Colombian Adventure: Part I

Happy Happy Friday!

It’s time to begin the big Bogotá, Colombia recap! I was going to try to fit it all into one post but it was nearly impossible, so I’m going to break it down into two posts: the first half of the trip and the second half of the trip. I weeded through the photos to condense as much as possible, yet still fill you in on the good stuff. It wasn’t easy, but here’s what I came up with.

The first half of our Colombian adventure

Upon arrival in Bogotá, we met up with my brother Jeff who lives and works in the city and is also fluent in spanish. He had to finish up a couple of things at work, so Dana and I spent a couple of hours relaxing, and I talked myself into a 25-minute yoga session. Denise Austin really makes you work.

Later in the evening, our gracious host was home so we cleaned up and headed out to meet up with some friends for dinner.

The restaurant we went to was called Carta Central and their specialty is ceviche. Jeff said we had to experience their ceviche.

We ordered a couple of appetizers: one was fried seafood (calamari, shrimp, etc.) and the other was ceviche served with avocados. I snapped photos of both of them but they turned out to be pretty hideous, so they got the “x”.

I’m not a huge “fishy-fish” person meaning I don’t like my fish to taste fishy, and I’m weird about textures when it comes to seafood too, so I went the safer route and chose a shrimp ceviche where the shrimp are fully cooked. This particular dish came in a light cream sauce with plantains and chives. It was awesome! My first experience with ceviche was definitely a good one.

It was super dark in the restaurant so I apologize for the terrible flash on this bad boy but you can at least get an idea of my delicious dish.

Here is our wonderful group at dinner…

After dinner we walked back to Jeff’s place and crashed. We needed our rest for the adventures of tomorrow.

Saturday in Bogotá

In the morning we walked over to a restaurant called Bagatelle for some breakfast. Colombia is known for their amazing juices so Dana and I split a guanabana mandarin juice (on the left) and Jeff got pineapple juice with mint. Both were excellent and so refreshing!

I love all of the fresh herbs used in Colombia. It inspires me to want to try to grow a mint plant in my house this winter. Is that possible? Any thoughts?

For breakfast I ordered some type of egg souffle. I was challenged each time we went out to eat considering I couldn’t understand half of the menu. I took spanish back in middle school and freshman year of high school, and I still remember some vocab, but not enough to decipher over the content of the menus and be 100% sure of my decision. 🙂 Also, I didn’t want to bother my brother or Dana each time it came down to it since they were trying to decide on their order as well. I did my best, and the boys (and Ana) helped me too.

Back to this egg dish…what they do is mix the egg whites with parmesan cheese and they whip them up and bake them so it turns into a souffle and in the middle of the puffy mass are two runny yolks. It looked like a TON of food when it was brought to the table, but it was actually very light, yet still filling. Again, the power of eggs and their satiety rate I tell ya.

After breakfast, Jeff, Ana, Dana and I made our way out to explore the city. Our first stop was taking a gondola up to the top of a mountain to visit Monserrate which is a beautiful church in the mountains.

Did I mention I’m claustrophobic? I was happy the packed gondola ride was a short one.

The stunning views on top of the mountain…

The entrance to the market area…

And the market where I tried ants for the first time and the last time. Ants are a delicacy in Colombia. There are only two regions in Colombia where they find these ants. They fry them and salt them and I have also heard they come in chocolate-covered, and people eat them. When in Rome…I tried some ants.

Okay, I tried a single ant. It tasted like a salty dirty soy nut. I may have preferred chocolate covered? I am proud of myself for trying it but am happy to say I never have to do that again.

After our mountain adventure, we walked over to La Candelaria which is a historic area in downtown Bogotá. We all shared a bag of freshly fried plantain chips which were SO good.

The side streets were lined with small cafes and restaurants. We stopped into one and ordered an authentic tamale which we all split.

Pretty tasty!

Next stop, empanadas. Tamales and empanadas were two things on my list of foods to try while in Bogotá.

They were pretty good but not as good as a homemade version a Colombian friend of mine makes. 😉

We ended up having a snacky lunch with the plantain chips, the tamale, and empanadas which I actually prefer to one big meal. That way I am able to try more foods and not be completely stuffed.

I bought a sweet treat while we were at the tamale place. I am not 100% sure what it’s made of but I do know the outside is candied guava. The inside is sort of like a thick caramel. I really enjoyed this guy.

I’m going to stop there and save Saturday evening-Monday for the next Bogotá post. I am having so much fun reliving the memories! We seriously had such an incredible time and were able to see so much of the city in such a short period of time.

More to come soon!

Have a wonderful day my friends!

 

 

Continue Reading Colombian Adventure: Part I

The Beginning of Our Journey: South Beach Style

Hi to my amazing readers! I’m back!

We made it home safe and sound from our vacation to Bogotá, Colombia. We had deemed this vacation as an extended part of our wedding anniversary celebration. We had a layover in Miami, so we planned a couple of days in South Beach to enjoy the weather and relax before heading to Bogotá. We had the greatest time while we were away.

I am going to start the recap of our trip and do my best to condense our day and a half stay in Miami into one post today. It might be a dooooozy! You have been forewarned.

Miami Recap: Day One

Wednesday morning we flew out of Minneapolis and began the journey to Miami. Coffees in hand were necessary being we were up at 3 am.

Bienvenido a Miami. We stayed at the beautiful Hilton Bentley right on south beach. We were greeted by the friendly staff as well a complimentary bottle of Prosecco. Our room was gorgeous; complete with white robes, a kitchen, living room, and a stunning beach and city view.

      

The weather was perfect the entire time we were there; about 80° F and sunny. I was anxious to get out and enjoy the sun and we were both pretty hungry at this point, so we changed into our swimsuits and shorts, heading down to the walking path by the beach, and walked to a restaurant called The Front Porch. I couldn’t help but keep singing Vanilla Ice’s,  Ice Ice Baby lyrics, “the block was dead yo, so I continued to A1A Beachfront Avenue!”

I ordered the chicken satay omelett which was made up of eggs of course, basil, grilled chicken, mozzarella, spinach, and a satay sacue made from peanuts, red curry paste, coconut milk, cilantro, and lime.

It was such an unusual combination that I never would have imagined but it was AMAZING.

The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing and enjoying the sun. We laid by the pool, went in the hot tub, enjoyed our Prosecco, and later headed out to explore more of Miami.

On our way to dinner, we made a pit stop at Kardashian’s DASH Miami to check it out and who knows, maybe run in to one of the girls?! No such luck with the celebrity spotting but it was neat to go inside. I really liked the clothing but it was slightly out of my price range!

We ate dinner at Larios On the Beach along Ocean Drive. The restaurant is owned by Gloria Estefan and has excellent Cuban food. I ordered Ropa Viejo which is shredded beef with onions and peppers in tomato Cuban criolla sauce, served with plantains, and rice and beans.

I am a huge fan of Cuban food. My goodness that dinner was great! While enjoying dinner we also were highly entertained by passerby’s who were dressed up in their Halloween get-up.

After dinner we headed over to Lincoln Road which is an area lined with shops, bars, and restaurants.This is where the action was. People were packed in the streets and sidewalks, and the majority were dressed in costume. It was insane!

I was completely overwhelmed as I walked through this area, trying to weed through the crowd, yet also notice each and every costume and take it all in. The energy was incredible, but I was definitely happy once we were clear of the chaos. I should have packed my costume! What was I thinking? Oh well!

I think we calculated about 7 miles that we had covered on foot for the day. The combination of that and being sleep deprived put me right into a sleep coma as soon as we made it back to the hotel.

Miami Day Two

I did my best to follow a gluten-free diet while away on vacation. I gave in a couple of times but for the most part did a pretty great job. On day 2, we ate breakfast at the hotel and I managed to keep it very GF friendly (that’s gluten-free not girlfriend btw). 😉

Eggs, bacon, sausage (not a fan), fresh fruit, and coffee of course.

After our protein-packed breakfast, we laced up and headed out for a long walk to scope out more of South Beach. We made our way to the beach, and to a long boardwalk. We then curved around and covered foot on more of the “city” area as well.

Absolutely stunning views.

We rented bikes for the afternoon and drove down towards Lincoln Road again to scope out a place to eat lunch. To give you some idea of how well our breakfasts held us over, we ate breakfast at about 9:30, and we didn’t eat lunch/weren’t hungry for lunch until around 4:00 pm. That’s the power of protein! So really we were out on the prowl for late lunch/early dinner….Linner.

  

I was overwhelmed by the number of dining options, but knew I was in the mood for some veggies. We peaked at the menus and decided on a restaurant called Nexxt. They served just about everything you could ever want.

I must have been in a Thai food mood while in Miami because I ordered the Thai Cilantro Cashew Chicken Salad (the day before I ordered the Thai peanut omelett). But really how can you go wrong with peanut sauce?

 

I took off the fried tortillas and really went to town on this thing. It was monstrous and I was so glad because I was loving every bite of it. I walked away feeling satisfied. We hopped on our bikes and made our way back to the hotel.

One last trip to the hot tub. I felt like it was our own private hot tub because no one was in there either times we went! VIP baby.

Since we ate a late lunch/early dinner, and neither of us our ones to stay up too late, we decided against going to dinner. We headed out though around 8 pm to walk the city one last time, and to grab some frozen yogurt. Our phones guided us to a frozen yogurt shop about 10 blocks up from our hotel only to lead us to what was now a travel agency of some sort. Thanks a lot. Oh well, at least we had a nice walk.

We headed towards the next location on the map. It was closed. I believe there was a third stop in there. It was open but didn’t look too impressive. Maybe we weren’t meant to get frozen yogurt? Okay, let’s try the very last one on the map. Apparently frozen yogurt isn’t too popular in this area yet. The last attempt led us to a gelato shop called 4D. Hey, they were open, and although it wasn’t frozen yogurt, at this point we were more than ready for a cool treat.

The not-so-friendly gal behind the counter served us up a nice two scoop cup of gelato (caramel swirl and chocolate hazelnut for me), and we walked out of there smiling. Mission accomplished!

Nothing beats Italy’s gelato though I tell ya. Nothing. We headed back to our hotel, packed up our room, and called it an early night. Our flight was taking off early the next morning and we wanted to be well-rested for the next leg of our journey.

I would absolutley recommend visiting South Beach. There is so much to see, it is a great area for people watching (Halloween or not), the weather is unbeatable, and the food is incredible.

We so enjoyed our time in Miami and the Hotel Bentley was wonderfully accommodating. So that’s our Miami vaca in a nutshell. Next up, our trip to Bogota to visit my brother Jeffrey. It may take me more than one post to fill you all in on that portion, but it will be coming soon!

It’s bittersweet to be back. Although I was only gone for 6 days, I missed everyone at home, but now it’s back to reality. Time to make more money to fund our next vacation! 😉

I hope you all are having a great week so far. Happy hump day and happy no more Presidential ad campaigns! Wooooo!

 

Continue Reading The Beginning of Our Journey: South Beach Style

I Witch You a Happy Halloween

Light up those pumpkins, get your bowl of candy ready for those trick-or-treaters, the day is finally here. Since we already had our Halloween party last weekend, and since we aren’t going to be home for Halloween, I actually feel like the day has come and gone already. But no no. ‘Tis here.

How about some old snapshots from past Halloweens? Shall we?

Halloween 2008: Sheriff and a convict, college style. I made my costume myself by using black duck tape across old white clothes that I never wear. I went to the dollar store and bought plastic handcuffs too. Sheer genius right? 😉

Halloween 2009: Danny and Sandy from Grease

Halloween 2010: I thought I would throw a nerdy pumpkin picture in this mix…

And we were a birthday party princess and a piñata this year. This was one of my all-time favorites. Dana’s costume was NOT easy to make but so worth it!

Halloween 2011: No dressing up this year because I was in my dear friend Angela’s wedding that weekend.

Halloween 2012: As you’ve seen already, we were Ms. Kourtney Kardashian and Mr. Scott Disick this year.

I love getting creative when it comes to Halloween, but it seems like every year when the time rolls around I am always scrambling until the last minute to pull something together. Why is that? Oh yes, such is life.

Anyway…we are off to Colombia! Wooooo! I won’t be blogging while I am away but I do have a couple of posts lined up for ya including a special guest post. Don’t miss me too much! I can’t wait to fill you in when I get back.

Oh and if you’re anything like me, you’re possibly interested in what I ate yesterday, and since I have some photos lying around, here ya go!

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with spinach, cheese, and ketchup.

Lunch: Carrots and sugar snap peas, an apple, a banana with peanut butter and cinnamon, and a handful of peanut butter M & M’s.

Dinner: hodge-podge salad with mixed greens, tomato, bell peppers, peas, avocado, and turkey bacon. SO GOOD!

There may have been a couple of halloween candies that jumped into my mouth too. Just maybe.

This post is finally ending now. Sorry for all of the exclamation marks!!! I’m excited for vacation! Will miss you all!

 

Continue Reading I Witch You a Happy Halloween

Cowboy Caviar Mini Bell Peppers

What a great weekend that went by all too fast as always. How about catching you up a bit from the last time we touched base which would be Saturday around lunch time.

In my belly…a harvest pear salad with romaine lettuce, pears, walnuts, feta cheese, and poppy-seed dressing. Complete with fall leaves in the background of the photo.

After lunch I got to work preparing an appetizer for a Halloween party we were going to that evening.

Cowboy Caviar Mini Bell Peppers

I combined tomatoes, black beans, corn, avocado, red onion, cilantro, lime juice, cumin, garlic powder, salt and pepper to make a cowboy caviar. I then halved orange and yellow mini bell peppers, took out the seeds and the stem, and filled each boat with cowboy caviar. Delicious, healthy and beautiful to boot!

To the Halloween part-ay we went. We were greeted by this beautiful witch brewing up a secret potion and making snarky remarks at us.

Before I reveal what Dana and I dressed up as, let’s have a little fun and let me give you some hints and see if you can guess.

  1. I am holding our newest child Penelope.
  2. Our son Mason is at auntie Kimmy’s for the night.

Any Kardashian fans out there? I was Kourtney Kardashian and Dana was her boyfriend Scott Disick. That’s alright if you didn’t get it, most of our friends didn’t know either.

Our lovely hosts for the evening were Freddie Mercury (Adam) and Katniss (Stacy). It made me feel better that I didn’t know who either of them were dressed up as either. It was a general theme for the night—no one knew who anyone was supposed to be.

Except for the egg. I knew that Amanda was an egg. 😉

We had a great time as always being with our friends, munching on some great chow, and  laughing at everyone’s ridiculous costumes. We were home and into bed by midnight and I was wide awake at 8:00 am Sunday morning.

Sunday

I made myself a chopped banana with Parkers Farm peanut butter and cinnamon.

I also drank a cup of coffee while we flipped through the Sunday paper. Next, we hit the road for our grocery shopping extravaganza. We will be leaving for our vacation to Colombia in just a few days, but we needed to stock up the fridge for a very special guest who will be staying at our house with the pup.

We got a late start on running our errands so by the time we got home it was 1:00 pm and we were both very hungry. I notice that’s a common theme around our house. I was excited that I had leftover cowboy caviar from the appetizer on Saturday, so we cooked up a few over easy eggs, topped them on top the leftover cowboy caviar with some cheese, and had a protein packed and super tasty meal within minutes.

In the afternoon I made myself change into workout clothes and took the dog out for 2.6 mile run around the neighborhood. I could tell I was tired and dehydrated because it was a pretty difficult run for me.

A very good friend of mine was in town for the weekend so I got to see him and his beautiful girlfriend for a little while, then mom and dad stopped over too! After that we did a little packing and got ourselves ready for the week ahead.

Oh and we ate dinner too…a turkey burger served on top of a salad with onion, tomato, cheese, and green olives.

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Yoga Challenge

Since it’s Monday that means it’s time to check in on the last October Yoga Challenge for the month! I can’t believe the month is over in a couple of days. I kind of feel like October didn’t happen it flew by so fast, but IT DID. Don’t let me fool you.

This past week I got in not one, but two yoga sessions. The first one was a full body session and the second was a session geared towards athletes. I completed the whole month’s challenge using OnDemand yoga sessions. Once again, I loved every second of this challenge.

Yoga is about connecting the body and the mind, and it is good for all of us to take the time to practice that. Whether or not you are lying on a yoga mat, or sitting in your office, take 30 seconds periodically to become aware of your mind and body. Focus on your breathing if you are feeling overwhelmed. Remind yourself to live in the moment.

I said this before but I do truly mean it again, I really hope to continue to include yoga in my life even though this challenge comes to an end. I feel better after every session and it reminds me to stay calm and helps me to control stress. Thanks to Courtney for hosting this challenge once again!

Namaste.

*****Thinking of all of my friends and family on the east coast. Stay safe!*****

Continue Reading Cowboy Caviar Mini Bell Peppers

What has gotten into me lately?

Happy Saturday!

I’m backin’ up the train to Thursday night.

After work Dana and I headed out to run a couple of errands. It was a super gloomy cold day, oh and did I mention it snowed on Thursday?! All I really wanted to do was stay snuggled up in our warm house, but life does go on even when the cold weather strikes…so off we went to get a few things done.

By the time we got home we were both extremely hungry but neither of us were any mood to cook, so I cheated. I opened up a can of fat-free refried beans, heated them up and topped them on a romaine salad along with corn, tomatoes, cheddar cheese, cilantro, onions, and salsa.

A burrito salad. So simple. So delicious. The only thing missing was avocado which we HAD but wasn’t quite ripe. Womp womp…Aw well, next time.

Now to Friday (yesterday)…

I had the day off and started the day with a little experiment. I wanted to see how my body would react to Greek yogurt for breakfast. This used to be a breakfast staple for me back in the day but this colitis business has been throwing me off a bit.

I dished up a bowl of blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, banana and FAGE Non-Fat Greek Yogurt sweetened with a touch of stevia.

It tasted glorious ANNND my body seemed to accept it just fine. It’s nice to have this as another breakfast option again.

After breakfast and a cup of coffee, I vacuumed the living room to get ready for some yoga. I found yet another OnDemand yoga session that was geared towards athletes. Not to say that I’m an athlete by any means, but I like to be active, so I thought I would give it a go. It turned out to be one of my favorites so far. The instructor explained the moves very well and I really enjoyed how he kept the session flowing with lots of different poses.

After yoga I set out to run a few errands including trying to find the last piece of my Halloween costume for a party we are going to tonight. The store I wanted to go to didn’t open until 10 and I arrived ready to go at 9:40. I’m not one to sit around so I decided to head on over to the local natural food store and see how much money I could spent in 20 minutes. Kidding.

When I walked in the door I was immediately greeted with this sample set up. Angie’s White Chocolatier Peppermint Holidrizzle Kettle Corn. Are you serious?! I sampled two delectable kernels and they rocked my socks off. I have plans to try to recreate this in the future for the holidays, or else just go buy a bag. One or the other.

There were some more errands run…and now we are on to dinner (I skipped ahead a bit).

Earlier in the week I had prepped a spaghetti squash by cooking it, scraping out the spaghetti strands, draining some of the liquids, and freezing it in a Ziploc bag. All I had to do last night was defrost it in the microwave, drain off excess liquid and do whatever I pleased with it.

I sautéed some onion, mushroom, and kale in some olive oil. I seasoned the veggies with oregano and basil. Once the veggies were cooked down, I hollowed out a spot in the pan for the squash. I placed the squash in the center and spread it out like a pancake. I cooked each side for about 1-2 minutes. It “toasts” the spaghetti and I really like it better that way. Plus it helps to rid of any excess liquid.

Next, I plated up the squash with the veggies, topped it with spaghetti sauce and parmesan cheese.

Dinner was finished in less than 15 minutes. How about that?

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Now it’s Saturday morning and Dana, Moose and I just got back from a 4-mile run. It felt AMAZING! It was 27 ° F when we headed out this morning so I broke out the long underwear, ear-warmers, and gloves. The sun was out so that helped to keep us warm. I felt like I could keep running and running and running. What has gotten into me lately? I am loving it.

Off to tackle a few projects including appetizer prep for the Halloween party tonight, and finding the last piece of my costume. I always thought I wasn’t a procrastinator, but now I’m starting to wonder. I think I’m just really picky or have something envisioned in my head, so it takes me a long time to find the perfect piece that fits that vision. Yea, we’re going to go with that.

Have a splendid Saturday! Excited to catch up with you all again!

Continue Reading What has gotten into me lately?

Pina Colada for Breakfast

Last night was one of those nights where I was exhausted around 7:30 pm, struggling to keep my eyes open yet made myself stay awake so that I would be able to go to bed at a decent hour. At 9:45 pm, I crawled into bed, tired, read my book for 25 minutes, still tired, turned off the light but couldn’t turn off my brain. I don’t know what the deal was last night but I was thinking of everything under the sun and could not put my mind to rest. Usually I can read my book for 20 minutes and then be out, but last night was a casualty.

The book I’m reading is about healing your body through meditation. I like a lot of it, but I don’t like the idea of having to sit and do nothing accept focus on myself for 45 minutes. They do mention that meditation time can be done during yoga, which makes sense. I like that idea better.

The book talks a lot about focusing on your breathing, not only when you’re in mediation, but throughout the day. It is a reminder to live in the moment and grab a hold of yourself when daily activities become too chaotic. Why am I talking about this book so much? To put it into context, I tried focusing on my breathing last night to get me to fall asleep, and I think that may have been what helped me. I’m not quite sure, though.

But all in all I didn’t get enough sleep for my personal sleep needs last night. I am one of those people who needs a solid 8+ hours for highest functioning ability, and last night I probably only got 6. However looking on the bright side, I am fortunate to have a warm and comfortable bed to sleep in, a roof over my head, and clean water to have at the bedside. I will try and focus on the positives to get through the day!

How about a quick little run down of my eats yesterday? I have a smooth concoction to share with you all…

Anyone care for a Piña Colada for breakfast? Virgin of course.

I did my best to measure it out yesterday when I made it in the morning (the above photo was from my first trial a couple of days ago, it’s actually more voluminous than that), so that I could share it with you all.

Piña Colada Breakfast Smoothie

Ingredients

  • 1 cup frozen pineapple, cubed
  • 1 small banana
  • 1/2 cup coconut almond milk
  • 1 egg white
  • 1/4 cup (or small handful) of crushed ice
Directions
  1. Whirl all ingredients together in blender until smooth, pour into glass, serve with a straw.
I have been whipping this smoothie up before work and enjoying it on the drive.
For Lunch…
A fraternal twinsie from Tuesday’s salad. This one was chicken, grapes, and walnuts mixed with Ken’s Lite Poppy Seed dressing ,served on top a bed of romaine lettuce. The only thing missing this time around was feta cheese. I just wasn’t feeling it and was going for more of a “chicken salad” this time around.

Work was very busy and I came home exhausted. We had intentions of running errands after work but I put a big ol’ red x on that idea.

I knew I should be hungry for dinner but nothing was sounding too appetizing. I also knew I needed to increase my veggie intake for the day (mind you I did have some carrots with my lunch that I didn’t mention), so I threw a hodge-podge salad together.

In the mix: romaine lettuce (leftover lettuce still from last Saturday–we usually buy the dark greens for more vitamins and nutrients), tomato, green olives, muenster cheese, sunflower seeds, lima beans, and Newman’s Own Lite Honey Mustard dressing. Very random but pretty tasty. I always enjoy a sweet and salty salad. Olives always add a nice touch of salt.

After dinner we watched Modern Family which is definitely my favorite show on television right now, and I I stayed hunkered down on the couch until bed time.

I munched on some of these too…

I declared yesterday a rest day from working out. If only I could have actually “slept” on “rest” day. Oh well, I’ll get after it tonight.

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It is rainy here in Minnesota today and only 40° F as I write this morning. Yikes! That’s the kind of weather that makes you want to stay in and bake cookies. Anyone agree with that?

Have a fabulous day my friends. Let’s focus on the positives today!

Question of the Day: If you could stay home and inside on a rainy cold day, what would YOU want to do?

I would want to sleep in, drink coffee, catch up on blogs, do some yoga, bake cookies, and watch cooking shows all afternoon. 🙂

Continue Reading Pina Colada for Breakfast

Peanut Butter’s Third Appearance

My appetite has been super goofy lately. The last couple of days I haven’t felt very hungry especially for breakfast. I preach the importance of eating breakfast to my clients and even though I haven’t had much of an appetite, I am still making sure to feed my body to kick-start my metabolism within 2 hours of waking up.

For breakfast yesterday, I made myself a bowl of diced banana, peanut butter, and cinnamon.

After a couple cups of coffee, and checking off a few items on the to-do list, I headed out the door with Moose with the intention of going for a quick mile walk around the neighborhood. Well, the beautiful fall weather got the best of me and my walk turned into a 3 mile run. I can’t believe how much I am loving this fall weather lately. It motivates me to run and run and run outside!

Moose wasn’t too phased by the run. He was ready to go for more.

After the run I baked up two loaves of my Nutty Gluten-Free Bread. The house smelled muy deliciouso after those were done baking. The smell of baking bread… yet another comfort.

Lunch time rolled around, and again I wasn’t hungry, but I made myself a great salad anyway. Romaine lettuce with grapes, walnuts, chicken, feta cheese, and Ken’s Lite Poppyseed Dressing.

I made a trip over to mom and dad’s in the afternoon to go for a walk with my mom and Abbie, and give mom a mini tutorial of her new food processor as well as her new iPad.

We walked around their neighborhood for a good half hour and the weather was still perfect. Walks are so much more fun when you walk with good company versus by yourself. They go so fast too!

Dinner…

Again, not hungry, but I knew better than to not eat. I sautéed some mushrooms, onions, broccoli, lima beans, and chicken, seasoned with garlic powder and ginger powder. I embedded the sautéed mix into two butter lettuce cups, and topped them with a squeeze of lime juice, cilantro, and a drizzle of Pb2.

I always make room for dessert so I finished the night off with a handful of dates with peanut butter. That was peanut butter’s third appearance yesterday. I guess that’s what I feel like eating when I don’t feel like eating? 🙂

I’m hoping my appetite gets back on track. Eating isn’t as enjoyable when you don’t feel hungry. Alrighty, I’m off to change the world…Catch up with you all soon!

 

Continue Reading Peanut Butter’s Third Appearance

Reinstated Confidence in My Running Capabilities

I am pretty pumped about my morning and want to share it with you, but first a quick recap of my evening last night.

After a little bit of cleaning and a couple of errands, I had very little energy left to make dinner so I kept it real simple with Fresco Shrimp Tacos. I cooked the shrimp on the stove top for 3 minutes with some seasoning just to warm them up.

To assemble the tacos: Butter lettuce cup as your shell, then chickpeas (because that is what we had on hand), tomatoes, cilantro, shrimp, and salsa if you feel like it.

We didn’t have any ripe avocados but if we had you better believe there would have been some in the mix. These tacos were simple, fresh, and very tasty.

Later, we got the itch for some Fro Yo and made our way to Cherry Berry. I tried to control myself but ended up getting a little wild. I went with a mix of cake batter and s’more Fro Yo. S’more what? S’more FroYo. On top was a lot of chocolately heaven, a few sprinkles and a gummy cherry on top.

Should I have gotten frozen yogurt…probably not, but I don’t regret it.

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Saturday

So here we are now onto Saturday. I began with a piece of pumpkin bread with Parkers Farm peanut butter and honey…

I also drank 1.5 cups of coffee while getting dinner ready in the crock pot. Tonight my family is coming over to celebrate my mama’s birthday and it is going to be F.U.N. and DELICIOUS!

Any guesses on what’s for dinner? I am making enough food to feed an army even though there will only be 6 of us. I would rather have too much food than not enough!

Run Time

Once those crocks were rolling, it was time for me to get rollin’ outside. I geared up, laced up my pretty pink laces,s grabbed the dog and we headed out for a run.

The weather could not have been more perfect. It was about 50 to mid-50’s and overcast. I didn’t have a mileage goal set as I was leaving out the door, I had just planned on seeing how I felt throughout the run, and going as long as I felt like.

Well…something happened that hasn’t happened in quite some time. Let me premise by saying there is major road work going on in our neighborhood including sidewalk closures, which makes finding a running route slightly challenging. As I made my way through the known neighborhoods I was feeling really good. Like so good I wanted to keep going and going and going, which worked out in my favor because as I was trying to make my way home, I hit about 3 detours which led me back the way I came from. The mileage started piling up and I ran a distance that I haven’t seen in quite some time…

4.6 miles. 

I know that to many, 4.6 miles is a walk in the park, but considering I haven’t accomplished this distance in a very long time, it reinstated my confidence in my running capabilities and I owe thanks to the road closures I guess? Nahhh.

The run this morning really motivates me to sign up for a race, and to start running more often. The feeling you get post-run is indescribable and I always wish I could bottle that feeling up and release it during a time where I am feeling highly unmotivated.

After the run I headed to the living room and did 20 minute pilates stretch and breathe video OnDemand. It was just what I needed.

I am in such a great mood today. I’ll be excited to fill you in on the festivities taking place tonight. It’s looking mighty cozy in our humble abode.

Have a wonderful Saturday my friends!!!

 

Continue Reading Reinstated Confidence in My Running Capabilities

Veggie On and Sweat Pink

Hi friends!

I have just one little bit to catch you up on from the weekend then I think I will officially be caught up. On Sunday evening, I attempted a cauliflower pizza crust for the second time. I steamed the cauliflower, sent it through the grater on the food processor to give it the “riced” texture, drained it of liquid, mixed it with an egg, some cheese and seasonings, and baked it in a hot oven for goodness knows how long. The guidance/recipe I found had said 12-13 minutes but there was no way the crust was done so ours was going for at least 20 some minutes.

The crust still came out very flimsy and not very crusty. HOWEVER, it was extremely delicious. I mean super tasty.

I just don’t have a recipe for you yet because I have yet to get the cooking times and temps right. Maybe someday.

Monday

We have officially caught up from the weekend! Now, on to Monday. Breakfast was a banana with natural peanut butter. This is a reused photo from a short while back. Yesterday’s pb banana didn’t have quite the hefty amount of pb. Oh, and no honey yesterday either.

Lunch: mixed greens with peas, tomatoes, avocado, green olives, sunflower seeds and Newman’s Own Lite Honey Mustard dressing.

Dessert: homemade dried apples and chocolate chips.

In the afternoon I made my way to the gym and rattled off a sweaty elliptical session. When I got home look what was waiting for me in the mailbox! How fitting, right?! I just got my sweat on…

Now SWEAT PINK! It’s official. My Fit Approach Sweat Pink Ambassador gear has arrived. I continue to live a healthy lifestyle and hope to encourage others to do so as well, one step at a time, one bite at a time. To learn more about what it means to be a Sweat Pink Ambassador, click here.

Later in the afternoon Dana and I headed to pick out our perfect pumpkins. Surprisingly I ended up buying the first one I laid eyes on. It’s short and plump and has a nice round front. Oh the simple joys.

For dinner, kitchen sink hash was on the menu. I always use whatever veggies we have on hand at the moment and through them all into one large saute pan. Last night it was a combo of black beans, kale, green pepper, broccoli, brussels sprouts, onion, and tomato lightly sautéed in coconut oil and seasoned with salt, pepper, a dash of cumin, and a dash of garlic powder. Finish it off with a sprinkle of cheese and an over-easy egg.

Perfecto. The flavor and texture combo is right on. It was a veggie kind of day for me once again.

The rest of the evening was spent relaxing with the boys, and stealing precious moments with the dog.

He actually laid like this for a solid 3 minutes and just kept looking into my eyes. This is a good 2 1/2 minutes longer than he usually puts up with it so I was pretty impressed. It was pretty sweet. I was trying not to laugh the entire time because I didn’t want to ruin the moment.

Have a tasteful Tuesday and we’ll catch you on the flip side!

Continue Reading Veggie On and Sweat Pink

Turkey Meatloaf, Veggie Loaded

I had such a productive weekend I feel like a new woman today. I need to do some catching up from Saturday’s dinner, but I am going to start with Sunday morning first. Excuse me as I jump around throughout the post. Jump, jump everybody jump!

Sunday Morning

It was my last chance for the week to get my yoga on in order to meet my October Yoga Challenge, so first thing in the morning I headed to the living room to set up. The routine before a yoga session is to push all of the furniture aside, get Moose’s toys off of the carpet, and vacuum the area. I love our pup but he sheds like a maniac so vacuuming often is necessary in our house.

I turned the heat up in the house to create a “hot yoga” atmosphere, and got moving to yoga OnDemand. This particular session focused on jump kick-backs aka burpees.

It was a 22-minute session and it really got me sweating! I guess that could have been because I cranked the heat up too. Either way, I was still sweating. I got in my weekly session and it felt SUPER once again.

After yoga, Dana and I took a trip to Caribou Coffee to get our BOGO on. First, yoga, then BOGO. I am still trying to be careful with dairy in my diet so I ordered a french roast with sugar-free hazelnut. I did put a touch of cream in my coffee when I got home. I love the creamy smoothness that cream adds to the coffee. As much as I’ve tried to switch to almond milk, or no milk, or no cream, I just don’t enjoy it as much as I do with the cream. So, I’m sticking with it. It’s my special treat in the morning.

To go along with my coffee I made myself some breakfast: a smoothie with blueberry, strawberry, banana, almond milk, crushed ice, and a tablespoon of hemp protein powder. Fabulous.

Now to recap the weekend’s events…

Saturday was an incredibly productive day. After getting organized at work on Thursday, then seeing a guest on Rachael Ray’s Show demonstrating how to organize your home in no time, I was inspired to tackle my own home.

Throughout the weekend, Dana and I organized: the front closet, the kitchen cabinets, my desk, my closet, the guest room closet, and the dining room cabinets. Not bad right? We also went crazy on the backyard and cut down all of the plants for the winter. Sort of bittersweet.

It’s amazing how good you feel after getting your house reorganized. Now, to keep it that way.

************

Now, reverse back to Saturday evening. Let’s talk about dinner. After spending the day cleaning and organizing, I was in the mood for a hearty meal. I took the inspiration from my cute little turkey meatloaves to create this bomb of a dinner, and I mean bomb in a good way.

Turkey Veggie Meatloaf and Sauteed Brussels Sprouts

I included carrots, zucchini, onions, and olives in this meatloaf and it turned out great! Parents, if you have a picky eater and are looking for a way to camouflage some veggies into their diets, this just may be the way to go. The veggies add a bit of a light crunch to the loaf, and all of the flavors from the veggies, seasonings, and meat all meld together to form a perfect combo. Plus there’s ketchup in meatloaf, kids love ketchup. 🙂 As do adults (right, Kev?).

Last weekend, Dana and I stopped at the farmer’s market in our area. We bought a few squash (that I still need to use) and a carton of brussels sprouts. Since I was set back this past week with the stomach bug, we didn’t get around to cooking up those sprouts, so we pulled them out on Saturday.

I washed and trimmed the ends and let them drain. I then sauteéd them in a small amount of coconut oil and simply seasoned with salt and pepper. I only used about half of the brussels sprouts in this side dish, so I froze the unprepared ones for a later time. They freeze perfectly.

Such a cozy comforting meal on a cool fall evening, and so very tasty too. I’m all about that lately. Did you check out my soup from Friday night? NUM!


Turkey Meatloaf, Veggie Loaded
Print
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • Loaf:
  • 1¼ lbs lean ground turkey
  • ½ cup carrots, grated
  • ¼ cup zucchini, grated and drained
  • 1 cup onion, finely diced
  • ½ cup green olives, chopped
  • 1 egg
  • ½ tsp. celery seed
  • ½ tsp. garlic powder
  • dash of cumin
  • 2 tsp. worcestershire
  • 1 tsp. mustard
  • ¼ cup ketchup
  • Topping:
  • ½ cup ketchup
  • 1 Tbsp. brown sugar
  • 1½ Tbsp. mustard
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease standard bread loaf pan; set aside.
  2. Combine all "loaf" ingredients; do not over-mix.
  3. Press into prepared pan.
  4. Mix together topping ingredients. Spread over loaf.
  5. Bake for 1 hour and 5 minutes, then place under broil for 2 minutes.
  6. Remove from oven and let sit 5-10 minutes before slicing.

I am off to take on this Monday once and for all. I hope you have an enjoyable day. Check in with you all soon!

Continue Reading Turkey Meatloaf, Veggie Loaded
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