With the sun shining, a nice breeze drifting through the air, and temperatures hanging in the mid-70's today, I knew it was a perfect day for a weekend afternoon hike. I felt like doing a hike I'd never done before, so my little family and I headed to a park in San Jose called Santa Teresa County Park for the first time. We chose Stile Ranch Trail, which was described by other hikers on the Web as a moderate 1-3 hour hike. The park is located in pretty countryside. One thing I really like about hiking in the South Bay area is that it is never really crowded anywhere that I've been thus far. In San Diego, if you go for a hike on the weekend, sometimes you're practically being herded up the mountain with a crowd full of people. Here, that's not the case. We saw just a few mountain ... [Read More]
Archives for November 2013
Things I’m Digging Lately
Happy Friday! Today I'm sharing some random things that I've been loving lately. Here we go: roasted chickpeas. Several times over the past couple of weeks I've popped open a can of chickpeas, drizzled a bit of olive oil and sprinkled salt, paprika, and garlic powder on top, and baked them in the oven. After they're cooked, I sprinkle pumpkin cajun bread crumbs - from San Diego-based company Panache Pantry - on top. They're crunchy, a little spicy and delicious! The exact recipe can be found here. my new bracelet. While I was in Venice in September, I got the bracelet pictured above. I love having a souvenir I know I'll use like this one that brings back great memories. Every time I've put it on since then, I think of how much fun I had on vacation! the ponytail ... [Read More]
Honey Baked Pear with an Oat, Date and Almond Topping
Guess whose a happy girl? After a week of wearing the dreaded cone, Harley's rash has healed and I was able to take the cone off of her. In true Harley style, having the cone on was anything but easy. Besides her being generally miserable and refusing to eat for the first couple of days, there were 2 particularly annoying parts of the cone: 1.) The first night she had it on, Harley walked around whining and pacing my bedroom the entire night. You'd think she would tire herself out, which she would for 20-30 minutes at at time, but then she'd be back at it. It.sucked. 2.) While driving with her in my backseat, I had the window cracked for her. Harley took it upon herself to put it all the way down (yes, she just pushes the button), and just as I was telling her to get her head back in the ... [Read More]
Leg Burner Interval Workout
Hi there, and Happy Hump Day! Over a week has flown by since my last autumn slim down update, so today I'm filling you all in with how things have been going the past week. Since my main thing with toning up is portion control and keeping my calorie intake around 1,400 a day, I'm happy to say that I've been right on track with that and lost a bit over 2 pounds from last Monday to this one. I indulged a bit on most days, but all in moderation. A few of my sweet tooth eats included a lollipop on Halloween (though I remember Blow pops being better?!), a mug of hot chocolate, and these pumpkin pancakes with dark chocolate chips: Sometimes eating pancakes for dinner just does the soul good! As far as workouts go, I fit in lots of good exercise time last week. One of the days I really ... [Read More]
My First PGA Event & Dining at Gracias Madre, San Francisco’s Vegan Mexican Joint
Last Saturday marked my first time attending a pro golf event. My hubby is a golf fan, so I got us a few tickets to see the Charles Schwab Cup at Harding Park in San Francisco. I don't think I've ever had a bad time at a pro sporting event, even if I have little idea who the athletes are and how the sport works, like in golf! We walked around a lot following a few of the top players as they moved from hole to hole. I'm not sure if it's usually like this since this was my first golfing event, but I didn't realize that the golfers move so quickly from one hole to the next. They were booking it! After spending the afternoon at the event and working up an appetite walking a bunch of miles, Adam and I were starving for an early dinner. Protein bars can only hold you over for so ... [Read More]
[Secret Ingredient] Double Chocolate Pumpkin Muffin Bites
A couple of days ago, I was on a mission to come up with a mini-something recipe that could serve as a baby snack or dessert. An I'm-waiting-for-dinner-to-cook-and-need-to-eat-a-little-something-ASAP recipe. Also an I-just-ate-dinner-and-am-not-really-hungry-but-want-a-bite-of-something-sweet snack. Since pumpkin eats are constantly on my brain these days, I naturally incorporated some into the recipe - in more than one way. I think that including chocolate in a sweet recipe is always a good idea, so this recipe quickly became a combo of chocolate + pumpkin yumminess. And then there was the mini muffin tin I happened to see peering from my cabinet just waiting to be used, all of which resulted in these babies... Then comes the *secret ingredient* part... I wanted to omit use of any oil ... [Read More]