"Does it almost feel like nothing changed at all?"

Gear up for a food heavy post ya’ll. Lately it’s been all things diet and exercise related so if you’re not in the mood for that, I suggest switching over to a gossip blog now. Anywho, we’ve been plugging away at the healthy lifestyle and while it’s been paying off (10lbs down for me to date!), it sure is difficult to keep it interesting. There’s only so many ways you can - cost efficiently - make a chicken breast and salad more interesting. We’ve added in smoothies and that seems to break things up. Of course, I’m a fan of more fruity, ice-creamy like smoothies and Ed is content with water and protein powder essentially. Blech. Double blech.

It helps that we’ve started making more of our own things which is something we’ve always aspired to but been rather lazy about. Ed’s going gangbusters with his yogurt maker and I finished a new batch of strawberry jam. 

Oh canning, how I wish I had more space for you!

My least favorite part of canning.

Our current favorite dessert, homemade yogurt with my strawberry jam on top!

His wines are getting slightly less sugary and still retaining an appealing taste. It’s a fine line I tell ya. We’re hoping with our new digital thermometer we’ll have greater success in the cheese making department too but we haven’t broached that one yet. Cheese isn’t exactly super diet friendly.

I’m scouring Pinterest and Martha Stewart and all of my friends and family’s blogs for food ideas. I usually take what I see and sort of tweak it in the kitchen. I’m actually kind of awful at following recipes. Somewhere within me I must hold strong to the delusion of being a natural cook that is cool and confident. This is a major delusion. This week I also posted a link on facebook to Buzzfeed’s post on terrible home cooking fails: http://www.buzzfeed.com/rachelysanders/people-worse-at-cooking-than-you-food-fails 
 
I usually shout out #12 halfway through all of my attempts at making something ‘fun.’

This week we tried out the following recipes (links to be added later because blogger is freaking out today):
 Spicy Fish Tacos - but I replaced the fish with shrimp because it just looked fresher at the store


Arroz Con Pollo - came out a bit more like arroz con pollo sopa

 

Oven Chicken Fajitas -

Clearly, I am currently bell-peppered-out of my mind for a good while.

And! We finally got around to scheduling a cheat meal! Of course, it had to be pizza. We hit up Patxi's down the block from us and boy it was gooooood. The burrata bruschetta? Amazing.  
 

If it was appropriate to make out with this, I would have. Many times.

Mmmmm cheat meal!

This week will be a bit more challenging food wise. I am writing this blog post from the Mountain View Library - because Campbell Library doesn’t open until 1pm (ridiculously lame) - and I’ve been unceremoniously kicked out of our apartment so they can fix renovations they did to the place before we moved in. Namely, install a vent for over the stove. Yes, our above the oven microwave has no vent nor a light, so cooking fails can go extra spectacularly wrong. So, from 9-6 today, tomorrow and Wednesday I will be trying to stay out of the house so that they can install the up-to code necessities in our kitchen. Thank goodness for libraries. But as I mentioned, that leaves our meal plan up in the air. A lot of our cookware is shifted around and boxed up so they can demo parts of the kitchen. Maybe this week will be an adventure in eating out... I foresee a lot of Subway. :)

I bought myself a kettlebell that I am super excited about. I did my first (brief) routine with it this morning... talk about cramping in all my weak places. But it felt really good to add in some new movements to my routine. Running wise, I’m doing alright. Trying to keep it a little faster. Next week is my first 6mi run in ages. Every week after that I’ll be adding on a mile each Sunday. I haven’t run farther than 7.5 ish since Bay to Breakers last year. Hopefully the weight loss and training will help make pushing myself all the way to that 13mi mark slightly less painful.

I finished reading The Magicians and I LOVED it. I'm already started in on The Magician King. It's a bit like Harry Potter for adults but with far less silliness, way scarier imagery, drugs and sex. The imagery.... I've been having pretty terrible nightmares because of it but I don't regret it for one moment! High recommended. The third book isn't out yet so you all have plenty of time to get to reading...

My reading buddy!

"I'm an extraordinary machine"

Ok I'm gonna brag. And I'll admit I give people grief (silently and in my own head of course) when they brag. I don't care how much weight you've lost (I actually do and I'm jealous) or how far you can run (once again, jealous) or how much you enjoy your work out (super envious on that point). So it's been really odd for me to be on the other side of that for once. I'll be damned if I turn into one of those people who only talks about their exercises but I just HAD to come on here and tell the world that I am OFFICIALLY a runner! Like I mentioned last entry, my family and I have signed up for Bay to Breakers (this is so NSFW for the love of God, but you should absolutely do a google image search for Bay to Breakers if you're at home). So I've been training and following a plan Ed made up for me. You must understand, when I've 'run' in the past, it went something like this: walk for five minutes, and then run one minute and then walk one minute for about 30-40 minutes. This is not an ideal way to run a race. I don't know what got into me, but when Ed gave me my assignment, I said okay. And proceeded to run for 20+ minutes a day straight. No break. No slowing down. I've dreamed about running like this for so long...

The sheer freedom of lacing up your sneakers and just going somewhere from your own strength and determination... it's exhilarating! (Anyone else think of that ad they pitched in What Women Want? Mel Gibson will forever be associated with peaceful women's running) It's also appealing in that it's just one long meditation. An extended assignment in focus and clarity of thought. In her new book, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? Mindy Kaling (from The Office) talks about using elaborate revenge fantasies to get her through exercises. Turns out I like envisioning scenes from musicals, tv shows and books in great detail. If I start thinking about the fact that I'm working out or traveling or any thought at all about my actions I immediately start to feel exhausted and weak. So I just keep on trucking. I'm also kind of a baby in terms of working out without music... It's just so alien and barbaric that one would workout without any kind of distraction... But I've been doing that too. As much as I enjoy my scenes in my head, I've started testing out just being quiet and running. And that's not been awful either!

Ok that's enough exercise talk. I just wanted to tell the world how ecstatic I am to run finally. It's like learning how to do a cartwheel or something! (I have no idea how to do a cartwheel but since I've always wanted to do one and they look like so much fun, I imagine it's the best feeling in the world)

In other news, I'm plugging away at my reading challenge. The whole Game of Thrones series really slows me down, but I love it. I'll probably love it more when the show comes on again. I also picked up another book that really got me, Discovery of Witches, which is a trilogy, and has all that lovely romance and vampire-witch relations that I can never get enough of. I'm truly a sucker for vampires at the end of the day.

And! I've officially tried my hand at canning. It wasn't as hard or complicated as I thought. It WAS as messy as I was worried it would be. I have yet to taste my strawberry jam, but fingers crossed it's delicious. It's hard not to be delicious with bright berries and a metric ton of sugar added. 

Strawberry Jam! Hopefully edible...

Enjoying the day in Mountain View

I feel as if maybe in the first few months out here, I really kind of stalled. I just was dragging my feet and refusing to tackle all these dreams I had... maybe for fear of failure or because I was still bummed about moving? I still very dearly miss MD, my friends and family. But... I believe I'm finally seeing this as home? At least as in, this is Ed and I's space here. Our little corner of the world where we can and play with crazy cats and make potato bins (yeah, I'll post about that craziness next time), and I can address things I've always wanted to do, or just do better. It's a nice feeling :)

Cabernet flight at Savvy Cellars

Also one last little programming note - today is my stepmom's bday, and she and Dad are in Hawaii. I would like to express my happy birthday wishes to her along with a heaping dose of jealousy that we are not in Hawaii as well, snorkeling with dolphins, turtles and who knows what else :) Happy Birthday Debbie!

Brunch at Louis'