Link Love #64

Have you entered my Peanut Butter & Co. giveaway?

After staying with my parents for 2 weeks in Baltimore, it feels downright strange to be back in California. I’m a little confused as to where I actually live and why my parents aren’t around watching tv at night. Ha! Of course, Nathan and I made sure to get a little pick-me-up after we landed.

Well, that pick-me-up really ended up making us even more tired after a 3 a.m. wake up call so we just made our way to the grocery store and then back to the apartment to unpack. Just in case we didn’t have enough beer in our lives, we successfully hauled about 12 more beers back from Baltimore! Do you know how hard it is to find Bourbon County Stout?!

It was a long, tiring day so I was more than thankful for a delicious bibimbop carryout dinner from around the corner. Success!

I knew it was necessary when the thought of even microwaving the meatballs in the freezer seemed like too much. Yep. But now we’re back to the daily grind.

Health

10 Tips for Stay Healthy During the Holiday Season – Eating Bird Food

10 Tips for Stay Healthy During the Holiday Season – Eating Bird Food
All About Cider Vinegar – The Lean Green Bean
Mindful Monday: Herbs for Winter Wellness and Immunity – The Foodie Dietitien
The One Thing Top Nutrition Experts Do to Stay Healthy During the Holidays – Greatist
6 Ways Perfectionism is Sabotaging You – Too Much On Her Plate

Fitness

Fast Paced Upper Body Workout – Peanut Butter Fingers

Fast Paced Upper Body Workout – Peanut Butter Fingers
The 25 Reps Of Christmas Workout {Bodyweight} – Lifting Revolution
Why I love Drop Sets & Why They Are Effective – Powercakes
30-Minute At-Home Workout – Pumps & Iron
My Top 3 Exercises to Build the Glutes – and Why Squatting isn’t One of Them – Trainer Paige

Food

Pomegranate Sesame Chicken with Ginger Rice Pilaf – Half Baked Harvest

Pomegranate Sesame Chicken with Ginger Rice Pilaf – Half Baked harvest
Bourbon Peanut Butter Gingerbread Healthy Bites {Cyber Monday Giveaway} – Cotter Crunch
Crepe Cake with Pistachios And Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting – Food Faith Fitness
Roasted Butternut Squash and Goat Cheese Farro Salad – Fit Foodie Finds
Peppermint Pretzel Marshmallow Fudge – Joy the Baker

Food for Thought

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

Link Love #54

Big news! Yesterday I ran for the first time since I hurt my ankle. And not only did I run, but I did sprints! As much as I don’t like running, I don’t like being unable to do something even more.. ya feel me? I’ve also been crazy busy at Athleta since we got new inventory last week. If you haven’t taken a look in a while [or ever], definitely check out some of the new gear. Better yet, if you’re in the bay area, come visit me 🙂

Health

Forget The Carbs Before A Race: Research Supports Diet High In Fat Improves Endurance – Lifting Revolution

Forget The Carbs Before A Race: Research Supports Diet High In Fat Improves Endurance – Lifting Revolution
Why Walking To Work Is More Than Just Good Exercise – HuffPost Healthy Living
How to Have a Healthy and Balance Life – Hungry Healthy Happy
What To Do When Your BIG Dreams or Goals Feel Stalled – Cotter Crunch
7 Healthy Habits Almost Anyone Can Implement – Food & Nonsense

Fitness

5 Reasons to Use the Treadmill – Reach Your Peak

5 Reasons To Use The Treadmill – Reach Your Peak
Strength Training Workout for Runners – Trainer Paige
My Playing Card Workout For Shoulders – Eat, Run, Sail
Quick arm and core bodyweight home workout purely training #80 – Purely Twins
10-Minute Work-Break Workout (for at Home or the Office) – Pumps & Iron

Food

S’mores Cheesecake – Life, Love, & Sugar

S’mores Cheesecake – Life, Love, & Sugar
Couscous Bowls with Za’atar Chickpeas and Roasted Cauliflower – Oh My Veggies
Butternut Squash, Apple + Pear Crisp – Edible Perspective
Chipotle Tofu Chilaquiles – Minimalist Baker
Baking Bootcamp: Apple Pie Biscuits – Joy the Baker

Food for Thought

What was one of your favorite posts from the past week?

What I Ate Wednesday #95: Killer Sweet Tooth

Don’t forget to enter my Swanson Vitamins giveaway!

It’s all in the title. I’m telling you, my sweet tooth has been out of control lately. Especially at night!

Breakfast

The usual. Oatmeal, egg whites, banana, nut butters, coffee. It’s pretty much heaven.

Lunch

My lunch spread. On the floor of the break room at work haha. I mixed up some tuna with apricot bbq sauce and kefir to spread on a rice cake and had some leftover bbq mix for veggie dipping. It was delish.

Afternoon Snack

I came home to a box of Cookies & Cream Quest Bars [from my Swanson order.. don’t forget to enter the giveaway!] so obviously I popped one in the oven right away. Holy moly I forgot how good these things are!

Dinner

Another new take on the baked turkey meatballs with zucchini noodles, no-cook tomato sauce, and freshly shredded parm. It was SO good! I used half turkey italian sausage and half regular ground turkey for extra flavor. This version is a keeper, for sure!

Let the dessert games begin!

Up first, a fig with almond butter. Because everything is better with nut butter!

Followed by a bunch of peaches and plums.

And finished off with salted caramel brownie brittle with peanut butter. No time for pictures of this.. just eating. It’s too delicious! But who am I to turn down chocolate, peanut butter, and salted caramel? I mean, really! I’m actually glad that the bag of brownie brittle is almost gone so I can control myself again! Ha!

Food for Thought

What food is your biggest weakness?

Surfset, Kombucha Cocktails, and Baseball

More than anything else this week, I’m absolutely most excited about going home on Friday! Since my mom had the chance to play with my niece yesterday, we got to skype and seeing her smiling, giggling, and bouncing around just made me that much more excited to finally get my hands on her. This trip is going to be a short one since we’ll be home for a week and a half at the end of August so we’re not really going to be seeing people other than my family and I’ll definitely be soaking it in. But before I get caught up too much [more] in next weekend, let’s recap this weekend.

Friday night I went to the Summer Solstice event hosted by Sweat Guru and Sweat Republic. It was great to see all of the Sweat Guru girls again and it was a really nice event complete with kombucha cocktails, spray tans, makeup demos, and more.

One of the instructors at Sweat Republic was demoing 15 minute sessions of Surfset. I probably should have laid off of the kombucha cocktails before my turn 😉 And after hearing so many wonderful things about Shauna Harrison in Baltimore and out here, I finally got the chance to meet her. It was her first time on a Surfset board too.. can you tell?

She’s pretty freaking amazing. I’m really good at standing on the board. Ha!

Saturday, Nathan and I went to the A’s vs. Red Sox game and decided to do a little tailgating before.

We picked up some bahn mi for Nathan and I grabbed a grilled pork vermicelli roll. I needed something to wash down the vodka!

One thing we didn’t think about bringing was sunscreen. And you can really tell I was wearing sunglasses. Whoops! Hope it fades soon!

Sunday was a quiet day. We were both busy with work so other than braving the grocery store, we just stayed in and watched the World Cup and some baseball. It was nice to have a quiet day with all of the running around we’ve been doing lately. I rounded off the day with a delicious bowl of baked turkey meatballs and brussels with a little feta. It was pretty perfect.

These meatballs are awesome; I always get 2 lbs of turkey so we have some to throw in the freezer just to have in the house but we always end up eating the whole batch within just a few days. This time I got 3 lbs of turkey.. let’s see how long that’ll last us! Hopefully we’ll be able to freeze some so we’re not completely out of food when we get back after our trip.

Weekly Meal Plan

Sunday – Baked turkey meatballs with honey balsamic roasted brussels sprouts
Monday – Turmeric chicken with grilled veggies
Tuesday – Leftovers
Wednesday – Mexican grilled chicken and cauliflower rice bowls with black beans, salsa, guacamole, and baked tostones
Thursday – Leftovers
Friday & Saturday – HOME!!

Food for Thought

Did you do anything fun over the weekend?
What’s on your menu this week?

What I Ate Wednesday #91: Berrylicious

I love this time of year. The kitchen is almost always stocked with fresh fruits and veggies but right now everything is at its peak. We’ve been seriously stocking the fridge with lots of fruit; it’s hard not to when everything is so good!

It’s usually not until I sit down and look at my meals for the day as a whole that I see some sort of theme going on. Yesterday’s theme was berries. I wouldn’t mind having that theme happen more often either.

Breakfast

Quite possibly the ugliest oatmeal ever, right? Blueberries really have a way.. I just swapped my usual 1/2 banana in my oatmeal for 1/2 cup blueberries. It was pretty wonderful if you can get past they bowl of gray.

Lunch

I have a thing for hot lunches these days and zucchini noodles are such a fast fix. I also have a serious cheese craving going on so I got Laughing Cow White Cheddar wedges the other day. I threw one of those into the mix with chipotle cherry sauce, ground turkey, shredded carrots, and zucchini noodles. I topped it off with avocado and BAM! Delicious lunch.

Snack

It’s been a while since I’ve had a Balance bar, but honestly, I was running out the door hungry and it was the first one I saw. The caramel nut blast is pretty darn tasty!

And since I felt the need for something sweet and berrylicious when I got home, I grabbed some almonds I just got from Blue Diamond—toasted coconut and blueberry—and threw them in a bowl with some raspberries and dark chocolate pretzels. I swear, Nathan was trying to hide those pretzels from me! Also, the blueberry almonds are not something I would typically buy myself, but they were much better than I expected!

Dinner

You guys. This chicken. I’m in love with the marinade! I ended up making extra to go on the side because it’s so good. I used this feta chicken kabob recipe and toasted pecan and blueberry couscous salad on the side. I ended up cutting the amount of couscous in half and adding some leftover quinoa that I had. The whole dinner was so good and I’m glad I made a bunch for leftovers!

Snack

An apple and a little more homemade sourdough. We’re still riding the struggle bus when it comes to making bread but we’re getting closer. Maybe one day soon we’ll be successful.. here’s to hoping!

Food for Thought

What’s the best recipe you’ve tried lately?
What’s your favorite berry?

Food-bombing

Another relaxing weekend in the books which is just what was ordered. It’s going to be a crazy week starting with a 5am – noon shift today. Should be.. interesting. Ha! But fun, right? 🙂 I definitely swapped my rest day for today and got my Monday workout in yesterday. I think there will be a nap happening later!

Friday we stayed close to home and tried a new-to-us Vietnamese restaurant, Monster Pho. It was great; I got their monster salad which came with grilled chicken, pork, beef, and shrimp.

As we were walking around after dinner, we passed a little plum tree so I got myself a little sweet treat.

It wasn’t fully ripe yet so it wasn’t that tasty, but I took it so I ate it. To really cure my sweet tooth, we stopped at Fenton’s for some ice cream!

Holy moly. The coffee cookie dream was just that—dreamy. Coffee ice cream with oreo cookie and chocolate chip cookie dough.. exactly what I was looking for! That said, I’d definitely go back to Lush instead of Fenton’s next time. Gelato is the bomb diggity.

Saturday was a pretty lazy day. We hit up the farmers’ market but unfortunately didn’t make out so well this time. The fruit was just not on point like it was last week so we passed. Dinner, however, was on point. Sliver for happy hour has an awesome deal—when you get a drink, you get a sliver of pizza.

So that’s what we did. And then I did that again. Plus more pizza and salad 😉 I’m not usually a huge pizza girl but I was really feeling it!

Yesterday we did quite a bit of running around—a couple grocery stores, lunch, and of course a little strolling. We went to Pappy’s in Berkeley for lunch. It’s a bar right near the college but the menu looked pretty good and they have a good beer selection. Plus we could go to watch some baseball and World Cup. I heard the salads were good, but I wasn’t expecting this!

I really should have put my hand in there for size reference. The bowl had to have been a foot wide and a few inches deep and it was filled to the gills with a few greens, edamame, craisins, wheat berries, corn, tons of tofu and then some, and topped off with a huge piece of homemade cornbread! I’m honestly not sure I’ve ever had such a huge salad and it was delicious. Not to mention it was only $8 which is a steal.

You bet your butt I finished that salad and Nathan helped me polish off a pretty good portion of the cornbread. I’d say we had a little too much though because dinner didn’t roll around till 9. Whoops! It was pretty awesome though and I don’t plan on buying caesar dressing again any time soon.

I also made croutons from my dense-as-the-dickens sourdough loaf. At least it works for something!

Weekly Meal Plan

Sunday – Beer glazed citrus chicken and roasted corn caesar salad
Monday – Smoky potatoes with asparagus and chorizo
Tuesday – Feta chicken kabobs with toasted pecan and blueberry couscous salad
Wednesday – Leftovers
Thursday – Pesto wheat berries with chicken sausage, roasted brussels sprouts, and asparagus
Friday – Leftovers
Saturday – Out!

Food for Thought

Did you do anything fun over the weekend?
What’s on your menu this week?

What I Ate Wednesday #85: Pre-Retoxing

I mentioned on Monday that this week has been deemed “detox before retox” because when you have a week like I did full of cheese..

..fried chicken..

..barbecue..

..and plenty of beer..

..I needed a break. Before we go away to wine country for our anniversary. So this week has been very lean, clean, and green!

Breakfasts have looked a little like this:

Egg whites, banana, cinnamon, and coconut cashew butter.

Snacks have been especially green!

Still smuicing it up!

Lunches have been salad-filled.

Dinners are protein- and veg-happy.

And because there is always dessert:

A new-to-me ice cream with peanut fluff.

Personally, I know that when I eat foods like grains and starches, even starchy vegetables, my stomach isn’t always happy. And even though I seriously love them, sometimes I just need to give my body a break. I’ve been binging on kabocha and sweet potatoes recently and kabocha-belly is definitely real! My carbs these days are primarily coming from fruits and I’ve also cut back on random snacking. Overall, I’m feeling better after a few days so I’m calling this detox a success thus far.

Food for Thought

What foods are your go-to for detoxing?

Snapshots

This week is officially known in my house as the “detox before retox” week. Just as when my parents were visiting, we didn’t mess around when Nathan’s mom was here either. Especially since we were celebrating Nathan’s birthday! We ran all over town and had a lot of fun trying new restaurants and visiting new areas of the city. Next weekend, we’re taking another long weekend to celebrate our first anniversary with a wine country getaway. So as I said, detox to retox 😉

I took a ton of pictures over the past few days so I wanted to share some of my favorites. Obviously, lots of food and drink made the cut!

Birthday fried chicken and beer. He was in heaven.

Lombard-ing

BIRTHDAY LUNCH! Just a boy with his pizza and beer.

Now excuse me while I eat my boiled chicken and steamed kale all week 😉 But really..

Weekly Meal Plan

Sunday – Nathan’s famous beer can chicken, roasted potatoes, & roasted brussels sprouts
Monday – Baked turkey meatballs with zucchini noodles
Tuesday – Leftovers [we have SO much food from all of our meals out!]
Wednesday – Roasted maple smokehouse chicken with roasted potato and asparagus lentil salad
Thursday – Leftovers
Friday – Rock Wall Wine Company Food Truck Frenzy [gotta kick off the anniversary weekend right!]
Saturday – Leftovers

Food for Thought

Do you ever feel like you need a good detox?
What’s on your menu for the week?

Winning Weather

Hi friends, happy Monday! I hope you had a great weekend. We were out and about quite a bit and we had great weather for it!

Friday night we went out for some brewskies [maybe some truffle parmesan fries] and an awesome yakitori dinner at Ippuku. The place was so unique; we had our own little table with a bamboo shade. The other, larger tables were more traditional and you have to take your shoes off to sit there.

Our own little nook.

I plan on recapping the meal on Wednesday but we definitely plan on going back again to try more.

On Saturday, we went to Tender Greens for lunch. It was awesome!

Roasted Monterey Squid Salad

I love getting seafood when we go out because I rarely cook it at home and this squid was cooked perfectly. Nice and tender, not at all chewy. I also got a side of roasted veggies. Another place we need to hit up again! After lunch we made our way over to The Trappist for Spontanfest. We can’t pass up a good beer event 😉

Yesterday was extra fun; we went to our first baseball game of the season! The weather couldn’t have been better and it was so great to spend hours in the sunshine.

Not a bad view!

This isn’t so bad either 😉

It was a good game. We saw 3 home runs and an A’s win. Jim Johnson also closed the game for the A’s so it was nice to have a touch of home [he was an Orioles closer for years if you didn’t know.] I also brought a nice big salad for lunch and I’m so glad I did. The food options there were pretty.. not great. And we only shared 1 beer because holy crap they were $11! You live and learn.. and pregame in the parking lot before the next game. Ha!

After a fun weekend, it was nice to come home and have a delicious, light dinner.

Baked turkey meatballs are a fave in our house.

Weekly Meal Plan

Sunday – Baked turkey meatballs over spiralized zucchini and carrot noodles
Monday – Vietnamese pork bowl
Tuesday – Cajun chicken with plantain “rice” and beans
Wednesday – Leftovers
Thursday – Roast duck sausage with roasted brussels and smashed potatoes
Friday – Out!
Saturday – Leftovers

If you’re looking for any help creating a meal plan, shoot me an email!

Food for Thought

What did you do over the weekend?

What I Ate Wednesday #77: Mental Health Day

Yesterday was a good day. Honestly, if there is an idea of what California living should be, this was it. I had an appointment scheduled to get some work done on my car. Usually that means sitting around waiting, but no problem, I’ll head down to the lake for a run! Ironic that I decide to go for a run after Monday’s post, but it sounded better than sitting around and the weather has been gorgeous! As much as I love routine, it was so nice to get a workout in outside of the gym.

I had a quick bite to eat before heading out since I knew it would be a little while until I could start my run and then have breakfast. Ezekiel english muffins are my new favorite with some homemade coconut cashew butter

and sliced banana.

#running

A friend posted on Facebook asking if she was the only person that doesn’t stop to take a picture when she runs and wanted to know if that means she didn’t actually run because there’s no proof. Ha! I had to take a picture for her yesterday.

As I finished up my run, I ran into one of Oakland’s finest, Ms. Carla Birnberg. It was a nice surprise and always a treat to have a few minutes to catch up with her. By this time I was practically ravenous and had my heart set on the hot bar at Whole Foods. I knew they had a breakfast sweet potato dish, but by the time I got there, it was gone. So I just loaded up on everything else, per usual.

Whole Foods hot bar for the win!

Scrambled eggs > scrambled tofu. Lesson learned. My wonderfully relaxing morning continued into the afternoon as I met Nathan for a walk around the lake. I’d taken my car to a place right near his office so by the time it was ready, he was ready for a break from work. It was such a nice treat to enjoy a Tuesday afternoon with him.

Enjoying some Tuesday sunshine.

After our walk, I ran home for shower, lunch, and laundry. I knew that was all the time I’d have before I had to go turn around and pick him up from work, but it was so great to be outside all morning. I swear, I hardly sat down until 2pm!

Wilted kale is the new black.

I’m loving wilted kale right now with basically the contents of my fridge. I’ve also rediscovered my love for nori. It’s so good on my salads and I can’t stop eating it right out of the package too. The salty crunch really hits the spot.. I may have gone through a couple packages in the past couple days haha.

I had a super colorful dinner planned and while I knew there was a going to be quite a bit of prep work going into it, it was absolutely worth it!

ALL THE COLOR!

I’ve made these baked turkey meatballs before and they’re great to have in the freezer. We love leftovers in this house! I was also excited to try purple cauliflower.. I assumed it wouldn’t taste any different, but it was just fun to have. I also had a butternut squash staring me in the face for the past week so I decided to make some zucchini and squash noodles. It was SO good! Not to mention, Nathan isn’t a huge fan of any of those veggies and he cleared his plate. Mission accomplished!

It wasn’t my most productive day, but such a relaxing day and I absolutely loved spending so much time in the sunshine. It really can do wonders for your mood! Hey there, unusually extra positive attitude 😉 I’ll take it. And more days just like this one.

Food for Thought

Does weather change your attitude?