Well, the gluttony certainly knows no bounds.
Kate and I went out to spend the afternoon with Gina in her ‘hood. We started admirably with a five-mile run — six arduous and windy loops around Marine Park: 55 minutes, 454 calories, 151 average heart rate, 179 max. When we got back to Gina’s house, her husband Chris surprised her with a dozen roses and TWO boxes of JoMart chocolates which we ALL attacked immediately (thanks, Chris!).
Specialty chocolates:
I think I had at least one of each kind. I remember a 2-layer hazelnut square, dark chocolate-covered oreo, marshmalow-filled coffee bean truffle, chocolate-filled dark chocolate truffle, peanut butter cup, and there were probably more.
Oh, and this butterfingery peanut butter puff was the best one:
Box #2 was full of broken chunks of dark and milk chocolate. The dark chocolate tasted just like cocoa, sooooooo good. I ate several (fyi, whenever I use the term “several,” I mean at least seven) pieces because I was on a roll.
And then we began preparations for our actual Valentine meal (because the chocolate wasn’t it, in case you were wondering).
Gina worked on the waffles until she made a mess:
Chris had to take over:
Meanwhile, Gina’s ice cream maker had been sitting on her counter right where Kate and I left it last time we were there! The “ice cream” mix I prepared this morning and brought over included … well, what didn’t it include?
There was nonfat cottage cheese, nonfat Greek yogurt, cranberries, apple, banana, apple butter, strawberries, valentine m&ms that Deborah gave me at work yesterday, crumbled bits of chocolate-covered pretzel from my blogger secret cupid, shredded coconut, vanilla, dates, and maybe more? Kate brilliantly brought along some mini red velvet cupcakes that she had frozen after her dinner party a while back, so we crumbled those into the mix, too. The end result was some amazingly delicious and rich “strawberry cheesecake ice cream”!
Here’s my first plate, topped with banana, more chocolate chunks, and crumbled hazelnut thins that Gina brought home from her trip to the London Harrod’s last fall:
Here’s my second plate:
My camera didn’t make it to the third plate in time. Well, the food didn’t actually make it to the plate before I inhaled it, either. But it looked something like this:
I wasn’t actually hungry for any of this, by the way. But it tasted good, and I couldn’t stop!
Then we broke into the giant chocolate heart brownie that Chris’ mom made:
With our bites:
I had seconds of the brownie, too 
.
When I got home, I did a serious reorganization of the contents of the fridge, freezer, cabinets, and pantry. It’s hard to keep track of stuff when you live with two other people! This was a very stressful process, and I have to admit that I continued to snack on too much of too many unhealthy things while I worked (the binge finally ended when I sat down with a piece of pumpkin kibbi and then brushed my teeth). I discovered that Brigitte actually had SEVEN boxes of white rice, three of which were open and the SAME brand. I did a lot of consolidating, and I am happy to say that everything is now accessible! We’ll see how long it stays this way …
So anyway, I feel ill from all of the junk I’ve been downing nonstop this week, and I’m so excited to feel better tomorrow and return to a life of balanced nutrition! I finally got around to dyeing my hair tonight, and everyone knows that fresh color is the ideal setting for a fresh start :-D. See you on the other side!
The festivities for the day included a secret office valentine gift swap. Jennifer was my Cupid and got these adorable socks for me. I can’t wait to wear them tomorrow!
Tales of Expansion: Baby Butternut Edition 