Future Vet Student Goes to Maui and Only Cares About Goats and Cats

Hello from Maui! I’ve been here for a day and a half now, and wanted to share some of the fun food and such I’ve been having!
Our first stop was lunch, because it was 2pm Hawaii time, which is 4pm CA time! We went to a mall and got Hawaiian food at the food court (ironically at a chain we have back home). My mom and I split BBQ chicken with brown rice and salad.

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And then mango sorbet and cake batter froyo.

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By the time we stopped by the grocery and made it to our condo, it was time for dinner! We went to the hotel restaurant and enjoyed dinner with a view of the pool.

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I started out with a local beer: Longboard Lager. For my meal, I had a veggie burger on a GF bun with fennel kraut and sweet potato chips.

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After dinner we walked down to the beach to watch the sun set, but I missed the best of it because I saw an adorable kitty. Priorities.

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Back in the room, we enjoyed some chocolates we picked up along the way.

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Our first full morning, my dad and I ran 3 miles along the beach. The start, of course, was delayed thanks to the same sweet kitty.

My post-run breakfast was tropical juice, and then a yogurt bowl with cheerios, passionfruit jelly, and sunbutter.

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Then, it was time to head out!

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We headed out for my personal highlight of the trip, Surfing Goat Dairy. They had 1-3 week old goats!

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When we went last time, we did the Grand Dairy Tour which included a full tour of everything, including milking goats. This time, we did a 30 minute casual tour where we got to feed some of the December babies and taste the cheese.

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I swear, my heart was going to burst!

The cheese of course was phenomenal as well. We ended up getting a chèvre flight.

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And some lilikoi (passionfruit) and blueberry goat milk gelato.

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For lunch, we went to a natural foods store on the way back to our side of the island. We were trying to go to a place form last time, and this wasn’t it. We’d actually been there a loooong time ago though! I got an avocado wrap and some mashed sweet potatoes.

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We also enjoyed some goat cheese truffles. I had lilikoi and blueberry.

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We made it back in time for happy hour by the pool. I have never in my life enjoyed a drink poolside, and now I understand how it’s nice!

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And of course I went back by the kitty’s favorite spot!

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That night, we drove in to Lahaina for a nice dinner right on the beach at sunset at Pacific’O.

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I wasn’t super hungry, so I had a salad with goat cheese, sweet Maui onions, and smoked tomato vinaigrette, plus some of my mom’s chicken and potatoes.

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More importantly, I had to save room for dessert! We ordered a few things to split, one of which had wheat and nuts. Because of that, my dad ordered two spoons for himself. EXCEPT, he’s always been a 2 spoon dessert eater, so I think we all know that’s just a cover. He was a little excited to dive in.

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The entrees I split were creme brûlée and flourless chocolate cake. I liked the creme brûlée a lot; it was more custardy vs. creamy.

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Any Maui recommendations?

 

 

Crossfit Open 17.1

Guess what time it is?? Time for the Crossfit Open! Those who do Crossfit are excited to hear about it, and for those that couldn’t care less, I promise it will only be a few posts 🙂 If you’re just here for the food, scroll on!

17.1 was:

dumbbell snatches (35/50#) and burpee box jumps (20″/24″)

10 dumbbell snatches

15 burpee box jumps

20 dumbbell snatches

15 burpee box jumps

30 dumbbell snatches

15 burpee box jumps

40 dumbbell snatches

15 burpee box jumps

50 dumbbell snatches

15 burpee box jumps

With a 20 minute time cap. When I excitedly watched the announcement Thursday night,my first thought was that I would not get far in this workout. I’m slow on burpees and I’m slow on box jumps. Put the two together? That’s going to eat up time. I felt good about the snatches. I used to do dumbbell snatches when I first started weightlifting many years ago, and they’ve tended to be a pretty solid move for me. I HATE dumbbell cleans, so this was the best dumbbell movement I could have asked for.

I showed up to 5:15pm Crossfit Friday night, ready to GO. Or something. I always want to go first. I don’t want to see how painful it is before I have to do it. That being said, when I first picked up the 35# dumbbell, it was heavier than I was expecting. I guess it’s been a while!

Then it was go-time. This workout surprised me. I thought the burpee box jumps would kill me and the snatches would be easy. My first set of burpee box jumps probably felt the worst, and then I was warmed up. The snatches added up quickly, and I found myself gassing myself on the snatches and recovering on burpee box jumps. What??

This workout hurt, and it just. kept. going. I got a lot further than expected as well, although I didn’t finish under the cap. 192 reps Rx, meaning I was over halfway through the last set of snatches.

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Immediately after I finished, I got called to judge someone else. The Open is always such a fun time, and I always do better than expected! Right after judging, I drank chocolate milk in an effort to recovery before going home and enjoying a beer flight from our Beer of the Month club.

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The front beer was the clear winner, which is great because it’s conveniently from Davis, where I will be for vet school!

For dinner, we were in fridge clean out mode.

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Salad with roasted butternut squash, roasted beets, parmesan, rotisserie chicken, and red wine vinaigrette. On the side, roasted sweet potatoes (one of my favorite foods ever).

And if you’re wondering, the next day my shoulder were magically still intact but my hamstrings? MAN.

I haven’t done a ton of “regular” blogging this week, and had a few meals I wanted to share!

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This butternut and chicken soup continues to be a favorite of mine. Served with Brazilian cheese bread (above) and avocado toast (below).

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Our CSA box came on Wednesday and we are going on vacation Saturday, so I tried to pick things that would be eaten right away. The carrots are INSANELY good so I ordered 4 bunches of them. In the bowl was roasted carrots, roasted broccoli, steamed cabbage, brown rice, and egg, and topped with hummus and chives.

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Thursday night after teaching my 2 spin classes (note to self: don’t program lots of HIIT intervals into the days I teach double….DEATH), I met up with a good friend from college who is visiting all the way from Texas! We went to a Chinese-Korean fusion place and I got a big dish of Buddha fried rice, which was brown rice with cabbage, squash, edamame, and probably some other deliciousness!

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After dinner, we got boba. I had a taro milk tea (it doesn’t have caffeine!) and it was delicious. I left absolutely stuffed, but the carbs+protein were exactly what my body needed after that day!

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One last non-food thing: I’m trying to nail in the running a little bit more for a 5k coming up in March. I’ve been really happy with my treadmill paces, but I haven’t made it outside much due to weather. I finally caught a break in the rain to hit one of my favorite trails on Wednesday.

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It definitely felt harder on the road thanks to a lot more wind than a treadmill, but I’m still coming in about where I want to be, so I’m excited about that!

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Have you done the Crossfit Open before? Anyone do 17.1?

Three Things Tuesday

It’s been a little bit since we chatted. I’ve been doing things and I’ve been doing nothing. Right now, I’m eating Cheerios at the library (half chocolate, half berry).

Let’s catch up, shall we? Maybe 3 things style.

  1. Food:

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Greek lemon chicken rice soup. This is the best recipe, and added feta takes it up a notch.

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My parents and I tried out a new healthy restaurant in town, and it was a hit! I had pink lady kombucha on tap, and then a bowl with beets, seeds, cauliflower, kale, and rice, and my mom had something similar, with spaghetti squash in place of rice. We then chose our own dressing to go on top, and we picked balsamic.

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Saturday, celebratory froyo was in order. See why in the “fun” section. This was chocolate, blackberry, and a dab of toasted marshmallow, with hershey’s fudge and crunch bar pieces.

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For a lazy weekend dinner, we roasted up some veggies from an old CSA box, that needed to be eaten ASAP. Romesco cauliflower and brussels sports from the CSA! We have a brussels sprouts seasoning blend that is amazing! It’s a little smokey, and a little mapley. IMG_2052

Sometimes you just want a simple and protein packed lunch. Egg whites, spinach, and garlic and herb laughing cow, plus Trader Joe’s GF cinnamon raisin bread, with sunbutter.

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I’m sort of trying to eat more natural foods, so I tried my hand at homemade protein bars. They were pretty good, but still need a little work. My dad gave them his stamp of approval though! I used brown rice syrup, which had a little too strong of a flavor for my liking. For whatever it’s worth, I used 1 banana, 2 T brown rice syrup (and heated and mashed them), 2/3 a packet of chocolate Quest protein, 1.5 cups of oats, vanilla, a sprinkle of sea salt, and 4 chopped up dates. IMG_2054 IMG_2055

I had Sunday evening to myself, so I made a grocery run for vegetables and kombucha.IMG_2070

For dinner, I made a delicious veggie bowl of kale lightly roasted with olive oil, lime, garlic powder, salt and pepper, and then topped with nutritional yeast. Also in the mix was brown rice, an egg, avocado, and hummus.

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For dessert, I dug into the freezer for something delicious. My chocolate peppermint bark bread remains one of the best things I’ve ever made.IMG_2072

For lunch the next day, I loved what I had made so much that I made essentially the same thing, minus hummus but with a little cheese!IMG_2074

2. Fitness

It’s been a little exhausting on the fitness front. I had to sub a spin class Friday night, putting me at 3 classes in 2 days and 4 for the week. That’s a little much! Other than that, I’ve gotten some Crossfit and some running in. Friday morning I went to Crossfit and it killed me. My arms are still SO sore today, 4 days later. We did our FINAL set of 20 reps (deadlifts), and the a Crossfit benchmark, Chelsea. It is EMOM (every minute on the minute) of 5 pull ups, 10 push ups, 15 squats. 30 minutes. That’s a TON of minutes. You’re supposed to shoot for 30 but if you can’t complete one set in a minute, you’re done. From the get-go, I had barely any rest time between sets, and I tapped out at 12. Then we just went at our own pace for the rest of the time (after a rest!), which for me was pretty darn slow, but the reps still added up. I probably did maybe 18 sets total? That’s 180 push ups, 90 pull ups. OUCH.

In terms of running, I got a really good run in on the treadmill. It’s been raining nonstop here in CA, and I don’t feel the need to push through the rain when I could just take it inside. I did my normal 3 miles, but felt really good so I increased the pace to under a 7:50, and wasn’t too tired or out of breath! Progress!

3. Fun

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Friday night I met up with a college friend, and it was great to spend the night chatting and trying out homemade Moscow Mules (definitely not that good.)IMG_2049

Saturday, I got a car! What?? I needed a car for vet school because the car I had been driving wasn’t very practical or dependable (it recently had 2 new arming lights come on and doesn’t always feel like starting). We weren’t planning on getting a car this early, but I knew what I wanted and there was a President’s Day sale. It’s similar to the car I drove in St. Louis, which I really liked the feel of. IMG_2067

Sunday afternoon, one of my good friends came by for a little kitty playdate. Our cats haven’t interacted since they were still kittens, and unfortunately their reactions were about the same. Lilly wanted to play, they hissed. Charlie couldn’t care less, they hissed. They enjoyed exploring a new house (at least one of them did), and Beirut discovered catnip for the first time.

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Monday night, my family finally got together for a somewhat belated birthday dinner for my sister. I made the cake this year, pineapple upside down! I never realized how easy it was! She requested a small cake, so we just made half of one. However, we had half a box of GF cake mix, so I made a half GF version as well.IMG_2075 IMG_2076 IMG_2077

For dinner, we went to a nice Indian place that was really into local and organic food. To start, my mom and I split a salad with beets, goat cheese, and yogurt dressing.

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For our main course, we split a dosa, which is a fermented rice and lentil crepe filled with deliciousness. Ours was truffle, and I believe it had potatoes and maybe chickpeas? It came with a tomato based sauce, mango chutney, and a spicy soup.IMG_2080 IMG_2081

They even brought out a candle for my sister to blow out!

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And with that, I must run off to teach spin! Have a great Tuesday!

What are your top 3 this week? 

BIG NEWS

As you guys know, I’ve been just about everywhere the past couple of months. Flying across the country every week (sometimes multiple times), experiencing snow, trying local beer. I’ve been interviewing for vet school, and now the decision has been made!

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I am excited to announce that I will be attending UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine this fall!

I made my decision last week, and Charlie gave me the moral support to click that accept button this morning.

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Naturally, I had to announce it to my family with cupcakes! They are GF carmel cupcakes with chocolate frosting.

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This called for a champagne toast!

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I’m so excited for August!

WIAW—Valentine’s Day!

Happy Wednesday! I hope everyone had a fabulous Valentine’s Day! I spent some quality time with my cat so no complaints here. (Also, Cooking Light had an article for how to make Valentine’s Day dinner for yourself and your feline…) I thought it would be fun to do this week’s WIAW (thanks Jenn) on what I ate on Valentine’s Day!

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Pre-Crossfit:

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Chocolate Cheerios.

Breakfast:

Mango+ double chocolate Flapjacked muffin. I figured, hey, it’s Valentine’s Day, might as well see how much chocolate I could incorporate!

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Pre-teaching lunchtime spin snack: pumpkin spice Cheerios.

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Lunch: I met my parents at a Venezuelan cafe on campus after teaching. We had an appetizer of what I think was a cheese filled corn-based empanada, with cilantro avocado dip.

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My parents came early for a class of wine, so the food showed up just when I got there! My mom and I split a Gouda arepa and a salad with avocado, kalmata olives, asparagus, chicken, Gouda, and balsamic (the salad my CA Chopped Salad is based off of).

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For dessert, I had a few Lindt chocolate emojis that my mom got me for Valentine’s Day!

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Snack: Spicy Apple Ginger Chew.

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Dinner:

Salad with roasted brussels sprouts, grapes, and apples.

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And GF piza margarita.

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For dessert, we made chocolate soufflés using this recipe.

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Plus some red champagne!

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And here’s my Valentine:

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What did you eat on Valentine’s Day?