DC-Take Two

It's been a long time since I have blogged... blame UNC. If anyone remembers, Mitch and I went to DC about a year ago and tried to see it in literally 24 hours. We did get to see quite a bit this way but there were still some things I missed and we had been meaning to go back. Since I last blogged a lot has happened. Mitch has matched for a residency program in Urology at University of Utah, so back to the moutains we go!! We have loved our time in NC and are sad to leave, but so excited to be back and close to family. With our time left East dwindling, we have made a list of things left to see/do before we make that trek across the country. Going back to DC was one of them.

Our good friends Christine and Logan are having a baby in less than a month now, and had a beautiful free crib awaiting them near DC, so we volunteered to go and get the crib and see some sites with over Easter weekend. We left Friday night and got in late, so our site seeing began Saturday morning. Christine had a baby shower so Logan came with Mitch and I and we headed to Mount Vernon.

 

I honestly didn't know much about Mr. George Washington so it was a great learning experience! It was also a pretty beautiful day to walk around a massive plantation overlooking the Potamic River.

Next we headed into the city... bad call. It was super crowded and traffic was nuts due to some kite-flying festival. So instead of seeing the Holocaust Museum we headed back out of the city and over to the National Cathedral. We were able to meet up with Christine, her brother and his family to eat dinner and then get a peek at Easter Mass in the Cathedral.

The next morning Mitch and I went into the city earlier to make sure I got to the Holocaust Museum. We were lucky to get our tickets and have an hour to spare. To make good use of time we headed to the tidal basin in front of Jefferson Memorial and did some paddle boating. I have to say this may have been my favorite part of the trip... granted it would have been better if the cherry blossoms had bloomed, but still! It gave us great views of the Jefforson Memorial, and the Washington Monument.

Finally we made it to the Holocaust Museum, which was really the main reason I wanted to go to DC again. It was a somber, humbling experience and shed a lot of light on things I had no idea happened in WWII.

 

After the museum, we stopped by Franklin D. Roosevelt's and Martin Luther King's monuments, both of which were spectacular. FDR's is pretty cool with some creative fountains and even a giant Lucy statue. MLK's is one Mitch had never seen with it being so new, so that was fun for him.

All in all it was another successful trip, and we were luckily able to fit all of Christine's cute baby gifts and crib into our Jeep for the ride home! It was supposed to be the Cherry Blossom Festival in DC while we were there but we missed the peak blooming by about a day... So here are some blossoms we did see while in DC. :)











PB Chocolate Protein Bars

I am taking a Sports Nutrition class at UNC this semester, and my professor showed us a recipe for some protein bars that offer a healthier alterntive to the proccessed bars you buy at the grocery store. I need something I can bring with me and eat on the go on campus, and this recipe seems to do the job. Also, it fulfills my chocolate need for the day!! So here it is folks:

PB Chocolate Protein Bars

 

1 cup of oat flour (I just blended oats in our chopper)

4 egg whites

2 Scoops protein powder (I used chocolate but vanilla works too)

1/4 c Stevia

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 c unsweetened applesauce (mine had cinnamon added)

3 tbs unsweetened baking cocoa

4 oz. unsweetened almond milk

1/4 c all natural peanut butter (1/3 c if you LOVE pb)

4 tbsp non-fat Greek yogurt

 

Add all ingredients in a large mixing bowl, and mix. Place batter in a prepared 8x8 baking dish. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

 

I doubled the batch that is pictured, so they are a little thicker than I would have liked, so I cut mine into smaller pieces. If you want to double it, I would spilt it into 2 8x8's or 8x11's.

 

Nutritional Info:

16 servings; 1 bar contains: 6g carbs, 6g protein, 2g fat, 73 calories total