Monthly Archives: May 2017

Memorial Day Weekend

Before I recap Memorial Day for me, I want to take a moment to recognize those who have served and say thank you.

IMG_3806

I didn’t have work Friday, so my weekend somewhat kicked off then.

IMG_3787

Dinner: spaghetti squash (spaghetti style) with a side salad, topped with burrata!
IMG_3788

That night, I went to a going away party for one of my best college friends. She moved to Boston this week! It was so great so spend some time with her before she left. I didn’t manage to capture any pictures, other than one of my handiwork. I got there early and was assigned the task of arranging the mozzarella and tomatoes.

IMG_3789

Saturday morning, as per usual, I had work.

Breakfast pre-work:

IMG_3790

S’mores muffin. I think I had plans to do a full day of eating for this day but that didn’t end up happening! Haha.

Lunch was a salad with lemon grilled chicken, blueberries, and burrata.

IMG_3791

After work, I met my friend and her boyfriend for one last dinner before she left the following morning. We went to a Chinese restaurant. To start, we had corn and chicken soup, which was really good! It was sort of like egg drop soup (which I really like), but also with corn and chicken which was a nice touch.

IMG_3792

I also had chicken vegetable, and brown rice. I haven’t had Chinese food in FOREVER.

We were within walking distance from a classic froyo place, so naturally we had to stop there on the way back.

IMG_3793

I got butterscotch with chocolate chips!

After dropping my friend off, I went to see another friend to watch the end of the Giants game and talk baseball. I also spent a while driving around with my gas tank on E, with the gas light on. I hate that. But my new car is holding out on me, and I didn’t have time to stop before then! I know how big my tank is, and how much I’m filling up. Even on E, I still had a good 3 gallons left. Um, ok.

Sunday was pretty low key. It involved a spin class, baseball watching, and kitty snuggles.

IMG_3794

^maple blueberry bread

IMG_3797

It was my parents’ anniversary weekend, and my dad requested Fish Market for dinner. I haven’t had it in a while and I don’t eat fish a lot, but right now I’m really digging mahi mahi. Good with ketchup! (And a little tartar sauce.) The roasted vegetables on the side were also way better than expected!

IMG_3798

For dessert, I had vanilla Halo Top with GF pumpkin bread, a new Whole Foods find. Whole Foods suddenly has a ton of fresh GF baked goods! The first ingredient in the bread was pumpkin, so that’s how you know it’s going to be good!

IMG_3799

Monday was Memorial Day.

IMG_3803

Of course, my morning started with the Crossfit workout, Murph. Murph is traditionally done on Memorial Day, by almost all Crossfits across the country, in memorial of Michael Murphy, a fallen soldier. This is my 4th Memorial Day Murph, and my 5th time doing this benchmark workout.

Last year, I did this with a semi-broken foot (I didn’t run). So no broken foot was a great start off the bat this year. This would also be my first year doing Murph completely unbanded for the pull ups!

I can run decently, so I had to try and decide how hard to push the run, because I knew I could potentially make up some time there, but I didn’t want to go into the long workout gassed.

Murph:

1 mile run

100 pull ups

200 push ups

300 squats

1 mile run

I decided to run comfortably but quickly. I arrived in from the first run in 8:12, which was a great pace. The coach informed us the run loop was over a mile, so I think my pace was definitely 7:XX. Then it was time to get to work. I did it “Cindy Style,” 20 rounds of 5 pull ups, 10 push ups, and 15 squats. While I may be able to do pull ups, push ups are still my nemesis, and I had to scale to my knees. The 20 rounds were honestly uneventful. My pull ups were shockingly strong. I did all 20 rounds in unbroken sets of 5, which was a little bit surprising to me. The pull ups weren’t even a struggle at the end…what?? It’s crazy how much better they’ve gotten in the past year! Every other Murph I’ve used a band, but it’s crazy now I haven’t used a band in a workout in almost a year.

About halfway through, I looked at the clock and realized if I pushed it a little bit, I could get near my goal. The push ups were definitely my slowest, limiting factor here.

Before I know it, I was headed out for my last mile. In the past, I remember my legs just feeling dead from the squats as I went out on the run, and having rubber legs. This didn’t feel like that at all. My legs actually didn’t feel totally wrecked. So I guess I am stronger than past years. While my legs felt okay, I had trouble catching my breath for the first half mile, which was a slight incline. I slowed down a bit, and hit it at the end, sliding in just under my best Murph, for a time of 44:17. My faster Murph was my first one, about 10 seconds slower. My last Murphs were around 50 minutes. However, compared to my best, this Murph had a longer run, and had no band for pull ups, so it’s actually a huge improvement. I couldn’t have been more satisfied with how it went!

18698518_10155338972494813_7737242544617027697_n IMG_3801

Afterwards, I dashed home to get ready to head to the Giants game! My friend and I decided last minute to get cheap tickets for the game, since I think we were both craving something summery! The irony, of course, is that the weather here has been anything but warm and sunny. Every day has been overcast and windy, and of course in SF, shorts were not an option.

IMG_3807

For my meal, I had a cha cha bowl. I was pretty hungry post-Murph, so this really hit the spot! Rice, beans, chicken, and pineapple zucchini slaw. With BBQ sauce.

IMG_3804

It wasn’t the fastest pace game, but of course we had a great time being there (and talking baseball the whole time).

Scenes:

IMG_3808 IMG_3810 IMG_3812 IMG_3811

^And yes, that is the on the field brawl. We actually had a pretty decent view of all the punches being thrown. For the record, I’m not in favor of this behavior in baseball. But it did add some intrigue to a less than exciting game.

I actually arrived home around dinnertime pretty hungry (thanks Murph), and after seeing recaps of past Murphs on my blog that also included this salad, I decided on grilled chicken and peach salad for dinner.

IMG_3813

It also seemed fitting to have a hot fudge Halo Top sundae for dessert.

IMG_3814

WIAW: Quick and Easy Miso Noodle Soup

Woo! Two WIAW in a row! (Thanks Jenn.)

wiawphotobutton-1

I have a Memorial Day recap coming shortly, but for now, let’s dive into my eats post-long weekend. I don’t know about anybody else, but I definitely was dragging Tuesday morning! Luckily once I got to work and got back into the swing of things, I think I managed to shake off the funk! Without further ado, here we go!

Breakfast: I was planning on having maple blueberry bread, but since I slept in a little, I woke up hungry and wanted more protein. Cue a flapjacked muffin! Plus an apple on the side.

IMG_3815

Although I wasn’t crazy sore from Memorial Day Murph (recap coming soon), I felt tired so I decided to sleep in a bit and hit up a yoga class, since I started work later. I went early for 15 minutes of abs, and then got the stretch I needed in!

Lunch 1: I forgot to take a picture because I found myself running super late packing my lunch in the morning, but I had a protein smoothie. 1/2 a packet of flapjacked chocolate smoothie mix, 1 cup of milk, and half a cup of frozen blueberries. I usually use a little less milk, but more milk made this far easier to drink! This smoothie is seriously a lifesaver, that makes me a significantly better person, and significantly better at my job. Having lunch 1 at normal lunchtime makes it easy to wait until my late lunch break (3:30 on this particular day).

Lunch 2: Leftover grilled chicken in salad with blueberries and burrata, my current obsession. Side of Glutino crackers.

IMG_3816

Burrata is sort of similar to fresh mozzarella, but creamier and softer.

Afternoon snack: Granola bar.

IMG_3821

Dinner: I actually got off work early, today, which was perfect given I was making my own soup! Since my soup didn’t have protein, I snacked on leftover mahi mahi with ketchup, and some carrots and hummus while cooking.

IMG_3818

For my main meal, I made a soup based on a lot of leftover ingredients, but also something I’d been wanting to try. This falls into the Quick and Easy category! Homemade soup on the table in 20 minutes? Sign me up!

Note that this is more of a meal idea than a strictly measured recipe!

Miso Noodle Soup

IMG_3822

Ingredients:

Stir fry veggies

Green onions

Miso paste

Soy Sauce

Garlic

Ginger

Chicken or Veggie Broth

Rice Noodles

  1. Saute stir fry veggies in a bit of olive oil, soy sauce, and garlic. On the side, start heating up the broth. *Note: you can just boil the veggies in the broth for faster/easier soup, but I think the flavor is better if you sauté first.IMG_3817
  2. Chop up green onions and add to broth, along with stir fry veggies.
  3. Stir in garlic, ginger, and several tablespoons of miso, to taste.
  4. Add in rice noodles and place at bottom of pot, then simmer for about 10 minutes.

That’s it!

IMG_3820

I enjoyed my soup with a couple of crackers.

IMG_3823

Dessert: I was craving a big bowl of ice cream, so that’s exactly what I had. I made a bowl with marble banana bread from my freezer stash with salted caramel Halo Top, and whipped cream with sprinkles.

IMG_3824

A little bit later, I wanted something more so I had a couple of Free 2 Eat chocolate chip cookies (allergen free). They’re SO good!

IMG_3825

What did you eat today?

Full Day of Eating: It’s Friday Somewhere

Hello! I’m coming back to you on this fine Friday evening with a full day of eating from yesterday! I am sort of procrastinating doing a write up of my vet school interview experiences because when I went to find pictures, I got distracted by last summer and my time in Tennessee. And now here we are.

I was off work yesterday (Thursday) as well as today (I work Saturday), and I feel like I finally have time to catch my breath and rest up a little bit. I thought it would be fun to blog a full day of eating from yesterday!

Breakfast:

IMG_3769

Luna bar+my first honeydew of the season! It was delicious. Fact: everything tastes better in ball form.

I had a lighter breakfast because I decided to do a mid-morning workout by my lonesome. I started with 2 miles on the treadmill, which felt equally great and terrible. My achilles is not happy with me, which is fair because I haven’t been taking very good care of it. It was bothering me a lot on the run, but I felt like cardiovascularly I wanted to run faster.

Next, I moved on to my basic leg day routine. 5×5 back squats, this time working my way up to 165#. I followed that up with single leg squats and pistols, and ended with 15 minutes of abs.

I wanted to watch the 11:30am Giants game, so I planned to take Chloe for a quick 20 minute walk around the neighborhood. She managed to con me into a 45 minute walk, because when I was ready to loop back around to come, she refused to move unless we turned the other direction.

Lunch:
When we finally arrived home, I was starving! I snacked on some of these crazy addicting rice cakes.

IMG_3770

And then I made an opened faced sandwich with roasted garlic hummus, tomato, lettuce, part of a sad avocado, and an over easy egg. The rest of the honeydew on the side, which I was too lazy to ball so I just ate with a spoon.

IMG_3771

Snack during the game:

IMG_3772

Sometimes you want chocolate, and you have to just go for it.

Around 2:00, I decided to embark on my project. Beer making! I got a kit for brewing chocolate milk stout for my birthday! I decided that since I was brewing chocolate milk stout, it was my day off, and it was probably Friday and 5:00 somewhere, I popped open a can of my STL chocolate milk stout that I’ve been hoarding for months.

IMG_3773

The process took time, but I’m excited to see how it turns out in 4-5 weeks!

IMG_3779

I took lots of pictures, but I’ll save them and do a full recap of the process when it’s done!

Dinner:

I actually spent 2 hours searching for the perfect recipe for dinner. I couldn’t find the type of thing I wanted, but the recipe (from this month’s Cooking Light) was better than what I was looking for! We tried Grilled Lemon Chicken Salad. We cooked ours on the outside grill. This salad features grilled chicken and grilled lemon, over a bed of arugula, and sautéed green onions and asparagus. It turned out to be the perfect fresh, summery dish. Served with roasted sweet potatoes (actually my favorite).

IMG_3781

Dessert:

I scraped the filling out of a lemon merengue pie from the freezer section.

IMG_3782

Post-dinner:

Always a rice cake with cream cheese.

IMG_3783

Have you ever brewed anything?

FINALLY Getting Out at the DFW Airport

This may be a few days late, but here we are: the final post of my adventures. The final stop: Fort Worth!

I’ve flown thrown DFW SO many times this year as a connection for interviews, but I’ve never actually gotten out there; I’ve never been to Texas! One of my really good friends from college lives in Fort Worth, and for months I’ve been promising to stop by! I decided to take a really long layover, and explore the city with her!

I left St. Louis on a 6am flight (3am wakeup…which is 1am CA time….ouch), and arrived at DFW just before 8am. We had a full day ahead! Despite my 5am granola bar, I was hungry for breakfast when we met up. We went downtown and stopped for breakfast at a coffeeshop/diner, which felt like a very Texas experience.

When in the south, you order cheese grits.

IMG_3703

Then, it was time to explore downtown Ft. Worth!

IMG_3705 IMG_3706 IMG_3707

Texas is proud of its longhorns. Their presence was quite prominent!

IMG_3708

A little before lunchtime, we headed to the Stockyards.

IMG_3709

This is a really cool area designed to be old Western. It has a ton of little shops (and you could buy as many cowboy boots as you heart desired).

IMG_3710

Around lunchtime, they run longhorns right down the main street! Unfortunately, we were wrong about what time this would be happening, so we only caught the tail end of it.

IMG_3711

Luckily, we were able to find a viewing area to see the longhorns in the stock yard.

IMG_3712 IMG_3713 IMG_3716 IMG_3717 IMG_3719 IMG_3720

For lunch, we went to a Mexican place with my friend’s parents. No pictures, but I had chicken fajitas with caramelized peppers and onions, which were delicious!

After lunch, we headed to the Fort Worth zoo. I love that my adventures include so many animals!

IMG_3721

There were baby chimps!

IMG_3722 IMG_3723 IMG_3728 IMG_3733

More zoo scenes. The highlight was the white tigers! Super unique.

IMG_3735 IMG_3737 IMG_3740 IMG_3742 IMG_3745 IMG_3746 IMG_3750

After the zoo, we went to a Whole Foods-like store to check out the goods. Highlights include some different granola bars and some apple cinnamon dried apples.

IMG_3756

We were both wiped out from a long day in the sun (and an early wakeup for me!), so we headed back to her place, and I got to meet her new kitten and give him a nail trim! #vettechlife

IMG_3762

Before we knew it, it was time for me to head home. On the way to the airport, we stopped for dinner and I had my first Chick-fil-A experience!

IMG_3763 IMG_3764 IMG_3765

Grilled chicken nuggets, waffles fries, a side salad, and half a chocolate cake. It was good! I love the idea of grilled chicken nuggets. Any excuse to dip something in ketchup, sign me up! This may be weird to some people, but back in the day, I would get KFC popcorn chicken an dip it in honey. I dipped my grilled nuggets in honey, and it was still delicious!

At the airport, I was literally at my gate within 3 minutes of walking into the airport. Apparently 10pm on a Monday is not a super popular time to fly, so I was able to waltz right through security to my gate that was 2 steps away, which NEVER happens. It was a LONG day, but definitely worth it!

 

 

St. Louis Part 2: Baseball, Beer, and Baby Goats

When we last spoke, I was just finishing up my coffee Saturday morning.

For a late lunch on Saturday, my friends and I met up for a late lunch (made later by the long wait) at Fitz’s, famous for their root beer. I had a delicious salad with grilled chicken, and lots of ketchup.

IMG_3569

After lunch, we made our way to 4 Hands, home of my favorite Chocolate Milk Stout.

IMG_3571

Chocolate milk stout is out of season, so I went with the Single Speed, a better option for summer! It was a blonde ale brewed with jasmine. It was good, with complex flavors, but not my favorite style (pilsner-y).

IMG_3572

I also tried a taste of the guava wheat beer. Good, but a little tarter than I prefer.

IMG_3574

After hanging out there a bit, we consolidated cars and drove a mile or so over the the stadium for the baseball game!

IMG_3577 IMG_3579 IMG_3580

It was the Purina sponsored Bark in the Park day, where dogs could come! We were given a Cardinals dog bowl as well upon entering.

We were a fair amount early, so we enjoyed the dogs performing tricks and catching frisbees on the field beforehand.

IMG_3582 IMG_3583

IMG_3585

The weather report for the night was looking a bit shaky, with storms expected to roll in. I was really nervous all week/day that we’d have a rainout, so I anxiously watched the skies.

IMG_3587 IMG_3589

I always love a baseball game, but this wasn’t the most interesting. No one scored! It was 0-0 almost the entire game. About halfway through, I darted away to grab a turkey sandwich.

IMG_3590

We got rained on a tiny bit around the 5th or 6th, but thankfully it was a passing cloud.

IMG_3592 IMG_3604

Despite the 0-0 score entering the 9th, we decided to head out to avoid any potential rush.

IMG_3597

We followed the game as we left, and it went into extra innings with the score STILL 0-0. On our way to get frozen custard at Ted Drewe’s, the sky completely opened up, seemingly out of nowhere. Like, can’t see anything in front of you on the freeway pouring.

And Ted Drewe’s was STILL packed. The things we do for Ted Drewe’s.

IMG_3598

I enjoyed a delicious custard with hot fudge.

IMG_3600

The game got delayed around that time anyway. We turned in for an early night, and I was back in my hotel to watch the game resume and the Giants win!

Sunday morning, I was up EARLY (5:30 CST) to run the zoo 5k! It was lucky timing that I happened to be there that weekend!

IMG_3606 IMG_3653

I ran the race with one of my zoo intern buddies, and we started at the gates of the zoo and ran through Forest Park.

IMG_3610 IMG_3613 IMG_3615 IMG_3652

It was a lot of fun!

Post-race, we dug into the free breakfast of granola bars, yogurt, and chocolate milk, and wandering around the zoo (just like old times) while we waited for the Children’s Zoo area to be open…to see my girls!!!

Yindi and Jannali, Tasmanian Devils.

IMG_3629 IMG_3632 IMG_3623

They had just been let out, so we caught them super active!

Next, we visited the goats.

IMG_3636 IMG_3639

^Full (former) zoo intern running crew.

After the race, I swing by the house of the woman I rented a room from last fall to say hi to her and her kitties, Yoyo and Scooby. I missed them so much! They definitely remembered me, and Yoyo was his strong-willed and vocal self.

IMG_3645 IMG_3649 IMG_3651

Later, my friends and I hit up Mellow Mushroom for a pizza lunch. I had the gluten free veg.

IMG_3655

Right around the corner was a sculpture garden, so we explored that a little. Highlights: giant eye and oil barrel structure.

IMG_3658 IMG_3663

Then, it was time for the main event: Grant’s Farm! We parked a distance away and walked along the pretty trail to get there.

IMG_3664

It was PACKED. It only just opened for the season, so the lines to get in were crazy long. Once in, we headed straight for the baby goats. You can spend $1 to bottle feed milk to baby goats, and honestly I can’t think of a better way to spend a dollar.

IMG_3670 IMG_3673 IMG_3674 IMG_3675

Apparently my shorts were delicious.

IMG_3676 IMG_3677 IMG_3680 IMG_3683

Minus all the loud small children, this place is basically heaven. Bottle feeding baby goats AND free beer??

IMG_3686

Seriously, gotta take advantage of the free Budweiser around St. Louis!

IMG_3690 IMG_3689

^New horse friend.

After Grant’s farm, we split ways and I headed to Blueprint, my favorite coffeeshop, for a decaf cappuccino.

IMG_3691 IMG_3693

What a beautiful, beautiful sight.

IMG_3694

One friend had to leave for work, but my other friend and I had dinner at Schlafly in Maplewood, where I enjoyed one last St. Louis beer, a Hefeweizen.

IMG_3696

For my meal, I had a turkey burger with brie and cranberry sauce that I ate bun-less, and then side of vinegary coleslaw.

IMG_3697

I spent the rest of the night enjoying the second half of my complimentary Gooey Butter Cake with Netflix. (They were Gooey Louie, the top place to get them!) It was perfect.

However, my time in St. Louis wasn’t the end of my adventures! Stay tuned for the second (brief) destination!