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?

What I Ate Wednesday #111: 24 Hours in San Francisco

Have you entered my WIN Detergent giveaway yet?

If you had 24 hours [or maybe just a little more] in a city, how would you explore? Or on the other side, how would you show someone around? I mentioned the other day that my friend, Jordan, was visiting over the weekend for work. We had Friday evening as well as all day Saturday to take him out and show him the city. He’d never been to San Francisco before so Nathan and I had our work cut out for us! No problem though; we let our taste buds lead the way.

[Friday Night]

First stop was for beer at Thirsty Bear. Nathan and I had been before but it had also been a few years since. Let’s just say next time, we’ll pass.

We more than made up for that with our Moscow Mule pitcher from B Restaurant. Jordan said it might have been the best cocktail he’s ever had!

After some strong drinks, Fresh Roll was the perfect dinner. It’s like a Chipotle-style Vietnamese restaurant and it was delish!

[Saturday]
We started our day at 10 a.m. for a dim sum brunch at Yank Sing in the Financial District.

Steamed Pork Buns

Seafood Basil Siu Mai.. my fave!

Shanghai Pork Dumplings

Shanghai Pork Dumpling

Taro Cake

From there, we stopped at Tout Sweet in Union Square. That was one of Jordan’s only requests, and it just so happens the owner and winner of Top Chef Just Desserts was doing a demo and book signing that day! We made a second stop back there in the afternoon to say hi 😉

Raspberry Peanut Butter Macaron

Jordan & Yigit

They’re famous for their macarons and having been disappointed when we bought the real deal in Paris on our honeymoon, Nathan and I had our doubts. These macarons, however, were fabulous! I may have to get more if we go back again.

After sweets, we trekked over to the Mission for a beer..

.. a few relaxing minutes at Dolores Park..

.. and our final stop in the Mission, El Farolito for some amazing Mexican!

The biggest plate of al pastor and beans I’ve ever seen! And demolished 😉

We waddled out of there and hopped onto a train and then a bus and into the Fisherman’s Wharf area all to see the beautiful bridge.

We finished our night in North Beach with a proscuitto and parmesan pizza from our favorite place, Il Casaro.

Best Italian-style pizza since Italy!

It was a long, fun, and very filling day and I’m glad we were able to show Jordan so many areas of the city and our favorite spots to eat in such a short period of time. So…… who’s visiting next?! 😉

Food for Thought

What are your favorite restaurants to take visitors?

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?

Link Love #44

Have you entered my Bob’s Red Mill giveaway?

It’s only Tuesday but I’m already glad we had such a low key weekend. I can tell this week is going to be crazy nuts so I’m trying to make the most of every free second I have. I’m not usually one for making lunches the night before but I’m so glad I have been this week.. helloooooo extra sleep! Even if it is only 30 minutes extra.. Take what you can get, right? Now if I had a post below about how imperative sleep is, that would be a perfect transition. But I don’t. So here ya go 😉

Health

Should You Count Calories to Lose Weight? – Trainer Paige

Should You Count Calories to Lose Weight? – Trainer Paige
Orthorexia: The Fine Line Between Eating Clean & Eating Disorder – To Live & Diet in L.A.
4 Tips for Taking Citicism Without Falling Apart – Carla Birnberg
4 Reasons to Eat Fermented Food – Mommy Run Faster
Tips for Overcoming Excuses & Getting the Best Out of Exercise – Zen and Spice

Fitness

Hydration and Race Day Tactics – Cotter Crunch

Hydration and Race Day Tactics – Cotter Crunch
The Women’s Guide To Increasing Strength Without Increasing Bulk – Lifting Revolution
Secrets to Success: Arm Strengthening – Tina Muir
High Intensity Workout in 12 Minutes – Fit2Flex
Fit Friday: Top 4 Back Exercises for Women – Monica Nelson via Eating Bird Food

Food

Roasted Vegetable Tacos with Cumin Cashew Crema – The Roasted Root via Hummusapien

Roasted Vegetable Tacos with Cumin Cashew Crema – The Roasted Root via The Hummusapien
Grilled Cherry Milkshakes – Edible Perspective
Salmon Fig Pesto Pizza {Gluten Free} – Health, Love, & Chocolate
100-Calorie Peanut Butter Swirl Buckwheat Brownies – Fit Foodie Finds
Toasted Walnut Pesto and Caramelized Nectarine Pizza w/ Spicy Balsamic Drizzle – Half Baked Harvest

Food for Thought

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

Five Things Friday {7/4}

Happy 4th of July!

Wow, I can’t believe it’s already July.. I really feel like time has just flown by lately. I guess that’s what keeping busy does for ya!

1. If you haven’t made a dessert yet, these red, white, and blueberry popsicles are so cute!
   

   Source: The View from Great Island

2. I had a nice surprise waiting for me in the mail when we got back.
   
3. Yesterday was a really fun San Francisco day. We did some serious walking around the North Beach area, up to Ghirardelli Square, and beyond. We had to walk off lunch somehow, right? 😉
   
   We took the SIL to Il Casaro for some legit Italian-style brick oven pizza. Nathan and I have been there a couple times before, but this time we got the proscuitto pizza and it was to. die. for. It’s so hard to find real deal proscuitto and parmesan like we had in Italy, but this place has it. The proscuitto isn’t ridiculously salty and the parmesan is so creamy it just melts in your mouth. It was perfect.
4. Pizza has to be washed down with beer, right? Right. Off to Rogue! I had an Almanac Heirloom Pumpkin Barleywine that was out of this world. It’s aged in bourbon barrels and then the guys at Rogue decided to age it another year in a keg.
   
5. After a little walk, these kids got a hankering for some In N Out Burger.
   
   Nathan had been before but it was the first time since we moved out here. I’m not a burger gal so I snagged a couple of the Animal Fries. They loved em! Personally, I’d be ok not having them again haha.

Hope you all have a great time celebrating tonight!

Food for Thought

What are your 4th of July plans?

Foodshots

Happy Memorial Day and many, many thanks to all of the amazing men and women who are serving and have served our country. I hope everyone is able to take the day off and spend some time with family and friends today! We had a great weekend filled with lots of delicious food [for a change..] so I thought I’d share some tasty shots.

Friday

Cheese [aged gouda & cream cheese], crackers, balsamic jelly [from Italy], and white wine. Glad I remembered to take a picture before we dug in. We needed a little something to hold us over while this baby was in the oven..

Holy porchetta!

With porcini pasta & roasted tomato sauce.

Saturday

A pair of old-fashioneds to kick off the night. While trying to figure out where to go for dinner, in the middle of Little Italy and Chinatown, I said “I don’t care, I just don’t want pizza.” So we got asparagus.

Oh..

.. and pizza. Same place that we went for Nathan’s birthday. Best pizza since Italy. Though the margherita was better than this one.

Wrapped up the night with Einstein and a little live music 😉

Sunday

The best Indian food we’ve ever had for lunch..

Chicken Kathi Kebab

Lamb Biriyani

Aloo Tikki – potatoes surrounded by chickpeas and chutneys. The flavors in all of the dishes were so complex and absolutely incredible. Especially this aloo tikki; the mixture of the chutneys gave a variety of sweet and spicy and the chickpeas and potatoes were nice and creamy. We’re definitely going back.

I really just wanted veggies by the end of the weekend so I broke out my spiralizer and went to town on some golden beets and turnips. I added some kale and, of course, an egg on top.

Weekly Meal Plan

Sunday – Throw together
Monday – Chipotle cherry chicken & roasted carrot salad
Tuesday – Orange rosemary roast chicken thighs w/ brown rice arugula salad
Wednesday – Leftovers
Thursday – Pan Seared Brussels Sprouts w/ porchetta and mushrooms
Friday – Out!
Saturday – Leftovers

Food for Thought

How did you spend your weekend?
Are you enjoying Monday off?

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?

I Crossfitted

There’s a crossfit gym right around the corner from my place that offers a free first class. For a good month or so I’ve been checking out the next day’s workout that they’ve posted online and just kept putting off going but Thursday night I saw the workout and actually told Nathan that I was thinking about going. You know, because as soon as I say it out loud, I’m committed.

A1. 5 x 1 [Hang Power Clean + Front Squat]
A2. Pull-Up Negatives
B. 5 Rounds for Time:
12 DB Weighted Lunges
12 Calories on Rower

I had an idea of what to expect going in from all of the other bloggers that talk about it, but it’s definitely still a bit intimidating. I got there early to have a chance to talk to the trainer and check the place out.

When we started out, I mentioned to the trainer that I’d never done crossfit before. Unfortunately, she assumed that meant I never workout at all. She was very nice and accommodating but started out talking to me like I knew nothing. It was a frustrating way to start and I was feeling like I had something to prove at that point. As we went over the hang power clean + front squat and the pull-up negatives, I was determined to get the moves down solid which I really feel like I accomplished the more I tried. Success!

Onto part B, the cardio portion. I still felt like I wanted to prove myself and at the very least, not finish last. And I’d say that was a success too!

Overall, I really enjoyed myself and definitely want to go back for more! Even though I was frustrated by my initial interaction with the trainer, she was really helpful and encouraging throughout the class. Hopefully in the coming months I’ll be able to take the on ramp to get started. Not to mention all of the crossfitting bloggers I see posting pictures are serious motivation!

The rest of Friday was a ton of running around and a delicious Greek dinner date.

Hers: Lamb skewer with grilled zucchini, tomato, & eggplant, pita, & tzatziki

His: Shawarma plate with salad, grilled zucchini, tomato, & eggplant, pita, & tzatziki

Complete with garlic fries!

Saturday was  for early errands, farmers’ market, pizza, and rest. We went to Arizmendi to try out their daily pizza: eggplant, feta, and garlic olive oil; we ordered a half pizza to take home and also stumbled upon a ridiculous cheesy foccacia bread with asparagus, spinach, and red cabbage. I gladly made a nice, big salad with my leftover lamb, huge farmers’ market sugar snap peas, and some foccacia. And a little pizza on the side. What can I say, Passover really made me want bread 😉

Yesterday was another quiet day. I had originally planned a 6.5 mile hike but when we woke up to rain, Nathan and I made our way over to the gym instead. We grabbed a quick Thai lunch, got just a few things from the store, and had a relaxing day. His mom is going to be visiting this week so we wanted to make sure we were fully rested up to prepare.. we don’t mess around! Plus, Saturday is Nathan’s birthday so we will definitely be having a good time!

Weekly Meal Plan

Like I said, Nathan’s mom is going to be visiting this week so we’re going to be going out quite a bit. The goal of Sunday-Tuesday is to finish up what we already have in the house!

Sunday – Leftovers
Monday – Play by ear.. cajun chicken?
Tuesday – Saturday – Out!

Holy moly, I think come next Sunday, I’ll be quite happy to cook again 🙂

Food for Thought

Have you ever tried crossfit?
What did you do over the weekend?

Link Love #31

I have a random request for all of you, specifically those of you in the bay area: I’m looking for a Passover seder to go to next week. If you know of any places to go or have friends in the bay area that might know of anything, help a girl out! I’ll definitely be drooling over the recipes below next week.. 😉

Health

9 Traits Naturally Thin Women Have Towards Food – Lifting Revolution

9 Traits Naturally Thin Women Have Towards Food – Lifting Revolution
Why You Need More than One REST DAY – Cotter Crunch
6 Essential Truths I Learned From Winter Exercise Hibernation – The Sweet Life with Ericka
Effortless Eating: Nutrition Made Simple – Eat, Lift, & Be Happy
Transitions – Love Life Surf

Fitness

18 Ways to Change Up Your Running Routine – Greatist

18 Ways to Change Up Your Running Routine – Greatist
No Equipment Required Conditioning Interval Workout – Your Trainer Paige
Factoring Fitness At Work – Mom’s Little Running Buddies
Crank It Up {Workout} and Principle of Overload/Progression – Fit ‘N’ Cookies
60 Minute Boot Camp Workout – Peanut Butter Fingers

Food

Avocado Citrus Crunch Salad with Oat Croutons and a Buttermilk Drizzle – How Sweet It Is

Avocado Citrus Crunch Salad with Oat Croutons and a Buttermilk Drizzle – How Sweet It Is
Goat Cheese and Brussels Sprouts Skillet Pizza – Love & Olive Oil
Salsa Verde Chicken and Black Bean Burritos – Bev Cooks
Carrot Cake Banana Bread with Thick Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting – Ambitious Kitchen
Brussels Bacon and Leek Fritters – Bell’alimento

Food for Thought

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

Link Love #24

Well I’ve been running around like a nut job trying to get everything together for when my parents get here. Tomorrow. Seriously, we’ve been talking about it for what feels like forever and now it’s finally here! I couldn’t be more excited! Clearly the best way to share my excitement is to share some wonderful posts from the past week. Enjoy 🙂

Health

Why This Registered Dietitian Eats More Fat – fANNEtastic Food via Kath Eats

Why This Registered Dietitian Eats More Fat – fANNEtastic food via KathEats
Nutrition Q&A: Protein and Plant-Based Diets – Oh My Veggies
What’s Wrong With The Modern Diet – Business Insider
Mindful Living – Carla Birnberg via Eleven by Venus
5 Reasons to Workout in the Morning – Happy Fit Mama

Fitness

3 Cross Training Workouts & Allowing Mental Breaks – Cotter Crunch

3 Cross Training Workouts & Allowing Mental Breaks – Cotter Crunch
HIIT Bootcamp Inspired Tread & Shred Workout | Bodyweight Total Body – Sarah Fit
My Sweaty Valentine Workouts – Running Hutch [Awesome partner workouts for more than just Valentines Day!]
450-Rep Workout (All Pinterest Exercises!) – Pumps & Iron
Racing Heart HIIT – Just Call Me Janks

Food

Coconut Apricot Truffles with Himalayan Sea Salt – Fit Foodie Finds

Coconut Apricot Truffles with Himalayan Sea Salt – Fit Foodie Finds
Asian Salmon Burgers with Miso Dressing – The Curvy Carrot
Homemade Harissa (Spicy Red Pepper Sauce) – Half Baked Harvest
Market Mediterranean Pizza – Tartine and Apron Strings
Breakfast Friday | Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Muffins for Two – Edible Perspective

Food for Thought

What is one of your favorite posts from the last week?