Last weekend I got a chance to drive down to Southern Cali to spend time with my parents in the Anaheim area. Coincidentally, my hubby and I had flown out of New Jersey on the Sunday after Christmas, and my parents flew into L.A. that Tuesday for my dad's work. He's a football coach and was one of the coaches for a football game sponsored by the Marines Corps, called the Semper Fidelis All-American Bowl. Since my dad was busy during the days with game preparations, my mom and I did some exploring of the area together. One day we went to Disneyland to walk around and check it out. I've been to Disney World a bunch of times, but this was my first time to Disneyland. They still had the park all decked out for the holidays, which naturally, I loved. We both love the It's a Small World ... [Read More]
Archives for January 2014
Honey Vanilla Almond Smoothie
Happy Friday! I'm definitely looking forward to my weekend. It'll be the first weekend I'm home in a month, and I'm planning on relaxing, running some errands, getting a few workouts in and watching some football. Earlier this week I made a trip to The Vitamin Shoppe to get some goodies. I picked up about a gazillion Quest and Pure bars, electrolyte drink tablets to try, and some new vanilla whey protein powder. Usually I just stick with a French vanilla protein powder, but a new flavor caught my eye: Vanilla almond sounded like a fun flavor to play around with, and today's recipe was the very first thing I made with it. You may be thinking, A smoothie recipe in January?! Yeah yeah, I know that most people probably don't drink smoothies in the dead of winter... but this ... [Read More]
Chef Del’s Better Than Vegan: Smoky Black Bean Bisque & Cookbook Giveaway
"When we eat the wrong foods, they fuel our cells inefficiently, stress our organs, leach minerals from our bones, clog our arteries, fog our brains, bring on disease, make us fat, addict us to nutritionally vacant substances, and provide no protective health benefits." Today I'm taking part in my very first book blog tour! Basically it's just like a traditional book tour, only it's happening around the Web today. Bloggers like myself who are participating in the tour are all talking about Chef Del's Better than Vegan cookbook. You may also recognize Del Sroufe from his bestselling book Forks Over Knives - The Cookbook. What I find to be most interesting about Del and the book is his personal story about gaining - and then losing - over 200 pounds all while being a vegan. He ... [Read More]
Apple Cinnamon Champagne Cocktails
Hi there! After an awesome weekend in the Pasadena area with my parents (more on that later this week) and working from my hotel there yesterday, then driving back up to the Bay Area (telecommuting is a sweet gig!), today I'm back in my home office working with my puppy sleeping on my feet. I'm taking a little break from my work to share with you a recipe I came up with on New Year's Eve: Since I kept it low-key on New Year's and was home with my hubby, I wanted to come up with a tasty celebratory cocktail with champagne as the star. I picked up some Prosecco at Trader Joe's -- which I know is technically Italian sparkling wine and not champagne, but it's good enough for me! -- and I also nabbed some of TJ's sparkling apple cider. The cocktail is made by first a.) making cinnamon simple ... [Read More]
Touring the Philadelphia Eagles Stadium
In honor of this weekend's NFL playoffs games happening - and in what happens to be the morning after the Eagles suffered a crushing playoff loss - today I'm recapping my recent trip to Philadelphia to tour the Eagles stadium, Lincoln Financial Field. Adam and I surprised my father-in-law with the tour as a Christmas gift. As you may remember, I'm a NY Giants fan, but he's a big Eagles fan, so we thought it'd be neat to see with him. We started off in the Eagles Pro Shop, which was a huge store with everything Eagles that you could possibly imagine, from normal gear like jerseys and hats to Eagles-clad cutting boards and purses. It was a group tour with a guide who was very knowledgable about everything about the Philly team. We learned about the history of the team and stadium ... [Read More]
New Year’s Day Hike at Uvas Canyon County Park {Morgan Hill}
At the beginning of a new year, I find myself noting a lot of firsts for the year. When I made a green juice for breakfast yesterday morning, I was all, "This is my first meal of 2014, and it's so healthy. Go me!" I didn't wait long to accomplish my first exercise session of 2014. I figured what better way to ring in a new year than to go on a hiking adventure with my hubby and puppy on a nice day? Early afternoon we headed over to Uvas Canyon County Park, a 1,133-acre park in our current town of Morgan Hill that we had never been to before. The things that really intrigued me into visiting the park were: 1.) The fact that you have to drive through a private Swedish settlement called Sveadal to get into the park 2.) Waterfalls! Even though 2013 was the driest year on record ... [Read More]