Comments (5)

By Liz, January 25, 2010 1:36 pm

Hey guys! Well, it’s been forever and a day since I last posted now hasn’t it?! I’m alive and well, though, so it’s all good. Hopefully you guys didn’t miss me too much.

Anywho, I have two pretty fun things to blog about today!

First up, is the absolutely amazing dinner I shared with Jacob for our 5 year anniversary.

We got all dolled up…

Sorry, but I have no idea how to turn the picture, so y’all have to tilt your head to the left to see how super amazing we looked.

After our prom-esque photo shoot, we headed out to my favorite restaurant of all time…Villa Creek.

Warning: The lighting at the restaurant was sooo low, so my food shots are pretty bad, but I will share nonetheless.

First course: Cheese plate.

There was a blue cheese, aged cheddar and goat cheese accompanied with almonds, pecans, walnuts, dried cranberries, sliced apples and shortbread. Too die for. We paired a Rhone White wine with this.

Second course: Spring mix salad topped with walnut encrusted goat cheese and tossed in a cilantro vinaigrette. I totally forgot to snap a pic though…the salad was inhaled before I knew it!

Entree: Oaxacan short ribs with creamy polenta and steamed kale leaves.

The meat was cooked to perfection. The meat fell right off the bone and it was pure heaven taking a bite of short rib covered in the polenta. I don’t use this word often, but this entree was seriously foodgasmic! The wine I paired with it was a Grenache. Really good!

We decided to skip dessert and get a cocktail at a local bar down the street. I sipped on my new fave cocktail, a Vodka Press. Very refreshing!

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It was a wonderful meal and a wonderful night shared with one of my favorite people in the world.

Okay, so the second fun thing to mention is that I have a juicerand I made my first juice today!! Sooooo exciting, no?

So, I went to a family Christmas gathering a few weekends ago and my aunt had a juicer she didn’t want anymore and just gave it to me! I felt like the luckiest girl in the world!

However, it took me forever to use it! Well, two weeks later, I made juice. This morning blend was ginger, lemon, celery, carrot, beet, pear, orange juice. I kinda went wild!

So, I think it’s safe to say I’m obsessed with juicing now. Sadly, it is expensive to make only 2 cups of juice, so I will have to save juicing for occasionally, maybe once or twice a week.

I drank my yummy juice with 2 scrambled eggs, salsa and 1/4 of an avocado.

Well there ya have it folks! I promise I will try not to have such a long hiatus like that for a while.

Catch ya later, track practice awaits me!

Comments (3)

By Liz, December 26, 2009 9:52 pm

Hey all!! First off, I need to send out a serious apology for the lack of posting for over a week. I can promise you guys though, that I have thoroughly been enjoying my first week out of school. This will be a picture filled post, as I have been up to some fun stuff, which of course involves food and activity!! What else?

First off…the sandwich I had at New Frontiers after Bikram last Friday.This was a turkey sandwich with cuke, spinach, red onion, artichoke hearts, provolone, red pepper aioli all sandwiched between rosemary focaccia bread. I am not lying when I say this was heaven in a sandwich. And, I had some fresh veggie/fruit juice called the Perfect Blend.Next up is the glorious and truly epic hike Jacob and I did on Tuesday. We ventured to my favorite place on earth, aka Montana de Oro, and hiked 9 miles. This hike took up across ocean bluffs, riparian forests, brush, up a huge mountain and down through meadows. It was a challenge, but oh so worth it. Here is the hike in pictures:

After the epic hike, I was quite famished. I brought a homemade Larabar, and apple, carrot and some chicken to munch on during the hike, but that food energy was long gone by the time I got home. Lucky me, one of my roommates made homemade chili. It was her first time making chili and it turned out absolutely fabulous. I assisted my making some whole-wheat corn muffins to go along. Yum!

Wednesday night, all us roomies plus Justin’s girlfriend got together for a roomie Christmas night. All of us were parting ways on actual Christmas so we celebrated early.I made hawaiian pizza for the entree and one of the roomies made a fabulous salad for the side dish. A fabulous way to start the Christmas-y evening.And I finally got the lighting right for the tree!! It looked so cute with all our little gifts underneath. We did a secret Santa gift exchange. I got one of the boys, who is a real gadget-y guy, so I bought him a mini maglite flashlight. He really really liked it! I received a bottle of Pinot Grigio wine by Robert Hall (I think?) winery. It was a roommate Christmas success!

Christmas Eve was spend doing last minute errands and a bit of relaxing. I also wrapped presents and make Christmas cookies for Jacob’s family. No interesting eats were eaten that day as it was an “eat up the leftovers” kinda day.

And now, to the main event…..DUN DUN DUN DUNNNNN….CHRISTMAS!!!!

Jacob and I began the day opening presents. I got him a new pair of running shoes (Pearl Izumi Synchropace III’s, to be exact). Jacob got me a FRENCH PRESS….plus coffee, a coffee grinder and some Bailey’s! It was a really thoughtful gift, as I have been wanting a French press for a while now. I will share pic of the new French press soon!

Next on the agenda for Christmas morning was a quick sweat sesh. My legs still weren’t completely recovered from the hike, so I opted for a bike ride around town. I biked about 11 miles in 1 hour. It wasn’t the most intense workout ever, but it was something.

After shower and such it was breakfast time!

I made sticky buns, completely from scratch thank you very much, along with bacon and eggs. And you can’t forget the coffee!! I was so excited to make some french pressed coffee!Starbucks Christmas Blend with Bailey’s Irish Cream. A heavenly concoction!

All together now…After breakfast, it was rush rush out the door to enjoy some quality time with Jacob’s family.

A little hunting was had, squirrel hunting to be exact.

After hunting it was back to Jacob’s sister’s house for more quality time. It was so wonderful. I love his family and am so happy to be a part of it!

Off to my parent’s house we went, to what is most defenilty the best meal I have had all year.A nitrate-free ham without any “liquid” enhancement (sodium or sugar water solution companies inject into most turkey, chicken and hams).

Gravy made with ham juices, mushrooms and Madeira wine.

Organic green beans steamed and topped with buttered almonds.

Red potatoes sauteed in olive oil and butter and tossed with fresh parsley.

My dad sure knows how to cook, and this meal did not disappoint.

Some vino was enjoyed throughout the night: 1 glass Bianchi Pinot Grigio, 2 glasses Bianchi Trevino and 1 small glass Bianchi Late Harvest Sauvingo Blanc with dessert. What was dessert you ask? Apple tart topped with fresh whipped cream. Ah-mazing!

I left this dinner thoroughly stuffed and super satisfied. Thanks Mom and Dad for the amazing dinner and a wonderful Christmas evening!

So, Christmas is now over and it is back to reality. However, yesterday was an amazing day that I will remember forever. I spent time with the people I love and enjoyed their presence throughly. I feel so blessed to have these people in my life!

I hope all of you, my few,yet dear blog readers enjoyed your Christmas (if you celebrate) also.

Much love!

-Liz

Comments (8)

By Liz, November 30, 2009 11:36 am

Whew! Where has the weekend gone guys?! I can’t believe it’s Monday already. With all the baking and stuff of Wednesday, Thanksgiving on Thursday and working all weekend…this holiday weekend has flown by! I’m looking forward to a week of getting back into the swing of things…plus a little homework. Heelllo research paper and a speech. Should be fun, huh…;)

So, Thanksgiving must be discussed. I went running in the morning and completed a 9 mile run in 1 hr and 19 minutes…which is quite faster than my usual long run pace and I hadn’t ran since last Saturday, so it was definitely a great run. Also, running made me nice and hungry for my dinners. I went to two dinners…can you say food coma?

This Thanksgiving dinner was at Jacob’s sister’s house. The good: my squash-couscous dish, turkey…the bad: Pillsbury crescent rolls (really bad, like trans fat bad), canned cranberry sauce (or should I say high fructose corn syrup sauce), mash potatoes and sweet potatoes with marshmallow (not that bad) and green bean casserole (no that bad either). Gosh darn, I love those crescent rolls, although I know they were completely unhealthy and contain ingredients I avoid…but c’est la vie. I also had two slices of my pumpkin cheesecake.

I really liked how this cheesecake turned out. I used the recipe from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. I followed it almost to a T but I used less sugar and used some reduced fat cream cheese…oh and more pumpkin, cause pumpkin rocks!

The above dinner was at my parent’s house. However, their friend from Colorado, Donna, visited and she cooked the meal. The good: all of it… Donna can cook! This dinner included steamed green beans with almonds sauteed in butter, free-range roasted turkey, wild rice with oysters, roasted onion and gravy. Some Bianchi Zin was savored with dinner. Loved it!

And… I had a slice of my kabocha pie with fresh whipped cream!

Accompanied by the Bianchi Late Harvest Cabernet Sauvignon. Yum!

The amazingly delish slice:

I love Thanksgiving not only for all the delicious food, but also for the family. I truly enjoyed spending time with all my loved ones and that is what made Thanksgiving such a wonderful day. I was also quite full, with two dinners and what not, so comfy sweats were very much appreciated by the end of the night. I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving too!

Friday was “How Many Meals Can You Eat of Turkey” day.Although breakfast was a slice of ezekiel with peanut butter, which did not include turkey, for lunch I had a turkey filled salad with lettuce and carrot…and woodtock dressing of course!Plus some perfectly thawed strawberries. This was seriously the perfect light lunch after such a food filled day on Thanksgiving.

Friday afternoon was very fun! Jacob and I went to an afternoon Bikram yoga class. It felt amazing to stretch and focus and sweat! It also made my body feel a lot more rejuvenated and light after food overdose…I felt pretty much back to normal.

After Bikram, we stopped in my favorite health food store, New Frontiers and I tried my first fresh veggie/fruit juice! It was called the Perfect Blend and had beets, carrot, apple, celery, ginger, and lemon in it. Soooo amazing!! It made me want to get a juicer even more. Also, I can now understand why Alison is big on the juice! I had a little something solid on the way home. too…which was a banana with almond butter. However, driving and picture taking are not conducive with each other, so no picture.

Dinner was turkey meal number two…

This meal included a wing, steamed veggies, my homemade cranberry sauce, leftover couscous, and some chocolate for good measure. Very satisfying.

Saturday was a whirlwind of work and the night was a whirlwind of tiredness…I think the past few days festivities really caught up with me and I called it a night quite early. However, the dinner I made was delish…and incorporated turkey!

I made a grilled cheese stuffed with turkey and steamed veggies on the side. However, I have a secret to amazing grilled cheese with more flavor…Worcestershire sauce! Actually, this is a trick my parents would use whenever they made grilled cheese. It adds so much more flavor and a little kick to an otherwise blah grilled sammie.

Oh, and I might have baked a batch of perfectly fudgy walnut brownies.I totally demolished two of those bad boys. Heaven!

Okay, we’re almost all caught up...Sunday was not too special. I worked and met up with a group of people in my English class in the evening to work on a presentation due next week. The highlight of the evening was getting drinks with a friend afterwards. It made studying much more worthwhile

Oh, on a side note, yesterday I was taking pics of my lunch (which was a turkey leg and couscous). However, I realized that there was just no way to make my drumstick look appetizing, actually it looked pretty gross. This side note really had no point, I just thought it was funny how the leg looked icky.

Anywho, we are here at Monday now…oh glorious Monday! Is everyone getting back in the swing of things alright?

I started my day off with, what may be, the best biscuits I ever made.These fluffy whole wheat biscuits look straight out of a restaurant. I think the whole tablespoon of baking powder may have been responsible for that! They tasted amazing, too.I topped mine with butter, pumpkin butter and cranberry apple butter. Two perfectly seasoned (salt and pepper) eggs accompanied my biscuits. What a way to start a Monday folks!

Well, I believe a run is in order today. I’ll be doing that right after work. And, mucho homework awaits me, too.

Some random ramblings: Now that the cross country season is over my training is going to be a bit more sporadic. I was thinking of either making a serious plan for myself, or just having fun with it. Well, fun took over and I have decided to just do workouts that sound fun to me in the moment. If that means yoga, then yoga it is. Or maybe I really want to pump some iron. Or maybe a good ol’ 5 miler is what the doctor ordered. I just going to play it by ear for the next few weeks until I have to get serious with my training again. However, my rest week is over (even though I only took 4 full days of rest, but eh) and I will be working out regularly, as in 6 days a week, like normal. On another note, I have to admit, my eating habits have been going a bit off the healthy path. I’ve been eating a few too many sweets, drinking a few to many drinks, eating whole plates of pizza and not getting enough veggies. I don’t think I’ve gained weight, but I don’t feel that great inside or out. Pretty much what I’m saying is that I am human, and I’m going through patch here where I’m not practicing what I preach. I’m not going to all of a sudden restrict myself, or diet or anything. I’m going to let this run it’s course but make sure I have healthy options available.  *end ramble*

Have a great Monday y’all!

Comments (4)

By Liz, November 15, 2009 9:31 pm

I absolutely loved having the day off today. I feel (mostly) recharged and (sorta) ready for the weeks ahead.

I slept into almost 10 o’clock this morning! Ack, it felt good, but I usually like to be up by 8 at the latest. I sure felt rested though!

While laying in bed, I made a game plan for how I wanted to spend my day. Jacob and I had thrown around a couple ideas last night, like maybe hiking. But, this morning we decided on making a relaxing breakfast, hanging out a bit, then going for a long run at Montana de Oro (my favorite place ever!), window shopping in downtown SLO and going to New Frontiers (my 2nd favorite place ever).

First things first…

I made waffles using whole wheat flour, oat bran and ground flax. I reduced the butter in the recipe (from Joy of Cooking) from 2 sticks to 3/4 of a stick. They sure were tasty. For some protein power, I made a 2 egg omelet stuffed with spinach and a thin slice of sharp cheddar cheese. And, of course, there was some maple syrup on the side for dipping the waffles in. Yum!

Jacob and I hung out in our pjs watching some Spongebob Squarepants. I swear I’m still a little kid! I mean…my comforter on my bed is Pooh bear and I have 2 Spongebob pillow cases. Real mature

After digesting breakkie, it was off to Montana de Oro. I ran 7 miles in 64 minutes. I ran in my regular Mizuno trainers, no Vibrams for longs runs yet. I felt amazing…like I was gliding along. The weather was gorgeous, too. A light breeze, just enough warmth, the rustling of leaves…perfect.

After-run refueling was chicken sandwiches I made before we left for the run.

I was afraid all the fillings would fall out if I took a picture of it after I unwrapped it, so a saran wrapped picture it was. I made the sandwiches with 2 slices Ezekiel bread, 1/4 avocado, 1 tbsp. TJs tuscan dressing, shredded carrot, roasted chicken, red pepper slices, radishes and spinach. On the side, I had 1/2 and orange and a homemade peanut butter chocolate chip cookie.

After lunching, we drove into SLO-town and hit up a couple stores downtown. I made some serious hints to Jacob of possible Christmas presents. I also used a gift card that I had from my birthday last January, and bought a pair of running shorts with it. A little Starbucks was had, too.I got my recent addiction of a cafe americano with 2 pumps pumpkin spice with a splash of half and half. Too good!

Of course, our New Frontiers stop was wonderful. This health food store is quite expensive, but aren’t they all? I limited myself to 4 small items, and somehow walked out only spending 12 bucks. I am proud of my smart spending. I made my selections carefully…

Annie’s woodstock dressing (aka my favorite salad dressing), 2 bars of Green and Blacks chocolate (also my favorite dark chocolate in the world) and a package of coconut water. I’ve heard that coconut water is a good natural sports drink, so I’ll test it out one of these days soon.

When we got home, we were both pretty famished! I whipped up some quick dinner.

All pretty:

All messed up:

This dish was inspired from a similar dinner Christina made a while back. I’ve had it in the back of my mind ever since I saw it, and tonight was the night to try it out. I didn’t use the ricotta though, and I’m a bit sad I didn’t. It really would have added something too the dish…next time though. I also added in some green beans for some more veggie action. I loved the green beans in it, too! This dish was fabulous, even without the ricotta and Jacob and I both went back for seconds. Lucky me, there are some leftovers for my lunch tomorrow!

Dinner was accompanied my a beverage…

This was better than the Blue Moon pumpkin ale, more spice to it. However, I was still a bit disappointed in how it almost tasted like regular ol’ beer. Anyone have some recommendations for a really good pumpkin brew?

Dessert was obvious…

This was the first time I tried this variety and I was seriously impressed. I had to hold myself back from eating the whole bar! I will admit I went back for a couple more little squares. Too good, but I wouldn’t expect anything less from G&Bs.

Just enjoying the rest of my night before I have to go back to the daily grind. Nighty night.

Comments (6)

By Liz, November 4, 2009 11:19 pm

Hey guys! I have been really slammed with life in general lately, so I apologize for my lack of posts. However, I am here to chronicle my past few busy days. There are some interesting tidbits to discuss!

Okay so Monday!

I ate one of these….

Have I mentioned that I am in absolute love with Chunky Strawberries? Haha, I am truly obsessed!

I did some Trader Joe’s shopping and got some crazy cool stuff…like Sprouted Wheat Bagels (yum!), Pumpkin Butter (yummier!) and Peanut butter filled pretzels (the yummiest of yum!). I got other things too (like 5 jars of peanut butter-what addiction?) but those 3 items are definitely the standouts of the bunch.

So, the real excitement on Monday began after I got home from work and TJs. This was the day that I was finally able to get some new running shoes. My old shoes are kinda…what’s the word?…GROSS! They smell like dirty gym socks and are covered in dirt…not to mention that the cushioning is completely worn out and I have put almost 700 miles on those babies. Yep, it was time for a new pair. So, Jacob and I ventured down SLO to get me a new pair. Sadly, the only stores that sell my shoe are 45 minutes away and my work (running shoe store) doesn’t carry my brand. Okay, so I get to the first store…don’t have my size. I get to the second store….don’t have my size. At the second store though I got a new pair of racing flats that were only 20 bucks!! I couldn’t pass that up, especially because there are holes in my old ones. But, I still didn’t have the prize in hand. I went to a third store…and they didn’t have my size! I was kinda pissed. We had just spent precious time and gasoline to go down to SLO to buy me some running shoes that I was in desperate need of, and we came out fruitless! However, we made the best of the situation and decided to go out to eat for a dinner date. We ended up going to get Indian food, because Jacob has never had it before. Oh, that boy needed to be enlightened. Now, I’m a bad blogger and didn’t bring my camera with me. I wasn’t planning on needing it, as I thought my shoe expedition would be a quick one. But let me just tell you, the food was amazing. I definitely ate my fair share…plus a pint of beer. Hey, you gotta live a little! We don’t go out to eat very often, so I thoroughly enjoyed our night out. Only drawback, we got home kinda late from out unexpectedly long outing that I had to stay up late and do homework. Boo!

Tuesday was pretty run of the mill. School, school, school. The most notable part was my speed workout at cross country practice. I did 2×200m then 4×800m then 2×200m. It was a very fast workout. The first 200s weren’t timed. My 800s were supposed to be at 3:24. My actual splits were 3:21, 3:18, 3:16 and 3:13. My last 200s were :45 and :40. I was a speed demon! Again, I exceeded my coach’s and my own expectations regarding my abilities. I’m very proud of myself. Total, including warm-up and cool-down, I ran 4 miles. SoCals here I come!

And now we have arrived at Wednesday, good ole Humpday!

My day started off with a swim. I created a good little workout for myself: 2oom warmup, 6×300m. Between each 300 I would alternate either 10 pushups or a 1 min plank. I did 30 pushups altogether (a few of them were girl pushups) and 3x 1 minute planks. Total, the swim was 2000m. It took about 45 minutes.

Okay, so I gotta throw this out there….I have a new addiction. Lately, I have just been craving coffee! Yesterday and today I stopped at Starbucks and got a tall black coffee with 2 pumps pumpkin spice and a splash of half and half. Boy of boy, this is good! I need to refrain from making this a habit though, as my bank account will slowly get drained if I do.

Next order of business…breakfast…

Featuring 2 of my TJs foods: Sprouted Wheat Bagels and pumpkin butter. The other half my bagel is smeared with peanut butter. And if you didn’t realize, that yellow blob in front of the bagel is eggs.

Work work work…uninteresting leftover soup was consumed with a pear and my other super cool TJ find:

Whoever thought to put peanut butter inside of a pretzel was a genius!

Look what was waiting for me when I got home!

My new pair of Mizuno Wave Rider 12s! Since no stores had my shoe, I resorted to buying them off the Internet and I got 2 day shipping, because I needed these guys bad! The Wave Rider is my all time favorite shoe ever. They were my first shoe when I began cross country in high school, and I haven’t gotten sick of them yet. Yay for new shoes!

Check out my old pair:

Can you say “well worn”? These were subsequently thrown in the trash. The stench was so bad on these guys, I couldn’t even keep them or kick-a-round shoes. But first, I had to get a side by side picture, so y’all could see the striking difference.

Go Mizuno!

I also bought two nifty items at my work today.

1) a new pair of Superfeet for my insoles.

These were recommended to me by my podiatrist when I broke my foot two summers ago. I’ve been wearing them in my running shoes ever since. They add a bit of arch support and really cup the whole foot so it feels comfortable and locked in place. These are great and I highly recommend them. It’s cool also, because they sell them at my work, so I get a discount…yay!

2) My second item was a pair of Skins compression tights

I have been wanting a pair of these for forever! However, I didn’t want to spend all the money (they retail for 100 bucks!). I just found out about a program that the Skins company offers to store employees (not Skins store employees, but employees of stores that carry their products) that gives them 30% off wholesale, which brings the price down to 40 bucks. That’s a big difference! So, I bite the bullet, and decided today was the day to get me some Skins. Check out the website on the link and read about them. This product may be expensive, but I can already tell that these work! My legs feel fresher and less sore. These will especially come in handy when I’m riding in a van for 5 hours down to LA for SoCals tomorrow. I’ve been hanging out in these all day.

Pretty darn comfy. My legs feel awesome. I’ll give a full review on these at a later time when I can test them out a bit more.

I spent most of the afternoon today baking my Superpowerfood muffins for the team tomorrow. Sadly, they turned out a little burnt, but they taste okay. I also made homemade Larabars for the first time. I used this recipe. They look just like a Larabar!

I took a little nibble and they taste just like a Larabar, too! I made PB & J Larabars, although I have ‘t had the real version yet. I used dates, dried cranberries and peanuts. Simple and delicious. I made these because one of the girls on my team is hypoglycemic and can’t eat flour or refined sugar. So, I wanted to make something that she could eat, too. I hope she likes em!

The rest of the afternoon included some of this…

and this…

(Barbara’s Shredded Oats in fat-free milk)

plus I did some homework. This evening I had a work meeting where I was served chili, salad, rice and bread for dinner. No pics though, it didn’t seem appropriate. More homework after that…and now I am here, typing away.

I’m pretty exhausted. I’ve had a busy busy day. Tomorrow I am leaving for SoCals at around 10am. I still need to pack and stuff…but I’ll do that in the morning. I’m racing Friday morning at 10:30 (send those vibes my way!) and getting back Friday evening. So, till then…tata for now!

Gotta catch some Z’s. Night guys!