Pregnant Food Belly!

Today started off like any other Sunday for me, sorta...After I got my hair re-braided I decided to meet up with a friend at my FAVORITE local coffee bar LUX to discuss the new ipad2 and to catch up. After our meeting I was famished and decided that I was going to go get something to eat, and man! I went IN! Maybe I should back up and start off by saying that during the week I eat clean, meaning no "treats" or "cheat meals" and I also train 90-120 minutes 6X per week. So today I decided that I wanted to have a mini food crawl (which technically started yesterday) and enjoy some of the delicious, local cuisine.

Today my first stop was La Tolteca located at 1205 East Van Buren Street in Phoenix, AZ. Let me tell ya, this place is like a foodie's version of heaven! From delicious (and inexpensive) pastries to authentic Mexican staples such as lengua (tongue) tacos this place has it all!! The staff is friendly and willing to give large samples of the food. Today I was feeling rather adventurous so I opted for a carne asada torta on a traditional Mexican roll with refried beans, house made guacamole, tomato, lettuce and onion. I love their salsa verde, so I added that on the side and OMG! it was incredible! So incredible I could only eat 1/4 of the sandwich. The meat is full of flavor and uber tender. The vegetables and guacamole were super fresh and really took the sandwich to the next level! Because no meal is complete without dessert, I had some sort of cone shaped pastry which the most decadent, creamy vanilla filling I have ever tasted (honestly I think it was pudding). The pastry itself tasted like a sweet roll. All I can say is...wow! The bakery is full of cakes, cookies, cream-filled desserts, tres leches cakes, and anything else one can imagine.

My next stop today was the original Ranch Market located in the heart of Phoenix off of 16th St. and Roosevelt. They also have some of the best pastries in town! Sooo...this is where my food crawl started yesterday with not one but three treats (don't judge me lol). Since I don't want to sound like such a piglet on first blog, I will only describe one of the treats I purchased. So I saw this golden, round, humongous cookie with cream in the middle and I was sold! The was the mother load of all cookies! It was so buttery and sweet, but so sweet that the cookie overpowered the cream filling. It was the perfect combination of cookie and cream. That little piece of cookie heaven was only $.89! Ya can't beat that folks! Aside from the outstanding bakery, Ranch Market also has a full service fruit and vegetable juice bar, authentic Mexican food, fresh produce and even a jewelry store (I kid ya not!). It's almost like a mini Walmart in some respects. Forgive me, but there is a restaurant next to Ranch Market where fresh tortillas are made daily and I cannot remember the name for the life of me! Grrrr! I'll have to add that information to my next post.

Stay tuned for new places to eat and shop around town as well has health and nutritional advice. While I am not a registered dietician, I can offer advice on things that have worked and continue to work me on my quest to remain an active and healthy young woman!

Ciao!