Monthly Archives: September 2015

College House Eating

Hello! I’m happy to report that I’m feeling much better than last time I checked in-fingers crossed I don’t have more flares. I just finished my first week of senior year, and am figuring out my new schedule for the quarter.

I’ve been continuing half marathon training, teaching lots of spin (back to back classes on Wednesday night-oof), and soaking up time spent with good friends!

IMG_4164

This year, I’m living in a house with about 40 girls-it’s not a sorority house but I suppose it’s a similar idea? We have a chef who cooks lunch and dinner for us 5 days a week, and an open kitchen to fend for ourselves for breakfast and weekends. I wanted to share some of the things I’ve been eating this week!

IMG_4134

My first Sunday night scavenging dinner-the fridge is cleaned out Sunday morning so Sunday night can be difficult!

IMG_4140

Lunch-salad with chicken, fruit salad, and AMAZING avocado salad. Do you see how much avocado there is there??

IMG_4149

Tupperware lunch-I packed up a few salads before leaving home last weekend, so I had a few of my typical peach/date/goat cheese/chicken salads throughout the week!

IMG_4154

Because I taught back to back spin classes (unexpectedly) I missed dinner so had to scrounge around again. Deli turkey may become a big part of my life, for better or for worse…

IMG_4158

Salad with a homemade veggie slider, homemade potato chips, and amazing fruit salad with banana, mango, peach, papaya, and more.

IMG_4160

Mexican dinner-super good. I made a salad with Mexican spiced chicken, black beans, and guacamole, plus rice and a rice crispy treat!

IMG_4161

Breakfast post 3 mile run of Siggi’s vanilla, banana, and sun butter.

This past week has been a little interesting on the eating front. Because I was so sick earlier, I haven’t been getting sufficient calories, especially to fuel my activities. I’ve been trying to add extra calories here and there (dried mango anyone?) and after hitting 2000 calories on Thursday I seriously felt like a new woman. Today, I’m trying to eat as much as my stomach allows to fuel up for tomorrow’s 12 mile run-we’ll see how that goes!

What is your favorite way to eat avocado?

The Saga Continues

Hello! I’m blogging from my dorm room back at school. I’m a senior-Eek!

I wanted to give you guys a little bit of an update on what has been going on with me lately. The good news lately is that I’ve been doing physical therapy for my shoulder, and it’s SO much better. I’ve been getting sound wave and electric stim, and now and doing strengthening exercises. Right now it’s mostly a dull pain, so while I may not be lifting heavy things soon (among other reasons-I’ll explain in a moment), it’s not interfering too much with day to day life.

Moving in to my dorm was a process-we took the first load on Thursday and I got to pick a bed.

IMG_4106

Friday I took my bike a few other things, and Saturday night I moved in all the way. I’m going to miss my pets!

IMG_4112

Last time I chatted with you all, I mentioned my stomach was flaring up. It got really bad on Wednesday, but I was hoping I was over the hump. Since this has been going on for so many months and I thought it had been mostly gone, I decided to make an appointment with a specialist, and we were lucky and were able to get an appointment for Friday. After talking to the doctor, I ended up scheduling an endoscopy for Saturday morning to see if we could tell what’s going on/rule things out. I honestly wanted to get it over with ASAP! For those that aren’t familiar, an endoscopy is when you get sedated and the doctor sticks a camera down your throat into your esophagus and stomach. For me, he also took some biopsies. On Friday, I was still feeling off but thought the flare was nearly gone.

One of the things we biopsied was testing for Celiac’s. Since I’ve been mostly avoiding gluten, a false negative is definitely a possibility, although I hadn’t cut out every single thing. That evening I ate a few crackers to try and at least have something in my system. Later that night, I felt terrible. I don’t know if it was the crackers or just another flare up over something else. It was the worst I’ve felt in a very long time-plus, I had to fast for the procedure which I was worried would bother my stomach even more, and couldn’t have any liquids from 6am on. (I woke up at 5:50 to chug water and some apple juice).

For the procedure, I had an IV and was given pain meds and sedation. I was definitely not all the way asleep the whole time, and it was not very comfortable, to say the least. It also left me with a sore throat all the way through my esophagus!

The doctor didn’t find anything abnormal-no ulcers or anything. So at this point, I’m just waiting for the results of the biopsy. The last few days have been rough, and I’ve been feeling bad off and on, and I haven’t been able to eat very much at all. My diet has consisted of Luna bars and crackers, although I was able to eat a real lunch today and am feeling so much better than this morning, which is really good considering I’m teaching my first official spin class on campus tonight!

IMG_4140

I’m living in a big house this year, so we have an open kitchen and a chef. I was happy to see a really good salad bar, plus amazing avocado salad!

Yesterday was supposed to be an 11 mile run. I didn’t think that would happen after Saturday’s procedure, so I was shooting for 8 and ended up with 4 before my stomach called it quits. In terms of my race, I’m not worried as long as I’m ok for this weekend’s run! But we shall see.

In happier news, I went to my senior welcome on Sunday afternoon. We got champagne flutes with our class year on them, and it was so great catching up with people, especially those who I haven’t seen in a long time.

IMG_4133

Also-my puppy visited me today back at my dorm! I may or may not have forgotten a few things to pack..

IMG_4141IMG_4142

That’s for me right now-I hope everyone is doing well!

Hawaii-Final Adventures

Thanks for sticking around for all my vacation posts! I promise this is the last one!

Sunday morning began with my 10 mile half marathon training run. With record high temperatures in Maui, I knew this one was going to be a struggle. I scouted out a nice hilly route ahead of time-3 miles out from my hotel until the sidewalk ends, then back, and then I would play it by ear. I was prepared to jump on the treadmill for the last part if it got too hot.

It rained early that morning, so the air was SO thick. I got out the door by 6:30am, and it was nasty out. 1 mile in, I was drenched and felt kind of terrible. It must have been about 90% humidity. I wasn’t even sure I’d make it through half the run out there without dying. Luckily, the weather improved a bit. I ended up turning around at 3.5 miles, then running a mile in the other direction before realizing there was no shade and I was dying. At that point, when I reached the hotel I was at 9 miles so I did the last one in the comfort of the hotel gym.

IMG_4029

I was really vigilant about hydration. I officially swear by SmartWater-I filled my bottle with it for the run and didn’t have the problems I’ve had in the past in the heat. I also drank some vitamin water before my final water. I did a really good job with fluids the rest of the day, and it really paid off!

IMG_4037

Nothing like wear compression socks while on vacation…

For lunch that day, we stopped by a “healthy fast food” restaurant that we had passed previously. It’s called D’Lish, and it had all kinds of healthy sandwiches and bowls. We shared a beet salad with goat cheese.

IMG_4040

And a mix of purple sweet potato and taro chips.

IMG_4038

For my main meal, I got a veggie bowl, which was quinoa topped with broccoli, mushroom bisque, tomato, and feta. Yum! Love the idea of making a bowl using soup.

IMG_4041

Our next stop was to the movies-we saw the Perfect Guy, which was pretty intense. Then, we stopped by Maui Tropical plantation, which is a nice little place with a gift shop, pineapples growing, and now a zipline that we tried 2 years ago when we went. It’s in a beautiful location.

IMG_4043

IMG_0102

That night, I made reservations for the Molokai Bistro at the Grand Wailea hotel. We put on our fancy clothes (although the restaurant was fairly casual) and headed out!

IMG_4048

We ordered a bottle of rose for the table, and my parents still insist on taking pictures of me any time we drink wine in public. #21

IMG_4055 IMG_4053

To start, we shared Maui Onion rings (Maui onions are sweeter than regular onions) and sweet potato fries, with lilikoi BBQ sauce.

IMG_4056

I got the catch of the day-mahi mahi served over purple mashed sweet potatoes and garlic broccolini.

IMG_4057

It was delicious, and it was nice that the portions weren’t giant!

Dessert was also amazing. Butterscotch creme brûlée topped with banana mousse and shaved chocolate. YUM. What a nice dinner!

IMG_4058

We saw 2 stray kitties and some frogs on the walk back!

IMG_4064

I’ll spare you of Monday’s food pictures because I posted all that for WIAW, but here’s the day!

I was hoping to got to Lahaina Crossfit, but my shoulder wasn’t anywhere near ready. Instead, I took it to the hotel gym for a shoulder friendly strength workout. I started with 100 lunges, 100 squats, and some RDLs with lighter weights than I would normally use to accommodate my shoulder. I then did a 15 minute ab circuit that I am still sore from because I never do abs, and finished with some light shoulder exercises on my bad shoulder and dumbbell snatches/push presses on my good shoulder. It felt good to get some strength work in despite my injury!

I went straight from there to the beach with my family. I lost the gamble of whether or not I would burn without sunscreen in an hour or so. Oops. Later that day a former fireman came up to me and recommended I put aloe on my burn!

IMG_4082

It was a beautiful day, but hot. We went to the gluten free bakery again in Lahaina, but decided to keep it indoors with another movie.

IMG_4075

This time it was the Transporter-Reloaded. It was pretty good-I don’t watch too many action movies but it was a pleasant experience. We came out to find a rainbow!

IMG_4078

We stopped by Barnes and Noble for some reading material, and then Whole Foods for dinner since my stomach was flaring. The rest of the night involved Netflix-does anyone else watch The Good Wife?

Tuesday was our last partial day in Maui. I started off with a treadmill 4 mile interval/speed run and then went out with my family for one last beach trip. I enjoyed yogurt, passionfruit, and papaya beachside and got my fill of tropical fruit!

IMG_4091 IMG_4092

It was nice out but definitely starting to heat up! We weren’t at the beach for long because packing still needed to happen.

IMG_4093

We said goodbye to our hotel and stopped for lunch at a health store near the airport. I had delicious avocado salad and some really interesting soup that had gluten free oats, zucchini, and cauliflower all blended up.

IMG_4095 IMG_4094 IMG_4096

I also enjoyed a couple of bites of chocolate avocado mousse! So delicious, but so chocolatey-unfortunately these days I can’t handle more than a little chocolate.

IMG_4097

Then we were homeward bound-overall it was a great trip!

 

WIAW-Hawaiian Vacation!

Hello! Since WIAW last week was so much fun, how about we do it again?

WIAWbutton

Since I just got back from my Hawaiian vacation (recaps here and here), why not take a peek at Monday’s vacation food for WIAW?

IMG_4093

I will say that Monday’s meals were a bit different from the rest of the week. I think at this point we were all sort of burned out on rich food and meat, so towards the end of the vacation we stuck to lighter meals.

Breakfast:

IMG_4065

Thanks to all my food restrictions, I ended up scrapping together a meal that included a Starbucks mango orange smoothie, fruit, and crackers with goat cheese from the goat dairy we visited. We had a harder goat cheese, mango chèvre, and herbed chèvre.

Plus some guava and papaya:

IMG_4066

Lunch: Joy’s Place, a little healthy cafe we passed a few times earlier on the trip and I wanted to check out! They had gluten free bread and rice wraps, so I had a turkey and avocado wrap on rice paper, which was fun! Plus coleslaw on the side.

IMG_4073 IMG_4071

I was excited to finally get some Hawaiian avocado. We had gotten one earlier in the week, but the hotel fridge froze it! Hawaiian avocado is big and a bit denser/more solid than California avocado.

(Throwback to my last trip to Hawaii 2 years ago!)

IMG_4121

Dessert: Although we had already driven to Lahaina to visit the gluten free bakery (Maui Sugar Shop) on Friday, we decided it was necessary to make another stop. I had to go with the chocolate cupcake with lilikoi (passion fruit) icing again, but we also shared bites of a cream puff, lemon bar, and pineapple upside down cake.

IMG_4076

Dinner:

That afternoon, my stomach flared up so I went for a simple, light dinner that my body could tolerate. We went to Whole Foods and picked up some food to eat there. I had some gluten free crackers.

IMG_4085

Plus some vegetable soup with quinoa, topped with nutritional yeast.

IMG_4083 IMG_4084

And a couple of bites from the hot bar-mashed potatoes and a carrots.

IMG_4086

Back at the hotel, I was feeling better and had a splash of wine with my lilikoi goat cheese truffle.

IMG_4087 IMG_4088

As well as a piece of chocolate covered pineapple. The chocolate covered pineapple was excellent-I haven’t gotten it here before, and it’s the same type of chocolate as the chocolate covered macadamia nuts that I am now allergic to, which was exciting!

IMG_4089 IMG_4090

I was hoping to have a bit more of an interesting and fun day of food to share, but I really wasn’t feeling well, but that’s life and sometimes that happens!

I still have one more vacation post to come!

What is your favorite vacation food?

Pigs, Goats, and Pineapple-Oh My!

Hello! I’m checking in from Maui once again! These past couple of days included some of my favorite parts of our trip. I think the title says it all! Be prepared for lots and lots of pictures!

Friday morning began with a visit to the beachside juice stand. My fresh squeezed orange pineapple juice was enjoyed beachside, with some yogurt and fruit.

IMG_3850 IMG_3851

First kitty spotting of the trip by the beach!

IMG_3857 IMG_3859

After we cleaned up, we headed to Lahaina. Folks-it was a scorcher that day! Upper 90s and humid.

IMG_3862 IMG_3864

 

My dad is constantly in search for the best lau lau (pork wrapped in taro and banana leaves), so we stopped for lunch at a restaurant with local fare.

IMG_3863

Teriyaki chicken for me!

Dessert was much anticipated-a gluten free bakery! We shared a cream puff and then I had a chocolate cupcake with lilikoi (passionfruit) icing.

IMG_3866 IMG_3865

It was impossible to tell the cream puff was gluten free, and the cupcake was phenomenal. The cake was moist and dense, and the frosting was the perfect tart counterbalance.

We walked through downtown Wailea, burning up the whole time as we stopped in and out of shops. Finally, we reached our destination: Dan’s Greenhouse. This is a little hidden treasure-we’ve actually been coming to this little shop every time since I was a child. This is also where I got my beloved plumeria plant that has lived in my dorm the past 2 years! But the best part??

IMG_3931IMG_0234

Miniature pot belly pigs! I’ve mentioned before that I don’t eat red meat, and these guys are partly why. I think I stopped eating pork around 5th grade, after absolutely falling in love with these guys. This little guy was just a ball of energy. I believe he was 6 months old-he was 8 pounds but will grow to about 15. They eat a vegan diet-similar to what they eat in the wild. If you overfeed them or feed them a too protein rich diet, they can grow to up to 70 pounds! You can pay to feed them, which is more than worth the money. I got to sit on the ground with him in my lap, as he gobbled up berries, kale, and oats from my hand.

IMG_3911 IMG_3873 IMG_3878 IMG_3889 IMG_3900 IMG_3915 IMG_3923 IMG_3931 IMG_3937

IMG_0234

 

I think the photo quality reflects just how wiggly he was!

On the way to the car, we stopped for a dole whip for my dad and iced lattes for my mom and me-plus some much needed time in air conditioning!

IMG_3942 IMG_3943 IMG_3946

 

My final stop in Lahaina was Enjoy the Ride-a spin studio! They had a big screen in front that displayed a real terrain which was cool. The class was fun but not the hardest I’ve ever taken-it was perfect for the vacation!

IMG_3948

Scenes form the drive back to Wailea/Kihei.

IMG_3949 IMG_3951

Dinner was at Three’s Bar and Grill. We started with a miso kale salad-I’ve had a couple of these while here and I’ve really loved them! For my entree, I had fish lau lau, which also included purple sweet potatoes and kale.

IMG_3952 IMG_3953

Dessert was gluten free lilikoi cheesecake. Gluten free cheesecake is something I’ve seen pop up on several menus around here!

IMG_3956

Saturday morning was another highlight. We began with a trip to Starbucks for a quick breakfast (I had a smoothie plus sliced pineapple from Starbucks!)

IMG_3961

On the agenda was the Grand Dairy Tour at the Surfing Goat Dairy. This tour allowed us to see the production process of the small, humane certified dairy. We got to feed the goat, milk the goats (!!!-so excited), herd the goats, and finally-taste all the cheese! I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

IMG_3962 IMG_3964 IMG_3969 IMG_3974 IMG_3975 IMG_3980 IMG_3986 IMG_3987 IMG_0052 IMG_0060 IMG_0068 IMG_0074 IMG_0082 IMG_3994 IMG_3995 IMG_4001 IMG_4004 IMG_4005 IMG_4007IMG_0101

 

Their cheeses were top of the line. We bought some to et during the rest of the trip, and are planning on ordering more online to send home! The blueberry and the lime goat cheese truffles I tried were delicious as well!

Next stop-higher upcountry for lunch and pineapple wine tasting!

IMG_4006

Lunch was at the ranch burger place across from the winery. I had a taro burger on a gluten free bun.

At the winery, we did the complimentary tasting where we got to choose 3 types of wine to try. I tried the sparking pineapple wine, the rose sparking, and the sweet raspberry dessert wine.

IMG_4008 IMG_4015

 

I was really torn about taking home a bottle of the sparkling pineapple or the sparkling rose. I liked the rose more, but the pineapple was really unique!

We took a complimentary tour-and I learned that they produce a really small amount of their award winning sparkling rose-it’s made with grapes grown on their property, and because they produce so little, they only sell their award winning rose on the property, so I felt good about my decision to get that! Scenes from the tour:

IMG_4018 IMG_4019 IMG_4014 IMG_4020 IMG_4021

The rest of the day included a decaf Kona cappuccino, exploring some shops in Wailea, goat cheese, and room service.

IMG_4023 IMG_4024 IMG_4025 IMG_4026 IMG_4027 IMG_4028

 

Um-check out this cheesecake. Lilikoi cheesecake with a gluten free brownie base. YUM.

So-can you tell I kind of like animals?