Hi friends! Hope you had/are having a wonderful weekend. Mine has been a lot of fun, and it's not quite over yet! I think that True Blood episodes make Sunday nights a little bit more fun. :) Here are some snapshots of my weekend: I broke my weeklong hiatus from dairy with an even more awesome grilled cheese than I made last week: fried zucchini + cheddar + avocado + tomato [from my own plant] + horseradish mustard on whole wheat = deliciousness. Since it was ungodly hot in my town this weekend, my hubby and I headed to the beach to cool off. We hit a lot of traffic on the way there and were wondering if going to the coast was a good move, but then we got to the beach in Monterey and it was perfect weather there - totally worth it. After beachin' it, we went into town to ... [Read More]
Archives for June 2013
Taking Time to Date Myself Today
Earlier this week, I realized that I hadn't really pampered myself in awhile. With feet in need of some TLC and the idea of a massage in the back of my mind for months, late this afternoon I decided to kick my weekend off with a spa date. (photo credit) I think that so often, it's easy for us ladies with busy schedules to forget about treating ourselves and to put any special indulgences on the back burner (especially for all you mamas out there!). Usually on Thursdays and/or Fridays, I squeeze in a few spare hours that I don't really even have to volunteer at the Humane Society. But this week, I decided that a few hours of "me" time would take precedence over my volunteer gig. I think that once in awhile you just need to switch your priorities around and skip something else in order to ... [Read More]
7-Ingredient Cleanse: Days 2 & 3
It's Thursday night and I have nearly made it through my 3-day detox - barring that I don't cave in and shove ice cream into my mouth in these last few hours of it! Yesterday was the roughest day of the cleanse for me. I was feeling pretty icky from having a cold, and a lot of the time when my head is congested, I'm not in the mood for most foods - let alone plain cleansing foods like broccoli and beets. I alternated between feeling like I was doing fine with the detox, then wondering what the hell I was doing and wanting to crawl up in the fetal position with a bag of dark chocolate chips. ;-) Day 2 - Breakfast Lunch Snack Dinner Dinner was the low point of the day for me, and this picture gives you a glimpse as to why: My hubby ate delicious leftover homemade pizza and ... [Read More]
The Vegetarian Times 7-Ingredient Cleanse
Hello, hello! Here's a little tidbit about me: I love to read hard copies of things, and I get tons of magazines delivered to my house. I know that I can read things online, but there's just something nice to me about having a real magazine (or book) in hand and getting away from technology. My favorite places to read are at the gym while I'm cycling or doing the stair master (because it makes the time go by fast!) or while I'm relaxing at the beach. One of the magazines I love checking out is Vegetarian Times. I'm always tearing out pages from the magazine of things to note or recipes to try. Last week as I was reading their June issue, I came across an article called "The 7-Ingredient Cleanse" and was intrigued. (via) With summer's stellar lineup of naturally detoxifying fruits and ... [Read More]
Book Giveaway – Warrior Pose: How Yoga (Literally) Saved My Life
Growing up with a grandfather who taught (and at age 81, still teaches) yoga, I was exposed to the teachings of yoga and meditation at an early age. Back then, I remember feeling so bored during the meditation parts of class and thinking that everyone was just taking a nap. I was too young for the purpose of meditation to resonate in my mind. As I've gotten older, I've come to learn that the poses and meditation are only two aspects of yoga. It's a way of life that has the power to permeate into every aspect of your world. As Bhava Ram, the yoga guru whose book, Warrior Pose: How Yoga (Literally) Saved My Life, exclaimed as we spoke last week, "Yoga is the greatest science ever created on how to be a human being." Warrior Pose is the story of Brad Willis (whose taken on the yoga name ... [Read More]
Homemade Winemaking: The Basics
Happy Sunday! Guess what yesterday was in my house? That's right, our merlot has been sitting pretty for about a month, and yesterday was the day we rented a corker and bottled the wine. This is my first batch of homemade wine and I learned a lot throughout the whole process, so I thought it'd be fun to talk about what's involved in making wine at home. The first step is buying all of the supplies and figuring out what type of wine you'll make. There are a good amount of things you'll need - from yeast and cleaning powders to a hydrometer, wine thief and oak chips - but we luckily found a fermentation store that easily provided everything we needed. As far as the type of wine to make, we decided to just buy grapes already crushed since this was our first go-around, and chose ... [Read More]