride.

I got my ass up at 7:30 (I know I know, 7:30 is LATE for most of you ;p) to go downstairs to the gym. With the help of a motivating playlist and thoughts of post-run breakfast, I knocked out the 3 miles in an easy 28 minutes. I was kinda disappointed because last time I did an easy 3 on the treadmill I did it in 27 minutes. I feel slow :( *sigh* Oh well.

Since I had some time to kill, I decided to test out this Egg in the Hole I've seen on a couple blogs. Seemed easy enough - poke a hole in your bread and plop an egg in the middle. Hm...what to cut the hole with...
I'm not a cookie cutter owning kind of girl, so I reached into the depths of our cabinets and grabbed this guy. Yes, that is a frog smoking and drinking. Klassy. Perfect size!

Ze egg in ze hole:
So, as I was trying to multitask and get my giant pile of drycleaning in order, I walked away from the stove. It wasn't on high or anything and seriously, I wasn't gone for that long. Promise...
BURNT! Salsa couldn't even make it look pretty! Agghhh. Whatever, dark toast aside, I thought it was pretty good. I'd throw some ham or bacon in or near the toast just because I love meat. Unfortunately there wasn't any to be found in the fridge.

One cannot live through the morning on just toast and egg alone so I reached for a container of Fage to make my usual yogurt parfait. I've gotten Jamie hooked on it as well so he took the container of honey with him to work, meaning I had to get creative. This morning's parfait consisted of a really cinnamon-y granola, crasins and a drizzle of maple syrup (because, let's face it, plain yogurt is not so great unless it has a little sweetness added to it).
Maple syrup - just not doing it for me. Neither is the cinnamon-y granola. I might just have to buy a large bag of that vanilla almond granola I picked up a few weeks ago!

Ok, I'm off. Work, errands, work #2 and then reading. First up - Running with Scissors. Happy Friday everyone :)

Weekend Recap

Heellooo blog buddies! I hope everyone enjoyed their weekends :)

Mine started off with a nice and easy 10 mile run. I ended up running it at 10:25 pace which is faster than I was aiming for, but my legs seemed to be ok with it. Again, I think I need someone to keep me on track! Anyway, when we got home, I had just enough time to give myself a pedicure and eat half a can of corn mixed with some chopped avocado and rice wine vinegar - random, I know but let's not forget what the fridge looked like.

Showered, packed and rushed out the door to begin our Baltimore adventure. We arrived at the hotel just as the bridal party was making its way out for some pre-ceremony photos and the bride was absolutely stunning! No joke - she looked like she belonged on the cover of a bridal magazine!

Since we got a primo parking spot right outside the hotel, Jamie, NY buddy and I decided to grab a cab to the ceremony. Unfortunately we forgot this wasn't the land o' frequent cabs and were left standing post-ceremony confused and lost. We wandered a bit and eventually found a busy street and sure enough a cab came by!

The reception was held at the George Peabody Library (conveniently located 2 blocks from the hotel) and was an amazing place for a reception. We started off in the Exhibition Gallery for the cocktail hour (with lots of yummy apps - crabcakes, mini raviolis, chicken skewers) and then the doors opened to the spectacular Reading Room/Stack Room for dinner.
My pictures don't do the space justice so here's a shot from the website:
It was such an awesome sight in person...and just the right size!

For dinner we had an Herbed Salad (oven roasted tomatoes, basil, arugula and micro-greens topped with toasted goat cheese and a basil chive vinaigrette)
and Chicken Chesapeake (chicken breast topped with fresh crabmeat and champagne shallot sauce) with a side of Roasted Asparagus and Potato Hash (cubes of sweet potatoes and yukon gold sauteed with caramelized onions).
Maryland doesn't mess around when it comes to crab. There were huge chunks of moist crab on top of my chicken...so huge that I was full after eating just the crab and a couple bites of chicken! Yum!

The vegetarian option was a Tomato Rice with Bok Choy and a Spinach Puff Pastry (like how I'm recruiting friends to photograph their dishes? hehe)
I didn't sample it, but the puff pastry thing looked pretty freaking tasty.

We did some dancing, took some girly (aww college neighbors/roomies!) photos
ate some cake
drank some wine and took some artsy photos
drank some more wine and took some silly photos (that will not be posted here haha) and a fabulous time was had by all! :)

As expected, the next morning wasn't so much fun :( In fact, I don't think any of us wanted to wake up to a bottle of this:
Though, it was a super cute and generous welcoming gift for guests :)

We were all hurting a bit from our late night antics and it took us a LONG while to get moving out of the hotel room and to a brunch place. After some Googling, we settled on City Cafe a restaurant recommended by the hotel just a few blocks away.

It was a fun looking restaurant and everything on the menu looked delicious AND reasonably priced. I was a little overwhelmed with all the options so I went with the Breakfast Burrito (scrambled eggs, chopped tomatoes, pepperjack cheese, flour tortilla, guacamole and salsa on the side) with sausage.
When I ordered my burrito, I expected the sausage to be all chopped up and mixed in with the egg (because doesn't that make sense??), but it just arrived on the side. A big fat, flat hunk o sausage. After chopping it up and shoving it in my burrito and making my usual ketchup/hot sauce mixture (yes, I'm like a 5 year old playing with my food), I jumped right into my meal and 10 minutes later, I feel ill...after half a burrito. Way too much egg. Way too much food too fast. Hungover belly wasn't happy so I happily sipped on my beverages:
Yes, all three of them (coffee, Pepsi w/grenadine since they didn't have Cherry Coke, and agua)!

Jamie drove us home and I kept switching off between zoning out and napping. At one point I remember thinking 'hm, I wonder what it would be like to not live in or immediately outside of a city?' I don't know why though...just one of those random thoughts I guess?

Strangely enough, I didn't nap when we got home. Instead, I finished my book (awesome, btw) and when Jamie woke up from his nap, we walked over to the Giant to restock our barren fridge. For some reason, I really wanted tomato soup with veggies so for dinner we had...
You guessed it! Tomato Soup with Veggies

Now, I wasn't about to make a soup from scratch in my state of blah so I had a little help from my friends, box soup
and beef stock...plus a few other helpers.

Super Lazy Tomato Soup
1 1/2 c tomato soup
1/2 c beef stock
3 tbsp cocktail sauce
1 tsp ketchup
1 c frozen mixed vegetables
1/2 small onion, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil

In a saucepan, heat olive oil and cook onion for 3 minutes. Add tomato and cook for another 3 minutes. Add frozen mixed vegetables and stir for 2 minutes.
Add soup, stock, cocktail sauce and ketchup, stir and simmer for 10 minutes.

I know you're thinking 'wait, did she REALLY use cocktail sauce and ketchup??' Yes, I did. I tasted my soup and it didn't have the all the tomatoey taste I wanted it to have so I worked with what I had...and we know I have a ton of condiments! I reached for the cocktail sauce because a) I like cocktail sauce and b) I thought the tomato and horseradishy thing would be a good addition. I tasted again and it was missing something else...something tart. AH HAA! Ketchup! So I went with a little squirt. It didn't hurt ;p

Since I'm home at a decent hour this evening (and I still feel like poop from Saturday) we ordered some sushi for dinner instead of going with our planned Claypot Chicken Curry. Jamie's cooking up a storm in the kitchen as we speak, preparing the curry for lunch/dinner tomorrow :)

Sorry for the long post! I'm off to think about what to submit for this week's BSI (lime!!) while snacking on some Reese's Pieces. Happy August :)

Mizuno, how do I love thee, let me count the pairs...

Oh yes, that's right, I took a picture of my remaining pairs of Inspires (I also had 2 more I got rid of last year). Obsessed much? haha. The two oldest ones are getting dumped in job number two's donation bin this afternoon (sad to see them go)! Lesson learned - stick with what works!

I've got some time to kill before I head off to work, so I've been catching up on blogs (the usual suspects and some new ones) and thinking of next week's dinner menu. Totally forgot that my friend's bachelorette party is tomorrow night so my BSI dinner plans have now moved up to tonight. I think I'm going to go with a variation on a trusty standby...stay tuned.

Munchies kicked in a little while ago so I made myself an omelet for brunch:
I used 2 eggs, a sprinkle of chili powder, freshly ground black pepper and some Adobo seasoning. Inside this delectable creation: 1 tbsp medium salsa, 1 tbsp black beans (leftover from a salad!), and a sprinkle of pepper jack cheese. I topped it with some avocado slices (gotta have it!) a spoonful of salsa and a splash of lime juice for fun. Notice I didn't use any hot sauce? Proud?? :D

I've got a pretty long post in the works for this evening (sorry foodies, it's running related :\), but I must leave you now so I can veg a bit before work. Have a great Friday afternoon :)

Almost time for the long weekend!!

Hi all,

Sorry for disappearing again. I haven't been feeling too great this week...for some reason I've been really dehydrated lately. We're talking crazy dry mouth, wake up in the middle of the night dehydrated. And what I don't get is where all the water is going! I'm drinking a ton to compensate for the dry mouth feeling (btw, it's gotten to the point where I'm sick of drinking water, but I feel like I have to), but still have bright yellow pee? Whaat? Sorry, TMI, but that's what's been going on. I was so exhausted last night I could barely think about blogging (I've been writing a ton of stuff for work and my brain is fried) and didn't have anything fun to eat. Perhaps I'm just over stressed :(

Yesterday morning I bagged some toast for breakfast and a small container of this:
I was obsessed with this stuff when we were in Grenada this past November. We were staying at the Bogles Roundhouse on the smaller island of Carriacou for a few days and breakfast was always a spread of cereals, bread, guava and nutmeg jams, and fresh fruit. It was an AWESOME place to stay. The owners, Roxy and Phil, live above the Roundhouse (the delicious restaurant) and their friendly dogs are always around. The cottages are simple and spacious - no TV or A/C - and are a great way to detach yourself from the stress of modern life. *sigh* I want to go back!

Anyway, guava jam is delicious on toast...or anything really ;)

For lunch, I packed some of that salad I prepped on Sunday:
With avocado and an egg (kept it in it's shell so it wasn't like a big woosh of stank when I opened it up at lunch time) and dressed with about 1 1/2 tbsp red wine vinegar, 1 tbsp olive oil and some pepper. The richness of the avocado and egg were a great match for the acidity from the tomatoes and cucumbers.

So last night instead of running, I walked about .5 to .75 miles home (PARCHED, which was why I decided no running) and then got sucked into the trainwreck that is NYC Prep. Have any of you checked this new Bravo series out? I was just flipping through the channels and I COULDN'T STOP WATCHING. AGH! Hate when that happens.

Basically it's The Hills meets Gossip Girl meets Real Housewives of NYC meets obnoxious, bratty children. These kids are absolutely ridiculous. There's this guy PC who is 18, but thinks he's 20-something and acts like such a tool. I just want to shake him and be like dude, get over yourself. YOU'RE 18! A BAAAABY!! And who lets their 16 year old daughter live in an apartment in NYC with no adult supervision? Seriously? Whatever. I still can't believe I watched two straight episodes. I will never get those hours back. Grr.

I was going to do my 5 miles this morning, but again, woke up a ton of times in the middle of the night barely able to swallow. Still NO CLUE where my 3 glasses of water went. I brought some Nuun tabs with me to work this morning hoping that maybe I just need electrolyte replenishment instead of water.

I love Nuun. They are these effervescent tablets (think Airborne) that you dunk into a cup of water and poof, instant electrolyte replenishment!
I've had Citrus Fruit and Tri-Berry...heard Lemon Lime is like drinking Sprite and I've also heard the Cola is gross. We just got a new flavor at the store - Banana. People seem to like it, Jamie thought it wasn't bad...I thought it was weird...like drinking water with a banana Now and Later in it. Very strange.

Nuun is great to have post long run. I've also learned that it's great to keep on you when you travel. Our trip to Grenada was not only my first island trip, it was also the first time I ever got the big D on vacation (and by big D I mean what you think I mean plus major dehydration). Still not sure how it happened, but I ended up almost passing out while we toured a nutmeg factory even after drinking a lot of water. I knew I needed a Gatorade or Powerade...something, but there wasn't any around. Enter Nuun to save the day! YAY!

Ok, enough gushing about Nuun. Point is, it made me feel a little better.

Tonight's dinner was fast and not exciting. We were supposed to have large salads for dinner last night, but we both ended up skipping dinner all together. That meant large salads for dinner tonight!
Greens, CORN, feta, pre-cooked turkey strips and greek dressing. I usually hate the pre-cooked turkey or chicken strips b/c they kinda smell weird and usually have an odd texture. Has anyone else noticed that it's not the same as regular strips of turkey or chicken?? I'll buy them every so often when I get lazy and then I'm reminded about how much I don't like the texture. Wow, this blog post is all over the place. Sorry!

I'm off to start packing (at 10pm!) for my mini vacay to my parents' house. Fingers crossed I can find my camera cord so I can post pictures as I blog to you live from Scotch Plains, NJ, home of...well, me. Excited? Apparently I'm from one of Business Week's Best Affordable Suburbs. Good or bad thing? Jury's still out.

I spoke with my mom this afternoon and she's got a crazy menu planned for the weekend so prepare yourselves for the food fest! What are your 4th of July plans?