Your mission...should you choose to accept it...

is to eat your body weight in leafy green veggies!

Our first CSA box has arrived and *wow* that's a lot of kale, spinach, rapini, chard, bok choy...

So it's time to get creative! The first meal was a success: chicken and sauteed rapini with red pepper flakes and garlic, and roasted beets.

With all these greens, it will be amazing if I don't turn into the Hulk...

Tonight I'm planning to bake the kale with a bit of sea salt and make kale chips. I know, how California of me.

I also made a jar of homemade applesauce last night. I took 2 apples, diced them up very finely, added a ton of cinnamon, a splash of vanilla, and a tsp of cranberry juice and cooked over low heat for about 30 minutes. The result was deeeeeeelicious.

Holy Delicious Tea, Batman!!

Wowza!! I have *officially* jumped on the Good Earth Tea bandwagon. I never tried it so never understood what the big deal was all about. Until today.

The tea (which you can get either caffeinated or caffeine-free) is a spicy herbal blend of cinnamon, chicory, lemongrass, peppermint and onandonandonandon...

It's seriously the most delicious tea I've ever had (next to PG Tips of course...right, Holly? :)

I'm on the road to addiction with this stuff, I can tell.....

PS: Ralph's name has been changed to something more appropriate to his curious nature. The best part is that his new name was suggested by my 91 year-old grandmother. How awesome is that?! So welcome....SPENSER!

Time for a new goal...

It's now been a month since the MS Waves to Wine ride. Hard to believe since I spent all summer getting ready for it and now it's almost a distant memory. But with the official arrival of Fall (which in Norcal is the first heavy rain of the season), it's time to start thinking about spring goals and a training plan for the winter.

So this was on my mind already today when I picked up my mail on the way in the house....and discovered EXACTLY what I will train for this spring: The Oakland Half Marathon! I had wanted to run it in 2010 but was, sadly, spending that week hiking and swimming in the AZ desert with my mom (insert really sad violin music here). So 2011 will be the year to run it! I'm excited. There will no doubt be other triathlons (Team Plushie has their eye on two coming up in the next few months) and bike events but this will be a good goal to train for! Especially since it's...umm...HILLY!!! Check out that elevation profile. Yikes.

I realize I didn't post yesterday, and there IS something else new to report. It's a biggie. Are you ready?

I have a chocolate bar in my house...and I have no desire to eat it.

Yes, you read that right. Ever since detoxing my body from sugar and carbohydrates over the past few weeks, sugar doesn't even appeal to me. What really appeals when I need a sweet treat is fruit. I've got bags of frozen berries in the freezer and snack on those when I need a little something sweet. But chocolate...doesn't do much for me right now. And that's not only new...it's DISTURBING.

Welcome Ralph!

Today's new thing is...drumroll please....a new KITTY! No, not mine. Lynn and David! Many of you may remember Desi AKA "Frank the Tank", pictured here:













Well, since Desi's much-too-soon departure in June, Lynn and David have been discussing getting another friend for their other portly kitty, Dion. Today they welcomed home a new furry friend---Ralph! Here he is:


Welcome Ralph!

Best afternoon break ever

I had the best little break this afternoon at work. I walked out to the orchard and picked a crisp little yellow apple from the tree and enjoyed the most delicious snack ever! This ranks right up there with other great mid-day breaks I've had at work, including feeding goats and axe-throwing with my boss. Yes, I have the best job ever.

New Recipe(s)

I'll be trying these tonight. I'll let you know how they turn out (i.e. if I end up calling for take-out at about 8pm):

Cider Chicken with Mushrooms (4 servings)
-1 lb boneless skinless chicken cut into cubes
-2 TBSP vegetable broth
-4 c muchrooms sliced
-1/2 c red bell pepper, diced
-1/2 c red onion, diced
-1/4 c apple cider vinegar
-1/8 c fresh parsley chopped

Cook chicken in broth over medium-high heat until cooked through. Add mushrooms, red bell pepper and vinegar cooking until soft. Garnish with parsley

Savory Spaghetti Squash (4 servings)
-1 spaghetti squash
-2 large garlic cloves, minced
-1/2 tsp cinnamon
-1-2 TBSP flaxseed oil

Cut squash in half, and scoop out the seeds. Place squash halves on nonstick baking sheet, cut side down. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes. With a fork, separate the spaghetti pulp from the skin and place the pulp in a serving dish. Sprinkle on garlic, cinnamon, and oil and toss lightly.

BEWARE: Under-caffeinated woman on the loose

As part of my ongoing exploration into ways I can make myself miserable (see: 150 mile bike ride, no sugar or carbs posts) I've decided that while I love coffee, I consume entirely too much of it. On an average day I probably drink the equivalent of 2-3 cups of coffee. And while that's not completely appalling, it's more than I want to drink and, at my mini stature of 5'2, more than I should be drinking.

So today I only had one cup of coffee. It is now 1:03pm and I am ready to:
a) brew a giant pot of coffee and drink the whole thing
b) yell at someone...no, make that everyone
c) take 7 Advil to get rid of my pounding headache

We'll see how long this lasts...and how many friends and clients I alienate in the meantime. For now, I've got a conference call to discuss data and Excel spreadshees. I better put the phone on "mute".

Not the weekend I had planned...

But a good one nonetheless. Here's what the weekend was supposed to look like:

Saturday: Drive to Cowell Redwoods Park. Set up camp. Hike in park. Eat yummy camping food (carbs and chocolate).
Sunday: Hike. Drink coffee in Santa Cruz. Check out hot surfers. Drive home.

Here's what the weekend actually looked like:
Saturday: Spin class. Drive to Cowell Redwoods Park. Drive out of Cowell Redwoods Park. Drive to Santa Cruz. Hike along ocean. See sea lions, pelicans, people having sex on beach. Eat some camping food out of the back of the car alongside Hwy 1. Drive home. Watch movie.

The park where we planned to camp was...well, depressing. Few trees (funny, since the park has the name REDWOOD TREE in it), lots of people smoking, ATVs, beer (not a great combination)...just not at all what we were looking for. We would have been sleeping 10 feet away from the people in the next site (who were smoking) and would probably have been run over in a middle-of-the-night drunken ATV accident. So we opted to pack it in and head home. And it wasn't a bad decision--the weather Sunday was rainy and cold. Perfect for watching movies and swimming in the nice warm 81 degree YMCA pool.

Which brings me to my new things for the weekend (I eventually got there...)
-Swimming at the YMCA (not as traumatic as swimming at the Metrowest Framingham YMCA. Let's just say that Metrowest YMCA puts the "poo" in "pool"...)
-Hiking in a new park: Wilder State Ranch
-NOT drinking beer at Oktoberfest (we walked right by the beer garden without even a sip!)

Not the weekend I had planned, but a really, really relaxing one with lots and lots of laughing. Not. Shabby.

What I wanted for breakfast this morning...

was this:


What I had for breakfast this morning was this:

New yummy breakfast treat--high in protein, and tastes remarkabley like real sausage! Scrambled up with a few egg whites and topped with a bit of hot sauce this makes for a delish, filling breakfast.

It's no stack-o-buttery-pancakes though...

T-Rex arms no more!

Ok, first of all...last night's Brussles Sprouts? YUM!
So today's new thing is something I've actually been doing now for a whopping 2 weeks. Weightlifting. Are you done snickering? I currently have the upper body strength of a T-Rex. Meaning, useless limp tiny arms that do me no good. I'm hoping to soon get to kangaroo and eventually to monkey strength. Come to think of it, the monkey tail would be useful too...

So I've been working on lifting weights and doing pushups. The side effect of which is to make everyone in the gym laugh hysterically at my complete lack of strength. Once upon a time I did have good arm strength thanks to swimming and kickboxing. So I'm workin' my way back to those glory days and am looking forward to a time when I can again lift a 5-lb bag of sugar without breaking a sweat. Game on!

I heart bacon

Hey, here's a surprise--a posting about food. At this rate, I should just turn this into a recipe-sharing blog. But hey, sometimes I post things that aren't food-related. And by "sometimes" I mean "hardly ever".

I've got a giant bag-o-Brussles sprouts in my fridge. And while I love just roasting them with some garlic and olive oil, I'm in the mood to spice things up a bit. And because for the past month or so I've been having a passionate love affair with horseradish, this recipe just has to be made. And because I can never just make a recipe as it's written without modifying, I'm including my changes in parentheses to make this a little healthier. Seriously.. bacon, horseradish....you could put this sauce on old sneakers and make them taste amazing.

1 1/2 pounds Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved
4 strips crisp-cooked bacon, finely chopped (I'm using turkey bacon)
1/4 cup reduced-fat sour cream (I'm using nonfat Greek Yogurt instead)
2 teaspoons prepared horseradish
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Directions
Place a steamer basket in a large saucepan, add 1 inch of water and bring to a boil. Put Brussels sprouts in the basket and steam until tender, 6 to 8 minutes.


Mix bacon, sour cream, horseradish, salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Add the Brussels sprouts and toss to coat.

Follow immediately with copious amounts of chocolate.

New thing...actually following through with this blog!

I prefer to think of these last few (err, seven) months away from this blog as a sabbatical of sorts. I did not write a dissertation or travel to exotic lands for this sabbatical. Ok, it really wasn't like a sabbatical at all, but more like...what's the word...laziness. Yeah, that's it.

I have still been working on doing one new thing each day, to be sure. I just let the blogging get away from me. But no more! I promise you, dear readers (all three of you...hi Mom), that I will commit to blogging again through the end of this year. It's like any relationship. It takes work. And we broke up for a few months there, this little bloggy and I, but now we're back together and going strong.

So, I shall just pick up where I left off. Today's new thing is:

CSA Box! I'm so excited! I've been wanting one of these for...forever, actually. Zandra and I are sharing this box, which will arrive every week to her little princess castle (seriously, she lives in a tower) in the Mission on Tuesdays. This CSA box arrival will immediately be followed by lots of questions such as "what is this scary looking tubular thing?" and "why do these greens smell like feet?" and the inevitable "what are we supposed to do with 17 pounds of turnips?". I anticipate a winter full of stir-fry and veggie soup. And probably Gas-Ex. Yay, community supported agriculture!