Giveaway Winner!

Date: December 20, 2013

Author: astottler

I’m going to go through today in reverse order so I don’t leave you all in suspense over my giveaway winner!

But first I have to set the mood. I’m old fashioned so I picked the winner out of a hat. A hat I specifically brought back from school for this purpose (don’t ask why I have a hat like this…), so as I wrote down all the entries, I blasted Christmas music. Tis the season!

I was going to bring the hat down by the tree for picture purposes, but then I ended up with something even better. I decided to take a picture with Charlie and the hat…and he decided he wanted to pick the giveaway winner!

And then for good measure, he decided to sit on the hat.

ANYWAYS-now that you’ve sat through enough cat pictures, here’s the winner!

Miranda, please email me your address at astottler @gmail.com! 🙂

Confession-when I decided to do this giveaway, I was kind of scared no one would enter…and I’d be forced to eat all the delicious food by myself. I guess there would be worse things! So thank you to everyone who entered!

(Random note-my Christmas playlist just got the the Spanish Christmas music. NOW it’s Christmastime!)

So what did I do today besides listen to Christmas music and choose a giveaway winner?

To be honest, not a whole lot. I went for a 3 mile hilly run…4 hours after I meant to do it. I guess I need to schedule better! I’m definitely in better running shape than over the summer when I did this-but I also haven’t done hills in a while so this kicked my butt.

I also went to my home Crossfit this evening. I love it-it’s totally decked out for the holidays.

After looking at today’s WODs-I was super tempted to go to my Crossfit at school (since I live pretty close) as well as my home Crossfit because both workouts looked awesome! But I am not crazy. Or stupid. Speaking of which-I’m at the point with my fitness where I think I can do pretty much anything. Which is great and definitely potentially stupid. Such as going to 2 Crossfits in one day-I’m definitely glad I didn’t because just the one killed me! Lots of front squats-my wrists are rubber. And my shoulders were burning just after the warm up! My running in Crossfit has definitely improved since the summer as well-I’ve gained so much fitness this past fall, and coming back has made that even more apparent!

Dinner was on my own since my parents were out at a cocktail party. I wanted something festive (think eggnog), but I also wanted to use all the kale I bought. Enter-kale eggnog protein smoothie!

If you’re curious, here’s what I threw in the blender:

1/4 c light eggnog (my family always buys this kind because we’re not fans of the thickness of normal)

3/4 c unsweetened vanilla almond milk

1 scoop vanilla protein powder

3/4 frozen banana

a couple of large handfuls of kale

vanilla extract, cinnamon, nutmeg

ice

For dessert, I tried some of the candy my aunt sent us. Chocolate covered potato chips and chocolate, potato chip, and caramel candy.

All I have to say about chocolate covered potato chips is don’t ever try them-they are insanely delicious and addicting, and if you eat a million you most likely will feel like death. I enjoyed just 1 and a couple of baby pieces, but it still had my running to the fridge for veggies!

Have a great day everyone!

WIAW-Healthy Living is About Balance, Pastries, and Ostriches

Date: December 17, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy WIAW!

Today, I’m blogging from Solvang, an adorable little Danish town completely decked out for Christmas. There’s not a not to do here besides eat delicious Danish pastries. There are worse things in life.

Technically I consider myself a “healthy living blog,” and while these foods may not be your typical idea of healthy, healthy eating really is all about balance. How many times will you be conveniently within a mile of about 20 different bakeries, with a father who wants to go into all of them? Balance is trying one of everything…and then splitting it with your family. So here are some things from the past couple of days!

Monday before we left, I went to m gym for an abs class, followed by weight lifting on my own-I did my Jingle Barbells workouts. It was nice to have all the time in the world, and be able to take long rests between sets. I’m normally in such a rush! I followed that with a protein smoothie-I’ve been dying to have one of these for months. Yay for being home!

Milk, spinach, frozen banana, cocoa powder, a little protein powder, and a handful of ice.

Lunch on the road was a bagel sandwich and thai bubble tea.

And then we arrived! Naturally the first stop was pre-dinner pastries.

A blueberry “boat” (probably my favorite o the trip), custard filled pastry, and a Danish “waffle”-a pastry with butter cream frosting and raspberry.

Dinner was at Pea Soup Anderson’s. Anyone who has driven through California on the main, long stretches of road will be familiar with this place-there are signs advertising it hundreds of miles away, and since we were RIGHT THERE we had to get their famous pea soup!

In the morning, we went to the hotel’s hot breakfast. The oatmeal was a highlight-it was very vanilla and cinnamon-y.

Then, I went for a run with my sister and her boyfriend. I’m in WAY better than last time I ran with them (at the beginning of half training in June)-last time I was dying, and this time their pace felt comfortable. I think we covered between 4-4.5 miles?

Then, on our way in to town, we stopped at a little drive in. I ordered a burrito with chicken-it was interesting, the lettuce, salsa, and guacamole were on the outside! A lesser known fast-I’ve eaten very few burritos in my life. And as a result, I never know how to eat them! I’m really uncomfortable eating them-I had one of my first burritos with my friends and they totally made fun of me for it!

And of course dessert.

We spent the afternoon walking around downtown Solvang and wandering into little bakeries. A highlight was our visit to the foot spa for a massage. Since we all know the sad shape of my feet, it was great.

Guess what we did next?

We went to an ostrich ranch! I kinda really really want one. Or at least to ride one-is that a thing?

We even got to feed them. They’re aggressive little guys! (Ok, maybe not little…) We had a bowl with a handle, and you held on the handle tightly while they went at it and just kind of hoped. It reminded me a little of water skiing-you hold on for dear life and hope, and there’s the adrenaline rush that something is going to go horrible wrong, like they will somehow peck your hands off.

My sister’s boyfriend feeding ostriches.

Since we were all stuffed with pastries, we ended up eating a late dinner at our hotel restaurant, which turned out to be really nice.

I ordered the vegetarian portabello mushroom burger, which had a lots of veggies, lots of cheese, and lots of mess.

And since this is vacation, dessert happened (again) as well. Bananas foster and lava cake.

Everything has been delicious, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t ready to go back to my routine. I wanted to do nothing all afternoon but curl up and sleep. But such is life. Everything is about balance.

Oh, and one more though about my 5k on Sunday-I probably screwed myself over with pacing as well. I thought I could have held an 8 minute pace, but based on my pace estimates, my first mile was probably 7:30, and the last two 8:30-so if I go out that fast there’s no way I could hold an 8:00 pace! I think I need to practice running more at that pace-to get my body used to the effort as well as the feel.

Have a great week everybody!

Favorite pastry?

MIMM-Christmas in the Park and Santa Run

Date: December 15, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

I’m linking up with the fabulous Katie today because this weekend has been fun and marvelous! What could be better than getting in the Christmas spirit and spending time with cats and family?

The first marvelous thing? I finished bringing my stuff home from school, including my plant. It’s a plumeria I got from Hawaii, and it’s thriving in my room. I guess the humid, warm climate that seems to mold everything is good for it? Proud plant momma right here!

Then, my mom and I shared an amazing sandwich-turkey and avocado from Ike’s, which is kind of a big deal around here (and there’s one on campus!) Yum!

Then I did some Christmas shopping. I’m really excited about some of my gifts this year, and I cannot wait to share it with you guys…after Christmas though!

Which brings us to Sunday. Sunday I did a Santa Run 5k. I did the 5k last year, which is the only 5k I’ve ever done. After finishing training for halves, I’ve been working really hard on getting faster. I had countless 6am wakeup calls for 30 degree track workouts. I really wanted to PR this race.

For breakfast, I had something a little unusual-cottage cheese, cocoa powder, and a little honey, topped with raspberries and served with a persimmon.

Before leaving for the race that afternoon, I had super light lunch-persimmon, more banana bread, and a little spinach bread-like stuff. I was more concerned about having stomach issues than being hungry since this was such a short race, and I remember being stuffed going into it last year.

The race is in its second year-it benefits Christmas in the Park, and Christmas display the city puts up every year, which was ranked top 10 in the world! Here are some pre-race photos-everyone dressed up as Santa, but I wanted something more comfortable to race in, plus my parents requested I wear something that didn’t blend in so much as they had trouble finding me in my last race, so I wore my Santa Run shirt from last year.

The race itself? It was tough. I was super nervous before the race, and they nervousness kind of turned to nausea as soon as I started running. I most likely definitely went out too fast; I didn’t wear my Garmin because I was worried it would freak me out, but I know my second half of the race was much slower than the first.

Lately during my races, I question why the heck I keep signing myself up for them! SO painful. At least halves are slower so you can enjoy the first half of the race or so comfortably and not be dying until the end…

I definitely did not feel as prepared as I should have been. I haven’t been out of breath in this way in a while. My endurance base? It’s great. I haven’t done much sprinting though, and that needs to happen.

I didn’t PR this race. I realized that pretty quickly. My official time was 25:36, which is 37 seconds away from a PR. Here are some very unattractive running pictures:

I felt pretty awful right at the finish. They were handing out cookies and milk (cute, right??) which i grabbed for my dad.The thing about 5ks though? You recover pretty quickly, so it didn’t take long before I was game to try a s’mores pizza. Because why not?

It was pizza dough with nutella, dark chocolate, marshmallows, and graham crackers. It was delicious! And messy. Check out the aftermath.

Walking around after the race, my calf started to cramp a little. Nothing major, just felt on the verge of a cramp. After some salt, it was much better though!

I also got a new friend.

And here are some pictures from Christmas in the park:

My sister ended up meeting us there and then inviting us to her place for macaroni and cheese. It just so happens my favorite froyo place is on the way home…

A bit of tart with fruit, salted caramel pretzel, and pumpkin pie, with toffee, brownies, and chocolate pretzels.

And after some time in front of the TV prepping for tomorrow’s trip (more in a second), a little snack that included cheese, crackers, and these guys:

Have you guys had Jo-jos from Trader Joe’s? Get them. Now. They’re decadent and addictive. They’re basically chocolate covered oreos but in cool flavors-these are gingerbread and peppermint.

So my thoughts on the race? While I’m a little disappointed, I’m not really surprised. Based on my training, I knew hitting my goal pace would be really hard. I have two more 5ks in the next few months; the race made me both want to never run a race again and train even harder at the same time. Races hurt. But if I’m in better shape they hurt less, right? Or I just go faster and they hurt just as much. I have a couple of ideas of what I can do to get faster. I want to do more sprints-I need to do more agility types of drills anyways because my ankles are weak. I need to do longer runs OUTSIDE at my goal pace-like without breaks in the middle. I love doing workouts with intervals, where you get to rest in the middle. But you don’t get to rest on race day, so I need to prepare myself for that as well. And I need to click with the nutrition. To be perfectly honest, being lighter means instantly faster because there isn’t so much to carry around. I’m heavier than a year ago, and while some of that is muscle, it still has to be carried 3.1 miles. For the next couple of months I may put weight lifting more on the back burner and focus hard on running.

As for the trip-tomorrow I’m going to Solvang, a little Danish town near Santa Barbara, which should be adorable and Christmas-y. In preparation, we had to re-watch the Psych episode where they go there. I can’t wait!

What did you do this weekend?

WIAW-Meal Prep Edition

Date: December 3, 2013

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy WIAW! As always, a giant thanks to Jenn for hosting this weekly party!

Since starting 12 Days of Christmas, I haven’t gotten to talk about my day to day eats in a while, so let’s dive in, shall we?

The most exciting thing I did before returning to college? Meal prep! I wanted something veggie packed and easy to grab and go, so I made a TON of egg cups-they’re filled with egg, chopped kale or spinach, and cheese-some gouda, some parmesan.

Pre-oven

Post oven.

I also made one with cranberry sauce and turkey, if you’re wondering.

I wanted quick grab and go sweet breakfasts as well, so I made mini versions with egg and blueberries, plus a little cinnamon. The most genius thing I did though was mix up some of my pumpkin starter with egg, and top with cinnamon cream cheese. YUM.

I also made a few with fig balsamic and goat cheese (the bottom ones).

I made an extra batch to freeze as well, since everything was already out! I used the pumpkin starter again but added blueberries.

I’ve also been eating a lot of leftover butternut squash soup, from Thanksgiving. SO GOOD. I top it with cranberry relish and creme fraiche.

Another use of leftovers? On my last night home, we used turkey to make quesadillas with jack cheese, spinach, and mushrooms.

My roommate is seriously the best. She brought back an entire crate of fruit from her trees at home, and it’s like 3 layers deep in persimmons.

Obviously, those have been kind of a staple in my diet lately.

Additionally, the giant plate of asparagus at lunch has returned-I topped them with a fresh herb seasoning mixture, and then nutritional yeast. Plus my turkey egg cup.

And because I have to show you our holiday decorations:

This candy was outside our door, but it’s currently all gone!

And because I already miss him:

Have a great day!

Favorite holiday food?

Christmas Day

Date: December 26, 2012

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

I hope everyone had a terrific Christmas! I had a great day.

I love my Christmas cats! I’ll start with Christmas Eve. I went for a 3 mile run in the morning before heading out to Benihana’s with my family for lunch. This is a Christmas Eve tradition that we do every year. It’s such a fun experience, and the chefs are so amazing.

I wasn’t super hungry due to several big days of eating before Christmas Eve, so I decided to just have a salad and of course their signature fried rice!

A lot of times of Christmas Eve we go to a movie after this, and then at night go for a drive to see Christmas lights, but this year we decided to mix it up. We didn’t feel exactly in the Christmas spirit yet partly because things were so different ( I wasn’t home until about a week before Christmas), so we decided to take Bart up to the city to see the giant Christmas tree and walk around the giant mall there.

And ok, we may have ulterior motives…kittens in the window of Macy’s! One of them looked and acted exactly like one of my cats, Mary!

It’s so sad that so many kittens up for adoption are black. I don’t understand why. I love black cats! My family has had black cats for as long as I can remember. They do tend to have a little extra attitude, but that only makes them all the more lovable.

Once inside the mall, we walked around and soaked in the Christmas cheer. I was really excited because I got one of those 20 minute massages from a kiosk in the mall. It was fabulous. My right shoulder is way tighter than my left. I’m not sure if this is a result of always being on the same side of the boat while rowing, or leftover issues from being a softball pitcher for so long. (For the record, I never had any shoulder injuries but my shoulder was rotated slightly forward because pitching built up the muscles so much on the front of my shoulder.)

On our way back out, we stopped at a cream puff place where we split an eggnog cream puff and a peppermint chocolate cream puff. SO GOOD.

Back at home, I prepared breakfast for Christmas morning: French Toast Souffle.

I used cinnamon bread which we picked up from Whole Foods. This cinnamon bread is amazing, especially with a little butter and cinnamon sugar, so I thought it would work perfectly in place of challah.

On Christmas morning, all I had to do was stick it in the oven. So easy!

Ate alongside Harry and David pears.

With syrup of course! (not pictured)

After stockings and breakfast, we headed out to eat dinner with my grandparents at their favorite restaurant, and returned home to open presents and enjoy a quiet night in front of the TV with kitties. It was a nice day.

What holiday traditions do you have?