Update: 100 Salads of Summer

Last week, I started picking my way through the list of 101 Salads for Summer that I previously posted about. I decided that I’d just randomly move through the list as my taste buds see fit. The first two I picked out were:

# 2. Mix wedges of tomatoes and peaches, add slivers of red onion, a few red-pepper flakes and cilantro. Dress with olive oil and lime or lemon juice. Astonishing.

My notes: I love that these “salads” can be served alone, or work great as a side dish too. I think I’ll have a better understanding of how to pair veggies, fruits, oils and ingredients after this. It’s hard, however, to figure out the proportions of these salads since each “recipe’ is just an ingredients list. I thought the red onion WAY overpowered this salad; next time I’ll use way less. The cilantro is also powerful, and the red pepper didn’t stand out enough. The colors in this salad are simply amazing though! Red, green, orange, yellow, purple! I threw mine over some quineau and served it with chile lime verde crusted salmon.

# 3. A nice cucumber salad: Slice cucumbers thin (if they’re fat and old, peel and seed them first), toss with red onions and salt, then let sit for 20 to 60 minutes. Rinse, dry, dress with cider vinegar mixed with Dijon mustard; no oil necessary.

My Notes: Who doesn’t love cucumber! I once again guessed on the ingredients – and didn’t put enough Dijon mustard in the cider vinegar. But this was super easy breezy. I served it with a portebello mushroom Garden Burger over a lettuce leaf, sprinkled with pepper jack cheese. Kinda random, but I’m cutting out carbs this week to make up for all the wine I drank last week! (I had two wine tasting events I attended. Uber fun; but that much wine is terrible for the waistline).

The next two I’m going to try:

6. Sichuan slaw: Toss bean sprouts, shredded carrots and celery, minced fresh chili, soy sauce, sesame oil and a bit of sugar. Top with chopped peanuts and chopped basil, mint and/or cilantro. (The full trio is best.)

14. A classic Moroccan thing: Thinly slice carrots, or grate or shred them (the food processor makes quick work of this). Toss with toasted cumin seeds, olive oil, lemon juice and cilantro. Raisins are good in here, too. There is no better use of raw carrots.

(I have a box of fresh cilantro now that I’m trying to use up!)

Currently Feeling: Over packed with all this volunteering I’m doing – but at least I’m staying busy!
Currently Anticipating: The season opener of Top Chef 6 tonight! There are two Seattle chefs on it this season, and I’ve met one of them!
Currently Needing: To stick to my 5K training program. (Don’t laugh). I finally registered for one in September, so I can cross it off my to-do list for 2009!

Trimming down my lady bits

I posted a couple weeks ago that I was trying a Summer Slimdown diet I found on Pretty in the City. I spent tons of money on fresh ingredients and special Tupperware for my salads, breakfasts and snacks (Um, if you haven’t seen the Fit N Fresh Tupperware, you must seek them out immediately. They come equipped with containers for dressing, silverware, frozen ice pack, etc. AND I found mine at Ross). Anywhoo. I did the diet for only a week, but I didn’t have as hard of a time with it as Karyn from Pretty in the City. I didn’t find myself headachy or starving. But then again, I try to keep a low sugar, healthy diet anyway. I liked the food, and I lost two pounds in the first week. (Water weight, but at least the scale was moving down!) Then it just became a little too hard to maintain with all the summer fun, barbecues and, ahem, wine. The lack of variety got to me (you can only have olive oil or guacamole for dressings or dips), so I eventually lost track of it as my healthy ingredients started to rot. I will say, if you decide to try it – I added a couple squirts of balsamic vinegar to my salads. Salads with just olive oil? Yuck! AND the Peanut Butter Cookie Larabar’s are Aaaa-mazing. Did anyone try it and succeed? Karyn has lost somewhere around 15 pounds, and I’m totally jealous.

Moving right along… I’m trying something new – but not a detoxish type thingy or pseudo fad diet. I’m going to do something FUN. I was reading Sweats in the City, and she posted an article in the New York Times with 100 quick and easy summer salads. How cool is that!

I’m always wanting to expand my salad options… I’m super uncreative and usually just eating sliced grilled chicken with some veggies and a random dressing. So, I decided that I’m going to try out two salads a week until I get bored with it. I haven’t decided yet if I should jump around, or start at 1 and work through… No diet. Just a little healthy food adventure I’m creating for myself. I’ll share the ones I super duper love here!

Currently Feeling: Surprisingly fresh even though I went to bed at 4am last night cause I was uploaded photos and writing blogs. WTF?
Currently Anticipating: Walking down to Purple Wine Bar & Cafe to meet Paolo, Cari and Al for lunch – and taking some pics of Seattle along the way!
Currently Contemplating: Finding a digi cam class to take.

Detoxish Type Thingy

Today I am starting a summer slim down detoxish type thingy. I prefer to call it a thingy instead of a diet because I’m an avid anti-crash diet type of a person. I’m abhor things like the Cabbage Soup Diet or those weird liquid diets made from lemon juice and cayenne pepper. But, I recognize the fact that I sometimes need a little jump start to again realize how great negating certain things from my daily food intake can make me feel. Like duh Je, pizza and beer make you feel sleepy, bloated and run down. Plus, I have an entire lake weekend planned in a couple weeks with all 10 of my high school girl friends who are triathaloners, marathon runners, nutritionist grad school students, skinny, size four biatches. As sad as it is to admit, at a size 8, I often feel HUGE around them. I would just like to feel proud of my curves and muscles, which means getting rid of just a little more squish. (Even though I successfully took off 10 pounds before leaving for Mexico in April by sticking to eating right and exercising via the help of SparkPeople.com).

I read about this detoxish type thingy on Pretty in the City. It’s from a nutritionist, and is focused on veggies, fruit, lean protein, healthy grains and healthy fats. I’ve been doing some version of this for at least three years now (based on the South Beach Diet, with low sugar and complex carbs), but am often falling off the wagon with a combo of my love of dinners and happy hours, and the contents in my boyfriend’s fridge. So, I’m going to try to do this for at least two weeks to kick my butt back into shape. And since weight loss is a 70 percent diet, 30 percent working out equation, I will supplement this with Jillian Michaels’ DVDs, paddle boating, bike riding, rollerblading and a jog or two if I can push through the boredom.

Yesterday I bought all the ingredients for the diet, and was able to purchase everything at Trader Joe’s, which thrilled me. I spent an hour or so, chopping everything up into freezer bags since it’s largely vegetable based and easier to just grab a handful of pre-chopped veggies to throw into a scramble or salad. It will be a lot of preparation and discipline, but I have nothing but time on my hands, so I don’t think that will be an issue for me.

I’ll keep you guys updated here, if you want to know how it goes or are interested in doing it yourself. To read the detailed plan for the detoxish type thingy, click through to the link for Pretty in the City. Wish me luck!

Currently Feeling: Super excited to head social media marketing for Girl Power Hour (a volunteer opportunity I took on as of yesterday).
Currently Anticipating: Trying out hot yoga with my sis tomorrow. (I had to cancel on her last week).
Currently Needing: To visit my friend Justin in L.A. I’m so bummed I had to cancel my Fourth of July plans there because I got laid off!

All the single ladiezzz!

You need to become my friend. This was me at dinner last night at a friend’s house:

I’m the one in the middle. Obvs. Count em. Eight single guys. EIGHT. And I’m not single. Such a wasted mingle opportunity. But a great barbecue – nothing like eight guys grilling up their manly concoctions. We had Indonesian corn on the cob, shrimp skewers marinated in a chili and lime Thai-inspired marinade, grilled pineapple, peppers and mushrooms, barbecue chicken and steak! It was the tasiest sausage fest I’d been to in a long time. (Tasty treats to eat and look at!) Every time a new boy walked in the door, I’d clap and yell, “Yay! More boys!”

Currently Feeling: The effects of those bottles of wine sitting on the table up there.
Currently Anticipating: Bricco wine bar with my sexy BF, tomorrow the International Beerfest, and tons of Fourth of July plans for the weekend!
Currently Loving: Summertime freedom. I’m having SO much fun!

Launched: New little blog project

So, I’ve mentioned earlier this week that I’m launching a new blog project with the BF. It was something that came about this past weekend – a suggestion from him, actually. Surprising since I’m the blogging whore in this relationship, and he’s constantly making fun of my Internet geekiness.

Basically, we’re always camping, going on road trips and trying out new wineries and restaurants. And when we do these types of things, we’re always reviewing and critiquing, comparing, liking, loving or hating the places we go. We thought it’d be fun to start up a review site of the all the places we venture out to. So basically, if you’re one of my readers outside of Washington state, this won’t interest you at all. But if you’re one of my friends, a family member, or someone living in Washington, this might interest you if you’re looking for a place to camp or eat. We’re only going to be updating as we go places, so not that frequently. But in the meantime, I’ve written and backlogged a few of the places we’ve gone over this past year. You can always find what I’ve posted on the site in the sidebar on this blog.

Check it out if you feel so inclined!

Caviar & Campfires

Oh, and happy Friday. It’s 70+ degrees in Seattle, with a forecast of 80 degrees. You bet your butt I’m going to be out partying and sunbathing this weekend – I hope you are too!

Currently Feeling: Happy, happy, happy for a weekend home in the sun. But a little guilty with how much I feel I didn’t get done this week.
Currently Anticipating: Girls night out on the town tonight, and floating and jet skiing tomorrow.
Currently Reading: The Year of Living Biblically by A. J. Jacobs.

Freeze. Hands up. Keep away from that cork.

I think it’s time I grew up a little bit more…

I think I’m going to start saving “special” wine to drink at a later date rather than guzzling every bottle the day I pick it up.

I know, I know. Gasp. Big shocker.

Right now, I can’t seem to keep wine around longer than the night I buy a bottle…or two. It’s quick to get drunk, and it’s usually in the $6.99 (oh how I love you, local Chateau St. Michelle) to $10.99 range. ($10.99 if I’m splurging cause I’m too lazy to pick it up anywhere else rather than Man X – my favorite local mini mart that’s a block from my house and all the workers know me by name).

But this weekend, I went away on a little Memorial Day camping trip to Okanogan County. It was freakin’ hot; I lived in my bathing suit all weekend, and I tested out the new bike. God only knows how I managed to bike even a mile in the sweltering sun without a breeze to be had. (Not to mention helmets must have been made by the devil. Not only do you look uglier than crap, but they make your head sweat like a whore in church. Or Je in church. Bada bing. Wait, did I just call myself a whore).

So we went on a HUGE midday bike ride – we rode two miles, ok maybe one, into town to hit up the wine tasting rooms. I fell in love with a Gewurztraminer from Okanogan Estates Wines & Vineyards, so I bought a bottle to bring home. It was FIFTEEN NINETY NINE. This is a huge step up for me. And it feels sorta special, so I put it on my wine rack at home to save for a special occasion, instead of straight into the fridge to chill for breakfast dinner.

But then I got thinking… what constitutes a special occasion? Could a particularly rough week at work be cause for a celebration? I think so. But, I feel like I have those nearly every week. How about the day I outran the cops, pulled over really quick and started walking like I was out for a Sunday stroll, so they wouldn’t know it was me when they drove by? I saved myself at least a $100 from a ticket! That’s cause for celebration! Or do I actually have to keep the wine around for something big like a pregnancy or engagement? (If either of those have me in the equation, this wine is going to ferment before I get a chance to drink it).

I’m going to try to make it at least a week. It’s tough when you think everything is a “special” occasion and cause to crack a bottle of wine!

Currently Feeling: Pretty proud of my Social Media marketing presentation I gave last week that everyone keeps telling me how awesome it was. Super exciting.
Currently Anticipating: Launching a new blog project that the BF and I are working on. We’ll probably have it up this week.
Currently Reading: The Sex Lives of Cannibals by J. Maarten Troost.

Sushi 101

Sushi class last night was fracking amazing.

I arrived, hung over and exhausted from a sleepless week that I couldn’t seem to catch up from. A three hour cooking class, immediately after work, felt like someone was asking me to climb the Himalayas while stoned, with only one leg and a blind mountain guide. Basically – how am I EVER going to make it through this?!

But, it wasn’t long before the energy in the class ZINGED me wide awake. I found myself joking around with the other people in the class, laughing a lot (my favorite), smooching my boyfriend when I could sneak it in and rollin’ some of the best damn beginning sushi rolls I’ve ever seen, if I do say so myself.

The best part about our class was that it was also a sake-tasting class, so we had about 20 bottles and five different types of free-flowing sake. That stuff isn’t as bad as I remember it being after playing drinking checkers with sake bombs for Mardi Gras in 2002. (THAT was a bad night). The instructor also bumped music while we all hustled and bustled around the kitchen. Tunes from Led Zeppelin, Fiona Apple, Kanye and other randomness kept us moving while we learned how to make basic sushi rolls with some really amazing ingredients – anything we wanted out of Whole Foods, basically. Tuna, shrimp, real crab, fake crab, veggies, cream cheese, yellow tail – even Copper River salmon. We also made a number of other Japanese dishes, including miso-glazed eggplant, gyoza (pot stickers), steamed clams with sake, udon noodle soup, Agadashi tofu and a green tea shortbread cake. Then afterward there was A GREAT BIG FEAST, obvs. It was so fun.

I learned some very key tips about making sushi – like how to make the perfect sushi rice (did you know you have to add a mixture of water, rice vinegar, sugar, sake and salt to the rice??); that inside-out rolls (rice on the outside) require you to use saran wrap on your rolling mat and sesame seeds so the rice doesn’t stick; that you MUST wet your fingers down before touching the rice cause that shiz is sticky; and how to perfectly cut the ingredients.

Here are some pics:

[BTW - Did I mention this is the FIRST thing to officially cross off my Bucket List? (!!!)

Currently Feeling: SO freakin excited to pick up my new bike from REI today.
Currently Anticipating: A weekend away at Osoyoos Lake. We decided to try something new this Memorial Day – I’m looking forward to wine tasting on our new bikes!
Currently Loving: That I seem to be dropping pounds without trying too hard now? Weight lifting is the best. You burn calories even when you’re not working out!

Sunday Funday at The Market

Sometimes, it’s kinda fun to be a tourist in your own city – to done a camera and take pictures of the colors and sites as if you haven’t seen them 100x before and can’t see them again tomorrow, to appreciate your surroundings and the place you call, “Home.”

There’s one tourist spot in Seattle that never gets old to me – Pike Place Market. I love everything about it – the local artists; the buskers just trying to make a buck; the free samples of flavored almonds, cheese, sourdough bread and dipping oils, spicy jellies, honey, smoked salmon and apples; Beecher’s Handmade Cheese factory; funky shops and trinkets; views of the waterfront; and eating my way through the food booths, from Peroshkis and mini cheesecakes at The Confectional to Mee Sum Pastry’s barbeque-pork-stuffed hombows (I never leave the market without one).

Usually once Winter has melted a little bit and the sun is out, I crave a trip to see the hustle, bustle and colors of Pike Place. So yesterday I drug Baby Daddy out of bed for breakfast and a walk downtown. I figured it’d be fun to take along my new (hot pink!) camera out to share some of my amateur photos of the sites and colors with you…

,

It might be snowing in Seattle right now, but Spring is on the way, bitches!

Currently Feeling: A little queasy and guilty for staying home from work.
Currently Anticipating: The snow disappearing for good (well, for this year at least).
Currently Needing: To hire someone to hang up all the clothes on my floor.

It’s Super Bowl party time, bitches!

And that means a Sunday fun day with beer, nachos, wings, BEAN DIP, chips, meatballs and everything else that I normally wouldn’t touch with a 10-foot poll unless it were at a Super Bowl party. Ooh boy, I can’t wait!

What are YOU making? Need some ideas? Remember that really fantastic caramel corn I made for Christmas? I’m making it again, and perhaps it’d be a great reason for you to try it too. This stuff is seriously to.die.for. Baby Daddy’s dad even told him on the phone this week that they finally ate through the stash I gave them for Christmas, but they were rationing it out to make it last. I felt flattered, although I really do owe all credit to Rebecca over at Ezra Pound Cake.

Oh the joy of football and American fat food! This is the one day a year that I don’t mind sitting in a room with a bunch of drooling testosterone drones who stare ahead blankly at the TV screen without paying attention to the question I just asked you. Normally I’d threaten to cut your balls off, but not on Super Bowl Sunday! It is a day of love and thankfulness for all! (Or is that Thanksgiving?!)

If caramel corn doesn’t sound like your thing, here’s another recipe for a tasty Super Bowl treat that a friend shared with me:

Ingredients:

The Field:
1 Pound of Guacamole
15 Oz. Queso Dip For The Steelers End Zone
15 Oz. Salsa For The Cardinals End Zone
2 Oz. Sour Cream for the Field Lines

The Players:
15 Vienna Sausages
Helmets – 3 Oz. Sharp Cheddar Cheese

The Goal Posts:
1 Slim Jim for Each Goal Post
1 Oz. Monterey Jack Cheddar To Anchor (each)

The Stands:
58 Twinkies
1 Pound of Bacon
1 Bag of Nacho Cheese Doritos
1 Bag of Cheetos
1 Bag of Corn Tortilla Chips
1 Bag of Chex Mix

The Blimp:
20 Oz. Football-Shaped Summer Sausage (optional) (on second thought, no, this isn’t optional. Go buy one.)

TOTAL CALORIES: 24,375
TOTAL GRAMS OF FAT: 1,285
TOTAL COST: $86.47
TOTAL DELICIOUSNESS: 1 Billion trillion dude. One billion trillion.

(Don’t you love how this is my follow-up post to watching calories and trans fats in food. What can I say. Sometimes I’m a little manic. Stay tuned for a very important post I have planned about BUSHES. And I don’t mean political.)

Currently Feeling: Stressed out about wedding planning and hurt feelings. They always seem to go hand in hand.
Currently Anticipating: TWO.WHOLE.DAYS.OUT.OF.THE.OFFICE.
Currently Contemplating: My top five favorite bands.

Instantly spend three times longer in the grocery store!

This past weekend I picked up “Eat This, Not That” after listening to all of my co-workers talk about it (I am easily coaxed onto bandwagons). As I move comfortably and sometimes awkwardly through my 20s, I am increasingly more concerned and aware with the food I buy. Everything in my pantry and lunchbox is low sugar, low calorie, whole wheat, high fiber, blah, blah, blah. It’s sorta funny because I don’t even blink on the weekends when pizza is ordered, and high-calorie lunches and dinners are consumed. I swear that 75% of the calories that make me a little squishy come from weekend drinking and eating, but I digress.

During the week, however, I’m usually straight as an arrow with my diet. What caught my interest with this particular “diet” book is that it dissects the labels, ingredients and misnomers in the grocery store. It compares items in every part of the store that you think are healthy vs. what really are healthy. ie: “Healthy” items to avoid. For instance, instead of eating Kellog’s Smart Start Strong Heart cereal (with more than 10 itemized sugars and sweeteners), you should eat Kashi’s Vive cereal. Or that some organic, light, or fat free yogurts contain as much sugar as a scoop of ice cream or Kit Kat. Or how to pick your butter, peanut butter and cheese. It even goes through snack isles, showing the better corn chip, the better cracker, the better hot dog (Kosher beef even beat out turkey!), the better cookie.

See, the food industry has caught on that it’s popular now for items to be healthy and organic, so they “trick” you with false labels, using “light,” “organic” and “healthy” whenever they can, but to keep the taste, they make up for decreased calories by increasing the amount of sugars and additives. “Eat This, Not That” breaks those labels down, dissects condiments and meat, and explains produce, and its nutritional breakdown. The book is fascinating stuff, I tell ya.

There’s only one slight side effect to reading about all of this… Last night I ventured to the grocery store for the first time after finishing the book, and I felt overwhelmed in every isle. Everything was claiming to be healthy, and I had to pick everything up, turn it over, compare ingredients and look for hidden items like “high fructose corn syrup.” I was in every section for a half hour, if not more. I’m pretty sure the people there who caught a glimpse of me picking items up, reading, picking them up again, comparing, thought I was nuts.

I explained the book to someone recently, and they said, “Yeah, but I hesitate and wonder if I really should be worrying about this because I grew up as a kid, eating Top Ramen and Mac n’ Cheese, and I’m fine!”

Good point, I guess. I suppose it’s all relative, and if that helps you feel better after consuming the entire box of Kraft Mac n’ Cheese (something I’m known to do on an occasional basis), then FAB-u-LOUS. But I know I feel slightly better watching the chemicals in my food, and if you do to, pick it up.

Currently Feeling: Motivated.
Currently Anticipating: A double date for TheatreSports with Bestie Amanda and her boy tomorrow night, and Super Bowl parties on Sunday!
Currently Needing: To swap out my fiction book right now, I’ve lost interest in “Saving Fish From Drowning,” so haven’t been reading…next is “Save Karyn” one of the books from my favorite blogger, Karyn Boznak at Pretty in the City.