Fruit & Vegetable Cleanse!

One of my New Years resolutions for 2015 was to complete a 3-day fruit and vegetable cleanse. For 3 full days I would eat nothing but fruits, vegetables... and nuts, (for a lil kick of protein and fat). On Tuesday morning I woke up early, ready to embrace the day and start my exciting new food experiment!

Unfortunately I was REALLY hungry when I woke up Tuesday morning, so I decided fruits and vegetables wouldn't cut it. I decided to have cereal and yogurt for breakfast instead. BUT - I did have an orange for a mid-morning snack. For lunch, I had sweet potatoes, an avocado and broccoli. But broccoli sucks when eaten plain, so I dipped it in a dab of hummus. I had almonds & grapes for an afternoon snack, but was still hungry like 30 minutes later so I ate my Thai leftovers from the night before - tofu and white rice in garlic sauce.

Wednesday and Thursday, I did a LITTLE bit better. I ate mostly fruits, vegetables & nuts, but also helped myself to some pretzels and chocolate covered cherries. Oh, and a few granola bars... and M&Ms... and popcorn.

What have I learned from my little food experiment the last 3 days? I've learned that cleanses are stupid. Unless you're sick and dying and being ordered by a doctor, you shouldn't do a cleanse. You should eat healthy most of the time, but treat yourself too. Everything in moderation, friends! Eat what you want, and what makes you feel healthy and energized. If anything, all the fiber from my cleanse has left me feeling overly full and bloated. No more cleanses for THIS pretty lady!

NOW - If I'm not mistaken, yesterday was National Wine Drinking Day. Because of my cleanse, I missed that oh-so-holy of holidays. ERGO- Pass the Pinot!

February 14th - Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day, loyal readers! I hope you all got to celebrate the day with loved ones and eat lots of chocolate, drink tons of wine, wear bright red and do corny fun things. If that's not your style, I hope you got to celebrate the way YOU wanted to. (Wear black, binge on Ben & Jerry's, adopt a pet, make baked goods for friends, watch horror films, burn the clothing of ex-boyfriends, whatever!)

Mr. Handsome didn't get home from a business trip until late afternoon so we celebrated the holiday with a romantic night in and a delicious homemade dinner. There were beautiful flowers, homemade decorations, salmon, couscous, and Pinot Noir. We finished the night by watching "Chef" on Netflix. It's a GREAT movie that I highly recommend.

Happy Valentine's Day to all! Much love to you :)

January 2015

The weather is freaking cold outside. RIDICULOUSLY cold. The holidays are over and Christmas trees have been dumped and abandoned on sidewalks all over the country. The days get dark at 5:00pm and all I want to do is hibernate like a grizzly bear until March... or June. LUCKILY, I've managed to survive January thus far using the following techniques...

1) Goofy Hand Puppets!

2) Happy Hours... and Alcohol... lots of Alcohol... (Gotta stay warm somehow!)

 3) Friends!

4) Looking at FOOD ART on Pinterest

5) Hodge-Podge Dinner Dates! (Ex. Spanakopita, Steamed Asparagus & leftover Red Lobster Cheesy Biscuits)

6) Discovering New Facial Expressions...

7) Carbs... LOTS of Carbs!

 

8) Finding my MAID of HONOR Dress! (Blingity Bling)

Keep your chin up, readers! Spring is coming. SPRING IS COMING!

Happy New Year, 2015!

Happy New Year, loyal readers! I hope you all had a fun, safe holiday and got your tipsy face on with all your favorite peeps (WORD!)

I rang in 2015 at the abode of Mr. Handsome's bandmate, Todd. (Did I mention Mr. Handsome was a real life rock-star in a real life rock band?) ANYWAY- Todd cooked us a FABULOUS meal and made us Moscow Mules in legit copper mugs. We then watched "The Interview" together, played some Cards Against Humanity and scratched off some scratch-offs... winning a whopping $1.00 to split among the six of us.

New Years is a great time to look back on all those resolutions (realistic or not) that you made 365 days ago. My News Years Resolutions for 2014 were the following:

1) Travel a LOT!
2) Do some sort of cleanse
3) Get a new job
4) Keep track of all the books I read and write a blog post about them in January 2015

I am happy to say that I have accomplished (after this post) all but #2! I never did a cleanse. ERGO, that sucker is rolling over to my 2015 resolutions.

 Here is a list of all the books I read in 2014. I read a grand total of 24 books this year!

1) Insurgent (Veronica Roth)
2) The Heights (Peter Hedges)
3) The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane (Katherine Howe)
4) Game of Thrones Book #3 (George R R Martin)
5) The Rosie Project (Graeme Simsion)
6) Calling Me Home (Julie Kibler)
7) Austenland (Shannon Hale)
8) Imaginary Girls (Nova Ren Suma)
9) Game of Thrones Book #4 (George R R Martin)
10) Where'd You Go, Bernadette? (Maria Semple)
11) Dark Places (Gillian Flynn)
12) The Fault In Our Stars (John Green)
13) All the Summer Girls (Meg Donahue)
14) Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls (Anton Disclafani)
15) Wedding Night (Sophia Kinsella)
16) Rosewater and Soda Bread (Marsha Mehran)
17) The Alchemist (Paulo Coehlo)
18) Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone (JK Rowling)
19) The Splendour Falls (Susanna Kearsley)
20) Paper Towns (John Green)
21) Beautiful Ruins (Jess Walter)
22) Eventide (Kent Haruf)
23) The Best of Me (Nicholas Sparks)
24) Looking For Alaska (John Green)

I would have to say that my top three favorites were "The Rosie Project," "The Fault in Our Stars" and "Where'd You Go, Bernadette?" I would recommend these to anyone who's a book worm like me!

I thought long and hard and made the following resolutions/goals for 2015. Here's to keeping them! (I'll check back in January 2016 with the results).

1) Do some sort of cleanse (carried over from 2014)
2) Use the Crock-pot at least once
3) Whiten teeth

Happy New Year!

Shrimp & Grits and Sweet Southern Christmas!

Merry Belated Christmas, loyal readers! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your families and friends. Unfortunately I was sick for most of the festivities on the 24th and 25th, but on the 26th Mr. Handsome and I hopped on a jet plane and flew down to Charleston, SC to spend a few days hopping around the south.

We spent most of our time eating and drinking our way through Charleston, SC and Savannah, GA. (Butter was our staple food group for 6 days). We went to 2 local craft breweries and some hot & trendy restaurants like Husk, Fig & SNOB. We saw the famous Mercer house in Savannah and took some interesting walking tours of both cities.

We ate oysters, shrimp & grits, fried green tomatoes and pimiento cheese! We enjoyed the beautiful Spanish moss on the trees in Savannah and took a nap under a Palmetto tree in Charleston. We've decided that when we eventually become rich through one of our schemes, we're going to spend our winters in Charleston and our summers in Seattle. OH, what a wonderful life :)

Cheers, Ya'll!

Gobble, Gobble, Gobble!

Thanksgiving Weekend! What a joy it is that the pilgrims unknowingly gave us a few days off work to stuff our faces with carbo-licious delicacies. Because of the conference last week, I haven't set foot in the office since noon on Tuesday. I've had a much needed break filled with shopping, running, sleeping, eating and seasonal merriment!

Before attending two different feasts on Thanksgiving, Mr. Handsome and I decided we better prep our bodies for the binge with a 13.1 mile run. Our 4th Annual Tofurkey Trot (equipped with official race bibs) was a success!

On Friday morning my mom, grandma and I had brunch at Bayou Bakery (lots of beignets + grilled cheese) then headed to the Kennedy Center to see "Little Dancer," a new play about painter Edgar Degas's ballerina models. It was a little long (3+ hours) but we had a grand old time!

As of Friday afternoon, I have successfully accomplished 90% of my Christmas shopping. (Not too shabby!) Included in my purchases were these two beautiful hand-knit stockings for me and Mr. Handsome. We spent Friday evening decorating the apartment with all of our Christmas decorations. FA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA!

Tis' the Season!

Food & Beverage Conference

This past week was probably one of the most stressful times of my life. I flew down to Dallas and put in a 70 hour work week for my company's Food & Beverage Conference in Arlington, TX. Despite getting very little sleep and running around like a beheaded chicken, it was definitely a successful, fun event!

We treated attendees to delicious spreads of local delicacies/nightly amenities and had some great guest speakers come and talk about the state of the industry. We dined at trendy restaurants, had some fun with celebrity chefs, shared our updated operating procedures and ate and drank to our heart's content! (We even had a Grade A cow make a special appearance for a presentation on steak cutting)

After 4 months of hard work and careful planning, I was ready to finally celebrate my birthday with coworkers after the conference was over on Thursday. We popped champagne and ate lots of cake and seafood to commemorate the event.

Now I can finally relax before the start of the holidays! Which, after all, are the MOST Wonderful TIMMMEEEE of the YEARRRR!