Fourth of July Grill Out, Chill Out!

It's been a laidback and delicious Fourth of July! Paul and I grilled out with friends and lit a few sparklers leftover from last year. Sadly, it rained super hard today, so we opted out of buying more fireworks.

Paul and I celebrated our 12-year anniversary on Saturday night (more on that in tomorrow night's post), so I may have had one too many celebratory beers the night before Fourth of July. And I woke up feeling kind of icky. But I had a 5-mile training run planned, and I'm stubborn as hell. So, while Paul was still sleeping, I snuck out for a run (after I hydrated with lots of water spiked with Nuun electrolyte tabs, of course). Running really is the best hangover cure. I felt totally fine after I sweated it out. The key is staying hydrated the whole time.

While I was running, I passed an abandoned lot closed off with a chainlink fence decorated with lots of American flags.

After my run, I downed a quick protein shake (just Vega One chocolate powder and coconut milk). Then I showered and headed to Imagine Vegan Cafe. They were offering a Fourth of July Vegan Cheesestick special! Chef Don made these with homemade cashew cheese, and they're available while supplies last. My friends Stephanie and Pam were working at Imagine today, so it was nice to see them while I noshed on these amazing cheesesticks with marinara and vegan honey-mustard dressing.

When I got home, the sky was about to open up! We didn't bother to check the weather, so we'd planned on getting fireworks and grilling out. But the rain came down hard, and there were multiple thunderstorms and flash flooding. In a break between storms, we set up a shade tent in the yard, and we thought we'd put the grill underneath. But then another storm came through and completed devastated our tent (it was already kind of broken). Finally, we just decided to move the grill to the covered porch. 

Paul made some meat, but the rest of our food was vegan. I threw some Field Roast Frankfurters on the grill, as well as some corn on the cob. I basted zucchini and squash slices with garlic-parsley salsa verde. And I made some creamy potato salad. Our friends Tyler and Donna came over and brought a yummy tomato-cucumber salad made with produce from their garden.

For dessert, we had slices of a super juicy watermelon. Tyler and Donna's kid Otto loves watermelon, and even though he wasn't interested in eating dinner, he had lots of melon.

I wish we could have eaten outside since it was Fourth of July, but everything was all wet. So we ate at the dining room table like real adults.

While I'm bummed that we didn't get to do fireworks this year, I'm glad we didn't give up on grilling! Such a good meal, and I have leftovers for lunches all week. I did catch a few minutes of the official Memphis fireworks show downtown though! It'd stopped raining by the evening, so the fireworks went on as planned. And honestly, since I always buy cheap, crappy fireworks, that professional show is way better than doing fireworks at home anyway.