San Diego

Andy and I go to San Diego fairly often. At least once a month to visit with family. Last weekend we went to San Diego to see family and friends.



We stopped for lunch at Boudin Bakery. I know it's just a turkey avocado sandwich but seriously it's the best sandwich I've EVER had. The multi-grain bread is out of this world. I need to find bread like that.



The chips paled in comparison.



Andy got chili in a bread bowl and a caesar salad. Boudin is known for their sourdough bread so you know it's super delicious! I stole a bunch. I love carbs. Never gonna give you up...



Then we were off to Qualcomm Stadium to see a San Diego State Football game. The San Diego Chargers play here too.



The stadium is pretty.



I ate these snickerdoodle animal cookies while we waited for the game to start.



And a few hours later, I was hungry again.



Turkey, avocado and honey mustard sub from Submarina. Yum. Not as good as Boudin though.



Andy had some italian meat sub thing. Clever name huh?



There was a firework show after the game. People tossed around balloons while they waited for the show to start. (Why do people go nuts for balloons? I'll never understand.)



The show was pretty awesome!



Fireworks make me happy.

The next day we went to the Stone Brewing Company but that's another story for another time! :)

I have to go pick up my orthotics now. It's been 5-6 weeks! Ouch.

Running and violins

Hey guys!

My run was fairly decent yesterday. I couldn't quite do 3 miles like I planned though. I did 2.67.

It was hot yesterday so I waited unil 6pm to go to our apartment gym. I immediately reegretted it as a man in a plastic suit running on the treadmill next to me kept sprinking sweat on me. His sweat was seriously flying all over the room. GROSS. So gross.

The treadmills at our gym max out at 30 minutes so my goal is to run as much as I can in 30 minutes. I ran 2 miles in 26 minutes (my average pace was 13:00 min/mile. I had my ipod on random and the best songs came on. I swear the slower paced the song, the easier it was for me to run. Faster music just made me push myself a little too much.

I ran 3 minutes at an 11 minute pace/3 mins at a 14 min pace and alternated. After the 30 minutes on the treadmill were up, I walked around my apartment complex at a decent pace.

I have noticed that taping my knees helps a ton. They are bugging me today but it's not as bad as usual. Icing really helps too.

The number one thing that motivated my run? A necklace from my friend Mari that says "Run like a girl." I can't get a good picture. She sent it to me for my birthday (which is on Saturday!) and I absolutely love it!

Here's a link to the ETSY site if you wanna check it out!

I can't wait for the day when I can run 2 miles in 20 minutes. Seriously. But I'm proud of the progress I'm making.

Coconut Bliss

A few weeks ago, I received two coupons from Coconut Bliss ice cream. Ice cream can sometimes bother my stomach so I was really excited to try it out.

Two coupons were sent to me for free from Coconut Bliss. My opinions are my own. I was not compensated for my review.



We picked Chocolate Hazelnut Fudge.



And Chocolate Peanut Butter.



Stats: I was impressed with the 5 grams of protein and the decent sugar content.



The flavor was amazing! Andy said he could detect a trace of coconut but I couldn't. (I'm not a coconut fan so that's a good thing for me!)

Cool, creamy and rich! (Note the fat content.) But according to the Coconut Bliss Nutrition Page "While its natural richness creates the creamy texture that people love, the fat in coconut milk is very different from other fats. High in medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs) identical to those in human breast milk, coconut milk has similar germ fighting and heart-protective properties."

Interesting! I admit I was a little nervous about eating full-fat ice cream but it was so worth it. I preferred the Chocolate Hazelnut Fudge. It reminded me of Rocky Road. I will definitely buy some again as I had no tummy issues. YAY! And surprisingly, Andy and I did not over-indulge in these ice creams. We had a serving each and then put it away. Believe me that's impressive!

Favorite flavor of ice cream?

Mine is Vanilla bean. I know my friend Janetha would approve! yum!

Here's a list of other Coconut Bliss flavors.

Thanks Coconut Bliss!

Amanda & Andy

P.S. Wish me (Amanda) luck! I am going to attempt to run in the heat. It's hot!

Nature's Pride: Honeycrisp apple and sausage stuffing

Confession: I am obsessed with Thanksgiving foods. OBSESSED! My absolute favorite dish at Thanksgiving time however, is my dad's sausage stuffing. My sisters and I gobble it up. (LOL gobble)

So when Nature's Pride hosted a contest on Foodbuzz, I knew what I had to do. Recreate Dad's stuffing with a healthy twist and with fresh bread instead of breadcrumbs.

Through Foodbuzz's tastemaker program, I received a free coupon for a loaf of Nature's Pride bread.



I chose 12 grain because it's hearty, whole-wheat and full of flavor. Perfect for my stuffing!



I used 4 cups of bread cubes which equals 5 slices of bread.



Leaving the bread cubes out overnight so they harden up would work best but I didn't have a lot of time. I laid the cubes out on a cookie sheet, sprayed them with EVOO and toasted them in the oven. (400 degrees for 5-6 minutes but keep an eye on it.)



For the sausage, I used some sage pork sausage which I cooked with celery and red onion. I'm normally not a celery person but it gives this stuffing some delicious crunch.



Then I slowly add in the bread cubes, butter, broth and 1 diced honeycrisp apple. Put it in a baking dish and bake for 45 minutes.



The onions and the apple caramelize while cooking, leaving a fantastic sweetness throughout the stuffing.



And yes, I know stuffing isn't photogenic but MAN is it good! I ate this for dinner last night and for lunch today. YUM! Totally gets me in the mood for fall.

Want the recipe?

Ingredients

1 pound Sage Sausage (feel free to use pork, turkey, non-meat whatever!)
1 large red onion, diced
1/2 cup chopped celery
1 large Honeycrisp apple, diced
5 slices Nature's Pride bread, cubed and toasted
1 cup veggie broth (chicken is fine)
1/2 cup melted butter (I highly suggest Kerrygold butter, unsalted)
Salt to taste* (I didn't salt mine)

Cook sausage, onion and celery together in a large skillet. Make sure to crumble sausage while it cooks.

As soon as the sausage is cooked through, add in bread cubes, broth and butter. Stir to combine.

Add in honeycrisp apple pieces last, then transfer to a 9X13 inch baking dish and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Enjoy!

This post & recipe are part of a contest entry to win a trip to the Foodbuzz Festival in November.

A slightly sick Beer Monday

So I am feeling a bit under the weather and it was a hectic weekend, but I have a wonderful beer to share. It is a San Diego beer that is pretty amazing.







This is the Pizza Port Good Grief Brown Ale. I drank a bit before I took the picture, clearly a rookie mistake. I don't like a lot of darker beers, but this is pretty fantastic. A little bit sweet and a little bit nutty, but really good. And any reference to Charlie Brown is amazing. I did a bit of research and this beer recently was awarded a Silver medal at the Great American Beer Festival a few weeks back. Pizza Port is one of a long line of amazing San Diego breweries so if you can find it, drink it! Or any of Pizza Port's brews. They also have, from what I understand, an amazing Brewpub in San Diego that Amanda and I will hit up ASAP...maybe sooner.



I should probably also say thanks to everyone who has voted(and hopefully continue to vote!) for us on Project Food Blog. We love you all. The meal Amanda made last night was amazingly good and something we had never made before. Have I ever mentioned how good of a cook Amanda is? She is currently busy making another amazing dinner. I'm lucky.

PFB: We love you

Hi guys!

We have a Beer Monday post in the works, but first and foremost we want to take you for supporting us with the Project Food Blog Challenge! Our 2nd post is up Two Boos take on Mediterranean if you want to check it out.

You can vote by visiting the Foodbuzz site. Project Food Blog Challenge 2 If you aren't a member of Foodbuzz, you'll have to sign up to vote. (No obligation once you sign up!) Then click on the heart next to our blog name. Be sure to click on a few hearts for the other amazing competitors. I can't believe how delicious everything looks!

Thank you so much!

Project Food Blog: Challenge 2

Hi guys!

Man, what a crazy week/weekend we had! We spent the weekend in San Diego and got home barely in time to create our take on a classic dish from another culture. Finally we are home and the meal is DELICIOUS! The smell alone is making me excited. I love when our apartment is filled with delicious smells.

Originally, I was thinking about making saag paneer. Saag paneer is one of my favorite meals and we had a ton of spinach in the fridge. I loved cooked spinach. Seriously LOVE. It's almost a problem. But when Andy suggested greek food...the wheels in my brain started to turn.

Greek food is delicious, but it's something I've never tried making on my own before. We got to researching and discovered, meze.

Meze is a selection of small dishes. Think small appetizers, dips, fresh veggies and finger foods. It's big in the Mediterranean and Middle East. You may have also seen the word, "mezethes." (pronounced meh-ZEH-thes) The word actually came from Turkey. My sister's boyfriend is Turkish so I texted my sister for some ideas.

I loved the idea of a little appetizer meal. We both talked about how much we loved dining in Europe. People go out together in big groups to break bread, wine, dine and talk. It's not rushed, it's not hurried. People are simply enjoying each other's company. And they share their food. No concerns about germs or double-dipping.

That's what we wanted with this meal. We are tired, we need to relax and we need to watch DEXTER. Meze and Dexter sounded fabulous.

For our first dish, I went with Melitzanosalata. Melitzanosalata is similar to baba ghanoush.



First I got out an eggplant. Eggplant is a wonderful vegetable. I love the color, the texture and the taste once it's roasted.



I cut the eggplant into four equal parts and roasted them until the skins were almost black. The more charred, the more flavor. (Well maybe not too much char. Ha)

After charring the eggplant we peeled off the skin and cut it in to chunks. The chunks were transported into the food processor with 1/2 cup olive oil, 2 tbsp red wine vinegar, lots of black pepper, cumin, corinder, and lemon pepper.

I tasted the dip afterwards and figured it needed a little something-something. I added in some roasted red peppers.



This dip WAS amazing! Amazing! It has this distinct smoky flavor and the bam from the spices. WOW! We could not stop eating it.



Next I made tzatziki sauce. Tzatziki is yogurt mixed with cucumber and herbs. I made it with plain greek yogurt which made it thicker and more delicious.



I used 2% Fage because I knew the dip would taste even better with a little fat and creaminess.



I de-seeded and peeled the cucumbers before adding them to the food processor.



After the flavored melded together in the fridge, we dug in. The cool cucumbers mixed with the creamy, thick yogurt and the fresh dill tasted better than any tzatziki I've ever had. I can't believe we never tried to make this before.

The next dish we made was spanokopita.



I used a pound of spinach in this.



It was the first time I used phyllo dough also. I was a little nervous about making handheld spanokopita so instead I made a spinach pie.



The spinach was cooked with scallions, parsley, black pepper, ricotta cheese, feta cheese and a little dill.



It fluffed up nicely. The flaky phyllo dough was brushed with butter to make it extra delicious.



We also ate some marinated olives with feta to round out the meze.





MMM beautiful. I love olives but they are so salty. I rarely have them but when I do...mmmmmmmm. Andy doesn't like olives at all.



We had plenty of pita bread to use for the dips. This was a delicious meal after a busy weekend. We loved the variety of flavors. The eggplant dip was completely new to us and it's something we'll be making again and again. Whether we go to the next round or not, we had a blast making, eating and sharing this meal with you. I wish you could have tasted it.

Thanks for considering us.

Amanda & Andy

Weigh-in Saturday

I wasn't able to weigh-in at my weight watchers meeting today because we are about to leave for San Diego to celebrate Andy's grandpa's birthday! Both of my grandfathers passed away when I was young so Andy's grandpa is definitely my honorary grandpa.

I weighed myself on my home scale and was down 5 lbs. Honestly I know that my scale and the WW scale differ (about a 3 lb difference) so lets just say I'm down another 2 making for a total weight loss of 7.8 lbs. Next Saturday is my birthday so I probably won't make it to Weight Watchers then either. But soon enough I'll weigh in on their scale and see exactly what it is.

I'm happy that the number on the scale isn't defining me. I only weigh in once a week and try not to obsess over it.

I ran a few times this week and can feel myself getting stronger and faster. My goal is to run a 13 min/mile at my next 5k race. Eventually I want to build back up and run a 10 min/mile pace but that will take time. Hopefully losing some weight will speed me up.

I've been drinking detox-green smoothies lately and I swear it gives me tons of energy. And for once I'm getting an appropriate amount of leafy greens in.

I'll update about San Diego soon! And BEER MONDAY.

How are you guys doing on your goals (weight loss related or not!)?

We all float on anyway

I am so excited guys! I just saw that we advanced to the next level of Project Food Blog! We couldn't have done it without your votes, thank you so much. I never thought we'd advance. I can't wait to see what the next challenge has in store for us. Love you all.

Why isn't school like Glee? It's just not.

I had my first Back to School night last night and it was great. I was so nervous about meeting parents last night but once I met a few of them I felt confident and okay. Granted, I'm student-teaching and not alone in the classroom but still.

I am doing something amazing. I am still in that "I'm a teacher and I can change the world one student at time phase." Bear with me.



The other day, I went to lunch with my sister and got Thai food. I frequent a local place called Thai Cottage. It's delicious, decently-priced and I am the mayor on foursquare. (LOL)

I always order panang chicken with extra veggies. I wish brown rice was an option but I don't think it is. I'll forgive them though because the panang is always spicy. Plus, seeing rice in the shape of a heart kind of nerdily makes me happy.

Curry is an obsession of mine.



Another obsession is fairly new. Cranberry orange nut bread Clif bars. SO GOOD.



Not with the PB although I'm sure that'd be good. These bars almost trump the pumpkin pie Clif bars. Almost.



The Justin's almond butter is so good. I had it on a piece of wheat toast on the way to work. I need to try it on a honeycrisp apple next.

Please send honeycrisp apples and pumpkin pie Clif bar thoughts directly to me. I need them both in my life.

Flashback Friday!!!

I keep forgetting to do flashback friday posts.



Oh how I love Oahu. Oahu was the first Hawaiian island that Andy and I visited together. I went to Oahu in 10th grade with band (yep, I was a band geek) with my parents in 2004 and with Andy, Tiffany and Gary in 2007.



We shopped at the International Marketplace.



Hiked Diamondhead.



Went to a Luau.



Rode horses on the North Shore.

Oahu definitely isn't my favorite island but that doesn't mean it's not beautiful and full of awesome things to do. The Turtle Bay resort on the North Shore is unlike any place I've ever seen. It's so pretty. We rode horses there for an hour or so and fell in love. I want to go back to Oahu and stay on the North shore instead of Waikiki.

Did you flashback friday today?

Have you been to Hawaii? Which island (s)?

Knee taping and recovery smoothie

Most likely, I'll be graduating physical therapy tomorrow. I'm pretty excited about this as physical therapy is incredibly time-consuming and painful. I do feel like my knee is slowly healing and my lower body is getting tons stronger.

Yesterday I ran with my knees taped for the first time.



I plan on posting a how-to video on this soon but please see a professional before you start knee-taping. It looks weird but the tightness of the tape nudges my kneecap into the correct place. My quads are nudging my patella out of place when I run. (Gross!)



Here's the tape that I bought. Not a ton but I don't plan on running with my knees taped forever. Eventually my body will be stronger and I will be able to prevent injury better. I might look into knee sleeves at some point, not sure yet.

I ran 2 miles in 27 minutes which I know it's breaking any records but it's the fastest I've got since my injury. I was STOKED! I would be happier than a fangirl at a Justin Bieber concert if I could finish the 5k in October running a 13 minute/mile pace. No shame in my slower-paced game.

The fastest mile I've ever ran is a 10 min/mile but that was before I injured my knee and developed plantar fasciitis. (The PF has disappeared! Knock on wood.)



Jay Robb's protein powder is amazing. I tried a scoop of pina colada in a green recovery smoothie today and it was magnificant.



And it was GREEN!



(ignore my dirty dishes, gah.) I mixed in one frozen banana, 2 frozen strawberries, 1 scoop protein powder, 1 huge handful spinach, 1/2 cup almond milk and 1/2 cup P.O.G. juice. (Passion, Orange, Guava)

So good!

Have you tried knee taping before? How did you like it?