Deep Fried Butter and Other Weekend Indiscretions

I usually indulge a little on weekends but my treats tend to be of a more refined variety – gourmet meals at fancy restaurants, decadent desserts and expensive wine. This weekend, however, I pretty much ate like a college kid – I ate pizza three days in a row and helped myself to food I usually avoid like poutine, loaded nachos, Swiss waffles and beer.

And then there were the deep fried butter balls.

Yesterday, I went to the CNE, where deep fried butter made its much-hyped debut last year. Much has been written about it since, most of it decrying deep fried butter as an excessively indulgent heart-attack-waiting-to-happen. You should have seen some of the judgmental stares being cast at those of us lined up outside of the stand.

Relax guys. Eating 1 or 2 of these once a year is not going to kill you. People should worry more about their day-to-day eating habits, which, let’s face it, aren’t so great as far as the average North American is concerned.

But back to the deep fried butter. I tried these purely out of curiousity and really didn’t expect to like them (I thought they’d be too… well… buttery) but you know what? They were pretty effing amazing. I ended up eating two.

Actually, I enjoyed everything I ate this weekend and didn’t feel gross at all, which is surprising given that my system isn’t used to eating a lot of deep fried junk. I think the trick was, I didn’t eat too much of any one thing – all of it was shared among friends and I didn’t eat beyond the point of fullness. I also stayed active and kept my breakfasts and lunches healthy.

That being said, I would now like to extend an apology to my gastrointestinal system for putting it through all that. I promise that we will now return to our regularly scheduled programming of whole grains, healthy fats, produce and lean protein. Like tonight’s dinner for example – home made pesto made from these simple ingredients:

I blended almonds, garlic, parsley, mint leaves, terragon, lemon juice and olive oil in a food processor and served it with whole wheat spaghetti, broccoli and ricotta cheese. Another succesful recipe from my Power Foods cook book. This is the fifth recipe I’ve tried and so far all have been delicious. This was definitely one of my favourites:

After dinner, I headed out for an 11 km tempo run. I was so excited to go for a run tonight – after my batteries died less than halfway through Saturday’s run, I couldn’t wait to run to the rest of the new songs on my playlist. My legs, however, were less than stoked to head out for a run after walking around at the Ex all day yesterday. The first few kilometres were really, really hard but things eventually got easier.

Post-run I had a cinnamon raisin bagel thin with a bit of peanut butter and a glass of skim milk.

Cinammon raisin bagel thins are my new favourite thing in life.

Would you ever try deep fried butter? What’s the most outrageously decadent thing you’ve ever eaten?