St. Patrick's Weekend Recap!

I love St. Patrick's Day! Nothing makes me happier than to see people participating in holiday fun, so I'm always giddy when I see random strangers wearing green on St. Paddy's Day. Plus, we all know much I love beer! I also have a soft spot for Irish food, probably because way down the family line, I've got a little Irish in me.

My St. Pat's fun actually started several days before the holiday though. Our Crosstown Running Crew had our monthly group run on Wednesday, and we encouraged everyone to wear green. And then on Thursday, Misti, Paul, and I took part in my very favorite St. Pat's tradition — the Breakaway Running Pub Run! Misti and I have been doing this annual run for three years now, and I wouldn't miss it for the world.

We start at Breakaway Running — our local Midtown running store — and run to three bars. The more you drink, the easier running gets! We ran from Breakaway to Memphis Made Brewery, then to Hammer & Ale, and then to Slider Inn, where we also snacked on sliders and fries (a Vegan Triple B Slider for me!). We made some new runner friends at Slider, so we followed them to LBOE for a little more socializing before calling it a night.

On Saturday, I had a 10-mile long run planned, so I woke up early and had this pre-run breakfast of Irish Steel Cut Oats with vegan butter, maple, cinnamon, and walnuts. I finally got some of the vegan Bailey's Almande! So I made Irish coffee too!

I planned my route so that I would pass through the Cooper-Young neighborhood just as their annual St. Pat's parade was lining up. I missed the actual parade, but I got to see some of the walking groups and floats lined up and waiting to start. After my run, of course I had to have a green smoothie! This has kiwi, apple, banana, spinach, almond milk, pumpkin seeds, flax seed, and vanilla protein powder.

Around 1:30 pm, I met up with Andy and Tyler for green beer (the Siren Blonde Ale) at Crosstown Brewing Co. 

Then we stopped back by my house for a few Irish car bombs before heading downtown for the St. Patrick's parade on Beale. This was the first year I was able to use vegan Bailey's and Guinness for my car bombs! In the past, I had to use other brands of beer for my stout since Guinness wasn't vegan yet, and I always made my own vegan Bailey's. But now I can just buy the real thing! So cool that these two companies are now vegan-friendly!

Then it was off to the parade downtown! We scored so many beads!

After the parade, we went back home, and I whipped up some Corned Beet & Cabbage with Colcannon — both recipes from The Superfun Times Vegan Holiday Cookbook. 

I had a lot of trouble with the corned beet seitan recipe, mostly because I didn't follow directions. I tried making it the night before in a slow cooker, even though the recipe says to cook it on the stovetop for four hours. I just didn't have four hours! The seitan was super spongey, so I tried steaming it in foil Saturday morning after my run. That still didn't firm it up, so I tried baking it. Ha! After all of that, the seitan was still too soft, not meaty enough. Thankfully, a few hours in the fridge did the trick, finally making it sliceable and meaty.

The colcannon is just mashed potatoes with olive oil and kale. Simple and delicious!

After dinner, we headed to Crosstown Arts for an art opening, and then we hung out with some of my co-workers at Crosstown Brewing before calling it a night. Good times!