Not going to lie friends, my blogging motivation has been lacking lately. I’ve had so much yet so little going on. Lots of thoughts to occupy the future, not a ton to do with my time this week. I actually had a rare travel-free weekend, and it was great to catch up with friends and hibernate in front of football on Sunday. I love sports (well, only the ones that matter…baseball and football. My parents are forever trying to get me into basketball but it is simply inferior).

Workout-wise, what’s been happening? 10,000 spin classes. Give or take. I taught my two classes on Thursday and then took a class Saturday morning. Crossfit has been there. I thought the whole 20 rep sets of presses were not improving my strength at all (they suck every time), but apparently they are doing something, because I expected my shoulders to die during push presses during Friday’s WOD but they were the easiest part? Huh?

WOD:

3 rounds:

30 hang power cleans

30 front squats

30 push presses

I used 55#. Somehow I finished first? Just under 20 minutes.

I also snuck in an outdoor run on Sunday during a break in the never-ending rain. I ALSO broke in my new running shoes. These guys are my babies. They were essentially a graduation present to myself. I ordered them in June and designed the colors, but they didn’t come in time before I left for Tennessee, so I had to have different shoes in the interim.

SO FREAKING PRETTY. I didn’t realize my other shoes were worn out. I haven’t been running anyway near the number of miles I used to, so I assumed they would be good for longer. Long story short, I have been feeling my formerly broken foot more than I should have while running lately, and decided it was time. I also got new inserts finally. Guys. It made ALL the difference in the world. Normally at the end of my runs my foot is a little achy, but seriously I felt nothing. I felt like I could have kept running forever! It’s really important for me to have a stiff sole, so when the shoes started wearing out, my foot was the first thing to suffer.

It was also a really beautiful couple of hours. The 3 mile run just felt meh thanks to some less than ideal food choices the previous days, but at my turn around point, I saw some beautiful stray black cats, so no complaints here.

Now onto the food. What do you think?

Thursday evening after teaching spin #2 of the day, I went out to dinner with my college friend. We went to an Italian place, and celebrated our respective greater education admissions with drinks to start.

Even though it was a cold and stormy day (but not currently raining), we opted to eat outside, huddling next to the heat lamp, to avoid the wait. We had the outdoor area all to ourselves!

We got talked into sharing a special for an appetizer. Do you ever have those moments when you take a bite of something and just stop, because it’s so amazing? I don’t really remember having one of those moments. Until that app. OMG. It was balsamic poached pears with burrata cheese, and it was insane. The pears were slightly caramelized, and the cheese was perfectly creamy. The sweet and salty combo was just divine.

Sadly, the pictures do not do the dish justice thanks to the night sky, but MAN. I’m trying to figure out how I can make it back there and have this again, which may be hard since it was a special! MAN.

My dinner was also good, but nothing could compare to those pears. I got a citrus salad with beets, ricotta, and avocado.

Friday, I finished all the regular work for my Microbio class! I just have to take the final (which is no small deal). I celebrated by making a Target run with my mom, where we bought every cereal known to man. I am LOVING cheerios for a pre workout breakfast (or to go with a protein smoothie), and wanted to take a brake from pumpkin spice and get something new (I stocked up on it). (Just a note though: I totally opened the pumpkin spice this morning anyways. Oops.) I was going to try the fruity cheerios, but saw the seasonal berry ones (pink!) so I got those instead. They’re good! I think my favorite currently might be apple cinnamon. We also saw girl scout cookie cereal. I can’t eat girl scout cookies mostly thanks to various dietary restrictions, but cereal I could do.

We got these+Thin Mint cereal. The caramel is good, but tastes a little artificial. The Thin Mint tastes EXACTLY like a Thin Mint. I would definitely recommend!

After Friday night’s workout, we headed to the Counter to cash in one a buy one get one free coupon. We all started with drinks, which was perfect given the busy time of day. I’m trying to find local beer that I don’t hate, and my dad recently discovered this Devil’s Canyon dark beer. I liked it a lot! Quite strong though!

My mom and I split a salad and a burger, which is my special creation. It’s chicken breast, gruyere, garlic aioli, tomato, greens, avocado, and green onions on a gluten free bun. YUM.

Saturday morning my high school friends and I met up for brunch. We decided on something casual, and they suggested I bring Chloe. She was quite the mixed bag, behavior-wise.

Pro-tip: always bring a distraction! She was good while licking the peanut butter out of her bone, but unfortunately she finished it more quickly than I would have liked. She absolutely loves my friends to death, and her excitement could not be contained.

Until she conked out. Puppies.

Saturday night, my parents and I saw Passengers. Overall, I liked it! It was weird having a main character with my name though; that never happens! Afterwards we went to Pacific Catch, a vaguely Asian Fusion type of place. I got a teriyaki chicken bowl with brown rice and greens.

On Sunday, I had a few delicious new food finds. I am very well aware of what Trader Joe’s salads I am not allergic to (yay nuts…there are very few), but we found a new one with sweet potato, brussels sprouts, chicken, cranberries, and pumpkin seeds. My mom and I split it, and it was delicious!

Also good? A new Whole Foods find: pumpkin and cheese tamales. I think these are seriously the best tamales I’ve ever had. I like the more veggie-filled ones, but it’s nice to have some cheese as well!

I spent most of the rest of Sunday on the couch with football. I took a break to whip up some chocolate chip pumpkin bread, which turned out a little dry thanks to a different kind of flour.

I planned on freezing most of it anyway to eat in ice cream. My dad thought my “production line” was quite hilarious.

And FINALLY: Sunday night we made our last Sunbasket meal, which was braised carrots with chickpeas and yogurt sauce. It was seasoned with garlic, paprika, cayenne, and maybe coriander? The carrots and chickpeas were cooked up with diced tomato and raisins. Served over quinoa, topped with a savory yogurt sauce. We added spinach for some extra veggies. I think this was one of my favorite Sunbasket meals. We liked the vegetable-based meals a lot better than the meals that were mostly big hunks of meat.

FINALLY I’me going to end this post. I’m off to brave the storm to go study for my final at the library!

Stay dry, my friends!