Colorful weekend

I had the most amazing Memorial Day weekend! I hope you did too!

The bird & I spent the weekend in San Francisco. Originally it was only supposed to be one night in the city. But on Sunday, we decided to stretch it out and stay another night. We had a blast. Living only about 45 minutes from San Francisco, both of us have been there a lot. But this weekend, we redid all the touristy things and spent some good QT together.

If you are interested in the area... or just where our festivities took place, I will spare no details. :) But seriously, if you are ever in the SF area and want to know some must see & must eat places, let me know. I can offer a few suggestions.

We stayed & shopped around Union Square. We also made our way to the Marina area, Chinatown, Fisherman's Wharf, Ghirardelli Square & the ballpark area. Unfortunately, the Giants were out of town this weekend. {I am a HUGE fan!} So we didn't get to see a game. But we did have a fantastic brunch on Sunday at a place just up the street from AT&T Park, called Ironside.

 This place was fabulous. They had:

a bloody mary bar, for make-your-own bloody marys

vanilla bean steel cut oats

freshly made biscuits with agave butter & honey

deliciously crispy breakfast potatoes

and so much more.

Here are just a few more pictures I took along the way:

 Chinatown

 Chinatown

 Chinatown

 Fisherman's Wharf

Fisherman's Wharf

Pier 39

There were so many fun colors and places to take photos of. We had an absolute blast!

Cheers to a short week... It's already Wednesday!

And thank you for all the sweet comments yesterday! We were glad to go through it and happy it's over. I really appreciate all your kind and encouraging words.

Cleanse Recap

As of this past weekend, our cleanse has officially ended.

My first meal post-cleanse! Two things I couldn't have & was seriously missing!

It was a nice, successful, but long 3 weeks!

It was a great accomplishment, but I am happy it is over.

We had and created some great meals, but for the time being... I am so over smoothies!

I think that pretty much summarizes it. :)

But I will go into it in a little bit more detail. I won't go overboard because I know I have provided updates, recipes & highs and low along the way. And if there is anything I haven't mentioned that you are curious about, either regarding the cleanse or my experiences with it... as always, feel free to contact me. You can leave a comment or email me. Either way, I will definitely get back to you.

I definitely learned a lot about my body during the cleanse. With that being said, I think every metabolism is not created equal. What works for some doesn't necessarily work for all. And what works now, won't necessarily work always.

I think I struggled most with how much to eat and how often. I love snacking, I love making new recipes & trying out new foods. I also enjoy eating healthy and finding new ways to incorporate fiber enriched and nutritious foods into my diet. But I realized that even if I'm eating healthy, I can't have as much as I want. My eyes were bigger than my tummy... or bigger than I want my tummy to be.

I think having a healthy outlook on eating, definitely helped going into this cleanse. It wasn't such a shocker for my body to transition. The foods were fairly similar to what I was eating before- only a lot more smoothies and smaller portion sizes.

Although I haven't eaten a hamburger in over 15 years, I thought this was an interesting article I found on Pinterest about portion size.

I wasn't necessarily eating full burgers and a half a plate of french fries, with cheese, toppings & ketchup. But I realized I was snacking too often and possibly too big of snacks for my body. I think that is one thing I will definitely change post-cleanse.

Gluten-Free & Vegan have also been on my mind through this cleanse. I already removed milk from my diet about 5+ years ago. It wasn't jiving with my stomach. Dairy seems to do that to me. Although I love cottage cheese and frozen yogurt. I think I will just start testing foods out & introducing them little by little to see what does & doesn't work.

All in all, I felt great for the past 3 weeks. My stomach didn't hurt at all, I felt great about myself, lost a few unneeded lbs, and feel healthier than ever. If no one else has made it to the end of this lengthly post, at least I have that go to back to and remind myself of. :)

Happy Tuesday and cheers to a short week. I hope all of you lovely bloggies had a great weekend!

fashion + foodies

It's Friday lovelies! And its a 3-day weekend!

1* Today I am joining {long distance loving}'s friday fancies for the first time. I put together two sweet outfits for Memorial weekend.

I am loving teal & honeysuckle! And this dress is so gorgeous!

You can get the line up at Polyvore.

2* I also wanted to thank you for all the support & encouragement on my run! That will seriously keep me going until August! And this would be a good time to mention, I am officially accepting all advice & tips you may have for my upcoming run. :) I will need it.

3* Lastly, here is the recipe I promised from yesterday. I found a delicious recipe that I thought would be perfect for the cleanse. And it was. SO delicious! The recipe came from Cara's Cravings. She has an amazing site with so many delicious & healthy recipes. You will definitely want to visit her site and puruse her recipe page if you haven't yet.

Here is the link to her Thai Peanut Turkey Burger recipe.

The only change I made to the recipe was substituting almond butter for peanut butter (because of the no pb clause in the Clean Cleanse).

I layered ours with fresh spinach, broccoli & a touch of Annie's Lite Gingerly Dressing.

Let me just say... these were AMAZING! They were so moist & flavorful. I will definitely be making them again soon!

Happy Friday & Memorial Weekend!

Its Official...

I just signed up for the Rock N Roll Half Marathon in Chicago!

My mom is going out for her first full marathon in San Diego in a couple weeks! It will be very exciting to go down to San Diego to support her.

But this will be my first marathon of any kind. The half marathon will be in Chicago in August! I am equal parts excited & super nervous. But mostly excited to take a trip to Chicago & to have a little mother/daughter time.

Anyone else going to be there?

Aside from that, I have a great turkey burger recipe to share. I am working on the pics and will post it soon!

"Dessert"

We had a bit of a celebration last night for this guy:

Remember him for the studly baseball picture? Well it was his 17th birthday last night! Very exciting!

The only downfall was the yummy festivities fell in the middle of our cleanse. Boo! But we modified our meals yesterday by having a smoothie for breakfast & a soup for lunch. It was the same soup we had the other day: Butternut Squash & Kale Soup. This way we were able to have a real, solid meal with the family for dinner. This consisted of grilled salmon, quinoa, and cucumbers & celery with our homemade hummus. Very tasty!

And because it's hard to watch everyone eat a delicious homemade cake from mom...

I whipped up a couple cleanse-worthy desserts for me & the bird. I searched long and hard for ingredients that would mesh with the cleanse.

Both recipes were adapted from Love, Veggies & Yoga. Averie has a wonderful site with so many great recipes & overall well-being tips. If nothing else, she is currently in Aruba and has posted some AMAZING pictures for your visual interest.

Back to our desserts. Below are the links to the 2 recipes we made.

No-Bake Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls
In order to cleansify this recipe, I used only agave and substituted almond butter for peanut butter. I also used Hershey's unsweetened chocolate.
I cut the recipe in half and it made 4 good sized dough balls, about 1" in diameter.

Averie's Raw Vegan Almond Butter Cookies

This recipe made about 8 large dough balls, over 1" in diameter.

After mixing up the ingredients, I placed them in the freezer for about 20 minutes. I then placed them in the refrigerator until serving.

I also made a frosting that I thought would help to sweeten our dessert.
Cashew Vanilla Frosting
Recipe courtesy of Gone Raw
1 1/2c Cashews
1/3c Water
1/4-1/2c Agave (depending on sweetness desired)
1/2 vanilla bean or vanilla extract
Blend all ingredients. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

This was not necessarily that sweet, in terms of 'frosting,' but it did offer a different flavor & texture to dip the dough balls into.

There was so much birthday excitement, I forgot to take a picture of them before serving. So my apologies for the presentation!

I had one of each. They were very tasty and the bird also approved. Once off the cleanse, I would like to try others that include oats & bananas. Can't wait!

More favs to add to the list

First off, thank you for all the sweet comments & emails yesterday! I was very honored to receive that award & pass it on to some of my favs. That made my week!

I have a couple recipes to share with you from this weekend.

We made a modified version of Clean Teen Kelsey's Carrot Cake Batter Shake. Because a couple of the ingredients were just out of our reach in terms of the cleanse, we had to make a couple substitutions.

Carrot Cake Shake

1/2c Almond Milk (unsweetened vanilla)

1/4c Coconut Milk

1/2c steamed Carrots

2-3T Buckwheat flour

2-3T Coconut butter

1T unsweetened Coconut

1/2T Chia seeds

1/2t Cinnamon

pinch ginger, salt, vanilla extract

small handful of ice cubes

Topped with shaved coconut butter & cinnamon. Very tasty!

For dinner, we tried another delicious sounding soup. Again, we had to make some cleanse modifications, but it was still so good!

Butternut Squash & Kale Soup

(Recipe adapted from Kath Eats Real Food)

1 medium butternut squash

2 carrots (or a small handful of baby carrots)

2 celery stalks

1 apple

1 big handful of kale

1 box Pacific brand Cashew Carrot Ginger Soup

1t olive oil

dash of cinnamon, nutmeg, chili powder, red chili flakes

First we nuked the squash in the microwave for a couple minutes. Then we removed the skins. Next we sauteed the squash, carrots & celery together. After they were fairly soft, we added the base, the Cashew Carrot Ginger soup. We added all the seasonings & simmered that for several minutes. Once in the blender (we had to divide it into 2 batches to fit in our blender), we added the apple & kale. After mixing it all together, we placed it back on the heat and simmered for a few more minutes.

New Bowls! + Topped with Chopped Almonds 

For us being on the cleanse, this made well over 2 batches. For leftovers, we had it again the next day. We just added 1/2 large butternut squash & 1/3c of pumpkin puree to the mix to make 2 more complete meals.

Lastly, I have to include the smoothie I conjured up on the fly last night. Can I just say, we are so over blending & smoothing?! It has been hard coming up with recipes that fit within the guidelines that we can actually enjoy. A frozen or raw banana would go so great in so many of them. Sigh.

But last night I just used a few ingredients we had off hand & it was surprisingly delicious! Actually one of my favorites so far. This and the Berry Almondy are at the top.

Cashew Kale Smoothie

4 kiwis

1/2c Almond Milk

1T unsweetened Coconut

1 heaping T Cashew butter

1/4c Cashews

1/2 scoop Amazing Meal-vanilla chai

1T Flaxseed meal

2-3 ice cubes

This recipe made 2 small smoothies, but can easily be used for 1 full sized smoothie. The flavor was fantastic & the consistency was so creamy. Yummy!

Versatile Blogger Award!

I am so honored! Today I received the Versatile Blogger award from Jenna at a la mode. Thank you Jenna for my first award! You truly made my day!

Award Rules: 

1. Thank the person who gave you this award

2. Share 7 things about yourself.

3. Pass the award along to 15 bloggers who you have recently discovered and who you think are fantastic for whatever reason!

4. Contact the bloggers you’ve picked and let them know about the award.

{7} Things about me:

{one} I just recently revamped my world. I put a lot of effort and devotion into a job that wasn't right for me. After 4 years, I realized it wasn't for me, moved back to my hometown, and started going back to school. Here I am now, 6 months later, trying to work out the details.

{two} I am in love with typography. I love all things type & love the art in which letters & words fit together to create beautiful designs. Swoon!

{three} I am on my first cleanse. I am very into health & fitness, but I also have a sweet tooth that can certainly get the best of me.

{four} Which leads me to #4... I love to bake!

{five} Pinterest makes me so happy, everyday. It's such a great source of inspiration for all things foodie, fashion & design.

{six} I'm a sucker for romance. Hence the dreamy proposal I posted last week. I love weddings and all the gooey details put into them.

{seven} I love spending time with family: my parents, four brothers & of course, the bird. xo

My fav {15}:

Here is a list of blogs I absolutely love to follow. I know you will love them too!

{1} Edible Perspective
{2} Fit Foodie Finds
{3} Paiges of Style
{4} Heather Eats Almond Butter
{5} Oh She glows
{6} How Sweet it is
{7} Peanut Butter and Jenny
{8} Magnolia Rouge
{9} Kath Eats Real Food
{10} Love Veggies and Yoga
{11} Choosing Raw
{12} Stylish, Stealthy & Healthy
{13} Carrots N Cake
{14} The Late Afternoon
{15} Fresh Out of Lemons