Hello Summer?

I woke up this morning and went outside. It was going to be a scorcher today. I began fearing my run scheduled for the end of the day. Not only was it Monday but it was hot and I had to run 6 miles...

During my lunch break I quickly rushed to the grocery store to stock up for the week. (We went out of town this weekend so I didn't have time to shop yesterday.) I think shopping during my lunch break isn't a good thing for me because I forgot some key items...shoot!

I have been reading a lot of food blogs and it seems like everyone is making Overnight Oats. Overnight Oats are basically oatmeal soaked in liquid overnight in the refrigerator. You can add anything to enhance the flavor. On the blog Oh She Glows she adds canned pumpkin which I thought would be delicious. Unfortunately I couldn't find any canned pumpkin but I did find PUMPKIN BUTTER! This stuff is heaven. It's pumpkin, honey and spices and taste like pumpkin pie but only 40 calories per tablespoon.

Pumpkin Butter Overnight Oats:

1 cup oats

1 3/4 cup almond milk

2 TBSP Pumpkin Butter

2 TBSPS CHIA SEEDS

*Currently this is sitting in my refrigerator. I cannot wait for breakfast!

So it was now time for my run. I was nervous about the heat...

I brought my water bottle along with me. I filled it with 1/2 a coconut water and half water. I'm not a big fan of this water bottle because the weight of it throws me off balance, but until I find something better this will do!

My run was horrible. It was hot...and I just do NOT do good on hot runs. I think growing up on the coast my body is not used to hot weather. I think it's amazing how peoples bodies adapt to the environment they live in because for some people todays weather would have been the perfect mild summer running weather! Ughh I ran and walked some. 65 min...I think about 5.5 miles.

Dinner was a simple dish I found in this months Cooking Light. View the recipe here

* I added BBQ'd corn. Just cut the kernels right off and threw in the salad. I forgot the brocoli slaw at the store so I wanted to add something else to give it good texture. It was SOOOO delicious. I just love sweet corn.

Early rise tomorrow for work...my overnight oats will help me get out of bed!

Time to Relax

Well what do you know...I got a migraine yesterday! My migraines tend to be stress induced so go figure. It wasn't one of my horrible shut the blinds and cover my head with pillows migraine, but it was enough to make me lay on the couch the entire evening (except for the 10 minutes I was making dinner!).

Before the damn "M" word came on I made a lovely salad for lunch. I had a bunch of veggies that needed to be eaten so I piled them all on top of some lettuce, added some walnuts and opened a can of my favorite salmon. I know it sounds gross, canned salmon, but I found an amazing company who makes a mean can of Canned Fishes!!

Check out what else Vital Choice offers. I've tried a lot of samples of their products at trade shows I've been too. All are pretty delish.

Dinner was a combination of everything I had left in my fridge: Tofu, red bell pepper, green onions, edamame beans (they were in the freezer) and basil. I first sauteed the tofu, then added all the veggies. Topped with sauce and ta-da!!

Nothing too special. I made my own "sauce" that I pour on top for the final two minutes of cooking and then put all of it on quinoa.

Sauce:

-3 TBPS of low sodium soy sauce

-1 TBSP of sesame oil

-1 TBSP rice wine vinegar

-1 TBSP of brown sugar (you could easily use a teaspoon of agave here)

-a squeeze of sriracha

-2 crushed cloves of garlic

-1/2 TSP of corn starch (to make it thick)

I woke up with a migraine hangover so all day I thought I wasn't going to be able to run. But the idea of running consumed my mind NONSTOP. I didn't get to do a long run yesterday so I was already really bummed! By the end of the day I was feeling better (I mean how can you not feel good on a Friday?!) so I jumped in my car and drove to my favorite part of the Los Gatos trail. I just told myself to take it easy and do what felt good.

I RAN 4 MILES! And felt great after....look at that smile!

And to make this Friday even better...I'm headed up to my families lake house tonight for the weekend. So excited to spend time with Ryan and our good friends Chris and Alison on the car ride up! Excited to spend time with the family who will be there...

Reading material ready!

**Thank you Jenny and Tami for these fab magazines! So looking forward to reading them. (Tami you will get yours back!!)

Wine Night...

WOW...long couple of days. I have been on the road meeting with clients and Ryan has been working 12 hr+ days! Good Lord...

The good thing about being on the road is sometimes I get to see the people I love. I stayed over in Santa Rosa last night which was so fun. I got to see my sister and my brother in law (Mike) for a couple of hours. Christy and I went out to a great Thai Food place while Mike played softball. Before dinner we went on a walk with Christy's good friend Megan (and my friend too!).

I started this morning with a quick 3 mile run. Knowing I was going to be on my butt for most of the day driving around I wanted to get in a some type of workout.

Fast forward to the end of my day...I stopped in Santa Cruz (after being in Monterey) and visited a bit with my Mommy. Then I cruised to the West Side to spend some time with my lovely mom-in-law and my amazingly beautiful sister-in-law. Sooo good to see them! I feel like I haven't seen all of them in forever but it's only been a couple of weeks!

I rushed home to get dinner going so it would be ready for Ryan when he got home. Tonight's menu: Pesto Stuffed Chicken with Brown Rice.

*The rice wasn't ready in time for the pic.

Recipe:

-Two Chicken Breasts (all natural)

-1/2 of lemon. Thinly sliced and layed on top of the chicken breast

-1 tomato (seeded)

-Julienned basil

-1 cup of dry brown rice (mixed with 2 cups water in rice cooker)

-PESTO

*1 1/2 cup of whole basil leaves

*2 TBSPof EVOO

*1 TBSP of H2O

*3 BIG cloves of garlice

*1/4 cup of Reggiano Parmigiano

*1-2 TBSP of walnuts

*juice from 1/2 small lemon

*pinch of salt

(blended in a cuisinart!)

I butterflied the chicken and stuffed it with pesto. I sauteed 1 fresh cut tomato with 1 clove of garlic and used that to top the chicken. Then I garnished with freshly grated parmesean cheese and basil.

And of course...RED WINE!!! Another amazing Alapay wine tonight. We finished the whole bottle. It was just one of those nights...

Cobbler VS Crisp?

Home at last! 6 days in Portland was too long to be away from home. But I had a fabulous time and ate A LOT of delcious food, wine, and desserts!

Ryan and I went to the farmers market Sunday to get our fruits and veggies for the week. We were having dinner guests Sunday night and wanted to use as much food from the farmers market in our meal as possible. We decided to make tacos and a Peach and Plum Crisp.

I woke up wanting to make a cobler and asked my Aunt Renee to send me her famous recipe. With the recipe she sent a message saying "You will be banned from Healthy Blogging if you make this...". I opted for a healthier option! (sorry Aunt Nee)

Ryan was in charge of the tacos. He bought ingredients from farmers to make Pico de Gallo and we found a stand selling mexican food that made us a bunch of yummy corn tortillas! We picked up some pork and chicken on the way home. Ryan makes this amazing sour cream sauce. We call it "Schloupa". It's sour cream, chipotle powder, lime juice and this special garlic seasoning. He is not willing to share the amounts of everything he put's in it!!! I'll get it out of him eventually.

Ryan's Taco:

And...we made fresh lime juice margaritas! Lot's of work to get all the lime juice out, but so worth it.

Fresh Lime Juice Margs: (serves 2)

Lime Juice (1/4 cup-ish....)

2 shots of tequila

1 TSBP of AGAVE

splash of water

shaken on ice!!

* You can adjust to your tastes. We didn't really measure so I am just guesstimating here.

Everything tasted so good. It was so nice to be eating a home cooked meal.

(my taco didn't have any cheese or Schloupa. Depressing.)

Since I didn't run much these past few days I wanted to get a long run in today. I set out on a 6.4 mile run and at about mile 6 I hit a wall. Every muscle in my body was working so hard to move me forward but I wasn't going anywhere! Well anywhere fast that is. Perhaps too many desserts!

I'm on the road for the next two days. Meetings back to back to back, and so on...I hope I don't loose my voice.

I love Portland

I just adore it...for so many reasons.

#1 The food. (#2 the shopping...but I'm not even going to go there.)

Portland has so many amazing restaurants that offer amazing food combined with an amazing ambiance. It's rare that I am disappointed here.

Eating out can be quite a challenge. So when I know I am going to be on "the road" for a few days at a time I remind myself that I am not on a vacation...I am working and I need to maintain my healthy(ish) lifestyle and (try to) make smart choices on what to eat.

Before I go on long trips I usually try to workout pretty hard the few days before because sometimes I just don't have time to when I am working out of town. This past weekend (with Ryan) I did a 6 mile run, a hike, and then Monday morning a 5 mile run. Woooh. Was hard, but we got it done. I felt great getting on to the airplane knowing I had a good run that morning.

Always be prepared with snacks...in the SJC airport they have an new amazing wine bar. So of course I had to get a glass of wine. I was super hot (maybe because I had to carry my behemoth of a laptop and other carry-ons?!) so I opted for a glass of Pinot Grigio. It was quite refreshing. On the plane I skipped the free soft drink and peanuts and enjoyed a Lara Bar. I'm glad I had it because the wine made me feel very hungry.

I was able to get a short workout in this morning at the gym and plan on doing a 4 mile run tomorrow (early) AM. But the rest of the week looks questionable! Busy busy.

I will stop typing away and let you just enjoy pictures of some of the amazing food I ate today.

Lunch was at Isabel. Great food. Service was a bit slow. Portion was so big I left half of it.

And dinner was at my new favorite hot spot; DEPATURE (it's a restaurant at the top of the hotel I stay at while I am here, THE Nines). I'm lucky to have Lindsay with me!

Early bed time for me tonight. Gotta' get up and run my little heart out tomorrow. I have a VERY long day tomorrow and the rest of the week isn't looking any better.

Let’s Celebrate…take two

I was watching the clock Friday night. As I mentioned my cleanse would be over at 8pm. Ryan and I had talked about either opening a nice bottle of wine or getting a celebratory fro yo. I wasn’t in a wine mood Friday night (I know weird right?) so we chose the fro yo. We went to Yumi Yogurt in Los Gatos. They have the BEST Fro Yo I have ever tasted. They have some non-fat options, but I got the SNICKERS flavor and it definitely did not taste non-fat…or even low fat. I was in heaven.

For about 5 minutes.

You see, I am lactose intolerant. The past few years it hasn't been so bad. I can tolerate some cheeses, yogurt and half and half. But when you remove a specific food product from your diet (especially one that is you are potentially allergic/sensitive too) you will become so much more aware of your bodies reaction to this food once you reintroduce it.

I felt so ill. The morning was worse. Let’s just say it almost kept me from running my planned 6 mile run. After a couple pit stops I was able to make it to the beginning of the Los Gatos trail. It was a gorgeous morning and there were tons of runners on the trail so I was able to focus on just completing the run and not how ouchy my stomach felt.

Take Two…

It definitely was a wine night Saturday night. We joined Alapay Cellars wine club a couple months ago and have been patiently waiting to try a bottle from our first shipment. I randomly found this winery while at my bachelorette party in Avila Beach. They have a small little tasting room that we found and every wine I tasted (which was many) was good! That is a rare find. They have some of the best wines I have ever tasted.

We choose a 2008 Pinot Noir. I’m usually not the biggest fan of Pinot however like I said all of Alapay’s wines are good.

Check out our cool Vinturi Red Wine Aerator This does the same job as a decanter. It really makes a big difference in taste. We’ve done many taste tests ☺

This Pinot almost knocked me off my chair. The flavor was so BIG with hints of cherry and pepper. YUM. The best part is it didn’t make me sick! I felt wonderful this morning.

Ryan and I decided to go down to the Campbell farmers market. Such a good market...I'm glad we brought the camera.

Lastly, it’s my baby puppy Bella’s 2nd Birthday today. I bought her a Cake Cookie Treat and gave it to her before her birthday hike. She loved it!

Delicious dinner!! Ingredients from farmers market!

I’m off to Portland tomorrow for a 6 day work trip. Yay! Eating out for 6 days…I’ll let you know how it goes!

Still working on the new blog...

It's Tea Time

I have had tea the past two mornings! No coffee. Crazy but true. I don't know why but it just hasn't sounded good to me. Maybe it's my body's way of telling me "You are now fully cleansed."

My cousin Jenny (who I look up to in so many ways...even though she is younger) introduced me to a new tea. She's a big tea drinker so I went to her for some advice. She recommended a decaffeinated and naturally sweet tea.

It was so yummy. I loved it because it didn't have the gross after taste that most teas have. Also, it was sweet which is a huge bonus. It's naturally sweetened with Stevia. Stevia is a great alternative to sugar because it has no effect on you blood glucose (sugar) levels. I'll get more into it in some other post...

Yesterday morning I was starving. A smoothie wasn't going to cut it for me. I decided to make a scramble since I had some eggs and veggies that needed to be used up. Unfortunately I put way to much salt in it. Always pour in your hand first!! I did not take this advice and it came pouring out all of my eggs. YUCK.

Lunch was just a hodge-podge of things I had left in my refrigerator. I ended up making a Rice and Bean Salad. I heated the rice and beans and put them on top of lettuce, tomatoes, and avocado. The taste was OK and it was pretty filling because of the rice and beans.

Even though I was full I was craving something sweet. So I popped some frozen mango's in the microwave (30 seconds is enough to soften them and leave them cold). Having them still be cold is the key. I then topped with Artisana's Coconut Butter (I finally took a pic!!). Because the mango's were still cold the coconut butter hardened on to them like the chocolate on a chocolate dipped cone. It was one of my most exciting discoveries ever. So amazingly tasty.

The afternoon didn't go so well for me. I ended up getting a horrid headache. So I had to rest all evening. No working out. No cooking.

Lastly, the cleanse will end tonight at 8pm (perhaps with a ceremonial glass of Cabernet Sauvignon) . I know I said I usually do it for 2 weeks but I managed 2 whole work weeks and 1 weekend so I am very happy with that. I take off on Monday for a 6 day work trip so I want to semi-adjust before I leave. However, I'm going to stay off the caffeine, and not eat much wheat and sugar. I just feel so much better!

This weekend I will be giving my blog a little face lift. I'll let you know when it's ready!