Life Lately

Hi, friends! I hope you had a great weekend and are ready to kick off this week. Next Monday is Memorial Day so hopefully most of you will have a nice 3-day weekend next weekend. Just a little something to get you through the week 😉 Thanks for sticking with me through my lack of posting lately. I’ll get back to my normal routine one of these days, but for now, this seems to be working for me, so I’m going with it.

I’m still waiting to start my new job so I’m currently enjoying a little extra downtime. It’s nice to only be working at 2 gyms right now. Ha, never thought 2 jobs would be when I got to relax! So, where exactly have I been the past few weeks?

Well, Nathan’s sister came to visit for a week. She was here for his birthday which was spent at the Giants’ game. Birthdays and baseball go together like baseball and beer.. which, of course, we had.

Day 1! Drakes Brewery, straight from the airport. We don’t mess around!

A birthday win!

Finally made it to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Photo-bombing my own picture.

One of our new favorite wineries.

We also celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary last week. It’s so crazy to think that it’s already been 2 years. And at the same time, it’s only been 2 years. I bet you wouldn’t be too surprised to learn that we celebrated with food and drinks.

Surprise picnic at work!

Aperol Spritz to take us back.

Oh, those porcinis and fresh pasta ❤

Holy Margherita!

We try to get back to our honeymoon as much as possible, so an impromptu picnic at Nathan’s office and Pizzaiolo for dinner had to happen. It was named one of the best pizzas in the Bay Area and it was definitely delicious; the crust was the most light, fluffy, tender crust we’ve ever had. That said, Il Casaro still wins for our favorite pizza since Italy. Next month, we’re going to see Book of Mormon. I called that the anniversary gift so we’re also planning on going to a nice dinner that night before the show. Any recommendations around the Orpheum Theater?

We’ve also made a successful foccacia bread at home [and by we, I mean Nathan..] which is HUGE for us! AND I’m dying over the fruit lately. Yogurt + cherries + nut butters [peanut and almond because I couldn’t decide] = heaven.

In the fitness world, I’m finishing up my 30 Day Kettlebell Challenge and have loved it. It’s been so refreshing to change it up and get my butt kicked in 25 minutes or less! Since I’ve just mainly been following that program this month, I’ve cut my cardio back significantly to typically one 30 minute run per week in addition to a quick warmup on the elliptical before my workouts. It has certainly helped me to fit my workouts in between clients. And speaking of clients, they’re picking up too! I’m searching for pockets of time but I’m so excited to have more clients these days. Only up from here, right?

My meal planning has been lacking a little bit lately, so let’s all get back to that, shall we?

Weekly Meal Plan

Sunday – Nathan’s whole roasted chicken with roasted sugar snap peas and [sweet] potatoes
Monday – Coconut Honey Lime Filipino Chicken Adobo Skewers with roasted red pepper and zucchini chips
Tuesday – Balsamic Watermelon Chicken Salad
Wednesday – Jerk Chicken Kabobs with Balsamic Fennel Salad
Thursday – Leftovers
Friday – Out!
Saturday – Leftovers

Food for Thought

What’s happening in your life lately?
Any restaurant recommendations near the Orpheum Theater in SF?

Big Day Off & Paying Rent

Well what do you know, looks like it’s Monday again! I hope you all had a quiet, relaxing weekend. Or maybe it was wild and crazy.. whichever you prefer! I [and Nathan] made every attempt to make our weekend as relaxing as possible. Work has been running me ragged lately so when I have a full day off, I take full advantage.

Saturday, I slept in till about 7:30 [hey, no alarm is a wonderful thing, even at that hour!], had a leisurely breakfast on the couch in my jammies, and got myself together to go to the farmers’ market. We’ve been loving all of the fruit from the market; the strawberries and oranges, in particular, have been outrageous! We loaded up on produce and a special porcini salami from Boccalone, and headed home to pack up a picnic.

The weather has been perfect lately; practically 70 and sunny everyday. A couple miles of sunshine later, we reached the top of the hill and unpacked the goodies.

There’s nothing a jar full of chardonnay can’t fix, am I right? 😉 That and a post-hike nap and Chinese food for dinner. It was the perfect Saturday.

Yesterday was back to work opening the gym. As I said, working 3 jobs has been running me into the ground. Multiple 10-12 hour days, sometimes between all 3 places, has been tough. I’ve been working on balancing the jobs with the rest of my life; figuring out how to find time to eat, cook, spend time with Nathan, and get in my own workouts has been a bit of a struggle at times. Sometimes I have the opportunity to cook dinner in the middle of the day to take to work with me in the evening. And sometimes by the time I get home to see Nathan, all I can do is brush my teeth and pass out.

As I attempt to figure out my workouts, I find that letting somethings go by the wayside are coming back to bite me in the butt. I totally burned myself out on cardio and almost stopped running all together. I’ve been trying to slowly get back into it, even just once a week. Rather than saying my run yesterday was frustrating, I’d like to call it humbling. After expressing my feelings to Nathan, he shared this quote with me.

Of course, I would be naive to think I can stop running and pick right back up where I left off. But just as I’m learning to find balance in my life, I’m learning to re-balance my workouts and sometimes that just means taking more days like Saturday when I can. And sometimes weekends like this have to end in brinner because that’s just the darn best.

Weekly Meal Plan

Sunday – Brinner! Roasted sweet potatoes and brussels topped with an egg.

Monday – Lemon Moroccan chicken with za’atar roasted cauliflower
Tuesday – Cashew chicken
Wednesday – Thai basil turkey rice bowls
Thursday – Saturday – Friends in town!

Food for Thought

What’s your favorite way to spend a day off?
What kind of “paying rent” lessons have you learned lately?

Vegging Out

Have you entered my MealEnders giveaway yet?

Happy Monday, friends! I hope you had a great weekend. We stayed local and pretty low-key but definitely enjoyed the beautiful weather that we had.

Friday night, we kicked off the weekend with a trip to the gym…

…immediately followed by beer and delicious food at Cato’s, our favorite bar down the street.

The beet and feta salad with grilled chicken is my go-to. Extra beets, please!

 

Such a wild and crazy Friday! Which lead to an even wilder Saturday.

We saw this super cute dog in a hilarious onesie at lunch!

Saturday was the best. After lunch, we took a nice walk and then came home and totally vegged on the couch for the rest of the day. Dinner in and a movie was the perfect ending.

Sunday, I was making my way over to work around 7:45 when I saw the first Oakland marathoner running down the road. The race started at 7:30 and I was between miles 3 and 4. Holy hell, he’s fast!

And he was followed by lots more runners! It was so cool to watch everyone go by and cheer for them.

After work, it was time for lunch and groceries. Lunch was awesome! One of my favorite things about this restaurant, Southie, is that they will happily make any sandwich into a salad. So rather than the sandwich, I asked for the chilaquiles as a salad. BOOM! They made it happen.

The black bean mash was way more delicious than it looks 😉 And Nathan’s corned beef hash with poached eggs was equally as delicious.

How have we missed out on their brunch for so long? Aside from that whole work thing yesterday, it was quite a nice weekend. And now I’m looking forward to powering through this week. It’s a doozy but I think I’ll make it out alive!

Weekly Meal Plan

Sunday – Seared skirt steak with roasted potatoes and broccolini
Monday – Sticky Baked Chicken Pork with Apricot, Sage and Lemon Zest and Roasted Cauliflower Meuniere
Tuesday – Leftovers
Wednesday – Fennel-Garlic Pork Roast with roasted brussels sprouts and fennel
Thursday – Grilled chicken over Pear and Roasted Butternut Squash Salad with Maple Sesame Vinaigrette
Friday – Out!
Saturday – Leftovers

Food for Thought

How did you celebrate the weekend?
Have you or would you ever run a marathon?

Beer, Wine, and Sunshine

Good morning! Today is the last day to enter my Manitoba Harvest Hemp Hearts giveaway.. are you in on it yet? Also, I’ve announced the winner of my Peanut Butter & Co. giveaway. Such excitement to start the week!

We had another fun-filled weekend with Nathan’s mom. Friday we went into San Francisco to shop. We were on a mission to find Nathan a new suit and were especially successful leaving with 2 suits! We also finally had success at Liguria Bakery. Our most favorite pillowy-soft foccacia bread has been on our radar for months and every time we’ve had the chance to get over to Liguria, they’ve been closed or sold out. Friday, however, we picked up a plain square and a rosemary garlic square. It’s just the best!

After a beautiful day in the city, we made our way to Jupiter in Berkeley for a little patio beer, pizza, and salad action. It was too nice a day to let it go to waste so we spent as much time outside as possible.

Saturday was another day of amazing weather and what better way to enjoy it than in Sonoma? We tried a couple new places—Gloria Ferrer for sparkling wine and charcuterie, Viansa Winery, Park 121 Cafe for lunch, and Meadowcroft Wines. While we don’t typically purchase any wine when we go tasting, we couldn’t pass up the cab franc and port. They’re definitely bottles that we’re going to be saving for a more special occasion. Two-buck chuck does just fine on a regular basis 😉

Saturday night, we had a wonderful dinner at Homestead, a farm-to-table style restaurant that changes their menu daily based on the freshest ingredients they can get. Nathan and I had been eyeing this place for practically a year and had read great reviews so we were pretty excited to finally try it out. It definitely lived up to our expectations! I ordered the pan seared black cod, chickpeas, artichokes, grilled treviso, almond pesto; it was seasoned perfectly, the skin on the cod had a nice crisp to it and it was overall a pretty light dish. The housemade sourdough levain with housemade sea salted butter to start out was a real treat too. I probably could have eaten a whole loaf of that bread!

Nathan got the pork loin, spaetzle, grilled onion, sauerkraut, whole grain mustard. He agreed that the flavors in his dish were on point and it was also rather light.

Sunday was pretty much back to normal; we dropped Nathan’s mom off at the airport in the morning and I headed into work. Back to reality, I guess. Ahh, it’s gotta happen sooner or later, right? We’re currently guest-less for 2 1/2 weeks before my friends get here and while we’ve enjoyed having company and are looking forward to more, we’re definitely going to the enjoy the quiet and home-cooked meals!

Weekly Meal Plan

Sunday – Leftovers
Monday – Crunchy stuffed buffalo chicken with ranch roasted potatoes and asparagus
Tuesday – Burrito bowl with perfect black beans [<–the best!] and chicken
Wednesday – Leftovers
Thursday – Thai chicken satay noodle salad with coconut peanut dressing
Friday – Out!
Saturday – Leftovers

Food for Thought

The Week Between

Have you entered my Peanut Butter & Co. giveaway yet?

Gooooood morning and happy Monday, friends! I hope you had a great weekend. I’m loving this Monday because it’s really like my weekend. I had some clients and hours over the weekend and today is my first day 100% off in a while. Even though I had a few days off of work with my parents here, it was still a lot of exhausting running around so I’m just relishing every minute of this slow day.

Wednesday, Nathan’s mom gets into town and she’ll be staying with us through Sunday which gives us exactly 1 week to recover from my parents! We’ve been enjoying the easy meals at home, taking a break from the drinks, and trying to get back to normal before we start all over again.

Despite my work schedule, we still had some relaxing fun over the weekend. Saturday when I was finished training, we went over to the farmers’ market to load up on some fresh produce. We threw together lunch when we got home, including a delicious apple-fennel salad that I can’t wait to make again! I’ll definitely have to share the recipe soon. The dressing tasted like a sweet vidalia onion dressing. So good!

I digress. We packed up our lunches and made our way back to Mountain View Cemetary where we took a walk with my parents on Tuesday. This time, however, we hiked all the way to the top and the views were stunning. Lunch in the 70° sunshine with these views was the perfect way to spend the afternoon.

Sunday was another slow day. After work, we took a trip to Trader Joe’s to stock up on the food we needed to make it through the next few days and had a nice walk around the area. Like I said, a nice, quiet and relaxing weekend. Just what we needed to refresh ourselves. And now to prepare for more craziness!

Weekly Meal Plan

Sunday – Lemon Moroccan chicken with asparagus & za’atar roasted cauliflower couscous

Monday – Vietnamese pork bowl
Tuesday – Greek Chicken Souvlaki
Wednesday – Saturday – Nathan’s mom is in town so we’re going out!

Food for Thought

Do you usually need recovery time after guests?

Sushi, Beer, & 70s

The countdown is seriously on now. My parents will be in town this Wednesday! Our place has really come together over the past week or so and the guest room is actually looking like a real guest room instead of a storage unit. That day bed that we got from IKEA is awesome.. it actually slides out into a king size bed! It’s quite cozy, too. [Your welcome, guests ;)]

Friday we finally went out for sushi. This place is about 50 strides from our front door and has the best prices and quality around. I got a spicy scallop roll that was delicious but the star of the show for me was the salmon kama. This char-grilled salmon collar was only $5.95 and it was the bomb diggity!

They also have hamachi kama that I think I’ll have to get next time I go. Which is probably going to be Thursday with my parents. Woohoo!!

Sunday was a little crazy nuts for me, but that’s totally because of the Pliny the Younger release at Cato’s, right down the street from us. If you’re not familiar with Pliny the Younger, Russian River releases it once a year and only distributes limited kegs to select bars. And each bar only gets 1 keg so when it’s gone, it’s GONE!

Doors opened at 11:30 but people were lined up at before 10 a.m. when I went down to the gym to train, which just so happens to be 3 doors down from the bar. [Uh oh..] I had to work yesterday so we originally decided to skip Pliny but when I got out from training and working out at noon to see the line wasn’t too bad, we went for it. It didn’t hurt that the weather was gorgeous. I didn’t mind standing outside in the sunshine! Long story short, after waiting an hour for our tokens, we got the last ones.

I ran over to work and ended up having to run back and forth to cash in my token. Whoops! Haha 🙂 It was a fun experience but now that we’ve had it, we’ll save our time for another line.

Anyhow, that was definitely the highlight of the weekend. Coming up this week is going to be a lot of fun times with my parents. I can’t wait 🙂

Weekly Meal Plan

Sunday – Roast split chicken breast with orange sesame sauce, roasted potatoes, and side salad

Monday – Leftover roast chicken and lemony carrot salad with mustard seeds and feta
Tuesday – Quinoa crusted chicken with roasted potatoes and brussels sprouts
Wednesday – Leftover quinoa crusted chicken and Asian broccoli salad with peanut sauce
Thursday – Saturday – Out! Mom and Dad will be here 🙂

Food for Thought

What’s the longest you’ve waited in line for something?

A Love-ly Weekend

Gooood morning! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and hopefully a nice Valentines Day too [if you celebrated.] Friday was a bit crazy for both of us and by the time we got out for dinner, all we wanted was something cheap and easy. Mexican it was!

It was the last dinner of my 2 week vegan experiment and what could be a better way to finish it off than with grilled veggies, rice, black beans, and lots of guacamole? Oh right.. fresh tortilla chips and salsa, too 😉

Saturday was all about taking it easy. In all of the running around that we’ve been doing lately, we decided that pulling the married card out and relaxing all day sounded like the best way to spend Valentines Day. We hit up the farmers’ market bright as soon as they opened to get the main star of our dinner—rotisserie duck l’orange. I guess we cheated a little bit in a way by not making the main dish like we usually do, but hey, it was hard to pass up! And such a gorgeous day, too. Which is why we took the opportunity to spend more time outside and walk over to the nearby rose garden.

Too bad we forgot that it’s still winter [yep, 75 degrees in February!] and there were only about 10 roses to be seen. Ha! We’ll have to make our way back over there in a couple of months.

The rest of the day was spent watching movies and having a few drinks on the couch.

Only the finest in our house! The perfect apertif while we were cooking up some roasted brussels & potatoes to go with the duck. We also popped open a bottle of Black Zeppelin, a 2009 Syrah blend, that we bought in 2012. It was surprisingly better than we had remembered!

Don’t worry, I’ll fill you in on the rest of the food on Wednesday. Except for dessert.. a homemade personal pan blueberry square topped with Tahitian Vanilla gelato from Lush, down the street.

Sunday was for workouts, working, errands, and the start of the new day bed for all of our guests! Ikea is the best.. ish.

Don’t worry Mom and Dad, the room will be a little more put together in a week and a half when you get here! Looking forward to this week being a little quieter. And actually being able to do some real meal planning. I missed meat and seafood!

Weekly Meal Plan

Sunday – 20 Minute Thai Basil Turkey and Lemongrass Rice Bowls
Monday – Kung Pao Salmon and Chicken with Sweet Potato and Broccoli
Tuesday – Leftover duck l’orange with citrus fennel and avocado salad
Wednesday – Smoky Chipotle Beet and Quinoa Burgers
Thursday – Burrito Bowls
Friday – Out!
Saturday – Leftovers

Food for Thought

Did you celebrate Valentines Day?

Booch Beer + Sledgehammer

Hi there, friends! Sorry to leave you high and dry last week. Seems like my crazy schedule from the past 2 weeks finally caught up to me and my brain just said “no more!” Luckily, I had a nice, relaxing weekend to recoop [before another crazy week.. such is life!] First things first, congrats to Brittney for winning my She’s Losing It! giveaway!

Our weekend mostly began on Friday; Nathan took the day off and I only had a 7 a.m. client. It was amazing to be done by 8 a.m., be able to hit the gym, run a few errands, and then just kick back. We had to make a Costco run and thought it would be a much better idea to do that on a Friday afternoon than Saturday. When we first moved out here, someone said to me “people in San Francisco have jobs, but no one ever works.” Man, did that ring true. Costco was still crazy! Luckily, we had gone out to lunch before and had a little liquid stress-relief.

Mine came in the form of 50/50 citrus ginger kombucha & Sierra Nevada Kellerweis. I’m not sure why I’ve never thought of mixing my own kombucha with beer at home but it’s definitely going to happen now! Easiest way to make beer healthy, right?

We had a few quiet nights including a little wine + movie night action.

I’ve been singing Sledgehammer since I got the bottle..

We watched Nightcrawler on Friday and Birdman on Saturday. I’d definitely recommend both.

Sunday was for work and meal prep. I’ve been having a hell of a time trying to figure out how to create a meal plan that can work for both of us. This vegan thing is totally throwing me through a loop, but I’m hoping this week goes a little smoother. That said, Nathan took some of it into his own hands and made a beautiful porchetta.

I’m making him save me some 😉 In the meantime, I have a few vegan options planned out for myself this week.

Weekly Meal Plan

Sunday – Roasted potato and asparagus lentil salad with tangy mustard-lemon dressing

Monday – Mushroom, lemon, & lentil salad
Tuesday – Plantain bean salad
Wednesday – Sweet potato & lentil salad
Thursday – Vegan cuban bowl
Friday – Lentils + roasted acorn squash & mushrooms
Saturday – Valentine’s Day!

Food for Thought

Did you do anything exciting over the weekend?

Pumpkin Bars, Oats in a Jar, and a Mexican Buffet

How is it that the weekends fly by so darn quickly? I can’t believe it’s already Monday, we’re already half way through January, and we’re going to be moving in less than 2 weeks! I guess we should have gotten a ton of boxes packed over the weekend, but that wasn’t quite the case. Instead, we worked on finishing up some things in the fridge and pantry..

Bye bye almond butter. I’m already looking forward to making another batch after we move.

It’s always bittersweet to finish a jar of nut butter. Can’t complain about the oats in a jar, though.

Lindsay’s Cranberry White Chocolate Pumpkin Bars

I made a few substitutions to the bars based on what I had in the pantry. I subbed peanut flour for the tigernut flour, goji berries for the cranberries, White Chocolate Wonderful Peanut Butter & Co. for the coconut butter, and I added an egg and the xylitol. They turned out wonderfully and I might have had one as an appetizer to dinner…

Leftover citrus chicken with all the veggies in the fridge!

… a dinner that was to use up whatever we could from the fridge.

Yesterday I decided to suck it up and go for a run. I had a discussion with Nathan last week about how I’ve recently been frustrated with my body; if I want to see the changes I’m looking for, I need to make changes in my routine. So a 5K, I ran.

The fuzziness represents how I felt afterward. Ha!

Some people run a 5K in their sleep; heck, I used to! But since I’ve cut back, not only on my running, but also my cardio, a 5K isn’t as easy as it used to be. I’m determined to get it back though.

And this was just plate #1…

We treated ourselves to a Mexican buffet right down the street from our apartment and it was SO good! They had 8 different kinds of chicken mole, pork carnitas, pork belly, and tons of veggies. We definitely ate too much [hence last night’s dinner..] but at least we stuck to mostly veggies and meat, yes? I can’t believe it took us so long to go!

This week is going to be a doozy but we’re gonna get through. And I’m definitely looking forward to dinners..

Weekly Meal Plan

Sunday – Cottage cheese, apple, and rice cake with peanut butter
Monday – Chicken bacon fra diavolo with potato noodles

Tuesday – Nathan’s night to cook!
Wednesday – Thai chicken salad with sweet + spicy tahini dressing & sesame chili-lime cashews
Thursday – Chicken & broccoli over soba noodles with red Thai curry sauce
Friday – Out!
Saturday – Leftovers

Food for Thought

Did you do anything exciting over the weekend?

Fabulous Food & Our Weekly Meal Plan

Hi friends, happy Monday! I hope you had a great, relaxing weekend. Mine kicked off with an early power yoga class at Truve.

So not fair.. they’re both yoga instructors!

I’m not much of a yogi but good lordy, my body was sore! I think I need to hit up yoga a little more regularly and get some stretching in. Later, I grabbed lunch with a friend at what may just be my new favorite sushi spot. It just so happens to be about 10 steps away from where I’m moving!

Friday night was our night out on the town. Nathan and I made a deal to go out to eat less on the weekends so we really went for it!

Beer #1: Perennial Abraxas

If you can get your hands on this beer, you don’t want to miss out. It’s one of the most complex beers I’ve had and it really makes its way through each of the spices as you drink it. The cinnamon stood out the most but there’s also just a hint of spice at the very end. Amazing.

2 Meat + 2 Sides: Chicken & pork with cauliflower salad & cowboy beans with burnt ends. Also added a hot link!

Whenever we go to Perdition, we split the 2 meat plate. It comes with 2 sides + pickles and bread; we’d had the pork and chicken before but never tried the hot link so we decided to add that too. It was so much food! But of course, we ate the whole thing. It was wonderful and I definitely went to sleep fat and happy that night. Ha!

Saturday I was so ready to head back to Truve for barre; I’m officially addicted and it may just be my new favorite class. I was also ready for a much lighter day of eats.. and Sizzlefish 😉

Sizzlefish shrimp & kale salad with ALL the veggies!

Digging the Atlantic Cod!

It was nice to stay in and use up some of the extras in the fridge and freezer before we move! Speaking of moving, we had to scedaddle yesterday for a couple hours while our place was being showed to potential renters so we took advantage of a gift card and went out to lunch.

A nice, lighter beer paired with a kale and brussels sprout + salmon salad was calling my name. Delicious! [But more on that later..]

Weekly Meal Plan

Sunday – Crispy Thai pork [+ turkey] lettuce wraps with cucumber salad
Monday – Cuban chicken & black bean rice bowls with fried bananas
Tuesday – Turkey burgers with roasted potatoes & side salad
Wednesday – Grilled chicken/fish & brussels
Thursday – Leftovers
Friday – Out!
Saturday – Leftovers

Food for Thought
Have you ever tried barre?