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Blogmas Day 24: Wine and Cheese Night

I cannot believe Blogmas is coming to an end, and Christmas is tomorrow! It’s crazy how time flies, isn’t it?

Merry Christmas Eve!

Today for Blogmas, I’m sharing the family wine and cheese night we had last night.

In preparation, my mom and I stopped by an Italian grocery store for cheese. While there, I also found gluten free sourdough! I had heard of the company, and when I looked it up, it was carried there. YUM. I had it with avocado toast for lunch!

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We saw a vaguely Christmas movie in the afternoon which was a mixed bag, and then started prepping!

My mom and I made my great-grandmother’s Molasses Spice Cookies. They didn’t turn out quite like expected because we had to make a few modifications. We used gluten free flour, and butter in place of the Crisco the recipe called for (it was a different time then), and as a result, the cookies flattened a ton. But hey, still delicious!

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The only other thing that needed prepping (minus cutting) was a lentil tapenade we made. At Trader Joe’s, we tried a sample of this simple dish made using Trader Joe’s products. Simply stir together fresh bruscetta, cooked lentils, and feta cheese. It’s delicious atop crackers!

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As my sister and fiancé arrived, we put the final touches on the spread and poured a glass of wine.

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Here’s the spread:

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Molasses spice cookies.

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Cheese tray with persimmons and pear.

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Lentil dish with pita chips, crackers, white chocolate cranberry bread (!), sourdough, and veggies with butternut squash hummus.

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Goat and bleu cheese.

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My plate.

We enjoyed the wine and cheese while watching Home Alone. We tried different wine pairings; I had some Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, but skipped the reds with dessert because I’m much more of a white wine girl.

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We had a 2007 Reserve wine that has been aging in our house, and my family broke that out. It was definitely quality wine but sadly not my thing!
It was a really fun night with family, and a great way to start off Christmas!

Have a fantastic Christmas Eve!

WIAW on Stormy Days

Happy Wednesday! (Feel free to ignore the fact that I’m posting Tuesday night. You get the idea.) As usual, I’m celebrating WIAW with Jenn!

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I have lots of good things to share, including a recipe! Yay!

Before I get to food, let’s talk about workouts. I was all set to go to Crossfit after work Monday, but I walked outside to a giant storm, and then the Metro stopped running, so I missed the class, and didn’t feel like going to the late class.

Anyways, this meant Monday was rest and today was a 3 miler! After pouring all afternoon, I decided to take a chance and go for it during a break in the rain. I did my usual 3 mile route.

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Yeah. I live here.

And this is not a bad turn around point:

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Yes, the Washington Monument is EXACTLY 1.5 miles away, so it should be pretty clear why this is my typical route now!

On the way back, storm clouds began to threaten. It started POURING right as I was running up my block. Talk about lucky!

The run also felt fantastic. I was running on rested and not “just woke up and it’s 6am” legs, plus I’m been working hard in my training, and it’s certainly paying off. This is week 3, and each week I’ve done this route. I’ve done it faster each week, and each week it feels better. Week 1 was super slow for me-10:18 pace. sat week was 9:48, and today was 9:29. And it wasn’t like it was an all out pace, so it’s a good start!

Now onto the part everyone actually cares about. Food.

Breakfasts have been the same old-sunflower seed butter with lots of fruit! Plus chai tea since I’m laying off the coffee.

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Lunch Monday was leftovers of Cheesy Mushroom Quinoa plus some yogurt.

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Lunch on Tuesday was extra special. I was on trip at work, and the food they prepared us was amazing and beautiful.

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I’m not sure how much I should talk about work on here, but I will say this gives me so much hope for the future of America’s school food system!

I piled my plate high with all kinds of delicious salads. One of my favorites was a ginger root salad. This is the first context in which I’ve actually enjoyed beets!

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I also got to take leftovers home with me, which made a great pre-run snack/dinner.

And finally-for the recipe!

Coconut Flour Arepas

*Edited to add: this is based on the fantastic Blogilates recipe for healthy quesadillas!

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Ingredients

2 T coconut flour

1 ear of corn

2 T water

6 T egg whites

1/8 t baking powder

salt to taste

Directions

1. Mix together coconut flour, water, egg whites, and baking powder in a small bowl.

2. Remove the corn from the cob, and add to mixture.

3. If mixture is too thin, let it sit a moment. The coconut flour may take a bit of time to absorb the water, but this will still be fairly runny. Add salt if desired.

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4. In a large pan, add a touch of olive oil and heat the pan.

5. Once pan is hot, pour mixture into pan.

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6. When bubbles begin to form on the surface, flip and cook through.

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7. If desired, sprinkle with salt, and fill with desired fillings. I used smoked gouda.

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Delicious, and comes together in minutes!

What is your favorite type of cheese?

Not for everything, but I love goat brie. If you haven’t tried it, you absolutely need to!

 

Last Post from This Side of the Mississippi

Happy Friday! I’m currently at the airport waiting to board my flight to DC! I’m not sure what my schedule or WiFi will be like for the next couple of days, so I wanted to take the chance to recap some things now. First things first. I wanted to visit the Kitten Nursery I worked at last summer before I left, so of course I have to share adorable kitten pictures. IMG_8145 IMG_8146 IMG_8147IMG_8149IMG_8151IMG_8155IMG_8156IMG_8159   I’ve been trying to eat mostly whole foods lately, so here’s some things from the past couple of days. IMG_8161   An egg and lower sugar raspberry jam made by my aunt. Lunch out with my sister-I started with a giant cappuccino which I couldn’t finish! (But you better believe I drank all the milk foam!) IMG_8163

For the main course, my mom and I split a gouda arepa (corn based) and a salad with chicken, avocado, and gouda. IMG_8164 IMG_8165   And as my last dinner at home, I had one of my favorites-grilled chicken and peach salad with goat cheese. On the side was some whole grain bread rolled in sunflower seeds. IMG_8172   And then lunch this morning pre-airport was simple-2 eggs, half an avocado, cheese and crackers, and some English peas (unpictured). IMG_8173 IMG_8174 IMG_8175   Today, I went to my last home Crossfit, got a couple of episodes of Scandal loaded up on my computer to get in the mood, and said goodbye to my kitty. IMG_8178 IMG_8179   I’m going to miss him! Catch you all from the other side of the country!

The Best, Ugliest Green Smoothie Ever

Today was another warm one here on the West Coast! For most of the day, the heat really didn’t bother me. But now…

Let’s start from the top. I’m being a good person and going to yoga again! I went again this morning after spin (spin is necessary prior to morning yoga or else I’m insanely stiff). I can already feel myself loosening up, thank goodness! My hips were super tight, so we focused on those today. I was the only one in the class-surprise, surprise, 8am fitness classes aren’t super popular with college students. It is really nice to have the personal attention! I want to go to that class as much as possible-I think it’s really going to help my tendonitis.

I was glad I snacked on a granola bar (KIND great grains) before my workout because I was pretty hungry by the end!

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For breakfast, I finished up the last of my berries with plain greek yogurt and sunflower seed butter, plus a mango and another granola bar on the side.

I only had one class today, but I had a busy afternoon! Lunch was a quick one-scrambled eggs with manchego and a sour grapefruit!

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After lunch, I ran out to embark on the first of many errands. Stop 1-a party store for a tutu for Bay to Breakers on Sunday! I also got some fun socks and face paint! I’m ready! (minus the whole distance running thing. Ehh race clothing is clearly more important.)

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From there, I went straight to the allergist. At my last appointment, they tested for food allergies. This time, they tested environmental allergies. The verdict? Welp, I’m allergic to basically everything. Severe to pretty much all the trees and pollen they tested for, as well as pretty severe for dogs, somewhat for cats, and super strong for dust mites. Sooo there’s that. There’s not a lot I can do about it for now, but most of the time I don’t have terrible reactions to things and it’s ok. But let’s just say they had to give me allergy medication after doing the dest because my skin was reacting so severely!

After the appointment, I raced back to school for softball practice. There wasn’t a huge turnout, but I got to play catch and shake out my arm, which was nice. We ended in time for me to rush to the earlier Crossfit for a strength day (no WOD). One of the movements we did was weighted planks-doing a plank with a weight plate on your back. I absolutely love this. I used to do them with my trainer way back then, and I loved them so much I did them on my own a lot. Well, my core strength is about half of what it once was! Hah!

I ended up missing dining because there was a special dinner thing going on that ended earlier, so I went to Whole Foods. I’m trying to be more frugal, and I walked out of Whole Foods carrying all my groceries in one hand!

Somewhere between finishing Crossfit and eating dinner, I got pretty dehydrated. I didn’t go back to my room at all in the 8 hours or so I was gone, so I ran out of water at the end of my workout. I figured it wasn’t a huge deal, but by the time I was walking around Whole Foods, I was deliriously thirsty so I grabbed everything as fast as possible! I got a green smoothie-technically. They were out of mango, so I substituted blueberries, turning my smoothie a lovely shade of brown. I seriously could not have cared less how it looked. Or how it tasted for that matter-as long as it was cold and liquid, it was the best thing in the world. I CHUGGED that smoothie!

On the side, I has cornbread and tortilla soup.

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Other eats from the evening: a date with unsweetened chocolate, and some of my beloved goat Brie.

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I’m still feeling sort of tired/thirsty/out of it-it’s so hard to cool down! I’ve been chugging water all evening, so hopefully I’ll perk up!

What’s your favorite cheese?