There's no place like home...

Hey there!!

Wow, what a lazy blogger I am these days! Actually I have just been gone a lot. Two days after the chicago trip, I turned right around and drove 9 HOURS by myself to Biloxi to see my sweet husband who's at Keesler AFB right now for training. :(

*sigh* I miss him.

I have also missed all of my fellow bloggie friends! I don't know why, but when I am neglecting my poor little blog, I also neglect to read and comment on everyone else's which makes no sense. So next on the agenda is to catch up on what everyone else has been up to!

So the Chicago trip was kind of a bust. I am not even going to dignify it with a recap, LOL. Nothing against Chi town, just a lot of bad circumstances that added up to one bad trip!


However, our hotel was super fabulous and filled with art. So I did get to check out some pretty fun eye candy. Above is one of my favorites pieces. It was huge and spanned a whole wall.


One highlight was finding a Lucy store, LOVE this place. I got two super super cute yoga tops there on sale!!

Biloxi was less than impressive too, but I really was just going to see my hubby because I missed him terribly, he's been gone for SO long! There's not much to do there in Biloxi, so we drove to New Orleans twice during my trip, by the third day, he was like "please, don't tell me you want to go to New Orleans again!!" LOL.

One of my favorite things was Cafe du Monde, pretty much all they serve there is their world famous Chicory Coffee and Beignets, so he had the beignets and I had the coffee, naturally, since the fried donuts didn't exactly fit into my GF lifestyle!


I've had this brand of coffee before and hated it, but decided to try the real deal at the real place, and LOVED it!! SO good! And the hubby was quite impressed with the beignets also.


Good lordy look at the mounds of powdered sugar on those bad boys. I wasn't even tempted in the slightest. I think I got a little contact high from being close to all of that powdery sweetness, lol.

I also bought the mug for a little souvenir. I'm not much of a souvenir kind of gal, but I really thought this place was cool and wanted a little reminder.

One thing I have learned to appreciate during my travels, however is the comforts of home. Nothing can replace those things. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE to travel and experience new places, but nothing really beats just being in my own routine and having all of my own food options at my fingertips, not having to worry about if there are going to be decent options where I'm staying, etc. I was so relieved to return home and get back to my little kitchen! The only thing that will make things complete is when Kermit gets home in approx. 8 days! I cannot wait!!

One of the first things I made was ratatouille (based loosely on this recipe) I was craving warm cooked veggies and lots of them! I've been reading about the way yogis eat and ayurvedic diets, etc. And this led me to stumble upon lots of interesting reading about "balancing your dosha" basically your dosha is determined by your body type, energy level and somewhat by your personality. You can take a test here to find out what yours is. Mine is Vata. And apparently I should shy away from the raw foods and salads and stick to warm comforting foods. Um, yes please! I can live with that! However, there are very few absolutes in my diet, so I just consider this a good guideline, it's not like I'm never going to eat a salad again! :)


Which brings me to a new favorite condiment of mine that is a huge part of most ayurvedic diets...

Ghee!


I have seen this stuff in the international market before and was kind of scared of it, LoL. But when I found out what it actually was, I was intrigued and had to buy some. It's clarified butter made from bringing the butter to a boil and letting the impurities rise to the top and then those are skimmed off, leaving the purest part of the butter. My favorite thing about ghee, is that is tastes just like browned butter since it's been boiled. It's absolutely delicious and it's only 45 calories for a tbsp. and I have yet to use a whole tbsp. at a time, it usually only takes a half to add lots of flavor and richness to a dish. YUM!!


I also made a second batch of the ratatouille yesterday and this time topped it off with some avocado and marinara, who says avocado can't go with Italian food?


The fresh mozzarella I had in the fridge for a few weeks did not pass the sniff test LOL, and I was really wanting something cool and creamy to top my dish, so avocado fit the bill and it was delicious!! What a great sub for cheese since I'm trying to curb my dairy consumption!


And last but not least, I have to make mention of one of my new favorite treats. Sofia wine, it comes in these cute little pink cans with little pink bendy straws. It's a sparkling white that basically tastes like a semi sweet champagne. It's such a fun little drink! I took a 4 pack to our friends' house for dinner on Saturday and they were a hit! I LOVE these!

I will see you all very soon!

P.S. does anybody watch that show on TLC called "I didn't know I was pregnant"? LOL, I am watching it now, and the particular episode I'm watching is titled "Is that a baby in your pants?" LMAO, too funny.

Blogging on a Jet Plane

Hello bloggies!

I am currently airplane blogging from the smallest plane I've ever been on! Yikes! We're squeezed in here like sardines! I'm on my way to Chicago for a mini vacay with my mom while she's on a biz trip, fun, huh!

I feel like my blog has turned into a weekly recap since I've been so busy, but that's not such a bad thing!

So here are some fun things that happened last week!

First the most exciting thing was our Nashville blogger meetup on Tuesday. We all met up at Calypso Cafe for some fun girlie time.


Right to left: Kim, Heather, Justine, myself and Mandy.

I had such a blast chatting it up with these girls and getting to know everyone better!

Mandy and I both got the Lucayan Salad, I sadly had to forgo the yummy corn muffins, as I'm afriad they don't comply with my g free diet, but I substituted the sweet potatoes which are MOST delicious!



I pretty much inhaled the sweet potatoes right away then ate just a few bites of my salad and was almost full. I had to leave room for this bad boy!


Tasti D Lite is right across the street, so you know we had to hit that up. O. M. G. This stuff was good!

We all ended up getting two of the daily flavors swirled together — Peanut Butter Cake and Latte, so good! I had mine topped with heath bar, but actually wish I had just gotten it plain and enjoyed the froyo. But it was still so yum!

Here are a couple bfast and lunch highlights from last week


Nature's Path Mesa Sunrise waffle topped with a little smart balance and some black currant preserves with a micro-poached egg and some blueberries on the side. I was stoked to find my favorite cereal was also a waffle! So I bought a box, and they were delicious! This was actually my last one! :(


I also had some french pressed coffee with almond milk. As you can see I have ruined the finish on my poor little Bodum french press in the dishwasher. I put everything I shouldn't in the DW because I'm lazy like that.


Homemade waffle smuggled from nana's kitchen, topped with pecans, maple/smart balance and some blueberries ( I was sooo excited to find blueberries at the store last week, I thought the season was done!)


also this particular morning I stumbled upon some deliciousness with my coffee. I am going to explore this idea more in the coming weeks, as I have purchased supplies to improve it. But here's what I did, I made my coffee like always, and added creamer, no sweetener at all, and then I threw a Lindt 90% dark chocolate square in there and stirred until it melted. This tasted like the most amazing dark chocolate mocha I have ever had!! It only had less than a gram of sugar in it too, so it was mostly about the chocolate and the coffee, with the slightest hint of sweetness. It was amazing! The only thing is dark chocolate really doesn't want to melt very easy, so I've purchased some Ghiradelli unsweetened coco to try that out next! I have never thought to add unsweetened or barely sweetened chocolate to coffee!

BTW, if you haven't tried that new Lindt 90%, go out and get some NOW!! It's amazing! It has 3 g of sugar per serving which is 4 squares, and it also has 3 g of dietary fiber per serving, has anyone else noticed that dark chocolate is loaded with fiber? How awesome is that? Oh, and this particular kind also has no soy! Do you know how hard it is to find chocolate with no soy!?

Not a fan of the soy, it breaks me out immediately after eating, I'm talking like overnight.



One of my lunches included a repeat of the everything in the fridge salad, a leftover GF roll, and a Kind bar. I've also been completely addicted to those chocolate mint waters here lately. I was afraid to try them for the longest, but once I did, I was completely hooked. They're really good! Not sweet at all, but really minty and slightly chocolatey. If you read the ingredients it says Mint and Cocoa Essence, whatever that is.

And here's a peek into the lunch bag of laziness.

An Amy's tamale verde, (these are actually REALLY good for lunch a la box) a pear that was WAY too crunchy but I ate it anyway, a jamfrakas bar and a cashew cookie lara.

Okay, so nobody guessed the Halloween costume, but Christie had a really good guess with Kate Gosselin, haha!

I am going as Carmen San Diego! I grew up on a pretty strict TV diet of PBS as a kid (unless I was at the grandparent's house then I watched all kinds of garbage) So Carmen was my homegirl, I absolutely LOVED that show! I am totally excited to be dressing up as her this year. So I got my red trench coat which is totally cute and I actually packed it for the Chicago trip, I've already got the knee high boots, and now all I've got left to find is a red fedora and some type of black brief case thing.


*** edited to add image in case anyone is unfamiliar with the lovely Carmen ***


I begged the hubby to go as "Where's Waldo" and he did not oblige. Instead he's going as the creepster Frank the Bunny from Donnie Darko. All I have to say is Grrrr. Not cute, honey.

We matched last year, he was Speed Racer and I was Trixie, it was totally fun, and the year before that we did not match, as he was George W. and I was a Geisha so it was kind of an international scandal, LoL. So as of right now, he's compromising and we're doing the matchy thing every other year.

Has anyone else gotten their costumes picked out for this year already? If so please share! Do you and your husband/bf/significant other dress up in matching or coordinating costumes or do different stuff? What was your most memorable costume ever? I'd love to know everyone's answers!! :)

I will definitely be getting lots of blogworthy stuff while in Chicago, so if I don't get to blog while there, I'll definitely do an update on the return flight. My girl Kristen has given me some great suggestions of things to do while there since it's my first trip!

See you soon!!

Things I Heart

Hello!!! Remember me?

Wow, I feel like I haven't blogged in FOREVER!! It's been over a week. But, last week was fabulous, I got all my work done, managed to have some fantastic workouts and got in bed around 10 each night, so I caught up on some MUCH needed sleep, and unfortunately, the blog was what suffered. But it felt amazing to get finally caught up on work and sleep and actually get to work on time every morning last week. I didn't oversleep once, and I was able to actually function and not be a zombie! So it was worth it to make a few sacrifices. I am sorry for my total lack of comments on everyone else's blog too, I hope to catch up on those as well! Anyway I'm back now with some fun updates!!

Here are some things (food and non-food) from the past week and a half or so that I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!

Skype!!!


OMG! Why have I never used this before! As much as the hubby travels, I so wish we had discovered Skype sooner!! So we have been video chatting it up while he's in Biloxi! Super fun!

ZUMBA!!

Thanks to Mandy, I tried Zumba for the very first time last Sunday and LOVED it!! I will definitely be doing this workout again soon! We had a blast while blasting some calories! It was a great workout, and the hour went by SO fast because it was so much fun! We had planned to do it again today but I was feeling a bit sick... I think from some bad tuna salad I had at Panera yesterday... yuck. So I had to drop out. But hopefully will be able to do it again soon!!

Sunshine Falafel Burgers!


Went to Whole Foods last week and found these, LOVE them! It's like hummus in burger form!

Cashew Cream!


Made my own cashew cream for my coffee since I'm trying really hard to kick the dairy habit, or at least cut way back.


This was so easy and delicious! I just soaked equal parts raw cashews and filtered water overnight and threw it in the blender the next morning and blended until smooth and creamy. Hello new coffee creamer!! I loved this, it's creaminess and taste is so similar to half and half!

Leftover Coffee Smoothies


Speaking of coffee, as I've turned over this new leaf, I have also been getting to work on time most mornings, so I usually don't have time to finish my HUGE thing of coffee that I always make, so I have been enjoying these left over coffee smoothies on the way to work. I usually just throw in what's left of my morning joe, some frozen banana and about half a scoop of vanilla protein powder. Then I just sip it on the way to work. I love this combo!!


New Larabars


Last week my day was brightened when I came home to find a package from Larabar including two of the new flavors, PB&J... um, yum! And Tropical Tart, this is also amazing!! And two old faves, apple pie and cashew cookie. Don't know who sent these, but THANKS!!

They were perfect fuel to take with to work for pre-workout snacks. I have started trying out the Y by where I work instead of driving all the way home, changing clothes then driving to the Y close to where I live. This has been working out beautifully, they offer TONS of 5:30 classes, and more variety than the one I usually workout at.

Which brings me to two more new things I love: : Kickboxing and Circuit Training!!

Yes! I tried these two classes for the first time last week and absolutely loved them both. Kickboxing kicked my booty, and I loved every second! And there's this class called ultimate circuit training which is basically plyometrics (LOVE) mixed in with some intermittent weight training and we even did a little zumba. This class was by far the BEST workout I have EVER had! I'm so doing this every week now! I have been begging my Y to offer a plyometrics class. And now I've finally found one, I am beyond excited. Plyo is one of my favorite workouts ever since I did the P90X program.

Pamela's Products Bread Mix




I tried this bread mix at the suggestion of Maria. And it did not disappoint. This was the absolute best GF bread I have ever had as far as just plain old bread goes. This tasted like the real deal. It's moist and yeasty and not crumbly at all! I love it! I can't stop eating it!! Mmmmm... carbs.

Red. wine


I found this red wine at the Woodland Wine Merchant on Friday, it's just called Red. it's a blend of Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot, (I think) and maybe a Zin? I can't remember, anyway, this wine is unbelievably good! I just love red wine blends, they are where it's at for me. And for around $10 for this bottle you can't beat it!

I paired it with Friday night's dinner:

Sauteed zucchini, yellow squash and grape tomatoes topped with bruschetta and fresh mozzarella and basil,


Pictured above, with bruschetta, mozzarella and basil, below, before toppings.


and tonight's dinner which was one of my signature (everything in the fridge salads) and some Mary's crackers.

This salad was ridiculous, it had baby greens, grape tomatoes, feta, mozzarella, avocado, garbonzos, raisins, pecans, cashews, blueberries, balsamic vinegar and just a drizzle of Drew's Balsamic Rosemary dressing. Holy Yum.

Here is something I did not love:


My salad from Panera yesterday with the evil tuna salad. :( No thank you Panera.

I love Fall!! Which brings me to the last thing on my list.

I love, deciding on and finding my Halloween costume each year. We always get together with friends and have a big costume party. So tonight, I purchased the base piece for this year's getup.


I ordered the red one.

Can you guess who I am going as this year?

BTW, I really enjoyed reading everyone's answers to my last post. That was so interesting!