Living for the weekend

Don't forget to enter my Chobani Champions Giveaway! You have until 8am pacific time tomorrow to enter. I'll announce a winner with my morning post.



Meet my new favorite nut butter. Now honestly, I have never been a huge fan of almond butter. I've just always preferred peanut butter but when I saw this at Trader Joe's I just knew I needed to buy it. It is superb.



This has been my breakfast Thursday-Sunday. (Only no bananas today!)

Friday night I decided that I needed a margarita. Immediately. So Andy and I went to Yolanda's for dinner and drinks.



Salsa bar.



Salty, crispy chips. We did a great job limiting our chip intake.



I ordered a Rosarita Margarita. It has a splash of cranberry juice in it. YUM!



I love that it comes with an extra shot. More tequila = more fun!



Andy ordered a cadillac margarita.



Obviously he inhaled that beast. I was so excited about my margarita that I forgot to take a picture of the fajitas I ordered! I took over half home and ate them for lunch Saturday.



Saturday it was pouring rain so Andy and I went running at our apartment gym. I did 2.5 miles and collapsed on the floor afterwards. Body just wasn't feelin' it.



We went to the mall and I bought a HUGE passion iced tea. Unsweetened of course. I love Coffee Bean's iced tea.



Then we went to Pf Changs. Andy's mom sent us a gift card for Valentine's Day and last night was a perfect night to use it.



MMM mai tai. I was instantly transported back to Maui.



Andy ordered a beer.



We started with lettuce wraps.



Which we totally dominated.



Then we shared honey shrimp, dan dan noodles, brown rice and spicy green beans. Everything was tasty, delicious and full of flavor. And we have enough leftovers for 2 meals. I love that about going out to eat. The old me would dominate all of that food but it's so much better to just box up half and have leftovers!



And ended that mass domination with a carrot cake shot glass. Delish!

Do you bring home leftovers when you go out to eat?

Andy and I are off to the gym again! I'm not going to run. My knee is bugging me way too much. I'm hoping to do some weight training.

We're concentrating on falling apart.

I'll give you those song lyrics. It comes from Brand New's- Okay I believe you, but my tommy gun don't.

I made myself a playlist yesterday and made sure all of the songs came from artists or bands starting with the letter "B." This is what happens when I don't have any sub jobs lined up.

Here's the playlist!

Beyonce-Naughty Girl (Cracks me up)
Brand New- Okay I Believe You, But My Tommy Gun Don't
Bright Eyes- Arc of Time
Beastie Boys- So What'cha Want?
Bon Jovi- Livin' on a Prayer
Bjork- Hyperballad
Bad Religion-Anesthesia
Ben Folds- Hiroshima
Bayside- I Can't Go On
Boyz II Men- Water Runs Dry- LOL!
Britney Spears- 3
Bloc Party- I Still Remember
The Bens- Bruised

And that was all I could fit into my workout. I repeated The Bens'- Bruised because it is my absolute favorite song. Well at least it is right now.

Tomorrow I plan on making a playlist full of bands & artists whose name's start with "C." Any suggestions?

Don't forget to enter my Chobani giveaway Click Here to Enter

Coming to my senses.

A few days ago, I made myself the BEST egg sandwich ever. I was starving after an intense workout sesh and needed to refuel immediately. Unfortunately for me, I tend to eat way too much after a workout. I really need to work on that. The last thing I want to do while training is GAIN weight.

So I grabbed 2 eggs, 2 slices of whole wheat high-fiber bread (Nature's Pride is my favorite.), and a dollop of onion marmalade. I scrambled the eggs with a dash of skim milk and several dashes of hot sauce. It was so good!



And the sandwich had a slice of smoked gouda and an orange. Don't you love how nicely I peeled that orange? LOL! I am insane. I couldn't peel it so I just got frustrated and these are the results.

I tallied up the calories and freaked out. 140 calories for the eggs, 200 for the bread, 100 for the cheese. I had to stop myself and remember that I am eating wholesome food without HFCS or other unnessary additives that I can't pronounce.

The sandwich was delicious and kept me full for at least 4 hours.

I had the same experience last night. We have juice at school and I was thristy so I got one. The ingredients were: blueberry puree, banana puree, blackberry juice, apple juice and spinach. No added sugar. The drink was 170 calories (small portion). And I freaked out again.

So I've decided to stop counting calories. It really doesn't work for me. I end up getting stressed out over little things and then start to cut things out of my diet. I really want to work on eating wholesome food and not getting low-calorie things that will make my body feel like crap. My body does not react well to artifical sweetners and I've been feeling so much better lately with all of the wholesome food Andy and I have been eating.

I'm not counting when we went to San Diego and I ate a sandwich the size of my head. Come on now.



I made Chicken Chile Verde in the crockpot. It was incredibly easy. I took 2 lbs of chicken breast, 1 tbsp chicken broth, half a sweet onion, 1 jar of salsa verde and a can of corn, black beans and pimentos (1 can of all 3) and threw them in the crockpot for 5 hours on high. Then I shredded the chicken with 2 forks and voila!

Now I have tons of leftovers. YUM!

I want to hear your stories. Do you calorie count? Why or why not? I'm a little nervous about not counting anymore but honestly I think it's in my best interest. I'll be working on cutting back my portion sizes since that is more of an issue for me. I tend to be a volume-eater. I also want to look into intuitive eating.

Chobani Champions Review + Giveaway!

Recently Chobani came out with a greek yogurt targeted at kids. It's called Chobani Champions. I became very interested in this product because I have an 8 year brother who is the pickiest eater on earth. I've been trying to get him to make healthier choices and try new things but it's tough.



Chobani sent me 2 of each flavor. (For free, I was not compensated for this review.) It was perfect because I gave one of each flavor to Daniel and kept one of each for myself to try.

Flavors are: VerryBerry, Strawnana, Honeynana & Chocolate.



Dan was pretty stoked about the chocolate flavor.



Personally, I was excited about the VerryBerry. I sampled it right away.



First thing I noticed when I opened the package was that the yogurt and fruit were already mixed together. I loved this because I was a little worried that Daniel wouldn't try a "fruit on the bottom" type yogurt. It was smooth, creamy and just a tad thicker than regular fruit yogurt. The VerryBerry flavor was sooo good. It's not sugary sweet like other yogurts I've tried in the past (cough trix yogurt cough) instead it tastes like a blend of delicious fruit!

Nutritional Stats were pretty good too.

Calories 110, Fat 2 grams, Protein 9g and Sugar 13g. Please keep in mind that you cannot make a sugar-free yogurt because of the natural milk sugars.



My 2nd favorite was Strawnana. It was so good!

So how did Daniel feel about the yogurt?



He liked it! He said he liked the chocolate flavor best because "chocolate is GOOD!"

Personally, I'm just excited that he was willing to try something new. When a kid is as picky as him, it can get frustrating! I think knowing he was going to be featured on the blog helped a lot too.

Do you want to win some Chobani Champions too?

4 ways to enter:

1. Leave a comment telling me why you'd like to try Chobani Champions. Or just tell me about a picky eater in your life.

2. Tweet: "I want to win some Chobani Greek Yogurt from Two Boos Who Eat http://twobooswhoeat.blogspot.com/2010/02/chobani-champions-review-giveaway.html" and make sure to @possiblymaybe so I can see it! Leave me a comment with your twitter name letting me know you tweeted.

3. Add Two Boos Who Eat to your google reader and leave a separate comment that you subscribed.

4. Link back to this contest on your own blog and let me know that you did. (another comment!)

You can leave up to 4 comments for 4 chances to win! I will pick a winner on Monday morning (March 1st) at 8am. Chobani will ship the yogurt out to you right away. Good luck!

Weekend in San Diego

Hi everyone! Sorry for my lack of posting over the weekend and yesterday. I meant to post yesterday but got a sub job at the last minute. I subbed as an instructional aide for a seventh grader. So much fun! All of the kids are participating in a baby experiment and have flour sacks, eggs, or robotic crying babies with them in class. Hilarious.

Except for when one of the girls piped up with, "Babies are easy, I should have a real one!" Not at 13 please.

Enough about that. We left for San Diego on Friday night. We usually leave really late to avoid traffic. Unfortunately my Irish luck rubbed off on both of us and it rained as soon as we got in the car. The rain was so heavy and thick! Poor Andy could barely see to drive. Not fun.



Saturday morning, I forced Andy to take me out to get some pills. I had the worst congested head feeling and did not sleep well at all on Friday night. Well, we happened to be RIGHT by the Original Pancake House...so...



I ordered bacon & eggs. Split 2 pieces of bacon with Andy because I am a fantasic and selfless wife.



Andy ordered blueberry pancakes. (You can see my side of Potato Pancakes in the distance.) Andy's blueberry pancakes were so light and delicious...I was envious of them the entire time.

After breakfast, we went to the gym with Andy's mom. Her gym was huge! The treadmill there had a setting for a 5k so I tried it out for shiggles. I wasn't feeling my hottest but I managed to finish in 44 minutes. My goal for my first 5k is under 40 minutes. Considering how much I walked, I think this might actually be a possibility!



Dinner was at a diner near San Diego State where we were going to a basketball game. I had to snap a picture of the menu in order of Sophia aka Burp & Slurp.



And let's discuss the size of my turkey bacon avocado sandwich. Really? REALLY? I took out 90% of the turkey and half the avocado and still had too much food. It was delicious!



Andy ordered a reuben, which wasn't nearly as huge!



Then we were off to the basketball game.



The Aztec Warrior walked around and took pictures with fans. His costume was amazing.

All & all it was a fantastic trip. Minus my congestion. Blech.

How was your weekend?

Have you been to San Diego?

San Diegooooooooo Super Chargers!!!!!

Ok that title is totally for my husband. I'm hoping Andy will read it and laugh. We are going to drive down to San Diego tonight to see Andy's parents. I'm excited. It's really nice to get away for a weekend and having family in a beautiful city like San Diego is awesome.

The only kicker is, I have a nasty cold! I have: a headache, a stuffed up nose, a sore throat, a dry cough and painnnnnnnnnnnnn everywhere. I loaded myself up with mucinex, dayquil and vitamin C but it's not really working. Luckily, I didn't get called into work today. I slept in till 8:30am. Felt good!

Despite my cold, I decided I needed to complete Couch to 5k Week 5. I did Day 3 today which had 20 minutes of running nonstop! I did it outside on a slightly hilly area while blasting some awesome music. It felt pretty fantastic for the first ten minutes, then I started struggling with my breathing. I slowed down and ran at a snail's pace for the rest of the time. Then I came home and laid on the floor until my body felt human.

Normally, I would feel dejected for having to slow down. The thing is, a year ago I would not have been able to run for more than two minutes. Now I can run a mile or two without stopping! I need to be proud of myself and not worry about how small my improvements are. Improvement is improvement no matter how you slice it!

I'm starting Week 6 on Sunday and I'm going to dominate it! Hopefully my cold will go away so I can really push through it.

Also? Knee pain- 50% better! I'm thrilled!

I'll be back on Sunday with updates from our mini-vacay to San Diego.

"I'm in love with this song"

Yes, I admit it. I have Ke$ha in my head. Help me!

I'm on Week Five of Couch to 5k and I'm starting to not love it. It's getting harder!

I did Day 1 of Week 5 twice because my body was not down. Andy and I went to a local park and ran around there. Like I've mentioned before, I usually run on the treadmill because it's indoors and I had no idea where to put my car keys while running outside. Stupid logic, really. I just like running with my hands free and didn't want to worry about holding onto my dang keys!

Then Andrea (One of my favorite bloggers!) gave it to me straight. I live in beautiful Southern California. It's a nice 70-80 degrees outside. What am I doing on the treadmill? And she linked me to Road Id where I purchased 2 shoe wallets for me and Andy.

Shoe wallet. It was only 4.99!

Day 2 was on the treadmill because I felt pretty congested and wasn't sure if I could finish. Luckily, I had no problems. Besides boredom on the treadmill and a slow body. My knees, heels and shins are bothering me less than when I started Week 1. Progress is progress, right?

Week 5 is different than the first four weeks. It has 3 different days of running.

Day 1- has 3 sets of 5 minute runs.
Day 2- has 2 sets of 8 minute runs.
Day 3- has 1 set of a 20 minute run.

This is not including warm-ups, walks or cooldowns. For more info check out Couch to 5k. I'm looking forward to completing day 3 tomorrow, then starting week 6 on Sunday. We'll be in San Diego visiting Andy's parents and attending a San Diego State University Basketball game. I've never been to a college basketball game so I'm pretty excited!



The other day I got bored and wandered around Whole Foods. I picked up a can of pureed sweet potatoes for no reason and stuck it in my cart. Then visions of sweet potato soup danced in my head.

Ingredients- 1 can pureed sweet potato, cut sweet potatoes (mine were in syrup so I rinsed them), 1 can broth, 1 can cuban style black beans, 1 sweet red bell pepper, and some almond milk or half & half. Chili powder and cumin were also involved.



Then combine all ingredients in a big pot, being sure to mash down the chunks of sweet potato.



Then top with smoky bacon and serve. This soup was spicy from the cuban black beans, chili powder and cumin. I loved it! I wish the photos came out a little better but oh well.



Any songs stuck in your head today?

Any one else doing Couch to 5k? I know Mari is. Anyone else? How is it going for you?

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is the perfect excuse to make some delicious fondue. At least that's what Andy and I decided this year.



Andy bought me this fondue pot for Christmas a few years ago (I think...) and I definitely don't use it as often as I should!



We cut up some sourdough rolls, a demi loaf of asiago cheese bread, 1 granny smith apple, 1 golden delicious apple, bell peppers, broccoli, carrots and cauliflower for dipping



And made a delicious cheddar/gruyere fondue with hard apple cider. It was fabulous.



Dessert was dark chocolate fondue. We had pinapple for dipping!



And bananas, leftover apples from the cheese fondue and funfetti cake. The cake wasn't very good. Blech. We ate our fondue while watching Julie & Julia for the first time. We both really enjoyed it.



Our set up looks like crap due to bad lighting, ikea coffee tables and a dumb camera operator (me!) but there it is!

Do you like Valentine's Day? I've never really had an opinion on it. Now I just use it as an excuse to drink champagne with cranberry juice all night!

LA Street Food Fest

Hi! This is Andy. I would be the other boo who eats who never posts. Well now I am!




On Saturday, Amanda and I went to the LA Street Food Fest. If you were at the foodbuzz fest, this was sort of like the first evening of that. Basically, LA is full of street food trucks, and a good 20 or so of them converged in downtown LA. Pretty amazing idea. It was cheap to get in. Presale tickets were $10. All the food was small portions of regular items and everything was under $5 a piece. And free booze. Did I mention free booze? New Belgium Brewery had the beer, makers of Fat Tire. And Pama Pomegranate Liqueur supplied the mixed beverages. For free! Donations were suggested, so we dropped a few dollars.



(Amanda's note: I usually prefer tequila but vodka seems to go with Pomegranate more.)

Anyway, this gave me an opportunity to try out my new Flip Video. Amazing little guy.



Amanda and her little sister Sarah.



So here we go. Lines were long and two of our friends didn't have presale. The line at 11:30 took about 45 minutes to get through...just to get in! We got in instantly and went to the booze. It was an amazingly beautiful day in LA. So Amanda has sun in her eyes and we are enjoy our pomegranate and vodka beverages. For FREE!

Watch this video here

Our first stop was the non-descript Vietnamese Food Truck. They had eggrolls and a variety of mini pork and beef sandwiches that were out of this world good. You can see the crowded in the video. This line took about a half an hour.

See video here! We are still trying to figure out how to embed the videos onto the blog.





These trucks weren't really set up for the volume of people and lines were long. But it was some damn good food and since we were with a group of friends we could divide and conquer! So we did!







Brett's phallic pork on a stick. Fun!


Next up, however was a free drink. But this time not an adult beverage. Honest Tea was handing out free bottles. I grabed a Pomegranate Blue(OMG I LOVE ANTIOXIDANTS!). Amanda and I both love this flavor. We have a thing for pomegranate anything. And I do mean anything!

Free Tea Video!


At this point we all separated. Segregated, if you will. We went Boys and Girls. Me and my two good friends Gary and Brett went to the Buttermilk Truck (yeah, I said it. Leave you guessing as to what they had, but it was the highlight of the fest). The ladies: Amanda, her sister Sarah, and her bestest friend Tiffany went to the Tasty Meat Truck and the Badass Burger Truck. After about an hour and a half, we had a ton of food. Actually, while in line for the Buttermilk Truck, Brett and I went to the Gastrobus(is there a better name for a food truck?) to get some amazing Sweet Potato Fries.



Gastrobus video

All organic products from local farmers? I am all in. The fries were outstanding. I love sweet potato in any form.



Amanda's Note: While Andy enjoyed sweet potato fries, I gushed over running into C.S. Lee who plays Masuka on DEXTER! I didn't introduce myself or ask for a picture so I creepily pretended to be posing. Whatever!






Ok, food has appeared in large quanities. This was pig out time. Feta fries, more sweet potato fries, Lamb Gyros, Mini Burgers. Ice cream cones and frozen bananas(possibly the best I have ever inhaled, because it was inhaled were also acquired. Is this heaven we have stumbled upon? Perhaps. Perhaps.












On to the main event, the Pièce de résistance if you will. The Buttermilk Truck. Amanda heard about this truck somewhere. Maybe it was myth. Maybe it was urban legend. But they had amazing food. Mini donuts(which we didn't try, but will assume were awesome) and something called a Buttermilk Brick which was a biscuit, an egg, covered NOT smoothered in chorizo gravy. Amazing. But the best was the Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Pancake. Whoever concocted this deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. We had some amazingly great things today, but this was by far, hands down, the best.











That is beauty.




We walked about a bit after this, food coma set in. There was more free booze to be had and some cute vendors selling shirts and other items. By this time, everyone was running out of food or just way behind. We heard of some trucks having an hour line and then an hour to make the food. At least you know it is fresh. Obviously these trucks aren't set up for this volume like I mentioned. Many people were angry, but we got in around the start and hit about 8 seperate trucks. A lot of people got turned away at the door, but this was the first time around and issues arise that are unforseen. Still, an amazing idea. The last stop was the Sweet Truck. Which had a giant line but decided to take it to the street and just sell cookie bars for $1. So we bought one and saved it for Valentines Day. Ok, maybe a nibble on the way to the car.





Seriously. Bacon is good.

On the way out, the organizers mentioned there will be another fest in the fall. We cannot wait, as there were a great deal of other trucks that either weren't there or we couldn't get to. This has given Amanda and I a mission, which is to seek out some of these trucks on weekends and get the full experience. There are dozens of these trucks doing all types of food from the typical hot dog to things like the Buttermilk Truck and the Gastrobus doing pretty interesting stuff out of a truck. So stay tuned. Sorry if I(we) come off like crazy people on the video. I guess we are. But hopefully you get a chuckle or too...and become insanely jealous and if you are local find some of these trucks and support local food!



Also free Izze!

We have several videos and more pictures to come soon! Let us know if you attended the LA Street Food Fest as well.