Limitless

Pancakes were the winner for breakfast with the strawberry + ginger sauce.

It was like eating dessert at 8am.

The rest of Saturday was pretty random.

A friend’s baby shower for twin boys took up most of the afternoon. It was  super cute and they had the best looking cake I’ve ever seen at a shower but I didn’t snap any pictures because I was about 1 of 2 people there not part of the family and it just felt weird. People probably would’ve been wondering who the strange girl with the camera was.

I’ve always been amazed at how much stuff one baby “needs” but now after seeing the amount of gifts for twins I’m in pure shock. All I could think about was this Netflix documentary I watched recently called “Babies”. It chronicles the lives of 4 babies born at the same time in different countries (2 of which were the United States and some country in Africa). The African baby literally has nothing. Barely any clothes. They showed the mother wiping it’s butt on her leg at one point. And yet, they were all happy. When you see the amount of stuff at a baby shower in juxtaposition to that, it’s just kind of shocking. Not that I’d want to live like African family but it’s just an interesting comparison. That’s all. I realize that’s probably an odd thought during a baby shower but somehow it popped into my head.

Ulysses got home early from work so we all hopped in the truck to go mow the lawn at our rental property. Well Ginger and I went for a walk, Ulysses mowed the lawn.

Ginger has a weird obsession with pick-up trucks. She hates jumping in any other kind of car but any truck Ulysses brings home she’s in within a second of the door opening.

This is our seating arrangement in the truck.

I get bitch and Ginger gets the entire passenger seat. Seriously.

It’s actually because Ginger had gone to work with Ulysses a bunch of times before I ever needed to sit in the truck and by then the passenger side was covered in dog hair to the point that had I sat in it I would’ve emerged a weimaraner. So instead of putting a towel down, I just sit in the middle.

After all the mowing was done, we decided to try out this cheap theater nearby that plays movies that are a few months older than the regular theater. It’s $3 a ticket so we figured if it was gross and disgusting we could always just leave.

First, dinner at Panera.

I have to get their lobster sandwich at least once in the summer. It’s expensive for Panera, but pretty cheap in the world of lobster considering how much you get and it’s really good.

My smuggled-from-home movie snacks.

Who brings fruit to the movies?

And then 2 hours with my man Bradley.

Honestly, when Ulysses said he wanted to see Limitless, I had no idea what it was about but, the second he said “Bradley Cooper and DeNiro are in it” I had no more questions and it wasn’t because of DeNiro. His character makes him even hotter than usual in this movie. If you’re a Bradley fan I suggest checking this out.  

The movie itself was actually pretty good too. It was one of those movies that have just enough twists and turns to keep you on your toes and interested but still understanding. Not one that’s so freakin confusing you have no idea what’s going on or what’s real or not (Inception anyone??). 

$6 movie total + 2 hours with Bradley = one good night!

We’re off to the lake for the first time this summer for some sun and jet-skiing. Can’t wait!

Favorite actor to stare at for 2 hours?

Strawberry ginger sauce

I feel bad for ginger.

No not this one,

she’s got quite the life.

This one.

It’s kinda ugly with it nubs and wrinkled skin and people tend to ignore it because they don’t know what to do with it or think it’s too strong.

I’m not afraid to use ginger and I actually like it a lot but, I have to have a reason for buying it. It’s not something that I just happen to have on hand at all times. So, when I walked past it in the store yesterday and looked down into my hand basket to see the 2 lbs. of strawberries I was purchasing, it was an instant light bulb moment. I think I may have even let out a little “oh!” as in “oh!, I can use it in a sauce”.

Best idea ever.

Fresh, in season, sweet strawberries + spicy ginger is a match made in sauce heaven.

Oh, and this doesn’t hurt either.

I have a liquor cabinet full of obscure liquors that I needed 1 oz. for at one point in time for some recipe, usually a holiday cookie or cake, and then never use again. Anytime I can use these orange liqueurs & apricot brandies I get super excited, maybe by the time I’m 50 they’ll be gone.

I added orange juice, the orange liquor and the chopped up strawberries to a sauce pan and let them come to a boil.

Then I added some brown sugar, a cinnamon stick and minced ginger and let it boil away for about 30 minutes until it reduced and thickened. I stirred it frequently to kind of break down the strawberries even further.

The end product was somewhere between a sauce & jam consistency. Barely sweet, slightly spicy. And, totally delicious.

Want to know what torture looks like?

A near empty container of vanilla ice cream when you thought it was at least half full.

I was nice, we shared. But for the record, I didn’t want to.

Over ice cream, it’s like a sundae topping gone gourmet.

Do it.

And if you need a back-up plan, there’s always lemon rosemary olive oil cookies for dunking.

I dare you to try and have just one.

I haven’t decided on breakfast yet but, I can assure you whatever it is, it will be topped with this.

 

Strawberry Ginger Sauce

Makes about 2 cups

• 1 lb. strawberries, chopped
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• splash of orange liquor (optional)
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 inch nub of ginger, minced

Directions:

Combine chopped strawberries, orange juice and liquor in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil. Once boiling, add remaining ingredients and boil on medium for about 30 minutes or until sauce thickens and reduces. Serve warm and then keep refrigerated.

Bertha

Yesterday was not one of my finer moments. It started off great with my new HUGE coffee mug from Bed Bath & Beyond that got me more excited for my morning fix than I’d like to admit.

But the day quickly deteriorated as work threw a few punches and I let them get the best of me. It was a long, stressful day with lunch eaten at my desk during a 2 hour conference call from hell.

I’m not going to get into details because in the words of the almighty Dooce, “be ye not so stupid” to write about work on the internet.

Let’s just say 5pm was more than needed and it’s days like these that I’m so incredibly thankful and happy I’ve found an outlet in running. I went out for a music-less 3 mile run and got all my frustration out on the pavement. Does any one else have mock conversations in their head while running? Totally did that. If I can’t express my feelings in real life, I’ll just play the scene out in my head. I’m probably sounding like a head case right about now!

It wasn’t my best or my fastest run (I’ll blame my screaming sore glutes<—hello 40lb dumbbell lunges!) but it did the trick.

And then Bertha came out.

Yes, I’ve named my dutch oven Bertha. She’s big and ugly and it seemed like the only fitting name.

After our wedding, I had a few hundred dollars in gift cards and returns from duplicate items on our registry to a store called Fortunoff. It’s out of business now, but it was local to NY,NJ,CT and was basically a department store on steroids/bridal registry palace. You could waste hours of your life in there from bedding to china to furniture and more. I could’ve gotten a lot more with the money, but I spent it on Bertha. I had wanted a Le Creuset dutch oven forever and it’s a lot easier to convince yourself when it’s not your own $275 you’re throwing around. Her color looked so nice and rustic online but when she came in the mail it was all I could do to not puke at the sight of her. In real life it’s the color of poop. Ass grass, and now poop. What has come of this blog? It’s unfortunate really to have to cook delicious meals in something so offensive looking, but we make do and she hasn’t let me down yet.

On the menu was Anne’s turkey barley vegetable chili. Is there a food more comforting than chili? I don’t think so. I’ve made this before and followed her recipe almost exactly but I did take out the mushrooms (didn’t have any) and threw in some carrots & fresh tomatoes.

I’m pretty sure ground turkey meat is one of the least appetizing looking things ever.

Garnished with some sharp cheddar and avocado.

Perfect.

Other good things about chili? 

It’s a one pot meal = less dishes

There are tons of leftovers = don’t have to cook dinner for the next 2 days = more time to bake cookies.

So for the math nerds out there, if bad days = chili and chili = cookies then bad days = cookies, right? I could handle a few more bad days in that case.

 

What was your major in college? I was an overachiever and double majored in International Business and Spanish. I loved math in hs and never took an ounce of it in college, go figure.

Lemon rosemary olive oil cookies

Well hello, new readers! Who knew ass grass would be such a popular topic?! Ginger is a little embarrassed but I explained to her how much you all enjoyed hearing about it and she was a good sport. Also, bacon strips helped.

Now, what can I do to bribe some of you to stick around?

Cookies perhaps?

Yes?

Ok, good because these are some damn good ones.

There’s something about a rainy day that just makes me want to crawl into sweatpants and bake. We’ll ignore the fact that it was 78 degrees yesterday and pretend sweats were still a realistic option because it just adds an element of coziness, no?

This was the scene outside of my office at 9:30am.

I apologize for the crappy through the window screen iPhone shot but I wasn’t expecting anything worth photographing at work.

Check out the downspout on the building across the little courtyard. It was like a river coming out of that thing. The crazy rain and thunderstorms eventually subsided but it continued to be a rainy, drizzly day which meant one thing when I got home. Baking.

Olive oil, lemon and rosemary. No, not your typical cookie ingredients.

Oh, but these are not your typical cookie.

They are crisp on the outside yet cakelike on the inside.

They are sophisticated.

They smell like Christmas.

They would be amazing with a lemon glaze on them, yet perfect without.

They might be my best creation yet.

Are those reason enough to make them? I hope so, because you are seriously missing out if you don’t.

Eat 3 and then decide it’s as good a time as any to go do your strength training workout for the day.

 

Lemon Rosemary Olive Oil Cookies

Inspired by Joy the Baker

Makes about 2 1/2 dozen

• 1 1/2 cups spelt flour
• 1 cup AP unbleached flour
• 1/4 turbinado sugar
• 1/2 cup regular granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup almond milk
• 1 sprig of fresh rosemary, minced
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• zest of 1 lemon
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp. lemon extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine sugars, rosemary and lemon zest in a small bowl and mash together until fully incorporated. In a large bowl, mix flours, baking powder and salt together. In a smaller bowl, whisk eggs, almond milk, evoo, lemon juice and extracts together. Pour wet ingredients and sugar mixture into large bowl with the flour and mix until just combined. Spoon batter onto a greased cookie sheet and bake for 12-14 minutes until edges are just browned. Let cool for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

 

Rosemary fan? I love it, but I know others think it tastes like a Christmas tree.

Mud, grass, sauce & sprinkles

How do you like that randomness for a title?

After leaving Ginger at home on Sunday for 9+ hours I felt like I owed her one. So after work I sucked it up and put her in my car for the 2 mile drive to the bike trail. I had done a quick 25 HIIT run on the treadmill earlier and wasn’t feeling much else besides a walk.

Doesn’t she look thrilled? For 2 miles I had one hand on the steering wheel and the other keeping her wet little nose from touching my dash everywhere.

The damage:

 

And I thought I lost a lot of hair! You can bet I wiped that off within 2 minutes of being home. I kind of have OCD tendencies with keeping my car clean. It probably stems back to my childhood and a father that wouldn’t let us eat in the car or get in with dirty feet. I blame you, dad.

Ginger enjoyed the hour walk minus the bikers. She’s a little skittish around them. Not sure what a bike has ever done to her but she apparently found them scary enough to hide between my legs anytime one would pass. Wuss.

We stopped by the creek that runs under the bike path at one point to let her have a drink since it was kind of hot out and she was panting like crazy.

And this is the payback I got.

A bike went by on the bridge above us while she was drinking and rang it’s stupid little bell horn which freaked Ginger out and she jumped out of the creek, flinging mud all over me. So then I had a wet, muddy dog and muddy sneakers going into the car! We both got hosed down when we got home.

Oh, but the fun did not end there! Fast forward about an hour and I’m outside grilling dinner when Ulysses comes home and Ginger runs onto the deck to see him. That’s when he points this out.

Can you see it? ASS GRASS!  And yes, I’m holding her tail up so I can get a better picture. Wouldn’t you? This has happened before so Ulysses knows full well I draw the line here. Ass grass removal is his job. I just take pictures and blog about it. That piece of grass ended up being a good 6 inches long (guess we don’t mow the grass often enough). Perfect dinner time entertainment.

Speaking of dinner, we had roasted vegetables and tofu on the grill with Mmmm Sauce. I’m starting to think I should rename the blog to “Running to Mama Pea’s Kitchen” considering how many recipes I make of hers. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it though, right? I actually saw Caitlin post about it yesterday and finally decided to take matters into my own hands and make it myself instead of drooling over everyone else’s.

There’s a reason it’s called “Mmmm Sauce”. It is tasty! So tasty that I was lamenting the fact I couldn’t get it all out of the blender without risking some digits.

Does it drive anyone else crazy that you can’t get the stuff under the blade out?

I pretty much slathered it on everything. This was the first time I grilled tofu and all I did was season it with olive oil, salt & pepper. I purposely kept it simple because I knew this sauce was going on top of everything anyway. It reminded me of a sauce you’d find in an Indian dish. Loved it. Glad there is at least a cup left in the fridge.

And since it was the first day of summer and all, this was necessary.

And promptly devoured in about 3 minutes.

Happy Summer!

 

Sprinkles or Jimmies? Sprinkles!!!

Would you pull grass out of your dog’s butt? Heck no, that’s what husbands are for!

NROLFW update & more mango

I’m halfway through the first stage of NROLFW and wanted to do a quick update on my thoughts/progress so far with the plan.

Stage 1 calls for 16 workouts, alternating between workout A & workout B. After 3 full weeks, I’ve completed 8 of the workouts at the “2 set” phase and just today moved into the second half of stage 1 which increases the sets to 3.

I’m not going to do any updates on measurements yet, I’ll wait until the end of stage 1 for that. Sorry, no awkward full body muscle pictures today.  

In general, I love it! In these 3 weeks, I’ve learned to live and function in a perpetual state of soreness (in a good way!). This is the longest I’ve ever stuck with a strength training program before. I seriously look forward to each and every workout. I think a few things are contributing to that:

• The way the program is structured it encourages you to add heavier weights as the workouts progress.
• It gives you “beginner” moves when necessary so it’s easy to tell when you’re gaining strength because they start to feel easy and you move onto the “real” moves (push-ups are an example here).
• I think the emphasis on dumbbells and barbells instead of machines makes it more easily recognizable when you can handle increased weight.
• I already see a difference in muscle definition. Positive reinforcement baby!

These are me not flexing. I’m going to call them my “rolling hills” and I’m pretty sure they weren’t there before. Well on my way to looking like the book cover.

Click here for before pictures (granted, I am flexing in those so they’re not totally comparable).

A few fun facts:

-Prone jackknife is my favorite move of this stage.

-Step-ups are my least favorite (boring and tedious)

-I can now do 3 sets of 10 full push-ups!

-In general this is how I feel about deadlifts:

Diet wise I haven’t been doing anything out of the ordinary besides being more cognizant of my protein intake. I will try to have a protein smoothie or something high in protein after each session. It doesn’t always happen, but I’d say about 75% of the time.

Today’s smoothie, which overflowed the second I put the camera down and which Ginger promptly licked up.

Stay tuned after another 3 weeks for a full Stage 1 recap.

**********

Now, let’s talk about mangoes. Again.

I actually bought 2 mangoes for last week’s Mango black bean salad but only ended up using one because the other was hard as a rock. 6 days later after hanging out next to the bananas getting all ripe, it was begging to be used. After reading Jenna’s recap on her fruit detox, I had been craving fruit and couldn’t even think about “real” dinner foods. I just wanted fruit. The practical side of me kicked in though and somehow I ended up with this.

Quinoa, mango, spinach salad.

With a piece of whole wheat sunflower seed bread. Delicious, light dinner.

Quinoa Mango Spinach Salad

Makes 2-3 full dinner servings or 6 side dish servings

• 3 cups cooked red quinoa
• 2 cups chopped baby spinach
• 1 mango chopped
• 1/4 cup sliced almonds
• 1/4 cup pepitas
• 1/4 cup chopped dried cherries
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
• 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• juice of half a lime
• juice of 1 small orange
• 1 tsp sugar
• salt & pepper

Directions:

Rinse quinoa and toast with coconut oil before adding water and cooking normally (optional, but recommended). Combine next 6 ingredients in a large bowl. When quinoa is finished cooking, add to bowl and mix to combine. Whisk together last 5 ingredients and pour over salad. Toss. Chill in refrigerator for at least an hour before serving.

 

What’s the weirdest craving you’ve ever given into for dinner (or any meal)?

Father’s Day

Like most everybody else, we spent yesterday honoring the dads in our lives.

Ha! Got ya mom! At least we don’t think he’s a dad yet??

Of course, no get together in our family is complete without the canine brood.

You already know these two, Sugar & Switch.

Let me introduce Mack, Claire’s son (we like to keep it in the family here).

Adrian & Doreen’s puppy who just turned 1. He has many talents including plastic bottle domination in 1 minute flat.

And way more impressively, hammock acrobatics.

He’s a pretty cool dog.

Ginger missed all the fun today. She got to spend 9+ hours at home because I’m too lazy to clean up the massive amount of dog hair that would’ve been in my car if we took her. Dog mommy fail.

It was a gorgeous day and we just sat, chilled, ate and drank.

Do we look alike?

Classic Sal pose. No doubt telling some ridiculous story.

Hope all the dads out there had a great Father’s Day, especially mine. And, thank you Adrian and Doreen for hosting at your lovely house!