Blogmas Day 12: Avocado Smash

Date: December 12, 2016

Author: astottler

Over the summer a year ago, I visited one of my best friends in New York. She took me to Bluestone Lane, home of one of the best avocado smashes in the city. And thus, a love was born.

What is an avocado smash? Basically hopped-up avocado toast. It has way more avocado than just a simple toast, and the avocado is “smashed” such that it maintains a good deal of chunkiness. I recruited the same friend to come help me out with this one.

We got super lucky in that the avocados we found happened to be the most beautiful avocados. Ever.

Avocado Smash

*Serves 4*

Ingredients:

2 avocados

4 pieces of toast

4 poached eggs

feta cheese

tahini

olive oil

cherry tomatoes

cumin

salt

pepper

*please look elsewhere for egg poaching instructions—this is not my forte!

Start by lightly mashing the avocados together with a dash of cumin, and salt and pepper to taste.

Put about 1/2 of an avocado on each piece of toast.

Lightly drizzle tahini on top.

Place a coupled of halved cherry tomatoes on top. Then, drizzle with olive oil, and a little more salt and pepper.

Carefully, place the poached egg on top (it likes to slide off!). Add another sprinkle of salt and pepper, and crumble some feta on top.

Enjoy!

Have you ever had an avocado smash?

I’m Going to Idea World!

Date: July 15, 2015

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hello from LA!

This afternoon, I flew in to attend the Idea World Fitness Conference, as part of the College Discovery program. To say I’m excited would be an understatement! I’ve never actually been to downtown LA before-just in the area. I will definitely do a nice full recap of this trip and the sessions! I am mainly going to spin sessions and Nutrition/Science lectures, but there are also other fun things here like the Urban Party tomorrow night (not really sure what that will be like) and the big Nutrition/Fitness Expo. My morning begins bright and early tomorrow for a 7am spin class by Schwinn. I’m taking quite a few Schwinn courses while I’m here, and since I’m certified in Spinning brand of indoor cycling, I’m very interested to see how the philosophies of the two organizations are similar and different!

My morning began with a simple breakfast of eggs and mango, plus half of a Luna bar.

My workout today was lots of Olympic lifting with my trainer. My snatches were not so good today, but the cleans are getting a lot better, and felt good! Plus, my hip is feeling WAY better. I’m going to still baby it a bit though and try to only squat in a controlled manner (like a back squat, not a burpee). My puppy came to pick my up from my workout since my car was in the shop, and she had her first walk outside since she is almost totally vaccinated!

Once home, I was super rushed to pack, eat, and shower. Lunch was leftovers. Chicken breast, carrots, and asparagus with goat cheese. Plus the other half of my Luna bar.

The trip here was short and uneventful-the taxi ride to my hotel was super expensive and long though because this is LA! I have actually had the worst experience with my hotel thus far in that I wasn’t happy with how they charged me originally, and then it took FOREVER to get checked in. I guess it’s kind of an apartment complex so there’s no lobby to check in at exactly. On the plus side, my room is actually super nice. It’s basically a studio apartment with a full kitchen and everything. I’m less than a mile from the center where the event is held. I checked in today, and while where I’m staying is a good area and the expo is in a good area, Google maps routed me through a not so great area. Given I’m going to be by myself, I’m happy I found a much better (and more direct) route!

I was actually pretty lost trying to find the Convention Center. To make it worse, I walked through the area where the ESPY’s are going on! I finally got close enough to see people with IDEA bags walking away and was able to find it!

I stopped at a Carvery for dinner on the way back and got a salad with kale, avocado, and chicken. Perfect!

On the way back, I stopped at a grocery for some food and snacks. I’m not sure what the food situation will be like, and I’m worried about my stomach acting up, so I tried to really stock up. I’m hoping I’m not eating Luna bars for every meal! I found a salad for lunch tomorrow. I also tried soy nut butter for the first time. The verdict? I like it! It doesn’t seem as fatty as sunflower seed butter (which can be good or bad depending on what you’re looking for), and it definitely doesn’t taste like peanut butter, but it’s nice to mix it up!

It’s about 8pm here now, and since I have quite a big day tomorrow, I’m probably going to watch a little Netflix before calling it a night!

Have you ever been to a conference?

WIAW and Life Lately

Date: October 22, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hello! Today’s WIAW is going up a little bit late, but that’s ok!

Today’s post will sort of be photo dump style. Expect more organization tomorrow-I’m recording a “Day in the Life” today!

Dinner on Sunday night was a giant Mexican salad with an obscene amount of avocado. I can count of one hand the number of times I’ve had avocado since coming to school….

Also a cheese quesadilla on top.

Breakfasts have been same old, same old. Which I actually like, because it’s nice to have a routine, but doesn’t make for the most interesting blog content. The other day there were bananas though, which was a nice change!

While this lunch wasn’t the most exciting, I loved how colorful it was! Mashed sweet potatoes, hard boiled egg, and broccoli.

Yesterday, I went out to lunch with my family. My mom and I split a chopped salad (see my version here!) and an arepa with gouda.

Dinner at the dining hall was meh. The roasted vegetables were great-the food I did get was good, but there wasn’t a protein source so my meal felt like it was majorly missing something.

I remedied that by making some chia pudding, eaten in front of the Giant’s game.

I left it in the communal fridge to thicken, and I feel like people probably judged me heavily because it looks pretty weird!

In terms of life things, I’m officially having a Halloween party! I’m a little obsessed with holidays, and I feel like if I didn’t have one, I’d be sitting around by myself on Halloween. I invited people yesterday, and have zero idea what type of turnout I’ll get. On the plus side, my high school friend is visiting, and she’s very artsy so she can help decorate!

Other life news: this gum. It tastes like love and happiness.

Also, I love my Giants and I love my friends.

SO HAPPY about yesterday’s game! I’ve planned my whole life around the games so it was great to get a win! So happy guys, you have no idea. Let’s hope we keep this up!

What have you eaten lately?

First Run Back

Date: October 7, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Wednesday!

First things first….YAYYYYY WE WON! NLCS HERE WE COME! #evenyearmagic

SO excited. Such a crazy and stressful game. The playoffs are seriously like a 5 unit class too, in terms of time commitment! Worth it.

Second things second. I ran for the first time on Monday! I did 3 miles with a friend, and it felt good. I was so amazed by how much better my feet felt. And it wasn’t crazy hard like I was sort of expecting, although I definitely wasn’t going fast. I was actually pretty sore from it though! Monday night I started to feel some soreness in my inner thighs, and then this morning my calves were sore. Crazy.

Fitness-wise, I did a 45 minute spin session Tuesday morning pretty early because I had an early morning dental appointment. I was supposed to go to Crossfit Tuesday night-it looked like such a fun one! But then I didn’t want to miss the game so I skipped it. Still bummed but oh well. I’ll go tomorrow. I’ve slacked off a bit on my workouts as of late, so I should get back into that more soon.

Foodwise, I finally managed to capture a picture of the pumpkin muffins my roommate made. They were amazing. She added a brown sugar/butter/cinnamon swirl too. Crazy good.

I got a Trader Joe’s salad to try. It had persimmons! Overall, it was good but very vinegar-y.

I went to the dining hall a couple of times Tuesday, which I almost never do (twice in a row that is).

Lunch was Mediterranean. It was just ok. The falafel was pretty hard. But there were roasted carrots, and they were totally amazing.

I wasn’t super hungry for dinner thanks to a cheese and crackers snack beforehand, but I had some good things. Roasted carrots, spanakopita, and a barley stuffed mushroom. I was excited to see the avocado. While I’m certainly not complaining about having avocado, I felt it could have been used better-this was a strange thing to put it on!

In terms of life, besides watching baseball and going to class, the other night I went to a recruitment event that consisted of roasting marshmallows, which was a ton of fun. I inhaled a ton of smoke and left smelling like a forest fire, but it was worth it!

But for now, there is lots of CS in my future!

How do you like your marshmallow?

I’m a golden brown type of person but I definitely lit mine on fire on accident!

Food, Food, and More Food

Date: September 2, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Tuesday! I hope everyone had a fantastic long weekend. I know I did! I have lots of food pictures to share, as well as a couple of

workouts to discuss.

Workouts:

Saturday: Crossfit-the WOD was killer: 20 minute AMRAP starting with a 1 mile run and then as many rounds of possible of the remaining

time of 1 rope climb, 5 push presses, and 10 over the bar burpees. I hate burpees. The run part felt great though. I came in around 8:20

and it wasn’t a push effort so that’s good.

Sunday: My last “long” run. I did 6 miles by the bay. I got really frustrated by the gusting winds, but got it done.

Monday: Crossfit Labor Day workout. It was “bring your friends and family” day so I brought my sister and her boyfriend.

She had shoulder surgery at the beginning of the summer and hasn’t exercised much since then, and I feel bad because she couldn’t

walk the rest of the day…The workout was a partner workout of the following:

100 squats

10 pull ups

75 squats

20 pull ups

50 squats

30 pull ups

25 squats

40 pull ups

My sister and her boyfriend were a team, and since she has a bad shoulder, he had to do all the pull ups. I ended up helping out with a few

because that was brutal!

Now, onto the food! I love having access to a full kitchen and CA produce. My gosh.

Another wrap with humus and veggies:

A quesadilla/wrap with cheddar and mozzarella, half an avocado, tomato, and baby kale sautéed in garlic. Plus a side of broccoli.

A delicious heirloom tomato, basil, fresh mozzarella, and avocado salad, topped with olive oil and sea salt.

A simple breakfast of eggs with seasoning and a farmer’s market peach. DC peaches are laughable in comparison to CA peaches.

A salad with chicken, goat cheese, peaches, basil, and balsamic.

And then, Greek food. Every year a Greek church in my hometown hosts a Greek festival over Labor Day Weekend.

We always go for the delicious food.

For my main meal, I had a greek salad, delicious rice pilaf made with chicken broth, lemon, and butter, and chicken that was insanely hard to cut

with plasticware. On the side, I had Spanikopita, a Greek pastry made with phyllo dough, spinach, and cheese.

And of course there was dessert. They have these delicious doughnut-like balls. Loukamades? I think I totally butchered that spelling. They’re

basically doughnut holes covered in honey (But much lighter and fluffier than doughnut holes) and served hot. Normally they are covered with nuts,

but I was able to get them without! So delicious.

That’s all I have today-I hope everyone else ate well this past weekend!