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

#MomAndDadInCali

I had every intention of having this post scheduled and ready to go early this morning. Until I fell asleep on the couch last night while we were watching House of Cards. I blame it on the beer all the excitement 😉

We’ve been having such a great time with my parents here. I don’t mean to leave you hanging, but hey, life just gets in the way. So let’s do a little recap so far.

Thursday

Post-barre muscles with Mom!

Farmers’ market lunch.

Mmm!

Salmon & Hamachi Kama. A new favorite.

Friday

Ooh that pizza..

WE WILL NOT!

Saturday

A fun trip to Oxbow Public Market. Let the drinking begin!

Sunday

Blue Bottle Coffee.. strongest in the world! Ha.

My 2 favorite Orioles fans.. right?

The best chick peas ever.

Sunny day selfie.

The beginning of the end.

The best ending to our beer-filled excursions. Our most favorite ice cream from Ici.

Now excuse me while we go drink and eat some more!

Food for Thought

What’s your favorite part of having company?

What I Ate Wednesday #118: Weekend Eats & Treats

I’m sure most people enjoy a few more treats here and there on the weekends. I know I do! I typically save my drinks for the weekend as well as going out to eat. We do a pretty darn good job around here cooking during the week so it’s nice to take a break and let someone else do the cooking for a couple of days. That said, I like to think I do a decent job of keep it balanced with my drinks, treats, and lots of salads.

[Friday]

Friday we tried a new place called Farm Burger. I’ve mentioned before that I’m not a big burger-eater, aside from making turkey burgers at home, but this place intrigued me. Probably the amazing sounding toppings.. and the kale salad with roasted beets. What can I say, I’m a sucker for a good salad!

I was also told that the fries were fabulous. We got a large order of garlic fries to start. And in case you’re wondering, that was enough to feed 4! Ha. But I made up for all the fries with my kale salad and chicken burger. One of the biggest things Nathan and I both noticed was the freshness of the ingredients; the chicken burger tasted just like something I’d make at home which we both found to be a nice change of pace from the typical burger place. I’d recommend it and we’ll be back!

[Saturday]

For lunch we hit up a little Mexican joint; more so because we didn’t have much food in the house and this was a pretty cheap option. The shrimp was seasoned well and there were a good number on the salad, but I could have used twice the number of veggies! Minor details..

The pizza. Oh, that was a good one! Topped with yukon gold potato, leeks, and gruyere cheese; oooh baby! Perfect with a beer [Southern Tier Pumking, of course] and nicely offset but huge amounts of kale and veggies 😉

[Sunday]

Lunch time. Korean style. My new favorite is dolsot bibimbop, no rice, extra veg. I’m aware that I order a rice bowl with no rice, but you still have to try it. I was more than happy to take some leftovers home for my lunch salad on Monday.

We ended the weekend on a lighter note—lettuce wrapped flank steak tacos. That plate of food + about 3 or 4 more of those little tacos!

Throw a little chocolate and some wine and I’d say we had ourselves a delicious and pretty well-balanced weekend. It’s all about the kale, right? 😉

Food for Thought

What’s your favorite pizza topping?

A Restful Week[end] & Gingerbread Molasses Oatmeal

Happy New Year week! I don’t know about you, but I have some big plans for this week.

Last week I got sick and it knocked me on my butt for longer than I had expected. It pretty much hit Monday night and I was out of commission for a few days; though that didn’t stop my Christmas plans! It did, however, stop me from hitting the gym. I went Monday after work, but haven’t been back since. I know I needed to rest and not push my body; I know I needed to just let whatever was in my system play out and not stress about getting in a workout. And I’m sure my body was craving a full week of rest.. the last time I took this long off, it was for the honeymoon! So we took time off and we relaxed. A lot.

We made a roaring fire!

We baked some get-better quick chocolate chip cookies [I swear, they worked!] with a side of Goose Island Bourbon County Stout and Ratatouille.. the movie, not the dish 😉

We had a quiet Saturday and a nice lunch out.

And we made a special Sunday morning trip for fresh bread and breakfast. [I need to make some 5-grain porridge!]

I have thoroughly enjoyed all of my rest and relaxation. There was something just so nice about not having to set my alarm each night to make sure I get in my workout before our day’s plans. That said, it’s time to get back on track. But I’m lacking some serious motivation. I have my workout plan in place for the week and my big goal for the week with my diet is to chillax on the extra snacking. I think once I get back into the gym for the first time, I’ll get back into the swing of things, but I’m also hoping I can count on some extra push from all of you! Commit to 30 minutes of fitness each day this week with me, will ya? Let’s start off 2015 on the right foot!

And start your day off on the right foot too; don’t forget to eat breakfast everyday. Need a new oatmeal recipe? This one uses my favorite flavors of the season and is packed with protein and fiber.

Gingerbread Molasses Oatmeal

Serves 1

Ingredients
– 1/2 banana; mashed
– 1/3 cup almond milk [I love Califia Farms Coconut Almond Milk]
– 1/3 cup water
– 1 tsp ground cinnamon
– 1/4 tsp ground ginger
– 1/8 tsp ground allspice
– 1 tsp blackstrap molasses
– 1/3 cup old-fashioned oats
– 5 egg whites

Direction
Place a small pot over medium high heat and add the mashed banana, almond milk, water, and spices. Bring to a boil, stir in the oats, and lower the heat to medium low. Allow the oats to cook for a few minutes until they begin to thicken up. Add the egg whites and stir continuously so the whites to set.

When the oats setup to the thickness that you like, about another 5-7 minutes, remove from heat and scoop into a bowl. Top with your favorite toppings and enjoy! I topped mine with a sprinkle of sea salt, golden raisins, candied ginger, and coconut flakes.

Nutritional Information
Per bowl of oatmeal without toppings

278 Calories / 4g Fat / 42g Carbs / 9g Fiber / 13g Sugar / 22g Protein

Looking for some more #MeatlessMonday inspiration? Check out Tina’s weekly link up!

Don’t forget a successful week also comes from a bit of planning. I like to have a set plan for our dinners, not only to know what’s on the menu each night, but it also helps to save money at the store so we don’t just pick up random items. We also have a bunch of leftovers from last week/weekend cooking so we’ll be taking full advantage of that this week too!

Weekly Meal Plan

Sunday – Moroccan chicken stew with rice pilaf [Nathan] & zucchini noodles [me]
Monday – Leftovers
Tuesday – Turkey bolognese with zucchini noodles
Wednesday – NYE!
Thursday – Leftovers
Friday – Out!
Saturday – Leftovers

Alrighty, friends. Let’s do this thing! I’ll be posting my workings on Instagram all week.. feel free to check up on me and call me out if I miss my 30 minutes 😉

Food for Thought

How do you keep yourself accountable?
Will you be joining me to hit 30 minutes of activity everyday this week?

We Were Just Babies!

Hi friends, happy Monday! I hope you had as relaxing a weekend as I did. Friday kicked off with an awesome workout at a new-to-me circuit gym called Sweat. I went with a few of my coworkers and the trainer took us through 3 rounds of 8 stations of supersets. These exercises hit every single muscle and I was definitely feeling it all weekend, especially my abs! I can’t wait to go back again.. luckily they’re on ClassPass.

Saturday, Nathan and I took it easy and celebrated 11 long crazy years. I can’t believe we’ve been together for so long; we were just babies when we first started dating!

Check. Us. Out.

Saturday night was when we had the big plans for a nice dinner out. We’d been talking about going to Gather practically since we moved here and walked past it the first time. The price point is a little higher than our normal night out on the town so we knew it would be good for a special occasion, and it definitely was! We started out with drinks—a local red wine for me and a local black ale for him—and split 2 small plates. [You’ll excuse the lovely lighting for the pictures, yes?]

Rockwall sangiovese blend and fresh Acme bread

Crispy pork terrine with herbed buttermilk, hot sauce, pickled melon rind

Wild mushrooms with sweet potato, celery root, Treviso, crispy quinoa

Both dishes were so delicious and full of flavor but I think I ended up preferring the mushroom dish and Nathan went more for the pork terrine. No surprises there; boy loves his fried food 😉

There were so many appealing options on the menu for the entrees, one of which would be the amazing looking pizzas, but I couldn’t say no to the black cod. I hardly ever make seafood at home because Nathan doesn’t eat it, so I love to get it whenever we go out. The cod did not disappoint in the least; I ate it flake-by-flake and the skin was perfectly crispy too. I think I “mmm”-ed with almost every bite!

Local black cod with broccoli di Ciccio, celery root, Maitake, lemon

Zooming in for the close-up!

Nathan ordered the burger with fries which may not sound too exciting but he confirmed that it was a pretty damn good burger! And I can confirm that the fries were tasty too. We skipped out on dessert in favor of a couple peanut butter cookies we got earlier in the day; a nice little sweet treat to finish it out.

Yesterday was all about recovery from our big meal. Ha! We watched football, went to a couple grocery stores, and did lots of cooking and prepping for the week. We might have had a messy kitchen, but dinner was awesome!

That chicken recipe will be coming soon 😉

Weekly Meal Plan

Sunday – Herb de Provence roast chicken, gouda smashed potatoes, and roasted brussels sprouts
Monday – Vietnamese pork bowl
Tuesday – Smokey chicken wing chili
Wednesday – Chicken bacon rice bowls
Thursday – Leftovers
Friday – Out!
Saturday – Leftovers

Food for Thought

If you’re married, do you still celebrate your dating anniversary?
Did you do anything fun over the weekend?

Link Love #56

Sometimes when you have big plans for the weekend, it makes the week go slower. I’m really hoping that’s not the case for me! This Saturday, Nathan and I will be celebrating 11 years together; we’ve only been married for a year and a half but having been together for so long before being married, we just can’t give up the celebrations.

We started talking the other day about what we were going to do, which of course leads to where we’re going to have dinner. Because really, good food and drink? What else is important? Oh right.. the company. Well, low and behold, Nathan had a little trick up his sleeve! I got an email invite for dinner Saturday but with no location; I spent quite a bit of time guessing but after a few dropped hints, I figured it out. Gather is on the docket and I can’t wait! Everything looks and sounds incredible. I’m going to have a really hard time figured out what to order and I can’t wait to share the pictures!

Until then, you know the dealio.. enjoy!

Health

“Eat Less, Exercise More” Isn’t The Answer For Weight Loss – Time Health

“Eat Less, Exercise More” Isn’t The Answer For Weight Loss – Time
How to Stop at Just One Cookie – Greatist
‘Calorie counting is crazy-making’ – The Hamilton Spectator
Training Tip of the Week: Take it out on the workout – Katrina Elle
6 Reasons You’re Not Seeing Results Despite Doing “Everything Right” – Trainer Paige

Fitness

The Spartan 300 Workout Challenge – Lifting Revolution

The Spartan 300 Workout Challenge – Lifting Revolution
Functional Fitness Focus and Routines – Cotter Crunch
30 Minute Tabata Workout – The Almond Eater
5 Dynamic Stretches (and when to use them) – Mommy Run Fast
5 Reasons to Do Burpees Everyday – Mind Body Green

Food

Spanakopita Stuffed Spaghetti Squash Bowls – Half Baked Harvest

Spanakopita Stuffed Spaghetti Squash Bowls – Half Baked Harvest
Butternut Squash Pasta with Spicy Garlicky Broccoli Rabe and White Beans – Inspiralized
Vegan Hot Pretzel Challah Bread – Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks
Harvest Apple Sangria with Bourbon and Thyme – A Farmgirl’s Dabbles
Maple Sea Salt Sweet Potato Pancakes – The Nutritious Kitchen

Food for Thought

What’s one of your favorite posts from the past week?

Scenes from the Weekend {10/13}

Hi friends, happy Monday! What a weekend it was.. ours was pretty fantastic, aside from a couple Orioles losses. We kicked it off with Friday night pizza, beer, and baseball.

At Sliver, every happy hour drink comes with a sliver of pizza and Friday’s had fresh corn, chile pasilla, mozzarella, feta, lime, and garlic olive oil. It was so good!

Saturday was filled with a little work, lots more baseball, and a dinner date with gelato.

He was so excited that he grabbed the cone and ran! What’s not to be excited about mascarpone balsamic gelato with dark chocolate chunks in a fresh cinnamon waffle cone?

Yesterday was pretty awesome; we’d been talking about going for a serious hike for a while but hadn’t made it yet. We woke up early and drove out to Mt. Tamalpais for a 6-miler with spectacular views of the whole bay area.

The start of the hike.

It seemed like no matter which path we chose, it ended up being the more difficult; steep inclines that seemed to never end, lots of steps, and huge rocks. It was absolutely the most difficult hike we’ve ever done. That said, we had amazing views the entire way up and it was so, very worth it.

Over 2500 ft up!

So worth the sore legs!

Living on the edge 😉

This is normal..

WE MADE IT!

Well deserved brews with a view!

We were totally pooped after our early morning and sweat-breaking hike, but the soreness and drained feeling is one of the best knowing that it’s from such a great experience. We’ll definitely be heading back to Mt. Tam in the future.

Weekly Meal Plan

Sunday – Rosemary lamb sausages, roasted kabocha, and asparagus
Monday – Basil lime chicken with mushrooms and green beans
Tuesday – Leftovers
Wednesday – Tandoori-style chicken burgers with potato wedges and side salad
Thursday – Leftovers
Friday – Out!
Saturday – Out!

Food for Thought

What’s the best place you’ve been on a hike?
What’s on your menu this week?

We’re Going to the ALCS!

If this weekend wasn’t already pretty fantastic, the Orioles swept the Tigers and are going to the ALCS! I may or may not have been jumping up and down. And Nathan may or may not have picked me up as I was yelling “ALCS! ALCS! ALCS!” in celebration. It’s a good thing he’s just as weird as I am..

The weather was absolutely incredible over the weekend. Actually, it really has been for at least the past week, but Saturday was especially beautiful. Saturday was also Yom Kippur but I was not about to let fasting get in the way of enjoy the weather. That said, I really tried to pack in the calories Friday night! I loaded up on beer, brick oven baked chicken wings, salmon salad, a little pizza, and of course, pumpkin pie gelato.

Cheers to the Orioles!

The homemade ranch really kicks it up a notch.

I stole all of the warm ricotta off of Nathan’s pizza 😉

I had to go with the seasonal flavor.

We also stopped for a bit to listen to the awesome live music on the street. They had a pianist, drummer, trumpeter, and clarinetist. So bizarre and so wonderful.

Fabulous live music on the streets of Berkeley!

Saturday we spent much of the day at Ocean Beach in San Francisco. I made a huge effort to explore the area when we first got there and we took a walk over to the Sutro Baths. It was worth all of my strength that went into it for such gorgeous views.

Stunning views.

Couldn’t ask for more beautiful weather.

We made it!

I was also rewarded by taking a nap on the beach afterward. I pretty much laid down and didn’t move for hours and it was glorious! After a few hours, we made our way back home where I took another nap. I swear, I have no idea how people ever fast. I need me some food! And after 23 hours, Nathan convinced me to break the fast.. with a shot of bourbon. Usually in my family we break with a shot of scotch, but bourbon was all we had. What a terrible problem to have, right? Then we went for dinner!

I needed to get my hand in for size reference.

Worth a second view!

You bet that salad bowl was completely empty along with more cornbread for Nathan’s salad. Whoops 😉 I was a happy camper after all of that food though.

Yesterday was pretty quiet with the exception of the excitement of the Orioles game! It was a sports day around here and I had a work meeting [and got to check out the new equipment!] Nathan cooked dinner while I was gone, so I figured I could work my magic with the rest of the week’s menu..

Weekly Meal Plan

Sunday – Cajun chicken with Israeli salad
Monday – Chicken and easy broccoli stir fry
Tuesday – Indian-style chicken satay with curried cashew sauce
Wednesday – Leftovers
Thursday – 20 minute Thai basil chicken with lemongrass rice bowl
Friday – Out!
Saturday – Leftovers

There’s also a chance I’ll make these roasted sweet potato black bean burgers to have in the freezer. Don’t they look delicious?!

Food for Thought

If you were fasting or even had to fast, what would be your break fast meal?
What’s on your menu this week?

A Pretty Sweet Weekend

..in more ways than one!

For Nathan and me, birthday celebrations [and most other celebrations..] are centered a lot around food and drink. It was a very nice celebratory weekend, for sure.

It all started on my actual birthday on Thursday.. a quick lunch, post-lunch ice cream, and dinner/drinks out.

Here, take my picture in the middle of a tiny sushi restaurant real quick!

Nothing goes with sushi like a little birthday ice cream.

A little post-dinner brew-ski.

Friday we kept it quiet and stayed in in preparation for Saturday.

An amazingly flavorful bbq & brew lunch [with dessert, obviously.]

Skyping with this sweet little nugget! Can’t wait to get my hands on her soon!

Pre-dinner drinks at Toronado.

Scoping out the kitchen at NOPA with my new chef friend who likes to pose for pictures.

Best seat in the house [in my opinion!] I couldn’t stop watching them cook.

A fabulous salmon dish.

And capping off the night with a birthday cake shot. At least now I can say I’ve had one…..?

Yesterday was a lazy day full of packing because we’re headed back to Baltimore today!! I can’t wait to get back home and see everyone again. It’s hard to believe that we’ll be there for a week and a half and are having trouble fitting everything in. Need. More. Time! We’re not only going home for more family time, but for our friends’ wedding! We’re both in the wedding and I’m so excited for all of the festivities that are starting on Friday. This is going to be a really fun trip 🙂

And when we get back, I’ll have a gallon of home-brewed kombucha waiting for me! I might need the whole gallon after so many more celebrations at home 😉 I’d say this is a pretty marvelous Monday, yes?

No meal plan this week.. who knows what we’ll be eating?!

Food for Thought

What did you do over the weekend?
Have you ever brewed your own kombucha?

Liquid Diet

Hi friends! Hope you had a great weekend. We certainly did over here.. it started out a little like this:

We hit up a new-to-us restaurant for happy hour called Eureka! I planned on sticking with the 1 glass of wine but when I saw they had a Bear Republic Racer 5 with a shot of rye, I couldn’t pass it up. And I’m so glad I didn’t.. what a great combo! After dinner, we made our way over to another bar where a little more beer, a shared slice of pizza, and gelato happened. So much for sticking with 1 glass of wine, huh? 😉 It had been quite some time since Nathan and I went bar hopping and it was a really fun night.

That night that subsequently resulted in a nice, quiet Saturday morning.

Got myself all snuggled up on the couch before hitting up the farmers’ market, wandering Berkeley, and having a relaxing Saturday that ended in our favorite Indian food.

And if we didn’t get enough on Friday, we had a nice Sunday Funday. We made our way into the city and grabbed brunch at Pork Store Cafe.

The mimosa was a surprise.. Nathan decided to order them and I put up no fight at all. Besides, it paired perfectly with the fabulous benedict with avocado and grilled tomato. Yesssss! We took to some more relaxing, this time in Dolores Park.

Never forgetting our sunglasses again! Haha. The day started a bit gray, as usual these days, but turned out to be perfect weather. It was so nice to just sit in a park and enjoy the day and people watch. It was a really great weekend and I’m sorry to see it end. But it just means we’re that much closer to heading home again! 🙂

Weekly Meal Plan

Sunday – Grilled balsamic chicken thighs, roasted brussels sprouts, & balsamic basil heirloom tomato salad
Monday – Smokey Peruvian chicken with roasted carrots
Tuesday – Char siu pork bowl
Wednesday – Greek chicken souvlaki with side salad
Thursday – My birthday! Going out!
Friday – Leftovers
Saturday – Big birthday dinner at NOPA!

Food for Thought

What fun things did you do over the weekend?